Cameron, Cuba, Cahn

 

 (imdb)

PIER 5 HAVANA-1959-Steve Daggert (Cameron Mitchell; in FACE OF FIRE the same year) goes to Cuba (but this was filmed in LA) soon after Castro takes over, looking for his alcoholic friend Miller (Logan Field; a TV actor). Right away the chief of police (Michael Granger) has him picked up and they meet Mrs. Miller (Allison Hayes; ATTACK OF THE 50 FOOT WOMAN the year before) who separated from Miller before he disappeared. She's a singer in a club and has a rich boyfriend Fernando (Eduardo Noriega). Later a guy named Schluss (Otto Waldis) wants to get rid of Daggert. It seems Miller's disappearance may be tied to a plan by Schluss and his boss Lopez (Nestor Paiva) to put Battista back in power. Miller is presumed dead but shows up later to warn Daggett that Battista's supporters plan to bomb Havana! 

Ok political espionage with good acting from the leads in a low budget production by director Edward L. Cahn who made INVISIBLE INVADERS and THE FOUR SKULLS OF JONATHAN DRAKE the same year. Co-producer/co-scripter Robert Kent worked on most of Cahn's '50's output.

 Mitchel, Granger, Hayes, Paiva and Waldis had all worked with Cahn before.

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Shhhh....

 

 (imdb)

FROM A WHISPER TO A SCREAM-1987-A reporter Beth Chandler (Susan Tyrell) covers the execution of Katherine White (Martine Bestwick) in the town of Oldfield. After her execution Beth visits White's brother Julian (Vincent Price) and 4 tales are related. 

In story one: A nutty psychotic wimp Stanley (Clu Gulager) has a weird relationship with his sister. He's sweet on co-worker Grace. Some-how, they go on a date and he kills her. Later he has sex with her corpse. 9 months later he kills his sister. He seems happy until an undead demon baby (the result of his unholy intercourse) comes to kill him. 

In the second story an idiot (Terry Kiser) escaping from a gangland hit meets the swamp dwelling Felder (Harry Ceaser) who knows the secret of eternal life. 

In the third a glass eater at a carnival has problems when he wants to marry a non-carny woman. They escape but the owner (Rosalind Cash) vows revenge. 

In the last, set during the Civil War, some children take revenge on Northern soldiers (led by Cameron Mitchell) in defense of the insurrectionists who fought to keep slavery legal. 

This is a mixed bag anthology from director Jeff Burr who was later known for his sequels to horror movies (THE STEPFATHER 2, LEATHERFACE: TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE 3, PUMPKINHEAD 2: BLOOD WINGS, ETC.).

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Crap Train To Terror

 

 (imdb)

NIGHT TRAIN TO TERROR-1985-On a train, a terrible rock band play. Also on the train are God (un-billed Ferdy Mayne) and Satan (un-billed Tony Giorgio) who discuss various things in this low budget trilogy. 

In the first story, “The Case of Harry Bilings”, an accident victim named Harry (John Phillip Law) is turned into a weirdo who drugs women and brings them to an institution where a big doofus intern Otto (Richard Moll) rapes and dismembers them and sells their body parts. Later a female doctor lobotomizes a male doctor. Harry decapitates Otto and discovers the male doctor operating on the female doctor. I thought this might have been a misfire black comedy despite the subject matter.

Number 2: “The Case of Gretta Connors”. A musician named Greta (Merideth Hayes) is turned into a porno actress by a jerk named George (J. Martin Sellers). Glen, a preppie type sees one of Gretta's movies and falls in love with her. Somehow, he meets her and they become lovers. It turns out George is the head of “The Death Club” whose members have all had brushes with death. Something called a “Transinian Winged Beetle” (terrible animation) stings a guy to death and his eyeballs explode. They also play an electrocution game where an African American guy is burned to death. Later they play a game of death with a construction ball that looks like something from the '60's “Batman” TV show.

The third story is called “The Case of Claire Hansen”, Mr. Weiss (Marc Lawrence) enlists a police Lt. (Cameron Mitchell) and his assistant Dieter (also Marc Lawrence) to help him trap a Nazi. Then Weiss is killed by a fanged monster. Coroner Claire Hansen (Faith Cliff) examines the body. Her husband Peter is the author of the book “Is God Dead?”. A guy named Papini warns Peter the devil is coming for him. The Nazi is now the still young Mr. Oliver (Robert Bristol), a murderer sporting goat legs. The boyfriend of one of Oliver's victims tries to kill him but is crushed by a red eyed monster (terrible animation). Strange rubbery demons attack Claire but it seems to be an illusion. A priest tells her she was picked by God to battle the devil. He gives her a box and tells her to cut out Oliver's heart and put it in the box. A badly animated monster kills Papini. The Lt and Dieter are blown up. Then Oliver turns into a demon (bad puppet) and kills Peter. Somehow Claire runs Oliver down with her car and takes him to a hospital to remove his heart. Everything goes awry in the bloody operating room finale but Satan wins.

 The band plays some more but fortunately are killed when the train crashes. (but sadly, they seem to come back to life) This out of whack z budget trilogy was actually made from three full length or almost finished films and the third story actually was released in full length form as CATACLYSM. Four directors are credited but the screenwriting for all the stories go to one person, Phillip Yordan, who once won an Oscar for the screenplay of BROKEN LANCE (1954)!

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It Never Ends

 

 (imdb)

CATACLYSM (THE NIGHTMARE NEVER ENDS)-1980-A couple, Clare and James Hanson (Faith Clift and Richard Moll) vacation in Las Vegas after Clare complains that she dreams about demons. At a show, a psychic shows her a scene of Nazis celebrating. Then a guy from the SS kills the women playing music. Clare invites the psychic to dinner but he's killed before he can attend. Meanwhile Mr. Weiss (Marc Lawrence) gets very upset when he sees Mr. Olivier (Robert Bristol) on TV. He tells police captain Sterne (Cameron Mitchell) that the guy killed his family 35 years before but since Olivier is in his 20's, the captain doesn't believe him. Weiss goes to kill Olivier and is killed by a monster. 

This is actually a feature length version of the third story of the horror paste up anthology NIGHT TRAIN TO TERROR. It's almost twice as long as that version and there have been at least 4 other versions in one shape or another! The male voices in this seem to be slowed down and dubbed by the one person!

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Jerry Warren's Frankenstein

 

 (wikipedia)

FRANKENSTEIN ISLAND-1981-4 balloonists, Curtis Ryand (Tain Bodkin), Dr. Paul Hadley (Robert Clarke), Mark Eden (Robert Christopher; a co-producer) and Dino (Patrick O'Neil) crash on an island. After going through a cave (where a familiar face watches them) they find a woman bound and then meet a whole tribe of scantily clad "native" women who take the men back to their cave. While the men have dinner, the women do a dance. The next day we learn the bound woman was being initiated into the group. A strange force surrounds their camp and the women seem "deep into witchcraft". Then two loonies Jocko (Steve Brodie) and Angus (Richard Banks) show up. They lead the small group to a laboratory complex where they find Jason (Cameron Mitchell), a sea captain held prisoner for 17 years. (his short soliloquy is pretty funny). After he's sedated the group meet Shelia Frankenstein-Van Helsing (Katherine Victor), the great granddaughter of the infamous doctor who created the island and despite being dead still controls it. Her husband Dr. Von Helsing, is a bed ridden old man who has to be jolted into consciousness to babble about the Frankenstein monster being chained to a reef. There are also a bunch of zombie like servants in sunglasses and wool hats. The girls dance some more. The real Dr. Frankenstein (John Carradine) shows up occasionally as a hologram to say things like "The power! The power!". Hadley (under some drug) winds up helping Shelia experiment on the girls (who are the offspring of aliens) to help her senile husband. When the rest of the guys revolt Shelia calls on great granddad who summons his monster (obviously trying to imitate Bela in FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLFMAN). 

The ridiculous final fight is very reminiscent of the one in "THE WILD WORLD OF BATWOMAN", but it's easy to see why. Both were directed by the usually incompetent Jerry Warren. In fact FRANKENSTEIN ISLAND was Warren's first film in 15 years after making “Batwoman” in 1966! (with Victor and Brodie). In the end the men escape and tell a colonel (Andrew Duggan) about the island but when they return everything has vanished (??). 

It seems based on another Jerry Warren movie TEENAGE ZOMBIES. This was the third Jerry Warren movie Robert Clarke (THE HIDEOUS SUN DEMON) starred in. Warren threatened a sequel but it was never made. He died 1988.

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The Tomb

 

THE TOMB-1986-An idiot racist named John Banning (David O'Hara) has a disastrous time when he tries to sell an artifact to a woman named Jade (Sybil Danning). The credits roll while a band dressed like Egyptians sing "Tutti Frutti". John and his equally racist dimwit partner Tyler (Craig Hamann) find the ancient sarcophagus of Queen Nefradis. Before they can double cross and kill their guide the decrepit looking queen comes to life and kills the guide and Tyler. She (Michelle Bauer) becomes young from drinking blood. John escapes but she goes to get him. He has a fight in a bar where Kitten Navividad does a topless dance. A doctor Howard Phillips (Cameron Mitchell) says "I don't want to be seen with people like you". 

John sells him an artifact. He meets up with Nefradis again and she puts a scarab in him to control him. She wants the stuff he stole from her tomb and kills a doctor named Manners. Manners' son David (Richard Hench) and Phillips niece Helen (Susan Stokey) investigate and visit Dr. Andoheb (John Carradine) who fills us in on the blood princess. She almost sacrifices Helen but is destroyed. Maybe? Bad acting really ruins this low budget horror movie directed by Fred Olen Ray (HOLLYWOOD CHAINSAW HOOKERS).

Director Ray also made ARMED RESPONSE tha same year:

https://moviemeltdown.blogspot.com/2014/08/armed-response.html

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Bikers

THE REBEL ROUSERS-1970-Strange biker film with Bruce Dern as JJ Weston, the philosophical leader of a weird motorcycle gang which includes Bunny (Jack Nicholson decked out in wool hat and striped pants), the seemingly out of place Halverson (Harry Dean Stanton) and (phony) Mexican Miguel (Robert Dix). Weston meets his old high school buddy Paul Collier (Cameron Mitchell) now an architect who's having problems with his pregnant girlfriend Karen (Diane Ladd who was married to Dern at the time). They smoke pot and talk about abortion and marriage. Eventually she's kidnapped by the gang. Paul is beaten up and escapes but no one in town will help him except some Mexican migrant workers. Weston and Bunny wind up having a knife fight. 

Many people who worked with Al Adamson contributed to this Paragon Entertainment Pictures production. It's also the only movie directed by Martin B. Cohen who years later provided the story for and produced HUMANOIDS FROM THE DEEP. He was the executive producer of Adamson's BLOOD FROM DRACULA'S CASTLE the year before.

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Whatever....

NINJA NIGHTMARE-1980-During WW2 some American soldiers kill a Japanese general and rape and kill his wife. They also kill the one American officer who protests. All the while their young son Kimon watches the horrible scene in hiding. Over 30 years later the troop (Cameron Mitchell, Stack Piece, Hal Bokar and Phillip Baker Hall) gets together for a reunion and the young son now an adult ninja (Leo Fung) seeks revenge. Fong was one of the producers. It's very disjointed and badly made. 

This is the only feature made by director Jay Wertz. 

It's walso known as THE LAST REUNION.

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Fong Again!

ENFORCER FROM DEATH ROW (aka NINJA ASSASSINS)-1978-Leo Fong (also a co-producer and co-writer) plays T L Young, a former Ranger on death row for a crime he didn't commit. He's busted out of the slams by some secret organization that want him to bust up NOMAD, a spy ring in this shot (badly) in the Philippines martial arts action drama. It's pretty inept with terrible fights, scenes that are way too dark, bad editing, stupid dialogue and long stretches of no action. A woman is tortured with a soldering gun. Ninjas occasionally attack and Young and his friend Danny and a demolition expert blow up a yacht after Young plucks a guy's eyeballs out. This ends so abruptly I think they forgot to film the final scene. Cameron Mitchell appears for less than a minute!

One of the directors Marshall Borden edited movies including THE NINE LIVES OF FRITZ THE CAT and JONATHAN LIVINGSTON SEAGULL (he also edited this). The other credited director Efren C. Pinon directed Fong in BLIND RAGE the same year. Cinematography is by Frank Harris who later directed Fong in KILLPOINT and LOW BLOW.


Fong (who was born in China but raised in Arkansas) also starred in BLIND RAGE the same year.

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2 By Fuller!

And now two from one of my favorite directors!



HELL AND HIGH WATER-1954-Richard Widmark (one of the most unappealing leading men of all time) leads a privately financed submarine expedition to try and stop WW3 in this Cold War drama by Samuel Fuller. Along the way he romances a French scientist (Bella Darvi who co-starred in THE EGYPTIAN the same year). It turns out (the un-named) Red China wants to drop an atomic bomb and let the USA take the blame! The French scientist (Victor Francen; a famous French actor who made many appearances in the US) who’s in charge doesn’t agree.

This is a pretty cool, if clichéd story that I think probably inspired Irwin Allen to create VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA! In another unique Fuller turn there aren’t many close-up shots. Cameron Mitchell, David Wayne, Henry Kulky (also in the first season of the TV version of VTTBOTS), Richard Loo and Fuller regular Gene Evans also star. Widmark had previously starred in Fuller’s PICK UP ON SOUTH STREET. Mitchell was later in Fuller’s HOUSE OF BAMBOO.

Speaking of which...



HOUSE OF BAMBOO-1955-Sam Fuller’s mostly routine Technicolor crime drama is enhanced by the on location Japan scenes.

Robert Stack investigates the death of a soldier who was married to a Japanese geisha. He infiltrates the criminal organization run by American gangster Robert Ryan whose second in command is Cameron Mitchell (as Griff). Along the way he falls in love with the soldier’s widow (Shirley Yamaguchi). Fuller’s unique touches make the whole thing worthwhile though. Brad Dexter is Stack’s boss and Sessue Hayakawa is the local police inspector. Hayakawa had been a silent screen star in the US from 1913 to 1922 and was in THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI two years later. HOUSE also features un-credited roles by DeForrest Kelly, Harry Carey Jr., John Doucette, Richard Loo and Fuller himself.

"Let us so live that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry"-Mark Twain

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