PRIMITIVE SCREWHEADS

Friday Night Movies 1026

The Snow Woman 1968 Based on the stroy Yuki-onna from Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things by Lafcadio Hearn, screenplay by Fuji Yahiro, directed by Tanaka Tokuzō. A Japanese horror fantasy set in feudal times. Tokuzō's first assistant director job was on Rashomon, on his own he directed a good number of movies, including 3 in the Zatoichi series, before working in television in the 1970s and 1980s. The second film in the Radiance Box Set.

A wood carver and his apprentice are traveling through a forest looking for a special tree to use in the carving of a statue. They find one and rejoice. A sudden storm has the two men camp over night in a abandoned house. That night they are visited by the Snow Woman, she freezes the old man and tells the young apprentice she won't kill him if he never tells anyone he saw her. The young apprentice heads home the next day.

The young apprentice gets the commission that was to be his masters. The local temple wants the sculpture, the wood arrives but needs 5 years to cure. A young woman comes into his life, they marry and have a child. Five years pass and the young apprentice starts the carving. A local Lord wants the young apprentice's wife for a bit of rape. The Lord does some underhanded things to ruin the life of the young apprentice. He's not getting his way and the Lord becomes impatient, his attempts to rape the wife go poorly for him when it's revealed she is the Snow Woman. We were all suspecting that. The Lord and his scummy retainers are all frozen to death. The Snow Woman leaves the young apprentice and their son and disappears into the snow storm.

It's a rather sad tale. It usually is in feudal Japan. I'm reminded how awful it was in feudal Japan. The film looks nice. I enjoyed it but it's the weakest of the stories in the Radiance box set. You can see a watchable copy on YouTube in the link above.

Riddick 2013 Written and directed by David Twohey. The third of the Riddick films. We watched a 4K disc. We watched it back in 2014. Back then there was talk of a 4th film, I hoped it wouldn't take 9 years like it did between 2 and 3. I didn't get my wish but I'm told there should be a fourth film next year.

Riddick gets double crossed by the Necromancers and is abandoned on a crappy planet. He uses a distress signal to call in a ride. Two rival teams of bounty hunters show up and Riddick has to kill a bunch of them before he can escape in one of their ships. Hopefully to destroy as much of the Necromancer society as possible.

I enjoyed the movie but not as much as I did The Chronicles of Riddick when we watched it a few weeks back. I'll still want to watch it over again someday.

The Brass Bottle 1964

The Brass Bottle 1964 Based on the 1900 novel The Brass Bottle by Thomas Ansley Guthrie, screenplay by Oscar Brodney, directed by Harry Keller. Sidney Sheldon was inspired by the movie to create a female genie as a foil for Larry Hagman on I Dream Of Jeannie.

Tony Randall plays an architect who's engaged to Barbara Eden. Her parents rush back from vacation to try to put a stop to the marriage plans. Tony picks up a brass bottle for the father but winds up keeping it when he sees the same as a lamp in his house. The parents talk the couple into waiting. At home Tony decides to open the brass bottle.

Burl Ives plays the genie, soon as he pops out fo the bottle the chaos begins. Tony gets slammed with one bad thing after another, all from the genie trying to make his life better. It gets so bad Tony wind sup in jail. The situations are pretty broad and there's a good bit of slapstick. Eventually things work out for the better.

I think I had seen this when I was a kid but nothing much was familiar to me. The comedy is rather like I Dream Of Jeannie but with something for Barbara Eden to do that was more interesting. It looks nice and I had a few laughs. I had picked up the Kino Lorber Blu-ray and watched that. The only extras are a handful of trails and a commentary with film historian Lee Gambin. Not the best commentary, he's a character but it does include a good long interview with Barbara Eden. Lee's questions for were where a mixed bag. Poor Barbara was well into her 80s and her memory is failing. Still, better than mine at times.

 

 

Friday Night Movies 1008

Sisu 2022 Written and directed by Jalmari Helander. 

I watched this a couple of months ago, then I bought the Blu-ray, no one else had seen it but we'd all seen the director's first feature, Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale.

Second time around I enjoyed the music more and and the Glorious Carnage about the same. Like the first time I saw this I was a bit sad that they'd run out of Nazis to slaughter. Oh, well.

Samurai Wolf 2 Hell Cut 1967 Written by Hideo Gosha, Norifumi Suzuki and Kei Tasaka, directed by Hideo Gosha. This is the sequel to the 1966 film Samurai Wolf we watched last week.

Kiba is traveling when he encounters some prisoners being transported in baskets to court. He tags along and helps keeps one of the prisoners from being assassinated. He gets hired to keep the prisoner safe from future attack. He's offered a couple of gold pieces so he takes the offer. A traveling ronin always needs some cash.

There's a whole cast of characters that are more trouble then they're worth, you can't trust the gold mine owner, the swordsman, the bad lady or the dojo master. All are likely to kill you if you get in their way. One thing we were reminded about by both movies tonight, gold mining is well dangerous. Mind you, I had already learned that from the hundreds of Westerns that use that same plot device.

There's a good bit of fighting and sword play. I enjoyed the movie about as much as the other one. Worth seeing for the fan.

Barbarella 1969

Barbarella 1969 Based on the comic book Barbarella by Jean-Claude Forest, screenplay by Terry Southern, Roger Vadim, Claude Brulé, Vittorio Bonicelli, Clement Biddle Wood, Brian Degas, Tudor Gates and Jean-Claude Forest, directed by Roger Vadim. I went to see Barbarella in the theater when it was new. I liked it then and still do.

Jane Fonda plays Barbarella, an agent for the Earth government, who's sent to Tau Ceti to capture Duran Duran and retrieve his new weapon, the positronic ray, that could wipe out humanity. Her ship has trouble and crashes on a planet in the Tau Ceti system. She has a series of adventures trying to find Duran Duran. She's almost killed by murderous dolls but gets rescued by a hairy man who captures runaway children. He introduces her to real physical sex, long gone out of favor on Earth, and send her off to the main city of Sogo.

In Sogo Barbarella meets the blind angel Pygar, Professor Ping, the Black Queen, Dildano and the Concierge. She finds Duran Duran and escapes the clutches of the evil Black Queen with the help of Dildano and Pygar. She shags a few of them along the way.

It's all pretty silly and entertaining, even after numerous viewings over the years. The sets, costumes and characters are fun and there's always something to see as the story plays out. I just picked up the Arrow 2 disc Blu-ray and that was packed with hours of extras, including a commentary by Tim Lucas. Worth picking up for the fans of the movie.

Friday Night Movies 1004

Reptilicus 1961 Written by Ib Melchior and  Sidney W Pink, directed by Poul Bang. We watched the new Blu-ray of the Danish version of Reptilicus. The English and Danish versions of the film were shot at the same time with the same cast and crew. Pink directed the English version for AIP, when he delivered a poor film, Melchior made changes. Pink was so upset he sued AIP but after seeing the finished version he dropped the charges. Pink is not noted for his direction, he's more a producer.

Miners are drilling for copper in Lapland, they find a frozen dinosaur tail and bring that to Denmark's Aquarium in Copenhagen. Scientist put the tail in a big freezer but it accidentally gets thawed out. Poor Peter will pay deadly for falling asleep later in the film. Surprisingly the tail doesn't start to rot, it starts to regrow a whole Reptilicus. That's the name the head scientist gives the creature, he compares it's regrowth to the starfish.

There's not much going on while the creature is regrowing. The head scientist's daughter falls for the tall and moody miner, the head scientist's other daughter falls for the gruff American general. There's a goofy janitor for some comic relief, he sings a song to some kids in a park. The main characters are either at the Aquarium or gallivanting around Denmark. At one point they visit the Trivoli Gardens and hear a song.

When the tail regenerates it becomes a whole creature and breaks out of it's holding cell. During it's rampages around Denmark, many die. They're fighting a creature with the ability to regrown from a single bit of flesh. That makes it dangerous to use explosives to kill it. Eventually they figure out what to do. The beast is knocked out and the head scientist says he'll dispose of it. They leave us with an open door for a sequel. Sadly, there's never been one.

The Danish version hadn't been released in the US before this Vinegar Syndrome release. It's quite a bit longer, 94 mins instead of 81 mins, and Reptilicus flies. The monster is a puppet, he's not the greatest but Denmark isn't famous for it's giant monster movies. A lot of reviews of both versions sure don't care for the monster. At least he doesn't spit green slime in the Danish version, that green slime was so fake looking in the English version. The Danish version is nicely restored, it looks and sounds great. We were all a bit excited to see this version. Most of us have seen this movie more than a couple of times. The Danish version is definitely more of a movie than the English version. It's still not a great film but it's fun to watch. I had fun watching it and would want to get my own copy to rewatch.

Intrepidos Punks 1988 Writers Tomás Fuentes, Roberto Marroquin and Ulises Pérez Aquirre. A Mexican bikers vs cops film.

Bikers break their leader out of jail and start a crime spree. Two cops are on their tail. The cops get a bit of help but they keep getting beat down. When the bikers aren't robbing and raping they're taking drug and having orgies. There's plenty of driving about and fighting. Both would be less dull if they had managed to edit the film better, it drags way more than it should. The car chase is unambitious. The biker gang has it's own theme, a lackluster song at best, sadly it's repeated Ad infinitum. Not one I'm going to pick up for myself. I was glad to have seen it but only in the I've seen another movie way, yay for me.

Science Fiction Sunday 803

2 + 5 Missione Hydra 1966 Written by Pietro Francisci and Fernando Paolo Girolami, directed by Pietro Francisci. A dubbed version was released in the US in 1977 under the title Star Pilot. It has a new script by Ian Danby and additional footage from other movies. I saw the US version some years ago. I picked up the Blu-ray during the current Kino Lorber sale. It has the original film and the US version. I watched both and listened to the commentary on the original version.

The movie opens as a spaceship from the planet Hydra lands on Sardinia and buries itself in the ground. Next we spend some time with a young lady on a movie set. She drives around Rome with her friend and goes to pick up her scientist father. They get involved with an accident and takes an unconscious man to a clinic at the airport. The actress, her friend and her father all take a ride in a helicopter to a remote location. The unconscious man wakes and runs off to join the suspicious guys in a big car.

At the remote camp the scientist and his team do some work, it leads them to a cave where they find and enter the ship. The aliens observe the humans and figure they might be the ones needed to make repairs to their ship. They take the scientist, his daughter and a couple of technicians hostage and make them do the work.

Once the ship is repaired the aliens decide to take the humans with them to Hydra. During the flight the humans rebel. The ship is damaged and a photonic storm sends them to a strange planet the aliens are unfamiliar with, they land and look the place over. There's some time for romance before the ape creatures attack. There's a bit of a battle and the ship leaves. They return to Earth to find the place a mess, cities have been destroyed. There's a montage of destruction and some dramatic music. They leave the Earth behind and travel to another planet where they meet some nice aliens. 

It's much more entertaining to see the Italian version of the film. It's still not a great film but the story holds together a bit better. It comes across as more satirical and camp, similar to films like Barbarella and Wild Wild Planet. The 4K restoration is nice looking with clear images and sound track. There's a spirited audio commentary with David Del Valle and Matteo Molinari. David's a film historian and Matteo works in the film industry. Matteo was born and raised in Italy until he moved to the US as a teenager. They've got a good bit of info to share. Glad I bought the Blu-ray. I'll probably watch it again someday.

The Whip And The Body 1963

The Whip And The Body 1963 Written by Ernesto Gastaldi, Ugo Guerra and Luciano Martino, directed by Mario Bava under the name John M Old. An Italian production with Christopher Lee.

 

Christopher Lee is Kurt Menliff, he's come to his father's castle to celebrate his brother Chistiano's marriage to Nevenka, who's played by Daliah Lavi. Kurt's real motive is to reclaim his title and fortune. He'd been ready to marry Nevenka when he had an affair with a young servant. The servant commits suicide and Kurt's father throws him out. While on the beach by the castle Kurt runs into Nevenka. He whips her and rapes her. Later that night Kurt is murdered with the same dagger that the young servant used to kill herself. Soon after Kurt's ghost returns to haunt the family.

 

What a shitty family, I wouldn't want to live with any of them. It's average story wise but it's pokey pace didn't do me any favors. I might watch watch it again but I'd speed up some of the slow bits. There's an audio commentary with Tim Lucas that offered up some film info, it didn't make me like the film more. Apparently Christopher Lee thought it was his best performance in a European film, he was sad he didn't dub his own voice.

Friday Night Movies 993

The Fort Of Death 1969 Written by Kôji Takada, directed by Eiichi Kudô. The sequel to Killer's Mission. Here's a picture of the Radiance box set released under the title The Bounty Hunter Trilogy.

The first film in the series was a mix of samurai and James Bond, this film is a mix of samurai and spaghetti western. Despite being in Italian the poster above is for this movie. This is the best image I could find of what could be the original Japanese poster.

This time the Ichibei bounty hunter gets hired to defend farmers who are staging an upraising against the local lord. The farmers are tired of the high taxes and bad treatment from the local lord. They've holed up in a makeshift fort. Feudal Japan is a horrible era, hardly any chance of getting old if you're poor, if you're lucky you'll get stabbed to death and die quickly. That's what happens here. Many of the local peasants are killed before Ichibei gets there. After his arrival a lot of the lord's warriors are slaughtered. Ichibei has a nice surprise weapon. By the end of the movie most everyone is dead. We know Ichibei survives because there's a third movie. 

It's got good fights and a fair bit of slaughter. We see a softer side of Ichibei, he works as the local doctor in his town. He works as a bounty hunter to help finance his practice. I enjoyed it and will want to watch it again sometime.

Prey 2022 Story by Patrick Aison and Dan Trachtenberg, screenplay by Patrick Aison, directed by Dan Trachtenberg. A Predator movie set in 1719 featuring an encounter with the Predator and a local tribe living in the Northern Great Plans. That's northern Nebraska going well into Canada. At one point the tribe is identified as Comanche by some French trappers. That might be a mistake on the part of the characters, the Comanche didn't live on the North Great Plains, they lived on the Southern Plains. It also might be the film writers at fault.

A young woman in the tribe wants to be a hunter but she gets a lot of push back from the tribe and her brother. One day she sees something in the sky. We know it's a Predator space ship. The Predator is dropped off and starts hunting. He watches the local tribe and hunts a few of them. There's plenty of fights between the Predator, the local warriors and some good number of animals.

The young warriors of the tribe are picked off one by one as they venture into the forest looking for one person or another. Most of them can't get a handle on the Predator as he's invisible. The young woman gets to see the Predator, she wants to hunt him but he doesn't think she's much of a threat to him. She proves him wrong by the end of the movie.

I liked the movie. There's plenty of fight and lots of running through the woods. I'd be happy to add it to my collection. Someday I could have a nice Predator film festival.

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 Mermaid 1965

The Mermaid 1965 Screenplay by Cheh Chang and directed by Li Kao. A Hong Kong Huangmei opera play from the Shaw Brothers. Ivy Ling Po plays a male character, a common thing in the Huangmei opera, like it was during Shakespeare's time.

Zhang Zhen is betrothed to the daughter of Prime Minister Master Chen. Zhang visits the family compound to meet his obligation. He isn't well received by the PM. Zhang's family has fallen on hard times since the agreement was made and Zhang isn't seen as a good candidate for a husband. The PM tells Zhang that he'll reconsider him if he becomes a top scholar.

A year later Zhang hasn't done as well as he hoped and his betrothed Peony has long since forgotten him. No matter Zhang has made friends with a carp and the fish in a pond outside his study. The carp spirit visits Zhang disguised as Peony and he thinks she's interested in him. Time passes before he sees her again. If fact, when he does, he's seeing the real Peony, she rebuffs him again.

Thing go around and around and there's way too much singing and dancing about for me. Goddesses get involved and bring about a happy ending. It was mostly entertaining and I did like the under the water sets, all the fish and the underwater flora. You can take a crack on it on YouTube. Maybe you'd like it.