THE JUNGLE 1952 (VCI)

I hadn't seen this movie for many years, and it's not a bad adventure film with tinges of sci-fi thrown in.

Rod Cameron stars as a hunter in India who has his entire party wiped out by mysterious monsters in the jungle. He claims they are mammoths.

However, Indian Princess Mari (Marie Windsor) and her advisor (Caesar Romero) do not believe his story. An expedition is formed to find out the truth. Most of the movie is filled with the jungle adventures of the usual kind.

They battle tigers, snakes and other threats until the final 10 minutes when they happen upon a rampaging herd of giant Wolley Mammoths.

This Lippert production was shot in Sepia Tone and on location in India. The locations add to the flavor of the film, and if you like standard jungle adventure, then this is your cup of tea. The three leads work well together under the direction of William Berke.

VCI got a very good print of the film and I admit I liked the film even if it is a bit slow.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO.

Terry Funk is 73, and Victoria Crawford is 31.

COMING ATTRACTIONS...

One film I was hoping someone would turn out on DVD is finally coming.

Cheezy Films has just announced that ISLAND OF THE BURNING DAMNED will be released on Oct. 31, 2017!!

MYSTERIOUS MONSTERS 1976 (CHEEZY FLICKS)

This is a very maligned film and I guess you either like it or hate it.

Peter Graves hosts this extensive look at such things as The Loch Ness Monster and Bigfoot. I first caught this back in 1976 when it first came out. My mother was the bookkeeper on this film and I just had to see it.

I find it to be a rather interesting look at the evidence of both creatures and far, far more interesting than ANYTHING presented on reality TV such as "Sasquatch Hunters" or other such garbage.

I have always been fascinated with this topic and am still to this day. It had been 41 years since I saw this movie, and I enjoyed it just as much as the first time I saw it. I find some of the re-enactments pretty cool and the regular people they talk to seem genuine.

I am aware that "modern science" refutes these claims by people, but then again "modern science" refutes a cure for cancer, which we have, so, as far as I am concerned their credibility is shot.

Whether these creatures exist or not is up to each individual, but this film still manages to suck me in every time. I enjoyed seeing it again after all these years and would recommend it to anyone with an open mind.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO....

Maria Conchita Alonso is 60, and Gary Busey is 73.

BURIAL GROUND 1981 (SHRIEK SHOW) BLU-RAY

An undisputed Italian zombie classic!

I have seen this film many times and it NEVER ceases to amaze me.

This movie, known as "Nights Of Terror" is one of the goriest and yet fun films I have ever seen. A professor accidentally raises the rotting dead and the quickly make a meal out of him.

Seven people arrive at his villa for a weekend of fun and suddenly find themselves being attacked by many, many rotting corpses. The gut munching is well done and when the zombies are hit in the head or body they gush green slime stuff the sound effects make it even more gross.

These zombies also know how to throw knives, use battering rams and power tools!!. One by one the characters are killed in very gruesome ways.

The Blu-ray presentation from Shriek Show is excellent and the colors are vibrant. However, when anyone talks about this film is focuses on Peter Bark, the young (I believe he was 26 when this was made) boy who in the film is actually supposed to be about 10 or 11 years old. His incestuous lust for his beautiful mother makes for some disturbing viewing.

When I first saw the film on VHS back in the 80's I just couldn't believe what I was seeing. Bark does a good job don't get me wrong, but his feeling up his mother and then in a later scene, after he has been turned into a zombie sucking and then biting his mothers breast are two of the most mind boggling images I have ever witnessed.

This Italian shocker works on ever level and is simply a MUST for zombie movie fans. There will never be another film like Burial Ground. The Blu-ray is well worth adding to your collection.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO....

Bruce Davison is 71, and Lalla Ward is 66.

ISLAND OF TERROR 1966 (SHOUT FACTORY) BLU-RAY

One of my 10 favorite films of all time finally gets a Blu-ray release.

Peter Cushing stars as Brian Stanley, a college professor who along with a medical bone disease specialist named David West (Edward Judd) are summoned to a small island off of the coast of Ireland after a body is discovered there that contains no bones.

More deaths occur on the island and it is soon discovered that a noted scientist named Phillips was working on a cure for cancer, but instead has created a strain of bone sucking silicate monsters that prove to be quite indestructible. Shotguns, fire and dynamite are used, but to no avail.

The islanders as well as West, Stanley and West's girlfriend Toni Merrill (gorgeous Carole Gray) soon find themselves in a losing battle on the small island with the ever increasing silicate population. Finally a way is found to stop them, but is it too late?

The acting and story are both top notch and the direction by Terence Fisher is excellent as always. I was first introduced to this movie back in the mid 70's on KHQ TV from Spokane, WA. and never forgot it. It has remained a favorite ever since. There is nothing I don't like about this film from music to scenery...everything works.

This was released on VHS back in the 90's by Universal in an edited version and the only time I got to see it fully uncut was from airings on the Universal HD TV network. However, Scream Factory has taken care of this. The Cushing hand chopping scene is intact and the entire film looks better than I have ever seen it.

This is easily a top release for the year and I can only hope Shout will release the other film made by the same production company someday. It also stars Cushing as well as Christopher Lee and is entitled "Night Of The Burning Damned".

A Highly Recommended blu-ray for any horror fans collection!!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

Paul Koslo is 73.

NIGHT OF THE WEREWOLF 1981 (SHOUT FACTORY) BLU-RAY

Made in 1981, this Paul Naschy werewolf film was released in the USA in 1985. Now if finally comes to Blu-ray from Shout Factory.

Naschy is once again Waldemar Daninski. The story opens with Countess Elisabeth Bathory (Julia Saly) being sentenced to death for her crimes and Daninski is her disciple who is also condemned to death.

We then switch to 1981 and three beautiful women who are determined to travel and find the grave of Bathory. On their travels they are attacked by highwaymen who are in turn killed by a mysterious stranger with a crossbow. the stranger turns out to be Daninski, who has been brought back to life when two grave robbers removed a silver dagger from his heart while stealing from his tomb.

Two of the women, Erika (Silvia Aguilar) and Barbara (Pilar Alcon) attempt to open her grave while their companion Karen (Azucena Hernandez) slowly falls for Waldemar. Erika kills Barbara and uses her blood to bring Bathory back to life and as soon as she can Bathory puts the vampire fangs to Erika and three vampire women are roaming the countryside.

Waldemar also rampages during the full moon and we are treated to several gory attacks which leads to an epic confrontation between vampire woman and werewolf. If this sounds familiar, it is. It follows some of the basic plotline as the 1972 Nascy epic "Werewolf's Shadow" aka "Werewolf Vs. The Vampire Woman".

The Blu-ray presentation here is incredible and the film looks much. much better than the first time I saw it on a cropped VHS many years ago. This is the fifth and final film included in Shout Factory's stunning "Paul Naschy Collection". I cannot see any horror fan not having this in their collection.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO....

Robert Davi is 66.

VENGEANCE OF THE ZOMBIES 1972 (SHOUT FACTORY) BLU-RAY

Paul Naschy horror film featuring some interesting looking zombies.

Naschy has three roles in this film. He appears as Krisna, a mystic who preaches peace to his followers, Kantaka, the insane brother of Krisna who uses voodoo to bring back dead women and as Satan in a dream sequence.

Romy is Elvire Irving, a young woman who follows Krisna and believes in his words. Her life is soon turned upside down when her father is killed by Kantka's female zombie army.

Elvire goes to live with Krisna at his estate outside of London to try and recuperate. The terror follows her there as well, until the bizarre and somewhat unexpected ending. More on that later.

This to my knowledge is the only film I have ever seen Romy in, but the highlight for me is again the gorgeous Mirta Miller as Kala, the companion to Krisna. Sexy Maria Kosti appears at different stages thru the film as Elsie, and it is her role that brings about the twist ending.

My first introduction to this film was a VHS tape from Sinister Cinema back in the day. Now with this beautiful Blu-ray the film looks better than it ever has. The colors are bold and really stand out.

The female zombies in the film look exactly like the female zombies in the Andy Milligan film "Body Beneath". Another winner from the 5 disc set entitled "The Paul Naschy Collection".

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO....

June Lockhart is 92, and Layla El is 40.

HORROR RISES FROM THE TOMB 1973 (SHOUT FACTORY) BLU-RAY

This film, in my opinion is the Paul Naschy take on the Universal film "The Thing That Couldn't Die".

In Medieval France and evil warlock played by Naschy is beheaded for his crimes and his beautiful mistress (Helga Line) is killed as well.

Hundreds of years later his disembodied head is discovered on the very property where he died and before you know it, the severed head is starting to take control of people and have them kill others.

The head of Alaric de Marnac wants to reunited with it's body. Soon it is and he brings his mistress back to life as well. They spend their time drinking blood and eating the hearts of their victims until 7 moons have passed and they have all of their supernatural strength back.

It has been a long time since I saw this film, and thanks to Shout Factory and this Blu-ray release it looks better than ever. This is another Naschy gem featuring blood, guts, strange goings on and Helga Line nude! What more could you want?

The cast is rounded out by lovely Emma Cohen as Elvira (there is always a woman named Elvira in these kinds of films) and Vic Winner. Again, this is part of the "Paul Naschy Collection" 5 disc set from Shout Factory. All of the films have been top notch so far and a MUST for Naschy fans.

HUMAN BEASTS 1980 ( SHOUT FACTORY) BLU-RAY

Another Paul Naschy gem.

This mystery/horror film was partially financed by a Japanese company once funding for these kinds of films was drying up in Spain.

Naschy is Bruno Rivera, a hit man working for the Yakuza who double crosses the mob and steals a hugs cache of diamonds. His lover, a beautiful Japanese woman named Mieko hunts him down with mob members. Bruno kills them all including Mieko's brother. Mieko vows vengeance.

In the battle Bruno is shot and very near death. He collapses and when he regains consciousness he finds himself at an estate run by a kindly doctor who happens to have two very beautiful daughters living with him as well as a sexy black woman who takes care of them all.

The daughters, Monica (Silvia Aguilar) and Alicia (Azucena Hernandez) both fall for Bruno as he is slowly healed up. Bruno is haunted in his dreams about Mieko and before you know it Mieko has caught up with him, but she gets a very tragic surpsrise which I will not spoil here.

An even bigger surprise is in store for Bruno as he tries to make his final escape. The story builds slowly and there is a lot of mystery as a killer stalks the area around the house. That may sound pretty ordinary, but this is no ordinary movie.

I will not give away the ending, but it wraps up everything pretty well and you even get a final shocker in the last 10 seconds of the film!!

The doctor named Dom Simon (Lautaro Murua) has a very interesting and twisted sexual relationship with his housekeeper Raquel (Roxana Dupre) and it will shake up some of the PC crowd as he whips her and tells her he is her Master, but in reality it is Raquel who has turned the household into what it is.

The Blu-ray looks fantastic and is part of the "Paul Naschy Collection". Highly Recommended!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO....

John Amplas is 68, and Brandi Rhodes is 34.

BLUE EYES OF THE BROKEN DOLL 1974 (SHOUT FACTORY) BLU-RAY

Made in 1974, this great little Paul Naschy film was finally released in the USA in 1976.

Naschy stars as a man who is an ex-convict looking for work in a small town. Walking along a dark road he is picked up by an attractive woman who hires him as a caretaker of the estate on which she and her sisters live.

The sisters are a strange lot themselves. Claude (Diana Lorys), is beautiful but has a disfigured arm and hand from a burn, Nicole (Ines Morales)is a beautiful red headed nymphomaniac and Ivette (Maria Perschy) is wheelchair bound. As soon as Gilles (Naschy) starts work at the house a serial killer starts killing local women.

The killer stalks beautiful blonde women with blue eyes. After he kills them he cuts out the eyes. Gilles in immediately suspected once the police discover he is staying with the women.

Gilles sleeps with Nicole and Claude. He and Claude fall in love, but it is too late as he is forced to run after the police begin a chase that ends in his death.

The ending of this film comes as a big surprise and it had been so long since I saw this film I forgot the kicker ending. Naschy is very good under the direction of Carlos Aured, and, of course all the women are gorgeous.

The Blu-ray presentation from Scream Factory is perfect and this is my introduction to Naschy on Blu-ray and this is included in a set of 5 films from Nascy that Shout has put out. The set is entitled The Paul Naschy Collection and each title will be reviewed here in the coming days.

This is a highly recommended title if you love Spanish horror mixed with giallo.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

Bruce Campbell is 59, Lindsay Wagner is 68, Kris Kristofferson is 81, and Cyndi Lauper is 64.

COMING ATTRACTIONS......

One of the greatest releases of the year is here!!!!!

Coming from Synapse on Sept. 12th is a Blu-ray I have waited for a very, very long time. THE CREEP BEHIND THE CAMERA along with a new 2k scan of the "CREEPING TERROR".

Wow, this promises to be quite a release indeed.

IT CAME FROM HUNGER (BOOK REVIEW)

This is the autobiography of the one and only Larry Buchanan.

One of the most interesting books I have ever read. Buchanan, of course made such cinematic gems "In The Year 2889", "Creature Of Destruction", "Curse Of The Swamp Creature" and much more.

Buchanan takes us on a journey thru his life starting with being raised in a strict boys home and then going into the army and finally making movies on impossibly low budgets.

The Texas film maker cheerfully admits making bad films, but not all are as bad as people say. I have worked on movies with as low budgets and some even smaller, so I know the pitfalls of this kind of life.

There are quite a few surprises in this book and it makes for one hell of a read. I can't see how anyone interested in low budget film making could resist this book. Love him or hate him, after reading this tome you will have a better understanding of what Larry went thru and it's a miracle he ever got any of his films done.

Recommended reading.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO.....

Mariette Hartley is 77, and Ron Ely is 79.

GET CHRISTIE LOVE 1974 (FILM DETECTIVE)

One of my all time favorite made for TV films.

Teresa Graves stars as Christie Love, a beautiful undercover detective who is called in to track down a drug dealer and his suppliers.

Harry Guardino is Love's boss and he sends her to Miami to track down the drug lord's girlfriend. Christie gets far more than she bargained for, but she is a tough woman and can handle herself very well, as several people discover.

The gorgeous Teresa Graves gives a top notch performance here and the movie was so popular that is spawned a TV series that ran for one year before Graves gave it up in favor of religion.

She was gorgeous and 5'10" of stunning black beauty. When I first saw the film at the age of 11 I was enamored with Graves and I loved the TV show as well.

The Film Detective has done a very good job with this film and it looks better than any of the other versions I have seen. If you like sexy black women, good action and fast moving films, you'll want to see this. Recommended!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO....

Martin Landau is 89, Candy Clark is 70, Brett Halsey is 84, and Zia Mohyeddin is 84.

DICK TRACY RETURNS 1938. (VCI)

Another great 15 chapter Republic serial.

Ralph Byrd returns as Tracy and this time he and the FBI are fighting Pa Stark and his sons who have formed a powerful crime ring.

Tracy and his men fight spies, saboteurs and other sorted characters in order to stop the Starks from obtaining government secret weapons, millions of dollars and more.

The 15 chapters moves along at a good pace and what helps this chapter play along is the fact that the power mad Pa Stark is played by none other than Charles Middleton.

If you like serials, this one comes highly recommended.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO....

Paula Abdul is 55, Daria Nicolodi is 67, and Rosalba Neri is 79.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO....

A.J. Khan is 40.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO....

Peter Lupus is 85, and Nikki Darling is 34.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

Joan Van Ark is 74, Suzan Farmer is 75, and Dagmar Lassander is 74.

REMEMBERING CASEY KASEM

Today marks three years since the greatest voice in radio passed away.

I grew up listening to Casey count them down and he always made the music more enjoyable with his tidbits of information about the people who made the hits.

Kasem started AT40 with Don Bustany on July 4th, 1970 and even though I never heard the first year or so of the broadcast, when I did hear it for the first time I was immediately captivated.

I miss the fact that he isn't around anymore and his death was a sad one because it was caused by elder abuse from Jean Kasem, his wife.

Kasem was and always will be the greatest voice in radio and there will NEVER be another.

JUDY PACE

Today is the birthday of my first love in the entertainment field.

Judy made her acting debut in 1963 in the William Castle film 13 Frightened Girls and was on her way. She appeared in such TV shows as Batman, Bewitched an Days Of Our Live before her big break came in 1970 with the film Cotton Comes To Harlem.

But just before that film came into being she was already shaking up the TV and movie business by being the first black female villain on the show called Peyton Place.

The movie world was enamored with Judy's beauty an acting ability in Cotton and soon she was appearing in other movies like Up In The Cellar and, the movie that first introduced me to her sexiness...Frogs.

Judy also starred in the 1972 TV movie Brian's Song and after seeing her in these films I simply fell in love with the woman. I then kept my eyes peeled for anything she was in.

I caught her in episodes of Kung Fu, Medical Center, Sanford and Son, Good Times and much more. I have seen most of her movies including Cool Breeze, the above mentioned Cotton Comes To Harlem, and I still need to catch Three In The Attic, but I will soon. I even caught her on The Dating Game when she was the first black bachlorette ever on the show.

Judy is still busy today and for people like me she will always be a top queen of the movie screen. LONG LIVE JUDY PACE.

INQUISITION 1976 (MONDO MACABRO) BLU-RAY

Yes, I have reviewed this movie twice before, but finally have the definitive version from Mondo Macabro.

Paul Naschy directed and stars in this Spanish horror gem as a witch hunter who comes to a small village with his two companions to seek out witches and destroy them. Most of the area around them has been devastated with plague. The time is 16th century France.

Bernard de Fossey (Naschy) immediately starts seeking witches but his heart is captured by a beautiful woman who is the daughter of a dignitary. Catherine is her name and she is going to marry a local man whom Fossey has killed so he can have her.

Catherine is obsessed with finding her lover's killer that she aligns with Satan and discovers that it was Fossey behind the crime.

In the meantime Fossey and his helpers are torturing women on racks, whipping them and pulling off nipples in order to get confessions. Catherine has a special fate in store for Fossey and that is to burn at the stake.

I have seen many different versions of this film of varying quality and up until now the very best came from Sinister Cinema, but Mondo Macabro has changed all of that with this simply gorgeous Blu-ray.

The disc has an introduction by the late, great Naschy, new English subtitles, an interview with Daniela Giorano who plays Catherine, and a documentary on Spanish horror entitled Blood And Sand which is very good.

Now I wish someone would do a documentary of Spanish horror actresses!! Anyhow, I cannot recommend this Blu-ray enough. Naschy fans should not miss this one.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO....

Judy Pace is 75, Joy Bang is 72, Pamela Martinez is 28, and Anthony Carbone is 92.