I Run To Death…

 

 

 (imdb)

THE SEVENTH VICTIM-1943-Mary Gibson (Kim Hunter in her film debut) leaves a girls school to look for her elusive sister Jacqueline (Jean Brooks; THE LEOPARD MAN) in NYC. In a Greenwich Village restaurant, the owners tell her Jacqueline rented a room but never used it. She convinces them to unlock the room. Inside she finds a noose and chair. She goes to the police and then a lawyer, Gregory Ward (Hugh Beaumont) who just happens to be in love with Jacqueline. August (Lou Lubin), a shady PI says he knows where Jacqueline is but when they investigate, he's killed. 

Later Mary sees 2 guys toting August's corpse on the subway. Ward has secret dealings with Dr. Judd (Tom Conway), under whose care Jacqueline seems to be. Things get very mysterious after this. Judd acts strange, Jacqueline shows up then disappears and it turns out Ward is her husband. Then local Poet Hoag (Erford Gage) says he'll find Jacqueline. Mrs. Redi (Mary Newton), the new owner of Jacqueline's cosmetic shop, tells Mary her sister is the one who killed August and warns her to leave town. Later sis reappears to explain things. This leads to a cult of devil worshipers, betrayal, forced suicide and an enigmatic ending. Isabel Jewel and Dewey Robertson are also in it. 

This dark and mysterious Val Lewton production was the directorial debut of Mark Robson (BEDLAM, ISLE OF THE DEAD) who'd make THE GHOST SHIP for Lewton the same year. Tom Conway (the real-life brother of George Saunders) played the character of “Dr. Judd” a year earlier in CAT PEOPLE. Some have theorized he's reprising the same role here although Judd was killed in CAT PEOPLE. Actor Erford Gage was unfortunately killed in WW 2 in 1945. In the middle 1950's Hugh Beaumont played the father (his first name was Ward) on TV's long running “Leave It To Beaver”.

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Filmed in NYC

 

 (imdb)

THE ORACLE-1986-New tenant Jennifer (Caroline Capers Powers) finds a spirit writing planchet. When she and her dick head husband (Roger Neil) and two friends use it, they seem to unleash the spirit of a dead man. A stupid janitor stabs himself to death and her hubby gets his head ripped off. Meanwhile, two thugs try to kill her because in a vision she saw them kill the dead guy. Jennifer is committed to some kind of mental hospital. She escapes but is captured by the dead man's wife and a butch hit woman. Horrible drawn-out junk with bad acting and cheap gory SFX. Filmed in NYC by Roberta Findlay (also the uncredited cinematographer).

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"It's Only a Movie"

 

 

 (imdb)

SPECIAL EFFECTS-1984-An outcast film director Neville (Eric Bogosian) kills a nude model (Zoe Tamerlis; MS.45 (1981)) and films it. Her husband (Brad Rijn; SMITHEREENS (1982)) gets arrested for her murder by two imbecilic cops Delroy (Kevin O'Connor) and Vickers (Bill Oland). Later the nutty director convinces the husband and stupid Delroy that he wants to make a film about the dead actress and incorporate the snuff footage as the finale. He gets a lookalike (also Tamerlis) to portray her. 

This well-made outing from writer/director Larry Cohen was shot in NYC but it's very drawn out and talky with the typical cast of Cohen characters. Bogosian later became known for his one-man stage plays like TALK RADIO.

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Grenwich Village Killer

 

 (imdb)

VIOLATED-1953-It's like Ed Wood meets Ron Ormond in this very cheap sleazy thriller. In Greenwich Village in NYC, police investigate the murders of several models/strippers. A tall police lieutenant (Mitchell Kowall) questions everyone. The suspects the cops pick up are pretty amazing looking weirdos. A photographer, Jan Verbick (William Holland in his only film role) is the culprit. He becomes obsessed with a stripper named Lili (Lili Dawn) but she rebuffs him. ("Beat it, ya jerk. I told ya to scram!") After he kills her, he runs down a fire escape in a funny scene. He gets away and the next day he tries to strangle his new young model. The police burst in and arrest him. Under sodium pentothal, Jan reveals why he kills women. The end seems to suggest another killer is around. 

There's an unusual scene (for the time) where two men have their arms around each other. Except for a short film based on “Othello” this was director William Strate's only film. It was produced and written by William Mishkin who years later produced Andy Mulligan's early movies. Lili Dawn was an “exotic dancer” who's only other film appearances are in 8mm films by Irving Klaw.

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Deadtime

 (IMDB)

 DEADTIME STORIES-1986-A reluctant babysitting uncle (Michael Mesmer) tells his nephew 3 bedtime stories. In the first 2 old hag sisters Hagnathol & Florinda search for a third sister with the help of a servant boy Peter (Scott Valentine). They kill a priest and use his severed hand to find the corpse. They plan to resurrect her using her heart and sacrificing Miranda, a local maiden (Kathy Fleig) but Peter turns against them and saves her. They are then briefly terrorized by the reanimated sister but Peter pulls her heart out. They seem saved but there's a sort of twist ending. 

Then uncle then tells his own version of Little Red Riding Hood. A stupid druggist mixes up the prescriptions of a woman named Rachel (Nicole Picard) and a pill popping loser named Willie (Matt Mitler). While Rachel and her boyfriend have sex in a shack Willie turns into a werewolf and attacks Rachel's grandmother (the prescription had been for her). Then he kills the boyfriend. Rachel kills the wolf with a silver cake knife. At the hospital grandma turns into a wolf. 

Then comes the tale of Goldilocks which takes place at the "Home For The Hopelessly Insane". A woman helps her husband and idiot son escape. Meanwhile Goldi Lox, an escaped serial killer who can kill with her psychic powers lives in their old house. This is by far the worst story with a lot of characters acting like morons. At the end a kid is attacked by a fake looking monster. Terrible music. 

Filmed in New York City by director/co-writer Jeffrey Delman.\

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Chan's Great White Way

CHARLIE CHAN ON BROADWAY-1937-While in the Big Apple being honored with a police escort, brass band and a banquet, Charlie Chan (Warner Oland) and son Lee (Keye Luke) become involved with the usual cast of characters. While on board an NYC bound ship, a woman named Billie Bronson (Louise Henry) has a package many people seem to want. She hides it in Chan’s trunk to get it passed customs. She can't get to it but instead goes to a club and kind of threatens the owner Johnny Berk (Douglas Fowley) after being warned to leave town by gangster Buzz Moran (Leon Ames). Billie winds up shot to death (last seen struggling with Berk over a gun) and Lee is held as a suspect. Charlie and the police Inspector Nelson (Harold Huber) are called away from the banquet. It turns out the hot item Billie possessed was her diary which contained a lot of dirt on the underworld. After some investigating, Charlie gathers everyone together at the Hottentot Club. Besides Berk suspects include his dancer/girlfriend Maria (Joan Woodbury), a newspaper publisher (J. Edward Bromberg) and mobster Moran.  A fast talking reporter Speed (Donald Woods) who’s always trying to scoop a female photographer (Joan Marsh) finds the body. Marc Lawrence is a mysterious early victim and Lon Chaney Jr has an un-billed cameo.

Director Eugene Forde would go on to direct more of the (pretend) Asian detective's cases.

The next Chan adventure would be CHARLIE CHAN IN MONTE CARLO which I reviewed years ago!

It's here: https://moviemeltdown.blogspot.com/2015/12/chans-back.html

That's followed by CHARLIE CHAN IN HONOLULU

https://moviemeltdown.blogspot.com/2009/05/aloha-charlie.html



Thanks for reading, honorable person.... 

NYC Underground

NO MORE EXCUSES-1968-Lame amateurish "underground" film directed by and starring Robert Downey Sr as a Union Civil War soldier transported to NYC in the late '60's. While he wanders around Manhattan, the rest of this mess is men and women being interview about their reasons for going to "singles clubs", well known trickster Alan Abel explaining why he thinks domestic animals should wear clothes and a weird part with Don Calfa as stalker/rapist who breaks into a woman's apartment and forces himself on her. Later she seems to accept it and then frolics in bed with a chimpanzee. I've seen a lot of Downey's stuff (CHAFFED ELBOWS, GREASER'S PALACE, PUTNEY SWOPE) and this is his worst.

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He's A Bad Mother...

SHAFT-1971-This kind of relic from the '70's is in a way the ultimate "black exploitation" film. In most movies the lead character has trouble with a racist individual or racism in general but here John Shaft "the private dick who's a sex machine for all the chicks" really has nothing but disdain for white people. In the mostly actionless plot Shaft (Richard Roundtree) refuses to help a white police captain fight crime but takes the case of finding the daughter of a ruthless Harlem gangster named Bumpy (Moses Gunn) kidnapped by the Mafia. He enlists some black militant drug dealers to assist him. He has sex with his girlfriend but when she says "I love you" to him over the phone he just replies "Yeah, I know" and hangs up and later has sex with a white prostitute. In the climax he leads the gang (dressed up like cooks, janitors and bellhops) in an assault on the building where the mob is holding the daughter. After the rescue and some fighting, Shaft just laughs as the police have to deal with the mess he's made.

Shaft acts cool and tough but there's too much talk. Perhaps Life magazine photographer turned director Gordon Parks wasn't sure which way to take the story: serious cultural drama or action packed crime drama. The best part to me was the on location scenes of NYC in the early '70's (especially the 42nd Street area).

 Author Ernest Tidyman (THE FRENCH CONNECTION) wrote the screenplay based on his novel. SHAFT spawned two sequels and a short lived TV series. The Isaac Hayes soundtrack won an Academy Award.

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Mixed Up...

MIXED BLOOD-1984-This movie is a hoot! It's about Brazilian street gangs fighting over the drug trade on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Most of the gang members are underage kids. If it sounds similar to the Brazilian drama PIXOTE (made in 1981) the female lead in that film Marilia Pera plays Rita La Punta, the leader of one of the gangs ("They cannot go to jail. Too young").

The story involves violence,drugs,prostitution,shootouts, racism and police corruption. All the characters talk in exaggerated accents and the dialogue is very dramatic and over the top. With lines like "I'm the one who tells you how to piss". Cheesy salsa music plays in the background.

It was filmed on location in Alphabet City by Paul Morrissey (ANDY WARHOL'S DRACULA). There are some good scenes but most of the shootouts are inept and there are some awkward reaction shots.

Some reviews cite the realism of the whole thing but to me it seems to take place on another planet! Also with Geraldine Smith who had been in BAD and FLESH  by Morrissey, Linda Kerridge (SURF ll) and John Leguizamo in his film debut.

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Subway Horror

STAG NIGHT-2008-According to this nonsense 100,000 people go missing in NYC every year and no one looks for them. Maybe they are looking in the wrong place as this cannibal horror movie was filmed Sofia, Bulgaria!

Four blockheads having a bachelor party encounter 2 women on a subway. After one of the women maces one of the guys they are let off at an abandoned station. Most of them walk around endlessly and insult each other but two of them stay behind to have sex and the guy gets bitten by a homeless person. They all wind up being terrorized and killed by underground cannibal maniacs who cut up body parts and feed them to their dogs. There's dismemberment, be-headings, maulings, the usual CGI gore and enough shaky camera work to send anyone running for the Excedrin bottle.

The filmmakers obviously had no idea how the NYC subway system operates (or what it looks like) and this makes the story even more idiotic. It reminded me of the English '70's film DEATHLINE (aka RAW MEAT). This was the first movie directed by Peter A. Dowling. Warning: He's working on another!

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Health Short

HER NAME WAS ELLIE, HIS NAME WAS LYLE-1967-Bruce (John Pleschette) is a NYC high school basketball player who believes he has syphilis. He's rude to his girlfriend, takes lots of showers and when his grouchy father tries to talk to him he clams up. He tries to steal some penicillin from a druggist and then goes to a clinic and gets examined by an African American doctor who tells Bruce he's got the clap. Bruce got it from a waitress named Ellie (Lynne Lipton) and he breaks the bad news to her. ("Of all the lousy luck"). She goes to the clinic for help and gets a lecture.  His well informed girlfriend gets very angry when he tells her the truth (apparently from their conversation they were having sex) then she goes to the clinic and gets checked out. The counselor at the health clinic searches for a guy named Lyle who gave the dose to Ellie. By the end of this 28 minute short Lyle is still out there and "remains dangerous to himself and the community".  This black and white Dept. of Health warning  is the only directorial effort by German born Lothar Wolff who according to some sources edited Fritz Lang's THE TESTAMENT OF DR. MABUSE and THE LAST WILL OF DR. MABUSE! Filmed in Manhattan.

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Inept Action

MANHATTAN CHASE-2000-A hit man named Jason (Loren Avedon) is busted in NYC by Nancy (Cynthia Rothrock), a tough female cop. After spending only 6 years in jail he gets out and wants to live a normal life with his young son. Meanwhile Jason's ex-boss searches for a stolen drug cache. He wipes out a family who's stupid abusive father may have been responsible but his step-daughter escapes and runs smack into Jason. His ex-wife shows up too and as it goes is also Nancy's sister. 

This movie is badly acted and directed and the fights pretty ineptly staged except when Nancy kicks ass which is about the only highlight unless you count the fact that many scenes were shot in NYC and the outer boroughs. A bad movie was shot in my hood!!! 

This was the last film by the incompetent Godfrey Ho (using the alias Godfrey Hall; he's used other names too) who also directed Rothrock in HONOR AND GLORY.

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Found Monster Footage

CLOVERFIELD-2008-A monster attacks New York. A group of friends at a farewell party try to survive. The story is told through the eye of a hand held camera one of them is using. The monster is huge and drops smaller creepy alien types with big teeth. Although it's a chaotic mess, the director Matt Reeves does a good job of getting the whole story across. The group dwindles as they try to stay alive and find their friends but it seems to me if they had made their way to The 59th Bridge they could gave escaped to Queens! The jiggly POV shots are ok but it doesn't really look like some amateur film. And can anyone explain why the camera battery lasted so long? Director Reeves previously directed episodes of the TV show FELICITY and later made LET ME IN. At the time of this writing he was working on a Planet of The Apes sequel. JJ Abrams was one of the producers. (and like his TV series LOST, where the monster came from or what happens to it and the world are left unexplained) The big surprise for me was it was only 85 minutes!

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PS: I was just informed that a huge video campaign (including fictional websites like in LOST) were used before and during CLOVERFIELD's release. Using hints from that there are ways to piece together where the monster came from. Apparently I'm the only person who didn't know about this!

Stan Lee Has a Cameo!

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN-2012-Hollywood couldn't stop when they were ahead could they? I'll say Sam Raimi's 2004 version wasn't perfect but he did a good adaptation. Why not 10 years later did they have to "re-invent" the whole thing over again?? The makers of this could have cut to the chase at least and just included a brief introduction on how the old web-head came to be but no they had to start all over again although the origins are basically the same. This time however nerdy science brain photograph taking Peter Parker has a mysterious missing father (Campbell Scott) who was once friends with the one armed Dr. Curt Connors (Rhys Ifans) now head of a technology corporation working with spiders. Flash Thompson is still the dumb muscled bully but when Peter after gaining his super powers humiliates him in front of the whole gym it's Peter who gets in trouble and receives a stern lecture from his doomed Uncle Ben (Martin Sheen). Hey! Someone has to defend bullies, right?

But in fact Peter is kind of a fuck up, acting very dysfunctional and even forgetting to do things for his devoted Aunt May (Sally Field). Later Peter strikes up a relationship with Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone) who's father (Dennis Leary, Dennis Leary? Really? At least THE DARK KNIGHT had Gary Oldman) of course is the police captain trying to arrest the crime-fighter. Andrew Garfield is a total failure in the title role who instead of being the wisecracking hero is more like a smug bully himself. Connors later turns himself into The Lizard but of course instead of a being a lizard man it's a huge mutated CGI monster. The stupidest part is how The Lizard finds out Peter secret ID. After one of their encounters he finds a camera stamped "property of Peter Parker"!

Director Marc Webb (who also made the romance  (500) OF SUMMER) should stick to making Jesse McCartney videos. Unfortunately this was a hit and Part 2 is in post-production at the time of this writing. Too bad no one told him the phrase: "With great power comes great responsibility"....

Sorry for the rant...thanks for reading!

Strange '60's Thing...

SCARE THEIR PANTS OFF!-1968-A woman is attacked on the street at night. She is saved by a guy who takes her home and then drugs her. She wakes up in a chair where someone in an iron mask and hood talks to her in a Darth Vader like voice. They have sex while the guy who rescued her watches from another room. When the dude takes off his mask his face looks like it was smeared with oatmeal. After the girl faints it's revealed his scarred face was a mask too. Later in a diner, the guy puts something in a woman's drink and she passes out. The guy pretends to be a doctor and somehow the woman wind ups where the previous one was. Only this time the other guy is wearing a fake wig and mustache and a toga talking about a sacrifice to their god. The other guy comes out and does a really weird dance before raping her. Later they drug another woman in a taxi and submit her to a Nazi like interrogation. 

Apparently the two idiots kidnap the women to play out stupid fantasies and then pack them in the back seat of a car send them off to The Statue of Liberty! They go off to plan their next kidnapping. The End. Most of this has the feel of a depraved unfunny comedy short. Filmed in NYC by writer/director John Maddox who also worked on the music documentary MONTEREY POP. Producer Ronald Sullivan went on to make hundreds of porno movies (sometimes under the name Henri Pachard).

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Happy Thanksgiving! Have A Blast.....

BLAST OF SILENCE-1961-Hit man Baby Boy Frankie Bono (writer/director Allen Baron who resembles Robert DeNiro) comes to NYC on Christmas Eve to shadow a potential hit job in this low budget film noir that for years was undeservedly over looked.

A narrator (un-billed Lionel Stander) provides cynical narration. Checking out a future hit (a minor gangster) provides great shots of New York in the early ’60’s (especially of Harlem in front of The Apollo Theater and Rockefeller Center). He buys a gun from Big Ralphie (Larry Tucker), a whispering fat guy with an apartment full of caged rats. After a Christmas walk, he meets Petey “from the orphanage”. He introduces Frankie to his sister Lori (Molly McCarthy) and he goes to their Christmas party where dances and rolls a peanut with his nose! He has a Christmas Day dinner date with Lori but kind of blows when he puts the moves on her too strongly. Meanwhile, he keeps following his prey learning his moves and routines. He then takes time to go to The Village Gate where a conga player singer named Dean Sheldon does two great songs! When Big Ralphie tries to blackmail Frankie they have a terrific, violent fight amid the escaped rats. Frankie decides he doesn’t want the hit. He’d rather make time with Lori but it turns out she has a steady boyfriend. He goes off and makes the hit but winds up shot to death on Long Island (because the mob doesn’t trust him anymore).

I really like BLAST OF SILENCE. It's gritty low budget photography really sets the mood. I read about it many years ago but never saw hide nor hair of it until it was “re-discovered” a while back. Star/director/writer Baron helmed one other feature TERROR IN THE CITY in 1964 then went into TV. The sometimes over the top narration was written by future Academy Award winner Waldo Salt. Producer/cinematographer/editor Merrill S. Brody shot CUBAN REBEL GIRLS in ‘59.

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A Puzzle

MARATHON-2002-This arty filmed in black and white story concerns a young woman (Sara Paul) as she tries to solve over 70 crossword puzzles in 24 hours. The burning question is: why??

Most of it takes place on various NYC subway lines but later she returns to her apartment and seems to lose it big time! It’s fairly interesting at first but loses steam, as the story has nowhere to go.

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The Saint

THE SAINT IN NEW YORK-1938-Louis Hayward portrays Simon Templar, in the first adaptation of Leslie Charteris’ Saint character. The globe trotting crime fighter is summoned to NYC by a special committee who want him to “take care” of some crime bosses who keep eluding justice thanks to their corrupt lawyers (some things never change I guess…).

Templar is quite ruthless in dispatching his targets and at one point disguises himself as a nun! Usual comic villain Sig Ruman appears in a straight role as one of mob bosses. Ben Weldon plays his assistant. Haywood would become a big star a few years later with roles in THE MAN IN THE IRON MASK and MY SON! MY SON!. Kay Sutton, Jonathan Hale, Jack Carson and Paul Guilfoyle also star. Familiar character actors Paul Fix and George Irving have un-credited roles.

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