SANTO AND THE FURY OF THE KARATE EXPERTS 1982 (TUBI)

Absolutely one of the worst films I have ever seen.'

Made 2 years befor the great Santo passed away, this film is possibly the worst I have ever seen Santo star in.

This is a follow up to Fist Of Death, and man does it suck. It stars Rene Cardona amd it's obvious he didn't give them any pointers on how to make a good film. He just wanted his check.

Santo gets caught once again in the war between two sisters in the Far East, which is actually south Florida. The good queen and bad queen are played by the same actress, Grace Renat.

Her dual role calls for nothing but being nice in one rola and dancing around in the evil role. Her hugely inflated breasts act like more of a distraction thatn anything else.

This film has it all...bad fight scenes, day and night shots all mixed up, bad dubbing, bad acting and NO directing. What a disaster. Silicone breasts do not a good film make. My wife said we should retitle the film "Santo In Silicone Valley".

Avoid this crap at all costs and save yourself from wasting 87 minutes of your life. I can't get it back, but I have saved you the problem.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

Cheri Caffaro is 77.

EL ESCAPULARIO 1965 (VCI) BLU-RAY

A well made Mexican horror film gets a beautiful Blu-ray treatment.

VCI has released this is a Spanish language, English subtitled version.

The story revolves around a woman who summons a priest to her home for the last rites. Before he cam start she insists on giving him an Escapulario, which she claims has special powers to bring the believer good luck.

The priest is skeptical, but listens to the woman as she tells two tales of her sons. Set during the Mexican Revolution one tale tells how one of her sons stopped believeing in the amulet and met a very bad end.

The other talks about her other son who always has faith and now is still living and doing very well. Both tales are very good and have some very subtle shocks and some scenes you'll never forget.

This movie is almost forgotten which is sad because it's so well made. In fact, it's so well made that that may be the reason it's forgotten. What I mean is that Mexican cinema was so full of wrestling, monsters and sexy women that when those point were not included, it actually did effect the films in some way.

However, check out this fine release if you want to see a very well made horror takle that can still shock you today. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

Jessica Alba is 41, Ann-Margret is 81, and Kari Wuhrer is 55.

REMEMBERING CASEY KASEM..

He will always be the greatest in radio.

Not a day goes by that I don't listen to an American Top 40 show from either the 70's or 80's. That was Casey's peak as far as I am concerned.

The history of the show is a fabulous read of you manage to get your hands on the Rob Durkee book about AT40. However, Casey was the man who got me interested in radio and being on the air.

Nobody did it better and nobody ever will. Casey would have been 90 today and he is still sorely missed in the broadcast business. LONG LIVE AMERICAN TOP 40 of the 70's and 80's.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

Sheena Easton is 63.

COMING ATTRACTIONS...

The 3-D Film Archive and Classic Flix has a great one coming out to disc soo.

I THE JURY from 1953 will be available on Blu-ray in 3-D sometime later this year. It's a knockout film noir starring Biff Elliot os Mike Hammer and the gorgeous Peggy Castle.

This is a no brainer for those that love either film noir or 3-D classics.

SANTO AND MANTEQUILLA NAPOLES AND THE VENGEANCE OF LA LLORONA 1974 (TUBI)

This is a fun Santo film.

Santo is called on to help a professor and his gorgeous niece find a treasure that will then be donated to a childrens charity. Our hero agrees and asks for help from Mantequilla, a friend and boxer who is also in Mexico.

A clue to the treasure is a medallion worn by a mummy of being known as The Crying Woman". They take the medallion and no sooner than they do, the mummy comes back to life. It starts killing the relatives of the man who was married to her 300 years ago.

To make matters worse a group of gangsters led by Servero Segovia (Rene Cardona) are after the treasure as well. Santo and friends learn that the killings will continue until the treasure is given to charity. That is the only thing that will stop the mummy from seeking revenge.

There is much to be said about this film. The mummy is creepy looking and the flashback into why the Crying Woman is seeking revenge is very interesting and told with great flair.

The film moves at a great pace, and all of the women are attractive and easy to look at, which is usually the case in Santo films. Rene Cardona directed hundreds of Mexican films including tons of horror, but this time he takes an acting role, in which he is very good.

The banter between Mantequilla and Santo is classic, and the dubbing works most of the time. The rest of the cast includes Alonso Castano, Ana Lilia Tovar, Sonia Cavazos and Marcia Montes.

I had never heard of this film and when I saw it on my "recommendations" from Tubi, I knew I had to watch it. Good fun and highly recommended.

TORTICOLA. VS. FRANKENSBERG 1952 (SINISTER CINEMA)

Extremely rare short film made in France.

This is in French without subtitles. It's not too difficult to figure out what is going on, but this has to be one of the most bizarre films I have ever seen. I call it the French equivalent of the Japanese film entitled "Horror Of Malformed Men".

A mad doctor has created a Frankenstein-like monster that roams the countryside and then comes back to the castle of Dr. Frankensberg. A young woman gets lost and. comes to the castle and it appears the doctor is going to experiment on her as well.

The monster loves the woman and stops the doctor and his assistant from doing their evil work. There are some very odd things in this movie including a housekeeper who can disappear, a man whose brain has been replaced with a cat and a cat that talks since he has a human brain.

The quality isn't the greatest, but it's very watchable and, hell, it's rare so it shouldn;t matter too much anyway. It runs 33 minutes and is divided into 3 chapters, and the ending is a bizarre head scratcher.

Info on this is hard to find, but if you like super rare horror, this is for you.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

Gina Torres is 53, and Bonnie Beecher is 81.

SOLITAIRE 1951 (SINISTER CINEMA)

A very interesting episode of the TV show Fireside Theater.

Margaret Field stars as a young woman who moves into a new apartment. She is an actress and currently dating a married executive in the movie business.

After the unlocks her door and settles down she notices a woman sitting at her living room table playing Solitaire. She is shocked and tells the woman to leave, upon which she replies she cannot leave.

The young woman begins to doubt her own sanity as the card playing woman refuses to explain why she, soon to be "they" cannot leave. After a lot of digging for information she discovers that the other woman was the wife of the man the young woman is now dating.

The card playing woman explains that she killed herself out of grief and then is dawns on the young woman, what is really happening. It's a neat little twist a lot of us have seen in other productions, but back in 1951 it was still a new concept.

The show runs 26 minutes and if you're a fan of long forgotten TV shows, this will be a real treat. I found it difficult to find any information on this.

SAMPO 1959 (SINISTER CINEMA)

A very well made Finnish/Soviet production.

This is a stunning print and subtitled in English. The story revolves around a young man who sets out to save his small village from an evil queen that has stolen the Sampo...a magical stone that creates sale, bread and many other things the village needs.

The evil queen then decides to kidnap the fair maiden that the young man wants to marry. After He rescues his love he loses the Sampo in the ocean and is almost killed by the queen and her evil minions.

The evil one is furious about losing the Sampo so she kidnaps the Sun and the Earth beings to freeze. The young man enlists his entire village to rise up against the Queen and free the sun, which they do.

This movie was cut by 23 minutes and dubbed into english by AIP then released as "Day The Earth Froze" in 1964. When I was very young I saw this and was bored stiff, but now all these years later I can appreciate the beauty of the story.

To be fair however, I saw the AIP version which is nowhere near as good as the original.

I highly recommend this film which Sinister turned out in 2021 and I am just now getting to the review. Check it out, you won't be disappointed.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

Jack Nicholson is 85, Sarah French is 40, and Mark Damon is 89.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

Carmen Electra is 50, Clint Howard is 63, Veronica Cartwright is 73, Gary Raymond is 87, Judith O' Dea is 77, Lisa Davis is 86, Olga Karlatos is 77,and Sarah Nicklin is 36.

RIP JOYCE HOLDEN 1930-2022

One of the most beautiful actresses I have ever seen has passed away.

Word has just been released that Joyce passed away in January, but I do not have a date. Holden was one of my favorite actresses of the silver screen.

Her genre credits include "Terror From The Year 5000" and "The Werewolf". She also starred in the great comedy film "You Never Can Tell" with Dick Powell.

It was always a joy to see her in anything, and I think she was one of the most striking women ever in films. She was 91 when she died, but as I said I don't have a date.

SANTO AND THE FIST OF DEATH 1982 (TUBI)

One of the strangest Santo films I have ever seen, and that's something!!

Tubi has a slew of Santo films for your streaming pleasure and I intend on watching everyone. This little diddie was filmed in Florida 2 years before Santo passed away.

The story revolves around a tribe of people in the Far East who worship a star of great power that actually heals people and brings the people peace and happiness. The tribe is ruled over by a beautiful queen. I think her breasts are some of the largest I have ever seen in a mainstream movies...but let us move on.

The good Queen's evil twin sister, the same actress, plots to steal the star and use if for her own evil purposes. She manages to do just that and then it's up to Santo to come to the rescue.

There are many bizarre sequences in this film, and the winner goes to the scene where the evil queen is dancing in front of a fire and changes into a cobra, a tiger and a lumpy faced hairy monster!!

Santo has some physical fights in this film, but you can tell he's getting up in years and has to take it a bit easy. You gotta see this once in a lifetime extravaganza into the bizarre extremes of Mexican cinema.

The print os very nice and it has new English dubbing that for the most part works well. Santo fans a breast fans should enjoy this.

BLUE DEMON NIGHT OF MURDER 1975 (TUBI)

This is a fun little film from South of the border.

The wrestling hero Blue Demon stars in this epic about a man who is passing himself off as the Demon in order to steal jewels and murder people.

A police inspector, Ponce (Armando Silvestre) is put on the case, but he simply cannot believe that the Blue Demon has turned bad and become a murderer.

Blue Demon fights to prove his innocence and finally comes face to face with his imposter. After a good fight in an old warehouse Demon defeats him and then has a final wrestling match with a very skilled opponent.

This opponent turns out to be a former wrestler who has a grudge against Blue Demon. He is unmasked in the ring and the police arrest the real criminal.

This is a well paced little film that should hold your attention. As is usual, the women are all very beautiful. The was directed by Rene Cardona who directed about 146 films during his career.

The new dubbing is bth good and bad, and I love the wrestling announcer during the matches. It's a hoot. This is currently streaming on TUBI and I recommend you see it and enjoy some non-thinking entertainment.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

Eric Roberts is 66, Melissa Joan Hart is 46, and Melody Thomas Scott is 66.

RAMBLINGS...

Well, this is Easter and wouldn't this be nice.

THE BODY SNATCHER 1957 (VCI) BLU-RAY

I havdn't seen this movie for about 30 years.

This long neglected film gets a very good blu-ray treatment from VCI. It's in Spanish with English subtitles, and it's a peach of a film.

The films opens in a dark graveyard as a body stealer rises out of the grave with a covered corpse. This really sets the tone for everything that follows.

A mad scientist is using pro wrestlers in his brain transplant experiments. He wants to replace the human brain with an animal brain so they can live longer. Wow..that's priceless right there.

Enter a young man from the country named Guillermo (Wolf Ruvinskis) who comes to the city to become a wrestling star. His best friend is a detective working on the case of several murders in the wrestling business.

The mad doc manages to get his hands on Guillermo and the operation works. It transforms him into a monster that obeys the doctor...at first. During a wrestling match Guillermo goes crazy and starts killing people in the crowd in a wild scene that has to be seen to be believed.

While on his rampage he impales the mad doctor and slowly changes into a hideous ape-like monster thatn reminded me of the film "Half Human". The end of the film is a kicker as well.

This is great stuff. A good 50's monster movie out of Mexico that finally can be seen by fans in a beautiful transfer. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED for horror fans everywhere.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

Olivia Hussey is 71, and Michael Forest is 93.

HOPPY SERVES A WRIT 1943 (PLATINUM)

Another well made Hopalong Cassidy film.

Hoppy (William Cassidy) is a Sheriff attempting to bring a group of bad guys to justice in the Lone Star state of Texas.

The gang is led by Tom Jordan (Victor Jory) and he and his men are hiding out of Hoppy's jurisdiction in Oklahoma. Hoppy devises a very interesting plan.

He poses as a cattle buyer so he can travel to Oklahoma. He locates Tom and his gang, but gets a very unwelcome reception.

After this Hoppy, California (Andy Clyde) and John Travers (Jay Kirby) decide to rustle the cattle back across the border into Texas. Hoppy then hopes the gang will come to get them back so he can arrest them.

This is a fun western for a Saturday afternoon. The rest of the cast includes Robert Mitchum, George Reeves, Jan Christy and Earle Hodgins.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

Marla Landi is 89.

BABY 1976 (SINISTER CINEMA)

Nigel Kneal wrote this excellent episode of the BBC TV series "Beasts".

Simon MacCorkindale and Jane Wymark star as a young couple that move into a rundown farmhouse far away from all the insanity of the city so he can have a better job as a verterinarian.

While the house is being repaired, they discover a large jar inside a hollowed out wall. Inside the jar is the mummified remains of "something". Nobody seems able to identify it.

Wymark's character of Jo bwgins to fear for her unborn baby and is terrorified by strange noises and shadows in the house. Of course her husband refuses to believe her.

Soon it's too late and the story wraps up with a truely shocking ending. The actors do their part well, and the monster is never explained, but we see it in the final shot and it looks very creepy.

It seems Sinister Cinema is slowly making a lot of these available and I hope they continue. The show entitled "Beasts" is probably one of the best shows ever aired by the BBC.

This is a HIGHLY RECOMMENDED little feature that horror fans should love.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

Claudia Cardinale is 84, and Samantha Fox is 56.

THE WEREWOLF REUNION 1977 (SINISTER CINEMA)

Very good episode from the BBC program entitled "Supernatural".

Four former lovers of Countess Ilona (Billie Whitlaw) are invited to her lonely mansion for a reunion. All of the men show up, but things are not as they seem.

The youngest member of the four is killed on the first night of their stay, and it appears that he was attacked and torn apart by a wild animal.

The rest of the men still try to make moves on the Countess, but she is a bitter woman and will have none of it. She would rather spend time with her 9 year old son who is now her life.

One by one the remaining men are killed in a vicious manner. It turns out that the Countess had married a very cruel man who died in a "hunting accident" a year after they were married.

She used supernatural powers to being him back as a servant werewolf who prowls at night, and she knows her son will grow up to be a monster as well.

The ending to this TV horror gem is very well done. The rest of the cast includes Ian Hendry, Charles Kay, and Edward Hardwick. RECOMMENDED!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

Sarah Michelle Geller is 45, Amy Dumas is 47 and Rebecca DiPietro is 43.

LOOKS CAN KILL 2021 (TUBI)

A strange one I stumbled on. It had so much potential.

A former model named Rhonda (Danielle Scott) who feels she has been cheated out of her job by other younger models decides to set up her own agency.

She goes about hiring people for behind the scenes including a cameraman who worked for a man who treated her like garbage when she was posing for him.

Three young women, Gina (Sarah Alexandra Marks), Lisa (Barbara Dabson) and Veronica (Abi Casson Thompson) get jobs with the agency, and soon after the problems start.

Veronica is killed on her way home, Lisa is suffocated during a shoot and then we discover that Rhonda is killing these young women in revenge for the crimes she believes were inflicted on her.

This kind of story had so much potential to be so much more, and it falls flat. The acting isn't too bad, but the story development is too slow and often confusing, and it does not make itself too clear.

The one bright spot is Barbara Dabson, a stunningly beautiful young woman who is the standout of the actresses. Check it out if you're curious, but otherwise stay away.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

Joyce Meadows is 87.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

Ed O' Neill is 76.

DAY OF THE NIGHTMARE 1965 (SINISTER CINEMA)

This one is a dandy.

Police detective Sgt. Dave Harmon (John Ireland) is called in to investigate a muder at an apartment complex. Witnesses heard a violent arguement between the man and woman who lived there and all that remains is a dog that was kicked to death.

Witnesses also say they saw a man hauling a trunk downstairs and into a car. Harmon believes this is the killer and he is trying to hide the body. There are some clues that lead Harmon to a painter named Jonathan Crane (Cliff Fields).

Jonathan works in LA and his wife Barbara (Beverly Bain) is always at home alone. When Jonathan is away a mysterious woman who many thought was dead is trying to kill Barbara.

We find out that Jon has some serious problems as he cannot have sex with a woman, but needs to be whipped, or to whip women. His father is a psychologist named Philip (john Hart) who has sex with most of his female clients.

What unfolds from here is truely bizarre. Jonathan has adopted a second personality in the form of a woman!! Yep, and it even gets more twisted. Yes this movie will remind you of "Psycho" and "Homicidal" but is does have a full story of it's own.

If you liked both aformentioned films I can't see why you wouldn't want to see this psycho-sickie. It's a peach, and I liked it a lot.

SILENT CONFLICT 1948 (PLATINUM)

The 61st of 66 Hoppy films turns out to be one of the most unique.

This tale finds Lucky Jenkins (Rand Brooks) under a hypnotic spell placed on him by Doc Richards (Earle Hodgins). Richards has him steal all the money Hopalong (William Boyd) and California (Andy Clyde) have been paid for their cattle sale.

The doctors neice, Rene (Virginia Belmont) is against the plan but her opinion is of no use the Richards. Naturally Hoppy and California go in search of the money as well as Lucky.

After a long chase The doc, his neice and Lucky hold up in a shack in the desert. Richards then sends Lucky off to kill Hoppy. This fails and Hopalong with the help of California snap Lucky out of his trance and then go after the doctor.

As I stated, this is a very unique plotline for a western and it works quite well. The cast is excellent and do a very good job, and the hour long film moves at a great pace.

I like all of these Hopalong Cassidy films but this one is close to the top of the list.