PRIMITIVE SCREWHEADS

Man In The Attic 1953

Man In The Attic is the second disc in the Midnite Movies DVD set. It's based on the 1913 novel The Lodger by Marie Belloc Lowndes. There's plenty of other versions out there, one by Hitchcock, another with Laird Cregar as the lodger Slade. Barre Lyndon and Robert Presnell Jr wrote the screenplay and Hugo Fregonese is the director. Jack Palance plays Slade, he lodges with a family in London. It's 1888 and that pesky Jack the Ripper is slashing in the city. Slade is a research pathologist and he's a right creepy guy. His landlady, played by Frances Bavier, gets suspicious but her hubby can't see it. Slade's interest in Frances's niece brings him to the attention of the police and things get dicey for the lodger. I liked the movie and was glad to have picked up the DVD. Both are worth a look.

Friday Night Movies 706

Daikaiju Mono is a 2016 Japanese giant monster wrestling comedy. A giant monster has appeared on the scene and a mad scientist has a way to fight it. He's invented a serum that turns the victim test subject into a giant human. With endlessly expandable shorts. He fights the monster but can't seem to beat it. The science solution is to make a new serum with evil cells. That works.

The movie is directed by Minoru Kawasaki and he co-wrote the script with Takao Nakano. I've seen three of Minoru's other movies, The Calamari Wrestler, The World Sinks Except Japan and The Monster X Strikes Back: Attack The G8 Summit. The last two were better than this movie, which in turn is better than TCW. Still even at his best the comedy is hit and miss for me. Part of that is cultural differences and part of that is the jokes just weren't that good. DM is fairly good fun but it's lacking in the gag department. It's fights are a bit weak but there are some pretty girls. I wouldn't recommend it to most, fans of Daikaiju movies might get a kick out of it, but the average schmoe isn't going to find as much there. I'm likely not going to buy it, so many others higher up the list.

We watched The Cyclops as our second movie. It was written and directed by Bert I Gordon. It's the second film he wrote and the third he directed. I've seen a few of his 2 dozen films, he's been known to turn up on old episodes of Mystery Science Theater 3000, and I like them. They aren't great films by any stretch of the imagination but some do have a bit of imagination. Just no money.

I found the Blu-ray of The Cyclops Thursday and thought I'd splurge a bit. It's going for $22 on Amazon, it's part of the Warner Archives Collection. The used Blu-ray was just over 9 bucks, after a 20% off coupon and some tax. The disc played perfectly fine. There's nothing by way of extras but a trailer. That's OK, I don't mind a bare bones disc, the extras eat up a lot of time, and I don't have to feel guilty if I didn't take to time to watch them. I certainly don't listen to as many commentaries as I used to when the format was new.

I know I had seen the movie before but I didn't remember seeing it on a FNM night back in June of 2011. Here's the text of that post, the accompanying art has changed, but I feel pretty much the same way about the film. Tonight I commented on the four seater plane issue while we were watching the movie. I hadn't seen the movie before and the opening sentence is in reference to the previous movie we watched back in 2011.

I can't say as much about Bert I Gordon's The Cyclops. I hadn't seen it before and I'm always interested in seeing 1950's SF movies. This is from 1957 and it's fun enough and short.  That's the best thing about it, at 65 minutes there isn't much time to waste on padding out the story. Gloria Talbott is trying to find her missing husband. He crashed his plane in the mountains in an uninhabited part of Mexico. She's joined by her friend and hopeful suitor James Craig, hired pilot Tom Drake, and a uranium hunter, Lon Chaney Jr, who supplied some extra travel expense money. The plane has some trouble and lands in a flatish spot surrounded by mountains. Lon's scintillator tells him there's 8.5 on the meter and that gets him all excited. He's thinking to get rich selling the stock option on the claim. If he gets back to put the claim in that is, turns out Gloria owns the plane, and she's sticking to that valley until she finds her husband. They find part of his broken plane. Could he be alive? How would they get him back with 4 people already packing the four seater plane? Bert is like a lot of film makers when it comes to story. You know, film makers who don't care much about the details in their stories. The important thing is to get the giant monsters into the movie. Turns out the highly radioactive area has more than uranium.

That's James, Gloria, Tom and Lon in the plane. Soon after the group lands they encounter some of the local fauna and it's crazy big. A field mouse the size of a dog and a 12 foot hawk. We also have a giant , nearly transparent spider, a couple of huge, slightly opaque lizards and a giant one eyed husband. Yep, the husband is still alive and he's huge. They should have brought a cargo plane but who knew. The guy playing the giant guy is Duncan Parkin who would play a similar character in another Bert I Gordon classic War Of The Colossal Beast a year later. The script is pretty poor but at 65 minutes it goes by quickly. It was fun enough, even though the effects are pretty cheezy. It's barely worth watching for those that are less of a fan of the low budget science fiction film but I enjoyed it enough to be glad that I picked up a copy off of Turner Classic Movies the other night. Now I can watch it again later.

Beast Collection

Here's another multi movie pack with 11 titles, all movies with a beast theme, title appropriately Beast Collection. I picked up the Retromedia 4 disc set from Hamilton Books for 4 bucks. I've been dipping into their huge pile of DVDs and Blu-rays for a while. It pays to check back periodically, they get new stuff and lower the price of the old stuff. From what I can see, Retromedia put these same sets out before packaging them into a Box Set.

Bigfoot Terror collects 4 Sasquatch films together on one two sided disc. I find a mention of a 2003 release date on a comment about the second movie. It might be right. Someone on Amazon has listed a copy of that earlier DVD for $124.02. What's with the .02?

The Capture Of Bigfoot 1978 A Bill Rebane movie that features a lot of walking in snow. Bill is a low budget film maker who worked out of Wisconsin for a number of years. He turned out one boring film after another. I've seen 2-3 of them. I try to forget seeing them. I'll try to forget this. Really, nothing much happens. Even Troma legend Lloyd Kaufman said this was one of the 5 worst films Troma has ever distributed. He lists another Rebane film, Croaked: Frog Monster From Hell, as another. It scores a 2.6 on the IMDb. Seems high.

Shriek Of The Mutilated 1974 Some college students on an expedition into the woods. It's a typical pick 'em off one at a time type of thing. It was directed by Michael Findlay and photographed by Roberta Findlay. She was married to him until his death three years later. He was killed in a helicopter crash on top of the PanAm building in 1977. It's a step up from the first movie, there's cannibalism at least, but it's still not that good. It gets a 3.2 on the IMDb.

The Legend Of Bigfoot 1975 A documentary style film of a man's search for Bigfoot. He finds a guy in a Bigfoot suit. It's all pretty sad and kind of boring.

Search For The Beast 1997 I thought the most interesting part of the movie was old time exploitation film guy David F Friedman playing the baddie. Sadly, he's not really any better an actor than the rest of the cast. David sends a guy to look for the Bigfoot, he wants to kill it because it killed his son before the movie started. He sends some henchmen to make sure the job gets done. Nice for the Bigfoot, he has lots of people to kill. There's plenty of walking about the woods and some sex and nudity. There's even some Bigfoot action. Amusing but still not that good. None of these are going to lend themselves to watching over again.

Sasquatch Horror is the second collection in the box. It's got even crazier prices on Amazon. There's on for $28.92 and other for $367.89. The tax on the second one is higher than the first one. They have the gall to charge postage on the expensive one.

Sasquatch The Legend Of Bigfoot 1977 The Cascades are standing in for British Columbia in this search for Bigfoot. It's a mix of documentary and fiction. As we follow some guys in the wilderness we learn about the Bigfoot legend. It takes them months in the movie to get to Bigfoot territory and it seemed like the movie was being filmed in real time. When they get there they see a guy in a suit that looks so sad I imagined them crying on set when it was unveiled. Either that, or they just didn't give a shit. Me either, bosh, you're a 1. Boring is the worst thing a movie can be.

Snowbeast 1977 A TV movie with Bo Svenson, Yvette Mimiex, Sylvia Sidney, Clint Walker, Robert Logan and that Yeti guy. Other than that it's Jaws up a mountain. It's watchable, 70s TV genre movies often were, and I had seen it before. I just don't know how often I'll get back to it and I have two copies. Probably never at this point. It scores 4.8 and I gave it a 5, a bit generous but I like Clint and Bo in this.

The Snow Creature 1954 Here's another one that I had seen already. It's said to be the first Yeti movie made. Some guys hire local guides to take them up a mountain in the Himalayas so they can find the Yeti. They find a male and bring it back to Los Angeles where it gets away. Pretty standard stuff that's well below average. I gave it a 3 but the IMDb says it's 3.2. Picky, IMDb, very picky.

The Giant Majin Collection is the third set in the box. It's got a double sided disc with the American International versions of the first two Japanese Daimajin movies. The movies are pan and scan, edited and English dubbed. A lot of people saw them on TV in that format. There was a nice DVD of the whole  Daimajin trilogy out several years ago but it's gotten pricey. That set has the 3 movies in Japanese with English subtitles, widescreen and complete. Lucky for me I bought one a while back, I'll watch that.

Like the first two sets in the Retromedia Box The Giant Majin Collection has  some wacky prices on Amazon. A used disc for $132.62 and new ones at $16, $149.99 and $328.98. I always guess that the higher priced items are money laundering but I have no proof.

The last set in the box is the Astounding Sci-Fi Double Feature with 2 Larry Buchanan TV movies that were made in Texas in the 1960s.  Zontar: Thing From Venus was made in 1966 and The Eye Creatures was made in 1965. Neither is very good, I'd seen them before. I won't watch them anymore.

The Giant Behemoth 1959

I hadn't seen The Giant Behemoth in a while. It's a British film from 1959 and I've seen it a few times over the years. I got a nice DVD from the Warner Brother Archives, much better than the copy I had from cable.

Radioactive waste dumped into the sea comes back to haunt the stupid humans. A giant monster walks the English coast and he's heading for London. The critter is highly radioactive and he makes good poster fodder. I do like a lot of these posters quite a bit.

Despite it being a rather low-budget affair, it's an entertaining film, I enjoyed the monster, even if he's not the best looking of his bunch. I'll be glad to see it again.

Friday Night Movies 694

Our first selection was the 1957 film The Vampire. It's directed by Paul Landres and written by Pat Fielder. John Beal is a doctor in a small town. He goes to help a man who has an experimental lab in his house. Before the man dies he gives John some pills he says are important. John accidentally takes one and has a strange reaction we don't see. He gets pretty troubled at the strange mood swings and blackouts. Dead bodies start to turn up and Kenneth Tobey, as Sheriff Buck Donnelly, comes to investigate. John soon thinks he;s the killer but no once believes him until he piles on the dead skin.

A sad story of a poor sap who accidentally poison's himself and has to pay the price. Very 50s sort of story. No matter how innocent the doc might have been, he's now crossed a line, he'll have to pay. I had seen this in the end of 2014 and didn't remember much until we got to the lab. I remembered the assistant with the shades. I didn't see the Blu-ray, it looks nice, I got a copy in one of those Midnite Movies 2 packs, with The Return Of Dracula. It's fairly entertaining. I gave it a 6 when I saw it before. It's better than a 5 and I'm still thinking that's the case.

The Power is a 1984 film that just isn't as good as our first film. Stephen Carpenter and Jeffrey Obrow are the directors and they worked on the story and screenplay with John Hopkins and John Penney. Like the first film this one has an evil force take over people and screw their lives up. It's not a drug in this one, it's a clay idol that's possessed with an evil spirit. It's like a hot potato game but with more murder. The idol mostly possesses this annoying guy who comes to stay with a woman reporter. Some kids find it and weird stuff happens. They get hold of the annoying guy and he becomes possesses. The movie started off OK but it was draggin' it's ass by the end. I was getting tired, it was nearly putting me to sleep. Several scenes were more interesting than others. Perhaps the pair of directors have different enough styles. Oh, well, another one I won't need to re-watch.

The Man Who Could Cheat Death 1959

The Man Who Could Cheat Death is a 1959 Hammer Film production. It's based on a play by Barre Lyndon called The Man In Half Moon Street. It was filmed under that name in 1945. Jimmy Sangster wrote the screenplay and Terence Fisher directed.

Anton Diffring plays Dr Bonnet, he's  scientist and a sculptor. That's him with the lovely Hazel Court. Turns out the Doctor has a nasty secret. He has to kill to stay young.

When Anton needs surgery he asks his old colleague but gets turned down. Desperate he forces Christopher Lee to do the operation by threatening Hazel. Chris has some feelings for her too. Eventually things fall apart and the police come snooping around. Dead bodies have a tendency to attract attention. It was OK, interesting enough to keep my mind on the picture. It's always nice to see Christopher.

The Snow Creature 1954

The Snow Creature is a 1954 horror film about the finding of a Yeti. Miles Wilder wrote the story and screenplay, his father, W Lee Wilder, is the director. W Lee is brother to Billy Wilder. Sadly, Miles and W Lee don't share Billy's film making talent. W Lee's previous two films were Killers From Space and Phantom From Space. It doesn't get any better than that.

An expedition climbs the Himalayas to collect plant life. Things go wrong when the lead sherpa's wife is kidnapped by a Yeti. The sherpa holds the party at gunpoint and makes them follow the Yeti. He wants them to help get his wife back. They encounter the Yeti and through good luck the Yeti is knocked out. The party transports the Yeti to Los Angeles where it does a runner. The Yeti takes refuge in the sewers and manages to survive a while. Beasts just don't belong in the city.

W Lee is a pretty pedestrian director and he manages to make a Yeti story dull. There's no money on the screen, it's black and white, and there's plenty of stock footage. The Yeti's makeup and costume is pretty poor. The copy I found on DVD is part of a 9 movie package I got at Walmart for $3.74. There's nothing in it worth paying that much for a single DVD and some of the movies aren't worth their share of the total price.

Friday Night Movies 671

The Legend Of The Naga Pearls is a 2017 Chinese fantasy. It's set in a made up place that looks like ancient China but with a so-so CGI animal mascot. It's got Simon Yam for a baddie. I actually wasn't sure if it was him under the make up, I had to look it up to make sure. He's a descendant of the Winged Tribe, they lost their ability to fly when they were defeated by the human's in the past. Simon wants some revenge and a magical box with some magical pearls are going to help out. A trio of noisy young people put a stop to Simon's activity. It's alright, drags a bit in the middle act, but has a bit fight at the end. The CGI is fairly good, except for the critter that hangs out with the hero. I didn't like that and I didn't care that much for the smug faced hero. I wouldn't need to see it again but it was OK for free.

I don't know how many times I've seen Tarantula, the 1955 SF film with John Agar, Mara Corday and Leo G Carroll, but I do know I last saw it in 2010. It still holds up and I still enjoyed it.

Terror Is A Man 1959

Terror Is A Man is a 1959 horror film about a mad scientist who makes a man from a panther. That never goes too well, huh. That MS should have read him some H G Wells. The movie was adapted from Well's The Island Of Dr Moreau but I don't believe Paul Harber ever saw the book. It does have an island and a doctor but nothing much else is similar. The director is Gerardo de Leon, he directed 83 films and several were for the American market. It was produced by Kane W Lynn who produced the movie below this one.

Francis Lederer is the mad scientist, Richard Derr is a survivor of a ship wreck, Greta Thyssen is the wife of the MS. Can you say, triangle. The panther man keeps escaping and killing and Richard and Greta fall in love. Even then that plot had been done to death.

There's not too much to recommend about it. It's nice some Philippine film crew got some work, I guess. In case you need to see it, I can't imagine why, there's a link in the title above.

Friday Night Movies 630

Call Girl Of Cthulhu was our first feature. It's a 2014 horror comedy written by director Chris LaMartina and Jimmy George. I haven't seen any of Chris's work before, he's got a few credits on the IMDb, and I doubt I will go search it out. The story in CGOC is about a nerdy virgin artist who falls for a call girl. I found him to be unusually hopeless. Unbeknownst to him the call girl's the chosen victim of a cult of Cthulhu worshipers. The head of the cult lures hookers to his "church" where he turns them into demon slave. The movie is packed with titties and tentacles but the script is a bit weak. I never got overly interested in any of the characters. It gets a 4.7 on the IMDb and as I found that to be about right. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone but the hardcore low budget horror fan.

Caltiki - The Immortal Monster is a 1959 Italian movie set in Mexico. An archeologist returns to camp, he's all screwed up and needs some medical attention. They wonder where his partner is and set out to the ruins to look for him. They find a cave with a giant statue of Caltiki and a deep pool of water. In the water they find a treasure of gold. The diver's second dive proves fatal as the blob monster makes an appearance. The party escapes but one man has some blob on his arm. The blob monster is destroyed by fire and the group returns to Mexico City. Doctors remove the bit of blob from the man's arm and scientists discover radiation makes it grow. A radioactive comet happens by and the blob grows and attacks. The man who got the blob on his arm goes nuts and kills some women before he's digested by the newly formed blob. There's a lot of reacting to so-so effects which are typical of the time. The blob monster looks like a big wet bunched up towel. Lucky it's a short movie, only 75 minutes, and it's over quickly. To it's credit it doesn't waste any time getting the story told. Riccardo Freda is credited as the director, under the name Robert Hamton in the US version, but the Wikipedia says that an uncredited Mario Bava also directed. This is before his first credited feature Black Sunday. I liked this better the second time around and in proper Italian with subtitles. I still wouldn't recommend to just anyone. More for the fan of such things.