PRIMITIVE SCREWHEADS

The White Spider 1963

The White Spider 1963 Original German title is Die weiße Spinne and it was produced and marketed to imitate the popular Edgar Wallace films of the day by Arca-Winston Films and Hans Oppenheimer Film. It's based on a novel by Louis Weinert-Wilson, screenplay by Egon Eis, directed by Harald Reinl. Harald directed many of the Edgar Wallace films for Rialto. The Rialto films were usually superior in most ways. Lead actor Joachim Fuchsberger appeared in many of the Rialto Wallace films, usually as a police detective, here he's a special investigator for an insurance company. The company believes there's something funny going on with several of their recent claims, all the insured raised their policy amount and died soon after. It's like a typical Wallace picture, there's plenty of odd characters, some police work, a few murders, a crazy villain, a stalwart investigator and a bit of romance. There's enough story to keep me interested and it moves along nicely. There's a fuzzy but watchable copy on YouTube but YouTube seems to be broken right now.

The Ghost Camera 1933

The Ghost Camera 1933 Based on a short story by H Fowler Mear, screenplay by Joseph Jefferson Farjeon, directed by Bernard Vorhaus. An RKO quickie quota film make at Twickenham Studios.

Henry Kendall arrives home from a bit of a holiday only to find a strange camera in his car. He develops one of the five pictures and sees two men fighting. A buzz at his shop's front door takes him from the darkroom and gives the baddie a chance to sneak in and try to steal the camera. The sash falls on the baddie's exit, when he can't raise the jammed window, he has to leave the camera behind. The four other pictures are still in the film pack that was lying unnoticed on a table. Those pictures lead Henry to Ida Lupino and her missing brother John Mills. Ida was only 15 when she made the film, it was her 6th film. She's playing older, other wise, the romance part of the movie becomes a bit creepy. Ida and Henry spend the rest of the movie chasing around the countryside trying to figure what's going on and looking for her brother. Eventually John gives himself up and the whole story is revealed. There's some nice ruins in part of the film, Corfe Castle in Dorset fills in for the fictional one. It's got a good story and characters, nice locations, my only complaint is the film's not at it's best anymore. I read there's a restored DVD in the UK. I suspect it will be awhile before the shipping gets cheap enough to order DVDs from there.

Science Fiction Sunday 639

Doctor Who Series 1 Stories 1-3 I'd watched these episodes back in 2012 when I was getting discs from the library and Netflix. I watched them in the order that their availability dictated and I hadn't found the audio versions yet. Now I can watch them I the correct order and I have a much more complete collection of episodes. I'm just watching the stories this time. I listened to all the commentaries and extras last time and that often took a good number of hours. I've put the link to the 2012 post in the title above, read that if you want more info.

The first three stories are:

An Unearthly Child 4 episodes November 23 - December 14 1963

A couple of local teachers get too curious about a student and wind up traveling through time with the Doctor and his granddaughter.

The Daleks 7 episodes December 21 1963 - February 1 1964

The gang meet the Daleks and what dicks they turned out to be.

The Edge Of Destruction 2 episodes February 8 - 15 1964

A malfunctioning switch in the Tardis gives everyone a poor time. Those Gallifreyan engineer's aren't all they're cracked up to be.

Friday Night Movies 840

Blue Monkey 1987 Written by George Goldsmith and an uncredited Chris Kosulek, directed by William Fruet. That's the original title of a movie that was released on Blu-ray recently under the re-issue titled Insect. William directed a few films before going into mostly TV work. I've only seen his 1980 horror film Funeral Home but can't remember anything about it.

At a greenhouse a lady shows off a new plant from a newly formed volcanic island near Micronesia to her handyman. He gets pricked, collapses and is brought to the hospital just as Steve Railsback brings his wounded partner to the emergency room. What ever pricked the handyman is working fast as he's already developed gangrene around the wound. He soon vomits up an insect pupa that is put into a bell jar to study. They can't see anything on an x-ray so they cut it open and release a fierce insect. Back into the bell jar with that. Soon after some stupid kids come into the temporarily unguarded room and feed the creature some growth hormone. It immediately grows huge and it's time to cue the running and screaming.

The IMDb trivia page says Steve Railsback "has stated that he is embarrassed by his involvement with this movie." I wouldn't be that harsh on it but it's pretty average and a familiar enough story to those who've seen a good number of horror films. There's a nice new Blu-ray from Code Red, the film was only released previously on VHS. Considering the ease of ordering from Code Red I doubt I'll bother with a copy.

Book Of Monsters 2018 Written by Paul Butler, directed by Stewart Sparke. It's Stewart's second film, I haven't seen his first The Creature Below. You can see both on YouTube and both have some of the same actors.

As the movie opens a young girl's mom is eaten by the monster under her bed. The monster doesn't eat her and the rest of the movie happens on the day of her 18th birthday. Her story of a monster has followed her and she's not overly popular with some of the posh twats at the same school. Her friend hands out party invites, a spoiled bitch scans it in and invites some other stuck up assholes to the party. Lucky for me, five monsters come to the party and start tearing the guests apart. First to go are some of the twats. They scream but can't run fast enough. It's about average for me, not something I feel the need to buy, you can watch it on YouTube and see if you like it.

The Trygun Factor 1966

The Trygun Factor 1966 Based on the novel by Edgar Wallace, screenplay by Derry Quinn and Stanley Munroe, directed by Cyril Frankel.

Stewart Granger is Superintendent Cooper-Smith of Scotland Yard, he's investigating a rash of robberies, the last of which involved a murder. The trail of clues leads him to a stately mansion, a wealthy old lady, and an order of nuns. The nuns run a pottery business on the grounds, the viewer knows it's secretly used to smuggle gold out of the country. Problem for the Super? He can't get anyone to take a chance on a search warrant based on his suspicions, they're afraid it would stir things up with their higher ups. Eventually the truth comes out and Cooper-Smith gets the baddie and the pretty lady. Susan Hampshire, that's her in the picture above, is the pretty lady.

There's hattrick of crime: robbery, murder and smuggling, with a good bit of action, and it all moves along quite nicely. It's got a bit of a sense of humor and doesn't take itself very seriously. The cast is good, I recognized Stewart Granger, James Robertson Justice, Allan Cuthbertson, Colin Gordon, Caroline Blakiston, Eddie Arent and Robert Morely, I wasn't sure on any of the others. I enjoyed the film and was glad to have seen it. I've watch it again.

The Unity Of Heroes 2018

The Unity Of Heroes 2018 Screenplay by Yuhao Gao, Zhenyi Li, Xinyao Niu and Ning Yang, directed by Zenzhao Lin.

Vincent Zhao is legendary martial arts master Wong Fei Hong. He runs a school and has medical knowledge. He believes in the old ways and isn't too accepting of the foreigners that are moving into his country. Turns out he's right, the main villain is the head of a foreign hospital that has just opened it's door. Their main goal is to help with the opium addiction problem. What's really going on is Dr Vlad has created a super opium that gives the used extras strength and rage. It's side effects are insanity and death. He wants to use it to turn the Chinese into powerful men and he doesn't care how many he has to kill to do it.

There's an added subplot about the arrival of a rival martial arts school in town. There's some tension after an encounter by the more hotheaded of the two school's students. It gets pumped up to 11 when the rival's students start attacking with the aid of the super opium. Toss in a couple of pretty gals and the formula is pretty much mixed. There's plenty of fancy wire work and martial arts action, a good villain, a good hero. It's kind of familiar but I liked the characters pretty much. I gave it a 6 at the IMDb, it only scores a 5.2 but it's a bit better than that. It only has 361 votes. Someone was nice enough to pass along a DVD, I can watch it again someday.

Time Is My Enemy 1954

Time Is My Enemy 1954 Based on the play Second Chance by Ella Adkins, screenplay by Allan MacKinnon, directed by Don Chaffey. Another selection from the Kino Video British Noir II DVD set. It's a good lot of films.

Dennis Price plays a crook who's been away for a long time. He's believed to have been killed in the blitz and his wife, Renée Ascherson, has remarried. Dennis needs a bit of cash and he's not at all troubled blackmailing his wife. Trouble is, she's not got the readies and that only complicates things for poor Dennis. He robs a jewelry store and comes away with a murder rap. Now his roommate wants a cut to keep quiet, you know, if the cops come by. Dennis puts pressure on Renée, she gets some cash together and agrees to meet Dennis at his apartment. They get into an argument and he threatens her. Lucky for Renée there's a handy gun nearby and she plugs Dennis good. Now she's in trouble and she spends the rest of the movie getting out of it. There were a couple of twists that were nice to see, the script was OK, the cast fine. I knew Patrick Barr, Duncan Lamont, Susan Shaw, Bonar Colleano and Alfie Bass from other British films and TV appearances. Another one that I hope to watch again someday.

Time Lock 1957

Time Lock 1957 It's based on Arthur Hailey's play, the screenplay is by Arthur Hailey and Peter Rogers, it's directed by Gerald Thomas. This is Gerald's second film, he would go on to direct 28 Carry On films and 16 other films, most of which were comedies. I've seen most of them. The film is set in Toronto Canada but shot in the UK.

While locking up the bank vault at the end of the work day, the son of a teller accidentally gets locked in the vault. The time lock is set to unlock in 61 hours but it's likely the boy only has about 8-10 hours worth of air. A desperate attempt to cut through the door fails. One of the welders is played by Sean Connery, that's him up on the right. The man who can open the door has headed out of town on vacation. He's found but he's got to 4 hour drive to get back, lucky for the kid a helicopter goes to get him. Eventually the kid is saved and the bank needs a new door. It was a good story idea but I can't see that it's really a noir film. If anything it's a low-level thriller with a heavy side of melodrama. I thought it was worth seeing. I was glad I bought the DVD set from Kino Video and can watch it again sometime.

Science Fiction Sunday 638

No Such Thing 2002 Written and directed by Hal Hartley. I've only see his 1994 film Amateur, I can't remember anything about it.

Robert John Burke is an immortal monster who's lived since before there were humans. Some might know Robert from Dust Devil, where he played the Dust Devil. Sarah Polley plays a reporter sent to Iceland to investigate the disappearance of a team that disappeared. Her fiancé was part of the crew sent to investigate a monster who lives on as island.

The plane Sarah was on goes down in the sea, she's the only survivor, she's badly hurt. She's stuck in Iceland for a long while. Julie Christie is the doctor that helps her recover and later helps her to go to a village in Iceland near to where the monster lives.

After arriving in the village the locals get Sarah drunk. Next morning they leave her passed out and naked body on the monster's front door step. He's a drunken, bored immortal and he wants her to kill him. Sarah shoots him with a 45 automatic but bullets aren't going to do the trick. The monster just heals up. He tells her that there is one scientist who can kill him. They spend the rest of the movie trying to get together with the scientist.

I liked the monster, I liked parts of the movie, I just didn't care for the whole thing. Why do the whole plane crashing, injury and recovery thing? I probably didn't care that much for Amateur and that gave me leave to ignore Hal's films in the past. Going to continue that in the future. My Watched Movie List says "interesting" in the film's comment section. That could mean anything 21 years ago.

The Last Sentinel 2007 Written and directed by Jesse V Johnson.

It's in the future and cyborg policemen have taken over the world, they are hunting down the humans. Don Wilson is an enhanced human soldier who's got an AI assistant. He joins up with Katee Sackhoff in a fight to the death. There's plenty of scenes filled with gun shooting, yelling, and stuff blowing up. There's a fair number of flashbacks to the soldier life he had. It was nice to see Keith David as his colonel and Bokeem Woodbine as his soldier pal. Nice work from the cast, fair script, fair production values. Nothing overly special about it in the end.

Friday Night Movies 839

VFW 2019 Screenplay by Max Braillier and Matthew McArdle, directed by Joe Begos.

Stephen Lang is the bartender at the VFW post, William Sadler, Fred Williamson, Martin Kove, David Patrick Kelly and George Wendt are his old Army pals. They come to the bar to drink and hang out. It's nothing special but it's a place for them. That all gets interrupted by the arrival of a young girl, she's stolen a big bag of drugs from a psychopath drug dealer. He sees her run off with the stash and sends his younger brother and a few henchmen to get her back.

The thugs rush the bar and David Patrick Kelly goes down with an axe in the shoulder, nearly all the thugs are killed including the psychopath's little brother. The psychopath sends an small horde of fucked up drug addicts to kill them. There's plenty of action, oodles of body parts hacked and sent flying. It's a battle to the end and hardly anyone comes out alive at the end.

I enjoyed it, a good solid action film with a great cast. It had a nice, dark sense of humor, good gore, and a great score. My only complaint is the action was in the fast jump cutting style and I'm not as big a fan of that. I'd still watch it again. Worth a look for the fans of that sort of thing.

Psycho Goreman 2020 I watched it a month or so ago and posted about it on FNM. It's still funny and Mimi is still an asshole.