Arliss and Karloff

 

 (tmdb)

THE HOUSE OF ROTHSCHILD-1934-Historical drama about the rise of Mayer Rothschild (George Arliss) from his beginnings in a Jewish ghetto in Frankfort to his rise as Europe's most powerful banker. After his death, the story focuses mainly on son Nathan (also Arliss). He lends millions to the English government to help Wellington (C. Aubrey Smith) defeat Napoleon. Then one of Wellington's men wants to marry Rothschild's daughter (Loretta Young). This could be complicated since he's not Jewish. Later Rothchild runs into opposition in the form of antisemitism headed by Baron Ledrantz (Boris Karloff). When Napoleon escapes and mounts a new offensive, Rothschild backs England with everything he's got, nearing financial ruin but Wellington is victorious and England is back on top. Some prints feature the final scene in color. 

Solid historical drama with a few inaccuracies (but what Hollywood story doesn't have them?), ably directed by Alfred Werker, who later made THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES (1939) with Rathbone and Bruce, A HAUNTING WE WILL GO (1942) with Laurel and Hardy, SHOCK (1946) with Vincent Price and HE WALKED BY NIGHT (1948) with Richard Basehart.

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Real Cannibal

 

 

 (cnn)

EXCUSE ME FOR LIVING-1993-This is a horrific documentary/biography about Issei Sagawa (who died in November 2022), a Japanese citizen who murdered and cannibalized a young Dutch woman in France. Though arrested and imprisoned, a technical glitch in the justice system freed him after a mere two years in an asylum. He's a pathetic guy who probably needed help for many years, but no one realized it and he committed a pretty heinous crime and became a minor celebrity who wrote several books and gave interviews. 

He expounds on his lifelong obsession to kill and eat someone and his fascination with actress Jean Seberg. His later life wasn't so pleasant. His “celebrity status” in Japan is blown out of proportion as most of the country were fairly outraged by his infamy.

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Alcatraz

 

 (tmdb)

ALCATRAZ BREAKOUT-1975-Grant (Gary Boyd), a bank robber whose sentence has been increased several times because of several failed escape attempts is sent to "The Rock". He becomes friends with an inmate named Frazier (Ray Myles) and plans an escape. He almost succeeds but is somehow caught and brought back. After 90 days in solitary his wife comes to visit him (the actress who plays her seems comatose; I believe it was the director's wife). Later he tries again to escape and that fails. He tries one more time and fails forever. 

This was directed by Nick Millard (CRIMINALLY INSANE 1 & 2, DOCTOR BLOODBATH (1987)) using the pseudonym, Jan Anders. A tedious mess despite the under an hour running time.

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Lookwell

 

 (tv tropes)

LOOKWELL-1991-Former TV detective Ty Lookwell (Adam West) lives in his own world where he still thinks he's a police detective. He runs an acting school for William Shatner wannabes all revolving around his short lived TV show "Bennigan" which people confuse with other TV shows like "Banacek". He tries to solve a case of stolen cars and messes up everything. 

LOOKWELL was a TV pilot co-written and co-produced by Conan O'Brien. It's pretty amusing but I don't think it would have worked as a weekly series. 

Directed by EW Swackhamer, a veteran TV director who worked on lots of TV shows since the early '60's.

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Tiny Tim!

 

 (youtube)

STREET OF DREAMS-1988-This grainy slapped together bio/documentary features Tiny Tim attempting to break the non-stop singing record at Luna Park, a famous amusement park in Australia. It throws in all sorts of Tiny Tim clips: myriad interviews, his marriage on "The Tonight Show", talking to strippers in a hotel room, dressing up like Mickey Mouse, even an interview with his aged mother who shows off childhood photos. Actor Ross Martin occasionally appears to narrate. 

Tim pontificates on the Bible, God, life, sex, etc. It's a cacophony of Tiny Tim, a literal overload, which turns very serious toward the end when it reports on the fire that took 7 lives and closed the amusement park down. 

Director Martin Sharp, who had a keen interest in Luna Park as well as Tiny Tim, was also an artist who drew the cover of Cream's albums “Disraeli Gears” and “Wheels of Fire” as well as writing the lyrics to two of their songs, “Tales of Brave Ulysses” and “Anyone for Tennis?”. There is a separate feature that focuses mainly on the marathon concert itself.

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Ho!

 

 (imdb)

POWER FORCE-1991-In Bangkok, Benny is fighting with help from the CIA while rebels stage an uprising with lots of machine guns and hand grenades. I admit I didn't really understand what was going on most of the time but this movie was directed by Godfrey Ho (using the pseudonym Charles Lee) so it seems like this was a movie made by someone else with Ho adding unrelated scenes of his own.

That's a weird poster too!

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Brooklyn

 

 (imdb)

THE CASE AGAINST BROOKLYN-1958-A rookie cop (Darren McGavin) goes undercover to help break the borough's illegal gambling racket protected by some corrupt police officers. He romances a widow (Margret Hayes)) who's husband (Joe DeSantis) committed suicide. He runs afoul of thug henchman Rudi Franklin (Warren Stevens) who works for the big bosses (Nestor Paiva and Thomas B. Henry). Tragedy follows but he eventually succeeds. Emile Meyer is a police captain and Joe Turkel is another thug. 

This was the second film directed by Paul Wendkos after THE BURGLAR in 1957. He went on to make other films (GIDGET (1959) (and some sequels), BECAUSE THEY'RE YOUNG (1960) and THE METHISTO WALTZ (1971) but his major output was on TV.

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