PRIMITIVE SCREWHEADS

Science Fiction Sunday 609

 

A couple of disappointing SF films from Amazon Prime today. Both came out this year and one isn't an SF film and the other barely squeaks by.

The Tent has some guy out in the wilderness, living in a tent, after something called The Crisis. After a young woman joins him we spend a good long time listening to them chatter and try to avoid the invisible wheezing creatures that drag people off into the woods. Near the end we discover that the movie is all in the guys head, he's a dementia patient in a home. What the Fuck? That's the twist ending that people mention on the IMDb. It's dull and it meanders around, scenes don't seem to mean anything. It has 128 votes on the IMDb and 26 of them are a 1. There are 27 now.

Illuminate is a UFO film, short at an hour, it seems longer. Some guy disappears near Mt Shasta, later his grandson disappears. The grandmother tries to contact her husband bu using a TV set and a video camera feedback loop. He's believed to have been kidnapped by the Lumarians that live inside the mountain. The granddaughter astral projects and brings the brother back. It's just not that interesting. I wouldn't want to watch either again.

Friday Night Movies 810

The Portrait Of Dorian Gray 1945 Based on the novel of the same name by Oscar Wilde, screenplay and direction by Albert Lewin.

 

I saw this picture back in 2006 but haven't seen it since. I recently got the DVD and decided tonight's the night to put it on. You probably know the story, man stays young while a painting of him ages. You can click the paintings for a larger size image. The picture on the left was painted by Henrique Medina and the one on the right was painted by Ivan Le Lorraine Albright. The Medina painting is shown in color in a brief scene in the B&W film. It's believed to be in a private collection. The Albright painting is in the collection of The Art Institute of Chicago. Ivan's identical twin Malvin was hired to paint the good Dorian painting but it wasn't used in the film. Ivan made changes to both the good and bad paintings while the film was being shot.

Hurd Hatfield lays Dorian. I knew nothing about Hurd, even though his IMDb listing says I've seen him in a few TV shows and movies. He worked steadily from 1944 until 1991, he passed away in 1998 at the age of 81. The other fellow is George Sanders playing Lord Henry Wotton. I'm more familiar with George's work and a big fan of him as The Saint and The Falcon. He's a bit of a rotter here and he convinces Dorian that a lifestyle of pleasure and hedonism is the way to go. Dorian's pretty shallow and he's easily swayed by Wotton. Dorian is generally a pretty piss poor example of a human being.

Dorian is having his portrait painted by artist Basil Hallward, he's played by Lowell Gilmore. That's him in the middle between Peter Lawford and Donna Reed. Donna is Gladys Gilmore, Basil's daughter and Peter is David Stone, a man in love with Donna. Their lives become a mess from being involved with Dorian. Gladys is a child when the painting is finished, about 18 years pass and she grows into a lovely young woman. Dorian looks the same but his painting is growing more and more grotesque from his naughty life style. Dorian asks her to marry him and she excepts. What's wrong with these people?

Angela Lansbury is Sibyl Vane, a singer in a small tavern in a rough part of London. Shortly after the portrait is finished Dorian sees her sing and returns over and over to the tavern. He proposes to her but Lord Wotton's influence causes Dorian to offer her a choice, sleep with him before marriage or get out. She walks but returns. The next day Dorian sends her a letter telling of his disappointment in her giving into him, he ends the relationship and includes a pile of cash. She commits suicide.

Time passes and Dorian becomes known as a bounder and his portrait has become as grotesque as he is inside. Gladys brother vows revenge but fails. Dorian becomes more and more evil. In the end he destroys himself.

It's a pretty darn good looking film, plenty of great sets, really good cast, everything about it is top notch. Might be the best film I've seen this year. Well worth a look.

Molly And The Ghost 1990 No writer is credited on the film or the IMDb. Don Jones is the director. I can see why the writer might have taken his name off the film, there's nothing much good about it. A horrible 16 year old runs away to LA and moves in with her older sister. She steals money and jewelry from her sister and tries to seduce her husband. Thrown out she hires a hit man but she's so stupid she mails him a picture of herself. He kills her and she become's a vengeful ghost. It's a pretty piss poor film and should be punched in the face. I started fast forwarding after a while.

The Mind Benders 1963 James Kennaway wrote the original screenplay and adapted that into his novel of the same name, Basil Dearden directed.

Professor Sharpey jumps from a moving train and a huge pile of money is found in his briefcase. He's suspected of selling secrets to foreign interests. Major Hall comes to investigate Sharpey and he finds he'd been involved with a project studying the effects of cold and isolation on men. That project has morphed into a study on sensory deprivation, Professor Sharpey had worked on the project with Dr Longman and Dr Tate, scientists at the University. Major Hall is played by John Clements, he's on the right, the guy on the left is Michael Bryant who played Dr Tate. Dirk Bogarde plays Dr Longman.

The Major finds that the process of cutting off the body from all sensation leaves the mind messed up and the person susceptible to easy manipulation. If this is the case it might be that Professor Sharpey could have been an easy mark for spies after being in the tank.

Longman had been in the tank for four hours and taken a leave. He's at home with his wife Oonagh and their four children when the Major comes to call. Longman believes that Sharpey could have been easily swayed by some spies. The Major talks a reluctant Longman into going back into the tank. They leave him in for 8 hours and he's pretty much a broken man.

As part of the experiment they tell Dirk his wife is a pain and he doesn't really love her. Dirk seems to recover but the seeds have been planted and his marriage breaks apart. That's Dirk with Mary Ure, who plays his wife Oonagh. Now the Major has to try to rectify is awful blunder.

That's Wendy Craig, it was one of her early film roles, she'd been in a few TV programs and would go onto star in the beloved series Butterflies. There's a few people in the cast that I knew, Terence Alexander, Roger Delgado, Edward Fox, Geoffrey Keene and Norman Bird. The good script gives them good material to work with. It's well filmed and directed. Everything about it is way above average. It's also a good reminder that human's are fragile. Well worth seeing. It's another film that turned out to be one of the best films I've seen this year. I have the Kino Lorber DVD and it looks nice. There's a commentary that I listened to part of, might get around to it again someday.

Jerry Warren Collection Volume 2

Another three pack of Warren films from the 1960s. All sadly below average.

Attack Of The Mayan Mummy 1964 Screenplay by Guillermo Calderón and Alfredo Salazar, directed by Rafael Portillo and Jerry Warren. Jerry hacks apart a copy of the 1957 Mexican film The Aztec Mummy and adds some footage he directed. After it's first run it was paired with Creature Of The Walking Dead.

A scientist used hypnotic regression to bring out some past memories from his fiancé. She turns out to be the reincarnation of Xochitl, a temple maiden who had an affair with Aztec warrior Popoca. He was buried alive for his act and she was put to death.

For hundreds of years Popoca has guarded the Great Pyramid of Yucatán. The scientists visit the tomb and steal a breastplate. The mummy rises and goes after them to retrieve the treasure they stole. He kidnaps the fiancé and takes her to the tomb. The scientists stage a rescue. There's some crooks thrown in to spice up the story a bit.

Cut in with the original footage are scenes with American actors talking, sadly they're boring scenes. Rather than dub the Mexican movie and release that, Jerry uses the American footage to tell the story with original footage as flashbacks. There's little or no dubbing on the original footage, I suspect that would cost more to do. I've seen the original, I've got a 3 movie DVD set of it and the 2 sequels that were shot at the same time. The other two aren't quite as entertaining as the first but even they're better than Jerry's embarrassing version. The hack job scores a generous 2.3 on the IMDb.

House Of Black Death 1965 Actually based on a novel, The Widderburn Horror by Lora Crozetti. Richard Mahoney wrote the screenplay, Harold Daniels, Jerry Warren and an uncredited Reginald Le Borg are the directors. Night Of The Beast or The Widderburn Horror were if working titles, it was released under the title Blood Of The Man Devil. On TV it was retitled House Of The Black Death.

The Wikipedia says that Harold Daniels and Reginald Le Borg directed the movie and Jerry Warren was brought into shoot extra footage to increase the running time and edit the final film.

Lon Chaney Jr plays a warlock who's head of an evil coven, John Carradine is his brother, also a warlock. John is bedridden and head of the deSade family, he's not quite as evil as his brother. Lon just wants to kill off the family and own the family estate. John's son is a werewolf. Lon and John never share scenes in the film.

There's plenty of dancing at the coven meetings. That was part of Jerry's 11 minutes of added footage. He also hired his old pal Katherine Victor to mouth some exposition. The end result is much better than his average but still well below average. It gets a 3.6 on the IMDb. One of Jerry's higher scores. It's draggy and dull. There's little to recommend about it.

Creature Of The Walking Dead 1965 Adapted from a 1961 Mexican film called La Marca del Muerto by Jerry. He added a few scenes, dubbed some of the original scenes and narrated some others, then edited it into a mess.

A mad scientist drains the blood from young women to prolong life. He's hung in the 19th century and revived by his grandson. The grandson helps him start up his process once again. Several young women are killed but eventually the whole thing tumbles down around their heads.

A bit better than most of Jerry's work but still way below average. It plods along, making it's 74 mins seem like a good bit longer. I'm betting the original film was somewhat better, there's a copy of YouTube but it's only in Spanish.

Take My Life 1947

Take My Life 1947 Based on the novel of the same name by Winston Graham, screenplay by Winston Graham, Margaret Kennedy and Valerie Taylor, directed by Ronald Neame.

Hugh Williams is married to Greta Gynt, she plays an opera singer in the film. Backstage of Greta's London debut Hugh runs into Rosalie Crutchley, a violinist in the orchestra. Hugh and Rosalie used to date but they hadn't seen each other in several years. Rosalie asks for help but won't say what help she needs. He hands her his program and a personalized mechanical pencil, she's writing her details when Greta pops out of her dressing room. Rosalie leaves with out returning Hugh's pencil. Greta acts all jealous and sarcastic, it leads to a fight at home where she throws a jar of some cosmetic, it hits Hugh in the head and he's bleeding. Pissed off, he leaves. He does visit Rosalie.

There's a voice over narrating all of this and it turns out to be the prosecuting counsel and Hugh's on trail for murdering Rosalie. The police have a good case, especially since Hugh and Greta have been stupid and lied before changing their stories. The murderer had been seen leaving with a handkerchief held to his head, right where Hugh got hit, and the police have found his personalized pencil.

Greta doesn't believe Hugh did it but the police are convinced he did. She goes on the hunt for the real killer. A bit of music in Rosalie's effects and a big ass coincidence leads her to the real killer and he's none to happy with being turned out. They fight to the death on a train.

It's a pretty good story, well above average, and recommended. You can see a copy on YouTube.

The Ghost Walks 1934

The Ghost Walks 1934 Screenplay by Charles Belden, directed by Frank R Strayer. Belden would go onto write 4 of the Charlie Chan series, Mr Moto's Gamble, Dracula's Daughter and a bunch of films I haven't seen. Frank started in the silent film era and his 27 year careen ended in 1952. He directed a few films I've seen, Murder At Midnight, The Monster Walks, Gorilla Ship and The Vampire Bat. He also directed a dozen of the Blondie and Dagwood films. I have a set with a bunch of them that I haven't watched yet.

It's dark, the rain is fierce, the roads slick. A playwright is driving a producer and his secretary when they skid into a fallen tree blocking the road. He suggests they go to a local house to get out of the rain. The playwright turns out to know the man of the house and they are admitted. Once inside strange things begin to happen and a woman is murdered.

The playwright confesses it was a put up job, he's hired his actor pals to act out the play he wrote, but the producer doesn't believe him, at first. Enter a guard from a sanitarium who's looking for an escaped madman. Now everyone is jumpy.

It's a nice take on the old dark house story but as a comedy. There's a fair number of OK jokes, fun characters, and plenty of secret passages, yelling and larking about. I got a kick out of it and would watch it again someday. You can see if you like it by clicking the link in the title above.

The Phantom Fiend 1935

The Phantom Fiend 1932 The film was titled The Lodger in the UK and it was based on the 1913 novel of the same name by Mrs Belloc Lowndes. She'd written a short story called The Lodger in 1911 which was based on Jack The Ripper and the Lambeth Poisoner. The novel was adapted for the screen by H Fowler Mear, the scenario is by Miles Mander and Paul Rotha with an uncredited Ivor Novello. It was directed by Maurice Elvey. It appeared on US screens in 1935 cut down from 85 mins to 62 mins.

Alfred Hitchcock directed a silent version of the film, it was released in 1926 in the UK as The Lodger: A Story Of The London Fog and 1927 in the US under the title of The Case Of Jonathan Drew. Ivor Novello appeared in that version and this one. There were versions of the book adapted to feature films in 1944, 1953 and 2009. In 1967 Armchair Mystery Theater adapted the novel for an episode. In 1967 there was a German version for TV called Der Mieter. There were 6 radio versions and an opera in 1960.

That's Ivor Novello with Elizabeth Allan and some dead guy. Elizabeth lives with her mother and father, they're having a bit of time with cash flow and decide to take a lodger. Ivor shows up and rents the room. The family is happy to have the rent money. They are worried about the murders, especially when Elizabeth's boyfriend, an annoying reporter, comes to call. He can't shut up, not that guy.

Elizabeth becomes enamored with the new lodger, he plays piano and violin but is a bit moody. The murders continue and mom is a bit suspicious of her tenant's activities and mood. Elizabeth doesn't believe he's the killer but it sure looks like she's wrong.

I had seen the movie some years ago and had forgotten most of it. It's about average and I enjoyed it all over again, you can check it out in the link in the title above. Sadly, the film is in rough shape and a bit noisy.

Science Fiction Sunday 608

Monstrosity 1963 Four people worked on the script, Vy Russell, Sue Dwiggins, Dean Dillman Jr and an uncredited Jack Pollexfen, the director was Joseph V Mascelli and and uncredited Jack Pollexfen. It's too bad they didn't work a bit harder. The film is also known as The Atomic Brain. That's the title I saw it under when it ran as the film in an episode of MST3K. It's also in one of those 50 movie packs from Mill Creek. Here's a handy checklist of the many multi movie packs from Mill Creek.

A wicked old woman has devoted her fortune to keeping herself alive. She's got a mad scientist in the basement of her big old mansion. That's him in the baggy clothes. He's played by Frank Gerstle and he had a long career in films and TV. He's got over 200 credits on the IMDb. The other man is the old lady's dogsbody, he's played by Frank Fowler and he only has 5 credits on the IMDb. The scientist calls him a gigolo and he does figure to come out quite well when the old lady gets her young new body. The wicked rich bitch sets him straight, what young woman wants an old man for a lover, he's none to happy. The old lady is played by Marjorie Eaton, she appeared in over 50 TV shows and films in a career that started in 1946 and ended in 1984, she died the following year at 85 years old. In one of her last roles she played an Emperor in The Empire Strikes Back. Her film listing on the IMDb is quite interesting.

The poor undressed lady is a corpse the mad scientist had robbed from a grave, he's put the brain of an animal into her head and reanimated her. He's using atomic power, enough to blow the whole mansion to bits. In fact, he's rigged the machine to blow if they get caught. That will cover up the evidence.

That's another of his experiments in brain transfers. He's got a slave that kills there. The grave robbing is attracting the attention of the local news and the bodies aren't holding up too well after the transfers. The mad scientist wants to use live women as hosts for the old woman's brain. The old lady orders three foreign servants and takes her pick from the women that arrive. It soon becomes apparent that they are in danger so the women try escaping.

One woman is caught and has the brain of a cat put into her head. The scientist is happy with the transfer and plans to do the old lady next. Before that happens one bad thing after another happens and nearly everyone dies.

It's got an interesting plot at the core of the movie but the movie is strictly low budget and amateurish. It plods along at the best of times, the dialog is poor on top of that. People vote harshly on the IMDb, 30.4% of the votes are a 1 and 39.8% of the votes are a 2 or 3. It's a good reminder to keep an eye on the rich, they are some fuckin' ugly and untrustworthy people. You can see if you like it in the link in the title above.

Convict 762 1997 Screenplay by J Reifel, directed by Luca Bercovici. I had a disc with four movies on it and thought I only had watched two of them. I put this on and it seemed familiar. My Watched Movie List says I had seen it, back in 2003, and my comment was one word, Crap. I skimmed through it to see what it was about. A spaceship gets in trouble and has to land as a space prison to refuel. A short time before they arrive the prisoners had all killed themselves. Only Billy Drago and Frank Zagarino are alive. The captain and the crew, all women, make one mistake after another and they don't survive to well. It's not very good but I knew that going in. I went through it pretty quickly, speeding it up after watching the first third. I hope I don't forget and watch it again someday.

Cypher 2002 Written by Brian King and directed by Vincenzo Natali. Vincenzo is the director of Cube. Lot's of people liked it but I wasn't that keen on it. This was a good bit better. It's an odd story, sort of future is now with giant corps spying on one another. Jeremy Northam gets hired to be a spy at one corp, he's sent to infiltrate another corp and gets on there. Lucy Liu turns up as another spy of sorts, she helps him and leads him down one rabbit hole after another. It gets pretty complicated but you can mostly follow along. There's one double cross after another and plenty of danger. The corps kill agents when they don't have a use for them anymore. Or do they, who knows, not much is really explained. There's a fairly decent ending and some of the baddies get blown up, so that was OK. It's slightly above average for me. I'll keep the disc and might watch it again someday.

Tomb Of Torture 1963

Tomb Of Torture 1963 Director Antonio Boccaci, credited on the film as Anthony Kristye, wrote the original story, he co-wrote the screenplay with Giorgio Simonelli, who's credited as Johnny Seemonell. The films original title is Metempsyco. It was released in the US by Richard Gordon on a double bill with a German vampire film called Cave Of The Living Dead.

A doctor bring his daughter Anna to a village with a castle. That's her with her father, he used to live in the village 20 years ago. He's brought Anna to the castle to see if it can cure her of the odd dreams she's been having. In them she see's the violent death of Countess Irene. Irene used to live in the castle but disappeared 20 years ago. Anna also has ghostly visions of Irene now that she's in the village.

Irene's sister Countess Elizabeth lives in a house in the village and leaves the castle empty but for a deformed servant. When the movie opens we see the deformed servant kill two local girls down in a secret dungeon. There's a secret door inside the castle and a secret entrance behind a loose brick near the empty moat.

 

Raman was in love with Elizabeth until he met Irene. After Irene disappeared he left the area for 20 years but has recently returned. He's returned to search for Irene's body but Elizabeth thinks he's only after the supposed hidden treasure. Elizabeth is also seeing the image of Irene.

That's Anna and a reporter who's investigating the death of the two girls. They seem to fall in love between scenes and it's a lucky thing, he's there when things get dangerous.

It's a fairly decent movie, bit of murder, some torture, a mystery, a bit of sex, a ghost, guinea pigs pretending to be rats, it's got the lot. The music is a bit goofy. The script is a bit weak, there are times then it jumps ahead and misses telling us some bit of business that might have made the story clearer. In the end it was entertaining enough to be average and I would still watch it again someday.

Friday Night Movies 809

Lupin The 3rd Crisis In Tokyo 1998 Created by and screenplay by Monkey Punch, script by Shinzo Fujita, direction by Toshiya Shinohara. Lupin is after a long lost treasure and the key to it is in some old photographic plates. His plan to rob them is interrupted by his old pal Fujiko and Inspector Zenigata. Lupin's buddies have issues, Goemon has had his sword stolen, Jigen has a toothache, and that distracts them from helping out as much as usual. The owner of the plates is a rich guy who's got a secret illegal genetics operation going on under his new Aqua theme park. There's plenty of action and yelling and running about. It's about average for Lupin but nowhere near as entertaining as The Castle Of Cagliostro.

The Boy Who Cried Werewolf 1973 Screenplay by Bob Homel, directed by Nathan Juran. It's Nathan's last film and a far cry from some of his better work like 20 Million Miles To Earth, Jack The Giant Killer and The 7th Voyage Of Sinbad.

Kerwin Mathews takes his son, played by Scott Sealey to their cabin in the woods. They get attacked by a werewolf, Kerwin gets bit, then the werewolf falls off a convenient cliff and gets impaled on a fence post. He turns back into a man and of course no one believes Scott when he says the man had been a werewolf. Kerwin takes over the role of the murderous werewolf, killing a few of the locals before it's all over for him. Typical story, average acting and production. I saw it on YouTube and doubt I'd need to see it again. Werewolf fans can find a link in the title above.

The Brain Machine 1955 Written and directed by Ken Hughes. Nice tight crime thriller about a criminal with a brain tumor. The title refers to the use of the electroencephalograph scan of a crooks brain. Maxwell Reed plays Frank, he's a crook who had been admitted to the hospital without any idea who he was or how he got there. Frank leaves before he gets treatment, he needs to sell a huge pile of cortisone and escape from the country. Frank kidnaps the doctor and is seen by one of the people at the hospital, soon there's a man hunt for them. The buyer of the drugs sends a creepy hood to find Frank, he kills Frank's wife and nearly kills Frank. They hold out in the back room of a bar as everything falls part for Frank. Good story and a good cast. Part of The British Film series from Network. I enjoyed it and would spin the DVD sometime again.

The Case Of The Smiling Stiffs 1973

The Case Of The Smiling Stiffs 1973 Screenplay by Jerry Hayling and others, direction by Sean S Cunningham and Brud Talbot. The film is listed on the IMDb under the original title Case Of The Full Moon Murders, that's not the title of the copy on YouTube. I couldn't find posters or promo material with the original title and very little material for the re-title either. It's tagline is The First Sex Rated Whodunnit! It was called Sex On The Groove Tube in Canada. It's working title was Silver Cock. If you watch you'll see why.

Some of the cast and crew had just worked on Wes Craven's 1972 film The Last House On The Left which had been produced by Sean S Cunningham. Sean would co-create and direct Friday The 13th in 1980 and work on some of the sequels. He produced House and House II: The Second Story and several other horror films. The only other film he directed that I know I've seen is Deep Star Six.

 

It's a softcore parody of Dragnet with Fred J Lincoln as Joe and Ron Millkie as Frank. The pair of homicide detectives are investigating a series of monthly murders, men have been found dead, their faces frozen in a smiling grin and their members stiff with rigor. The detectives see some action in the line of duty.

Sheila Stuart is the gal doing the killings. Once a month she gets the urge to go down on a guy, problem is she's a vampire who can turn into a bat and her sucking is fatal. She flies through the open window of an unsuspecting sleeping man, turns back into a woman and puts that final smile on her victim's face.

Harry Reems plays a reporter investigating the murders. He winds up in the sack with several of the women who answer his knock. In a bit of foreshadowing one of the ladies mentions she couldn't take him everyday and she can hardly get her toes uncurled the next day. Harry will come save the day at the end of the film.

There's plenty of naked ladies and sexy times but it's all softcore. It's the first film for Jean Jennings, she'd appear in a handful of hardcore films and then leave the business. There's some jokes, some work and some don't, and plenty of slapstick. It's a pretty poorly written and directed film, partly because they ran out of money before the film was finished. It did make me laugh but it's not something I would want to buy, especially since it's free on YouTube. You might like it, you might not.