An American horror directed and produced by William Castle, starring Charles Herbert, Margaret Hamilton and Donald Woods.
A family inherit a rich and eccentric uncle's house. The house is supposedly haunted and comes with a maid who had been helping the uncle in his ghost research. The lawyer who informs the family is looking for money, which the uncle hid.
This was pretty hokey, but better than most modern trash. I would much rather see old double exposures, physical effects and editing tricks than CG ghosts that look like a video game. The simple plot did actually hold my attention and the characters were acted well. I could hear all of the dialogue and everything was clearly visible. This is important because some horror films from the late '50s and early '60s used underexposure to make it look darker and hide physical effects. This film doesn't really require a long review. I rate it adequate because it was hokey, but entertaining. You may want to check it out if you're into cheesy, not-scary horror flicks.
A Japanese animated musical fantasy directed by Taiji Yabushita and Daisaku Shirakawa.
The "Journey to the West" story. Goku commits a transgression in heaven, is punished and journeys with his friends to earn honor.
Proto-Dragon Ball! I know it's a traditional Japanese story, but the similarities to the modern anime series are too many to ignore. That's Goku with the power pole and flying Nimbus (image) and Oolong wants to marry a girl, but Goku saves her and takes Oolong with him. It's listed as one of the 50 worst films of all time by someone, but I've seen that list and their taste in movies sucks. I've also seen "best movies" lists filled with worthless crap though. I thought the animation was a little standard, even for the time it was made. Disney was doing cell animations in the 1930s and that's what this was. Obviously, I liked the plot and characters. It's not a traditional Japanese story just arbitrarily. A story has to be good to last a few hundred years. The music mostly sounded too Americanized to me, but it wasn't bad. I watched the version with subtitles and original Japanese audio. There is an American release version with English speaking voice actors and different music. I say it's a perfectly fine movie because it was entertaining, held my attention and made me think of Dragon Ball. I rate it good.
A French Italian horror directed by Georges Franju, starring Edith Scob and Alida Valli.
A doctor's daughter's face has been damaged and he cuts the faces off of women, trying to transplant his daughter a new face.
This was not so great. The plot did not hold my interest at all. The characters were underdeveloped and there was explanation and back-story missing on many of them. Why does the doctor keep these dogs in cages? The video was uninspired and unimaginative. The audio was in French, with English subtitles that seemed right. Many of the sound effects were grating, raspy and annoying. The soundtrack featured repetitive circus music for no apparent reason. Overall, not something that is good to watch. I rate this bad because I have seen much worse. DO NOT WATCH!!!
An American fantasy adventure directed by Jack Sher with special effects by Ray Harryhausen.
A man from England departs on a ship with his girlfriend. He is thrown overboard during a storm and lands on an island full of small people with problems. He tries to help them, but fails and sets forth in a boat again. He then lands on an island of large people and the same thing happens, but his girlfriend is there to greet him. Together, they make their way back to England.
This is a classic of compositing. The plot held my attention and the main character was well-acted. He's a normal dude with some intelligence going into stupid situations. The video compositing was amazing for the time. We have people of different sizes occupying any part of the screen they need to. We also have a stop motion alligator fighting a live action human. My praises to Ray Harryhausen on this. His work was an integral part of the plot and it worked out amazingly. Overall, watch this if you can understand what it takes to make these things happen. I rate it awesome.
An American thriller directed by Bert I. Gordon.
A pianist with 2 girlfriends is arguing with one of them atop a lighthouse when she slips from the ledge. He hesitates too long to save her and she falls to her death. Now a fresh ghost, she haunts the musician as he prepares to marry the remaining girlfriend. Also haunting him is a beatnik ferryman who brought the girl to the island. The beatnik thinks that the pianist is keeping a harem of one and wants to extort financial gain from the situation through blackmail.
The plot and characters were mildly interesting. I thought the camera-work was decent, with good use of creative angles. The pace was a little slow and general presentation on the dry side. My favorite scene would have to be the man arguing with the head of his dead girlfriend. I'm not in the mood to mince words in an effort at creating the perfect review for this lackluster film. I rate it tolerable.
An American science fiction directed by Edgar G. Ulmer.
A former army major keeps a scientist with an invisibility ray in his home. The major then gets a safe cracker to turn invisible to steal nuclear materials to help work on the invisibility ray.
The plot didn't make much sense to me and the characters were not memorable. The special effects for invisibility looked alright, but the actors were not very good at petting the guinea pig that just wasn't there. At only 57 minutes in length, there just isn't anything therein the film either. It was a film made solely for financial reasons and it's all filler to me. No substance, in a word, vapid. I rate it bad. Don't watch it.
An American science fiction drama directed and produced by Roger Corman.
A mysterious apocalypse exterminates human life on Earth while a trio of scuba divers are underwater. The cause of this is implied to have something to do with air or a lack of oxygen. The trio consists of a gambler, his wife and his lawyer. The men end up competing with each other for the love of the woman.
The plot was so predictable and stale that I lost interest quickly. The characters were limited and easy to keep track of. The audio and video were standard for the time, although the video was in black and white. I think that the length was inappropriately long and that this story could have been told in half an hour like a Twilight Zone episode. I rate this poor for being stale and predictable, but not painful.
An East German Polish science fiction directed by Kurt Maetzig.
After a cylinder containing an audio message is found on Earth, a spaceship and crew are set up and leave for Venus. Once on the planet, they have various adventures exploring the foreign world.
The antiquated ideas about space travel and outdated film production methods are apparent, but what is also apparent is that they were actually trying to make a good movie. The characters are identifiable and some of them even have some back-story. The plot is easy to follow and mostly makes sense. The sets are large and have some type of style and the special effects work with that same theme. I think that the overall quality of the film was low, probably due to an equally low budget and that the story itself may not have been the best. One thing that would have added a great deal to this film is an encounter with living beings on Venus. I'm rating it o.k. because they really tried to make a movie here.
An Italian horror science fiction film directed by Anton Giulio Majano.
A scientist uses radioactive material to restore the beauty of a woman and turn himself into a monster.
More '60s Italian trash. My blog is full of rantings on my distaste for this filth and I feel no need to add to that. The problem is that it's boring and poorly made. I rate it shit. Don't watch it.
An Italian science fiction directed by Antonio Margheriti.
A crew of astronauts must stop a runaway spaceship from crashing into the Earth. This ship is emitting an emission which destroys anything that comes close to it.
This is the most boring science fiction film I have viewed to date. It figures that it was made in Italy in the 1960s when and where they were also making such bad sword and sandal flicks. Science fiction should have robots, aliens and foreign worlds. This had none of those. It was just people in space suits talking and some model ships against a black background. BORING! I rate it shit. Please don't watch it!
A French Italian sword and sandal action adventure film directed by Vittorio Cottafavi.
A Grecian strongman fights monsters to protect his loved ones, thwart political schemes and disturb the gods.
The only reason to watch this is for the way cheesy monster fights. The hero (Goliath or Hercules?) faces Cerberus, a flying demon, a real elephant and a wingless dragon. I can see why it was voted by The Official Razzie Movie Guide to be one of the best bad movies ever made. I don't want to give too much away about the monsters, but the budget was pretty low and the results are definitely entertaining. The plot was easy to follow, even while distracted, and the characters are identifiable. The quality of the audio and video were low, but what do you expect? The camera-work was shitty and any style present came from lack thereof. I'll rate it o.k. because it's so bad it's good.
An Italian comedy adventure directed by Vittorio Sala.
A Grecian strongman and his friend are tricked into sailing to an unknown island where they are drugged and taken as slaves by Amazon women.
The audio and video were poor quality, the plot was a little on the murky side at times and it was difficult to differentiate the characters. The humor used in this film was banal and insipid and the music... Well, you get the idea. I won't even go into the left breast emphasis - Illuminati symbolism connection because it just isn't worth it. For poor content and being poorly made, I rate this bad. This is a film that defines my idea of a bad rating.
A German horror film directed by Fritz Bottger.
A talent agent recruits a group of dancing girls and leaves for Singapore on a plane. The plane crashes on a remote island. They find a dead man imprisoned within a giant spider web there and the agent eventually gets bitten by the giant spider, turning him into a monster.
The simplistic plot, monotonous musical score and low production value do not bode well for this film. On the plus side, the camea-work is none too shabby and the girls look great. What really impressed me were the sounds and vocalizations coming from the girls. Even during times of stress and great peril, these vixens moan and pant like they're involved in the erotic arts. Assuming that there was some voice-over work done, I wonder at the methods used to coax these sensual noises into the microphone. I'm rating this poor because it was a crappy movie with a few good scenes of good looking girls.
An American comedy horror by Roger Corman.A young man who works in a flower shop grows a plant that eats people.The plot and characters were pretty simple. The sense of humor was a little odd and I didn't find it funny. The production value was low. I'm rating this poor.
An American Western by John Sturges, starring Yul Brynner, Steve McQueen, James Coburn and Charles Bronson.A gunslinger finds that a small village is being raided by harriers on a regular basis. He gathers more gunslingers and together they try to protect the village.This is the American remake version of Seven Samurai (Shichinin No Samurai) and the plot is almost identical. Just substitute revolvers (hard calibers) for swords. I thought the plot and characters were good. James Coburn is a must for any western film if it does ya fine. The style was very clear and coherent, say thank ya. I'm rating this good, excuse the Dark Tower slang, but it's about effing GUNSLINGERS!
a mystery directed by alfred hitchcocka woman steals $40,000 from her boss and leaves town to meet her boyfriend. she stops at a strange little motel on the way.the video was in black and white. the audio was good.check out: the druggy secretary at marion's place of employment and the drunken client.I really think these old black and white horror movies are scarier than the newest high tech gore-fest. they rely on setting, mood, music, plot and other real elements of cinema to create fear. that takes skill. anyone with a computer can make giant monsters (nothing wrong with some of those), explosions and blood fountains. if you like REAL horror movies, this one is for you. I say it's great.
an edgar allen poe horror directed by roger cormanthe plot is like this: a regular guy arrives at what looks like a haunted house. he demands that the butler let him in against the will of the homeowners. the butler makes him take off his boots and gives him someone else's shoes to wear. he meets with the homeowner (vincent price) who acts weird and is a piss poor lute player. the regular guy wants to take vincent's sister away to live in the real world with him, but vincent says no. the regular guy stays at the house for a while (again against the homeowner's wishes) until the sister faints, is mistaken for dead and gets locked in a coffin. the guy freaks out and all hell breaks loose.the audio was fine and the video looked like it was copied from the original film with all of the blotches and scrolling grain intact.it was ok. I like lovecraft more than poe, so I'm a little biased. the outdoor shots of the house and surrounding area were my favorite part.
