For lovers of movies from the silent era to modern day with an emphasis on horror, sci-fi, exploitation, WIP, westerns and anything of the fantastic and bizarre. THIS SITE IS DEDICATED TO BOB WILKINS, GEORGE ROMERO, ALAN FREED ,ROGER CORMAN, CAROLINE MUNRO, JOHN FREDRIKSEN, JOHN ZACHERLE, CLEO MOORE , ROSALBA NERI, ERIKA BLANC, FEMI BENUSSI, SHIRLEY CORRIGAN, ROSANNA YANNI, MIRTA MILLER and, of course, CASEY KASEM.
Thursday, March 31, 2022
Wednesday, March 30, 2022
THE DISAPPEARANCE OF FLIGHT 412 1974 (TUBI)
A made for TV movie that is very timely today as it was then.
A four man crew of an Air Force flight spots three blips on their radar and report it. Fighter jest are sent to investigate.
The fighters disappear from the radar and the crew of flight 412 report the incident. Almost immediately they are forced to land and taken to an undisclosed location by Air Force agents.
Colonal Pete Moore (Glenn Ford) is not pleased that he is being left in the dark as to what happened to his crew. He smells a cover up and decides to investigate himself despite his friend, Major Mike Dunning (Bradford Dillman) telling him not to.
The crew is "de-briefed" by the agents, but refuse to say they saw nothing. Tempers begin to flair as the men become angry that they are being held against their will by their own men.
The dark secret the air force wants to protect is never really discussed, but Moore finds his men and takes them out. The ending is somewhat of a downer, but the viewer knows that the lid will be blown off soon.
The rest of the cast includes David Soul, Robert F. Lyons, Guy Stockwell, Ken Kerchavel and Kent Smith. Not too bad of a film really.
Monday, March 28, 2022
NIGHTWISH 1990 (TUBI)
Not too bad of a thriller, but hey Elizabeth Kaitan is in it so it's gotta be worth seeing.
The gorgeous Kaitan is Donna, one of four students along with their professor (Jack Sarrett) who journey to a house in the mountains.
This house is said to be haunted and the students are there to perform experiments dealing with paranormal activities and other supernatural things. But as usual things don't go as planned.
The professor starts to get too involved in his work, and soon the students cannot tell what is real and what is not. There are some gruesome incidents including the professor cutting off the finger of one of the students.
Things really get weird and before you know it everything seems to be a hallucination. The film is well acted and Kaitan steals the show as she always does. She has a brief nude scene which is ok with me.
Brian Thompson has a great role as Dean, a man who is NEVER happy about anything. This should hold your ttention if you're an 80's horror fan, and don't pay attention to all the negative comments. See it for yourself and decide.
The rest of the cast includes Alisha Das, Clayton Rohner, Robert Tessier and Tom Dugan as "Wendall" and he is great comedy relief.
Sunday, March 27, 2022
COLT COMRADES 1943 (PLATINUM)
Now this is one of the best Hopalong films I have seen.
The film opens with a mail robbery and then the criminal is pursued by Cassidy (William Boyd), California (Andy Clyde) and Johnny Travers (Jay Kirby).
They corner the outlaw called Dirk (Robert Mitchum) in a bar and try to give him to the Sheriff, but a man named Joe Brass (Douglas Fowley) shoots and kills him instead. Hoppy and his friends collect the bounty money and then go halves on a small rach owned by a young woman named Luck (Teddi Sherman) and her brother Lin (George Reeves).
It's soon discovered that Jed Hardin (Victor Jory) owns all of the water rights and is forcing the cattlemen to sell their cattle to him at 50 cents on the dollar.
Hoppy does some investigating but is framed for cattle rustling by Jeb. The climax involves a huge shootout involving all of Jeb's men and the cattlemen.
The cast is exceptional in this film and it is just an all round good movie. The action is non stop, California adds his usual doses of humor and some good old familiar faces make it a great watch.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...
Talisa Soto is 55, Michael York is 80, Julian Glover is 87, June Wilkinson is 82 and Jody Fair is 88.
Saturday, March 26, 2022
MONSTER FROM GREEN HELL 1957 (FILM DETECTIVE) BLU-RAY
One of my guilty pleasures of 50's sci-fi films finally comes to Blu-ray in a beautiful 4K restoration.
Jim Davis stars as Dr. Quent Brady, who, along with Dan Morgan (Robert Griffin) are experimenting with sending test animals and insects into space and seeing what radiation will do.
One of their rockets gets lost and crashes in the African jungle. Soon they begin hearing about strange monsters terrorizing the locals and so they go to investigate.
They find that the wasps in the crashed rocket have been exposed to 40 hours of radiation and grown to enormous size. An expidition is formed to find the nest and wipe it out. After a lot of footage from the 1939 film "Stanley and Livingston" Quent and party find a jungle home of Dr. Lorentz (Vladimir Sokoloff).
The doctor has been killed by the monsters, but his daughter Lorna (Barbara Turner) welcomes Quent and Dan anyway. A second party is formed after the original safari bearers leave in the middle of the night.
When the small group locates the nest they are shocked by how many monsters there are, and they use explosives to try and stop them, but to no avail. A volcano erupts and that puts an end to the menace.
The very fun film was directed by Kenneth Crane who also co-directed "The Manster". Music was provided by Albert Glasser and the producer was Al Zimbalist, the man who gave us "Cat Women Of The Moon" and the immortal "Robot Monster".
I just love seeing these kinds of films come out on Blu-ray and Film Detective has done their usual beautiful job. This film is the version with the color ending which I have been searching for for almost 40 years!
This is a top release of 2022, and FD has more planned. The rest of the cast for this gem includes Eduardo Ciannelli, Joel Fluellen and Tim Huntley.
If you love 50's sci-fi like I do, this is a no brainer to buy. Coming next from FD in June will be the 1957 all time classic "Brain From Planet Arous" and that is one I am VERY excited to see coming out.
Friday, March 25, 2022
THE DEAD DON'T DREAM 1948 (PLATINUM)
This is the 62nd of 66 Hopalong Cassidy movies, and it plays like a mixture of western and old dark house horror.
Hoppy William Boyd, California (Andy Clyde) and Lucky (Rand Brooks) arrive at an inn for Lucky's marriage, only to find it has been canceled.
It seems that Lucky's fiancee's uncle is missing and she is worried. Hoppy decides to investigate and he discovers the man dead in a mine where he was keeping some gold.
Two more men disappear after staying in the same room at the Inn as the first victim and thise set in motion a bizarre mystery. Hoppy has a lot of suspectrs and decides to stay in the room and trap the killer or killers.
There are a lot of scenes where Hoppy is chasing people thru very dark rooms, hidden chambers and misty countryside. It actually looks like a Universal horror film at times, and I think that adds a lot of extra charm to this particular film.
This is a fun 62 minute western that always has something going on and it never slows down. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!
Thursday, March 24, 2022
Wednesday, March 23, 2022
Tuesday, March 22, 2022
STICK TO YOUR GUNS 1941 (PLATINUM)
Another fun Hopalong Cassidy western.
The story here is very simple and straightforward. The Bar 20 boys are after a man named Nevada (Dick Curtis) and his gang of cattle rustlers.
Hoppy (William Boyd) and California (Andy Clyde) join up with Nevada's gang using assumed names. This seems to be ok for a while, but soon one of Nevada's gang spots a member of the Bar 20 and that sets things in motion for Hoppy's identity to be revealed.
This is a fun and fast paced film running only 63 minutes. It is also the film debut if Jennifer Holt who went on to quite a career in westerns and such.
If you enjoy quick B westerns, then I would recommend this. These Hopalong Cassidy films are a heck of a lot of fun.
Monday, March 21, 2022
RIP ROBERT VINCENT O' NEIL 1930-2022
The prolific writer/director has died.
O'Neil was a leader in 70's and 80's exploitation gems and I am sure most of us here have seen something either written or directed by him. His credits are very impressive.
As a writer he wrote such classics as "Angel", "Avenging Angel", "The Mighty Gorga" and "The Psycho Lover". As if tis isn't enough he also wrote the screenplays for several greats like ""Deadly Force", "Woder Women", and "What Waits Below".
O' Neil's directing credits include "Angel", "Avenging Angel", "Wonder Women", "Blood Mania" and "Paco".
A true talent when it came to making watchable exploitation classics, O' Neil passed away on March 12th, 2022 at the age of 91.
SURRENDER HELL 1959 (VCI)
Not too bad of a WW2 film.
Allied Artists released this in 1959. Keith Andes stars as Col. Donald D. Blackburn, a soldier caught in the Philipine islands during the Japanese attack during WW2.
He forms an army of guerrillas out of the many citizens who are homeless as well as several tribes of headhunters who live on the island.
They begin to repel the invaders and give the Japanese a run for their money. This is a standard, but well made film and the actors do the best they can with the material. This is based on actual incidents, and yes, Col. Blackburn was a real person.
The rest of the cast includes Susan Cabot, Paraluman, Nestor de Ville and Vic Diaz.
If you're an action fan you might indeed like this movie. I did, and it was pretty fast paced and it kept my interest, Cabot looks lovely as always and I thought her part was too short, but what do I know.
Sunday, March 20, 2022
Saturday, March 19, 2022
RIP KUNT TULGAR 1948-2022
The Turkish director has passed away.
If you're a fan of Turkish cinema, you have heard of Tulgar before.
His directing credits include "The Return Of Superman" and "Tarzan The Mighty Man". Both are strange and bizarre to say the least, but fun as hell.
He also acted in several films. His most well known role amongst horror fans is the role of Tekin in the unforgettable "Deathless Devil".
Tulgar passed away in Turkey on March 16th, 2022 at the age of 74.
RIP AKIRA TAKARADA 1934-2022
The Japanese icon has passed away.
I, like many of you grew up watching Godzilla films, and his was a very familiar face.
Takarada was in the first Godzilla film in 1954 and American audiences saw him in many other Toho films including "Half Human", "Mothra Vs. Godzilla", "Invasion Of The Astro Monsters", Ebirah, Horror Of The Deep", "King Kong Escapes" and much more.
He appeared in hundreds of movies in his native Japan, many of which were not or have not been seen by American audiences. He was a huge supporter of Japanese monster films as are many of the older Toho actors.
Akira Takarada passed away on March 14th, 2022 at the age of 87.
LOST IN SPACE 1965-1968 (FOX) SEASON 1
This is the series that most people associate with Irwin Allen
Basically a "Swiss Family Robinson" story set in space, this show ran 84 episodes over 3 years and was a huge ratings winner. They were filled with horror, science fiction, comedy and fun.
The cast was Guy Williams as Prof. John Robinson, June Lockhart as his wife Maureen, Billy Mumy as Will Robinson, Marta Kristen as Judy Robinson, Angela Cartwright as Penny Robinson, Mark Goddard as Major Don West and Jonathan Harris as Dr. Zachary Smith.
THE RELUCTANT STOWAWAY 9/15/65...The Robinson family is about to be sent into space headed for Alpha Centuri on the Jupiter 2. Before this can happen a saboteur, Zachary Smith (Jonathan Harris) tries to destroy the ship and causes in to veer off into uncharted space.
THE DERELICT 9/22/65...The Jupiter 2 is pulled into another huge ship occupied by bubble-like aliens with evil intent.
ISLAND IN THE SKY 9/29/65...Dr. Robinson is pulled down onto a mysterious planet while space walking and Major West lands on the planet in an attempt to find him.
THERE WERE GIANTS IN THE EARTH 10/6/65...While the Robinson flees south after finding that the planet may freeze them to death, they are attacked by a giant cyclops monster. This is one of the most remembered episodes ever.
THE HUNGRY SEA 10/13/65...After almost freezing the mysterious planet starts moving towards the sun again threatening the Robinsons.
WELCOME STRANGER 10/20/65...Warren Oates stars as Jimmy Hapgood, a man who left Earth in 1982 on his small one man ship. The Robinsons help him repair his craft and ask if he will take Will and Penny back to Earth.
MY FRIEND, MR. NOBODY 10/27/65...Penny makes friends with a deep voice coming from a cave. Very odd episode indeed.
INVADERS FROM THE FIFTH DIMENSION 11/5/65...Aliens need a brain to use in their worn out computer and they choose Dr. Smith, but he makes a deal to bring them the brain of Will instead.
THE OASIS 11/10/65...Dr. Smith eats some fruit on the planet and becomes a giant.
THE SKY IS FALLING 11/17/65...A robot that looks like a crab announces the arrival of colonists and Dr. Smith believes that they are not peaceful, but invaders.
WISH UPON A STAR 11/24/65...Will and Dr. Smith come upon a machine that grants wishes and Smith uses it for his own gain which endangers the lives of all the Robinsons.
THE RAFT 12/1/65...Will's experiments deplete the fuel on the Jupiter 2 so Don and John try to find an alternative supply.
ONE OF OUR DOGS IS MISSING 12/8/65...With the men away trying to establish a relay station, the women must fight an alien invader who is stalking them.
ATTACK OF THE MONSTER PLANTS 12/15/65...Dr. Smith discovers plants that can duplicate anything, including human beings. A very well made episode that really stands out.
RETURN FROM OUTER SPACE 12/29/65...Will uses a matter transfer device left by aliens and finds himself back on Earth in a small town in Vermont, but nobody believes his story.
THE KEEPER PART 1 1/12/66...An alien (played by Michael Rennie) lands on the planet with the intent of taking two specimens of humans back with him to a traveling space circus.
THE KEEPER PART 2 1/19/66...Dr. Smith releases all of the creatures on The Keepers ship, and this causes even more trouble for the space family.
THE SKY PIRATE 1/26/66...Albert Salmi stars as Captain Alonzo P. Tucker, an Earthling that has escaped his alien captors. However, Tucker may not be all that he seems.
GHOST IN SPACE 2/2/66...Dr. Smith summons a ghostly monster during a seance.
WAR OF THE ROBOTS 2/9/66...The Robinsons find and repair a robot only to find that the mechanical man has plans to capture them all.
THE MAGIC MIRROR 2/16/66...Penny finds a mirror which contains a world in which a lonely young man lives.
THE CHALLENGE 3/2/66...Michael Ansara and Kurt Russell star as a father and son who land on the planet and challenge Will and John to a duel to the death.
THE SPACE TRADER 3/9/66...Dr. Smith ruins the Robinsons food supply and quickly makes a deal with a space trader for food in exchange for his body which is to be collected in 200 years. Unfortunately the trader comes to collect immediately. Torin Thatcher stars.
HIS MAJESTY SMITH 3/16/66...Dr. Smith is made the leader of an alien race, but also finds out he is their sacrifice.
THE SPACE CROPPERS 3/30/66...A family comes to the planet to harvest their crops and then leave. However Smith tries to woo the mother played by Mercedes McCambridge so he can get back to Earth. Her son is a werewolf monster and the daughter wants Don. Sherry Jackson is super sexy as the daughter, Effra.
ALL THAT GLITTERS 4/6/66...Dr Smith and Penny find a ring that turns everything to Platinum. Smith, of course turns this into a disaster.
THE LOST CIVILAZATION 4/13/66...Will awakens a sleeping princess. He finds that he must noe marry her and help her and her army conquer the universe.
A CHANGE OF SPACE 4/20/66...A strange spaceship turns Will into a genius and Dr. Smith turns very, very old.
FOLLOW THE LEADER 4/27/66... Excellent episode in which an evil spirit possesses John and plans to take the Jupiter 2 to his home planet, even at the cost of Will's life.
That wraps up season 1. The episodes were all in black and white for the first season, but for the second and third they were all in color. I thought the black and white looked better, but that is only my opinion. All in all a great first season for fans of science fiction television.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...
Ursula Andress is 86, Vida Guerra is 48, Jan Shepard is 94, and A.J Mendez is 35.
Friday, March 18, 2022
THE BROKEN STAR 1957 (TUBI)
Wow!! Another fine western.
Howard Duff stars as Marshall Sheriff Frank Smeed. He guns down a gangsters henchman and then proceeds to steal the money that is hidden in the cabin.
When he returns to town he claims self defense and the head Sheriff Wayne Forrester (Addison Richards) opens an investigation. Smeed's best friend, also a Deputy Marshall named Bill Gentry (Bill Williams) does his own investigation.
He discovers several things that implicate Smeed and Smeed tries his best to cover up all the evidence. The bodies start to pile up and Smeed gets desparate.
With both the law and gangsters following him he finds his luck running out. Smeed tries to kill Gentry after he discovers that Smeed has indeed stolen the 8000 dollars in gold.
The cast in this film all do an excellent job, especially Duff as the thief eho must pay for his crimes. Lesley Selander directed this film and it turned out prettty damned good.
The rest of ther cast includes Douglas Fowley, Henry Calvin and Lita Baron whose opening scenes of hewr singing a song called I Hate You while using a whip is an eye opener indeed.
Thursday, March 17, 2022
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...
Kurt Russell is 71, Laurene Landon is 65, Joe Seanoa is 43, and Tom Pace is 88.
Wednesday, March 16, 2022
BLOOD OF THE VAMPIRE 1958 (SHOUT FACTORY) BLU-RAY
I knew an uncut version of this film existed, because if memory serves me right I saw it when I was a kid.
Shout Factory has finally brought this film out to Blu-ray and totally uncut, and it looks beautiful.
Despite the title there is no vampire in sight, but there is plenty of fun. In 1874 an evil doctor named Callistratus (Donald Wolfit) is staked thru the heart and buried.
However his disfigured henchman named Carl (Victor Maddern) arranges for a heart transplant to save the doctor.
Flash ahead to 6 years later and a young doctor is on trial for the death of a patient. John Pierre (Vincent Ball) is sentenced to life in prison. Before he is sent to jail he is taken from the prison and sent to an asylum instead.
There he finds he has been enlisted by the man running the place to help him with some experiments. It turns out that Dr. Callistratus is alive and well and running the asylum for his own purposes.
John's fiancee Madeleine (Barbara Shelley) discovers that he was sent there and that some kind of cover-up is taking place. She gets a job as the housekeeper for the deranged doctor and does her own investigation.
For years and years I have seen this film, and always knew something was missing. When I saw this as a wee child it had, at that time, a few disturbing scenes for someone so young, but that version long disappeared.
This version has those scenes including body parts and internal organs laying all over the doctor's tables in his lab and more scenes of Carl having fun with three chained up women in the dungeon.
The Blu-ray is simply beautiful and this was offered as a Shout Factory site only order. It's not on Amazon in this version. Universla released this film in 1958 and it is always confused by some as being a Hammer film, because it looks so much like one.
It was written by Jimmy Sangster, who did a ton of Hammer films and it might be that director Henry Cass wanted to make it seem like a Hammer film. Barbara Shelley is gorgeous as always and is a main attraction in this movie.
I'm glad this film can finally be seen uncut as it should be. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED horror.
Tuesday, March 15, 2022
RIP SCOTT HALL 1958-2022
The wrestling great has passed away.
Hall started his career in the AWA wrestling for Vern Gagne and then gained greater fame in the WWF as Razor Ramon.
However, in 1996 he set his reputation in stone as one of the 3 founding members of the NWO along with Kevin Nash and Hulk Hogan. Hall made his name at a time when pro wrestling was at it's absolute peak.
Scott Hall passed away on March 14th, 2022 at the age of 63 following complications after hip surgery. He will be missed by wrestling fans everywhere, but his legacy with the profession will outlive most of us.
THE SHOOTER 1997 (TUBI)
Yet another surprise on streaming.
Fred Olen Ray directed this fine western film with a great cast and story.
A cowboy named Michael Atherton (Michael Dudikoff) comes to a small town and finds danger and corruption. The movie opens as he rescues a prostitute named Wendy (Valerie Wildman) as she is being whipped by a group of men. He kills them.
One of the men he kills is the son of a very vicious man named Jerry Krants (William Smith). Krants swears vengeance on Atherton. Eventually Atherton falls victim to Krants and he is slowly tortured and left for dead.
Wendy rescues him and takes care of him until he is able to function again. The sheriff has been killed and replaced witha new lawman named Kyle Tapert (Randy Travis).
Atherton kills Krants and this makes Tapert seek revenge on Atherton. It all comes down to a spectacu;ar climax that is full of action which reminds me of a lot of 50's westerns.
Randy travis turns in a great performance as Tapert. The most crooked sheriff I have ever seen in a film of this kind. His evil actually outshines that of Krants.
The rest of the cast includes Andrew Stevens, Robert Quarry, Hoke Howell, Eric Lawson and Libby George.
If you haven't seen this film and you're a westerns fan I Highly Recommend this little gem. It's fast paced, well done on all points and exactly what a western should be.
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