WILL SUCCESS SPOIL ROCK HUNTER 1957 (TWILIGHT TIME) BLU-RAY

One of the greatest comedy/satire films ever produced.

Frank Tashlin directed this effort starring Tony Randall as Rockwell Hunter, a young man on the rise in an advertising agency.

He needs to come up with a new advertising campaign for "Stay Put Lipstick" or he will lose his job. He comes up with the idea to get sexy movie star Rita Marlowe (Jayne Mansfield) to endorse the product, and this leads to complications he can't even imagine.

The idea is way more of a success than anyone could foresee, but it might also cost him his girlfriend and a normal life. There are plenty of laughs and sharp satire at the TV industry in this brilliant film.

Jayne Mansfield will always be a favorite of mine and I can never get enough of her. Director Tashlin also helmed Mansfield's all time best film entitled "The Girl Can't Help It".

I bought this Blu-ray after I found out the Twilight Time was going out of business and I'm glad I did. It had been years since I last saw it, and it has lost none of it's fun for me to watch.

I highly recommend this film and if you're a fan I urge you to get this release before it goes out of print for a long time,. Check it out. I didn't give away too much of the plot because this is a film I believe must be seen to be appreciated.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

John Amplas is 71, Jessie McKay is 31, and Brandi Rhodes is 37.

GODZILLA VS. MEGALON 1973 (CRITERION) BLU-RAY

Every series has a low point, and in the Godzilla series, this IS the low point.

I first saw this on NBC way back in 1975 or so when John Belushi hosted it wearing a Godzilla suit. What a terrible memory that is as the film was cut to fit an hour time slot, and that was the last time I saw it until I got a VHS of it many years later and saw the entire movie.

I simply hated it then and now seeing it on Blu-ray I can't say I like it much better. The story revolves around the Seatopians, a lost race of people under the ocean who are tired of our atomic testing, so they send a monster to the surface named Megalon to teach us a lesson.

They also bring Gigan to Earth to help out and it turns into a wrestling match against Godzilla and Jet Jaguar, a robot invented by one of the characters who suddenly becomes giant size and helps Godzilla.

The acting is god-awful and the monster antics are no better. Again, tons of stock footage is used and it's not even used well. Seems like it's just thrown together and inserted when they had nothing else to show.

This is a HUGE disappointment and even though I have tried to like it, I can't. Easily the worst of the entire Showa-Era, there were two more Godzilla films to come, and each, while not the greatest, are far better than this turgid junk. I will say the print is gorgeous, but that is all I can say.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

Bruce Campbell is 62, Lindsay Wagner is 71, and Kris Kristofferson is 84.

CRY OF THE WEREWOLF 1944 (COLUMBIA)

Nifty little thriller from Columbia.

Nina Foch stars as a young woman who is a Princess in a gypsy camp who is hiding a terrible secret and will do anything to keep it that way.

After the mysterious murder of his father, Bob Morris (Stephen Crane) seeks to find the answers as to who killed him and why. Helping him on this mission is his young bride to be Elsa Chauvet (Osa Massen).

Bob's investigation takes him down a road involving the supernatural while a police investigator named Barry Lane (Barton MacLane) refuses to believe any of it.

Bob meets the gypsy Princess Celeste LaTour and things take a much darker turn.

This was a fun little movie which I hadn't seen in almost 35 years. It's an interesting take on the werewolf genre of films and Foch is very good in the title role of the cursed woman.'

At only 63 minutes, the movie has a very brisk pace and never slows down. I liked the cast of this film and I have always liked Osa Massen and will watch anything with her in it. The rest of the excellent cast includes Fritz Leiber, Milton Parsons, Blanche Yurka, Ivan Triesault and John Abbott.

I would recommend this little thriller to anyone who simply likes older horror/mystery films.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

Mariette Hartley is 80, and Ron Ely is 82.

GODZILLA VS. GIGAN 1972 (CRITERION) BLU-RAY

Jun Fukuda directed this movie, and it's another one of my favorites, and for the life of me I cannot explain why.

This film took 5 years to reach the US shores and it played on TV quite a bit. The story revolves around a race of alien cockroaches from a far away galaxy that have come to Earth to take over.

The aliens are building a Godzilla theme park as a cover for their plans to destroy all life on Earth. They enlist the aid of King Ghidorah and Gigan to help with the plan.

A small group of humans attempt to stop the invasion once they discover what is happening. Godzilla and Anguirus also show up and fight with the other monsters.

At this time the Japanese film industry was in despair and many actors had been cut by the studios and budgets lowered. This is one reason why the actors are new to the series and there is so much stock footage from other films during the battle scenes.

The one really stupid thing in this film is when Godzilla and Anguirus start talking! In the Japanese version there are actually bubble captions which contain their conversation, much like a comic book. Why this was done, I have no idea, but it doesn't work.

But. I admit again, I do love this film and it never fails to entertain me. Things would even get worse for the Showe-Era in the coming years.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

Candy Clark is 73, Brett Halsey is 87, and Zia Mohyeddin is 89.

GODZILLA VS. HEDORAH 1971 (CRITERION) BLU-RAY

One of my favorite Godzilla films from the Showa-Era.

This movie played on a double bill across the country in 1972 with the AIP horror gem "Frogs".

Hedorah is a monster born of pollution and radioactive waste that suddenly pops into being in Japan. The monster is quite unique in that it can change shapes and sizes and it emits a deadly gas and a very corrosive acid.

Godzilla arrives to fight the monster and finds an enemy like no other. The film didn't do well at the box office here or in Japan, and even producer Tomoyuki Tanaka found the film to be a little much for a franchise that was becoming very kiddie oriented.

There are several scenes of people decaying from Hedorah's fumes or from being buried in sludge which flies off of the monster when Godzilla spins him around.

An odd mixture of the 70's hippie movement in Japan and monster films works well for me anyway. I have always been a huge fan of this film and I guess nothing will ever change my mind. It is a much darker film than any of the other 70's Godzilla films and that is the reason people either love it or hate it.

I found the actors very good in their roles, the young women are very beautiful including the woman singing the title song during the opening credits. The movie looks fantastic on the Blu-ray and I highly recommend this to any Godzilla fan.

I love this film so much I still have my Hedorah action figure...lol.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

Paula Abdul is 58, Daria Nicolodi is 70, and Rosalba Neri ids 82.

DANGER DIABOLIK 1968 (SHOUT FACTORY) BLU-RAY

One of the top releases of the year!!

This title has been long awaited by many people, and thanks to Shout it has become a beautiful reality.

John Phillip Law stars as international criminal Diabolik, a genius who is always outwitting the police and other underworld mobsters as well. A determined police inspector named Ginko (Michel Picolli) is hot on his trail but continues to fall short of capturing Diabolik.

Fed up with this, Ginko contacts a top mobster in Italy named Ralph Valmont (Adolfo Celi) and blackmails him into helping the police capture the master criminal.

Diabolik continues to steal from the very wealthy and finally gets fed up with people trying to catch him so he blows up almost every government tax building in Italy and throws the country into turmoil. Finally the police manage to track Diabolik and his beautiful lover Eva Kant (Marisa Mell) to their hideout.

In case you've never seen this, I won't give away the ending, but it's very well done, and fits the tone of the film very well.

The direction by the Master of Italian films, Mario Bava is spot on and he really shows his knack for style in film making. The colors are deep and rich and Bava succeeds in making us perfect vouyers when the camera is on Marisa Mell.

Marisa Mell was one of the most beautiful women to ever grace a silver screen and anything with her in it is worth seeing. Sadly she passed away on May 16th, 1992 at the young age of 53. Her performance here is excellent.

The stunning soundtrack by Ennio Morricone is also a joy to hear and the music fits every scene like a glove. The HD presentation of this film should please every fan. A Huge thanks to Shout for bringing the best Fumetti adaptation ever to Blu-ray. The disc also contains a great little documentary on the fumetti comics and Diabolik. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!

LONG LIVE THE BEAUTY THAT WAS MARISA MELL!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

Carol Kane is 68, Linda Thorson is 73, and A.J. Khan is 43.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

Peter Lupus is 88.

BLOOD OF 1000 VIRGINS 2014 (FULL MOON)

Quite the title indeed.

The gorgeous Nikki Leigh hosts this look at some wild trailers from films dealing with virgins and much more.

I sometimes have the need to watch trailer compilations, and this one popped up so I figured I'd give it a try. It's not too bad and there is a wide selection of trailers.

You have everything from "Brides Of Blood" and "Act Of Vengeance" to "They Call Her One Eye" and "I Don't Want To Be Born" and many, many more. Leigh is a perfect choice to host this and she does a low key job of getting the point across.

If you like these kinds of things, then this is for you, and with Nikki Leigh in lingerie and bra and panties whats not to like??

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

Joan Van Ark is 77, and Dagmar Lassander is 77.