PRIMITIVE SCREWHEADS

Friday Night Movies 1047

Inflatable Sex Doll Of The Wastelands 1967 Written and directed by Atsushi Yamatoya. A Japanese crime film that's often labeled as a pink film because of the sex and nudity. This is Yamatoya's second feature film as a director, he only directed 6 films between 1966 and 1974. He found he liked writing films more than directing. Between 1966 and 1990 he wrote just over 40 films and 22 TV episodes. I've only seen a few of his films, Gakidama, Branded To Kill, Capone Cries A Lot, Lupin The 3rd: The Mystery Of Mamo, and his Lupin TV episodes. Yamatoya died in 1993. ISDOTW was released under the title of Horror Doll, it's also titled Dutch Wife Of The Desert or The Dutch Wives Of The Wild. A Dutch wife is a body length pillow designed to be hugged while sleeping.

Yamatoya had worked on the script of Seijun Suzuki's film Branded To Kill before he wrote and directed this film. I'm a huge Suzuki fan, BTK and Tokyo Drifter are my two favorites of his films. Both stand out for their film making style. Inflatable Sex Doll Of The Wastelands isn't anywhere near as accomplished as Branded To Kill. Suzuki was a much better film maker in the 1960s.

The story in ISDOTW isn't as coherent as I might like. Reviews and comments by fans seem to have different views on what's going on and what it means. A man called Naka hires a guy called Sho. Reviews label him a hit man or a detective. Naka shows Sho a film of his girlfriend Sae who's being abused and raped in front of him while he's tied to a chair. The baddies are filming all the action. This happened to him 6 months ago and Kana has become obsessed with the film, watching it over and over. The baddies keep calling Kana and letting him hear Sae crying.

Sho shows off how well he shots by blasting a small tree apart with two pistols. Sho knows the leader of the baddies, a guy called Kô, a man who had murdered Sho's girlfriend some time ago. He's to meet Kô and his henchmen the next day at 3:00 PM, the same time his girlfriend was killed. Sho fantasizes killing Kô with great regularity but come the showdown Sho is distracted by a woman and he fails his mission. Kana hires another man to kill Kô.

I liked the core of the film, I liked the score of the film, I liked the street scenes of the city, I liked the barren rural area where Naka meets the hit men. Mostly it's a revenge story but some parts left me wondering. There's a fair level of dream/fantasy and a touch of the surreal. Figuring out what some scenes mean isn't something for me. Film makers are such liars, who can you trust.

I don't know if I'd buy the Blu-ray, I'm leaning to no right now. I'd rather spend my cash on something different. I don't know I'd rewatch it much either, I rather spend my remaining movie watching time re-watching Suzuki's films instead. You can see a decent copy of the film on the Internet Archive, link above. You might like it, you might not. I'll probably never know.

Heavier Trip 2024 Written and directed by Juuso Laatio and Jukka Vidgren. A sequel to the 2018 film Heavy Trip.

Impaled Rektum are in prison from events in the first movie. A cruel guard won't let them play their music. The warden is a wimpy guy with good intentions. He wants people to fill his prison. The father of the guitarist has a heart attack when he learns he owes a big pile of money to the government. Sadly, the warden won't let the guitarist out to go to the funeral. The band breaks out of prison and has an adventure in the world of professional metal. All the while the cruel guard chases after the band in her Range Rover like car, all the badges are missing so I can't be sure what it is.

A promoter has offered them a gig in Vilnius but the have no money. They sneak aboard the  Bloodmotor bus and ride with them to Vilnius. Once they get there the promoter wants them to play covers of other people's songs. They don't want to so he tells them to take a hike. The lead singer of Bloodmotor gets pulled off the stage and Impaled Rektum's lead singer Turo fills in to finish the song. The promoter offer him a chance for the band to record a song. The promoter decides to change the song and promote Turo at the expense of the band. What follows is a series of chaotic events puts the band back in prison where they let them play their own songs. The prison is full with fans who want to see the band. The warden is happy.

I enjoyed the film but not as much as Heavy Trip, it's less fresh and the story is more pedestrian. I don't feel the need to buy the movie, maybe if it gets cheaper. I found a copy on YouTube that's watchable. You can test drive it if you like. Link above.

Murder In Eden 1961

Murder In Eden 1961 Based on a story by John Haggerty, screenplay by H E Burden, directed by Max Varnel. A British art forgery crime film that was filmed in Ireland. 

An art expert tells a gallery owner that the painting of Eve is a fake. Shortly after he's run down by a big car. A French reporter sticks her nose in everywhere. A policeman on the art forgery squad takes a liking to her but it's a doomed relationship. There's plenty of driving about and chatting.

Not a good film, the script is weak, the jokes are tired, I gave it a generous 5. I did like some of the Irish scenery.

The Painted Smile 1962

The Painted Smile 1962 Based on an original idea by Brock Williams, screenplay by Pip and Jane Baker, directed by Lance Comfort. A British crime film about a dead body.

Liz Smith plays Jo Lake, she's not the brightest gal in the neighborhood. She's a con artist who's active in the local area with her partner. Her partner gets murdered by a Soho crime boss. Tom is interested in Jo and he's stupid, someone she can work with, especially after Tom puts his fingerprints on the murder weapon. It's a short put to getting Tom to help hide the body. Things don't go so well for Tom when the police pull his car over for erratic driving. He was too drunk to drive well but not drunk enough to run away. He hides with Liz until the murderer gets hold of them. What a pickle they're in.

It's barely average but it's still some what entertaining. I liked Kenneth Graham as the baddie. Liz has some acting chops, she's not just fun in her underwear. There's plenty of yakkin' and some running about. There's even a car chase. It's less than an hour and you can see it on YouTube.

Rag Doll 1961

Rag Doll 1961 Written by Derry Quinn and Brock Williams, directed by Lance Comfort. A British film about a country girl who runs away to the big city. It was released as Young, Willing and Eager in Canada and the US the following year. Lance died in 1966 but he made 36 films and a bit of TV. I've seen some of them, liking particularly his last film Devils Of Darkness. Be My Guest, Man In The Dark, Sing And Swing, Tomorrow At Ten, Murder Can Be Deadly, The Ugly Duckling, Make Mine A Million, Temptation Harbor and Pit Of Darkness all got a 6 or 7 from me. Lance directed 7 episodes of the 1958 Ivanhoe TV series with Roger Moore. It was a favorite in our house when it was new.

Carol's only 17, she lives with her drunken stepfather in his pub. Christina Gregg plays Carol and Patrick Magee plays Flynn. He's a grabby sort, our Flynn, he puts his hands on her a few times, some of his customers are the same. Carol doesn't care much for it and runs off to the glittery life of Soho in London. Carol is befriended by a lady called Auntie who gives her a room and helps her get a job in a coffee bar run by Mort. Auntie is played by Hermione Baddeley and Mort is played by Kenneth Griffith. Mort falls for Carol but he's a bit old for her, she's got her eyes on a young handsome singer called Joe. Jess Conrad plays Joe, turns out Joe's got a evening job on the rob. Joe goes for Carol and gets her knocked up right quick. That's when she discovers he's part of a crooked gang who do robberies. When Joe finds out Carol's pregnant he plans one more job to fund an escape to Canada for his family. The robbery doesn't go so well leaving Carol to raise her baby on her own. Maybe Auntie will help.

I thought it was fairly average but it did remind me, once again, not to get involved with criminals. Good advice for the country girls out there. There's a fair amount of interesting street activity going on and some nice driving through the countryside. Jess Conrad sings a song called Why Am I Living with the uncredited help of the Dave Clark Five. I enjoyed the movie more than the song but I'd watch it again sometime.

Freddy Und Die Melodie Der Nacht 1960

Freddy Und Die Melodie Der Nacht 1960 Script Gustav Kampendonk and Aldo of Pinelli, directed by Wolfgang Schleif. A German crime film staring Freddy Quinn as a singing taxi driver. Freddy was a popular singer in Europe, he had a good number of hits starting starting in the mid 1950s.

Freddy is a taxi driver, he travels about Berlin picking up people and taking them places. Most are regular folks out on their business, going home, going out to the bars and nightclubs. He picks up a couple of guys, Willi and Karl, who are planning to rob him, they'd had an unsuccessful robbery earlier in the day. They need cash so they can go on the run. In the middle of the ride Freddy stops to help another cabbie, giving him all his money while they're stopped. The two robbers get out of the cab and follow the taxi driver with the money, they rob him and shoot him.

Freddy has an interest in the pretty flower seller Inge, she haunts the bars and clubs in the evening to make some extra money. She rooms with Frau Bremer who coincidentally is the mother of Willi. The two robbers stumble around hoping to rob someone. Karl finally robs Willi's girlfriend. Things get worse and worse for the pair, poor Willi doesn't even make it to the end of the movie, breaking his poor mother's heart when she overhears the police talk of his accident. Freddy has a better night, he sings a couple of songs, has a bit of romance and catches Karl.

I enjoyed it, it moves along quickly and there's plenty going on. I enjoyed the nightlife of 1960 Berlin. The movie got posted to YouTube today. The same YouTube channel has a good number of German Krimi films some of which are based on Edgar Wallace novels. I'd watch it again.

13 West Street 1962

13 West Street 1962 Based on The Tiger Among Us by Leigh Brackett, screenplay by Bernard C Schoenfield and Robert Presnell Jr, directed by Philip Leacock. The Wikipedia calls it a neo-noir crime film. It stars Alan Ladd, who's company produced the film, and Rod Steiger.

Alan plays a scientist called Walt, who runs out of gas in a deserted part of town. He's assaulted by some young men, they beat him severely, breaking his leg. Michael Callan plays Chuck, he's the leader of the scummy high school students who were out joy riding. His family is well off and he's a psychopath. They have Walt's address and harass his wife Tracey to keep silent, she's played by Delores Dom.

Rod Steiger is Sergeant Koleski, Alan thinks he's moving too slowly on his case. Koleski has little to go on, a couple of first names, but he's does work the case. Alan hires his own private eye, Stanley Adams plays Finney. He gets some good leads but doesn't fair well in the story, another victim of the scummy teens.  Chuck's family covers for him, as do the other parents of the teens. One boy is going to turn himself in but Chuck hangs him in his bedroom, making the scene look like a suicide. Eventually Walt wins out and the boys are arrested.

It's a decent film with good script. The cast does well, you feel for Walt and Tracey. Rod stands out as the frustrated cop, he wears his frustration on his sleeve, he's frustrated with the scummy entitled teens and their scummy entitled Bel-Air parents, he's frustrated with Walt sticking his nose into the investigation. Poor Alan was suffering from medical issues while filming, this would be his last leading man role, he died a couple of years later. I enjoyed the film and might get around to watching it again sometime.

Der Satan Lockt Mit Liebe 1960

Der Satan Lockt Mit Liebe 1960 Written by Ilse Lotz-Dupont and directed by Rudolf Jugert. A German Krimi film that was known as Satan Tempts With Love, US TV title was Devil's Choice.

A crook stole some money and another crook uses his girlfriend to get close to the guy with the money so he can steal it. She likes the guy with the money better than her boyfriend. That's not going down well.

A slightly better than average crime film that reminds me that crooks aren't overly trustworthy.

Friday Night Movies 1033

Suspect 1960 Based on a Nigel Balchin novel called A Sort Of Traitors, screenplay by Nigel Balchin with additional dialog by Roy Boulting and Jeffrey Dell, directed by John Boulting and Roy Boulting. A rather low budget film set in the world of germs. Both films are on one Blu-ray in the Cushing Curiosities Box Set from Severn. It's also known as The Risk.

A group of British scientists are working on cures for diseases like bubonic plague, they want to publish but the government says there's a chance that the work could be used to create dangerous diseases to attack Britain. Peter Cushing plays Professor Sewell, he's the head of the group, he's resigned to giving into the government's wishes but his co-worker Bob Marriott (Tony Britton) is more upset at the ban. He thinks that the world needs to know of their research so other scientists can lend a hand. 

Bob has an interest in his co-worker Lucy Byrne (Virginia Maskell) but she's devoted to her ex-fiance who lost his hands and arms in Korea. Ian Bannen plays the ex Alan Andrews. He refuses to marry her but he's willing to live with her and have her take care of him. He's a miserable man who needs to be in a care home. Lucy tells him about her trip to the movies with Bob, he becomes obsessed with Bob and wants to meet him.

Bob goes for a drink with Alan and Lucy, it's at the pub that Bob meets a pub acquaintance of Alan's called Mr Brown (Donald Pleasence). Bob talks too freely about his work problems in front of Mr Brown, the man suggests there are people who would help get the work out to other countries.  

In the meantime the government has been taking an interest in the gaggle of scientists and their rather loose lips. Thorley Walters plays the enjoyable Mr Prince, he's head of a group of spies that are keeping an eye on the scientists, Sam Kydd plays his second hand man Slater. Bob gets talked into giving up some secrets by Mr Brown, he nearly goes through with the plan but he's discovered by Professor Sewell and Mr Prince. They set up the baddies for a fall and the scientists get back to work on the germs.

I liked this rather low throttle thriller a fair bit. The story is good, the characters are fairly developed and the low budget production isn't too distracting. There's a bit of humor, Spike Milligan plays the comic relief, his main foil is a chimp. I'd want to watch it again at some point. The film has a nice commentary by John Rigby and Kevin Lyons.

The Man Who Finally Died 1962 Based on a 1959 ITV series of the same name, screenplay by Lewis Griefer and Louis Marks, directed by Quentin Lawrence. Stanley Baker and Peter Cushing star in this mystery thriller set in Bavaria.

Stanley plays a musician Joe Newman, he'd been called Joachim Deutsch before WW2 but changed his name when his mother took him to the UK. He's returned to his home town, someone had called to tell of his father's death. Joe is surprised at this news, he'd been told his father had died 20 years ago. He takes a room in the hotel and goes to visit his father's new wife. Peter Cushing plays a doctor who had been treating Joe's father for his war time trauma. Peter owns the house the family has been living in. Joe soon gets involved in a complex plot involving his father's death.

Joe's dogged determination to find out what's going on puts a big spanner in the works for the secret plotters. No one takes him aside to fill him in and the baddie nearly gets away with the prize. Things work out better than you'd expect and Joe heads for home.

I enjoyed this one too. There were plenty of twists and turns as the story was unfolded. It was nice to see the baddie get his in the end. Plenty of good cast members and good production values. I'd watch it again. Finally a commentary with Kim Newman that I liked. He was joined by Barry Forshaw who wrote a book on film noir.

Friday Night Movies 1031

Doberman Cop 1977 Based on the Doberman Deka manga written by Buronson and illustrated by Shinji Hiramatsu, screenplay by Kōji Takada, directed by Kinji Fukasaku. A Japanese cop movie starring Sony Chiba as a small town cop from Ishigaki Island.

Sonny plays Kano, he's come to Shinjuku because of the local police think the burnt corpse in an apartment is possibly Yuna Tamashiro. Kano knows Yuna's mother, she's a noro, a priestesses of the Ryukyuan religion. The mother predicts Kano and Yuna will marry. The Shinjuku police make fun of Kano for being a bumpkin, he brought a pig to give to the chief of detectives as a gift. The pig was turned down so Kano has to schlep the critter around for the rest of the movie.

Kano gets some big time new headlines for rescuing a singer held hostage from an obsessive fan in her 20th floor apartment by rappelling down the side of the building and smashing through the window. Kano believes that the singer Miki might be Yuna but she says she's not. Her manager Hidemori is a yakuza who's also in love with Miki. Things get more and more complicated and violent as Kano bashes his way around town. When the police don't help him he takes some help from the biker who was the burnt woman's friend and his pals. Eventually Kano blasts the real killer.

It's a non-stop riot of color and noise. I though the movie should have been called Saidaigen no sakebi or Maximum Yelling. There's plenty of fights, gun battles and lots of yelling. Everyone is yelling all the time and the volume ramps up the more emotional they get. Bodies pile up and Kano is often responsible. I enjoyed the heck out of it and would watch it again.

Angel With The Iron Fists 1967 Written by Wei Shih and directed by Wei Lo. A Chinese action film with secret agents infiltrating a criminal gang called the Dark Angels.

Agent 009 works for the police, she's infiltrating the Dark Angels. She pretends to be rich and the girlfriend of Baldy, a big time criminal who's locked up. Baldy's gang is after her because she refuses to share a suitcase of cash with them. Agent 009 makes contact with a jeweler who's part of the DA. The DA are a ruthless gang, they like robbing and killing. Cross them and you're dead, try to leave the gang and you're dead.I suspect that's their retirement plan too.

They have a nice underground secret base, imagine something like a James Bond villain might have but cheaper and smaller. There's plenty of sneaking about, some murders, some fights and plenty of driving about in cars. Sadly the movie is too long and the action rather tame. Some of the fights are a bit embarrassing, arms flailing like a windmill of bones. Some of the score was entertaining, not the singing parts, they were way tedious.

I still enjoyed it, it was pretty darn funny, not on purpose for most of it. It's part of a three film Blu-ray set from Eureka, all the films are of the same sort, the other two films are The Golden Buddha and The Singing Thief. I hope to get to that fairly soon.

 

Der Teppich Des Grauens 1962

Der Teppich Des Grauens 1962 Script by Felix Lützkendorf, Helmut Harun, Eugenio Martin and Giuseppe  Mangione, directed by Harald Reinl. The US title was The Carpet Of Horror. 

A evil scientist has invented a nice poison delivery system, an Indian poison enclosed in a little ball. Toss it in a room and it slowly dissolves releasing poison in the room. The victim croaks fairly quickly. A couple of men are killed with the poison, it takes a while for the police to figure out where the poison came from, a bit of discolored carpet is the only clue. One man was a secret agent and the other a code breaking expert.

Joachim Fuchsberger plays a secret agent on the trail of the baddies. Joachim stars in a lot of the Krimi films, usually he's a cop. Karin Dor, another Krimi regular, teams up with Joachim to catch her uncle's killer, her uncle was the code breaker. They get attacked by the baddies from time to time but there's also a lot of driving about and talking to people. Eventually enough clues give the baddie away.

It's fairly entertaining but not quite as entertaining as a Edgar Wallace Krimi. Still worth the watch for the Krimi fan.