PRIMITIVE SCREWHEADS

Massage Parlor Murders! 1973

Massage Parlor Murders! 1973 Directed by Chester Fox and Alex Stevens. No writer is credited on the film, the IMDb or the Wikipedia.

A serial killer is murdering massage parlor workers, he's using the seven deadly sins as his guide. The police are after him but there are no real leads. One of the cops gets involved with one of the massage ladies but that ends poorly for her. It ends poorly for the murderer when he finally meets a massage gal who can fight back.

It's a poorly made film with a mediocre script. The acting is all over the place, nobody stands out in that crowd. There's plenty of nudity and some violence. Lots of good shots of New York in 1973. Good filler to pad out the film to 80 mins. I laughed at a couple of spots, no joke, just some bad film making. Not something I would need to see again.

Killer Fish 1979

Killer Fish 1979 Written by Michael Rogers and directed by Antonio Margheriti. A Italian French Brazilian production that was made on location in Angra dos Reis Brazil.

A big haul of stolen emeralds are hidden in a piranha infested reservoir. They were hidden there by the head of the pack of thieves that stole the gems. The rest of the gang has an idea where they are but not about the hungry hungry fishes. They find out to their dying regret.

It's got some thieving, some fights, a bit of running around, a whole lot of double crossing with a side of piranha lunches. Lee Majors, Karen Black, Margaux Hemingway, James Franciscus, Gary Collins and Roy Brocksmith are in the cast.

It's a below average but watchable crime film. Not something I'd need to see again. You can see if you like it on YouTube.

The Black Tavern 1972

The Black Tavern 1972 Written by Yeh I-fang, directed by Teddy Yip. A Shaw Brothers movie about some bandits.

Jackie Chan has a small part as Official Hai's servant. He puts up a fight but in the end he gets stabbed up pretty good. It's another Jackie Chan film I hadn't seen before.

Several groups of villains plan to rob the wagon of Offical Hai as he heads into the country to retire. He's supposed to have a nice chest of gold. That's the Whip Master and his gang, they kill the previous owners of a rather isolated inn in the country.

The previous owners were a nasty bunch, robbing people and serving them human flesh buns. They get killed before they can make anymore. Official Hai shows up and there's one attack after another. Most of the villains are slain with the usual sort of martial arts fights of the day. The fights are about average. The dialog between the groups of robbers is more entertaining to me. The Three-Headed Cobra don't say much but they've got nice tiger pattern shirts and stylish blue capes with white trim. No matter, their bodies stack up like cord wood in the courtyard, slowly being covered with a nice light blanket of snow.

An entertaining film. It popped up on RareLust today. A decent looking copy that isn't that big a file. YouTube has a poorer copy but you don't have to downloaded to see it.

Eaten Alive 1976

Eaten Alive 1976 Written by Kim Henkel, Alvin L Fast and Mardi Rustam, directed by Tobe Hooper. Loosely based on the true story of Joe Ball, who murdered some women and feed them to the live alligator attraction in his bar in 1930s Texas.

Neville Brand plays the mentally disturbed owner of a run down motel next to a swamp in rural Texas. There's a nasty alligator in the swamp, Neville keeps it as a pet. If he's got customer troubles they might wind up being feed to the alligator. He kills a few people who come by before coming to an ironic end himself.

Beside Neville there's a decent cast with Mel Ferrer, Carolyn Jones, William Finley, Stuart Whitman, Marilyn Burns and Robert Englund. The story is creepy and entertaining in a dirty gritty way. It's about average for me, I wouldn't find it as entertaining if Neville didn't get his just deserts. I might watch it again but I'm not rushing to get back to the story. Too many other things to watch.

The Cat O' Nine Tails 1971

The Cat O' Nine Tails 1971 Story by Dario Argento, Luigi Cozzi and Dardano Sacchetti, screenplay by Dario Argento and an uncredited Bryan Edgar Wallace, directed by Dario Argento. Dario's 2nd film as a director. According to the commentary it was rushed into production to take advantage of the popularity of The Bird With The Crystal Plumage. It did well at the box office in Italy but didn't do as well in Europe. I watched the Arrow DVD, someone was nice enough to pass that on, that has the longer cut that played in Europe, the US cut was about 15 mins shorter.

James Franciscus is a reporter and Christine Spaak is Anna, the daughter of the director of the Terzi Medical Institute. There's a break in at the Institute and James stops by for the story. There's not much to go on and James always seems to be a step or two behind the killer.

Karl Malden plays a blind ex-reporter who now makes crossword puzzles. The little girl is his niece Lori, played by Cinzia De Carolis. They live right by the Terzi Institute and meet James on the street. James and Karl start working together but they are still behind the killer. The title compares the 9 tails of a cat 0' nine tails whip with the number of leads to follow up on.

James starts a relationship with Anna but that doesn't go so well. One should never date murder suspects. That's just common sense. The killer keeps on killing and the evidence piles up, eventually James and Karl figure out who's behind it all.

As I was watching this I kept thinking this film was very like a German Krimi film. They are often said to be the father of the giallo films. I looked at the date and the Krimi films were on the wane by 1971. The commentary on the disc is by critics Alan Jones and Kim Newman. Almost immediately they start talking about Krimi films and Bryan Edgar Wallace. Some of the crew on the film were German but who knows how, or if, they influenced the film. I enjoyed it more than most Dario films I've seen. Typically Dario says that this is his least favorite film. I'd actually rewatch this one.

The Playbirds 1978

The Playbirds 1978 Written and directed by Willy Roe. A British sexplotation film with Mary Millington. She was a popular nude model for men's magazines and star of the most successful British sex comedy Come Play With Me. She died young, driven to suicide by her life choices.

This is a comedy that's blended with a murder mystery. A serial killer is attacking the centerfold girls from Playbirds magazine. We spend a good bit of time with the magazine's producers and the models that fill it's pages. The movie is filled with young woman running about with their clothes off.

The police are after the murder but he's rather illusive. There are some suspects but nothing to pin any of them to the killings. Soon there are 4 victims and no results. Mary is a police woman who's already working the case, she volunteers to become a nude model and appear in the magazine. They are hoping to flush out the murder.

It's pretty average for what it is. There's a few good gags and all those playbirds but the murder mystery part is a bit rushed. Some have compared the film to the Italian Giallo and it does seem influenced by that style. I enjoyed it but doubt I would need to watch it again. I downloaded a copy off of YouTube but as I look now, it's gone. You can download a copy from Rarelust but it takes a while.

The Brave And The Evil 1971

The Brave And The Evil 1971 Written and directed by Jimmy Wang Yu.

When her father is killed guarding a big pile of cash for the refugees the daughter goes after the baddies who stole it. The movie opens with that fight. We meet Jimmy Wang Yu's character, he's secretly a known martial artist called Iron Palm. It's a bit before the daughter finally makes an appearance. She has a fight with Jimmy in the middle of the night. Locals get involved and there's more fighting.

Jimmy and the daughter team up, they find out who did the robbing and killing. The daughter gets beaten and kidnapped, Jimmy helps her escape. There's plenty more fighting before getting to the end of the movie.

I was entertained, there's a nice grittiness to it. I thought it was worth taking a look and would want to watch it again. I found a decent copy on Rarelust and there's a slightly fuzzier copy on YouTube. Link above.

Friday Night Movies 967

Signed, Arsene Lupin 1959 Written by Diego Fabbri, Maurice LeBlanc, Jean-Paul Rapperneau and Yves Robert, directed by Yves Robert.

 

That's the Kino Lorber 3 film Blu-ray collection. They used the French poster from this movie on the case, it's a much more interesting bit of artwork than the poster for the first film.

It's just after the end of WWI and Lupin is resting in a convalescent home in the French countryside. His old accomplice La Ballu comes by to see if he's interested in robbing a nice villa on an island. Lupin goes along and La Ballu sets him up for the police to capture. Lupin manages to escape but not before noticing that La Ballu has stolen a painting.

The painting is part of a triptych, when arranged in a certain way the paintings are clues to a treasure buried on the grounds of the house. La Ballu gets the second painting but the third is stolen before he gets to the museum. Having some good luck Lupin manages to steal the third from the boss of the gang. They join forces, Lupin robs the boss blind and then skedaddles. 

Like the first film there's a nice caper and a good sense of humor. The film looks fine. I enjoyed it and would watch it again someday.

Haunted Samurai 1970 Based on the manga of Goseki Kojima, screenplay by Kiyoshi Hoshikawa, directed by Keiichi Ozawa. Goseki is the artist for the Lone Wolf And Cub manga.

Rokuheita is a samurai working for the Yagyu clan. He decides to give up his enforcing job and lets two innocent people the clan wanted dead go free. The Yagyu ninjas show up pretty quickly to kill him for deserting. There's plenty of chasing about and sword play.

There are a couple of sub plots going on and plenty to keep track of. Rokuheita hides in a small village and takes up farming. He finds to local warlord a brutal murderous man. He sides with the villagers to fight the warlord. The Yagyu ninjas find him and complicate things.

All in all a good solid film with a decent story and characters. There's a bit of humor, a bit of sadness, plenty of fights and topless lady ninjas. There's even a fight underwater, with topless ninja ladies. I'd watch it again sometime.

Revenge Of The Shogun Women 1977

Revenge Of The Shogun Women 1977 Written by Terry Chambers, Hua Chan and Huang-kun Lin, directed by Mei-Chun Chang. I watched the 3-D Blu-ray from Kino Lorber. I don't have a 3-D BD3D Polarized player or TV so I watched the Anaglyphic red/cyan version with the glasses supplied. I thought it was some of the most eye popping 3-D I'd seen.

The story is typical of the 70s with bandits robbing and raping their way through small villages. Thirteen of the local women who were attacked take the pledge to become nuns and learn martial arts. They defy the head nun and get some revenge on the bandits. There's plenty of action and swords poking out of the screen. The fights are fair to good and the revenge is swift and deadly.

There are three 3-D shorts with slightly racy content that was rather uninteresting, I fast forwarded through them.

The Black Windmill 1974

The Black Windmill 1974 Based on the 1973 Clive Egleton novel Seven Days To A Killing, screenplay by Leigh Vance, direction by Don Siegel. I picked up the Kino Lorber Blu-ray during a recent sale. Not for any reason really, I like Michael Cane and several people in the cast: Donald Pleasence, John Vernon, Clive Revill, Catherine Schell, Edward Hardwicke, Derek Newark, Patrick Barr and John Rhys-Davies. 

Michael Caine's son and a second boy are kidnapped at an abandoned airbase by men posing as RAF men. Micheal is a British intelligence officer who's on an undercover operation investigating arms smugglers. Michael's wife calls to tell him she got a call from someone telling her their son has been kidnapped. The couple have recently separated.

Michael takes the kidnappers second call, they want big packet of diamonds worth £517,057 or they'll kill his son. Michael's boss just happens to have a packet of diamonds in his safe that's worth exactly that much, it's meant for another mission. Michael tells his boss what's going on. His boss wonders how the kidnappers knew about that packet of diamonds and whether there's a bad apple in MI6. At first he suspects Michael of organizing the kidnapping and ransom, he sets some men to investigate him.

Michael spends the rest of the movie running after the baddie. There's a fair bit of talking but a good bit of action. Eventually things work out for Michael and there's a happy ending.

It's a fairly decent spy thriller but nothing really exceptional. I gave it a 6 on the IMDb, it's average is 6.3, and I didn't quite think it was a 7. I'm betting it's going to be a while before I get back to it again. I have other Michael Caine films I want to watch before this one.

There's a good commentary by filmmaker and film historian Mike Siegel. No relation to Don. There's also an interview with cinematographer Ousame Rawi, 6 radio spots, and animated image gallery, some new cover art for the Blu-ray cover and a trailer. I don't like a lot of the new art that some of the companies put on their releases. I prefer the original poster in most cases.