Perry Mason

THE CASE OF THE CURIOUS BRIDE-1935-Attorney Perry Mason (Warren William) is ready to go on vacation to China when an old friend named Rhoda (Margaret Lindsey) wants his help. It seems Rhoda thought her husband was dead and re-married. Turns out she was wrong and now hubby number one has returned and is blackmailing her. When he winds up dead Perry really gets involved. This very entertaining film has a clever script and great performances. Clare Dodd is Della Street and Allen Jenkins is Mason's right hand man, Spudsy. Olin Howlin is his wise cracking coroner friend. Also with Barton McLane, Donald Woods, Warren Hymer and Errol Flynn in one of his earliest roles (he appears in a short flashback toward the end of the story).

Almost forgotten today Warren William was a big star in his (relatively short) time. He also portrayed The Lone Wolf and Philo Vance and was in the second version of "The Maltese Falcon" called SATAN MET A LADY. This was one of 4 Perry Mason stories he made. He died in 1948 at the age of 53.

Director Michael Curtiz made THE WALKING DEAD starring Boris Karloff the next year.
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hanks for reading!

RIP

Lina Romay, a pretty brunette who starred in numerous risqué features for
longtime companion Jesus Franco, has died. According to online reports, Romay
died of cancer on February 15. She was 57.

Born Rosa María Almirall
Martínez in Barcelona on June 25, 1954, Romay began her film career while in her
late teens. The source for her artistic name was another Lina Romay, a singer
with Xavier Cugat's band who had featured roles in movies such as Love Laughs at
Andy Hardy and Joe Palooka in the Big Fight.

The Spanish Romay's movies,
however, were anything but G-rated fare. Her gialli and erotica efforts had
titles such as Tender and Perverse Emanuelle (1973), Justine and the Whip
(1979), The White Slave (1985), and Alone Against Terror (1987). From the early
'70s to 2005, she was featured in more than 100 productions.

Among
Romay's movies directed (and oftentimes edited/scored/shot/etc.) by Jesus Franco
(aka Jess Franco and countless other pseudonyms) were Swedish Nympho Slaves
(1977), The Sadist of Notre Dame (1979), White Cannibal Queen (1981), Hellhole
Women (1981), and Macumba Sexual (1983). Romay also helped Franco in the
directorial/editing process, and under the pseudonyms Lulu Laverne/Candy Coster
directed a dozen movies in the 1980s. Additionally, she was perfectly
comfortable performing in sexually explicit fare.

Needless to say, the
Franco-Romay movies were no-budget efforts. Yet, the couple managed to carve out
for themselves a lasting place in the realm of erotica/gialli
filmmaking.

"It's said than I am an exhibitionist," Romay once
(supposedly) remarked. "Every actor is one — I gladly accept that. I'm not a
hypocrite."

Cugat's Lina Romay, by the way, died at the age of 91 in
December 2010 in Pasadena, northeast of downtown Los Angeles.

http://www.altfg.com/blog/movie/lina-romay-sex-movie-horror-actress/

Doggone Zombies

DOGHOUSE-2009-A bunch of English gobs take their friend to a remote village so he'll forget about his divorce. Unfortunately for them (and us) the town is occupied by man hating, flesh eating women due to some kind of virus (Project: Cathouse).

This SHAWN OF THE DEAD/DEAD ALIVE inspired gore comedy features a variety of female zombies (a hairdresser, old lady, bride, butcher, dominatrix, etc.) but much of the heavy accented English dialogue was lost on me. At one point three of them (they meet an army sgt. at the village) dress in drag to evade the zombies. Things get more serious and deadly when the flesh eaters mutate. The weirdest death involves a fat dead housewife squashing her victim.

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Aptly Titled

THE LOSERS-2010-You know if you make a movie and call it The Losers it better be good otherwise people will be making stupid cracks like "Well at least it lives up to it's name" or "the real losers are the audience".

Unfortunately this derivative action nonsense lives up to those lines and more.

A US Special Forces group thought to be killed in the Bolivian Jungle hides out somewhere plotting revenge against a guy named Max (Jason Patric) who set them up. But of course the evil empire of The United States is also to blame. The idiotic acting and routine direction don't help things in this cliché ridden story.

Jeffery Dean Morgan, Zoe Saladana (Uhura in the new STAR TREK), Chris Evans (much better in CAPTAIN AMERICA) star. It's based on a comic from DC's Vertigo line. Director Sylvain White had made STOMP THE YARD.

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PS-I didn't look it up yet but I think DC once published an Army comic called THE LOSERS!

The Legend

RIKIDOZAN: A HERO EXTRAORDINARY-2004-If you don't know anything about Japanese professional wrestling you might still enjoy this Korean made biographical drama about The Rising Son's greatest grappler.

Kyung-gu Sol stars as Kim who comes from Korea to study Sumo wrestling in Japan soon after the end of WW2. Although he becomes Sumo he's not allowed to participate because he's Korean. After beating up a bouncer he meets actor Harold Sakata (played by real pro wrestler Kenji "The Great Muta" Muto) who beats him up and then introduces him into the world of pro wrestling. He changes his name and goes to America to make a name for himself. He makes pro wrestling a national past time in Japan after making a speech about standing up to "the big and bad white man". Later he helps Japan "regain it's lost pride" and get revenge on America by trouncing a foreign tag team but he dies from a stab wound he receives in a fight. (Some say he was killed by The Yakusa but this film seems to say he was just paranoid)

His main promoter Mr. Kanno is played by Tatsuya Fugi (from IN THE REALM OF THE SENSES). The story leaves out a lot of details especially regarding his wrestling career. It is true that he gave the post-Japanese population a much needed moral "shot in the arm" but pro-wrestling was (and still is) a choreographed sport so even though Rikidozan was standing up to "the American bullies", it was these very same bullies who had agreed to playing arrogant, cheating Westerners. Still his impact on pro-wrestling jn Japan can't be denied.

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Grizzly (not Adams)

GRIZZLY-1976-A 2000 lb. killer grizzly bear preys on campers in a state park. The ranger in charge (Christopher George) must find the murderous hirsute mammal. He also has to contend with drunken hunters, an idiot park supervisor and his would girlfriend photographer (Joan McCall who later wrote a sequel GRIZZLY II: THE CONCERT). A bear expert (Richard Jaeckel) says it's a hold over from the prehistoric era. Andrew Prine is a helicopter operator. It's rather gory for the time but sometimes the actors talk too softly.

This "Jaws on land" horror film (which was a big hit) was made by director William Girdler who made only 9 films in his brief career. He was killed in a helicopter accident at age 30 in 1978. He re-teamed with George the next year to make DAY OF THE ANIMALS.

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Tsuguri is Dangerous...and Smart....

THE STREETFIGHTER'S LAST REVENGE-1974-Sonny Chiba returns as Terry Tsuguri, in his third "street fighter" film. The plot concerns a formula for making heroin. He battles a lot of pushers over two cassette tapes. A crooked cop gets in the way and Terry (who's dubbed voice sounds like George Takei) beats up people while trying to regain one of the tapes. Reiko Ike (who has a brief topless scene) and Etsuko Shihomi (who was later in the "sister street fighter series) are the female leads. Masafumi Suzuki returns as Terry's former mentor.

Director Shigehiro Ozawa had made the previous 2 Streetfighter movies and later made SISTER STREETFIGHTER (with Shihomi).

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