PRIMITIVE SCREWHEADS

Gideon Of Scotland Yard 1958

Gideon Of Scotland Yard 1958 Based on Gideon's Day by John Creasey, screenplay by T E B Clark, directed by John Ford. Yep, the same John Ford you're thinking of, John Wayne and Stagecoach. According to the Wikipedia the film was poorly promoted and released in B&W despite being shot in color. It lost money but not too much. I watched the film on YouTube, it's a nice copy under the original British title of Gideon's Day. It was released in the US as Gideon Of Scotland Yard.

Jack Hawkins plays Detective Chief Inspector George Gideon of the Metropolitan Police. It's a long day for DCI Gideon, he's got a lot of family obligations, then there's all those crooks clambering for his attention. He's got a bent copper, visitors for tea, an escaped mental patient, his daughter's violin recital, a young woman is murdered, his bent copper gets run down and the tire tracks are from the same car that used in recent payroll thefts. He ends the day catching some rich socialites robbing a safety deposit company.

It's a good movie, the script is pretty solid and the cast is even better. Some of my favorite British actors are on the case: Jack Hawkins, Cyril Cusack, Ronald Howard, Howard Marion-Crawford, Laurence Naismith, Anna Lee, Derek Bond, John LeMesurier and Miles Malleson.

I enjoyed it beginning to end. I'd watch it again sometime.

The Big Switch 1968

The Big Switch 1968 Written and directed by Pete Walker. The second film by Pete, it was shot on location in Brighton. He only made 16 films between 1967 and 1983. They're mostly low budget exploitation crime and horror films. Usually there's plenty of violence and sex. This film is set amongst the strip clubs of Birmingham and there's plenty of ladies getting their kit off.

Some sleazy crooks have developed a plan to smuggle an old gangster back into England. They frame a low level crook for the murder of a woman, they beat him up a bit and force him to pose for pictures with nude women. The pictures are of a rough and sadistic nature. That's just the icing on the poisonous cake. He's going to be the corpse when the gangster is supposedly burned up in an accident. The old gangster will assume his identity after some plastic surgery.

 

It's a  not a good plan for our guy. Lucky for him the criminals keeping an eye on him are pretty dumb and he escapes taking a woman with him, she was slated to die in the accident too. There's usually something happening and the scenery is entertaining to me. Between the talking  bits there's a bit of a punch up and later the action ratchets up a notch with a decent shoot out, it starts in an arcade and spills over onto the Ghost Train ride. Not bad for the most part, I'll give it a bit of a bump up for all those naked ladies running about. You can see a nice enough copy on the Internet Archive, link in the title.

The Calendar 1948

The Calendar 1948 Based on the 1929 Edgar Wallace play The Calendar and the novel of the same name, screenplay by Geoffrey Kerr, directed by Arthur Crabtree. I keep finding films based on Edgar Wallace stories and I watch them even if they're dramas set in the world of British horse racing. There's a 1931 film version of the story that I haven't seen.

John McCallum is Captain Garry Anson, he's a racehorse owner who loses some of his money at the track. His fiancee dumps him and marries a rich guy. Greta Gynt plays the sister of the rich guy, she works for Garry training his horses. The plot revolves around something stupid that Garry does and it takes ages to fix that boner up.

It's not as interesting as most Wallace adaptations but they usually involve more interesting characters and murder.

Cannibal Mercenary 1983

Cannibal Mercenary 1983 Written by George Lam and directed by Hong Lu Wang. A Thai picture.

A cop called Wilson takes a team into the Vietnam jungle to find a war criminal who heads a tribe of cannibals. They don't have a very good trip, just about everyone dies. There's plenty of action, with jungle fighting, some torture and a bit of cannibalism.

I didn't think it was more than average, it's like an Italian cannibal film but not as well made.

I found a copy on YouTube but it's gone already. I found another that has a fun trailer for Cobra Thunderbolt, that looks like it might be better than what I just watched. At least there was a jet pack, there's no jet pack in Cannibal Mercenary. There's also a trailer for a Thai film called Mercenary, it looks like it's a bit of an Apocalypse Now rip off.

Cage Of Evil 1960

Cage Of Evil 1960 Story by Orville H Hampton and Alexander Richards, screenplay by Orville H Hampton, directed by Edward L Cahn.

An ambitious but less than clever police detective is sent undercover to get to know the girlfriend of a robbery suspect the police are investigating. The detective falls for the girlfriend and she manipulates him into killing her boyfriend. The plan is to steal the robbery cash and hide out in Mexico. Things don't go according to plan.

 

A rather predictable and somewhat contrived story that reminds me that some men are easily manipulated. I could sure see where it was going pretty early on.

I didn't know many of the cast but I knew Ted Knight from The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Patricia Blair from Daniel Boone and The Rifleman. I doubt I'd need to watch it again in the future. I watched it on YouTube and so can you. You might get a laugh out of it.

Friday Night Movies 969

Arsène Lupin Vs Arsène Lupin 1962 Screenplay by Georges Neveux, François Chavane and Édouard Molinaro, directed by Édouard Molinaro. This is the third film in the Lupin collection from Kino Lorber. It's a good trio of films but the set lacks any interesting extras.

 

Poor André Laroche has died, there's a big funeral, attended by many. The local magistrates wife tells her son François that she had an affair with Laroche, the result was a son. She also drops the bombshell that Laroche was Arsène Lupin.

A lawyer asks François to stop by for a message from Laroche, when he does he finds out there's a second son and he's supposed to find him. The magistrate finds out François is a petty thief, stealing small items from the homes of people who have invited the family to visit. There's also a sub plot involving a cache of jewels belonging to the dethroned royal family of Poldavia. The two sons eventually meet and help out the Poldavians.

 

I thought it was pretty entertaining, there's action and danger, a bit of romance and a good amount of comedy. It's a nice trio of films that I know I will want to watch again sometime.

The 30 Foot Bride Of Candy Rock 1959 I watched this a few weeks back. Here's that post.

Murder In The Blue Room 1944

Murder In The Blue Room 1944 Based on Geheimnis des Blauen Zimmers by Erich Philippi, screenplay by I A L Diamond and Stanley Davis, directed by Leslie Goodwins. It's a remake, here's the bit about that from the Wikipedia:

It is the second remake of the 1933 American Pre-code murder-mystery film Secret of the Blue Room, the first being Universal's 1938 remake, The Missing Guest. Faithful to the original plot, Murder in the Blue Room plays up the comedy with songs. The plot is based on the 1932 German film Secret of the Blue Room.

 

A family is having a party in their mansion. The three ladies in the picture on the left are a singing trio that's come to entertain the guests. They are played by The Three Jazzybelles who were picked to replace The Ritz Brothers. The trio of gals are friends with a young woman at the party and the comic relief.

The house is said to be haunted by people in the area. The title refers to the room in which the patriarch of the family was murdered, that happened in 20 years ago and the room has been kept closed up ever since. The movie is mostly a comedy with a couple of murders, plenty of yelling and lots of running about. It's kind of silly and most of the jokes are fairly good.

A man gets the family to let him sleep in the blue room overnight, in the morning the man is gone and the door to the room is locked from the inside. His body turns up the next day in the blue room after another man has disappeared.

I had a good time despite the songs from The Three Jazzybelles, they were OK but nothing much special. You can have a gander at it on YouTube.There are a few links above with other versions of the story.

Neues Vom Hexer 1965

Neues Vom Hexer 1965 Based on the novel Again The Ringer by Edgar Wallace, screenplay  by Herbert Reinecker, directed by Alfred Vohrer. A sequel to Der Hexer. From the IMDb Trivia page:

 

When Director Alfred Vohrer fell ill during the shooting, producer Horst Wendlandt hired director / writer Will Tremper to complete the remaining scenes. According to Assistant Director Eva Ebner, Tremper didn't exactly know what to do (and wasn't interested either) and most of the scenes were directed by Ebner and Cinematographer Karl Löb (both long-time companions and friends of Vohrer as well).

 

Heinz Drache is Inspector James Wesby, René Deltgen plays Arthur Milton. Arthur was revealed to be the Ringer in the first film, Der Hexer. In the sequel someone has committed a murder and left a Hexer calling card. Arthur returns to London to figure out who is behind the deception and get some payback.

Another decent adaptation of an Edgar Wallace book. There's a devious criminal, some good police action, some murdering and a bit of romance. Pretty standard stuff for a Wallace story. I enjoyed it and would watch it again. I'm almost done all the German films and will have to start watching the 1950s British adaptations over.

Friday Night Movies 967

Signed, Arsene Lupin 1959 Written by Diego Fabbri, Maurice LeBlanc, Jean-Paul Rapperneau and Yves Robert, directed by Yves Robert.

 

That's the Kino Lorber 3 film Blu-ray collection. They used the French poster from this movie on the case, it's a much more interesting bit of artwork than the poster for the first film.

It's just after the end of WWI and Lupin is resting in a convalescent home in the French countryside. His old accomplice La Ballu comes by to see if he's interested in robbing a nice villa on an island. Lupin goes along and La Ballu sets him up for the police to capture. Lupin manages to escape but not before noticing that La Ballu has stolen a painting.

The painting is part of a triptych, when arranged in a certain way the paintings are clues to a treasure buried on the grounds of the house. La Ballu gets the second painting but the third is stolen before he gets to the museum. Having some good luck Lupin manages to steal the third from the boss of the gang. They join forces, Lupin robs the boss blind and then skedaddles. 

Like the first film there's a nice caper and a good sense of humor. The film looks fine. I enjoyed it and would watch it again someday.

Haunted Samurai 1970 Based on the manga of Goseki Kojima, screenplay by Kiyoshi Hoshikawa, directed by Keiichi Ozawa. Goseki is the artist for the Lone Wolf And Cub manga.

Rokuheita is a samurai working for the Yagyu clan. He decides to give up his enforcing job and lets two innocent people the clan wanted dead go free. The Yagyu ninjas show up pretty quickly to kill him for deserting. There's plenty of chasing about and sword play.

There are a couple of sub plots going on and plenty to keep track of. Rokuheita hides in a small village and takes up farming. He finds to local warlord a brutal murderous man. He sides with the villagers to fight the warlord. The Yagyu ninjas find him and complicate things.

All in all a good solid film with a decent story and characters. There's a bit of humor, a bit of sadness, plenty of fights and topless lady ninjas. There's even a fight underwater, with topless ninja ladies. I'd watch it again sometime.

Der Morder Mit Dem Seidenschal 1966

Der Morder Mit Dem Seidenschal 1966 Based on a novel by Thea Tauentzien, screenplay by Adrian Hoven, Wolf Neumeister and Rolf Becker, directed by Adrian Hoven. Adrian has a small part in the movie too. The film was released in the US as The Murderer With The Silk Scarf.

A young girl sees her mother being murdered through the mail slot of their apartment door. Despite her being unable to identify the man to the police the killer decides to kill the young girl. She manages to avoid the killer with a bit of help.

The police dig into the seedy world of prostitutes and crooks. It's noisy and gritty and fairly entertaining. I enjoyed it enough to want to see it again sometime.