Wilder's Fright

 

 (imdb)

FRIGHT-1956-After psychiatrist Dr. Hamilton (Eric Fleming) helps police stop a murderer (Frank Marth) from jumping off a bridge, he meets Ann Summers (Nancy Malone; INTIMACY (1966)) who seems to have some problems. He regresses her through hypnotism where she speaks German. Then she disappears. Later he learns she was once Baroness Maria in 1889 Vienna. They wind up falling in love. The doc thinks it's a case of split personality but an annoying reporter prints the reincarnation story which causes a rift between the two lovers. Eventually, Maria takes Ann over completely and vanishes, leading the police to think she might have been murdered by the doc. To get her to come out of hiding, he convinces the murderer that he's the crown prince Maria might be looking for! 

Extreme boredom from director W. Lee Wilder, whose son Myles wrote the screenplay obviously inspired by the Bridey Murphy reincarnation case. The elder Wilder also made MANFISH the same year. Lead actor Fleming starred in QUEEN OF OUTER SPACE in 1958 and in 1959 began a long run as the trial boss on TV's “Rawhide”. TV actress Malone later was also a TV director.

Thanks for reading!

Karloffnaut

 

 (imdb)

JUGGERNAUT-1936-Dr. Satorius (Boris Karloff) is in Morocco researching a cure for fractured paralysis, but his funding is terminated. Relocating to the French Riviera, he has a strange manservant named Jacques (Gibb McLaughlin). He hires a nurse and is visited by Lady Clifford (Mona Goya), the wife of a cotton millionaire (Morton Seltin)), who's having an affair with Halliday (Anthony Ireland), a guy who lost all his money gambling. Lady Clifford promises Satorius a fortune if he becomes her hubby's live-in doctor but with an ulterior motive of course. Son Roger (Arthur Margetson) arrives and Dad tells him he is to be sole heir to his money. Suddenly he falls ill. 

This convoluted little murder mystery seems like casting Karloff was an afterthought. Director Henry Edwards made SCROOGE (with Seymour Hicks in the title role) the year before.

Thanks for reading!

Mind?

 

JENNIFER ON MY MIND-1971-Loser (Michael Brandon, not very good) meets decadent bimbo Jennifer (Tippy Walker). She od's and dies and he needs help disposing of the body. Flashbacks show how they met and started a relationship. Pretty boring stuff with comic Chuck McCann as a good Samaritan,unknown Robert DeNiro as a cab driver and Barry Bostwick as a minstrel in small roles. It was made by the aforementioned Noel Black.

Thanks for reading!

Covered

 

COVER ME BABE- 1970-Pretentious arty filmmaker (Robert Forster) likes to buck the system after losing out on a film grant. He refuses to cooperate with a Hollywood producer (Jeff Corey) and would rather film a person dying or a couple making out. In the end he loses everything but is such a smug self centered loser he doesn't seem to realize it. Sondra Locke, Sam Waterston and Regis Toomey co-star. It was directed by Noel Black who made JENNIFER ON MY MIND the next year and went into TV (THE WORLD BEYOND).

Thanks for reading!

Life Before Gilligan

THE WARRIOR EMPRESS-1960-Around 600 BC Phaon (Kerwin Matthews) the leader of the people's revolution is wounded when the evil king's minions attack their rebel camp. He seeks sanctuary in the Temple of Aphrodite on the island of Lesbos. Shappo (pre-Gilligan's Island Ginger Tina Louise), a kind of priestess in training hides him in the basement. They fall in love despite Shappo's girlfriends' interference and the fact that she's engaged to another man (Riccardo Garrone who had a role in LA DOLCE VITA the same year). Meanwhile the girls make music and dance. There's some sword fights but it's mostly hokey talky love drama. 

Filmed in Italy, director Pietro Francisci had directed the international hits HERCULES and HERCULES UNCHAINED.  

Thanks for reading!

He Shouldn't Have Been Born In The First Place...

ROMEO MUST DIE-Warner Bros.-2000-This Jet Li vehicle (his first starring role in a US release) isn’t very good. There’s a lot of talk and the story line isn’t very original. And what is it with Hollywood and gangsters? I guess they’re called “crime lords” today. I mean guys who deal drugs and murder people aren’t very virtuous yet at least one “gang” is always better than the other.



Hell, thugs are thugs and whether they are White, Chinese, Afro-American or whatever they are still criminals, scum if you will and yet there’s always one “good” gang with an “honorable” leader. Hey this was ok in the 1930’s when Bogart or Cagney or Eddie G. was at the helm but times change! THERE IS NO HONOR AMONG THIEVES!



(Rant over...sorry)


So anyway, as a former cop named Han Sing, Li escapes from a Chinese prison after learning of his brother’s death. He comes to America and finds his dad (who he helped escape from China) is a powerful crime lord. Through a mix-up he becomes involved with Trish (rapper Aaliyah in her acting debut) the daughter of another mobster (Delroy Lindo from Spike Lee movies). He’s the kind of “good gangster” who loves his kids and wants to make a clean break after his business with Han’s dad (Henry O, who had a small role in SHANGHAI NOON with Jackie Chan the same year) and a wimpy white guy is finished.

The martial arts fight scenes seem more like a Li audition for MATRIX 2 (at the time it was rumored Keanu Reeves didn’t want to do the sequel and that Li might replace him). The director, Polish born Andrzei Bartkowiak was the cinematographer on LETHAL WEAPON 4 (where Li made his American debut). Also with Isaiah Washington (TRUE CRIME), Russell Wong, DMX and Matthew Harrison (pretty funny as a trash talking, muscle bound bodyguard). The annoying hip-hop soundtrack doesn’t help either. Aaliyah was killed in a 2001 plane crash after completing her only other film QUEEN OF THE DAMNED.


Thanks 4 reading!!

Not The Real Scarface!

CAPTAIN SCARFACE-1953-I thought this was going to be a movie about pirates. Barton McLane headlines as the title character, a communist ship’s captain who has a plan to blow up the Panama Canal with an atomic bomb! Peter Coe is his assistant. Leif Erickson is the reluctant hero who came aboard the ship with a dead man’s passport. He tries to help a doctor (Rudolph Anders who was in F. Lee Wilder‘s PHANTOM FROM SPACE the same year) and his daughter (Virginia Grey). It’s mostly talk in this Astor Pictures release. Also with Isabel Randolph and Paul Brinegar. Hal Roach Jr. was a co-producer.

Director Paul Guilfoyle was had been an actor (he’s the guy James Cageny “ventilates” in the car trunk in WHITE HEAT) but in the early ’50’s he ventured into directing. His output was mostly in TV but he died in 1961 at the age of 58. He’s no relation to the more recent TV actor of the same name. Screenwriter Charles Lang had also been an actor.

Villain/star McLane was in movies since 1926! It seems appropriate to this review to mention that his last role was a reoccurring one on TV’s I DREAM OF JEANNIE! Second billed Virginia Grey was in many movies and made her last in 1976. (She died in 2004). Co-star Erickson was the father in INVADERS FROM MARS the same year.

Thanks for reading!