Video - TRUCK TURNER (1974) Trailer

Here is the amazing trailer for this classic Blaxploitation film. Podcast on the way!

THE INVINCIBLE SIX (1970) Poster Art and Lobby Cards

Every now and then, while researching something, I will stumble across a movie that I have never heard of before and immediately realize I must see. This is the one I found today and I will not rest until I can watch it! With that cast and directed by the man who made THE MASK OF DIMITRIOS (1944), JOHNNY BELINDA (1948), TITANIC (1950), THREE COINS IN THE FOUNTAIN (1954) and THE PLEASURE SEEKERS (1964) it is a must find.

The Bloody Pit #155 - THE CANDY SNATCHERS (1973)

John Hudson and Bobby Hazzard return for a roundtable discussion of THE CANDY SNATCHERS (1973).

 

Typical of exploitation cinema of the 1970’s this is a grimy, mean-spirited tale of crime and consequences. The story follows a trio of not-quite-as-smart-as-they-think low lives as they kidnap a jewelry store manger’s daughter. Expecting an easily scored diamond ransom their scheme goes sour and, when they start trying to turn their busted plan into a success, things get quickly worse. The sweat, fear and desperation combine to make for a tense, uncomfortable film experience with an ending that stamps this as one of the darkest American films of the period. I once thought of this as a one-time watch but my opinion has changed.

 

We briefly discuss the terrible crime that inspired the film and how the long-term details point out the folly of most criminal activity. We talk about the cast and crew with some fantastic information from the two main female actors. Writer/director Guerdon Trueblood is also on the record about the entire history of the production and we share a few of his amusing tales as we go along. Bobby expresses his dislike of the reoccurring theme tune and neither John or I can really disagree with his assessment. Of course, that means you get to hear it as part of the show. Sorry.

 

If you have any comments or suggestions or comments thebloodypit@gmail.com is the place to write. We’ll be back to cover STUNT ROCK eventually. We end the show with a new song from Chagall Guevara. Thank you for listening! 

THE MECHANIC (1972) Poster Art

Book to Screen - LAST EMBRACE (1979)

Sometimes an imperfect adaptation is still good enough to get the job done. Such is LAST EMBRACE (1979), a Roy Scheider thriller based on the book The 13th Man by Murray Teigh Bloom. As the film begins government agent Harry Hannan is involved in an incident that gets his wife killed because she is in the wrong place at the wrong time. Cut to months later when Harry is leaving a sanatorium after a nervous breakdown. He tries to rejoin his old job but meets resistance from his handlers who are not sure he is stable enough to be trusted with dangerous work again. Complicating matters is the fact that in the months he was away his apartment was sublet by a young college student who has moved in with her small collection of pets. Soon he is trying to understand a cryptic message written in ancient Hebrew and Aramaic slipped into his apartment while also controlling the shaky physical reactions lingering from his breakdown. Also, his old employers realize they no longer trust him and decide he might need to be killed!

 

If this all sounds like a lot stuffed into a single film you would be right. I’ve not read the novel this was adapted from but I can sympathize with what seems to be an attempt to retain as much as possible. I’ve seen this kind of thing before and I find it fascinating. Boiling down a book into something under two hours can be a hellish task and usually entire chunks of complicating narrative is jettisoned to preserve the audience’s attention. What a reader might tolerate or even love only serves to distract from the forward thrust that a movie thriller needs to feel alive. Too much extraneous detail can force a viewer to lose the thread of the plot in a way that a book can deftly avoid.

LAST EMBRACE is an effort that works pretty well but the elements that would play wonderfully on the page are clunky onscreen. The late in the story introduction of a character crucial to the unravelling of the mystery of the cryptic note is a bit jarring even when played by an actor who is able to make him a welcome addition to things. And while the unexpected turn the story takes is amazing and clever, I’m sure it played much better in the book. The director handles things as well as possible and I really did enjoy the film but I can’t help but think that some trimming at the script level might have made for a more satisfying overall effect. 

 

Trailers From Hell - THE PARALLAX VIEW (1974)

Director Karyn Kusama briefly discusses her love of this classic thriller and reminds me that I haven't seen it in decades. Time for a re-watch pretty soon. 

Re-visit - SCREAMS OF A WINTER NIGHT (1979)

I recently rewatched this low budget indie horror film and enjoyed it even more this time. Part of that might be because this time I was watching a much better print on the Code Red Blu-Ray meaning that I was seeing an improved image with more sharpness and detail. Shot on location in Louisiana it was inspired by the success of various other regional filmmakers like Charles B. Piece (LEGEND OF BOGGY CREEK, TOWN THAT DREADED SUNDOWN) and Joy Houck (CREATURE FROM BLACK LAKE).

The setup is a classic! On a dark night a group of vacationing college friends tell each other several different stories while at a cabin in the woods. There are the various stereotypes on display from practical joker to lothario to different shades of bland white guy. The ladies are even less well defined with only one of them given much to do but the actress in question really digs into things. The thing is, the stories that they tell are fun. They are mostly variations on the standard campfire tales used to scare people for decades if not centuries and they generally work well. You’ve probably heard a version of at least one of them yourself in your youth but a well done scary story can get the job done regardless of familiarity.

For this viewing though, the real draw for me was that this Blu-Ray has the rare, longer version of the movie that included an entire excised tale. This story is about a couple of guys that encounter some spooky entities lurking in a graveyard after dark. Now, this film is a perfect example of 1970’s PG rated horror in that it is more creepy and fun than frightening or scary. It has its chilling moments but there is little to bother an old horror hound like me. Except…. This new story got to me. And it got me even though the method used is as simple as an old spook show or a cheesy William Castle Emergo stunt. I won’t ruin it for new viewers but there were a couple of moments that actually got under my skin and made me start checking the shadows for stalking creatures! It was so effective I was still creeped out a while later when I went to sleep. “Are those things flitting around the end of the bed? Better check.” How cool! And unexpected.

SCREAMS OF A WINTER NIGHT (1979) isn’t some undiscovered classic but it is a very well-done little movie that has a few surprises up it’s sleeve. It might get to you the way it got to me. Or it might get to you in a completely different way. That’s one of the joys of anthology films – debating which segment is best! 

Trailers From Hell - SHAFT (1971)

The great Bill Duke talks about the seminal 70's action film SHAFT as we wait for the release of the fifth (!) film in the series. 

THE DOLL SQUAD (1973)

Even though I am very much a cult movie fan there are large areas of the cult film world that over the years I have avoided for various reasons. The films of Ted V. Mikel's definitely fall into the avoided 'on purpose' area. I've had plenty of opportunities to see a number of his more notorious movies but I've almost always dodged them. I caught one of them as a Mystery Science Theater episode so I don't really consider that as a viewing. I know I caught THE CORPSE GRINDERS (1971) at some point in the past but it was from VHS on a very drunken night and my memories of it are almost nonexistent. I'd love to eventually see THE BLACK KLANSMAN (1966) because the plot just sounds amazing. So when I sat down the other night and popped in the Blu-ray of this film from 1973 I wasn't really sure what I was in for.

It turns out that THE DOLL SQUAD (1973) is a mildly competent, low budget action adventure film about a freelance team of female spies that are hired on occasion  by the American government for black ops. In this case the 'computer' (remember when just the mention of a computer somehow communicated accuracy if not perfection?) says that Sabrina Kincaid and her group are the right choice for this mission, so they are sent in to take care of a Bond villain style plot against the USA and the world. The villain is played by Michael Ansara and he seems to be having a pretty good time even though he never leaves the confines of a small house that serves as his base of evil operations. I suspect that his scenes were shot over the space of about 2 days at most. He plays the character straight but the script asks him to be the typical movie villain who over-explains his plot and then can't quite kill the hot lady in time.

Female lead Francine York as Sabrina is quite good and quite shapely. There was something familiar about her face so I was not too surprised when I looked up her list of credits to learn just how busy her career has been. She just passed away at the beginning of 2017 at the age of 80 and still has a film that hasn't come out yet!

The movie is colorful, swiftly paced and never really boring even if I feel it should be a little shorter. The meager budget often shows and Mikel's direction sometimes undercuts his darker intentions and leaves his actors hanging. The film isn't afraid to kill off it's female cast but we don't know them well enough for it to be effective. Also, the deadly serious tone just cannot be maintained for the full running time so the movie occasionally lapses into unintentional humor. These moments when Mikel's reach exceeds his grasp cause a few chuckles but they are also kind of endearing. It's heartening to see a film like this being made with little money but a lot of energy. THE DOLL SQUAD isn't very good but it is entertaining if you take it in the spirit intended. The same cannot always be said even today.  

The Fantastic Films of Vincent Price #78 - Journey Into Fear (1975)

By the 1970's most of Price's classic horror roles were behind him. He still worked regularly but it was usually in supporting roles for films with large casts. Such is the film under discussion here. Wisely the focus is instead placed on some of the more interesting projects for the small screen that Price was a part of including one very special rock show that fans of a certain age will never forget! 

DE PALMA (2016)

Because the famed Belcourt Theater in Nashville has reopened it's doors after extensive renovations I once again have the opportunity to see the occasional documentary on the big screen. Last weekend I ventured into the shiny new place to see DE PALMA (2016) because - of course - I'm a huge fan of director Brian De Palma's movies. I was excited that someone finally decided to talk at length to the man about his work and this film allows us to be a fly on the wall as they go through his entire career movie by movie. That makes for some fascinating stories as we learn De Palma's thoughts about his oeuvre as well as the motivations for specific choices. I loved getting to hear his tales and at times wished we could ask questions too so as to dig into certain themes and influences. I especially wanted more details about the days Steven Spielberg spent on the set of SCARFACE helping set up gunfights and stuntmen. That sounded like a blast!

But in the end I was left wanting more from DE PALMA than the film delivers. It is really only an extended interview and doesn't dig much deeper than it takes to illicit a bunch of cool stories about a man's career. I was hoping for a profound and multifaceted look at De Palma and his movies. As it is, this is more a fantastic DVD extra and less a complete film. I enjoyed it but I hope a better documentary comes along one day with a broader view and maybe a few of his collaborators contributing their thoughts as well. 

Brief Thoughts - SCORPIO (1973)

The other night I caught SCORPIO because I liked the look of the cast. How could I pass up a spy thriller with Burt Lancaster and Alain Delon?  Even if it stank it would interesting. Lucky for me it turned out to be excellent and one of my favorite unexpected discoveries of the year so far. Lancaster plays Cross , an aging agent of the CIA responsible for arranging the assassinations of foreign citizens that stand in the way of the United States' interests. Delon plays a French professional assassin codenamed Scorpio that Cross uses often in his plans. The film opens with the duo seeing through the removal of an Arab government official and then traveling back to Washington DC. It soon becomes clear that Cross has been marked for elimination by his own side with Scorpio is set after him with the promise of replacing his longtime mentor upon success. I won't give away any more of the film's surprises so as to encourage others to seek it out. I will court spoilers by saying it ended up reminding me quite a lot of the Robert Mitchum film from the same year THE FRIENDS OF EDDIE COYLE (1973). Overall I think I liked this film more.

Oh! I really enjoyed the casting of a number of great character actors in SCORPIO too. There are good roles for Paul Scofield, James Sikking, Gayle Hunnicutt, J. D. Cannon and two familiar faces from Star Trek as well - John Colicos as the CIA boss out for Cross' head and Joanne Linville as Cross' wife. 

Brief Thoughts - THE 'HUMAN' FACTOR (1975)

I caught up with this obscure thriller last night and was quite impressed with it. It is a well scripted, well acted, well paced revenge tale set in Italy with legendary character actor George Kennedy proving that he could anchor a film if given the right role. He plays American computer engineer John Kinsdale living with his family in Rome as he works on a NATO project involving nuclear war strategies. One evening he comes home to learn that his wife and children have been brutally murdered and the police have no idea who did it or why. After briefly contemplating suicide Kinsdale decides to use the networked NATO computer system to research what little is known about the crime scene to see if he can track down the killers.

I had no idea this movie would feature a very early version of online database research and I found it interesting that this infant form of the internet was portrayed the way it was. The scenes in which Kennedy and his co-worker played by John Mills painstakingly link up to offsite computers by phone to search records plays out like Google searches today as they gather raw information and try to make sense of it. It's a testament to the skills of the cast and crew that these potentially dry sequences are actually interesting as I watch them today. Of course, director Edward Dymtryk was an old Hollywood pro famous for films as varied as THE CAINE MUTINY (1954), MURDER MY SWEET (1944), CAPTIVE WILD WOMAN (1943) and THE YOUNG LIONS (1958) so he knew a thing or two about constructing a story for maximum success.

Sadly, this was Dymtryk's last film but I'm glad to say he went out making a film that showed him still a very capable craftsman and in control of his abilities. In a way THE 'HUMAN' FACTOR could be seen as the natural end to a career that included a jungle girl film, a Boston Blackie programmer, a Falcon mystery and an early Boris Karloff chiller. The guy nearly did it all! 

Brief Thoughts -BEAR ISLAND (1979)

A while back I watched the Alistair MacLean adaptation WHEN EIGHT BELLS TOLL (1971) and loved it. This prompted me to seek out more films crafted from MacLean novels so I watched PUPPET ON A CHAIN (1971) which was very good and BEAR ISLAND (1979) which was solid as well.

Of the two POAC is better, but I was more intrigued by BEAR ISLAND. The film has an amazing cast - Donald Sutherland, Vanessa Redgrave, Lloyd Bridges, Richard Widmark, Christopher Lee - and is set in a snowbound locale that appeals directly to my love of isolated settings. I clicked 'play' with the memory of this film being a regular offering on HBO in the early 80's but I couldn't be sure if I had ever seen it. Well, ten minutes in I was not only sure I had watched this movie before but I remembered a LOT of the plot. I remembered so much, in fact, that I recalled the solution to the mystery as well as the identity of the surprise villain! Oh well. I still enjoyed catching this one again because its a fine story with some good performances and a fun series of action scenes in the snow. The stuff done with motorized snow sleds is incredible! And I love that Sutherland is such a taciturn bastard for most the film and that we only become sympathetic to him because he is the one unraveling the reason people are turning up dead.

Much like the MacLean film adaptation BREAKHEART PASS (1975) this film feels chopped down from a longer length. There are several scenes that we seem to join when they are already in progress and edit away from before they are done. This doesn't disrupt the plot but it does make the film often feel like we should have more context for character motivations. I can recommend this to folks in the mood for a good adventure story with some nice twists. Now if it were only available on DVD!

Brief Thoughts - BREAKHEART PASS (1975)

I was in the mood for some wintery western action and noticed this solid little film was on NetFlix. Press Play! I've seen this movie a couple of times now and it holds up very well as a well paced mystery set on a train in the old west and might now qualify as Comfort Viewing for me. In fact, 'mystery set on a train in the old west' may just be the most perfect description to get me to watch any film in the world. The cast here is excellent with the often undervalued Bronson doing a great job while backed up by a fantastic cast of legendary character actors that includes Richard Crenna, Charles Durning, Ben Johnson, Ed Lauter, David Huddleston and Robert Tessier. What a lineup! My only complaint with the film is that it feels a little too trimmed down, as if there is a slightly longer and possibly better movie lurking in between the edits - but that doesn't stop me from loving what is presented.

I think this film has been overlooked, even by Bronson fans, but it is ripe for discovery now by a whole new generation of movie fans. Check it out!

The Bloody Pit #20 - ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13 (1976)

John Carpenter is easily one of my favorite filmmakers. He has made more than five movies that I hold to be of such enduring quality that I have lost count of the number of times I have watched them. Even in his weakest movies I can find lots to love and the film under discussion in this episode is NOT a weak one. ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13 was only the second feature Carpenter directed but it shows off his skill and abilities brilliantly. I could go on and on but we get into that in the show! Carpenter may never get his shot at making a western but he come pretty close with this fine effort. 

In this episode I'm joined once again by my friend John Hudson who last sat down with me to talk about Carl Kolchak. This time out we dig into this film and use it as a reason to touch on other Carpenter movies as well. I'm proud to say that we were able to stay mostly on topic so there weren't as many barely related things discussed this time out. Of course, that doesn't keep either of us from relating some very odd analogies among the actual information so you have been warned. Ad John is able to shock me with a bit of sleazy information that nearly shocks me into silence. Nearly.  

Any comments, praise, condemnation or opinions can be sent to thebloodypit@gmail.com - we welcome your input. What is you favorite John Carpenter film? 

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The Bloody Pit #17- Doc Savage, Man of Bronze!

If you’ve never read one of the Man of Bronze’s adventures this podcast can serve as an introduction to him and his world. Although the character is not very well known these days, Doc Savage has a long and storied history. Born out of the fertile imagination of the great Lester Dent in the Depression of the 1930’s he is the perfect heroic man meant to exist as a beacon of nobility for people to aspire to emulate. An adventurer and righter of wrongs with an unbreakable code of ethics, Savage was the type of pulp fiction hero that could be enjoyed by readers of any age looking for fast action and wild plots. Yes,  the violence often gets brutal in a Doc Savage novel but the bad guys will always be the ones that end up on the unfortunately placed sharp stick or at the bottom of that undiscovered deadly pit.

In this episode Doc Savage super-fan Brian Lindsey joins me for a conversation about all things Doc that ranges from the character’s background; his use of incredibly prescient gadgets; his five amazing companions; the best and worst of the novels and even the unfortunate 1975 George Pal produced film. As it appears that writer/director Shane Black is pushing to revive Doc as a film project in the near future we even speculate on who we’d like to see cast in the title role – we can be such conventional geeks! We also get into the details of the elements that make these books so much fun and pick apart some of the things that are a little questionable as well. If you’ve heard of The Shadow but never heard of Clark Savage, Jr. now is the time to let us escort you to the 86th floor of the Empire State Building and introduce you to one of the most impressive American fictional heroes of all time. I guarantee thrills and smiles aplenty!

If you want to drop us a line here at the podcast just write to thebloodypit@gmail.com and let us know what you think. Thank you very much for downloading and listening.

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DOC SAVAGE - MAN OF BRONZE (1975)- trailer

If ever there was a missed or flubbed opportunity in cinema this film is it! Such amazing potential wasted because (as so often happens) the filmmakers didn't trust the material. I still hope for a good Doc Savage film and hope that Shane Black is the guy that makes it.

Blaxploitation Poster Art

Muchas Gracias Senor Lobo

I am a reader. I cannot be without a book of some type near me even if that book is nowadays often incased in a Kindle. I mostly read a lot of fiction but when my attention turns to the non-fiction arena I tend to want to learn more information about the movies I find entertaining. That is why I've poured over Paul Naschy's autobiography several times and its been a frustration for me that there are so few other books that examine his life and works. When we started the NaschyCast podcast a couple of years ago one of the things Troy and I truly hoped would happen was that there might be a resurgence of DVD releases of his movies and, if we were really lucky, critical books examining them. As has been clear in these days of the imploding DVD industry the chances of major video releases of 'obscure' older horror films from Spain are increasingly slim. Indeed, only THE PEOPLE WHO OWN THE DARK has gotten a Region 1 release in the time since we started the show and although I am thrilled with that effort I can't help but feel that there is a market out there for more. Far more. Luckily I am not alone. 

German publishing company Creepy Images has just unleashed the first new book about Paul Naschy in years and it is amazing! Entitled MUCHAS GRACIAS SENOR LOBO the book focuses on the memorabilia of Naschy's movies. It's a showcase for the ad art done for all of his movies from 1968's THE MARK OF THE WOLFMAN (a.k.a. FRANKENSTEIN'S BLOODY TERROR) through HOWL OF THE DEVIL (1988). The fine people at Creepy Images have found poster art of every size and description, lobby cards, and press kits from seemingly every country in which these films were ever released. The company's claim about the book is " more than 1.200 pictures, including more than 170 movie posters, almost 750 lobby cards, over 100 press stills, a large part of which have never been published yet, more than 100 reproductions of admats, rare sales material that was only handed out to distribution companies and much more from more than 20 different countries." That is a huge amount of material covered and, to be honest, just flipping through the book can be a bit overwhelming! Its a nearly 400 page tome and each page has at least one eye-catching picture of some sort that begs for closer examination. Paging through it is like getting lost in a museum dedicated to the history of Paul Naschy's career and each new page brings delights I had never known I would see. The alternate poster art for VENGEANCE OF THE ZOMBIES with the title WALK OF THE DEAD? Its here. The entire lobby card set for EXORCISM under the title LE NOTTI DI SATANA? Its here. There are even behind the scenes photos of Julia Saly on the set of THE PEOPLE WHO OWN THE DARK!  Surely that has to be called working above and beyond for a book of this type.

This incredible and exhaustive look at how each movie was advertised around the world is fascinating to a Naschy fan like me but I can't help thinking it would be almost as interesting to someone with only a passing knowledge of the man or his cinema. Bright and colorful, it has a smooth layout and its chronological structure allows the reader to get lost paging through its gallery of wonderful horrors. This really is a beautiful book!

If all this book offered was a chance to look at all the great ad art of these thirty films it would be a worthy addition to any film buff's library but it has more to offer. Author Thorston Benzel has done write-ups for each movie to accompany their image collections. These text pieces are presented in both German and English and I'm thrilled to report that, unlike some dual language books, the English reads as if it were written by a native speaker. The people responsible for this fact deserve an extra special thanks. I suppose the fact that Naschy has a large fan base in the UK and US means that we are being catered to with this release and I'm certainly not going to complain.  He lays out some production history, release dates for various counties, alternate titles and tidbits of information relating to the movie's distribution. These short essays for each film are an invaluable resource for fans and makes me wish we had had access to this material when we started the podcast! Every fragment of detail adds to the enjoyment of these movies- at least for me! I cannot recommend this book enough. This the most impressed I've been with a book focused on European genre cinema since the release of Tim Lucas' book about Mario Bava. Yes- I'm that impressed.

The book can be found in several places around the web starting with Creepy Images own website HERE. It is also available from the German Amazon site HERE and in the US Diabolik DVD is selling it - you can click this LINK to check it out. I can only hope that this book heralds more Naschy books and video releases in the future. In a world in which cinema so often seems to drift away from the classic monster tales of old its nice to be able to revisit these great movies in any way we can. This book increases my enjoyment of Senor Naschy's movies and that is the highest compliment I can give.