THE SET UP 1949 (WARNERS)

A great film noir set in real time.

Director Robert Wise takes us into a very dark world of boxing.

Robert Ryan stars as Stoler, a washed up boxer who is desperate to make one last try at gaining a title match. He long suffering wife, Julie (Audrey Totter) is hoping he will retire and have a much simpler and better life with her.

Stoker gets in the ring with a much younger opponent and has a great fight but his manager hasn't told him that gangsters want the fight fixed and that he has to take a fall.

Stoker gives it his all and he actually beats the young man, which sets the wheels in motion for the gangsters to get even.

After the match is over, Little Boy (Alan Baxter) and his men beat the hell out of Stoker in an alley behind the boxing palace and Stoker desperately tries to get back to his wife.

That's the story in a nutshell, but as I mentioned, it's done in real time. This means that the film which runs 72 minutes, actually takes place on screen in 72 minutes as well.

The cast is top notch and also includes George Tobias, Wallace Ford, and Percy Hilton. This is a gritty and nasty of a film noir as you are likely to see and one that comes highly recommended!!

3 FROM HELL

Garbage.

Just garbage.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

Jackie Joseph is 86, and Shannon Whirry is 55.

CREEPY CLASSICS 1987 (HALLMARK)

This is a fun little 30 minute compilation of trailers and clips.

Hosted by Vincent Price, this is a fun little collection to sit and watch, and price does a great job and is the perfect host.

There are clips of such films as "Night Of The Living Dead", "Invasion Of The Body Snatchers", "The Raven", "I Was A Teenage Werewolf", "War Of The Colossal Beast", "The Blob" plus many more.

This has never had a DVD release and is still on VHS only, but if you get the chance to see it sometime it makes for a perfect Halloween season view.

CREEPSHOW EPISODE 6 (SHUDDER)

The final episode of the first season.

The first story is entitled "Skincrawlers" and is about a doctor that has a new miracle weight loss program that never fails. It involves fat sucking leeches. However things start to get out of hand during a solar eclipse.

This story goes over the top with the gore effects and is easily the most disturbing tale of the entire brief season one run.

Story 2 is called "By The Silver Water Of Lake Champlain" and it involves a family that lives by a lake where a monster is supposed to live. Tom Savini directed this and it's not too bad. The creature effects are top notch and not the usual CGI crap.

Both of these stories reminded me more of "Weird Science" from the old EC comics days. It's sad that 6 episodes is a complete season in this modern world. When I was growing up a complete season was anywhere from 24 to 32 episodes.

Well I will wait and see what happens when season 2 starts...whenever that will be. If you like horror anthologies, this show is an absolute must.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO.,.

Elke Sommer is 79, and Chris Robinson is 81.

COMING ATTRACTIONS....

Great news from Scream Factory.

Scream has announced that on Feb 18th, 2020 they will be releasing the Blu-ray of "X The Unknown" and it's about damn time.

The Hammer Film classic deals with a giant blob monster from the center of the Earth. Great story, great movie!! One of my all time favorites.

LET IT RAIN 1955 (MILL CREEK)

What this is doing on a DVD set entitled "Monster Movie Mix" is beyond me, but here it is.

This is an episode of GE Theater starring Ronald Reagan and Cloris Leachman and it is more of a love story than anything else.

Reagan is Laren McCall, a writer who comes to a small southern town to debunk a local legend concerning a confederate soldier who fell in love with a local girl, left for battle and never returned.

He soon falls for a young woman named Leah Beth (Leachman) and slowly discovers that not only is the legend true, but both are also descendants of both the soldier and the young woman from times gone by.

I somewhat enjoyed the story and I always like Reagan and Leachman in anything they do, but I have to be honest and say I was disappointed a bit, but that may be due to the fact that this was included on a set that is advertised to be monsters and such, and seeing this was a letdown.

Seeing this as just a drama presented in 1955 on TV, it is how TV should always be...entertaining without being overbearing. If you ever see this episode you will enjoy it if you like drama and love stories, but if you see it on a monster movie dvd set you might be disappointed in it.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

Monique Parent is 54, Linda Haynes is 72, and Irene Tsu is 74.

CATTLE QUEEN OF MONTANA 1954 (VCI)

It has been a number of years since I first wrote about this movie here and I thought it was time for a second look.

I first heard about the movie when I was very young and then again in the 1980's. It was during this time I heard it was one of the worst films ever made. Turns out that was just political bunk written by people who don;t like Ronald Reagan.

In reality, this is a very well done western directed by Allen Dwan for RKO studios. Barbara Stanwyck stars as Sierra Nevada Jones, a young woman who comes to Montana with her father played by Morris Ankrum.

Soon after they arrive to stake their claim on some orime land her father is killed and the cattle stolen by a renegade Indian named Natchakoa (Anthony Caruso) who is in turn working for a white man named McCord (Gene Evans) who wants all of the land and cattle for himself.

Sierra and her friend Nat Collins (Chubby Johnson) are left for dead after the raid and later rescued by a kind Blackfoot Indian named Colorados (Lance Fuller).

This angers Natchakoa and McCord who want them both dead. Sierra sets out to prove that McCord is the one behind all of the trouble between the Indians and the white men. Ronald Reagan is Farrell, a US Government agent working undercover as a plant in the McCord gang, and this brings about the eventual demise of McCord and Natchakoa.

Even thought this is a standard western, it's still a heck of a lot of fun and should please any western fan. My roommate picked this up at a dollar store and it was a pleasant surprise. As I said, I hadn't seen it in years. If you get a chance check out the beautiful technicolor film.

The rest of the cast includes Jack Elam, Yvette Duguay, Myron Healey, Byron Folger and Burt Mustin.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

Tom Savini is 73, Debbie Rochon is 51, Claudia Barrett is 90, and Ariane Andrew is 32.

BORN YESTERDAY 1950 (COLUMBIA)

Fun Columbia comedy that should be seen by every comedy fan.

Lovely Judy Holliday stars as Billie Dawn, the air headed blonde companion of a reckless and irresponsible junk tycoon named Harry Brock (Broderick Crawford).

Harry is very tired of Billie being so "stupid" and he hires a journalist named Paul Verrall (William Holden) to smarten her up. Over time they start to fall for each other despite the objections of Harry.

Harry soon regrets having Billie smarten up because she come to realize that he is a no good crook and that he has been using her all this time is shady business deals.

This isn't a knee slapping comedy, but it does have it's great moments, especially when Billie does her imitation of Harry when she bellows "Do as I tell ya" in her best Broderick Crawford voice.

George Cukor directed this gem in which Holliday won an Oscar for best actress for this film and it was well deserved. Holliday had a style for comedy and knew exactly how to deliver it spot on.

William Holden is good in this movie, but it was still about a year before he would break through as a huge star on his own. All in all this is a fun film and a total joy to see. The rest of the cast includes Howard St. John and Frank Otto.

If you want a good time and some great light comedy this is a perfect film for you. RECOMMENDED!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

Stefanie Powers is 77, Michael Buffer is 75, and Charlotte Austin is 86.

GANGSTERLAND 2017 (CINEDIGM)

Interesting gangster film that has a good story to tell.

This movie tells the story of the rise and fall of "Machine Gun" Jack McGurn (Sean Faris) who was at one time the number one man in the Al Capone organization in Chicago in the 1920's.

McGurn was the man who masterminded the infamous St. Valentines Day Massacre in 1929. Faris does an ok job portraying the one time small circuit boxer who turned gangster.

Milo Gibson is Al Capone and while this was a good film as far as gangster films of this era goes, it did distort a few facts from history, but you kind of expect that anymore with movies. They usually do.

Jamie Lynn Sigler is great as Lulu, the singer and dancer who becomes the wife of McGurn and tries to get him to settle down and focus on wife and family.

If you like gangster era films you might like this, but be forewarned it's nothing you haven't seen before and sometimes even much better. It's what I consider to be an OK time killer.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

Jo Morrow is 80, and Robert Foxworth is 78.