PRIMITIVE SCREWHEADS

Little Murders 1971

Little Murders 1971 Based on the play Little Murders by Jules Feiffer, screenplay by Jules Feiffer, directed by Alan Arkin. It was Alan's first film. He didn't direct that many and I've not seen any of the others. I've seen a lot of of the movies he's acted in but I don't have a lot of them on DVD. At some point in the early 80s I decided Feiffer's sort of story wasn't the sort of story that I was interested. I did like some of the children's books he illustrated. I liked his art but not enough to keep up with him.

Elliot Gould is a photographer who currently specializes in photos of shit on the sidewalk. He's won a half dozen awards. He's out on the street all the time, often he gets bothered by the street punks. The noise, the crime, the violence is bad in New York they live in.

Marcia Rodd is an interior designer who helps Elliot when the street punks are attacking him. Elliot doesn't fight back, he's got some goofy thoughts on that. Marcia starts dating him despite his lack of interest. He's emotionally withdrawn, doesn't talk much and has very little interest in others. What's interesting to Elliot is his photography work. He goes along with her plans, she steamrollers right over him, soon they are wed.

Like most scenes in the movie the wedding scene is overly exaggerated, it starts with a big fight and ends with a smaller fight. Donald Sutherland plays a hippie priest. He's got some crazy babble coming out of his mouth. Most of the movie has goofy dialog. We meet the young couple's families and they're all damaged in some way. Things get worse before the movie's over.

I mostly liked the movie but there's a lot of message in the media. The message I got out of it was not to date that sort of person. I did like the cast, it's nice to see Lou Jacobi, I haven't seen him in a while. I probably won't get around to it again but I've got other movies to watch first. You can check out the movie on YouTube, link in the title. You might like it.

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Arnold 1973 Written by Jameson Brewer and John Fenton Murray, directed by Georg Fenady. An American film set in a small village in Britain.

Stella Stevens marries her dead fiance. The ceremony is followed by a reading of the will. Stella gets the house and some odd stipulations in the will. Arnold can't be buried, he has to remain in the house, Stella has to remain in the house to keep the estate. Arnold's wife and son don't get anything. Shani Wallis plays the wife and sings the absolutely horrible title song. Roddy McDowall plays the son, he's one of the people Stella has been having an affair with, the lawyer's partner is another.

There's a huge pile of cash hidden in the house. There's plenty of vengeance going on as Arnold has set up various deathtraps for the family and friends to fall into. First to go is Arnold's wife when he died and the son isn't far off. The local bumbling Bobby, Bernard Fox, investigates but isn't smart enough to spot a murder when it's right in front of him.

It made me laugh occasionally but not all the laughs were to the jokes. It has a decent amount of zaniness. I haven't decided to buy the Blu-ray but I might want to see it again. There's a poor copy on YouTube and a good copy on RareLust.

Curse Of The Dog God 1977 Written and directed by Shun’ya Itô. The film is titled Inugami No Tatari in Japanese. Inugami refers to a curse that involves the killing of a dog to make a spirit that is used to curse people. You can read more about it on the Wikipedia.

Uranium hunters find a rich uranium vein in a small Japanese village. While searching one of the hunters ruins a small shrine by driving over it with his jeep, then he runs over a dog. That same uranium hunter marries the daughter of hte man who owns the land the uranium is on, more bad stuff happens and someone puts the curse of the dog god on the hunter, everything in his life comes to ruin.

After a bit of a slow start the craziness starts up and nearly everyone dies. It's a bit grim and might not be to everyone's taste. There's two dog murders, a couple of kids get murdered, and plenty of adults die horribly. Both films are about revenge and I thought they're a good reminder to stay single. Families like that I don't need. Despite all that I thought it was a fairly entertaining movie. I might not buy a copy and I might not need to see it again but I was glad to see it. You can download a copy over at RareLust.

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Punk Samurai Slash Down 2018 Based on the novel Panku-zamurai, kirarete sôrô, screenplay by Kankurô Kudô, directed by Gakuryû Ishii.

A ronin gets involved with the court squabbles of a small lord and a lot of people and monkeys die. There's a fair bit of action and plenty of comedy, as the movie progresses it gets weirder and weirder. You can get a bit of an idea from the trailer link in the title above.

I enjoyed most of the film but I doubt I would buy a copy of the Blu-ray. I might not get back to it.

The Amusement Park 1975 Screenplay by Wally Cook, directed by George A Romero.

I'm not going to buy a copy of George's film either. The Wikipedia called it an American psychological horror film. Fancy description. It's an hour long short that George produced for the Lutheran Service Society of Western Pennsylvania as an educational film about elder abuse. He shot it in 1973, It premiered at the American Film Festival in 1975 and wasn't released anymore. In 2020 it was restored and we watched the Blu-ray that came out of that work.

An old man wanders around an amusement park, he talks about the plight of the elderly and has plenty of age related issue examples. The park is noisy and filled with people aimlessly milling about, getting in his way. Why anyone would go there is beyond me.

If I saw this on YouTube and George wasn't directing, I doubt I'd sit through it to the end. I got the message loud and clear and it's pretty sad to see there's not been much improvement since. Glad to have seen it but I wouldn't need to see it again.

Endless Night 1972

Endless Night 1972 Based on the Agatha Christie novel Endless Night, written, directed and produced by Sidney Gilliat, Frank Launder, Sidney's long time partner, was was also the producer. It was the last film Sidney directed, he produced one more film and wrote a couple more before he retired.

Earlier in his career Sidney wrote The Lady Vanishes for Alfred Hitchcock  to direct, in the middle of his career he wrote Green For Danger for himself to direct, near the end of his career he wrote the St Trinian's Girl School pictures. There were a few other good films mixed in there too. He's one of my favorite film makers and he often worked with Frank Launder.

Endless Night is the story of a working glass guy, played by Hywel Bennett, who aspires to be rich. He likes the finer things in life, art, architecture and women. Hayley Mills plays an American who takes a liking too him, they marry pretty quickly on.

Turns out Hayley is rich, she buys the sea side plot Hywel wants, despite being warned that the place is cursed, and she arranges for the famous architect to design the house. Things happen for a bit and Hayley dies while out on a horse ride. The autopsy says natural causes but Hywel isn't sure. Hywel inherits Hayley's fortune. Things go downhill for Hywel after that.

When it was done I wasn't much impressed, it's about average, there's hardly anyone to root for but in the end there's some punishment metered out. I liked that part better. I bought a cheap DVD that I'll keep, I might get around to it again someday. Agatha herself didn't care for the film much, especially the nudity near the end of the movie. It did poorly in the UK and didn't get a US release.

Homebodies 1974

Homebodies 1974 Screenplay by Howard Kaminsky, Bennett Sims and Larry Yust, directed by Larry Yust.

An odd little film about some seniors that turn to murder to keep their condemned apartment building.

I liked the film's sense of humor and the groups decent into madness. I enjoyed the movie and would watch it again.

The Great Alligator 1979

The Great Alligator 1979 Story by George Eastman, screenplay by Casare Frugoni and Ernesto Gastaldi, directed by Sergio Martino. Original Italian title Il fiume del grande caimano. That translates to The Giant Alligator River and the movie appeared under that name in a few places, in the US it was The Great Alligator. In Canada it was The Big Alligator River, that title was also used on the US DVD box. West Germany has my favorite title Der Fluß der Mörderkrokodile.

There's about 25 mins of nothing much going on until the alligator starts attacking a new tourist resort in Africa. It's really Sri Lanka but I couldn't tell. Mel Ferrer is the resort owner and Barbara Bach is assistant. A photographer is visiting the area when the attacks begin. Many locals are slaughtered and the living local believe it's the tourists fault. There's some tribe and tourist friction.

It's a below average giant monster movie but not by too much. I got a few laughs out of it but that first long stretch before the critter shows  up is a hump. When it does show up it lacks greatness. You can see if you like the movie on YouTube in the link above.

The Abductors 1972

The Abductors 1972 Written and directed by Don Schain. The second in the Ginger film series with Cheri Caffaro playing the lead role. Cheri married Don Schain before doing this film.

Ginger's some sort of spy or investigator, she gets asked to help investigate a series of teen abductions. We already know who the kidnapping scum are, a thuggish and rapey group who need killing. We spend a lot of time with the scum as they terrorize the young women into submission. They rape them while the boss sets up a trio of business scum for a purchase.

Ginger arrives and starts investigating, she enlists another gal who gets kidnapped right away. She follows them to a house, scopes it out and returns with a gang of coppers. They raid the house and rescue the young women.

Ginger and another cop confront the head man at his office, he's a bank manager with a trio of shotguns in his desk. Ginger and her pal nearly get blown away but the head man gets all worked up over the injustice some other rich scumbags have inflicted on him. Poor him, he should suck a shotgun and put himself out of his misery. As it plays out in the movie, head man gets all worked up, Ginger and the cop jump out of the way of the shotguns while his fingers are waving in front of his face. A couple of quick punches and he's ready for the slammer.

Like that scene the whole movie is poorly made and scripted. Well below average. I downloaded this from somewhere last January and it's no longer there. You can download a copy at RareLust. Certainly not something I would need to buy.

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Doctor Strange 1978 Written and directed by Philip DeGuere. I had forgotten that we had watched this on a previous FNM night. That was back in 2018. Click the link in the title to read that.

I still feel it's just not that exciting. The director was sad it got such low Nielsen numbers but I could see where a lot of people would have bailed on this after sitting through the first half. I don't think Peter Hooten is much of an actor, he certainly doesn't do very well here. The other actors are a mix, John Mills, Jessica Walters and Clyde Kasatsu do well, the rest are weaker by far. Not that they have that great a script to work with.

The Blu-ray does look nice but that isn't enough to make the movie much better. Ironically the second film today, like the film in the 2018 post, made Doctor Strange look a little bit better by comparison.

Bury Me An Angel 1971 Written and directed by Barbara Peeters. It was picked up for distribution by Roger Corman's New World Pictures. According to the Wikipedia, Peeters was the first woman to direct a biker film. Peeters is also credited with directing Humanoids From The Deep. Not a great picture but one that's fascinating to watch none the less.

Corman didn't think Peeters had made the monsters in Humanoids From The Deep nasty enough for his audience, so Jimmy T Murakami and second unit director James Sbardellati were asked to direct a bit more of the rapey monster stuff that Roger wants his audience to have. He did this without telling the other cast and crew, Peeters and Ann Turkel didn't care for the changes and asked to have their names removed from the film, they were refused. Roger, classy or what?

It''s kind of the same for Bury Me An Angel, the exploitative elements are weak for a biker film. Dixie Peabody plays the main character, a biker called Dag. This is her second film, the first was a bit part in the 1970 biker film Angels Die Hard. Peeters worked on that film and it's there she meet Rita Murray, an actor who wanted to producer her own films. In 1971 Dixie had a small part in Night Call Nurses and then worked briefly as a PA on Summer School Teachers. No more acting. It's probably best, she doesn't have the ability.

In Bury Me An Angel Dag's brother is killed by another guy. The brother stole that guy's nice motorcycle and gave it to Dag. She decides to get revenge. After rounding up a couple unarmed goofs for backup and getting some info from a guy, the trio head north. They meet some people along the way, Dan Haggerty was one of them, eventually they find the guy who killed Dag's brother. There's an unsatisfying confrontation with the murderer at the end of the movie.

It's amazing that a movie could fail on so many fronts. Peeters just isn't that good of a director. The film meanders around with nothing happening way too often. The script isn't very good, it's certainly does not make for a good exploitative biker film. It seems more like a melodrama with Dag moping around. Too much time is spent with Dag and her internal struggle over her brother's death. The acting is mostly poor with poor Dixie leading the pack in lack of ability. We were mesmerized by her facial expressions. I think mostly because there wasn't a lot going on up on screen. Oh, well, another one I wouldn't need to buy.

Blue Money 1972

Blue Money 1972 Story by Nick Boretz, screenplay and direction by Alain Patrick. I watched an online copy not the Blu-ray. Not much by way of posters available online. It was cut down by Crown when made and there was a multi pack DVD set that came out ages ago. The negative reports of disc quality on Amazon make me less interested in buying a copy. Nothing else in there I really need to see. I didn't even need to see this movie. The Blu-ray is closer to the original run time of the movie.

It's about a guy, writer director Alain Patrick plays the main character, who is making porn films in California. He's got a pretty wife who seems unable to keep her clothes on, a nice baby, a boat and a sports car. He's being cheated by the film distributors that buy the films him and his partner make and the local police want to bust him for making porn. His wife leaves him and the business falls apart.

It's below average to me. I started fast forwarding a short way into the film. It's just a sad melodrama with plenty of nudity. I wouldn't need to see it again, let this one time.

Christa 1971

Christa 1971 Written by Jack O'Connell with additional dialogue by Bent Christensen and Gene Price, directed by Jack O'Connell. The poster boasts that Manfred Mann produced the rock soundtrack. It was a fair soundtrack but nothing I would buy as a soundtrack record. The movie was released in the US under the title Swedish Fly Girls even though Christa is Danish and much of the action takes place there.

Birte Tove plays Christa, she's a stewardess who's a single mom. Her young son lives with her parents while she jets around Europe. The father of her child is a driven businessman who wants Christa and his son. She's not interested in him but he's a mean spirited dick and he's hired a private eye to document her sex life. If Christa won't come back to him he's going to take their son because she's an unfit mother. During the movie he ruins his family's 200 year old fortune, instead of trying to fix things, he kills himself. Dying in a flaming car wreck couldn't happen to a more deserving guy.

Much of the movie has Christa, and some of her flying pals, running about without clothes on. There's even a couple of visits to a nude beach. It's got some humor, some drama, a lot of bare flesh and a happy ending. About average for this sort of film. There are hundreds of them out there. You can check out all the flesh on YouTube.