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Thursday, November 14, 2024

COLD EYES OF FEAR 1972 (REDEMPTION) BLU-RAY

A fine thriller directed by Enzo Castellari who also co-wrote the film.

The film concerns a playboy named Peter (Gianni Garko) who meets a beautiful young woman named Anna (Giovanna Ralli) in a nightclub and he offers to take her to his place.

His place is really the home of his father who is a very sucessful judge named Bedell (Fernando Rey). When they arrive they find the dead body of the butler and then are taken hostage by two men.

One of the men wants revenge on the judge for sending him to prison and the other wants money. The young one is named Quill (Julian Mateos) and he is money hungry as well as being attracted to Anna.

The older one, Arthur Welt (Frank Wolff) wants revenge. The film is very brutal and there is a lot of savage beatings in this film, but it doesn't have as much sex as usual Giallos of the period.

Ralli is fantastic looking and makes the movie even better. The final is typical of this kind of movie, much like American film noir. Again, however, things are not as they appear.

I liked this film and found it very engrossing. The opening scene is a kicker indeed, at least I think so. I recommend this movie.

The rest of the cast includes Karin Schubert, Leonardo Scavino, and Franco Marletta.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

Sandahl Bergman is 73, and Kathleen Hughes is 96.

Wednesday, November 13, 2024

DEATH AT OWELL ROCK 1967 (KOCH)

Very well made western from Italy.

Riccardo Freda directed this film about a man named Lawrence White (Stephen Forsyth) who returns to a small toen called Owell Rock to avenge the killing of his father.

Another man named Harry Boyd also arrives in town and finds it most unfriendly as he has to fight for almost everything. Mark Damon is perfect for the role of Harry and carries it off very well.

There are a lot of gunfights, fistfights and there are even many twists and turns in this movie. I like the fact that the biggest twist is one involving who is who amongst the heroes of the tale.

With Freda at the helm one expects a great quality film, and the viewer gets that in spades. Any westerns fan should enjoy this fast moving saga.

The rest of the cast includes luscious beauties such as Luciana Gilli and Pamela Tudor plus familiar faces like Luciano Pigozzi, Nello Pazzafini, Ignazio Spalla and Aldo Cecconi.

This is a very highly recommended film.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

Tracy Scoggins is 71, and Tom Atkins is 89.

Tuesday, November 12, 2024

SCARED STIFF 1945 (TUBI)

A light and fun comedy.

Jack Haley stars as Larry Elliot, a nervous chess editor for a local paper. Elliot is the kind of reporter who always lets the big story get away and this drives his editor crazy.

Larry soon finds himself on a road trip and accidentally getting involved in a murder at a hotel run by two very bizarre brothers.

From this point on it's the usual haunted house type comedy, but it never fails to entertain me. Also in the hotel is Sally Warren (Ann Savage) who really like Larry who is too blind to notice.

There are a lot of other suspects running aroud as the local Sheriff (Paul Hurst) tries to solve the murder. This is a simple little movie and one that I hope would entertain you as much as it did me.

The rest of the cast includes Barton MacLane, Veda Ann Borg, Roger Pryor, Lucien Littlefield. Check it out, you won't be sorry. The title card on the print I saw was "Treasure Of Fear".

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

Valerie Leon is 81, and Rhonda Shear is 70.

Monday, November 11, 2024

BLOODSTAINED SHADOW 1978 (VINEGAR SYNDROME) BLU-RAY

Another well made slice of Italian Giallo.

This story starts out with the slowmotion murder of a young girl in a meadow on an island.

The murderer is never caught. Years later a young man named Stefano (Lino Capolicchio) comes to the small island to visit his brother Don Paolo (Craig Hill), who also happens to be the village priest.

During his visit the brother become entangled in web of murders that reflect the killing of several years ago.

Stefano is determined to get to the bottom of it as his brother is a witness to one of the killings and now the killer is leaving him notes about his coming murder.

There are tons of twists and turns in this well made film, and nothing is as it seems. The final reveal of the real killer is a surprise and may blindside you, as it was meant to do.

The rest of the cast includes Stefania Casini, Massimo Serato, Laura Nucci, Juliette Mauyniel and Attilio Duse.

The Blu-ray presentation from VS is beautiful and the film looks magnificent. I highly recommend you check this one out and see if you ike it.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

Suzanne Lloyd is 90, and Jill Whitlow is 61.

Sunday, November 10, 2024

THOU SHALT NOT KILL...EXCEPT 1985 (SYNAPSE)

A totally off the wall film.

A soldier returns from Viet Nam and wants to just live a quiet life. However Jack Stryker (Brian Schulz) finds that very difficult to do.

A gang of murdering hippies has invaded the isolated community where he lives and kidnap his girlfriend Sally (Cheryl Guttridge). He and three of his friends from the war wage a mini war on the hippies.

Bruce Campbell was one of the writers and many others who worked on the "EVIL DEAD" are also involved. The films looks like it was made in 1969 as every effort was taken to replicate the era in time.

I was impressed with that. There is a lot of dry comedy in there just like in the "Evil Dead" but I did find in sometimes slow moving and wishing it would end.

I can't say I liked the movie, but I sure didn't not like it either. It's a good effort considering the very, very low budget and I can easily say this isn't going to be for everyone.

Saturday, November 9, 2024

RIP GENEVIEVE GRAD 1944-2024

The French actress has passed away.

Grad made 38 movies in 24 years and while she wasn't well known here in the USA, she was in several movies I believe we all saw when we were younger.

Her most famous acting credits in the USA includes "The Centurion", "Beast Of Babylon Against The Son Of Hercules", "Sandokan The Great" and "Conquest Of Mycene".

Genevieve Grad passed away on November 8, 2024 at the age of 80.

RIP TONY TODD 1954-2024

The talented actor has passed away.

Todd started acting in films in 1986 with the movie "Sleepwalk" and then he moved on to "Platoon" before hitting some TV with "Kate & Ally" as well as "Werewolf".

His first starring role was in the 1990 remake of "Night Of The Living Dead". He then landed the role in "Candyman" in 1992 and his career in horror took off. After the sequel "Candyman 2" he was famous among horror fans.

Other credits for Tony Todd includes "Candyman: Day Of The Dead", "Final Destination", "Final Destination 2", "Final Destination 3", "Dark Reel" and many more.

Tony Todd passed away on November 8th, 2024 at the age of 69. He was about one month short from turning 70. Cause of death has not been released as of my typing this.

APACHE BLOOD 1973 (TUBI)

This is a weird one indeed.

It's a very low budget effort about an Apache warrior called Yellow Shirt (Ray Danton) and his relentless chase and attemp to kill Sam Glass (Dewitt Lee).

That is the story in a nutshell. Both men try to survive the extreme heat of the desert and many other dangers in their fight against each other.

My one major complaint is the editing. It seems to be done in a blender and some of the scenes are awful choppy. The film moves along ok, and if you stick with it to the end, you get a twist that nobody sees coming.

There is minimal dialogue here and that is just as well. I wish this film had been better than it was, but I stayed with it and never felt cheated as I have with so many modern movies.

Ray Danton seemed out of place in this movie. I guess because he is the ony one I know anything about. This filmed in Tucson western is pretty obscure.

I will say if you're a die hard western fan you might want to check it out.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

Emily Compagno is 45.

Friday, November 8, 2024

JOYRIDE TO NOWHERE 1977 (TUBI)

Intersting time capsule of a movie.

Two beautiful teenage girls Leah (Leslie Ackerman) and Cindy (Sandy Allen) decide to leave their hometown and head for the bright lights of Loa Angeles. Both girls have a terrible home life and want a change.

As is expected they run into the usual creeps and weird people including a man named Charlie (Len Lesser) who offers them a ride after their car breaks down.

One things leads to another and they end up as "guests" of Tank McCall (Mel Wells). The girls decide they don't like Tank and steal his car. Of course Tank wants the car back because it has over 2 million in money he just stole and intends to take across the border to Mexico.

The chase is on as the two girls try to outwit the gangsters. I liked this movie as well, and I found the two leads to be very attractive. However this was more of a time capsule for me.

They say movies reflect the period they were made in, and this one captures 1977 to a tee. The rest of the cast includes Speed Stearns, Dino Nova, Ron Ross and Linda Gary.

Thursday, November 7, 2024

HAVE GUN-WILL TRAVEL 1957-1963 (CBS)

This is probably one of the greatest western series ever produced.

I picked this set up a while back at an estate sale and have slowly made my way thru the years.

Richard Boone stars as Paladin, a very cultured and well read gun for hire. Things in this show weren't always solved by the gun and a lot of the writing and characted development was top notch.

Boone played Paladin to the hilt, but what makes this unique is that his character never overshadows the others. The other characters in the episodes are allowed to develope and we sometimes see much more of them than Paladin.

This ran on CBS for 6 seasons and contains 225 classic episodes. I can't remember any episode that I disliked and I found most of them to be very well written and acted.

It's a good thing they never made this an hour long show as I believe more padding would have killed it. I don't know if anyone who reads this has seen this show or not, but if you have I hope you liked it. I know I did and still do to this day.

Some of the guests who appeared on the show include Hank Patterson, Olan Soule, John Anderson, Susan Cabot, Denver Pyle, Harry Carey Jr., Mary Gregory, Patricia Medina, Vitina Maecus and Mark Dana plus hundreds more.

One of the best, and if you get a chance you might want to check out some of the episodes, then you might get hooked and have to watch them all.