Girls In Peril

THE HOUSE THAT SCREAMED-1969-A boarding school for girls is run by the strict principal Mme. Forneau (Lilli Palmer). Of course she’s some power crazed disciplinarian who has a sadistic underling whip a girl who defied her. She also has a son Luis (John Moulder-Brown) who lives there and spies on the girls. Mom doesn't want him around any of the students (“These girls are poison”). She may have an unhealthy fondness for him. Luis and one of students Isabel (Maribel Martin) seem to be in love and secretly meet and he worries his mom will find out. Unfortunately a fake note from Luis leads to her being stabbed to death. A new girl Teresa (Cristina Galbo) is caught in the middle. Much time is wasted on a shower scene (very brief nudity) with Luis getting stuck in some kind of drain pipe while spying. Other girls are killed and in the end Luis is building his own girlfriend in the image of his mother. 

Tedious story line and non-action doom this production from Spain by Narciso Ibanez Serrador. 

The next year Moulder-Brown co-starred in the UK stalker film DEEP END. https://moviemeltdown.blogspot.com/2011/04/deep-end.html 

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The Crimson Executioner

THE BLOODY PIT OF HORROR-1965-In1648 a tribunal sentences “The Crimson Executioner” to death. They put him in a very colorful “iron maiden” type of device and seal it. In modern day Italy, publisher Daniel Parks (Alfredo Zucker) and staff visit a castle looking for a photo shoot. When there's no answer at the door one of them climbs in and opens the door from the inside. They do a little exploring then are summoned by the owner Travis Anderson (Mickey Hargitay) who tells them to get out. When they are ready to leave he changes his mind and let's them stay. Of course after they are warned to stay away from certain parts of the castle two jerks go wandering around looking for wine and one then accidentally breaks the seal on The Crimson Executioner's tomb. All goes well with the shoot until an execution device falls and kills one of the men. When a couple Ralph and Suzie go off for a fling they meet the Executioner face to face. Later Anderson explains that the castle they are in once belonged to The Crimson Executioner himself and he’s entombed in the lower chamber or was anyway. Later he spies on the girls while they are dressing and declares “The day of the Crimson Executioner has come”. Bad news. Then Suzie is found in the iron maiden. Rick, a horror writer (Walter Brandi) finds out from Nita that Anderson is actually her former lover, a weird actor who suddenly disappeared. “A muscle man in costume films”. They find one of the other models trapped in a mechanical spider web booby trapped with arrows and poisonous fake spider. Rick rescues her but the guy who went for the police is killed by an arrow in his neck. Anderson says he has the spirit of the Executioner in him but he's just a lunatic who doesn't want mankind “corrupting the harmony of my perfect body”! He keeps three survivors in his torture chamber while Rick escapes from a deadly bed (like the kind in 13 GHOSTS and an episode of TV’s THRILLER). 

By the time Rick gets to the dungeon everyone but Nita is dead. He has to fight the wacky killer and save her. 

Director Massimo Pupillo (TERROR CREATURES FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE) really pushes the envelope with over the top theatrics, an outlandish script and a nutty performance by Hargitay in the lead role.

Italian Horror

L’OSSESSA-1974-Danila (Stella Carnacina) an art historian/painter helps with the restoration of an ancient odd sculpture made of wood that depicts a man being crucified. Her boyfriend Carlo(Gianrico Tondinelli).wants her to move in with him but she can't seem to give up living with her parents. At a party she sees mom having sex with her lover (while dad is in the other room playing cards). She goes to the place where the statue is being kept so she can finish her painting. While there the statue comes to life, turns into a human, tears off her dress and screws her. The place goes on fire but it's all a dream. She calls Carlo for help. He lectures her then takes her home. Walking around in the dark she hears footsteps and her name being called. Chanting voices overwhelm her to orgasm. Mom and dad return to find daughter in full sexual arousement. So much so she comes onto dad (“There's no such thing as incest. It's an invention of the priests”). He slaps her a couple of times to bring her out of it. 

Their doctor suggests a trip to the country. So mom, dad, daughter and Carlo head out for a nice drive. Along the way they get a flat. Wandering around she meets a guy (with an out of control mustache) who’s restoring murals in an old structure. When she looks around she discovers a guy nailed to the cross laughing maniacally. Some extremely pale faced women seem to be getting ready for a human sacrifice. One of them bids her to drink a mug of “fertile sustenance” and then the crucified guy jumps off his cross and nails her to it! This too seems to be a dream/vision/illusion as she wakes up in bed. When their doc can't explain the bloody holes in her hands and feet he calls in some eggheads who agree an exorcism is needed. Their priest thinks it's too big a job for him so they transfer her to a convent where a real exorcist can do his thing. She goes kicking and screaming and later escapes and runs through the deserted streets. Eventually the priest performs the exorcism and Satan (Ivan Rassimov) appears. She tries to seduce the priest and when he is aroused he leaves the room and whips himself. A second exorcism seems to do the trick but he dies. 

This Italian production has it's moments but occasionally drags. Director/writer Mario Gariazzo also made EYES BEHIND THE STARS, an alien encounter movie that played a lot on late TV in the '80's. 

L'OSSESSA is also known as ENTER THE DEVIL and THE EERIE MIDNIGHT HORROR SHOW.  

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Lucky Werewolf

WEREWOLF IN A GIRLS’ DORMITORY- 1961/1963-New teacher  Prof. Julian Olcott (Carl Schell) arrives at a girl's reformatory  school with a secret past that seemed to have gotten him in trouble with the law. One girl Mary (Mary McNeeran) seems to have some kind of blackmail/sex for favors thing going on with older man named Sir Alfred (Maurice Marsac) but she becomes the first victim of a werewolf attack. The school is run by Mr. Swift (Curt Lowens) and Leonor (Grace Neame). Another girl Priscilla (Barbara Lass) figures something's going on. A pipe smoking inspector (Herbert Diamonds) investigates. Caretaker Walter takes Priscilla to meet the person who's being blackmailed but instead she meets dirty old man Sir Alfred’s demanding wife (Annie Steinert) who tries to buy the girl's silence. Later she meets Prof. Olcott in the woods and they have a discussion. After they part Priscilla is attacked by a snarling werewolf but a guard dog drives the wolfman away. While Priscilla remains in shock, Swift questions Olcott who admits he’s trying to find and cure the werewolf though he seems a likely subject himself. Then Walter invades the place while the girls are sleeping to get Sir Alfred's incriminating letters but almost has to smother one girl to death to do it. He runs up a tower and falls to his death but Swift discovers the letters. Later on after the identity of the wolfman is revealed he terrorizes Olcott and Priscilla until he's shot and killed. 

This fairly tame black and white Italy/Austria co-production is drawn out and the dubbing isn't that great. In American prints director Paolo Heusch is credited as Richard Benson. 

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Jack London

TO BUILD A FIRE-1969-Very good but depressing UK adaptation of Jack London's short story of the same name. A doomed man (Ian Hogg) tries to cross snow bound mountain in -70 degree weather with only his dog. It doesn't turn out the way he expected. Orson Welles narrates. Writer/director David Cobham made many documentary shorts before this.

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Vampire

CONDEMNED TO LIVE-1935-Two men and pregnant woman are trapped in a cave full of vampire bats by some natives. The woman is bitten by a bat. 

Years later “in another land” a small village is terrorized by vampire like murders. The victims’ throats are torn open and their bodies drained of blood. Most folks say it's a giant bat but a guy name David (Russell Gleason) disagrees. He thinks it's a man. Professor Kristan (Ralph Morgan) warns everyone to stay indoors and be “protected by light”. He has a hunchback servant named Zan (Mischa Auer) and is a much-admired resident engaged to the much younger Marguerite (Maxine Doyle) who seems honored by the arrangement but a little doubtful. Her childhood friend David doesn't like it. He loves her. 

Anyway, it turns out that Kristan has a few faults. Like at night he turns into a creepy vampire and commits the murders that have the village so frightened! Though he complains about headaches and exhaustion, the good Prof. doesn't seem to know he’s the killer. His old friend Dr. Bizet (Pedro de Cordoba) comes calling and advises him about his engagement. Later when the vampire/professor tries to kill Marguerite, she's saved by Zan but the the villagers think he’s the fiend. When Kristan regains consciousness Bizet explains how the professor was born in a cave after his mother had been bitten by a vampire bat! After clearing Zan, Kristan jumps off a cliff and Zan follows him. Marguerite and David are free to have sex. 

This dark moody horror film from Invincible Pictures was directed by Frank R. Strayer who earlier made THE VAMPIRE BAT and other interesting but mostly forgotten horror films. Soon after this he became the usual director for the BLONDIE series of movies!

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Frankenstein In Italy

FRANKENSTEIN '80-1972-After the credits a woman is attacked and her organs removed by a gurgling killer. Later we learn Dr. Otto Frankenstein (Gordon Mitchell) has stolen a secret formula for regenerating organs and is building a creature who he dubs Mosaic (Xiro Papas). When it’s fully assembled It goes out killing women. First it rapes and strangles a prostitute. Karl (John Richardson; BLACK SUNDAY, ONE MILLION YEARS BC), a reporter hunts down the story and meets Frankenstein’s “daughter” Sonia (Dalila Di Lazzaro). The doc is pretty nuts using various body parts from hapless victims but without a new brain the monster becomes unhinged and kills his creator. While the police search, the lumpy worse for wear monster kills a stripper, a derelict, a guy taking a piss at the Grand Prix and a couple in a parked car. Karl and Sonja fall in love and he goes to the park to get investigate and when he comes back the monster is hiding in his car trunk. Mosaic terrorizes the couple until it’s brain disintegrates and it dies bloodily. 

This made in Italy too dark in many scenes time waster is just an excuse to kill off naked woman. 

It was the only film directed by Mario Mancini, the cinematographer of KING OF KONG ISLAND. In better days US born Gordon Mitchell had been in many “Sand & Sandal” productions and being a muscle man in some Mae West revues. Female lead Dalila Di Lazzaro was later in Dario Argento's PHENOMENA and Klaus Kinski's PAGANINI.

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