PRIMITIVE SCREWHEADS

Shakedown 2002

I thought I would mention this 2002 Roger Corman production. I got the DVD for a buck and thought I would take a chance. Shakedown is written by Dan Acre, Damian Akhavi, John Huckert, Brian Katkin and John Matkowsky. It's directed by Brian Katkin. The only stars I knew were Erika Eleniak, Fred Dwyer and Ron Perlman. Ron's a doomsday cult leader and Erika is the sister to another character who winds up in the wrong place at the wrong time. Wolf Larson is an FBI agent who's on the trail of a stolen deadly plague. It will kill everyone if released. The thief who stole it wants to sell it to Ron who wants to release it because he's a massive dick. They agree to meet at the bank where the thief has the virus stored in a safety deposit box. It's the same bank that the gang Erika's brother is tied up with is going to rob. She had come to LA to find her brother. She winds up getting kidnapped by the gang and brought along to the robbery. Wolf has his people in place at the bank when Ron and the thief show up. The gang arrives shortly after and starts the robbery. Ron calls in his armed guard and the FBI team rush the building. There's a multi man Mexican stand off that results in a hail of bullets. The plague gets passed around as the members of the different groups get blasted. People are dropping left and right. And then, there's an earthquake. The survivors keep looking for the plague container and shooting anyone they see. Fred Dwyer is a General who's in charge of securing the plague to the city. His plan is to bomb it to oblivion. So now we have a ticking time bomb to deal with. Sadly all this is carried out with little money. The sets and locations are ok, the CGI is pretty poor, the acting poor to fairly good. The script should be better with so many people working on it but there you go, huh. Not a film to recommend but I did like how they piled one thing on another. Too bad it's below average. At least I only wasted a buck.

Fortitude Series 1

I watched the whole dozen episodes of Fortitude today but a bit of it was on fast forward. It's a depressing murder mystery created and written by Simon Donald. The story takes place in Fortitude, a fictional town located on a real Norwegian archipelago called Svalbard in the Arctic Ocean. It's filmed in the UK and Iceland. A lot of it looks like this.

There's a grisly murder, a scientist's chest is torn open. The murdered man, Christopher Eccleston, was British. Stanley Tucci comes to investigate, he's an American working for the London Metropolitan Police. Michael Gambon plays a wildlife photographer who's dying of cancer. He'd shot a man being mauled by a polar bear in the head and Dan, the chief of Police, covered it up. There's only four cops for the town of 800, including Dan. One of the cops is married to the mayor and she has a plan to build a hotel out on the glacier. Eccleston was doing a survey and he finds out something to make him say no to development. Then he's dead. There's plenty of other subplots as this one is sleeping with that one, this one is crazy, this one is haunted by fears of his past deeds. It's one melodramatic thing piled on top of another. When it was all done I was sorry I had gotten involved. Reminds me not to live in a small town. People liked it well enough but it didn't click with me much. I'd rather watch Hinterland over again.

Dad's Army Series 9

Finally getting to the end of the Dad's Army series and I'll be sad to see the end of the guys. There's 6 episodes in the 9th series and the stories are all about the same as the previous seasons. Arthur Lowe is Captain Mainwaring, he's in charge of the local home guard. The towns people are getting complacent so Captain Mainwaring has the platoon pretend to be 5th columnists. They do some crazy stuff and Army has to send another platoon to see what's going on in Walmington-on-Sea. Pike has to push the Captain's car 9 miles back to town when he runs out of gas while on a date with a new girlfriend. He's a stupid boy. It's war between the platoon and the ARP Wardens when both groups want to put on a reenactment of St George battling the dragon. In the fourth episode it turns out Frazer is suspicious of banks. Who can blame him. There's an unexploded bomb to deal with in the fifth episode. Lance Corporal Jones gets married in the last episode.

Now I'm done with the series and I can stick them up on the shelf. I can see why they have such a loyal fan base, the stories are funny and the characters are people you know. The quality of the show stayed the same from beginning to end. I'm glad to have seen them and I'll watch them again.

Science Fiction Sunday 364

Disc three of Supercar has another 7 episodes. This disc nearly ends the first series or 26 episodes.

Flight Of Fancy  May 6 1961

Jimmy dreams he and Mitch take Supercar to a European country to rescue a princess. There's a castle with a dungeon and a torture room filled with treasure. It was pretty silly but Mitch did help more than hinder. Too bad it was only a dream.

Hostage  May 20 1961

   

British criminals Judd and Harper kidnap the young daughter of an inn keeper. Dr Beaker was staying at the Inn and calls for help. Mike comes with Supercar, but falls into a trap. Mike manages to warn Professor Popkiss who retrieves the vehicle. The Professor returns with Mitch to save the day.

The Sunken Temple  May 27 1961

Everyone's off to search for a sunken temple in the Mediterranean. Of course there's trouble. Still, Mike will see it put to rest.

Trapped In The Depths  June 10 1961

 

Another underwater adventure. The Navy sends two men down in a bathysphere and there's trouble. Supercar comes to help and attacked by a giant fish. Don't worry, Dr Beaker thought a head and brought the new laser cannon. They rescue the men and everything is A-OK.

Crash Landing  July 8 1961

Supercar crashes in Africa.. Everyone is ok. They came out at night while Mitch stands guard. He disappears in the middle of the night. Dr Beaker works on repairs while Mike and Jimmy search for Mitch. Elephants nearly stampede the camp but the Professor operates Supercar remotely to scare them off.

The Dragon Of Ho Meng  June 17 1961

Mike, Jimmy and Mitch are out cruising about when they run into a bad storm. They decide to land Supercar on a small island. They meet a Chinese priest and his daughter who mistake Supercar for a dragon. A bandit is going to destroy the temple because he thinks there's treasure in the walls. Mike will soon take care of that creep.

The Lost City  June 3 1961

 

On way to the South Pole Supercar is bring forced down remotely by some baddies. They find them selves near some South American ruins where they meet the man who took control. It's Professor Watkins, a man from Dr Beaker's past, who disappeared 10 years earlier. He's got a lab under the ruins and a gang of robots. He's going to attack Washington DC with atomic bombs. Jimmy and Mitch remain uncaught and have control of Supercar. Mike and Dr Beaker escape and use Supercar to divert the missile and radio interference to get it to crash. 

The Magic Carpet  June 24 1961

Dr Beaker has created a hand held remote to control Supercar. Professor Popkiss sends the gang on a trip to Asia to help a sick King. There are people in the kingdom that want the King dead so they can be in control. 

All in all another fun bunch of stories with Mike and the crew. A nice way to spend the morning.

Friday Night Movies 555

Stitches is a 2012 British-Irish horror comedy with Ross Noble as a murderous clown come back from the dead to reek vengeance on some kids who ruined his performance at a birthday party where Stitches was killed when he fell on a whacking big knife stuck point up in the open dish washer. Tommy Knight plays the older version of the 10 year old birthday boy. Some might remember him from The Sarah Jane Adventures.

It's been six years since the fatal accident and the week end of Tommy's birthday his parents are away. Tommy's got something for his neighbor Gemma, that's her above, but she's sort of involved with a jerky guy. His pals talk him into having a big party at his house, at first he's scared but they can talk him into it pretty easily. The party gets rolling and unfortunately there's an uninvited guest. Not the two jerky kids who treat Tommy poorly, no, it's Stitches come back for some stabbin'.

Stitches runs about in the background, picking off the kids who were mean to him at Tommy's party. They all get slaughtered in a manner pertaining to the interrupted trick. One kid bust his balloon dog and he gets his head blown up. Soon the partiers are all running and screaming. Tommy eventually figures out how to defeat the vicious ghost clown before nearly everyone is dead. There's still plenty of gruesome deaths, topped off with a big glob of gore and a laugh. I enjoyed it, for a second time, and would watch it again.

Our second feature is Tremors 5: Bloodlines with Michael Gross returning as Burt Gummer, Survivalist. It's been 25 years since the first film came out. I liked that film quite a bit. I've seen it several times. I liked the sequels and the TV show, though they aren't quite as good as the first movie, they're fun to watch.

Tremors 5: Bloodlines is written by William Truesmith, M A Duece and C J Strebor and directed by Don Michael Paul. The only other movie of Don's I had heard of was a TV movie called Lake Placid: The Final Chapter. I have that one to watch some day. The film makers do ok on T5:B, the effects were ok, there's some nice scenery in Africa, the acting's mostly pretty good, but the script needed punching up. It's all familiar, they borrow from the other Tremors films quite readily and they borrow from Jurassic Park. There's a kitchen scene with ass blasters filling in for raptors.

Each sequel usually intros a new version of the Grabboid, this one has detachable tongues. It's ugly, huh? Glad they aren't real. There's the usual running about and yelling, people get eaten left and right, and Jamie Kennedy plays an annoying character. Burt has his ups and downs but generally he saves the day. He did get peed on by a lion. I was entertained but I'm familiar with, and like, the series. I'll pick up a copy when it gets cheap on DVD.

The Twilight Zone S5D2

Back at it again, more trips to The Twilight Zone. There's another 7 episodes on the second disc in the set. I remembered some of these from my youth and some from reruns in the 1980s. Here's the rundown.

Uncle Simon  November 15 1963

 

Written by Rod and directed by Don Siegel. Constance Ford plays Barbara, she lives with her Uncle Simon, played by Cedric Hardwicke. Uncle Simon is one of those miserable prick type invalids. He brow beats her and she wishes him dead. he dies and traps her in the house with a robot that has his personality. She has to make sure the robot works or she's out on her ear. Sucks to be Barbara, huh. That's Robby the Robot with a different head under his glass dome. A head so poor that someone should have been kicked in the nuts. Seriously. Right in the nut sack. I did not remember this one.

Probe 7, Over And Out  November 29 1963

Written by Rod and directed by Ted Post. Poor Richard Basehart is an astronaut who crashes on a planet. He calls home and they tell him that they can't come get him, war has just broken out. He's stuck. Lucky for him he meets a woman who crashed her ship on the planet. Turns out he's Adam and she's Eve. I don't remember this one either. It's was ok but the Adam and Eve bit didn't appeal to me.

The 7th Is Made Up Of Phantoms  December 6 1963

 

Written by Rod and directed by Alan Crosland Jr. Some soldiers from modern day go back in time to die at the Little Big Horn. How stupid is that? Not going to be a favorite that's for sure. I think when I re-watch these someday I'll skip this one. The extra is an episode of the Twilight Zone radio program.

A Short Drink From A Certain Fountain  December 13 1963

Written by Rod and directed by Bernard Girard. An old man, Patrick O'Neal, with a rude gold digging wife, Ruta Lee, takes a youth potion and turns into a baby. The wife is bummed that she is stuck with the baby. It doesn't make much sense but there is a nice punishment for the wife.

Ninety Years Without Slumbering  December 20 1963

 

Written by Richard De Roy, from a teleplay by George Clayton Johnson, and directed by Roger Kay. Ed Wynn is an old man who lives with his daughter and her husband. Ed tinkers with his old grandfather clock, making sure it's wound and in good repair. The daughter and husband think Ed is a bit crazy because he thinks he will die if the clock stops. He works through that fear and everyone is happy. A nice little tale. I always like seeing Ed Wynn and he was quite good here. There's a video interview with Carolyn Kearney and George Clayton Johnson, an isolated score, and a solo video interview with George. The bits with George were entertaining.

Ring-A-Ding Girl  December 27 1963

Written by Earl Hamner Jr and directed by Alan Crosland Jr. A movie star's ghost goes to her home town and saves everyone from a airliner crash. Nice but melancholy. One of Earl's earliest works. There's a nice video interview with Early Hamner Jr. He talked about his early days in the business and Rod giving work when he was just starting out.

You Drive  January 3 1964

Written by Earl Hamner Jr and directed by Jon Brahm. Edward Andrews runs over a kid with his car and then runs off. He spends the rest of the show being chased by his car until he confesses. Not going to be a favorite of mine. There's another nice video interview with Earl Hamner Jr. I used to like his show The Waltons when it first aired but I don't feel a need to re-watch it. 

Second disc done, three more discs with shows and a last one with some extras.

MGM Timeless Horror 4 Movie Set

Here's another one of those multi movie sets, this time from Timeless Media, which is a division of Shout Factory. All the films were originally made for other studios, films that eventually came to rest in the MGM Vaults. It's a single disc set that was under 6 bucks on Amazon. While the movies aren't as cheap as those 50 movies packs the quality of the movies is better on average. The quality is fairly good considering all 4 movies are on one side of a single DVD.

The Four Skulls Of Jonathan Drake 1959 Written by Orville H. Hampton and directed by Edward L. Cahn. I hadn't seen this before. It was fairly entertaining. Jonathan Drake's family has a curse. He finds out when his brother dies. He arrives to find his brother's head missing. The skull turns up in the family crypt and no one knows how it got there. Jonathan is attacked by a South American Indian with his lips sewn shut. The police are called in but they are baffled. Things get pretty crazy before the end of the movie. It works better than a lot of movies like this as they take everything pretty seriously. It certainly is worth more than a lot of the other movies in the set.

The Face Of Marble 1946 Written by Michael Jacoby, who adapted a story by Edmund L Hartmann and Wilhelm Thiele, and directed by William Beaudine. Here's another one I hadn't seen before. I was curious because it's got John Carradine in it. He's a mad scientist who is trying to bring life to the dead. His wife has a bit of an interest in the lab assistant. The housekeeper knows some voodoo. Good elements, not the greatest script, and a fair to good job from William Beaudine. Willie Best helps make the movie nearly worth it's quarter cost of the DVD.

I Bury The Living 1958 Written by Louis Garfinkle and directed by Albert Band. It's one of Albert's better films. Richard Boone is appointed the chairman of the cemetery committee. Theodore Bikel is the old cemetery caretaker, he's being retired, even though he'd rather keep working. The cemetery has a map with black and white pins in it. The white are sold unfilled graves and black are sold filled graves. Richard accidentally puts a pair of black pins in a couples grave. They die a few days later and Richard thinks he's responsible. The members of the committee tell him he's not responsible, in fact, one of them tells him to put a black pin in his grave. The man dies a short time later. Richard is more despondent as more committee men offer themselves as test subjects. They all die. The police are baffled. They'll figure it all out in the end. It's pretty entertaining. It gets a 6.3 on the IMDb and that's about where I'd peg it. Richard does a good job with a fair script. Band does a better job on this than a lot of his other films. This is worth taking a look at.

The Snake Woman 1961 Written by Orville H Hampton and directed by Sidney J Furie. Orville wrote The Four Skulls Of Jonathan Drake and Sidney worked on several other interesting films in his career, which is still going on. This low budget British film has a nice mix of story elements; there's a mad scientist, a witch, a snake woman and a murderous baby. The baby grows up and there are some mysterious deaths that bring a detective from Scotland Yard. That witch is still around, causing trouble. There's death coming, I'll be bound. It's ok but not much better than just average. It's riding the coat tales of the other films in the set in earning it's quarter set value. Oh, well, I've certainly seen worse.

Classic Horror Collection

When I watched Five a couple of Sundays ago I noticed that there was a cheap 4 movie DVD set on Amazon. I wanted to upgrade the copy I had from cable and there were 3 other movies for under 6 bucks that I didn't have on DVD. They're all Columbia Pictures releases from the 50s and 60s but the DVD is put out by Mill Creek Entertainment. I wonder how that happened.

Five is a 1951 post-apocalypse film by Arch Obler. It's partially filmed in his Frank Lloyd Wright house. It's a good solid film that holds up to repeated views, I like it quite a bit. I just blogged about it two weeks ago so I won't spend any time on it other than to give it the thumbs up.

The Mad Magician is a 1954 Vincent Price film. It's written by Crane Wilbur and directed by John Brahm. Vincent is a magical prop designer. He's made tricks for all the top magicians working for his boss Mr Ormond but he has eyes on the stage. On the night of his first performance of a trick with a giant saw blade Mr Ormond shows up with the police. They have an injunction against Vincent. His contracts says anything that Vincent makes up belongs to Mr Ormond, even in his off hours. Sucks to have signed that contract, huh Vincent? Well, it will suck to be Mr Ormond. His cruelty will lead to his death and then the rest just happened, you know how it goes, one murder leads to another and another.

It's a nice horror thriller with Vincent barely able to keep ahead of the police. He has an elaborate plan to cover his trail but the recent invention of fingerprinting proves problematical. I'd seen it on Turner a few years ago and it was entertaining all over again. It's got a nice bit of humor and the script is ok. There are several good actors in the lot, keep an eye out for Eva Gabor, Patrick O'Neal, Jay Novello, Lyle Talbot and Conrad Brooks. Well, worth seeing.

The Man Who Turned To Stone was another movie I had seen on Turner Classic Movies a few years ago. I had forgotten the story for the most part. It's a 1957 movie set in a reform school for young women. Victor Jory is the head doc and he's part of a group of people who have developed a way to live forever. Their life means the death of someone else. The group has been feeding on the young woman for a couple of years. The school's new councilor and one of the inmates start looking into the deaths. They get another Doctor to help out and their investigation brings Victor and his murderous scumbags down. It's written by Bernard Gordon and directed by László Kardos under the name Leslie Kardos.

Columbia Pictures released this film on a double bill with Zombies of Mora Tau (1957) with the tag line: "Warning - This is the Most Shocking Horror Bill Ever Shown!" - Wikipedia. It was ok, not near as shocking as the advertising would lead you to believe but not as good as The Mad Magician. It still kept my interest. Well worth the buck fifty that it cost.

The Terror Of The Tongs is a 1961 Hammer Film that got distributed by Columbia Pictures. It's written by Jimmy Sangster and directed by Anthony Bushnell. Hammer stalwart Christopher Lee plays the head of the Red Dragon Tong in Hong Kong. Burt Kwouk arrives in Hong Kong on Captain Sales ship. He's killed as soon as he steps onto the dock. He was supposed to be carrying a list of Red Dragon agents and they will stop at nothing to get that list back.

That's Christopher and Roger Delgado on the left. Doctor Who fans should remember Roger as The Master. He's Christopher's right hand man here. When they can't find the list that Burt had they go looking for anyone who might had a connection to Burt. The Captain is at the top of the list so the Red Dragon Henchman head on over to see what they can find. The Captain's daughter is killed during the home invasion. The Captain vows revenge and with the help of Marne Maitland he gets his wish.

It's all very colorful, what with it being the only color film in the set. There's plenty of fights, murders, double crossings, white slaving, drug smuggling and all manner of badness going on in Chris's world. I enjoyed it quite a bit and was glad to have a copy. It's another one that was worth the buck fifty.

The Twilight Zone S5D1

I decided that I would try watching the 5th season of The Twilight Zone pretty quickly since I have some more time on my hand nowadays. Some of these episode are some of the more famous ones.

In Praise Of Pip  September 27 1963

Written by Rod and directed by Joseph M. Newman. Jack Klugman is a low level bookie. His son has been badly wounded in the Vietnam war and might die. He helps a gambler, by not turning in his loosing bet. His boss finds out and in the altercation Jack is shot by the man's henchman. Jack encounters his son Pip, in the form of 10 year old Billy Mumy, but the son runs away. Jack collapses after asking God to take him. It worked and Pip comes back home alive. It was a fairly good episode but I didn't remember seeing before. According to the Wikipedia this is one of only three episodes that have the catch phrase "Summited for your approval." Who knew, huh. There's a commentary and a video interview with Billy Mumy and an isolated score by Rene Garriguenc.

Steel  October 4 1963

Written by Richard Matheson, who adapted his short story of the same name, and directed by Don Weis. I remember this story from when I was a young lad. Lee Marvin is a robot boxer manager who's fighter Battling Maxo is the old style B2 robot. Sadly it's so obsolete it can't be repaired easily. Lee and his mechanic are on their last coins and they really need the fight to get a few bucks together. The robot breaks down just before show time and Lee takes his place. He gets beat pretty well. It's kind of a dumb story and I'm not fond of it. There's a short video interview with Richard Matheson and an isolated score by Van Cleave.

Nightmare At 20,000 Feet  October 11 1963

Written by Richard Matheson, adapted from his short story, and directed by Richard Donner. William Shatner thinks he sees a Gremlin on the wing of a plane. He gets really crazy and no one believes him. He's just out of recovery, he'd been in the hospital for 6th months, from a previous plane issue. He saves the plane but goes back to the nut house. There's a clip from a Rod Serling lecture at Sherwood Oaks Experimental College, a video interview with Richard Matheson, and an isolated score.

A Kind Of A Stopwatch  October 18 1963

Written by Rod Serling, who adapted an unpublished story by Michael D. Rosenthal, and directed by John Rich. A boring guy gets a stopwatch that stops time. He's such an ass that he can't make it work to his advantage. He eventually gets stuck with the time stopped. Couldn't happen to a better man. I remember this one but it's not a favorite. I just can't stand spending time with such an asshole. The extras have an isolated score by Van Cleave and a TZ radio drama of the episode.

The Last Night Of A Jockey  October 25 1963

Written by Rod and directed by Joseph M Newman. Mickey Rooney is an angry jockey with a bunch of chips on his shoulder. He's crooked he got caught fixing a race while the guys higher up got off scot free. He wishes he were big and he gets it. Things don't go well, he can't be a jockey when they offer him another chance to ride, and he isn't done growing. Sucks to be that guy, huh. I do remember this one from when I was a kid. There's a commentary with Mickey Rooney.

Living Doll  November 1 1963

Written by Charles Beaumont, ghost written by Jerry Sohl while Beaumont was sick, and directed by Richard C. Sarafian. Telly Savalas is the step father to a little girl. Her mother buys a talking doll for the little girl and Telly gets upset they spent money. He's kind of a big ass jerk who fights with the doll. She hands out a big dose of deadly punishment in the Zone. I think I remember this one from the 60s. June Foray does an audio commentary on the episode, she supplies the voice for the doll. There's an isolated score by Bernard Herrmann, a video interview with June Foray, and a TZ radio drama of the episode.

The Old Man In The Cave  November 8 1963

Written by Rod, adapted from Henry Slesar's short story The Old Man, and directed by Alan Crosland Jr. The story is set in the post-apocalypse future of 1974. Everyone lives in a town that gets advice from the old man in the cave. John Anderson is the man who talks to the old man in the cave. James Coburn leads 3 men who strong arm the survivors in the town. They find out the old man in the cave is a computer and destroy it. Then everyone in the town dies from eating contaminated food that James told them was ok. Sucks to be that town. The episode has no extras.

Another bad day in the Twilight Zone. Nothing much happy happens. Oh, well, maybe next disc.

B-Movie Blast Disc 8

The 9th disc of the B-Movie Blast 50 Movie set has another 4 movies that don't share much in common, other than they all were Crown International Pictures.

 

Indian Paint is a 1965 that was directed by Norman Foster. Back in the 1930s he directed some of the Mr Moto series and a couple of Charlie Chan films. Later he would take a shot at directing TV, he worked a lot in that medium, especially for Disney. Norman wrote the screenplay to Indian Paint which is based on a novel by Glenn Balch. It's set in a period before the Europeans came but after Spanish horses have spread over the plains. Johnny Crawford is a young Indian boy who's just coming up to his manhood rite of passage. He catches a young pinto and raises it to be his horse. There's trouble with another tribe, cougar and wolf attacks and his mom gets sick. Jay Silverheels plays Johnny's father the chief of the tribe. Not a film I would normally watch but it was fairly entertaining.

African Safari is a 1968 documentary written and directed by Ronald E Shanin. It was originally released under the name Rivers Of Fire And Ice and most of it was filmed around Mount Kilimanjaro in Kenya. It's rather interesting as he moves about the countryside collecting animals for zoos and visiting with the natives.

Santee is a 1973 western with Glenn Ford. It's written by Brand Bell and directed by Gary Nelson. Ford is Santee, a bounty hunter, who's hunting a man he kills. The son of that man wants vengeance and he follows after. Santee offers him a place to stay on his ranch. The young man wants to follow Santee in his bounty hunting business. That turns out to be a bad idea. Jay Silverheels plays Santee's ranch hand and friend. Not a bad film, just less interesting than my favorite westerns.

The Specialist is a 1975 film that's pretty awful. It's based on a novel, Come Now The Lawyers by Ralph B Potts. He wrote the screenplay with director Howard Avedis and Marlene Schmidt. Adam West is a terrible lawyer and John Anderson is a terrible businessman. Between the two of them they manage to ruin their lives and people die. It's boring and there isn't hardly anyone to cheer on. There's plenty of nudity but even that isn't much of a reason to watch it. In fact, don't watch it, you can see some titties anywhere else.

I guess out of the four films I'd probably only watch the documentary about Ron's trip to Africa. It sort of reminds me of Gerald Durrell's books about collecting animals in Africa and other places. I should re-read those sometime, they were more entertaining that the movie.