PRIMITIVE SCREWHEADS

Agatha Raisin Series 4

Agatha Raisin Series 4 I had pre-ordered the DVD and it arrived on release day. I rarely do that, not knowing for sure when most DVDs are coming out. I also prefer waiting a while and getting it at a bit of a cheaper price. Sad to say, Agatha doesn't fall much below the $25-26 price range for any season.The 3 DVDs have another four 90 plus minute episodes on two discs, there's a third disc with a 56 min making of as it;s sole contents.

Ashley Jenson returns as Agatha, she's joined by Matthew Horne, James Glover, Jason Merrells, Lucy Liemann, Jason Barnett, Matt McCooey and Jodie Tyack. They're all good at playing entertaining characters who have a nice bit of goofiness going on. The show looks great with plenty of colorful costumes, interesting locations and a bit of a touch of surrealness. Much of the filming is around Biddestone in Wiltshire. There are a lot of nice big mansions to visit. 

The murders are varied and so are their settings. The first episode is a Christmas episode, Agatha's client is murdered by hemlock. The second is at a nice old hotel, someone is killing off a rude family. The third is set at a jam making competition, someone is killing off the judges. The last story has Agatha's ex-husband James getting married again, the day before the big event someone kills his bride.

Despite the murders there's a good bit of humor. I liked the light-hearted level of the show enough to breeze through the whole series after Amazon dropped it off about lunch time. I find the stories a nice change after watching a darker murder mystery, like that One Lane Bridge series. I'd certainly watch the whole series over again sometime.

Science Fiction Sunday 692

 

Doctor Who 0100 The Stones Of Blood Four part story that aired October 28 to November 18 1978. Written by David Fisher and directed by Darrol Blake.

The third story in The Key Of Time story arc returns the Tardis to Earth in the modern day. Sure is amazing how so many ancient artifacts and alien invasions happen in the UK. The Doctor and Romana get involved with some Druids and and an ancient being that has been around for 4000 years. The Druids nearly sacrifice the Doctor but he's saved by an elderly lady.

You can read more about the story at the link in the title, that's the post I made when I first watched the series. There's a link for each story in the arc. I still found the story entertaining, like I did the first time through.

Doctor Who 0101 The Androids Of Tara Four part story that aired November 25 to December 16 1978. Written by David Fisher and directed by Michael Hayes.

The fourth story in The Key Of Time story arc puts the Doctor and Romana on the planet Tara where they get involved with some court intrigue. A baddie is trying to take over and he's kidnapped the man who would be king so he can't get to his coronation. The Doctor, Romana and K-9 put a stop to that villainy.

Another decent story that I enjoyed again.

Doctor Who 0102 The Power Of Kroll Four part story that aired December 23 1978 to January 13 1979. Written by Robert Holmes and directed by Norman Stewart.

The 5th story in The Key Of Time story arc has the Tardis appear in a swampy moon of the planet Delta Magna. The piece of The Key Of Time is a giant squid like creature called the Kroll. The baddy is the head of the methane factory, he's an inhuman human who's looking for a good excuse to kill the local aliens. The Doctor sides with the locals and puts a stop to the baddy's plan. They get the fifth segment of The Key Of Time and leave.

I still think that this story isn't quite as good as the first two stories I watched today but I got through it just fine. I'm just a bit tired of the megalomaniac who's trying to take over a planet plot.

Doctor Who 0103 The Armageddon Factor Six part story that aired January 20 to February 24 1979. Written by Bob Baker and Dave Martin, directed by Michael Hayes.

The 6th story in The Key Of Time story arc has the Tardis gang on three planets, each connected by a matter transmitter. Two of the planets are fighting against each other and third is home to The Shadow, a henchman of the Black Guardian. The Shadow wants The Key Of Time and he's willing to destroy anything or anyone in his way. He's no match for the Doctor in the long run.

Once the Doctor gets the last piece of The Key Of Time he doesn't pass it along to the White Guardian, he's spotted that it's really the Black Guardian in disguise. He disperses The Key Of Time and runs away.

Now I'm done with The Key Of Time and mostly it was enjoyable. The story put an end to the 16th series, two more series with Tom Baker to go.

Night Monster 1942

Night Monster 1942 Written by Clarence Upson Young and directed by Ford Beebe. Ford has 125 writing credits on the IMDb, he's only got 105 director's credits. His first film was in 1921 and he made 31 silent shorts before graduating to features in 1931. He directed quite a number of serials, I've seen some of them, including Flash Gordon Conquers The Universe, Flash Gordon's Trip To Mars and Secret Agent X-9. 

It's the second film in the 4th volume of the Universal Horror Collection. I'd seen it couple of times before and enjoyed it. There's a commentary by Gary D Rhodes, it's fairly decent but way too slow. The Blu-ray has a nice looking picture, a trailer and stills.

A wheel chair bound rich man invites three doctors who were trying to cure him. He blames them for their failures and one by one the men are murdered in the house. The police suspect the rich man but he has no arms or legs.

That's the rich guy in the wheel chair, he's played by Ralph Morgan, I'd seen him in quite a few films from the thirties and forties. Bela Lugosi is the butler, the man next to him is Francis Pierlot, one of the soon to be murdered doctors. Don Porter is the guy in the light coat, he'd have a nice long career in TV that lasted until 1988. The guy sitting down is Nils Asther, he's playing a mystic, the short man next to him is Frank Reicher, he's another of the soon to be murdered doctors. The lady is Irene Hervey, her career lasted nearly 50 years but I can't say I've seen more than a few of her pictures, I've probably seen her more often on TV.

I enjoyed the movie, it's got a nice creepy vibe going on. It's only 73 mins and it moves along quickly. The cast is good and the characters suspicious. I'd certainly want to watch it again sometime.

Devil Fish 1984

Devil Fish 1984 Story by Luigi Cozzi and Sergio Mannino, screenplay by Gianfranco Clerici, Dardano Sacchetti, Hervé Piccini and Vincenzo Mannino, directed by Lamberto Bava. It's an Italian film that was called Rosso nell'oceano there, that sort of translates to Monster Shark. It was also called Monster From The Red Ocean, Devouring Waves, Shark: Red In the Ocean, El Devorador, Jaws Attack 2 and Red Ocean. 

Even though it's an Italian film the setting is Florida. It was filmed in various places along the Florida coast with some studio work shot in Rome. Most of the cast were Italians or Europeans, the main character was played by American Michael Sopkiw. He also appears on the commentary and a short interview. I watched the interview and skipped the commentary.

There's a giant shark with octopus tentacles roaming the ocean. It's attacking boats and eating the occupants. Some people hunt it down. There's some monster action and plenty of boating. Sadly the monster isn't much good and the movie is generally poor. It's scoring a 2.7 on the IMDb for what's on the screen. I got the Blu-ray on clearance from Hamilton Books back in January 2019. It was 7 bucks, I could have bought 2 packages of Canadian Bacon, I'd have enjoyed them more.

One Lane Bridge Series 1 - 2

One Lane Bridge Series 1 - 2 Created by Pip Hall and Philip Smith, written by Pip Hall, directed by Peter Burger and Danny Mulheron. A New Zealand production with 11 episodes over 2 series that aired in 2020 and 2021. There's a third series planned. 

That's Joel Tobeck, Dominic Ona-Ariki and Alison Bruce. Dominic plays the a police detective who has plenty of emotional baggage. He's assigned to Queenstown with Joel as his boss, Alison plays Joel's wife. The story has a supernatural bent, Dominic has a magical power that the Māori call matakite. He sees ghosts and other images from the past. Much of this is tied to the one lane bridge in the town. It's the site of much violence and a popular place for people to kill themselves. The bridge is what releases the matakite in Dominic.

I liked the idea of the psychic detective but I didn't care that much for the main characters. They all seem to make such stupid choices. The story is fairly dark and there's not much humor. I started speeding up after a couple of episodes. I binged the two series over a couple of days, mostly at 1.5 speed. There's more languid space in there than I like. I don't begrudge seeing them, if available I'd watch the 3rd series, I just wouldn't need to see them again.

Friday Night Movies 892

Dune 2021 Based on the Frank Herbert novel, screenplay by Jon Spaihts, Denis Villeneuve and Eric Roth, directed by by Denis Villeneuve.

We only watched Dune today. Bed early, maybe.

The movie was noisy and dusty. I mostly liked it but for the sound. Much of the dialog was too quiet and much of the music was too loud. Nice scenery and CGI effects. I wished there were more bits with the sandworm.

When it was done I thought I would like to see the David Lynch version again. I bought the Arrow Blu-ray and didn't have a working Blu-ray then. Now I do. I need to pull that off the shelves. Same with the TV version.

The Strange Case Of Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde 1968

 

The Strange Case Of Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde 1968 Based on the Robert Louis Stevenson novella, screenplay by Ian McLellan Hunter, produced by Dan Curtis, directed by Charles Jarrott.

An American TV movie that was part of a series of adaptions of great American novels. It was made for ABC and filmed in Canada. I might have seen it, we had American channels on our cable TV back then, it would have been the sort of thing I would watch.

Jack Palance plays Dr Henry Jekyll and his creation Mr Hyde and he does a great job. He's mild and meek as Jekyll and nastily and strong as Hyde. Jekyll has created a potion that he hopes to use to free a man of his evil. The local medical community jeers him from the University lecture theater. He takes his potion and releases Mr Hyde. The beast of a man has a fun time at the pubs in the poorest parts of town. He's wild and spends freely, the locals like him, he even takes up with a woman. His activities quickly turn murderous. Jekyll can't control the beast and that leads to his end.

I haven't read the book since the 50s or 60s, I did read the Wikipedia synopsis and thought this was a good adaption of the book. I enjoyed the movie. You can check it out on YouTube. Link above. I bought the DVD set of 4 Dan Curtis films. Next I'll check out The Picture Of Dorian Gray.

Empire Of The Ants 1977

Empire Of The Ants 1977 Written by Bert I Gordon and Jack Turley, directed by Bert I Gordon. Bert's still going and he'll be 100 on September 24 2022.

I'd seen this not that many years ago and thought it was entertaining in a slight way. It scores a 4.2 on the IMDb and that's not an unfair score. I gave it a four. It's just not one of Bert's better works. Not that Bert had many good films in the 2 dozen he directed. There's a reason they featured on MST3K so often.

I found a Blu-ray of Empire Of The Ants and Jaws Of Satan. I didn't have either film and it was cheap. Now someone's selling copies on Amazon for $65 to $81. Stuff goes out of print quite quickly, despite not being worth that much moolah.

I mostly picked up the Blu-ray because it had a commentary by Bert. Despite his faults I was kind of interested in the guy because of his 50s films. He started as monster and horror film maker and has kept an oar in the genre ever since. Sadly Bert doesn't keep his oar in the water of the commentary. I don't know if it was his age, his lack of interests in doing a commentary, whatever he just wasn't participating very much in the process.

It doesn't help he was being interviewed by Kevin Sean Michaels. This guy was the worst host of a commentary I've come across. He was lackluster, didn't ask good questions and made dumb conversation. Only on a tiny number of occasions did he get Bert to reminisce about his past films for more than a yes or a no. It was mind numbing and frustrating to sit through. Boo on you Kevin.

Michaels film credentials including being an art director at Troma and making some short films, some TV and some documentaries. I can't say I've seen anything by him. I might be interested in his first couple of films, Vampira: The Movie and The Wild World Of Ted V Mikels. Hopefully they'll be less boring than this commentary.

Das Siebente Opfer 1964

Das Siebente Opfer 1964 A German adaptation of the Bryan Edgar Wallace novel, screenplay and direction by Franz Josef Gottlieb. It was released in the US as The Racetrack Murders.

Some rich people have a nice racehorse, some baddies are determined to stop it from running. A henchman throws a snake on the track and the jockey is killed when the horse rears up. Later that night the rich people host a party and someone kills the trumpet player mid-song. More murders follow.

The police and an insurance investigator team up to figure out who's behind the killings. It's got a bit of action but it's very talky. It's only about average for one of these German Wallace adaptations. Still, I was glad to see it. You can take a gander, it's on YouTube, link above.

Hypothetical Series 4

Hypothetical Series 4 Created by Josh Widdicombe, Tom Craine and Matthew Crosby. Written by Tom Craine and Matthew Crosby. Presented by Josh Widdicombe and James Acaster. Eight episodes are currently airing in the UK.

Each episode has 2 pairs of guests making stuff up for points. Josh poses some hypothetical questions and James passes out the points. Each round has a different different theme, the last round is always big hat or small hat. There's usually plenty of clowning around and an occasional improve skit.

The 4th series has some of Britain's top comedians, along with Victoria Coren Mitchell and Richard Osman. Some of my favs: Richard Ayoade, Maisie Adam, Dara O Briain, Bill Bailey, Jo Brand, Darren Harriot, Jon Richardson, Ross Noble and Angela Barnes. It's a bit chaotic, there's some swearing and plenty of noise. Gags are plentiful and usually make me laugh. I do like the Acaster brand of humor. Josh is more observational type of humor, James is more story driven, he appears in most of the skits. I had a nice time watching them.