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SHOCKTOBER! Day 2: HOUSE (Dir: Steve Miner, 1985).
From Sean S Cunningham, producer/director of Friday the 13th (1980) and Steve Miner, director of Friday the 13th Part II (1981) comes House, a shocker of a markedly lighter tone than the slasher movies for which either was known.
Promoted as a comedy horror, House stars William Katt as horror author Roger Cobb (presumably modeled after Stephen King) a Vietnam vet who is mourning the recent suicide of a beloved aunt and the mysterious disappearance of his young son. Both events are somehow connected to the creepy house which his aunt has left to Cobb in her will. Retreating to his aunt's abode to write a biographical novel based upon his wartime experiences, he is haunted by all manner of apparitions, included that of comrade Big Ben (Richard Moll) who died in Vietnam. Naturally folks think Cobb is crazy. Enlisting the help of amiable neighbour Harold (George Wendt), Cobb battles to overcome both inner-demons and the curse of the house of horrors.
Read the full review on my blog JINGLE BONES MOVIE TIME. Link below.
SHOCKTOBER Day 4: THE BLACK SCORPION (Dir: Edward Ludwig, 1957).
Swapping atomic ants for subterranean scorpions and the Los Angeles sewers for the caverns of the Mexico desert, The Black Scorpion shamelessly hitches a ride on the coattails of monster movie masterpiece Them! (Gordon Douglas, 1954).
An undistinguished B-movie cast of little charisma cannot help but be overshadowed by the giant scorpions rampaging the southern portion of North America. The second hand plot finds the enormous arachnids chowing down on the San Lorenzo locals. Luckily some US scientists are on hand to make sure the pesky critters do not hop the border. Yup, the plot really is as lazy as my description of it.
Read the full review on my blog JINGLE BONES MOVIE TIME. Link below.
THE DEAD DON’T DIE (Dir: Jim Jarmusch, 2019).
Writer/director Jim Jarmusch pays homage to George A Romero in the zombie comedy (zomedy?) The Dead Don’t Die.
Rural small town Centerville finds itself in the midst of of zombie uprising somehow linked to the altering of the Earth's rotation due to polar fracking (?). At the centre of the action are local police chief Cliff Robertson (Bill Murray) and his partner, officer Ronnie Peterson (Adam Driver), who must attempt to hold off the meat hungry horde from consuming the community.
Read the full review on my blog JINGLE BONES MOVIE TIME. Link below.
ATTACK OF THE 50 FOOT WOMAN (Dir: Nathan Hertz, 1958).
Proto-feminist text or trash classic? As much as some film historians claim it’s the former, I think sci-fi/horror Attack of the 50 Foot Woman is probably the later; a cheap and cheerful exploitation film aimed squarely at the drive-in, double feature market.
After arguing with her two-timing husband, heiress and owner of the world's most expensive diamond Nancy Archer (Alison Hayes) has a run in with an extra-terrestrial satellite, inexplicably inhabited by a 30 foot bald-headed behemoth (Michael Ross, doubling as Tony the bartender). Radiation exposure results in Nancy growing to a whopping 50 feet in height. Meanwhile husband Harry (William Hudson) takes the opportunity to steal her diamond and ensconce with fancy-lady Honey (Yvette Vickers). Soon the police are on their tail as, more worryingly, is Nancy who wants her diamond and her man back!
Read the full review on my blog JINGLE BONES MOVIE TIME. Link below.
THE COLOSSUS OF NEW YORK (Dir: Eugène Lourié, 1958).
Low budget sci fi shocker of the ‘good scientist gone bad’ variety, from Paramount Pictures.
With story aspects and visuals borrowed liberally from the likes of Der Golem (Paul Wegener & Carl Boese, 1920) and Frankenstein (James Whale, 1931) The Colossus of New York tells of acclaimed scientist Dr Jerry Spensser (Ross Martin); cut down in his prime on the eve of collecting an International Peace Prize. After relieving the dead body of its brain, his surgeon father (Otto Kruger) and automation expert brother (John Baragrey) promptly insert the cranium into that of a 8 foot metal man and, with some incredible shortsightedness, inexplicably fit the robot with death ray laser eyes! Lamenting the lack of a soul and understandably upset at his brother's romancing of his widow (Mala Powers), Dr Jerry breaks free of the laboratory that binds him, and heads cityward, all eyes blazing! But not before a weirdly touching reunion with his fatherless young son Billy (Charles Herbert).
Full review available to read on my blog JINGLE BONES MOVIE TIME! Link below.
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THE DARK PAST (Dir: Rudolph Maté, 1948).
Told in flashback and narrated by Lee J Cobb as criminal psychiatrist Dr Andrew Collins, Collins relates how he and his family were held hostage by escaped convict Al Walker (Holden). With the help of Walker's girl Betty (Nina Foch), the good doc attempts to uncover Walker's unconscious motivation to kill, a disorder linked to a recurring nightmare following childhood truma.
Read the full review on my blog JINGLE BONES MOVIE TIME! Link below:
DEVIL GIRL FROM MARS (Dir: David McDonald, 1954).
With Martian men on the verge of extinction, Nyah (Patricia Laffan), a PVC clad dominatrix who bears a passing resemblance to a young Agnes Moorehead, is dispatched to London to collect male specimens for the purpose of repopulating the planet. Accompanied by a robot seemingly made from odds and ends found in a garden shed, the would-be seductress with the voice of a British Rail announcer goes off course and crash lands in the Scottish Highlands. Here she invades the remote Bonnie Charlie Inn; the residents of which are a motley bunch including an escaped murder and his girl, an aspiring model, a scientist, an investigative journalist and a sturdy Scots landlady. The men of the Inn aren't up to spec so Nyah must repair her craft and continue on her mission. But those pesky Earthlings have other ideas and are intent on stopping her. You can bet they are sorry when she unleashes a powerful raygun and her giant flowerpot 'bot on them!
Read the full review on my blog JINGLE BONES MOVIE TIME. Link below.
SCROOGE (Dir: Henry Edwards, 1935).
This early British 'talkie' stars Sir Seymour Hicks stars as Ebenezer Scrooge, the yuletide loathing rotter who finds redemption when visiting spirits show him the error of his ways, much to the gratification of his overworked, under payed employee Bob Cratchit (Donald Calthrop).
Read the full review on my blog JINGLE BONES MOVIE TIME. Link below.
THE GIANT BEHEMOTH aka BEHEMOTH THE SEA MONSTER (Dir: Eugène Lourié, 1959).
Taking inspiration from The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (Eugène Lourié, 1953) and Godzilla (Ishiro Honda, 1954), The Giant Behemoth is 1950s monster movie mayhem on a minuscule budget.
In a classic 'when atomic testing turns bad' scenario, a pre-historic Palaeosaurus comes ashore on the Cornish coast, threatening the lives of marine life and crusty old fishermen. Not content with terrorising townsfolk in the West Country, the rampaging radioactive reptile heads to London. What is a bored behemoth to do in the big city but riot? If only the meddling military don't stand in his way...
Read the full review on my blog JINGLE BONES MOVIE TIME. Link below.
ALL THE MONEY IN THE WORLD (Dir: Ridley Scott, 2017).
Based on events which shocked the world back in 1973, All the Money in the World relates the story of Pablo Getty (Charlie Plummer), 16 year old grandson of billionaire oil baron J Paul Getty (Christopher Plummer) who was kidnapped and ransomed for $17,000,000. Pablo’s mother and estranged daughter-in-law of Getty, Gail (Michelle Williams) cannot pay the fee and appeals to Getty Snr. Though a pittance to a man of his standing, Getty refuses to put up the money; instead hiring ex-Fed Fletcher Chance (Mark Wahlberg) to investigate the abduction.
Best known for big budget sci fi and widescreen epics such as Blade Runner (R Scott, 1982) and Gladiator (R Scott, 2000), Ridley Scott may seem an odd choice to direct the true story of a kidnapping. But Scott proves his versatility in an impressively mounted, sometimes morbidly gripping thriller.
Read the full review on my blog JINGLE BONES MOVIE TIME! Link below.
A CHRISTMAS CAROL (Dir: Edwin L Marin, 1938).
Produced by MGM at the height of Hollywood’s golden age, A Christmas Carol is a lively, albeit scrubbed up, adaptation of Charles Dickens ever popular 1843 novella. The familiar story is more or less faithful to Dickens' text, as miserly old Ebenezer Scrooge accepts a ghostly hand in relocating his Christmas spirit, much to the relief of his put-upon employee Bob Cratchit, as well as the half of London who are indebted to him.
Read the full review on my blog JINGLE BONES MOVIE TIME! Link below.
A CHRISTMAS CAROL (Dir: Clive Donner, 1984).
Be they traditional retellings or radical reworkings, new adaptations of Charles Dickens’ ever popular 1843 novella are as common as a cock’er’ny street urchin. Less numerous, but still pretty plentiful, were they back in December 1984 when this prestigious US/UK coproduction premiered on CBS prime time, while simultaneously released to cinemas internationally.
George C Scott here stars as the original grinch, who is persuaded to change his ways after overindulging in Christmas spirits.
Read the full review on my blog JINGLE BONES MOVIE TIME. Link below.
A CHRISTMAS CAROL (Dir: David Jones, 1999).
So numerous are the adaptations of Charles Dickens’ evergreen A Christmas Carol that it is difficult for any new retelling to bring anything original to the tale. This Hallmark produced made for TV movie features decent production values, some neat visual effects and a somewhat more sombre tone than expected but doesn’t really stand out from the Christmas Carol crowd.
Visit my blog JINGLE BONES MOVIE TIME to read the full review! Link below.
CHRISTMAS CAROL THE MOVIE (Dir: Jimmy T Murakami, 2001).
A UK production from Jimmy T Murakami, the talented supervising director of The Snowman (Dianne Jackson, 1982) and director of When the Wind Blows (J T Murakami, 1986); an all star cast and a story seemingly ideally suited to feature length animation treatment. What could possibly go wrong? Plenty.
Read the full review on my blog JINGLE BONES MOVIE TIME. Link below.
SANTA AND THE ICE CREAM BUNNY (Dir: R Winer & B Mahon, 1972).
If you are looking for alternative Christmas viewing it doesn’t get much more alternative than this, frankly weird, no-budget effort from indie production company R & S Films, Inc.
Santa (Jay Clark) touches down in sunny Florida and gets his sleigh stuck in the sand. Using his powers of telepathy(!), Ol’ Saint Nick summons the help of some local kids including, for reasons unexplained, Mark Twain’s literary Tom and Huck. The kids employe an assortment of animals, gorilla included, to shift the sleigh to no avail, until the appearance of the titular rabbit who, despite co-star billing, doesn’t appear until the final moments of the movie. When he does finally make an entrance he is inexplicably driving a fire truck, not an ice cream van as you might expect.
Read the full review on my blog JINGLE BONES MOVIE TIME. Link below.
ESCAPE IN THE FOG (Dir: Oscar Boetticher Jr, 1945)
The evocatively titled Escape in the Fog is a B-movie thriller from Columbia Pictures; directed by Budd Boetticher, billed here, as on all his early movies, as Oscar Boetticher Jr.
Wartime nurse Eileen Carr (Nina Foch) has a nightmare about the attempted murder of friendly neighbourhood G-Man Barry Malcolm (William Wright). The premonition proves prophetic and on this preposterous premise is hung a convoluted plot involving smuggled documents, kidnapping and Nazi bad guys.
Read the full review on my blog JINGLE BONES MOVIE TIME. Link below.
ATTACK ON THE IRON COAST (Dir: Paul Wendkos, 1968).
Following the success of The Great Escape (John Sturges, 1963), producer Walter Mirisch would attempt to repeat its success with other WWII themed movies including 633 Squadron (Walter E Gruman, 1963), Submarine X-1 (William Graham, 1968) and this cheap and cheerful effort.
Inspired by the real life Operation Chariot, a raid on the German occupied French port St Nazire, Attack on the Iron Coast details an mission to destroy a Nazi stronghold, lead by hardheaded Canadian army Major Jamie Wilson (Lloyd Bridges) and dissonant British navy Captain Franklin (Andrew Keir).
Read the full review on my blog JINGLE BONES MOVIE TIME! Link below.
ROCK & RULE (Dir: Clive A Smith, 1983).
Rock & Rule is a futuristic, dystopian sci-fi rock musical from Canadian animation studio Nelvana.
On a post apocalypse planet Earth in which mutant rodents have displaced extinct humans as the dominant species, evil genius rock god Mok (voiced by Don Francks with singing by Lou Reed) plots to summon an inter-dimensional demon, presumably in pursuit of world dominance. In order to fulfill his maniacal plan he must engage the talents of Angel (Susan Roman with singing from Blondie's Deborah Harry), a young, ambitious singing mouse with the desired vocal frequency to open up a portal to the demon's domain. Kidnapping Angel and whisking her off to his lair in Nuke York, the pair are soon perused by Angel's fellow band members on a daring rescue mission. Yeah, I kinda lost the thread of the plot a couple of times, but what the hey? Hallucinogenics may help...
Read the full review on my blog JINGLE BONES MOVIE TIME! Link below.
ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN (Dir: Alan J Pakula, 1976).
Sometimes you forget how powerful a storytelling medium film can be until you watch a truly great movie. Such is the case with Alan J Pakula’s masterpiece All the President’s Men. Goodness knows why it has taken me 45 years to finally watch it.
Recent events in US politics, and indeed the years leading up to them, may have de-sensitised some to political corruption or at least ruined their appetite for movies about political corruption. Fret thee not as All the President’s Men is less a film about politics, rather the investigative journalists who uncovered the Watergate scandal which eventually led to the impeachment of 37th US president Richard Nixon.
Read the full review on my blog JINGLE BONES MOVIE TIME! Link below:
