It Happened Twice?

 

DEADTIME STORIES-VOL. 1-2009-Cheap anthology hosted by George Romero (!).

“The Valley of the Shadows”: A woman leads an expedition into the jungle to find her missing husband. The party is terrorized and killed off by a mysterious head-hunting savage. Guess who? Written and directed by Jeff Monahan, an actor who was in later Romero features.

“Wet”: An alcoholic finds a hand on the beach. A jerky antique dealer (Nick Mancuso) tells him it's the hand of a vicious mermaid he chopped up. The alky brings her back to life and she kills him and the antique dealer or something like that.. Directed by Michael Fischa (MY MOM'S A WEREWOLF (1989))

“House Call”: A mother tells her doctor about her son who's obviously some kind of vampire. Directed by Tom Savini.

VOL. 2

“The Gorge”: 3 spelunkers get trapped in a cave and resort to cannibalism. Directed by Matt Walsh, who was usually a sound engineer.

“On Sabbath Hill”: An arrogant college teacher impregnates a student who's driven to suicide. Her ghost comes back to haunt him or is it in his mind? Probably the best of the lot. Directed by Jeff Monahan.

“Dust”: A security guard gives an untested drug (made of dust from Mars) to his dying wife. It cures her...for a while. This one makes no sense. Directed by Michael Fischa.

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They're Not Scaring Anybody

 

SCARECROWS-1988-A bunch of dumb bank robbers in a hijacked plane go to a cornfield to get their hidden loot. One of them parachutes out planning on taking the 3 million for himself. The others land the plane and go looking for him. He's killed by a scarecrow, then brought back to life and beats up some of his partners until they decapitate him. Scarecrows seem to be running around the cornfield, resurrecting dead people and borrowing their limbs. 

Sound good? It actually sucks. 

The only actor (?) I knew in it was Ted Vernon, the little bald guy from that Florida wrestling movie HAMMERHEAD JONES (1986). Co-written, produced and directed by William Wesley in Florida. Cinematographer Peter Deming had already shot EVIL DEAD 2 (1987) and went on to work with David Lynch and do many high-profile movies like the “Austin Power” series.

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Another Time

 

 (imdb)

MACHETE MAIDENS UNLEASHED-2010-Great documentary about exploitation film making in the Philippines in the 1970's. It covers women in prison, blaxploitation, the Blood Island films, collaborations with Hemisphere and New World companies. Plus interviews with John Ashley, Cirio Santiago, Bobby Suraz, Roger Corman, Joe Dante, Jack Hill, Chris Mitchum, Sid Haig, Gloria Hendry, Marlene Clarke, Eddie Garcia, Eddie Romero, Weng Weng and many more. 

Director/co-writer Mark Hartley (from Austraila) made many other documentaries and music videos before making the feature film PATRICK: EVIL AWAKES (2007).

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Magic and Wonder at Lincoln Center

 

Palance in Charge

 

 

WARRIORS 5-1962-An American paratrooper (Jack Palance) teams up with 5 Italian soldiers (including Venantino Venantini) and a hooker (Giovanna Ralli) to blow up a bridge to slow down the German army's advance right after Italy has surrendered during WW2. 

This slow-moving Italian production, directed Leopoldo Savona, was presented by AIP in the US. Co-star Venantini years later was in several infamous Italian zombie movies. Star Palance was in BARABBAS the year before and would star in Jean Luc Godard's CONTEMPT the next and have his own short lived TV series “The Greatest Show On Earth”.

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Violent Trio

 

 (themoviedatabase)

THE VIOLENT ONES-1967-In New Mexico, after a young woman (Melinda Marx; daughter of Groucho) is raped and beaten, embattled sheriff Manuel Vega (Fernando Lamas, who also directed) picks up 3 men (Aldo Ray, Tommy Sands and David Carradine) as suspects. When the girl dies, the town demands a lynching. He and his deputy (Ned Romero) try to quell the tension. For some reason, after the town gathers for trouble, the sheriff decides to handle things his own way. He chains the 3 suspects together to take them to another town across the desert. Unfortunately, they crash, fight each other and are chased by a gang led by the dead girl's father. In the end the real killer is exposed. 

Since Lamas directed, there's no one to tell him when to stop shouting. It's an ok TOUCH OF EVIL knock off, I guess. With Lisa Gaye as a nurse and Rudolfo Acosta.

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Condors

 (imdb)

 
EASTERN CONDORS-1987-Some Chinese convicts go to Vietnam to destroy a stockpile of munitions left behind by the US. It's part martial arts, part DEERHUNTER, part DIRTY DOZEN with great fights. Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao beat up everyone. It's violent and action packed with Academy Award winning actor Dr. Haing S. Ngor. The villain is played by Wah Yuen who made many movies after (and before) this, He was in the big budgeted SHANG-CHI AND THE LEGEND OF THE TEN RINGS in 2021. Director Hung (real name: Kam Bo-Hung) directed the Jackie Chan film DRAGONS FOREVER the same year (he also co-starred). From 1998-2000 he starred in the US TV show “Martial Law”. 

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