"The Bomb Train Is On the Way"

 

 (imdb)

BATTLE BENEATH THE EARTH-1967-Arnold (Peter Arne), a guy in a mental hospital tells his friend Commander Jonathan Shaw (Kerwin Matthews; THE SEVENTH VOYAGE OF SINBAD in better days) that "they" are digging tunnels on the Oregon coast and will "wipe us out". When an Oregon mine collapses Shaw investigates. He discovers Chan Lu (Martin Benson), a renegade Chinese general is digging the tunnels and planning on detonating atom bombs in the US. The US army kill all the soldiers but are no match for the armored tank that shoots a deadly ray. When they investigate the tunnels further they are joined by geologist Tila Lung (Viviane Ventura). 

This color cold war sci-fi film takes place in Las Vegas but it's obvious most of the cast is English (including the phony Chinese). Terrible acting, direction, script and sfx. This was the last film directed by Montgomery Tully (THE ELECTRONIC MONSTER).

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Sinbad

  

(imdb)

THE SEVENTH VOYAGE OF SINBAD-1958-The famous sailor (Kerwin Matthews) and his crew wind up on a mysterious island also the home of the legendary Cyclops. During their encounter they meet magician Sokurah (Torin Thatcher) who has a magic lamp with a boy genie (Richard Eyer from THE INVISIBLE KID a year earlier) inside. They all escape but Sokurah loses his lamp. Also on board Sinbad's ship is his fiancee the princess of Chandra (Kathryn Grant). Her marriage to Sinbad will prevent a war with Baghdad. However Sokurah wants his lamp back. 

Sinbad refuses to return to the island. At a pre-wedding celebration Sokurah transforms the princess's lady in waiting into a snake woman and shrinks the princess and forces Sinbad and crew to return to Cyclops island for the lamp and also to get a shell from the egg of a giant bird the Roc. After killing the Cyclops Sinbad and his group encounter a dragon and a skeleton warrior. Another cyclops even shows up. All of it courtesy of the great Ray Harryhausen and his “Dynamation” stop motion process.

 Director Nathan Juran had worked with Harryhausen earlier on the classic 20 MILLION MILES TO EARTH and must have liked this assignment better than the low budget horror movie he made the same year (ATTACK OF THE 50 FOOT WOMEN) as he used a pseudonym (Nathan Hertz) on that one!

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More Hammer

 

MANIAC-1963-In the French region of The Camargue a pervert named Janello (Arnold Diamond) rapes a local girl Annette (Lillane Brousse). Her father finds him before the police do and he proceeds to torture and kill the guy with a blowtorch. 4 years later an American painter Jeff Farrell (Kerwin Matthews, THE SEVENTH VOYAGE OF SINBAD) decides to spend some time in a small village after breaking up with his girlfriend. He rents a room from Mme Eve Beynat (Nadia Grey) who also runs a saloon with her step-daugther Annette, who Jeff is first attracted to. Later he has an affair with Eve. She tells him her husband Henri (Don Houston) is in a mental hospital and if Jeff wants her to be free they will have to help him escape from the hospital. Jeff agrees. They pick him up and drop him off at a pier. Later Jeff discovers a dead body in the trunk of their car. They deduce it is a male nurse who helped Georges get away. At night they dump the body. An inspector investigates. There's a few twists in this kind of forgotten little Hammer thriller written by Jimmy Sangster and directed by Michael Carreras, the boss' son. Nice finale.

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It's the Pirate Life for Lee

PIRATES OF BLOOD RIVER-1962-Huguenot John Standing (Kerwin Matthews) is sent to a penal colony after being convicted of adultery. He breaks stones, is whipped and hung by his wrists. He escapes but is picked up by a band of pirates lead by LeRosch (Christopher Lee with eye patch and French accent). His crew includes Peter Arne, Michael Ripper and Oliver Reed. John takes the pirates back to his village and no sooner do they get there when they kill one of John's friends. The pirates want to take over the village (where Andrew Keir plays a town elder) and the residents put up a good fight until the pirates capture the women and children. A treasure is found and John and his friend Henry (Glenn Corbett) team up to stop the invaders. Later the pirates revolt against LeRosch and he winds up impaled. No pirate ship is ever seen. 

This color Hammer production was directed (and co-written) by John Gilling who went on to make THE REPTILE and THE PLAGUE OF THE ZOMBIES for Hammer. And despite the fact that there's no sea faring this was a big hit in England. Hammer followed this with THE DEVIL SHIP PIRATES (also with Lee, Keir nad Ripper).  

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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.  

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Octaman! Auch de Lieben!

OCTAMAN-1971-In Mexico a group of scientists investigate the legend of a half man/half octopus. Dr. Torres (Kerwin Matthews, THE 7th VOYAGE OF SINBAD) leads the group. Pier Angeli (who died of a drug overdose soon after filming ended) is his assistant. Also along are an American promoter (Buck Kartalian) who wants to bring Octa back alive, a college professor and some weird looking locals who become victims. The monster itself is a shambling octopus looking thing with floppy tentacles and mouth and eyes that never move. The costume was created by Rick Baker and Doug Beswick who both went on to bigger and better things. He kills by swatting victims with his tentacles but one guy gets a tentacle in his chest. When the group find an "octa-baby" the monster kills a scientist and takes it back leading me to believe that perhaps this is actually an "Octawoman"!

Jeff Morrow (THIS ISLAND EARTH) has one scene as a skeptical scientist. At one point they capture Octy but he escapes with Angeli in tow. If this kind of sounds like the plot was lifted from THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON keep in mind that OCTAMAN was written and directed by Harry Essex who wrote the screenplay for that 1954 classic!

Still OCTAMAN is fun low budget nonsense that doesn't drag and would make a great double bill with the monster catfish man "classic" ZAAT!

http://moviemeltdown.blogspot.com/2010/01/z-marks-spot.html

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