And Again!

THE BATTLE WIZARD-1977-In this crazy revenge tale, Yellow Robe Man seeks revenge on the man who cut off his legs with some kind of magic that shoots from his finger tips. Yellow Robe (who now has iron legs) wants to kill the man's son Tuan Yu (Danny Lee; also in THE BRAVE ARCHER the same year) who doesn't like to use his Kung-Fu. YRM sits in a cave and sends his own son (or just his henchman), a vampire like ugly guy with fangs to get vengeance. Yu falls in love with his half sister (they don't know each other) but YRM captures them and puts them in a pit with a gorilla (looks like one Jerry Warren used). Yu drinks a special type of snake blood and becomes invincible. There's also a woman who can control snakes and a masked female assassin, fighting, magic and flying chopsticks. The out of control finale features fire breathing and a body melting. This Shaw Brothers production based on a novel by Louis Cha. 

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Scary Disney

MR. BOOGEDY-1986-A man who sells gags for a living (Richard Masur) moves his wife (Mimi Kennedy) and two kids (David Faustino and Kristy Swanson) into a haunted house. He doesn't think anything is wrong but the kids get the lowdown from a weird local historian (John Astin). It seems hundreds of years before a pilgrim wanted to marry a young widow but she spurned his advances so he made a deal with the devil and sold his soul for a cloak with magical powers. But on creating his first spell he killed himself, the widow and her son. Later when Mr. Boogedy terrorizes the family they use a vacuum cleaner to destroy him. 

Lame made for TV Disney movie directed by Oz Scott, a busy TV director still active at the time of this writing.  

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Bad People

THE MACHINE THAT KILLS BAD PEOPLE-1952-In a small seaside village in Italy, Celestino, a portrait photographer (Gennaro Pisano) is given the power to destroy "evil people" by a demon posing as St. Andrew. All he has to do is take a photograph of a photograph of his intended victim and they die. At first he uses it to get rid of the rich people in town who he believes are exploiting the poor residents. Later he even turns his power on them when he realizes no one is perfect. This is an unusual comedy directed by Italian neo-realist Roberto Rossellini. Parts of it are funny and the ending was unexpected. The story seems like a TWILIGHT ZONE episode if it had be written by Jim Thompson! 

 MACHINE was once thought to be lost but was restored a few years ago. Lead actor Pisano seems to have made only 3 movies. One actress Marilyn Buferd, who plays an American tourist some male villages lust after, was a former Miss America who later played John Carradine's up tight assistant in Brooke L. Peter's THE UNEARTHLY.

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Zotz!

ZOTZ!-1962-This is fun black & white comedy from “gimmick director” William Castle (he made MR. SARDONICUS the year before).

A mild mannered professor (Tom Poston) comes in possession of an ancient coin that gives him special powers. When he says the word “zotz” things go in slow motion. When he points his finger at a person they feel intense pain. When he combines them they cause death! He makes most of his friends think he’s crazy and fails to make a US general (Fred Clark) believe him. He’s eventually captured by communists (a henchman is played by Mike Mazurki) but battles his way out and becomes a hero.

Jim Backus plays another professor and rival for the affections a female prof. (Julia Meade). The dean of the college where they teach is played by Cecil Kellaway and his wife is Margaret Dumont! (in her second to last film) 50’s-60’s TV comedian Louis Nye has a cameo. Poston was later in another Castle film, a remake of THE OLD DARK HOUSE.

When I was little kids used to go around pointing their index finger and saying “zotz” a lot. You were of course suppose to slow down when they did that but since I didn’t see this film till years later I was never really in on the joke! It’s based on a novel by a guy who wrote scripts for TV’s VICTORY AT SEA!

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