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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Remake

DA SWEET BLOOD OF JESUS-2014-The crazy Dr. Hightower (Rami Malek) is talked out of suicide by his colleague Dr. Hess Greene (Stephen Tyrone Williams). Later they have a fight and Hightower stabs Greene with an ancient knife. After Hightower finally does kill himself Greene comes back to life as a blood drinking “vampire”. When his suicide attempt fails he robs a blood bank (after starting a fire as a distraction). Then he kills a hooker and drinks her blood. Mrs. Ganja Hightower (Zaraah Abrams) arrives looking for her husband. She and Greene have sex and she later discovers hubby's body in the basement freezer. She doesn't really care, so she and Greene dump the body and get married. He kills her with the knife and she comes back like him. After killing the butler and another woman, Greene seeks redemption at a church but dies under the sign of the cross. Ganja goes to meet her new partner/lover: the woman they killed earlier. 

Terrible talky and pretentious remake of GANJA AND HESS that tries to modernize the story and deepen the religious overtones. The original had its faults but it was a low budget personal film. Here once again director Spike Lee is only looking for attention.

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Williamson/Arnold

BLACK EYE-1974-A former cop named Stone (Fred Williamson) who was kicked off the force for killing a pusher after his sister died from an overdose, gets involved in the search for the cane of a dead old actor (it kind of looks like the one in THE WOLFMAN). After a hooker is killed his ex-boss (Richard X Slattery) puts him on the case. Meanwhile his kind of girlfriend Cynthia (Teresa Graves; also in THAT MAN BOLT with Williamson) is having an affair with a female fashion designer (Rosemary Forsyth). While helping a father (Richard Anderson) rescue his daughter from Jesus freaks, a search leads to porno flicks and drug dealing. Stone (who frequently eats while talking) is usually hostile to whites (good or bad) and is actually res-ponsible for the death of an old man (Cyril Delevanti). It all has to do with heroin hidden in the cane and using old actors as drug mules! 

It's pretty sub-standard but Jack Arnold though a busy TV director at the time managed to direct Williamson the next year in BOSS NIGGER.

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Frank!

FEARLESS FRANK-1967-In this comedy/parody nuttiness country boy Frank (Jon Voight in his film debut) leaves his home and goes to the city where he falls for Plethora (Monquie van Voorhen,) daughter of mob leader Needles (author Nelson Algren) and is killed. “The Good Doctor” (Severn Darden) brings him back to life as a super hero to fight evil. Frank can fly, is bulletproof and is very strong. His strange gang consists of Cat (Ben Carruthers), Rat (David Steinberg) and Screwnose. Later the doctor's evil brother Claude (also Darden) shows up and creates “False Frank” to combat the hero. Eventually both Franks meet and have a fight on some roller coaster tracks. When Frank is killed it's up to False Frank to save the city from destruction. Director Phillip Kaufman creates a weird personal (maybe too personal) one of a kind low budget oddity that seems to be using elements of Frankenstein, Superman, My Fair Lady and even FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE SPACE MONSTER! Outrageous touches include Frank and Plethora having sex with loud Batman TV show sound effects.

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A Vacation Forever

MR. MOTO TAKES A VACATION-1939-The (phony) Japanese detective gets involved in protecting an ancient relic called “The Queen of Sheba's Crown” in San Francisco's Chinatown. Moto (who also appears in disguises) is less suspiciously acting than usual and is shot at several times by a mysterious trench coated figure. Mr. Featherstone (GP Huntley), the English dandy shows up to get in the way and Moto surmises that Mataxsa, an international jewel thief might be after the crown despite the fact that he's suppose to be dead! Suspects include Hildebrand (Lionel Atwill) the museum curator, Stevens (John “Dusty” King), the guy who headed the expedition that found the crown and Manderson (Joseph Schildkraut), the expedition's sponsor. In their finale fight Moto and Mataxsa nearly wreck the museum! 

Norman Foster once again directed this, the last of 8 Mr. Moto films with Peter Lorre.

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Late Karloff

THE SORCERERS-1967-Old “medical hypnotist” Prof. Monserrat (Boris Karloff) has a weird machine in a room in the apartment he shares with his wife Estelle (Catherine Lacey). Mike (Ian Oglivy), a bored young man answers Monserrat's advertisement for a subject. After a psychedelic experiment, the elderly couple can control Mike's mind and feel all his sensations. The professor wants to use the machine to help mankind but Estelle wants to keep it secret and makes Mike steal a fur coat. They live vicariously through Mike's actions (swimming, riding a motorcycle). When he takes a drink of whiskey Monserrat mumbles “horrible stuff”. Estelle makes him fight and almost kill his best friend. She gets power crazy and when hubby threatens to “de-process” Mike, Estelle hits him with his own cane and destroys the machine. She makes Mike kill a young girl (Susan George) he meets and then a singer at a club. When Mike is almost forced once again to kill his friend he flees the police by car. The professor regains control in time to make Mike crash in a fiery explosion. Back in their apartment the professor and his wife are burned corpses. 

Director Michael Reeves completed only one more film after THE SORCERERS (WITCHFINDER GENERAL with Vincent Price and Ian Oglivy) before dying of an accidental barbiturates overdose. The story goes that the original screenplay by John Burke was re-written by Reeves and Tom Baker (not the Doctor Who actor) to make Karloff's character more sympathetic (supposedly at Karloff's insistence). Burke was created only with “idea by”. Years later and after his death Burke's original screenplay was found and published. Whatever the case Reeves' final version may not be a masterpiece but it has it's moments.

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Depp on the Internet

TRANSCENDENCE-2014-Dr. Will Caster (Johnny Depp), a doctor working with artificial intelligence is shot with a radioactive bullet by an anti-A.I. terrorist group. While he's dying, his wife Evelyn (Rebecca Hall) borrows a computer program from a dead colleague and with the help of Caster's friend Max (Paul Bettany), they upload his mind into a computer. After they connect him to the internet, Max has second thoughts about what they've done. Later the terrorist group kidnaps Max and their leader Bree (Kate Mara) convinces Max to join them. Once Caster is on line he can control everything even helping a government agent (Cillian Murphy) arrest the terrorists. Meanwhile another scientist (Morgan Freeman) figures it all out while computer Will and Evelyn set up headquarters in a dying mid-west town. It's obvious things will get out of hand when Will saves a dying contractor and takes over his body, much to Evelyn's displeasure. The government decides to shut down the internet and blame it all on the poor terrorists (who's stupid actions actually caused the whole thing in the first place). Evelyn also comes to regret her actions and when their compound is under siege Caster says “We're not gonna fight them. We are going to transcend them”. A violent finale leads to a poignant ending where the world is changed drastically. 

This movie isn't as bad as I thought it would be and has good acting and SFX but it's too long! As of this writing it's the only directorial effort by Wally Pfister.

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