RIP PAT FIELDER 1929-2019

An excellent screenwriter has passed away.

Fans of fantastic cinema of the 1950's know who Fielder was. She wrote the screenplay for some of the greatest 50's sci-fi and monster movies ever made.

Those films are "The Vampire" 1957, "Monster That Challenged The World" 1957, "The Flame Barrier" 1958 and "Return Of Dracula" 1958. She also penned several episodes of TV shows including "Policewoman" and "Wagon Train".

Another film she wrote was 1962's "Geronimo". Fielder was a very talented woman who was often overlooked in her day because female screenwriters were rare in Hollywood, but she left all of us kids who loved fantastic cinema something to remember for all of our lives.

She passed away on May 21st at the age of 90.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

Sybil Danning is 67.

TELL TALE HEART 1934 (SINISTER CINEMA)

This is an ultra rare horror film that really should be better known.

Also known as "Bucket Of Blood", this obscure gem is a simple and very short tale about a young man who murders the elderly man who is taking care of him.

Why does he kill him? The old man has a deformed eye that begins to really bother the younger man, and it finally causes him to snap and kill the old man and then bury him in the floorboards of his home.

The young man is slowly driven insane by what he believes to be the dead man's heart beating.

I had never heard of this film until Greg Luce at Sinister Cinema started offering a beautiful 35mm transfer earlier this year. Yes, it's based on the famous Edgar Allen Poe tale, and yes, it can be overly melodramatic at times, but this is a must for all horror fans.

The cast includes Norman Dryden, John Kelt, Yolande Terrell and James Fleck.

PSYCHOUT FOR MURDER 1969 (SINISTER CINEMA)

A very bizarre and twisted film.

Rossano Brazzi wrote the story, the screenplay, directed and stars in this film.

Luscious Adrienne Larussa stars as Licia, a young woman who is tricked by her boyfriend into going into a whore house so he can take incriminating pictures and then blackmail her father Marco (Brazzi).

In order to hide the shame and further his political career Marco and the family have Licia put in a mental hospital for a while. She eventually gets out and acts excited to see her family again.

However, Licia plans to get even with everyone of them no matter how much time it takes. This is a great tale of political corruption and sex. There are many scenes of Licia trying to seduce her sister's husband and they are not soon forgotten.

This was practically a one man act by Brazzi and I have to credit him for putting everything together and keeping his sanity. It's a very difficult thing to handle four chores on one movie.

Larussa easily steals the show with her sultry good looks and switching from innocent to evil in the blink of an eye. She also has what I think is the most erotic bathtub scene ever!! Yep, I'm a fan of hers and believe this may be her best role outside of her Soap Opera role of Brooke Hamilton on Days Of Our Lives, a role she played deliciously as a bad girl for three years.

The movie is a treat for Giallo fans and the print from Sinister is pretty damn good, and I highly recommend this thriller.

THE MANITOU 1978 (SHOUT FACTORY) BLU-RAY

One of my favorite films finally arrives on Blu-ray.

For years I have had my DVD recording from TCM, but now I have the beautiful Blu-ray from Shout.

The story starts with a young woman who seems to have a strange growth on her neck that is growing at an alarming rate. The woman, Karen Tandy (Susan Strasberg) is set up for surgery and contacts her old friend Harry Erskine (Tony Curtis) for support.

During the surgery the head surgeon Dr. Jack Hughes (Jon Cedar) ends up cutting his own hand when he attempts to cut off the growth.

We soon learn that the growth is that of a 400 year old Indian God that is trying to be reborn. As the growth gets even bigger Erskine contacts a modern American Indian medicine man named John Singing Rock (Michael Ansara).

This sets up an interesting battle between ancient magic and modern technology in a modern San Francisco hospital. Some of the effects are a little lacking, but hey, who cares. Director William Grefe handles everything very well as usual, and even though this movie covers a ton of different topics and beliefs, it is still handled in excellent fashion.

The cast of the film also includes Stella Stevens, Paul Mantee, Burgess Meredeth, Ann Southern, Lauren Tuttle, and Inez Perez.

One of the most enjoyable films to come out in the late 70's and it finally gets a chance to shine on Blu. The quality is beautiful and it's even more so when you consider that the negative to the film is missing and Shout had to work with a 35mm print.

The Manitou is a one of a kind film and I can't recommend it enough to horror fans. One of the best releases of the year so far.

GAMBLING WITH SOULS 1936 (SINISTER CINEMA)

Exploitation gem from the mid 30's that is sadly almost forgotten.

Martha Chapin stars as Mae Miller, a young woman married to an up and coming doctor. She wants the finer things in life that her husband simply cannot afford at the moment.

She is tricked into a gambling house by a woman whom she assumes to be a friend and soon finds herself over $10,000 in debt. The owner of the club then decides to tell Mae's husband John (Robert Frazer) but Mae will do anything to hide this shameful fact. The owner named "Lucky" Wilder (Wheeler Oakman) then makes Mae a slave in order to pay off her debt.

Mae's life spins further and further out of control until she kills Lucky during a police raid. This brings us back to the beginning of the movie were Mae was telling her story in flashback.

Nothing really gets resolved in this movie as Mae's fate is to be decided by judge and jury at the final fade out. This isn't too bad of a film and if you're into creaky exploitation films I'd say give this a try. It was tagged as "Adults Only" in it's day due to the ridiculous "Hayes Code".

WOLVES OF THE SEA 1937 (SINISTER CINEMA)

Another Jay Dee Kay production.

Lovely Jean Carmen stars as Nadine Miller, a young woman who is stranded on an island After the steamer she was on sank in a storm.

She is stranded on the island and faces several dangers from the wildlife until she is rescued by the crew of a tramp steamer looking for sunken treasure.

They find the treasure as well as trouble when several men of the crew try to take advantage of Nadine. The plot is very, very simple and straight forward.

I was amazed at the utter cheapness of this production. There are many, many rear projection shots , not just in cars, but with actors just standing in front of a screen talking. Now there is nothing wrong with that, however, it just doesn't work here. There are several shots wherein the projected image in the background is much larger than the actual actors.

In one scene it looks like the actors are talking while giants wonder around them!! The bar fight scene featuring Rondo Hatton is also incredible as it has scenes from another film quickly edited into the scene. That makes everything very disorienting.

This film was quite the experience and while not a bad story, the effects kinda make me wonder a bit. This is cheaper than anything PRC ever did. There is a lot of stock footage from "Jaws Of The Jungle" from the same company.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

Joan Staley is 79, David Hedison is 92, and Constance Towers is 86.

JAWS OF THE JUNGLE 1936 (SINISTER CINEMA)

Extremely obscure film from Jay-Dee-Kay Productions.

This seems to be done in a bit of a semi-documentary style to get past the ridiculous "Hayes Code".

Ceylonese natives are forced to leave their land when they are attacked by swarms of vampire bats. There is a very cool scene of a real vampire bat killing a peacock. I am sure young people today would have to curl up in a safe room and suck their thumb after seeing that, but I thought it was pretty cool.

The director Eddie Granemann narrates as there is no dialogue. Lots of topless native women working are shown and as I said, it has the feeling of a documentary. I couldn't find any reviews for this oddity, but if you get the chance and like odd and offbeat 30's films, you might want to check this out.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

Nancy Kwan is 80.

BRAIN OF BLOOD 1972 (SEVERIN) BLU-RAY

An Al Adamson gem.

I hadn't seen this film for a number of years and forgot just how much weird fun it is.

Amir (Reed Hadley) is dying of cancer and his country will fall apart if he does not live. Some of his countrymen including Bob (Grant Williams) and Mohammad (Zandor Vorkov) rush his fresh corpse to the USA for a bizarre operation.

Dr. Trenton (Kent Taylor) has planned to transfer Amir's brain into another body, but when things don't go as planned, he uses the body of a disfigured, hulking giant named Gor (John Bloom).

However, Trenton's real plan is to control the leader of Kalid and then rule the entire world at some point. This is a totally off the wall film that usually goes in several directions at once and has a ton of plot holes, but who cares?

This film was made so Hemisphere would have a release for the year 1971. Sam Sherman and Al Adamson made this to fill the bill and it has actually been called the most Philippine movie not made in the Philippines.

The rest of the cast includes Vicki Volante, Richard Smedley and Angelo Rossitto.

THE BLOOD DRINKERS 1964 (SEVERIN) BLU-RAY

I reviewed this a few months ago, but this is a substantial upgrade.

This is easily one of the oddest vampire movies ever made. Ronald Remy stars as Dr. Marco who is actually a vampire.

In this film he is trying to bring his very ill and dying wife back to health by supplying her with blood. When this doesn't work, he makes the effort with his hunchback assistant and his female counterpart, Tanya (Eva Montes) to obtain the heart of his wife's twin sister played by the gorgeous Amalia Fuentes.

Soon Marco has an entire vampire army victimizing the small village where he has set up shop.

There are some genuinely creepy moments in this film and the bizarre use of ever changing colors works well to enhance the strangeness of the entire production.

I love this little film and I think there is way too much negative attitude directed at this horror gem. Gerry De Leon directed this and the presentation on Blu-ray looks a hundred times better than the previous editions I have seen.

This chiller is part of the Hemisphere Horrors Box set, which is one of the top releases of the year so far. If you get the chance you can check this out and see if you agree with me or not. Philippine horror at it's finest.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

Diane McBain is 78.

UNTAMED FURY 1947 (SINISTER CINEMA)

Strange little PRC adventure film.

The film opens with an elderly black man meeting a reporter on a small pier on the Okefenokee Swamp and he relates a tale which starts our movie.

Two young boys grow up together and are used as gator bait by their fathers. One comes back to the swamps after he has gone off to college. That young man is Jeff Owens (Steve Pendleton).

Jeff wants to help the swamp people make better lives for themselves with what he has learned in college. Most of the people living there are resentful and want him to leave.

"Gator Bait" Blair (Mikel Conrad), Jeff's childhood friend now hates him for leaving the swamps for the outside world and tries the hardest to stop him. He even goes so far as to try and kill him.

Jeff is determined however and does not stop. This movie struck me as a really off the wall presentation, but none the less fun and, believe it or not, fast moving.

This is also the first credited role for actor E.G. Marshall. He;s much younger, but he still looks like he did in later films. This is an oddity that you really should see.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

Joan Blackman is 81, and Dawn Dunlap is 51.