MEXICAN HALLOWEEN PART 7

For the seventh day of this week of thrills and excitement we have two more fine films from the Churubusco-Azteca studios especially for the ladies:

Espiritismo (1962) is a domestic melodrama with a devilish twist.  Mom and Dad are just celebrating their big anniversary and are extra happy because the mortgage on the house is finally  paid off, and they feel they can ignore the dire warnings they got at that Ouija board party they went to the week before.  Along comes junior who needs eight grand to start a crop dusting business and if they loved him they would mortgage the house again.  Things don't seem to be working out after that and they are going to lose the house unless drastic actions are taken, so it seems like the natural thing to do is join a spiritualist cult and call upon the dark forces for aid.  This takes the form of an emissary from the devil bringing Pandora's Box which, as you recall, contains a Crawling Hand that grants you your desires. Mom runs the show here, always puffing on a cig and ranting, and poor Dad can only tag along and watch the world fall apart. How it all turns out isn't too surprising.  This is kind of slow and talky and is intended to appeal primarily to the housewife of those days, but it keeps a steady pace of mysterious events leading up to the inescapable conclusion that she shouldn'ta done that thing.

That's Pandora's box on the table between them but the cool thing is the shadow of the lamp on the wall behind her.  I have this thing about seeing the shadow of something that should actually be emitting light.  It's crazy, I know.  I'm just nuts about lighting.  Look how they hit that chair in the background to establish that the space goes all the way back there.

I found it interesting from a sociological standpoint; the attitudes expressed by the characters regarding their social standing and economic security, with The House being the big thing in their lives which keeping or losing meant their happiness and survival.  Which may not be the way you want your horror movie to come across.  This was a K. Gordon Murray release, dubbed in Florida by Floridians for the edification of the English speaking world, and it is the first time I have ever heard the narrator of a movie or anyone else use the word "quelch."  Apparently the aim of this movie is to quelch our desire to get involved with Ouija boards and summoning the spirits of the dead.  WELL IT DIDN'T WORK.

El maldicion de la Llorona (1963) a.k.a. Curse of the Crying Woman, is a real rip-snorter.  You never know what is going to happen next.  It's a multigenerational family curse story, the curse of an ancestor who made a deal with the devil to gain youth and power, with the catch being that to keep her youth and power she had to keep committing the most terrible crimes she could.  This didn't go down well with the community.  Most families don't keep the spear-transfixed skeleton of their most evil ancestor in the basement awaiting the day the youngest member of the clan turns 25 and pulls out the spear to bring her back to life, but this one does.  And guess what.  Home comes the young niece of the family who is exactly 24 and 364/365ths years old.  All kinds of crazy stuff happens then.  The aunt comes flying into the basement like a hideous skeleton and gets these empty eye sockets sometimes, and she's got no reflection and the niece loses her reflection the closer it gets to the fatal hour and the uncle they said was dead is actually a half human beast chained up in the bell tower but he GETS OUT when the club-footed scar-faced lackey goes up there to give him a GOOD BEATING, the dogs are let out to KILL POLICEMEN, and MIDNIGHT IS FAST APPROACHING.  It's one nutty thing after another, and it all takes place in one night of terror.

You can see they light the hell out of everything and it all looks really great and spooky.  They don't spare the horrors and rats and cobwebs and groping hands and sudden shocks.  What's funny is that when they do the flashback explanation of the origin of the family curse they show it all in negative and a bunch of the scenes they use are a nonsensical jumble of shots from El mundo de los vampiros.  I thought it was funny anyway.  Oh yeah, the niece has a husband too but the great thing is he spends most of the movie in peril and really only gets useful when it comes to the climactic scenes when someone is needed to brawl with the club-footed scar-faced lackey.  It's all about the ladies here and it's great.  Rita Macedo as Aunt Selma is creepy as hell, always seeming weirdly elated over her evil power and not hesitating to do whatever she needs to do to achieve her wicked goals.

This concludes our week of holiday cheer and I wish you and yours all the joys of this wonderful Halloween season.  Just be careful who wears the pants in the family, that's all.

MEXICAN HALLOWEEN PART 6

Suffering sometimes brings rewards, and two nights of crap make a good night that much more pleasant.

El mundo de los vampiros (1961) was written by Alfredo Salazar, and directed by Alfonso Corona Blake who went on to bless the world with Santo Versus the Vampire Women and Santo in the Wax Museum.  In the case of Sr. Blake I can assert that this movie right here was the greatest thing he ever did, probably.  I have seen more vampire movies than I can count and I have never seen one quite like this. Filmed on the startlingly large and elaborate well-lit sets of Churubusco Azteca, it has a great look from the very first shot of a hand groping out of a slowly opening coffin.  Multigenerational family curses seem to be a feature of Mexican horror stories, and this one is the three hundred year vengeance curse of Count Sergio Subotai, Vampire, against the descendants of the Colman family, and if he doesn't get his vengeance venged right now he will have to wait another hundred years.  Another feature of these stories is hairy-handedness - when you get vampire bit the first sign of impending vampirism is you get hair on your hands.  That is the universal sign of something going wrong in your life, when you get hair on your hands, because the next thing you know you are going to get claws and probably a big hairy pig nose and soon you will be running around in a cape and top hat going RAAAAAR! That doesn't happen in this though, I am just talking. You can forget about the plot and just watch the crazy things happening - the Bone Organ, the Pit of Impalement, the mob of stupid looking masked sub-vampires and spooky looking she-vamps, the fortuitous appearance of an expert on the psychological effects of music.  And this:

 

I like to fell over when I saw this insanely wonderful human-headed bat.  I have never seen that before ever.  I have also never seen the main vampire suddenly in the middle of the big fight inexplicably grow big furry bat ears.  To help him fight.  Every minute of this movie is full of great stuff to see, even if it is just the imaginative way the big fancy set is lit - it's as gorgeously filmed as any great Hollywood b-movie of the 1940s.  This is going on my list of all time favorite horror movies, second only to El espejo de la bruja (The Witch's Mirror).  I have used up all my raving and will just fill this out with absolute proof of my assertions in the form of these images:

The lovely Erna Bauman, who went on to grace El vampiro sangriento 

and La invasion de los vampiros with her solemn beauty.

Go and do likewise.

MEXICAN HALLOWEEN PART ONE

Having determined to regale my small but sporadic readership with my experiences in enjoying a week of thrills from South of the Border, I promptly disabled myself in the middle of the first movie with a medical error.  I took a migraine pill the wrong way at the wrong time and put myself down for about five hours after the damnedest physical reaction I have ever had.  However I pulled through and here I am to do my duty.

Il mostruoso dottor Crimen (1952) a.k.a The Revived Monster, is said to be Mexico's first Mad Doctor movie.  [Addendum: the correct Spanish title is El monstruo resuscitado - I was watching an Italian print of the film with dual Italian/Spanish audio and English subtitles.] A jaded journalist answers an enigmatic advertisement which leads her into the bizarre domain of a masked doctor in his gloomy mansion between the cemetery and the sea.  His hideous countenance and social rejection drove him to become a renowned plastic surgeon and amateur sculptor of waxen beauties, but naturally his inner conflicts and isolation from humanity have deranged him.  

She becomes the first person ever to show him kindness or encouragement, inducing him to unmask, but when he learns that her true motivation is to get a great story he contrives a convoluted revenge.  This involves the inexplicable revivification of a handsome corpse by somehow transferring into it the life force of the beast-man he keeps caged in the basement, the resulting revenant being operated by the remote power of his insane mind.  This is really a gothic melodrama with plenty of appeal for the ladies - a strong independent female falling into a relationship with a pitiable but creative soul who ultimately becomes too crazy to endure.  How many times has that happened to you?  It happens here every day. 

This was filmed at the Churubusco Azteca studios, the RKO of Mexico, on a couple of very nice elaborate interior sets and some strange little exterior ones the size of a garage with a rear projection screen at the end showing the sea or the city.  It is a realm of endless night and one thing I love about these Mexican horror movies is their dark beauty.  The scenes are often staged with a truly artistic eye for lighting and the striking forms of arches and silhouettes, as these images reveal:

Despite its thrifty and slightly primitive origin it achieves a powerful mood and its melodramatic and sentimental nature becomes quite affecting.  Its formulas and cliches are not of the Mad Doctor variety, but more of the Doomed Romance style of older horror films, the pathetic situation of a gifted man who is too ugly and crazy to live, and an endangered woman whose error was in showing kindness to someone too poorly socialized to understand it.   

YES, it's the hideous story of my OWN TERRIBLE LIFE!!!!

Movies

The Man and the Monster (1958) In this Mexican-made monster story, a man sells his soul to Satan to become the world's greatest pianist. The catch is, every time he plays the piano he transforms into a stupid looking lump-nosed monster like a fuzzy-faced were-pig. This shows how devious Satan really is, because being a cool looking monster wouldn't be so bad, but being both horrible looking and stupid looking at the same time is a real curse, believe me, because I know. It's a flat, formulaic story but what is apparent from the very first scene is that this movie is beautifully made, with artistically composed deep-focus scenes lit in intense expressionistic chiaroscuro. It's one of the most visually appealing movies I have seen in quite a while and my eyes were very very happy to be watching it. Story 3/10, execution, 8/10.

Miss London Ltd. (1943) is a very rare thing - a British musical comedy. There are lots of great British comedies with songs added, but this is a unified production in the American style with songs integrated into the action and dialog, imaginatively staged. It stars Arthur Askey and American singer and comic actress Evelyn Dall, with musical support from Anne Shelton, another outstanding performer. Who cares what the story is, it's sharply written, fast and funny with lots of good songs and dancing. See or download it here - it's worth it. 8/10

Movies

Penthouse (1933) Society lawyer gets embroiled with gangsters and "night club hostesses" in this better-than-average light drama. Warner Baxter is an interchageable thin-moustached leading man who does his job well, but Myrna Loy is the real standout, making everyone around her look good by being so good herself. Lots of slinky gowns, but I don't care for the huge bow plastered across the front like a bib collar. A well-crafted story with a lot going on, which skirts around the usual cliches. Definitely a cut above the usual light crime drama, and worth seeking out. 8/10

La Cabeza Viviente (1966) A Mexican "head on a table" movie; this time it is the head of an aztec warrior. The ancient living head's perfectly preserved servitor enacts revenge on the profaners of the tomb, while the high priestess' spirit possesses the Professor's Daughter. As head on a table movies go, this is as good as any. I just enjoy these Mexican movies from Churubusco Azteca - they are the Mexican RKO, adequately entertaining with the occasional odd concept. 5/10

Movies

Don't Tell the Wife (1937) Guy Kibbee and Una Merkel get top billing in this RKO bill-filler. Merkel is the wife of a Wall Street Hustler, Kibbee the duffer duped into fronting for a phony gold mine company. Takes the idea and runs with it, then flips it around in the last reel so justice is served and virtue rewarded. Some good laughs, but it emits sleep-rays through the middle third which almost put both of us out. You could do worse. 4/10

The Face of Marble (1946) I'll bet you anything that someone at Monogram Studios said, "We need a movie called The Face of Marble and this is when we need it by." Completely incoherent script from start to finish, especially the finish. John Carradine is a scientist working on a means of reviving the dead, but the revived fall under the sway of his voodoo housekeeper and gain the ability to walk through closed doors. A revived dog becomes a sort of ghost vampire. The titular face is a momentary side-effect of the revival process which plays no part in the proceedings. A ridiculous muddle of pseudo-science and voodoo with flashing neon and spark machines, directed by champion hack William Beaudine. The best feature of the film is statuesque Maris Wrixon, who spends most of her screen time in a luscious satin nightgown. This movie stands as evidence that a really lousy script can be far more entertaining than a pretty good one. 6/10

Maris Wrixon, an ornament to any laboratory.

Movies

Lifeforce (1985) Expedition to Halley's Comet finds huge spacecraft full of dead monsters and takes home the three perfectly preserved humans also aboard, not thinking they might be soul-sucking alien parasites. High concept psycho-erotic horror from the Colin Wilson novel on which it is based is genuinely disturbing, but the effect is diluted by over-reliance on shouting, flashing lights, explosions and snarling zombies - all of which merely tire me. Much of it is done extremely well, but all the noise and schlock were unfortunate and irritating. 5/10

Movies

Resident Evil: Afterlife (2010) This is the way to make a brainless action spectacle. Get the narration over with in less than a minute. Don't do anything twice. Make your whirling wireframe computer models absurdly vast, and make them move the story forward, not be some little gimmick that two guys stand next to talking. Include an army of Milla Jovovich clones in skintight vinyl. Provide a gigantic zombie-crushing supertruck, BUT DON'T ACTUALLY USE IT. Remember that audiences don't want to see more than one minute of people standing around talking at a time. Use special effects to actually do something, not to interrupt the story with a "look what I can do" moment over and over again. For what it is, 10/10

This is the way to do it.

Movies

El espejo de la bruja (The Witch's Mirror) 1962 - This Mexican horror fantasy starts off as a tale of Supernatural Vengeance, with a devil-worshipping housekeeper punishing the master of the house for his wife's murder, but it veers off into corpse-stealing and grave-robbing, and transplantation of faces and hands from corpses after the new wife is horribly burned. Includes the unique concept of transplantation of ghost hands, which are not under the control of their unknowing new owner. Jaw-droppingly and imaginatively grotesque without being gory, this is the craziest, most satisfying horror fantasy I can recall seeing in years. Most of these things pretty much take one topic and run it through a full cycle, but this throws in everything they could think of, transformations, apparitions, vengeful spectre rising from the grave and stepping through the mirror, right up to the crawling hand stabbing people with a big pair of scissors. Would make a great double feature with the Japanese film Ghosts of Kasane Swamp. 10/10

Roman Scandals (1933) Eddie Cantor dreams of ancient Rome. I haven't seen much of him and am still trying to figure out what the basis of his popularity is. He's got a good voice and an interesting delivery of comic comments and retorts, and the movie is entertaining with a couple of good songs and a few good laughs. My main reason for seeing this, though, is my acquisition of a Busby Berkeley book, so I have a complete illustrated list of his work at hand. The production numbers in this one are not gigantic mind-blowing spectacles so it is perhaps easier to see what they are made of. It's not just film of people dancing - it's the use of the camera in motion and at unique angles, and the intercutting of close-ups of hands, feet and faces accentuating the action which make these so fun. Sometimes people aren't dancing at all - the set and camera do the work. The slave market fantasy, with tragic song by Ruth Etting, is spicy and kinky with scantily clad maidens dancing, chained and whipped. The baths number with the catchy tune Keep Young and Beautiful makes use of black and white contrast, with Cantor blacked up, and interplay between beautiful blonde bathers in white and beautiful black servants mirroring and complementing each other. Moderately entertaining overall, with an extended chariot race if you are a quadriga fan. 7/10

Movies

Celebrated Thanksgiving by staying home alone, eating a small lentil and brown rice burrito with spinach in it, and some cake, and watched these movies:

The Creeping Flesh (1973) Peter Cushing and Cristopher Lee are fraternal competitors for the big science prize - both want to cure insanity, but Cushing's technique involves making a serum from the blood of an ancient New Guinean devil skeleton which regenerates its flesh when dampened. Doesn't work out as well as he had hoped. DEVIL SKELETON, I said. Fairly good Victorian Pseudo-Science movie, not a real rip-snorter though and you have to wait quite a while for the devil skeleton to get rained on enough for it to amble about, but it does have the craziest POV shot I have ever seen. 6/10

How the world looks to a partially regenerated devil skeleton.

Puzzlehead (2005) Small, quiet, intelligent SF story exploring what it means to be human. Man builds his android replica and programs it by scanning his own brain - the creation must learn to overcome the weaknesses and failings of its creator. No huge surprises, just a thoughtful, well-made character study. 9/10

Love on the Run (1936) Joan Crawford is the rich girl who hates reporters, Clark Gable is a reporter. Pretty much like a jillion other movies where the girl finds out the guy wasn't being honest and never wants to see him again. Lots of "follow that cab" kind of stuff, competition with fellow-reporter Franchot Tone (who overacts horrifically), and there is a spy subplot tossed in. Some sequences are irrelevant to the story and are dragged on way too long, and at one point Gable suddenly has a black eye for no apparent reason. Kind of a mess, though Crawford seems very human, fresh and almost innocent at certain points. Best part of the movie is Donald Meek's role as an eccentric night watchman at the palace of Fontainebleu. Won't kill or thrill. 4/10

The day before Thanksgiving I watched Fangs of the Cobra (1977), a Chinese lite contemporary romance adventure from Shaw Brothers studio, not the usual costume martial arts for which they are best known. Young man returns from studying abroad to take over management of the large family farm, and falls for the daughter of a tenant farmer. The unique twist is that her pet, best friend, confidante and protector is a cobra - but he hates snakes because his mother was bitten by one when he was a child, and died. The scheming cousin who wants to marry his money ends up naked quite a lot more than I expected, though without sufficient attributes for me to find it anything but surprising. Eventually the hero cobra protects the infant son from being bitten by the evil mongoose and pretty much saves the day all around. Unique and surprising while still being quite mediocre. 5/10

Movies

Cat Girl (1957) Multigenerational curse of unknown origin causes mental bond between woman and leopard. Not quite a transformation film - she thinks she turns into a cat and there is a vague blurry sort of a transformation scene at one point, but mostly it is gloom, atmosphere and stiff British dialogue. Not very exciting or interesting. 4/10

Konga (1961) Michael Gough, one of the great overactors of the cinema, is the mad scientist whose plant serum transforms a tiny chimp into a gigantic gorilla suit. Takes a very long time for the gorilla suit to become gigantic so for the most part it is a conventional gorilla suit movie, with the requisite stranglings, and lab apparatus being swept off tables. When the gorilla suit finally becomes gigantic it bumbles feebly about, or stands immobile, roaring at the hundreds of rounds of gunfire zipping past it because something that large is so difficult to hit. The moral of it all is that those who use science to justify their sociopathy are destroyed by their own creation, but I heard that before. It's all pretty flat, leaving lots of time to admire the way the lighting on the sets doesn't appear to come from any of the visible light fixtures. 3/10

Kongo (1932) There is also a chimp in this movie but everything else is different. Walter Huston is a scar-faced wheelchair-bound white witch doctor who controls his lackeys with drugs and violence, and the natives with simple stage magic, while nursing a grudge against the man who stole his wife and broke his spine. The natives are props and plot devices, the whites uniformly filthy and degraded, though bearing a tiny spark of humanity. Lupe Velez is oiled up and lustful, always on the brink of losing her top. A truly perverse production of a lurid and deranged melodrama. 8/10

Movies

Disney High School Musical China (2010) I liked High School Musical a lot because it is a pure, non-ironic reversion to the basics of the artform. I liked this even more because it takes that and puts it into a different culture, reflecting a different set of mores and ideals. It is blindingly colorful, intensely choreographed, with a harder rocking beat and less (or at least different) melodramatic formula. I was soothed into a state of vegetable delight. I suppose there is no way to see it legally in the U.S. and it seems to be actively suppressed online. As a lover of the artform, I found this to be the best modern musical I have seen since the original. 10/10

Match Factory Girl (1990) Finnish film, directed by Kaurismaaki, in which a young woman's every attempt to find a little happiness in life is mercilessly crushed. Not as much of a downer as it sounds though, as Kaurismaaki's films, however bleak and sparse, always leave a strange feeling of calm satisfaction. His aesthetics and ideals seem to match mine precisely - I never say "I didn't like that part," or "I wouldn't have done it that way," and he obviously loves machines and industrial spaces as I do. There is no filler, and every shot is a beautiful composition, no matter what is happening. His influence on the modern Quirky Independent Film is obvious, just as obvious as the fact that they are trying to do what he does and not succeeding. The characters sit silent and immobile in a state of perpetual discomfort with life, but they are thinking and feeling beings with human souls, not goofy cartoon characters being weird for weirdness' sake. Probably only about a hundred words are spoken in this too-short, hour-long film and it makes me long for that imaginary Finland, where people aren't always yapping at you or each other or themselves. This was Donna's viewing choice for the evening. 10/10

Mark of the Vampire (1935) A deliberate cartoonish mockery of a vampire movie, with Barrymore as the vampire expert, Atwill as the angry policeman, Donald Meek as the local doctor, and you know who as The Count. An incoherent script makes it seem as if production was halted before they were through shooting everything and they just stuck together what they had. There are a few effective, but almost laughably stereotypical, scenes and sequences, but it's not sure if it wants to be a satire or not. Leila Bennett does the same comedy-relief maid she did in Doctor X, though she is not given as much to do here, and Carroll Borland carves in stone the Vampire Woman cliches for all time to come. If you are really into vampires, see it. As a movie it kind of stinks. 4/10

Movies

Mechte Navstrechu [A Dream Come True] (1965) A Soviet SF film from Odessa Studios. An alien spacecraft on the way to Earth crashes on Mars, prompting a complicated series of rescue attempts. Numerous colorful, elaborate and often surrealistic sets and models depict the alien planet and spacecraft as well as landings and walks upon the surface of the Moon, Mars and Phobos. Not much of a plot, and a cop-out ending, but really wonderful to see, as demonstrated below. 8/10

Event Horizon (1997) Another rescue mission, this time to an experimental FTL drive ship orbiting Neptune. I had given up on SF films around this time so I missed this one, and I don't know if I am sorry or not. The parallels between this and Disney's The Black Hole are numerous and obvious, not just in concept but in visual design and in the vast absurdity of execution. This is so excessive, even the sound design stands out as simply going too far. The only thing it didn't have was a comedy relief robot, or a comedy relief anything for that matter. Nevertheless it is delightfully ridiculous from the very first beeping letters that pop onto the screen. Beeping letters are always the sign of things to come, not necessarily good things, from a skewed conception of how a movie ought to be done. Sadly, they were not beeping green letters, the acme of the form. Anyhow, the long-lost spaceship eventually transforms into an Old Dark House from which None Shall Escape, and the SF movie becomes a grisly supernatural horror story. Why would anyone design a faster than light drive to look like a mechanical device for summoning demons? Because THAT'S WHAT IT IS! Why would anyone design a spaceship to look like a Haunted Mansion, with gothic wall panels, arched colonnades and coffin-shaped doorways? Because THAT'S WHAT IT IS. Though it becomes outright ghoulish at the end, with actual cascading rivers of blood, it is primarily an excessively, absurdly over-the-top gadgetporn space opera that had me laughing with glee. Except for the horrifically mutilated corpses, which I hate. Stupidly great in certain ways. 8/10

Movies

Byleth, el demone dell'incesto (1972) Costume psychodrama of a 19th century noble seemingly possessed by a murderous and incestuous spirit. Really just a skin flick and an excuse to indulge the passion of that era and nation, of depicting a mysterious figure in black stabbing naked women to death. Even that is muddled and vaguely executed, like everything else in the film. Apparently seeing an actor and actress supposed to be brother and sister making out was intended to be startling. 5/10

Movies

Hiroku Kaibyoden [The Haunted Castle] (1969) Another version of the story filmed in 1958 as Mansion of the Ghost Cat. This version is from a classier studio and is a straight-ahead costume spook story of samurai days. The beloved pet of an unjustly slain vassal becomes a vengeful demon to punish the murderous lord of the castle. While it builds quite a bit of tension by keeping almost all of the action in claustrophobic night-dark hallways, with characters floating in isolated spheres of dim light, it really doesn't compare to the earlier version for imagination and sensation. Has its moments but you definitely want to go with the earlier one. 5/10

Echappement Libre [Backfire] (1964) Belmondo, Jean Seberg, and a Triumph Spitfire convertible made of gold wandering around the mediterranean. Sort of a heist movie so you can figure how it's going to end up. Never really makes a whole lot of sense, builds chemistry between the characters, or becomes very interesting. Passes the time painlessly, and is not challenging. 5/10

Movies

Horror Island (1941) Factory-made back lot b-picture, specifically designed not to outshine the film at the top of the bill. Doughy all-purpose good guy Dick Foran, exotic foreigner Leo Carillo and a mixed bag of characters (including Iris Adrian) in a haunted castle looking for pirate treasure. Groping hands, secret panels, cobwebs and screams in the night. Harmless. 5/10

Movies

The Woman Eater (1958) British-made shocker in which a mad scientist seeks a serum to bring the dead back to life, using the fluids of a carnivorous plant (a big hairy heap with three pairs of waving arms) which feeds on attractive young women. You'd think with a premise like that you could get some sort of thrills out of it, but sadly no. 3/10

En Effuillant la Marguerite a.k.a. Mademoiselle Striptease (1956) Crude "comedy" of errors in which teenage Brigitte Bardot must secretly win a striptease contest. This is one of the lousiest French movies I have ever seen; as bad as an American movie, but with naked women. They did have a brief scene in a newspaper composing room with numerous linotypes, and I liked that, but you need more than linotypes and naked women to make a good movie. You can quote me on that. I have seen a half dozen Bardot movies from throughout her career but have never appreciated her appeal. She was a star, but never an actress, and she was wise to get out of the business. 2/10

Movies

Kyuketsuki Gokemidoro [Goke - Bodysnatcher From Hell] - (1968) Terrifically colorful low-budget Alien Vampire thriller. After a UFO causes an airliner to crash land in what looks just like the old quarry, an alien brain parasite turns its hosts into vampires. At least half of the action is just the jerks and psychos - including a political candidate and his flunky, a sadistic psychiatrist, an American war widow, a teenage Mad Bomber, and an International Assassin, like you get on most flights - in the airplane squabbling among themselves. For god's sake if you are going to have alien brain parasites crawling into people's skulls why do you need neck-biting vampires? In spite of all the strife, activity and strong anti-war message it ended up being a bit tedious. 6/10

Movies

The Slime People (1963) Monster-suit movie has some unique ideas - it skips the usual slow invasion lead-up and gives you the suit in the opening shot; scaly subterranean beast-men driven up from their abode by nuclear testing have used a solidifying fog to make a dome over L.A. to change the climate to suit their needs. Sadly, it becomes incredibly tedious in its relatively short run-time, with much of the walking and running around obscured by smoke machines and foggy overlays. The script is pretty eccentric, and there are only a couple of actors in the film, the rest being untalented amateurs - old-timer Les Tremayne goes over the top as a local eccentric but doesn't last very long. Much credit is due the creators of the three pretty darn good monster suits, but they and the location shots of a meat market are the best part of the movie. 3/10

Movies

Terror from the Year 5000 (1958) Made-in-Florida sci-fi cheapie makes the most of what it's got. Scientific experiment brings back objects, and eventually a person, from our horrible radioactive future. Entertaining. 5/10