3 By Curtis

 

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TRILOGY OF TERROR-1975-Very good TV horror anthology directed by Dan Curtis. In the first story “Julie” (written by William F. Nolan & Richard Matheson), Chad (Robert Burton), a college jerk becomes obsessed with nerdy teacher Julie (Karen Black). He drugs her, takes her to a hotel, takes pictures of her and rapes her. Then he blackmails her and he and his friends use her (not shown, only implied). But in the twist ending he finds out she's not what he thinks she is....

In the second “Millicent & Therese” (written by Nolan), Millicent (Black) complains about her sister Therese (also Black), being evil, practicing witchcraft and seducing men. She warns Therese's boyfriend (John Karlen) about her but he ignores it. Then Therese tries to seduce their doctor (George Gaynes). Millicent decides to do away with her sister using her own witchcraft. This story is ok but the ending is fairly guessable.

In the third and most famous episode “Amelia” (written by Matheson), Amelia, a woman with mother problems buys a weird Zuni fetish doll for her anthropologist boyfriend. After a fight with her mother, she breaks her date and is then terrorized by the evil looking doll that has big teeth and makes strange noises. 

Once again director Curtis shows that just because it's made for TV, horror stories can still be good.

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Better To Be a Cockroach..

 

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METAMORPHOSIS-2007-In Budapest, the daughter of Elizabeth Bathory (Irena Hoffman) comes back to life as a vampire. She hooks up with an American (Corey Sevier) doing a book about her and his two friends. She likes him because he has sympathy for her and she beats up a local mugger. Later, after they crash their car, they meet Igor (Zolee Ganxsta) and Sabine (Florentine Lahme), two local tourists. They hook up with a priest and nun and are chased by wolves. And then Christopher Lambert shows up to chew the scenery. Pretty tough going. Director Jeno Hodi also made AMERICAN KICKBOXER 2 (1993).

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Who Remembers Count Dante?

Martial Arts Ads from Comic Books in the late '60's-early '70's

 

Hooked on Vampires

 

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VAMPIRE HOOKERS-1978-Tom Buckley (Bruce Fairbairn) & Terry Wayne (Trey Wilson) are two sailors on leave in The Philippines. While looking for a missing buddy, Tom stumbles upon old vampire Reed Richmond (John Carradine) and his 3 vampire brides (Karen Stride,Lenka Novak,Katie Dolan) who pose as hookers to lure unsuspecting victims. They are assisted by the pathetic Pavo (Vic Diaz) who wants to ge a vampire but for some reason isn't. A running gag is his farting. Richmond says things like “Walt Whitman must have been a vampire”.

 It's pretty cheesy despite the good-looking vampire girls. Reed Richmond was actually Carradine's real first names. 

The screenplay is by Howard R. Cohen who later wrote a lot for Roger Corman productions (SPACE RAIDERS, DEATHSTALKER). Director Cirio H. Santiago (FIRECRACKER (1981)) made around 100 movies.

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Too Tufts To Die

 

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SERPENT ISLAND-1954-A rummy sailor Pete Mason (Sonny Tufts) agrees to help Miss Ricky Andre (Mary Munday) find the family treasure using the infamous Andre Letter which she carries. They charter a boat for Haiti from Capt. Ellis (Tom Monroe) who doesn't like Mason and vice-versa and eventually they have a fight. Pete and Ricky go off to an island as he doesn't believe the gold is in Haiti. On the island Pete puts his moves on Ricky. At first, she resists but then accepts it and judging by the scenes of crashing waves they have a great time! Pete and Ricky are captured by the island natives. There are actually only two. The rest is stock footage. Pete even knows the head priestess (Rosalind Hayes). Her servant Jacques (Don Blackman) has a couple of fights with Pete. The gold they are looking for is an idol worshiped by the locals. A giant snake almost kills Ricky but Pete saves her. Ellis however has other plans but he's bitten by a snake. Pete & Ricky escape, gold-less but in love. 

This romantic adventure story is very cheap with a minimal cast. This was writer/director Tom Gries debut but he went on to TV in the '50's and '60's and much later made some bigger budgeted movies like WILL PENNY (1967), the TV mini-series HELTER SKELTER (1976), THE GREATEST (his last in 1977) and others. Mr BIG himself Bert I. Gordon was the producer and cinematographer, a year before he directed his first film, KING DINOSAUR! Star Sonny Tufts had been in CAT-WOMAN OF THE MOON the year before.

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Warren Strikes Again!

 

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ATTACK OF THE MAYAN MUMMY-1964-Dr. Munson relates to a newspaper publisher (uncredited Bruno VeSota) the strange case of Dr. Redding (Ramon Gay) and his regression experiments with one Ann Taylor (Rosita Arenas), a reincarnated Mayan princess. They visit a Mayan tomb and are chased away by a scary looking mummy. 

If this all sounds familiar, it should. This is actually the first Aztec mummy movie reedited by Jerry Warren. He added around 30 minutes of new footage which is basically American actors (including Warren regular Steve Conte) talking endlessly about nonsense. 

The final shot is a wastepaper basket. Rafael Portillo was the original director.

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Oh My Goodness!

 

 

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PAUL LYNDE HALLOWEEN SPECIAL-ABC-1976-I've read about this special and how awful and bizarre it is but really it's probably not much different than any other TV variety special being produced at the time. It reeks the '70's with everyone trying to be hip, disco dancing and Kiss. Yes, Kiss is the musical guest and they do three songs! There's bits involving truckers, rhinestone cowboys, etc. But the guest list besides Kiss includes Tim Conway, Billy Barty and some woman who was on Happy Days at the time (she was fired after a couple of episodes) and cameos by Betty White and Donny & Marie! In a strange move two witches are thrown in. Billie Barnes as Witchie Poo (from TV's “H.R. Pufnstuf”) and Margaret Hamilton reprising her role as the Wicked Witch! 

Lynde made several specials under his ABC contract after none of his sit-com pilots were picked up. He seems very sincere in his closing monologue. Director Sid Smith made most of anything Bob Hope later did on TV.

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