WICKED, WICKED (1973) trailer

I'd been curious to see this for a couple of years and now that I've seen it I have to say it is an interesting exercise in cinema. It’s not particularly well written, the acting is uneven and the two songs presented are oddly.... off. I normally wouldn't comment on a couple of songs in a film that really has nothing to do with music but when the singing can't seem to stay on the rhythm of the song and folks are pretending its great I get amused. Also, throughout the movie an old lady madly plays organ music from The Phantom of the Opera for no discernable reason.

Of course, the stunt here – Duo-Vision- is simply a split screen with two separate but possibly connected images playing simultaneously. It works pretty well strangely enough and adds some flavor to a fairly bland stew. The film really needed to sleaze things up a bit because, as it stands, it could play on TV with very little trimming. I love the film's location which is the same amazing California hotel featured in THE STUNT MAN. This is worth seeing for anyone curious about attempts to do something slightly different in cinema. Its not great but its far from a bad time regardless of the hystrically funny comments left on the film's IMDb page. That guy needs to stop watching movies made after 1955 or adjust his meds.

DEAD SNOW (2008) trailer

In the vien of EVIL DEAD 2 and Peter Jackson's BRAINDEAD this Norwegian horror/comedy is a real blast of gorey fun. Well worth checking out.

They had me with the simple phrase 'Nazi Zombies'!

DOC SAVAGE (1975) comes to DVD

Some of you will be interested to know that Warner Bros. has set up a shop online selling a bunch of DVDs of previously unreleased movies. Among the eclectic list are some damned good titles and even more I really want to see but have never had the chance. The one that I'm most happy to see is the sadly flawed DOC SAVAGE: MAN OF BRONZE (1975) even if the price tag is far too high for a disc with no extras of any type listed. I'm just not willing to lay out $20 for many movies these days.

Here's a list of everything WB is offering this way-

Abdication, The
Abe Lincoln in Illinois
Actress, The
Adventures of Huck Finn, The (1939)
Adventures of Mark Twain, The
Ah, Wilderness!
Al Capone
All Fall Down
Along the Great Divide
Angel Baby
Baby Maker, The
Bamboo Blonde, The
Barricade
Beast of the City, The
Beggar's Opera, The
Betrayed
Bhowani Junction
Big Circus
Big House, The
Brainstorm (1965)
Cain And Mabel
Canyon River
Captain Nemo and the Underwater City
Captain Sinbad
Carbine Williams
Cattletown
Chained
Church Mouse, The
Citadel, The
Close To My Heart
Command, The
Condor El
Convicts Four
Countdown
Crescendo
Crime & Punishment
Crisis (1950)
Crowded Sky, The
D.I., The
Dance, Fools, Dance
Darby's Rangers
Defector, The
Devil is a Sissy, The
Distant Trumpet, A
Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze
Dream Lover
Dream of Kings, A
Dream Wife
Drums of Africa
Dude Goes West, The
Dusty And Sweets Mcgee
Edison the Man
Emma
Enemy of the People, An
Exit Smiling
Forsaking All Others
Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, The (1962)
George Raft Story, The
Goodbye, My Fancy
Grasshopper, The
H.M. Pulham, Esquire
Heart Beat
Homecoming
Honky Tonk
I Was A Communist For FBI (I really want to see this one!)
I Was an American Spy
Ice Follies of 1939
Idiot's Delight
Interrupted Melody
Invitation, The
John Loves Mary
Just The Way You Are
Kaleidoscope
Kidnapped
King Of The Roaring 20s
Kiss, The
Laughing Sinners
Lepke
Lion In the Streets, A
Little Drummer Girl, The
Lost Boundaries
Love (1927)
Love on the Run
Made In Paris
Magnificent Yankee, The
Malaya
Man From Galveston
Man From God'S Country
Man Who Loved Cat Dancing, The
Mannequin (1937)
Mating Game, The
Men in White
Money Trap, The
Moonlighters, The
Mr. Lucky (1943)
Mrs. Parkington
My Blood Runs Cold
Oklahoman, The
On Borrowed Time
Once upon a Honeymoon
One on One
One Trick Pony
Orphans
Outlaw Blues
Oxford Blues
Painting the Clouds with Sunshine
Payment on Demand
Possessed (1931)
Private Lives
Promises in the Dark
Purple Hearts
Quentin Durward (1955)
Rage
Rain People, The
Rasputin and the Empress
Red Lily, The
Red Mill, The
Room For One More
Scaramouche (1923)
Scaramouche
Sergeant, The
Shining Hour, The
Shopworn Angel, The
Single Standard, The
Sins of Rachel Cade
Smart Set, The
So This Is Love
Somewhere I'll Find You
Souls For Sale
Spring Fever
Strange Interlude
Sunrise at Campobello
Sweet November (1968)
Temptress, The
They Only Kill Their Masters
This Woman Is Dangerous
Three Comrades
Three Sailors & a Girl
Toast of New York, The
Too Hot to Handle (1938)
Trail of '98, The
Voices
We Were Dancing
Westbound (1959)
When Ladies Meet
Wichita
Wild Orchids
Wisdom
Yes, Giorgio
Young Tom Edison


Here's a link straight to the DOC DVD.

If anyone bites on this I'd love to hear if the DVD is worth it and if there might be any bonus material the site just doesn't let us know about. At least it's supposed to be enhanced for widescreen TVs.

More movies I want to see

I have no idea what is even going on in this image but with Lee Van Cleef as the star it is a must view. Is that one gun being swung around really fast or what?

Another one where the cast compels me to see the film. Say it like Max von Sydow! "DARK OF THE SUN compels you!"

Alerted by this post by Richard Harland Smith about this film's similarities to NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD I added it to the old NetFlix cue. I should get to check it out in the next week or so with luck.

RICCO, THE MEAN MACHINE (1973)

Ricco is not really a mean machine. Indeed for most of the film I wanted to slap him just to see if he’d react!

Lead thespian Chris Mitchum seems to have inherited his dad’s eyes and chin but none of his expressive acting ability. If ever an actor could be described as a wooden old Chris is the one. It doesn’t help that he sports one of the worst hair styles a guy could wear from the period. It’s not actually long, its not actually short- its as if he is trying to look like Davy Jones of the Monkees and that is just not macho, buddy.

But- besides having a near blank at its center (which is hardly unknown in the action genre) the film really cooks. It’s not very well paced and it suffers from some odd turns but overall it gets the job done- kind of like Ricco himself I guess. Director Tulio Demicheli keeps things interesting in the standard exploitation way by interjecting an action scene or some nudity as frequently as possible. Taking its genre cues from DEATHWISH and its imitators it has Mitchum as the son of a murdered man who was involved with organized crime. On release from prison everyone expects him to tear into the people who took over his dad’s business but he has no interest. He’s a pretty ‘live & let live’ kind of guy- or he is until he’s pushed over the edge.

RICCO is not a great movie but I loved its downbeat ending, the fact that Riccos’ past love is a gold digging slut, the heavy use of bloody squibs, the wussy little car Ricco drives around, Arthur Kennedy’s mild scenery chewing as the main villain, the double crosses from supposed friends and the copious nudity. Oh my god – the nudity! I could watch Barbara Bouchet writhe nude on the hood of a car for hours and although RICCO only has a couple of minutes of this activity there is always the rewind button. My only wish for that scene to make it slightly better would have been to have her press her bare nipples against the windshield. When the guys inside the car turned off the wipers I thought that was where we were going, but sadly not. That woman must have been at the height of her beauty at this point but if she got better looking after this I’d be afraid to see it. I might just explode.

But as arousing as her scenes were I think a certain part of my body may have suffered near terminal sympathetic pain from the knife-on-genital-violence later on. Wow! I’d heard about it but nothing really prepares you for seeing that. If you have any concerns about seeing some damned realistic violence of the castration type I’d steer clear. Its nightmare material, I assure you.

Naschy comics coming soon!

Several months ago I read about the series of graphic novels -- OK, OK- comic books based on the horror films of Spain's Paul Naschy over on the great site The Mark Of Naschy. The only thing that tempered my enthusiastic, fist pumping joy was that they were in Spanish. I would occasionally look at the beautiful sample pages on the web and weep quiet tears that I am sadly monolingual. Why, oh why didn't I learn Spanish in school? Why did I waste so much time in French classes when there are no horror movie stars from that country? What a fool I was. For shame.

But today I was informed of a wonderful thing.......



Fangoria will be bringing these comics to America in full translated treatments!
Hallelujah! My life again has meaning and light! Soon- for that is as specific as the announcement on their website is- they will publish them and I can revel in the expanded Werewolf madness that only the crazed mind of Paul Naschy can cobble together.

I can hardly wait!

Poor Lex needs a bailout

"Lex Luthor Bailout" with Jon Hamm - watch more funny videos

Poster art for movies I want to watch

Even is this film stinks the dynamic poster design will make me see it. That is just amazing.


I know very little about this obscure 1957 horror movie but it just screams "Watch me!" in a way I cannot resist.

OSS 117: CAIRO, NEST OF SPIES (2006) trailer

I caught this fantastic film last night and was blown away. I hope there are sequels, I really do. Funny, thrilling and smart in a way that American spoofs just cannot seem to manage anymore.

Saturday Morning Watchmen

In a way, this contains spoilers for the story of the film but I don't care. This just continues the mad advance promo stuff generated for WATCHMEN. Not sure if I'll see the movie this weekend but I'll see it soon. Very soon.

What I watched in February

SAVAGE GUNS (1971)- 3 (poor spaghetti western)
ON DANGEROUS GROUND (1952)- 8 (amazing noir/romance mix) (rewatch)
KING KONG (1976)- 5 (so much wrong- so much fun- cheesy madness)
RED SUN (1971)- 5 (not bad but not good- Bronson, Mifune and Delon deserved better)
PLANET OF THE APES (1968)- 10 (rewatch)
ADIOS, SABATA (1970)- 8 (great spaghetti with Yul Brenner)
THE MAN WHO WOULDN’T DIE (1942)- 6 (fun Michael Shayne mystery)
FUTURAMA: BENDER’S GAME (2008)- 8
THE WITCH (1966)- 7
CONQUEST OF THE PLANET OF THE APES (1972)- 7 (unrated/pre-release version)
A DRAGONFLY FOR EACH CORPSE (1974)- 3 (silly, silly Naschy giallo but Erica Blanc is mucho lovely)
OUTLANDER (2009)- 7 (well done Viking/alien/monster film- if you know what I mean)
MY BLOODY VALENTINE (1981)- 6 (uncut DVD- my first viewing)
EYE OF THE DEVIL (a.k.a. 13) (1966)- 8
NIGHTMARE IN BLOOD (1978)- 6 (low budget, tongue in cheek throwback to classic horror films- fun if not great)
DR. GIGGLES (1992)- 2 (well photographed crap)
RICCO THE MEAN MACHINE (1973)- 6 (sleazy crime film)
AND GOD SAID TO CAIN….(1970)- 6 (fascinating spaghetti western)
FRIDAY THE 13TH (2009)- 2 (how can a slasher film be this damned boring?)
SHE-WOLVES OF THE WASTELAND (1987)- 1 (poorly directed, low budget post apocalyptic crap)
NO PLACE TO HIDE (1981)- 6 (TV movie from Jimmy Sangster and John Llewelyn Moxley)
FREDDY VS. JASON (2003)- 4 (rewatch) (bad, but fun/bad)
HIS NAME WAS JASON (2008)- 7 (Friday the 13th documentary)
THE MAGUS (1968)- 6 (not satisfying but fascinating)
DAMNATION ALLEY (1977)- 3 (weak post apocalyptic tale- I need to read the source novel)
EYEBALL (1975) – 8 (excellent giallo)

And odd month to say the least. Two of the five original Planet of the Apes films; a couple of Friday the 13th movies; two post apocalyptic movies; a lot of EuroTrash; and the best alien & viking vs. monster movie ever! Or would that be the only alien & viking vs. monster movie ever?