PRIMITIVE SCREWHEADS

Friday Night Movies 751

Hell Comes To Frogtown is a 1988 comedy set in a post apocalypse world with mutants and Sandahl Bergman. It's story is by Donald G Jackson and Randall Frakes, the screenplay is by Frakes and it was directed by Donald and R J Kizer.

Rowdy Roddy Piper is Sam Hell, he's be caught having a sack full of sperm. It's his own and it's a rare thing in the wasted future. The powers that be have glommed onto his tackle, nationalized it, and surrounded it in a barrier of steel. Sadly, Sam is a bit of an idiot. It's a wonder he survived so far.

Sandahl takes Sam on a mission to the wastelands. The mission is to find a handful of kidnapped fertile women and rescue them. It hardly makes any sense, sending your valuable family jewels off to where the mutants live but it's a movie awash with a lack of sense.

The fertile women have been sold to the mutant leader of Frogtown, that's him above, the mutation gives the human shaped beings frog faces and hands. Mutants also eat people, which is amazing when you consider the post-apoc human's diet.

There's plenty of running about, yelling, guns shooting, fast driving, and other time wasters to help fill out those 86 minutes. It's fun enough but since I have a copy I wouldn't be upgrading to the new Blu-ray, nice as it looks.

I probably liked Hatchet III better than the first movie even though I gave both of them a 6 on the IMDb. I was a bit more generous with the first movie. Hatchet III picks up where the first two movies left off. The Honey Island shoreline is littered with bodies, in chunks.

In the opening scenes Danielle Harris kills Victor Crowley, chops him up with a giant chainsaw, then heads into town to tell the police. Danielle was in the second movie and only appears briefly at the end of the 4th film. There's a fifth one rumored and the end of the fourth seems like a big ass opening for one. Back in the third film the local law arrest Danielle, sit her in cell, and the sheriff heads off for the swamp. Several police and paramedic boats arrive. While Daniel was gone Victor pulled himself together and slaughtered just about everyone who showed up on those boats. He's a super natural killing machine that's ugly as hell.

Victor is a nearly unkillable vengeful spirit that was created by a voodoo curse. The sheriff's wife believes that Victor needs to find his daddy and she knows where the dead man's ashes are. They work, at least temporarily, Victor returns in the fourth movie which we watched a few weeks back.

The first two movies in the series were written and directed by Adam Green. He wrote the script on this one and BJ McDonnell directed.  This is BJ's only movie, mostly he's a camera operator, he's got over 160 credits for that on the IMDb. All he's directed since have been video shorts. I though BJ did a great job in keeping the style of the first two films. They have a good sense of humor and plenty of gore. Since I had missed the 3rd movie, and had all the others, it seemed like a good idea to pick it up. Now I can watch the whole lot over again someday, right from the beginning.

Whodunnit? Series 2

Whodunnit? is back for a second series of 6 episodes. They aired in June and July of 1974. There's anew logo and a new host, Edward Woodward is out and Jon Pertwee is in. He even makes a Doctor Who joke in his opening comments.

There's a new set, can't say it's any better than the last one. Neither was attractive.

The panel seating is also ugly. At one point later in the series they use the set from the murder.

   

The murders were all over the place, they even go back into the past, the pictures above are from a story that takes place in WW2. Another murder stems from the war but is set modern day. There's a murder on a train, another murder is set in a film studio, another murder happens during a costume party in a story set in the 1930s, the last story doesn't have a murder, it's about art fraud.

That's the first group of panelists, Patrick Mower, Margaret Lockwood, Anthony Valentine and Robin Nedwell. I'd seen Patrick and Robin in stuff but the others weren't familiar. Harry H Corbett, Leslie Crowther, Sheila Hancock, Richard O'Sullivan, Henry Cooper, Jimmy Jewel, Aimi MacDonald, Francis Matthews, Billie Whitelaw, Rodney Bewes, Reginald Bosanquet, George Sewell, Kingsley Amis, Jackie Collins, Arthur Mullard, Pete Murray, Dawn Addams, Hughie Green, Alfred Marks and Jackie Pallo. Most of those, I have no idea who they are.

About the same sort of level of entertainment as the previous series, meaning it was fun to watch while I was doing something. I'll bang away at the rest in the future.

Hanna D: The Girl From Vondel Park 1984

Hanna D: The Girl From Vondel Park is a 1984 Italian exploitation movie that was filmed in Amsterdam. Rino Di Silvestro is the director and he co-wrote the script with Hervé Piccini. It's a bit of sleaze about a woman who gets hooked on heroin and turns to prostitution. There's plenty of nudity, hookers, scumbags, filthy streets and a good level of general sleaziness. There's just nothing special about it, an average bit of tat.

Play It Cool 1962

Play It Cool is a British musical from 1962. Its directed by Michael Winner with a screenplay by Jack Henry. Billy Fury is the singer in a band who are trying to get to Spain for a band contest. They get on the plane but it gets turned back. On board is a rich guy's daughter that the press are hounding. She hooks up with the band for noisy fun at some London nightspots. There's plenty of music but it's dull stuff, man, I can't swing to it. It got fast forwarded through. I don't have time to waste on dull pop songs by people I don't know. It's a comedy but they're short on jokes, what with the music and all. I liked the characters some and that's always a good thing. I'd watch it again someday.

The Chiltern Hundreds 1949

The Chiltern Hundreds is a 1949 British movie that was released in the US as The Amazing Mr Beecham. John Paddy Carstairs is the director, William Douglas-Home and Patrick Kirwan shared the script writing. The story appeared on British TV first, in a play by William Douglas-Home. It was later adapted to the radio on the BBC. John Paddy spent 30 years directing, 1933 to 1963, he passed away in 1970 at age 60. In the last couple of years he directed a couple episodes of The Saint and 4 episodes of The Sentimental Agent. I haven't seen the latter show but it's now on my Wanted List. I know those two episodes, I do love The Saint, I've watched the series several times over the years.

David Tomlinson is a young Viscount, he's been called up to the Army but takes leave to run in the local election. His family have always held the seat. He loses to the Labour candidate and the Viscount decides to run as a Socialist. Cecil Parker is Mr Beecham, the family butler, he also runs for the seat. It's got a good number of goofy characters and some jokes. I enjoyed it. Keep an eye out for small bits by Desmond Llewelyn and Richard Wattis.

Mimesis: Night Of The Living Dead 2011

Mimesis: Night Of The Living Dead is a 2011 horror movie directed by Douglas Schulze, he co-wrote the script with Joshua Wagner. It's about some people at a horror convention, they get asked to come to a private party at a secluded farm house. They wake up, after being drugged, in costumes of characters from the movie Night Of The Living Dead. Zombies attack but they turn out to be some shitbags who are into killing people for fun. That's when I started to care less for the movie. I thought it was below average and not something I probably would watch again.

Whodunnit? Pilot & Series 1

I ordered Network's complete series of Whodunnit? because Jon Pertwee was on the cover of the DVD set. He's the host of this rather unusual panel game show and while that doesn't actually start until the second series, he does appear as a guest in the first series. Edward Woodward is the host of the first series and a panelist in the pilot. I hadn't ever heard of this show before I saw the DVD listed on Amazon UK but it was odd enough that I wanted to take a shot.

The 6 series were each released as individual sets but I got the 13 disc complete series box set. It's packed in one of those big fat plastic cases with hinged panels to hold the discs. I hate them and this one has an extra annoyance, the discs are stacked 2 to a hub and staggered. I hate that stagger, making you remove a disc to get to another disc, doubling up the discs on a hub, even more heinous. I put the discs in paper sleeves, recycled the box and kept the paper insert. It sure saves a lot of space. Amazon sells some nice folding boxes that hold those paper sleeved discs quite well.

The series was devised and written by Jeremy Lloyd and Lance Percival. Jeremy was an actor and writer who appeared in The Magic Christian and Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In in 1969. He wrote a lot of British TV shows that I haven't seen, as well as material for Laugh-In. Lance is the more well known actor, at least to me, I'd just seen him in On The Fiddle with Alfred Lynch and Sean Connery. I've seen him in other movies and I know I'll be seeing more of him. Several of his credits include films that are part of The British Film series that I've been possessed by following. He appeared in 3 films with Frankie Howerd.

The Pilot aired August 15 1972. That's Shaw Taylor as the host above. Based on the name you might guess that the show has something to do with solving crime. Each week the panel of guests has to try to solve the murder they are presented with, actors act out the murder in a short film. The characters then appear before the panelists to answer their questions.

That's Edward Woodward, Anne Summer and Frank Windsor, they are the panelists. Edward isn't in a lot of movies that I've watched but I usually like him in what I have seen, like that episode of The Saint where he's the new Prime Minister of a newly independent British colony. I have his show The Equalizer to watch and I'm sort of interested in Callan. Can't find anything much about Anne but the host said she was a detective at one time. Frank Windsor is an actor who's been in a lot of TV shows over the years, he started in 1955 and his last credit is in 2004. He did a few movies but I can't say I knew them.

They show the film, the panelist question the characters, the panelists and the audience fill out cards with whodunnit and the clues they used to get to their conclusion. The audience member with the most correct answers will be given a choice of a prize from several props used on the show. That lady in the picture won the jewelry box that appeared in the 2nd episode of the 1st series. The winning panelist gets to pick a charity to receive £25.

The first series aired in June and July of 1973. Shaw is gone, replaced by Edward Woodward as host. There are 4 panelists instead of three.

Other panelists for the series include Reginald Bosanquet, Daliah Lavi, Jon Pertwee, George Sewell, David Hemmings, Sally Geeson, Joe Lynch, Peter Byrne, Moira Lister, Kingsley Amis, Russell Hunter, Alfred Marks, Dulcie Gray, Michael Denison, Marius Goring, Barbara Windsor, John Woodvine, Tom Tullett and Patrick Mower. Many of them I hadn't ever heard about.

The first episode is set on a ship, a woman goes missing, they find a suicide note and an open porthole.

The second has murder in a stately home. Other murders happened at a fashion show, a couple of companies and a New Years Party. I didn't do too well picking the villains, not that the crimes were too complex, but I did better spotting the clues. I don't as a rule try to outguess the detective when I'm watching a mystery.

There are all sorts of actors that I recognize in the murder films but I might not know some of their names. They all do a great job and the films are well made with decent TV production values. The panelists are hit or miss, I was just pleased to see some of them. It's all pretty low-key but I enjoyed what I saw. I'll be looking forward to the Jon Pertwee programs.

The Cut-Throats 1969

The Cut-Throats is a 1969 low budget copy of the Dirty Dozen. John Hayes wrote and directed.It's also known as She Devils Of The SS and Cut-Throat Kommandoss. It's part of the Vinegar Syndrome 5 Films - 5 Years Volume 4 Blu-ray set. The dozen got cut in half and 6 guys sneak into Germany to kill some Nazis and steal some important papers. Their important target turns out to be a brothel for naughty Nazis and there's plenty of boobies to prove it. The half dozen have sex with the prozzies and steal some jewels. There's more sex than fighting and neither is very exciting. It comes up short in the story and the production. Most people gave it a 4 on the IMDb and that's where I am.

Stung 2015 Blu-ray commentary

The commentary to Stung by director Benni Diez, producer Benjamin Munz, and writer Adam Aresty was pretty entertaining. Aresty is an American and the other two are German. The film is set in the US but shot in a mansion in the woods near Berlin. Having the three of them there makes for sure that someone is talking all the time, and they have a lot of background and details on the film. There's also a decent making of featurette, some production blog posts and the trailer.

Arabian Adventure 1979 Commentary

I listened to the commentary on Arabian Adventure and enjoyed it. It's hosted by C Courtney Joyner who talks to director Kevin Connor. Joyner keeps the commentary going, not only talking about this film but some of Kevin's other work. Mostly they talk about what's on screen but Kevin does have a few stories.