PRIMITIVE SCREWHEADS

Friday Night Movies 78

Sandwiched between the 5th and 6th episodes of Star Wars were another movie and an unsold tv pilot. It was a short movie night. I was home by 10:11 pm. Still time to watch another movie before bed, nice warm cup of tea to wet the old whistle and a nice slab of apple pie. Last of the free pie from work. A little tart that pie from Rush City.

The movie was Final Destination 3. James Wong directed and co-wrote the script with Glenn Morgan, both of whom worked on The X-Files and Millennium. Wong co-wrote and directed the first Final Destination and Jet Lee's The One. Like the 1st and 2nd FD movies some people cheat death. A young woman has a premonition and gets off the roller coaster. It's called Death Flight, and it's got a giant statue of The Devil at the entrance. That's a god'damn premonition right there. You wouldn't get me on a roller coaster. That's some dangerous shit. The young woman was scared before the ride and baby, you should listen to your self. Some guy tells her that more people die going to the Amusement Park than on the roller coaster. I bet that's true and that's why I don't drive to the Amusement Park, nor go in. Just cause your friends are going doesn't mean you need to go too. But, our young woman caves to peer pressure and gets on board Satan's coaster. Her vision spooks several people into leaving the roller coaster. It takes off and everyone riding is killed. The people who stayed off cheated Death. Pissed, he comes looking for the people and scoops them up in gorey CGI generated splender. Most of the deaths are elaborate Rube Goldberg inspired chains of events that often are very grisly and gorey. There are many scenes of bodies being rendered into ground chuck or fine mist. Two topless girls lounging in tanning beds are accidently trapped as the power shorts out and the beds overheat. They burst into flames in a pretty harsh scene. The total package is somewhat amusing but there isn't much else to this movie than the elaborate deaths. Hopefully, they will put the series to rest and make some new stories.

Tales of Frankenstein isn't a new story. It's a 1958 pilot for an unsold tv series. Anton Diffring is Baron Frankenstein. He's got a monster but it's got a problem with it's brain. He gets the brain from a dead sculptor. The sculptor's wife finds out and the monster kills himself. It was kind of boring, and I wondered what they might do as a series. Every week the Baron builds a new creature out of some person who does a guest appearance. I'd like to see the series with the monster in a Lassie like role, having small adventures with Timmy, but still remaining the grunting charm of the original. Uuuugh! What? Timmy's in the well! Let's go! The show was produced for Hammer Films and directed by Curt Siodmak, who co-wrote the script with an uncredited Jerome Bixby. Too bad they didn't do that well.

Nice things, me like!

Greg lent me a copy of Lemora: A Child's Tale of Supernatural. This 1975 film is out from Synapse with a nice looking transfer, apparently you can actually see what's going on in some scenes when compared to the previous video versions, and a good commentary with the director, producer and the actress who played Lemora. Cheryl Smith barely plays a 13 year old girl who's father is the notorious gangster that the police are looking for. Beware, that Cheryl Smith site contains full frontal nudity. Don't be lookin' at that when your mom's about. It's the 1930's and Cheryl is living with a preacher and singing in his church. Cheryl's father had killed her mother and mom's boyfriend. Blasted them in the sack! This happens in the opening scene of the movie. Escaping from the police Cheryl's dad gets trapped by some supernatural weirdos. They write Cheryl and trick her into coming to see her dying daddy. It all goes pretty bad after she leaves town. There's a lot of sexuality in the movie but not nudity. I thought the story was ok but not outstanding. I did like the commentary by Richard Blackburn, Robert Fern and Lesley Gibb. Director Blackburn talked about the Lovecraft influence on his script and film. And it is that kind of story, a person thrown into something beyond their ken, with a bit more diddling than I remember Lovecraft had goin' on. It's been so long, was there sex in Lovecraft? I bet there's Lovecraftian porn. The old ones comes through to our world through the portal in some guys ass. Who wants to read that? Anyway, it's not as weird in Lemoraland as it is in my head right now, although, some of those guys livin' in the woods were real fucked up! More of a movie for horror fans who rate it pretty high.

I am on the third Lemony Snicket book and have been enjoying them - and by enjoying them I mean I am pounding them down fast and can't wait to get to the next one, which will be number four. The 13th and last book, is due Friday the 13th, next month. I should be well finished the first 12 by then. I'm finding them interesting and fairly amusing. Who knows how that will go with a dozen books in one push. My book reading total has been thrown off this year by those awful Emily Drake books. They made me stop reading, my mind was stunned or something. China Mieville, same thing. I haven't even read 40 books this year.

There are pictures from the next Harry Potter movie popping up online. They are near the end of the 150 day shooting schedule. That's a helluva long time to shoot. I haven't watched a Harry Potter movie for three or four weeks, gettin' to be time.

Tonight I watched the new edition of Gojira or Godzilla. It a two disc set offering both the 1954 original Japanese release and the 1956 American version Godzilla, King of the Monsters. Both movies have commentaries and trailers. Gojira has short featurettes on the story and the suit. Steve Ryfle and Ed Godziszewski do the commentaries and they are informative and interesting. Both are Godzilla scholars - and by that I mean they have books and magazines out and actually aren't professors at a college. I did read Steve's book. There are two releases scheduled for Novemeber 7th. Godzilla Rides Again and Mothra vs Godzilla. Both titles come with Japanese and American versions.

If you haven't seen Gojira you really should. It's not the Raymond Burr Godzilla, King of the Monsters. Gojira is better, much better, in every way. It's not laughable. It's deadly serious. Born out of the ashes of the atom bomb, some 8 years past, Gojira captures those horrendous events in his allegorical rampages. The raging fires burning on all sides remind many of the three day firebombing of Tokyo in which 100,000 died. Not so much fun when somebody gets hurt, huh. Yeah. Still, that shouldn't keep you from seeing the birth of a legend at it's best. The print is pretty darn good, certainly better than the bootleg dvd I have had for a while, or the bootleg tape I have had even longer. Fifty years after it's release in Japan the movie was finally shown here, in theaters, and people were stunned. You can examine both versions here. It's well worth the look.

Tokyo Rose dies

I see Tokyo Rose died. I used to have a nice time in her store back in the 80's. The first time I talked to her I didn't know who she was. Karen Trego took me there on one of our trips to Chicago. I was interested in Japanese things, especially the toys and candy packages that they had. I bought some paper fans there too. Here's the article from MSNBC.

CHICAGO - An American woman convicted of treason and later pardoned for being “Tokyo Rose,” one of several radio announcers Japan used during World War Two to spew propaganda to undermine American morale, has died, a Chicago hospital said Wednesday. Iva Toguri, 90, died Tuesday from undisclosed causes, a hospital spokesman said. She was convicted of treason in 1949 based on suspect testimony that she was the legendary “seductress of the short wave” who had sought to persuade American soldiers to surrender because their cause was lost and their girlfriends were deserting them at home. She served more than six years in prison, though many historians believe she was not one of the dozen announcers dubbed “Tokyo Rose” by American soldiers, who mostly laughed off the surrender appeals. Toguri did work as an announcer for the “Zero Hour” program on Radio Tokyo, but mostly played jazz records and uttered facetious comments meant to bolster, not weaken, American resolve, say historians.

Stuck in Japan during war  Born July 4, 1916, in Los Angeles, the young college graduate was visiting a sick relative in Japan when she became trapped there as war broke out. Starving and sick, unable to speak Japanese, she answered an ad to become an English-language typist for Radio Tokyo. She married another station employee, Felipe D’Aquino, a Portuguese of Japanese descent. After the war, a pregnant Toguri sought to return to the United States but broadcaster Walter Winchell and others cited her possible role as Tokyo Rose and criticized the U.S. administration for not punishing her. Toguri eventually signed interview notes implicating herself, thinking she could speed her return home. Later, President Gerald Ford, made aware that she had likely been made a scapegoat during the nervous climate in the early days of the Cold War, pardoned Toguri in 1977. After her release from prison, Toguri opened a small shop in Chicago and fought for a pardon. The only other American woman convicted of treason was Mildred Gellers, known as “Axis Sally” as a broadcaster for Germany. 

Here's a nice piece from The Washington Times;

Vetrans embrace "Tokyo Rose" by James C. Roberst May 30, 2006

Iva Toguri has lived a long time, but she said the "most memorable" day of her life came earlier this year when she was recognized by a group of U.S. military veterans.
    The Chicago ceremony was rich with irony. The Edward J. Herlihy Citizenship Award, which the World War II Veterans Committee bestowed on 89-year-old Ms. Toguri at a January luncheon in Chicago, was named for a famous broadcaster whose narration of the Universal newsreels won him the moniker "The Voice of World War II."
    Ms. Toguri was also a broadcaster -- once notoriously known as Tokyo Rose.
    The January award was an important vindication of Ms. Toguri, who was sent to federal prison after being convicted of treason based on perjured testimony. Her American citizenship was stripped in 1949. President Ford restored it in 1977.
    The irony-filled saga of this woman born on the Fourth of July -- in Los Angeles in 1916 -- is the kind of amazing story that sounds like a Hollywood script. Indeed, Paramount has a film of Ms. Toguri's life in the works, to be produced by Frank Darabont, best known for such films as "The Shawshank Redemption" and "The Green Mile."
    The child of Japanese-American parents, Ms. Toguri grew up in a middle-class family determined to assimilate into the American mainstream. Ms. Toguri, who spoke almost no Japanese and hated Japanese food, was a Girl Scout, a Methodist and a Republican. She loved pop culture ("Orphan Annie" was her favorite cartoon character) and graduated from the University of California at Los Angeles, with plans to become a doctor.
    Then, in June 1941, a letter arrived from her aunt, who had remained in Japan and was in failing health. She begged Ms. Toguri's mother to come to Japan for one last visit.
    Ms. Toguri's mother also was in poor health, however. Her father and brother were busy running the family business, and so Ms. Toguri was sent instead, boarding a ship for what she expected would be a six-month visit to Tokyo.
    Then came the December 7, 1941, Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor that brought the United States into World War II. Ms. Toguri found herself trapped in the capital of the Japanese empire, 7,000 miles from her American home.
    Unlike some Japanese-Americans who found themselves stuck in wartime Japan under similar circumstances, Ms. Toguri resisted official pressure to renounce her U.S. citizenship.
    Ms. Toguri found work as a typist at the Domei News Agency and at the Danish Embassy and, in 1943, responded to an ad from Radio Tokyo for English-speaking typists. At about the same time, Japanese military authorities decided to step up their radio propaganda broadcasts by bringing in three Allied prisoners of war -- Australian Maj. Charles Cousens, American Capt. Wallace Ince and Philippine Lt. Norman Reyes -- to run a new daily show called the "Zero Hour."
    Maj. Cousens resolved to use the "Zero Hour" to entertain, rather than demoralize, the U.S. troops who were targets of the broadcast and, arguing that the shows would be more persuasive if presented with an authentic Western touch, talked his Japanese captors into granting him control of the program.

The Australian officer managed to slip subtle anti-Japanese messages into "The Zero Hour," and one of the new recruits he brought on board for the show was the former Girl Scout from Los Angeles, Ms. Toguri.
    By 1943, American soldiers had already adopted "Tokyo Rose" as a nickname describing several female announcers on Japanese propaganda broadcasts. On "The Zero Hour," Ms. Toguri called herself "Orphan Ann" in tribute to her favorite comic-strip character, as she introduced newscasts and did comedy skits.
    As the war went on, Ms. Toguri used some of her earnings to buy food and medicine for the prisoners of war in the prison where Maj. Cousens was held. She married a Portuguese national, Felipe d' Aquino.
    After Japan's surrender in August 1945, the American press descended on Tokyo. High on the list of reporters' questions was, "Where is Tokyo Rose?" Two journalists -- Harry Brundidge of Cosmopolitan magazine and Clark Lee of International News Service -- offered a reward of $250 to anyone who could identify "Tokyo Rose" and a reward of $2,000 to the woman herself if she would give them an exclusive on her story.
    Leslie Nakashima, a former employee at Radio Tokyo, eager for the $250 reward, singled out Iva Toguri. When the reporters tracked her down, she was confused by the "Tokyo Rose" nickname and tried to explain her radio role. When Mr. Brundidge and Mr. Lee said a former co-worker already had identified her, however, Ms. Toguri agreed to tell her story to Cosmopolitan for $2,000.
    She never got paid and instead was arrested by American military police. An investigation found no grounds for the charges of treason and aiding the enemy, however. She was released after a year and tried to return to the United States.
    But in early 1946, the movie "Tokyo Rose" portrayed a sultry, malevolent traitor who taunted American soldiers. Syndicated columnist Walter Winchell began crusading to have Ms. Toguri re-arrested. Finally, in the fall of 1948 -- with President Truman facing a tough campaign -- the Justice Department bowed to public pressure.
    Ms. Toguri secretly was arrested in Japan and sent to San Francisco, where she was indicted on eight counts by a federal grand jury. The resulting trial lasted 13 weeks and cost $750,000 -- the most expensive trial in U.S. history to that date.
    Her defense attorney, Wayne Mortimer Collins, exposed the weaknesses in the government's case, and several of Ms. Toguri's former Radio Tokyo colleagues, including Maj. Cousens, testified passionately to her innocence. But two former co-workers, Kenkichi Oki and George Mitsushio, under pressure from federal prosecutors, testified that they once heard Ms. Toguri tell her listeners about a "loss of ships."
    The jury at first deadlocked, but the presiding judge issued new instructions and finally they found Ms. Toguri guilty of one count of treason -- a verdict that jury foreman John Mann later said he would regret for the rest of his life.
    Ms. Toguri was sentenced to 10 years in prison. She served six years. Her husband, denied entry into the United States, divorced her. After her release, the federal government tried unsuccessfully to have her deported.
    She eventually moved to Chicago, where she lived quietly with relatives until 1969, when her story came to the attention of Bill Kurtis, anchor for WBBM-TV. She granted an interview that led to a 30-minute CBS documentary, "The Story of Tokyo Rose."
    Then, in 1976, Ron Yates, Tokyo bureau chief for the Chicago Tribune, interviewed the two witnesses whose testimony had led to Ms. Toguri's conviction. They admitted that they had perjured themselves under heavy pressure. That resulted in a series of articles for the Tribune, making a powerful case for Ms. Toguri's innocence.
    "I think the thing that makes this so important to me was that it was two journalists who got her into trouble," Mr. Yates said recently, "and I was just happy that it was a journalist who helped right a wrong a little bit."
    A "60 Minutes" broadcast on Ms. Toguri, narrated by Morley Safer, helped increase public support for a presidential pardon and in January 1977, on his last day in office, Mr. Ford granted her a pardon and restored her citizenship.
    In the 30 years since, Ms. Toguri has guarded her privacy. She made a rare public appearance for the January ceremony in Chicago, where the veterans' group presented her with its Citizenship Award.
    "I know that for so many years, I wanted to be positive on this whole thing," she said. "I wanted to be proud. And I wanted to honor my father and my family. They believed in me through all the things that happened to me. I thank ... the World War II Veterans Committee for making this the most memorable day of my life."

Here's the store:

Toguri J Mercantile Co. Japanese Gift Shop in Chicago, IL. They have Toakaido/Nozawa gis. A great place to get gifts too! Conveniently located under Sensei Sugiyamas dojo (JKA Chicago). 851 W. Belmont Ave., Chicago, IL 60657, 773-929-3500.

I don't know if they are still in business.

Her story is weirdly similar to P.G. Wodehouse's war time experience. He was unable to leave France during the German invasion and after being taken to Berlin he did radio broadcasts for the Nazi horde. I've read them and they are in no way proNazi. Here's a nice defense of Wodehouse by George Orwell. You know George, right. He's the guy who wrote the serious version of the 6th Freddy The Pig novel:

WIGGINS FOR PRESIDENT (later re-titled FREDDY THE POLITICIAN). 1939.

Anxious to prove to the Beans that they are sufficiently responsible to run the farm while the Beans go to Europe on vacation, the animals found a bank and start a government, the First Animal Republic. The rats, in league with a family of woodpeckers who have blown in from Washington (literally, since a storm blew them off-course and onto the Bean Farm), attempt to turn the republic into a dictatorship but are foiled by Freddy. This book is often compared with George Orwell's ANIMAL FARM, which it predates by some ten years. It is probably the quintessential Freddy book, in its humor, themes, and characterizations.

Rats and woodpeckers taking over the world, nothing changes. It's unfortunate the innocent are caught up in the dance of the idiots and have to suffer. Again with the nothing changes. At least you're still kickin' around. Go have some fun before it gets all Lemony Snicket on ya.

Friday Night Movies 77

Greg brought a copy of 2001 Maniacs. It's a remake of the original by Herschell Gordon Lewis. I had seen the 1964 version in the mid 80's and had never wanted to see it again. It's a low-budget gore fest that people really seem to take to. I thought it was pretty poorly made and, especially in the mid-80's, I wasn't really interested in that sort of film. The remake is much better made, and not too bad a film. A second one is listed on the IMDb, 2002 Maniacs: Beverly Hellbillies, with some of the same cast returning. Robert England, Lin Shaye and Giuseppe Andrews all stand out on the townies side. There's also a nice scene with Travis Tritt. The story is pretty much the same. Northern folk get caught up in a southern town's revenge. The town people are all still mad they were killed in the civil war, so they comeback and barbeque some yankees. The original had the town return on it's 100 anniversary. The new version makes it an annual event with pickled people parts stored in year labeled jars in a pantry. Good attention to detail. When Hershell made the original there weren't the gore techniques that are available today. He tried but they were often fake looking. The new film has fairly good effects, but nothing to write home about. Nor the script, it ranges from tolerable to amusing. The better cast members carry it off , beat the tar out of it and stab it in the eye. It's a darn violent place that Pleasant Valley. You gotta be plum lucky to survive. And you ain't that lucky. So, stay outta the fuckin' south. Been my motto for years.

Joe wanted to see a giant monster movie. Specifically, an American giant insect movie, from the 1950's. Sperhauk had The Black Scorpion on laserdisc, so we watched that. Richard Denning and Carlos Ravis are scientists investigating volcanos. One explodes and creates a mountain. A crevise forms and some giant scorpions get out. They kill people and cattle. On the way to take in the new volcano our heroes stop to see what happened at a house. They find a wrecked police car and rescue a baby. Some big hat wearing vaqueros are fearful for their lives but the beautiful land owner Mara Corday sweet talks them back to doom work. Luckily, only a few are killed by the giant scorpions. The two docs do some spelunkin' with a trouble some kid. There is a nest of the buggers down below. They blow the mountain but a few giants escape and head for Mexico city. Well, really, who wouldn't? After attacking a train and eating all the people the scorpions turn on each other and the big one kills all the rest. In the city the military lures the big guy with a truck full of cow carcasses and kills him. During all the hectic activity Richard Denning and Maria Corday fall in love. Giant scorpions always make me hot. I have always liked Richard, also in The Creature From The Black Lagoon, he usually does a good job. He's fine here, and so are the rest of the cast, except for that annoying kid. The animated scorpions are a mixed bag. Designed by Willis O'Brien of King Kong fame and animated by Pete Peterson. The movement and sets varies from good to fair, not too unusual for a low budget 50's monster movie. They over use a shot of the creature. The camera zooms in to the monster, the music goes nuts and the drool streams out of the creature's mouth. It's not a very good shot. The rest of the movie is much better. It's not the best of it's era but it's still fun.

Strange Tales Disc Four

The story in The Lost Jungle isn't very strange but then I am used to the lies from these multi-movie pack people. Clyde Beatty chases after his girlfriend who is ship wrecked on an island somewhere. It's a chopped up serial from 1934, cut down to 68 minutes, much of which is Clyde and his animal acts. Clyde's skills come in handy on the island which turns out to be overrun with lions and tigers. Grabbing a handy branch, or a piece of hanging vine Clyde tames whose wild beasts. Once he even stares a tiger to the ground. As Napoleon would agree, skills are good things to have. The story is a pretty standard jungle serial. It was most interesting to me to see Clyde Beatty. He's a figure I had heard of as a child but I don't recall ever seeing any of these movies or serials on tv. I could easily have, much of everything I have ever seen is lost in that jungle of a brain I have. It's probably a good thing.

Terror Creatures from the Grave is a 1965 gothic horror story called 5 tombe per un medium in Italy. Here are it's other names. Cemetery of the Living Dead, Cinque tombe per un medium, Coffin of Terror, Five Graves for a Medium, and Tombs of Horror. A lawyer arrives at an estate to find the man he came to see long dead. He falls for a blond woman and some people start dying. There's a family backstory having to do with the plague. There are mummified hands in cases through the house. The print is poorer than most, a very softly defined gray not blank and white. The story is nothing new, not even when it was new. Occasionally interesting but not often enough. The director took his name off of the movie due to his dissatisfaction with it.

Counterblast is a 1948 film originally called Devil's Plot. A Nazi scientist kills an Australian bacteriologist to take his identity. His plan is to make a plague and the antidote for the future Nazi return to power. You know that's going to go wrong. The doctor is tripped up by the arrival of a young woman from the dead mand's past. It's a fairly good movie, with some fair suspense. A better payoff over most of the movies on the disc though the quality of the image is not the best.

This Is Not a Test was pretty good. Several people are thrown together in the desert as the bombs begin to fall at the end of the world. A motorcycle cop stops a bunch of people from going into town and tells them the atom bombs are on the way. There's a hipster and his blond gal, a crabby old man and his teenybopper granddaughter, a unhappy married couple, a hot-headed tough trucker, a criminal and a few others. Things go wrong pretty quickly in this 73 minute movie. There's even puppy killin' after the cop starts to go squirrelly. Since there isn't much time, the movie seems to only cover a couple of hours, people deteriorate very rapidly. Some tough guys show up, running away from town where law and order had failed almost immediately. This movie might have been harder to believe in 1962 but after Katrina last year I bet a couple of hours isn't too much time any more. People do move much faster here in the future of 1962. They should slow the fuck down.

War of the Monsters is a retitled Daikaijû kessen: Gamera tai Barugon, or Gamera vs. Barugon. This is the 88 minute US tv version of the original 106 minute version. Gamera fights Barugon. It was an MST3K choice. I've seen it alot.

The Monolith Monsters

Finally, it's nice to see this out on dvd. Unfortunately, THE CLASSIC SCI-FI ULTIMATE COLLECTION ia a BestBuy exculsive with a limited window of availability. Mind you many things have a limited WOA. It's always been the way. It would be nice to get something all your life. Other than food I can't think of many things that I have been able to get all of my life. Smokes. Beer. Although beer and candy might be called food. Luckily there's ebay for easily gettin' something after it's bloomed and disappeared. It's amazing all the crap you can get.

I'm glad I got this collection, though we all know it's no ultimate, especially one in capitol letters. I have a great fondness for The Monolith Monsters. It's such a nice tight little movie, most of the scenes progress the story. At 78 minutes it has no time to waste on much else. I love the Monsters, towering black Monoliths, a quickly moving, really hard natural disaster. After a huge rain there are big ass rocks comin' to get the town. A geologist, a college professor, a newspaper man and the Chief of Police have to figure out what to do to stop the rocks from smashing their town. The cast does a great job. All pretty good character actors, with Grant Williams and Lola Albright leading the cast as the romantic leads. I always enjoy Les Tremayne as the newspaper guy and Trevor Bardette as the college professor. The dvd looks pretty good, I can see the matte paintings even clearer than the laserdisc. I've never minded the low budget look before and still don't. Flaws have become beauty marks over time, although there isn't much good to say about that old video tape box. They used that same design scheme on the laserdisc boxed set that contained TMM and three other horror and science fiction films. There were two box sets of four movies each. Three of the other films on the dvd were in one or another of the two sets. The laserdiscs were nice but some of the movies were split over two discs, TMM being one of them. Spliting a movie up was my main complaint with laserdiscs.

The other four pictures range from good to so-so. Tarantula, The Mole People, The Incredible Shrinking Man, and Monster on the Campus. I know there are many who claim those movies as favorites as I do with TMM. Now it's late and I am tired and need to go to bed.

Strange Tales Disc Three

Idaho Transfer was directed by Peter Fonda in 1973 from a script by Thomas Matthiesen. It's sort of a post collapse movie. Some young people go into the future to find a bleak landscape. Some of them decide to stay in the future when the project gets shut down. It's one of the many things that make no sense in this story. The amateur actors are just that, the girls are cute in their 70's clothes and hair, and the sets are all found on the ground. Most of the movie takes place in barren areas but it's not very well filmed and the transfer takes anything good out of the scene. It's a message movie with a poor presentation and a heavy handed ironic ending. 

Prisoners of the Lost Universe, made in 1983, also transfers people out of their normal environment, but rather than travel to the future looking for trouble the characters are tossed into a parallel universe where they find trouble in the form of John Saxon. He plays more bad guys. Kay Lenz nearly runs into Richard Hatch during an earthquake. She's on the way to interview some science guy. He's got the machine to get them to the PU. Richard Hatch wonders in after the doc has accidentally fallen into his plot device. Richard falls in next and of course is followed by Kay. There are a series of lame plot devices that move our characters. Time is one, it moves differently there and when Kay and Richard arrive the doc has already established himself as a wizard. He's working for John Saxon. He's a wizard who's making weapons. It's the way he has to stay alive, but he's really ok, he's got a trick up his sleeve. Richard and Kay hook up with various characters who barely help them get to the end of the movie. There's a giant, a thief, a green guy who looks gray on this transfer, and some rebels with bad yells. It's your basic heroic fantasy adventure story of a guy and a gal who fall in love while over throwing a warlord. It's not very good but someone liked it:

Excellent Movie!, 12 January 2005 Author: Marc Yu from Crestview, FL This is a great movie! There are so few movies out there dealing with the fantasy genre that are even half-way believable, especially with swordplay. This has the be the best fantasy movie I have ever seen. The acting is top notch and the plot, once you get past the original premise, is quite credible. The music is excellent, also, along with the visuals for its time. This is one of the true underrated gems of all time. I think it would have been one of the top grossing fantasy movies of all time (I think the live action Lord of the Ring series wasn't that good - I like the Rankin animated version much better, with he books being the best, of course), if it had been released in theaters instead of just Showtime. A must see for any fantasy fan.

I'd seen 1958's Night of the Blood Beast several times before, and it's not that good. Makes you wonder. It's a Mystery Science Theater 3000 selection that was produced by Roger Corman and written by his brother Gene. It's directed by Bernard L. Kowalski who mostly directed tv. An astronaut returns to earth dead and infected with alien spawn. That's them in the x-ray. He revives and some other stuff happens. There's a bad looking alien and too much melodrama. Luckily it's short and they burn the alien up in a fire. Nice.

Star Odyssey is a 1979 Italian space opera movie titled Sette uomini d'oro nello spazio. It's not very good. It's low point was either the humanoid robot couple that act like some odd married couple, or the WWII destruction footage so out of place in a color movie. Terrible and not at all funny. Many bad Italian movies out there. Best to avoid them as a group.

Unknown World is on one of those other multi-movie packs. It's from 1951 and it's fair to middlin' in quality. A group drills 1600 miles below the surfave of the earth. They find a lot of rock and caverns. Some die, some get back. I didn't care.

Friday Night Movies 76

We watched that cutie Anna Farris in Scary Movie 4, directed by David Zucker of Airplane and Naked Gun fame. He directed the last Scary Movie from a script by Marlon and Shawn Wayans. They were the writers of the first two in the series directed by Keenan Ivory Wayans. The fourth movie was written by Craig Mazin, Jim Abrahams and Pat Proft. The latter two also Airplane and Naked Gun alumni. They were making fun of Saw, The Grudge, Brokeback Mountain, Million Dollar Baby, The Village and War of  the Worlds. It was hit and miss on the jokes but there were a shit load of 'em, if one failed another was coming along a few seconds later. I laughed out load several times, especially at the little ghost kid in the bath, that was some good slapstick. I don't think Joe liked it very much complaining out loud about the lack of jokes. Different sense of humor. The sets were great, especially when they were working The Grudge and WotW.  Most of the actors were good, even celebrities like Dr. Phil and Shaq, and they were dressed very well in costumes from the movies they were parodying. It's certainly more watchable for me than most of the movies they hit on. I won't see Saw, or BM and MDB, for various reasons, but the others I have and will see again, eventually. I'm rarely in a hurry to repeat anything, unless it's a movie that I am hot for. Harry P's come to mind, or the Dead Like Me series, as recently rewatched hotties. I don't think I've actually gotten around to rewatching Scary Movie 1-3 yet. Someday, they are on the shelf waiting, there's no hurry.

Negadon: The Monster from Mars is an CGI giant monster movie from Japan where it's called Wakusei daikaijû Negadon. It's only a 23 minutes short but it's pretty good. A little too dark for my tastes, it obscures some of the action. The first half is slow but once the monster hits there is some city trashin' and a big ass explosion when Negadon bites it. We watched a couple of other shorts from the Small Guage Trauma dvd that Sperhauk had. It's horror shorts from some festival. A mixed bag to say the least.

Louis Sullivan Bank

I was forced to take a work related trip to Dixon, Illinois and Grinnell, Iowa. I went to Dixon on tuesday and drove to Grinnell that same night. I did my work related business wednesday morning and ran downtown to see the Bank. I had been there some time in the early 80's. I got a few good pictures this time. I also learned about a house designed by Walter Burley Griffin for the first time. I drove down the steet to see that.

On the way back to the Twin Cities I stopped by Mason City to eat at the Culvers on I35. I love those butter burgers, I just don't need them. I had run out of book so I read a section the the local paper. There was a short piece on the planned restoration of the Frank LLoyd Wright City National Bank and Park Hotel. I hadn't been thinking about it but now I drove downtown and snapped a few pics of the building. The photos are in 3 new new photo albums.

Strange Tales Disc Two

Disc two starts with a big dose of crap. The Doomsday Machine is a 1972 end of the world movie that was mostly made in 1967. Production stopped until the film makers got more money to finish, but without the original cast. It explains the ending. Back in the plot the Chinese have a device that could destroy the world. Some men and women are thrown into space to try to stop them. Before they are able to do anything other than fight among themselves, the Chinese pull the trigger, and the world is destroyed. This is represented by footage from some other movie. The speculation on the IMDb is that it's a Japanese movie. I don't have the Elvira version of the dvd, it was the only picture I found on Amazon. That's a great place to look for dvd and book covers. Back on the space ship things get worse and worse. Grant Williams forces himself on one of the women and while fighting they accidently open the airlock and are sucked into space. Poor Grant Williams, his career never took off. In this he was awful. His acting and his character we both despicable. People probably know him best from The Incredible Shrinking Man. He's pretty good in that and in one of my favorite 50's science fiction movies The Monolith Monsters. Why isn't that out of dvd.

Update: Sperhauk just emailed to let me know that there is a BestBuy exclusive coming out 9/19/06. It's a five movie set from Universal that has The Monolith Monsters as one of the selections.

Warriors of the Wasteland was next and it's a crappy 1986 Italian version of Road Warriors. And unlike that excellent action pic there's no particular reason to watch WOTW more than once. The box art is as bad as the movie. It's got Fred Williamson in it, and he's got arrows with exploding tips Those were cool. They blow chunks out of several warriors, standing, walking and riding, who then fall right over. It's called I nuovi barbari in Italy. It has other titles, so beware. 2019, i nuovi barbari (Italy-alternative title), Metropolis 2000, and The New Barbarians.

Frozen Alive was next. It's a science melodrama. A science guy is experimenting on suspended animation. His wife is one of those trouble gals. Why those scientists keep on marrying those girls I just don't know. You'd think they would be smarter, bein' scientists and all, but they aren't. You see it all the time in movies. Anyway, she's a hard drinkin' run around gal who's acciently killed by her lover. He runs off and the police think the scientist did it. When they arrive at the science place they find him frozen in his machine. There's a bit of an exciting will-she-kill-him-or-not thing going on at the end. Better than the previous two. A bit slow and very talky.

Robot Pilot is the TV title of Emergency Landing. Some science guy invents a remote control plane, Forrest Tucker is his pilot. Some bad guys want to steal or destroy the plane. It's 1941 and the bad guys have names like Karl and Otto, so you know what they are. A romance developes between Forrest and Carol Hughes. She's the daughter of the rich financial backer. She's a spoiled rich girl who gets a dose of average livin' when Forrest puts her under house arrest for stealin' government gas. Carol was also in Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe. She was Dale Arden in that. She's in 60 other movies. RP has the look and feel of a serial to me. Mostly from the dialog. There's a few action scenes and there's comic relief in the form of Pedro, a big hat wearin' mexican. "Doc" Williams, the science guy, is played by Emmet Vogan. He has 470 listings on the IMDb. Pretty amazing. The movie is pretty average but still fun and not a total waste of time. I don't see Forrest Tucker in Manny movies. I only have a couple that I remember. I see F-Troop is out on dvd. I didn't buy it.

The Head is a 1959 West German film called Die Nackte und der Satan. Similar in story to the 1963 classic The Brain that Wouldn't Die. The head's a man, baby. Instead of the scientist keeping his wife's head alive the German version has the assistant keep the scientist's head alive. The assistant does a second transplant putting the head of his hunchback assistant onto the body of a stripper. Everyone eventually has trouble with their surgery. And I bet that stripper wasn't too happy about losing her body. I notice they didn't keep her head around to talk to. Dark and gritty and not too bad.