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A mad journey into the mind of the depraved!

A mad journey into the mind of the depraved!
Recommended for devolved primates only!

Tuesday, November 27, 2018

BOYS OF THE CITY (1940)


 This one is only the 2nd East Side Kids movie out of 22. The weird thing, to me, about this one is it doesn't have Huntz Hall in it(I guess he hadn't become a regular member of the gang yet). Despite this it's still a pretty decent episode that takes our gang out of their normal stomping grounds and throws them in a creepy old, potentially haunted, mansion upstate. There's murder, a weird old witchy lady and lots of wandering around in the dark. Huntz woulda made it better but don't worry because we basically get that movie the very next year with SPOOKS RUN WILD and then again with GHOST ON THE LOOSE three years later which kinda makes this one a minor, forgettable footnote.
 Another footnote about this one is that it may be the only one of these films that's actually a direct sequel bringing back the Knuckles Dolan character from the first EAST SIDE KIDS movie. AKA THE GHOST CREEPS

The whole whopping East Side Kids series!:

1. EAST SIDE KIDS (1940)
2. BOYS OF THE CITY (1940)
3. THAT GANG OF MINE (1940)
4. PRIDE OF THE BOWERY (1940)
5. FLYING WILD (1941)
6. BOWERY BLITZKRIEG (1941)
7. SPOOKS RUN WILD (1941)
8. MR. WISE GUY (1942)
9. LET'S GET TOUGH! (1942)
10. SMART ALECKS (1942)
11. 'NEATH BROOKLYN BRIDGE (1942)
12. KID DYNAMITE (1943)
13. CLANCY STREET BOYS (1943)
14. GHOSTS ON THE LOOSE (1943)
15. MR. MUGGS STEPS OUT (1943)
16. MILLION DOLLAR KID (1944)
17. FOLLOW THE LEADER (1944)
18. BLOCK BUSTERS (1944)
19. BOWERY CHAMPS (1944)
20. DOCKS OF NEW YORK (1945)
21. MR. MUGGS RIDES AGAIN (1945)
22. COME OUT FIGHTING (1945)


Sunday, November 25, 2018

SMART ALECKS (1942)



 10th movie(out of 22!) in the East Side Kids series. This time the kids(who are actually pretty old to be called "kids") tangle with some tough guy gangsters. They tend to do this a lot, which can be a little confusing when trying to recall which movies you've seen of theirs. This one stands out because one of the kids, Danny(Bobby Jordan), gets his ass kicked so bad that he ends up almost dying which is kind of heavy for one of these light-hearted comedic romps. The power of prayer helps him out though, which is a bit more religious than these movies usually get. Fairly generic stuff but if you're a fan of the antics of Leo Gorcey and Huntz Hall(who come off as real dicks for the first half of the movie and even rob one of their pals at one point) you know what to expect. AKA THE EAST SIDE KIDS IN SMART ALECKS



Saturday, November 24, 2018

'NEATH BROOKLYN BRIDGE (1942)



 The 11th film in the East Side Kids series. This time the kids get involved with some gangsters and wrongfully charged with murder. It's hard to say much about this movie because it's a pretty generic and predictable film but I suppose you know what you're in for and that makes for some comfortable junk food for the eyes for fans of old-timey comedy/crime capers. There is a gal involved who has to cross-dress in an attempt to disguise herself as one of the gang(Such progressivism!). One thing that I do find slightly annoying is that the title seems to be missing the word "the" but I guess people spoke differently back in the 40s.


Friday, November 23, 2018

THE INCREDIBLE MELTING MAN (1977)



 This one is a childhood favorite from memorable late-night TV-showings back in the day. Of course on those viewings I missed out on some of the gore and the one pair of boobs that shows up. The film is kind of a remake of that 50s monster movie THE HIDEOUS SUN DEMON except now we have really gooey fx work by Rick Baker and a monster(actually an astronaut that's returned from a trip to Saturn that's suffering from some pretty catastrophic side-effects but also super-strength) that bites peoples throats out to drink their blood and tear them apart just because he's really pissed-off about the whole melting thing. 70s monster movies that seem like they escaped from the 50s(like OCTAMAN for example) are certainly one of my favorite wacky genres but this may have more to do with nostalgia than any actual fine qualities the films possess but if you were a monster kid they're definitely worth a look.






Japanese VHS!:



Saturday, November 17, 2018

COMMANDOS (1968)



 Lee Van Cleef is the main attraction here and he really acts the hell out of this role of a tough-ass sergeant who, along with a group of fellow commandos, goes undercover in Italy on a secret mission. This is an Italian/German co-production which, when we consider that those two countries were not exactly the heroes in this tale, is a bit strange. Then again I suppose it makes about as much sense as Italians romanticizing the American old-west which, of course, was a major idea in tons of films in this same decade(many also starring Mr. Van Cleef!). Overall this one is an o.k. Euro-warsploitation flick that moves along at a pretty snappy pace and has plenty of action to keep things interesting enough. There is one thing that perturbs me about this movie and that's one scene where Mr. Lee explains to his commanding officer how difficult it is to kill a man and then in almost the very next scene we see people getting stuck with knives and instantly falling over dead in a very Hollywood-style of dying. Besides that though this one is worth a look if war films are your bag.
 Of interest to horror devotees, Dario Argento was one of the 5 writers on this thing(which seems like an awful lot of writers for a fairly simple story) and while there's certainly a lot of killing going on nothing is very horror-like.





Thursday, November 15, 2018

THE LADIES CLUB (1986)


 This one reminded me of the 70s rape/revenge epic RAPE SQUAD but where that one was a total exploitation classic about a group of ladies seeking revenge by kung-fuing the crap out of their attackers this one, possibly because it was based on a book, plays out more along the lines of one of those Lifetime TV-movies for women that were popular back in the day and exchanges 70s kung-fu chicks for a group of suburban mom-types. They take that old idea of "every rapist should have his balls cut off" and put it into action by enlisting the aid of a lady doctor to do just that after they drug and capture some racist scumbag(the first victim of this is played by that kill-crazy chubby dude from DON'T ANSWER THE PHONE(Nicholas Worth) in another fitting role).  While it does get super-dramatic at times, as you would expect, it's still a pretty decent 80s update(complete with punk rocker bad guys) of the sleazy rape/revenge genre. AKA VIOLATED and THE SISTERHOOD(which is also the name of the novel it's based on)








Sunday, November 11, 2018

SALT IN THE WOUND (1969)


 Klaus Kinski is the main draw in this Italian World War II action flick as a dirty rapey soldier who gets sent to his death by a firing squad until an unexpected attack by some German soldiers gives him a chance to redeem himself. An alternate title for this one is THE DIRTY TWO and that gives you the basic idea as Klaus along with a fellow black prisoner(Ray Saunders) end up reluctantly teamed-up with a scaredy-pants lieutenant played by George Hilton. Hilton normally played the more heroic star of spaghetti-westerns at this time so this is a bit of a departure for him. An o.k. war film that gets a bit predictable but does a good job in fleshing-out it's three main characters for dramatic purposes.
AKA WAR FEVER, BADGE OF COURAGE and THE LIBERATORS

                                             Action-packed trailer!:









WILD BEASTS (1984)



 This one plays pretty much like a slasher movie except instead of some homicidal nutjob doing all the killing you get a bunch of wild zoo animals imbued with maniacal fury thanks to some pcp-infused water running amuck. Directed by Franco Prosperi, best known for doing MONDO CANE as well as a few other infamous mondo-type films, this one is full of "how the hell did they film that?"-scenes. A tiger runs around a subway, a cheetah chases a Volkswagon bug around the city streets, a polar bear attacks some kids in a school amongst other insane spectacles. I'm guessing much of the budget went towards buying animal tranquilizers. Sadly it looks like many animals were not treated well as is often the case with these older European films so if you're a hardcore animal lover this might not be a good choice of viewing material. The gore on display is fairly excessive including an elephant stomping a lady's head, rats eating some people alive and that old standby- the seeing eye dog killing his master(done already in SUSPIRIA and THE BEYOND before this). A strange combination of animals-gone-crazy mixed with bloody Euro-slasher. AKA SAVAGE BEASTS


 

                                                                            Fiery!:


Saturday, November 10, 2018

CHALLENGE OF THE TIGER (1980)



 This is one of the wackier kung-fu flicks I've seen in a while. It also seems to have a bit of a bigger budget since it appears to have been filmed in Asia and Spain with a few caucasian stars thrown in for variety. Directed by, produced by and starring, Bruce Lee imitator Bruce Le, the plot deals with a couple of C.I.A. agents(Le and Richard Harrison) having to obtain some secret formula to make males infertile from evil neo-Nazi mobsters. Harrison does a James Bond shtick and lets Mr. Le do most of the actual fighting. More importantly than this though is that he directed the insane slo-mo topless tennis-playing scene that is really the stand-out part of this film that you will remember after after this else has faded from your memory. Bolo Yeung shows up for a little bit as part of another rival gang. I almost thought my long-standing wish of seeing Bolo play a heroic role would happen when he gets double-crossed by his no-good boss but this is sadly cut short. You do get to see Mr. Bolo go up against a white dude(Brad Harris, a former HERCULES star amongst other things) who actually has bigger arms than him which is a very rare occurrence. Le is fine as the heroic star(he gets to toe-to-toe with a rampaging bull, some guys on motorbikes, the aforementioned big-armed hulking white fellow and a whole slew of chopsockey-fodder) but I think I'm still in the Bruce Li camp as my personal fav Lee-rip-off actor. The real star of this thing though is all the ample nudity on display. You're pretty much guaranteed to see every female that shows up in the buff at some point which is quite a departure from your standard Hong Kong fu flick. True exploitation for the discerning palate. AKA SEIZE THE FORMULA and GYMKATA KILLER
 According to IMDB an alternate title for this in Bolivia is ZOMBI 7-11: ENTER THE ZOMBIE which makes no fucking sense at all!



Released as GYMKATA KILLER on video to cash-in on the popularity of GYMKATA at the time:


English spelling is apparently not very important on Egyptian posters!(also that bottom left drawing looks like Don Knotts in drag which is a bit disturbing!):


Monday, November 5, 2018

PARANOIAC (1963)


 This is a weird Hammer horror flick that seems more like an Alfred Hitchcock film with it's twisty-turny mystery plot and characters that are never quite what they seem to be. There are a couple of genuinely creepy bits, including a very disturbing mask, though the majority feels more like a family drama. Oliver Reed plays a fairly unlikeable spoiled rich alcoholic type and he seems custom made for this role. I'm not sure if hardcore Hammer fans would like this one but I found it to be a pretty solid offbeat watch.



                      THE HALLUCINATORY WORLD OF ASHBY?? Spanish poster:


Fancy French spelling!:


Vampiric double-feature!:





Sunday, November 4, 2018

THE EVIL OF FRANKENSTEIN (1964)


 The 3rd movie in Hammer studio's FRANKENSTEIN series(though that doesn't really matter since it's not really a sequel to any of the previous entries and just retells Frankenstein's origin). Strange that they called this one THE EVIL OF FRANKENSTEIN since Dr. Frank isn't particularly evil here and is shown being treated like crap right from the beginning. He also gets taken advantage of by a drunken hypnotist, fellow with the awesome name of Zoltan(Peter Woodthorpe), who uses the creature(British Pro-wrestler Kiwi Kingston) for his own nefarious purposes. It's all a pretty by-the-numbers film. The monster looks like a crappy version of the Universal Karloff design, a deaf-mute gal who looks like Bjork becomes his only friend and the monster's downfall, humorously,  has to do with him very quickly becoming a raging alcoholic. Peter Cushing does his usual great acting as the obsessed doctor but I can see why Christopher Lee wouldn't have been interested in being in this.


The whole Hammer FRANKENSTEIN series:

1. THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1957)
2. THE REVENGE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1958)
3. THE EVIL OF FRANKENSTEIN (1964)
4. FRANKENSTEIN CREATED WOMAN (1967)
5. FRANKENSTEIN MUST BE DESTROYED (1969)
6. THE HORROR OF FRANKENSTEIN (1970)
7. FRANKENSTEIN AND THE MONSTER FROM HELL (1974)

                                                   Extremely square-headed creature!:



Known in Italy as THE REVOLT OF FRANKENSTEIN:






Hammer double-feature shock show with NIGHTMARE!:



Saturday, November 3, 2018

ANONIMO MORTAL (1972)



 The DVD I have of this uses the way cooler title of SANTO VS. THE NAZIS and that pretty much sums up the plot here. This Santo flick, the 42nd out of a whopping 52 films, plays more like a detective story than an action film for the most part and it is filled with a lot of talky-talk scenes which may lead to drowsiness. Still when we finally get some lucha-libre action(with terribly generic wrestler names like The Nazi and The Pollack) and the big showdown between Santo and these evil Nazis it does make for a campy worthwhile watch. Maybe if the Nazis had built some kinda killer robot or monster it woulda been a bit better.

For all the Spanish-speaking Santo fans!:




                                                   Sadly mundane(and swastika-free) VHS cover: