(letterboxd.com)MARKHEIM-1974-Short film produced by Scottish TV and based on a story by Robert Louis Stevenson. A down on his luck man (Derek Jacobi) visits an antique dealer (Paul Curran), who he eventually kills and wants to rob but things don't go according to his plan when he meets a mysterious character (Julian Glover). Interesting adaptation directed by Tina Wakerell.
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(themoviedatabase.org)EMANUELLE AND THE LAST CANNIBALS-1977-At a mental institution, a patient bites a nurse. Emanuelle (Laura Gemser), doing some investigative reporting, visits the now straitjacketed woman. She discovers the mad woman has a tattoo from a tribe in the Amazon jungle. Her editor wants her to go there and get the story on the last cannibal tribe. She contacts anthropologist Mark Lester (Gemser's real life husband at the time Gabriele Tinti). After they have sex, he agrees to lead an expedition.
After arriving, they meet Isabelle (Monica Zanchi), a reporter. She joins them along with a nun. When Emanuelle is attacked by a snake, hunter Donald McKenzie (Donald O'Brien; DOCTOR BUTCHER MD) shows up and shoots it. Then he, his wife (Susan Scott) and their guide join up. They wander around being unknowingly watched by the locals. After the nun is cannibalized, McKenzie and his wife go off to get diamonds from a helicopter crash (their real reason for being there). The natives attack, wound McKenzie and kidnap his wife.
Later they get Isabelle. Emanuelle and Lester watch from afar as the wife is cannibalized and McKenzie is squeezed in half.
To save Isabelle, Emanuelle poses as a goddess.
This starts out as a typical soft-core porn, that turns into a pretty disgusting display of the Italian cannibal genre at its worst. This was the fourth “Black Emanuelle” movie director Joe D'Amato (born Aristide Massaccesi) made, followed by several more in the series. He later made ANTROPOPHAGUS (1980) and its sequel ABSURD (1981) and many others.
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(imdb)THE LOVES OF HERCULES-1960-When Hercules (Mickey Hargitay) finds out his wife has been killed, he crashes the castle of Queen Deianira (Jayne Mansfield), the daughter of the king who ordered Mrs. Hercules's murder. After a bizarre ritual where Herc has to throw axes at the bound queen, they become friends. Later, Herc is accused of a killing and has to fight the three headed dragon, Hydra (bad effect). He's rescued by some Amazons whose queen turns men into trees.
This movie, obviously inspired by HERCULES (1958), is the worst with the leads pretty pathetic and Mansfield in two roles, bad dubbing and terrible sfx. Filmed in Italy, (where it was a big hit) by director Carlo Ludovico Bragaglia who died in 1998 at the age of 103. It's said Mansfield would only accept the role if her bodybuilder husband Hargitay was cast as Hercules.
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(imdb)THE SCREAMING SKULL-1958-Eric Whitlock (John Hudson) takes his new wife Jenni (Peggy Webber; in SPACE CHILDREN the same year) to the house that was designed by his first wife Marion, now dead. Rev. Snow (familiar TV actor Russ Conway) and his wife (Tony Johnson) are there to welcome them. So is Mickey (director Alex Nichol), the weird gardener who doesn't believe Marion is dead (she's buried on the estate). When she's alone, Jenni (who's rich and once spend some time in a mental hospital) gets spooked by noises and some skulls that show up. Eric blames Mickey but Jenni thinks she's cracking up. Eric seems devoted, maybe too much so. But when a skull shows up after they burn a portrait of Marion, John’s real intentions are revealed.
Very low budget ghost story. The best part is the finale where Marion turns the tables on John. A short disclaimer at the beginning says that the producers will pay the funeral expenses for anyone who dies of fright during the viewing.
This was actor Alex Nichol's first film as a director. His later work was mostly for TV except for his last, 1971's POINT OF TERROR. Male lead John Hudson did a lot of TV work and was the twin brother of William Hudson (Harry in ATTACK OF THE 50 FOOT WOMAN). Lead actress Peggy Webber, still alive at the time of this writing, had earlier played Lady MacDuff in Orson Welles' MACBETH. The soundtrack was composed by future Oscar winner Ernest Gold.
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(imdb)LAMB-2021-Somewhere in Iceland, a childless, married couple Ingvar & Maria raise sheep. One day an unusual hybrid lamb is born and they decide to raise it as their own. They name it Ada after their dead daughter. Soon the baby is walking on 2 legs, wearing a sweater and eating at the table. Everything seems to be OK but the ewe who birthed Ada hangs around bleating. Maria eventually kills mama and buries her body. Unbeknownst to her Ingvar's brother saw the whole thing before crashing in their barn. The brother Petur shows himself the next day. Needless to say, Petur is weirded out by the situation, especially when he sees Maria taking a bath with “their baby” but Ingvar says not to interfere. Petur wants to kill Ada but later comes to like her.
After the three have a drunken party, Ingvar kind of passes out and Petur makes sexual advances toward Maria. She refuses but when he tries to blackmail her by saying he will tell Ada that Maria killed her mom, she locks him in a storage room and next day drives him to a bus. While Ingvar is out fixing the tractor with Ada he's shot and killed in a surprise ending. Maria finds her dying husband and falls into despair.
This is a very strange and interesting movie from director/co-writer Vladimar Johannsson. The ending was unexpected. It was a huge hit it's in native Iceland.
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(imdb)THE NIGHT STRANGLER-1973-Once again the brash eclectic reporter Kolchak (Darren McGavin) takes tape recorder in hand to investigate the murders of a belly dancer, this time in Seattle, Washington. He meets his former boss Vincenzo (Simon Oakland) in bar and is hired on but is first read the riot act by the publisher Crossbinder (John Carradine). Police Capt. Shubert (Scott Brady) and coroner Webb (Ivor Francis) hold a press conference after a second killing. Another coroner tells Kolchak there was rotted flesh on the victims' necks. Some blood is also missing. They seem to have been killed by a dead man. When Kolchak learns about the abandoned underground city of Seattle, he goes to Titus Berry (Wally Cox), in charge of the city's archives. It seems the same type of murders have happened every 21 years since 1889.
He befriends another belly dancer (Jo Ann Pflug) and they take a tour of the underground city. But they take a detour and meet a derelict (Al Lewis). He also consults Prof. Crabwell (Margaret Hamilton), an anthropologist who clues him in on a secret "elixir of life" to stay young. After another dancer (Nina Wayne) is strangled, Kolchak tries to convince Shubert what's happening but the captain puts a few holes in Kolchak's theory. Later when a 6th woman is murdered (there was always 6 victims), Kolchak identifies the killer as a 144-year-old Civil War doctor (Richard Anderson). Kolchak destroys the decrepit doctor but loses his job, so does Vincenzo. This ends on a lighter note than its predecessor.
Producer Dan Curtis also was the director of this great follow up, written once again by Richard Matheson. The short-lived TV series “Kolchak:The Night Stalker” ran in 1974. Curtis produced and directed another “Kolchak” like TV film the same year for another network called THE NORLISS TAPES.
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Greetings way back in June of 2023, I posted a review of the movie tragedy called Fireball Jungle. Here's the link in case you're curious: https://moviemeltdown.blogspot.com/2023/06/its-fireball.html
I mentioned the title song was done by Tiny Kennedy. I dug up some info on the guy and have only gotten around to posting it now!
Tiny Kennedy was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, on Dec. 20, 1925. He played the piano and recorded with the great bandleader Jay McShann (with whom Charlie Parker had started with years before) in 1949. After a stint with Tiny Bradshaw (no relation), he did some sessions with Elmore James. In 1951, he was sent to Sam Phillips' recording studio (later to be known as "Chess Records"). There, he recorded several songs, including his most well-known, "Strange Kind of Feelin'". After 1955, Kennedy seemed to vanish from the music scene but showed up in 1968 to croon the theme song to the previously reviewed (and atrocious) FIREBALL JUNGLE. Some sources say he was in MR. NO LEGS in 1978. He may still be alive at age 98!
Sources: All Music.com, IMDB.com
Hear Mr. Kennedy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1KGR3qnJsQ
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