PRIMITIVE SCREWHEADS

Friday Night Movies 991

Dark Intruder 1965 Written by Barré Lyndon, directed by Harvey Hart. Lyndon's real name was Alfred Edgar, he was a British guy who moved to Hollywood in 1940. He wrote a good number of films but I've only seen a handful. I did like Hangover Square, Man In The Attic and The Man Who Could Cheat Death. Harvey Hart directed several movies but he was mostly a TV director. He worked on a lot of shows, mostly just one episode. You might have seen his work on The Wild Wild West, Seaway, Ben Casey, Star Trek, T.H.E. Cat, Peyton Place, The Mod Squad, Mannix, The Starlost and a lot more. Hart directed 5 episodes of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour. Dark Intruder was made as the pilot of a series called The Black Cloak. It was to replace The Alfred Hitchcock Hour as it was coming to an end. The Black Cloak didn't sell so the TV movie was padded out to 59 mins and released as a film. It was part of a double bill with William Castle's I Saw What You Did.

Leslie Nielsen plays a playboy and supernatural investigator in 1890 San Francisco. He gets involved in a strange murder case involving friends of his. Mark Richman plays the friend who's having some issues before his wedding. There's also someone murdering people, the killer leaves a statue as a calling card. The statue changes a bit after every killing, revealing more of the Sumerian demon each time.

I thought it was a fun bit of business. It has a nice supernatural story with a decent monster. It's short but there's a fair bit of story. I bought the BLU-Ray at the Kino Lorber sale that's just ending, I was glad I did. I'll watch it again someday and I'll also try to listen to the commentary some time.

Secret Of The Incas 1954 Based on The Legend Of The Incas by Sydney Boehm, screenplay by Sydney Boehm and Ranald MacDougall, directed by Jerry Hopper. An American adventure film that was set and filmed in Peru. The film spends a good bit of time at Machu Picchu. The scenery looks nice.

Charlton Heston plays American Harry Steele, a shady guide who lives in Cusco, Peru. He hopes to make a big score with a fabulous Inca treasure. Nicole Maurey is a Romanian defector who's on the run from Romanian officials. Lucky for Charlton the Romanian guy chasing her has a small plane, just the thing for Charlton to steal and fly to Machu Picchu so he can gather up the treasure and escape to the US.

Things don't work out too well for Charlton, local thug Thomas Mitchell makes himself a partner in the heist. Thomas was a tired old man who had a belly full of failure when he horns in on Charlton. Things get worse for him before the movie ends. When they get to Machu Picchu they meet Robert Young and some other scientists who are digging in the same tomb Charlton wants a crack at.

The Wikipedia and the IMDb have people saying the movie was an inspiration for Indiana Jones character. He wears a costume that could have inspired Indy but the character is not very much like Indy. He's a bit of a cheat who's mostly in it for himself. You can check out his fate, link in the title. You might enjoy it, especially if you like 50s adventure films. It's nice when they have a good budget and can film on location. I was glad to have picked up the Kino-Lorber DVD. I liked it and hope to watch it again sometime.

The Camp On Blood Island 1958

The Camp On Blood Island 1958 Written by Jon Manchip White and directed by Val Guest. A Hammer film about a Japanese prisoner of war camp in British Malaya while it was occupied by Japan. The 12th most popular movie in the UK that year.

The Emperor announces Japan's surrender in August 1945. The commander of the Blood Island camp says he'll kill everyone in the camp if the Emperor surrenders. Lucky for the inmates he hasn't heard the news yet. The British soldiers have and they work to keep the news from the commander.

A solid script and a good cast. I enjoyed it and would watch it again someday. You can see it on YouTube, see link above, there is a sequel called The Secret of Blood Island.

The White Huntress 1954

The White Huntress 1954 Written by Dermot Quinn and directed  by George Breakston. It's a British film that was shot in Kenya. It was originally released under the title Golden Ivory and it was in color, it was released in the US in color as Outlaw Safari. A few years later it was released in B&W under the title The White Huntress as part of a double bill with the 1957 shockumentary Naked Africa.  I watched The White Huntress version in B&W, it was on YouTube, link above.

In the 1890s a pair of brothers hire themselves out as guides to a group of settlers. They are also hunting for an elephant graveyard. Their greed takes the settlers into more and more dangerous territory. They pick up a dodgy prospector along the way. There's plenty of wandering through the bush, some wild critters, restless natives, a bit of action and a romantic subplot.

It was pretty average. I kind of lost interest in the middle and turned up the speed for the last half. I doubt I would need to watch it again.

Friday Night Movies 931

Curucu, Beast Of The Amazon 1956 Written and directed by Curt Siodmak.

John Bromfield is a plantation owner called Rock Dean and he's having trouble with the locals. They are leaving the plantation to go back to live in the jungle. Rock travels up the Amazon to try to get his workers to come back to the plantation. He had a guide in mind but Dr Romar, played by Beverly Garland, hired him first. She wants to go into the jungle to find a drug the natives make.

   

Rock is of the opinion that where they are going is no place for a woman. Rock's partially right as far as I'm concerned. I'd go as far as saying that it's no place for anyone.

 

Rock finds out that a monster is scaring the natives back home. It's some sort of giant bird like creature with sharp claws. Rock's bullets don't seem to have any effect on it. We soon learn that it's the guide, he's been scaring his people back home for his own selfish reasons. He'd also loaded Rock's rifle with blanks. The guide sentences Rock and the Doc to death.

 

Luckily for Rock and the Doctor some nice natives set the guide's village on fire allowing them to escape on a raft. All in all it's a below average B movie. I wouldn't need to see it again. The most interesting thing about it is that the jungle scenes were filmed in Brazil. The IMDb trivia pages says: Director Curt Siodmak said of this film, "I shot it down there [in Brazil], in the jungles. I never recovered, physically".  I always say it's best to stay out of the jungle.

We Are The Night 2010 Story and screenplay by Jan Berger and Dennis Gansel, directed by Dennis Gansel. A German vampire film.

A thief has an encounter with a cop called Tom during robbery. She manages to escape and get home. Later she meets a trio of vampire's at a nightclub. The vampire gals are absolute scum who leave a trail of corpses wherever they go. The leader turns the thief. There's a lot of crying about it, despite one of the side effects of being turned is an improvement of the body. The thief's skin clears up, her wounds disappear, her hair grows out nice and fluffy, she's now much hotter looking. The thief isn't much into the killing and the vampire gals enjoy it way too much.

The vampires hide by day in a big fancy hotel, going out at night to have fun in nightclubs. The police find a living guy at the scene of an encounter with the vampires. Tom connects the thief to the group because he'd seen her in the survivor's stolen car. The cops have no idea they are up against vampires but they raid the hotel and get many get slaughtered. One of the vampire gals gets burnt up by the sun. The other vampire gals manage to escape and hide out with the intention of escaping to Russia the next day. Another of the vampire gals kills herself.

The thief and the cop meet up , are arrested and tossed into jail. The leader of the vampire group comes calling, kills all the cops at the station and rescues the thief. Lena is given a choice, come with the leader or spend a short time with a live man. The thief kills the leader and disappears with Tom. The movie ends.

I'm not much of a fan of vampire melodrama. Too much crying and woe for me. I'll not need to see this one again.

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.

Jerry Warren Collection 4

I made my own 4th collection of Jerry Warren masterpieces, movies that weren't included in the 3 volume series that was issued by VCI. These are all films I found on YouTube for the most part. Some are chopped up foreign films and some are all shot in the US by Warren, except for the stock footage he tosses into everything. It's like his salt, add a bit of flavor, that sort of thing. I'd seen most of them in the past, might have even blogged about them. Now that I've burned them onto a disc I can put it away with the other 3 volumes and forget about them.

Face Of The Screaming Werewolf 1964 Jerry hacks two Mexican movies to death and tries to revive them for the American market by linking their scenes with the poorly written and directed scenes he'd done himself. Consistently Jerry shows that he has no talent as a filmmaker.

Lon Chaney Jr appeared as a werewolf in the 1960 Mexican horror movie La Casa del Terror, his scenes are mostly what survives Jerry clown style editing. The other movie is La Momia Azteca, a 1957 Mexican mummy movie. It was the first of a trilogy of mummy films from Cinematográfica Calderón SA. The other two are The Curse Of The Aztec Mummy and The Robert Vs The Aztec Mummy. They were shot back to back and all three were released in 1957. There's a good DVD set of all three original Mexican films with English subtitles and  decent prints. Jerry had already chopped LMA apart in 1963 and released it in the US with new footage he'd written and directed.

Not surprisingly the movie makes little sense at times. It gets pretty harshly savaged in reviews and rightly so. Jerry is one of those filmmakers that is needing a savage beating with the de-fleshed skull of Paul Naschy. A fantasy of mine.

Frankenstein Island 1981 Jerry Warren wrote and directed. It didn't do well and Jerry though he hadn't made a modern enough picture. He cut it for a TV version and added some explosions. Yeah, that will disguise what shit job you did Jerry.

Some balloonists crash land on an island at sea. The place is under control of the Frankenstein family. Granddaughter Sheila captures the group and plans to turn them into zombies of a sort. One of the group is a doctor and Sheila brainwashes him to helping her keep her 200 year old husband alive. John Carradine plays the long dead, but spiritually alive, Dr Frankenstein. He communicates through Sheila's husband and appears as a floating head in a few scenes. They use the same short shot and change the dialog from scene to scene.

Goofy dialog made me laugh but the film isn't much by way of a comedy, it's just second rate.

Invasion Of The Animal People 1959 I already did a big post about the film's different versions.

Teenage Zombies 1959 Written and directed by Jerry Warren. It was filmed in 1956 and the IMDb Trivia pages says it may have been released briefly in 1957. The title and some of the score was ripped off from Kronos.

Katherine Victor is a mad scientist who's got here very own island. She's got a deal with the local sheriff to send vagrants and hobos as subjects for her experimentation. Some teens stumble on her set up and bring her project to turn Americans into zombies to an end. It's typical of Warren's inability to write dialog and make movies. Another stinker from Jerry.

Terror Of The Blood Hunters 1962 Written and directed by Jerry Warren. One of the lot that I hadn't already seen.

A subversive writer is sent to prison on Devil's Island where he gets to paint the Commandant's daughter. She wants to help him escape and take her with him. They bring his pal from the ship that brought him to the island and trek through the jungle to freedom. Griffith Park in LA stands in for the jungle with the aid of some stock footage. Pretty ambitious a project for Jerry, it's a slight bit better than most of his films, but as usual it comes up below average.

The Incredible Petrified World 1959 Written by John W Steiner and directed by Jerry Warren. It was filmed and completed in 1957 but it took until 1959 and 1960 to get released.

John Carradine is a professor who sends 4 people into the ocean in a diving bell. It gets disconnected and disappears. The crew find themselves still alive in a subterranean cavern. They meet a shipwrecked sailor  who's been there for 14 years. A rescue mission is sent to look for the castaways and eventually they are rescued. It's a dull thing, not enough monsters or terror for my liking.

The Ealing Studios Rarities Collection Volume 1

The Ealing Studios Rarities Collection is a sub-set of The British Film series from Network. For some reason I'm a sucker for a film series on DVD. This series has 14 volumes, 28 discs, and 56 films, and the DVDs came out in 2013 and 2014. The films aren't the Ealing Comedies you might have heard about or seen, films like Kind Hearts And Coronets, The Lavender Hill Mob, The Man In The White Suit, and The Ladykillers. Most of them haven't been on video before, often they've not been seen for a long time. They might be lesser films but they still have some entertainment value and I'm glad they managed to get them out. The complete set of DVDs is still available and they are priced between £3-6 each after the VAT has been removed. That's ordered from Amazon UK. Volume 1 has 3 films from the 1930s and 1 film from 1954. 

The packaging says that Ealing Studios made over 150 films over a three decade period but I only found 126 listed on the Wikipedia. The studio's history is convoluted with different studios merging over time so who knows what they're counting.

The site of Ealing Studios, Ealing Green in West London, has been used by film makers since 1902. In 1929 Basil Dean founded Associated Talking Pictures Ltd which became Ealing Studios in 1938. The Wikipedia says the current sound stages were built in 1931 and bought by the BBC in 1955. Ealing Studios continued to make films through 1957 and in 2000 they resumed making films again. Other film studios used the Ealing stages too.

Escape 1930 The very first of the ES films back when they were Associated Talking Pictures. It's based on a 1926 play by John Galsworthy, Basil Dean wrote the screenplay and directed. Dean had previously directed the 1929 film The Return Of Sherlock Homes with Clive Brooks and H Reeves-Smith. Since the Ealing stages weren't built at this time, the film was shot at the British Lion Studios in Beaconsfield.

That's Gerald du Maurier talking to Mabel Poulton above, he's an upper crust guy and she's a gal hanging out in a park. Gerald is father to writer Daphne du Maurier. A police detective accuses Mabel of soliciting and arrests her, Gerald steps in at the rough treatment, a fight ensues, the copper dies after hitting his head in a fall.

Gerald is plunked into prison for 5 years, after 2 years he escapes while working outdoors, he then leads the police a chase through the moors. Gerald is befriended or betrayed by the people he meets and not much else happens.

It's an odd film, I'm not sure what to make of the story. The Wikipedia says it's a look at class and such. Many of the people Gerald meets think he got a bum sentence but 5 years doesn't seem too bad for manslaughter. With a bit of help from the locals Gerald manages to stay on the run for a couple of days. The local Bobbies have enlisted men for searching and they're hot on his trail. Gerald only got caught because he didn't want the Priest who helps him to lie for him. It was different enough it kept my attention to the end. It's only 68 minutes so I didn't have that hard a job. I'd watch it again.

West Of Zanzibar 1954 An interesting topical film about Africa. Harry Watt wrote the story and directed, Max Catto and Jack Whittingham wrote the screenplay. It's a sequel to Where No Vultures Fly which I don't have. WNVF is 30-40 smackaroonies on Amazon so I'm not having that. It's even more crazy expensive on Amazon UK, the price ranges from £46.91 to £208.15. You can buy used or bootleg copies online for a reasonable price.

Anthony Steele is a game warden in Kenya. He's friends with the Chief of a tribe that's facing a big decision. The drought  is so bad they must move the tribe. Either further into the countryside or near Mombasa. The Chief wants to stay in the country but the tribe votes to move to Mombasa.

They have a hard time adjusting to life near the city, the young men of the tribe want the fancy trappings of city life but they have no jobs or money. Some of them join up with Ivory poachers and that leads to trouble.

There's a mix of location shooting and stock footage. The story is fairly good with the two story lines wrapping around each other until they become one story. It's topical and there's some nice scenery to see. Worth a look.

Penny Paradise 1938 The 7th film directed by Carol Reed. Basil Dean, Thomas Browne, Walter Meade and Thomas Thompson all worked on the screenplay at some point.

Edmund Gwenn is a tugboat captain in the picture above. The young woman is Betty Driver, she plays Edmund's daughter Betty. She sings 3 songs during the movie but it's not meant to be a musical. Jimmy O'Dea plays Edmund's assistant and the older lady is Aunt Agnes, played by Ethel Coleridge. Jimmy played King Brian in Darby O'Gill And The Little People.

Edmund fills out a penny pools ticket and gives it to Pat to mail. Guess what, Pat doesn't mail it in, and Edmund wins £20,000. It throws the area into a tizzy as the story plays out.

It's a nice comedy about a lovable old sea captain, his lovely daughter and their stupid and incompetent pal. Why people continue to hang around Pat I'll never know. Betty is in love with him and Pat's in love with her. Betty was 18 at the time the picture was shot and Jimmy was 40. Trouble is Creepy Pat's too weak and stupid to tell her. Aunt Agnes is an old harridan who thinks she should get half the winnings because she said the name of one of the 15 teams that won. Family sure can suck. Still, it will all work out nicely in the end, other than Betty and Jimmy hooking up. I usually enjoy Edmund in most of his pictures and this is no exception. It's a fun tale.

Cheer Up! 1936 Written by Stanley Lupino and Michael Barringer with Leo Mittler directing. Stanley's also the producer and he's in the movie, playing a songwriter. He also wrote the lyrics to the songs he sings. Roddy Hughes plays his musical pal and Sally Grey plays the romantic lead. That Sally and Stanley in the picture above.

I didn't like Stanley right from the get go, he's annoying and creepily made up. Stanley and Roddy do a lot of slapstick bits that were fair to poor. Their characters have some songs and want someone to back their revue. Sally is an actress and singer who's badly in need of work. I didn't care much for the songs in the movie but eventually they do get them on stage. There are several musical dance numbers that were sort of entertaining to look at. Better if I had liked the songs. All told not a movie I liked that much.

A mixed bag of stories and production values. Still I was glad to have picked the first of the series up. I have all the others in a stack. I'll get to those soon, I hope.

Duel In The Jungle 1954

Duel In The Jungle is a nice jungle story that came out in 1954. It's port of The British Film series from Network. SK Kennedy wrote the story, Samuel Marx and TJ Morrison wrote the screenplay, the director is George Marshall. George's career was a fairly long one, he started back in 1916 directing a short called Across The Rio Grande, his last credit on the IMDb is in 1972 for directing a couple of episodes of The Odd Couple. The movie George directed just before this one was the film version of the play Red Garters. I remember seeing that in the early 60s, images from it's unique look have stuck in my head for decades. I bought the DVD as soon as I found out it existed. It's right at the top of my list of favorite musicals.

 

Dana Andrews is an insurance investigator that goes to South Africa to investigate the death of a rich guy. David Farrar plays the rich guy and Jeanne Crain plays Farrar's secretary. Parts of the film was shot in Port Elizabeth and Johannesburg, Botswana and Victoria Falls.

Someone doesn't want Dana to stay on the job, he's nearly killed on the ship to Africa, and the crew blocks his way when they dock. He escapes and gets right to work. There's more natural danger when Dana goes into the jungle on the quest of the elusive rich bastard. A good solid story with a creepy bad guy. Entertaining.

Monster From Green Hell 1957

I don't remember ever seeing Monster From Green Hell before. It's a 1957 giant monster movie, written by Louis Vittes and Endre Bohem, direction by Kenneth G Crane. I had heard of the writers, they worked on some decent shows in the 50s and 60.

Crane on the other hand was mostly a film editor, he only directed 4 films, When Hell Broke Loose was next and that was followed by the US scenes used in Half Human, those were followed by The Manster. An odd lot of films, huh, and all of it happened in 1957 and 1958.

The story is about a space test rocket that stays up for 40 hours and then falls into Africa. Some months later the area is plagued with suspicious animal and human death. Jim Davis plays a scientist, one of the men with the rocket, and he suspects the deaths might have something to do with his rocket. He goes off to Africa to investigate.

It's filled with what seem to be endless jungle scenes, so many in fact, they had to borrow some footage from Stanley And Livingstone. The story is fairly good, giant wasps, but the execution is weak. It was fun enough but it knows it's below average and so do I.