PRIMITIVE SCREWHEADS

The Whip And The Body 1963

The Whip And The Body 1963 Written by Ernesto Gastaldi, Ugo Guerra and Luciano Martino, directed by Mario Bava under the name John M Old. An Italian production with Christopher Lee.

 

Christopher Lee is Kurt Menliff, he's come to his father's castle to celebrate his brother Chistiano's marriage to Nevenka, who's played by Daliah Lavi. Kurt's real motive is to reclaim his title and fortune. He'd been ready to marry Nevenka when he had an affair with a young servant. The servant commits suicide and Kurt's father throws him out. While on the beach by the castle Kurt runs into Nevenka. He whips her and rapes her. Later that night Kurt is murdered with the same dagger that the young servant used to kill herself. Soon after Kurt's ghost returns to haunt the family.

 

What a shitty family, I wouldn't want to live with any of them. It's average story wise but it's pokey pace didn't do me any favors. I might watch watch it again but I'd speed up some of the slow bits. There's an audio commentary with Tim Lucas that offered up some film info, it didn't make me like the film more. Apparently Christopher Lee thought it was his best performance in a European film, he was sad he didn't dub his own voice.

Trom S1 2022

Trom S1 2022 Developed and written by Torfinnur Jákupsson, directed by Peter Ahlén, Kasper Barfoed and David Óskar Ólafsson. A joint production by the Faroe Islands, Denmark, Iceland and Germany that was filmed on location in the Faroe Islands.

A journalist called Hannis arrives on the Faroe Islands to see his daughter Sonja, she had written of being in danger. She's an activist up against Big Whale. When he arrives he finds she's missing. Her body shows up in the ocean. She's been killed somewhere and her body was thrown in the ocean. He spends the 6 episodes investigating her death along with the local police.

The lead Inspector on the case is Karla Mohr, she withholds evidence that seems to indicate her son was involved. She suspects local whaling guy Ragnar and he seems the sort. They're both surprised when the truth hits home.

It's a fairly decent murder mystery with a bit more family drama than I might prefer. The open door ending seems false. The locations are quite nice and the villages are picturesque despite being a bit drab. I don't know that I'd ever get around to watching this one again.

Sisu 2022

Sisu 2022 Written and directed by Jalmari Helander. His first film was the delightful Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale which came out in 2010, in 2014 he directed Big Game, in 2022 Sisu. There's a Sisu sequel in the works. I have not seen Big Game but I'm curious enough to put it on my Amazon Wish List.

The movie is set in 1944 and in Lapland. The Finnish army is fighting the Nazi scum. The Nazi army is on the retreat, scorching the earth as they go. That fit Grizzly Adams in the poster is an ex-soldier called Aatami, he's a prospector who's found a massive vein of gold. He takes a couple of bags of gold on horse back to the city. On the road he passes a German tank and a couple of trucks. They let him go, the commander of the unit claiming he is riding to his death. Sure enough there's another bunch of Nazi scum just down the road.

After Aatami kills the Nazi scum the commander heads pulled back to the location because of all the gunfire. He finds a gold nugget and decides to give chase through a mine field he'd just buried. He looses several of his men in a torrent of body parts. Going after the gold is the last big mistake of the commander's life. The movie is a fight to the finish and I've just given you a big clue as to the likely outcome. That, and there being a sequel, kind of gave the game away.

There's plenty of chasing about, lots of brutal fist fights, hails of gun fire but hardly enough Nazi slaughter. There were only 4 vehicles of Nazi soldiers so you had to run out at some point. It's all pretty entertaining and there's a sense of humor that I liked. I'd definitely want to see this again sometime.

Science Fiction Sunday 799

Quanta 2019 Written and directed by Nathan Dalton. An Australian SF film about some scientists who've received a signal from space.

It's a talky talky type of movie. We spend a lot of time with scientists. The older guy is in research for a corp but he gets let go. He goes to work for a university with the stipulation he takes on an assistant. The assistant is a young brilliant guy who, like the older guy, lacks a connection to the world around him. The younger guy takes the alien message and projects it into his head. He stumbles around and things drag along before the older guy helps him get the message out of his head.

It's rather dull and I didn't find it very interesting. I wouldn't need to see it again. You can see it on YouTube.

Stonehenge Apocalypse 2010 Written by Brad Abraham and Paul Ziller, directed by Paul Ziller. A Canadian SF film about an ancient prophecy. 

Ancient aliens build a power grid under the Earth a long time ago. Something triggers the grid and it starts turning pyramids into volcanoes. Scientists figure that the grid is trying to terraform the world. They stumble around for a long time and millions die before they figure out how to shut it down.

It's better than the last movie but still below average. Not something I'd watch again. You can see it on YouTube.

Friday Night Movies 999

Death Machine 1995 Written and directed by Stephen Norrington. We watched the director's cut from the Kino Lorber Blu-ray. It's got three versions of the movie on two disks. Norrington only directed four films, this was the first, followed by Blade, The Last Minute and The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen. I've liked the 3 films of his that I've seen, TLM is the one I haven't seen. He hasn't directed any films since 2003 but has occasionally worked in special effects. He has no credits on the IMDb after 2016.

Ely Pouget is head of Chaank Armaments Corp, Brad Dourif is a designer, Richard Brake and William Hootkins are executives. The Corp's enhanced solder glitches and kills some people in a diner. The story is out and the public isn't happy. The corp tries some damage control. Ely wants full public disclosure but the board says no. She wants Brad fired but the board says no.

Ely has an encounter with Brad about the project in Vault 10 and Brad threatens her. He's a major loony but fun to watch. Things get worse between them and Brad sends his killer robot from Vault 10 after her. Soon the robot is clanking around the building, slaughtering the staff. Some Eco-warriors break into the building, they become Ely's reluctant partners battling the robot and trying to escape. Ely locks Brad in Vault 10 with his robot. Hardly anybody gets out alive.

It's got plenty of great robot action, lots of clanky noise, good sets and models, plenty of gun shooting and explosions. I enjoyed it and I will order the Blu-ray for myself. I want to see the other versions of the film and I'm curious about the Norrington commentaries. The Blu-ray is only 15 bucks on Amazon. Seems a bargain.

The Lady And The Monster 1944 Based on the novel Donovan's Brain by Curt Siodmak, screenplay by Dane Lussier and Frederick Kohner, directed by George Sherman. He watched the new Kino Lorber Republic Horror Collection Blu-ray. It's got four 1940s films on two Blu-rays with plenty of commentaries.

 

Erich von Stroheim is Professor Franz Mueller, he's a mad scientist with his own laboratory in a fake looking castle in the middle of the Arizona desert. Erich believes he can keep a human brain alive out of the body. Mueller is asked by the local rangers if he can help a man who was in a plane crash. When the man dies Mueller takes advantage and removes the brain. They find out the dead man is a millionaire business man called Donovan. Richard Arlen and Vera Ralston are Erich's assistants, Patrick and Janice. The pair have a thing going on but Mueller also has feelings for Janice, he tries his best to disrupt the relationship.

Donovan's brain seems to be sending messages to a tired Patrick and Mueller encourages him to make contact with the brain. Patrick does, Donovan slowly takes over Patrick's brain, turning him into a slave. Donovan's lawyer is investigating the death, he finds the brain in the lab with documents about the experiment. Donovan had hid all his money, he sends Patrick on a mission to recover it. Things come to a head when Mueller tries to kill Patrick. The house keeper shoots him dead  and Donovan's brain gets dashed to the floor. Patrick goes to jail for monkeying with a dead man's brain and Janice promises to wait for him.

I mostly enjoyed the movie but it sure dragged at times, I was drifting off for a while there and there were complaints about the pace. A New York Times review, at the time of release, called it "a mite too lethargic." They aren't wrong. I seem to remember that the 1953 Donovan's Brain film was a better picture but it's been ages since I've seen it. I'll have to watch it and see. I'm looking forward to the commentaries on the film.

Godzilla Minus One 2023

Godzilla Minus One 2023 Written, directed and visual effects by Takashi Yamazaki. It did well in the box office, more than a 1000% return on it's $10-12 million cost.

A kamikaze pilot called Kōichi fails in his mission, he claims plane trouble and lands at a repair base on Odo Island. The ground crew of mechanics can't seem to find anything wrong with his plane. Later that night Kōichi and the ground crew have an encounter with Godzilla. He's small in 1945, only 3 or 4 times the height of a man. The pilot fails to fire on Godzilla and all the ground crew are killed except the lead mechanic Tachibana. They return to Tokyo with Tachibana hating him.

Back in Tokyo Kōichi find his parents have died in the bombing of the city. There's not much left in his old neighborhood. He takes in a young woman called Noriko, she comes with a baby called Akiko, the dying parents asked Noriko to take care of their dying baby. Kōichi gets a job and so does Noriko. Things seem to get better over the next couple of years. Kōichi struggles with survivor guilt. Deep in the ocean Godzilla has been caught in the nuclear radiation from a test on Bikini Atoll. He gets much bigger and starts attacking ships. He eventually winds up in Tokyo and the real action begins.

Godzilla destroys a lot of the city with his new heat ray. Noriko disappears in blast area and Kōichi vows to get revenge. The government is unhelpful and the military has been defanged. A local man funds a plan to attack Godzilla, Kenji, a friend and co-worker of Kōichi, has a plan to use freon to sink Godzilla in a deep bay, he's hoping that the pressure will kill the beast. Kōichi is involved with an alternate plan to kill Godzilla.

There's a lot of good CGI and plenty of explosions and heat blasts. All incredibly good considering the small budget. The cast is fine and Godzilla looks pretty good. The story is complex and you can take a lot of things out of it. The pilot is angry, the lead mechanic is angry, Godzilla is angry. No good comes of that. At least it has a happy ending and it leaves a big ass door, wide open, for a second movie. One of my takeaways from the movie: I thought that the Emperor and the government leaders got off lightly after the war, they needed some more punishment, more ritual suicide. I'll definitely want the Blu-ray so I can watch it again.

Willy's Wonderland 2020

Willy's Wonderland 2020 Screenplay by G O Parsons and directed by Kevin Lewis. One of the executive producers listed is Adam Rifkin. He directed a couple of my favorite films, The Dark Backward and Invisible Maniac. Bill Pullman, Judd Nelson and Wayne Newton are absolutely brilliant in The Dark Backward.

Nicolas Cage is driving when his car runs over a stop strip left on the road. His tires blow. Lucky for him a tow truck stops and takes him to a garage in a tiny town. He gets charged $1250 for the tow and 4 new tires. They want the money up front and they don't take charge cards. The tow driver offers him a way to make some cash.

The job is cleaning Willy's Wonderland. It's one of those annoying places like Chucky Cheese where animatonic puppets sing for your supper. The man hiring him said it had some issues several years ago and had to close down, he wants to have it cleaned so he can reopen the place.

Nicolas agrees to clean for cash but what he doesn't know is he's locked in a restaurant that's filled with evil possessed puppets who desire to kill him. In another subplot some local teens try to rescue him from the puppets. The kids fall right through the roof and the slaughter begins.

It's pretty standard stuff but I enjoyed Nic kicking the ass of some supernaturally driven puppets. I got the Blu-ray for cheap so I can watch it again sometime.

Science Fiction Sunday 798

World Of Giants Season 1 1959 The show was produced and syndicated by Ziv Productions, the 13 episodes aired from September 5 1959 until November 28 1959. No other season's were produced. Ziv made TV shows like Sea Hunt, The Cisco Kid, Highway Patrol and at least 4 dozen more. Sea Hunt is my favorite of the shows they produced.

Marshall Thompson plays the unfortunate Mel Hunter. He's unfortunate because he was spying on the Russians and got caught in the blast of a bomb. He survived but steadily shrunk until he was only 6 inches high. He's healthy but nearly a year on he's not returned to his normal height. Lucky for him he's still got a job, the government can see the potential of a small spy.

Mel is teamed with his old partner Bill Winters, Arthur Franz plays hims. That's Bill sending Mel down a telephone wire so he can sneak into a house. They have some nice looking giant props including a nice brief case which Mel travels in when they're working. Later in the series they add a door so Mel can get in and out of the case on his own.

The other regulars are John Gallaudet as their boss Commissioner Hogg and Marcia Henderson as Mel's nurse Miss Brown. Only two other guest stars appear twice in the same role. There's hardly anyone in the guest cast that I knew, Gavin MacLeod, Peggy Castle, Allison Hayes and Eduardo Noriega. There were a few more directors in that list that I knew, Nathan Juran, Jack Arnold, Byron Haskin and Eugène Lourié. Among the writers I only knew Fred Freiberger by name.

 

The stories are rather simple, there's only so much story you can pack into a half hour show. The titles are nearly as simple as the plots, Time Bomb, Gambling Story, Chemical Story, The Smugglers and Off Beat. They've got a nice sense of humor despite a few people taking a bullet or two. Mel's always reminding us that he's tiny and squirrels and dogs are giant menaces. I enjoyed the  bunch of them and would watch them again sometime.

Friday Night Movies 998

Mad Heidi 2022 Written by Sandro Klopfstein, Johannes Hartman and Gregory D Widmer, directed by Johannes Hartman and Sandro Klopfstein.

For the last 20 years Switzerland has been under the control of a dictator who makes cheese. It's against the law for anyone to make their own cheese, it's against the law to be lactose intolerant. Heidi's boyfriend gets caught making goat cheese and Heidi gets arrested for complaining about Kommandant Knorr killing her boyfriend. In jail Heidi is bullied by the other women, she breaks out and a gaggle of nuns take her in and train her to fight the fascists. It's all revenge to the end.

I thought it was a lot of fun. One of the viewers here said it was the best exploding head movie he'd ever seen. There's plenty of goopy bits and violent action. The sets and scenery are fun. I enjoyed the heck out of it and would want to watch it again.

The Cat Creeps 1946 Story by Gerald Geraghty, screenplay by Edward Dein, Jerry Warner and Gertrude Walker, directed b Erle C Kenton.

The last of the Universal horror titles to be shot. It was released on a double bill with She-Wolf Of London. Horror was failing to draw the patrons, The Brute Man was shot just before The Cat Creeps, it was sold to PRC to release.

The movie is an old dark house sort of story with a group of people on an island without a way to get home after their boat is burnt. An old lady in the house is attacked as the visitors arrive at the door. They are there to search for $200,000 in cash that was stolen in a robbery 15 years ago. Someone finishes off the old lady and another guy has a bad fall down the basement stairs. Now the rest of the visitors have to try to keep alive until they can be rescued.

There's a cast of decent character actors, Noah Beery Jr, Frederick Brady, Douglass Dumbrille, Jonathan Hale, Paul Kelly are the few I knew. The story is pretty standard stuff, it gives the cast something to do most of the time.  It's not great but it's got some jokes. I enjoyed it and I'd watch it again.

The Unusuals Season 1 2009

The Unusuals Season 1 2009 Created by Noah Hawley for ABC. I rarely watch US TV anymore. This turned up and sounded like a possible show for me. Lucky for me it turned out a delight. Sadly they only made the one season of ten episodes.

Jerremy Renner, Amber Tamblyn, Harold Perrineau, Adam Goldberg are the main detectives in the 2nd Precinct. They all have a lot of quirks and they're all turned up to eleven. There's policing going on but most of the stories are driven by the characters and their lives.

The scripts are fun and there are plenty of jokes. I watched the whole lot over 3 days and enjoyed them immensely.