TNA: KNOCKED OUT 2008 (NAVARRE)

This 2 disc set contains nearly 4 hours of some of the best female wrestling ever from TNA. Many of the women featured in this set are no longer with the company as it is being run into the ground by a brainless twit named Bruce Pritchard, but back in the last few years, TNA had the sexiest and best women's division ever. On the discs you'll meet such stars as Velvet Sky, Christy Hemme, Angelina Love, Gail Kim, ODB, Sharmell, Rhaka Kahn and man, many more.

Some of the great matches feature Gail Kim vs. Awesome Kong, 10 women gauntlet matches and much more.

If you are a fan of women's wrestling, then this is the disc to own. I was reading that both TNA and WWE are phasing out the women's divisions, and that is a purely stupid thing to do, but then again, this is America where ignorance rules and business is run by people who just don't give a damn about anything. Disc sets like these will soon be the ONLY way to enjoy quality women's wrestling. Recommended!!

INNER CIRCLE 1946 (MILL CREEK)

A young blonde woman enters into an office and gets a job with a PI who is then involved with and framed for murder. Warren Douglas is Johnny Strange, a fast talking private eye and Adele Mara is the sexy blonde secretary who involves Strange in murder.

Not a bad entry in the film noir cycle, and it does have some comedy thanks to the wise cracking policeman played by William Frawley. Recommended!!

BIRTHDAY WISHES TO......

Angie Dickinson is 81, Ian Ogilvy 69, Candice Michelle is 34, Rula Lenska 65, and Marilyn McCoo is 69.

FRANKENSTEIN CONQUERS THE WORLD 1965 (TOKYO SHOCK)

Nick Adams and Kumi Mizuno star in this offbeat but very cool tale about a young boy who actually eats the heart of the Frankenstein monster and begins to grow at an alarming rate.

The boy was abandoned after the Atomic Bomb was dropped and ate the heart for food and now has been contaminated with radiation. The boy grows so large he escapes and flees into the dense woods only to be attacked by a huge prehistoric monster named Barugon. The two fight to the death in one of the best battles ever filmed by Toho, at least in my opinion.

Mizuno is sexy as always and I will watch anything with her in it. If you are a Japanese monster movie fan you won't want to miss this two disc set which includes the American version, Japanese version and deleted scenes such as the boy fighting a giant octopus.

There is a connection between this movie and War of the Gargantuas but it is obscured due to editing. Recommended!!

INVADERS FROM MARS 1953 (IMAGE)

Outstanding sci-fi film about a small boy who sees a spaceship land and nobody will believe him. Soon, his parents and others are changed into mindless killers who help the invaders.

This is nightmare quality stuff shot on a small stage and photograped very effectively by director William Cameron Menzies. The color is deep and saturated and the Martians are something to behold in their green velour outfits all running thru tunnels in an endlaess cave and controlled by a golden head with an enlarged brain kept in a glass container.

Jimmy Hunt is the young boy, Arthur Franz is the astronomer who believe his story and sexy helena Carter is a doctor who also believes Jimmy's tale. For pur 50's pulp this simply cannot be beaten. The disc features both the US and British version of the story which has a very different ending. Very Highly Recommended!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO.....

Erika Eleniak is 43, Anita Ekberg is 81, Steve Forrest is 88, Lizabeth Scott is 90, and Stacy Carter is 41.

SCREAMING DEAD 2003 (EI ENTERTAINMENT)

A modern day take on Bloody Pit Of Horror stars gorgeous Misty Mundae, Rachel Robbins and the always hotter than hell Heidi Kristoffer as three women who are lured into a photo shoot by a sadistic man named Neale played by Joseph Farrell. They are taken to an abandoned mental hospital once run by a sadist. Soon the women find themselves in the hands of a revived dead man who immediately takes the women to his private torture chamber.

Rob Monkiewicz is the hero and does a very good job with his role. Misty gets naked as we expect and all comes to a rather bizarre but satisfying conclusion. Recommended for horror fans and the legions of Mundae fans out there.

PILLOW OF DEATH 1945 (UNIVERSAL)

The sixth and final Inner Sanctum mystery stars Lon Chaney, Jr. as an attorney who is having an affair. His wife turns up murdered and he is the prime suspect. Lon does very well with this role as does lovely Brenda Joyce as the young woman he is having an affair with. All seems well until the somewhat suprising ending that certainly thru me off track. The rest of the cast includes J. Edward Bromberg and George Cleveland. Recommended thriller for mystery fans.

BIRTHDAY WISHES TO....

John Sayles is 67, Naomi Watts is 44, Hilary Duff is 25, and Brigitte Bardot is 78.

STRANGE CONFESSION 1945 (UNIVERSAL)

This is the fifth and rarest of the six Inner Sanctum mysteries filmed by Universal and starring Lon Chaney, Jr.

Lon plays Jeff Carter, a mild mannered chemist whose life and marriage are ruined by his unscrupulous boss, and his son even dies from using untested drugs that the boos rushed out to the market.

This pushes Lon too far and he snaps and seeks revenge on his boss played by J. Carol Naish. Lon's wife is played by the very sexy Brenda Joyce. This is a very good remake of Mystery of Edwin Drood and has a rather shocking ending as well. Due to rights issues, this played in the 40's, was re-issued with the title The Missing Head and then vanished until the 1990's when Universal released in on VHS.

Now it's on DVD and thank goodness for that. This is a rare and wonderful thriller that will hold your attention for it's short 62 minute running time. Again, Very Highly Recommended!!

CAT WOMEN OF THE MOON 1953 (GAIAM)

Silly but fun sci-fi about four men and a woman who journey to the moon only to find it inhabited by a race of women who are plotting to steal their ship and take over the earth.

Sonny Tufts leads the expedition along with Victory Jory, Marie Windsor, Bill Phipps and Douglas Fowley.

The Hollywood Cover Girls play the Cat Women and my favorite line is when the character played by Douglas Fowley tells one of the cat women "you're too smart for me baby..I like em stupid".

Tufts makes for a rather bland hero, but don't let that stop you from watching this fun filled 50's sci-fi which gives you beautiful moon women and giant spiders. Highly Recommended!!

RIP HERBERT LOM 1917-2012

Wonderful character actor Herbert Lom has passed away at the age of 95. Lom was best known for playing the frustrated boss of Inspecter Clouseau in the Pink Panther movies, but fans who read this bloog will remember him from such great horror filmsa as Phantom Of The Opera 1962, Asylum 1971, 99 Women 1969 and many, many more. His most notable horror appearence was in the 1970 film Mark of The Devil. A true talent and a wonderful man. His kind of talent is rare in films these days.

RIIP ANDY WILLIAMS 1927-2012

Singer Andy Williams who made Moon River a staple song has passed away at the age of 84 after a battle with bladder cancer. Williams was an all around entertainer from an era when making good music and keeping an audience entertained was a priority. Williams was one of the very few conservative and level headed performers in my lifetime.

His best known quote was, when asked about Barak Obama he said "Don't like him one bit. I think he wants to create a socialist country. The people he associates with are the very left wing. One is a registered communist. He's taken over the banks ans the car industry. He wants this country to fail." Most people just don't have the guts Williams had, and that's why he was such a success.

BIRTHDAY WISHES TO.....

Maria Celeste Arraras is 52.

COMING ATTRACTIONS......

Warner Archive is releasing four classic horrors on DVD for the Halloween season..they are Face Of Fu Manchu, Vengeance Of Fu Manchu, which is my secone favorite Fu film, The Sorcerers, and the very rare Confessions Of An Opium Eater starring Vincent Price. I haven't seen that film since the mid 80's when a small television station in Bozeman, Montana ran it at 7:30 am on a Sunday morning!! Rare treats indeed. The extremely rare William Grefe film, The Devil's Sisters is being released by Realitys Edge Films sometime this fall. This is very rare and the lost eight minutes of footage will be reconstructed from storyboards and still photos. It can be ordered from this link.....http://www.realitysedgefilms.net/films.html And finally as the Halloween season approaches my life gets very, very busy but I will be attempting to do the 31 Days Of Halloween, which is writing short reviews for some of the best films for this time of year. It all kicks off on Oct. 1.

INVISIBLE INVADERS 1959 (MGM)

One of my 10 favorite 50's films!!!! Invisible aliens from the moon invade earth and inhabit the bodies of dead earth people and soon the world is under a zombie attack!! Scientists Phillip Tonge, Jean Byron and Robert Hutton are attempting to fight the invaders from an underground bunker and they are assisted by army man John Agar. John Carradine is a dead scientist who brings the earth the war warning. Directed by Edward L. Cahn, this is simply a masterpiece of 50's sci-fi and a forerunner to Night Of The Living Dead. I first saw this on KCPX TV in Salt Lake City, Utah in the early 80's and it impressed me so much I even recorded it onto cassette and learned the dialogue word for word!! The films runs only 67 minutes so the action starts right off and never lets up. MGM put this out along with Journey To The Seventh Planet for a hell of a double bill. If you haven't seen this yet, do so. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

TWO SHARP KNIVES 1949 (MILL CREEK)

This is an episode of Studio One from 1949. A police detective captures a man wanted for murder, but then finds that it may be a huge and very clever frame up by others who wanted the man out of the way. This is a very interesting and well made episode and based on a story by Dashiell Hammett.The 10th episode of the second season stars Stanley Ridges, Abe Vigoda, Hildy parks and Robert Emhardt. Recommended for mystery fans!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO......

Linda Hamilton is 56, Olivia Newton John is 64, Christina Milian is 31, Melissa Sue Anderson is 50, Lysette Anthony is 49, Martine Beswick is 71, Donna Douglas is 79, and Victoria Vetri is 68.

THERE WAS A CROOKED MAN 1950 (MILL CREEK)

This is an episode from the series Studio One Presents. A boarding house full of people is turned upside down when one of them is murdered. Robert Sterling, Robert Emhardt, Virginia Gilmore and Richard Purdy are just some of the people involved in the murder investigation that takes a few surprising twists and turns.Early TV at it's best and really something to watch. Originally presented by Westinghouse. Check it out, you might like it.

FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLFMAN 1943 (UNIVERSAL)

The first battle between movie monsters took place in this Universal classic again starring Lon Chaney, Jr. as the wolfman who stumbles upon the castle ruins of Frankenstein after he has been brought back from the dead by two gravediggers. Bela Lugosi is the Frankenstein monster and Partick Knowles is the doctor who tries to help Chaney's Talbot character and also bring the monster back to life. Ilona Massey is Baroness Elsa Frankenstein and she looks as lovely as always, Dennis Hoey is a baffled policeman, Lionel Atwill is the mayor of the small town which is terrorized by the Frankenstein Monster, Maria Ouspenskaya is back as Maleva the gypsy woman and Dwight Frye has a small role as one of the townspeople. This is great fun to watch and a real landmark film when it comes to monsters fighting to the death in the final minutes. Recommended!!

BIRTHDAY WISHES TO....

Mark Hamill is 61, Heather Locklear is 51, and Louisa Moritz is 66.

ABEL SALAZAR 1917-1995

Today would be Abel Salazar's birthday and I just wanted to take a minute to acknowledge this fact. He passed away in 1995 and without him we would never have had such great South of The Border terrors as The Brainiac, Man & the Monster, The Vampire, Curse Of The Crying Woman and so many more. The man is a legend to all horror film fans and I for one will always cherish his wonderful and twisted films in the horror and sci-fi genre.

RISE AND FALL OF ECW 2004 (WWE)

When this DVD set was released it was and still remains the best selling set ever released by the WWE, and to real wrestling fans that is not a suprise at all. This 2 disc set tells the history of one of the most violent and popular promotions in the pro wrestling business.

ECW started as Eastern Championship Wrestling and morphed into Extreme Championship Wrestling after Paul Heyman took over the company. Having such stars as Terry Funk, Sabu, The Pit Bulls, Raven, The Sandman, Tommy Dreamer, Dawn Marie, Beuhula and many more the company thrived and grew to a monster that it seemed nobody could stop, until companies like WCW and WWE began to slowly eat up all the talent and the regional wrestling scene was disappearing.

For wrestling fans, you just cannot go wrong with this set and it includes such matches as Mikey Whipwreck Vs. The Sandman, Tazz vs. Bam Bam Bigelow, and the match I consider to be one of the 10 best matches in the history of wrestling, Tommy Dreamer Vs. Raven at an event called Wrestlepalooza 97. This one is wild, out of control and features Jerry Lawler in the ring, in which he says he had to sneak out after it was over as the crowd was so angry. This kind of wrestling will never be seen again as wrestling now caters to the snotty nosed kids in the crowd and has, and many things have, been destroyed by mass marketing and the USA way of doing things. It was an era I will never forget. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!

BRIDE OF THE MONSTER 1955 (GAIAM)

This classic Ed Wood film stars Bela Lugosi as the mad Eric Vornoff, a scientist trying to create atomic supermen with the help of his assistant Lobo, played by Tor Johnson. Yes the acting is bad and the sets are about 3 dollars worth of equipment, but I realized when I saw this as a child I didn't care, I was just interested in the story, and believe it or not the same is true today.

It may not be the best of this kind of film, but all the negative crap that has been written about it has been way overblown. Good fun for undiscriminating viewers. The cast also includes many Wood regulars such as Harvey B. Dunn, Paul Marco and Delores Fuller plus newcomers Loretta King as the woman Bela wants to keep as his own and Tony McCoy as the heroic police office Lt. Craig. If you haven't seen it give it a try.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO.....

Stephanie McMahon is 36, April Hunter is 41, and Bert I. Gordon is 90.

JOURNEY TO THE 7TH PLANET 1962 (MGM)

Interesting film about UN astronauts landing on Uranus and finding a world created out of their own thoughts!! The women are sexy as hell that John Agar imagine including the always hot Greta Thyssen.

The astronauts finally discover, after fighting a giant cyclops monster and a huge spider, that these monster are being created out of their own minds by a one eyed brain that lives underground and plans on taking over the earth. This is a Danish made film and most of the cast was also in Reptilicus except for Agar.

This is a pretty fun sci-fi film with lovely women, cool monsters, some interesting stop motion animation and a lounge singer actually singing a song over the animated closing credits!! Recommended fun for sci-fi fans.