Fascinating

 

KID MONK BARONI-1952-Street kid, Paul “Monk” Baroni (Leonard Nimoy with phony nose) doesn't like himself because of his looks. A priest (Richard Rober who was killed in a car accident soon after this) takes a shine to Paul and lets him and his gang use the church gym. Paul winds up helping the church a lot and even becomes a member of the choir. When his ex-gang attacks him, he accidentally knocks out the priest. With his faithful friend, Angelo (Jack Larsen), he becomes a bitter boxer. A pawnbroker (Maurice Cass) gets him into a gym run by Mr. Hellman (Bruce Cabot). Soon he's winning fights and listening to records from Italy. He re-unites with the priest and meets Emily (Allene Roberts), who later convinces him to have plastic surgery. Bad move! He takes up with gold digger June (Mona Knox), on who he spends all his money. She dumps him and he steps back into the ring and gets clobbered but the crooks who backed him lose all their money, the church gets a recreation center and Paul marries Emily. Even his klepto friend reforms! Kathleen Freeman plays his mother. 

Some “critics” have a problem with the ending. The future Mr. You Know Who is very good in his first credited role but this low-budget drama didn't have a wide distribution. Producer Jack Broder (BELA LUGOSI MEETS A BROOKLYN GORILLA, the same year) had planned this as the first in a series called “The Billy Goat Gang”, a Bowery Boys knock off. No more were ever made. Jack Larsen started playing Jimmy Olsen on TV's “Superman” the same year so that might have had something to do with it. Herman Cohen was associate producer and Aben Kandel who later wrote several AIP horror movies which Cohen produced, wrote the original screenplay. Director Harold Schuster made many B movies and then went into TV.

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About Face

 

SHERLOCK HOLMES FACES DEATH-1943-Dr. Watson (Nigel Bruce) is helping out at the Musgrave estate which is being used as a hospital while 2 brothers and their sister feud. When Watson's friend Dr. Sexton (Arthur Margetson) is attacked, Sherlock Holmes (Basil Rathbone) is called in. The two brothers (Gavin Muir and Frederick Worlock) are killed and sister Sally (Hillary Brooke) is in danger. Her fiancee Vickery (Milburn Stone) tries to help. It all seems to have do with a strange family ritual. Dennis Hoey as Inspector LeStrade and Mary Gordon as Mrs. Hudson reprised their roles and Peter Lawford make his film debut in a bar scene.  

Although updated to 1943 during WW2 as the three preceding Holmes films had been, this is less concerned with the war effort and more a mystery to be solved by the great detective. It's one of 11 Holmes features directed by the underrated Roy William Neill. This is also the second of three Holmes adventures where Rathbone & Bruce would star alongside Hillary Brooke.

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The Revenge Of Chaney

 

 (imdb)

THE PENALTY-1920-Dr. Ferris (Charles Clary) unnecessarily amputates the legs of a young boy after a car accident. The boy hears another doctor say to Ferris that he will lie to protect him. No one believes the boy when he tells what he heard. 20 years later, the boy is Blizzard (Lon Chaney), the legless crime boss of The Barbary Coast. He learns that Dr. Ferris has a daughter, sculptor Barbara (Claire Adams) and he agrees to pose for her sculpture of Satan to get close to her father for some sinister revenge. Meanwhile, female detective Rose (Ethel Grey Terry) infiltrates Blizzard's gang (who plan to ransack San Francisco) and winds up falling in love with the gangster. 

Great suspense crime drama from director Wallace Worsley who would later direct Chaney in the lost film THE BLIND BARGAIN (1922) and the classic THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME (1923). Chaney once again gives a standout performance. As the legless gangster he was required to wear a brace that held his legs in back of him while he performed on his knees. It's said he could only do this for about 10 minutes at a time.

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No Sh*t Sherlock

 

 (imdb)

SHERLOCK HOLMES' FATAL HOUR-1931-This early adaptation of Arthur Conan Doyle's famous detective has Arthur Wortner excellent in the lead role. Though the plot isn't based on one particular story, it uses elements of several. Holmes encounters counterfeiters and blackmail as well as Prof. Moriarty. Despite Wortner making a good Holmes, this is talky and staged. Ironically, Doctor Watson is played by an actor named Ian Fleming. 

Co-writer/director Leslie S. Hiscott made two sequels, both starring Wortner.

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Lon the Witch!

 

 (imdb)

WITCHCRAFT-1964-Supernatural trouble brews when an ancient graveyard that hosted the Whitlock family for 800 years is bulldozed. Morgan Whitlock (Lon Chaney), head of the clan, gets upset and threatens the construction company run by Bill Lanier (Jack Hedley) and Miles Forrester (Barry Linehan). Of course, Lanier's brother Todd (David Weston) is in love with Morgan's daughter, Amy (Diane Clare). When Forester drowns taking a bath, a devil (voodoo) doll is found. It seems a witch has been resurrected by the bulldozing. She makes Bill's Aunt Helen (Viola Keats) drive off a cliff. All the Whitlocks, including Amy, are part of a coven. Fire spells their end before they can sacrifice Bill's wife. 

This is low budget but entertaining little supernatural tale that gives the aging Lon Chaney a good role in a decent film. Except for a few westerns and TV, he wouldn't get many more but always threw himself into whatever role he was playing. 

Director Don Sharp who directed Christopher Lee in DEVIL SHIP PIRATES the same year and would go on to work with Hammer, directing CURSE OF THE FLY (1965), RASPUTIN: THE MAD MONK (1966) and two Fu-Manchu entries. He makes the most with what he has on WITCHCRAFT in a very short shooting schedule (the number of days it took varies on who's talking about it...). 

American Robert Lippert was the producer and backed THE LAST MAN ON EARTH the same year. Writer Harry Spauding worked a lot for producer Lippert (and director Maury Dexter).

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Mummy Story

 

 (imdb)

THE AWAKENING-1980-In Egypt, obsessed archaeologist Matthew Corbeck (Charlton Heston) and his dedicated assistant Janey (Susannah York) find the tomb of a nameless Queen. When he opens the tomb, his pregnant wife (Jill Townsend) goes comatose. He takes her to the hospital and returns to the dig. While he and Janey explore the vast tomb, his wife gives birth but the baby dies. When he opens up the Queen's sarcophagus, the baby comes back to life. When he tries illegally to take the sarcophagus, the official who tries to stop him is killed. Later his wife takes their daughter and leaves.

In the present, he's now married to Janey and a professor at a college with his daughter Margaret (Stephanie Zimbalist) now 18 years old. He returns to Cairo to check out the mummy queen's decaying problem. Later, he's in England with the mummy and sends his daughter an ankh shaped mirror. She decides to visit him. They have a happy reunion but over dinner Dad tells Margaret all about the evil Queen Kara and her quest to be reincarnated in the real world. While his assistant Paul (Patrick Drury) dates Meg, Corbeck and Janey examine the mummy and discover a virus is causing decay. Paul wants to send the mummy back to Cairo but the professor says no but later relents. It's obvious something weird is going on. Margaret seems possessed by the evil queen and the professor wants to perform a ritual that will bring Kara back to life using urns containing the queen's organs! After Janey is killed trying to destroy the urns, Margaret freaks out a lot. When a doctor tries to help her, she beats him to death. The professor decides to perform the ritual (he thinks it will save Margaret's life) but realizes too late he was tricked by Kara who does possess Margaret and kills him. 

This is a crazy confusing US-British horror film with Heston chewing the scenery in several scenes. Director Mike Newell (HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE (2005)) provides some eerie spots but Warner Brothers didn't like his director's cut and hired Monte Hellman to recut it. Based on “The Jewel of The Seven Stars” by Bram Stoker. Hammer's BLOOD FROM THE MUMMY'S TOMB (1971) is based on the same story.

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Ho Ho No!

 

 (imdb)

SILENT NIGHT-2012-A small town full of moronic lowlifes is terrorized by a killer Santa who slays “naughty people”. Even Malcolm McDowell as the chief of police, can't save this one though he does deliver a lot of dumb lines with a straight face. Director Steven C. Miller needs a new vocation.

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