PRIMITIVE SCREWHEADS

Strike Series 1-4

Strike Series 1-4 The show is airing in the US as CB Strike. The 11 episodes that made up the series so far aired from August 27 2017 through September 13 2020. There's a 5th series on the way.

The four series are based on the first four Robert Galbraith novel. That's really JK Rowling under a pseudonym, she's an executive producer on the show. I have not read any of these novels and don't think I want to read them. I like the HP books quite a bit but I didn't care much for her novel Casual Vacancies. It's a dreary novel that put me into the lives of some people I just didn't like. I got a chance to see all the current episodes and took a chance, thinking that I wouldn't have to spend as much time in that world as I would with a novel.

Cormoran Blue Strike is played by Tom Burke and Robin Venetia Ellacott is played by Holliday Grainger. Strike's an ex-soldier who had his leg blown off at the knee during the war in Afghanistan, he became a Army cop and now he's trying to be a private eye in London. Robin shows up as a temp, her desire is to become a private eye.

They both have a big multi-piece set of personal baggage. Strike's broken up with his girlfriend, the business is doing poorly and he's sleeping in his office. Robin's got a boyfriend what she's going to marry, she wants to be a detective, she's unsuited for either situation. Over the multiple stories the situations change and the show spends a lot of screen time going on and on about their issues.

I liked the cases that they investigated but found myself speeding through the personal melodrama. I was interested in seeing the series, I wasn't sad when I was done, but didn't think I'd need to see them again. I'd check out the 5th series if I can. It does reinforce that the books aren't for me.

Science Fiction Sunday 702

Doctor Who 0136 The Twin Dilemma Four part story that aired March 22 to 30 1984. Written by Anthony Steven and directed by Peter Moffatt.

The final episode of Series 21 has Colin Baker take over the roll of the Doctor. He acts pretty crazy for a bit then settles down to figure out what's going on in Titan 3. I still think it's a bit of a weak story that picks up once they get investigating.

 

Doctor Who 0137 Attack Of The Cybermen Two part story that aired January 5 to 122 1985. Written by Paula Moore and directed by Matthew Robinson. The show changed to 45 min long episode with the 22nd series. They only did it for the one series in the first run. The episodes were broken into two 25 min episodes for other markets.

The Tardis lands in London in 1985 where the Doctor and Peri stumble onto a robbery headed up by an alien. They soon learn that the Cybermen are behind the heist. About average.

Doctor Who 0138 Vengeance On Varos Two part story that aired January 19 to 26 1985. Written by Philip Martin and directed by Ron Jones.

The Tardis needs some Zeiton-7 and Varos is the place to get it. There they fall into some court intrigue on a planet run by complete scumbags. The Doctor and Peri sort that out in no time. Not a favorite, about average.

 

Doctor Who 0139 The Mark Of The Rani Two part story that aired February 2 to 9 1985. Written by Pip and Jane Baker, directed by Sarah Hellings.

Now the Doctor and Peri run into a couple of rogue Time Lords, the Master and the Rani, in 19th century England. The Doctor and Peri have to work hard to defeat them. There's plenty going on and the episode is a bit better than their average story.

Doctor Who 0149 The Two Doctors Three part story that aired February 16 to March 2 1985. Written by Robert Holmes and directed by Peter Moffatt.

It was fun to see Patrick Troughton back as the second Doctor and the same can be said for Frazier Hines returning as Jamie McCrimmon. The story was OK, the two Doctor's cross paths trying to stop a time travel experiment. The evil Chessene has made a  deal with the stupid Sontarians but she's evil and betrays them. Some of the episode was filmed in Spain. The show got put in hiatus for a year after the season ended from all the complaints of violence. They do kill a lot of people and aliens in these episodes. Then the episode was done I missed the 2nd Doctor.

Basket Case The Trilogy

Basket Case The Trilogy

I ordered the Second Sight Blu-ray in August 2020 and I'm finally getting around to it. Second Sight is a UK company but the set is region free and all 3 films have their own disc. I liked all three films with I first saw them.

Basket Case 1982 Written and directed by Frank Henelotter.

Kevin Van Hentenryck plays Duane Bradley, a young man who had a conjoined twin called Belial. They were separated when they were in their early teens, Belial survived and the twin went to live with their Aunt. She died and the twins set out to kill the doctors that separated them. There's three of them and Duane is successful in his endeavor but he creates a big mess and falls off a building.

There's a lot of mayhem and murder in the film, it's all balanced out by a good dose of humor. There's plenty of odd characters and 42nd Street plays a big part in the film. Not for everybody but I still like it after quite a few viewings.

Basket Case 2 1990 Written and directed by Frank Henelotter.

The story picks up with Duane and Belial in a hospital. They are rescued by a woman called Granny Ruth. She's got a nice big house and it's filled with a large number of deformed people. Belial finds a girlfriend while Duane thinks he should be allowed to go off and lead a normal life. He wants the one woman in the house who seems normal to go with him but Granny Ruth's granddaughter Susan isn't willing to leave the group.

Duane and Belial are wanted by the police for all the murders and things get dicey when a snoopy reporter and her photographer spot Duane in the house. The deformed people fight back and the snoopers come to a gory end. Duane gets nuttier and nuttier, especially when he nearly has sex with Susan. The movie ends with Duane killing Susan and then trying to sew Belial back on his body.

It's somewhat sillier than the first movie while still providing plenty of laughs and gooey content.

Basket Case 3 The Progeny 1991 Written by Frank Henenlotter and Robert Martin, directed by Frank Henenlotter.

Some time has past and Duane has been locked in a padded room in Granny Ruth's house. She finally lets him out as the group are going to take a road trip to visit her ex-husband Hal. Belial has gotten his girlfriend pregnant and she wants some help with the birth. Once they get to Hal's house things go downhill pretty quickly. Duane escapes the house and Belial attacks Hal. Duane gets arrested and the cops want the million dollar reward for for the capture of the brothers. Things go bad for the cops when they get involved, many of them die.

Even more gore and mayhem in this one. More laughs too.

It would be 17 years before Frank made another movie.

Bonus Features A mix of older extras from the US DVD and some new stuff. The commentary and the new docu were the most entertaining extras for me.

What's in the basket? A new 79 min docu with director Frank Henenlotter; actors Kevin VanHentenryck, Beverly Bonner, Annie Ross; producers Edgar Ievans and James Glickenhaus; make-up effects artists John Caglione Jr, Kevin Haney, Gabe Bartalos and writer Uncle Bob Martin.

Interview With Graham Humphreys A new interview with the artist who did the cover to the Second Sight Blu-ray set.

Everything below came from the US DVD:

Video introduction by Frank Henelotter

Audio commentary by director Frank Henenlotter, producer Edgar Ievins, and actress Beverly Bonner

Outtakes / Behind-The-Scenes

In Search Of The Hotel Broslin Frank and a pal wonder around New York looking at the places where they filmed the movie.

Trailers / Radio Spots

Photo Gallery: Behind-The-Scenes, Promotional Material, Stills

Friday Night Movies 902

Monstrum 2018 Story by Jeong-uk Byeon and Heo-dam, screenplay by Heo-dam and Jung-ho Huh, directed by Jong-ho Huh. A Korean giant monster story set in the 15th century.

King Jungjong's got some trouble with his Prime Minister. The PM is turning the citizen's against the King with a series of plots to instill fear into the citizens. He plans to depose the King and take over. There's a plague going on, and now, a monster is killing the locals in the countryside.

Yoon Gyeom was a member of the King's guard but he had a difference of opinion with the king and was booted out of the court 5 years earlier. Yoon had gone to live in the countryside with his right hand man Sung Han and Myung, a young girl he'd saved from being killed by the Prime minister's men. The country is having many issues and food is short. Muck of them are the PM's doing. He's totally ruthless and human lives mean nothing to him.

The King send Heo to ask Yoon to help find and kill the monster. The King suspects it's the Prime Minister behind the beast but there is no proof. A large group of men are organized, they march into the woods intending to flush the beast and kill it. The group is half civilians rounded up to help and 100 of the Prime Minister's soldiers. The soldiers soon turn on the civilians but the monster shows up and all hell breaks out.

The rest of the movie is about trying to survive the monster and the Prime Minister. There's plenty of action, colorful locations, a great giant monster, plenty of court intrigue, an incredibly scummy villain, endless slaughter and wonderful explosions. Entertaining enough for me to order the Blu-ray. I will want to see this one again.

Men On The Hour 1977 Written and directed by Ming-Hua Chen. A dull kung fu film made soporific by the dubbing. It was a struggle to get through the thing. I have rarely seen a worse kung fu film. You can check it out on YouTube but I wouldn't recommend it.

The Avengers Series 1 & 2

The Avengers Series 1 & 2 Created by Sydney Newman for ITV. Each of the first two series had 26 episodes and they aired from January 7 1961 to March 23 1963. The first three series were shot in the studio "as live" and recorded on videotape in B&W. A lot of British TV was shot that way. Occasionally location footage was shot on film and inserted while the live shoot was going on. Series 4 to 6 were shot on film, 4 in B&W and 5 and 6 in colour. The episodes look pretty good despite their origins.

I hadn't seen The Avengers in quite some time. It looks like I blogged about watching the A&E DVDs in 2011. I recently ordered Series 1-3 of the Studio Canal DVD collections from the UK. They are region 2 and aren't playable on US DVD players. The Studio Canal DVDs came out in 2009 and the first set has Series 1 & 2 on 8 discs. Series 1 is mostly lost, the set has two complete episodes and the first twenty mins of another. Series 2 is complete, only part of Series 2 was released in the US by A&E, they never bothered with the rest of Series 2. A&E put out Series 3 but they missed putting on the very first episode on the DVD. I'm still of the opinion that A&E suck as DVD producers.

There is a 3rd complete episode titled Tunnel Of Fear that was found in 2016. It has it's own DVD release, we watched that at a movie night back in 2019. Ian Hendry is the lead actor in the series with Patrick Macnee in a more supporting role. The production of the first series was interrupted by a writer's strike, it lasted a good while and Ian Hendry signed a movie contract and wasn't available to appear in the second series. Ian played a police surgeon in Police Surgeon, the series only lasted 13 epsidoes. The first and only existing episode, Easy Money, is included in the box set. In the story Ian helps a delinquent played by Michael Crawford. It was a slight but decent enough story, topical for the day, and sadly, still topical today.

The box set has these episodes of The Avengers: Hot Snow, Girl On A Trapeze and The Frightners.

Ian plays Doctor Keel, his fiance is murdered by drug dealers in Hot Snow. Patrick plays John Steed, he enlists Ian to catch those scumbags. Ian likes catching crooks and he joins up with Steed for further adventures.There's a commentary by producer Leonard White on the episode, he also provides a commentary on Mr Teddy Bear.

In Girl On A Trapeze Doctor Keel stops a woman from committing suicide by jumping into the River Thames. Steed doesn't appear in this episode so Doctor Keel goes it alone against some foreign agents travelling in a European circus. He gets them arrested. This episode wasn't discovered until 2001.

In The Frightners a rich guy is trying to convince his daughter to dump her gold digging boyfriend. He hires some thugs to beat up the boyfriend. Ian and Steed rescue the boyfriend only to find out he's a scum bag. They set about to frighten off the daughter themselves. They were all fairly good episodes but I'm not warming to Ian's character much. For a long time this was the only surviving episode of Series 1.

Patrick Macnee stars as John Steed in all episodes of Series 2, Jon Rollason plays Dr Martin King in 3 episodes, Julie Stevens plays singer Venus Smith in 6 episodes and Honor Blackman appears as Mrs Cathy Gale in 17 episodes. Julie Stevens sings a bunch of songs in her episodes. She appears in some short intros to her episodes on the DVDs and does one of the five commentaries in the set. Neither Dr King nor Miss Smith will appear in the 3rd series.

The 26 stories have a variety of plots with a good assortment of baddies. There's an assassin named Mr Teddy Bear, some one's stolen some rocket fuel from a murdered courier, Steed and Venus have to protect the president of a Balkan Republic, someone's running guns to Africa, a dead guy has £50,000 worth of diamonds in his stomach, the usual sort of stuff.

Of interest to me was the episode that involved a stamp called The Mauritius Penny. This isn't a real stamp but was patterned after the British Guiana 1 cent magenta. That stamp was sold last year for $8.3 million. It had sold for $9.5 million in 2015.

On average I liked the stories in Series 2 and was entertained by the character interaction. In my Series 3 post from 2011 I wasn't as taken with Mrs Gale as I was by Mrs Peel but I liked her more this time around. John Steed is more of a wild card in this series, he's forever throwing others into to a prickly situation. Poor Venus isn't an agent by any stretch of the imagination but Steed's plans put her into the hands of the baddies time and again. She makes the right decision to avoid him after her last episode.

I was happy that I got the series and look forward the Series 3.

The Gentleman From Nowhere 1948

The Gentleman From Nowhere 1948 Written by Edward Anhalt and directed by William Castle. I'm big William Castle fan, I'll always take a chance on one of his films. Edward was no slouch in the writing department he won Oscars for his scripts of Panic In The Streets and Beckett. He also wrote scripts to The Boston Strangler, The Madwoman Of Chaillot, The Satan Bug and Girls! Girls! Girls!.

Warner Baxter is a security guard at a fur coat warehouse. He shot in the leg during a robbery and despite that the cops are wondering if he's the inside man. Turns out that Warner has a past he's trying to cover up.

A good crime film with a good script and cast. You can check it out on The Internet Archive.

Seaway 1965-1966

Seaway 1965-1966 Created by Abraham Polonsky. The series had 31 episodes that aired on the CBC.The Wikipedia says it was the most expensive show produced in Canada at that time, costing $3,000,000 which is about $11,200,000 today. It did well but it was in B&W and it didn't make a sale to the US because of that.

Steven Young and Austin Willis were the two main stars. Steven was a ship owner's agent and investigated crimes that involved the owner's ships. Austin was an agent for the Department of Transport. The action took place along the St Lawrence Seaway with several of the shows filmed in Toronto and Montreal.

I remember seeing this as a kid and liking it. I found a few episodes on YouTube and watched them. They were about average but watchable. There's some action, some drama and a bit of humor too. I put the link to YouTube in the title above.

Bury Me Dead 1947

Bury Me Dead 1947  Based on the radio drama of the same name by Irene Winston, screenplay by Dwight V Babcock and Karen DeWolf, directed by Bernard Vorhaus. The second film on The Chase DVD from VCI.

June Lockhart plays a dead woman called Barbara and Hugh Beaumont plays her wealthy family's lawyer Michael. When we meet Barbara she's riding in a cab to her funeral. She watches the thing go on, then meets Michael, he doesn't recognize her with the heavy veil. He offers her a lift and gets a big surprise. Barbara was out of town when the barn fire happened. She thinks someone tried to kill her, Michael tries to get her to go to the police but Barbara delays going, wanting to find out who it was. She does tell the police, the rest of her family and the servants she's alive.

So who's the dead body that got buried. They fear it was her step-sister but no she eventually turn up alive. There's a few suspects, Mark Daniels as June's cheating husband Rod, Cathy O'Donnell as the step-sister Rusty, Greg McClure as the dimwitted boxer George, Sonia Darrin as George's assistant Helen.

Sonia had a fairly short career, 1941 to 1950 and she wasn't in many movies, only a dozen. Her most famous has to be The Big Sleep where she played Agnes Lozelle who worked in Arthur Geiger's bookstore. Sonia was in Frankenstein Meets The Wolfman. She's the mother of Mason Reese, a child star in the 70s.

Detective Archer is played by Cliff Clark, he doesn't suspect the housekeeper played by Virginia Farmer or the butler played by Milton Parsons. Milton has 169 credits on the IMDb. I've seen him is so many films and TV shows over his long career, he started in 1939 and his last credit was in 1977.

It's soon clear that the victim is Helen, she was a conniving gold digger who doesn't mind breaking hearts to gets some cash. There's a lot of cheating on one another, Rusty and George, Barbara and George, Helen and Rod, Rusty and Rod, all lubed up with a bit of jealousy and extortion. June was going to divorce Rod and Rusty's a minor on top of that.

It all plays out fairly well in the 68 min run time. It's brisk and there's a fairly good pay off at the end of the film. It's got a sense of humor and you need it with that lot. I was glad to have seen it. You can check it out on YouTube, link above.

The commentary by Jay Fenton was informative and the DVD has the 25 minute version of the movie that was cut for a syndicated TV mystery anthology program in early 50s.

Mrs Merton And Malcolm Series 1

Mrs Merton And Malcolm Series 1 Written by Caroline Aherne, Craig Cash and Henry Normal. Directed by John Birkin. Caroline and Craig play the main characters. The six episode series aired February and March 1999. The show was a sort of spin off of The Mrs Merton Show, a talk show of sorts. I haven't watched that and might give it a miss. Aherne and Cash played a married couple in The Royal Family. I've seen a bit of that show and it's not for me. Craig is the current narrator for UK TV's Gogglebox replacing Caroline after she died in 2016. I like his work on Gogglebox.

I thought I'd have a gander at this series because one of the regulars is Brian Murphy whom I knew from Man About The House. Brian's fine as the slightly forgetful friend of the family but I found I didn't care much for the series itself. Malcolm and his mother are rather creepy. People complained about the show when it aired. The next bit is from the Wikipedia page for the show.

The show achieved very good figures for a new sitcom, but the critical reception was generally hostile because of the manchild character, Malcolm. Time Out magazine described it as "possibly the most disturbing show on television". This critical reaction took the writers aback.^[3]

The writers insisted that their intention was simply to create an absurd situation for comic effect, but some critics took Malcolm to be a semi-serious depiction of mental illness or a sufferer of infantilism, and others suggested that there was something incestuous about the relationship between Malcolm and his mother.

Mrs Merton also dominates her invalid husband, who is completely bedridden and mute, and so barely exists as a character except as a lump under some bedsheets. Her one-sided conversations with him give the impression that his condition suits her lifestyle perfectly well. On Malcolm's birthday she says, "It's days like this I wish your father wasn't bedridden!" Malcolm is also quite unmoved by his father's condition; he has a go on the bouncy castle at the funeral. The only way it affects him is that it reminds him of when his pet hamster died. This aspect of the programme, combined with the lack of a laughter track (still relatively unusual for a UK sitcom at the time), caused some critics to regard the show as unbearably bleak.^[4]

As a result of the critical fallout, the writers decided to focus instead on a second series of their other creation, The Royle Family, which was far better received by both critics and audiences. A planned Christmas special episode was abandoned before the original run had finished.

In the last episode poor Mr Merton dies and Mrs Merton mentions his having a hard time breathing. She left him alone, when she returned in 2 hours he was dead. All through the show she mentions missing his treatments all the while saying she's such a wonderful person. She's a horrible person, often insulting people in her smiley smug way. Malcolm is only slightly less horrible. I've no reason to watch this again. You can sample it in link in the title above.

Science Fiction Sunday 701

Doctor Who 0133 Resurrection Of The Daleks Two part story that aired February 8 to 15 1984. Written by Eric Saward and directed by Matthew Robinson. 

It's the last story for Tegan, she's had enough of the danger. Lucky for her the Tardis is pulled to 1984 London by a time corridor. In the future the Daleks organize a rescue for Davros. The story jumps back and forth between the two places.

There's plenty of running about and shouting. Many Daleks get blown up and that was alright with me.

Doctor Who 0134 Planet Of Fire Four part story that aired February 23 to March 2 1984. Written by Peter Grimwade and directed by Fiona Cummings.

There's a new companion in Nicola Bryant who's playing Peri Brown. This story sees the end of Turlough and that makes me happy. It was an OK story with nice scenery on Lanzarote.

Doctor Who 0135 The Caves Of Androzani Four part story that aired March 8 to 16 1984. Written by Robert Holmes and directed by Graeme Harper.

Just as Peri settles into her role with the Doctor, he's killed and Colin Baker is the new man in the Doctor's skin. It was an alight story. I can't say I'll miss Peter Davison, his Doctor wasn't that interesting to me.