PRIMITIVE SCREWHEADS

Planet Of The Vampires 1965

Planet Of The Vampires 1965 Based on One Night Of 121 Hours, by Renato Pestriniero, screenplay by Alberto Bevilacqua, Callisto Cosulich, Mario Bava, Antonio Román and Rafael J Salvia, directed by Mario Bava. The English version of the film was written by Ib Melchior and Louis M Heyward.

Someone gave me the Kino Lorber Blu-ray of the movie. I've seen the movie 2 or 3 times already. It's one of the few Bava films I've seen more than twice. I was interested in the Tim Lucas commentary so I watched the movie with that on. It was interesting for the most part. He's got a lot of info. At some point I'll watch the movie once again.

Miss Tulip Stays The Night 1955

Miss Tulip Stays The Night 1955 Based on the radio play by Nan Marriott-Watson, screenplay by John O Douglas with uncredited help from Jack Hulbert and Bill Luckwell, directed by Leslie Arliss.

Patrick Holt and Diana Dors are Andrew and Katie Dax. Andrew's a mystery writer and Katie has rented a cottage in the country to give him a break from the distractions of London life so he can finish his new book.

 

The first night they're settling into the cottage when an annoying woman called Miss Tulip comes along with a story about threatening letters and someone coming to kill her. She bullies the couple into letting her stay the night. Next morning, there's Miss Tulip, shot through the head, in a chair, in the sitting room.

The local constable shows up to inquire about Miss Tulip's car abandoned in the middle of the lane. He calls Inspector Thorne and right away poor Andrew is a suspect. Now he's got to use his detecting abilities to keep ahead of the Inspector. Diana gives him a hand and things get wrapped up in a silly way.

I thought it was entertaining while still being about average for a crime comedy. There are a few gags and Diana is charming. The story moves along quick enough that it makes the 68 min breeze by. I picked up the DVD for a couple of bucks at MVDs recent clearance sale. Worth the price for sure. You can see a nice 1080p copy on YouTube for nothing. Link above.

Sanders Of The River 1935

Sanders Of The River 1935 Based on stories from the Edgar Wallace collection Sanders On The River, screenplay by Lajos Biró, Jeffrey Dell and Arthur Wimperis, directed by Zoltán Korda.

The stories are set in Colonial Nigeria, Leslie Banks plays District Commissioner Sanders. That's Banks on the left, the guy on the right is Paul Robeson, the guy in the middle is Robert Cochran. Paul plays Bosambo, a local chief that's fairly supportive of Sanders, some other chiefs are not.

When Sanders is thought dead the rival chiefs start thinking about settling some old scores. Sander's replacement is killed by Chief Mofolaba. He's the worst of the baddies. Mofolaba kidnaps Bosambo's wife. Sander's returns, Bosambo gets his wife back and metes out some justice to Mofolaba.

The Wikipedia says that Paul Robeson was not happy with the way the Africans were portrayed in the film. He had agreed to do the film if the Africans were portrayed in a better light. His being screwed over is typical of the industry.

It's not going to be a favorite but I got through it with the help of some liberal fast forwarding. I wouldn't recommend it much.

State Of The Union Series 1 - 2

State Of The Union Series 1 - 2 Written by Nick Hornby and directed by Stephen Frears.

The first series has a series of short conversations between a broken up couple that meet in a coffee shop before they got to see their marriage counselor. Rosamond Pike and Chris O'Dowd play the couple. I admit I watched it because I've liked Chris is other programs and on the panel shows. It isn't the sort of program I would normally watch. The second series has Brendan Gleeson and Patricia Clarkson as an American couple that meet before their weekly marriage therapy. I got through the lot at 1.5 speed and it wasn't much worth it for me. Others might like it more than me.

Gogglebox Ireland Series 1 - 8

Gogglebox Ireland Series 1 - 8

I chain watched these over the last month or so. It's a spin off of the original Gogglebox. People from around Ireland watch TV and we watch them. I like it quite a bit. I laugh a lot and it was interesting to see the people change over the last 6 years. The TV wasn't always something I would watch but I got to see a lot of what the locals were watching. This is mostly a show for those that enjoy the world of UK TV but there's a lot of social commentary buried in there.

Science Fiction Sunday 719

Doctor Who 2 Series 3 Episodes 8-10

 

Human Nature May 26 2007 Written by Paul Cornell and directed by Charles Palmer. First of 2 parts.

 

To hide from the Family of Blood the Doctor hides his Time Lord self in a watch and uses the Tardis to change the cells in his body to human Calling himself John Smith, he hides in 1913 England and takes a job as a teacher at a boy's military academy. Poor Martha gets to be a maid in employ at the school. She's keeping an eye on John Smith as he has no knowledge of his past life, other than his strange dreams. He's written some of them down in a journal.

 

Jessica Stevenson plays Joan the school nurse, she's fallen for John Smith and he's reciprocated. Sadly the aliens show up and things get a bit hairy. Lucky for the Doctor he's got Martha and psychic student to help him, John Smith turns out to be a bit of nervous nelly.

 

The Family Of Blood June 2 2007 Written by Paul Cornell and directed by Charles Palmer. Second of 2 parts.

 

The baddies attack the school. I haven't see that many kids shooting guns in a boy's school since I last saw If... many years ago. In the finale John Smith has trouble giving up his life and Jessica is not happy to see the Doctor when he's back to normal. Can't blame her, she was robbed of a good life as much as John Smith. The Doctor digs into his dark side and the Family of Blood gets some unique personalized punishment.

 

A good two parter with a nice sentimental bit at the end. I like the way that the stories have more connections between them than the stories in the original series.

 

Blink June 9 2007 Written by Steven Moffatt and directed by Hettie MacDonald.

 

In 2007 London Sally Sparrow finds a message from 1969 under the wallpaper of an old and abandoned house. It's to her, from the Doctor, he's warning her not to blink and to duck. That saves Sally from nearly having a fatal encounter with the Weeping Angels.

 

They're aliens who appear to the eye as statues, they can move about when no one's watching but if you look right at them they freeze and appear to be solid stone. One of the side effects of an encounter with the Weeping Angels is being time shifted to another time and place. Sally's friend Kathy got sent back to 1920 and lived a whole new life.

 

The Doctor and Martha have an encounter with them and get time shifted to 1969 London. The Doctor uses Sally and a couple of other people to help him get the Tardis come pick him up. A future encounter between the Doctor and Sally will put even more info in his hands. Oddly the Doctor doesn't do anything to rescue the time shifted people.

 

The Doctor defeats the Weeping Angels with a clever bit of biz. They are a creepy monster and deserve it. Another good story.

 

The commentaries were fair but didn't keep my attention as much as some of the other's have. There's a video diary from David Tennant and an actual Easter Egg. If you find it you get the complete DVD message the Doctor sends Sally. That was a nice fun thing. I hardly hear of anyone doing an Easter Egg on a DVD anymore. I hardly look for them but this seemed like the disc that should have one.

Friday Night Movies 919

Black Friday 2021 Produced by Bruce Campbell and Warner Davis, written by Andy Greskoviak, directed by Casey Tebo.

Bruce Campbell is the manager of a big box toy store called We Love Toys. It's Thanksgiving and tomorrow is Black Friday. Devon Sawa is a divorced father, he drops off his two daughters with the ex wife and her new family, and drives off to start his midnight shift at We Love Toys. It's a clumsy scene that made me wonder why he was dropping his daughters off in daylight and arriving at the store in the pitch black.

At the store the customers are lined up for nearly a block. There's some banter between the staff and the doors open. Things go along fine until an infected person infects the customers. Chaos breaks out and the infected start building something in the middle of the store. While the phones still work they fine that other stores are infected and the cops aren't answering their phones.

There's plenty of running about and violence. Characters get picked off pretty regularily. It was a bit slow getting going but it picks up the pace when the infected ramp up the violence. Somewhat entertaining but definitely average. Nothing new here really, the script is weaker than the direction, but it did have a few laughs. I probably will pick up a copy because Bruce is in it but I'll wait to see if it drops in price. Maybe I'll find a free download sometime.

Witch Academy 1995 Written by Mark Thomas McGee and directed by Fred Olen Ray. The Wikipedia says: Rey said it was the last of his "scream queen" films as the bottom was about to drop out of that market.

Robert Vaughn plays the Devil, he's poking his nose into the goings on at the Sigma Gamma Sorority. Some nasty women live there. When a party with some scummy frat boys gets cancelled they decide to invite a student, who's seeking membership, over for a bit of torture. The Devil turns the tables on the sorority gals by turning the initiate into a murderous monster.

There's not much story going on, just some horrible women mistreating a nice gal, but there are a lot of boobs. The script is poor, the acting poor but Robert Vaughn was OK. Some bit of fun but not something I need to pick up.

Mysteries Of Prehistoric Scotland

Mysteries Of Prehistoric Scotland A three part series that aired on Amazon UK recently. Tristan Hughes takes the viewer around Scotland and looks at the Stone Age, the Bronze Age and the Iron Age people's. Mostly pretty interesting.

Agatha Christie - Lucy Worsley On The Mystery Queen

Agatha Christie - Lucy Worsley On The Mystery Queen

Lucy takes a 3 part look at the life of Agatha Christie. Plenty of good info and nice locations. I'd watch this again.

Granite Harbour Series 1

Granite Harbour Series 1 Written by Sarah Deane, Tara Hepburn and Adriel Leff, directed by Gary Williams. Three episodes that December 1 2022.

That's Romario Simpson and Hannah Donaldson. Romario plays DC Davis Lindo, he served in the Royal Military Police for the last 10 years, he's come to Scotland to join New Scotland Yard. Davis's been assigned to a police station in Aberdeen. Hannah is the detective he's shadowing. Despite his ten years experience he's starting at the bottom as a Detective Constable. His boss is a humorless "my way or the highway" type.

The first case up for Davis and his new partners is the murder of a local businessman. There's the usual investigating and some personality clashes in the police squad. Davis's boss tosses him off the squad but he continues working the case. Eventually the murder is caught and things work out between Davis and his boss.

It's a nice looking show but the story is only about average for this sort of police procedural. There's some amount of personal melodrama and a sad story that drove the killer. Not something I would bother with again but enjoyable enough to watch at 1.5 speed.