PARDON MY SARONG 1942 (UNIVERSAL)

A classic A&C comedy film.

Abbot is Algy Shaw and Costello is Wellington Pflug two bus drivers who are so inept they manage to steal their own bus.

With the police after them they decide to tag along with their passenger on the bus, a man named Tommy Layton (Robert Paige) who happens to be a playboy, to a tropical island.

On the island they find a jewel thief has other plans for them. Algy and Wellington get into one hilarious situation after another, and Abbott and Costello were experts at classic comedy.

The magic scene with the boys and William Demarest is a classic that should never be missed. The rest of the cast includes Lionell Atwill as the thief named Varnoff, Leif Erickson as Whaba a tribal chief leader who has some classic comedy routines with Costello, Virginia Bruce, Nan Wynn and Sam S. Hinds. The beautiful Maria Montez had all of her scenes deleted after the final cut, which is a shame.

If you're and Abbott & Costello fan you'll love this fast moving comedy that never stops. Great fun.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

Mickie James is 40, Adrienne Reese is 31, and Debbie Gibson is 49.

RIP BRAD LINAWEAVER 1952-2019

An often overlooked author and screen writer has passed away.

Linaweaver is best known for his fascinating novel "Moon Of Ice" which is simply a MUST read.

He also produced several low budget, but fun horror films including "Super Shark" and "Crustacean". Brad was a busy man who wrote many of the "Sliders" novels and also it should be noted that he appeared in the first film Fred Olen Rasy ever made entitled "The Brain Leeches".

He died after a short battle with cancer on Aug. 30th, 2019, just two days short of his 67th birthday.

LOVE ME TENDER 1956 (FOX) BLU-RAY

One of the greatest films Elvis ever made.

Several Confederate soldiers steal a Union payroll at a small train station only to learn afterwards that the war has ended. They decide to keep the money anyway and split the loot and go their separate ways.

The Reno Brothers Vance (Richard Egan), Brett (William Campbell) and Ray (James Drury) head for their home and find their mother Martha (Mildred Dunnock) and their younger brother Clint (Elvis Presley) waiting for them as well as a young woman named Cathy (Debra Paget) also waiting.

Cathy is the woman Vance was going to marry until they received word he had died. Cathy then married Clint and they must now tell Vance, who accepts the news with a slight bit of bitterness and understanding.

All seems well until Vance's strong feeling for Cathy start to come back and this causes a bit of strife which is then made only worse when the Fed's show up looking for the stolen money.

Vance and his brothers deny having the money but are arrested anyway. Their other comrades in the robbery led by Mike Gavin (Neville Brand) cause even more trouble and everything seems to fall apart.

Clint turns on his brothers and helps Gavin and his plans to steal all the money from the Reno brothers. Clint pays for his turncoat behavior at the end of the movie.

This was the first movie Elvis made and you can see that he does have acting chops and he does a great job here. The title tune was and still is a HUGE smash. It was great to see this on Blu-ray and of course, I recommend it to any Elvis fan and also to western fans as it is an excellent movie with a great cast which also includes Ken Clark and Barry Coe.

VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

Frank Henenlotter is 69.

RIDE EM COWBOY 1942 (UNIVERSAL)

Another very entertaining Abbott & Costello vehicle.

Bud and Lou are Duke and Willoughby respectively. They are two peanut vendors at a rodeo who get into nothing but trouble with their boss and have to hide in a train car to escape his wrath.

The two clowns get jobs at a small dude ranch and there are some hilarious scenes of Willoughby trying to break in a wild horse. Duke and Willoughby also get involved in a poker game that is unforgettable.

Rodeo rider Bronco Bob Mitchell (Dick Foran) tries to make a comeback in the business he knows best all the while being romanced by the lovely Anne Shaw (Anne Gwynne).

There is some pretty good music numbers in this film and everything meshes well with the slapstick comedy of Bud and Lou. This is not one of their better known efforts, but it does a great job in making the viewer smile and sometimes laugh out loud. I know I did.

The rest of the cast includes familiar Universal players as Ted McMichael, Samuel S. Hinds and Douglass Dumbrille. Others include Ella Fitzgerald who sings a couple of catchy tunes, Johnny Mack Brown and Morris Ankrum.

If you get a chance, check this out. It's well worth the time.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

David Soul is 76, John Allen Nelson is 60, and Hugo Stiglitz is 79.

HOLD THAT GHOST 1941 (UNIVERSAL)

One of the greatest Abbott and Costello films ever made.

Bud and Lou star as Chuck and Ferdinand, two hapless men who inherit a fortune from a dying gangster named Moose Matson.

Several other people learn of this money and are willing to do anything to get it. The boys find themselves stranded at a haunted mansion along with several other people including Dr. Jackson (Richard Carlson), Camille Brewster, a professional radio screamer (Joan Davis), and Norma Lind (Evelyn Ankers).

There are plenty of laughs in this great film. Joan Davis and Lou Costello make a great comedic team. Their dance number is one of the all time classic comedy bits as well as the moving candle gag.

Production on this film was stopped a few times in order to make other war time comedies with Abbott & Costello after the enormous success of "Buck Privates".

I have to admit that Davis steals the show with the screwball comedy and I don't think she ever worked with someone better than Lou Costello. They really hit it off and it seems that some of the comedy is improvised and that makes it even better. The rest of the cast includes Marc Lawrence, Shemp Howard, The Andrews Sisters and Mischa Auer.

If you haven't seen this little gem, you should. You will find yourself laughing out loud on many occasions. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

Tuesday Weld is 76, Barbara Bach is 72, and Robert Remus is 71.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

Akiko Wakabayashi is 78, and Kirk Morris is 77.

RAMBLINGS....

Just a quick shout out to one of the greatest films ever made.

On this day in 1979, 40 years ago, the Lucio Fulci classic "Zombie" was released in Italy. It didn't make English speaking markets until 1980.

To me, the film is one of the 5 greatest movies ever to be made.

KISS OF DEATH 1947 (FOX)

One of the greatest film noir movies ever made!

Victor Mature stars as Nick Bianco, a down on his luck ex-con that is caught trying to steal jewelry on Christmas Eve in order to get his wife and children some gifts.

The assistant D.A. named Louis D'Angelo (Brian Donlevy) tries to get him to open up and tell him about others who were connected with the crime, but Bianco refuses. While in prison for the third year, Bianco reads that his ex-wife killed herself and his children are in a state run facility.

Nick agrees to help D'Angelo bring down a few top ranking criminals and killers in return for seeing his two little girls. The situation gets very dangerous when Bianco meets up with a giggling, insane killer named Tommy Udo (Richard Widmark).

There are a lot of double and triple crosses in this film and there has never been a more insane killer in the film noir genre than that of Tommy Udo. The all time classic scene of Udo pushing a wheelchair bound woman down a flight of stairs is, and always will be a cinema milestone.

This film moves along at a great pace and I can't see any film noir fan not owning this disc or at least watching the movie. The rest of the stellar cast includes Coleen Gray, Taylor Holmes, Karl Malden and Anthony Ross.

I could go on and on about this movie, but suffice to say, it's a an all time classic that shouldn't be missed.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

Sean Connery is 89, and Tom Skerritt is 86.

KEEP EM FLYING 1942 (UNIVERSAL)

This is probably one of the weaker Abbott & Costello films I have ever seen.

The boys star as Blackie Benson and Heathcliff respectively. They are the two goofball assistants to a stunt pilot who decides to join the air corps.

They both go with him and hilarity ensues as Blackie and Heathcliff make the Air Corps a disaster. There are plenty of jokes and comedy routines, but I actually found the film to be lacking in comedy, at least compared to other Abbott & Costello films.

Dick Foran is good in the role of the cocky pilot named Jinx Roberts. The rest of the cast includes William Gargan, Martha Raye, Carole Bruce, and Charles Lang.

This is a good time waster, but something about this film didn't click with me. There is one great scene where the boys are attempting to fly a plane, and the results are typical A&C.

As a fan I will watch anything with Abbott & Costello in it, but this one is not too high on my list.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

Raven De La Croix is 72, Vince McMahon is 74, and Connie Mason is 82.

IN THE NAVY 1941 (UNIVERSAL)

Another very fine Abbott and Costello comedy.

While filming "Hold That Ghost", "Buck Privates" was released and became such a huge hit that UNiversal halted the production of the former film and decided to make another "military comedy" with Abbott & Costello.

In this little gem Bud and Lou are two hapless men stuck in the Navy. Dick Powell stars as a handsome singer who is trying to hide from all of his fans by changing his name from Russ Raymond to Thomas Halstead by joining the Navy.

Meanwhile a reporter named Dorothy Roberts (Claire Dodd) is hot on Raymond's trail. Pomeroy Watson (Lou Costello) and Smokey Adams (Bud Abbott) help Russ out as best they can while involving him in many shenanigans.

There are many classic set pieces in this classic film including the hidden lemon trick and the 13X7=28 gag that is priceless and really more in tune to how people do math in the real world in 2019!!

The rest of the cast for this great little film includes Dick Foran, The Andrews Sisters, Ken Brown and Shemp Howard. If you're an A7C fan you don't want to miss this timeless classic.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

Barbara Eden is 88, and Vera Miles is 90.

THE HOUSE IN MARSH ROAD 1960 (SINISTER CINEMA)

It must have been about 45 years since I last saw this movie. I saw it under the title "Invisible Creature".

This is a fairly well made film about a young couple moving into a house that is said to be haunted.

Patricia Dainton stars as Jean Linton, a young woman who has inherited a house that may be haunted. She and her husband David (Tony Wright) hopes this move will inspire him to get a book he is working on done and finally bring in some money.

David meets a young woman and hires her to do his typing and soon they are having an affair. Her name is Valerie (Sandra Dorne) and she tries to convince David to kill his wife.

David decides to do just this as he has fallen out of love with his wife. However, the trouble starts when David tries to kill Jean by pushing her down an elevator shaft and the door suddenly closes and prevents this disaster.

Jean learns from the housekeeper that a ghost inhabits the house. It seems this ghost likes Jean and is doing what it can to protect her. David becomes frustrated in his attempts to kill Jean.

Thus, this sets up a great little battle of wits between ghost and man. This is a great little plot line and a good story to boot. I enjoyed this British production directed by the ever reliable Montgomery Tully.

The rest of the cast includes Sam Kydd, Derek Aylward, Anita Sharp-Bolster and Llewellyn Rees.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

Honor Blackman is 94, and Cindy Williams is 72.

URSUS THE TERROR OF THE KIRGHIZ 1964 (AMAZON PRIME)

A fun muscle popper I had never seen or heard of.

The original title of this was "Hercules, Prisoner Of Evil" and that title rings a faint bell, but I still had never seen this little gem. I caught it on Amazon Prime in a beautiful remastered and Italian language print which was also subtitled and widescreen.

A strange monster in running loose in a land ruled by the evil Prince Regent Zerah who murdered the Great Khan 10 years ago and took over power.

Reg Park stars as Ursus the one man Zerah fears may take over the crown. Ursus fights the strange werewolf like monster and nobody can seem to figure out where it comes from or where it goes.

The plot takes an interesting turn in dealing with a witch who uses her powers to turn men into monsters whenever she pleases, and she actually turns Ursus into a monster without him remembering it at all.

Her secret is finally revealed and it brings an unusual climax to a most interesting sword and sandal flick. I did some research on this title and found a lot of people don't like it much, but I think it's an interesting film with a new twist on the genre.

If you get a chance, check it out. In my opinion it's a winner for Peplum fans.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

Clarence Williams III is 80, Patty McCormack is 74, Eve Torres is 35, and Kenny Rogers is 81.

GODZILLA 2014 (WARNER BROTHERS)

It took me five years, but I finally had to watch this movie, especially with the upcoming release of the 2019 film entitled "Godzilla, King Of The Monsters".

I say I had to watch this because my roommate rented this for us to watch. It stars nobody I know, but it was a somewhat interesting movie. I don't like the fact that America has taken a Japanese franchise and it attempting to make money off of it, but that is just the way of the world in the 2000's I guess.

Anyway it seems that in 1999 a nuclear facility in Japan was closed down after in collapsed and killed most everyone who worked there. The movie moves ahead 15 years and we find the facility still closed and the surrounding area blocked off as well.

There is a secret government project being conducted and it soon givers birth to a monstrous creature who seems to feed off of all types of energy. The monster raises havoc everywhere it goes and soon it's discovered that Godzilla has awakened and it now after the creature called a MUTO.

Old Godzy gets a surprise when the mate for the original creature shows up in Honolulu and a huge battle ensues between the three monsters. It was cool to see a place like Honolulu destroyed. The creatures battle all the way to San Francisco.

Frisco is also destroyed and that was a pleasure to see. The effects aren't bad at all in this 160 million dollar epic. I can't help but wonder why Godzilla wasn't the main focus. The filmmakers seemed to make him take a back seat to all the human interaction, the MUTO monsters and the nuclear disaster, but then again, that is American film making today.

I enjoyed the movie, as did my roommate, but she took it an extra mile and did a running wrestling commentary during the battle scenes between the monsters. Now we are going to have to get the next film which comes out in DVD and Blu-ray soon. I can't wait for more wrestling announcing from Jenn, she actually made those scenes even more entertaining.

I would recommend this for monster movie fans and Godzilla fans, of course, but don't expect anything as much fun as the original films of the bygone era.

THE DEVIL'S NIGHTMARE 1970 (MONDO MACABRO) BLU-RAY

One of my all time favorite films finally made it to Blu-ray.

I have talked about this film a couple of times before on this blog, but I can't say enough good things about it, and now Mondo Macabro has brout it to a Blu-ray and it's time to rave again.

At the beginning of the disc Mondo tells us that there are still a few imperfections in the movie as it is a 2K scan from a lone surviving print and that they hope it does not deter from the viewing experience.

How in the world could anything deter the experience of watching this perfect gem?

The film opens during WW2 and a German officer (Jean Servais) is waiting for the birth of his child. The wife dies after giving birth and the officer is informed that he has a new daughter. He promptly kills the baby.

After the credits we are moved to 1970 and a bus load of seven tourists who are on vacation and due to circumstances are forced to stay as Castle von Rhoneberg. The butler, a scary looking guy named Hans (Maurice De Groote) introduces himself and states that their rooms are ready. He also informs them that he received a phone call from a woman who told him about the pending arrival and their names.

The guests settle in and meet their host Baron Von Rhoneberg and during dinner a mysterious female guest named Lisa appears. Lisa is played by the gorgeous Erica Blanc, and her entrance into the room during this scene is something one never forgets.

It eventually is revealed that the tourists represent the seven deadly sins and Lisa is a succubus killing the people one by one and claiming their souls for Satan (Danial Emilfork).

Blanc never looked better in a movie, and I have seen this beautiful woman in many, many films. There are several set pieces that are unforgettable in this Euro horror gem which is actually one of the very few, if only horror film shot in Belgium.

The rest of the cast includes Jacques Monseau as a young seminary student who is slowly seduced by Blanc's Lisa character, Ivana Novak and Shirley Corrigan.

Beautiful Euro women, old castles, strange plot twists and much more make this an enjoyable film that I am finally able to see on Blu-ray. This gets my highest recommendations.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

Diana Muldaur is 81, Jill St. John is 79, L.Q. Jones is 92, Darby Hinton is 62, and Lilian Garcia is 53.

BUCK PRIVATES 1941 (UNIVERSAL)

This is the first feature film for Abbott and Costello and it was a HUGE hit.

Bud and Lou are two sidewalk salesmen who peddle their goods without a license and in order to escape the police accidentally register in the Army.

The policeman who is always after them turns out the be their Sgt. in basic training. Bud and Lou have tons of hijinks in this fun little film that really managed to show off their talents.

There are plenty of sight gags and very funny dialogue to keep the viewer laughing. The drill marching scene is a classic. Nat Pendleton is perfect as Sgt. Michael Collins and he and Bud Abbott work very well together.

Director Arthur Lubin handles the film well as he always did and the rest of the cast includes Lee Bowman, Jane Frazee, Alan Curtis and The Andrews Sisters.

Another highlight of the film is the Andrews Sisters singing "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy Of Company B". A classic if there ever was one. This is a highly recommended comedy classic.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

Saraya-Jade Bevis is 27, and Belinda Carlisle is 61.

RIP PETER FONDA 1940-2019

The counterculture icon and movie rebel has passed away.

I met and talked with Peter Fonda many times in Livingston, Montana and considered him a good acquaintance. He was always the perfect gentleman.

Fonda started his acting career in 1962 with a role in the TV show "The Naked City" and made his first movie the following year starring in "Tammy & The Doctor". Fonda kept busy and in 1966 he starred in the Roger Corman classic "The Wild Angels" along with Nancy Sinatra, but just three years later he would become an international star with the film "Easy Rider".

The roles in both of these classic films followed him the entire rest of his career, but he loved it. He also directed the bizarre and wonderful sci-fi film entitled "Idaho Transfer" which is one of my favorite films of all time. He also went on to direct such films as "Wanda Nevada" starring Brooke Shields.

Many of us will also remember him from his starring roles in "The Hired Hand" , "Race With The Devil" and "Dirty Mary and Crazy Larry". Fonda passed away in Aug 16th at the age of 79.

HOUSE OF DREAMS 1963 (SINISTER CINEMA)

Another obscure oddity from Sinister Cinema.

Robert Berry wrote, produced, directed and stars in this ultra low budget oddity.

Berry plays a writer who has a strange recurring dream about an abandoned and spooky house down the street. His wife claims he is working too hard and not to worry about it too much.

Slowly the dreams progress to the point where her dreams of going to the house and seeing people he knows, then the next morning he finds that that person has died.

The dreams slowly drive the man to the edge. His best friend and wife appear in separate drams and soon both are dead. The ending is a predictable ending, but a fun one anyway.

I read a lot of bad stuff about this movie before I bought it, and all I can say is it's an easy target. Look, it's very, very low budget. The actors are not professional, but to me it turned out fine. Yes, there are a few flaws, but who cares. I think any horror fan should seek out this oddity and see it.

I love the opening credit sequence as the names are written on the old, dirty floors, the walls, the doors, etc. Yep, I'm going to probably be the only one to Recommend this film, but I liked it. The print from Sinister is very good. Filmed in Decker, Indiana.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

Julie Newmar is 86, Ann Blyth is 91, Gary Clarke is 86, George Eastman is 77, and Mirta Miller is 71.