PRIMITIVE SCREWHEADS

Friday Night Movies 905

Sampo 1959 Written by Väinö Kaukonen, Viktor Vitkovich and Grigori Yagdfeld, directed by Aleksandr Ptushko and Risto Orko. This Russian Finnish co-production was filmed in Russian and Finnish with the dialog dubbed in later. Each scene was also filmed in standard 4:3 and anamorphic widescreen ratios. The new Deaf Crocodile Blu-ray uses the 2014 4K restoration of the Finnish version. That's what we watched.

The film was released in the US in 1967 under the title The Day The Earth Froze by American International Pictures. The run time of the original is 91 mins and after the AIP hatch job it ran 67 mins. The AIP version was featured in an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000 back in the 90s.

It's a colorful fairy tale about the villagers in Kalevala who have a good life. The only thing they wish for is a Sampo. It's a magical device that creates salt, grain and gold from the air. Don't we all wish we had one. The blacksmith Ilmarinen  can't make one, he needs some magic fire from the heavens.

Across a big lake there's a wicked witch called Louhi who wants a Sampo too. She finds out that the blacksmith in Kalevala can make one so she kidnaps his sister Annikki to force him to make her a Sampo. Louhi's got a box filled with fire from the heavens.

Lemminkäinen is the hero and Annikki is his girlfriend, he decides to go rescue her and Ilmarinen goes along. The witch makes them plow a field filled with snakes. She destroys their boat but Ilmarinen makes a metal boat. Louhi makes Ilmarinen forge a Sampo with her fire from the heavens. It works great and she releases Annikki, the trio leave for Kalevala.

Things don't end there, Lemminkäinen tries to steal the Sampo. He tricks the witch and her crew, steals the Sampo and escapes on a boat. Louhi sends some wind and the boat and the Sampo are destroyed, Lemminkäinen is thrown into the water and drowns. Lucky for him his mother finds his body washed up on the beach and revives him with some magical goings on.

Louhi steals the town's sun and the Earth freezes up until the villagers gang up and lead an attack on the witch and her minions. Lemminkäinen kills the witch and the sun is rescued. The village goes back to normal and the hero and his girl are married.

You can see there's plenty going on but it's told so slowly that the 91 mins seems a lot longer. It's a pretty film with great sets and a good look. I'm doubting that I need a copy, especially at the $35 that the film is on Amazon.

The Birds II 1994 A Showtime TV movie that's based on the Daphne du Maurier story of the same name, screenplay by Ken and Jim Wheat and Robert Eisele, directed by Rick Rosenthal under the name Alan Smithee.

For those that don't know Alan Smithee is the name directors use if they don't want their name associated with the film they've directed. Rick has good reason to distance himself from the film. It's pretty darn poor, scoring a 2.9 on the IMDb. With this new release there's a good chance of voting the film a lower score. I gave it a generous 2 and I see 34.3% of the voters gave it a 1. I seem to hear their voices telling me to join them.

There's no connection to the Hitchcock film other than a mention of some birds attacking the people in the town in the original movie. A family, Brad Johnson, Chelsea Field and their two girls move into a house on an island on the east coast. It's filmed in Southport North Carolina.

There's some family tension, their son died 5 years ago and Brad is still having a hard time. He's supposed to be writing his dissertation but he's not working much. He's more worried about his wife working for James Naughton on the local paper. Good reason, James is a creep who tries his moves on Chelsea.

The birds seem very active but some people are slow to notice, especially the mayor/doctor. He ignores Brad and the lighthouse keeper on the activity until it's too late. Lucky for him he burns up in the sea and doesn't have to face to locals for his failure. The whole movie is a bit of a failure, dull story, bad dialog and way too much personal melodrama. It seemed like the end would never come.

Tippi Hedren, who was the main star in the Hitchcock film has a small part. She was disappointed with that but she did say it helped feed her lions and tigers. After seeing the end film she was embarrassed by it. Me too. The film will be out August 30th from Vinegar Syndrome, it won't be going onto my Wishlist.

Friday Night Movies 895

Legend Of The Lost 1957 Screenplay by Ben Hecht and Robert Presnell, direction by Henry Hathaway. Hathaway worked with Wayne on 6 films, the last of which was True Grit in 1969.

The film was shot by Jack Cardif, he'd filmed some entertaining pictures is his 50 year career, The Red Shoes for Powell and Pressburger, The African Queen for John Huston, War And Peace for King Vidor, Death On The Nile for John Guillermin and Conan The Destroyer for Richard Fleischer.

Cardiff directed 14 pictures, the first of which never got finished. I know I've seen My Geisha with Shirley MacLaine, Yves Montand, Edward G Robinson and Bob Cummings but I'm not sure of any other except for his last film, The Mutations from 1974.You might know it as The Freakmaker.

While I was looking for the above films on YouTube I found Jack's 1968 film The Girl On The Motorcycle with Mary Anne Faithful and Alain Delon. It was the first film to receive an X rating in the US where it was retitled Naked Under Leather. I haven't seen it yet so who knows what to expect.

That's John Wayne, Sophia Loren and Rossano Brazzi in the Libyan desert near Tripoli, it's substituting for Timbuktu, which is in Mali. John is a desert guide, Sophia is a prostitute, Rossano is a man who wants to travel deep into the desert to find his father. John and Rossano leave, just the two of them with a half dozen donkeys. Sophia follows, despite being told no when she offered to go with them, she's infatuated with Rossano's spiritual ways. She admires his plan to use the treasure to fund a home for the poor, something his father envisioned. On the trip it comes out that Rossano's father had found a treasure in a lost city. He's hoping to find the treasure which his, most likely late, father found. John doesn't believe in the gold but he's taken Rassano's money so he sticks it out.

They have some small adventures in the desert and find some ruins. There's a romantic subplot with Sophia and Rossano but that doesn't go well. He's not a man of the world. John and Sophia develop an attraction on the trip and that stirs up mixed emotions in Rossano. They do find the treasure and that complicates things further. Rossano steals the treasure and strands the others in the ruins with no donkeys or supplies. They follow his tracks.

That's the ruins are Leptis Magna, it's pretending to be the lost city. It's really close to the Mediterranean in real life but not in the movie. It's a nicely kept up ruin. The trio have a confrontation in the desert, Rossano dies in the fight but not before stabbing John. Luckily Sophia spots a passing caravan and help is seen coming when the movie ends.

I liked most of the movie but thought some of the romantic melodrama could go. Plenty of cool desert scenery, something I like to see filmed so I can stay home where it's safer than the valley of the spiders. I enjoyed it but I'm not thinking much of getting the Blu-ray for myself. I might not get around to it again.

Hysteria 1997 Written and directed by Rene Daalder.

Michael Maloney psychiatric hospital headed up by Patrick McGoohan. Patrick has been implanting control devices in the heads of the patients and turning them into a sort of group mind. Micheal has fallen for his patient, he brings her to Patrick and he pops a device in her head. Michael isn't too pleased with the level of crazy going on in the place nor is he happy with the treatment on his patient. He's generally in a bad place, mentally and physically yet he gives into Patrick putting the device in his head.

Michael leaves with his patient but finds she's only mentally alive because of the group mind. He returns to the hospital to witness Patrick dying. He gives into the group mind idea and takes over the hospital. Implanted  patients are sent home to drum up new candidates for the treatment.

It's fairly entertaining, very weird, and not much better than average. Another I'll pass on the disc thinking I won't get back to it again. Nice to see a film with Patrick I hadn't seen before.

Friday Night Movies 891

Ilya Muromets 1956 Written by Mikhail Kochnev, directed by Aleksandr Puusko. A Russian fantasy film that was released in the US under the name The Sword And The Dragon. Sadly, it was released released in the US by Roger Corman and he chopped 6 to 7 mins out of the film. It was the feature film in episode 617 of the 1994-1995 season of Mystery Science Theater 3000. I'd seen that version several times over the years but not since around 2005.

Ilya Muromets is a big guy who lives in Kiev. He's been unable to use his arms and legs since he was a child. He has to watch some Tugars raid his village. The local men are killed and the some of the women are kidnapped to be entertainment for the Kalin. Some travelers cure Ilya and give him a big sword they'd gotten from a giant warrior.

Ilya sets off to Kiev to help fight the Tugars. On the way he captures a monster. On arrival he presents it to the Knyaz Vladimir the Fair Sun and pals up with a couple of other warriors. Vladimir has an advisor who's selling out the country to the Kalin. He gets Ilya put into prison for 10 years. Ilya's wife and son are kidnapped and sent off to the Kalin. The son is trained to be a warrior, he's also not given any info on who his father is, eventually father and son are pitted against each other. The pair bond when the son finds out Ilya is his dad.

There's even a dragon to fight. The sets are expansive and there's plenty of extras in the battle scenes. The story is a bit draggy but it's entertaining for the most part. Not sure I would need to buy the DVD.

The Blackout: Invasion Earth 2019 Written by Natalya Dubovaya, Ivan Kapitonov and Svyatoslav Podgaevskiy, directed by Egor Baranov. 

I had watched this before and have linked that post in the title. I found it as entertaining and still think it's kind of draggin' in the 2nd act. Parts of the movie are impressive but most of us were disappointed in the ending.

Friday Night Movies 884

Watusi 1959 Based on King Solomon's Mines by H Rider Haggard, screenplay by James Clavell, directed by Kurt Neumann. Kurt had a decent career that ended early when he died in 1958 at age 50. I've seen a number of his films, all 4 of the  Tarzan pictures he directed, Island Of Lost Men, Rocketship X-M, Kronos, She Devil and The Fly.

In this sequel to the 1950 film King Solomon's Mines the son of Alan Quatermain comes to Tanganyika to seek the diamonds his father talked about. George Montgomery plays the son Harry, David Farrar plays Rick, an old friend of Alan's. They put together a safari and head out of town. Along the way they experience some of the same thrills that Alan experienced in KSM. This film uses quite a bit of footage from KSM, the whole stampede is used, the leopard attacking a tent, as well as many of the long shots. Sadly the new footage and the old footage show don't match up to well. The first film had a good bit of footage that was shot in Africa and this film doesn't have any.

The rescue a red-headed woman, played by Taina Elg, from a tribe of naughty natives who have a reputation for torturing women before they kill them. The natives had killed her father and the other men living in the church mission compound. The film dresses everyone in the cast with similar clothes so they can use more footage from the first film. We laughed at the clumsy attempts to make it fit.

The story isn't too bad and I sort of enjoyed it. I gave it a generous 5 at the IMDb. I might watch it again, I already wasted the money I spent on the DVD from the Warner Archive Collection so it would be a bit of a waste not to watch it when I get around to watching the first movie again.

Blue Panther 1965 Screenplay by Claude Chabrol and Christian-Yve with additional dialogue by Daniel Boulanger, directed by Claude Chabrol. The Marie-Chantal character appeared in a number of novels by Jacques Chazot.

A French, Spanish, Italian and Moroccan comedy spy film. The original French title is Marie-Chantal Contre Dr Kha, the world wide English title is Marie-Chantal Vs Doctor Kha. One of the fellows picked up the Blu-ray from the Kino-Lorber sale that going on through the 19th of this month. Many of their Blu-rays are a tenner. 

On a train a spy convinces Marie-Chantal to hide a blue panther broach. Some men are looking for it and he doesn't want to have it on his person. She's rather naive and agrees. She's quickly involved with a pack of spies and in some danger. She gets some help from her goofy brother and that spy that put her into the soup. There's plenty of running about and yelling, some slapstick and some action.

I got a few laughs out of it and grew to like Marie-Chantal. Her brother is still a goof. There's plenty of interesting buildings and nice Moroccan scenery. I liked it enough to order one at the K-L sale.

Friday Night Movies 879

Ghostbusters Afterlife 2021 Written by Gil Kenan and Jason Reitman, directed by Jason Reitman.

Egon Spengler lives as a recluse on a farm in a small town in Oklahoma. Small towns in Alberta are used for filming. Egon goes up against a spirit from the Ivo Shandor mine nearby. It's a good reminder that everyone needs to be watching the rich, not because they're comically creating portals to evil in another dimension, they're creating much human misery in their greed grab.

Egon dies battling the spirits and his daughter Callie inherits the farm. Lucky for her, she's just been evicted from her apartment. Mom takes her two kids, Phoebe and Trevor to Oklahoma only to find there's no cash, just the farm and some debt. Callie's been estranged from her reclusive father for years and years. Her children don't know anything about him.

Egon's ghost helps reveal some of his Ghostbuster past and Paul Rudd, a local teacher and seismologist, brings the rest to Phoebe and Trevor via the internet. Egon's got the Ghostbuster car in his barn and it pretty much starts up ready to go fight the supernatural. The first attempt to catch a ghost goes badly, there's much rushing around and considerable collateral damage to the town.

Undaunted, Phoebe and her growing gang soldier on in the battle against evil. They discover the Shandor mine and the evidence that Egon had been working to keep the maelstrom of evil in the shaft. Eventually they trap Gozer and meet the original Ghostbusters.

It's a nice looking film with all sorts of flashy special effects, some family melodrama and a few laughs. I enjoyed it though I was a bit slow to get involved during the first act. I bought the Blu-ray and will want to watch it again. I should have a marathon of the three films and the 2016 reboot. It's been several years since I watched the first two films.

King Solomon's Mines 1950 Screenplay by Helen Deutsch, directed by Compton Bennett and Andrew Marton. According to the Wikipedia Bennet was replaced by Marton because he was ill but there are rumors that Bennet had a falling out with cast members.

Stewart Granger is Alan Quatermain, Deborah Kerr is a rich woman looking for her husband, Richard Carlson is Deborah's brother. Deborah offers Stewart £5000 for taking her on the expedition, that's about £684,587.82 in today's cash. His normal fee is £200. Reluctantly he takes Deborah and Richard on.

There's plenty of trekking through the African countryside. Much of the film was filmed on location. Some of the scenery is rather nice. The underground scenes were filmed in Carlsbad Caverns. They encounter quite a few wild animals and some danger. Along the way they lose some of their bearers and pick up Umbopo. His part as the son of a murdered king is somewhat reduced in the film when compared to the novel or the 1937 film we watched a couple of weeks ago.

Weeks and weeks pass before they get to the Watusi tribe and Umbopo fights the king. A romance develops between Stewart and Deborah, lucky for them her hubby is already dead in the mine. Unlike the book or the 1937 movie they escape without any uncut diamonds. At least they have their lives.

I'm sure I'd seen this before but not in decades. I enjoyed it but not quite as much as the 1937 version. The Technicolor is alright. I picked up the DVD and I hope to watch it again sometime.

Tales Of Robin Hood 1951

Tales Of Robin Hood 1951 Story and screenplay by Leroy H Zehren, directed by James Tinling. One of two pictures Robert L Lippert made for R & L Productions. It was Tinling's last film, though it seems to be cobbled together from the episodes that were shot. Tinling moved into TV and worked through 1960 before retiring. The last work he directed were 5 episodes of Fury. I can't say many of the 50 plus films he directed are ones I've seen, only Mr Moto's Gamble and Charlie Chan In Shanghai for sure.

The first part of the film has Robin's father killed and Robin is taken to live in hiding by the King's right hand man Will Stutely. Robin grows up in the forest and becomes the notorious Robin Hood. Robert Clarke plays Robin and Whit Bissell plays Alan. Robert produced, co-wrote, co-directed and plays the lead in The Hideous Sun Demon. I remember seeing that as a kid and realizing there's not always salvation if your accidentally turned into a monster.

As the film plays out Robin meets Friar Tuck, Maid Marion, Little John and a good number of the baddies. There's sword fighting, arrow shooting and plenty of running through the woods. The production is typical of a TV shoot of the time. The 1955 British TV series with Richard Greene was along the same lines but had a better budget. It did well enough to wind up with 143 episodes by the time they finished. I saw the series when I was a kid and have enjoyed it all over again as an adult.

Nothing too special about Tales Of Robin Hood but it was still entertaining enough to get to the end. Might be more for the RH fan, there's a copy on YouTube for those that might like a go.

Friday Night Movies 857

The Golden Blade 1953 Story by John Rich, screenplay by John Rich and William R Cox, directed by Nathan Juran. William was also the producer of the film, he mostly worked in TV, this was his first feature and he's listed on the IMDb as uncredited.

Nathan spent much of his later career directing TV on shows like My Friend Flicka, A Man Called Shenandoah, Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea, The Time Tunnel, Lost In Space, Land Of The Giants and Daniel Boone. He directed a few films that were of interest to me. His first film was The Black Castle and it was darn good. Some of my other favorites: The 7th Voyage of Sinbad, Attack Of The 50 Foot Woman, The First Men In The Moon, The Brian From Planet Arous and 20 Million Miles To Earth.

The Golden Blade is set in ancient Bagdad. I enjoy the occasional Arabian Night sort of story, they're usually bright and colorful, there's some action and running about, a villain is thwarted and the hero gets the girl. Rock Hudson is the hero, he's the son of a sheik of Basra, he returns home to find his dying father, stabbed by some men in a raid. He finds a clue in a medallion and sets out for Bagdad for some revenge. Piper Laurie is the daughter of the Caliph, George Macready is the Vizier, Gene Evens is the Vizier's son. The Vizier has a lust for power, he's responsible for the raid on Basra, he wants to install Gene as the new Caliph. Some stabbing is going to need to be done.

Rock meets Piper in the shop of a merchant and it's there that the magical Golden Sword comes into his hands. It can cut through steel for the right person. Knowing Piper puts her and Rock in jail and he winds up being her body guard. She manipulates Rock and Gene into a fight for her hand. Gene finds out about the sword and steals it from Rock. Rock eventually comes to find out that Gene and the Vizier are the scumbags that need killing and a bit fight breaks out in the palace. The Caliph is killed, Gene is the new Caliph, Rock and Piper go on the run. The Golden Sword gets stuck in a wall and no one can pull it out except Rock. Some baddies get stabbed and there's a happy ending.

It's fun and a bit goofy with a good cast. The script is the weakest link, it's a bit  Arabian Knight and a bit King Arthur, some of the dialog makes me laugh. I still liked it well enough to order up the DVD, it's part of 5 Rock Hudson film pack that was only a tenner on Amazon. Five movies on three discs, better than some collections. There's a DVDr Archive version for 20 bucks and a Kino Lorber Blu-ray 3 film set for $24. I liked the movie selection on the DVD set better than the Blue-ray set, as well as the cheaper price.

Devil Story 1986 Written and directed by Bernard Launois.

The movie opens with a series of murders by a deformed man in a Nazi uniform. A woman is attacked by a cat but it seems to be in her mind. They stop for the night at the mansion of an old couple. They tell them a tale of crashed ship many years in the past. The wife is attacked by the deformed man and his mother. The mother is killed and the wife escapes. The old man from the mansion blames a black horse and spends much of the movie in a field shooting his shotgun over and over again. Then a mummy shows up and the crashed ship comes out of the cliff face.

It just goes on and on, piling one plot device on another, never seeming to care if they make sense or work together. Poor Bernard needed the help of a more experienced writer and director to make this film. Sadly he didn't get the help he needed. It was good at making us laugh and it's short. I wouldn't need to see it again so I'm not going to buy the new Vinegar Syndrome Blu-ray.

Friday Night Movies 846

Hercules And The Captive Women 1961 Screenplay by Vittorio Cottafavi, Sandro Continenza and Duccio Tessari, directed by Vittorio Cottafavi. Original title is Ercole alla conquista di Atlantide, in the UK it was released as Hercules Conquers Atlantis, it was also released as Hercules and The Haunted Women. It was released in the US in 1963. The film was made fun of on Mystery Science Theater 3000 in the 4th season. They have a nasty pan and scan version that I first saw in 1992, a few years later I picked up the Warriors Multi Movie set. Fifty sword and sandal action films, mostly from Italy. Today we watched the Blu-ray, wide screen and great looking. The Blu-ray also includes a copy of the MST3K episode.

Reg Park plays Hercules, the rest of the cast are unknown Italians to me. He's drugged by a friend, Androcles the King of Thebes, and taken on an adventure by ship. They wind up on an island where he saves a local princess and kills the god Proteus. The island turns out to be Atlantis and the princess turns out to be a sacrifice to the gods to protect their island. The princess is still on the chopping block unless Hercules can bust up enough stuff for them to go free.

It was a nice looking transfer but the movie is still below average to me. I don't think I'll bother with the Blu-ray, not for the number of times I might want to watch it again. I've already got a couple of copies of it on one or another of those Multi movie packs.

Ulysses 1954 Director Mario Camerini co-wrote the screenplay with Franco Brusati. Mario Bava is the cinematographer, he also directed the Polyphemus segment.

Kirk Douglas is Ulysses and he's been gone from Ithaca for ten years. He went off to fight Troy and failed to return after the battle was over. The palace is filled with suitors demanding the hand of his wife Penelope. Why she can't drive them out as Queen I don't know. We spend a lot of time with Penelope seeing what dicks the suitors are, they drink Ulysses wine and eat his food, all the while boasting who's the best suitor. Someone really needs to kick these guy's collective asses.

Princess Nausicaa finds a man washed up  on the shore of her island home of Phaeacia. We know it's Ulysses but he's lost his memory after escaping the clutches of Circe. He's welcomed by the king and given a room in the castle. Nausicaa falls for him but soon as he gets his memory back he knows he has to go home. He arrives on Ithaca just in time to fight for his wife in a contest. He kills all the suitors and he's reunited with his bride.

I thought it was better than the Hercules movie but I'm not sold on getting a copy. We watched the Blu-ray and it looked very nice.

Manfish 1956

Manfish 1956 Loosely based on two Edgar Allan Poe stories The Gold Bug and The Tell Tale Heart, screenplay by Myles Wilder and Joel Murcott, directed by W Lee Wilder. Myles is W Lee's son and W Lee is Billy Wilder's brother. W Lee had his own film company in the 1950s, they produced a few low budget films, some of which I've seen. W Lee produced and directed The Snow Creature, Killers From Space, Phantom From Space, all of which were written by Myles.

I'll give anything with Lon Cheney Jr in it a chance and that's knowing he's in a lot of so-so films. This is kind of on the slight side, an adventure in the south seas with romance, treasure hunting and betrayal. People go cray-cray for the doubloons. The story told is mostly a flashback, told by a Jamaican Police Inspector to his counterpart in Scotland Yard.

The man from Scotland Yard learns of the recent adventures of Captain Brannigan, Swede and the Professor. The later is the the man he's interested in, a man suspected of being a war criminal. Brannigan is the owner of a fishing boat called Manfish, one that he'd won in a poker game, John Bromfield plays Brannigan, a guy with limited imagination and intelligence. Swede is his first mate, Swede is played by Lon Chaney Jr, he's a big lumbering simple guy with a love of the fishing boat called Manfish. Serious mental illness kind of love.

The Professor is played by Victor Jory and he's pretty darn entertaining. He's a good solid character actor who's turned in good work for decades. Brannigan comes across a half a map and a skull and crossbones ring, when he first meets the Professor he notices the man has the same ring. The Professor has the other half of the map and the brains to figure out the cypher's that lead to the treasure.

The pair team up but it's one of those relationships that you can see is going to end with someone dead at best. Tossing the Professor's treasure hungry lady friend Alita into the mix is like throwing ammunition in a fire, it's just a matter of when things are going to go off. Tessa Pendergast plays Tessa, Tessa was an actress between 1952 and 1954, this is her last film of four. She became a fashion designer in the late 1950s and had her own clothing business in Jamaica. She created the white bikini worn by Ursula Andress in Dr No.

Despite the good story ideas the film is just barely average to me. I gave it a generous 5 on the IMDb where it scores a 4.6 with 245 votes. You can watch it on YouTube. You might like it or not but you'd probably like Victor Jory and Lon Chaney Jr.

Captain Scarlett 1952

Captain Scarlett 1952 Written by Howard Dimsdale, directed by Thomas H Carr. Though set in France the film was shot in Mexico with a mostly Mexican cast. It's a pretty average swashbuckler set just after the Napoleonic Wars. Richard Greene's been away from the family home for a while, he returns to find his land has been confiscated by a scumbag, Count Villiers. He sets about fixing that with the point of his sword. There's a fair bit of action, some horse riding and a bit of romance. I watched it on YouTube, I would watch it again but I wouldn't buy a DVD unless it was in a cheap multi pack.