UP LATE WITH BOB WILKINS 2022 (YOU TUBE)

I discovered this excellent and brand new documentary on Thanksgiving night.

Anyone who grew up in the Bay Area of California or happened to get KTVU from Oakland or KTXL from Sacramento in the late 60's thru the late 70's and early 80's and was a horror movie fan known who Bob Wilkins is.

I spent many Saturday nights watching this show called CREATURE FEATURES hosted by a man in a suit who somked a cigar and has a great dry wit and humor. Wilkins made everything worth watching.

This feature length documentary looks at Wilkins career thru the eyes of fans who grew up watching him. David Bellard, Mr. Lobo, Jon Provost and many others tell of their love for this show and how it affected their lives.

I can tell you from my own experience that Bob made weekends fun and it was where I saw classics like EQUINOX and HARDWARE WARS for the first time. For a monster kid it was heaven.

I rate this a 12 on the scale from 1 to 10!!! I cannot see any horror fan passing this up, especially monster kids from the Bay Area.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

Teri Hatcher is 58, Mary Woronov is 79, Rick Baker is 72, amd Belinda Belaski is 75.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

Dawn Rochelle is 50.

TALES FROM THE TERRITORIES (VICE) 2022

This professional wrestling series debuted on VICE in October of this year and no wrestling fan should pass it up.

I know from experience that these stories are very real and some will no doubt shock the average viewer.

Back in the good old days wrestling was broken into seceral territories thru the US. You had the Pacific Northwest, Mid Atlantic, Southern Wrestling, AWA in Minnesota and a few more.

This show is a fascinating look at how it was back when the business was more of a sport and very secretive. Thru this series you'll hear wild but true stories such as fans attempting to kill certain wrestlers, people losing their eye in the ring, cars being set on fire and just how far these places would go to come up with new ideas.

These were fun years and even though you didn't make much money, it was well worth the effort to work the crowd and get the big cheer or boos.

I actually discovered this show in YouTube and have watched 6 or 7 of them. If you're a wrestling fan from the old days you're gonna want to see this show. This shows how things were before wrestling became "sports entertainment" and is now a sterile, nothing happening evironment with folks who have the personality of our current President...in other words vegatables.

Find it, watch it and relive the glory days.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

Christina Lindberg is 70.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

Morgan Brittany is 71.

THE 1OTH VICTIM 1965 (TUBI)

One of the most insane movies I have ever seen, but it does strike a cord, especially in the society we live in today.

This takes place in the 21st century where a violent "hunting sport" has replaced war and violence in the world. An incredibly sexy veteran hunter named Caroline Meredith (Ursula Andress) agrees to hunt and kill another "victim" on live TV so she can get a huge amount of money.

Her prey is Marcello Poletti ( Marcello Masteroianni). A man who owes so much to his 8 ex wives he is always broke and having his winnings from killing people confiscated by the government.

Caroline and Marcello play a cat and mouse game with each other thru the entire film until the ending which pulls out two switches which the viewer will either see coming or not.

There are some fantastic set pieces in this film, such as Andress and her unltra sexy dance at the beginning of the film in which she makes her 9th kill. Her victim is mesmerized by her dance, and you have to ask yourself, who wouldn't be.

The weird fashions and cars are all odd looking but it's used to give the film a futuristic look. There is no doubt that Andress steals the show and it the main reason for watching the movie.

When watching you can see how dystopian the filmmakers made the future, but it really isn't far from what we have in real life today. Best line in the movie...."why control births when you can increase deaths?"

I really enjoyed this film and you might as well. Hell, watch it for Andress!! My God they just don't make women like this today.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

Brooke Adams is 38.

VIRGIN SACRIFICE 1964 (TUBI)

This is an interesting oddity that appeared on TUBI.

The film is short as it runs only 60 minutes, and the plot is very simple, but I did find myself enjoying it.

A hunter in South American, Mr. Samson (David DeLie) falls for a young woman named Morena (Angelica Morelas) and they seem to hit it off very well. That is until a tribe picks her out to be a new virgin sacrifice.

Samson had witnessed one of the ceremonies when he was a child and sfter Morena is kidnapped, he follows thru thr jungle in order to rescue her. This takes up most of the screen running time and it culminates in a fight to the death between Samson and Tumic (Antonio Gutierrez).

You get a lot of nice jungle footage in this film as well as some bondage and nudity, which was very rare in films in 1960. This is available on a DVD from Something Weird, if you can find it.

I wasn't bored with the film at all, but I saw so much potential that was overlooked. If you get a chance to see it, you might like it, but then again you might not. Judge for yourself.

TWO LOST WORLDS 1950 (TUBI)

An obscure film I hadn't seen in many years.

The story opens with an American clipper ship being attacked by pirates. The ship manages to out run the pirates, but one of the men, Kirkl Hamilton (James Arness) is injured and the clipper stops in Queensland and lets him off with a couple of other crew members so he can heal. Then the clipper resumes it's mission.

Hamilton meets and falls for a woman named Elaine (Kasey Rogers). The island is in fear of being raided by pirates so Hamilton devises a way for them to protect themselves.

The pirates do indeed attack and kidnap Elaine and her friend Nancy (Jane Harlan). Hamilton and his men pursue and overcome the pirates and rescue the women, but both ships are destroyed in the battle so Hamilton, Elaine, Nancy and a few others are fighting for survival on a small raft.

They find a small island to land on, but it is inhabited by giant prehistoric monsters. Will Hamilton and his friends survive? That is the burning question.

This is a mixture of action/adventure and sci-fi that director Norman Dawn pulls off pretty well. Arness is billed under is real name as James Aurness and this is, of course still very early in his career, but he does a great job and one can tell he was headed for much bigger things.

I enjoyed this 63 minute time waster, and you might to.

RIP CHRISTINE MCVIE 1943-2022

One of the best is gone.

Music is a HUGE part of my life. Nothing is better than music from 1955-1989 and I especially love the 70's and early to mid 80's.

Christine McVie was one of my favorite songwriters, singers and the group Fleetwood Mac is one of my top 5 favorite groups of all time.

McVie wrote some of Fleetwood Mac's greatest songs including "Don't Stop", "Everywhere" and "Little Lies". She was an excellent keyboardist and her first solo album entitled "Christine McVie" had the top ten hit single "Got A Hold On Me".

She was a huge inspiration for me and her songs helped cultivate my love of pop music. She passed away on Nov. 30th, 2022 at the age of 79.

HORROR HIGH 1972 (VINEGAR SYNDROME) BLU-RAY

One of the best releases for 2022!!

After many years of seeing retitled versions of this film and edited for TV prints I finally got the chnce to see this UNCUT and in all its glory.

Pat Cardi stars as high school student Vernon Potts, a student who is disliked by all of the jocks and bullied by teachers and even the school janitor.

Vernon is a chemistry genius who is working to develope a formula that will change people both mentally and phyically. After his test subject, a guinea pig named Mr. Mumps, becomes a savage killer and kills the janitors cat the janitor named Griggs (Jeff Alexander) beats Vernon with a flashlight and forces him to drink his own formula.

Vernon transforms into a hideous monster and kills Griggs by dumping him in a vat of acid. This is a very gruesome scene and one that was always cut from other prints. Vernon begins chamging whenever he is angry and he takes violent revenge on both his English teacher as well as his gym coach (John Niland) by cutting off fingers and a head and stomping to death with cletes respectively.

The film moves along at a very fast pace and all of the bloodletting is intact. This film was shot in Texas and stars many local actors and football players from the Dallas Cowboys.

Vinegar Syndrome has doen an excellent job with the 2k transfer and some great extras including an interview with Pat Cardi. The rest of the cast for this gem includes Austin Stoker as the detective investigating the murders, Rosie Hotolik as the young woman who tries to love Vernon, Chuck Beatty, D.D. Lewis and "mean" Joe Greene.

I can't recommend this enough as I consider it to be one of the best horror films ever made, Nope, it's not original by any means, but damn it's a LOT of fun.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

Gena Lee Nolin turned 51 on 11/29.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

Joe Dante is 76.

BELL FROM HELL 1975 (TUBI)

This interesting film has a sordid history with me.

All of my life I have been subjected to very poor quality copies of this movie and it really affected my opinion of it. Now TUBI has a beautiful print and I have to say, I enjoyed this twisted film.

A young man named Juan (Renaud Verley) is released from as asylum where he has been wrongly sent by his evil aunt Marta (Viveca Lindfors) so she and her three daughters could steal his money.

He comes back to the family home and gets a job in a local slaughterhouse. He quits the job after a brief time and when asked why he simply states "I've learned enough".

This leads to a bizarre game of cat and mouse between Juan and the four women. He bulids a mini version of the slaughterhouse in his basement and in time he manages to get all three of his aunts daughters into the room.

He plans to kill them just like cows and chains them up naked, but her cannot proceed. His moral compass just won't let him. There are several more twists to the film before the conclusion. I still believe something is lost in translation with the dubbing, but maybe it's just me.

I really like the bizarre quality of everything in the movie and while the slaughterhouse footage is real and gruesome it didn't bother me as much as othewrs I know who have seen this movie.

If you're looking for something a bit different you might want to check this out.

The rest of the cast includes Maribel Martin, Nuria Gimeno and Christina Von Blanc.