For lovers of movies from the silent era to modern day with an emphasis on horror, sci-fi, exploitation, WIP, westerns and anything of the fantastic and bizarre. THIS SITE IS DEDICATED TO BOB WILKINS, GEORGE ROMERO, ALAN FREED, ROGER CORMAN, HELGA LINE, CAROLINE MUNRO, JOHN FREDRIKSEN, JOHN ZACHERLE, CLEO MOORE , ROSALBA NERI, ERIKA BLANC, FEMI BENUSSI, SHIRLEY CORRIGAN, ROSANNA YANNI, MIRTA MILLER, KARIN DOR, BARBARA BOUCHET, MAMIE VAN DOREN, BARBARA STEELE and, of course, CASEY KASEM.
Sunday, June 9, 2019
Saturday, June 8, 2019
THE BLACK GESTAPO 1975 (MILL CREEK)
The team of Lee Frost and Wes Bishop strike again.
Rod Perry stars as General Ahmed a man who has started an inner city army to help relieve the suffering of people in Watts. His Colonel named Kojah (Charles Robinson) is dis-satisfied with the way things are going and after a beautiful young nurse is assaulted and three members of the People's Army are almost killed by white drug pushers, he starts to get his own ideas.
Kojah gather several men together and they go after the pushers and pimps with guns, knives and straight razors. One the neighborhood is cleaned up Kojah gets other ideas as well. He and his new Army start pushing more drugs than the Mafia ever did as well as prostitution and protection rackets.
Things continue to escalate until Ahmed has to take things into his own hands to stop all the violence and terror. I read a lot of bad reviews about this film and I had heard of it for years,but never seen it.
When it came out from Mill Creek in the set called "Soul Team Six" I decided to give it a try. I liked this movie, despite what everyone else says about it. The movie compares the out of control black army to the Nazi's, and I guess that gets everyone upset.
Not a bad movie by any means and if you're a fan of the genre you should check it out. Mill Creek sourced this out from a 2002 Brentwood DVD which is from an old VHS, but sadly this is about the only way to see this movie anymore, so go for it.
Friday, June 7, 2019
THE BLACK SIX 1973 (MILL CREEK)
Interesting blaxploitation film.
Matt Cimber directed this movie which is considered the first all black biker film.
The film opens with the killing of a young black man because he is seeing a white girl and her biker brother doesn't like that idea at all. He and his gang of bikers kill the man by beating him to death with chains on a football field.
Enter Bubba Daniels (Gene Washington) who gets a telegram about his brother Eddie's death. Daniels and his friends head up to the town Daniels is from to investigate the death.
Everywhere Bubba goes he finds people unwilling to talk about what happened or to help with the investigation. Things slowly get out of hand and Bubba and his friends decide to get things done their way.
This leads to a final confrontation between the white biker gang and the Black 6. The white biker gang is led by a huge man who calls himself Thor and is played by football great Ben Davidson.
As a matter of fact the entire cast is made up of NFL stars such as Carl Eller, Joe Green, Gene Washington, Lem Barney, Mercury Morris, Willie Lanier and more.
This isn't a bad film at all and I found myself really enjoying it. The source material for the film was obviously a 2002 DVD print from Brentwood, but it's very watchable and to be honest, it's probably the only way to see this film anymore.
This is included on a set of six movies from Mill Creek called "Soul Team Six" and more from that set will follow in the next few days.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...
Pamela Susan Shoop is 71, Mick Foley is 54, Gary Kent is 86, and Sally Todd is 85.
Thursday, June 6, 2019
TRUCK STOP WOMAN 1974 (KINO/CODE RED)
I found this interesting, but a bit disappointing as well.
Lieux Dressler stars as a woman named Anna who runs a brothel for truckers and also hi-jacks selected trucks to make money on the side.
Her daughter Rose (Claudia Jennings) helps her out but wants to do something different in life. When the Mafia tries to move in on Anna's private business Rose falls for a slick Mafia man and turns against her mother and family.
There is plenty of country music, violence and trucks racing up and down the highways. There are also plenty of beautiful women in this film as it's always a total pleasure seeing the gorgeous Claudia without clothes.
However, this does not make the movie as good as it should have been. Mark Lester directed and the results are somewhat flat, which surprises me a lot.
Usually a film like this will hold my attention and there were several spots where my mind was drifting elsewhere, and that to me is a bad sign. If you are so inclined you might want to watch this. I mean after all there is a frequently nude Claudia Jennings.
The rest of the cast includes Len Lesser, Jennifer Burton, John Martino, Paul Carr and Delores Dorn.
Wednesday, June 5, 2019
TORTURE CHAMBER OF DR. SADISM 1967 (SEVERIN) BLU-RAY
One of my favorite films and film titles.
Christopher Lee stars as Count Regula, a demented madman who, at the beginning of the film is drawn and quartered for the killing of 12 virgins in his torture chamber.
Flash forward 35 years later when a man named Roger Von Marienberg ( Lex Barker) who arrives in a small European town and receives an invitation to a castle that the locals call the castle of blood.
He journeys to the castle with another man claiming to be a priest. On their way to the castle they have to rescue two beautiful women from highwaymen. The women are Baroness Lilian von Brabant (Karin Dor) and her servant Babette (Christiane Rucker). Roger learns that the Baroness has also been invited to the mysterious castle.
Upon arrival they both find themselves at the mercy of a revived Count Regula who is seeking revenge on both of them as they are descendants of the people who has him executed.
There are some excellent set pieces in this film such as a forest full of corpses, a castle full of mysterious rooms, vultures in a hallway and much more.
Karin Dor is incredibly beautiful as usual and the film flows along very well. I was first introduced to this movie way back in the mid 1980's on a heavily edited VHS tape that ran only 70 minutes.
The Blu-ray release from Severin is very welcome and it is sourced from 2 different 16mm prints. I know the "fanboys" have already been complaining, but there is simply nothing wrong with the print. This is an exclusive release included only with the Hemisphere Horrors set. It is not sold separately.
If you're a Christopher Lee fan, or horror fan in general, I recommend this gem.
Tuesday, June 4, 2019
MODELS INC. 1955 (AMAZON PRIME)
Dark and gritty film noir from director Reginald Le Borg.
Coleen Gray stars as a young woman named Rusty Faraday, a woman we are introduced to while she is blackmailing her latest male friend. From this moment on we know what kind of person she is.
Rusty has a racket going and she soon gets involved in a modeling agency. She falls hard for the boss and he for her as well. He is John Stafford (John Howard) and both hit it off pretty good.
Everything seems to be going well until Rusty's old business partner, Lennie Stone (Howard Duff) shows up and starts making things miserable for Rusty and everyone else.
Lennie decides to open up his own photo studio which is a bit on the sleazy side. Soon a tide of blackmail and murder commences and nothing ends well for anyone involved.
This is a film I had never heard of until I saw it Amazon Prime while I was looking for something else. The cast is excellent and it's always a joy to see Coleen in anything. This is a good film noir that sadly isn't too well known today.
The rest of the cast includes James Seay, Marjorie Reynolds, Sue Carlton and Lou Lubin. Recommended.
Monday, June 3, 2019
THE BLACK CAT 1966 (SEVERIN) BLU-RAY
Rare film shot in Texas.
I haven't seen this film in almost 30 years and I am very glad Severin decided to bring this out on Blu-ray as part of their Hemisphere Horror collection.
A young woman buys her non-caring husband a cat for their first wedding anniversary and he slowly comes to believe that the cat is out to kill him.
He cuts out the cats eye and then decides to hang the cat and electrocute him. Lou (Robert Frost) does exactly this, but also manages to burn the mansion he and his wife live in down to the ground.
After assaulting his wife and then the insurance man after learning that the mansion was never insured, Lou is committed to an asylum for therapy and shock treatments.
After a while he is released. His wife, Diana (Robyn Baker) is happy about this, but not the housekeeper Lillian (Sadie French). Lillian does not believe Lou is cured at all.
Lou is released and still hits the bottle heavily. Soon a black cat starts haunting him and things get even worse. For many. many years we all saw some gruesome pics of this film in magazines like Famous Monsters, but the film eluded many of us.
The eyeball scene and the ax in the head are not soon forgotten. Severin has given us this film in a 4k transfer, and it looks better than it ever has. There are a couple of scenes that has to be used from other sources and the quality does vary a bit, but that is nothing.
This Texas made thrill was picked up by Hemisphere for a double bill, and a huge thanks to Severin for putting this out. This is not available separately on Blu-ray but only as part of the Hemisphere Horror box set.
Sunday, June 2, 2019
OLD DRACULA 1974 (MGM)
45 years ago I read about this movie in Famous Monster Of Filmland, and yet have never seen it.
I have since read a lot of reviews about this movie and it seems most people don't like this film.
American International decided to make this film after "Young Frankenstein" was such a huge hit and while the humor isn't slapstick, I still found it very good and amusing.
David Niven stars as Count Dracula who is going to use the blood of several Playboy Bunnies in order to find the proper blood mixture to bring his long dead wife back to life.
With the help of his assistant he manages to get blood from each female, but the results are not what he had planned. When his wife, named Vampira comes back to lfe she is a stunning black female played by the stunningly beautiful Teresa Graves.
This causes complications for Drac, so he and his wife fly to LA to find out what has happened and to try and correct the problem, if possible.
Now, if it was me, I would have no complaints if my wife came back as a stunning creature with an insatiable sexual appetite, but that is just a personal opinion. Also, since I am not a PC person, I didn't find the film offensive in the least.
Graves steals the show, as she always did in her brief career and I found the movie to be very well done. Yep. I liked it and I can't believe that it took all these years for me to see this.
The rest of the cast includes Veronica Carlson and beautiful Linda Hayden. The end of the film is good as both the count and his wife survive, but the blackface make-up on Niven just doesn't work.
However, all that aside, if you're looking for something light, this is it. I just can't get Teresa Graves out of my mind, which isn't a bad thing at all.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...
Stacy Keach is 78, Susan Hart is 78, A. J. Styles is 41, and Jamie Szantyr is 38.
Saturday, June 1, 2019
THE RAVAGER 1970 (AMERICAN ARCANA) BLU-RAY
Another wonder from Charles Nizet.
Pierre Agostino stars as Joe Salkow a former Vietnam vet who witnessed a young Vietnamese woman being raped and blown to bits by two men, and this effects him and he leaves the service for a few months of rehab.
When he leaves rehab he immediately starts to stalk and blow up couples he spies on who are having sex. He also rents a small room from a woman who lives out in the middle of nowhere and the two are constantly bickering.
Joe buys some dynamite and goes on a killing spree while the police are baffled as to who is doing this and a motive.
Watching Joe's face as he spies on lovers is something made of a bad dream. He distorts his face as if in great pain while he sweats buckets. He is a voyeur taken to the extreme.
This is a truly bizarre film that could only have come from the mind of Nizet, his work is unmistakable. This is a curio from a bygone era, and one that I am thankful has been turned out on Blu-ray for the masses to again see. Will you enjoy it? Only if you're a sick and twisted person like me who craves bottom of the barrel films.
Included with the Blu-ray are other trailers for films from Something Weird as well as an interesting booklet about the life and times of Charles Nizet. That itself makes for a fascinating read.
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