J.D.'S REVENGE (1976)

 Watching this blaxploitation classic in 2018 the one thing that stood out to me the most is when our main character confides in his best friend about how he beat the crap out of his girlfriend and his buddy tells him that she will come back to him because sometimes women just need to be smacked around a bit. Talk about different times! The main focus here is not about abusing women though it's about this law student(Glynn Turman) who gets possessed by a vengeful spirit who seeks revenge on a young-ish Louis Gossett(before he started calling himself Jr. I guess) and his brother. It fits into the blaxploitation, revenge and horror genres which makes for an interesting mix. I've seen some reviews put down the acting in this but I thought it was all done surprisingly well especially the lead role which has our protagonist convincingly turn from a sweet young man to a raging razor-wielding asshole sometimes within the same scene. An interesting entry in 70s black cinema which, to me, the only downfall was the soundtrack being fairly bland.


                                                   "A mean double-bill!":

BLACK EMANUELLE NO 2 (1976)

 I've never seen the first BLACK EMANUELLE movie, which starred Laura Gemser, but it doesn't seem to really matter much since this doesn't seem like a real sequel. Also they switch Black Emanuelle's on us here and give us someone with the unruly name of Shulamith Lasri(crowned in the English version with the notably more Americanized name of Sharon Lesley) in the title role. This would turn out to be Miss Lasri's only film role and while she does seem more black than Gemser I'm a loyal fan of the real Black Emanuelle and find her much more entertaining to watch. This movie is a weird softcore sex flick. Weird mostly because it focuses on Emanuelle's mental problems that stem from her brother's murder and her near rape and not so much on anything all that sexy. There is one fellow who likes to hang anchors off his erect schlong to show off which I found amusing. Apart from that and lots of bare breasts, including the lovely blonde giallo-regular Dagmar Lassander, there's lots of psychological mumbo-jumbo and a plot that doesn't seem to ever go anywhere up until the very end. It does have an amusingly wonky soundtrack but it's probably safe to skip this one and stick with the original Gemser BLACK EMANUELLE sex epics for more titillating thrills. AKA THE NEW BLACK EMANUELLE

Dubbed version which strangely enough has a couple of extra sex scenes not in the Italian print:

 

CLEOPATRA JONES (1973)

 I coulda sworn I'd seen this one before somewhere over the years but after giving it a watch last night I realized I had only ever seen the sequel, CLEOPATRA JONES AND THE CASINO OF GOLD, numerous times before. This one is a bit of an improvement as it seems to have a bigger budget and while we don't have Mr. Roper(Norman Fell) here, as in Part 2, we do get a whole slew of other big-name stars including Huggy Bear(Antonio Fargas),  Dr. Black(Bernie Casey), Mama Evans from GOOD TIMES(Esther Rolle) and of course Cleopatra's arch-nemesis Shelley Winters as the evil drug lord Mommy. With a script written by THE MACK(Max Julien) himself it's a pretty simple action-filled blaxploitation spectacle where  drug-pushers, pimps and racist cops are punished equally by our extra-tall martial-arts proficient hero. Also while chopsockeying bad-guys she makes some similar sounds as BLACK BELT JONES so perhaps they were related. Tamara Dobson as Miss Jones cuts a sorta strange figure for a believeable ass-kicking character. I mean she's definitely got the height advantage on almost everyone but she seems more like a groovy model(what with the changing of her ultra-fashionable wardrobe almost every scene) than someone who's been in many brawls, but what do I know? The only other questionable thing is the PG-rating which seems to keep things from getting very raunchy and keeping it firmly in the mainstream sensibility of the times. This was popular enough though to enough folks that the sequel(produced by one of the Shaw Brothers!) was released 2 years later. Also it has a pretty sweet soundtrack as is usually the case with any blaxploitation from this era.



                                     Known in France as DYNAMITE JONES!:

HEY GOOD LOOKIN' (1982)

 This is a Ralph Bakshi directed and animated film that I knew nothing about until finding it the other day on an old VHS tape. Being a big fan of Baski's 70s output I had some high expectations going in. Sadly they weren't all met. Not to say that this is terrible, the animation, as usual, is top-notch and quite trippy and the idea of the film is cool. The main problem for me was the music used. Even though the film is set in the 50s everytime some tune from the soundtrack played the audience is abruptly reminded that the film was made in the 80s and that's a bit jarring. Also the story is kind of a mess with some pretty appealing characters that are hard to latch onto. Even our cool Fonzie-like hero turns out to be a cowardly wuss by the end. While this may be some deep comment on the nature of humanity it doesn't exactly make for a compelling viewing experience. I suppose this one is for Bakshi-completists only or people that don;t mind their fake 50s cartoons being extra fake.
 The history of the making of this film seems more interesting than the final product. Apparently it was started way back in 1974 as a mix of live-action and animation. That version, which allegedly included some footage of The New York Dolls performing, was completed in the late 70s but Warner Bros. didn't care for it and made Bakshi go back and animate all the live-action parts which took him up to '82 to finish. The original live-action mix doesn't seem to exist anymore which is a shame since it seems like it would at least have been interesting to check out as some kinda proto-WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT? but made for adults.


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THE BEING (1983)

 I know I had seen this tale of a melty, radioactive, ALIEN-esque creature at least once before but I'll be damned if I could remember any of it even while re-watching it recently. That is a bit weird because it has such a crazy hodge-podge of a cast including Martin Landau as a scientist, Jose Ferrer as the mayor and disgruntled alcoholic husband of Ruth Buzzi(from 60s T.V.'s LAUGH-IN), The Unknown Comic without his mask on and fellow comedian Kinky Friedman as bumbling Idaho-hicks. Also it's directed by Jackie Kong whose other big film BLOOD DINER I have an irrational love for. In this one, despite there being a handful of comedy pros that appear, there's nothing very comedic that happens. This is not necessarily a bad thing since, god knows, there are more than enough silly 80s attempts at horror movies(for example every NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET movie). What you do get is  a pretty straight-ahead monster-on-the-loose epic where a young boy gets his head ripped off, some drive-in patrons get snatched and offed by our one eyed mutated freak who can seemingly melt and reassemble himself when the situation calls for it and a backstory that I wasn't too clear on concerning a ladies(old-timey actress Dorothy Malone) little boy becoming the monster. While this isn't the worst I can't help but think this needs a couple of those insane wacky touches that Kong put into BLOOD DINER to make this one stand-out more from the rest of the more standard 80s creature features. AKA EASTER SUNDAY, FREAK, BEAUTY AND THE BEAST and THE POTTSVILLE HORROR

COP KILLERS (1973)

 I'd never heard of this one until a friend introduced me to it recently and it's rapidly become one of my new favorites. It's a pretty simple plot concerning two drug-dealing no-goodniks who run afoul of the law and fulfill the promise of the title. The plot is not the main attraction here though, at least not to me, I found the oddball touches way more interesting. First off our duo runs into a seemingly retarded ice-cream man in one of the strangest cinematic moments I've viewed in a while, then shoot there way through the rest of the movie bickering and picking up some female companionship along the way. Finally it all ends up in a weirdo hippie drug-dealers house where cocaine and threesomes are flowing. The most surprising thing to me about the film is that it's a grimy 70s experience full of degenerates where no actual rapes happen. Women are not treated very nice anyway though and it does come close at times but that was something that definitely stood out. The other big surprise is the amount of blood that flows. For an early 70s action/thriller movie it's quite heavy on the red sauce(makeup fx by a young Rick Raker obviously account for this). Overall I'd call this a great downer 70s flick that's worth checking out for fans of LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT and films of that ilk.

THE MIGHTY GORGA (1969)

 Bottom of the barrell, cheapjack KING KONG rip-off. Not only do we get a giant gorilla(which is just a guy in a gorilla suit that might be one of the worst gorilla suits ever, complete with bugged out eyes that don't blink or move at all and would seem more at home on a dollar store toy!)
 but also a giant tyrannosaurus-rex(which is a guy in a very crappy dinosaur suit that I think in certain shots is actually just a dollar store toy!). So we do get some giant monster fighting with some not very special-FX. There is an actual stop-motion sea-serpent monster that shows up briefly towards the end that I was a little shocked to see(apparently this footage was taken from an earlier swords n' sandals flick called GOLIATH AND THE DRAGON). In between the monster "action" there's some pretty dull jungle frolicking. You would be way better off watching THE MIGHT PEKING MAN than this for KONG-inspired goodness. AKA ATTACK OF THE DEATH MONSTERS
 The T-Rex costume was recycled for ONE MILLION AC/DC which is a prehistoric/sexploitation mash-up.

In Mexico he was an invincible gorilla!:

On a Texas double-feature with one of the first bigfoot movies!:

This looks like it was a fun double-bill goofy monster-party!:

Triple-feature with a Lon Chaney/John Carradine anthology film(AKA GALLERY OF HORROR) and SPIDER BABY under an alternate title:

GRAVEYARD SHIFT (1987)

 Not to be confused with the Stephen King adaptation that would come out a couple of years later this film has nothing to do with King and deals with a vampire cab-driver who bites occasional female passengers. Apparently they have to be either suicidal, dying from some unnamed disease or otherwise near death for him to put the bite on them. While this film does have a lot of nudity and sexual situations going for it, thanks to the romantic/sexy bloodsucker-vibe going on, that's kinda all it really has as it becomes quite a drudge in the way it was shot. Everything seems to take forever in between one sexy neck-biting to the next. It's also filmed in a super stylized way that may have seemed more impressive back in the MTV-influenced 80s but now just seems super dated and unnecessary but if you dig very 80s hunky vamps I guess give it a chance or just go watch THE LOST BOYS instead. AKA CENTRAL PARK DRIFTER(which is kind of a stupid name since this was filmed in Canada and Central Park is in New York but I guess Toronto has parks also)



Known in France as CENTRAL PARK DRIVER:

 

THE CURSE OF THE WEREWOLF (1961)

 While Hammer studios' HORROR OF DRACULA and THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN were great and kicked off the resurgence in monster movies in the late 50s my personal favorite is this Oliver Reed-starring wolfman saga. The reinvention of the whole werewolf mythos(based on a 1930s novel) is pretty refreshing and Reed does a great job with imbuing the suffering monster with some expected pathos. While the transformation scenes are nothing amazing and were done better in the 30s the monster itself is pretty impressive-looking.  The whole film also has a great fairy-tale-feeling to it and with the always amazing setpieces that Hammer used really stands out as a special classic horror film. While I wouldn't put this above the Chaney WOLFMAN it's a pretty close second and one of my favorites form Hammer studios line of monster films.



                                                          French poster!:

Italian poster!(except for the U.S. it looks like they tried to hide what the monster looked like):

                                 On a double-bill with a Hammer film I've never seen:

                                            Inspiration for some great artwork!:

RED WOLF (1995)

 Apparently this is a Hong Kong rip-off of the 1992 Steven Seagal film UNDER SIEGE about terrorists on a boat. Not being a big Seagal fan and having never seen any of his big films I'll have to assume that's the case. That being said this seemed fresh enough to me for an all-out action-fest kung fu flick. Star Kenny Ho pretty much spends the whole film kicking multi-racial terrorist ass with the help of the stylish direction of Yuen Woo-Ping who goes way back to the 60s and has done stunt work/coordination for about a billion classic martial-arts extravaganzas. Leading lady Christy Chung, while not as great with the fighting skills, plays a sympathetic enough part as the bad girl trying to do the right thing and she even gets to put on a blonde wig and mock Madonna in a delightful scene. There's some clunky dialogue, especially in the dubbed version, but I think this is a good one to watch just for the excellent fighting if that's your bag.

                                                                  Action!:



A loving tribute!: https://www.instagram.com/p/BfA9AKfFTWa/

WILD GUITAR (1962)

 The great kewpie doll-faced Arch Hall Jr. was in only 6 movies back in the 60s and this is his first starring role. While his fleeting stardom was due to his dad, Arch Hall Sr., being the producer on these films I feel he still had enough talent, especially when compared to more modern so-called actors, to get by. In this one young Arch plays a naive hick named Bud Eagle who travels to Hollywood to make it as a singing star. He hooks up with an unscrupulous record producer, played by Arch Sr., who exploits our not-very worldly hero. Where does the line between reality and movie-fantasy storytelling blur together? Well allegedly Arch Jr. wasn't all that interested in being a big Hollywood star and was pushed into that role by pops so it's hard not to feel that at least some of this movie wasn't totally acting and that's what makes it an interesting watch. Also just on the surface, even if you don't care at all about any of the back-story, the movie is a pretty breezy, quick-moving tale about the dangers of the star-system with some cool 60s tunes and a love story thrown in to move things along. Director Ray Dennis Steckler turns in his usual ominous performance under his Cash Flagg pseudonym as the record company's tough-guy enforcer and he was nice enough to throw in his Lemon Grove Kids(Steckler's version/rip-off of The Bowery Boys) for some stupid comedy scenes. They would return in his goofy-ass LEMON GROVE KIDS MEET THE MONSTERS and Arch would be back in his greatest film THE SADIST. While Arch's films are remembered now as being classic bad movies they have some great clunky 60s charm to them.

Twist Fever!:

TWO ORPHAN VAMPIRES (1997)

 I coulda sworn I'd seen this movie before. I even mentioned it when writing about director Jean Rollin's vaguely similar CAGED VIRGINS way back in 2012 where I stated that this was a better version of one of his vampire flicks. Well I was clearly thinking about something else because after watching this last night I have no recollection of an earlier viewing and sadly this turned out to actually be a way worse example of his bloodsucking-chick opuses. I will give the film some points for having a few unique points for making our titular vamps blind during the day and it does get deeply philosophical about life from time to time in a pretentious art-flick-kind of way. Unfortunately it never ascends to anything other than a clunky journey of two sad murderous gals which is something I may have appreciated more in my goth youth. The dubbing also does not help in conveying anything serious. There are some pretty unintentionally silly dialogue bits by a werewolf-lady character, a corpse-eating lady ghoul, an older winged vampire lady and pretty much everyone that shows up including 70s porn star and Rollins regular Brigette Lahaie in a brief appearance. I can't help but think that if Jess Franco had made this it would have been wall-to-wall sex scenes with a large helping of lesbianism thrown in which are all things that this film sorely lacks. In fact the nudity here is solely confined to one brief flash and a little blood-being licked off our orphans naked bodies and the rest is all maudlin navel-gazing.
 I do own a few more later-period Rollins movies on DVD to get through which I am dreading a bit since clearly his high-points lay in his 70s and 80s output.

THE CAPTURE OF BIGFOOT (1979)

 I've been watching a few bigfoot flicks lately and this one is a pretty entertainingly silly one. Chock full of the usual folky music of the 70s that these almost always have it also doesn't shy away from showing us the bigfeet monsters(who in this case are actually more abominable snowmen since the whole thing takes place in the snow-covered wildlands of Wisconsin) which is nice. There's a kid bigfoot and a mama(or is it papa?) bigfoot who may or may not turn out to just be misunderstood snow people by the end of the film. George "Buck" Flowers plays his usual bearded mountain-man-looking character and Bill Rebane directs with a style that seems like it woulda fit better in a 50s monster movie than something from the 70s but it does lend everything a simplistic charm. Coulda used some more blood and guts though. AKA THE LEGEND OF BIGFOOT

VHS horror!: