PRIMITIVE SCREWHEADS

The Narrowing Circle 1956

The Narrowing Circle 1956 Based on the 1954 novel of the same name by Julian Symons, screenplay by Doreen Montgomery, directed by Charles Saunders. A British crime film about a crime writer framed for murder.

Paul Carpenter plays writer Dave Nelson, he works for a magazine producer, he seems to be in line for an editor job. When he comes to work one day he finds he's got to share his office with Rosemary Speed, played by Hazel Court, and both of them like to dictate. Dave looses the editor job when the board pick another editor. Later Dave gets the brush off from the food editor, she dumped him for the editor who got the job he wanted. Dave hits the bar, gets drunk, picks up Christie and takes her to a sleazy hotel. That turns out to be a mistake, especially the part where he signs the register with a fake name.

When Dave wakes in the AM she's gone. He goes home and finds a dead body in his living room. The stiff is the guy who got the editor job. The police half believe his story but it all looks rather suspicious. Things get pretty grim for Dave, the sleazy hotel desk clerk doesn't remember him, it looks worse when the desk clerk gets murdered. They find Christie but she's dead too. Lucky for Paul he gets a hand from Rosemary.

It's got a fairly entertaining and fun script and the cast is good. I enjoyed it despite it being about average. I'd probably get around to it again some day. Link in the title above.

Nightmare 1964

Nightmare 1964 Written by Jimmy Sangster and directed by Freddie Francis. A British horror film from Hammer.

A young woman called Janet is having trouble at boarding school. Her noisy nightmares are keeping her classmates awake. It's decided that she should return home with help from an older companion and nurse called Grace. Janet's father was killed by her mother, stabbed to death in front of Janet. In her nightmare Janet sees a white robed woman roaming the house. The nightmares continue at her house despite the friendly staff. She sees the white robed woman while she's awake. Henry is Janet's guardian, he is in charge of her money. He brings his wife to the house at one point. Janey stabs her to death and is sent to an institution. It turns out Henry has plans to live in the big house and spend Janet's money. Janet gets some help to get out of her bad situation from her other friends.

I enjoyed it. The script is good and so is the cast. I'd want to watch it again sometime.

Science Fiction Sunday 838

The Martians And Us 2006 Written by Laura Humphreys, directed by Rachel Bell, Lucie Donahue and Laura Humphreys. Narrated by Peter Capaldi.

A three episode documentary on British SF writers and Martians. Commenting are Kim Newman, Brian Stableford, Doris Lessing, Brian Aldiss, Will Self, Arthur C Clarke, Margaret Atwood, Nigel Kneale, Christopheer Priest, Iain Banks, China Miéville, John Christopher and several other people I didn't know.

Plenty of info on SF writers of the past by current SF writers,. I thought it was entertaining despite being 20 years old. You can watch the episodes on YouTube.

Early To Bed 1936

Early To Bed 1936 Written by Arthur Kober, Lucien Littlefield, S J Perelman and Chandler Sprague, directed by Norman McLeod. An American comedy with Charlie Ruggles and Mary Boland. Both of them were a big hit in Ruggles Of Red Gap the year before.

Charlie and Mary play Chester and Tessie, they've been engaged for 5 years with out setting a date. The couple had been dating for 15 years before that and Tessie is tired of waiting to be a bride. Chester claims he's got a secret problem that makes him leery of getting married. It's pretty benign, he sleepwalks. Chester is a bit a nervous nelly.

As Tessie puts the pressure on Chester he gives in and they set the date. Sadly Chester's boss won't give him any time off. While this is going on Chester's boss is annoyed by his salesmen failing to land a big contract with Horace B Stanton. Stanton's left town for a resort so Chester devises a plan, he'll marry Tessie and honeymoon at the same resort. What they don't know is the place is a resort for those seeking the cure for what ails you.

Chester gets knocked out by Stanton's golf ball. The pair become friends but a robbery and murder complicate the story. Eventually things work out well for everyone, other than the dead guy, he's still dead.

I enjoyed it. It's no Ruggles Of Red Gap but it was fun for what ails me. One can always use a shot of humor.

Friday Night Movies 1038

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice 2024 Story by Alfred Gough, Miles Millar and Seth Grahame-Smith, screenplay by Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, directed by Tim Burton.

The Deetz's are back and movie opens with the death of Charles Deetz, husband to Delia and father to Lydia. They gather for the funeral in Winter River and Delia plans to sell the old house from the first movie. Lydia has become the host of a popular ghost program. Her daughter Astrid is in college, she's dragged to the funeral. She doesn't believe in the afterlife. Lydia's dating her producer Rory, he's a horrible man. He proposes to Lydia at the funeral reception and she accepts because she's not strong enough to stand up to him.

Beetlejuice is running a afterlife business staffed by shrunken head guys in nice big yellow suits. We find out Beetlejuice was married to Delores LaFerve when he was living. She's a soul sucker and he had to chop her into pieces to keep her from sucking the life out of him. A dead janitor collects the pieces of her body, she reassembles and starts sucking souls. The janitor was the first to go. She starts hunting Beetlejuice, sucking souls as she moves about. She was the one who killed him, he chopped her up before he died.

Delia is killed by some poisonous snakes she bought from some shady person on the internet. Astrid meets a nice boy, she doesn't know he's a dead baddie, he tricks her into the afterlife so he can steal his soul and return to the world of the living. Rory doesn't believe that Lydia is haunted by Beetlejuice and calls him into the world of the living by saying his name 3 times. We'd have no movie if any of the people would act sensibly. There are a whole lot of other plot points to pad out the movie to 104 mins.

I enjoyed most of the movie and would be interested in seeing it again someday. The Blu-ray is on my Wanted List. It colorful and noisy but I thought it was a bit slow.  The musical numbers were dragging it down for me. It was mostly fun and Bob is my favorite character.

Bog 1979 Written by Carl Kitt and Don Keeslar. An American horror film made in Wisconsin. Like a lot of independent film this one has hired a number of older veteran actors from TV and film: Marshall Thompson, Gloria DeHaven, Aldo Ray and Leo Gordon.

Aldo is the sheriff in a small Wisconsin town, Marshall is a doctor, Gloria and Leo are scientists. There's a monster living in the bog, some fish blasting wakens it, people start to die when the bog creature starts sucking all the blood out of the victims. The bog creature kills a good number of citizens and tourists. Aldo and his deputies try to fight it but it's a tough beast, many folks die before an accident starts a fire and it's burnt up. Lucky for the story, some eggs are left for a sequel that hasn't been made yet.

It's rather a weak film that's in rough physical shape. I guess no one saved the negatives or there was no money to try to clean it up. Oh well. It gets a 3.2 on the IMDb. I gave it a 4 out of pity. I did get a few laughs, not a jokes though. I doubt I'd need to watch it again, I wouldn't need the Blu-ray it shares with Mako: The Jaws Of Death. We watched the first few mins of that and it might be better. We'll see.

Freddy Und Die Melodie Der Nacht 1960

Freddy Und Die Melodie Der Nacht 1960 Script Gustav Kampendonk and Aldo of Pinelli, directed by Wolfgang Schleif. A German crime film staring Freddy Quinn as a singing taxi driver. Freddy was a popular singer in Europe, he had a good number of hits starting starting in the mid 1950s.

Freddy is a taxi driver, he travels about Berlin picking up people and taking them places. Most are regular folks out on their business, going home, going out to the bars and nightclubs. He picks up a couple of guys, Willi and Karl, who are planning to rob him, they'd had an unsuccessful robbery earlier in the day. They need cash so they can go on the run. In the middle of the ride Freddy stops to help another cabbie, giving him all his money while they're stopped. The two robbers get out of the cab and follow the taxi driver with the money, they rob him and shoot him.

Freddy has an interest in the pretty flower seller Inge, she haunts the bars and clubs in the evening to make some extra money. She rooms with Frau Bremer who coincidentally is the mother of Willi. The two robbers stumble around hoping to rob someone. Karl finally robs Willi's girlfriend. Things get worse and worse for the pair, poor Willi doesn't even make it to the end of the movie, breaking his poor mother's heart when she overhears the police talk of his accident. Freddy has a better night, he sings a couple of songs, has a bit of romance and catches Karl.

I enjoyed it, it moves along quickly and there's plenty going on. I enjoyed the nightlife of 1960 Berlin. The movie got posted to YouTube today. The same YouTube channel has a good number of German Krimi films some of which are based on Edgar Wallace novels. I'd watch it again.

Blood Stained Tradewinds 1990

Blood Stained Tradewinds 1990 Written by Philip Cheng and directed by Yuen Chor. A Hong Kong gangster film with Waise Lee.

Waise is Hung and Alex Fong is Sing and members of a triad, the head of the group is Uncle Lung. He's getting old and his illness forces him to name a successor. He picks Sing but Sing refuses to be head of the gang. He's kicked out of the gang and he goes to work for a fireworks manufacturer. Hung gets the job and the hand of Uncle Lung's daughter Sophia.

Hung has trouble leading the gang because of his violent ways. Other members are unhappy with him. He's also got trouble with a Japanese yakuza gang. The Japanese kill Uncle Lung and kidnap Sophia. Sing has to return to the gang to help fight the yakuza. There's plenty of family drama and some gun battles.

It's an average film, nothing inspired going on here. I enjoyed parts of it but doubt I'll rewatch it in the future. It was Chor's last feature film as a director, he did keep on acting through 2002. I've seen him in a lot of films as an actor but not seen that many of his directed works. He started acting and directing in 1957. He was born in 1934 and died in 2022.

Saint-Pierre Season 1 2025

Saint-Pierre Season 1 2025 Created by Allan Hawco, Robina Lord-Stafford and Perry Chafe for Hawco Productions. Written and directed by a bunch of people. 

There were 10 episodes of this Canadian production set on the island of Saint-Pierre. It's one of the small group of islands known as Saint-Pierre and Miqelon. They are a self-governing territorial overseas collectivity of France. The group of islands are just west of Newfoundland.

Allan Hawco plays Inspector Donny "Fitz" Fitzpatrick of the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary. He was sent to Saint-Pierre for investigating a Newfoundland politician. That politician is also living with Fitz's ex-wife and their children. His arrest by Fitz goes viral, as punishment he's reassigned to Saint-Pierre. It begs the question: why would S-P take him on in the first place? Some might remember Allan from The Republic Of Doyle and his other TV appearances.

Fitz is in a fish out of water sort of situation. It's a rather common plot point, trouble making cops are sent to small towns in the hinterland but usually their assignment is in their own country. Death In Paradise and Rocco Schiavone are similar enough. I bet you could name a dozen more without having to work too hard. I'll start off with The Mallorca Files.

Joséphine Jobert, late of Death In Paradise, plays a Paris cop who's called Geneviève “Arch” Archambault. She's Saint-Pierre's Deputy Chief. She's come to the island for her own reasons. She's not happy with Fitz at first but she comes to value his crime solving talents. The crimes are fairly varied, some tie in with the local baddie Sean Gallagher, played by James Purefoy. It's Arch's life goal to take this scumbag down.

There's a new victim or two each week. There's plenty of driving around and a few punch ups. I mostly enjoyed the stories each week, though there seems to be a good bit of family drama going on. Sadly the show ends on a cliff hanger. I don't care much for that. I'd still watch a second season if there is one and I'd rewatch the first season again.

Science Fiction Sunday 837

The Veil 2023 Written and directed by Cameron Beyl. It's called SF on the YouTube page for the movie. It's not, it's some sort of redemption fantasy. The YouTube page also lists the movie as being released in 2024.

A retired priest lives alone. During his dinner the sky fills with green aurora borealis lights and his power goes out. He has a memory of another dark night when an Amish woman stepped out in front of his car. She asks for a ride but he gets scared by some flash of darkness from her eyes. He leaves her and drives off. He's been bothered by that for 40 years.

He hears noises outside and goes out to take a look. He finds an Amish woman outside, she's got a hurt foot. He invites her in and bandages her foot. Her name is Hannah and she would like to use the phone. He has no land line and his cell phone is dead. He offers to drive her too the doctors in the morning. He offers her a bed and goes to his room. Magically he's transported back 40 years and he discovers the woman he didn't help was Hannah. He helps her this time and takes her to the doctor. The green lights disappear and the movie is over.

It's rather pedestrian and cliched. It's good that it's only 70 mins long. Lucky for me YouTube has a 1.5 speed, there's nothing there to spend 70 mins on. I wouldn't watch it again that's for sure. 

The Book 2010 Written and directed by Richard Weiss under the symbol ∅. An SF film about a future society and their special book.

This is Richard's only film. Not surprising. The only thing interesting in it to me was when he'd filmed some scenes outside the Marin County Courthouse by Frank Lloyd Wright. It's design lends itself to SF but it does little to elevate this way below average film.

It's a jumble of images and noise. Not something I liked and not something I'd recommend to anyone. The movie only has 10 votes on the IMDb. Eight votes are a 6 or above, 2 votes are a 1. I added my 1 for the 11th vote. There are no reviews in 15 years. Not surprising. Lucky for me I'll forget it soon enough.

Friday Night Movies 1037

Panda Plan 2024 Written by Wei Xu, Meng Yida and Luan Zhang, directed by Luan Zhang. A Jackie Chan action comedy.

Jackie plays a version of himself, he goes to a zoo to take part in sponsoring a rare version of the panda. An Arab sheik wants the panda, some mercenaries want his $100 mil. The Sheik has a sad backstory that is revealed at the end. That could have been easily left out, it's so heavy handed and cliched. 

Jackie arrives at the zoo, shortly after the mercenaries arrive to get the panda. Things don't go so easy for the mercenaries with Jackie there. It's like they bought their slapstick in bulk and spread it all over. There's some good number of fight scenes but it's mostly low throttle martial arts and silly action bits. I'm impressed Jackie can do some of the stunts himself. You can often tell when it's a stunt double.

It's all very colorful and noisy, the story is too simple, generally the script is weak, it's more suitable for kids and grans. There's plenty of jokey bits but no one dies. A baddie gets panda poop in his mouth. People are knocked out, even Jackie, he was knocked out during a stunt involving putting his head in a headlock. There's plenty of gun fire but no one gets shot. The animals were CGI. There was a robot delivery cart with a personality. He was always chatting up the ladies.

I enjoyed it for the most part but it's not up to Jackie's older action comedies. It still made money in the theater in China, it cost $24 mil to make and pulled $36 mill out of the Chinese box office. I had picked up a copy when I saw it on Amazon, I try to buy all the Jackie films, I'd hope to watch it again sometime.

Signals 1970

I watched this August 2024 and posted a comment on Science Fiction Sunday 809. There's a link there to the version of the film I watched on YouTube. The Blu-ray we watched was much better looking. All that didn't make the dull script much better. People's minds were wondering between the gulf between the sentences. I didn't mind that the time I watched it before but I bet I watched it at 1.5 speed. It does help a lot of stories out.