Seems Like Hammer But It Isn't-Part 2

MADHOUSE-1974-Entertaining Amicus/AIP production features Vincent Price as Paul Toombes a famous horror actor who may have taken his most famous role of Dr. Death too far and killed his fiancé (after learning she was once a porno actress). Scenes from real Price horror films (HOUSE OF USHER THE RAVEN TALES OF TERROR PIT AND THE PENDULUM) are shown to depict the fictional Toombs’ career. Fellow actor Peter Cushing brings him out of retirement for a stupid TV producer (Robert Quarry) and people start getting killed. Also with Adrienne Corri. Natasha Pyne Linda Hayden and Barry Dennen.

It’s ok but a little reminiscent of THEATER OF BLOOD though it’s based on the novel “Devilday” by horror writer Angus Hall. After this Price would make only two films (but do voiceovers and make TV appearances) until 1980. It was the last of 7 films by usual film editor Jim Clark. 

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Seems Like Hammer But It Isn't...

CORRUPTION-1968-Sleazy familiar horror tale features Peter Cushing as a famous surgeon engaged to a equally famous model (Sue Lloyd). Kate O’Mara plays her sister. At a weird swinging party Cushing has a fight with his wife’s photographer and a spotlight falls on her, scarring her face. Cushing becomes obsessed with finding a cure and eventually he does when he transplants a gland from a deceased patient into her. It works for a while but when it finally fails the good doc surmises that he needs a gland from a living person. You know the rest of the story. He has to kill to get the gland but it still doesn’t last so he has to kill some more.

Eventually Cushing really loses it and cuts off a women’s head and puts in the freezer and then brutally kills a female house-guest (she was going to be a new victim anyway…). In a strange twist the dead houseguest’s husband and his “gang” show up and terrorize the couple for a few scenes. The whacked out ending features a laser going crazy and everyone dies but when the smoke clears Cushing is still alive and the movie starts all over again!!

I guess the ending was a dream since Cushing’s character mentions to his wife that he slept longer than he wanted to. Either that or he’s in hell reliving his life over…???

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Orson Welles on French Television

THE IMMORTAL STORY-1968-Orson Welles’ first color film (and second to last directorial effort) is a beautifully shot and narrated story. Welles is very good as Charles Clay, a ruthless Portuguese businessman in 19th century Macao. Growing bored with life he decides to make a sailor’s legend come true by manipulating two people, an innocent sailor (Norman Eshley) and his ex-business partner’s daughter (Jeanne Moreau) into enacting it.

This is an underrated film that is sometimes overlooked but it contains some of Welles the director’s best work. Roger Coggio is Clays’ assistant who helps in the scheme. It's based on a novel by Isak Dinesen.

Moreau was in Truffaut’s THE BRIDE WORE BLACK the same year. Eshley showed up in the George Pal fantasy THE LOST CONTINENT a year later.

Originally made for French TV, it was later released in theaters slightly edited. A new restored version was shown on TCM. Not counting his unfinished projects, Welles would direct and complete only one more film the fascinating F FOR FAKE in 1974.

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They Might Be Gigantic?

GIGANTIC-2003-This is an interesting documentary on the band THE MIGHT BE GIANTS but it won't mean much unless you're a fan (which I am).

Concert footage is shown (a couple of songs in their entirety) and the two Johns (Flansburgh & Linnell) talk about their music and each other. They seem to like playing together! Interviews with people who've worked them (including Joe Franklin and Frank Black) are also included. Scenes from their rarely seen (nowdays anyway) videos are also shown. Some time is wasted having well known fans (I guess...) like Andy Richter, Harry Shearer and Michael McKean recite TMBG lyrics. The late Illinois senator Paul Simon introduces the film making me think at first I had the wrong tape in! 

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Crazy Chan

CITY HUNTER-1993- is Jackie Chan's slapstick martial arts taken to the max. Nearly every scene is comical with a character spouting some dumb dialogue and/or joke and making funny faces. Director Jing Wong loads the film with gags and there's this weird "Streetfighter" video game parody near the end! It's based on a Japanese manga.

Chan plays Ryu, a womanizing detective trying to rescue his late partner's daughter from a cruise ship taken over by terrorists led by Australian martial arts vet Richard Norton (but he's suppose be American) and Gary Daniels (a local kickboxing champ who's starred in his own movies including a live action version of FIST OF THE NORTH STAR). It's a little annoying at times but it's never dull (despite a very long musical number). Norton was later in MR. NICE GUY with Chan.

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The Devil's Backbone

THE DEVIL’S BACKBONE-2001-This supernatural ghost story from Spain is great! After his father is killed in The Spanish Civil War, a young boy named Carlos (Fernando Tielve) goes to an orphanage run by the kindly Prof. Casares (Fererico Luppi: he starred in John Sayles’ MEN WITH GUNS) and his unfaithful one legged wife. They also have a small cache of gold that the slimy caretaker (Edvardo Noriega) is after. Besides the usual peer pressure and bullying the orphanage seems to be haunted by the spirit of a dead boy.

Director Guillermo del Toro (CRONOS, MIMIC, HELLBOY) doesn’t allow the story to get lost in visual effects and creates some mesmerizing scenes.

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Bond..

CASINO ROYALE-2006-It’s a ironic that the most serious and violent adaptation of a James Bond story would be the one that was first done as a comedy. Blond haired James Craig is a very different 007: a detached anti-hero with a big ego and violent tendencies. Still in a film world where every leading man is a detestable jerk, Craig at least holds your interest and makes you want to see more of him in action. The stunts and action scenes are the usual over the top kind but very well done. A murky torture scene (although part of the original novel) seems unnecessary however. Bond has a wild ride on a gasoline truck, gets poisoned and plays high stakes poker.

Craig had had supporting roles in movies like TOMB RAIDER THE ROAD TO PERDITION MUNICH and THE JACKET. Director Martin Campbell had directed GOLDENEYE with Pierce Brosnan as Bond. Also with Eva Green (from Bertolucci’s THE DREAMERS), Giancarlo Giannini, Jeffery Wright and returning Judi Dench as “M”.

The original film version of CASINO ROYALE was first adapted for American TV in the '50's with Barry Nelson as "Jimmy Bond".

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