Orson Welles vs. Edward G. Robinson in “The Stranger” (1946)

Edward G Robinson (Soylent Green) releases Konstantin Shayne from prison so he can inadvertently lead Robinson to a former Nazi officer now living in America under a different identity. The former Nazi is played by Orson Welles (Touch of Evil), who’s posing as a college professor and has married Mary (Loretta Young), the daughter of a prominent judge in town, played by Phillip Merivale (Mr. and Mrs. SMith). Richard Long (House on Haunted Hill) also shows up as Mary’s brother Noah. Continue reading »

Grindhouse Experience

Years ago, before everything became so sanitized, the grindhouse was a place where the theater would literally grind out one film after another. Usually the quality of these films were lacking, with titles and posters which were far better than the movies themselves. Interest in grindhouse theaters and the films they’d show has picked up over the last two years after the release of Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino’s double feature Planet Terror and Death Proof. DVD companies are releasing related boxsets left and right, such as the one I’m reviewing today, Fortune 5 DVD’s 20 film set, Grindhouse Experience. Continue reading »

The Fog (1980)

As the people of Antonio Bay prepare to celebrate the town’s centennial anniversary, a preacher (Hal Holbrook-Creep Show) learns the awful truth about what really happened 100 years earlier. This is very convenient since we need someone to explain why there are a bunch of dead pirates murdering all of director John Carpenter’s buddies under a shroud of……..yep, fog! Bwhahahahaha! Continue reading »

The 36th Chamber of Shaolin

This is a review of the film in Mandarin with English subtitles.

Suffering an injury while escaping a hostile invasion of his village, Gordon Liu (Heroes of the East) seeks refuge in the Shaolin Temple. Eventually he becomes a student there and masters the thirty five chambers before returning to his village to seek revenge. I hate spoilers, so I won’t get into why the film is titled The 36th Chamber of Shaolin when there are only thirty five chambers, but they do explain it. It sound simple but there is so much more to this excellent film from the Shaw Brothers, who knew how to do Kung Fu movies better than anyone. Continue reading »

Godzilla: Final Wars

I’m rarely at a loss for words, but honestly, where does one begin? After a brief intro where Godzilla is frozen in the ice at the South Pole, we learn the human race have put aside their differences to ward off attacks by giant monsters. There is also a new race of mutants who are fighting alongside mankind. A conscience laden mutant escorts a hot biologist while she studies a recently discovered, mummified monster. Suddendly several creatures from the Toho cannon start attacking cities at once, until an alien race called Xilians zap them all away and promise peace along the cosmos. But guess what? They lie! Continue reading »

Death Dream

One evening a families dinner is interrupted with news of their son Andy’s death in Vietnam. Andy’s mother refuses to believe it, and sits up that night calling for him to come home. Miraculously he does, but with something far worse than shellshock. Andy truly did die in ‘Nam, and now needs blood to keep his corpse from rotting. Continue reading »

An Overlooked Holiday Classic

If you’ve grown tired of spending the season watching the same old holiday specials then I have the answer for you. The 1964 gem I’m speaking of was shamefully ignored during that year’s awards season, and is still woefully forgotten to this day. My people, allow me to present to you… Continue reading »

Double Shot of Blaxploitation

I thought this week we’d take a trip back to 1973 and check out a double shot of Blaxploitation with Black Caesar and it’s sequel Hell up in Harlem. Continue reading »

Companeros

“Fate brought them together…Greed made them inseparable…Violence made them COMPANEROS!”

About three years ago I bought a compilation cd of various film scores by composer Ennio Morricone. At the time I knew his work mainly from the films of Sergio Leone, but the song which caught my attention was a fast paced, upbeat theme from a film I’d never heard of, Companeros. I never thought the film itself could live up to what I’d imagined from the theme song, but when Blue Underground re-released the dvd seven months later, I was anything but disappointed. Continue reading »

Mario Bava’s Black Sunday (aka The Mask of Satan)

“You mustn’t be afraid of the dead. They sleep very soundly.” Two centuries after being executed for witchcraft, a princess and her prince return from the grave to gain vengeance on the descendants of their accusers. Continue reading »