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.
Tuesday, July 6, 2021
Monday, July 5, 2021
Sunday, July 4, 2021
THE LOST CANYON 1942 (TUBI)
Standard Hopalong Cassidy western.
Jay Kirby stars as Johnny Travers, a young man accused of stealing money from a bank in a small western town.
He escapes a possee by hiding in the nearby hills, and it's up to Hopalong (William Boyd) to prove his innocents. Helping in the case is California Carlson (Andy Clyde).
It's quite a job to prove the young man isn't guilty, but the baddies finally get their due. As I said, this is a very standard western and fans of the series wil indeed enjoy it.
The rest of the cast includes Lola Lane, Doug Fowley and Herbert Rawlinson. The movie moves along quickly and is a good way to kill an hour.
JULY 4TH, 1970...
A date I remember well.
That was the day AMERICAN TOP 40 was born. Casey Kasem was heard in 8 cities on that first day and the show slowly blossomed into reaching over 600 stations nationwide as well as 40 foreign countries.
I am an avid classic AT40 fan and always will be. I collect every show from the 70's and 80's that I can. It was a great time and a great show.
Kasem, to me was and will always be the greatest radio personality in the world. Nothing beats listening to his trivia, information about the performers and the great songs of times gone by.
Happy 51st Birthday to AT40 with Casey Kasem.
Saturday, July 3, 2021
TORTURE CHAMBER OF DR. SADISM 1967 (SEVERIN) BLU-RAY
Severin turned this out a few years ago, but this edition looks a lot better.
This is included in the Eurocrypt Collection and it's a stunner. The color is vibrant and audio is pitch perfect.
Lex Barker stars as Roger Mont Elise, a young man who seeks the answers to his family's history. He is unaware that he is related to a judge who, 35 years ago had a madman named Count Frederic Regula (Christopher Lee) drawn and quartered for his crimes.
He receives an invitation to the Count's castle as does a beautiful young woman named Baroness Lilian Von Brabant (Karin Dor). Tey both decide to answer the invitation and the Baroness brings along her maid Babette (Christiane Rucker). Also joing them on the trip is a man named Pater Fabian (Vladimir Medar) who claims to be a priest.
As they are taken by coach to the castle their driver does not want to make the trip. The coachman (Dieter Eppler) encounters a forest whith human limbs hanging off of trees and soon a haunted forest where he see corpses hanging from the trees. This is perhaps one of the most atmospheric scenes I have ever seen.
The coach is soon stolen by a man who works for the Count and is contains only the women so Elise and Fabian must follow on foot. They all meet at the castle and everyone discovers that the count has been dead for 35 years. His evil servant brings him back to life and the Count tells everyone that his revenge will be complete when he has the blood of a 13th virgin...and guess who that is?
After being told this it becomes a fight for survival for all four of the guests. Not only is the title a great exploitation item, the entire movie moves along so quickly and it never fails to entertain.
I have written about this one before and with this new addition I figured I would again. The set pieces are great and Lee really looks like he's dead in this movie. If you get a chance you have got to see this film!! Severin has done a great job making it look beautiful and that only adds to the enjoyment of this macabre classic.
Friday, July 2, 2021
BLUE GARDENIA 1953 (TUBI)
Fine film noir from director Fritz Lang.
A young woman named Norah Larkin (Anne Baxter) receives a "dear John" letter in the mail from her lover who is stationed in Korea during the war. The letter crushes her.
She then accepts a date with a man named Harry Prebble (Raymond Burr). Prebble has ulterior motives for wanting to date Norah. He gets her drunk and takes her to his apartment when he continues to supply her with alcohol.
Too drunk to even walk, she seems to see someone enter the room and kill Harry then she passes out. Before you know it she is one the run fearing that she herself killed the cad.
Enter Casey Mayo (Richard Conte) a newspaper man who wants a scoop. Casey tries to use a publicity stunt to get the real killer to come forward, and then he begins to get too involved with Norah as she comes forth as the killer.
Mayo then tries to prove her innocent in a great but slightly rushed climax.
This film does move along nicely and everyone does a great job. There are not a lot of twists and turns as one would expect from a film noir, nor is there a bleak ending, but Lang manages to give us a beautiful shot film that manages to hold your attenton for 90 minutes.
The rest of the cast includes Richard Erdman, George Reeves, Ann Sothern, Jeff Donnell and Ruth Storey.
Thursday, July 1, 2021
PHOENIX THE WARRIOR 1988 (TUBI)
A bizarre movie indeed.
In a future world where only women rule there is a war going on between scattered tribes and a tribe of mutants ruled over the Reverend Mother (Sheila Howard) and Cobalt (Persis Khambatta).
It seems that Reverend Mother and Cobalt are searching for the last male on Earth so the Revenrend Mother can take his life force and become the most powerful being on the planet. Make sense? ok...
Little do they know that the last male n Earth is a child whose mother is travelling with Phoenix (Kathleen Kinmont), and this starts an almost constant chase which makes up most of the running time of the movie.
This movie does move along quite well, and there are several great set pieces including a bizrrre scene in a graveyard where a cult attacks Phoenix and her companions and they spout lines consisting of old TV shows and such. It's really got to be seen and heard to be believed.
The film was the final one for Persis Khambatta who passed away in 1998 from a heart attack. It's not too bad of a film if you don't take it seriously and most of the scatily clad women are gorgeous.
The rest of the cast includes James Emery, Nina Jaffe and Peggy McIntaggert.
Wednesday, June 30, 2021
Tuesday, June 29, 2021
FRANKENSTEIN ISLAND 1981 (SINISTER CINEMA)
Wow!! A Jerry Warren film I had never seen, and well you know,,,it's a Warren film.
Best I can figure out is that four men whose hot air balloon has crashed into the ocean get into a life raft and find their way to a strange island.
Once there the dog of one of the men takes a piss on some seaweed and then we know exactly what to expect. The four men stumble upon a race os young women in leopard print bikinis and then soon find a lab lived and worked in by Sheila Von Helsing AKA Sheila Frankenstein (Katherine Victor).
Once inside they also discover a prisoner named Jason (Cameron Mitchell) who babbles most of the time and really says nothing. The plot goes on and on headway into absolute confusion. In watching this film I realized that nothing happens in the entire film!! It just sort of rambles.
Top billed John Carradine only appears as a talking head at varous times and there is even a Frankenstein monster that makes an appearance, but it's very lame.
The final showdown between, the four men, frankenstein's monster, the bikini clad woman and the strange eyeless men who protect Sheila is really something to see. I would call it the WORST fight in movie history.
The rest of the cast for this "epic" include Robert Clarke, Andrew Duggan, Steve Brodie, Tain Bodkin, and Marla Conner. I cannot even figure out why this film was made, but here it is in all it's sub-par glory.
Monday, June 28, 2021
THE DOLL SQUAD 1973 (TUBI)
A very good Ted V. Mikels film.
The explosion special effects may not be too good what with the limited bidget they had to make this film, but everything else is just fine.
Someone is attempting to destroy the US rocket project and the government wants to know who it is. So, they call in Sabrina Kincade (Francine York). Sabrina is a special agent who knows her job well.
She sets to work hiring the agents she wants to work with her on the case, thus forming "The Doll Squad" which is a highky trained organization of women who work very secretly for the US government.
The women manage to infiltrate a secret encampment on an island. The place is run by Eamon O'Reilly (Michael Ansara) who is attempting to mess with our missile program as well as kill most people in the world with bubonic plague!
Sabrina and her band of women must stop him before it's too late.
This is a very fun little film that I hadn't seen in sometime. Almost 15 years actually. The action sequences are handled well and, of course, all of the women look fantastic, especially when in bikinis on their boat.
The rest of the cast includes Anthony Eisley, John Carter, Lisa Todd, Rafael Campos, Lillian Garrett, William Bagdad, Tura Satana, Gustaf Unger, Judith McConnell and Sherri Vernon.
It's quite a cast indeed and it's always nice to see the time in america when women were women and not a bunch of freaks. A fun film I can really recommend.
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