Ozu Double Feature (sort of...)

 

 (youtube)

A STRAIGHTFORWARD BOY-1929-Once a 38-minute silent short, all that remains of this adaptation of an O. Henry story by Yasujiro Ozu is about 14 minutes. You get the gist of the comic tale, two kidnappers grab a little boy but he proves too much for them. It has a funny final scene.

 (imdb)

I GRADUATED, BUT…-1929-Unfortunately, this feature silent film by Ozu is very incomplete. Only around 10 minutes survives! A recent college graduate turns down a receptionist job thinking it's beneath him. He has no other offers and has to keep his secret from his wife and mother.

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McHale's Shop of Mystical Wonders

 

 (imdb)

MERLIN'S SHOP OF MYSTICAL WONDERS-1996-A grandpa (Ernest Borgnine) tells his grandson a story about the title place. While two women talk about not getting pregnant, one woman's son wanders into the shop and meets Mr. & Mrs. Merlin. Then jackass columnist Jonathan and his wife visit while some trolls watch them. Merlin gives him an ancient book of spells and tells him not to use it. Of course he does. Merlin also gives Jonathan's wife (who wants a baby) a wishing stone. For some reason, Jonathan turns his cat into a demon cat and it almost kills him. He also ages dramatically. When he makes a potion (using his wife's blood) and drinks it, he turns into a baby and the wife gets her wish. Next, a burglar steals a toy monkey from the shop. A woman gives it as a birthday present to a young boy. Plants die and then a goldfish. Later a fire breaks out and kills a doorman. A psychic tells the boy's father he has to perform an exorcism on the monkey. He throws it away. When it almost kills his son, he buries it. When grandma visits, she brings the monkey as a gift. It seems like it might kill them but Merlin saves the day. The second story which in some ways resembles a Stephen King short story written years before, is actually a re-edited short with a new ending, Writer/director Kenneth J. Berton never made another movie.

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English Wolf

 

 (imdb)

NIGHT WOLF-2010-Bloody awful English horror film with a family being terrorized in their house by a bloodthirsty creature. Simon MacCorkindale (in his last movie role) is their doomed father. After this director Jonathan Glendening followed with STRIPPERS VS. WEREWOLVES (2012). Also known as 13 HOURS. 

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More Spaghetti

 

 (imdb)

THE GREAT SILENCE-1968-Somewhere in the old west (Italy), bounty hunters like Loco (Klaus Kinski; in I BASTARDI the same year)) are out of control and the governor wants to put a stop to it. Roaming the countryside is Silence (Jean-Louis Trintignant from A MAN AND A WOMAN (1966)), a gunfighter who's hired by families to kill bounty hunters to avenge the deaths of their loved ones. A widow (Vonetta McGee; later in BLACULA (1972)) hires Silence to kill Loco who murdered her husband. Meanwhile, a store owner hires Loco to kill Silence. In recent years critics go on and on about this western allegory that tries way too much to be like Leone (Ennio Morricone scored it) and director Sergio Corbucci (also one of the screenwriters) needs a history lesson. 

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The Lash of LaRue

 (imdb)

GHOST TOWN RENEGADES-1947-The Cheyenne Kid aka Marshall Davis (Lash LaRue) and Fuzzy Jones (Al St. John) are dispatched by the chief Marshall (Henry Hall) to investigate the disappearance of 2 surveyors. They come up against evil lawyer Vance Sharp (Jack Ingram) who wants the land owned by Diane Trent (Jennifer Holt; sister of Tim). He has two henchmen (Terry Frost and Lane Bradford). Although Fuzzy is pretty tough and good in a fight, he still supplies the comic relief when they spend the night in a ghost town. Also with William Fawcett. 

Pretty decent low budget western (only 59 minutes) from PRC. One of several Cheyenne Kid features LaRue (who uses his trademark bullwhip several times) made between 1945 & 1948. Prolific director Ray Taylor made several serials and many more westerns (some with LaRue). Screenwriter Patricia Harper wrote screenplays for many movies in the 1940's after a brief turn as an actress.

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Boggy

 

 (imdb)

BOGGY CREEK ll: AND THE LEGEND CONTINUES-1983-Anthropologist Dr. Brian Lockhart (writer/director Charles B. Pierce) takes 3 students, Tim (Chuck Pierce), Tanya (Serene Hedin), Leslie (Cindy Butler) on a trek to find “The Boggy Creek Creature” in Arkansas. They wander around and Lockhart tells some Bigfoot stories (shown in flashbacks). At night, while camping they have a creature encounter. Lockhart shoots it with a tranquilizer dart but nothing happens. The “dumb” girls go joy riding and get stuck in the mud. They kind of encounter the creature and run away. Later, they meet Old Man Crenshaw (Jimmy Dlem), a fat, shirtless hillbilly in overalls who's holding a wounded baby creature. During a storm, the creature attacks but Lockhart gives it the baby and it leaves. 

Stupid, low budget, badly acted sequel although it is actually the third movie in the “Boggy Creek series”! Chuck Pierce had previously starred in his dad's WINDS OF AUTUMN (1976).

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Time Travelling On A Budget

 

 (themoviedb.org)

TIME CHASERS-1994-Nick (Matthew Bruch) invents a plane that can travel through time. Unfortunately, he signs a contract with a huge corporation GenCore who only want to exploit it for evil. A female reporter Lisa (Bonnie Pritchard) warns him but to no avail. They become lovers and have dinner in a diner in the 1950's. Later they discover a post apocalyptic future that was created when he told corporate head J.K. Robertson (George Woodward) about the plane. Nick and Lisa go back in time to try and change things. Everyone winds up during the Revolutionary War (obviously a battle reenactment). 

Low budget time travel film written and directed in Vermont by David Giancola, who later made ICEBREAKER (2000) with Bruce Campbell as a bald villain. The movie lost money but when “Mystery Science Theater 3000” picked it up, the licensing fees brought profits into the black.

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