Ants!

PHASE IV-1974-In a geodesic dome in the Arizona desert, two scientists Lesko (Michael Murphy) and Hubbs (Nigel Davenport) investigate the local ant population that seem to be changing their food patterns and building monoliths out of sand. They are actually developing into intelligent and poisonous ants who could be really more than a bother at the next family picnic. The duo get trapped in their lab (along with a local girl named Kendra (Lynne Frederick)) when the insects assert their power. After Hubbs gets bitten he goes crazy and hunts for the queen. He becomes ant bait. Later Kesko goes after the queen himself but fails. He and Kendra seem to become evolved “slaves” for the new invaders. 

This interesting British-American co-production is the only film directed by Saul Bass, the graphic designer known for his credit sequences in films. The exterior scenes were actually filmed in Kenya, while the interiors were done at Pinewood studios in England. Some critics found it too “vague”. It was written by Mayo Simon who'd written the screenplay for MAROONED several years earlier and later created TV's THE MAN FROM ATLANTIS.

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O Canada, This Werewolf Movie Sucks

WOLVES-2014-A guy Cayden (Lucas Till) finds out he's a werewolf, kills some people and runs away. Later he's taken under the wing of a farmer named John (Stephen McHattie). Then Cayden winds up in a community of werewolves run by Connor (Jason Momoa), the last of the pure breed wolves. It turns out Connor is Cayden's father but later in the crazy out of control finale it's revealed John is responsible for all the mayhem. This Canadian production seems more like a pilot for a TV series (ripped off from WEREWOLF and THE HOWLING). It was written and director by actor/screenwriter David Hayter (X-MEN, X-MEN 2, THE SCORPION KING). 

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Japan's Not Our Enemy Anymore...

THE WOLVERINE-2013-After saving the life of a Japanese officer from the A-bomb in WW 2,

Logan aka Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) is living alone in a forest. When he gets into trouble at a local bar he meets Yukio (Rila Fukushima) who says she wants to take Logan to Japan so an old dying industrialist Yoshida (Haruhiko Yama-nouchi), the officer Logan saved can say goodbye to him. Once there Yoshida offers to transfer Wolverine's “immortality" to his body and let Logan live a normal life span. After Yoshida dies there's a big shoot up at his funeral and Yukio's granddaughter is kidnapped by  The Yakuza. Logan is shot several times but recovers and saves the daughter. They go on the run which of course leads up to the inevitable sex she has to have with the “far superior gaijin”. Later a bunch of ninjas capture the granddaughter and a stupid white woman kills her father (Hiroyuki Sanada). After Logan operates on himself,  a super metallic robot shows up but do you really think it would pose much of a threat to the powerful white westerner? 

Their fight though kind of reminded me of THE AZTEC MUMMY VS. THE ROBOT! Of course Yoshida, though thought dead is actually behind the whole thing. I didn't expect the after credits appearances of Ian McKellan and Patrick Stewart. 

Director James Mangold (GIRL,INTERRUPTED) later made LOGAN also featuring the Wolverine character.

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Filmed On The Bayou

BAYOU-1957- Hi-jinx in the Cajun swamps as crab fisherperson Maria (Lita Milan) is ogled by pervert store owner Ulysses (Timothy Carey; bizarre as usual) while NY architect Martin Davis (Peter Graves; also in Bert I. Gordon's THE BEGINING OF THE END the same year) tries to win a contract to build a “civic auditorium”. His contractor friend (Douglas Fowley) gets him an interview with the city commissioner but Murphy (who calls Cajuns “animals”), his rival for the job embarrass him. Maria's father Emil (also played by Fowley though he doesn't get credit for the dual roles) has no more credit at Ulysses' store but U urges dad to put the hard sell on his daughter and make Maria attend a dance with him. After Davis almost runs Maria down in his speed boat, Ulysses does his greasy best to put the moves on her but when she resists he tries to rape her. Fortunately her father comes home and U scrams. Maria and Davis hook up at a bar and she shows him around the carnival. Ulysses beats Davis in a “pirogue race” and gives Davis a hard time. When Davis backs down from fighting everyone thinks he has no guts. Maria though is stuck on him and Ulysses starts trouble when they go for a boat ride. 

At a wedding “shivaree” Ulysses does a wild dance where he looks like he's being tortured. Again he challenges Davis to a fight but again the future MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE star backs down. When a storm hits, the two lovers decide to elope but dad is killed. After his funeral Davis and Ulysses have their fight and Davis whips his ass. Everyone (even his abused little pal Bos, played by Jonathan Haze) deserts Ulysses. Ed Nelson is also in the cast. 

Director Harold Daniels was later one of the credited directors of HOUSE OF BLACK DEATH. This nonsense, full of bad Cajun accents, played for years on the drive-in circuit under the title POOR WHITE TRASH.

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Low Budget Western

GREYEAGLE-1977-Rancher Ben Colter (Ben Johnson), and his Indian companion Standing Bear (Iron Eyes Cody who was actually Italian) go after the legendary Indian warrior Greyeagle (Alex Cord) when he kidnaps Beth (Lana Wood), the rancher's daughter. When Greyeagle has trouble with some other braves who want Beth (they were willing to trade 5 horses) he has to fight an adversary who threatens: “I will hang his scalp in the wigwam of the white woman”. Beth winds up saving Grey's life by killing his attacker. A white mad trapper (triple threat behind the camera Charles Pierce hamming it up) leads a group of marauding Indians and Jack Elam lightens things up as a semi-comic cannon toting trapper who helps the rancher find a chieftain named Running Wolf (Paul Fix) who claims to be Beth's real father. In an unrelated to the main story line sequence (typical for Pierce film) the Indian gang kill Elam's dog then subject him to weird combat where he has to fight several braves while tied to a tree by his neck! 

More low budget boredom from the man who gave us THE TOWN THAT DREADED SUNDOWN (also with Johnson) and THE LEGEND OF BOGGY CREEK.

Black & White Hammer

SHADOW OF THE CAT-1961-With the help of two servants (Michael Crawford and Freda Jackson) Walter (Andre Morell) kills his wife and has her buried in the forest. There are no witnesses except for the victim's cat. All seems to go as planned until the cat keeps popping up, driving the trio to paranoid delusions as they try to kill it. When Walter suffers a heart attack while trying to do in puss, his unsuspecting niece Beth (Barbara Shelly) comes to take care of him. She doesn't understand what the big to-do is about the cat but her boyfriend Michael (Conrad Phillips) suspects the truth (she doesn't believe him though). Deaths by falling, quicksand and stairs eliminate some prying greedy relatives and after they are all gone the cat leads Beth and Michael to the dead woman's grave. 

This little black and white Hammer melodrama was directed by John Gilling (THE FLESH AND THE FIENDS) and plays like an extended version of THRILLER or ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS.

Early Lom

THE DARK TOWER-1943-A failing English circus owned by American Phil Danton (Phil Lyon; a huge silent screen star also known as the co-star of Howard Hughes' early talkie HELL'S ANGELS) hires Torg (Herbert Lom in his first major starring role) a timid hypnotist to increase revenue. Torg can control lions and later helps trapeze artist Mary (Anne Crawford,, a popular screen and early English TV star who died in 1956 of leukemia) with her act. Almost immediately Torg changes into a over demanding egoist who wants to be a partner in the circus. Mary's boyfriend Tom (David Farrar) gets jealous but when Torg expresses his love for Mary she rebukes him and says Tom is her only love. So Torg hypnotizes Mary into sabotaging the act by having Tom fall to his death. It partially works but Tom doesn't die. Later Phil fires Torg but he threatens to take the hypnotized Mary with him. When Torg is killed, Phil seems to be the culprit but in the twist ending a different killer is revealed. 

Future Dr. Who William Hartnell plays Jim, the publicity agent. It's based on a play by George Kaufman and Alexander Woolcott which had been produced as a US feature in 1934 called THE MAN WITH TWO FACES featuring Edward G. Robinson, Louis Calhern and Mary Astor. This film noir-ish psychological thriller was directed by John Harlow. Future director Terence Fisher was the editor.

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