Video - COBRA MISSION (1986)

COBRA MISSION (a.k.a. Operation Nam) is the subject of the next episode of Wild, Wild Podcast. We're covering the film because it features Donald Pleasence for a few minutes. Seriously, he is in the movie for less than ten minutes and everything he does was probably shot in a single day. But you still might want to watch this rip-off of UNCOMMON VALOR (1983) for what it has to offer which is plenty of explosions. 

Kolchak, The Night Stalker Collectable Figures!

Those madmen at Wandering Planet are at it again with a new Kickstarter for a Kolchak action figure! It's 1/12 scale with 22 points of articulation and sports a variety of accessories. They are also doing a figure of the vampire Janos Skorzeny and a two-pack of them together! 

Check it out at this LINK.

 

Video - ATTACK OF THE ROBOTS (1966) Trailer

Here is the French language trailer for this Jess Franco Euro-Spy film. It is not one of his most beloved films from the 1960's but I love it and I have a few friends that enjoy it as well. Beyond Naschy podcast episode on the way soon! 

Poster Art for ATTACK OF THE ROBOTS (1966)

 

Dario Argento's INFERNO (1980) Poster Art

 

The Bloody Pit #229 - BLACK DRAGONS (1942)

David Annandale and I walk back down Poverty Row just after the attack on Pearl Harbor to watch one of the most confusing and strange attempts at wartime propaganda a low budget studio could produce. BLACK DRAGONS (1942) has Bela Lugosi as a mysterious, menacing man who seems to be on a mission of revenge. But what does he have to do with the corpses that keep popping up on the steps of the Japanese embassy in Washington? Will FBI agent Clayton Moore be able to figure things out or will he spend his time chasing Joan Barclay around her uncle/father’s house until all the characters are dead? And how does David find a way to link Christopher Nolan and Bela Lugosi? Listen and learn!

 

BLACK DRAGONS is probably the oddest of the nine films Lugosi made for Poverty Row film producers and certainly the one with the most unintentionally funny dialog. Just as it was about to go into production the decision was made to shoehorn in topical plot elements ripped from the headlines. This means that the original reason behind events in the script has been lost leaving bits of their probable supernatural nature flapping around in the film. This is the only explanation I can imagine for the never addressed ability of Lugosi’s Monsieur Colomb to seemingly teleport in and out of moving taxicabs! But David has an interesting take on the film as a bizarre treatise on the subject of ‘acting’ both onscreen and within the structure of the story. His idea is a bold way to look at the picture as a whole and certainly makes it more entertaining as you try to figure out what the hell is happening at any point in the film’s hourlong running time. Rarely has such a barely planned collection of quirks and gaffs been so mesmerizing!

 

If you have any comments about this movie or any other film we’ve covered on the show thebloodypit@gmail.com is the place to send them. Thank you for listening and we’ll be back soon. 

Video - BLACK DRAGONS (1942)

If you have never seen this mad Poverty Row horror-espionage-mystery film then here it is on YouTube! This bizarre movie is the subject of the next episode of The Bloody Pit with David Annandale and I trying to figure out not just what is happening, but what it might mean. Like a message beamed from a different universe BLACK DRAGONS has always seemed like a film reassembled from fragments left over after a fire. It isn't coherent but it is fascinating!