PRIMITIVE SCREWHEADS

Witches' Brew 1980

Witches' Brew is the third adaptation of Fritz Leiber's Conjure Wife. It's a 1980 TV movie with a script by Syd Dutton and Richard Shorr. The co-directors are Shorr and Herbert L Strock. It's supposed to be a horror comedy but the jokes are weak and rare. Richard Benjamin is the professor and Teri Garr is his witchcraft practicing wife. She's part of a small group of witches, lead by Lana Turner in her last film. Richard finds out about the magic and after getting rid of the magic has a poor time. There's another subplot with Lana trying to steal Teri's body to replace her dying one. It gets pretty serious near the end. I found a copy on YouTube, see link above, and watched it. I wouldn't want to buy a copy, though I didn't see anyone selling one other than a bootleg. The VHS tape is $49.99 on Amazon.

Burn, Witch, Burn 1962

I picked up a copy the DVD of Burn, Witch, Burn at DreamHaven today. You never know what you'll find around there. It's a 1962 horror movie based on the 1943 Fritz Leiber Jr novel Conjure Wife. I know I read that back in the 70s but I'm pretty sure I don't have a copy anymore. So many books got purged when I moved from the Canada to the US. Most of those books were never replaced, which seems to mean I didn't need to read them again. I did keep Leiber's Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser stories to reread and I have.

Burn, Witch, Burn is the second of three adaptations of the novel. The first was Weird Woman back in 1944. I first saw it back in December 2016, it's part of the 6 film box set Inner Sanctum Mysteries. That's a nice little set that I lucked out on, in my post I mentioned buying a used box set for 7 bucks at the local HPB, it was $35 on Amazon then, it's $64.99 now. Burn, Witch, Burn was part of the Midnite Movies VHS line but it never made it to DVD under that banner. The version I have is part of the MGM Limited Edition collection and the movie is on a DVDr and the only extra is a trailer. There is a Blu-ray that's got a commentary with Richard Matheson and an interview with Peter Wyngarde. Not sure it's worth investing 20 bucks in that material. The version I got cost me about 6 bucks. I don't know that I would watch it enough times to justify having two copies.

That's Janet Blair and Peter Wyngarde on the right. You might remember Peter from his various TV and Film appearances. I know him from The Saint, The Avengers, I Spy, The Prisoner, The Champions, Doctor Who, Jason King and Department S. Janet I don't know from much, The Fuller Brush Man, that's about the only film for sure.

In the film Peter is a psychology professor at a college, Janet is his wife. She's been using obeah magic to better his career. She learned it when they lived in Jamaica. Peter teaches that magic and voodoo and such are not real. He'll be in for a surprise later. He finds the obeah items and burns the lot. Things go south for him right after. Turns out there's someone else after Peter too. It will be touch and go for our couple right up to the end of the picture.

It's a nice moody looking picture. It's directed by Sidney Hayers and the screenplay is by Charles Beaumont and Richard Matheson. I can't say I've seen any of Sidney's films for sure but I have seen the 8 episodes of The Avengers he did. I've also seen the episodes of The Famous Five series and a few random other shows, like The A-Team, Space Precinct and Knight Rider. I can't say enough about Charles and Richard. I've read their books and seen their TV shows and movies. Plenty of good from both of them.

I enjoyed the movie, it moves along alright and there's something happening most of the time. Glad I picked it up. I'll watch it again.

Forgotten Noir Volume 3

The Shadow Man is a British noir from 1953, it played here in the USA as Street Of Shadows. It's written and directed by Richard Vernon and based on a a novel by Lawrence Meynell. Cesar Romero is the owner of a pin-table saloon in Soho. He gets involved with a married woman, played by Kay Kendall. Quite a way into the movie a woman named Angela turns up dead in his bed. He gets some help from his pal Limpy, played by Victor Maddern, to move the body. They get caught but Cesar escapes. He's got to find the real killer so he can stay free. Pretty typical plot made entertaining by a good script and actors. It's Vernon's only director work and he does a nice job, it looks good and the story moves along briskly. I'd want to see it again someday.

Shoot To Kill is an 1947 noir directed by William Berke from a screenplay by Edwin V Westrate. A crooked DA frames a ex-gangster. The ex-gangster has to fight his way out of that predicament. The movie opens with the death of the DA and the rest of the story is mostly flashbacks. That DA is really corrupt, he sure needed killing. It was fairly good, something was usually happening, I liked it. I'll watch it again someday.

Guardians 2017

Guardians is a 2017 Russian movie that's playing on Amazon Prime. It's written and directed by Sarik Andreasyan and it bombed in Russia. It's got poor press there and pretty much all over the world. It's not a great film that's for sure, the plot is about genetically altered super soldiers, created during the cold war. Not a new idea. One guy can change to a big strong bear, one guy can control stone, another guy is really fast and he had two curved swords, and a woman can be invisible in contact with water. After a fracas the four go into hiding.

Jump to modern day and the Ministry of Defense rounds up the four to help them with a problem. There's this evil cyborg scientist on the path to world domination. The 4 get captured on a raid and evil cyborg scientist offers them a job. They refuse and he locks them up.

I enjoyed it more for being a Russian superhero story than the actual story. The story is kind of weak. The CGI is fair to good. They've made better films in Russia and maybe they will again. I wouldn't need to see it again so seeing it on AP is the best way to go.

Eye Of The Beast 2007

Eye Of The Beast is 7th of the Maneater Series. It's a Canadian film that came out in 2007. It's directed by Gary Yates and Mark Mullin wrote the screenplay. James Van Der Beek is a scientist who comes to a fishing town that is having a problem with fish. Not enough of them. What's the cause? I suspect it's the beast in the title. Perhaps an octopus. There's plenty of rough seas ahead as James enlists the local fishermen to work together to kill the beast. Many will sacrifice their lives to the great sea god this night. Well, it was actually yesterday when I saw it but you get the idea. Hardly anyone isn't taking a salt nap. I gave it a 3, it's too talky, there's not anywhere near enough beast.

Swamp Devil 2008

Swamp Devil is another in the Maneater series of films. It came out in 2008 and the screenplay is by Gary Dauberman and Ethlie Ann Vare with David Winning directing. Bruce Dern is the big name, he plays a guy the sheriff is hunting for multiple murders. It wasn't Bruce, it was the Swamp Devil, but no one believes that at first. If fact, it's often the last thing people believe as the creature's intrusiveness rips their bodies asunder. The movie was shot in Montreal in three weeks. Bruce Dern broke his leg in the second week but continued on. It's nothing special, I only gave it a 4, but watched it to the end. I might watch it again, I'm keeping the Maneater series as I want to watch a few of them again.

Evil Remains 2004

Evil Remains is a 2004 film that's part of a Triple Feature DVD set from Screen Media. I got it from Hamilton Books for just over 4 bucks. I keep hoping for that nice little gem. Not much hope so far. James Merendino is the writer and director. A guy is writing his thesis and part of it brings him, and some fellow students, to a cursed plantation house. The students cover the whole range from annoying to somewhat less annoying. They go to the plantation house and do some looking around. People start acting odd and start arguing with each other. One guy wants to go home and they should have listened to him. Soon after the wall starts bleeding and they find a dead guy. More follow. Pays not to go into cursed buildings. Shit poster too. Not something I'd get back to any time soon, possibly ever.

Nature's Grave 2008

Nature's Grave is part of a Triple Feature DVD from Screen Media Films. It's a 2008 Australian film about a couple who go camping and die. It's pretty awful. Jim Caviezel and Claudia Karvan are the couple. Everett De Roche is the screenwriter and Jamie Blanks is the director. The Aussie landscape is nice. I can't say the movie is.

Science Fiction Sunday 533

Watching the Blu-ray of The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy. It's a three disc set that came out November 2018. I hadn't noticed it then but found a copy at BestBuy when I stopped in for a printer ink cartridge. It wasn't any cheaper than Amazon so I picked it up. I rarely buy anything at Best Buy. Their prices aren't that good and the DVD selection is pretty shit most of the time.

It's supposed to be restored and remastered but there's all sorts of complaints on the Internet about that. It doesn't matter to me, I'm upgrading a DVDr, with the episodes recorded off of TV, that looks much worse. Nice to be able to read the bits of the Guide with nice clear letters and images.

The episodes are on the first disc and the other two have 5.5 hours of extras. There's also a 24 page booklet that talks about what's on the discs and has plenty of tiny photos. I'll plow through the extras when I get done with the series but I'll be having lunch in the interim.

It's been a while since I've seen the show and I've forgotten a good bit of the detail. It still makes me laugh. Maybe someday I'll reread the books too.

Friday Night Movies 724

Night Monster is our first movie, it's a 1942 horror crime drama with Bela Lugosi and Lionel Atwill. It's got a screenplay by Clarence Upson Young and Ford Beebe is the director. Ford directed nearly 100 films in 50 year career and wrote even more. Some were shorts and some were serials and some were feature films. They might not be the big A pictures but many of them are just the sort of thing I like to watch, and I'm certainly not alone in that feeling. I you might have seen Flash Gordon Conquers The Universe, The Invisible Man's Revenge, Bomba, The Jungle Boy, My Dog Shep, and there's even more entertaining films listed on his IMDb page. Clarence wrote screenplays or stories for 2 dozen pictures over 30 years. The only other one I remember seeing is the Randolph Scott film Albuquerque. The Ghost That Walks Alone isn't one I've seen but it looks like it might be fun.

Bela plays the butler and Lionel plays a visiting doctor. Bela isn't the lead but he gets top billing to get the patrons into the theater. Same with Lionel but he has the misfortune to be an early victim thus cutting his role significantly. Bela was entertaining as the butler and Lionel is almost always delivers a good character. Here he's a doctor who had saved the life of the man Bela works for.

Rich Kurt Ingston is played by Ralph Morgan, who's wheelchair bound and near death. Lionel and two other doctors had to amputate his legs after an accident. All three of them get an invite to Ingston's house.

Ingston's sister invites a psychiatrist to the house, Irene Hervey plays Dr Harper. That's her in the middle of the picture. Irene had a nice long career, she started working in 1933 and continued until 1981. She was a regular on the Honey West series, playing Aunt Peg, and had guest spots on many popular TV series. The guy on the right is Lief Erickson, he's the chauffeur, and he's also been in a bunch of films and TV episodes. His career started in 1933, he started working in TV in 1949, and he kept on acting until 1984. Don some might remember as Gidget's dad in Gidget Goes To Rome and in the Gidget series. He also had many good roles in pictures, starting in 1939 and continuing on until 1988.

The murdering starts before everyone meets at the Ingston house. A doctor is found dead in the slough next to the house before the movie starts. Once the house is filled, the killing begins with the maid, then Lionel's character is next. the local police shows up and there's plenty of activity until the murderer is finally revealed. Decent script and entertaining cast. Worth a look.

Island Of Terror is our second film, it came out in 1966, and Peter Cushing is the main star. I thought I hadn't seen it but it turned out that I have, back in 1995. Probably played on Turner Classic Movies, I doubt it was a VHS rental.

It's got a script by Edward Mann and Al Ramsen with Terence Fisher directing. It was the one and only script that Al was part of, he's more an actor, though he has 8 credits on the IMDb. It was the first script for Edward, he would write 8 more scripts and direct 5 of the movies. His bio from the IMDb is interesting.

Edward Mann was a multi-talented Film Director, Screenplay Writer, Theater Producer, Cartoonist and Composer. He started out as a cartoonist in the 1940s as one of the artists for "Andy Gump" and Joe Palooka. In 1952, he had his own strip, "Blade Winters" which ran in the NY Post. He also drew "Dixie Dugan" which was syndicated across the press in the 1950s and 1960s. A gifted individual with an abundance of natural charm and wit, Mr. Mann was a driving force behind the original Woodstock, New York, cultural and theatrical movement in the 60s. He is also, perhaps, best remembered as the co-founder with Ted Mann (no relation) of the original "Circle in the Square" Theater in New York City, where so many renowned figures of stage and screen were first presented, and with which he was closely associated from 1950 to 1953. Mr. Mann wrote over eight films and directed about half of them, starring Jack Klugman, Boris Karloff, Morgan Freeman (one of his very first films), among others. In 1983, he produced the Broadway musical "Amen Corner", written by James Baldwin. -- IMDb Mini Biography By: David Mann

Terence Fisher people might remember directed oodles and oodles of Hammer films. This isn't one of those, though it has a Quatermass sort of feel to it, as did Terence's 1967 sf film Island Of The Burning Damned. That wasn't a Hammer film either. In 1962 Terence directed the Hammer film The Phantom Of The Opera, very expensive, poor box office. Fisher didn't work for Hammer until they hired him to direct The Gorgon in 1964. In the mean time he took some work from Lippert Films with The Horror Of It All in 1963 and The Earth Dies Screaming in 1964. In 1966 he directed Island Of Terror for Planet Films Productions and the following year he directed Island Of The Burning Damned for them. He made three more films for Hammer, then retired, he passed away a few years later at age 76. He's a director that I keep an eye out for and usually find his films entertaining.

Strange things are happening on an island off the Ireland. A farmer is missing. The constable finds his body collapsed on the ground. The local physician Dr Landers, played by Eddie Byrne, does an autopsy and finds the farmer has no bones. Bone-in farmers are starting to find animals dead with no bones. Dr Landers travels to London to get help from noted pathologist Dr Stanley, played by Peter Cushing. Unable to make head or tails of the bonelessness Doctor's Stanley and Lansing go get help from bone expert Dr West, played by Edward Judd. The three travel to the island with Dr West's girlfriend Toni, played by Carole Gray. That's Edward and Peter with the shotguns. They'll soon find that the shotguns are useless against the creatures who are dispensing death on the island.

That's Peter and Edward with Eddie Byrne. The tentacle is that of the nasty critter that's doing the killing. Plenty fall to the tentacles bone draining death grip before they figure out how to kill them. It's touch and go there.I found it entertaining and want to pick up a copy at some point. We watched the nice Blu-ray from Shout Factory. I put it on my Wish List at Amazon.