HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!

HAPPY DAYS-1926-This silent comedy features the comic strip character Winnie Winkle but the main focus of this short is her brother Perry and his rag tag baseball team “The Rinky Dinks” (obviously inspired by “Our Gang”). They play a team of black kids but some of them are obviously whites in black face and some racist type humor is shown. There’s a fat kid too. The funniest part is when a dance instructor tells the gang to follow exactly what he does and then a frog goes down his shirt and he gyrates crazily and the kids copy his every move.

The comic strip Winnie Winkle (also called “The Breadwinner”) was created by Martin Branner (who also wrote this short) and had an incredible run of over 75 years! Star Ethlyn Gibson played Winnie Winkle in around 10 silent productions. Billy Butts is Perry.

Director Arvid E. Gillstrom was originally from Sweden and made over 100 films, most of them silent.



FELIX THE CAT SAVES THE DAY-1922-This is a great example of early animation featuring Pat Sullivan’s feline character. The animation is crude but this was 1922! It uses live action scenes and still photos (and a little racist humor) to tell the tale of how Felix saves a big baseball game after getting his pal Willie thrown in jail. Amazing! Sullivan was also the producer. The un-credited director is Otto Messmer who directed many more silent Felix films that I'd like to see!

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Bettie & Jack

First things first:

RIP Bettie Page....



Now for a movie:



KILL A DRAGON-1967-Mercenary good guy Rick Masters (Jack Palance) agrees to help some old Chinese men return some special cargo to Hong Kong. He gets help from frustrated tour guide Aldo Ray (who was in RIOT ON THE SUNSET STRIP the same year), Don Knight and some Karate guy (Hans Lee). Fernando Lamas is Patrai the “mafia of Macao” who wants the cargo. Ray appears in drag in one scene!

Director Michael D. Moore was a second unit director who made a few other movies including 2 movies starring singers: Roy Orbison in THE FASTEST GUITAR ALIVE and Elvis in PARADISE HAWAII STYLE.

According to The Internet Movie Database he was also a child actor in silent films!

"Even if you’re on the right track you’ll get run over if you just sit there"-Will Rogers

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RIP FJA

Forrest J. Ackerman-Rest In Peace

Yer Saaafe!

SAFE AT HOME-1962-Slight comedy made for kids and NY Yankees fans.

A little boy named Hutch (Bryan Russell) lives a on a boat with his dad (Ken Lawton) in Florida. He likes to play baseball and loves The New York Yankees. When a teammate makes him mad he tells them he and his father are good friends with Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris. Naturally he gets into a lot of trouble over this so he decides to visit the Yanks spring training facility and ask the two sluggers for help. William Frawley (a regular on TV’s MY THREE SONS at the time) is their wisecracking coach and then real life manager Ralph Houk appears as himself. Whitey Ford has a cameo too. Parts of it are dumb but it’s nice to see the two baseball legends try to act.

Patricia Barry is the father’s love interest. Russell played Ann-Margret’s little brother in BYE BYE BIRDIE the next year. Director Walter Doniger worked mostly in TV but made a few other movies including THR STEEL JUNGLE, UNWED MOTHER and HOUSE OF WOMEN.

One of SAFE AT HOME's screenplay credits is for Steven Ritch. An actor of the same name played the lead in a late 50’s horror film THE WEREWOLF. Not sure though if they are one in the same!

"Everybody wants to be Cary Grant. Even I want to be Cary Grant"-Cary Grant

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50's Horror Double Feature

THE VAMPIRE-1957 -No one seems to like this “modern vampire story” but it’s ok for me. Dr. Paul Beecher (stage actor John Beal), is a kindly dedicated family MD who’s cheery daughter accidentally slips him some pills that turn him into an ugly blood craving monster. At night he terrorizes his patients and worries about harming his nurse (Coleen Gray) and daughter (Lydia Reed, later on TV‘s THE REAL McCOYS). A police lieutenant (THE THING’s Kenneth Tobey) tries to track the monster down. Meanwhile Beecher’s doctor/friend (Dabbs Greer) tries to figure out the scientific end. His assistant Henry (John Abbott) is a weird analytical genius who hates sunlight, (“Dull knife. I cannot work with a dull knife”) Paul Brinegar is Willy the coroner who says to Tobey‘s character: “Guess you haven’t had any excitement since Abe Hibbel axed his mother in law”.



THE RETURN OF DRACULA-1958-This low budget vampire tale has a lot of atmosphere but is kind of ruined by Francis Lederer’s sub par performance as the legendary count. Dracula escapes his homeland and takes the place of Bellac, an Eastern European artist on his way to live with his American cousins in California. The daughter Rachel (Norma Eberhardt) comes under his spell but no one seems to think that his strange ways are unusual. He keeps his coffin in a cave on the outskirts of town (actually the famous Bronson Canyon) and when he first is shown rising there’s a lot of smoke and it’s in slow motion!

Drac’s first victim is a sick blind girl who later becomes un-dead. When she has a stake driven in her a fast scene of blood spurting out of her body is in color! Drac even turns himself into a big dog to kill an investigator. Fortunately her boyfriend (Ray Stricklyn) suspects trouble. There’s a weird Halloween party before the climax where The Count is bloodily impaled in a mine shaft.

RETURN isn’t a bad movie at all but Lederer doesn’t make a good Dracula. He’s too beady eyed. He seems to be trying to capture a Lugosi type essence but fails and sometimes sounds like he’s doing a Peter Lorre imitation.

Director Paul Landres worked mostly in TV but his occasional film ventures included THE VAMPIRE (see above), THE FLAME BARRIER, GO! JOHNNY GO! and the made for TV anthology series that starred Boris Karloff, known collectively as THE VEIL.

Gerald Fried’s musical score helps a lot. Also with Gage Clarke Jimmy Baird and William Fawcett. Strangely there is a character named Dr. Paul Beecher; also the name of John Beal’s character in THE VAMPIRE!

"Tis better to be silent and thought a fool then to speak and
remove all doubt"-Honest Abe Lincoln

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2 Bad

IN THE SPIDER’S WEB-2007-Crazy nonsense has a group of backpackers in India stumble upon a mysterious village where a Dr. Lecorpus (Lance Henriksen) and his strange brother like to inject people with spider venom as part of some local spider cult. They are actually harvesting organs for the black market. Henriksen makes a good villain but the best character is the comical local police sergeant who helps them. It sort of turns into a comedy for the climax!




MANTICORE-2005-In Iraq a dopey professor resurrects an ancient beast to seek revenge. A team of soldiers led by Robert Beltran go looking for a missing reporter and most of them get eaten. It’s pretty stupid and the soldiers act like assholes. Jeff Fahey is the major in charge. Director Tripp Reed was a former actor.

"I've got to stopping watching movies on the Sci-Fi channel"-me

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It's A Crime!

TEENAGE CRIME WAVE-1955-Two punks (Tommy Cook & Molly McCart) drag an innocent girl (Sue England) into their life of crime. After a botched robbery the girls go to prison but are sprung by the hoodlum boyfriend. They wind up holding an old couple and their college age son (James Griffin) hostage and get very excited when they see their mug shots on TV. A police shoot out puts an end to their “crime spree”. Although this is a pretty standard drama the prolific director Fred F. Sears throws in a few interesting touches. Cook co-starred in MISSLE TO THE MOON the next year.

"To invent you need a good imagination and a pile of junk"-Thomas Edison

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