Hunter

 

 (imdb)

THE GOLDEN ARROW-1962-Hassan (Tab Hunter with a dubbed in voice) leads a band that kidnaps Jamila (Rossana Podesta; in HORROR CASTLE by the same director the next year), a princess and holds her for ransom. At night, he takes the ransom and the princess and makes his getaway. He abandons her in a market and is promptly arrested. 3 genies help him escape because he is actually the real sultan of Damascus. 

With a flying carpet, fire monsters and a serious story that switches to comedy whenever the genies show up. Low budget Italian “sword & sandal” production directed by Antonio Margheriti.

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Horror Remake

 

 (imdb)

WEB OF THE SPIDER-1971-An American reporter Foster (Anthony Franciosa) meets Edgar Allan Poe (Klaus Kinski) in England and winds up making a bet to spend the night in a haunted castle. After investigating the place he meets two women, Julia (Karin Field) & Elizabeth (Michele Mercier). They don't seem to like each other. It's clear that something is going on. After Elizabeth seduces Foster, a man breaks in and seems to kill her. Foster shoots the man but his body disappears. Then Elizabeth's body also vanishes. While searching for the missing bodies, Foster meets doctor Carmis (Peter Carsten) who vanished years before. He proves through some apparitions/flashbacks that everyone in the house is dead. 

This stylish remake of NIGHTMARE CASTLE directed Antonio Margheriti (under the pseudonym Anthony Dawson) is good but I prefer the original. This was one of 10 films Klaus Kinski made in 1971.

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US Actors in South American

 

KILLER FISH-1979-In this Italian production filmed in Buenos Aires with North American actors jewel thieves headed by Lasky (Lee Majors) and Kate (Karen Black) steal some valuable gems and wreck most of the facility getting them. They hide the loot underwater in a reservoir. The mastermind behind the heist Diller (James Franciscus) fills the reservoir with piranha. 

Meanwhile Lasky pursues model Gabrielle (Margaux Heminway), while her fat photographer (Roy Brocksmith),manager (Marisa Berensen) and pilot (Gary Collins) hang around. After some of the robbers are killed trying to retrieve the cache, Kate scuba dives for it and she and Diller get the booty. When they get caught in a rainstorm they are picked up by a yacht owned by the model and her entourage. 

The storm washes the piranha into the nearby lake. Diller betrays them all and it's Longstreet vs. The Six Million Dollar Man in the finale battle of the US TV stars in this drawn out little drama directed by Anthony Dawson (aka Antonio Margheriti) (CASTLE OF BLOOD). 

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Assignment: Miss This Movie!

ASSIGNMENT:OUTER SPACE-1960-This is kind of a strange film. It was made in Italy and is obviously dubbed but it seems to me the cast is actually speaking English anyway! The SFX are very cheesy and laughable (they look like outtakes from a Gerry Anderson project). It was directed by Antonio Margheriti (soon to be familiar to US horror fans under his "Americanized" moniker Antony Dawson).

In the 21st century a space ship prowls around near Mars. The crew (who have names but usually address each other as numbers) comes out of suspended animation and we learn that one of its members is a reporter named Ray Peterson (Rik Van Nutter; later Felix Leiter in THUNDERBALL). George, the commander doesn't like him. He believes he's just getting in the way. He does seem like an accident waiting to happen as almost off the bat he disobeys orders, goes outside the ship and causes an incident (even though he saves a life). 

Most of the crew feel the same way (they call him "leech")  except for the kind, philosophical Al (African-American dancer Archie Savage; untypical role for a black actor in 1960)) who offers Ray lots of advice. Later another spaceship crashes on Mars and George and his girlfriend Lucy (Gabriella Farinon; she was in Roger Vadim's BLOOD AND ROSES the same year) go to investigate. Ray joins them too (he went over George's head to get permission). They rescue the one survivor of the Mars crash then head for Venus to help save the Earth from destruction. There's a lot of gobbledygook scientific talk and everyone acts very strange (most of them look kinda weird too). The print I saw had washed out color and terrible editing and looked like something made ten years earlier!

But if you really want a laugh go to the IMDB and read all the great reviews this thing gets. References to 2001 abound and one genius even says the SFX are good! Maybe they are just looking for attention!

Originally called SPACE MEN.

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Out of Order Review!

Of course since this blog is messed up I have the review for the first installment of this series after two later installments!

WAR OF THE PLANETS-1966-A mysterious signal disrupts the New Year's Eve party on space station Gamma One. Commandeer Halstead (Tony Russel) sends a crew to investigate another space station where the landing party is alive but in a kind of suspended animation ("dead like lightening"...???). The landing party soon joins them. Lt. Jacowitx (Franco Nero,the same year he starred in DJANGO) and Lt. Gomez (Lisa Gastoni) help with the investigation and discover there is an invasion by aliens who are smoky green mist and take over humans. "It's a nightmare and we're all dreaming it...together". The aliens want to relocate to Earth and take over all humans. A lot of time is wasted on a ritual called "The Hosting". It's pretty boring but occasionally funny. Some fire extinguishers become deadly weapon's in the hero's hands. 

The sets and SFX in this Italian space drama look like something out of FIREBALL XL-5! Russel, Nero, Gastoni and Giustini had played the same characters in director Antonio Margheriti's THE WILD WILD PLANET the year before. Margheriti (usually credited as Anthony Dawson on US prints) had already made HORROR CASTLE (with Christopher Lee) and CASTLE OF BLOOD (with Barbara Steele) and went on to make many more. He died in 2002 at 72.

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Gamma One Returns

SNOW DEVILS-1967-Another crazy art-deco designed Italian science fiction movie directed by Antonio Margherriti (Anthony Dawson in the US prints). 

After a weather station in the Himalayas is destroyed the commander of space station Gamma One Rod Jackson (Giacomo Rossi-Stuart aka Jack Stuart in American prints) is sent to investigate. A woman lieutenant Lisa Neilson (Ombretta Colli aka Amber Collins in American prints) insists on going along because her fiance was a victim of the destruction and she believes he is still alive (“I don't know. Call it woman's intuition, ESP or whatever you want”). Wilbert Bradley is their crazy talking Sherpa guide Sharu. After their “heli-jet” and other equipment are destroyed in a freak accident,the group must go on foot which becomes a 4 person mission when the Sherpa guides (except for Sharu) run away. Seeking shelter in a cave they encounter big bluish hairy “snow devils”. 

They are actually aliens from a dying planet trying to flood Earth and then freeze it so they can live there. For some reason their skin and fur change color in a few scenes. When the group is held captive they somehow escape and drug the aliens. They kill the leader and go back home to find the Earth plagued by storms, floods and polar meltdowns so they must find the hidden alien base before all is lost! 

The buildings, ships and SFX look like Gerry Anderson's FIREBALL XL-5 and the story is similar to one used on TV'S VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA! If it seems a little episodic that's because it's all part of the Italian “Gamma One” space series which also includes the THE WAR OF THE PLANETS and THE WILD WILD PLANET. (last review)

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The Wild Wild Review

THE WILD WILD PLANET-1965-In this crazy Sci-Fi space adventure from Italy, a mad scientist (Massimo Serato) is conducting mysterious experiments using human beings while strange aliens disguised as humans kill scientists (and little kids). Most are women have beehive hairdos but one is a bald headed guy with a killer trench coat! American born Tony Russel is Commander Mike Halstead in charge of the Gamma One space station where the action takes place. Lisa Gastoni is Lt. Connie Gomez, Halstead's kind of girlfriend. Franco Nero is Jake, another Lieutenant who helps Halstead go after the mad doc (who has some weird plan to create his own race) and rescue Connie who has fallen into his clutches. It's all very funny with toy cars and rockets, people turned doll sized, female aliens beating up men and lines like “You Helium head”. 

Directed by Antonio Margheriti, it's part of the Gamma One series of space movies. Ruggero Deodato (CANNIBAL HOLOHAUST) was an assistant director.

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Hard Riding

TAKE A HARD RIDE-1975-This is like a spagetti western mixed together with a blaxplotation movie and it kind of works.

Just before cattle boss Morgan (Dana Andrews) dies he entrusts a large sum of money to his hired hand Pike (Jim Brown) who promises to deliver it back home across the Mexican border. Bounty hunter Kiefer (Lee Van Cleef) gets wind of the journey and decides to go after the money. Along the way, Pike picks up a cigar smoking gambler (fellow ex-football player Fred Williamson), a widow (Catherine Spaak) and her mute Indian servant (Jim Kelly!). Later they also take in a little boy.

Kiefer teams up for a while with a preacher/gunfighter (Ronald Howard in his last movie role). Barry Sullivan is a local sheriff and Harry Carey Jr., Robert Donner and Charles MacGregor are also featured. There's a lot of gunfights but the short fight between Brown and Williamson is pretty bad.

Van Cleef (a really great screen villian) was a very busy actor in Europe in the mid '70's. Brown, Williamson and Kelly (and MacGregor) had all been in Gordon Park's THREE THE HARD WAY the year before. Williamson directed the first two of his many low budget movies in 1975, the seldom seen DEATH JOURNEY and the comedy western ADIOS AMIGO (co-starring Richard Pryor).

Director Antonio Margheriti (credited as Anthony Dawson) keeps things going at a good clip and even throws in some humor. Margheriti (who died in 1990) worked in every movie genre' including the cannibal gore of INVASION OF THE FLESHHUNTERS.

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