STRANGE FASCINATION 1953 (TUBI)

The first teaming of Hugo Haas and Cleo Moore.

This is a fairly conventional film about a famed pianist named Paul Marvan (Hugo Haas) who is brought to America by a wealthy woman who also happens to be a widow. Her name is Diane Fowler (Mona Barrie).

She takes a liking to Paul, but he seems to have no romantic interest in her. Paul's success grows as Diane sets him up with some good bookings. However, one night he is staying at a hotel and he goes to the bar for some food and it becomes a life chamnging event.

There he meets a beautiful dancer named Margo (Cleo Moore) and before you know it he is totally smitten with her and she with him. They quickly marry and while this secretly hurts Diane she pretends she isn't bothered.

Paul and Margo seem happy for a while, but Paul hasn't been making a lot of money and so Margo becomes restless. To get money Paul calls Diane and she says she cannot help him anymore and so he decides to stick his hand in a press and collect the insurance money.

This backfires after a witness comes forward and tells the insurance company that Paul did it on purpose. Margo leaves him and he falls into utter despair and lives at a local homeless shelter.

This would become a somewhat typical plot in the following 7 films Moore and Haas would make together, but some of them are just wonderfully over the top.

Haas wrote, produced and directed this film as he did with most of the others. I simply find Cleo Moore one of the most attractive women to ever be in any movie and I enjoyed this film because of her.

I hope TUBI will bring a lot more of Cleo films to TV. This is Highly Recommended by me for anyone who is a fan of film noir and Cleo Moore.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

Olive Sturgess is 90.

LUGOSI: THE CURSE OF DRACULA 1989 (TUBI)

This was a pretty good documentary.

This is the only documentary about Bela Lugosi that has been approved by the Lugosi estate. It is hosted by Forrest Ackerman and takes a pretty honest look at the life of one of the greatest actors of our time.

It's also haunting that his life went so far downhill and that he was always typecast after his portrayal of Dracula in 1931. There are a lot of clips from his many various movies and tv guest shots and since this was made back in 1989, most of the people they talk to have since passed on,

If you get a chance to cath this on streaming TV do so. Every horror fan should watch this and if they;ve seen it before, watch it again.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

Judy Landers is 65.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

Britt Ekland is 81.

TURKISH SUPERMAN 1979 (BLUE MERMAID)

Oh my God!!

Another Turkish Delight. This is a blantent Superman rip off that uses some of the score from that film as well as the music from James Bond films.

Tayfun Demir stars as Tayfun, a young man from the planet in a universe populated by Christmas ornaments. He is told by Jor-El, who is missing half of his teeth that he has super powers.

Tayfun leaves his parents hpme and heads for the big city. There he meets an attractive women reporter named Alev (Gungor Bayrak) and is constantly having to save her from a gang of criminals who are looking for kryptonite for a new invention that will allow them to rule the world.

Tayfun is kind of a dork looking guy, but hey I guess he is supposed to be that way when not being Superman. This film also uses footage from the US Superman and has a very badly superimposed picture of Tayfun flying against a backdrop of that same said footage.

In long shots you can easily see that the filmmakers used a superman doll!! Yep they pulled no punches here. If you wanna have some fun watch this and then you'll know why I like Turkish cinema so much!!

MY SIX CONVICTS 1952 (TUBI)

An interesting film.

Good story about a new prison reform program thats send a psychologist to Harbor State Prison for 6 month to ascertain prisoners' mental state.

John Beal stars as the doctor whose name we never know. He is only referred to as "Doc". He surrounds himself with six subjects for study and at first it's really rough going until a convict named James Connie (Millard Mitchell) decides that the Doc isn't a bad guy.

During the six months Doc and the others become good friends and the films shows the highs and lows of these six people during the trial time.

Gilbert Roland is a killer named Punch Pinero who is shown to actually have a human side, and his performance is top notch. Everyone does a great job and the cast also includes Harry Morgan as a psycho killer in a very good role, Marshall Thompson, Alf Kjellin, Jay Adler, John Marley, Charles Bronson, and Byron Foulger.

I thought it was a film noir whcih it isn't, but it's still a great film that for some reason isn't well known. The actors all do a great job and the film has some very violent moments as well as sentimental ones.

This will hold your attention and if you get a chance to see it, please do. It's gets a high recommendation from me.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

Laura Gemser is 73, Terri Runnels is 57 and Nancy Barrett is 80.

CORRUPTION 1968 (TUBI)

"Corruption is NOT a womans picture"...the ads screamed!

I hadn't seen this for years and forgot how wild it is. Peter Cushing stars as a surgeon named John Rowan. His much younger girlfriend Lynn Nolan (Sue Lloyd) invites him to a party.

John reluctantly agrees to go, but it soon turns ugly as Lynn, a model, has her face badly burned when a heat lamp falls on her face while John and another man are involved in a fight.

John is determined to save her and he finds he can heal her with fluids from the pituitary gland. This effect is only temporary and so john finds that he has to obtain more, which leads to a lot of murders.

Cushing really looks crazy as he kills the women and obtains the fluid. This quickly spirals out of control and ends badly for everyone involved. The ending involving a wild laserbeam is something to see.

This is one of the wildest films I have sever seen Cushing in, and I find it one of his best, simply because it's different. There is some blood and gore, but not too much.

The rest of the cast includes Kate O' Mara, Noel Trevarthen, David Lodge, Marian Collins, Marianne Morris and the gorgeous Valarie Van Ost. I recommend you check this out for something that while not original, is somewhat different in presentation.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

Lori Saunders is 82, Kerry Sherman is 70, and Kyra Schon is 66.

ROCKETSHIP XM 1950 (BETAMAX TV)

One of the earliest sci-fi films, and one of the best.

The film opens with just minutes to go before the first ever rocket is sent to the moon. We are introduced to the crew and before you know it they have blasted off.

All is well early into the flight, but something goes wrong and the rocket begins to hurtle thru space at an incredible speed and the crew passes out.

When they awake they find thay are closer to Mars than the moon so the head of the expidition, Dr. Karl Eckstrom (John Emery) decides they will take this rare chance given them and land on Mars.

Upon landing they disembark and find that life on Mars has been reduced to prehistoric cavemen after a long ago atomic war. Everyone is killed or injured by these savages except Col. Floyd Graham (Lloyd Bridges) and Dr. Lisa Van Horn (Osa Massen).

On the journey back to Earth they discover they don't have enough fuel to make it and they burn up in the atmosphere. This is a very downbeat film and that is kind of suprising. However it does make for grand entertainment.

The print I saw was the original with the red tinting of the scenes on Mars. I love this film and wish it was seen more. The rest of the cast includes Noah Beery, Jr., Hugh O' Brian and Morris Ankrum.

True sci-fi fans will no dubt enjoy this, and I am sure most of you have probably seen it already.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

Pamela Hensley is 73.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

Romina Power is 72, Tiffany is 52, Kristina Shannon is 34, and Karissa Shannon is 34.

FOXBAT 1977 (TUBI)

A very odd and unusual film.

This movie is also known as "Woo Fook" and I have never heard of it until now, and I had to watch it because of the cast.

I mean after all, who could resist a movie starring Henry Silva as an American spy, Vonetta McGee as another spy and Rik Von Nutter.

The movie opens with a stolen Russian Mig25 landing in Japan. Chaos erupts among nations and Silva's character of Michael Saxson gets some photos of the plane and it's inner workings via a camera in his glass eye.

He hides the mircofilm in a small piece of candy and before long a Chinese cook eates the candy and becomes the target for many vicious criminals who want the mircofilm for themselves.

There is a lot of plot twists and some are very hard to follow. There is also a lot of comedy and a rather bleak ending to all of the proceedings. I liked this film and the three leads do a very good job with the material they have to work with.

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I do wish several plot points had been more developed, but alas, they aren't and the viewer is left in the dust. Silva does his usual excellent job and McGee is stunning and also is part of a major plot twist late in the movie. Her demise is gruesome indeed.

If you want to see something very off beat, then I would suggest you watch this. Hey, I think you'll like it.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

Michelle Bauer is 65, and Cindy Margolis is 58.