PRIMITIVE SCREWHEADS

She 1965

I don't remember seeing the 1965 Hammer film She before. I recently picked up a 21 disc set of Hammer Films from the UK. Each movie is on it's own disc and the set was about 42 bucks. She was the first disc in the set so I watched that first. It's directed by Robert Daly and David T Chandler wrote the screenplay. It's adapted from H Rider Haggard's novel of the same name. I tried reading Haggard in the 70s but I didn't get too far. Many times I prefer a movie version of a book.

Ursula Andress plays She, that's her in the golden hat. Left to right are Bernard Cribbins, Peter Cushing and John Richardson is Leo. She's right hand priest, played by Christopher Lee, finds John to be the spitting image of Callicrates, the man She murdered 2000 years ago. She's immortal and she want to send John through a magical fire that is supposed to return Callicrates to life.

Poor John's mind will have to go and he thinks he should too. Peter and Bernard help him get out of the clutches of the ancient queen. It was an OK story, the sets and locations worked well, good actors, still only a 6 for me. I got bored of all the walking and camel riding, sometimes it seemed less than interesting. I did get to the end and was happy enough. I would watch it again, I plan to go though this box again someday. Glad I picked it up.

Blood Bath 1966

The most interesting film in the 4 film Blu-ray set of Blood Bath isn't one of the features but the Tim Lucas documentary that goes with them. It's the main extra in this 2 disc set and it really illustrates why I find Roger Corman so frustrating. Occasionally he's an entertaining film maker but sometimes he's so cheap it grates to the bone. Tim has spent a good bit of work researching Blood Bath and it's history, it's an admirable bit of film making. Not Blood Bath, Tim's documentary The Trouble With Titian Revisited. It's well worth seeing.

Operacija Ticijan is the Yugoslavian title for Operation: Titian, that's the film Roger Corman invested in back in 1963. According to Jack Hill in the documentary Roger had a habit of looking for unpaid films at developers and he'd buy them. I hadn't heard that before but I knew he had bought some Russian SF films and worked the special effect shots into new scenes shot in the US.

In Yugoslavia Roger put up $20K and transport for the 3 people he supplied, the Yugoslavians would feed and house them while they were working on the film. William Campbell and Patrick Magee were in front of the camera and Francis Ford Coppola was the script supervisor and English coach. They were there nearly 5 months, William said he had a great time, he meet his wife there.

The Yugoslavian producers had planned to film in English and Roger would get the US rights. What he got was a film that he didn't think he could sell to the US distributors. Money well spent, Roger. He reedited the film and changed the dialog a bit and sold it to TV as Portrait Of Terror.

In 1964 Jack Hill got hired by Roger to make something of the film. He turned a murder mystery involving a stolen painting into a vampire film called Blood Bath. He shot a lot of new footage and worked that into the film. It ran 62 minutes and never got released. Stephanie Rothman was then hired to shoot more footage and she eventually turned in a 69 minute film that played on a double feature with Queen Of Blood. QOB was another film Roger had bought from the Russians and edited in new footage. Additional footage was added to Blood Bath to pad it out to 80 minutes, it was sold to TV as Track Of The Vampire.

All four versions of the film are on the two discs. Operation: Titian was watchable but a bit dull, Portrait In Terror cut the travelogue like opening to the film and sped up the story. Blood Bath was entertaining enough, Track Of The Vampire was longer but weaker. I was starting to lose interest during the last film. As I said earlier I enjoyed the Tim Lucas look at the film history and would recommend that over the features. It's a nice package, there's a booklet of essays and a poster, but there's really nothing special about any of the movies.

Psychotronica Collector's Set

I bought this 6 film set on a whim. Psychotronica Collector's Set collects the first 3 previous single disc releases into one package and at $24.99 it was cheaper than buying the three singles, especially since the first two single volumes are out of print and gotten expensive. There's a fourth volume in the series single disc with two more movies on it and that's $19.95. I'm not buying that disc, I've seen The Wild Women Of Wongo, and $19.95 is too much to pay for that and Jungle Girl And The Slaver.

Delinquent Schoolgirls 1975 Directed by Greg Corarito, he wrote the script with John Lamb and Maurice Smith. Michael Pataki, George "Buck" Flower, Roberta Pedon, Bob Minor, Stephen Stucker, John Alderman and Colleen Brennan were the names I recognized in the script. It has some nice posters.

Michael, Stephen and Bob are some horny mental institution inmates with a plan to break out and get some poontang. Well, two of them anyway, Stephen plays a camp gay guy, he wants some cock. Michael's escape plan works and they're on the run. They hold up in a house before they arrive at the local girls school. Don't worry, most of the women have left at their end of term, there are a dozen left who are being held over for extra work. The escapees get theirs when they try attacking the gals at a self defense class. They'll soon be happier returning to the asylum. It's a fairly decent film about some crazy guys. It's more a comedy than you might think. The worst guy turns out to be a college professor who drugs the girls and puts snakes on their underwear clad bodies. He'll get his too. At least there's some punishment for the baddies. Might be the best film in the lot. I gave it a 5 on the IMDb.

Dream No Evil 1970 Written and directed by John Hayes. Edmond O'Brien, Marc Lawrence, Michael Pataki, Arthur Franz are the cast members that I remember. Story of a crazy woman who's been abandoned by her father. She think he'll come back to her. She lives with Michael, he's a preacher, and they travel spreading his ministry. Edmond plays her father, he turns up dead one day. She goes to visit him and he rises from the dead and kills the undertaker. She goes to live with him on the farm. We see it as an abandoned dump. Someone eventually comes to get her, she's been killing and needs to be locked up. It's kind of sad and certainly less fun than the other film. Not bad but only a 4 for me.

Mondo Keyhole 1966 Director Jack Hill co-wrote the screenplay with producer John Lamb. It's a rapey roughie about a guy who doesn't want to have sex with women unless he can rape them. He's got an unloved and horny wife. We see a few of his encounters and hear his mind's thoughts on them. Part of the problem with this film is that they try to make some of it real and some of it his fantasy and it hardly works well. Jack Hill's not that great a director and he's not keen on the job. He mentions he was jut a guy for hire and he was doing what Jack Lamb wanted in the commentary for the film. There's plenty of nudity and as Jack points out, no fake breasts. What a time! I gave it a 5, I did like the way the film looked. Jack's a better cinematographer than a director.

The Raw Ones 1966 John Lamb directed this movie. After the Supreme Court said nudity of itself wasn't obscene Jack Hill helped John repackage several short nudist films into a feature length with narration telling a bit of a story. There's plenty of everyone naked. The girls are pretty but it's rather dull after a while. This one got a 4 also.

The Mermaids of Tiburon 1962/1987 Written and Directed by John Lamb. Timothy Carey and Jose Gonzales-Gonzales are the cast names I knew. A treasure hunter encounters mermaids while looking for some gold. The ladies help him find the treasure. It's kind of simple and not much better than a 3 or a 4, depending on how bored you get.

John Lamb wasn't happy with the box office on release and he went back and shot some nude mermaids and reedited the film. It was done poorly and on the cheap. The DVD set includes both versions of the film. Neither one is more than a 4 to me.

Yamboa - Cry of the Bewitched 1957 A Mexican and Cuban film written by Julio Albo and Julio Alejandro, Alfredo B Crevenna is the director. It's 1850 in Cuba and Captain Jorge and his wife Beatriz are expecting a child.

One night Yamboa, the daughter of a murdered witch comes back to the area. The slaves are unhappy and fearful, they were the ones that killed the witch. Signs of witchcraft appear on the plantation and things go downhill from there. More a melodrama than a horror film. Not too bad but a bit dull. I gave it a 4.

Naked Evil 1966

Naked Evil is a British film that came out in 9166. It's based on a play called The Obi by Jon Manchip White, the screenplay is by Stanley Goulder who also directed. I recognized a couple of people in the cast, Basil Dignam and Anthony Ainley. Basil was in The Quatermass Xperiment, Carry On Sergeant, Carlton-Browne Of The F.O., The Pure Hell Of St Trinian's, I'm Alright Jack, Gorgo, Lawrence Of Arabia and many more. Anthony many would recognize as the Master from Doctor Who. He was the fourth actor to play the part and he appeared in 11 stories. I prefer Roger Delgado but sadly he died.

In Naked Evil a club owner hires an obi-man to voodoo some trouble on a rival club. That's the obi-man above, he's also the janitor at a hostel for foreign university students.That's it below. The film was shot in black and white but randomly tinted for distribution. The tints here are from the alternate version of the film.

One of the students is paid to deliver the obi's to the victims.  Deaths occur and the police get involved. They don't believe the voodoo angle at first but some weird shit happens and doubt is cast. It's a bit slow moving but there's usually something going on and it kept me interested. The cast is good, some of them did a great job. The dialog was mostly OK, there were time though, I laughed. The sets and locations work well.  That's the hostel above, nice old building, inside and out. I was glad to see it and I'd watch it again.

The DVD comes with a few extras, photo gallery, trailers, TV promos, liner notes and a whole different version of the movie. Exorcism At Midnight was Samuel M Sherman's attempt to take a black and white film and change it enough that TV Channels, who were only interested in color films, would buy it. He tinted the black and white photography, cut big chunks out of the original film, then shot some color footage to cut into what was left. Lawrence Tierney is in the color bits as a psychiatrist who's using a laser to get more info from a patient. What the man remembers is the original film, now tinted in sepia and red. I watched it right after NE and it's just not as interesting. There's a commentary with Sam Sherman and he usually had something to say. I was glad to have the seen it but I'll stick with the original in the future.

 

Pandora And The Magic Box 1965

Pandora And The Magic Box is another Joe Sarno movie. It's the earliest film in the 4 film DVD set I picked up recently. It first came out in 1965 and it's a send up of the Greek Gods with Zeus and Hera, King Minos and Queen Scylia, Pandora and Thesus. There's a bit of a plot with Minos, the Queen and a lost niece. There's some jokes and occasionally it was a bit humorous. There's plenty of gals running about and though they dress pretty skimpy, all the ladies wear pasties and g-strings at a minimum. I'd probably watch it again but it might be a while.

4 Cult Movie Marathon Volume One

Just a day or two after seeing one of the movies in this 4 film set I found 4 Cult Movie Marathon Volume One and picked it up. I'd seen some of the films before, Vicious Lips just a few weeks ago. The 2 disc 4 film set is from Shout Factory and the movies are widescreen.

I'd seen Invasion Of The Bee Girls back in 2006 as part of one of those 50 movie box sets. The Shout Factory DVD also has two movies to a disc but they are widescreen. Sadly IOTBG is a bit fuzzy. I'm not really expecting much better from a multi pack. Who would spend the money on restoring these films when the profit margin is so slim. The set is only a ten spot on Amazon. That's not much wiggle room for production values. There are no extras either.

Here's the post I did in 2006. Pretty much the same feeling about the movie.

Invasion Of The Bee Girls is a 1973 sexploitation film written by Nicolas Meyer. It's also known as Graveyard Tramps. That's three years before he wrote The Seven-Percent Solution. You could say what a difference three years makes in a writer but some of TSPS is very slow moving and dialog heavy and so is IOTBG. At least I was expecting it in TSPS. On, what you think would be, the plus side there is more nudity in Bee Girls. But sadly, some of those breasts weren't very good. It happens, don't let the hype fool ya', they ain't all pretty in Hollywood. There isn't much else going for this movie from the Drive-In Classics 50 Movie Pack. Surprisingly, it's one that might have actually played in a drive in. Some mad scientist, a lady this time, turns women into deadly Bee Girls who mate and kill. I wonder if the writers thought this up in a bar while they were drunk. Makes ya' think.

Back in 2006 I gave the movie a 5, that's a bit generous, it's probably more a 4. I might get around to watching it again but who knows. Of the cast, I pretty much only knew William Smith and Anita Ford. It's directed by Denis Sanders, I can't say I've seen any of his few movies but I probably have seen some of his TV work. He directed an episode of Mannix and one for Route 66. I'd like to see both of those series again but who's got the time.

The Devil's 8 came out in 1969 and it stars Ross Hagen as an escaped con involved with moonshiners. Larry Gordon wrote the story, he'd go on to create The New People. I watched that 1969 TV show and wasn't too overly excited by it. I haven't wanted to get to know it again.  Willard Huyck wrote the screenplay, it was his first, he'd go on to write American Graffiti, More American Graffiti, Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom, Radioland Murders and Howard The Duck. It was directed by Burt Topper and I can't say I knew any of Burt's 7 other movies.

Christopher George is a Federal Agent, he helps some convicts escape a road gang and then puts them to work fighting moonshiners. Ross Hagen, Fabian, Tom Nardini, Leslie Parrish, Ralph Meeker, Larry Bishop, Ron Rifkin and Cliff Osmond are the cast members I knew. There's plenty of action, not the best stuff, but watchable. There's a bit of drama and some humor. Most of it's votes are a 5, I thought about giving it a 6, settled for the 5 anyway.

Unholy Rollers is a 1972 film set in the world of roller derby. Director Vernon Zimmerman co-wrote the story with Howard R Cohen and Howard would write the screenplay. Howard wrote 19 movies and lot of episodes of The Care Bears Family and Rainbow Brite. Guy's gotta eat. I've seen a few of his movies, they aren't none to good. The only other movie of Vernon's I've seen is Fade To Black and I think it's a bit better than this movie.

Claudia Jennings works at a cat food factory, she has a grabby supervisor, she quits and decides to tryout for roller derby. She gets in and doesn't make too many friends in the club.

There's plenty of roller derby action as Claudia punches her way to the top. It's on the old school banked track. There's plenty of dirty action on the track and steamy action off. Claudia and her roommate are always running around with their tops off. It does help distract from Claudia's fall from grace for being a prize bitch.

She makes all the foolish moves, her trip down is hard and fast. Oh, well, live and learn. Not a bitch like Claudia. Don't see that happen. Hell, even her own team beats her up. I only gave it a 5 on the IMDb, I thought it had a poor ending. One leaving Claudia in limbo, I thought she could use some more punishment for being such a bitch.

 

Vicious Lips I just saw a few weeks ago. No need to mention it again.

All in all an average lot of genre fare. Worth a look but mostly for the fan. You could do a lot worse, I know I have.

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.

Friday Night Movies 703

Malatesta's Carnival Of Blood is a 1973 horror movie that briefly played the drive in circuit in the south when it was new. It first made it to DVD in 2003, what went out of print, and now it's available again. The story is by Werner Liepolt and the director is Christopher Speeth. It's the only film Christopher made, he died last year at age 78.

The movie is set in a crappy carnival theme park, the now gone Six Gun Territory in Willow Grove Pennsylvania. The seedy place is owned by Malatesta and run by his right hand man, Mister Blood. Mister B is secretly a vampire and Malatesta keeps cannibals in a pit. They eat the customers and staff. Some of the new staff members are there looking for their son who also disappeared from the park. They decide to fight back when the cannibals come creeping up on their trailer. Sadly, they aren't up to defending themselves and it's chompy chompy for them.

I read that Christopher Speeth was an actor who appeared in local theater and TV. His first job directing is pretty uneven, he might have developed into a better film maker but it never happened. He was also saddled with a weak script. Werner's script is not very fleshy and the dialog isn't that great. I won't be buying me a copy.

I hadn't remembered that I had seen The Ghost when I brought the Cult Action DVDr home from a recent trip to Half Price Books. It's a 1963 Italian horror film. I looked it up on my Watched Movie List, turns out I had seen it back in 2007, in one of those 50 Movie Packs I like so much. I looked at the DVD today and it's an English dubbed and pan & scan. The DVDr I bought the other day is widescreen and in Italian with English subtitles. Tucked into the front of the DVD box is a paper sleeve with another DVDr. The second disc is an English dubbed pan & scan version that looks like it might be the same print as the movie in the 50 Movie Pack. None of these versions look that good but the widescreen version is pretty piss poor. Still watchable but annoying.

The company that put the DVDr out is Cult Action and they've got a sale going on at their website, 6 for $60. Here's how they describe themselves.

Welcome, collectors! Thank you for visiting our website.

Cult Action is a film archival and transfer service specializing in rare, hard-to-find & out-of-print films from all over the globe. Whether it's action, adventure, horror, war, mondo, sleaze, exploitation, sci-fi, or just plain hard-to-find films, we're sure that we have have just what you're looking for.

Founded by true fans of these obscure genre films., Cult Action releases feature the best, most complete & uncut prints available. And catering to the serious collector, we obtain rare artwork and promotional material for our deluxe box art. The quality of our expert transfers and professionally designed box art is simply unmatched. 

Our customers enjoy fast professional service, a great selection and the best value ANYWHERE!

We currently have hundreds of genre titles listed in the archive and more coming in all the time, so be sure to bookmark this site and keep a lookout for exciting new releases!

Regards, The Cult Action Team

Sounds like a bootleg house to me. Still, you never know what you might find in a place like that. I haven't looked through their list to see if there are even 6 movies I might want. They'd have to have something special, the chance I'd pay 10 smackaroonies for a movie like The Ghost are slim.

Here's my old post from 2007.

The Ghost is the first up on Side B. It's a slow movin' ghostly revenge movie. Barbara Steele plays the leading lady, who with her lover, a doctor, kills her husband, also a doctor. That takes a half hour, or a third of the movie. The evil pair spend the next 15 minutes looking for the dead husband's safe key. It's hidden somewhere, maybe in the house, maybe in the grounds, maybe in the coat the dead man was buried in. After searching the decaying dead man they find the key, but there's no money in the safe. Things take a turn for the melodramatic briefly, then the spookin' starts. I never found Steele, who seems very popular among the horror fans, to be that great an actress nor that stunning a beauty. I never went nuts over Sophia Loren either, just a type thing, I guess. Steele does have some eyes. They creep me out. Things go to hell for the evil couple and then there's some retribution and an ironic ending. Nice. Not a great movie but better than the average in this box.

I didn't rate it at the IMDb in 2007, so I did today, I only gave it a 5. Almost 25% of the votes were a 6 but I don't think it's quite that good. Just average. I might never watch it again and it wouldn't matter.

4 Cult Movie Marathon Volume 2

4 Cult Movie Marathon Volume 2 is a Shout Factory produced dog's breakfast of films. A cycle movie, a sex comedy and a couple of women in prison films. I guess slapping Cult on a set is all you need to do when you find you're running out of the ability to create themed sets.

Angels From Hell is a 1968 biker movie written by Jerry Wish and directed by Bruce Kessler. An ex-Vietnam vet returns home to find his old gang holed up in Bakersfield with a new leader. He beats the guy down and then goes up against the police force. It all ends badly for the bikers, they are a stupid lot, but who cares, they deserve punishment for their stupidity. It's all similar to other biker movies you've seen. The script has poor dialog at times. I gave it a 5 but it's barely worth it. The opening credits are by Von Dutch but it sure isn't his best work.

Chatterbox is a 1977 film about a gal who wakes up with a talking vagina. She turns it into a stage act and has some relationship problems. It's kind of funny and Candice Rialson gets naked a lot.

The Naked Cage is a 1986 movie about a young woman who gets involved with a robbery and winds up serving 3 years in prison. Then it's girl fights all the time. Nothing new here, really.

Savage Island is a 1985 movie that has Linda Blair show up at an old man's place and tell him a story. The movie shows you the story but Linda isn't in that part of the movie. She ends the story and blasts the old man. The old man is Leon Askin who played General Burkhalter on Hogan's Heroes. Here's an entry from the IMDb that explains what happened.

This "new movie" was cobbled together from scenes of both Hotel Paradise (1980) and Escape From Hell (1980) with 10 minutes of new additional footage featuring Linda Blair. The result was an incoherent movie featuring some of the same actors who appeared in both earlier movies disappearing and reappearing as different characters at different points in the story.

It's all the fault of Ted Nicolaou who is a pretty poor film maker on average. He directed 4 Subspecies films. It's pretty much the poorest movie of the lot. Not a real recommendation unless you've seen most everything already.

Violent Midnight 1963

Violent Midnight is a 1963 horror movie. It's got a screenplay by Robin Miller, who adapted an original story idea by director Richard Hillard. Mann Rubin added some dialog and Margot Hartman and Del Tenney are listed on the IMDb as uncredited. Del has a small part in the film and he's also the producer. Dell directed 4 movies, the first was The Horror Of Party Beach. Everyone remembers that for the monster with what appeared to be hot dogs in his mouth.

Violent Midnight was also called Psychomania and Black Autumn. Anything to trick the public into seeing the movie again. There's a killer on the loose and Lee Philips is the main suspect. He's a war hero with a bit of a history of mental illness. He knew both women who were killed. To clear himself he goes after the real killer. Pretty average stuff here, nothing stands out. There's a smattering of skin but no real nude scenes. The script is about average and the actors are up to the job. Keep an eye out for James Farentino as one of the suspects. It's also the film debut of Dick Van Patten. Sylvia Miles, Shepperd Strudwick and Jean Hale are also in the cast. Again, not much more than average but still enjoyable enough to finish. I found a copy for 2 bucks and I'll keep it. I might want to watch it again someday.