Harryhausen

 

 

 (alamy.com)

JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS-1963-Jason (Todd Armstrong) and his men set out on the Argo and have many wild adventures in this super great adaptation from mythology. They encounter a giant animated statue, harpies, a talking masthead, Triton and the sorceress Medea (Nancy Kovack) while in search of the golden fleece. After being betrayed by Acastus (Gary Raymond), Medea helps them. Jason kills the multi-headed Hydra and secures the fleece. In the best part skeleton warriors created from the Hydra's teeth battle the group. All the time, Zeus (Niall MacGinnis) & Hera (Honor Blackman) watch from Olympus. Argonauts include Nigel Greene as Hercules, Lawrence Naismith and uncredited John Crawford. Patrick Troughton is the blind prophet, Phineus. 

English director Don Chaffrey had worked a lot in TV but later made ONE MILLION YEARS B.C. (1966) and CREATURES THAT TIME FORGOT (1971). He later worked in American TV and stuff like PETE'S DRAGON (1977) and C.H.O.M.P.S.(1979). His direction here is good but the main attraction is the fantastic stop animation creatures created by the legendary Ray Harryhausen (also a co-producer). Bernard Herrmann did the soundtrack. It was a critical success but a box office disappointment.

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Lee & Cushing

 

 (imdb)

THE CREEPING FLESH-1973-Overzealous scientist Emmanuel Hildern (Peter Cushing) finds an unusual skeleton in Asia and brings it back to London. The doctor has been keeping a secret from his daughter Penelope (Lorna Heilbron) who believes her mother dead. However, Hildern receives a letter from his brother James (Christopher Lee), head of an insane asylum where his wife has been kept for many years and has just died. James is envious and resentful of his brother and tells him so. Later while examining the skeleton, a bony finger seems to grow flesh. Meanwhile James seems to be doing experiments of his own when one of his patients escapes. When Penelope finds out mom's secret, dad goes a little crazy and injects her with the blood from the skeleton finger. She starts to pick up mom's bad habits and winds up killing a sailor. While escaping from an angry mob she hooks up with the escaped lunatic who she later pushes to his death. She's captured and carted off to uncle's asylum. After snooping, James discovers what has happened to Penelope. Then he has the skeleton stolen. A rainstorm wrecks this endeavor and the reanimated skeleton comes looking for its finger. 

 (imdb)

A weird twist ending highlights this story. Michael Ripper has a small role. Often mislabeled a Hammer film, this independent English production shows promise but kind of never really gets going. Cinematographer Freddie Francis replaced Don Sharp as director right before filming started. Francis had directed several Hammer and non-Hammer films including THE EVIL OF FRANKENSTEIN (1964), DR. TERROR'S HOUSE OF HORRORS (1965), TORTURE GARDEN (1967) and DRACULA HAS RISEN FROM THE GRAVE (1968).

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Japan Ghosts

 THE LIVING SKELETON-1968-Eerie, atmospheric ghost story from Japan. A group of pirates board a ship to steal it's cargo of gold bullion. They kill the crew and all the passengers. However one passenger Yoriko (Kikko Matsuoka) has a twin sister Saeko (also Matsuoka) and they have a kind of symbiotic connection. Through her sister Yoriko conducts her revenge. Or does she? Could it just be the killers' imagination? 

THE LIVING SKELETON starts off like a moody art film but becomes a full fledged horror story with a sea full of skeletons, a mad scientist and a powerful acid that can disintegrate anything. It's a little confusing plot wise but I liked it. This one of only two films directed by Hiroki Matsuno. Too bad!

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“And Then They'll Come For You!”

HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL-1959-William Castle's "classic gimmick" ghost story stars Vincent Price as millionaire Frederick Loren who at the request of his cold hateful wife Annabelle (Carol Omart) challenges 6 strangers to stay all night in a supposedly haunted house where several murders have occurred. If they can do it they'll each receive 10 thousand dollars. The "guests" include a pilot (Richard Long), a secretary (Carolyn Craig), a psychiatrist (Alan Marshall), a newspaper columnist (Julie Mitchum) and  Watson Pritchard (Elisha Cook) the last person to have stayed in the house and survived. He talks a lot about ghosts and murders committed in the place but if you watched this as a little kid in the '60's like I did you'll never forget the scene where the Mrs. Slydes, the caretaker's wife (Leona Anderson) meets the secretary in a dark room. Her grimace popping out of the darkness probably sent some kids screaming from the room! A chandelier falls, there's a vat of acid in the basement, guns in mini-coffins and a twist ending with a skeleton that when shown in theaters in the '50's came out of the screen and passed over the audience. 

Director William Castle and star Vincent Price (screenwriter Robb White) also made the THE TINGLER the same year. 

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Bungle With Jungle Jim

JUNGLE MANHUNT-1951-In a strange African jungle where all the natives look like a combination of American Indians and Polynesians, a happy tribe is attacked and their village burned down by another tribe lead by some guys in skeleton costumes. The chief however is shot by a mysterious white gunman. We then learn this is another entry in the “Jungle Jim” series of low budget films, because Jim (Johnny Weissmuller) is watching some boat men while his annoying pet chimp Tamba fishes. In a flash Jim is in the water to save a lady reporter Ann Lawrence (Sheila Ryan) when her boat overturns. She looking for a missing quarterback/war hero Bob Miller who disappeared into the jungle years before. Jim and Ann investigate with the help of Bono (Rick Vallin), a local chieftain. After escaping when another village is attacked the trio meets the elusive Miller (real life football player Bob Waterfield) who throws a loaded football at the bad guys! It seems Miller is now leading a tribe himself so they go deeper into the jungle and encounter stock footage giant lizards (from 2 MILLION YEARS BC). Later we learn that the evil tribe is run by bad white guy Dr. Heller (Lyle Talbott) who's using kidnapped natives as slave labor to dig up igneous rock to make phony diamonds. 

This Sam Katzman production is just another typical episode in this now very formulaic series. It was directed with speed by Lew Landers and unfortunate to say but it only clocks in at 66 minutes yet seems much longer!

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