PRIMITIVE SCREWHEADS

Friday Night Movies 999

Death Machine 1995 Written and directed by Stephen Norrington. We watched the director's cut from the Kino Lorber Blu-ray. It's got three versions of the movie on two disks. Norrington only directed four films, this was the first, followed by Blade, The Last Minute and The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen. I've liked the 3 films of his that I've seen, TLM is the one I haven't seen. He hasn't directed any films since 2003 but has occasionally worked in special effects. He has no credits on the IMDb after 2016.

Ely Pouget is head of Chaank Armaments Corp, Brad Dourif is a designer, Richard Brake and William Hootkins are executives. The Corp's enhanced solder glitches and kills some people in a diner. The story is out and the public isn't happy. The corp tries some damage control. Ely wants full public disclosure but the board says no. She wants Brad fired but the board says no.

Ely has an encounter with Brad about the project in Vault 10 and Brad threatens her. He's a major loony but fun to watch. Things get worse between them and Brad sends his killer robot from Vault 10 after her. Soon the robot is clanking around the building, slaughtering the staff. Some Eco-warriors break into the building, they become Ely's reluctant partners battling the robot and trying to escape. Ely locks Brad in Vault 10 with his robot. Hardly anybody gets out alive.

It's got plenty of great robot action, lots of clanky noise, good sets and models, plenty of gun shooting and explosions. I enjoyed it and I will order the Blu-ray for myself. I want to see the other versions of the film and I'm curious about the Norrington commentaries. The Blu-ray is only 15 bucks on Amazon. Seems a bargain.

The Lady And The Monster 1944 Based on the novel Donovan's Brain by Curt Siodmak, screenplay by Dane Lussier and Frederick Kohner, directed by George Sherman. He watched the new Kino Lorber Republic Horror Collection Blu-ray. It's got four 1940s films on two Blu-rays with plenty of commentaries.

 

Erich von Stroheim is Professor Franz Mueller, he's a mad scientist with his own laboratory in a fake looking castle in the middle of the Arizona desert. Erich believes he can keep a human brain alive out of the body. Mueller is asked by the local rangers if he can help a man who was in a plane crash. When the man dies Mueller takes advantage and removes the brain. They find out the dead man is a millionaire business man called Donovan. Richard Arlen and Vera Ralston are Erich's assistants, Patrick and Janice. The pair have a thing going on but Mueller also has feelings for Janice, he tries his best to disrupt the relationship.

Donovan's brain seems to be sending messages to a tired Patrick and Mueller encourages him to make contact with the brain. Patrick does, Donovan slowly takes over Patrick's brain, turning him into a slave. Donovan's lawyer is investigating the death, he finds the brain in the lab with documents about the experiment. Donovan had hid all his money, he sends Patrick on a mission to recover it. Things come to a head when Mueller tries to kill Patrick. The house keeper shoots him dead  and Donovan's brain gets dashed to the floor. Patrick goes to jail for monkeying with a dead man's brain and Janice promises to wait for him.

I mostly enjoyed the movie but it sure dragged at times, I was drifting off for a while there and there were complaints about the pace. A New York Times review, at the time of release, called it "a mite too lethargic." They aren't wrong. I seem to remember that the 1953 Donovan's Brain film was a better picture but it's been ages since I've seen it. I'll have to watch it and see. I'm looking forward to the commentaries on the film.

The Monster And The Girl 1941

The Monster And The Girl 1941 Story and screenplay by Stuart Anthony, directed by Stuart Heisler. Heisler had a pretty good career starting in 1936 and ending when he retired in 1962. He passed away in 1979. I've only seen a few of his films: The Glass Key, Along Came Jones and 1956 film The Lone Ranger. He worked in TV from 1958 with an episode of 77 Sunset Strip. Anthony has 54 credits on the IMDb but I can't say I've seen many of his films, other than the two Charlie Chan films he did.

The first of 4 films in the 5th volume of the Universal Horror Collection Blu-ray set. Each film gets it's own disc and each film has it's own commentary, two have stills and two have a trailer. The films look nice and some of the commentaries are more interesting than others. This film has a commentary by Tom Weaver and Steve Kronenberg with comments from an interview with Bob Burns. I enjoyed this commentary quite a bit, Weaver has plenty of interesting info and a real fondness for the film.

 

That's Phillip Terry and Paul Lukas on the left, Phillip plays a poor sap that gets framed for murder by scumbag gangster Lukas. The other photo is Rod Cameron, Ellen Drew and Paul Lukas. Rod's a reporter, Ellen plays Phillip's sister and Paul is still a scumbag gangster. Ellen's under Paul's thumb, he's tricked her into owing him some money and he's forcing her to be a bar girl for him. She wants out before he turns her into a prostitute. Phillip doesn't care for the life Ellen's fallen into and he causes some waves in Paul's pool. In typical scumbag gangster fashion Paul decides to frame Phillip and rid himself of another problem guy at the same time.

Phillip gets convicted despite Ellen passionate speech to the court. Before the execution George Zucco turns up with a proposal. That's George in the picture on the left. He has often played a crazy doctor with inappropriate thoughts in his head. He wants Phillip's brain for research, Phillip signs off , the body goes to George's lab where he plunks it in the gorilla's brain pan. Once Phillip gets used to the gorilla's body he starts going out and mangling the people who sent him to his death. Sadly poor Phillip is killed finishing off the gang that framed him.

I wound up enjoying the movie quite a bit and the commentary only reinforced my enjoyment. I'd highly recommend it to those interested in this sort of thing.

Here's a look at the King Of The Gorilla Men.

Charles Gemora became known as King Of The Gorilla Men for his numerous appearances in films as a gorilla. He was from the Philippines and he arrived in the US as a stowaway. He worked as fruit picker before moving to Los Angeles. He was discovered by the Universal Art Department outside the studio doing portrait sketches. In 1923 he worked in the sculpture department on The Hunchback Of Notre Dame.

He wore his first gorilla suit in the 1928 film The Leopard Lady. He played gorilla's in 55 films, including The Unholy Three, Murders In The Rue Morgue, The Marx Brothers At The Circus, Road To Zanzibar, Charlie Chan At The Circus, Gildersleeve's Ghost, Africa Screams and The White Witch Doctor. He plays a bear in one movie, a Martian in The War Of The Worlds, and the alien in I Married A Monster From Outer Space. I've seen many of his films without knowing anything about him. Sadly he died rather young at age 58.

Charles did makeup on a lot of films and he made his own gorilla suits. That's Charles in the 1932 film The Sign Of The Cross. The suit for The Monster And The Girl is a great one. Charles really brings the gorilla to life and once Phillip's brains inside he makes that believable. The gorilla is my favorite character in the film.

Bob Burns, a huge fan of gorilla's in films tells a story of meeting Charles at the Universal makeup department in an interview. He spent an afternoon with Charles and had a great time. Charles passed on a lot of tips on making gorilla suits and how to act more gorilla like. Charles had spent a lot of time observing gorilla's in their day to day at the local zoo.

That's my second favorite character in the movie. Skipper plays Phillips's dog and he's missing his pal. Skipper eventually connects with the gorilla, seeming to know it's Phillip. He follows the gorilla around as he goes about his deadly business. I was really impressed with Skipper, he did a good job, his sad scene at the end of the film brought a tear to my eye.

Tom Weaver mentions Skipper in the commentary, the dog trainer thought he might be scared of the gorilla costume so they introduced Skipper to Charles without the suit. Charles put on the suit and Skipper recognized his smell through the suit and everything was fine. Skipper willingly followed Charles around as the gorilla.

Little bits like that add up to a darn good film and one I'll be watching again. Already I'm thinking the set has paid back it's cost.

Friday Night Movies 897

Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets Of Dumbledore 2022 Based on a screenplay by J K Rowling, screenplay by J K Rowling and Steve Kloves, directed by David Yates.

Second viewing in a few days gave me a chance to notice more of whats going on in the background, little things that I missed the first time. It's a busy movie, plenty going on. I enjoyed it all over again.

One Million BC 1940 Written by Mickell Novack, George Baker and Joseph Frickert, directed by Hall Roach and Hall Roach Jr.

Some hikers seek shelter in a cave during a rain storm. They find a man studying the cave paintings. He starts to tell them the story on wall and the film turns into a flashback of the story. Victor Mature is a caveman in the rock tribe, after an altercation with his father, played by Lon Chaney Jr, he winds up in the river. Victor floats down the rive and eventually winds up in the territory of the Shell tribe.

Victor meets Carole Landis and the rest of the tribe. The Shell people are much more civilized, sharing food and providing care to the young and old alike. There's plenty of danger as the area is packed with dinosaurs. When the volcano erupts the two tribes are brought together and the movie ends with them staying together. Probably best for safety and breeding.

I'm sure I've seen it but my watched movie list doesn't have anything listed. Some parts were familiar. I did enjoy it, there's usually something going on. The VCI Blu-ray looks pretty darn good. I'm tempting myself by putting a copy in my Wishlist. I'm thinking I'd watch it again someday.

Science Fiction Sunday 583

Ants is a 1977 TV thriller about some ants that kill. It's set in an old hotel where some excavation has disturbed the ants, they bite, people die. The health authorities are reluctant to believe Robert Foxworthy, the builder, who thinks it's the ants, so he disturbs the ants and more people die. It's a blunder fest all around. Myrna Loy plays the old hotel owner, Linda Day George plays her daughter. It's just not that good.

Dead 7 is a 2016 post apocalypse western with zombies and Joey Fatalone. It's made by The Asylum, it appeared on SYFY, it's crap. Punch it in the face.

The Ape is a 1940 horror movie with a bit of science. It's based on a play called The Ape by Adam Hull Shirk. Curt Siodmak and Richard Carol wrote the screenplay and William Nigh directed. Boris Karloff plays a scientist who carries his research for a polio vaccine to a bad end. Boris needs spinal fluid for his experimental drug but all his fluids get destroyed when the escaped ape from a travelling circus breaks in. He kills the ape, skins it and attacks the locals for their spinal fluid. Quite a leap for the quiet and gentle doctor. Boris does come to a bad end and the young woman he was trying to save is cured with his vaccine. It's fairly entertaining for all it's goofiness. Certainly better than the two previous films.

Most of these are barely SF but I wanted to clear out a few discs from the "to watch" pile and there weren't many SF films in the A's and B's. I hope to find some better stuff to watch in the rest of the alphabet.

Invisible Man Appears 1949

One of the YouTube channels I subscribe to posted Invisible Man Appears today. It looked right up my alley and I watched it this morning. It's a 1949 Japanese SF film that was directed by Shinsei Adachi and Shigehiro Fukushima. It's the only movie they directed. The story is by Akimitsu Takagi and the screenplay is by Nobuo Adachi. Eiji Tsuburaya did the special effects. He had been blacklisted by the Americans for making propaganda films during the war. He started his own company so he could get around the ban. It was eventually lifted and he went to work for Toho. The invisible effects are mixed, some better than others, most passable.

A scientist has created a potion that turns the drinker invisible. The problem is there is no return agent to make them visible. A criminal steals the potion and kidnaps the creator and his assistant. The one on the right. The baddie tricks the assistant into taking the potion, the assistant thinks he's saving the scientist from being turned invisible forever. The baddie sends him out to steal a pricey necklace. The invisible thief has trouble getting the jewels. A good way into the film we find that another of the potion's side-affects is anger and rage. The invisible guy is indeed having trouble with rage. He mostly keeps it in check but things just don't go his way for the rest of the movie. There's a bit of romance tossed in there and some other melodrama but it's not over indulgent or anything. All in all a serviceable picture that I'd watch again.

Universal Horror Classic Movie Archive

I'm always on the look out for a movie collection. Usually that means a lower cost per film. The Universal Horror Classic Movie Archive is a collection of 5 films from the 1940s. I'd only seen the last in the list below so it was a nice treat for me. I got it from Amazon, $13.99, not bad for 5 movies. They're short ones, most about an hour, and they're all packed on 2 discs. The movies look and sound fine but there are no extras, other than 3 trailers. You can see John Carradine and Bela Lugosi on the box. They both worked a lot for Universal. They're joined in this box by Basil Rathbone, Milburn Stone, Lon Chaney Jr, Alan Ladd, Martha Vickers, Broderick Crawford, Paul Fix, Lionel Atwill, Russell Hicks and plenty of other good character actors who worked at Universal Studios.

The Black Cat is a 1941 horror picture that lays on a bit of comedy. Horror movies of the time were pretty lightweight when compared to the ones you see today. It's got a script from Robert Lees and Robert Neville with Albert S Rogell directing. Albert directed a good number of pictures in a career that started in 1921 and ended in 1954. Half of his 124 credits were silent films, half of those shorts. I just wasn't familiar with most of them. I'd recently seen his Painted Faces with Joe E Brown and his 1940 film Lil Abner.

The Black Cat is based loosely on the Edgar Allan Poe story. An elderly spinster is on her deathbed and the greedy relatives are hovering for a paycheck. With that start you won't be surprised that there's a murder shortly after. Th corpses start piling up, even the cat isn't spared.

Basil Rathbone, Bela Lugosi, Hugh Herbert, Broderick Crawford, Anne Gwynne and Alan Ladd are the cast members that I had heard of before. I liked it despite the annoying character that Hugh plays. That guy got on my nerve. Broderick was more fun. The house was fun too, lots of secret passages and nicely dressed sets. The story was full enough for the short running time of 71 minutes and there was fun stuff for the actors to do. It's probably my favorite in the set.

Man Made Monster is a 1941 mad scientist film. It's got a script by Harry Essex, Len Golos, Sid Schwartz and director George Waggner. This was one of 2 dozen movies George directed between 1938 and 1951. He directed the next film in this set and in 1942 he directed The Wolf Man. After that I can't remember seeing any of his other movies. In 1954 George started directing TV and he worked on a lot of popular shows. The last two programs he worked on were the 1966 seasons of The Man From U.N.C.L.E. and Batman.

Lon Chaney Jr is a carnival sideshow guy who does an act with electricity under the name Dynamo Dan, the Electric Man. Lon's just been in an accident, a bus hit a high power line, everyone was killed but Lon. Lionel Atwill and Samuel S Hinds are doctors and scientists. They take Dan into their home and laboratory to study the effects of electricity on him. Lionel is the guy that pushes Dan, charging his body with larger and larger doses of juice. Dan becomes a slave dependent on the current Lionel supplies.

Samuel tries to stop Lionel from going further but Lionel isn't going to put up with losing his greatest medical break through. He desires to create emotionless, brainless, electrically powered slaves out of humans. He can't seem to see how that's a bad thing. He orders Dan to kill Samuel and poor Dan has to obey. Powered up Dan can kill with the touch of his hand. Dan's tried and sent to the electric chair. Ironically, the juice makes him into more of a monster. He escapes and goes after Lionel, hellbent on revenge. Someone's days are numbered. It was pretty entertaining, they pack a lot into an hour. Nice sets and effects too.

Horror Island is a 1941 horror comedy that was based on a story called Terror Of The South Seas by Alex Gottlieb. The screenplay is by Maurice Tombragel and Victor McLeod with George Waggner directing.

Dick Foran and Fuzzy Knight are the owners of a boat that owes a lot of cash. They help Leo Carrillo out of spot of trouble and he shows them his treasure map. He has half of the map and some masked man has the other half. The masked man keeps chasing after Leo. The treasure map gives Dick an idea to raise some cash. He's going to use his island to host a treasure hunt event at 50 smackaroonies a head. Of course once they all get there, the bodies start piling up and the chase is on. There's some silly stuff going on and a bit of romance. It was entertaining.

Night Monster is a 1942 horror mystery about a vicious revenge. Clarence Upson Young wrote the script and Ford Beebe is the director. Ralph Morgan invites the three doctors who saved his life, but left him a cripple, to his house. There's a variety of characters there. Soon after the doctors are settled in their rooms, the killing starts.

Bela and Lionel get top billing on the poster but they aren't the main characters in the film. There's a mystic in the film and he really teaches the baddie to materialize missing flesh. Not quite as fun as the others but still entertaining.

Captive Wild Women came out in 1943 and it's a heavily circus themed story. It's directed by Edward Dmytryk, the story is by Griffin Jay and Henry Sucher, and the screenplay is by Ted Fithian and Neil P Varnick. John Carradine is a mad scientist, he takes the glands from a live woman, killing her, and puts them into a gorilla. The gorilla turns into a pretty girl who gets a job at a circus. She's played by the lady on the poster, the shockingly savage Acquanetta. Her job is to stare at the lions while the lion tamer does his act, her eyes calm the lions. It's got way too many lion taming scenes and I was right quick on the fast forward button. The least interesting of the films in the set. Still, the whole package is mostly above average and that's fine with me. A good addition to my collection and some of those films I'll watch again.

Dr Renault's Secret 1942

 

I noticed this 1942 SF horror movie on Netflix a while back, put it in my queue, and it finally arrived in the mail today. Dr Renault's Secret was written by William Bruckner and Robert F Metzler and directed by Harry Lachman. It was the last feature film for William, he would go on to direct a lot of TV, including episodes of The Lone Ranger, The Loretta Young Show, Maverick, Surfside 6 and Bonanza. Robert didn't write much else and I haven't seen any of it. It was the last feature from Harry, he'd direct a short in 1953 and pass away in 1975. Before Dr Renault's Secret Harry directed a few of the Charlie Chan pictures but nothing else I recognize as having seen, except possibly one of the George White's Scandals.

The story is set in France. Dr Larry Forbes, played by Shepperd Strudwick, visits the home of his fiancée Madelon, played by Lynne Roberts, and her father Dr  Renault, played by George Zucco. They have a servant named Noel, played by J Carrol Naish, who lives in the house, and a gardener called Rogell, played by Mike Mazurki, who lives in a shed. Dr Renault is a bit secret of his work. Noel is a bit jealous of Forbes taking Madelon away from the house. Rogell is up to something on top of that. A giant stay Great Dane mauls Noel's hands and winds up hung in the night. There's a couple of murders and some creepy folk running about. Noel's big secret comes out and more sad shit happens. There's a stack of corpses when it finishes up, a lot of strangling going on.

It's a good solid piece of entertainment. It looks pretty good for fairly low budget 58 minute B-picture, it was part of a double bill with The Undying Monster. Some say Fox was trying to cash in on the money that Universal, and some of the other studios, were making from horror pictures. Good for them for taking advantage of public whim, it certainly can change at a moments notice. I'm certainly pleased to see good films being made in a genre I like. Dr Renault's Secret might not be more than a B-movie but it delivers a good story and I was glad to have taken a look.