What was the last movie you saw?

I have the two disc fully restored version with additional footage and the original theatrical release and much prefer the the one I saw as a thirteen year old sitting in a dark theater. I thought the unseen footage would increase the thrill of watching my favorite movie but it didn’t. Not saying it’s bad, just didn’t do anything for me except for maybe where Angel Eyes checked out a Confederate hospital looking for Bill Carson but even then it seemed more of a distraction than an enhancement. I guess you really can’t improve perfection.
I actually started watching around 7PM Sat night, & as 10PM approached, I knew it was time for anime comedy. So, I finished Sunday afternoon. Otherwise, I might have thought it was looonger than it ought to have been. But, I got plenty of screenshots for my screensaver.
 
THE RAVEN 1963 - Has some good laughs. Richard Matheson felt his comedy wasn't much appreciated--he did write some funny lines. In one scene Karloff is laughing from behind as Peter Lorre ad libs. During the wizard duel one can see a crew member hiding behind the furniture on Price's side.
 

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The Grim Reaper - Italian horror (originally, in its uncut version, called Anthropophagus) which was the usual mess of pointless wandering around in the dark, jump scares, in your face gore, and bad dubbing. As a lot of the action of this film takes place in the dark (underground or at night) and was shot on 16mm with the only lighting in some scenes apparently provided by a crew members flashlight, it was hard to tell what was supposed to be going on for most of the time. Why I seem to own two copies of this POS is a question.
 
Horror of the Black Museum 1959 Seen before. Good over the top Michael Gough performance.

Torture Chamber of Dr Sadism 1967 -- Seen this before too. It's a West German version of a Corman Poe movie crossed with some Barbara Steele Euro flick. The art direction is really good--the castle and the decorations inside. There's even a painted demon character that resembles a Giger design. Story-wise it is slim, not much for Christopher Lee to do, but the biggest negative is the unimpressive score. It may have Lex Barker (who gets out of a pendulum trap without assistance, nice work), but it sure could use some Les Baxter.
 
THE BLANCHEVILLE HORROR 1963 --Is not about a village where everyone is named Blanche--that would be a horror-but this is more like a Corman Poe film done in black and white--it's something you can imagine Vincent Price in--but it's a euro gothic so the castles are real.

LADY FRANKENSTEIN 1971 --another rewatch--if Hammer had done a soft porn movie this is what it could be like. Joseph Cotten is Frankenstein and his daughter (Rosalba Neri) is also into making monsters--but her aim is to make the perfect husband by mixing someone's brain with another guy's body. It's kind of goofy but very watchable and interesting variation on the story.
The main monster looks awful--like a BEM alien but with Peter Boyle's face. He's not putting on the Ritz.
 
I saw Interstellar.
I can't help but compare it to the Mars mission from India launched the same year. For less money and more science, India was successful.
 
I'm pretty sure that Lust for a Vampire got quite close.
Not as close as Lady Frankenstein gets.
I am thinking of a particular scene. I don't think they would have done it the same way.
Then again there are other euro gothic films that are far more sleazy.
Frankenstein's Castle of Freaks comes to mind.
 
I heard of his but haven't seen them.
I have seen Daughters of Darkness 1971 (coming up on its US release anniversary this month). That has the lesbian stuff I recall but much more restrained.
 
Blood From the Mummy's Tomb 1971 (released exactly 50 years ago). Not really one of Hammer's best 70s efforts but the Mummy series is not that lively anyway. I paid more attention to the story in this viewing--I think Christopher Wicking wanted to inject some intellectual content into these B movie subjects. It's only partly successful with the philosophical overhaul.
The 50th anniversary for one of Hammer's best ideas for transcending the B movie genre, Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde is coming up in a few days.
 
The Black 6 (1973)

Blaxploitation/motorcycle gang hybrid. The gimmick is THE BLACK 6 are played by professional football players. The credits make sure you know this, because the team that each one plays for appears below his name.

Starts with a black man getting killed by the brother of his white girlfriend and his fellow racists motorcycle thugs. Then we lighten the mood quite a bit, as we meet THE BLACK 6, all Vietnam vets, as they help a widowed white farm woman with her chores, and even fix her decaying barn for free. Next they confront some racists in a bar, and wind up tearing the place up. Somehow or other, they fix it so when one guy slams the front door, the entire building collapses. This scene is played for comedy, with one of the guys saying "Peace and Love, Brother" to one of the racists, and kissing him on the forehead.

Eventually we find out the murdered man was the brother of one of the guys, so he and his buddies head into his home town to check things out. Five of the guys vanish from the plot, as the one guy talks to people to find out who killed his brother. Along the way, he meets and old girlfriend, now a prostitute. The film tries to become a serious drama at this point. The guy has an activist sister, who accuses THE BLACK 6 of being Uncle Toms.

Finally, during the last eight minutes or so, we get the big battle between the racist motorcycle gang and THE BLACK 6 we've been expecting, winding up with one of the white thugs putting a flare into the gas tank of his motorcycle and riding at THE BLACK 6, apparently ready to blow himself up as long as he gets them also. Despite the fact that we have to assume everybody got killed, the film ends with the words Honky Look out, Hassle a Brother and the Black Six will Return!!!
 
THE STRANGE CASE OF DR JEKYLL AND MR HYDE 1968 --TV movie with Jack Palance. Maybe the best made overall that I have seen (excluding a particular variation on the theme that I will be re-watching soon) . The March version is a little clunky in parts. This one adds a woman character but dispenses with the good girl/bad girl theme. I have yet to see the Spencer Tracy version. The makeup didn't impress me in photos.
 
Return from the Ashes (1965)

Hitchcockian thriller based on a French novel. Starts with a bang, as we see a bunch of people on a train, including a little kid messing around the door to the outside. By George, he actually falls out of the moving train, presumably killed. The passengers panic, of course, except for a very haggard-looking woman who shows no emotion. (Ingmar Bergman actress Ingrid Thulin.) The other folks accuse her of having no feelings, until they see the tattooed number on her wrist . . .

Yes, she's a Holocaust survivor, and the time is just after the end of the war. Flashbacks show her starting a romance with a penniless chess player (Maximillian Schell), who is quite obviously a cad. (She's a physician -- a radiologist, to be precise -- and has quite a bit of money.) The same day they get married, the Nazis drag her off.

Back in 1945, she meets her fellow physician friend (Herbert Lom, in a rare Good Guy role) who barely recognizes her. He uses plastic surgery to make her somewhat less haggard, and (for plot reasons, I suppose) she darkens her hair. She seems to want to see her husband without him recognizing her; he, like everybody else, thinks she's dead.

Hubby is fooling around with his wife's stepdaughter from an earlier marriage (Samantha Eggar.) They see her, and think she just looks like his wife. They come up with a wild scheme to have her pretend to be herself (if you see what I mean) so Eggar can inherit her supposedly dead stepmother's wealth. (This all has to do with French law; she can't inherit if there's no proof the stepmother is dead, so they're going to give her one-third of the loot when she goes through the process of impersonating herself.)

No, not the most plausible plot in the world; you have to assume neither of them realize that she's really the stepmother. In one of many plot twists, the whole scheme gets tossed out the window when the stepmother reveals her true identity.

Next, we get a Colombo-style "perfect murder" plot, with an unbreakable alibi and a safe rigged to fire a gun when it's opened. In yet another plot twist, there's a different murder entirely.

Making use of the Holocaust for a thriller may be in questionable taste, but this is quite a good film. The four lead actors are very good. There's a lot of sharp dialogue. A little bit Vertigo and a little bit Diabolique. Recommended.
 

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