TV Classic

 

THE ASTRO-ZOMBIES-1968-In a pre-credits scene a woman is bludgeoned to death by a skull mask wearing killer in a garage getting blood on her classy white Mustang convertible. Toy robots are shown during the credits. Then an auto accident victim is removed from some wreckage by a weird looking guy. Dr. Petrovich (Victor Izay), FBI director type Holman (Wendell Corey in his last role) and agent Chuck Edwards (Joseph Hoover) discuss the experiments of disbarred scientist Dr. DeMarco. Another agent Eric Porter (Tom Pace) hangs around. Meanwhile spies Satana (Tura Santana) and Juan (Rafael Campos) buy an audio tape from a guy with a German accent. Then they have him rundown. 

After this we meet DeMarco (John Carradine) who's doing experiments on a dead body with the help of his assistant Franchot (William Bagdad), the weird guy who removed the body from the car wreck. This scene goes on forever and is only made watchable by the presence of Carradine who makes his talk about preserving great minds sound plausible. Meanwhile Satana lounges and smokes while listening to a tape of DeMarco expounding. Then one of Dr. Petrovich's nurses is stabbed to death by someone wearing a skull mask. It/he stabs her multiple times even when it's obvious she's dead. 

So it seems DeMarco is creating "astro-zombies", reanimated dead with special electrodes in their brains. Tura wants the secret for her government. Our govern-ment wants to stop him. When one Astro's power pack is destroyed he puts a flashlight to his head for power. 

There's a little gore and a severed head during the climax which is about the best part of the whole movie. It was directed and co-written by Ted V. Mikels who would make a sequel almost 35 years later that featured Santana and Carradine (well, not really..you'll see!). Future member of the MASH TV show Wayne Rogers was co-writer and co-producer.

Thanks for reading! 

Mikels' Angels?

THE DOLL SQUAD-1973-A senator and a government agent named Connelly watch a manned space rocket explode after a mysterious voice intones "perhaps next time you'll listen". A computer ("Big Bertha") suggests bringing in members of "The Doll Squad", a lethal all female group of agents lead by Sabrina Kincade (Francine York from Larry Buchanan's CURSE OF THE SWAMP CREATURE). Unfortunately, her first two picks are killed by assassins. It turns out Sabrina's ex-husband Eamon O'Reilly (Micheal Ansara) is behind the destruction in his mad plan to release the bubonic plague on the world! They try to get Sabrina but she burns one guy with a special cigarette lighter. While skeet shooting the senator (John Carter), Connelly (Anthony Eisley) and Sabrina have a big discussion (she says "sex and security just don't mix") and she shows off her min-arsenal. Sabrina eventually recruits an Olympic swimmer (Leigh Christian), an exotic dancer (Tura Santana) and a carnival ticket seller (Jean London).

This was obviously ripped off by Aaron Spelling to make the TV hit CHARLIE'S ANGELS but DOLL has more violence, blood, bad acting and the leads in more revealing clothes. If the TV show had been like this I would have watched every week!

The presence of Ansara brings the movie up a notch. Both he and Eisley were busy TV actors at the time.

It was co-written, directed and produced by TV Mikels a year after BLOOD ORGY OF THE SHE DEVILS. The fights are pretty badly staged but it's far more entertaining than most reviews give it credited for. It also features exploding bad guys, a few gadgets, Rafael Campos and Mikels regulars Herb Robins and William Bagdad. Except for the seldom seen ALEX JOSEPH AND HIS WIVES in 1976, Mikels next low budget exploitation movie would be TEN VIOLENT WOMEN in '83!  Theme song sung by Solomon King.

8 or 10...Who's Counting?

10 VIOLENT WOMAN-1982-Ted V. Mikels, the creator of THE DOLL SQUAD and ASTRO-ZOMBIES, returns with his “woman in prison tale”. 

8 women are tired of working for a living so they rob a jewelry store of a million dollars in diamonds. They go to Las Vegas to sell the loot to Leo The Fence (director Mikels). He offers them cocaine in exchange for the diamonds but they don't accept it. One of the woman gets shot (and later dies) and another stomps Leo to death with her high heel. 

After running around in the dark and stealing a guy's clothes they go to a club to sell the coke. The heel stomping woman deals to two narcs and is shot dead. The others are arrested and sent to prison where their section is run by Miss Terry, sadistic lesbian and her hench-woman Madge (“a hypocritical religious old creep”) with a limp, wart and mustache. Once in a while Terry clashes with a social worker but usually abuses the inmates especially one woman (who refused her carnal come-ons) who she tortures with a riding crop and a wet towel while Madge prays loudly. Only the lone African American attendant seems to care. 

After a shower cat fight, the remaining girls escape and some of them become belly dancers for a Sheik (it was his diamonds they stole). 

This a goofy violent movie with some nudity and comedy (intentional and unintentional). The acting isn't the greatest (Mikels himself gives a good performance) but the worst part is most of the night scenes are too dark to see! 

Co-screenwriter James Gordon White wrote both THE INCREDIBLE TWO HEADED TRANSPLANT and THE THING WITH TWO BRAINS! It starts out with only eight women. By the time they get to jail they are only 6 but they meet 2 prisoners who help in their escape so I suppose in reality there were 10 women! Ted V. Mikels, probably the last of the old time '60's-'70's low budget filmmakers (contemporaries like Ray Dennis Steckler, Al Adamson and  Larry Buchanan are all gone) is still going strong at 84 and recently released ASTRO-ZOMBIES:M4.    

This was filmed in 1979 but only released in 1987 (I saw it in the now defunct Drake movie theater on Woodhaven Blvd in Queens, NY!)

Thanks for reading!