PRIMITIVE SCREWHEADS

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.

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The Devil Rides Out 1968 Based on the 1934 Dennis Wheatley novel of the same name, screenplay by Richard Matheson, directed by Terence Fisher. A movie so memorable that none of us could remember seeing it at movie night in December 2009. Below is the post I made then.

Our second feature is the 1968 Hammer film The Devil Rides Out. It's based on a 1934 Dennis Wheatley novel. Christopher Lee plays the Duc de Richleau. He's an expert on the occult who's trying to save his friend Simon from the hands of a devil worshiping coven. He's got the help of his pal Rex. Good boy. They need to get Simon away from the cult before he's initiated and his soul is lost forever. Charles Gray is the leader of the cult. You might remember him as Blofeld in Diamonds Are Forever, or as the narrator in The Rocky Horror Picture Show. "It's just a jump to the left." Gray is a formidable opponent, he's got the devil for a master. The devil does make an appearance in the movie but he's easily dispelled by tossing a crucifix at him. What a pussy. There's a lot of running around and the old cars are nice. It's set in the sort of 30's you get when you have a small budget. People still seem to like it. It gets an amazing 7.2 on the IMDb and Christopher Lee said it was his favorite film. Perhaps because it was one of the few that feature him as the hero. More were planned but the first wasn't too good a draw at the box office and they were never made. I thought it was OK but a tad boring at times. I don't see what others are crazy about in these films  but I've never been a staunch Hammer supporter. They made cheesy low-budget horror films and some are more interesting than others. Not sad I saw it but it's another that I don't need to run out and buy.   

Back to the present. I think pretty much the same now as I did then. Vincent is only barely the hero, he's mostly a failure at communication and planning. Charles Gray is more to blame for his own destruction by calling the Angel of Death.

Turns out years after seeing the movie I did wind up buying the DVD. It was packed with 20 other Hammer films in a box set that I bought in 2018 when I was trying to gather in as many Hammer films as I could before they disappeared on disc. I have a good number of them and a lot of them are much more entertaining than The Devil Rides Out.

Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde 1931 Based on the 1886 novella by Robert Louis Stevenson  The Strange Case Of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, screenplay by Samuel Hoffenstein and Percy Heath, directed by Rouben Mamoulian. We watched the nicely restored version on Blu-ray.

Fredric March play Dr Jekyll, he won an Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role for the performance, he tied with Wallace Berry who won for his role in The Champ.

Jekyll is laughed at for his thoughts on splitting the evil and good sides of a man's personality. He develops a potion and it turns him into Mr Hyde. Soon Mr Hyde controls his life with Jekyll looking forward to his life in the gutter's of London. He forsakes his fiance and takes up with a singer in a tavern. He keeps her in a flat and treats her rough with whipping and beatings. Jekyll's life falls apart and he's finally killed by the police.

It's fairly good but I watched the Dan Curtis TV film from 1968 and that was a much more interesting adaption of the story.

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The Mysterious Dr Fu Manchu 1929 Written by Lloyd Corrigan, Florence Ryerson and uncredited work of George Marion Jr and Joseph L Mankiewicz, directed by Rowland V Lee.

Warner Oland plays Dr Fu Manchu. He's a peaceful man who becomes a fiend after British soldiers fire at some Boxer rebels using the walls of the Fu compound as protection. In the attack Fu's wife and son are killed. Fu vows vengeance on the evil Westerners who killed his family. Many years pass.

Neil Hamilton plays Doctor Petrie, the grandson of General Petrie and his father is Sir John Petrie. The General was leading the British during the Boxer rebellion. Fu is well along with his revenge, he's only got Neil, his father and grandfather to kill. Fu comes up with a complex plan that's partially interrupted by Inspector Nayland Smith.

Jean Arthur plays Lia Eltham, she was a child staying at Fu's compound during the rebellion. He raises her with the idea in mind to use her in his revenge. Fu hypnotizes her and sends her to do his killing. She's used to lure Doctor Petrie into Fu's clutches.

There's plenty of running about, fist fighting, gun shooting, poison date bowing and murdering. Fu's henchmen are capable and ready to die for him. The Inspector has his own crew and some of them get murdered while trying to keep the Petrie's safe. The story is fairly entertaining but some of the dialog between characters is a bit on the goofy side. There's a even a comic relief machine in the form of Sir Petrie's secretary. There's a lot of nice sets and the like, the rebellion at the start of the movie is quite elaborately staged.

We watched the new Kino Lorber 2 film Blu-ray and the film looked quite good. It entertained me enough to ad the Blu-ray to my wish list. There's a sequel to the film on the disc.

The Return Of Dr Fu Manchu 1930 Written by Lloyd Corrigan and Florence Ryerson, directed by Roland V Lee. Most of the surviving characters return to the screen with some new folks tossed into the mix.

The story pretty much takes up right where the first movie ended. Fu is being buried, unbeknownst to Petrie and Nayland Smith the evil one is alive. He escapes and gets back to the job of revenge. Doctor Petrie and Lia Eltham are getting married but that doesn't go so well once they find out that Fu's alive. Battle ensues.

It's almost as good as the previous film but with a bit more annoying comic relief machine and goofy dialog. I still enjoyed it. I'd watch them both again. Recommended for those that like classic movies with evil villains.

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King Solomon's Mines 1937 Based on the novel of the same name by H Rider Haggard, Screenplay by Michael Hogan with additional material by Roland Pertwee, Charles Bennett, A R Rawlinson and Ralph Spence, directed by Robert Stevenson with Geoffrey Barkas directing the African exteriors. Produced by Gaumont-British at their Lime Grove Studios in Shepherd's Bush. The BBC bought the Lime Grove studios in 1949 and used it until 1991, many episodes of Doctor Who were shot there.

Left to right: Cecric Hardwicke is Allan Quartermain, John Loder is Sir Henry Curtis, Roland Young is Commander John Good, Anna Lee is Kathy O'Brien and Paul Robeson is Umbopa. Paul sings 4 songs during the movie. The first part of the shoot was studio work in the UK, that was followed by 8 weeks in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, none of the main cast went to South Africa. Kathy O'Brien is an added character that isn't in the novel. Anna was also married to director Robert Stevenson from 1934 to 1944.

Kathy and her father are trying diamond mining but having no luck. They hitch a ride with Allan Quartermain to the coast. On a stop they observe an ox wagon moving erratically, Umbopa is holding the reins but he's so weak he's hardly in control. Arthur Goullet plays Sylvestra Getto, he's dying in the back of the wagon, before he passes on he claims to have found King Solomon's mine. They find a map and Kathy's dad sneaks off with Sylvestra's wagon. Allan won't go after him and continues on to pick up Sir Henry and Commander John. That night Kathy steals that wagon causing Allan and the others to follow to get their stuff back.

They catch up with Kathy and she refuses to go back so the party follows the map over the mountains. They meet up with some locals and it turns out Umbopa is the son of the last chief, the current chief killed him and took over. The two chiefs go to battle with the white people on Umbopa's side. A convenient eclipse helps turn the tide in Umbopa's favor, that and the guns. Inside the mine they find Kathy's father, he's got a bag of diamonds, Umbopa sends a hundred of his men to escort them back to the coast.

We all enjoyed it and it scores a decent 6.3 on the IMDb. Good job on the script, the acting, the sets and the locations. I picked up the Network DVD from the UK during the companies recent sale. The image was fairly decent looking, it could use a bit a spruce up but there might not be good negatives to use. The IMDb has an interesting entry on the Trivia Page:

The film was thought lost for years. It was believed the negative was ceded to MGM when the studio acquired remake rights in 1950. When MGM denied it, it was believed to have been assigned to Pinewood Lake on the studio's property, a watery grave that contains cans and reels of unstable nitrate films. When it did turn up, it was in Rank's Pinewood vaults.

I did not know Pinewood had a lake, let alone one that is home to all those films.

Miss Leslie's Dolls 1973 Written and directed by Joseph G Prieto. Joseph only directed a handful of films, I've only seen one other, Shanty Tramp.

A college teacher and 3 students are at a football away game, their car breaks down on the way home, they find a big house out in the country. Miss Leslie lives there with her cat and her dolls.

That's the dolls, they are life size. Miss Leslie tells them a story about her mother owning a doll company and he life long love of dolls. They soon find out that Miss Leslie isn't just bonkers, she's bat shit crazy.

Miss Leslie tells them that the doll room is her place of worship for a religion she made up. She makes them some food and drink, drugging the coffee, one of the girls has a weird dream in which Miss Leslie goes crazy and starts killing them. That all turns out true on her awakening and it gets worse. Miss Leslie gets her life long ambition, to take over the body of a young person who isn't disfigured like she is under her mask. There's a nice little twist at the end.

Generally entertaining but definitely low budget fair. It's got some laughs, some unintentional ones were funnier. Glad to have picked it up. I might watch it again someday. Be a while though.

A Honeymoon Adventure 1931

A Honeymoon Adventure 1931 Based on the novel Footsteps In The Night by C Fraser-Simson, screenplay by John Paddy Carstairs and Rupert Downing, directed by Maurice Elvey, produced by Basil Dean. It's was released in the US as Footsteps In The Night.

I watched this on YouTube but I find out that I've got it on DVD. I've only watched the 1st volume of The Ealing Studios Rarities Collection from Network's The British Film series. Another reminder that there are plenty of films waiting to be watched in the other room.

A couple marries and on the eve of their honeymoon the scientist husband is called away to work on a project. He'll only be gone a short while so the wife stays home.

Hubby doesn't get to where he was going, he's kidnapped and locked in a room in a house.

The baddie wants some papers in the scientist's house and pretends to be a colleague of the wife's new husband. She invites him to stay until her husband returns but becomes suspicious when she sees him searching her husband's office. She escapes and the baddie chases after her. She does her best but he seems to be right on her tail.

It's an entertaining thriller with Benita Hume as the plucky bride. I don't recall having heard of her before but I've seen several of her films. She was married to Ronald Coleman and later George Sanders. I liked it and will want watch it again someday. You can see it over at the Internet Archive.

The Secret Of The Loch 1934

The Secret Of The Loch 1934 Written by Charles Bennett and Billie Bristow, directed by Milton Rosmer. The first film about the Loch Ness Monster. I watched a copy from the Internet Archive. I discovered it was part of The Ealing Studios Rarities Collection. It's the fourth volume and it's also part of The British Film from Network.

Milton Rosmer started his career in 1915 as an actor, he has 65 acting credits on the IMDb, he worked as an actor until 1954. Milton directed a couple of shorts in 1926, a couple years later he started with the first of his 15 feature films. I've only seen a couple of them before this one, Emil And The Detectives and Murder In The Red Barn. Both were entertaining enough but nothing outstanding. The 1935 German version of Emil And The Detectives is much better. Both films are found on a nice 2013 BFI release. It's a Region 2 British release so you need some way to play that if you live outside of the UK.

The Secret Of The Loch starts with a professor trying to convince other scientists that there is a dinosaur in the Loch but no one believes him. A reporter from London convinces his paper to send him to the Loch to see if there's anything to the story. He falls for the professor's daughter when he breaks into the house while trying to get a story. She takes it in stride and eventually plays a nice trick on him.

It's fairly light and breezy until the professor mounts a deep dive. The story turns a bit darker when the diver doesn't return. The professor is put on trial, though he's acquitted, he's vilified in the press. The reporter takes it on himself to turn that around by taking a dive and looking for the monster.

He finds the dead diver and the monster. The part of the monster is being played by an iguana. The reporter manages to escape and the monster is sighted on the surface. The underwater effects are fairly common for the time, there's a panel of water in front of the camera and air bubbles up from the bottom for no particular reason.

The Wikipedia has a bit I liked: Charles Bennett said the film was based on his original idea. He later admitted it was "terrible... but amusing".

I can't say it's terrible, it's about average for a film of the time. I liked some of the characters but that reporter is a jackass. I was glad to have seen it and it does have some significance as an early monster movie and the first film about Nessie.

Trouble Brewing 1939

Trouble Brewing is a George Forman comedy set in the newspaper biz. George works on the presses but he'd rather be a reporter or Sherlock Holmes. Angus MacPhail, Michael Hogan and Anthony Kimmins wrote the screenplay and Anthony directed. Angus wrote plenty of good films, as did the other two. Anthony directed 4 more films with George and The Captain's Paradise. I've seen half of his 20 directed works.

George teams up with Gus McNaughton and Googie Withers, co-workers from the newspaper, to investigate the counterfeit money spree going on. George has invented an ink that stays on your finger for a week and resists coming off with soap and water. It also stays wet enough to leave fingerprints on whatever the victim touches.

That ink is what a good bit of the crime solving hinges on, George gets some on the fingers of a few people, accidentally they lead him to the criminal's hideout. There's plenty of yelling and action and falling about. George sings a couple of songs between the jokes and the detecting. I enjoyed it and would want to watch it again sometime. I just ordered Keep Fit, a 1937 George film, but it's coming from the UK. Hard to know what travel time will be. Amazon gives themselves a month long delivery window and now all their DVDs seem to be defaulting to Global Priority as the only shipping option.

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Trailer Park Shark is a 2017 big ass shark comedy. It's directed by Griff Furst, son of Stephen Furst. Griff wrote the movie with his brother Nathan Furst, Marcy Holland, Matt Muschamp and Xander Wolfe.

The movie is set in a squalled trailer park in Louisiana. A rich scumbag wants the park gone so he hires a stupid scumbag to blow up the levee. It floods the park and most of the trailer park residents are washed away with their trailers. A few survive and to make their day worse, somehow, a big ass hungry shark has come calling. Oh, yeah, he's an electric shark. His electric discharge knocks people out and shorts out electrical systems in boats.

The CGI is fair to middlin', you can see that shark top looks a bit low rez. Generally the physical effects work, the only one that was annoying was the rain effect. They had a physical spray system set up but it was so small you could see where the rain ended on the water. The physical gore is a bit of a step up over the CGI gore. The movie moves along briskly and there's always some new danger and slaughter.

I did like the movies sense of humor. I laughed out loud a couple of times and it was fun to see the scumbags get some chompin' action. Glad to have seen it and would watch it again.

This Is Not A Movie came out in 2011 and the Wikipedia says it's a Mexican experimental SF film. It's written and directed by Olallo Rubio. Edward Furlong plays three different versions of the same character. It's the end of the world and he's in a hotel room in Las Vegas discussing some philosophical stuff with his other selves. It's pretty artsy fartsy but I did get a good laugh out of one part. A physical gag that had little to do with the lack of story. Edward was pretty good as the different personalities. Sadly I wasn't that interested in his internal monologue. I had gotten the DVD cheap and will keep it. I might never watch it again. Who knows.

The Lost Patrol is a 1934 Boris Karloff film. It's adapted from a Philip MacDonald story called Patrol by Garrett Fort, the screenplay is by Dudley Nichols, the director is John Ford. Victor McLaglen, Wallace Ford, Reginald Denny, Billy Bevan, Alan Hale and JM Kerrigan are some of the cast I knew. Merian C Cooper is an executive producer and Max Stein created the music.

It's a WWI film, set in the desert of Mesopotamia, with a troop of lost soldiers. They've been beleaguered by some spirituous Arabs who snipe at them with sad efficiency. The troop find an oasis and camp out, resting themselves and their horses. In the night two men are killed and the horses stolen. The troop are randomly picked off by the hidden enemy. Help arrives in the form of an airplane. The pilot lands and is killed.

As their despair grows Boris goes mad and he becomes a danger to himself and the troop. He's eventually killed by his own delusion. Rescue comes but nearly too late. It's all pretty bleak and horrible. Not much by way of humor going on here. It's very much like a horror movie, the kind with a human monster. It's still better than the other two films. I might even watch it again someday.

Classic British Thrillers

I picked up Classic British Thrillers from Hamilton Books for $7.95. It's an MPI collection of 3 British films from the 1930s and 1940s. They're all short low budget films, nicknamed "quota quickies", and they're all on one disc. They look fine.

The Phantom Light 1935 The script for this comedy thriller is by Ralph Smart. It's based on the play The Haunted Light by Evadne Price and Joan Roy Byford. J Jefferson Farjeon and Austin Melford provide some extra dialog. Ralph of course would go onto write, direct and produce many movies and TV shows over the years. He worked on several TV shows that I liked: The Adventures of Robin Hood, The Buccaneers, The Invisible Man, Danger Man, Secret Agent, and The Champions. It's directed by Michael Powell who would go on to make many interesting and controversial films.

Gordon Harker is Sam Higgins, he's come to the Welsh village of Tan-Y-Bwlch to run the North Stack lighthouse. A man has been murdered there. The film was filmed in Gwynedd and Anglesey in Wales. The people in the village think the lighthouse is haunted and their fears are magnified by the death of one of the lighthouse men. The lighthouse is located in a small bit of dirt out into the sea a few hundred feet. Ian Hunter plays a reporter who wants to get to the lighthouse, so does Binnie Hale, she's playing a woman who believes the lighthouse is haunted and she wants to meet the ghost. They won't let either of them come along in the boat, so Ian rents a boat, Binnie sneaks on board when he isn't looking. Now on the lonely lighthouse the real story is slowly revealed.

There's a nice bit of humor, some danger, and a decent story. I liked the characters and the actors all did a good job. It looks good and sets and props are all fine. I was glad to see it and I'd watch it again someday. I thought it was  the best of the trio.

Red Ensign 1934 Another film directed by Michael Powell, he also co-wrote the script with Jerome Jackson, and L do Garde Peach wrote some additional dialog. It's a good solid film about a ship builder who's got a new design that he thinks will revolutionize the ship building business and bring it back to England.

Leslie Banks is the shipbuilder. You might have seen him in the 1932 film The Most Dangerous Game, he was also in The Man Who Knew Too Much, Jamacia Inn and Transatlantic Tunnel. Here he's one of those driven men that will do nearly anything to get his way. He sets out to build 20 ships but the board of directors won't give him the money. Given the opportunity he forges a signature to get access to more funds. Work goes on, but not for long, a rival sabotages the ship and kills the night watchman. While that going on the forgery is found out and Leslie is hauled off to jail and court. He's convicted but eventually gets to see the first ship launched. Glad to have seen it but I doubt I would be getting back to it anytime soon.

The Upturned Glass 1947 Another good solid film but of less interest to me. It's written by John Monaghan and Pamela Mason with Lawrence Huntington directing. James Mason plays a neurosurgeon who falls for the mother of a patient. Though both are married James has an affair with the woman. She ends it and later he learns she's died from a fall. It's a suspicious case and the suspicion falls on the sister-in-law who's played by Pamela Mason. She's horrible person and James decides to punish her. Then it's all downhill for James, the film ends with him plummeting down the white cliffs of Dover. Good but not the sort of story I care that much about. Still the whole package has good value.

The Many Faces Of Sherlock Holmes

I went looking for a cover shot of The Many Faces Of Sherlock Holmes and found The Many Faces Of Sherlock Holmes. The first is the Mill Creek Entertainment 3 DVD set that you see the cover to above. The second is a 47 minute documentary, narrated by Christopher Lee, about the various actors who've played the detective. I watched the first 10 minutes and it seems interesting enough. I'll finish it while I type this.

I bought the DVD set because it had two Sherlock Holmes TV productions on it that I hadn't seen. So, I thought. When I went to put it away with the rest of the Holmes stuff I found I had gotten a different DVD and watched it 3 years ago. Totally forgot about it. I even posted a blog post about it.

Sherlock Holmes & the Leading Lady 1992 Written by Bob Shane and H R F Keating, with Peter Sasdy directing. Mycroft asks Holmes to investigate the theft of stolen plans for a bomb detonator. Holmes and Watson travel to Vienna where they run into Irene Adler. Irene is played by Morgan Fairchild and Vienna is played by Luxembourg.

Sherlock Holmes: Incident at Victoria Falls 1992 Written by Bob Shane and Gerry O'Hara, directed by Bill Corcoran. This time they filmed in Victoria Falls as well as Luxembourg. The King asks Sherlock to protect the Star Of Africa on a trip to Cape Town. There's lots of outdoor travel and plenty of killing. Jenny Seagrove plays Lilly Langtry and Claude Akins plays Theodore Roosevelt.

Both are a bit stodgy but they're fine. Lee and Macnee do a fine job. I gave them both a 6 when I saw them the first time and I still stick by that now.

The second disc contains the 1965 feature A Study In Terror with John Neville. I had just gotten this on a Blu-ray that looks so much nicer. The rest of that disc has 5 episodes of the 1950s TV show The Adventures OF Sherlock Holmes with Ronald Howard. I already have them in a DVD set that I got ages ago. The series is in the public domain and there are several sets out there, often mixed with other PD Holmes material. Just like this set. You can see them all on YouTube.

The third disc has 5 older films that are all in the Public Domain.

A Study In Scarlet 1933 Reginald Owen as Sherlock Holmes in a fairly good film. Warburton Gamble is Watson and Anna May Wong co-stars.

The Sign Of Four 1932 Another fairly good film with Arthur Wontner as Holmes and Ian Hunter as Watson.

Murder At The Baskervilles 1937 Another film with Arthur Wontner as Homes. This time Watson is played by Ian Fleming. Not the James Bond guy. It's an OK film.

Dressed To Kill 1946 This Holmes film is in the Public Domain, as is the one below. Basil Rathbone plays Holmes and Nigel Bruce plays Dr Watson. Better than all the others here by far. You can find better copies of the whole lot of the Rathbone and Bruce films on DVD. I recently bought the Blu-Ray set and was mighty pleased.

Terror By Night 1946 Another good one with Nigel and Basil.

Here's another production I found while looking for other Holmes material. I hadn't seen before. Now that I've watched it, it's pretty poor in every way. Patrick Macnee plays Sherlock Holmes, making him one of 4 actors to play both Holmes and Watson. Sadly, he's part of the pretty poor formula. One of the worst Holmes films ever is based on a play by some Canadian bloke. He wrote the screenplay and it's also pretty poor. Just everything about it reeks. Have a look.

Sherlock Holmes and The Hound of London 1993

Here's a documentary called Sherlock Holmes The Great Detective.