Stan & Ollie in Toyland

 

 (wikipedia)

MARCH OF THE WOODEN SOLDIERS-1934-In Toyland, whose occupants include Mother Goose (Virginia Karns), the three little pigs (one is Angelo Rossitto), Jack Horner and the cat and the fiddle,the repugnant Barnaby (Henry Brandon) wants to make Bo-Peep (Charlotte Henry) his wife. She rebuffs him but Barnaby demands The Widow Peep (Florence Roberts) come up with the rent she doesn't have. Two of her tenants Stannie Dum (Stan Laurel) & Ollie Dee (Oliver Hardy) are toy makers at the local factory. Bo-Peep really likes Tom-Tom (Felix Knight). Santa Claus visits to check out the toy soldiers he ordered but of course Stan got the order wrong and they're fired but not before an errant toy soldier wrecks the place. At one point Stan actually marries Barnaby to stop him from pursuing Bo-Beep! When Barnaby can't get Bo he frames Tom Tom for the murder of one of the pigs. When that doesn't work, he enlists The Boogeymen to conquer Toyland. Scenes of the wooden soldiers coming to life and defeating The Boogeymen is still quite bizarre and unsettling at times. 

As a kid this was a perennial favorite around Thanksgiving. Produced by Hal Roach and based on an operetta by Victor Herbert, two directors are credited: Gus Meins who was also directing “Our Gang” shorts at this time and Charles “Charley” Rogers, a pal of Stan Laurel's, who directed several of their short comedies and later worked with them on THE BOHEIMIAN GIRL.

Thanks for reading!

Confessions

 

 (imdb)

CONFESSIONS OF AN OPIUM EATER-1962-In San Francisco's Chinatown in 1802, a Tong war rages. Soldier of fortune Gilbert de Quincey (the one and only Vincent Price) is hired by newspaper publisher George Wah (Richard Loo) to help stop the auctioning of illegally obtained Chinese women for Chinese men living in the US. Ruby Low (Linda Ho) and Ching Foon (Phillip Ahn) are the leaders. The story features de Quincey in and out of trouble while trying to save the women. He's almost like a secret agent! Visiting an opium den, de Quincey has a pipe and has a wild dream where he fights, run, watches a butcher behead a pig and falls off a roof, all in slow motion! Angelo Rossito appears selling newspapers. 

Rather bizarre drama directed by Albert Zugsmith (SEX KITTENS GO TO COLLEGE). It's based on the novel of the same name by Thomas De Quincey.

 (amazon.com)

Thanks for reading!

Vanishing Bride

THE CORPSE VANISHES-1942-Somebody is killing then kidnapping the corpses newlywed brides. 

A young headstrong reporter named Pat (Luana Walters) and her older comic photographer Sandy (Vince Barnett) try to investigate. It's all a fiendish plot by Dr. George Lorenz (Bela Lugosi) who extracts bodily fluid from the dead brides to keep his ungrateful wife, The Countess (Elizabeth Russell) young and vital. Dr. Foster (Tris Coffin) assists Lorenz in a cure for The Countess. Lorenz uses drugged orchids and gets help from “my little family” which includes little Toby (Angelo Rossitto), tough guy Mike (George Eldredge), housekeeper Fagah (Minerva Urecal; also in THE APE MAN with Bela) and her brutish son Angel (Frank Moran) who Lorenz whips. He and his wife also like to sleep in coffins. When Pat is forced to stay at the doc's place for the night she snoops around and sees Angel talking to a dead bride. When Foster sees Lorenz strangle Angel he decides to help Pat by setting up a phony marriage but instead Lorenz drugs and kidnaps her. Before he can make the lethal injection Fagah stabs him to death (he killed her son). When the Countess tries to make the injection Fagah stabs her too. 

This is a typical outrageous Monogram studios Lugosi melodrama with Bela being a pretty cruel guy. Luana Walters is good as the noisy wisecracking lead. Too bad she didn't get better roles. Wallace Fox directed Lugosi in THE BOWERY AFTER MIDNIGHT the same year. He also made several “East Side Kids” comedies. Later he made a bunch of westerns and went into TV. He died in 1958. Sam Katzman was the producer...

Thanks for reading 

Super Dog

THE ADVENTURES OF SUPER PUP-1958-Whoa! Whitney Ellsworth really hit the bottom of the barrel with this TV pilot where dogs (little people in costumes) play all the characters. At the Daily Bugle, Bark Bent (Billy Curtis, also in SUPERMAN AND THE MOLE MEN) is really Super Pup, canine crime fighter. He works for editor in chief Terry Bite (Angelo Rossitto) and his female rival on the paper is Pamela Poodle. Sergeant Beagle is an incompetent bungler dressed like a Keystone Kop. Because of his stupidity arch villain Prof. Sheepdip escapes from jail. He has his dumb henchman Wolfingham disguise himself as a clock so he can set a bomb in the newspaper offices. Bark also has an annoying mouse friend who narrates parts of the story. Later Sheepdip kidnaps Pamela and ties her ro a rocket but of course Super Pup saves her.

The costumes are really something to see. It's hard to imagine anyone over the age of 3 enjoying this, although it does have a certain “must be seen to be believed” quality. It uses the same Daily Planet set from the original human version and I think Sheepdip's hideout was used in some episodes. 

Amazingly this was done three years before the Superboy pilot!

Director Cal Howard was an animator and script writer who's worked previously for Walter Lantz, Walt Disney and Leon Schlesinger.  

Thanks for reading! 

More Weissmuller

JUNGLE MOON MEN-1955-Johnny Weissmuller plays Johnny Weissmuller who bares a strong resemblance to Jungle Jim in this low budget adventure (it's because the studio lost the rights to the JJ character). He helps a woman writer (Jean Bryon) try and find the source of life but instead runs into a tribe of “little men” (lead by Billy Curtis). Myron Healey is a trouble making guide looking for diamonds. The small safari captures the little leader and ties him to a tree. At night the rest of the tribe (Angelo Rossetto is there) disguises themselves as trees to save their leader. They also kidnap Bryon's macho boyfriend Bob (Bill Henry) and tie him to a tree. It turns out the tribe is working for “the moon goddess Oma (Helen Stanton from THE PHAN-TOM FROM 10,000 LEAGUES the same year)) a blond haired white woman with ties to ancient Egypt! She wants to make Bob her high priest. In the end runaway lions ruin her empire and “Ra, the sun god” turns Oma into dust. 

This typical Sam Katzman Columbia production seems to choose the most un-African sets it can find (this was filmed on stuntman Crash Corrigan's ranch). JUNGLE MOON MEN is one of only a handful of movies Charles S. Gould directed as he was a busy assistant or second unit director.

Thanks for reading!  

Al's Back!

BRAIN OF BLOOD-1971-Sometimes this Al Adamson horror film is said to have been made in The Philippines because it was produced by Hemisphere, a company that put out the John Ashley/Blood Island movies. According to Sam Sherman the whole production was wrapped up in 90 days. It looks more like it took nine days.

In the far off Middle East country of Kalid, their benevolent leader Amir (Reed Hadley) is dying. Some of his fellow countrymen who seem to worship him hatch a plot to take him to America after he dies and have his brain transplanted into a new body. His future wife Tracy (Regina "Mrs. Adamson" Carroll) and two colleagues Bob (Grant Williams; THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN in better days) and Mohammed (Zandor Varkov; the count in Adamson's DRACULA VS. FRANKENSTEIN the same year) take him to Dr. Trenton (Kent Taylor in one of his 6 Adamson movies), a mad, egotistical surgeon who's created a some kind of brain transplant and is assisted by mean dwarf Dorro (2' 11" Angelo Rossitto who'a also in DRACULA VS. FRANKENSTEIN).  When the body they intend to use is damaged, Trenton uses his very big, mentally challenged go-fer Gor (7' 4" John Bloom also in THE INCREDIBLY TWO HEADED TRANSPLANT the same year) to temporarily house Amir's brain. Gor is also disfigured because some yahoos once threw battery acid on his face (terrible make-up job). Later, after Mohammed is killed, Tracy urges Amir to turn against Bob and Trenton and they run away but have problems getting a car. Trenton goes after Gor/Amir with a crazy ray gun. In the end Trenton transplants Amir's brain into Bob's body and goes to help rule Kalid.

The late Al Adamson made this crazed horror movie between FIVE BLOODY GRAVES and THE FEMALE BUNCH. There's lots of talk, long chase scenes and a bloody but phony brain operation. The acting is bad with only old timer Kent Taylor rising above the mediocre script. Vicki Volante (who's film career seems to be made up entirely of appearances in Adamson movies) plays a captive who kills Dorro with a hypodermic needle.

BRAIN OF BLOOD used to play on late night TV as THE CREATURE'S REVENGE. It's also been released as THE UNDYING BRAIN and THE OOZING BRAIN.

Thanks for reading!

Little People, Big Hero

PYGMY ISLAND-1950-Some army officers (one of them is Selmer Jackson)  in DC discuss a jungle plant that could replace rope while newspaper headlines report the disappearance of Capt. Kingsley who was looking for the source of the plant. A flashback then tells us that this is another Jungle Jim adventure as Jim (Johnny Weissmuller) finds the captain's missing dog tags. No sooner does the real story start then Jim is in the water fighting an alligator! While investigating the death of a pygmy Jim discovers the plant is fireproof. The flashback ends and the US army (with THE MAD GHOUL's David Bruce) shows up in Bugandi (?) to check out a group of white Pygmy people and find the missing captain who we also learn is a woman (Ann Savage). She's hiding out with them. Meanwhile a tribe of "bush devils" threatens the little people. A local trader named Marco (Steven Geray) is also after the plant. The bush devils start an elephant stampede and of course it turns out "the devils" are actually foreign agents (lead by Tris Coffin). A gorilla (probably the same one from MARK OF THE GORILLA) attacks Jim and destroys a bridge (with Jim on it!). Billy Curtis leads the little natives (who include Billy Barty & Angelo Rossitto) who save the day when Jim is taken captive. William Tannen and Tommy Farrell are also in it. This is one of the few JJ movies that contains non-jungle scenes. 

Director William Berke was a veteran of low budget movies (and later TV) since 1934. His last work was on 1958's THE LOST MISSILE.

Thanks for reading!

Child Bride

CHILD BRIDE-1938-A school teacher Miss Carol (Diana Durrell) tries to stop child marriages among “mountain people” in her old rural hillbilly burg. But the main focus is on Jennie (Shirley Mills ) a 12 year old girl who's father (George Humpreys) is a moonshiner but likes the teacher. One night a bunch of inbred idiots kidnap Carol with the intent of tar and feathering her because she preaches again them “marrying young uns”. Fortunately Jennie's dad and his moonshining buddies Angelo (Angelo Rossitto) and Happy (Al Bannon) save her. He seems ok but later he gets drunk and thinks his wife is fooling around with his sleazy partner Jake so he beats her. Pa winds up dead so Jake (Warner Richmond) blackmails Jennie's ma into letting him marry Jennie! 

Carol also has a district attorney boyfriend who tries to get pass a law prohibiting the marriages. When he talks to the governor he addresses him as “your excellency”. Though promoted as “educational” (and thus avoiding most censors) this exploitation film is kind of bizarre and depraved especially the marriage ceremony. And then the happy couple get ready for their wedding night! Whew! Fortunately a well placed bullet put into Jake stops that before it even starts and the Jennie and Freddie go home together.

One character uses a very racist line that I won't repeat here. The most notorious scene is when Jennie takes off her clothes (and is topless for a minute) and swims nude in a lake! 

This was the last film directed by Harry Revier who had made LASH OF THE PENTENTIES and several silent Tarzan movies. A 1945 reissue was “presented” by Kroger Babb. With the exception of Mills (who was later in THE GRAPES OF WRATH), Richmond and Rossitto most of the rest of the cast never made another movie!

Thanks for reading!

Bela's Baby Blues In Color

SCARED TO DEATH-1947-This very weird low budget murder mystery (filmed in "natural color") is Bela Lugosi's only color film! And it's narrated by a dead woman! 

Just before an autopsy is to be performed on her, murder victim Laura Van Ee (Molly Lamont) decides to relate a flashback to the audience. She's a paranoid wife who believes her husband (Roland Varno) and her father in law Dr. Van Ee (George Zucco) are trying to drive her crazy so she will give the husband a divorce. Nat Pendleton is a dumb house detective who's sweet on the comic maid (Gladys Blake). Lugosi shows up as Prof. Leonide, the doctor's European cousin! He's accompanied by Indigo (Angelo Rossitto in his third movie with Bela), "a dwarf, one of the little men". The characters all talk very mysteriously and a figure in a blue mask keeps poking it's head in a window once in a while. Since the plot has something to do with a dancer in a green mask I suppose the cheap color process used here wasn't working very well.

Later, a clichéd fast talking reporter (Douglas Fowley) shows up to try and help Laura. Leonide and Indigo creep around and Lugosi really hams it up. It all has to do with a green scarf, a spy, revenge, a cross dresser and a murder committed 20 years before. The funniest part is when the doctor who's going to do the autopsy comes up to the body and says to his assistant "Is this the body?".

Director Christy Cabanne was nearly at the end of his long career that had started in 1912! Some of his other movies included GRAFT, the 1934 version of JANE EYRE and THE MUMMY'S HAND.

Thanks for reading!