PRIMITIVE SCREWHEADS

The Big Money 1958

The Big Money is a 1958 British film starring Ian Carmichael and Belinda Lee. John Baines provided the story and the screenplay, Patrick Campbell provided some additional dialog, John Paddy Carstairs provided the direction. The studio sat on the film for two years because they didn't think it was funny enough. Did they think it might ripen in storage? A need for product had them release it in 1958. It came out in the US in 1962.

Ian plays a small time crook who wants to impress the barmaid of his local but he's usually skint. Not so impressive, huh. Belinda plays the barmaid. He steals a suitcase and takes it back to his family of pick pockets and shoplifters. James Hayter, Kathleen Harrison and Jill Ireland plays the family. None of them look too highly on poor Ian, he's a failure as a crook. When they open the suitcase they find it full of £1 notes. Ian think he's finally done the family proud, until they find out it's all counterfeit.

Ian manages to attract Belinda's interest with his new cash flow. It doesn't go as planned. The crooks that owned the counterfeit money and the police are also interested in Ian. I like Ian most of the time but I'm not such a big fan of Belinda's. The rest of the cast is pretty good. I knew of George Coulouris, Renée Houston, Leslie Phillips, Ferdy Mayne and Michael Balfour. They do alright with a so-so script. I wish there had been more and better jokes, it's rather predicable and average. I got to the end, I might watch it again, I might not watch it again.

Horrors Of The Black Museum 1959

Horrors Of The Black Museum is a 1959 British American horror film. Herman Cohen and Aben Kandel wrote the original story and the screenplay, Arthur Crabtree was the director. While Herman was mostly a producer of B films, he did pen several that I've seen, I Was A Teenage Werewolf, How To Make A Monster, The Headless Ghost, I Was A Teenage Werewolf, Konga, Berzerk and Craze. No real gems there, but somewhat entertaining in their way. Aben started writing films in 1932 but only a couple of titles are familiar. He did some TV in the early 50s and then he started working with Herman on a bunch of pictures.

Arthur Crabtree directed 16 movies between 1945 and 1959, this was the last. I'm betting his most beloved film among 50s SF and horror fans would be the 1958 film Fiend Without A Face. It's a darn good one. Arthur directed 12 episodes of the 1958 Roger Moore TV show Ivanhoe. I remember liking that show when I was a kid but the few I've seen in recent years just weren't as entertaining to the older me.

A woman is killed with a pair of trick binoculars, spikes pierced her eyes when she used them. Michael Gough is a crime writer and journalist, he stops in at the police station to have a look at the murder weapon. That's Michael on the right. On the left is Geoffrey Keen, he's Superintendent Graham, the other fellow is John Warwick, he's Inspector Lodge. Long term Brit film fans will know Geoffrey, he's has been in way too many movies and TV shows to mention. John was an Australian fellow who was in the holy grail of TV shows for me, he was a copper in 4 episodes of The Flying Doctor.

Michael has a secret museum of weapons and torture devices in his basement. Michael has an assistant called Rick. Michael is a bat shit crazy murderer.

It's a fairly good film with interesting stuff going on. It's moody and a bit creepy. Good actors with a good script, and plenty of nice locations, sets and props. I thought it was worth a look when I was done. I picked up a DVD and will want to watch it again.

You can try it out on YouTube here, sadly some guys blather on at the start, the middle, and at the end of the picture. You can fast forward them or listen. If you are watching a YouTube video you can use the left and right keyboard arrows to jump ahead, or back, 5 seconds at a time. It doesn't work during the ads.

Common Law Wife 1961

Common Law Wife is a 1961 drama about some horrible people who live in New Orleans. Grace Nolan wrote the script and Eric Sayers is the director. Larry Buchanan gets an uncredited director credit for directing the footage from his film Swamp Rose, Eric cut footage from that into the film he shot. It's that kind of lazy sloppy film making that makes Eric and Larry guys who should just fuck off.

An old man called Shug wants his long time girlfriend out of the house, he's got eyes on a tramp from the north to take her place. The tramp turns out to be Shug's niece and the girlfriend finds out she's Shug's common law wife. Now the girlfriend has some power and she makes Shug's life somewhat miserable. The niece has her own plot going one, Shug has some readies and she's gonna get some of that cash if it kill's him. Sadly it's not quite interesting enough to be really compelling. Spending time with these people just isn't much fun. At least many of them die. You can find out who by watching the movie on YouTube. There's a link in the title above.

W 1983

W is a 1983 Filipino film about some scummy drug gang lords and the cops after them. Willy Milan wrote and directed. The film is also known as W Is War, W: La Vengeance Des Sauvages, Kersantti W - nykyajan Mad Max (Sergeant W - Modern Day Mad Max), Vendicator W, and Firestorm - Die letzte Schlacht.

That's all the baddies on the VHS cover. The head baddie is called Nosfero and he's the guy in the fancy uniform with the red sleeves. He has a pigtail growing out of the side of his bald head. He's a violent lunatic with a leather clad army of thugs. Don't worry, they're easily killed.

 

W in the title refers to W2, that's the code name of the cop investigating Nosfero. The drug gang have a base and that's eventually where W2 and the force attack. The first hour of the 90 min movie has various smaller encounters between the cops and the gang plus too much melodrama with W2 and his wife, the last half hour is nearly all battle time. That battle tries to capture the look of Mad Max 2 but doesn't quite pull it off. At least they have plenty of extras for the fight scenes. Lots of explosions too.

 

There's a link to the movie in the title above. You might get a kick out of it, for any number of reasons. I think it tries to emulate the over the top Hong Kong action crime films of the time but it's hasn't enough money or talent behind it. There were enough odd moments that it kept me going to the end. It's not available on DVD as far as I can see. There had been a VHS release, which is now pretty rare. I read of a DVD release but did not see any listed anywhere I normally look. The VHS isn't even listed on eBay. Luckily there are people who post such thing to YouTube and the like. It's often much better to see a movie before buying it. This is that sort of movie.

Crossroads Of Crime 1960

Crossroads Of Crime is a 1960 British Crime film that's Gerry Anderson's first live action production. Gerry produced and directed with Alun Falconer providing the script. They had a budget of £16,250, about $400,000 today. It flopped when released and was later included in the Edgar Wallace Mysteries movie series. Network put out the DVD in 2013 and it has the Edgar Wallace titles with the originals as a special feature. There's a making of documentary and some interviews with the Anderson's, editor David Elliot and actor David Graham.

Anthony Oliver plays a cop who investigating Freddy Mayne's truck hi-jacking gang. His boss tells him they haven't got any evidence and he should work on other crimes. Anthony goes ahead on the sly and gets into one scrap after another. There's a bit of action and some running about. I did like seeing the local scenery but that only goes so far. The story is fair and the script gets most of the job done. It's a short film, 57 mins, and it seems like they've cut some bits that might have gotten us from one scene to another with more clarity. It's pretty much average B movie stuff, for the most part. I didn't think it was as awful as some of the original reviews did. I'd watch it again, but it's not going to be near the top of the list anytime soon.

Science Fiction Sunday 572

The Field is a 2019 horror film that was listed as SF on Amazon Prime. Director Tate Bunker co-wrote the script with Anthony Wood. It's a pokey piece about some dumb people who move to Wisconsin. That's enough of a horror show for me. Anyway, a chef from Chicago gives up his cooking career, his wife didn't want to share him with his 90 hour a week job, they buy a farm in Manitowoc Wisconsin. The chef is into nature photography so he starts taking pictures of the farm. He sees strange images of people in his photos, people who weren't there in the field. He meets Veronica Cartwright, she's a disturbed older lady who had disappeared many years ago. She returned after 7 years in a rather disturbed state. Mark Metcalf plays the sheriff and Barry Bostwick plays a local businessman with connections to the farm. The wife finds evidence that a cult of some sort used to inhabit the farm. The chef becomes obsessed with the people in his photos. The townies don't like him poking into the past. Eventually we find that there's some sort of entrance to other dimension or something. I guess that's stretching the SF element a good bit but there you go. It looks fairly good but it was too lack luster for me and I didn't care much for the characters. I wouldn't need to see it again.

Harbinger Down is a 2015 Horror SF movie about a Soviet space experiment gone wrong. The space probe disappeared in the 80s and a crabbing boat, with visiting college students, finds it in the ice in the North Sea. Lance Henriksen is the captain of the boat, one of the students is his niece. It's a bit like The Thing, the mutated astronaut thingy gets all goopy and rampages through the ship, picking off the crew and students one at a time. It's about average, they toss in a spy angle but it's all still pretty much yelling in a boat at sea. It's dark and gloomy and about average. I wouldn't need to see it again.

Friday Night Movies 772

First up, The Satanist, a 1968 horror movie of the nudie kind. A couple move into a house next door to a satanist. The whole movie is narrated by the husband of the couple, there is no sync sound going on here. There is a good bit of nudity, some satanic crap but hardly any story. It's written and directed by Zoltan G Spencer. The movie was thought to be lost until 2014. Like anyone should have been looking for it. Well, now I've seen it and wouldn't need to see it again.

Wicked City is a 1992 Hong Kong film based on a Japanese Manga. I saw it for the first time back in the 90s and hadn't seen it in a while. I didn't dig it very much this viewing. We watched a Chinese Blu-ray and the movie looks great, it just wasn't keeping my interest, the personal melodrama is turnin' me off. Others might like it more than me.

Justine De Sade 1972

Justine De Sade is a 1972 French, Italian and Canadian production. Poor Justine can't get a break, everywhere she goes someone takes advantage of her in the most naughty ways. There's plenty of nudity and sadism. Nothing special about it.

Zambo 1972

Zambo is a 1972 Italian jungle adventure with Brad Harris. Bitto Albertini is the writer and director. A guy who was framed for murder, he escaped from the train taking him to prison and hides in the jungle under the name Zambo. Three years pass and he's a pal to the locals, helping fight off poachers, robbers and other scum that come into the jungle. Zambo becomes involved with an expedition looking for treasure in a lost ruin. There's a scumbag in the expedition who wants to kill Zambo. There's oodles of jungle trekking and an occasional fight. Nothing too special about it, well below average as jungle movies go.

Bush Christmas 1947

Bush Christmas came out in 1947 and it's a British-Australian co-production. The story is about five kids who chase some rustlers after they stole the family's horses. The Wikipedia tells me that it was one of the first films from Children's Entertainment Films, which later became the Children's Film Foundation. I've picked up several of the CFF DVDs over the last few years and enjoyed them quite a bit. There's a 1983 remake of the film called Bush Christmas or Prince And The Great Race. You can see it on YouTube. I should have watched it already but I just found it. It's introduces Nicole Kidman, something I might have known if I cared about her career any.

The 1947 Bush Christmas was written, directed and produced by Ralph Smart. He wrote and directed a good number of movies in a career that started in 1927 and ended in 1973. He died in 2001 at age 92. I'm probably a bigger fan of his TV work, shows like The Adventures Of Robin Hood, William Tell, The Invisible Man, Danger Man, Secret Agent and The Champions.

It's a pretty simple story, the kids meet up with some men on the trail and they let drop that they have a nice new horse and foal at their ranch. The next morning the horses are gone. The kids suspect the men and they head out after them. The horse thieves are no match for the kids and there's a happy ending. There's plenty of nice scenery and a good script with believable kids. Glad to have picked it up, I'll certainly watch it again.