SLEEPLESS (2001)

  I had thought that I had seen this Dario Argento movie before but I guess not since it all seemed new to me. Not bad for a bloody 2000's giallo by Argento. Definitely better than his previous film that crappy PHANTOM OF THE OPERA interpretation and more reminiscent of his earlier best stuff. You get the expected gore including a gruesome death by a musical instrument, fingers chopped off, a head rolls and lots of stabbings occur.  A hunchbacked dwarf is our main suspected killer, nursery rhymes become a major plot point and somehow Max Von Sydow agreed to be in this! While there seem to be a few plotholes(who exactly called the police at the end?) it's still an entertaining one if you're seen all of Dario's classics already. 

       Super generic trailer because it's the 2000s and everyone has lost all their creativity!:

 

Released in Italy as NONHOSONNO which sounds very Japanese to me but I'm no linguist!:

THE WEEKEND MURDERS (1970)

  Caught this as part of a giallo marathon down at the local weirdo arthouse theater yesterday. When it first started I wasn't sure if it even was a giallo since it's set and filmed in England with what are supposed to be a bunch of upper crust rich English types. Little did I know that most of the cast is comprised of Italian actors and the director was also an Italian fellow, Michele Lupo, responsible for a bunch of those old swords n' sandals movies and a personal favorite spaghetti crime flick MEAN FRANK AND CRAZY TONY. Kind of similar to his FRANK AND TONY movie this one straddles the line between comedy, with it's bumbling cop characters and seriousness, with all the murdering going on. It does seem more like a spoof of the whole giallo genre than anything else but it certainly seemed to be a crowd pleaser with all it's goofiness. Sadly it seems to be pretty obscure. 

Known in Italy as CONCERT FOR A SOLO GUN?:

ILSA: SHE WOLF OF THE SS (1974)

 THE NIGHT PORTER predates this as far a Nazisploitation films go and there were plenty of roughie and porn movies with the same Nazi theme but this is really the one that set the template for all the sleaze and sadism that was to come from this much maligned subgenre. Dyanne Thorne is amazing in the title role of a sexy. castrating, bitchy commander of a prisoner of war camp. Torture abounds, blood flows copiously in what is basically a women(and men)-in-prison movie injected with a large amount of ultra-violence. A true downbeat classic of sick-o cinema!

 There were 2 actual sequels, ILSA, THE HAREM KEEPER OF THE OIL SHIEKS and ILSA, THE TIGRESS OF SIBERIA and 1 sorta sequel, Jess Franco's WANDA THE WICKED WARDEN AKA GRETA THE MAD BUTCHER which was retitled to ILSA, THE WICKED WARDEN to make it part of the series. There was also a planned 4th movie to be called ILSA MEETS BRUCE LEE IN THE DEVIL'S TRIANGLE which was sadly never made. 

THE FEMALE EXECUTIONER (1986)

 I was initially under the impression that this was a DEATH WISH-rip-off but it's really closer to something like DIRTY HARRY since our main character, played by porn star and Jean Rollin regular Brigitte Lahaie, is a cop who doesn't play by the rules. It also kinda reminded me of a Cynthia Rothrock movie, except with way less impressive fight scenes(This does predate most of those also). A decent enough, though mostly forgettable mix of action and sleaze. There is one stand out scene with a couple of criminals dressed in some insane wardrobe(a pink motorcycle helmet and skeleton suit seem like a great Halloween costume!) for no apparent reason that I'll probably remember most of all.

 

                                         Known as MISS MAGNUM in Finland!:

BLOODLUST (1961)

  Mr. Brady himself(Robert Reed) in his first credited role in a film portrays the heroic leader of 2 couples that end up on an island where the plot to one of the most remade movies ever, THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME, is being enacted. We also get a judo chick(June Kenney), a guy dissolved alive in a bathtub full of acid and a surprising amount of black and white blood for something from the early 60s. I tend to enjoy most all of the DANGEROUS GAME clones and this one is a decent time-waster.  

                     Played on a  double-bill with one of the world's dullest Satan movies!:

THE AMAZING MR. X (1948)

  I have this movie on a DVD set of horror films but I think it fits more into the thriller category. It's hard to talk about this without spoiling it because they set it up to possibly be a supernatural film but that may or may not be true throughout. The title character is played by Turhan Bey who I recall from THE MUMMY'S TOMB and despite there being no classic Universal monster in this movie(you do get a trained pet Crow though so that's something) it is certainly a better overall film than that one. AKA THE SPIRITUALIST 

CHINATOWN KID (1977)

  Alexander Fu Sheng, who would tragically end up dying in a car accident 6 years later at the age of 28, stars here in the tale of a poor Chinese immigrant who winds up in San Francisco's Chinatown having to deal with gangsters. It's a great vehicle for him and shows his transformation from naïve youngster to becoming part of a gang himself. It's hard not to imagine that in some alternate universe the fame that came Jackie Chan's way could have been Fu Sheng's if things had worked out differently. 

 There are at least 2 different cuts of this. A 90-minute cut with a less downbeat ending and what I find is the preferable  115-minute version with a lot more of a deadly conclusion and some additional scenes of Fu Sheng being a naughty gangster. There might also be some combination of these 2 out there. 

Germany:

ORGY OF THE LIVING DEAD (1973)

  Kind of a misleading title there. No "living dead" show up until close to the end and they certainly don't have an orgy! It's alternate title of THE HANGING WOMAN is more accurate as one of those does indeed show up at one point. Paul Naschy is often touted as the star of this but he's actually in a side role as Igor the gravedigger. There are some cool elements in this but they take too long to get to the FRANKENSTEIN-influenced ending. AKA BEYOND THE LIVING DEAD

                                  Released on video as RETURN OF THE ZOMBIES:

and as ZOMBIE 3: RETURN OF THE ZOMBIES despit having nothing to do with the ZOMBIE series:

                                  Released on video in the U.K. as THE HANGING WOMEN:

and theatrically as TERROR OF THE LIVING DEAD:

Released in Australia as BRACULA: THE TERROR OF THE LIVING DEAD