PRIMITIVE SCREWHEADS

Smuggler's Island 1951

Smuggler's Island 1951 Story and adaptation by Herbert Magolis and Louis Morheim, written by Leonard Lee, directed by Edward Ludwig.

Jeff Chandler plays a deep sea diver who's boat is about to be repossessed. He takes a job from Evelyn Keyes, she wants him to find some medical supplies. It turns out to be stolen gold and he's in the soup when Evelyn's husband shows up planning to take it from them.

It's all pretty average to me. I didn't find the characters to be that likable and they were kind of dull. You can find out for yourself, link in title above.

The Chase 1946

The Chase 1946 Based on Cornell Woolrich's novel The Black Path Of Fear, screenplay by Philip Yordan, directed by Arthur D Ripley. I watched this on a two film DVD from VCI with commentary by film historian Jay Fenton. The movie is also available in HD from Kino Lorber with a commentary by Guy Maddin. 

Robert Cummings is a WW2 veteran named Chuck, he's had some PSD problems. Chuck's broke when he finds Eddie Roman's wallet, Eddie is a gangster who's played by Steve Cochran. Michèle Morgan plays his wife Lorna. She's a kept woman who's locked in her bedroom at night. Peter Lorre plays Eddie's main henchman Gino. He likes to kill for Eddie. Eddie likes having people being killed when they won't do what he says. Eddie and Gino are quite a pair of scumbags and Mrs Eddie isn't too happy with her lot.

Chuck takes Eddie's wallet to him and winds up with a job as chauffeur. Lorna takes a evening drive out to the beach. She offers Chuck $1000 if he'll buy tickets to Cuba and get her there. He buys the tickets and they escape to Havana where Eddie has them murdered. Chuck wakes up from his nightmare and the movie continues on.

 

I'm not always a fan of the dream sequence but this works because it doesn't come at the end of the movie. It initially confuses but becomes clearer as the rest of the movie plays out. There's not many movies that deal with the mental effects on the soldiers from that era.

I thought it was a nice little noir with a good cast and a good script. It looks good and moves along at a nice pace. You can watch it on YouTube, you might like it. I also liked the commentary by Jay Fenton, he's a bit dry but he's passes along a good bit of information. I'd be curious to hear the Guy Maddin commentary but I'm not a fan of his film work and know little about him.

Hungry For it S1

Hungry For it S1 Another cooking show from the BBC. Hosted by Stacey Dooley with cooking mentors and judges Big Zuu and Chef Kayla Greer.Stacey is a well established TV presenter, Chef Kayla is a personal chef for rich and famous based in California, Big Zuu is a West London rapper and chef. Zuu got popular on YouTube and became a TV chef from that. There are 8 episodes and they aired in June and July. You can see the first episode on BBC3's YouTube page.

Ten chefs compete for a trip to several foreign countries so they can work and learn from some famous chefs. There's plenty of cooking with a big side of drama. Typical sort of thing you'll find on just about every other cooking show.

 

Friday Night Movies 901

Shriek Of The Mutilated 1974 Written by Ed Adlum and Ed Kelleher, directed by Michael Findlay, cinematography by Roberta Findlay. We watched the new Vinegar Syndrome Blu-ray. Nice print of a really poor film.

Some college students go on an expedition to a house on an island. There's stories of a Yeti in the area. They have a boring drive up there and a horrible time at the cabin. There's a lot of yelling and running about in the woods.

There's nothing much to recommend about the film. They've got a turgid script and a poor cast to carry it off. Roberta's cinematography is pretty pedestrian with the occasional nice image. The music was inappropriate and annoying. The kind of movie I'd want to punch in the face. It has a nice level of weirdness but it just doesn't make up for for any of the bad work a person has to sit through. It sure made it's 72 min running time seem much, much longer.

Future Kick 1991 Written and directed by Damian Klaus, produced by Roger Corman.

Don the Dragon Wilson is a cyborg in this SF tale set in 2025. The rich have fucked off to the moon and the rest of humanity lives in poverty on the overcrowded Earth. A medical company uses the poor as a body parts bank for the rich. Meg Foster is a woman who goes to Earth to find her husband's killer. Then we find out it was all a simulated reality.

Total Recall came out the year before Future Kick. Not that you can compare the two films. In fact, this was worse than Shriek Of The Mutilated. It might be the reason that Damian never made another film. If I made that film, I'd want the ground to open up under me to save me from having to apologize for it again. Hopefully I'll forget about it by morning. I didn't find a copy on YouTube. So, small mercy.

Bus Party To Hell 2017

Bus Party To Hell 2017 Story by Sonny Mahal, screenplay by Rolfe Kanefsky and Michael Mahal, directed by Rolfe Kanefsky.

A bus load of characters are on their way to Burning Man when they have a deadly encounter with some cultists. The movie has plenty of violence, gore and nudity but it's lacking anything original story wise. Decent practical effects, weak CGI. Nice bus, weak cast. Not something I would need to see again. I saw it on Amazon Prime, even for free it's no bargain.

Creepshow Season 2

Creepshow Season 2 More Stephen King stories adapted for TV by producer Greg Nicotero and his pals. There were supposed to be 6 hour long episodes but one cut because of allegations about Marilyn Manson. The Specials that aired between Season 1 and 2 are included in the DVD.

There's a good assortment of story types and monsters. Some stories are more fun that others and some are just out and out funnier. The shapeshifter episode made me laugh out loud, especially with all the dead Santa's lying about.

I enjoyed most of the stories and was glad to have picked up the DVD set. I'd watch them again someday.

Pilgrimage: The Road To The Scotish Isles

Pilgrimage: The Road To The Scottish Isles Three part series that aired in 2022.

Seven TV presenters follow the Hiberno-Scottish Mission Road: Laurence Llewellyn-Bowen, Monty Panesar, Louisa Clein, Nick Hewer, Scarlett Moffatt, Shazia Mirza and Will Bayley. I know Nick from Countdown, Scarlett from various TV appearances, the same for Shazia, the rest I didn't really know.

They hike much of the day and sleep over in small inns along the way. The travel discussion is about their faith or lack of it. I only found it mildly interesting. I found the locations to be of more interest. They visit some old churches and ruins.

I have the other three trips to watch and I'm thinking that it will be a while before I get to them despite there being people on those programs that I am more interested in. The other locations sound interesting: Santiago, Rome and Istanbul.

McDonald And Dodds Series 2

McDonald And Dodds Series 2 Written by Alex Pillai, Rebecca Rycroft and Ian Aryeh, directed by Robert Murphy and Kam Odedra.

Tala Gouveia and Jason Watkins return as McDonald and Dodds, two CID officers on the Bath Police Force. She's still all tough and he's a bit of wimp. They manage to work well together so they're sticking with it.

The first murder is set in the world of hot air ballooning with Rob Brydon appearing as an aviation accident investigator. He was highly entertaining. In the 2rd episode a party guest is found dead in front of Isambard Kingdom Brunel's box tunnel. In the last episode a social media influencer dies during plastic surgery.

The first two 90 minute episodes for Series 2 first aired in February and March of 2021. Then there were some scheduling issues, the 3rd episode got added to Series 3 which was to be broadcast in 2022. Some scenes were re-shot to account for the new 3rd series commander who replaced the old commander from Series 1 and 2. I'm looking forward to the new commander, I didn't care much for the old one.

That was the plan for the UK, in the rest of the world the old episode 3 got put in with Series 2 when it aired on britbox. I saw all three episodes and I'm still enjoying them quite a bit. I have the 4 episodes from Series 4 waiting to watch.

Sir Gawain And The Green Knight 2002

Sir Gawain And The Green Knight 2002 Based on the poem by Anonymous, screenplay by Martin Lamb and Penélope Middleboe, directed by Tim Fernee. A 25 min animated film that looks like a stained glass window.

It's a fairly straight forward version of the poem. It interesting looking despite the limited animation. There are only four actors doing the voices, James D'Arcy as Sir Gawain, Anton Lesser as Bertilak, Samantha Spiro as the Red Lady and Ronan Vibert as King Arthur. It kept me interested to the end. Link for the film in the title above.

 

Gawain And The Green Knight 1973

Gawain And The Green Knight 1973 Based on the poem Sir Gawain And The Green Knight by Anonymous, screenplay by Philip M Breen and Stephen Weeks, directed by Stephen Weeks.

Nigel Green is the Green Knight. This is his last feature film as he died the year before. Murray Head plays Sir Gawain, you might remember him from his big hit One Night In Bangkok, he's also brother to Anthony Head. He's made a dozen albums but I've only heard that one song. He's made 14 movies but this is the only one I've seen.

The story follows the poem much better than The Green Knight. The Green Knight shows up on New Years Eve and offers a challenge to King Arthur's knights. The Green Knight offers a knight the first blow, a year and a day later his will meet the knight to take his turn. Gawain is the only one that volunteers. The king tells him to strike a blow that will leave the GK incapable of striking back. Gawain lops off the head of the Green Knight, the trick backfires after the GK picks up his head and says he'll see Gawain in a year and a day.

Gawain leaves to find the Green Knight, along the way he has some adventures that involve a woman called Linet, she's played by Ciaran Madden. She's part of a decent cast that includes Anthony Sharp, Robert Hardy, David Leland, Murray Melvin, Tony Steedman, Ronald Lacey, Willoughby Goddard, Geoffrey Bayldon and Richard Hurndall.

The effects for this film aren't as good as The Green Knight but the story makes more sense. I enjoyed it well enough and thought it was just a bit above average. You can see it on YouTube, link in the usual place.