Archive for category House-Keeping

Love me tender

While waiting for an interlibrary loan to help my research into my next new piece, I thought I’d do a little house-keeping:

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First up, I have recovered, revised, re-formatted and added a few screenshots to:

THE DEVIL BAT (1940)

In which Bela Lugosi, kindly village doctor by day, mad scientist by night, disposes of his enemies by (i) creating giant killer bats; (ii) teaching his bats to home in on a certain ingredient in an experimental shaving-lotion; and (iii) persuading his enemies to rub some of the lotion on the tender part of their neck. It’s foolproof!

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I have also given a similar makeover to the film’s sequel-in-name-only, DEVIL BAT’S DAUGHTER (1946).

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Plus, I’ve re-formatted REVOLT OF THE ZOMBIES (1936) and ROCKETSHIP X-M (1950), and fixed up the screenshots in THE WALKING DEAD (1936). (Sort of; they’re still a bit dark, I think.)

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Liz Kingsley is the insane genius behind And You Call Yourself a Scientist!

Brilliant minds, stupid minds

Still more SCIENCE IN THE REEL WORLD:

 

DR EHRLICH’S MAGIC BULLET (1940): – a fitting tribute to the brilliance of Paul Ehrlich, and a fascinating example of studio manoeuvring under the Production Code.

POWDER TOWN (1942): – in which the worst fears of Eros the alien are justified…

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In other news, I have recovered, re-formatted and added screenshots to my review of Destination Moon (1950), and re-formatted The Flying Saucer (1950).

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Liz Kingsley is the insane genius behind And You Call Yourself a Scientist!

Brandon Lee, Turkish Gialli

Just a few short updates:

LASER MISSION
It’s obvious that while director BJ Davis is a director of limited skill, he knows exactly how to make a low-budget 80’s action movie. Every single thing you need in the movie is present, and if it’s not expertly realized, it’s usually at least delivered in a competently incompetent manner — a statement that will make perfect sense to anyone who watches a lot of these movies. A movie like Laser Mission can really only disappoint me by not delivering on the predictable formula to which it cleaves. That happens a lot with low-budget action movies, but not with Laser Mission. It may not deliver on the promised lasers of the title, but it delivers exactly what you’d want from a cheap, goofy 80s action movie.

KADIN DUSMANI
We come to the seedy Turkish thriller Kadin Dusmani via a circuitous but highly entertaining journey through a number of different types of film that built on a central theme — the simply murder mystery — and made it increasingly outlandish and bizarre. Picking a solid starting point is almost impossible — even if one could distill down to the “the first of its kind” in movies, there’s the fact that the early efforts were all based on various types of novels and pulp stories that underwent a similar evolution to the film that would eventually grow from them. So, for the sake of not falling into a bottomless pit, let’s pick a logical point at which to begin.

Plus, we added new pictures to GOLDEN BUDDHA and WORLD WITHOUT END

That’s right. Drink it in, people.

Keith Allison is the ruthless overlord of Teleport City.

Snakes, and sharks, and screenshots, oh my!

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Just some house-keeping this time, folks. I have:

•  added screenshots to Anaconda

•  added screenshots to Red Water

•  re-formatted and added screenshots to Venom

•  somewhat revised, re-formatted and added screenshots to Silent Predators 

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That was one helluva week’s viewing…

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Liz Kingsley is the insane genius behind And You Call Yourself a Scientist!

I love the sexy slither of a lady snake…

…and I’m not afraid to say so – AGAIN – even though the last time I used that line, it provoked snickering from some immature types who apparently didn’t understand that the operative word in that sentence isn’t “lady”, it’s “snake” Hmmph!

Anyway…

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THE SNAKE WOMAN (1961)

In which some stalwart Brits set out to prove they can make a film as bad and stupid as anything produced in Hollywood, and succeed.

In a small village in the north of England, at the turn of the last century, a mad scientist injects his wife with cobra-venom, in order to treat her mental illness. Unfortunately, besides being insane, she is also pregnant. The child, a girl, is born with cold blood and strange, staring eyes. She survives an attack upon her father’s house by a torch-carrying mob, and almost twenty years later, a wave of deaths from snakebite strikes the residents of the village…

Then Scotland Yard feels compelled to investigate. Interfering bastards!

(In other news, I have also re-formatted Cobra Woman, and re-formatted and added screenshots to Cult Of The Cobra. Ohhh, yeah!)

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Liz Kingsley is the insane genius behind And You Call Yourself a Scientist!

Beware the blood of Uranus!

Hi, all. Recently I suffered a computer meltdown. I’m still cleaning up the mess. One of the main casualties is a lot of the older site material, which I’m have some trouble recovering, although I hope to get it all back eventually.

In the meantime, I wanted to work on something not too mentally taxing, and decided to overhaul an old peplum review; because nothing says ‘relaxation’ like beefy guys in man-skirts and endless opportunities for bottom jokes – right?

HCA61-proteus7bERCOLE ALLA CONQUISTA DI ATLANTIDE (1961)

When a prophecy threatens all Greece, Hercules, his son, Hylus, and Androcles, King of Thebes, set out to find the source of the danger. They inadvertently end up in Atlantis, where Hercules battles a shape-shifting god, an evil queen who is hot, hot, HOT, and a great many worshippers of Uranus [*snicker*].

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(Oh – and there are some stone boobies, if that’s a problem for anyone.)

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Edited to add:  as a small beginning, I have recovered, re-formatted and added screenshots to La Fatiche Di Ercole and Ercole E La Regina Di Lidia, and re-formatted La Vendetta Di Ercole.

And frankly, I think I’ve seen about as much of men in mini-skirts as I can bear for the present.

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Liz Kingsley is the insane genius behind And You Call Yourself a Scientist!

Oh, reely?

Well, it’s been a long, long time, but I’ve finally resurrected SCIENCE IN THE REEL WORLD, my look at science and related matters in a non-science fiction context. And to make up for the silence, here’s a triple update:

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THE SILVER CORD (1933) – Science versus smother love.

DIVE BOMBER (1941) – Physiology meets misogyny.

NO HIGHWAY IN THE SKY (1951) – Scientists are NUTS!! Oh, sure, they save lives; but basically, they’re NUTS!!

And in house-keeping news, I’ve added some screenshots to my reviews of HALLOWEEN and HALLOWEEN II.

Liz Kingsley is the insane genius behind And You Call Yourself a Scientist!

The long and winding (yellow brick) road: Part 3

twoo25-wink1bAfter the failure of The Oz Film Manufacturing Company, it was a decade before the next attempt to bring the Oz stories to the screen. In 1924, silent comedian Larry Semon paid a small fortune for the rights to Frank Baum’s first Oz novel – and then proceeded to toss 99% of the book aside, creating instead a nightmarish pseudo-Oz tale featuring bottom jokes, sexual harassment and vomiting farmyard animals.

That whirring noise you hear is Frank Baum spinning in his grave. 

THE WIZARD OF OZ (1925)

 

While we’re on the subject of horrors, I’ve also tried to fix up the screenshots in my review of ZOMBIE, although I think they’re still a bit dark.

Liz Kingsley is the insane genius behind And You Call Yourself a Scientist!

Autumn cleaning

Just a few tweaks and touches:

  • I’ve finally resurrected my Immortal Dialogue section; the main link is on the front page
  • I’ve also resurrected Taglines; the main link is part of Etc., Etc., Etc…
  • I’ve fixed up the screenshots in Grizzly, which due to technical issues came out fuzzy the first time around
  • And I’ve found a rather gorgeous Danish poster for The Last Warning (although oddly it fails to mention star Laura La Plante); I’ve added it in at the foot of the review
Liz Kingsley is the insane genius behind And You Call Yourself a Scientist!

Furniture is the devil’s playground

 

HEED YE THIS WARNING!! STRIP YOUR HOUSE OF ALL APPLIANCES LEST SATAN FIND AN ENTRANCE!!!!

Giving up the fight to think of something new for Long Island’s most famous piece of architecture to do, the screenwriters of the next set of Amityville sequels took a tip from author John G. Jones and packed up their troubles in an old piece of furniture. 1989’s Amityville: The Evil Escapes sees “Three Centuries Of Evil” on its way to the west coast hidden inside – [*snicker*] – a demonic lamp; while three years later, the same Evil (or is it??) takes a similar journey embedded in the workings of an antique clock, in Amityville 1992: It’s About Time. The results aren’t exactly terrifying, but they might make you think twice before you give into that urge to redecorate.

Liz Kingsley is the insane genius behind And You Call Yourself a Scientist!

The horror! The horror!

With spring, and consequently spring-cleaning, in the air, I was in the mood to visit with a couple of old friends – and remind myself that some people have domestic problems rather worse than dirty windows, an infestation of daddy long-legses, and cat hair as far as the eye can see.

Amityville II: The Possession is just as sleazy as I remembered, although perhaps a little more clever about its sleaziness than I was prepared to concede the first time around; while Amityville 3-D takes poking you in the eye to heights not even the Italians ever dreamed of. Booga-booga!

Liz Kingsley is the insane genius behind And You Call Yourself a Scientist!