Holy Bananas! It's A Girl's Leg!

 

 (imdb)

 COLOR ME BLOOD RED-1965-Frustrated painter Adam Sorg (Don Joseph aka Gordon Oas-Helm) insults a pompous art critic and has contempt for his fans. He's a kind of a jerk who doesn't think much of the gallery owner who exhibits Sorg's hideous paintings. When his girlfriend cuts herself and bleeds on his canvas, he finds just the right shade of red he was looking for. She won't let him use anymore blood, so he cuts himself and paints with his own blood. This weakens him considerably so to finish his painting he kills his girlfriend and uses her hemoglobin. Later the art critic praises the new painting but Sorg refuses to sell it. “I would not like to be that man's psychoanalyst” quips the critic. Back home, he kills a man and woman and uses her blood to create a new masterpiece. 4 dope smoking young people go for a swim near Sorg's house. He asks one of the women to model for him and she goes at night to see him. He ties her up and plans to kill her but her friends arrive and Sorg is shot in the face. 

Sometimes referred to as the last of director Hershell Gordon Lewis' “Blood Trilogy”, this black comedy is pretty funny and the character of artist Sorg is a good psycho. It features lots of blood and bad acting. MONSTER A GO GO was released the same year and of course compared to that COLOR ME BLOOD RED seems like a big-budgeted Hollywood production. 

Lewis' next horror film would be TASTE OF BLOOD in 1967. Star Oas-Helm many years later played Manford, the butler on “The New Monkees” reboot TV flop!

 (imdb)

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Bluebeard

 

 (imdb-)

BLUEBEARD- 1944-Paris is gripped by the murders of several young women. The killer has been dubbed Bluebeard by police. Gaston Morel (John Carradine), the puppeteer puts on puppet operas in the park. He takes a liking to Lucille (Jean Parker), a dress designer. After he kills his jealous assistant Renee (Sonia Sorel), it's obvious he's Bluebeard, dumping victims in the Seine after painting their portraits. He hires Lucille to make dresses for a new puppet show he wants to create. A police ispector (Nils Asther) deduces that a recently purchased painting is one of the murdered women. Lucille's sister Francine (Teala Loring) helps the police set a trap to catch Morel. Things don't go as planned. Morel kills Francine, then his lackey (Ludwig Stossel) who he thinks betrayed him. When Lucille suspects Morel is the murderer, instead of going to the inspector, she visits Morel who relates a flashback and his relationship with Jeanette (Anne Sterling) which inspires him to paint an award-winning painting. However, when he visits her place, he finds her a “low, coarse, loathsome creature”. So, he killed her and now must kill every woman he paints. 

Moody thriller with a great performance by Carradine and excellent direction by Edgar Ulmer despite the low PRC budget. Also with Iris Adrian, Harry Cording and Bess Flowers. In the same year, co-star Parker was in DEAD MAN'S EYES with Lon Chaney and ONE BODY TOO MANY with Bela Lugosi!

According to an interview John Carradine gave to Dick Cavett around 1981, the actor said director Edgar Ulmer let him direct a scene.

To read about the story this film is based on:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluebeard

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Blood Bath AKA

 

BLOOD BATH-1966-After it seems like a vampire killed a woman, some beatniks (including Sid Haig & Jonathan Haze) check out Max (Karl Schanzer) the artist's new painting. Then waitress Daisy (Marissa Mathes) has a discussion with ballet dancing Dorean (Linda/Lori Saunders) about a secret meeting she has with a man. 

While looking at some paintings Daisy meets artist Antonio Sordi (William Campbell), who's artist ancestor was burned at the sake after being betrayed by his mistress Melizza. While having a flashback/hallucination, he turns into the vampire and kills Daisy with a meat cleaver. Sordi is also the person Dorean was meeting on the beach. Later at a party, he attacks a woman who falls into a pool. Daisy's sister Donna (Sandra Knight) goes looking for her (Max recognizes her from Sordi's latest painting) but Sordi denies knowing her. She learns about Sordi's ancestor who came back as a vengeful vampire after being burned, eventually being staked. 

Donna sees a connection between the missing women and Sordi. She decides to shadow him but he kills her on a merry go round (while others do nothing). His vampire self terrorizes Dorean but she escapes. Max has a fight with the vampire who seems to fall to his death but his body disappears. Poor Dorean seeks shelter at Sordi's bell tower residence where she discovers a dead corpse (Patrick Magee). Sordi isn't dead and thinks Doreann is Melizza come back to him. Fortunately some of his victims come back to life and throw him in bubbling wax. 

This movie has a crazy history. It started out life as a US-Yugoslavian production called “Operation Titan” for which Roger Corman provided American actors William Campbell and Sid Haig as he planned to distribute it in the US. Corman was unhappy with the resulting film and finally asked Jack Hill to write a new script and shoot new scenes while incorporating some of the original. Hill turned it into a horror film called “Portrait in Terror”. Corman was still unhappy with this new version and hired Stephanie Rothman to shoot more scenes. Unfortunately star William Campbell refused to do anymore re-shoots and an unidentified actor portrays the vampire monster which is why the Sordi character transforms into a totally different monster! Sid Haig's character also grows a beard for his later scenes! New scenes were also shot for a TV version called “Track of The Vampire”. 

There's always a story with Roger Corman!

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Mike Raven

CRUCIBLE OF TERROR-1971-John (James Bolam), an in debt art dealer, his girlfriend Millie (Mary Maude) and mutual friend Jane (Beth Morris) accompany her husband Mike (Ronald Lacey) to visit his eccentric sculptor father Victor (Michael Raven) who before the credits appears to put a woman in plaster and molten metal to make a sculpture. Also at the remote former mine are manservant Bill (John Arnatt),who has a roomful of medieval weapons and Victor's feeble-minded wife Dorothy (Betty Alberge) who carries around a stuffed dog. Besides being a mad killer Victor is a pompous conceited pervert who insults his defenseless wife. Though Vic has a model (Judy Matheson) for a mistress, he seems to take a shine to Millie (who has Deja’ Vu about the place).  At night Millie has a dream a masked figure throws blood on her. While Mike drunkenly rants Jane agrees to pose for Victor but she spurns his advances and is later stabbed to death. The next day while Millie and the model frolic on the beach it’s revealed that Mike stole some of his father's paintings and they have an argument about Dorothy. Mike is then bludgeoned to death after a very stupid scene where the model throws rocks at him. John goes back to London to get cash to buy Victor’s paintings. Out for a walk, Millie sees Victor watching her and runs into a cave where she finds Dorothy hanging out with some dolls. After someone throws acid in the model's face, Millie agrees to model for Vic. She spurns his advances and runs into another cave where she finds Mike's decomposing body and Dorothy who’s committed suicide. When she encounters Vic again she faints. He plans to make her his next statue. 

Though it's talky in stretches and Raven comes across as a poor man’s Christopher Lee, the story does have a bizarre if improbable twist ending involving a Japanese woman and a cult that worship the dead. Me Me.Lay (JUNGLE HOLCAUST) has a small role.

 CRUCIBLE OF TERROR is the only movie directed by Ted Hooker and some stories say lead actor Michael Raven, a former DJ put up half the budget. The same year as this Raven was also in Hammer's LUST FOR A VAMPIRE and Amicus' I, MONSTER. He later wrote and starred in DISCIPLE OF DEATH.

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Another Silent

THE DRAGON PAINTER-1919-Tatsu (Sessue Hayakawa) is an eccentric painter who lives alone waiting for the gods to return his princess who they took away from him and turned into a dragon. His work is shown to a famous artist who realizes Tatsu is a genius. One problem. He won t leave his mountain home. The artist s daughter Ume Ko (Tsuru Aoki, Hayakawa's real life wife) dresses up as the princess to lure him out. Then the trouble begins. The two fall in love and Tatsu seems to lose his passion for painting. A nicely made silent film with beautiful photography and a heartfelt story. 

Japanese born Sessue Hayakawa was the first Asian film star(his other famous film is THE CHEAT) and by 1919 was as popular a star as Douglas Fairbanks Sr. The director William Worthington was also an actor.  

Once again thanks to TCM for showing this and thanks for reading!