February 14 - 20, 2026

 

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

Brain Teasers:

Which Spanish actor was a soccer player in Mexico and a singer before he became an actor?

No one answered this question.

Which Spanish actor decided that he would not work for director Sergio Corbucci again because he felt the Italian wasn't as serious as Sergio Leone?

No one answered this question.

Which Spanish actor was told by Sergio Leone that he would play Tuco if Eli Wallach turned down the role?

No one answered this question.

And now for some new brain teasers:

By what name is actress Loredana Cappelletti better known?

Which Italian actress won the 1959 Miss Trieste beauty contest?

Which Italian actress co-starred with Richard Harrison, Carl Mohner, Franco Nero, Gianni Garko and John Ireland?

Name the movies from which these images came.

Above is a new photo.

Can you name from what movie it came?

Angel Rivera, George Grimes and Charles Gilbert identified last week's frame grab of Kirk Morris and Luciana Gilli in IL CONQUISTATORE DI ATLANTIDE, aka THE CONQUEROR OF ATLANTIS.

Above is a new photo.

Can you name from what movie it came?

George Grimes identified last week's photo of Lou Castel and Lisa Gastoni in GRAZIE ZIA, aka THANK YOU, AUNT, aka COME PLAY WITH ME.

Above is a new photo.

Can you name from what movie it came?

George Grimes identified last week's photo of Angela Mao, Carter Wong and Sammo Hung in HAPKIDO, aka LADY KUNG FU.

Above is a new photo.

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:

Mildly enjoyed:

EDDIE AND THE CRUISERS (1983) - Having started his feature film directing career with THE LORDS OF FLATBUSH, Martin Davidson was looking for a project about rock and roll music. He found EDDIE AND THE CRUISERS by P.F. Kluge which provided the inspiration for a CITIZEN KANE like tale of a rock musician and the mystery of what happened to the recording tapes for his last album. Arlene Davidson co-wrote the screenplay and served as an associate producer, but remains a mystery as to her relationship with Martin, who was married to residential designer Sandy Davidson. I had been avoiding this film for over 20 years, but was pleasantly surprised when I finally watched it. Tom Berenger gave a compelling performance as a man who thought that he had left his time in the music business behind him, but after reporter Ellen Barkin came asking questions about the old days, found himself seeking out his old band mates and trying to solve the mystery of what happened to the final album. Joe Pantoliano gave his usual manic performance as the band's old business manager. The real failing of this movie is that the band supposedly had a hit record in 1963, but none of the music played by the band in the flashbacks sounds anything like the kind of music which was popular right before The Beatles conquered the world. Davidson hired John Cafferty and the Beaver Band to provide the music, and they sounded more like Bruce Springsteen than Jay and the Americans. This film was a flop when originally released in theaters, but began creating a cult after playing on HBO. This was so successful on HBO that a soundtrack ablum went quadruple platinum.

Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. season 12 episode four "The Road We Took, Lizzy Caplan and Hasan Minhaj" (2026)

Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. season 12 episode five "Love and Basketball, Brittney Griner and Chris Paul" (2026)

Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. season 12 episode six "Westward Bound, Sara Haines and Tracy Letts" (2026) - It is always fun to see guests hoping to not find slave owners in their family trees. It is even more fun when African-American guests find out that their Black ancestors had slaves.

Midsomer Murders "The Devil's Work" season 24, episode 1 (2023)      

THE NUTCRACKER (1993) - Around Christmas 1989, Steve Ross of Time Warner Entertainment thought it might be a good idea to make a movie of the seasonal hit ballet of THE NUTCRACKER by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. George Balanchine's staging was being produced by Peter Martin at the New York City Ballet, so a collaboration between Warner Bros. and the New York City Ballet seemed like a good idea. To make the movie, former Broadway director Emile Ardolino, who had just had a big hit with his first feature film DIRTY DANCING, was  hired, and HOME ALONE star Macaulay Culkin was brought in for some "star power". Unfortunately, the production was plagued by bad press because of demands made by Culkin's father, Kit, so that when the film came out, audiences stayed away and critics were not impressed. Ballet on film seemed more like something you'd watch on Public Broadcasting, not in a movie theater, and I'm not a devote of ballet. Fortunately, or unfortunately, director Ardolino died four days before the film came and out flopped. In any case, Jessica Lynn Cohen was radiant as the little girl who was summoned to the land of the Sugar Plum Fairy. Unfortunately, she was paired with Macaulay Culkin, who looked quite flat footed surrounded by accomplished ballet dancers. There was no faulting of the sensational music by Tchaikovsky.

Did not enjoy:

BIONIC NINJA (1986) - Does the IMDb know secrets, or are they too bored to check the credits on another ninja film grafted onto some unknown crime movie? They list this as an IFD production, when the film's credits state that this is from Filmark International. Their list of producers includes Joseph Lai, who used to be a partner in IFD. The print only lists Tomas Tang, who seems to have left IFD and continued their legacy on his own. The IMDb lists Godfrey Ho as the director, while the print says "A Tim Ashby Film". As a matter of fact, the final result looks just like one of those turkeys to which Richard Harrison was added as a ninja, but with the uncharaismatic Mike Abbott taking his place. The original movie seemed to be a cops chasing jewel thieves story. Here, the thieves also got their hands on a top secret roll of film. Abbott is the CIA agent, who is also a ninja, sent to Hong Kong to get back the film. His enemy is a ninja working for the Russians. None of this is interesting nor does it involve bionics. It is amazing that these flicks lasted as long as they did in VHS video stores.

BROADWAY MELODY OF 1940 (1940) - There is no doubting the skills of Fred Astaire and Eleanor Powell, but weighing them down with the irritating script credited to Leon Gordon and George Oppenheimer, from a story by Jack McGowan and Dore Schary, is almost criminal. Astaire and George Murphy are a dancing team stuck in a poor club that also stages weddings. After Astaire is told that a bill collector is looking for Murphy, Astaire assumes producer Frank Morgan is the bill collector and says that he is Murphy. The next day, Murphy is offered a job by the producer's partner, Ian Hunter. Meanwhile Astaire adores star Eleanor Powell from afar, but can't complain when his partner gets cast in a show with her. Murphy hopes to romance Powell, and gets jealous when he sees her and Astaire becoming close. On opening night, Murphy is still recovering from the drunk he was the night before. Astaire can't whip him into shape for the opening number, so he performs the number which requires him to wear a mask. Powell knows that it is Astaire, but keeps quiet when Astaire is able to get Murphy in shape to do the rest of the show. Murphy is acclaimed a new star, but Powell lets him know that it was Astaire who deserved the accolades. The next night, Murphy shows up acting like he is drunk again. Powell rushes out to pull Astaire out of the poor club and on to the Broadway stage. When it is time for the curtain call, Murphy reveals that he only pretended to be drunk in order to force Astaire into the spotlight. Powell , Astaire and Murphy perform an encore together. There is a running gang in which Frank Morgan uses an Ermine fur coat to entice beautiful women to go out with him, only to tear it off when he leaves. Reportedly this was something that talent agent Doc Shurr would do in real life. Even though the film is filled with songs by Cole Porter, none of them were memorable to me. I understand that "Begin the Beguine" was popular in the mid 1930s, but it did nothing for me here.

CAN'T BUY ME LOVE (1987) - High School nerd Patrick Dempsey has a crush on Amanda Peterson, but she is part of the cool crowd and doesn't acknowledge his existence. Dempsey has saved $1,000 by mowing lawns in order to buy a telescope, which his younger brother Seth Green thinks is lame. At a party, Peterson wears her mother's suede outfit and gets wine spilled on it. Dempsey sees this and offers Peterson's his $1,000 to replace the outfit if Peterson will pretend to like him, which would get him into the cool crowd. Naturally, as Dempsey is accepted by the cool crowd, he has to join in humiliating his old nerd friends. He also finds that Peterson's girlfriends want him to cheat on Peterson with them. At a party, Peterson's boyfriend visits from college and explodes when people tell him that Peterson is dating Dempsey. Peterson loudly confesses to all that she only pretended to like Dempsey for $1,000, while the cool crowd followed her lead blindly. So, the last part of the movie is Dempsey trying to make up with his old nerd friends, but also finding the experience has given him the sense of self to stand up to the bullying jocks. Eventually, Peterson realizes that nice guy Dempsey is a better catch than her egotistical football boyfriend, and the two ride off into the sunset on his lawn mower. The screenplay credited to Michael Swerdlick is another comedy about high school society, which director Steve Rash fails to make funny. Amanda Peterson is appealing in the film, and it is a shame to find out that she died at the age of 43 due to an accidental drug overdose ten years after she retired from acting.

DEATHSTALKER II Duel of the Titans (1987) - I haven't seen DEATHSTALKER, but that's fine as the sequel has only the name in common with the first film. You know you have watched a film directed by Jim Wynorski when you find a slew of Italian Western names in the end credits: Arch Stanton, Douglas Mortimer, Leo Nichols, Red Sands and Dan Savio. This was the last of a series of films Roger Corman's New Horizon Picture Corp. had contracted with Aries Cinematografica Argentina, all low budget CONAN THE BARBARIAN copies. Monique Gabrielle was very appealing in this, though one had to wonder about all of these barbarian women with no body hair. This film was a spoof of this kind of movie, or had Wynorski was quoted as saying, an "anachronistic comedy of sorts". While very tongue in cheek, it wasn't made to cater to my sense of humor.

SCHOOL SPIRIT (1985) - It seems that after appearing on 4 TV shows from 1983 until 1984, Elizabeth Foxx hoped this feature film would lead to bigger things. It didn't so she seems to have left the business. She was a very attractive blond who looked great in her nude scenes, but it would seem that the competition for roles in low budget teen sex comedies was too stressful for her to put up with the effort anymore. Tom Nolan figures that he's got Foxx right where he wants her, but she insists on his using "protection". He rushes off to buy a condom and ends being killed in an auto accident. In the hospital, his spirit is greeted by the ghost of his Uncle John Finnegan, who is supposed to guide him to the afterlife, but Nolan convinces him to get a one day reprieve to try and score with Foxx. Unfortunately, Fox is more concerned with what she needs to do to get her scholarship. Luckily, he meets Daniele Arnaud who is interested in having sex with him. Arnaud is most remembered as the "girl" in four ZZ Top videos, and she too seems to have decided to leave the business after SCHOOL SPIRIT. The very attractive Toni Hudson is someone who is still active in the business, though she's gone through three divorces and has three children. Larry Linville, best remembered for TVs M*A*S*H, appears as a faculty guy. This is the first of three screenplays credited by Geoffrey Baere that were produced, and the last credit for director Alan Holleb, who had previously worked for Roger Corman.

TREASURE OF THE LOST DESERT (1984) - Reportedly Iranian director Tony Zarindast made CONQUERORS OF THE DESERT in 1971, but couldn't sell it in Europe without a name better known than star Reza Beyk Imanverdi. So, a prologue was made featuring Gordon Mitchell. After nine minutes of Mitchell walking about, being followed by a suspicious young blond man, and two people telling him "bang, bang, you're a dead man", Mitchell finally gets home and has a drink. The drink is poisoned and he dies. Interestingly, Mitchell can be heard speaking with his real voice in these scenes. Filmed in Yemen in 1971, this was obviously made before the Islamic Republic of Iran was created as there was a scene an aborted rape scene featuring female nudity. One can't help but wonder if the original film was as confusing as the new version with many scenes going by without any explanation as to what we're seeing. The English language version only identifies that the story takes place in the Middle East. There is no identification of the country or of the nationalities of the people involved. Behind the name Bruce Miller, Reza Beyk Imanverdi plays a Captain sent on a mission to retrieve some valuable artifacts found by an archeologist but stolen by a rebel called Eagle. The area where Eagle can be found is the Captain's home town. After some pointless scenes of training his hand-picked unit, the Captain heads out and, of course, survives an ambush by Eagle's red shirted men. Getting near his old home, the Captain starts to have flashbacks about the woman he left behnd. The woman, played by Vejesta behind the name Susan West, is now married to the Captain's old best friend, played by writer/producer/director Tony Zarindast. It seems obvious to the viewer that Zarindast is also Eagle, but it isn't until the film's conclusion that the Captain realizes it. The moviemakers seem to have been quite impressed that they were able to use military vehicles, because there are endless shots of them traveling all over the scenery, often with no explanation where they are going. One of the Captain's men comes up with the idea of having himself and another soldier pretend to be prisoners to win the confidence of two of Eagle's men already locked up. It turns out that the two who are locked up are the only ones who know where the treasure has been hidden. The Captain agrees to the plan that his two men and the two prisoners should escape in order for them to uncover the treasure. So, suspecting a double cross, Eagle and his men set out to find the fleeing prisoners, while the Captain sets our after them as well. Who will catch the treasure seekers, or will they end up killing each other themselved? Spoiler alert: Zarindast gives himself a very long and protracted death scene, including flashbacks as to why he doesn't kill the Captain afterall.

                                                       

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David Deal Enjoyed:

THE MISSIONARY (82) - Ages since I'd seen this Michael Palin classic and I still found it amusing and agreeable.

HELLBENT FOR LEATHER (60)

REFLECTION IN A DEAD DIAMOND (25) - The past of secret agent Fabio Testi catches up with him. And how. From the folks that brought us the impressive Amer (09), this continues their devil-may-care artistry in creating a fantasy and deconstructing it at the same time. The subverting of the viewer's expectations is at once frustrating and liberating.

THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES (07) - This never fails to impress me. It's top notch in all departments: Brad and Casey are terrific, great approach, photography, music, you name it. First rate.

LONE WOLF AND CUB: BABY CART IN THE LAND OF DEMONS (74)

TERRIFYING GIRLS HIGH SCHOOL: LYNCH LAW CLASSROOM (73) - A young delinquent, The Boss with the Cross, infiltrates a high school looking for answers to her friend's disappearance. What she finds is corruption and debauchery at the highest levels. Her revenge is sweet. Over-the-top Japanese sexploitation number that will please those with the appetite for such things.

ISLAND OF TERROR (66)

THROUGH THE EYES OF YUGA (15) - An interesting made-for-television documentary on the concert pianist Yuga Wang, that focuses on the nomadic existence of an artist on tour. Ms. Wang's genius is on full display here but this is not designed to get beneath of the skin of its subject. A rewarding watch nonetheless.

A QUIET PLACE TO KILL (70)

Mildly Enjoyed:

BLUE MOON (25)

THE GRAVE ROBBERS (89) - A small band of grave robbers discover a tomb filled with jewels. They promptly take all they can get their hands on, including an axe pulled from the chest of a cadaver. This, of course, unleashes pure evil and the body count begins. This Mexican slaughter-fest pulls no punches and the gore effects are right up front.

Did not enjoy:

SEX & DRUGS & ROCK & ROLL (10) - Andy Serkis inhabits punk icon Ian Dury in this biopic I found as unpleasant as its subject.

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Angel Rivera Highly enjoyed:

"MATCH POINT" (2005)
Woody Allen's well-done film about a retired married tennis pro who has an affair and has to find the ultimate solution to get rid of the mistress when she becomes pregnant and he can't won't leave his wife for her after she refuses to get an abortion and wants him "to do the right thing" by her. Stars Jonathan Rhys Meyers as the tennis pro, Scarlett Johansson as the mistress. Luck plays a big role when he decides he has to get rid of her. A well made thriller.

"RED SUN (1971/2)
As a fan of the films of Akira Kurosawa, I was well aware of Toshiro Mifune. Here he is a samurai tasked by his master, the ambassador from Japan to avenge a slain samurai and retrieve a stolen golden samurai sword meant as a gift for the US president. He has to team up with the murdering thief's  former partner played by Charles Bronson to complete his mission. The murdering thief is played by Alain Delon. Bronson is reluctant to help Mifune because he needs his former partner (who left him for dead), alive so he can get the location of the hidden loot before Mifune kills him. As a means of locating Delon, the two get the reluctant aid of Delon's woman played by Ursula Andress. Also in the cast as a love interest for Bronson is Capucine. Of course Mifune was one of the stars of the classic film, "Seven Samurai" (1954) and Bronson of course was one of the stars of the American remake of  "Seven Samurai"; "The Magnificent Seven" (1960)! I saw this film when it first played in theaters under the slogan, the first "East meets West" western.and it was directed by veteran action director, Terence Young responsible for three James Bond films including "Dr. No" (1962), "From Russia With Love" (1963) and "Thunderball" (1965). Well made action film with loads of action fun.

Enjoyed: 

"GREEN LANTERN: FIRST FLIGHT" (2009)
An animated film featuring the origin of Green Lantern/ Hal Jordan here voiced by "Law and Order:SVU" star Christopher Meloni as he battles his main nemesis, the renegade Green Lantern, Sinestro, here voiced by Victor Garber of "Titanic"(1997) and "Legends of Tomorrow" (2016-2922) fame. Much better than the disappointing live action "Green Lantern" film of 2011. For long times of DC there will be somethings in this film that are familiar, but will slightly changed from what one remembers. Still a fun film for fans of  DC superhero adventures.


'SUPER BOWL LX HALFTIME SHOW (2026)
Controversial because the performer, Puerto Rican music star, known as Bad Bunny did his act in mostly Spanish and he is a very vocal critic of the president's immigration enforcement tactics. Still Bad Bunny is the most streamed artist on Spotify and popular all over the world.He is the first artist to win the Grammy for album of the year that was an all Spanish Language album.  His music is more for those who enjoy the Latin based music His show was largely a salute to the culture of Hispanic Americans as he showed that "Americans" encompass the entire Western Hemisphere. His guest artists who performed at his show were the ever popular Lady Gaga and another popular American artist of Puerto Rican heritage, Ricky Martin whose big pop hit was "Living La Vida Loca" back in 1999. Since I am a fan of the "Latin" based music and because mainly racist people were against his performing, I watched the show, even though I am not a football fan. (Just so you know I understand Spanish, but only after having taken eight years of courses in the New York City school system. But I still had some trouble getting all that he sang, but I give the beat and performances a thumbs up.) Bad Bunny's main theme at his show was, in these troubled times; that "The only thing stronger than hate is Love!"


"HELLS ANGELS ON WHEELS" (1967)
I first saw this back in 1967 when "biker" films were very popular along with "Elvis" movies; "Jerry Lewis" movies and "Godzilla" movies.  It also was an interesting sight for this then 11 year old who on the throws of puberty was noticing all the scantily clad females on the screen. The film stars (an actor I didn't know at the time) Jack Nicholson is a "recruit" for the Hells Angel Biker club. He joins them in their "rollicking" ways. Though at one point he challenges the "leader of the pack" played by Adam Roarke (whom Star Trek fans will recognize as a member of the crew in the original Star Trek pilot episode) as Nicholson vies for the affections of Sabrina Scharf, who some will remember for her role in "Easy Rider" (1969). Ms. Scharf's meandering back and forth between the two male leads in her affections causes the tension between the two which causes a tragic ending. 

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Charles Gilbert watched: 

THE WILD, WILD WEST The abominable movie version with Will Smith was featured on Grit-tv Friday evening February 6 in a "Weird Westerns" trilogy with WESTWORLD and THE VALLEY OF GWANGI. I didn't stay up for the other two, and had seen GWANGI rather recently on Svengoolie.

ARIZONA COLT RETURNS (1965) Opening song "i guess I gotta get my gun...I guess I gotta shoot someone." Anthony Steffen sets out to rescue partner Roberto Camardiel taken prisoner by Aldo Sombrell and his gold-thieving gang. 

THE FASTEST GUITAR ALIVE (1967) A travelling wagon medicine show selling magic elixir is cover for Confederate agents to rob a Northern bank of its gold. Roy Orbison's only stab at acting is a western comedy where he plays a guitar rigged with a rifle barrel, gets to sing, and appear in disguises; F troop on the big screen.Originally this cinematic farce was intended to be serious. It panned so badly at the box office that the other four films in his contract were cancelled. The talents of Lyle Bettger, Ben Cooper, and John Doucette were wasted.

THE HITCH-HIKER (1953) B&W. Ida Lupino directed this noir about a gunman (William Talman) abducting two men at constant gunpoint for days as they slip the law and head into Mexico from California. Anticlimactic ending as no one is killed. Frank Lovejoy and Edmond O'brien.

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February 7 - 13, 2026

 

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

Brain Teasers:

By what name is Lucien Ginsburg better known?

Angel Rivera and George Grimes knew that it is Serge Gainsbourg.

By what name is Philippe Marie Paul Leroy-Beaulieu better known?

Angel Rivera and George Grimes knew that it is Philippe Leroy.

By what name is Pasquale Ferzetti better known?

Angel Rivera and George Grimes knew that it is Gabriele Ferzetti.

And now for some new brain teasers:

Which Spanish actor was a soccer player in Mexico and a singer before he became an actor?

Which Spanish actor decided that he would not work for director Sergio Corbucci again because he felt the Italian wasn't as serious as Sergio Leone?

Which Spanish actor was told by Sergio Leone that he would play Tuco if Eli Wallach turned down the role?

Name the movies from which these images came.

No one identified the above photo.

It is from NAVAJO JOE

Angel Rivera, George Grmes and Charles Gilbert identified last week's frame grab of Liana Orfei and Orson Welles in I TARTARI, aka THE TARTARS.

Above is a new photo.

Can you name from what movie it came?

Angel Rivera and George Grimes identified last week's frame grab of Woody Strode, Luciana Paluzzi and Henry Silva in LA MALA ORDINA, aka HIRED TO KILL, aka THE ITALIAN CONNECTION, aka MANHUNT, aka MANHUNT IN MILAN, aka MANHUNT IN THE CITY.

Above is a new photo.

Can you name from what movie it came?

George Grimes identified last week's photo of Lo Lieh in 14 AMAZONS.

Above is a new photo.

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:

Highly enjoyed:

Dying For Sex (2025) - 8 half-hourish episodes on Hulu featuring Michelle Williams facing death by cancer with her best friend, Jenny Slate, and her mother, Sissy Spacek, trying to help her. Therapist Esco Jouley suggests that she set goals for the time she has left. Williams says that she's never had an orgasm with another person, so she begins a sexual odyssey that is as funny as it is moving.

Mildly enjoyed:

Midsomer Murders season 24 episode 3 "Claws Out"

Midsomer Murders season 24 episode 4 "A Climate of Death"

Did not enjoy:

THE ARIZONIAN (1935) - Stage performer Margot Grahame is the toast of Silver City, Arizona. However, local sheriff Louis Calhern is a villain and has a bullying gang to back him up. After one of his thugs smashes Grahame's boyfriend, James Bush, over the head, Grahame is on the next stagecoach out of town. Calhern sends a group of his minions to stop the Yuma stage and bring Grahame back. Richard Dix happens along and orders the minions to drop their guns. Dix asks Grahame if she wants to take the stage to Yuma, and she responds by asking if Dix plans to go to Silver City. He does, so she decides to return with him. The stage has the mail to deliver, so it continues to Yuma. It turns out that Bush is Dix's brother, and that is why he came to Silver City. Dix identifies the men who held up the stage, but Calhern refuses to arrest them. So, Mayor Francis Ford tells the Marshal to arrest Ray Mayer. Mayer shoots the Marshal dead and then flees. Knowing that Dix has a reputation as a "town tamer", the Mayor offers the job to Dix. Dix ends up arresting many of Calhern's minions for firing their guns in town. Calhern agrees to put the men in jail, knowing full well that corrupt Judge Edward Van Sloan will let them go with a small fine. Calhern hires gunman Preston Foster with the idea that Foster can scare Dix out of town. But Dix doesn't rise to the bait and befriends Foster. Soon Foster becomes Dix's Deputy Marshal while Dix brings in Mayer and tells Calhern to be sure and keep him in jail. Bush becomes jealous of Dix when he sees Grahame getting sweet on him and is convinced to help set a trap for his brother. Calhern sets Mayer free to kill Dix with a sheriff's deputy backing him up. Dix is wounded but the assassins are killed by Foster. So, Dix tries to arrest Calhern while Calhern tries to arrest Dix, Foster and Bush for the killing of his deputy. The Mayor agrees to have Dix and friends locked up in the jail, but they get to keep their guns. Grahame's maid, Hattie McDaniel, and her boyfriend Willie Best (aka Sleep 'n' Eat) decide to help Dix by bringing him a shotgun. By this time, Calhern has set fire to the jail and then shoots Best in the back. The town's citizens rally to pull the bars off the jail so that our trio of heroes can face the villains in the street. Interestingly, director Charles Vidor and screenwriter Dudley Nichols decide to stage this showdown at night with everyone obscured by the smoke from the jailhouse fire. When the smoke clears, we find out who lives and who dies. Not surprising, Calhern has escaped the smoke covered massacre, but before he can shoot Dix in the back. McDaniel is able to get her revenge. This is one of those early Westerns during which we never see the hero shoot a man dead. He even shoots the gun out of a villain's hand early on. But the staging of the final gunfight in the smoke and having the main villain killed by a Black woman makes this movie memorable. 

BEHIND THE HEADLINES (1937) - Lee Tracy and Diana Gibson used to work together on a newspaper. Tracy decided to switch to radio, and Gibson has felt betrayed ever since. The scenes of her trying to thwart his reporting are rather irritating, especially after he is able to discover the Martin gang is planning to rob a gold shipment in an armored car. Gibson thinks that she can "scoop" Tracy, and ends up being kidnapped by the brains of the heist, Donald Meek. It isn't until the end of the movie that mobster Paul Guilfoyle mentions that they should have "gotten rid" of Gibson before she was able to use the radio kit she stole from Tracy to help the police pinpoint their hideout. This effort to find Gibson and the gold utilizes a dirigable, played by a model, flying over the countryside, played by a miniature, which is fun. Russell Metty is the director of photography, while Thomas Ahearn, Edmund L. Hartmann and J. Robert Bren get writing credits. Director Richard Rosson reportedly had something to do with directing the 1932 SCARFACE.

TERREUR CANNIBALE, aka CANNIBAL TERROR (1980) - Eurocine is a low-budget French company that is not known for making quality movies. This maybe their most inept production ever. Perhaps the most inept child kidnapping movie ever. Easily one of the most inept portrayal of cannibals that like to eat their human guts raw. One of the most inept jungle adventure films ever. Silvia Solar is given star billing, and looks to have only been able to work one, or maybe two, days. Reportedly, this was rushed into production so that the sets and extras for director Jesus Franco's MONDO CANNIBALE, aka WHITE CANNIBAL QUEEN, could be reused. I've not watched the Franco film yet, but these extras are unconvincing as jungle dwellers. They look like French men with graffitti on their faces. Oddly, there are children in the village, but only one woman is seen. Considering that they kill two women that they come across, you would think they would take them as slaves rather than food. But we get no indication that they have anything else but human bodies for food. Two inept bozos team up with a low-life woman to kidnap a rich man's daughter. How they did it we never see. In any case, they decide to hide out "across the border" near cannibal territory. Boredom has already set in for the viewer before the first human is ripped open for eating, and it only increases while we wait for the parents of the little girl to arrive and rescue her. In the end, the cannibals say they only delivered the pain the bad guys deserved and hand the little girl over unharmed. If that is so, then why did they send so many warriors out to be killed by the parents as they made their way through the jungle? Behind the name Allen W. Steeve is director Alain Deruelle, who went back to making pornography after this experience. While there are a few sex and nude scenes in CANNIBAL TERROR, they seem to lack any enthusiasm from either the performers or the filmmakers. They are just inept, as is the film editing by Roland Grillon, which features non-sensical fade outs and even an iris in and out for no effect. At least the camerawork, credited to Emilio Foriscot, delivers clean images. This appears to have been his final film before he retired.

GILDERSLEEVE'S GHOST (1944) - The Great Gildersleeve was a very popular situation comedy on radio from 1941 until 1958. It was a spin-off from the radio show Fibber McGee and Molly which introduced the character of Throckmorton P. Gilbersleeve on an episode that aired on October 3, 1939. Harold Peary played the role on radio, and then in four feature films beginning in 1942. GILDERSLEEVE'S GHOST was the fourth, and last, of the movie series. All of the movies were directed by Gordon Douglas, who would become Frank Sinatra's favorite director in the 1960s. In this film, Peary is running for the office of police commissioner. Two of Peary's ancestral ghosts rise from their graves and plan how to make certain that Peary wins the election. They decide that they need to arrange for Peary to break a sensation criminal case. They know that Dr. Frank Reicher is working on a pill to make people invisible, but is having trouble getting test subject Marlon Martin to stay consistently visible. They have succeeded making their gorilla test subject (played by Charles Gemora) both invisible and visible. The ghosts decide to free the gorilla and then use mental suggestion to get the beast to go to Peary's home. Once Peary sees the beast, they will then have it lead Peary to the spooky mansion where Reicher is performing his experiments. Naturally, when Peary sees the gorilla, he contacts his political rival, Police Commissioner Emory Parnell, with the news. Of course, at this point the gorilla is no where to be found, so everyone doubts Peary's sanity. When everyone is lured over to the spooky mansion, and Peary reports a woman who becomes visible and then invisible, his sanity is thought to be ever more questionable. As expected, this film has a Black couple, Nick Stewart and Lillian Rangolph, to do the usual schtick. Blossom Rock, aka Marie Blake, would go on to play Grandmama on The Addams Family TV show in the 1960s.

Hollywood Nights (198?) - This almost an hour long "documentary" maybe dedicated to those who came to Hollywood with a dream and didn't realize it, but it seems that director Anthony Christopher  only uses that as a premise to do a review of female sex workers. We see strippers. We see a woman work a telephone sex line. We see a woman doing pornography. The stuff shot on Hollywood Boulevard was done when PRETTY IN PINK was playing at the Hollywood movie theater. That theater closed in 1992 and became the Guinness World of Records Museum in 1994. There are also many shots of the old Tower Records on Sunset. And POLICE ACADEMY 3 was playing at the Chinese Theater.

MORTUARY (1982) - Someone clobbered Dr. Danny Rogers over the head and dumped him into the swimming pool to drown. Daughter Mary McDonough is convinced that it was murder, but mother Lynda Day George thinks it was an accident. Later, McDonough's boyfriend, David Wallace, goes with his friend Denis Mandel to steal some tires from the Mortuary Warehouse. In the warehouse, the young men see the mortician, Christopher George, leading a group of women in an Occult ceremony. While Wallace stays behind to watch the ceremony, Mandel leaves to get the tires into his vehicle. Someone leaps out and stabs Mandel to death using a trocar (normally used to drain fluids from a corpse). Unable to find Mandel, Wallace thinks that his friend abandoned him. The next night, McDonough sleepwalks into the swimming pool, only to awaken to find someone trying to stab her with a trocar. At first McDonough and Wallace suspect that George and George may have murdered Rogers, until they sneak into the warehouse and witness George and George having a seance to contact Rogers on the other side. With table thumping, Rogers tells his wife that he was murdered, so our heroes understand that they were wrong to suspect them. Eventually, we are introduced to Mr. George's son, Bill Paxton, who has never looked so clean cut in any other movie. About half way through the movie, it is revealed that the creeping camera with a very loud heart beat is actually Paxton, who is out to kill everyone who stands in the way of his marrying McDonough, though he wants to embalm her alive first. While Wallace saves McDonough from a marriage worse than death, Paxton's mother, Donna Garrett, suddenly comes out of her coma (!) with a carving knife in her hand. At the time this film came out in theaters, some critics gave writer/director Howard Avedis for coming out with something different from the "slasher" movies flooding the market. I guess they didn't mind the poor plotting and limp pacing. Here is evidence that cameraman Gary Graver did work for other filmmakers than Orson Welles and Fred Olen Ray, and various unknown pornographic directors.

RUNNING OUT OF LUCK (1985) - If director Julien Temple is going to Brazil to make a music video with Mick Jagger as a solo artist, why not turn it into a feature length project? So we see Mick Jagger, as himself, exchange nasty words with his girlfriend Jerry Hall while arriving in Rio on a yacht. He gets down to work shooting a video with director Dennis Hopper, and everyone goes to a party at night. Mick thinks that she's invited three women back to his trailer, but they turn out to be female impersonators who mug and rob him. They throw Mick into the back of a tractor trailer and watch as it pulls away. The three robbers get into a tiff, and one is killed. They stick that guy in a car and push it into the sea. When the police pull that car out of the water, they find a dead man who has Mick Jagger's passport, so the news goes out that Jagger is dead. Meanwhile, Jagger gets out of the tractor trailer, which turns out is carrying large cattle carcasses, and finds himself lost in Brazil. Eventually, he is found by Norma Bengell, who runs a banana plantation. She makes Jagger a slave. When prostitutes are brought in to keep the male slaves happy, Jagger befriends Rae Dawn Chong, who helps him escape by dressing him as one of the prostitutes. When Jagger finally gets to a phone, his manager thinks it is a crank call because Jagger has been declared dead. Jagger and Chong try to cheat at a casino to raise money for him to get back to England, but Jagger is caught and sent to prison. Luckily, Chong is able to break him out of jail. At the airport, Jagger sees a phony Jagger arriving to work with Hopper, who doesn't recognize the real Jagger after bumping into him. We don't see how Jagger is able to get back to London without a passport and with everyone still thinking that he is dead, but once there journalist Jim Broadbent gets word that he is hiding out working with a new band. This would seem to be someone's idea of a Video LP, with Jagger performing songs from his solo album "She's The Boss" under ridiculous circumstances. At least Rae Dawn Chong looks great in her bed scene with Jagger.

SECONDS (1966) - I think I was ten years old when I saw the trailer for this movie in a theater. It was quite unnerving and the film has had a special place in my mind ever since. Well, it has taken me quite a while to get around to watching it, by which time I've heard enough about it for it to have lost any possible impact on me. From distorted opening credits designed by Saul Bass, to distorting lenses used by Director of Photography James Wong Howe and strident music by Jerry Goldsmith, director John Frankenheimer is able to create a disturbing atmosphere. The idea of a secret organization providing "re-birth" has been done many times since this movie, which is based on a novel by David Ely, but those other films don't present the process as plausibly as SECONDS does. Of course after John Randolph is turned into Rock Hudson and given a new life, he finds it equally as empty as his old life - though he finds himself missing his wife and daughter. He demands that "the Company" give him a new face and body so that he can have a "re-birth" without the controls he's been living under. He wants the freedom to start all over again. Naturally, "the Company" can't have that and he realizes, as he is being brought into surgery, that he will become the dead body needed for someone else to get a "re-birth". 

THE STEEL-FISTED DRAGON, aka A FISTUL OF DRAGON (1977) - Indonesian martial artist Vita Fatimah does an impressive job of acting like Bruce Lee in this dim-witted modern day tale of Kung Fu revenge. Fatimah's mother runs a small shop seemingly made of bamboo, which catches fire very easily. After she dies, Fatimah vows vengeance. It turns out that the bad guys are also kidnapping women to traffic as sex slaves. The highlight of the film occurs pretty close to the beginning, when our hero smacks a guy in the face, and then we see the guy's eyeballs in our hero's hand. As the script is nothing more than fight after fight for close to an hour, the filmmakers are soon having trouble differentiating one battle from another. As plot gets thrown in when the villain's sister falls in love with hero and tries to convince him to stop the killing. He seems willing to run away with her, but the villain, and his small army of thugs, show up to stop them. The villain tries to kill the hero, but ends up killing the sister, so our hero is even more motivated for revenge. Unfortunately, nothing really changes in the fighting before the bad guy dies and our hero walks away with the body of the sister. One interesting element of the U.S. version is that for stretches of the movie we see characters talking, but we don't hear the awful English dubbing we expect. It would seem that someone decided that what they were saying was so obvious that we didn't need to hear it.

WARLOCK (1959) - You can tell this is one of those "adult" Westerns because everyone has a back story and they sure as hell will tell it. Tom Drake  was there for the founding of the town of Warlock, and he means to let everyone know that he still runs it. After his Cowboys, from San Pedro, commit wanton murder after running the town sheriff away, the villains force the Citizen's Committee to seek outside help. Henry Fonda is a famous gunman who also hires as a town marshal, who also runs an gambling hall in order to generate enough money to make his efforts worthwhile. Anthony Quinn is his friend of dubious character, who has a slight limp, though synopsis reports he has a club foot. Quinn worships Fonda because he feels Fonda is the only person who doesn't think of him as a cripple. Quinn is not above doing wrong if he thinks it is in Fonda's favor. When L.Q. Jones arrives in town, he informs Quinn that old flame Dorothy Malone is coming soon on a stagecoach, with Sol Gorss, the brother of a man Fonda killed in the past. Coincidentally, the stage will also be carrying a money shipment, so Quinn rides out to see that the Cowboys will rob the stage. As Frank Gorshin has a gun on Gorss, Quinn murders Gorss from a distance with a winchester. Not surprising, Gorshin is arrested for the murder. Richard Widmark has quit Drake's Cowboys, and is worried about the fate of Gorshin,  his brother. Gorshin and two others are sent to be tried in a town with law. Meanwhile, Widmark volunteers to be Warlock's official deputy. After he is aquitted, Gorshin and his co-conspirators return to Warlock even though Fonda has barred them from coming to town. As usual, the Cowboys plan to back shoot Fonda and Quinn when Gorshin and his friends call them out. Quinn is good at spotting the ambushers and Widmark mourns his dead brother. Cowboy De Forest Kelley announces that the Cowboys have formed their own committee and plan to arrest Fonda. Quinn doesn't like the idea of Widmark becoming the law in town, so when the Cowboys arrive, Quinn holds Fonda at gunpoint so that he doesn't help Widmark. It turns out that almost the entire town turns out to help Widmark and he is the hero. Fonda begins to understand that Quinn's dubious reputation may be true, so Quinn gets drunk and decides to provoke his old friend to face him. Quinn succeeds in getting Fonda to kill him, and Fonda is so distrout that he sets fire to the gambling hall in which Quinn was his partner. Widmark orders Fonda to leave town before dawn, so when Fonda doesn't, Widmark expects to face him in the street. Instead of shooting, Fonda throws away his guns before climbing on his horse and riding away. I hate movies in which a main character throws away his guns to signal that he plans to change his life. A gun is a tool that might be useful even if you plan to stop being a gunman. Plus these pistols have gold handles which might come in handy since you allowed your business to burn down. Reportedly, Joe Turkel, Gary Lockwood, Wally Campo and Don "Red" Barry are also in the movie, but I didn't recognize them. It is hard to miss James Philbrook, who soon moved to Europe to make Westerns like SON OF A GUNFIGHTER and FINGER ON THE TRIGGER. Robert Alan Aurthur is credited with the screenplay based on the novel by Oakley Hall. Particularly after seeing 1993's 

TOMBSTONE, it is obvious that this plot was inspired by stories about Wyatt Earp.

                                                       

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David Deal Enjoyed:

BANG, BANG, YOU'RE DEAD (66) - You can find this in the Eurospy Guide under the title Our Man In Marrakesh.

SHE WAITS (72) - And this fun TV movie can be found in the Television Fright Films of the 1970s book.

FROZEN ALIVE (64)

THE MURDERER'S CLUB OF BROOKLYN (66) - Another one from the Eurospy Guide.

NIGHT CREATURES (62) - Not really a horror movie, this Hammer adventure is still plenty fun.

THE BEAST IS LOOSE (59) - Ex-gangster Lino Ventura runs a little bistro in Paris. One day his old boss asks a favor, and when Lino declines, he is set up as a counterfeiter, and his only recourse is to comply. This, of course, opens up a whole new set of complications which will take a while for Lino to unravel. This film noir centers around a secret formula - a case of industrial espionage - unusual for a crime story but the machinations remain largely the same; someone will get hurt. A fun watch as Lino sweats but never loses sight of the goal.

THE MAN FROM PLANET X (51)

SINNERS (25)

Mildly Enjoyed:

SPASMO (74) - One of Umberto Lenzi's lesser efforts, in my opinion.

CRYPT OF THE VAMPIRE (64)

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Angel Rivera Highly enjoyed:

"COLOSSUS: THE FORBIN PROJECT" (1970)
Recently watched a behind the scenes video about the movie and in the video was informed that the most complete version of the film was on Blue-ray so I ordered a copy as my own copy was a poor pan and scan version. The movie still holds me in suspense. The main plot if you have never seen this film is about a scientist, Forbin played by Eric Braeden,  who creates a computer system that will take over the defense of the US. Trouble starts when the computer system known under the name Colossus determines that in order to defend the US, it must take over the world; to protect mankind from itself. A main point is when Colossus creates is own voice and is first heard. A must see.

"KING KONG" (1933)
TCM was showing late night one of my all-time favorite films that I can't resist re-watching. It still amazes me how the technicians under the leadership of Willis O'Brien were able to give that puppet of King Kong such personality. Something none of its remakes or other versions have been able to do. And two of its stars have never been topped in IMO; Robert Armstrong and the lovely Fay Wray.

"GHOST WORLD" (2001)
Another favorite. Two recent female high school graduates and best friends try to navigate life after school. The two girls are a then 19 year old Thora Birch and a then 17 year old Scarlett Johansson. Things get complicated when one of them (Thora Birch) befriends an older man who is a bit of an oddball loner played by Steve Buscemi. Based on a comic book of the same name. "Ghost World" is one of those avant garde films that one either likes or doesn't. I liked it alot.

Enjoyed: 

"VOLUNTEERS" (1985)
Stars Tom Hanks as a spoiled rich kid who just graduated from Yale in 1962 and owes a lot of money to a bookie. So he decides to join the Peace Corps and heads to Thailand to hide out. There he joins future wife Rita Wilson and is re-teamed  with John Candy, whom Hanks worked with on his first starring role in the movie, "Splash!" (1964). Lots of droll hi-jinks and an okay comedy from Hanks.

 

68th GRAMMY AWARDS (2026)
Watched it mostly for the performances of Bruno Mars of whom I'm a big fan. Not much of a rap/hip-hop fan as most of  the acts that were there I am unfamiliar with. Host Trevor Noah was pretty funny and did a great routine with Puerto Rican super star Bad Bunny. Even though I myself am of Puerto Rican heritage, can't say I am that much familiar with his music. Although what little I did hear of his music I found catchy. Noted that the only country star that performed that night was Reba McEntire, Her first time performing at the Grammy's and she was there to pay tribute to her late stepson, Brandon Blackstock, who had also been married to Kelly Clarkson and who was a well known talent manager. Cher was there to receive a lifetime achievement award and made a faux pas when she had been called originally to announce record of the year and appeared to be thrown off when she received her lifetime achievement award as well. Another highlight for me was the tribute to the late Roberta Flack led by Lauren Hill. All in all a fun evening.

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Charles Gilbert watched: 

WHY GO ON KILLING aka BLOOD AT SUNDOWN (1965) Union soldier Stephen McDougal (Anthony Steffen) is AWOL from his post looking for killers of his family. He discovers wheelchair bound, gun running Senor Lopez (Jose Calvo) is behind the chaos. With Gemma Cuervo and Elaine Stewart.

KILL JOHNNY RINGO (1966) Brett Halsey plays a Texas Ranger investigating a counterfeit operation. 

Wagon Train S01E12 "The Riley Gratton Story" B&W. Guy Madison in the title role plays a silver tongued old army friend of the wagon master (Ward Bond) that employs his urbanity to bilk $850 from citizens in the train with the sale of inarable Nebraska property. Upon gambling it away he has a change of heart towards honesty, due to some coercion from the major, resulting in return of the cash using even more unscrupulous methods. 

Walker, Texas Ranger S08E09 "Fight or Die" Probably my favorite episode; not that I've seen that many. Copperhead prison is venue to illegal cage fights that leads to the death of an undercover cop. Guest stars include MMA pioneer Frank Shamrock, Randy "Macho Man" Savage, Marshal Teague, Charles Napier, and Richard Norton.

JOAN OF ARC (1948) Ingid Bergman assays the role of the French peasant maiden that rallied the army against the English during the Middle Ages. The movie is almost two and half hours long and costars a host of B actors like Richard Derr, Ray Teal, George Zucco, J. Carroll Naish, and Leif Erickson.

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