It's Raining Devils

 

 (imdb)

THE DEVIL'S RAIN-1975-After credits are shown over paintings by Bosch, Mark Preston (William Shatner) goes up against "Satan's minister on Earth" Korvus (Ernest Borgnine) and his eyeless worshipers for possession of a book. Meanwhile Sam Richards (Eddie Albert) and Tom Preston (Tom Skerrit) demonstrate a type of telepathy using Preston's wife Julie (Joan Prather). Preston returns home to find his mom (Ida Lupino) and brother Mark missing. The sheriff (Keenan Wynn) blames a flood. While Mark is tortured, Preston & Julie go to a ghost town where caretaker Charlie told them Mark was headed. While snooping they are attacked by an eyeless guy. Julie seems to have a psychic connection to the coven and sees a flashback to colonial times. 

It turns out the wife of Preston's ancestor Martin Fife (also Shatner) betrayed the satanists who are burned at the stake. Preston infiltrates the gathering where Mark is to be sacrificed and Korvus transforms into a goat man. Unfortunately Preston is found out but escapes. Somehow Richards gets the book and tells Preston what's going on. When Korvus captures Julie and plans to convert her, Richards and Preston go back and find some kind of orb that holds all the souls Korvus has taken. After they are attacked by the possessed sheriff, the duo break up the party. It's a TV show star battle with McHale vs. Capt. Kirk vs. Mr. Douglas in the finale where the rain makes the group melt. Korvus seems to melt too but evil wins out!

Director Robert Fuest (THE ABOMINABLE DR. PHIBES) made this high profile horror movie that later exploited then unknown cast member John Travolta (the less said about him the better). It's a good little horror movie with a nice cast and surprise ending. Charlatan Anton LeFay (also credited as a technical adviser) has a cameo as a satanic priest.

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Crawling

THE CRAWLING EYE-1958-In Trollenberg, American Alan Brooks (Forrest Tucker) meets The Pilgrim sisters Ann (Janet Munro) and Sara (Jennifer Jayne) when Ann seems to have some psychic connection with the nearby mountains where several villagers have disappeared (one was found decapitated). Alan visits Dr. Crevet (Warren Mitchell) experimenting with cosmic rays who tells him about a mysterious radioactive cloud. After Ann predicts the death of a climber, Alan leads a small group (including a reporter played by Lawrence Payne, later in VAMPIRE CIRCUS) up the mountains to investigate. Another climber who kills two other climbers seems to be possessed. Eventually the small village is terrorized by monsters that resemble giant brains with one eye and tentacles. An air force bomber arrives just in time to destroy the invaders.

An English production, THE CRAWLING EYE has a great script by Jimmy Sangster (who wrote HORROR OF DRACULA and THE REVENGE OF FRANKENSTEIN the same year) and good acting but director Quentin Lawrence has too much talk and not enough crawl for me. It's based on a BBC TV production and was known as THE TROLLENBERG TERROR in the UK.

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Nudie Cuties

NUDE ON THE MOON-1961-Infamous nudie exploitation film from Doris Wishman, perhaps the only female nudie director in film history.

Two stupid scientists (one young, one older) fly to the moon and encounter a race of women who wander around topless. The pair take photos and make notes while the girls show off their “moon boobs”. Their leader talks by telepathy and the young egghead falls for her. A song “I’m Mooning Over You” plays every time they meet. It’s sung by Tony Sandler who later was half of the popular ‘60’s sing duo Sandler & Young.

This color production is well photographed and the post-synch dialogue (a standard in Wishman films) is done better than usual. It was filmed in Miami.

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