DEATH AT OWELL ROCK 1967 (KOCH)

Very well made western from Italy.

Riccardo Freda directed this film about a man named Lawrence White (Stephen Forsyth) who returns to a small toen called Owell Rock to avenge the killing of his father.

Another man named Harry Boyd also arrives in town and finds it most unfriendly as he has to fight for almost everything. Mark Damon is perfect for the role of Harry and carries it off very well.

There are a lot of gunfights, fistfights and there are even many twists and turns in this movie. I like the fact that the biggest twist is one involving who is who amongst the heroes of the tale.

With Freda at the helm one expects a great quality film, and the viewer gets that in spades. Any westerns fan should enjoy this fast moving saga.

The rest of the cast includes luscious beauties such as Luciana Gilli and Pamela Tudor plus familiar faces like Luciano Pigozzi, Nello Pazzafini, Ignazio Spalla and Aldo Cecconi.

This is a very highly recommended film.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

Tracy Scoggins is 71, and Tom Atkins is 89.

SCARED STIFF 1945 (TUBI)

A light and fun comedy.

Jack Haley stars as Larry Elliot, a nervous chess editor for a local paper. Elliot is the kind of reporter who always lets the big story get away and this drives his editor crazy.

Larry soon finds himself on a road trip and accidentally getting involved in a murder at a hotel run by two very bizarre brothers.

From this point on it's the usual haunted house type comedy, but it never fails to entertain me. Also in the hotel is Sally Warren (Ann Savage) who really like Larry who is too blind to notice.

There are a lot of other suspects running aroud as the local Sheriff (Paul Hurst) tries to solve the murder. This is a simple little movie and one that I hope would entertain you as much as it did me.

The rest of the cast includes Barton MacLane, Veda Ann Borg, Roger Pryor, Lucien Littlefield. Check it out, you won't be sorry. The title card on the print I saw was "Treasure Of Fear".

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

Valerie Leon is 81, and Rhonda Shear is 70.

BLOODSTAINED SHADOW 1978 (VINEGAR SYNDROME) BLU-RAY

Another well made slice of Italian Giallo.

This story starts out with the slowmotion murder of a young girl in a meadow on an island.

The murderer is never caught. Years later a young man named Stefano (Lino Capolicchio) comes to the small island to visit his brother Don Paolo (Craig Hill), who also happens to be the village priest.

During his visit the brother become entangled in web of murders that reflect the killing of several years ago.

Stefano is determined to get to the bottom of it as his brother is a witness to one of the killings and now the killer is leaving him notes about his coming murder.

There are tons of twists and turns in this well made film, and nothing is as it seems. The final reveal of the real killer is a surprise and may blindside you, as it was meant to do.

The rest of the cast includes Stefania Casini, Massimo Serato, Laura Nucci, Juliette Mauyniel and Attilio Duse.

The Blu-ray presentation from VS is beautiful and the film looks magnificent. I highly recommend you check this one out and see if you ike it.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

Suzanne Lloyd is 90, and Jill Whitlow is 61.

THOU SHALT NOT KILL...EXCEPT 1985 (SYNAPSE)

A totally off the wall film.

A soldier returns from Viet Nam and wants to just live a quiet life. However Jack Stryker (Brian Schulz) finds that very difficult to do.

A gang of murdering hippies has invaded the isolated community where he lives and kidnap his girlfriend Sally (Cheryl Guttridge). He and three of his friends from the war wage a mini war on the hippies.

Bruce Campbell was one of the writers and many others who worked on the "EVIL DEAD" are also involved. The films looks like it was made in 1969 as every effort was taken to replicate the era in time.

I was impressed with that. There is a lot of dry comedy in there just like in the "Evil Dead" but I did find in sometimes slow moving and wishing it would end.

I can't say I liked the movie, but I sure didn't not like it either. It's a good effort considering the very, very low budget and I can easily say this isn't going to be for everyone.

RIP GENEVIEVE GRAD 1944-2024

The French actress has passed away.

Grad made 38 movies in 24 years and while she wasn't well known here in the USA, she was in several movies I believe we all saw when we were younger.

Her most famous acting credits in the USA includes "The Centurion", "Beast Of Babylon Against The Son Of Hercules", "Sandokan The Great" and "Conquest Of Mycene".

Genevieve Grad passed away on November 8, 2024 at the age of 80.

RIP TONY TODD 1954-2024

The talented actor has passed away.

Todd started acting in films in 1986 with the movie "Sleepwalk" and then he moved on to "Platoon" before hitting some TV with "Kate & Ally" as well as "Werewolf".

His first starring role was in the 1990 remake of "Night Of The Living Dead". He then landed the role in "Candyman" in 1992 and his career in horror took off. After the sequel "Candyman 2" he was famous among horror fans.

Other credits for Tony Todd includes "Candyman: Day Of The Dead", "Final Destination", "Final Destination 2", "Final Destination 3", "Dark Reel" and many more.

Tony Todd passed away on November 8th, 2024 at the age of 69. He was about one month short from turning 70. Cause of death has not been released as of my typing this.

APACHE BLOOD 1973 (TUBI)

This is a weird one indeed.

It's a very low budget effort about an Apache warrior called Yellow Shirt (Ray Danton) and his relentless chase and attemp to kill Sam Glass (Dewitt Lee).

That is the story in a nutshell. Both men try to survive the extreme heat of the desert and many other dangers in their fight against each other.

My one major complaint is the editing. It seems to be done in a blender and some of the scenes are awful choppy. The film moves along ok, and if you stick with it to the end, you get a twist that nobody sees coming.

There is minimal dialogue here and that is just as well. I wish this film had been better than it was, but I stayed with it and never felt cheated as I have with so many modern movies.

Ray Danton seemed out of place in this movie. I guess because he is the ony one I know anything about. This filmed in Tucson western is pretty obscure.

I will say if you're a die hard western fan you might want to check it out.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

Emily Compagno is 45.

JOYRIDE TO NOWHERE 1977 (TUBI)

Intersting time capsule of a movie.

Two beautiful teenage girls Leah (Leslie Ackerman) and Cindy (Sandy Allen) decide to leave their hometown and head for the bright lights of Loa Angeles. Both girls have a terrible home life and want a change.

As is expected they run into the usual creeps and weird people including a man named Charlie (Len Lesser) who offers them a ride after their car breaks down.

One things leads to another and they end up as "guests" of Tank McCall (Mel Wells). The girls decide they don't like Tank and steal his car. Of course Tank wants the car back because it has over 2 million in money he just stole and intends to take across the border to Mexico.

The chase is on as the two girls try to outwit the gangsters. I liked this movie as well, and I found the two leads to be very attractive. However this was more of a time capsule for me.

They say movies reflect the period they were made in, and this one captures 1977 to a tee. The rest of the cast includes Speed Stearns, Dino Nova, Ron Ross and Linda Gary.

HAVE GUN-WILL TRAVEL 1957-1963 (CBS)

This is probably one of the greatest western series ever produced.

I picked this set up a while back at an estate sale and have slowly made my way thru the years.

Richard Boone stars as Paladin, a very cultured and well read gun for hire. Things in this show weren't always solved by the gun and a lot of the writing and characted development was top notch.

Boone played Paladin to the hilt, but what makes this unique is that his character never overshadows the others. The other characters in the episodes are allowed to develope and we sometimes see much more of them than Paladin.

This ran on CBS for 6 seasons and contains 225 classic episodes. I can't remember any episode that I disliked and I found most of them to be very well written and acted.

It's a good thing they never made this an hour long show as I believe more padding would have killed it. I don't know if anyone who reads this has seen this show or not, but if you have I hope you liked it. I know I did and still do to this day.

Some of the guests who appeared on the show include Hank Patterson, Olan Soule, John Anderson, Susan Cabot, Denver Pyle, Harry Carey Jr., Mary Gregory, Patricia Medina, Vitina Maecus and Mark Dana plus hundreds more.

One of the best, and if you get a chance you might want to check out some of the episodes, then you might get hooked and have to watch them all.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

Shannon Whirry is 60, and Jackie Joseph is 91.

EYEWITNESS 1956 (TUBI)

Murder mystery would have better at one hour.

This 82 minute J. Arthur Rank production is ok, but it could have used some trimming as it lost my attention several times.

A woman witnesses a robbery at a theater and in fleeing from the crooks chasing her she is hit by a bus.

The resulting plot consists of the gangsters trying to get her out of the hospital after they discover that she is still alive. The woman, Lucy Church (Muriel Pavlow) is married and her husband spend the entire film trying to track down where she went.

The last 15 minutes or so are very well done as one of the gangsters turned killer is trying to get Lucy out of the way so there are no witnesses.

Those scenes are very well done with plenty of suspense, but some of the earlier scenes really needed to go, in my opinion. You might want to check this out, and you may like it more than I did.

FRIGHT 1956 (MILL CREEK)

A somewhat rare film from W. Lee Wilder.

Eric Fleming stars as Dr. James Hamilton, a psychiatrist who talks a killer off of a bridge, and is then thrust into the news headlines where he becomes a very reluctant "hero".

He stumbles across a young women who claims to be the reincarnation of a princess. The woman, Ann Summers (Nancy Malone) and James develope a close relationship as they work together to discover what is happening to her.

Soon there is indeed another personality trying to take over Ann's body and the good Doctor must take some drastic action to stop the other personality from winning.

Being a W. Lee Wilder production will tell youthere isn't much action, but there are a few good things, such as Malone's performance, which I liked a lot and I have always been a fan of Fleming.

There were better films made on this subject such as "The She Creature" and "The Undead" and maybe you should watch those instead. All kidding aside, you might want to check this out if you inclined to, but be warned..it is a slow film.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

Elke Sommer is 84.

RIP JONATHAN HAZE 1929-2024

The actor who worked alongside Roger Dorman has passed away.

Jonathan Haze has been a part of my movie life since I was 5 or 6, and that was a long time ago. Haze acted in 41 films and many of them were for Corman.

His first film credit was in Corman's "Monster from The Ocean Floor". His movie list is too long to print it all, but here are just a few of the films he worked on..."Teenage Caveman", "Five Guns West", "Cell 2455 Death Row", "Apache Woman", "Day The World Ended", "Oklahoma Woman", "It Conquered The World", "Not Of This Earth", "Saga Of The Viking Women, and "The Terror".

His best known role was in the Corman film "Little Shop Of Horrors" in which he played the lead role of Seymour Krelborn, a total schlepp who grows a plant that turns into a man eating monster.

Haze passed away on November 2, 2024 at the age of 95.

NO ESCAPE 1953 (TUBI)

Well made but very obscure film noir.

Lew Ayres stars as a down and out musician named John Tracy.

One night at a local bar he meets a beautiful woman named Pat Peterson ( Majorie Steele) who is with a cop. His name is Simon (Sonny Tufts) and he has quite a temper when John or anyone comes near Pat.

Before too long John is accused of the murder of a shady character named Peter Hayden (James Griffith). We discover that Pat was the last person to be seen with him however, and Simon wants to cover it all up to protect Pat.

There are some interesting twists and turns in this little drama and the ending may come as a total non surprise, but it works no matter if you guessed it or not.

The actors are all very good in their respective roles. The rest of the cast includes Lewis Martin, Gertrude Michael, Charles Cane, Robert Bailey and Barbara Morrison.

A good little movie that film noir fans should re-discover.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

Monique Parent is 59, and Irene Tsu is 80.

DATE WITH DISASTER 1957 (RENOWN)

A fast moving British crime film from the same director and producer who gave the world "The Woman Eater".

Tom Drake stars as Miles Harrington, a man who owns a small used car selling business in England. His employees, Don Redman (Maurice Kaufman) and Ken Prescott (Richard Shaw) are planning on stealing 600,000 pounds from a safe.

Miles knows nothing of this and life goes on pretty much as usual until the robbery and then the trouble starts. Don has a bad temper that eventually gets him killed by Ken.

Miles has a romantic interest in a young woman named Sue Miller (Shirley Eaton) and who can blame him. Shirley looks super hot in this film. Anyway, things soon get out of hand and ken finds himself on the run from the police.

There are no real surprises in this movie, but it does hold your attention and moves at a good pace. It's only 60 minutes and they try and pack as much as they can into the scant running time.

I would recommend this to mystery fans as wll as Eaton fans. Not too shabby.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

Debbie Rochon is 58, and Tom Savini is 78.

I LOVE TROUBLE 1947 (REEL VAULT)

A great film noir thriller with a top notch cast.

A private detective named Stuart Bailey (Franchot Tone) is hired by a man to find our more about his wife's past.

This gets Stuart into more trouble than he ever imagined. The wife of the man was a dancer who ran off with an actor and hasn't been seen since.

There are plenty of twists and turns in this great story written by Roy Huggins. Tone is perfect for the role of Bailey, and he gives it his best shot.

There are plenty of suspects and Stuart even finds himself on the wrong end of a beating by three thugs. The movie uses the "fade out" and "Blurry picture" techniques used in "Murder My Sweet: in 1944.

Any fan of film noir will love this film. The rest of the cast incudes Janet Blair, Janis Carter, Adele Jergens, Glenda Farrell, Steven Geray, Tom Powers, John Ireland, Donald Curtis, Raymond Burr and Eduardo Ciannelli plut too many more to mention.

With a cast like this and an excellent plot, this film is a can't miss for fans. I stumbled onto it by accident and will never regret that. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

Stefanie Powers is 82, Charlotte Austin is 91, and Michael Buffer is 80.

RIP GIOVANNI CIANFRIGLIA 1935-2024

The Italian actor and stuntman has passed away.

Giovanni used the name Ked Woods when appearing in many films that made it to the USA.

His two most famouse films here among fans of sci-fi and horror are "Castle Of Blood" and "Superargo and the Faceless Giants". The latter always has been a favorite.

He also starred in may westerns and was Steve Reeves stunt double for a number of years. Cianfriglia passed away on October 30, 2024 at the age of 89.

BRUTE AND THE BEAST 1966 (WILD EAST)

This Lucio Fulci western is also known as "Massacre Time".

Franco Nero stars as a prospector named Tom Corbett who returns to his home only to find his brother Jeff (George Hilton) is a drunk and the family estate has been sold to a mysterious man named Mr. Scott (Giuseppe Addobbati).

There are a lot of twists and turns in this movie and some excellent set pieces including where Tom fights Scott's son Jason (Nino Castelnuovo) in which Tom is half killed by a whip.

Fulci shows his directing skills here and one just knew he was bound for greatness. The cast is excellent with Castelnuovo stealing the show as the insane son Jason.

There are tons of shootouts and Nero and Hilton play off of each other quite well, especially in the scenes where they are fighting Scott's army of men.

If you like Spaghetti westerns, you'll no doubt want to see this undiscovered early gem from a director who was destined for much greater things in the coming years.

I will say the movie opens with a bang and never stops. I won't give away anything else. Just see it.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

Jo Morrow is 85.