Happy New Year 2024!

National Park Monster Posters

If there had been a checklist of these creatures available when I was a kid I would have begged my parents to visit more of these parks on vacations. If you want to see the entire gallery for future reference the full set of images are HERE.

Dinky Space: 1999 Toys

 

Have a Merry Tarzan Christmas!

Video - The He-Man & She-Ra Christmas Special

I don't know why I get a kick out of this Christmas special from 1985. I have never been a fan of the animated show in any incarnation and I find the misbegotten live action film from 1987 to be one of the worst cinematic experiences of my life (even though I've grown to enjoy watching it for all the things that should have worked). But this bizarre 45 minutes of stumbling around entertains me in the same way that footage of a poorly managed college stage production can. It's dumb but kind of soothing because you know its going to end in a sappy holiday themed way and no one will even come close to being hurt. But, much like the Flintstone Christmas stories, you have to wonder just how in the universe this season has a foothold in Eternia. 

More Weird Vintage Christmas Cards

With dead drunk birds and simply dead frogs, these are some strange holiday images.

 

Video - 8 Hours of Vintage Department Store Christmas Music

I have memories from my childhood that kick in when I hear this kind of Christmas tune mix. I get a nostalgic wave of warmth and mental image flashes of wandering around K-Mart-like stores and staring in wonder at the things I would beg Santa to bring me. 

NaschyCast #73 - Blu-Ray Round Up!

The Naschycast returns for a brief overview of the Paul Naschy Blu-Rays that are currently available in Region A. Troy and I decided to record this show to give our North American listeners an indication of the wealth of high-definition offerings still on retail shelves – as long as you search the right retailers! Consider this also a warning that these wonderful discs don’t stay available forever and, in many cases, when they’re gone they are gone for good.

We tried and failed to do a chronological rundown of the Blu-Rays that have come out over the last eight years or so with nods toward some blank spots in Naschy’s career we’d like to see filled with HD glory. The individual companies that have been releasing these Spanish horror classics have been doing us all a good service and let’s hope the releases continue past next year’s long awaited DR. JEKYLL AND THE WOLF MAN!

If you have any comments naschycast@gmail.com is the place to send them. We hope that you have had a good 2023 and that 2024 will be even better! Thank you for listening.

The Bloody Pit #186 - A CHRISTMAS HORROR STORY (2015)

December brings our annual Holiday Horror episode! John Hudson and Troy Guinn join me to discuss the anthology film A CHRISTMAS HORROR STORY (2015).

We keep the conversation almost completely spoiler free with only a few third act details being alluded to as we go along. We talk about the possibility that Shatner might have ad-libbed some of his dialog as DJ Dangerous Dan and marvel at his ability to bend a syllable. Each of us picks our favorite of the stories presented and Troy points to some paths he thought the narrative might take that were skipped past. The darkly humorous nature of elements of the film are discussed with attention to how the laughs add to the entertainment level. We also bring up a couple of other recently seen Christmas horror movies as examples of our annual desire to see more of this subgenre. Toshi the cat visits us to rub up against the microphone and disrupt our trains of thought, such as they are. And the show ends with a brief tale about Mr. Hudson having been recognized as a recently published Cinema Sewer interviewer. Cool stuff!

We hope everyone has a Happy Holiday season and if you have any comments about the show thebloodypit@gmail.com is the place to send them. Stay safe and hug your loved ones. Thank you for listening.

What I Watched in November 2023

The List 

THE CREATOR (2023) – 8 (not completely original but very well-done science fiction)

SAMOA, QUEEN OF THE JUNGLE (1968) – 6 (rewatch)

WALK A CROOKED MILE (1948) – 8 (excellent crime film set in San Francisco)

WALK EAST ON BEACON! (1952) – 6 (good but uninvolving FBI search for commies)

POSSESSOR (2020) – 8 (rewatch)

PUSHOVER (1954) – 8 (excellent crime noir)

A BULLET IS WAITING (1954) – 6 (color noir with a rural setting)

CHICAGO SYNDICATE (1955) – 7 (mob infiltration noir – great characters)

THE LOCKET (1946) – 7 (portrait of a kleptomaniac)

THE BROTHERS RICO (1957) – 8 (the inevitability of things in the world of crime)

OFF BALANCE (a.k.a. Phantom of Death) – 6 (Deodato thriller should have been shorter)

THE KILLER THAT STALKED NEW YORK (1950) – 6 (combination of noir crime and pandemic tale)

BABYLON 5: THE ROAD HOME (2023) – 8 (animated continuation of the story)

RENFIELD (2023) – 7 (comedic take on Dracula in modern New Orleans – OOT fun)

TWO OF A KIND (1951) – 7 (solid noirish crime tale)

THE KILLER (2023) – 8 (sharp, stylish assassin drama)

MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE (1986) – 4 (rewatch on Blu) (even worse than I remembered – just incompetent)

BAD FOR EACH OTHER (1953) – 8 (dark doctor drama with Charlton Heston)

THE MARVELS (2023) – 7 (we needed more time with the villain and the family – but fun)

QUEEN BEE (1955) – 7 (Louisiana set noir with Joan Crawford)

THE GLASS WALL (1953) – 5 (drama about a European immigrant desperate to live in the US)

APPOINTMENT WITH A SHADOW (1957) – 7 (well done ‘alcoholic newspaperman solves crime’ tale)

THE STREET WITH NO NAME (1948) – 8 (noir with Widmark as a crime boss)

THE DEVIL PLAYS (1931) – 5 (OK whodunit)

WHEN EVIL LURKS (2023) – 9 (rewatch)

BROOKLYN 45 (2023) – 8 (rewatch)

TEN LITTLE INDIANS (1965) – 7

711 OCEAN DRIVE (1950) – 7 (noir rags to riches to Boulder Dam story)

THANKSGIVING (2023) – 6 (Roth inches one across the line)

THE MOB (1951) – 7 (cop Broderick Crawford goes undercover)

AFFAIR IN TRINIDAD (1952) – 7 (Rita Hayworth as a widow turned spy)

TIGHT SPOT (1955) – 7 (Ginger Rogers as a prisoner asked to turn state’s evidence)

THE GLASS KEY (1942) – 8 (rewatch on Blu)

THE WESTLAND CASE (1937) – 6 (the first Bill Crane detective film)

DEAD RECKONING (1947) – 7 (Bogart noir mystery)

13 GHOSTS (1960) – 7 (rewatch on Blu)

TARZANA, THE WILD WOMAN (1969) – 6

SALTBURN (2023) - 8 (blistering class war tale viewed as a personal journey)

KNOCK ON ANY DOOR (1949) – 6 (Bogart as a defense lawyer trying to save a suspected killer)

THE GIANT GILA MONSTER (1959) – 7 (rewatch on Blu)

FIGHTING FRONTIER (1943) – 6 (fun B-western with Tim Holt in good form)

MILDRED PIERCE (1945) – 9 (excellent noir melodrama with Crawford and Blyth acting their faces off!)

REPTILE (2023) – 8 (murder mystery that leads to larger crimes)

TOKYO JOE (1949) – 6 (Bogart in a crime noir that mostly fumbles a good idea) 

 

Weird Vintage Christmas Cards

From what I can tell, Christmas cards used to be very strange. And Melty the Snowman will haunt my evenings for the rest of Winter.

Noir-vember! - A Partial Report

After thinking about it for a few years I finally gave in and spent the month of November watching almost exclusively film noirs – Noirvember! I felt that it was time to really dig into the genre and see a lot of examples of it that I had never caught before. The final count for the month was 23 ‘new to me’ film noir or noir adjacent movies and it was a delightful experience. I enjoyed nearly every one of these movies and it showed me that just watching the more famous titles had given me a shallow sense of the genre. I’m very glad I did this!

 

One reason I set out to do this month-long watch was to justify owning several amazing Indicator box sets of film noirs and I used them as the centerpiece of my viewing plan. Several of the movies were unexpected standouts with some interesting, smart twists embedded in their crime tales. It wasn't too surprising that MILDRED PIERCE (1945) was one of the best, turning out to be a true classic. I’m embarrassed that it took me until 2023 to finally see this bitter, involving melodrama. It's easy to see why the film is so well regarded as it is so well acted and directed that it is a joy to follow the tragedy to its dark conclusion. I’ll admit was surprised to see Bruce Bennett holding his own against the mighty Joan Crawford as I still mostly picture him as Tarzan, but the entire cast is exceptional. 

 

WALK A CROOKED MILE from 1948 is an excellent crime film set in San Francisco with some good on location shooting to add to the feeling of verisimilitude. The story is a fairly standard post World War II anti-communist crime story but it is well made and incredibly engrossing as we follow a British and American cop team untangle a foreign spy network. I found this to be a standout and was surprised that it's not talked about more among fans of the genre.

PUSHOVER (1954) was almost as great even though it starts off in a way that made me think it was going to be a rehash of Fred McMurray’s previous classic in the genre DOUBLE INDEMNITY (1944). I found it to be at least as good as that film if not better simply by virtue of it having a few tricks up its sleeve that I wasn't expecting. Watching McMurray’s cop character go through the paces of endearing himself and starting a relationship with Kim Novak's character just so that he can keep tabs on her as in an attempt to arrest her long-term boyfriend is absolutely fantastic. The surprises, and the way the film structures its story is clever and seeing McMurray make his choice to step on to the criminal side of the street is an entertaining ride. This is another unsung and less talked about example of the genre that truly impressed me.

I also really enjoyed AFFAIR IN TRINIDAD (1952) with Rita Hayworth as a widow-turned spy trying to do in some nasty criminal types doing mysterious bad things. Yes, the film plays like an obvious variation on Hitchcock's NOTORIOUS (1946) but it is still a good film with a great performance from Hayworth and getting to see her sing and dance is a nice bonus. 

THE BROTHERS RICO (1957) is a film that I'd heard about for years mainly because it has been championed for decades by Martin Scorsese as one of his favorite examples of the genre. I have to agree that it is an exceptional film although it would be a hard rewatch simply because the story is so much about the inevitability of criminal acts leading to destruction. There are these little threads of hope that get extinguished one by one as the story goes on until, by the end, the main character realizes that choices made years before had inevitable end points that he could do nothing to change. The film is a compelling watch but also pretty dark even with its slightly upbeat final scene. 

I also checked out APPOINTMENT WITH A SHADOW (1957) which is a well done ‘alcoholic newspaper man solves crime’ tale. The film focuses on George Nader's playing an alcoholic reporter who has boozed his way into losing job after job after job. Near the end of his rope, he's given one last chance by a woman who loves him and her cop brother to be on the scene of a very big arrest. The story follows him as he attempts to get through a day prepping himself to be in place to witness things, write it up and to use this scoop as a stepping stone to get his job back, possibly changing his life. It's very effective and becomes a tense, unpredictable exercise as the arrest goes wrong and the newspaper man realizes that he's might have the biggest story that he'll ever have in his career - but only he can make anyone believe what he knows to be true. This is one heck of a film and I was shocked that I had not heard of before. And I caught it on YouTube of all places! 

TIGHT SPOT from 1955 has Ginger Rogers turning in an excellent performance as a prisoner asked to turn States evidence in a case that could paint a bullseye on her back. This is a film that was clearly based on a stage play and therefore has all of the sharp dialogue and interesting characterizations that you would expect from something that had to survive in front of a live audience over and over again. Rogers is fantastic, really digging into the many character shades the script gives her and becoming a multifaceted person in our eyes as the story moves into unexpected areas. With Brian Keith and Edward G. Robinson as well this is an excellent small-scale story with impressive emotional heft.

More Christmas Comic Book Covers!