CaressofSteel75 Reviews

The Torture Chamber of Dr. Sadism (1967)

Good Gothic Horror

[6/10 · 27 May 2024]

The Torture Chamber of Doctor Sadism is a pretty watchable entry in 1960s horror. The English title seems shocking in itself, and it's a fairly intense movie for 1967.

Christopher Lee starts it off as Count Regula, who is brutally executed by quartering after murdering a dozen women. Years later, Lex Barker, a member of the aristocracy, is summoned to an old castle to find out his true identity. (without giving away too much, he's a man who does not know who is family was or where he's even from). Along the way he picks up a baroness, her servant and a thief who's masquerading as a priest.

The secret they uncover at the castle involves Dr. Regula's undead servant who is attempting to bring his master back to life to complete his revenge for his execution decades earlier.

There are a lot of vivid and eerie images in this one, including the woods leading to the castle that are full of bodies being hanged from trees and trees sprouting human limbs. The castle itself is a diabolical torture chamber full of snake pits, death by pendulum and even the iron maiden.

Even though he was well known as Tarzan, I initially thought this role was a real departure for Lex Barker, but if you look through his credits you'll find that he did a number of strange B movie shockers over his career, including several in Germany and Italy.

Karin Dor who also popped up in You Only Live Twice is good as the female lead. Much of her work in her career was in Germany.

I'm sure that a lot of people thought this movie was pushing the envelope in 1967, and the vivid color in this made for some memorable images. I think this movie should be leveled up somewhat. It's as good as a lot of the Hammer features from that era.

Civil War (2024)

Even More Pointless than Most Wars

[5/10 · 25 May 2024]

As the post WWII era of America draws to its inevitable conclusion, I often hear the question: "Do you think there will be a civil war here?" My answer to that is always the same- "who is going to fight that war, and what will they be fighting over?" Civil War doesn't have answers for either of those questions but is still able to concoct a nationwide conflict seen through the eyes of war photographers who try to ride through the carnage in order to document the event and hopefully interview a mysterious three term President before his is deposed by the equally mysterious western forces, an unlikely military alliance between California and Texas.

The pointless direction of this movie leaves a lot of people cold, as it well should. This is not The Killing Fields, but the typical American action adventure where no expense is spared on the battle scenes, but virtually everything else is ignored.

There are a couple of worthwhile encounters- a store clerk in a quiet town is able to completely ignore what's going on outside and thinks it may all be for the best. That single scene actually does say something about us. The final attack on the White House seems well played, with outgunned Secret Service fighting to the last to protect the President. You'll also get a couple of scenes that demonstrate the potential viciousness of average Americans. That seems real.

But what's it all about? We find out that the President and his followers, and presumably our government, are collapsing in the approach of well armed western forces. They also make it clear that no quarter is going to be given during the final battle in Washington DC. Why would you do such a thing? The movie ends with our three termer getting it in the chest. Why? We didn't even do that to Saddam Hussein. With more facts, maybe we could believe that it was justified, but we have no such facts in this movie. So, did a good thing happen there, or a bad thing? We just don't know. That fact that he gets capped by a black, female soldier also means something, but we don't know exactly what. The movie ends there, fading into black and white photograph like Night of the Living Dead without any postscript to tie it all together or give us even a hint as to what the USA is like after these events.

Perhaps this movie is supposed to be an exercise in some kind of chic, postmodern ambiguity, but it's not a good enough film for that, and I wouldn't put up with a high minded film critic talking down to us and saying "This is art, and you just don't get it, man." Yeah, the President looks a little like orange man, but who knows. That doesn't really make sense either. What is probably true here is that the filmmakers, like many Americans, fear the truth and will do anything to avoid being confronted by it

Now that this one is done, we could use an intelligent, detailed version of this type of conflict, perhaps something that emulates a better movie like Seven Days in May.

The First Purge (2018)

Just a Hollywood Dumpster Fire

[1/10 · 2 January 2024]

The First Purge does nothing except lead you down a two hour road of racial exploitation and violence that's stripped of any real film merit, leaving you with nothing but a screen filled with darkness and anger.

This is the story of the first purge- a social experiment commissioned by the New Founding Fathers of America. (You don't have to be Einstein to figure out who they represent). Staten Island is chosen as the site of a one night free-for-all where the laws are repealed, and people are encouraged to release their anger in a night of violent rage.

The filmmakers either couldn't or wouldn't summon any of the vibe present in better movies of this type. See: Escape From New York, Assault on Precinct 13, the Warriors, etc. John Carpenter is nowhere to be found in this thing. Even racial exploitation has been done better. Take a look at Three the Hard Way from 1974.

Since this movie can't make the jump into that world of better, more stylistic and well-conceived movies, it becomes impossible to sell this and whatever message it's trying to make. The absurdity of the premise is revealed, and all you're left with is an ugly, angry movie.

Hard pass on this one.

Leave the World Behind (2023)

Why?

[6/10 · 19 December 2023]

It's not a terrible movie. It's a well produced piece put together by some people who clearly have some inside dope on what a future cyber attack on the USA might look like. This is not surprising at all since Barack Obama's fingerprints are all over this as an executive producer.

A family heads out to secluded Long Island for a quick vacation and soon find themselves trapped there as a cyber attack of unknown proportions begins to take place in America. Pretty soon the owner of the estate arrives with his daughter, and they have to shack up together to figure out what comes next.

They build a lot of tension in this with some eerie music and some shots that might remind you of Hitchcock or M. Night Shyamalan, but as many have mentioned, the ending leaves something to be desired. Did they purposely leave things unresolved for a sequel? If they did, they've got a lot of loose ends to tie up. The noise, the bike tracks, the shed, & the weird animal behavior are all left without any decent explanation.

As to why- its not hard to figure out why this picture was made. The question is why Barack Obama decided to be the executive producer. This film does have an opening title sequence with pictures of guns and a rap tune with the lyrics "I'm ready for war." The rest of it deals with an ongoing attack where Americans are presumably being injured or killed. I'm not sure if this is an appropriate film for a former American president to be involved in, unless he's trying to tell us something.

Army of the Dead (2021)

Not Much Here

[5/10 · 19 December 2023]

Despite the reports that this movie wasn't any good, I went into this with an open mind and some moderately high hopes considering how well Zak Snyder had done with his remake of Dawn of the Dead.

It's not a sequel to Dawn of the Dead. It's a casino heist movie with zombies, so the best you can call it is sloppy seconds. Las Vegas is overrun by the undead, and Dave Bautista and his assembled team are hired to go into the zombie controlled no man's land to crack a safe and bring back millions before the site gets cauterized with a nuke.

Bautista cuts an imposing physical presence on screen but lacks all the other attributes that made Arnold Schwarzenegger excel in action movies. They could've gotten more out of Jesse Ventura if they needed a wrestler for this. Considering it's a Vegas bank heist movie, I would have even preferred Sammy Davis Jr.

You get some non-standard zombie action in this one too. In addition to the usual mindless meat eaters, there's also a race of intelligent zombies with the zombie king and queen even engaging in some zombie romance. We actually didn't need that.

The overall cast was the most depressing thing about this movie. It's got the typical postomodern team of mercenaries, but these people are so lacking in personality that you won't really care what happens to them. The thing is so cliched you already know who's going to make it out and who won't. Honestly, we did this better in the 1940s war movies where the platoon always had a Ward Bond type as the sergeant, Harry Caray as the blond kid and that wise cracking Italian kid from Brooklyn. It's been 75 years since those types of movies, and we still can't improve on those characterizations?

Terror by Night (1946)

The Star of Rhodesia

[7/10 · 15 August 2023]

Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson protect the coveted Star of Rhodesia diamond while on a train to Scotland. Along the way they discover that Colonel Sebastian Moran, a criminal colleague of the infamous Professor Moriarty is attempting to steal it.

It's a tight and compact adventure, running just over an hour, but that's enough time to play out a good story with good performances all around. Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce always put on the best portayal of Holmes and Watson. If you grew up with these movies like I did, it seems that the roles were absolutely made for them.

There's a good supporting cast with Skelton Knaggs and Harry Cording on board in ominous villain roles. You don't see these on TV as often as you used to, but they're available in DVD and other formats for your home collection when you need them.

House of Dracula (1945)

Decent Ending to Universal's Horror Cycle

[7/10 · 15 August 2023]

House of Dracula marked the end of the Universal Studios horror cycle with the only reprise coming in comedy form in 1948 with Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein. Even though it's not one of the greats by any stretch, It's a decent end piece to years of exciting and historic horror films by Hollywood's premier horror studio.

The best stories of Dracula and Frankenstein had been told years earlier, and by 1945 not much was left of the genre except the monster mashup films of the wartime years. They were all fun but clearly walking down the ladder to B movie horror every year. House of Dracula had some good elements that raised it up a notch over its contemporaries. John Carradine does a good interpretation of Dracula in disguise as the stately Baron Latos who seeks help from Dr. Adleman (Onslow Stevens) hoping to break his vampire curse. Coincidences abound in this one, however. Shortly after Baron Latos arrives, Lon Chaney as Lawrence Talbot randomly walks in the front door of the doctor's estate seeking an end to his werewolf curse. After trying to end it all by jumping off a cliff over the sea, Talbot and the doctor suddenly find the Frankenstein monster buried in the mud in the caverns beneath the doctor's estate. Dr. Adleman then operates on Talbot in an attempt to cure his lycanthropy.

While Baron Latos seems genuine in wanting to be free of vampirism, He's unable to resist his vampire nature and tries to lure the lovely nurse Miliza (Martha O'Driscoll) into joining him in the land of the undead. This is an intriguing part of the movie. At one point Latos implores Miliza to forsake the cross and follow him. He tries again and tells her to cast away the cross. The battle between God and the devil is always implicit in this type of horror but usually not stated openly.

Baron Latos poisons Dr. Adleman with his own vampire blood during a transfusion, turning the doctor into a murderous fiend, but not before Adleman destroys Baron Latos in his coffin at dawn.

The monster has very little to do here and finally just goes down in flames in the burning mansion.

We do get what seems to be a final resolution to the wolf man, Lawrence Talbot. Dr. Adleman's operation proves to be a success, and they end the series with Larry Talbot finally free of werewolfism after all those years.

It's a little uneven with some of the corner cutting they employed to move the plot along, but it's well filmed and it's got some good portrayals as noted. Martha O'Driscoll and Jane Adams were also very good as the dedicated nurses, as was Onslow Stevens as the good doctor.

The Shadow (1994)

Who Knows What Evil Lurks in the Hearts of Men?

[7/10 · 3 August 2023]

This version of The Shadow is kind of an outlier in the comic book superhero genre. It came out well after some corny 1970s DC stuff like Wonder Woman and Captain Marvel but well before the explosion of the Marvel multiverse, so it seems stuck in between eras as a semi-forgotten oldie.

The Shadow is better than a lot of its reviews. It's got a great art-deco 1930s feel to it, and definitely captures what The Shadow was always about- a mystic hero who was truly a dark knight kind of character. (Pick up some Shadow comics from the 1970s, and you'll see what I mean).

It's got good heroes, good villains, and the plot of a descendant of Gengis Khan trying to compel a scientist to create a nuclear bomb fits in well with the whole concept and time period.

The movie world greeted this movie with kind of a half-hearted shrug. It's probably true that the Shadow's best days were in the past during that golden age of radio. The Shadow radio show is probably the definitive version of this character, but this film captures the spirit of that very well.

Thunder Road (1958)

Moonrunners vs. the Feds

[7/10 · 20 July 2023]

Robert Mitchum conceived and wrote this tale of mountain moonshiners pitting themselves against rival gangsters and the ever present G men who are seeking to strangle off the centuries old trade in untaxed whisky.

This movie was shot near Asheville North Carolina which, if you've ever lived there, is known as the heart of mountain moonshine country. Mitchum is the main focus as a moon runner who tries to outwit the feds and the gang trying to move in on their action. This is a B movie hot rodder all the way with a few good car chases and a rockabilly soundtrack, all built around the presence of Robert Mitchum. His presence is what distinguishes Thunder Road from the rest of the hot rod/gang movies of the era. Although it's not a great movie, it's easy to see why this one has become a cult classic in some circles.

The question I always have is why Mitchum got so strongly behind this. In addition to starring and writing the script, he also wrote one of the soundtrack tunes.

The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942)

Not One of the Greats, But Still Worth It

[7/10 · 7 July 2023]

Lon Chaney Jr. Stars as the monster, but Bela Lugosi steals the show in his second movie as the sinister Ygor. Sir Cedric Hardwicke stars as Ludwig Frankenstein who gets blackmailed into transferring a new brain into the monster's body.

Dr. Frankenstein intends to make the best of the situation by transferring the brain of the good Dr. Kettering into the monster. Dr. Kettering had been murdered by the monster earlier in the movie, but late in the game, Frankenstein's assistant, Dr. Boehmer, played by Lionel Atwill, pulls the ol' brain-switch trick, and Dr. Frankenstein unknowingly puts the brain of the evil Ygor into the body of the monster.

It's fair to say that the best ideas for Frankenstein and his monster creation had been wrung out in the first three films, so even though this movie is well made and sports a good cast, you can feel this one moving down the ladder to B list horror material.

As I mentioned at the outset, Bela Lugosi is the one who really stands out in this film. Ygor was probably his most over-the-top character, and he got to play him in two films. Like Son of Frankenstein, he is manipulative and purely evil, the true villain of the movie. Cedric Hardwicke is actually not bad in this, probably on par with Basil Rathbone. Evelyn Ankers pops up in this as well along with Dwight Frye and Harry Cording in small parts.

The Howling (1981)

Werewolf Classic

[8/10 · 7 July 2023]

After Lon Chaney's Wolfman of 1941, The Howling is one of the best werewolf adventures you're going to find. It stacks up well with its contemporary, An American Werewolf in London, which a lot of people like as well.

I think The Howling is just a little bit better. It's got a better horror movie feel to it, and this one has some great supporting parts from John Carridine, Kenneth Tobey and even Slim Pickens as a werewolf sheriff. You can't ask for more than that.

The special effects and transformations in this one are top notch. They actually seemed astounding if you saw this movie around the time it came out. Nobody had seen anything quite like it at the time. This movie spawned a number of second rate sequels, and none of them are nearly as good as the original.

R. I. P. Elisabeth Brooks. She was great in this, and it turned out to be her career role.

Tremors: Shrieker Island (2020 Video)

Burt's Still Chasing Graboids

[6/10 · 17 June 2023]

I always considered the original Tremors to be one of the last of the great Hollywood B movies, a '50s sci fi flick amped up for an early '90s audience. It's impossible to recreate that over a run of sequels spanning 30 years.

Shrieker Island actually isn't that bad, although we've seen this all before. You'll find too many shades of other movies here, like Predator and Jurassic Park, but it builds up to a decent climax thanks to the presence of Michael Gross as Burt Gummer, who's still out chasing Graboids after all these years.

Richard Brake is pretty effective as a villainous graboid hunter, but that's another part we've seen too many times before. The rest of the supporting cast are pretty nondescript. The bad guys all go down the way you expect, and the good guys all find a way to survive.

Burt Gummer finally gets the hero's death in his final confrontation with the chief graboid, but they leave it ambiguous enough to suggest this may not be the end for him. They did go so far as to give his character a retrospective montage at the end of this one, but you never know.

Day of the Dead (2021– )

Time Waster

[2/10 · 14 June 2023]

It's got nothing to do with George Romero, and it's just generally a poorly conceived, badly executed waste of TV space.

Everybody loves a good B movie or even a good B TV show, but you won't find that here. What you will find is dislikable characters, plot that seems to go nowhere and nothing to really engage a viewer, even a viewer just looking for a cheap thrill with zombies. The zombies do look good, so I'll give it that.

The well seems to be running dry with good ideas here. Everything that seems worth doing in this TV genre has already been done with The Walking Dead. Put this one away and check out some better material. You can find that practically anywhere.

I Walked with a Zombie (1943)

Great Film Noir Style Horror/Thriller

[8/10 · 29 May 2023]

Frances Dee plays the role of Betsy, a Canadian nurse, who travels to a plantation in the West Indies to care for Tom Conway's invalid wife Jessica, whose mind was destroyed by a raging fever and left her little more than a living zombie. She discovers that the natives are practicing voodoo nearby at houmfort, and after it's clear that no medical intervention will help, she tries to use voodoo to revive Jessica and make her what she was. Ultimately they discover that it might not have been a fever that ruined Jessica. She may have been turned into a zombie. Soon the voodoo cult performs a ritual, seeking to get Jessica to return to them.

This movie is one of the better horror/thrillers from the 1940s that you're going to find. It's an RKO feature, and they handled horror subjects entirely differently than Universal. This movie has grace and subtlety and was filmed in a very effective, shadowy film noir style- similar to the highly regarded Cat People of 1942. (Both films are directed by Jacques Tourneur). We're told on a couple of occasions in this movie that the islands aren't always a happy place, and they captured that quite well with oppressive darkness, lurking shadows, a hot tropical wind and voodoo drums in the night.

This is a zombie movie. Hopefully some people will find it a refreshing change from the insane violence of the modern version. Actually, compare the two styles, and you can see how we have changed since the '40s. Back then the men were gentlemanly. Tom Conway in particular is always well dressed and sober minded. Frances Dee's Betsy is virtuous and dedicated. We could use these archetypes today.

Conway's alcoholic brother Wesley, played by James Ellison, believes the power of the voodoo rituals. Tom Conway points out that a sober mind does not believe tales of voodoo and zombies. Wesley, only when under the influence of drink (shown to us only by the presence of a decanter on the table), literally opens the door to it and allows the zombie Jessica to leave the plantation and head towards the voodoo ritual at houmfort. There's more, but watch the movie to find out what happens to James Ellison when he opens his mind to the power of voodoo.

Fright Night (2011)

Not the Worst Remake I've Ever Seen

[6/10 · 29 May 2023]

Not many realized back in 1985 that the original Fright Night had the potential to become a classic, something worthy of a high profile remake. I knew it, though. I could see it the moment I saw it on the big screen that night in '85 when it played on a double bill with Day of the Dead.

Times have changed since the mid '80s, and it's always difficult to rekindle a fire started so long ago by others. I doubt anybody will be watching this remake twenty-five years hence, but at least they put together a coherent movie that could be enjoyed by a 21st century audience.

While it follows the plot of the original, it's not a scene by scene remake. Colin Farrell is not a replacement for Chris Sarandon. He plays it like he's just your average suburban vampire named Jerry.

Peter Vincent gets a decent update. This time our Svengoolie style TV vampire hunter has a prior history with the undead. David Tennant is no Roddy McDowall, but that's a decent twist to the character backstory.

You're really going to miss Stephen Geophreys in this. The new Ed is pretty unlikeable and is really little more than an extortionist who gets taken out pretty early in the game- before he shows up later on as one of Jerry's vampire minions. He makes it hard to feel sorry for him when he goes.

So, there it is. This one won't go down in history, but it's watchable on its own. Don't forget there's a good cameo from Chris Sarandon as one of Jerry's victims. That's a nice touch.

Howling IV: The Original Nightmare (1988 Video)

Mediocre Rewrite of the Original

[5/10 · 28 May 2023]

Howling IV attempted to move the story back to its origins with this sequel that amounts to a semi-remake of the original Howling.

A woman suffers a nervous breakdown and tries to recover in a rented cabin in the mysterious backwoods town of Drago. Drago is filled with the same type of strange inhabitants that populated the colony in the original Howling. Not surprisingly, she starts having visions and hallucinations and ultimately finds out that her small town is full of werewolves. You even get a similar ending to the original when the town werewolves are lured to an ancient bell tower and set on fire.

It's a low budget affair that sometimes looks like one of those weird Italian horror movies from the '70s and the '80s. It's shot in a cool looking western town, but for some reason they weren't able to use that setting to very good effect. Check out Vampires by John Carpenter if you want to see what excellent use of unique south western locations should look like.

Howling IV is in a tough spot. It's a horror franchise that's ripping off itself and not even doing a good job at that. The acting ranges from stilted to downright bad, and the special effects will disappoint anyone who's seen the original. It's fair to ask yourself if this film was even necessary.

The Mummy's Ghost (1944)

Standard 1940s Universal Horror

[6/10 · 30 April 2023]

Pretty fair Universal horror entry with Lon Chaney as Kharis and John Carradine as the glaring and fanatical priest of Arkam. They travel to America seeking the soul of Ananka who is reborn into a local girl played by the lovely Ramsay Ames. She got out of the picture business fairly early and moved to Europe. It would have been nice to see her in a few more features.

The scripts for some of these movies in the mid-1940s really started to become B movie potboiler stuff, but there's enough in this one to keep most people interested. George Zucco pops up for a short time as the high priest, and Barton Maclane appears as the sheriff who's got to find a way to take down the rampaging mummy.

This one has kind of an unusual ending. Kharis kidnaps Ramsay Ames who holds the soul of Ananka, and the sheriff and his posse chase them into the swamp. She starts to age visibly as the spirit of the ancient Ananka begins taking her over. Unlike the typical ending, there's no saving the girl at the last minute in this one. Kharis descends into the swamp with her in his arms as we see her become the Egyptian princess.

Terminator: Dark Fate (2019)

Dark Fate Indeed

[4/10 · 19 April 2023]

Admittedly, the Terminator franchise has been all over the road in recent years, but they finally went off the pavement into a brick wall with Dark Fate. There is no doubt that this should be the last movie of the series.

In this one, the great JC, John Connor is assassinated, and saving the future now becomes the job of a female hero, chaperoned by the ageless and wisened Sarah Connor (who now looks and acts like a cross between Rosemary Clooney and Hillary Clinton).

Why is any of this a problem? Well, Terminator has always been significantly allegorical. John Connor has always been a Christ figure right down to his JC initials. It's quite jarring to have such an indispensable character taken out of the series so violently and suddenly and so late in the game- especially when our antagonist, SkyNet, has morphed into Legion, who by name was a first century demon. Christ encountered Legion directly in the Gospels. So, it's definitely a spiritual battle they're fighting here, and it probably always has been. You just can't take out your Christ figure at a time like that. He's the linchpin to every single Terminator story. You have nothing left after that.

The terminators themselves, armed with angelic might and knowledge of the future, are the prophets and angels and maybe even nephilim as well. Without JC, we're doomed to destruction by Legion, and that is a dark fate, indeed. That is, unless our girls can step into JC's shoes and save the day.

Even though it's all just fiction, It's a difficult concept to put on film and ask people to accept in today's social climate. Even if we ignore that big problem, Dark Fate is, like so many other movies, just more of the same CGI super-action that's been wearing people down for years. We did this better in the '80s.

For what it's worth, Arnold has a few good lines of deadpan humor as the reformed Terminator.

White Zombie (1932)

Murder Legendre

[7/10 · 11 April 2023]

White Zombie, while being an interesting film to watch, is not up at the top tier of the classics in the golden age of horror, even with Bela Lugosi in his prime as the mysterious and evil Murder Legendre, a man who knows the secret of turning men into zombies.

It's got some good, creepy scenes and some excellent looking set work, but it's a very creaky looking horror film if you compare it to better Lugosi vehicles like Dracula, or even The Black Cat. The supporting players are not as good, and it just seems very tentative- like they were still feeling out how to make a good talking film. It was 1932 after all.

I suppose you could make an argument that our modern zombie story started right here. Murder Legendre possesses the power to make zombies with a chemical potion- one drop is all it takes. The undead are condemned to work in the Haiti sugar plantations and do Legendre's bidding when his designs turn murderous. As it happens so many times, his own zombie creations turn on him in the end and finally cast him over the castle wall into the ocean.

The basic script for White Zombie is not bad. I could see a lot of potential for a remake of this film.

REC (2007)

Better than the Remake

[7/10 · 26 March 2023]

Although it can be hard to look at now, the cinema verite/found footage thing was still viable in 2007. Rec used it in the best possible way and came up with a fresh looking and genuinely scary horror film.

A TV reporter accompanies the local fire department to a call at an apartment building, and they all find themselves suddenly locked inside with the residents. It's unknown to the characters at the time, but the medical authorities had already traced a dangerous, unknown infection back to the building. The pathogen turns people into rabid zombie-like killers. It's contagious through a bite, and while you feel some sympathy for the people who get locked into the building without explanation, you also have to consider that it looks like the authorities had a pretty good reason to keep them in there. The movie does make it seem like the outbreak is limited to this one location. They never bring up the question of whether this is happening anywhere else.

It's a simple plot that makes a lot of logical sense, and because this film moves so fast, we never have time have to get into the argument as to whether these zombies are rising from the dead or are just deranged live humans. However, there are a couple of scenes that suggest they might be dead.

There's a stark realism to this movie, including the psychological response of the trapped people. These people aren't action heroes. The worse the situation gets, the more desperate and hysterical they become. The action is high-voltage, and every encounter with the infected is tense and dangerous. You can feel the danger and the fear every time they're around.

A lot of people saw Quarantine. It's a decent remake of this movie, but if you have to choose which one to see, go with the original.

Enter the Dragon (1973)

The Art at its Peak

[9/10 · 23 March 2023]

Perhaps the greatest martial arts film ever made, Enter the Dragon was the pinnacle of the all-to-short career of Bruce Lee.

Lee travels to Mr. Han's remote Kung Fu Island to compete in his martial arts tournament, but he has an agenda or two- he's spying on Mr. Han's secret drug trade for the British government, and unknown to anyone, he has a private family score to settle with Mr. Han and his subordinates.

What a cast- Bruce Lee, John Saxon, Jim Kelly along with Bolo Yeung, Bob Wall and even Jackie Chan in an early uncredited role.

In addition to top-tier martial arts, this movie also moves into the realm of British spy films. The possibilities for Bruce Lee were endless after this film. We can only guess to where he would have taken it if he had lived.

Charlie Chan's Secret (1935)

The Murderer is in This Room

[7/10 · 19 February 2023]

Secret panels..seances..ouija boards and Charlie Chan's hunt for a murderer in an old dark house.

It's a great setup for one of the more interesting Charlie Chan movies you'll see with Warner Oland in the lead as the great Chinese Detective. I've always liked these movies whoever was in the lead role, but Warner Oland was always considered the best. Ignore the complaints about casting a non-Asian in the role and look at the portrayal. Charlie Chan was always a revered character, always on the side of right and always the smartest person in the room. Besides, now they're saying that Warner Oland's grandmother was from Mongolia or someplace, so- whatever.

The spooky backdrop to this movie is used to good effect when the heir to a large estate is murdered. Numerous suspects have motives, and Charlie must examine them all and the secrets of the old dark house where the murder took place to unravel the mystery

In classic murder mystery fashion, Charlie assembles all the suspects in the same room and exposes the killer with the help of a neat twist during a phony seance. I have noticed that if you watch enough movies from this era, debunking psychics and spiritualism was done quite a lot. If a movie had seances or mediums, they usually got exposed as fakes. It very possibly could have been a requirement of the production codes of the era.

Apparently this film and several other Charlie Chan features are now in the public domain.

To Have and Have Not (1944)

Slim & Steve

[8/10 · 29 January 2023]

A great tale of wartime adventure and intrigue with Bogart and Lauren Bacall in her first film role.

It's got a lot of elements borrowed from Casablanca, exotic locale, the fat man, the musical cafe (this time with Hoagy Carmichael on the keys), and Bogie plays a similar cynical neutralist who's again forced to get personally involved with the world's troubles when he comes to the aid of another Victor Lazlo type hero, all while falling in love with another mysterious girl with a past.

This time around Bogart is a professional boat captain in scenic Martinique, run by occupied France but under the influence of the Germans. Bogart and Bacall have to put their lives on the line to smuggle another defender of free Europe to friendly territory. Even though it's a little derivative of Casablanca, it's impossible to turn down another excellent wartime tale of a desperate fight for freedom against a collection of suspicious natives and Nazi stooges. It stands well on its own merits.

It's another prime example of why this was the greatest era of motion picture history, never to be repeated and never to be duplicated.

Lost Horizon (1973)

Brutal

[4/10 · 31 December 2022]

The musical remake of Lost Horizon has got to be the Hollywood equivalent of a teenager getting drunk and crashing his parents' new car into that big oak tree out in the front yard.

They had high hopes for this movie when it went into production. Lost Horizon was supposed to be the "prestige" pic of the year. I'm thinking they believed this was going to the The Sound of Music for the 1970s. Lots of money and star power was brought in for this movie, along with a budget for all kinds of Lost Horizon merchandising. I think you can find Lost Horizon cookbooks and sheet music on eBay. The studio thought they were going to get a big hit out of this.

Instead, they got this wreck of a musical, full of confused songs written around some type of half baked 1970's sounding social relativism. The average viewer will look at this once and know that something's wrong but maybe not be able to figure out what it is. If you watch closely, you'll see the songs all sound labored and contrived, and the smiles and emotions in this movie all look pasted on. The whole thing seems manufactured. Check out some soundtrack gems like: "Question Me an Answer" and "The World is a Circle," and you'll see what I mean. It'll make you wonder if Julie Andrews or Dick Van Dyke could've bailed this out if they had a better script.

Throughout this movie they sing these insightful tunes to groups of truly talentless children. It looks like the only direction they got was to keep smiling and look as cute as possible.

This movie was a huge flop and caused problems for some people involved. It was the last big thing Ross Hunter ever did, and I can almost literally see Burt Bacharach and Hall David with their hands around each other's throats after this.

But- just because it isn't great doesn't mean it isn't entertaining. If you need to step back into the 1970s for awhile where nobody will find you, this movie is a good place to do it. It's got some nostalgia appeal to some folks out there. If you want to read more about Lost Horizon, Michael Medved talks about all this in greater detail in one of his movie books from the 1970s.

Halloween Ends (2022)

Well, I'ts an Ending...

[5/10 · 16 October 2022]

It should be obvious to everybody now that the filmmakers shot off everything they had in the apocalyptic and allegorical Halloween Kills. Halloween Ends seems like an unnecessary afterthought in comparison.

As a lot of others have noticed, it doesn't feel like a Halloween movie, and it seems odd that they decided to wait until the final installment to focus the story around an all new character like Corey, who fancies himself to be an heir-apparent to Michael Myers. Michael, after all these years and decades of self-rejuvination, seems to have finally aged out of the merciless killer business and appears to be falling apart on his own.

There probably is no good way to put an ending on something like this, and they don't even try to answer the question of what was driving Michael Myers all this time other than just using the word "evil."

After so many years of reboots and sequels, there's finally nowhere else to go with this. We've finally managed to paint ourselves into a corner, and I think most will agree now that it's time to give this series a rest. Someone around here wondered if maybe this is just a story that Laurie Strode was writing in her memoirs. That's an intriguing idea.