Evil vs. Evil

 

 (imdb)

DR. SATAN VS. BLACK MAGIC-1968-Dr. Satan (Joaquin Cordero) is awakened by the real Satan and told to go back to Earth to stop vampire Yei Lin (Noe Murayama) from obtaining a formula that turns metal into gold. I'm not exactly sure why Beazelbub cares about this but he does. Satan hypnotizes two women (who sleep in coffins) to assist him. In a fight Lin almost turns Satan into a vampire but evil triumphs over evil in this Mexican tale directed by Rogelio A. Gonzalez (THE SHIP OF MONSTERS).

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Friend of the Devil?

 

 (imdb)

THE DEVIL'S PARTNER-1960-An old man is killed when sacrificing a goat in a supernatural ritual. Then Nick Richards (Ed Nelson) comes to a small town looking for his uncle Pete. He's informed by the sheriff (Spencer Carlisle) that his uncle is dead and it could be murder. Local girl Nell (Jean Allison) befriends him. Her boyfriend David (Richard Crane) owns a gas station and her father (Edgar Buchanan) is the town doctor. Later Frank, another local drinks goat's milk and dies. Nick seems nice but he obviously has a sinister ulterior motive. At night Nick, using a pentagram his uncle made, makes David's dog turn on him. He survives by killing the dog and hires Nick to run the station while he recovers. Later Nick kills the plastic surgeon who's coming to check out David's scars by making his car crash. For some reason Nick pays the town drunk Papers (Byron Foulger) to help him in another ritual where Nick transforms into his uncle Pete! Papers runs away and is trampled by a mysterious black horse. Later Nick turns into a snake and tries to kill David but is shot. He turns into the black horse but is shot and killed by the Sheriff. The horse turns into Nick who turns into Uncle Pete. 

There seems to be a few holes in this story or the version I saw was edited. This is only one of two feature length films made by busy TV director Charles Rondeau and both in 1960 (the other was the dreary THE GIRL IN LOVER'S LANE). The screenplay was co-written by ex-Bowery Boys actor Stanley Clements.

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Honey, I Shrunk The Budget...

 

 (imdb)

WIZARDS OF THE LOST KINGDOM-1985-This weird kind of kid oriented fantasy starts off with a narrator telling us about the age of wizards with scenes from other movies. Then in the kingdom of King Tylor, a wizard's son Simon (Vidal Peterson) is given a magic ring by his father just before their kingdom is attacked by the traitorous sorcerer Shurka (Thom Christopher) and his troops under the guidance of the evil queen, who kills the king and the wizard. Simon escapes with Wookie like companion Gulfax. Shurka imprisons the princess who's sweet on Simon and captures all the children. When Simon is trapped by some bad guys enter Kor (Bo Swenson), a sort of wino warrior/wanderer. Kor decides to help Simon despite the fact that he is being hunted by a cyclops who wants the warrior to marry his sister! At one point Simon comes under a spell of black magic and it's scenes from another movie (DEATHSTALKER; not unusual since this movie was produced by Roger Corman's Concorde which often incorporated clips from other movies). Later they meet a mermaid and Simon defeats Shurka.

 It's a very dumb story with terrible SFX written by Ed Naha who later penned TROLL and DOLLS for Richard Band and the big budgeted high profile HONEY, I SHRUNK THE KIDS. He'd also written for many magazines including Starlog, Fangoria and Playboy. WIZARDS is one of a handful of movies filmed in Argentina by Concorde. Director Hector Olivera also made BARBARIAN QUEEN for Corman.

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Dr. Death and Mr. Howard

DOCTOR DEATH, SEEKER OF SOULS-1973-Fred Sanders (Barry Coe) tries to find a way to bring his wife Laura (Jo Morrow) back from the dead. After consulting a phony medium and meeting a bug eyed old man and the society of the dead, he meets a woman named Tana (QUEEN OF BLOOD'S Florence Marley) who takes him to see Dr. Death (John Considine) who she says can bring back the dead. During a demonstration the doctor he and his assistant Thor (Leon Askin) saw a scarred woman in half (like a magic act) then bring her soul back in another body. Sanders remains unconvinced but after seeing his wife’s apparition and hearing her voice, he agrees to have the doctor bring her back. The doctor then relates how he got the power (in sepia flashback) 1,000 years before (I think his voice changes too). He decides to kill Tana and use her soul but when he attempts the soul transfer it doesn't work. Sanders’ wife refuses it and Sanders decides it's better that way but the doctor has other plans. He and Thor go around killing innocent women, trying to transfer their souls into Mrs. Sanders body. To no avail. Meanwhile Sanders romances his secretary Sandy (Cheryl Miller). When the doctor is stabbed his blood gushes out and disintegrates his attacker. After deciding that the secretary has the strong soul he needs, doc decides to bleed her to death!  The predictable ending has the doctor's soul in Mrs. Sanders body and plotting revenge. 

This movie is very boring in spots and very stupid in others. Considine is ok in the over the top main role spouting a lot of platitudes about singular soul transfer but the rest of the cast isn’t very good. The real reason to see this is for the appearance of Moe Howard as a member of the doctor’s audience! He seems to flub one of his lines. 

This was director Eddie Saeta only full length film however he was assistant director on many films going back to the late 1930's. Former actor Sal Ponti wrote the screenplay. Co-star Barry Coe was in lots of TV show episodes and LOVE ME TENDER (with Elvis). A year after this John Considine made another low budget horror film THE THIRSTY DEAD. His father John W. Considine Jr. was a producer in the 1930's and '40's. His most famous was MAD LOVE in 1935.

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Hammer TV

MARK OF THE DEVIL-1984-This is an episode from the made for TV anthology HAMMER HOUSE OF MYSTERY AND SUSPENSE. An in debt gambler (Dirk Bennedict in between BATTLESTAR GALACTICA and THE A TEAM) kills tattoo artist Mr. Lee (Bert Kwouk from THE PINK PANTHER series) in a robbery attempt. Lee, who also dabbled in black magic marks him with a knife in their struggle and a little pinprick grows into a tattoo depicting the murder. No one can help him so he resorts to using a hot iron on his chest! The tattoo gets bigger and he goes crazy. Jenny Seagrove plays his rich fiancee. It's fairly predictable but alright for TV. The screenplay was written by Brian Clemens (THE AVENGERS) and is one of the last efforts by director Val Guest (THE DAY THE EARTH CAUGHT FIRE, WHEN DINOSAURS RULED THE WORLD).

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Fontaine's Last Stand

THE WITCHES-(THE DEVIL'S OWN)-1966-Gwen Mayfield (Oscar winner Joan Fontaine in her last feature film role and still alive at the time of this writing) is a school teacher still recovering from an occult experience in Africa who goes to teach at a school in a small English town. Everyone seems to like her despite some oddballs like Alan Bax (Alec McCowen) who wears a priest's collar despite not being a priest. She becomes friends with Allan's sister Stephanie (Kay Walsh), a writer. After some mysterious goings on involving 2 teenagers and some disappearances Gwen has another breakdown and is sent to a hospital/nursing home. The doctor there (Leonard Rossiter) seems to be keeping her a prisoner....or is he? She later escapes and finds out the town's secret. Witchcraft is to blame and a young girl is to be a sacrifice!

This partnership between 7 Arts and Hammer films isn't as bad as I've sometimes read it's suppose to be though there's not a lot of action and in a way it's fairly easy to figure out the character who's behind it all. The devil worshipers do a really wild dance and there are some very haunting native masks. Screenplay (adapted from a novel by Norah Lofts, a female writer who sometimes wrote under the pen name Peter Curtis)) is by Nigel Kneale who wrote 2 of the Quatermass TV series and FIRST MEN IN THE MOON among other films. Director Cyril Frankel did a lot of BBC TV shows.

According to some sources the book's rights were purchased by Fontaine herself who brought the project to Hammer.

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More Fu

LEGENDARY WEAPONS OF CHINA-1982-A martial arts "society" that practices magic decides to do way with Gung, a rival martial artist. The group do a lot of crazy stunts while preparing for the kill. This is  a weird confusing movie with strange battles, a guy controlled by a voodoo like doll, comical fights and violence. In the final fight some of the "legendary weapons" come into play and the name of the weapon is flashed on the screen. Unfortunately, the names are in Chinese. Director Chia-Liang Liu was also a stunt coordinator on many films and later made THE LEGEND OF THE DRUNKEN MASTER with Jackie Chan.