PRIMITIVE SCREWHEADS

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The Bride From Hades 1956 Based on a Japanese ghost story called Botan Dōrō, screenplay by Enchô San'yûtei and Yoshikata Yoda, directed by Satsuo Yamamoto. The film is known under several names: Bride from Hell, Haunted Lantern, Ghost Beauty, My Bride is a Ghost or Peony Lanterns. There were 7 film adaptations between 1910 and 1937 but all are gone. Other adaptations have followed making it one of the most adapted folk horror stories. 

A young man called Shinzaburo is estranged from his family. His father wants him to marry a woman to strengthen the family's power. He doesn't love the woman and won't cooperate, choosing to live simply among the poor peasants. On the evening of the Obon Festival Shinzaburo meets a couple of women and helps them when their floating lanterns get stuck in the weeds.

They visit his home after the festival. Shinzaburo becomes infatuated with the younger woman who's called Otsuyu until it's revealed to him she's a ghost. The local villagers try to help him fend off the ghost but they are determined. The ghosts get help from the horrible couple that work for Shinzaburo. The couple think they can bribe the ghosts and they can. Shinzaburo is a rather weak man and things have a rather bittersweet ending for him. I did enjoy the nice and gory ending that befell the horrible couple.

I enjoyed the movie and would be interested in watching it again some day. We watched the new Radiance Blu-ray box set, it's packaged with The Ghost Of Yotsuya and The Snow Women. The Bride Of Hades looks fine and the set is one to consider. I'd recommend the movie to those who like a ghost story and a bit of vengeance.

Sumpah Orang Minyak 1956 Based on the Malaysian folk horror story Curse Of The Oily Man, screenplay by Teuku Djaafar and P Ramlee and S Sudarmadji, directed by P Ramlee, produced by Run Run Shaw and distributed by his production company. P Ramlee also plays the main character Si Bongkok.

Si Bangkok is a hunchbacked man in a small village at the turn of the last century. He's picked on by the local bullies for his deformed face and body. They harass him and beat him without much opposition from the other villagers. Si Bongkok is befriended by local batik cloth seller Selamat. His cloth sales have been poor, the ladies don't want his out of date patterns. Turns out Si Bongkok is a great artist and his patterns are quite nice, they become much desired by the local ladies.

After Si Bongkok's latest vicious beating the gods bring him to heaven and grant him a wish because he's got a good heart. He only gets one wish and no more. Si Bongkok chooses beauty from the list of favors. He's made handsome and falls in love with the pretty lady in the picture. She's a princess in heaven. Sadly he can't stay in heaven, she can't leave with him and he can't change his wish. He also has to keep from killing anyone or he'll be punished severely.

Si Bongkok returns to the same village and reveals who he is to Selamat. He gets back to designing cloth patterns and they do well in the market place. Pride gets the best of him and and he brags to the village he's the old hunchback. He tries to steal a man's fiance, one of the men that beat him in the past, they fight, the bully is killed. Si Bongkok is turned into the oily man as punishment. Our disgraced hero becomes a monster with rape and murder on his mind. The locals have a hard time getting him under control, lucky for them they're helped by the gods.

YouTube has copies of the movie, the better looking ones are sadly deformed by logos and TV crawls reminding you about Covid-19. There's a colorized version that has Covid-19 crawls and some different logos. No matter, I still enjoyed the movie and was happy to see it. It would be nice to see a good version of this out. It would be ideal for an inclusion in a Severin folk horror box set.

Meet Mr Lucifer 1953

Meet Mr Lucifer 1953 Based on the play Beggar My Neighborhood by Arnold Ridley, screenplay by Monja Danischewsky with additional dialog by Peter Myers and Alec Grahame, directed by Anthony Pelissier.

Stanley Holloway plays two roles, a crotchety drunken actor who's playing the devil in a pantomime of Robinson Caruso. Joan Sims plays the Fairy Queen and Ian Carmichael plays Man Friday in blackface. Stanley hits his head using the stage elevator and briefly visits with the Devil. He offers Stanley a job helping him ruin people's lives with Television. Stanley takes the job.

Mr Pedelty gets given a TV set on the day he retires. He takes it home and sets it. Soon visitors are weaseling their way into his flat. He runs up some bills, for food and booze, with the local tradesmen while he entertains his guests.

Mr Pedelty sells the TV to the young couple in the flat above. They get stuck with the guests. Peggy Cummings plays the wife Kitty and Jack Watling plays the hubby Jim. The constant TV crowd bothers Jim while he's trying to study for his pharmacy exam, things get tense, after a bad bit the couple split. After Stanley tells Jim what he's been up for the Devil Jim gifts the TV to his co-worker, the chemist he doesn't like. The chemist falls for The Lonely Hearts Singer and goes into a depression when the show takes a break. His depression causes him to run the phamacy poorly and the shop loses money for his aunt, the owner. Gordon Jackson plays the co-worker and Kay Kendall is the singer. Eventually everything works out for most of the characters. 

It's amusing and rather naive. There are jokes and bits of fun business going on. I particularly liked the square dance scenes. I thought it was a bit better than average and gave it a 6 on the IMDb where it's score is 5.9. I saw it mentioned somewhere and thought I'd see if I could find a copy. I found one on Rarelust. I watched it this afternoon and a bit ago found that I already had it on DVD. It's part of Network's The Ealing Studios series. That's part of their British Film series. Sadly Network closed last year. I'm missing them.

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Arsène Lupin Vs Arsène Lupin 1962 Screenplay by Georges Neveux, François Chavane and Édouard Molinaro, directed by Édouard Molinaro. This is the third film in the Lupin collection from Kino Lorber. It's a good trio of films but the set lacks any interesting extras.

 

Poor André Laroche has died, there's a big funeral, attended by many. The local magistrates wife tells her son François that she had an affair with Laroche, the result was a son. She also drops the bombshell that Laroche was Arsène Lupin.

A lawyer asks François to stop by for a message from Laroche, when he does he finds out there's a second son and he's supposed to find him. The magistrate finds out François is a petty thief, stealing small items from the homes of people who have invited the family to visit. There's also a sub plot involving a cache of jewels belonging to the dethroned royal family of Poldavia. The two sons eventually meet and help out the Poldavians.

 

I thought it was pretty entertaining, there's action and danger, a bit of romance and a good amount of comedy. It's a nice trio of films that I know I will want to watch again sometime.

The 30 Foot Bride Of Candy Rock 1959 I watched this a few weeks back. Here's that post.

The Angel Who Pawned Her Harp 1954

The Angel Who Pawned Her Harp 1954 Based on The Angel Who Pawned Her Harp by Charles Terrot, screenplay by Sidney Cole and Charles Terrot, directed by Alan Bromly. There was a 30 min adaptation on the BBC in 1951 and a 1959 German film.

An angel is sent down to help some people in Inslington. She pawns her harp with a local pawnbroker to raise a bit of cash to get a room. She interacts with several people and helps them along their way.

It's very charming and quite entertaining. I enjoyed it. I'd watch it again. You can see a decent copy on YouTube. Link above.

 

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The Story Of Mankind 1957 Based on the 1921 novel of the same name by Hendrik Willem van Loon, screenplay by Irwin Allen and Charles Bennett, directed by Irwin Allen.

The Great Court Of Outer Space puts the human's of Earth on trail for the invention of the Super H-Bomb. The court will decide to stop the bomb or or let the human's destroy themselves.

Defending the human's is The Spirit Of Man, played by Ronald Colman, prosecuting the human's is the Devil, Mr Scratch, played by Vincent Price. They travel through time and space to visit various famous people from many times and places.

John Carradine plays Khufu and there were many other stars in similar roles. The poster has a list of most of the actors in the film. It's an impressive list and certainly one of the reasons I picked up the DVD. Even from an early age I tended to follow certain actors and would watch films because they appeared in them. I'm still keeping an eye out for films with them, I've not seen them all.

Groucho Marx plays colonist Peter Minuit, his brothers Harpo and Chico are also in the film but they don't appear in a scene together. It was the last film for the fellows and their first color film. Harpo played Sir Isaac Newton and Chico played a monk.

Dennis Hopper plays Napoleon Bonaparte and Marie Wilson played Marie Antoinette. Having 44 year old Hedy Lamarr playing 19 year old Joan Of Arc was a bit of an odd choice. Peter Lorre only has two lines of dialog playing Emperor Nero but he does get to laugh a lot, while Rome burns.

The Devil and The Spirit play tit for tat with human accomplishments and failures. Eventually the Court Of Outer Space has to make a decision. They fail and push the decision on to the future. Hopefully we'll keep from destroying ourselves.

I enjoyed the film despite it not being that good. It's more interesting for what it is than for it's story. You can try it out on YouTube. You might like it, or not, doesn't matter, it's what it is.

Miami Connection 1987 Story by Richard Park and Y K Kim, screenplay by Joseph Diamond, directed by Richard Park (Park Woo-Sang) and Y K Kim.

Dragon Sound is a band that plays at clubs to make money so they can go to college. The Dragon's live together in a house near the college. Y K Kim is Mark, he teaches the band Taekwondo and plays rhythm guitar. Singer  Jane and guitarist John are dating and Jane's brother Jeff doesn't approve of the relationship.

Jeff has a gang of thug and his pal Yashito has his own gang of Miami Ninjas. The Ninja's steal a big supply of cocaine from some other guys. The drug dealers seem to disappear from the film.

The Dragon's replaced another band who are mad at getting fired, they try to beat up the club owner but he's good at martial arts and kicks the band's collective butts. The failed band members get Jeff's gang to attack Dragon Sound but that fails too. Jeff is determined to separate the couple and kidnaps a band member. Y K leads a rescue and Jeff is killed. Yashito brings his Miami Ninjas for some revenge. Of course the Dragon's prevail.

I enjoyed the film despite it's many weaknesses. The script is poor but not much worse than the average American made martial arts film. The acting is bad, poor Y K can hardly speak English and he still does better than some of the other actors. The stunts range from good to absolutely dreadful.

On the plus side Maximo Munzi, the cinematographer and editor, did a good job shooting the film and putting it together. It got into a few theaters in 1988 but failed to pull in the crowds and disappeared for a number of years. It cost about a million and didn't make much money back. Alamo Drafthouse re-released the film in 2010 and recently Vinegar Syndrome released the film on 4K and Blu-ray. I don't know that I need to buy one as I doubt I'm going to need watching it again.

The Secret Of Magic Island 1956

The Secret Of Magic Island 1956 Written by Louise de Vilmorin, Jean Tourane and Richard Lavigne, directed by Jean Tourane. A French film with animals in a village scaled down to their size.

This nearly hour long story is about the theft of a magic wand from Chassidou, a white Persian cat, by the evil Black Genie, played by a monkey. A duck called Saturnin joins Chassidou in getting it back.

It's fun enough but the copies on YouTube are from an old VHS tape. I doubt I'd bother watching it again.

The 30-Foot Bride of Candy Rock 1959

The 30-Foot Bride of Candy Rock 1959 Written by Rowland Barber and Arthur Ross, directed by Sidney Miller. It was Lou Costello's only film without Bud Abbott. It was filmed in 1958 and released in August 1959, sadly 5 months after Lou died. This was on the Internet Archive briefly, it's gone now. I see that the film was released in February 2023 at part of a 4 movie Blu-ray from Mill Creek with 20 Million Miles From Earth, Creature With The Atomic Brain and It Came From Beneath The Sea. Those are mostly decent SF films, I've seen the other three films already and have them all on DVD. I'll put that on my Amazon Wishlist.

Lou is a small town garbage collector and inventor. Dorothy Provine is Lou's romantic interest and the niece of the local rich guy. Gale Gordon play's her uncle, he's owns most of the business in the town and plans to run for governor. He's also against his niece marrying the local garbage man. He won't even let Lou join the local businessman's club. Dorothy's got to sneak out of the house to see Lou. On a trip out to the desert Dorothy grows 30 feet tall.

The rest of the movie is dealing with a large lady. There's plenty of running about, noise and physical gags, all the sort of stuff you'd already came to expect from an Abbott and Costello feature. Just no Bud.

I hadn't seen it before despite trying to see all Lou's films. I'd watch it again when I get that Blu-ray.

Update: I got the Blu-ray and have watched all the films and listened to the commentaries. Well, worth the purchase.

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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.

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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.