Purple Haze

 

JIMI HENDRIX-1973-Great documentary about Hendrix (made 3 years after his passing), better than any recent bio. Lots of good performances from the Marque Club, Woodstock, Monterey, the Fillmore East and even his last performance at the Isle of Wight. There are interviews with his father, Mick Jagger, Pete Townsend, Eric Clapton, Billy Cox, Eddie Kramer, Mitch Mitchell, Lou Reed, Little Richard and lots of drug talk. Experience bass playing Noel Redding wouldn't give a new interview as he was suing the Hendrix estate over royalites at the time. 3 directors are credited.

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Dialogue of a Dead Man

 

 (imdb)

THE FINAL COMEDOWN-1972-Rats terrorize children. Cops shoot black people. A white pawnbroker charges 2 dollars for everything. Jimmy Johnson (Billy Dee Williams) is a black militant racist who hates whites and believes violence is the only solution. One character says “Your blood brother is losing blood” and there's a pretty hysterical drug induced Vietnam flashback. Apparently all the white cops have to annihilate the blacks. Some white hippies try to help but everyone gets killed including Jimmy's mother (Maide Norman). D'Urville Martin plays his friend, Billy Joe. 

This was released by Corman's New World company and was written, produced and directed by Oscar Williams (DEATH DRUG (1978)). Corman had Allan Arkush add some new scenes and re-leased as BLAST. Williams was in LADY SINGS THE BLUES the same year.

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Coming And Going

 

 (imdb.com)

EXIT THE DRAGON, ENTER THE TIGER-1976-On a movie set, martial arts actor Dragon Bruce Lee tells his friend Tiger David Lee (Bruce Li) that if something happens to him, Tiger will be Dragon's successor. Of course Bruce dies. In Singapore, Tiger David suspects foul play. He's pretty upset. He goes to Hong Kong to check it out. It seems some gangsters led by The Baron (Yi Chang), tried to blackmail Bruce into carrying drugs for them and his mistress movie star Susie (Hsin-Yi Chiang) has an incriminating tape they want. Tiger's friend George is killed and his girlfriend is raped but Tiger triumphs in the end in this sub-par Shaw Brothers production.

Director Tso Nam Lee also made FIST OF FURY 2 (also with Bruce Li) and THE TATTOO CONNECTION with Jim Kelly.

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Teenage Cheapy

(wikiwand)

TEENAGE DEVIL DOLLS-1955-A detective (Robert A. Sherry) relates the story of Cassandra (Barbara Marks), who works for her "much married mother" but escapes her repression by joining a motorcycle gang led by Packard (William Kendell). They introduce her to marijuana. She plays around with them and her grades plummet, losing her chance to attend college. Fortunately for her, a fool named Johnny Adams (Robert Norman) is sweet on her and they get married. 

Bad move! Cassandra becomes a bored, frustrated housewife prone to mood swings and depression. Her meds don't help. Neither does the dog hubby brings home one day. She leaves and once again hooks up with Packard and his gang. Cassandra freaks out on Seconal and is arrested after crashing her car. After a stay with the police, she returns to her parents and hubby but runs away. Later she cooks something up with a drug addict/dealer Martinez (the director) and almost dies from withdrawal in the desert. 

There's no dialogue in this basement budget exploitation film produced, written, edited and directed by one Bramlett L. Price, Jr. in his only movie making outing. There's only a lone narrator (Greg Martell) who is also supposed to be the detective. 

Director Price (who's own father plays Cassandra's stepfather) supposedly borrowed the money to make this from his then wife actress Anne Francis. AKA: ONE WAY TICKET TO HELL. Francis Coleman must have watched this before making his movies.

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They Never Learn (and neither do I)

 

 (imdb)

THE GANZFELD HAUNTING-2014-4 college fools go to a remote house to conduct and film an experiment in telekinesis using banned equipment made in the 1950's. They don't sleep, do drugs, curse a lot and the girls do an erotic dance and kiss. They lose touch with reality and smoke cigarettes. It's pretty bad. With Billy Zane in a flashback and Dominic Purcell as a detective. Director Michael Oblowitz also made THE FOREIGNER starring Steven Seagal.

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More TV

 (imdb)

GIRL IN GOLD BOOTS-1968-Buz Nichols (Tom Pace), shady criminal type meets Michele (Leslie McRae), a waitress at a greasy spoon working with her drunk father (Victor Izay). They hit the road and go to Las Vegas where Buz says his dancer/sister Joanie (Bara Brynes) will get Michele a job. Along the way, they pick up Critter (Jody Daniels), a philosophical hippie, trying to escape the draft. A love triangle develops. Later they meet sis Joanie who works for the sleazy self-important club owner Leo McCabe (Mark Herron). He also supplies Joanie with pills and plans to replace her with Michele. Meanwhile, Buz pushes dope for McCabe and Critter washes floors. Buz gets involved in stealing drugs from a jail and then murder and Joanie has a breakdown. Critter brings all the sleazy thugs down, romances Michele and returns to be drafted while crooning a song. 

Funny low budget love story/crime drama from co-producer/director Ted V. Mikels who made the infamous ASTRO-ZOMBIES the same year (also with Pace). Mikels regular William Bagdad also has a role. Lead actress McRae was also in Mikels' BLOOD ORGY OF THE SHE DEVILS (1973) and HELL'S BLOODY DEVILS (1970) and THE FEMALE BUNCH (1971), both for Al Adamson, GUESS WHAT HAPPENED TO COUNT DRACULA (1971) and DEATHRACE 2000 (1975). Grimy bad guy Mark Herron was married to Judy Garland at the time.

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3 By Curtis

 

 (imdb)

TRILOGY OF TERROR-1975-Very good TV horror anthology directed by Dan Curtis. In the first story “Julie” (written by William F. Nolan & Richard Matheson), Chad (Robert Burton), a college jerk becomes obsessed with nerdy teacher Julie (Karen Black). He drugs her, takes her to a hotel, takes pictures of her and rapes her. Then he blackmails her and he and his friends use her (not shown, only implied). But in the twist ending he finds out she's not what he thinks she is....

In the second “Millicent & Therese” (written by Nolan), Millicent (Black) complains about her sister Therese (also Black), being evil, practicing witchcraft and seducing men. She warns Therese's boyfriend (John Karlen) about her but he ignores it. Then Therese tries to seduce their doctor (George Gaynes). Millicent decides to do away with her sister using her own witchcraft. This story is ok but the ending is fairly guessable.

In the third and most famous episode “Amelia” (written by Matheson), Amelia, a woman with mother problems buys a weird Zuni fetish doll for her anthropologist boyfriend. After a fight with her mother, she breaks her date and is then terrorized by the evil looking doll that has big teeth and makes strange noises. 

Once again director Curtis shows that just because it's made for TV, horror stories can still be good.

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Dead End

 

 (imdb)

LAST HOUSE ON DEAD END STREET-1973-Convicted drug dealer Terry Hawkins (writer/director Roger Watkins under a pseudonym) is released from jail and is tired of people telling him what to do. He talks like an asshole to different people about making a movie and at a party a hunchback whips a woman. The rest of this garbage is Terry ranting (“I'm making this fucking movie”), whispering, smoking and killing people for his ridiculous snuff films. Later on he and his screwed-up gang graphically torture and cut up a woman. Then they kill another guy and the morons seem to get away with their crimes but a voice-over says they were later apprehended and put in jail. The director should have been put in a padded cell.

This monstrosity supposedly crawled out of a much longer "opus" called “The Cuckoo Clocks from Hell” which they say was so repugnant and annoying that patrons rioted and burned down a theater! I've seen that version on a list of lost horror films and I'm sure it belongs there. Everyone in this thing hid behind phony names and according to some sources, no one admitted being associated with it until 2000! Director Watkins went on to make a bunch of porno movies...

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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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Now It's Legal..

 

 (imdb)

THE TERRIBLE TRUTH-1951-Scare film about marijuana leading to heroin addiction, through the eyes of Phyllis, a nice high school student who starts smoking “reefers” with some guys “who have no backbone”, then meeting Phil the pusher, who makes her a heroin addict/pusher who later goes “cold turkey”. An on-screen narrator William B. McKesson suspects “the Reds” might be behind it. This short (around 10 minutes) is so cheap and haphazardly made that all his dialogue was dubbed later and his words don't match his mouth movements. 

Once a stand-in for John Wayne, Sid Davis produced many similarly themed exploitation shorts (LSD: TRIP OR TRAP!, GANG BOY, THE BOTTLE AND THE TROTTLE). He also directed a few including NAME UNKNOWN which also featured William McKesson, who was an actual juvenile court judge.

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Girls In Gangs

  (wkipedia)

GIRL GANG-1954-4 girls rob a guy and steal his car. They take it to greasy drug pusher Joe (Timothy Farrell) who sells them joints except for one girl who wants a shot of heroin. Joe shows another girl how to shoot up and his heroin addicted lackey brings over a couple of "green horns". "Weeds today. Shots tomorrow". Later "the kids" have a pot party that leads to dancing and sex. One girl has sex with her employer and then Joe and his abortion doctor lackey Doc Bradford (Harry Keaton; also in Ed Woods' THE SINISTER URGE) blackmail him with a rape charge. Joe sets up a daylight robbery of a gas station. It doesn't go too well. One guy is shot and killed and one of the girls is wounded badly. She's dragged back to Joe's place where Doc attempts to remove the bullet. She dies. The remaining two girls have a cat fight. The police arrive and arrest everyone and Doc while trying to escape is shot in the back. 

Despite the drug injection scenes any seriousness is lost with all the dumb situations and dialogue trying to "out Wood" Ed Wood but Farrell's performance as the grouchy sleazy pusher Joe is worth watching! Director Robert C. Dertano made RACKET GIRLS (also with Farrell).

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Noir Thing

 

THE MAN WHO DIED TWICE-1958-A Kansas City cop Bill Brennon (Rod Cameron) investigates the death of his mobster brother TJ (Don Megowan) in Chicago. Two hit man Hart (Gerald Milton) & Santoni (Richard Karlan) want a package of dope TJ's widow Lyn (Vera Ralston) might have. Nightclub bartender Rak (Mike Mazurki) is also after the stash and is in love with Lyn. There's a plot twist toward the end in this minor film noir crime drama directed by Joseph Kane and written by Richard C. Sarafian. 

Co-star Vera Ralston (sometimes billed as Vera Hruba Ralston) was a former Olympic skater for Czechoslovakia who it's said once insulted Hitler to his face. She retired from acting after this film. 

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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.

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Sorority Kill

 

HOUSE ON SORORITY ROW-1982-Some stupid college frat women want to hold a party in their frat house but their weird house mother Mrs. Slater (Lois Kelso Hunt) won't allow it. When a prank they play on her winds up killing her, they dump her body in the dirty pool and have the party. Someone starts killing them (although the first victim is a Weird Al Yankovic clone). A strange doctor, an hallucinogenic drug and Slater's thought to be dead son are the culprits as well as the doctor's fertility experiments. 

This horror story uses unusual colors and hallucinations to try and break out of the typical for the time slasher mode. The director Mark Rosman must have done something right as it did fairly well when first released and has gain a cult following. Couldn't shake off the familiar '80's slasher ending though...

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Dr. Hichcock

THE TERROR OF DR. HICHCOCK- (THE HORRIBLE DR. HICHCOCK)-1962-Dr. Hichcock (Robert Flemyng) is a brilliant if detached surgeon who has an unusual relationship with his wife (Maria Teresa Vianello). He drugs her so she appears dead then has sex with her (not shown). She seems to have no objections. One night he gives her too much of a dose and she dies. He leaves their home. 12 years later he returns with his new bride Cynthia (Barbara Steele). After they hear a bloodcurdling scream, his sour puss housekeeper Martha (Harriet Medin) informs him that her sister is living with her but the next day she's going away because “she's quite mad”. On her first night in the old house Cynthia sees a ghostly apparition and hears footsteps. After a night at the opera doc is called away for an emergency at his clinic. His young assistant Kurt (Silvano Tranquilli) sees Mrs. H home. She wanders around in the fog and hears a voice say she will die in her bed. Martha rescues her but she finds a skull in her bed and faints. Meanwhile the doc loses his female patient and feels those old necrophilia come ons. When Cynthia wakes up the skull is gone. Peering through the keyhole into the hall she sees someone wearing white boots just like the dead Mrs. Hichcock. Hubby doesn't believe her because at one time she'd suffered a breakdown after her father died. At night the stupid doctor leaves his wife home alone so he can do the nasty with his dead patient but he’s caught not quite in the act by Kurt. When Cynthia sees Martha emerge from a secret door behind a mirror she investigates and discovers Martha’s mad sister is still around. Later Hichcock sees a ghostly apparition of his first wife playing the piano and moving around the house. The pervert decides to drug Cynthia and play screw the corpse but they don't seem to be alone. The next day when Kurt notices some suspicious scratches on his boss’ neck, Hichcock tells Kurt he believes his wife is paranoid and delusional. Kurt’s not fully convinced. The doc decides to do away with his wife by giving her a poisoned glass of milk. But she tricks him and takes the contents to Kurt. He has it analyzed and finds it full of poison. He hurries over to rescue Cynthia who's hung upside down by her hubby because now apparently his first wife is still alive and he wants to rejuvenate her using Cynthia’s blood.  “Kill her. Kill her. Then there will be only me”. Kurt arrives and while fighting with his boss sets the place on fire. Hichcock falls out a window and Margaret burns up. Kurt carries Cynthia to safety. 

This has the usual gothic feel of the Italian horror films being made around this time. Director Riccardo Freda's (CALTIKI, THE IMMORTAL MONSTER) name was changed to Robert Hampton for the English versions. Many stories abound concerning the production including who was responsible for the necrophilia story line and how long it took to shoot (14 days seems to be the consensus though!). There is also a story that lead actor Flemyng (from England) had read a script without the necro-angle and when he found out about it he tried to get out of making it. 

Barbara Steele was filming Fellini's 8 ½ at the time and took 10 days off from that production to make this.

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Mexican Trio

PANICO-1970-Three short tales from Mexico. In the first a young woman in her nightgown is pursued  by a crazy woman with a knife. Some guys seem to be hanging around but do nothing. She has a flashback to when he was assaulted by a group of men. After running some more she tangles with the crazy woman and kills her. But things are not what they seem.

In the second story, two men Carlos and Abel try to escape the jungle and an attack of yellow fever. Both have memories of Abel’s dead wife. Due to fatigue they crash their canoe and are stranded in the jungle swamp. Abel seems to take it in stride but Carlos is a mess on the verge of losing it completely but it's more likely guilt than fear that's driving Carlos batty.  In a fit he reveals he had an affair with his friend’s wife! Raging Abel tries to kill Carlos who stabs Abel to death. He buries Abel but he rises from the grave several times (perhaps all in Carlos’ mind) and Carlos loses it completely.

In the third a scientist creates narcotic drug for use in surgery. It mimics death but the patient is still conscious and can see. I'm not sure what makes this a great drug but I believe this segment is actually a comedy. His cat knocks over a beaker of the solution and it spills in to the scientist's coffee. Not realizing what's happened he drinks it and falls into a narcoleptic coma. His wife calls a doctor who pronounces him dead. He hears and sees everything but no one can hear his pleas. His wife's cousin has an inkling he’s not dead but to no avail. He’s buried just as he regains consciousness. His cat who also drank some of the drug and looked dead revives. The wife and the doctor have feelings for each other. Somehow at the end he’s reborn as a maggot but doesn't survive too long. This is very reminiscent of an episode of TV’s Alfred Hitchcock Presents with Joseph Cotten in a similar situation.

PANICO is a well made psychological horror film but basically the stories aren't that good. The last two go on too long and don't really provide that much suspense (although the last segment tries hard).

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Crime

THE LINEUP-1958-Strange little crime drama about 2 psychotic hitmen Dancer (Eli Wallach) and Julian (Robert Keith) trying to retrieve a cache of heroin from some innocent tourist with the help of their alcoholic driver (Richard Jaeckel). Meanwhile two cops (Warner Anderson and Emile Meyer) track him down. This film noir-ish crime film directed by Don Siegel and written by Stirling Stilliphant was actually based on a TV (and radio) series that ran from 1954 til 1960 and also features future Mr. Dysdale (on TV's THE BEVERLY HILLBILLES) Raymond Bailey and familiar character actor Vaughan Taylor as “The Man”. 

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Clay

CLAY PIGEON-1971-Low budget Al Adamson like crime drama about a former 'Nam vet Joe Ryan (Tom Stern) turned drug taking slacker hippie used by a devious police detective Redford (Telly Savalas) to catch a grouchy drug dealer (Robert Vaughn who's nutty performance and crazy wardrobe make this mess worth watching!). He's assisted by henchman Simon (Ivan Dixon) who shoots Marlene Clark (who appears topless) in the head. Redford's equally grouchy police captain is played by John Marley. Burgess Meredith is an old hippie like junk dealer and Peter Lawford appears in one scene. 

Producer/writer/director Stern who's not much of an actor seems to be saying: cops are bad and drugs are good. He was in other movies and TV shows but this was his only directorial effort.

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Mean Mess

MEAN MOTHER-1974-Inane confused story about 2 Vietnam AWOLs (singer Dobie Gray under the pseudonym Clifton Brown and Dennis Safren) trying to get to Canada. They separate and each becomes involved with gangsters, drugs and smuggling. It's pretty boring despite fights and shootouts. 

This was actually a European production shot in 1971 in Spain by Leon Klimovsky (who directed many great Paul Naschy movies in the '70's) called RUN FOR YOUR LIFE. Independent International picked it up and as usual producer Sam Sherman had paste up genius Al Adamson (under the name Albert Victor) shoot new scenes with American actors. It's a mess. Marilyn Joi and Luciana Paluzzi are also in it. Independent International released most of Adamson's notorious '70's horror and exploitation films.

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Dyn-o-mIte

THE DYNAMITE BROTHERS-1974-Larry Chin (Alan Tang) leaves Hong Kong to find his brother in LA. He's immediately attacked by 3 thugs ("Go back to China") hired by a corrupt police Captain Burke (Aldo Ray). Larry winds up handcuffed to a black criminal Stud Brown (Timothy Brown). They escape and run around like a low budget version of THE DEFIANT ONES. They beat up some hicks in a moving truck and finally get free and head to LA. Larry has flashbacks of his wife's death. The duo get saved by local gangster The Smiling Man (Don Oliver) from an attack by Razor J (Al Richardson), the henchman of big time time drug pusher Wei Chin (James Hong). Hmmm...Larry and Wei have the same last name...coincidence? 

 While Stud romances a mute prostitute Sarah (Carol Speed from THE BIG BIRD CAGE) Larry gets help from Betty Fong (Clare Nono) in tracking down his brother who he finds out is dead. However Larry is betrayed by Kung Fat (Richard Lee-Sung) and dropped in a pit with a rattlesnake. Meanwhile a gang war ensues with corrupt police, outrageously dressed guys with machine guns, explosions and a guy who yells really loud when he's shot and falls off a roof. While Stud has sex, Larry fights some guys in an alley. After Razor kills Burke and his wife Laura (Susan McIver) he goes after Sarah (he's too stupid to realize she can't talk). Stud and Larry arrive too late to save her but Stud gets revenge. Larry infiltrates Wei's lair and of course finds out the truth: Wei is Larry's brother and responsible for the death of Larry's wife. While The Smiling Man's minions beat up the gang Larry goes after his bro and makes his car go off a cliff. It ends with a freeze frame of the pair running away (to where I wonder?).

THE DYNAMITE BROTHERS was directed by Al Adamson in his usual hasty, episodic way. It's not very exciting but it has a lot of familiar faces to hold your interest a little while. Since this is an Independent International release it played in re-release for many years under numerous titles including STUD BROWN, DYNAMITE BROWN, BLACK BELT BROTHERS, etc. At the time this was made star Tang was a very popular star in Hong Kong. Co-star Brown was a former football player who earlier had a reoccurring role in the first season of TV's MASH. A few years later he had a role in Robert Altman's NASHVILLE. He'd work again with Adamson in 1976's BLACK HEAT.

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