January 24 - 30, 2026

 

To answer these trivia questions, please email me at scinema@earthlink.net.

Brain Teasers:

By what name is Sara Bay better known?

Charles Gilbert, George Grimes and Angel Rivera knew that it is Rosalba Neri.

By what name is Montgomery Wood better known?

Angel Rivera and George Grimes knew that it is Giuliano Gemma.

By what name is Montgomery Ford better known?

Angel Rivera and George Grimes knew that it is Brett Halsey.

And now for some new brain teasers:

By what name is Albert Waterman better known?

By what name is Frank Grafield better known?

By what name is Nick Anderson better known?

Name the movies from which these images came.

No one identified the above photo.

Can you identify from what movie it came?

Charles Gilbert identified last week's frame grab of Bella Cortez and Rod "Flash" Illush, aka Iloosh Khoshabe, in VULCANO, FIGLIO DI GIOVE, aka VULCAN, SON OF JUPITER.

Above is a new photo.

Can you name from what movie it came?

George Grimes identified last week's frame grab of Tina Aumont and Klaus Kinski in L'UOMO, L' ORGILIO, LA VENDETTA, aka MAN, PRIDE AND VENGEANCE.

Above is a new photo.

Can you name from what movie it came?

George Grimes identified last week's frame grab of Lu Feng, aka Feng Lu, and Chiang Sheng, aka Sheng Chiang, in CRIPPLED AVENGERS.

No one has identified the above photo yet.

Can you name from what movie it came?

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I am interested in knowing what movies you have watched and what you enjoyed or not. So please send me an email at scinema@earthlink.net if you'd like to share. Here's what I watched last week:

Enjoyed: 

Iliza Shlesinger "Hot Forever" (2022)

Stripper (1983) - An HBO short film, about 37 mintues, about the history of female performers taking off their clothes in public. Gwen Verdon narrated this collection attempting to re-create the great strippers of history. Oddly, there was virtually no mention of this program on the internet aside from a very bad copy on YouTube that runs less than 18 minutes. Robert Deubel directed, Gaby Monet produced, Coleman Jacoby wrote the script and Scott Salmon staged the musical numbers. Included are the stories of Lydia Thompson, the English woman who brought the Can-Can to the U.S., Carrie Finell, who saved her poorly received song and dance routine by promising her audience to take off one item of clothing each night of her run, Little Egypt who popularized belly dancing at the Chicago World's Fair, Josephine Baker, who became the toast of Paris, Sally Rand who invented the fan dance and Gypsy Rose Lee, who the filmmakers say was the greatest of them all - even though she frequently did not get naked. "It's not how much you take off. It's how you take it off that counts.You don't have to be naked to look naked. You just have to think naked."

Mildly enjoyed:

INTRUDER IN THE DUST (1949) - Juano Hernandez is a Black man found standing over the dead body of a White man with a recently fired pistol on him in a small town in Mississippi. Put in jail by Sheriff Will Geer, Hernandez asks White boy Claude Jarman Jr. to get the boy's uncle, David Brian, to be his defense lawyer. In an extended flashback, Jarman tells Brian about how Hernandez helped him when he fell into a frozen river, and he wouldn't take any payment for helping the boy. He also talks about how he saw the dead man try to hit Hernandez at the store one day. Brian and Jarman visit Hernandez in jail, but Brian becomes frustrated that Hernandez is evasive in his answers. He does state that he knows that someone had been stealing lumber from the dead man's business. Out of earshot of Brian, Hernandez tells Jarman that someone should dig up the buried dead man to see if the bullet in the man's back came from Hernandez's pistol. Brian feels that getting permission to dig up the dead man would be impossible, but old woman Elizabeth Patterson is willing to do it anyway. In the night, Patterson and Jarman dig up the grave and discover the coffin empty. With that information, Jarman convinces Brian and Geer to try and get permission to legally exhume the body. The one-armed Porter Hall, the father of the dead man, is on the scene with his pistol when the coffin is dug up again, and wonders where his son's body has gone. Jarman finds some tracks in the woods which leads to a patch of quicksand. The dead man's body is recovered and the bullet in his back turns out to be a slug from a rifle. Geer and Brian are worried that releasing Hernandez from jail would lead to the angry mob outside the jail - who are being held off by Patterson doing her sewing in the lobby - killing him, devise a trap to find the real killer. While the mob is convinced that the Black man is guilty, the real guilty party would need to kill the Black man to cover up the crime. So, it is suggested that Hernandez has returned to his home, so Geer and Hall wait in the home for the killer to show. This film was made a year after Claude Jarman Jr. won the Juvenile Oscar for his performance in THE YEARLING. William Faulkner published INTRUDER IN THE DUST in 1948. It was the fourth of seven novels which include the lawyer character Gavin Stevens. Producer/director Clarence Brown was able to get MGM to make the movie in Faulkner's home town of Oxford, Mississippi. In the end, Hernandez insists on paying for this defense. When asked by Brian why he hadn't said all that he knew when they first met, Hernandez questions would Brian have believed him? Brian is insulted by this, though he understands that a Black man in Mississippi doesn't expect that a White man would believe anything he said.

Did not enjoy:

BLIND FIST OF BRUCE (1979) - Three thugs beat up three security men. Later, Bruce Ho chun To, aka Bruce Li, impresses the owner by stopping three different thugs from a robbery. The leader of the first three thugs shows up and defeats Tao. Tao is depressed, until he sees how skillful blind beggar Simon Yuen, aka Siu-Tin Yuen, is. Yuen refuses to take To on as a student, but To befriends the little girl who lives with Yuen. The little girl asks Yuen to teach her, while To watches at a distance. Yuen realizes the ruse, and finally takes To on a student. After aquiring a little more skill, To goes back to challenge the leader of the thugs, and after he is defeated again, he runs away again. This happens time and time again until To finally beats the leader. So, the leader brings in his teacher, Tiger Yeung, aka Tiger Yang, who defeats To. It turns out that the leader's teacher had been a student of Yuen's, and he is the one who blinded the old man. Things come to a head when the evil teacher attempts to rape a young woman, Lam Kin Ming, aka Meg Lam, and kills her. As the dead woman was a friend of To's, the stage is set for a final reckoning. During the very long battle, To and Yuen attack the villain with a long scarf belonging to the dead woman. which reults in something like "jump rope kung fu". The performers in this movie are obviously very skilled. It is a shame that Yeung Wai and Robert Chan couldn't have come up with a better script. The IMDb reports that the director of this film is Bong Luk, while the credit on the copy is Kam Bo. There is no credit for the music being used from GIU' LA TESTA, aka DUCK, YOU SUCKER, by Ennio Morricone.

CABIN IN THE SKY (1943) - A feature film from MGM with an all Black cast was a gamble since most movie theaters in the Southern United States wouldn't play such a thing. But the Broadway production in 1940 had been a success, so MGM accepted the gamble about a gambling addict, Eddie "Rochester" Anderson, whose soul is being fought over by Lucifer Jr. from Hell and The General from Heaven. An opening information card informs the audience that what we are about to see is a folk fable, so we shouldn't take it too seriously. Ethel Waters is Anderson's loyal wife who is convinced that Anderson has put his sinning ways behind him and he will attend Pastor Kenneth Spencer's church. Some "bad company" steals Anderson away from the church and the man is soon found shot in a dance hall. Anderson is taken home by Waters, where the doctor opinions that he may not survive. The son of Lucifer, Rex Ingram, appears with minions to take Anderson away, but Waters prays so strongly at the bedside that Spencer, as the General from Heaven, appears and bargains to allow Anderson six months to prove that he can turn his life around and be worthy of Heaven. To thwart Andeson's reclamation, Ingram arranges for Anderson to win the Irish Sweptakes and then sends Lina Horne to seduce him into misbehavior. Seeing Horne causes Waters to accuse Anderson of misdeeds, so he takes off with Horne to commit misdeeds. One night at a dance hall, Waters turns up in a flashy dress and seems to throw herself at Anderson's male friends. Eventually, Anderson decides that he has to stop Waters from being bad, which ends up with both Waters and Anderson being shot to death before a tornado destroys the dance hall. Ingram shows up to take both Waters and Anderson, but Spencer shows up with the "book" that shows that Waters is still eligible for Paradise. Waters won't go without Anderson. So it looks like Ingram will get them both, until a minion comes in with the news that Horne has dedicated herself to the Church and has donated all the money she got from Anderson. Losing Horne as a temptress is such a blow to Hell, that Ingram is removed from the case and Anderson can now go to Heaven. Like the tornado which took Dorothy from Kansas in THE WIZARD OF OZ - which is reused here, Anderson wakes up in bed grateful for another chance. He orders maid Butterfly McQueen to burn not only his sweepstakes ticket, but also his dice. Having worked on sequences for other musicals by producer Arthur Freed, Vincente Minnelli was given this project as his first job as a full director, though, reportedly, Busby Berkeley directed the "Shine" number. The song "Taking A Chance On Love" has become "an American standard". Ethel Waters and Rex Ingram recreated their roles from the Broadway production. Appearing minor roles are Louis Armstrong, Mantan Moreland Archie Savage and Duke Ellington.

DEATH CODE NINJA (1987) - The IMDb must have gotten used to blaming these flicks on director Godfrey Ho, but the print of this that I saw blamed director Tommy Cheng. According to the IMDb, the original film that got all of that Ninja crap laid on it is NU WANG FENG FU QIAO, aka QUEEN BEE REVENGE. They killed her husband and her child, so she killed them. The Queen Bee is Sha-Li Chen, aka Sally Chen, and she looks good in black. Now that Richard Harrison left Hong Kong, Mike Abbott and Edgar Fox are the White guys playing at being ninjas - one is gold and one is white. It is all too irritating to actually watch. 

DR. KILDARE'S STRANGE CASE (1940) - This is the fifth of the ten movies MGM produced starring Lew Ayres as the dynamic doctor who comes out of surgery and asks for a cigarette. The lovely Laraine Day plays Kildare's long suffering nurse/girlfriend, who fears she will never get married. The strange case of the title is a mental patient with a fractured skull that refuses to the operation that would save his life. Ayers convinces surgeon Shepperd Strudwick to proceed with the surgery. The operation is a success, but both doctors face legal problems for performing it without authorization. As the patient is insane, they can't convince him to be okay with the operation. Ayers then decides on trying the "insulin shock cure" to cure the patient of his insanity. (This "cure" was replaced in the 1960s with the use of neuroleptic drugs.) Kildare learned that the patient went mad when his wife left him five years ago. Kildare has since found the wife, who had written seeking a reconciliation with her husband. When Kildare brings the wife to the patient, it is proves that the patient has been cured of his insanity. Harold S. Bucquet directed most of the Dr. Kildare movies and he did this one, too.

EVILS OF THE NIGHT (1985) - This is not a fitting end to the movie career of the second most decorated soldier of World War 2. Still, having Neville Brand killed by having this shoes tied together is a novel way to go. Once again, a movie comes along to warn young couples to not go off having sex at night in the woods. This time they are menanced by a couple of old codgers who run a gas station - Neville Brand and Aldo Ray. They are kidnapping teenagers for a group of extra-terrestrials - John Carradine, Tina Louise and Julie Newmar - who need young blood to extend their lives. Unfortunately, many of the victims brought to them are not up to the standards they need to be effective - or the codgers have brutalized them too much. Having produced DRACULA VS. FRANKENSTEIN, PETS,

PSYCHIC KILLER, EATEN ALIVE and ISLAND FURY, Iraq born Mardi Rustam seems to have felt that it is time he directed one. He didn't go it again until 1997 when he directed Casper Van Dien in JAMES DEAN: LIVE FAST DIE YOUNG. While pretending to be a Sci-Fi Horror film, EVILS OF THE NIGHT is more often a soft-core sex film with Horror style killings. Hardcore performers Crystal Breeze and Shone Taylor appear as one of the two couples first taken at the beginning of the film. They seem to have been included when the filmmakers found that the original couple weren't "hot" enough. Reportedly, adult film performer Jody Swafford was hired to lather her breasts with lotion, but she brought along a friend named Traci Escobar who thought it would be fun to appear in a movie. So Escobar lathered Swafford in what turned out to be her only film appearance - and she didn't get credit for it. Jerry Butler is also reported to be in this movie. By the end of the movie, most of the teenagers have been killed and the aliens leave Earth having failed to get the supply needed. In the very long chase and kill sequences of the film, the teenagers here make those in the FRIDAY THE 13th movies seem like brilliant characters.

THE GREAT SINNER (1949) - Produced by Gottfried Reinhardt and based on the 1866 short novel The Gambler by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, this film was obviously one of MGM's prestigious productions. As Dostoyevsy wrote the book in order to pay off gambling debts, it is proper that the story is about gambling addiction. As an Hollywood production, it is also proper that the screenwriters - Christopher Isherwood, Ladislaus Fodor and Rene Fulop-Miller - fudged on the material and gave it an happy ending. The film opens with a destitute Gregory Peck wasting away on a bed in a dark room. A doctor examines him and seems to feel that the case is hopeless. After Peck is left alone in the room, a violent wind crashes open the window and his manuscript is blown around the room. Ava Gardner enters the room, but is unable to get Peck to respond to her. She picks up some papers from the floor and see that it is Peck's memoir THE GREAT SINNER. She sits to read the paper, and so the main part of the film begins. Peck is a writer on the train from Moscow to Paris back before electricity. The dazzling Gardner joins him in the train compartment along with her maid. When Gardner gets off at Wiesbaden, Peck decides to follow her. After searching the town, he finally finds her at a casino. It soon becomes apparent that Gardner, and her father Walter Huston, are gambling addicts. Peck decides to try gambling, and after a night of beginner's luck, he too is addicted. After Peck not only goes into debt, he gambles away any future earnings he might get from his writing. Hoping to make some money, Huston convinces his mother, Ethel Barrymore, to gamble her fortune at the tables. She loses it all and dies at the table. Peck contemplates suicide but goes to a church where a vision of Christ stays his hand. Gardner finishes the manuscript and rushes to Peck to tell him that she loves him. He rallies a bit to give her a hug. Robert Siodmak is the credited director of this with George J. Folsey as the cameraman.

HETS, aka TORMENT, aka FRENZY (1944) - Seemingly based on screenwriter Ingmar Bergman's own miserable experiences at school, HETS is an early example of Bergman's flirtation with melodrama and a pessimistic view of life. Reportedly, the original ending to the film was too downbeat, so a new one was devised. The villain of the piece was Latin teacher Stig Jarrel, who enjoys tormenting his students, particularly the sensitive Alf Kjellin. When the students fail to get Mai Zetterling to sell them cigarettes at the store near the school, Jarrel entered and disturbed Zetterling as well. Late one night, Kjellin found Zetterling stumbling around obviously drunk. He took her to her apartment, and she succeeded in getting him to spend the night. Kjellin wanted to get serious with Zetterling, but began to suspect that there was someone else in her life that was making her miserable. Not too surprising, it turned out to be Jarrel. One night Kjellin went to see Zetterling and found her dead. He also found Jarrel hiding in the apartment repeating "I didn't do it." Jarrel was taken into custody by the police, until the autopsy ruled that Zetterling died from an heartattack while drinking too much alcohol. Fearing that Kjellin will tell of his involvement with Zetterling, Jarrel west to the headmaster and accused Kjellin of inappropriate behavior. When Kjellin punched Jarrel in the face, the headmaster felt that he had to expel the young man. Faced with the disappointment from his parents, Kjellin left home. "You never cared about my feelings, so I don't care about yours." Reportedly, this was where the original script ended, but Bergman was prevailed upon to come up with a softer ending. The headmaster visited Kjellin, who was living in Zetterling's old apartment, and said that he will try to help him in any way he can. Then, as Kjellin was leaving the apartment in the morning, Jarrel showed up to try and excuse his behavior because of his great loneliness. Kjellin left him sobbing on the staircase as the young man went outside to face the future. Bergman told about how director Alf Sjoberg was unavailable to shoot the final exteriors for the movie, so Bergman, who was also the film's assistant director, got to helm those last shots. It was his first time actually directing a film unit and he was thrilled. Martin Bodin was responsible for the cinematography and delivered some beautiful Black&White images that harken back to German Expressionism. The film was produced by Victor Sjostrom, the most prominent Swedish film maker of the silent era. Sjorstom was perhaps best known when Bergman tapped him for the lead role in WILD STRAWBERRIES in 1957. Director Sjoberg won the Cannes Film Festival Grand Prix twice - once for TORMENT and again in 1951 for his version of MISS JULIE. Alf Kjellin would go on to become a director in 1955 and then to appear as an actor in Hollywood productions like Mission Impossible and ICE STATE ZEBRA. Mai Zetterling racked up 62 acting credits on the IMDb, appearing on British and U.S. TV as well as Swedish films. 

IMMORTAL COMBAT, aka RESORT TO KILL (1994) - Seeing the name Lamar Card in the opening credits for this movie brought back memories. He was a client of Alert Answering Service when I worked there back in 1978. I don't have any specific memories of him. He wasn't an asshole like Marty Ingles - who really didn't like it when girls left messages for his step son Patrick Cassidy. But none of that really has anything to do with IMMORTAL COMBAT, which seems to have been given that title hoping to cash-in on the popular video game MORTAL COMBAT. To justify that title, credited writers Robert Crabtree and director Dan Neira had to come up with a dorky story about evil corporation HybriCo discovering an ancient Mayan formula to turn the recently dead into nearly invincible warriors. Suddenly 1992's UNIVERSAL SOLDIER seemed brilliant. L.A. cop Roddy Piper and Japanese detective Sonny Chiba (billed as Sonny J.J. Chiba) are unable to connect Hybri Co. head Meg Foster to the murder of a fellow cop, so Piper decides to go to an island owned by Hybri to investigate. He doesn't want Chiba to follow, but Chiba does. While there, they encounter reporter Kim Morgan Greene, who is investigating the disappearance of anthropologist Mario Ivan Martinez. Eventually Piper runs afoul of the bad guys who spend a lot of time beating him up. Chiba shows up and kills three with ninja throwing stars. Finally, native girl Lara Steinick explains that the only way to "kill" the invincible warriors is by cutting their heads off and by setting them on fire. Unfortunately, this does not result in a slew of on-screen beheadings and multiple guys on fire. Steinick also explains that our heroes are reincarnations of ancient Mayan priests who were foretold would return to stop the use of the evil formula. Having gotten a taste for making low-budget American films with ACES: IRON EAGLE III, Chiba began appearing in many non-Japanese productions including one in China. Former professional wrestler Roddy Piper, who co-starred with Meg Foster in THEY LIVE, is joined by other professional wrestlers in this movie, including Tony Lister (more memorable in THE FIFTH ELEMENT), Art Barr, and Chris Jericho. With Chiba in the cast, you know that the filmmakers had the talent for some good fight scenes. Unfortunately, the filmmakers did not have the talent to use him properly. Piper's stuff all looked like professional wrestling action. 

THE LOST EMPIRE (1984) - With financing from theater owner Henry Plitt, Jim Wynorski was able to make his directorial debut after having written a number of films for Roger Corman's New World Pictures. Obviously, he liked the James Bond movies and opened this film with a gag inspired by the moving white circle seen at the beginning of the 007 flicks. Instead of stopping on a man with a gun shooting at the camera, Wynorski's white cicle lands on the cleavage of a buxom woman shopping in a jewelry store. Perhaps with full knowledge of how much ENTER THE DRAGON owed to DR. NO, Wynorski eventually had the plot involve the trio of large breasted women attending a fight competition on a island owned by Angus Scrimm. At one point, heroine Melanie Vincz was menaced by a large

spider creeping up her body whlie she was trying to sleep. After she crushed the spider, and saw sparks fly, she said, "I hate robot spiders." It was curious that with all the evidence that Wynorski loved large naked women's breasts, he never made a sex movie. In the trio with Vincz was Raven De La Croix playing a Native American spirit woman dressed like Cher, and Angela Aames, who never stopped chewing gum. Supposedly, Scrimm was an immortal being planning on using the two eyes of Avatar to build a weapon that would destroy the world, but when he was decapitated by Paul Coufos, he turned out to be a robot. But then a mysterious force ripped open the floor and took Scrimm's head into a glowing red fissure. Hell? It was not explained. While cracking a stream of lame jokes, our heroes finally escape the island as it exploded. For proof that Wynorski also liked the Fu Manchu movies starring Christopher Lee, we hear Scrimm saying "The world shall hear from me again." While obviously an adventure film spoof, THE LOST EMPIRE fails to build any excitement and most of the comedy falls flat due to the dreadful performances from the mostly unknown cast - except for Robert Tessier, Scrimm and Kenneth Tobey. To proved that Wynoski would not leave any large busted woman without a job, he even brings in Angelique Pettyjohn for perhaps the only female mud wrestling ever seen in a prison exercise yard. Considering how low budget this film was, it was surprising how elegant and tasteful the opening credits were. When the credit for them appeared as by Ernest Farino, a future two time Emmy award winner, it totally made sense.

MERTON OF THE MOVIES (1947) - When I was a kid, I loved the Red Skelton TV show, but as I got older I found it dull and corny. Because of this, I've avoided seeing Skelton's feature films - aside from THOSE MAGNIFICENT MEN IN THEIR FLYING MACHINES. MERTON OF THE MOVIES was originally a novel published in 1922. George S, Kaufmann and Marc Connelly quickly turned it into a Broadway play. In 1924 a silent film version was made, followed by a talkie in 1932 with the title MAKE ME A STAR. The 1947 version, credited to writers George Wells and Lou Breslow, keeps the silent film background of the original story. Movie usher Skelton becomes front page news when he accidently captures two men who were trying to rob the box office at the movie theater showing the latest Lawrence Rupert mystery. Figuring that the studio could use some good publicity, the studio pays to have Skelton brought to Hollywood. Having gotten a mail order acting education, Skelton figures that he is a ready for a movie career. Luckily, he mistakes stunt woman Virginia O'Brien for star Gloria Grahame, and O'Brien decides to help our hero. When Leon Ames goes missing during production of the new Lawrence Rupert picture, O'Brien suggests that they turn the movie into a 

slapstick comedy and replace Ames with Skelton. They must not tell Skelton that they are making a comedy, because that would ruin Skelton's natural slapstick clumsiness. Ames' entourage is furious that Skelton is supplanting their meal ticket and plan to murder him at the sneak preview of the new movie. A ridiculous cat and mouse chase ensues during the screening, but when the lights come up, the studio head proclaims that both Skelton and Ames will be signed to new long term contracts. Meanwhile, O'Brien agrees to marry Skelton. Reportedly, the actual sneak preview of MERTON OF THE MOVIES went so poorly that extensive reshoots were ordered before the film was released. On release, the movie is reported to have flopped with a loss of $367,000. While it isn't funny, MERTON does boast the lovely presence of Virginia O'Brien and Gloria Grahame. 

SATAN'S SADISTS (1969) - A young man and a young woman are "making out" in their parked car. Just like aliens from outer space, a motorcycle gang called "Satans" comes upon them for rape and murder. The lesson? Don't go parking any where someone can't hear you scream. The Satans are led by Russ Tamblyn and include John Cardos - who would soon become the director of SOUL SOLDIER, Robert Dix - who had been in FORBIDDEN PLANET, Greydon Clark - who would become the director of BLACK SHAMPOO, Regina Carrol - who was the wife of producer/director Al Adamson, William Bonner - who had appeared in 1965's ORGY OF THE DEAD and Bobby Clark - who mostly worked as a stunt man. Scott Brady and his wife Evelyn Frank pick up hitchhiking Vietnam Vet Gary Kent and then they all stop at a roadside cafe. Of course, the Satans show up to rape Frank and kill Brady, Frank and cafe owner Kent Taylor of 1963's THE CRAWLING HAND. Kent over powers and kills Bonner and Clark, and then makes a getaway with waitress Jacqulin Cole. It isn't long before Taylor and Cole are escaping on foot in the desert mountains. The pursuing Satans come upon three women camping in the desert. While two of the gang continue to look for our heroes, Tamblyn and the others settle down to getting the women to take drugs and raping them. Carrol becomes sick of the whole thing, gets on her motorcycle, and drives off a cliff. Kent kills one pursuer by throwing a rattle snake on him. When Cardos returns to inform Tamblyn of the man's death, Tamblyn shows him the three dead women. Cardos and Tamblyn get into a fight, which ends with Tamblyn tumbling down a steep hill. Meanwhile, Clark plays "russian roulette" with a pistol and wins. Cardos finds Kent and Cole making their way to town, but Kent defeats him by knocking him down an hill, which starts a landslide which buries the biker. "In Vietnam, " Kent mutters to himself, "I got paid for killing people." Just as Kent and Cole seem to have nothing to prevent them from getting to safety, Tamblyn appears on a motorcycle. "You can't escape Satan." However, Kent proves that you can kill the bad guy with a thrown switchblade even if he had a pistol. Reportedly, Russ Tamblyn's mother blamed SATAN'S SADISTS for ruining her son's career. It wasn't until David Lynch cast him on the TV series Twin Peaks in 1989 that he was able to escape appearing in direct to video product. No matter the quality of the movie, SATAN'S SADISTS was the first release from Independent-International and its success launched the company.

THE STUDENT PRINCE (1954) - In 1898, the novel KARL HEINRICH by Wilhelm Meyer-Foster was published, and then he turned into a stage play called OLD HEIDELBERG. The story of a Prince who turns away from his arranged marriage to live the life of an ordinary student became an operetta in 1924 by Sigmund Romberg and Dorothy Donnelly. The story had been made into an American silent film in 1915 as OLD HEIDELBERG and a German silent film in 1923 with that title.In 1927 came THE STUDENT PRINCE OF OLD HEIDLEBERG. MGM and producer Joe Pasternak decided to make a color film of the show starring Mario Lanza. Lanza left the production, but his pre-recorded singing was available for new star Edmund Purdom, who had a minor role in JULIUS CAESAR. Having replaced Lanza in THE STUDENT PRINCE, 20th Century Fox wanted him to replace Marlon Brando in THE EGYPTIAN. So Purdom became known as the "replacement star". After the success of THE STUDENT PRINCE, Purdom was thought to have gotten too full of himself and began making demands at MGM. After THE EGYPTIAN, ATHENA, THE PRODIGAL and THE KING'S THIEF all flopped, MGM released  him from his contract. Eventually, Purdom want to make movies in Europe. The music in THE STUDENT PRINCE did nothing for me, though it reportedly became two of Lanza's biggest hits. The story of a conceited royal who got in touch with the common man, particularly because of a romance with a non-royal woman, but then had to give her up when his father died and he must marry a pre-arranged royal, was pretty corny. But, I guess, in the 20th century it was a guaranteed tear-jerker. Unfortunately, Ann Blyth was not very appealing to me. Appearing in supporting roles were Louis Calhern, who also appeared in ATHENA and JULIUS CAESAR, John Ericson, who also ended up working in Europe, Edmund Gwenn, John Williams, John Hoyt, Richard Anderson and Steve Rowland, who went on to a movie and singing career in Spain.

SUMMER HOLIDAY (1948) - Eugene O'Neill's play AH, WILDERNESS! premiered on Broadway in 1933. Depicting an happy film in turn-of-the-century America, it is not what many people think of as an O'Neill play. However, it seemed like an obvious vehicle for a MGM musical produced by Arthur Freed starring Mickey Rooney. Director Rouben Mamoulian, who had great success directing the original Broadway productions of OKLAHOMA! and CAROUSEL, was brought in to direct. Mamoulian wanted a different kind of movie musical, which is perhaps why MGM put off the film's release for two years. While the film has its defenders, it seems to me to be the usual hookum, though it is worthwhile as the only time I've seen Agnes Moorehead look pretty. Also in the cast is Walter Huston, Gloria DeHaven, Frank Morgan and Marilyn Maxwell. Reportedly Anne Francis is also there, but I didn't recognize her.

YOUNG LADY CHATTERLY II ( 1985) - At a time when most films are being made overseas, it is nice to come across a film that was shot in Beverly Hills pretending to be taking place in England. But when the film is mostly interested in topless females, what does the setting matter? It took director Alan Roberts nearly eight years to decide to make a sequel to 1977's YOUNG LADY CHATTERLY, but he got back star Harlee McBride which is a plus. She would go on to do 22 episodes of Homicide: Life on the Street, for which she did not take off her clothes. This time McBride has married to a man who has no interest in having sex. She wants to "get some" from gardener Brett Clark, but they keep getting interrupted. Usually by a maid, who then "gets some" from Clark. Meanwhile historical 

anthropologist Adam West is roaming the estate looking for historic sites. Some land developers are trying to figure out a way to steal the estate in order to build a nuclear power plant. McBride is excited to see that her first love is coming for a visit. She isn't expecting that he would be bringing alone puritanical bible-thumper Sybil Danning and her virginal son John St. Angelo. While Danning is away, McBride decides to teach St. Angelo about sex, and soon he is having his way with all five maids in the household. Danning stumbles into the gardener's shed, where Clark sees through her "puritanical" guise and gets her naked. Also getting naked is Alexandra Day (aka Lindsay Freeman), Wendy Barry, Monique Gabrielle, Aliene Simmons and Brandy Lyne. After "getting it on" with McBride, phony Count Alex Sheaf reveals the plot by the land developers, and suggests a scheme to get the estate designated as an historical site with McBride re-creating Lady Godiva's nude ride. For the final shots, it appears that McBride finally inspires her husband to want to "get it on". The screenplay is credited to Anthony Williams and it isn't dramatically compelling, and the comedy bits with West aren't funny. 

                                                       

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David Deal Enjoyed:

ONLY THE COOL (69) - Please refer to The Eurospy Guide for a review of this late-cycle, downbeat entry.

THE RHINE VIRGIN (53) - Jean Gabin returns to his shipping company in Strasbourg after many years missing in Germany since the war. Turns out his wife has remarried and the couple are bleeding the company dry. When Gabin starts snooping around, they make plans to kill him. An interesting and twisty story that holds the interest. Gabin can pretty much carry any film.

EVERY MAN IS MY ENEMY (67)

THE POSSE FROM HELL (61)

NOUVELLE VAGUE (25) - Linklater's imagining of the making of Jean-Luc Godard's Breathless is excellent. Highly recommended.

DAUGHTERS OF DARKNESS (71)

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Angel Rivera Highly enjoyed:

"ADOLESCENCE" (2025) 4 Episodes
This 4 episode limited series from the UK is totally gripping and true to life. From the moment a family's outer door entrance is busted down to arrest a 13 year old boy and charge him with murder to its surprisingly realistic ending; this series holds no punches. Its lead actors deserved every honor they have received. I won't reveal any more about the series, except to say it's truly an intense experience.

"EASY A" (2010)
A 20 year old Emma Stone is absolutely gorgeous in this teen rom-com as she plays a 17 year old high school student who is branded an overly promiscuous slut, when she lies to her closest friend about losing her virginity and others start spreading it around believing the tale to be true. There are some parallels to the book "The Scarlet Letter" which she and her classmates are studying in class. I have a thing for redheads; so even if Stone is not a natural redhead she still looks great in her dyed red hair look. The film is cute (in a good way!) and Stone gives a bravura performance; as do the rest of the cast. And the music is good too. Great fun!

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Charles Gilbert watched: 

WORLD OF VAMPIRES (1961) B&W. Count Subotai exacts revenge from the aristocratic Colman family for their part in persecuting his European ancestors. At his disposal is an army of zombie like vampires rehearsing world conquest. But it turns out they're vulnerable to certain musical tones. Filmed at Churubusco Azteca Mexico.

BLOOD OF NOSTRADAMUS (1962) B&W. I thought it was Nosferatu that was a vampire. Here, the famed villainous prophet creates havoc that is blamed on the white-haired professor Dolan because he is experimenting with bats. The townspeople mistakenly storm his laboratory where he launches his campaign against the title blood sucker, and try to lynch him in the end. Nostradamus is caught up in the tumult and is impaled. One of the best examples of poor dub/lip syncing in cinema.

SHE (1965) Remake with John Richardson in the Randolph Scott original role. Sets are not nearly as spectacular. The journey to the lost city is through the desert instead of the frozen north.

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