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THE TWO FACES OF DR. JEKYLL-1960-In 1847 London Henry Jekyll (Paul Massie) is a disgraced doctor trying to discover "man as he would be". He's a loner who ignores his wife Kitty (Dawn Addams who was in Lang's THE 1000 EYES OF DR. MABUSE' the same year) and experiments on a monkey. Meanwhile Kitty is carrying on an affair with Jekyll's neer do well friend Paul (Christopher Lee). Somehow bearded, long haired, weird looking Jekyll becomes clean shaven, handsome Mr. Hyde who goes dancing and sees Paul and Kitty enjoying themselves. He dances with the unsuspecting Kitty and nearly kills a dance hall bully(un-billed Oliver Reed). Later after making it with a snake charmer Hyde goes on a wild romp (including opium smoking) with Paul. Then extracting his revenge he sics the snake on Paul. When Kitty sees her illicit lover dead she fails to her own death. Hyde then strangles the snake charmer. Just when it seems like Hyde will literally get away with murder he reverts to Jekyll and dies.
Many times "new" interpretations of classic stories turn out to be boring and uninspired. Not so with Hammer's TWO FACES which thanks to the master of British horror Terence Fisher becomes an interesting and thought provoking take on Stevenson's Jekyll/Hyde story line. The acting and direction are excellent. The major flaw is the weird transformation of Hyde from Jekyll. Screenwriter Wolf Mankowitz later wrote the 1967 version of CASINO ROYALE. Director Fisher made BRIDES OF DRACULA and SWORD OF SHERWOOD FOREST the same year. Lee, who would later star in another Jekyll & Hyde film I, MONSTER made CITY OF THE DEAD (HORROR HOTEL) the same year.
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THE MOST DANGEROUS MAN ALIVE-1961-Gangster Eddie Candell (Ron Randell) escapes his death row prison cell to seek revenge against Damon (Anthony Curuso), a mob boss who double crossed him. While wandering in the desert Candell is caught in the fallout of a cobalt bomb blast. He (and a watermelon) turns into a literal "man of steel" as his body is fused with metal. Bullets can't hurt him. Two police officers (Gregg Palmer & Morris Ankrum) investigate. Debra Paget (who co-starred with Elvis in LOVE ME TENDER in better times) is his ex-girlfriend who testified against him. He takes her hostage and drives around in a truck full of dynamite. Another ex-girlfriend, Carla (Elaine Stewart) is more cooperative. A big manhunt ensues and Damon tries to kill Candell several times and fails. In the end he throws Damon off a cliff and is reduced to dust by flame throwers. This disjointed very low budget Sci-Fi drama, the last by screen director legend Allan Dwan seems like a TV movie missing a scene or two. The story was co-written by actor Michael Pate.Thanks for reading!
SHOWDOWN-1993-Some bikers beat up some drug dealers and take their stash. The Mayor assigns police captain/martial arts teacher James Long (producer/writer/director Leo Fung) to do something about it. After a botched up stakeout where an undercover officer is killed Long vows revenge against the crime boss Kincade (top billed Werner Hoetzinger). The bikers invade the small town of Sanctuary, a haven for retired gangsters where Richard Lynch is "The Commander". When an ex-mobster (Frank Marth) who recently reunited with his daughter Mickey (Michelle McCormick) is blow up by the gang The Commander calls in Long to "terminate" their leader, the weird looking kind of effeminate Kincade. (Long doesn't seem surprised when on hearing this) Long beats up three bikers and kills two of them. Later a black female gas station attendant beats up half of the gang! Things really hit a wall when one of the ex-mobsters sings at a seniors meeting. Mickey beats up a biker chick but is later taken captive. Long rescues her while beating up guys much bigger than him. Later Long uses a rocket launcher and teams up with The Commander to wipe out the gangs but Kincade escapes and the story suddenly shifts to micro-chips and 2 comedic smugglers. One of them beats down Long but he gets up, gets in his car and follows them like nothing happened! I thought this movie would never end but Long finally beats up Kincade and arrests him.
Troy Donahue appears in one scene at the beginning. The direction, editing and acting in this is martial arts action drama are all sub-par but it was cool to see Lynch in a cowboy hat. Werner Hoetzinger was a set dresser for some movies and TV shows. Thank the lord this was his only acting role! Sometimes confused with the Billy Blanks movie of the same name (made the same year).
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MY YOUNG AUNTIE-1981-An old man doesn't want his brother to get his "assets" after he dies so he marries the young woman who's taking care of him. She goes to Canton to meet the old man's nephew who of course thinks she's an old woman (she's younger than he is) and to turn her husband's estate over to him. No sooner do they meet than she bats up 5 guys. Evil younger brother is after the will. This is full of dumb humor and silly dances but the highlight is a martial arts sword fight during a costume party. The director Chia-Liang Liu also made THE LEGENDARY WEAPONS OF CHINA.Thanks for reading!
ANGEL'S MISSION (aka BORN TO BE BAD)-1990-A policewoman Cynthia (Yukaro Oshima/Cynthia Luster) goes to Hong Kong to visit her mother who's boss is a gang leader. It's very anti-Japanese and a guy gives a ranting speech about how all kidnapped women (from Japan) must be checked for AIDS. Later Cynthia is recruited by the local authorities to smash the crime ring which her mother is connected to. This is another incoherent martial arts bundle of ineptitude by Godfrey Ho (MANHATTAN CHASE). Some of the fights are very well done though.Thanks for reading!
THE MANXMAN-1929-This is usually listed as the last silent film directed by Alfred Hitchcock. It is sort of but his next film BLACKMAIL had silent and sound versions released. His daughter Pat was born around the time of it's shooting.
Pete, a simple fisherman (Carl Brisson, a Danish actor who earlier had been in THE RING by Hitchcock) and Phil, a banker (Malcolm Keen, an English actor in his third film for Hitch; he was the star of THE LODGER ) are lifelong friends. They are both sweet on Kate (Anny Ondra, a Czech actress and star of the director's next film BLACKMAIL), the daughter of a pub owner (Randle Ayrton), Pete wants to propose to Kate but is scared of her mean faced father. Phil seems to put in a good word for Pete but dad isn't buying it and throws him out. Later that night Pete decides to go away and seek his fortune overseas to win Kate who agrees to wait for him. He asks Phil to watch over her while he's gone. Phil meets Kate almost everyday much to the annoyance of Phil's mother who believes Kate is beneath him and threatens her plans for Phil to become a judge. When a telegram arrives saying Pete is dead, Phil and Kate (who have fallen in love) are free to marry. But of course Pete isn't dead. Everybody seems happy by his return except for Phil and Kate (who promptly faints when Phil agrees to be Pete's best man at their wedding!). After they wed Kate becomes pregnant but Phil is the father of her child not her husband. After the child is born Phil becomes a judge (called a "deemster"). Kate can stand the deception no longer and leaves hubby for the new judge but he's worried about a scandal. Pete carries on as best he can without Kate who tries unsuccessfully to get her baby back. She winds up in court before Judge Phil on an attempted suicide charge where he reveals everything and leaves his post in disgrace. Phil and Kate leave to the jeers of the townspeople and Pete goes back to his fishing.This familiar sad story was based on a novel and had been filmed before in 1917. Malcolm Keen is the father of familiar English character actor Geoffrey Keen. Anny Ondra was married to boxer Max Schmeling!
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ALIEN OPPONENT-2010-This science fiction idiocy starts out with a bunch of rednecks drinking beer. Then one of them catches his wife Meghan with another man. Then Meghan's mother kills the husband with a hammer. Then a UFO lands near by. The aliens kill the remaining hicks. Later after not much happens the MIL and daughter advertise on TV to have someone come and hunt down the alien. Lots of dorks come by including a priest (pro wrestler Roddy Piper) with a cross dagger and M-16, a waitress, an exotic dancer, a biker and a soldier of fortune. Even football and baseball teams try to fight it. Some cheerleaders fight over a jock's severed head. The metal clad alien (it looks like a cross between a Star Wars trooper and The Guyver) lets loose slug like creatures and most of the would be "hunters" kill each other (or themselves) accidentally. It uses a reanimated severed head to communicate. Later on everybody starts killing everyone else to "eliminate the competition". This is a gore comedy satire that's not very funny. In fact it's terrible. Most movies like this make me believe the director (in this case Colin Theys) really wanted to make the story serious but couldn't hold it together and had to settle on a parody. Piper who starred in the cult film THEY LIVE! in better days shows how far he has fallen by becoming an animated corpse and getting a baseball & bat stuck in his head.Thanks for reading!
