INVISIBLE MAN APPEARS 1949 (TUBI)

Early Japanese sci-fi that is pretty much a direct remake of the Invisible Man from Universal in 1933.

The premise of gangsters involved in a science fiction film would become pretty common in Japanese films during the later years, but this is one of the first, if not the first.

A professor named Nakazato has developed a formula for rendering a person invisible. Gangsters use the formula and blackmail as a way of acquiring a very valuable necklace called the "Tears Of Amour".

The formula for making the person visible again has not yet been developed and the current serum will eventualy drive the victim mad, and there lies the problem that haunts most of the movie.

This is a well made and well acted film that will hold your attention. The special effects are very good and it's interesting to note that they are handled by Eiji Tsuburaya. This was five years before he conquered the world of special effects with "Gojira".

I recommend you give this a try. It's a great part of world cinema history that has been largely forgotten or overlooked.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

Christopher Walken is 81.

RED PLANET MARS 1952 (PLEX)

I was very surprised to see this on streaming TV.

This movie usually receives a lot of criticism, and I believe that is true for 2 reasons. First it is a sci-fi film that touches on religious themes and secondly because a lot of us who are my age saw this as kids and were disappointed there were no monsters.

Peter Graves stars as Chris Cronyn, an American scientist who has been trying to contact Mars. He finally does, and to his shock, it's not exactly what he thought.

He gets messages about Mars being a sort of Utopia, where people live 300 years, only cosmic power is used and there is always plenty to eat, etc, etc.

This throws the world into chaos and before long the entire business structure of the free world is falling apart. In reality, it's actually the evil Russians sending out these fake messages in order to destroy America from within.

However, at the end of the movie everyone learns that Mars is inhabited by beings who are peaceful. Yes. it's an odd film, but it has a great flavor of the time it was made.

I liked it after having not seen it for over 50 years. There were parts of the film that reminded me of the way things are going today in 2024. If you watch this on PLEX just beware of a lot of commercials.

The rest of the great cast includes Andrea King, Herbert Berghof, Walter Sande, Marvin Miller, Morris Ankrum, Willis Bouchey, and George Barrows.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

Dana Gillespie is 75.

SECRET MARK OF D'ARTAGNAN 1962 (TUBI)

This Italian/French co-production is pretty good.

George Nader stars as D'Artagnan in this well made tale about the attempted overthrow of a government by tyrants.

The plot is pretty simple, and that is the way it should be. I did like all of the lush colors and beautiful photography which helps the movie a lot, at least in my opinion.

This swashbuckler is full of swordfights, of course, as well as brawls and tortures of innocent women by the men involved in the overthrow. Nader carries his role well and the cast makes the movie shine.

If you're looking for something that is both entertaining and fast moving, you might want to check this colorful adventure out.

The rest of the cast includes Magali Noel, Georges Marchal, Alessandra Panaro, Mario Petri and Massimo Serato. I know this review tells you very little, but I think I'd be ruining your fun of seeing this if I said anymore.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

Elle Macpherson is 60.

SAMSON 1960 (TUBI)

I hadn't seen this film since I bought the VHS at K Mart many years ago.

I enjoyed watching this after many years and the quality of the presentatuion was eye popping. It was widescreen and I am assuming remastered as the picture was beautiful.

Brad Harris stars as Samson who is arrested for no reason and thrown into a dungeon with two of his friends. We soon learn that a good queen has been overthrown by and evil one named Romilda (Mara Berni) whose actually being manipulated by an power hungry man they call Warkalla (Serge Gainsbourg).

This is a pretty standard plot for movies such as this, and while it offers very little in the originality department, it is fun to watch and moves along at a very fast pace.

It was good to see Sergio Ciani as a character called Millstone. We all know him better as Alan Steele as Hercules. He and Harris make a good combination.

The cast also includes the beautiful Luisella Boni as Janine, the woman who captures Samson's heart. If you're a fan of these types of movies like I am you'll no doubt enjoy this fast movin adventure.

Again, it's a beautiful print and the only thing I can compare it to was the old VHS from back in the 80's. One of my favorites and HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!.

TALES TO KEEP YOU AWAKE SEASON 3 1982 (TUBI)

The third season of this great horror series didn't appear until 1982...18 years after the first season started.

Not only did viewers have to wait almost 2 decades for a final season, but this only contains 4 episodes. There were various reasons for only 4 epsiodes being made, but that is another story for another time.

The four episodes are top notch and one is a remake from an earlier episode.

FREDDY 9/6/82...A killer is stalking the members of an theater company. This is a great tale that runs about 2 hours, but what a memorable ending!!

THE CASR OF M. VALDEMAR 9/13/82...This is a remake of an earlier episode with almost the same cast. A discredited doctor keeps a dead man's soul prisoner after he dies. The ending is pretty gross and very well done.

THE END BEGAN YESTERDAY 9/20/82...At a local college one student appears to be way ahead of everyone else. This leads a professor to investigate and he soon discovers something that could change the course of human life on the planet. This one is also a great episode with a hell of a kicker ending.

THE JUNKMAN 9/27/1982...An elderly junkman lives with his mute wife and drunken son. He believes that his son is the criminal who has been violating graves near the house they live in. You'll never guess then ending to this one.

That wraps up the third and final season of a series that should be much better known. If you get the chance check them all out on TUBI or get the blu-ray set from Severin.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

Quentin Tarantino is 61, Talisa Soto is 57, Michael York is 82, Julian Glover is 89, Mariah Carey is 55, June Wilkinson is 84, and Fair is 90.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

Diana Ross is 80, Paige Spiranac is 31,and Paige VanZant is 30.

RIP RON HARPER 1936-2024

One of the stars of the short lived TV series "Planet Of The Apes" has died.

Most people know him from the aove mentioned series, but her appeared in over 50 movies and TV shows in his long career.

Harper started his career on TV in such shows a "Tales Of Wells Fargo" and "Thriller" as well as such fare as "Wagon Train". He made several genre films in later years for Fred Olen Ray. Those titles are "Glass Trap" and "Venamous" which I just reviewed a few days ago.

Besides "Planet Of The Apes" he also starred in "Garrison's Gorilla's" and 13 episodes of the classic 70's show "Land Of The Lost".

Ron Harper passed away on March 21. 2024 at the age of 88.

V.I.P. SEASON 2 1998-2001 (TUBI)

The second season of this Pamela Anderson driven show had a lot more comedy injected into it, and it's up to each viewer to decide if that really helped or not.

RETURN OF THE OWL 9/25/99...VIP is hired to guard a Norwegian delegate who is havinga fued with Sweden and somehow this all involves Tasha (Molly Culver) and the Russian mob.

BIG TOP VAL 10/2/99...A billionaire hires VIP to babysit his young daughter who is almost more than they can handle. Nicki (Natalie Raitano) takes the kid to a circus and sees two men who tried to escape from the FBI years before.

RANSOM OF RED VAL 10/9/99...VIP is hired to protect a gorgeous but tempermental rock star whose life has been threatened.

DR. STRANGEVAL 10/16/99...A Ukrainian general and his female assistant steal nuclear codes and attempt to sell them. VIP must stop them.

THE QUICK AND THE DEAD 10/23/99...A beautiful Italian movie star hires VIP to protect her valuables from a gang while she is filming a movie in California.

VALMA AND LOUISE 10/30/99...Jay Leno hires VIP to drive a vintage car to a show and Val and Tasha get more than they bargained for.

STOP OF VALS MOM WILL SHOOT 11/6/99...A man is trying to kill Val when her mother, played by Loni Anderson visits and Val tries to hide the truth about what she does for a living.

VAL GOES TO TOWN 11/13/99...A hostile LA councilor forces VIP to disarm while she investigates their tactics.

MAO BETTER BLUES 11/20/99...Val anf Johnny are handed a box by a fleeing Chinese woman in Chinatown and told to guard it.

WHY 2 K 11/27/99...VIP investigates a mysterious school where very intelligent children are kept. This is actually a very good story.

DANGEROUS BEAUTY 1/22/00...A painter is being stalked by a mysterious woman and VIP must investigate.

ANALYZE VAL 1/29/00...Th U.S. Vice President's analyst is the target of a brutal kidnapping plot by terrorists, and VIP must protect him at all costs.

ALL YOU NEED IS VAL 2/5/00...VIP guards the CEO of a huge multinational company and runs into big trouble.

NEW VAL'D ORDER 2/12/00...VIP is hired tp protect a sun tan brands bathing beauty contest.

VALLERY'S SECRET 2/19/00...A fashion designer is nearly killed by a bomb planted in her car, and this prompts VIP to find who is planning to kill her and why.

HARD VAL'S NIGHT 2/26/00...Val and VIP are hired to protect a band called Lit.

THIRD EYE BLOND 4/1/00...A phoney psychic to the Hollywood stars needs protection from VIP when he witnesses a murder.

VAL'S ON FIRST 4/8/00...A much hated baseball star hires VIP to protect him from most everybody he knows.

VAL POINT BLANK 4/29/00...Val is held hostage during a terrorist takeover durin her hghschool reunion.

FRANCO IN LOVE 5/6/00...Nikki's grandfather is shot in an attempted murder and she takes the helm of the Mafia to find who is guilty.

LIGHTS, CAMERA, VAL 5/13/00...A stuck up hollywood director hires VIP to help him get a movie back from the person who stole it.

RIDE OF THE VALKRIES 5/20/00...After 22 years in a foreign prison, a man gets out and attempts to kill Val's father. Lee Majors guests stars.

And so wrapped up season 2. As I mentioned they put a lot more comedy in this season. I shall see what happens in season 3.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

Danica Patrick is 42.

WRATH OF DAIMAJIN 1965 (TUBI)

I have not seen a Daimajin film for almost 30 years.

I saw them on TV when I was a child and really didn't appreciate them at the time. Then I saw them on a very old DVD set and I cannot even tell you what company released them, but it was a while ago.

I watched this on TUBI because I wanted to see if I still felt the same about them. I was very impressed by the picture quality and that they finally have the original Japanese language with subtitles.

This is the final of the three movies about Daimajin. A cruel ruler has kidnapped men from another village in order to make them slave labor. The ruler wants to conquer everyone in the region so he is building a huge army of weapons just for that reason.

Four children decide that they are going to rescue their fathers from the evil kingdom, and set off on their way. There are a lot of hardships, but these kids are capable of handling anything by using their heads.

After much death and evil from the ruler, the giant Majin comes to life and untterly destroys the ruler and anything he ever created as well as anyone working for him.

The last 20 minutes are well worth the wait and I have read a lot of negative things about this film, such as it is the weakest of the series. That may be true, I haven't seen the others yet.

I liked it, and I can recommend it.

RIP SILVIA TORTOSA 1947-2024

The gorgeous Spanish actress has passed away.

Most of her work is not too familiar with American audiences, but she did do two films every genre fans knows.

She starred in "Horror Express" and "The Lorelei's Grasp". She was one of my faves of Spanish actresses. She passed away on March 23rd, 2024 just two weeks after her 77th birthday.

COPPERFACE 1966 (TUBI)

Umberto Lenzi directed this fine Italian western.

This is the first western that Lenzi directed and it's also known as "Go For Broke".

The film centers around two men named Johnny Sweet (Mark Damon) and The Owl (John Ireland) as they track an Indian called Copperface who has stolen $200,000 dollears worth of gold bars from a bank in El Paso, Texas.

Both men are constantly trying to "one-up" each other whether it be gambling, shooting, fighting or anything else. Both Ireland and Damon do very well with their roles and play off each other very well.

There is a lot of action in this movie and I never got bored with this one. They finally catch Copperface and get the gold, but then things really take a turn. We find out the real reason The Owl wants the gold, and it isn't what you think.

The films seems to be rather rare, but it's streaming now and I can easily recommend it to any western fan. I didn't give away much in the plot because I thinl you should see this and enjoy it.

The rest of the cast includes Monica Randall, Armondo Calvo, Fernando Sancho, Jose Torres, Lisa Halvorson and Franco Gula.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

Barbara Rhoades is 78, and Corinne Clery in 74.

ARK OF THE SUN GOD 1984 (TUBI)

Antonio Margheriti strikes again.

David Warbeck stars as Rick Spear, a safecracker who is hired to go to Istanbul and steal a priceless scepter.

This scepter was once owned by Gilgamesh but is now owned and hidden away by a secret cult. Spear accepts the challenge and is soon off on a great adventure.

This movie has taken a lot of flack, but it is grand entertainment which, if you turn your mind off you can really enjoy. It makes no pretense to be anything but fun.

You have a fewe actors that appeared in I would say hundreds of Italian films thru the 60's, 70's and 80's most notably Ricardo Palacios and Luciano Pigozzi. The beautiful leading lady Susie Sudlow only made this movie and then vanished from movies. That is our loss.

While there may be nothing too original here, it is fun, and Warbeck makes a good hero. This is a follow up to "Hunters Of The Golden Cobra" which I have yet to see.

Look, if you wanna have a good time see this movie and discover what it really is.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

William Shatner is 93, and May Britt is 90.

FALLGUY 1962 (TUBI)

A very gritty and bleak film noir that is also very rare.

A young man named Sonny Martin (Ed Dugan) witnesses an attempted gangland hit and helps the intended victim when he survives. After a bizarre set of circumstances the man is killed by a town doctor and Sonny finds himself accused of murder.

Sonny escapes from the police and learns that the doctor, the police chief and the newspaper editor are all tied up in the syndicate and all of them want him to be blamed for the killing.

Louis Gartner is the police chief, Don Alderette is the doctor and G.J. Mitchell is the newspaper editor. All do their roles very well and really make you root for Sonny as he fights to get his story out to the public.

The movie runs a very brief 61 minutes, but man does it move. I'm not going to say this is anything original, but the execution of the plot is well done by director Donn Harling. This is his only film effort.

The rest of the cast includes Wes Carlson, Madeline Francis and Tiiu Parli. These are people who never made another feature as far as I can tell except for G.J. Mitchell. He has a 40 plus year career in acting on stage and screen, but I am sure you'll only remember him from the many Jerry Warren films he made.

This is a HIGHLY RECOMMENDED film noir, with a hell of a downer ending!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

Kathy Ireland is 61, and Steve Borden is 65.

RED RINGS OF FEAR 1974 (TUBI)

This is the third and final in the "Schoolgirls In Peril" trilogy from Italian director Massimo Dallamano.

Dallamano died in a car crash before this went into production so it has Alberto Negrin at the helm.

Fabio Testi is Inspector Gianni Di Salvo who is called in to investigate the rape and murder of a 16 year old girl whose body is discovered in a lake.

The case proves harder than Di Salvo thought it would be and there seems to be no end to the list of suspects. However, he concentrates on three girlfriends of the dead girl who call themselves "The Inseparables".

There is a lot of nudity in this movie, including a shower scene that really took me by surprise!! This film isn't as good as some Giallo, but it is never boring and there are quite a few familiar faces to those who watch a lot of Italian cinema.

I liked this film and found the last 10 minutes or so to be amazing, and I think you will to. Never trust anyone with a box of candy...lol. That's all I'm saying as to not give too much away.

The rest of the cast includes Christine Kaufmann, Jack Taylor, Silvia Aguilar, Helga Line and Tony Isbert.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

Ursula Andress is 88, Jan Shepard is 96, Vida Guerra is 50, and A.J. Mendez is 37.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

Peggy Dow is 96.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

Vanessa Williams is 61, and Leslie Parrish is 89.

ZAN: KING OF THE JUNGLE 1968 (TUBI)

One of a few Tarzan films starring Steve Hawkes as the title character.

This is also known as "Tarzan In The Golden Grotto" and imagine my surprise seeing this on streaming!!

Umberto Lenzi co-wrote this Spanish adventure film with a very simple plot. Tarzan vows to help a tribe of Amazon women protect their treasure of gold from two hunters who want the gold at all costs.

I can't help but think of blood drinking turkey monsters when I see Hawkes, and that's a shame as he does a very good job as Tarzan. He is certainly built for the role and can handle the physical activity required.

The film looks beautiful and the plot moves along quickly. I especially liked the ape monster that is guarding the gold of the Amazons. There are plenty of beautiful women to look at in this movie as is usually the case with Spanish cinema.

If you're a Tarzan fan you will want to check this movie out. The rest of the cast includes Kitty Swan, Krista Nell, Ugo Sasso, Fernando Sancho and Luis Marin.

A recommended film from me, a Tarzan fan forever.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

Kurt Russell is 73, Gary Sinise is 69, Joe Seanoa is 45, Patrick Duffy is 75, Laurene Landon is 67, and Tom Pace is 90.

MYSTERY OF THUG ISLAND 1964 (TUBI)

This Italian/West German/Monaco production is great adventure at it's best.

A three year old child is kidnapped by a cult who worship the blood thirsty Kali. Their leader is Souyadhana (Guy Madison) who raises the young girl to be the likeness of Kali. Her name is Ada (Ingeborg Schoner).

The movie flashes forward 15 years when Ada is 18 and Souyadaana can continue his evil plans. However those plans are disrupted when a young man named Tremalm(Giacomo Rossi Stuart) falls in love with her.

While this is going on her father, Captain McPherson has launched a search for her based on evidence that Ada is still alive. All of these forces collide and soon it's a battle between good and evil to free Ada from a fate worse than death.

This is a great adventure and romance film with stunning color and photography. The cast is also great and it's always good to see Madison and Stuart, especially both in the same movie.

This is also known as "Kidnapped To Mystery Island" and that title fits the movie better. This was one of many accidental discoveries on TUBI, and one that I really liked. If you're a fan of adventure films then you might want to check it out.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

Alexandra Daddario is 38, and Erik Estrada is 75.