Warren Oates

 

CHINA 9, LIBERTY 37-1978-Weird western (made in Italy) with Warren Oates as Matthew, a miner with a young wife Catherine (Jenny Agutter) who's visited by Clayton (Fabio Testi), a condemned man hired by the railroad to kill Matthew. Of course, Catherine and Clayton have an affair. She stabs Matthew and the two run away. Matthew and his brothers go looking for them. The couple visit a circus where Sidney Lassick works. Sam Peckinpah shows up too as well as Helga Line (HORROR RISES FROM THE TOMB (1973))! 

A modern song during a sex scene seems out of place. Cult director Monte Hellman was no stranger to unusual westerns having made THE SHOOTING and RIDE THE WILD WIND (both 1966) earlier.

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Ghost Revenge

 

 (imdb)

EMPIRE OF PASSION-1978-In a village, a married woman (Kazuko Yoshiyuki) has an affair with a much younger man (Tatsuya Fuji). At the man's urging they kill her rickshaw driving husband and throw his body in a well. 3 years later, their passion has cooled except for brief periods and her lover has grown distant Then her husband's ghost shows up. A police officer investigates as her life crumbles against ghost sightings and gossip. 

This Japanese-French co-production is renown director Nagisa Oshima's only real foray into a ghost story but it's excellent. Too bad he didn't do another one. He also wrote the screenplay based on a novel. Oshima made the infamous IN THE REALM OF THE SENSES in 1976 (also with Fuji). His next movie was 1983's MERRY CHRISTMAS, MR. LAWRENCE.

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Early TV Horror

 

 (imdb)

AUTO-LITE PRESENTS "SUSPENSE": "THE YELLOW SCARF"-1949-Hettie (Felicia Montealegre), a street walker in 1876 London, is taken in by a mysterious and sinister doctor (Boris Karloff) who provides her with a room, clothes and food. Only two stipulations: she can't go out alone and she can never go into his lab. He has a hunchback assistant Tilson (character actor Russell Collins, unrecognizable in the makeup). Later to take attention away from his strange medical experiments, he marries her. She begins an affair with Tom (Douglas Watson), a mission worker. It doesn't end well.

 Very creepy and Karloff is especially sinister. Directed by Robert Stevens, the only person whoever won an Emmy for directing an episode of TV's “Alfred Hitchcock Presents”. Rex Marshall is the off-screen host/narrator.

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