MARK OFTHE TORTOISE 1964 (SINISTER CINEMA)

A very fast moving German Krimi.

A young man who is a nephew of a murdered millionaire decides to investigate the murders on his own.

This is a very well done film with several twists including the fact that this is not based on a story from Edgar Wallace. It' based on a book by James Chase and the viewer can see several major differences because of this.

The hero of the film is not as strong as the femme fatale and that is something I found very unusual. Hildegard Knef is very good as Laura Lorelli who is working for the head villian and she is pure ice...or so the viewer is lead to believe.

I could easily compare this to several James Bond films as you have a top crime boss with a rather elaborate wheelchair equipped with a machine gun!!

The action never stops once it starts and the first scenes in London set up the rest of the movie very well indeed. If you're a fan of Krimi films you'll want to see this and hopefully you'll like it. I know I did.

The rest of the cast includes Klaus Kinski, Pinkus Braun, Gotz George and Richard Munch.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

Randy Boone is 83.

RIP DAVID LYNCH 1946-2025

A master filmmaker has died.

I have not seen a whole lot of his works, but several of his films stand out in my mind as true American masterpieces.

Lynch directed such fare as "Eraserhead", "Blue Velvet", "Elephant Man", and "The Grandmother" which was a short film and very odd, as was most of his films.

Most people remember him for the show "Twin Peaks". David Lynch was a true American orignal when it came to hie view of filmmaking. He passed away on January 16, 2025, just 4 days short of his 79th birthday.

RIP JEANNOT SZWARC 1939-2025

The prolific French director has died.

I grew up watching most of what this talented man directed. He helmed many, many TV episodes of various show including "Ironside", "The Bold Ones: The Lawyers", "Longstreet", Marcus Welby, M.D." and "Night Gallery".

Jeannot was the resident director for "Night Gallery" and directed about two thirds of the entire series.

The movies he directed include "Jaws 2", "Supergirl" ( a personal favorite), "The Devil's Daughter", "Bug" and the cult classic "Somewhere In Time".

Jeannot Szwarc passed away on January 15, 2025 at the age of 85.

RIP BOB UECKER 1934-2025

Mr. Baseball has passed away.

Bob Uecker was a baseball player who became one of the funniest men around.

He starred as George Owens in the hit comedy show Mr. Belvedere which ran from 1985-1990. His humor was natural and usually at himself and his not so steller baseball career.

He was also a laugh riot in the Miller Beer commercials. Bob Uecker passed away on January 16th, 2025 at the age of 90, just 10 days short of his 91st birthday.

His kind of humor will be missed.

SATAN'S CHILDREN 1975 (SOMETHING WEIRD)

Truely an outrageous and bizarre oddity shot in Florida.

The movie opens with Bobby (Stephen White) mowing the lawn and being treated like garbage by his stepfather and his stepsister Janis (Joyce Molloy).

Janis continually teases Bobby sexually while his step dad thinks he is useless. Finally Bobby decides to runaway and before you know it he is assulted by a group of homosexuals and left in an empty field.

He is discovered by a group of Satan worshippers and taken in by Sherry (Kathleen Archer) who is in charge of the cult while it's real leader Simon (Robert C. Ray) is gone.

Sherry falls for Bobby and this is when we discover that this group of Satanists don't like homosexuals or lesbians. Sherry is slowly tortured by Simon and his follwers when he returns and sees what Sherry has done.

Bobby escapes from the cult only in his white underwear, whch is something that I found very odd indeed. However he returns home knocks his stepfather out...cleans up a bit...then proceeds to tie up and kidnap Janis.

Bobby then kills his homosexual attackers with a shot gun and beheads two of them!! Then he arrives back at the cult and tosses the heads onto the desk of Simon and telling him that Sherry did nothing wrong and shouldn't be punished.

Sherry is released from her torture and Bobby delivers Janis over to them for sacrifice. This all happens while Sherry and Bobby make out in bed.

Yep, this is an odd one and not for all tastes, but it is a film I could recommend if you want to see something that is really unlike anything else.

The performances may not be top of the line, but they are what you expect from a very low budget, shot in Tampa film.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

John Carpenter is 77, Caroline Munro is 76, Sade is 66, and Marilu Tolo is 82.

13 LEAD SOLDIERS 1948 (TUBI)

Rare film starring Tom Conway as detective Bulldog Drummond.

Drummond is called into a case involving the theft of some lead soldiers that seem to have no value at all.

Since the crime involved murder everyone wonders about the soldiers. Hugh Drummond discovers that all 13 soldiers are a kind of key to a long lost treasure hidden in an old house.

This movie moves along quickly in its 64 minute running time and it has some very interesting twists and turns in it as well.

It was very interesting to see John Newland as Algy Longworth, the assistent to Drummond. This film was not anything new to mystery fans, but the film itself is very rare and TUBI presents it in the standard 16mm print. Sorry...no re-master here, but who cares.

I enjoyed this movie and if you're a fan you might like it as well. The rest of the cast includes Terry Kilburn, Maria Palmer, Helen Westcott and Gordon Richards.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

Barbie Blank is 38, and Shane McMahon is 55.

CURSE OF THE HIDDEN VAULT 1964 (SINISTER CINEMA)

German Edgar Wallace Krimi with some very light comedy thrown in.

The entire story revolves around mobsters who are planning on stealing another criminals stolen loot which is hidden in a well crafted and booby-trapped vault.

Why do they decide to do this? Because an old gangster has decided to leave all of his money to the daughter of a former victim. The gangsters watch the woman constantly in order to get their hands on the moolah.

As usual there is a lot of crosses and double crosses but it sometimes just doesn't feel like an Edgar Wallace film. I guess because some of the lead actors never starred in a Krimi before or after the fact.

The story moves along well and there are a couple of scenes involving a character played by Klaus Kinski that really shook me up. I won't tell you about this, I'll let you see the film and judge for yourself.

All in all not a bad thriller, but I do think the casting was odd.

Speaking of which...the cast includes Harald Leipnitz, Judith Dornys, Werner Peters, Vera Tschechowa, Ilsa Steppat and Eddie Arent.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

Marjoe Gortner is 81, and Kacy Cantanzaro is 35.

BELATED BIRTHDAY TO...

Sandra Knight turned 85 on January 1. How did I miss this? I haven't forgetten her birthday in years!!

THE STRANGE COUNTESS 1961 (SINISTER CINEMA)

A pretty good Edgar Wallace murder mystery.

A young woman is almost killed in a bizarre accident, and then several more "accidents" occure.

Inspector Mike Dorn (Joachim Fuchsberger) investigates and actually connects these incidents to a 20 year old murder case that has a lot of unanswered questions.

The plot to this film is very intricate and it keeps your attention the entire running time. I found it interesting that very few clues are given thru the movie until the final act, when all is revealed.

This was a much different appraoch to the German Krimi films that had come before it, and not many, if any did it afterwards either. I won't reveal much here, but I do recommend this movie for fans of the genre.

The rest of the great cast includes Klaus Kinski, Brigitte Grothum, Eddie Arent, Edith Hancke and Marianne Hoppe.

I do have to say that Kinski is really over the top here and in very good form as a psycho.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

Billy Gray is 87, Nicole Eggert is 52, and Traci Bingham is 57.

CAT IN THE CAGE 1978 (TUBI)

This film sat on the shelf for 3 years and was finally released in 1981.

This is a cult film if there ever was one. The disjointed plot is hard to follow sometimes, but, there is a lot of things to take your mind off of that.

A man named Bruce Kahn (Berhouz Vossoughi) is released from an asylum after spending time there and the doctors say there is nothing wrong with him!! Wow.

He heads back to the family home where is father Rachid (Frank DeKova) has married his late wife's sexy as hell nurse Susan (S ybil Danning). Bruce arrives home and the first thing that happens is he and Susan have an argument during which Bruces' cat attacks Susan!!

Now I gotta shake my head over this as it made no sense. Bruce discovers that Susan and her lover, who happens to be the butler plan on killing his father and getting his fortune.

Bruce and the family housekeeper, Ezil (Ursaline Bryant) try to stop this. This film ends in total disaster for everyone involved, and I do guess it's a fitting final for this kind of movie.

The standout performance goes to Sybil Dannning. Why? Well first off she is stunningly beautful and can always play the bad girl very, very well. Her character gets turned on when being slapped around by her lover, and Danning pulls this off as nobody I have ever seen in a mainstream movie.

If you're looking for something twisted and bizarre, this is your movie. I do wish this has a Blu-ray release. I remember this from the old VHS days. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!

Also in the cast in Colleen Camp. Look for it.