Bad-Pire

 

 (imdb)

PROJECT VAMPIRE-1993-The vengeful Dr. Klaus (Myron Natwick), a German vampire scientist and his assistant Heidi (Paula Randol-Smith) want to turn the whole world into vampires through a formula he says can stop aging. 

This low budget horror is pretty bad with atrocious acting, script and sfx. This is only movie (so far) directed by Peter Flynn who was usually assigned to the art department on TV shows. Character actor Natwick was also MISSION: KILL FAST (1991) and THE CORPSE GRINDERS 2 (2000), both by Ted V. Mikels.

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Abar!

 

ABAR-1977-After Dr. Ken Kincade (J. Walter Smith), an African American scientist, and his family move to a white LA suburb, the whole bigoted neighborhood protests and dumps garbage on his lawn. They even kill his dog! The bigots are chased away by Abar (Tobar Mayo) and his motorcycle buddies of the BFU (Black Front of Unity). He introduces himself as “John Abar: Crusader”. They want Kincade to move back to “the black community” but he refuses. In his lab (there's a skull in the refrigerator) the doctor experiments on rabbits. After Abar insults the doctor, he lectures on ghettos and race. The Kincade's young son has a dream that Abar is black cowboy “Deadwood Dick” who kills a bunch of white racist cowboys. When the son is killed by a hit and run driver, the whites just stare and walk away. While Kincade works feverishly on his research, his wife leaves him and he collapses. After Abar watches a movie about Martin Luther King, Kincade (who sometimes sounds like he's imitating William Marshall) wants to inject Abar with a formula that could make him indestructible. Abar resists but eventually takes the formula. 

The doc regrets his decision almost immediately (Abar is nuts). Cops shoot an unarmed black man (that would never happen in real life....). Abar uses his newfound power to make the racist cops fight each other. Then he walks around the ghetto in a suit and makes winos drunk milk and a purse snatcher give back a purse. He also gives a woman the power to beat up a fat guy who slapped her and makes graffiti vandals clean up their mess. He turns a pastor's Cadillac into a horse and buggy and turns weed toking hookers and gambling pimps into college grads. When a black land developer says, “to hell with the blacks in the ghetto”, Abar turns his bowl of spaghetti into worms. To top it all off later the white woman who was the most hateful bigot admits she's actually black. Abar keeps walking.... 

This disaster of a movie has bad acting and direction, but some parts are funny. Star Mayo later had small roles in ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK and SCHIZOID. It's the only movie directed by Frank Packard, a white actor, who devised the plot with co-star J. Walter Smith (some say he was a pimp in real life). Also known as IN YOUR FACE and ABAR: THE FIRST BLACK SUPERMAN.

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The Black Sleep

THE BLACK SLEEP-1956-Dr. Cadman (Basil Rathbone) has discovered the title drug and uses it on his former student Ramsey (Herb Rudley) who was suppose to be hanged for murder. Cadman needs Ramsey to assist him in his brain operations. No sooner do they get to his castle home when they meet the brutish Mongo (Lon Chaney Jr.) who's attacking Laurie (Patricia Blair), one of Cadman's nurses. It turns out Mongo is Laurie's father and once a respected doctor. Now only another nurse Daphne (Phyllis Stanley) can control him. At first Ramsey thinks Cadman is brilliant but during an operation he realizes while the black sleep can induce a coma like effect the patient can still feel pain. This doesn't seem to bother Cadman in the least and Ramsey sees that his former teacher is insane and his real goal is to cure his comatose wife. The doctor has a mute servant Casimir (Bela Lugosi) and a gypsy grave robber Udu (Akim Tamiroff) who helps him out. Cadman is a full grown nut who cares nothing about human life and has a basement full of failed experiments in his dungeon to prove it. The “patients” include Curry (Tor Johnson), a big now blind guy, a bible spouting long hair crazy guy Borg (John Carradine), the (now disfigured) sailor (George Sawaya) they operated on earlier and bald girl (Sally Yarnell) with patches of hair all over her body. Of course they rise up and attack, causing Mr. and Mrs. Cadman to fall to their deaths.

THE BLACK SLEEP is always described as an “all star horror” movie and on paper it is. But most of the cast is wasted. Chaney is a dumb grunting henchman, Tor sits around looking “Lobo-ish” (although they do show a “before” picture of his character looking kind of dapper!) and worst of all the great Lugosi in his final full length movie role as the mute butler! Whoever thought this was a good idea should have been injected with “the black sleep” themselves! At least they put Carradine's voice to good use! Rathbone is great as the mad scientist and Tamiroff and Rudley are ok in supporting roles. 

Director Reginald Le Borg had already worked with Lon Chaney in '40's on THE MUMMY'S GHOST and “The Inner Sanctum” series. The next year he directed the disappointing VOODOO ISLAND with Boris Karloff (at least he got to speak...).

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Japan Science Fiction (in Color!)

WARNING FROM SPACE-1956- Aliens shaped like stars seek Dr. Kamura (Bontaro Miake) because Earth has made too many mistakes. While Dr. Matsuda (Isao Yamagata) and his young assistant Toro (Keizo Kawasaki) discuss what to do when a flying saucer crashes into Tokyo bay. Matsuda and Toru’s father Dr. Itsobe (Shozo Nanbu) work with other scientists on sending a rocket into space to investigate but some of the star creatures rise from the water and terrorize folks. Later on the star creatures transform a star female into an earthling who looks like a famous night club singer and the scientists in Japan believe the alien threat is over. However while canoeing Toru finds the transformed star lady floating in a lake claiming amnesia. Dr. M's wife convinces him to take the woman in and she exhibits some out of this world jumping skills while playing tennis. After she's mobbed by some school girls who think she's the famous performer, she visits Dr. I and destroys a formula he's working on. Later she explains that she is from a hidden planet and they want to stop the scientists from harnessing a new kind of energy. The story takes a different turn when it's discovered that a giant asteroid is going to collide with Earth and Matsuda is kidnapped by a gangster named Sato who wants his energy formula. The population panics. When it seems all hope is lost the aliens reappear and rescue Matsuda who gives them his formula. They make a nuclear rocket that destroys the threat. Children are reunited with their parents! The final scene has the female turning back into a star creature. 

Koji Shima directed this weird early Japanese science fiction film (the first in color) with the cushion like star creatures created by Taro Okamoto, a famous abstract painter. The movie didn't fare well on it's initial release but influenced many Japanese Sci-Fi films to come. Some say it even influenced Kubrick on 2001!

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Paris Playboys

PARIS PLAYBOYS-1954-The Bowery Boys series moved from Monogram Studios to Allied Artists in 1954 and begins with Sach (Huntz Hall) bearing an uncanny resemblance to a famous French scientist who disappeared while working on a secret formula. Some French diplomats (one is played by Robin Hughes, later in THE THING THAT WOULDN'T DIE) invite him to Paris and of course he's mistaken for the real guy by some enemy agents. Although the movie is mostly Hall acting idiotically with a bad French accent, little Louie (Bernard Gorcey) has some funny scenes especially when he dresses to look like Toulouse-Lautrec! Veola Vonn (who was in MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE the same year) is the femme fatale this time and Fritz Feld is a waiter. Edward Bernds and Ellwood Ullman collaborated on the script while William Beaudine was brought back to direct. Ben Schwab produced the series once they came to AA. 

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