THE MANSTER (1959) poster art

MATURE HORROR SHOW! 

Brief Thoughts - WHEN EIGHT BELLS TOLL (1971)

When I was a teenager I read several of Alistair MacLean's thrillers and enjoyed them quite a lot. I don't remember if I was very aware of the film adaptations of his work that had been done except tangentially because, at the time, they weren't of much interest to me. I had seen the fantastic GUNS OF NAVERONE (1962) and the amazing WHERE EAGLES DARE (1968) but until recently I didn't realize that MacLean adapted his own novel for the screen for Eagles - a task he repeated three more times over the next decade turning his books When Eight Bells Toll, Puppet On A Chain and Breakheart Pass into scripts. I haven't read a MacLean novel in years but I am becoming interested in doing so now that I have been reminded of his skill in telling well plotted, suspenseful tales. Last month I watched the excellent but (to my eyes) chopped down BREAKHEART PASS (1975) and now I have seen the remarkable film version of WHEN EIGHT BELLS TOLL and color me stunned.

Without a doubt WHEN EIGHT BELLS TOLL (1971) is one of the best and most underappreciated spy thrillers of the 1970's. The fact that this movie is not better known is a damned crime against cinema! I have never read anyone singling it out for praise or even drawing attention to it as a superior thriller and that is crazy. This is a great film ripe for discovery and deserving of consideration for a Blu-Ray release complete with serious extras. I want to hear Sir Anthony Hopkins' memories of making this film as well as Nathalie Delon's. Sadly, the wonderful Robert Morley and the great Jack Hawkings have long since passed away but several bit players are still around and active in the film industry - get them on the record about this movie! Now!

I may be the only person wishing for this film to be noticed and lauded but I honestly suspect that if more people saw it they would be impressed. It's a serious spy story with real wit and humor that doesn't treat the dangerous aspects of the story as jokes. It has the feel of the early Bond films before the degeneration into self-parody that made the Moore films so increasingly silly. Seek this one out, folks - it's an undiscovered classic.

Royal Blood - Out Of The Black music video

Thanks to Adrian over at Horrorpedia for posting about this amazing horror/science fiction/action music video from British band Royal Blood. Please be warned that there is MUCH animated gore in this clip so it may not be safe for work. Or children. Or pets. Especially rabbits. Check it out!

The Bloody Pit #21 - Movie Music Show!

Here's a short in-between episode to whet your appetite for what the rest of 2015 holds in store. I've pulled together a few pieces of interesting film music for your listening pleasure in hopes of making the current colds days seem a little less frigid. Enjoy!

1.  Danger: Diabolik Part 1 - Ennio Morricone

2.  Babylon, I'm Coming - Piero Piccioni

3.  Hercules Theme - Enzo Masetti

4.  The Saint - Cyril Stapleton

5.  Space: 1999 -  Geoff Love & his Orchestra

6.  2968 - Carlo Savina

7.  5 Dolls For an August Moon - Piero Umiliani

8.  Nell'Assolata Alhambra - Bruno Nicolai

9.  UpperSeven - Bruno Nicolai

10. Frankenstein 80 - Daniele Patucci

11. 'Salem's Lot- Henry Sukman

12. Magic And Ecstasy  - Ennio Morricone

13. A Man Called Dagger - Steve Allen

14. Supercolpu Shake - Nico Fedenco

15. Escape From New York - John Carpenter

16. Truck Turner - Isaac Hayes

17. The Criminal Gang - Franco Micalizzi

18. Take a Midnight Ride - Phil Chilton and Pete Smith

19  Il Perfetto di Ferro - Ennio Morriconne

20. Special Agent LK - Bruno Nicolai  

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Killraven Covers

I'm a big fan of this old Marvel property. It grew out of an odd adaptation of the War of the Worlds and just mutated into a crazed post-apocalyptic adventure tale. From the Wiki page- 

"Co-creator Neal Adams' early ideas for Killraven involved the character being the son of a Doc Savage archetype. This conception had been reworked by the first issue, a multiple-creator goulash in which the two originators and co-plotters turned the scripting over to another writer, and in which artist co-creator Adams penciled only the first 11 pages and Howard Chaykin the remaining nine. The second issue was fully written by the debut's scripter, Gerry Conway, followed in the third by Marv Wolfman.

After this, the book became the province of writer Don McGregor for an acclaimed run from #21 (Nov. 1973) to the final issue, #39 (Nov. 1976). Pencillers were Herb Trimpe, Rich Buckler, Gene Colan, and, most prominently, P. Craig Russell from issue #27 on.

Two of its characters, Carmilla Frost and the African American M'Shulla Scott, shared color comic books' earliest known dramatic interracial kiss, in issue #31 (July 1975), page nine, final panel." 

Star Trekking to the Planet of the Apes!

Mash-Ups of different franchises are often a bad idea. In most cases they end up not pleasing fans of the two separate properties and the end product comes out as something that is considered a failure by everyone involved. Horror fans need look no further than FREDDY VS JASON or ALIEN VS PREDATOR to see a couple of crowd dis-pleasing cinema mash-ups that were far less than the sum of their parts.

Of course, what doesn't necessarily work onscreen can sometimes be made to work on the page such as the excellent Alien vs. Predator Dark Horse comics from the 1990's that could have been the template for a better (if not great) film. Also, there have been some fascinating Friday the 13th comic book series that have incorporated elements from outside the film series to good effect including crossovers with Ash from the EVIL DEAD films. And there are a host of non-graphic novels out there that extend and add to various cinema series in creative and entertaining ways that please the hardcore fans who are the obvious target audience for these 'extended universe' stories. Hell- I'm still trying to collect the entire run of Friday the 13th novels written as sequels to my beloved JASON X!

So, it appears to me that the best way - for now - to continue to create successful mash-ups is to do it on the page and for a case to make this point I give you IDW and Boom Studios new comic book series Star Trek/Planet of the Apes. At first glance I was harrumphing at the very idea of slapping these two very different types of science fiction together. They clearly exist in extremely different universes both in subject matter and style. There seemed no way to place the original Star Trek crew in contact with the Planet of the Apes post apocalyptic world that could possible make sense. The very basis of classic Trek is an optimistic view of the future where many of the problems we think of as insurmountable have been solved. But the basic premise of POTA is that mankind was so short sighted that they couldn't keep from destroying the world. How to put these two franchises together in a way that did not compromise either one?

As a fan of both POTA and ST it was almost impossible for me to resist taking a look at the first issue. I just could not NOT look. Titled The Primate Directive almost the entire first issue focuses on Kirk and his crew as they unravel a Klingon plot that might involve violating the Organian Peace Treaty. It is this plot that in issue two pushes the Enterprise into contact with Taylor just days after the conclusion of the classic 1968 POTA film and puts Kirk and the stranded astronaut at odds over the use of force. Fascinating! This is - so far - a well written and carefully thought out meshing of these two very different universes. Color me shocked. And put me in line for the third issue as well. This is fun stuff!

Happy Valentine's Day from the Super Heroes!

Happy Valentine's Day, folks!