(wikipedia)STAN LEE'S MUTANTS,MONSTERS AND MARVELS-2002-Filmmaker Kevin Smith sits down with Marvel Comics publisher/editor/creator-writer Stan Lee who talks about Spider-Man, the creation of the Marvel universe, working with artists like Kirby & Ditko, his life, marriage, superhero movies, etc. Nice interview but Smith is a little annoying with his grunts of yeah and right. Director Scott Zakarin also made THE MAN WITH THE SCREAMING BRAIN.
Thanks for reading!
(wikipedia)RIOT IN JUVENILE PRISON-1959-After juvenile delinquent Eddie Bassett (Scott Marlowe) leads an unsuccessful breakout from a juvenile prison where two boys are killed, the governor orders Dr. Furman (Jerome Thor) to use drastic experiments to help straighten out the youths despite the protests of the fascist warden Col. Walton (John Hoyt). His first order of business is to make the place co-ed and brings in a busload of juvvie females. They are overseen by Bess (Ann Doran) & Grace (Marcia Henderson). Almost immediately two women Babe (Dorothy Provine) and Kitty (Virginia Aldridge) have a cat fight over Eddie. Another J.D. Killion (Dick Tyler) starts trouble when he attacks Kitty. The governor dismisses Furman and the warden gets control. After Eddie is beaten up by a sadistic guard (Richard Reeves) he leads a riot.
RIOT is a typical kind of “teens behind bars” '50's drama that was petering out by 1959. It was directed by the great Edward L. Cahn who made INVISIBLE INVADERS and THE FOUR SKULLS OF JONATHAN DRAKE the same year. Screenwriter Orville Hampton also penned JONATHAN DRAKE and THE ALLIGATOR PEOPLE in '59.
Thanks for reading!
(imdb)I PASSED FOR WHITE-1960-Bernice Lee (Sonya Wilde) is light skinned African American who's frustrated and depressed over always being mistaken for white. She thinks it would be better if she just pretended to be white but her grandmother is against it. Nonetheless after being turned down for a job because she wrote "negro" on her application she decides to go to California and start a new life...as Leila Brownell, a white woman. She gets a better job and sends money home to her family. She doesn't include romance but that just happens when she falls in love with Rick Leyton (James Franciscus), an upper crust well to do white man. Of course she doesn't tell him about her "background" and their relationship is built on her lie after lie as she tries to stop from revealing her secret. Only her white girlfriend Sally (Pat Michon) knows the truth. It seems ok until hubby sees her talking to her black musician friend. Hubby punches the guy out as he's aghast. Later she becomes pregnant and worries what their child will look like. When she miscarries and asks if the baby was black, hubby thinks she was fooling around. Now suspected of being a floozie she leaves him and returns to her family without him never finding out her secret.
This misguided low budget drama was the last picture made by director Fred Wilcox who's previous film (in 1956) had been FORBIDDEN PLANET.
Thanks for reading!
(wikipedia)GRIZZLY 2: REVENGE-2020-In Yellowstone park, a giant killer grizzly bear is on the rampage after it's cubs are killed. Samantha Owens (Deborah Raffin) is in charge of bear management and wants Nick (Steve Inwood), a park ranger, to capture the bear alive. Bouchard (John Rhys-Davies), a French Canadian mountain man sets traps. Meanwhile Eileene Draygon (Louise Fletcher) throws a rock concert with acts that look like they are auditioning for Gary Numan.
Despite getting top billing, Charlie Sheen, Laura Dern and George Clooney are only in one scene. Deborah Foreman, Ian McNiece, Timothy Spall and Jack Starrett are also in it.
This production which features a silly bear puppet, began filming in Hungry in 1983 (Sheen, Dern & Clooney were relatively unknown then which explains their small roles) when the producer quit the production because of lack of funds. Somehow the co-producer Suzanne Nagy found a backer and principle photography was completed. However the entire film languished incomplete while Nagy and her crew worked on it (a working print was posted to Facebook and remained there for years). Finally, in the beginning of January 2020, the film was completed and released. I don't think it was worth the wait....
Thanks for reading!
(imdb)THE CREEPER-1948-A doctor's daughter sleepwalks with her dad's gun. At a medical facility, Dr. Jim Bordon (Onslow Stevens) argues with Dr. Cavigny (Ralph Morgan) about his experiments with cats. Nurse Gwen Runstrom (June Vincent) reports that their special serum has been destroyed. The other nurse Dora (Janis Wilson), Cavigny's gun toting sleepwalker daughter, seems more than a little bothered having had a fever when they were in the West Indies. Bordon has some experimental cats sent to him. Meanwhile Dr. Van (Eduardo Ciannelli) listens secretly to the whole debate. Van works with Dr. John Reade (John Baragrey) across the hall researching allergies. It seems Reade and Gwen are engaged. Dora freaks out when she meets Reed's cat named "Creeper" (is that a cat name?).
Later Dora relates to Reade how she caught a fever and later had an episode at a Chinese restaurant.(run by Phillip Ahn). She has several dreams she's being menaced by a giant cat paw. When her dad is murdered she's arrested. She's let go for lack of evidence but the cat handler Andre (David Hoffman) is killed by what appears to be a man size cat but only a shadow is seen. A police inspector (Richard Lane) snoops around.
There's not much except a few more murders and a kind of dumb ending. Director Jean Yarbrough doesn't have much to work with here but keeps this low budget 20th Century Fox release quick and short.
THE TOWN THAT DREADED SUNDOWN-2014-Stupid sort of sequel to Charles B. Pierce's 1976 quasi-documentary. A killer terrorizes Texarkana in the same place the original murders were. Some yokels think the original killer is back. A girl who survived the initial attack and Lone Wolf Morales (Anthony Anderson), an arrogant Texas ranger lead the official investigation. Gary Cole plays a police officer killed while getting a blowjob. The original director's son Charles Pierce Jr. is portrayed as a real weirdo. The killer starts killing everyone including the girl's grandmother (Veronica Cartwright).
This is just another sick excuse to show excess killing. It's the last movie for both Ed Lauter & Edward Herman. Director Alfonzo Gomez-Rejon directed episodes of the TV show “Glee” before this.
Thanks for reading!
(imdb)GREEN FINGERS-2000-This short horror tale begins with Mrs. Bowen (Ingrid Pitt; THE VAMPIRE LOVERS, COUNTESS DRACULA) killing a cat. She buries it and it seems to come back to life. It scares her and she cuts off her finger."I can grow anything with my green fingers" she says. She's put to bed by her gardener friend (Robin Parkinson) and a nurse (Janina Faye; HORROR OF DRACULA) but at night she buries the finger. Next day she's surprised to see a hand growing. At night her new grown self rises from it's grave and kills her with an axe. The next day she kills her nurse. The End.
Filmed in England by Pat Cotgrove who also did the adaptation from a short story by RC Cook. (It was also done as an episode of TV's “Night Gallery” in 1972).
Thanks for reading!
