PRIMITIVE SCREWHEADS

Cult Of The Cobra 1955

Cult Of The Cobra 1955 Story by Jerry Davis, screenplay by Jerry Davis, Cecil Maiden and Richard Collins, directed by Francis D Lyon. Jerry wrote 8 other movies and a lot of popular TV shows in the 50s and 60s. Richard wrote a few movies, starting in the 30s, in the early 50s he started writing a lot of TV shows, some of which I watched. He's got an uncredited writing credit on Invasion Of The Body Snatchers. Francis worked on some TV that I know I've seen, The Adventures Of Spin & Marty, Adventures In Paradise, Whispering Smith and Laramie.

 

The Second film in the Universal Horror Collection Volume 6. The Blu-ray has an interesting commentary with Tom Weaver, Steve Kronenberg, David Schecter ad Dr Robert J Kiss. There's also a trailer and a still gallery.

Left to right that's William Reynolds, Richard Long, David Janssen, Marshall Thompson and Jack Kelly. They're American soldiers who are ending their tour in an unnamed Middle Eastern city. They visit the bazaar, while watching the snake charmer one of the soldiers mentions he's heard of a cult of snake worshipers. The snake charmer says he can take them to a gathering for a hundred bucks. That's a good bit of money in the mid 40s.

They decide to go and the snake charmer warns them they must be in disguise. No one must know they are foreigners. If they are found out they will be killed by the cult. Of course one of the more stupid guys in the group, James Dobson, pulls out a camera during the snake lady's performance. The camera has a flash, everyone sees it when he snaps a shot. James grabs the snake woman's basket and bolts. The cult goes nuts, the snake charmer is stabbed to death, the priest curses the soldiers as they escape. A few blocks away from the temple they find their pal has been in a jeep accident. He dies in the hospital and the autopsy reveals he'd been poisoned by a snake. The other 5 are sent back to the US.

Little do they know as they settle into their new domestic lives that the cult has sent an assassin after them. That's Marshall, Kathleen Hughes and Richard. She dated both men before the war but now that they are back she's picked Richard.

Faith Domergue plays the cult's assassin. She moves into the apartment across the hall from Marshall. They strike up a bit of romance. Faith gets to revenging pretty quickly, she's efficient, David gets it first, bitten in his car, crash, dead. Things get pretty bad for everyone, especially Jack, he fell off the balcony of his apartment. Marshall doubts the curse theory, so do the police but we've seen the snake cam. They'll have to be pretty darn lucky to get out of this predicament.

It's a fairly good story and a decent cast. I like the way the film looks and there's a good level of jeopardy. I'd watch it again someday.

The Black Castle 1952

The Black Castle 1952 Story and Screenplay by Jerry Sackheim, directed by Nathan H Juran. The first film in the Universal Horror Collection Volume 6. Four films on 4 Blu-rays with commentaries and a few random extras.

Jerry's film before this one was The Strange Door, another odd and entertaining film. Can't say I recognize any of his previous dozen films and I don't think I've seen much of the TV he wrote in the 50s.

The Black Castle was Nathan's first film as a director, he'd been an art director on a couple of films in the 40s. He won an Oscar for How Green Was My Valley back in 1942 and a nomination for Razor's Edge in 1946. I know I haven't seen the latter but not sure on the former. I might have seen it on TV when I was a teen.

Nathan didn't win any Oscars for his film direction but he won the hearts and minds of young SF and Horror fans from the mid 50s on. In 1957 he directed The Deadly Mantis, 20 Million Miles To Earth and The Brain From Planet Arous. In 1958 he followed that with The 7th Voyage Of Sinbad and Attack Of The 50 Foot Woman. In the 60s there was Jack The Giant Killer and First Men On The Moon. There's some entertaining films there. I wish I had seen more of his crime and western films.

That's Stephen McNally, Richard Green, Rita Corday and Nancy Valentine. Richard plays Sir Ronald Burton, he's investigating the disappearance of his friends. They'd been to see Count von Bruno, played by Stephen, and disappeared. The Count has a grudge against the British after they sent African natives to attack him. He's killed Sir Ronald's pals and plans to put an end to Ronald's life.

Rita plays the Count's wife Countess Elga von Bruno and Sir Ronald plans to take her with him when he escapes the Count's clutches. John Hoyt and Michael Pate play the Count's pals and they are a scummy lot. No one will miss them when they wind up dead. Boris Karloff plays Dr Meissen, Lon Chaney Jr plays Gargon, the Count's servant.

There's plenty of scheming and running about with occasional fights and murders. I first saw the film in 2015 as part of a DVD set of Boris Karloff films. I thought it was good enough to upgrade to Blu-ray. The Shout Factory transfer is fine and there's a good commentary by Tom Weaver and a still gallery.

Science Fiction Sunday 710

Doctor Who 2 Series 1 Episodes 7-13

 

The Long Game Aired May 7 2005 Written by Russell T Davies and directed by Brian Grant.

 

The Doctor and Rose wind up on a space station above the Earth in the year 200,000. It's got an alien blob guy who's controlling the humans with 24 hour a day TV. Simon Pegg is the Editor. The Doctor turns off the air conditioning and the over heated blog blows up.

Father's Day Aired May 14 2005 Written by Paul Cornell and directed by Joe Ahearne.

 

Rose saves her father from death and unleashes some monsters from another dimension. The poor guy has to kill himself to set it all right. Some monsters blow up with the rift closes.

 

The Empty Child Aired May 21 2005 Written by Steven Moffat and directed by James Hawes. First of 2 parts.

 

German's are bombing London during the Blitz. Plenty of explosions in London Town. Rose gets rescued by Captain Jack, played by John Borrowman. He's a crook from the future who's scam could turn the human race into zombies. Captain Jack joins the Tardis gang to help set his big mistake to right.

 

The Doctor Dances Aired May 28 2005 Written by Steven Moffat and directed by James Hawes. Second of 2 parts.

 

The German's are still bombing London and Jack's ship get blown up.

 

Boom Town Aired June 4 2005 Written by Russell T Davies and directed by Joe Ahearne.

 

The Tardis is refueling in Cardiff when the Doctor finds that Margaret Blaine Slitheen survived the explosion at number 10 and is mayor of Cardiff. She's got a great new scheme to create employment and power by building a nuclear power plant in the middle of the city. The Doctor figures out it's all part of an escape plan that will blow up the Earth. Only some bits of Cardiff get blown up.

Bad Wolf Aired June 11 2005 Written by Russell T Davies and directed by Joe Ahearne. First of 2 parts.

The Doctor, Rose and Captain Jack are al kidnapped and transmatted into futuristic versions of Big Brother, The Weakest Link and What Not To Wear. Losing gets the player disintegrated. The Doctor breaks out of his show and he's surprised to find he's on the space station from The Long Game. Turns out some aliens had moved in to start controlling the humans. Plenty of small explosions during the episode.

 

The Parting Of The Ways Aired June 18 2005 Written by Russell T Davies and directed by Joe Ahearne. Second of 2 parts.

Turns out the baddies behind the subjugation of the humans are the Daleks. The Doctor will blow up the Emperor Dalek.

All in all a pretty good lot of shows.

Friday Night Movies 910

The Iceman Cometh 1989 Written by Johnny Mak and Stephen Shiu, directed by Clarence Fok with Yuen Biao directing the action. 

Yuen Biao is a Ming Guard called Fong Sau-chingin 16th century China and Yuen Wah is a nasty villain called Feng Sen who's known to rape and murder young women. After Feng Sen murders the Princess and steals the Black Jade Buddha the Emperor is mad that Fong did not stop Feng Sen. The Emperor orders Fong executed but relents when Fong begs the Emperor for his life. Fong is given 20 days to catch the crook or he's dead and so are his relatives. 

The Black Jade Buddha is a magical item that transports Feng Sen and Fong into the future. They wind up in 1980s Kowloon. Feng Sen disappears from the movie for a while. We follow Fong as he's befriended by a prostitute called Polly, played by Maggie Chung. Polly draws him into her world but Fong's too naive at first to figure out what's going on. They spend a lot of the 114 min movie working on their relationship. It's way too much and the movie nearly drags to a stop about two thirds of the way through. It was easily one of the best sleeping aids I've encountered.

The action is pretty good when it's happening but there's a lot of deadly wait time between bouts. Feng Sen is a more interesting villain than Fong is a hero but Fong eventually defeats the baddie and returns to his time. There's a dumb "happy" ending.

I'd seen this back in 1996 but failed to comment on my watched movie list. I doubt I'd buy the new Blu-ray, I doubt I'd watch it again.

Mutant Hunt 1987 Written and directed by Tim Kincaid. Tim made a few low-budget SF and horror films in his career but mostly he's made gay porn films.

I saw this back in 2012 and the only comment on my Watched Movie List is "Crappy." I don't know where I watched the movie or what format it was on, today we watched the new Vinegar Syndrome Blu-ray. While it looks nice it's still a crappy movie. Another one I won't be buying for my collection. You can watch a poor pan and scan version on YouTube but why would you.

Man Like Mobeen Series 1-3

Man Like Mobeen Series 1-3 Created by Guz Khan and Andy Milligan. The three series so far have only had 13 episodes. Series 1 aired in December 2017, Series 2 aired in February 2019 and Series 3 aired in January 2020. While working as a teacher Guz had made short videos playing Mobeen, he posted them to YouTube. Gus and Andy wrote the BBC Three series and Ollie Parsons directed the lot. They've created an intelligent sitcom that's funny.

That's the cast, left to right we have Tolu Ogunmefun as Nate, Tez Ilyas as Arslan "Eight" Mughal, Dúaa Karim as Aqsa and Guz Kahn as Mobeen Deen. Mark Silcox plays Uncles Shady, Perry Fitzpatrick is Officer Harper and Aimee-Ffion Edwards as Miss Aitken.

Nate and Eight are Mobeen's best friends, they always hang out together. Aqsa is Mobeen's sister. She's a handful. They all live in Small Heath in Birmingham. Aqsa goes to school and Mobeen is her legal guardian. It's a good solid cast, they work well together and the script gives them plenty to do. I especially like Mark Silcox as Uncle Shady, he's a sarcastic son of a bitch who calls everyone bastard.

In the first episode of Series 1 Mobeen finds out Aqsa is holding drugs for her friend. Mobeen gives the dealer a piece of his mind. Mobeen sold drugs when he was younger but he's now trying to be a good Muslim. He wants to see his sister to University. He's even willing to take part in an arranged marriage but he's rejected by the young woman. He was lucky, they didn't have much of anything in common.

There's a lot of clever and topical writing about being a brown person in England and about being working class poor. The first episode in Series 2 is about knife crime. A confiscated katana gets Mobeen tasered by Office Harper. He really enjoyed that, him and Mobeen go way back. Things take a darker turn in series 2 as Mobeen winds up owning the local crime boss. In series 3 things get darker yet. Despite being sadden by the end of Series 3 I'm looking to Series 4. Not sure when it will arrive, not this year for sure.

Ghosts Series 4

Ghosts Series 4 Six episodes that aired September 23 2022. Charlotte Richie and Kiell Smith-Bynoe are still trying to make their big old haunted mansion into a B&B. They've got the coach house available at £200 a night. It's getting some rent but it's a tough slog when you're in the middle of nowhere.

The ghost continue to be annoying and needy. There's plenty of noise and activity. The jokes get laughs from me. I enjoyed the whole lot in one gulp and now I want to watch the first three series again. There's a Christmas special coming. Don't want to miss that.

Karen Pirie Series 1

Karen Pirie Series 1 Three 90 min episodes that started airing September 25 2022. Based on the Val McDermid novel The Distant Echo, screenplay by Emer Kenny and directed by Gareth Bryn. I've not read any of Val's novels but I have enjoyed seeing her on British TV shows over the years.

DS Pirie is given a 25 year old cold case because of a true crime podcast that asks why the police did so poorly on this case. Lauren Lyle plays DS Karen Pirie, the guy next to her is DC Jason Murray, he's played by Chris Jenks. He's the rest of her cold case team, his nickname is Mints, Karen bosses his around quite a bit.

A young woman had been murdered in 1995 and her body left near the ruins of an old church. Karen doggedly digs into the case, she makes a few missteps but on the whole she's a good investigator. Things get stirred up a bit and one of the three main suspects is killed. Another takes a lot of drugs and nearly dies. Things aren't going too well for the suspects.

The story is told over the 3 episodes and I found it a bit draggy. There's also a problem with the sound mix. It's often hard to hear the dialog, even if it's a quiet scene. If you crank the sound up in one scene you've got to turn it down in the next scene. I had the subtitles on after a while. I did get to the end and was glad it was done. I think it's safe to say it's something I wouldn't re-watch.

Science Fiction Sunday 709

Doctor Who 2 Series 1 Episode 1-6 Russell T Davis is the show runner and main writer of this series. Christopher Eccleston is the 9th Doctor and Billie Piper is Rose Tyler. This was the only season for the 9th Doctor.

This is the first time I'm seeing the new version of the show. I had started watching the first run of the Doctor's adventures on November 18 2012 and ended on May 3 2015. For some reason I decided to put off watching the new series. I hadn't thought it would take over 7 years to get back to it.

 

Rose Aired March 26 2005 Written by Russell T Davies and directed by Keith Boak.

 

The Autons return to London. Rose meets the Doctor at the department store that she works at. The Doctor  blows that up. He figures out that the Autons are controlled by a central hub located in the London Eye. The Doctor blows up the Autons control center. Rose decides to take the Doctor's offer of a ride in the Tardis

 

The End Of The World Aired April 2 2005 Written by Russell T Davies and directed by Euros Lyn.

 

The Doctor crashes an end of the Earth party on a space platform. It's packed with rich aliens who've come to see the sun expand and destroy the Earth 5.5 billion years in the future. Rose nearly gets burned to a crisp when the baddie starts killing the viewers. The Doctor figures out who that is and lets her blow up. Then the Doctor and Rose watch the Earth blow up.

 

The Unquiet Dead Aired April 9 2005 Written by Mark Gatiss and directed by Euros Lyn.

 

It's 1969 and the Tardis dumps the Doctor and Rose in Cardiff. They meet Charles Dickens and a lady who has a psychic connection to some aliens. The aliens turn out to be evil and the Doctor blows them all up.

 

Aliens Of London Aired April 16 2005 Written by Russell T Davies and directed by Keith Boak.

 

Rose returns home a year after disappearing and her mother is in a right state. Rose's old boyfriend Mickey was suspected of murder, lucky for him the Bill hasn't got any evidence. The police are informed Rose has returned. Things would have settled down but an alien spaceship crashed into the Thames.

 

World War Three Aired April 23 2005 Written by Russell T Davies and directed by Keith Boak.

 

This is a continuation of the previous episode. The Aliens are creeps who want to destroy the Earth so they can sell off the remains. The Doctor blows up 10 Downing Street to kill the aliens. Rose leaves with the Doctor for some more adventures.

 

Dalek Aired April 30 2005 Written by Robert Shearman and directed by Joe Ahearne.

 

The Tardis lands in a private museum of alien bits and bobs. The owner is a rich guy who's got the last Dalek chained up in his basement. His megalomania gets his brain wiped and is tossed away. Rose gets the Dalek to blow itself up.

There's a lot of explosions in Doctor Who and a big body count in many episodes. I enjoyed the series more than I expected. It's quickly paced and the stories are interesting. Both the CGI and physical special effects are fairly good. Good locations and good sets too. It's nice to see the show made with a better budget.

I'm kind of sad that Christopher Eccleston is only in the one series. I'm enjoying his doctor. Rose is fun but she brings a lot of personal drama. Her mom was alright but I'm not much of a fan of Mickey. I heard he's in the second series.

Disc one has the first three episodes with a commentary for each and several featurettes. Disc two has episodes 4-6 with commentaries, some trailers and a couple of featurettes. I've looked at all the featurettes so far but I've only listened to the first couple of commentaries. I'll get to the rest before I watch the last half of the series.

Friday Night Movies 909

Iron Mask 2019 Screenplay by Oleg Stepchenko, Dimitry Paltserv and Alexey A Petrukin, directed by Oleg Stepchenko. A Russian Chinese co-production that's a sequel to Forbidden Empire. Starring Jason Flemyng, Jackie Chan, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Rutget Hauer, Helen Yao and Charles Dance.

 

Titled Тайна печати дракона in Russian, the English translation is Viy 2: Journey To China. Titled 龙牌之谜 in Chinese which translates to The Mystery Of The Dragon Seal in English. It's called The Iron Mask or just Iron Mask in the US.

Jason is a cartographer who's mapping Europe, Russia and China. Along his route he helps a young man who turns out to be a Chinese Princess. Jackie is in prison in the Tower Of London with Tzar Peter I, Arnold is the Warden, he likes a punch up, anyone who beats him can go free. The Tzar escapes and winds up on a ship with Jason's wife. They are bound for China.

The Princess returns to her town to find an evil sorceress is posing as the Princess. There's a lot of leaping about and yelling to get that set right. There's plenty of nice scenery along the journey. It's a nice production but the dialog is kind of poor. I enjoyed the movie and hope they get to release the third film. It's supposed to come out in 2022 but nothing so far.

Amityville In Space 2022 Written and directed by Mark Polonia. Mark had directed over 70 pictures in the last 37 years. From the look of this one he hasn't learned how to make a good movie yet. He seems to be following The Asylum's business plan, make low budget horror movies, make a lot of them, don't worry that they aren't very good. I thought AIS was worse than some of The Asylum's poorer pictures. Mark's a big liar too, there's nothing in the movie that looks like that poster. There is a house in space, it's been exorcised from Earth. You can see it in the trailer in the title above. It's sad looking. Most of the effects are poor.

There's a space ship filled with spacemen and women who are traveling about the galaxy blowing up black holes with bombs. They spot the house near a black hole. A strange humanoid enters the ship and gives the human's hallucinations. A priest comes to help them and some of them live to escape.

We were joking about while watching, there was a complaint that I thought was quite valid, the film makers don't seem to take any steps, even baby ones, to make their movie better. We were coming up with all sorts of ways to improve scenes and ways that wouldn't increase the budget. Is Mark lacking imagination? Could be. I think he just didn't bother. I wouldn't bother watching the film again.

The Four Just Men 1939

The Four Just Men 1939 It was released in the US in 1941 under the name The Secret Four. Based on the 1905 Edgar Wallace novel of the same name, screenplay by Angus MacPhail, Sergei Nolbandov and Roland Pertwee, directed by Walter Forde. Roland is Jon Pertwee's father, besides writing a fair number of films he was an actor. I've seen three other films he wrote:  The Ghoul 1933, King Solomon's Mines 1937 and Pimpernel Smith 1941. Andrew wrote the screenplay for the 1931 version of The Ghost Train, later he would write some films for George Formby. Walter directed a few films I've seen, The Ghost Train 1931, The Ringer 1931, Rome Express 1932, Chu Chin Chow 1934 and the 1941 Arthur Askey film The Ghost Train.

The four just men are actor Humphrey Mansfield, played by Hugh Sinclair, playwright James Brodie, played by Griffith Jones, fashion house owner Léon Poiccard, played by Francis L Sullivan, and foreign correspondent James Terry, played by Frank Lawton. They've banded together to punish criminals.

As the film opens Terry escapes a Prussian prison just before he's executed. He's got some good intel about 5th columnists inside the British government. A big problem with WW2 looming on the horizon.The four just men do their thing, they are ruthless, the baddies are barely a match. There's plenty of murder, some fist fights and gun shooting, plenty of running about and a slew of interesting characters.

The version of the film on the Internet Archive is the one with the tacked on anti-Nazi ending, the original film didn't call the baddies German out rightly. I enjoyed it and would welcome another view down the road. I've seen quite a few of the films made from Edgar Wallace's books. Lucky for me I've still got a few more adaptions left to see. Not many though.