What was the last movie you saw?

Something Weird (1967)

Wacky supernatural flick from schlockmeister Herschell Gordon Lewis, perhaps better known for gore films. Guy gets zapped by electricity in an accident and gets both a messed-up face and psychic powers. A witch straight out of a kindergarten production of a fairy tale offers to cure his face if he becomes her lover. Since she can appear as a foxy chick, this isn't a bad deal. Guy goes on to exorcise a ghost out of a church, takes an LSD trip, helps the cops trying to find a serial killer, etc. Much more incoherent than it sounds. Oddest scene is a guy pretending to fight off a blanket that is supposedly trying to strangle him. This is the film that the Something Weird video company named itself after.
 
Primitive Love (L'amore primitivo, 1964)

Bizarre combination of sex comedy and mondo-style documentary. Jayne Mansfield plays herself, but as an anthropologist. Upon arrival at a hotel in Italy, two brainless bellhops are instantly driven mad with lust, and will provide painful amounts of slapstick antics. She's here to show a documentary to a fellow anthropologist.

Most of the middle of the film consists of National Geographic type footage of "primitive" people, along with plenty of stuff that's clearly faked. The fact that the real footage includes on-camera animal killings ruins what little chance this thing had of being erotic or funny. This stuff is interrupted by the fantasies of the two bellhops of Mansfield as an "African" dancer or as a hula dancer. At the end, Mansfield proves her thesis that "civilized" men are just like "primitive" men by performing a strip tease for the two bellhops.

Even for bad movie buffs, this is pretty painful stuff.
 
Bloody Pit Of Horror (1965)
Filmed in Psychovision :D

Even Psychovision can’t save this trash.

There are good movies, good bad movies and bad bad movies. This one is bad! bad! bad!

Avoid.

On the other hand
Into The Abyss (2011) is an excellent documentary from Werner Herzog.

It explores the impact of a triple homicide that leads to an execution in Texas. It tries to do so in an impartial and thought provoking way. It does not attempt to persuade one way or the other on the use of execution but simply sets out the facts and opinions of all those affected by the crime.
 
Foxbat said:
Bloody Pit Of Horror (1965)
Filmed in Psychovision :D

Even Psychovision can’t save this trash.

There are good movies, good bad movies and bad bad movies. This one is bad! bad! bad!

Avoid.

On the other hand
Into The Abyss (2011) is an excellent documentary from Werner Herzog.

It explores the impact of a triple homicide that leads to an execution in Texas. It tries to do so in an impartial and thought provoking way. It does not attempt to persuade one way or the other on the use of execution but simply sets out the facts and opinions of all those affected by the crime.
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I have a really complicated relationship with Werner Herzog, especially his documentaries, which I feel are too... auteur-driven. But this one is flawless.
 
The Mafu Cage (1978)

Sick and twisted exploitation movie or serious art film? Both!

Two sisters, the daughters of a deceased father who did some kind of research in Africa live together in a mansion decorated in African style and equipped with a large cage. The elder (Lee Grant) is a solar astronomer, The younger (Carol Kane) is, quite obviously from the start, a complete psycho. She keeps primates of various sorts as pets, one at a time, in the cage. She names each one Mafu, hence the title. She also has a habit of killing them when she breaks down into hysterical rages.

This doesn't keep the guy who supplies the animals (Will Geer) from bringing her an orangutan, even though he knows these killings have happened more than once. It also doesn't convince the sister that she needs serious professional help. (She blackmails the sister into supplying another Mafu via a suicide attempt.)

Sister gets a boyfriend, a fellow solar astronomer. (They have sex in the observatory, which is unique.) Sister leaves on a trip to an Arizona observatory for a few days, leaving the lunatic alone. (Bad idea.) Boyfriend comes over to visit the madwoman. (VERY bad idea.) You can guess that this is going to end badly for everybody.

Did I mention the fact that the two sisters are in a sexual relationship?

Sleazy stuff, beautifully filmed and treated with as much good taste as possible. The sets and costumes are stunning. The insane sister is also an artist, and the movie is full of stunningly gorgeous (and creepy) drawings, which eventually completely fill the wall of the big cage.
 
THE SECRET INVASION - 1964 - Wanted to watch a Roger Corman film and this is one of the more obscure ones I watched before. I forgot how expensive it looks--it has great use of locations, one of the more picturesque war movies. Also has a very sad and horrific scene involving Henry Silva. Definitely not a "war is wonderful" movie using the idea of criminals recruited into military service which Corman had done before in a western and would become more famous with the Dirty Dozen. Another film concept that he got to first.
 
Holy Wednesday AKA Fangs AKA Snakes (1974)

Eccentric combination of broad comedy and horror of the "animals attack" subgenre.

Our antihero is Jim W. "Snakey" Bender, a grizzled old coot who drives the most beat-up car you've ever seen into town every Wednesday. He lets the local schoolchildren, with the co-operation of the teacher, feed mice and birds to his collection of snakes. The local preacher objects to this. Snakey then gets his groceries from a store owned by a sister and brother, both of whom, by the way, try to seduce the schoolteacher. He then goes to the home of his buddy the sheriff, so they can blast John Philip Sousa marches and march around to them. He then goes to the home of the schoolteacher, so she can enjoy the attentions of his biggest snake, Lucifer. (I'll leave that to your imagination.)

This Wednesday routine is interrupted when the sheriff gets married to a stripper. There go the Sousa marches. The store owners find out about the schoolteacher's kinky habit. There goes his visits to her house, as well as getting his snakes fed by the children when the preacher finds out.

It's time for Snakey's revenge!

It's a genuinely weird film, often very funny. More entertaining than it has any right to be.
 
FOLLOW ME, QUIETLY (1949) dir. Richard Fleisher; starring William Lundigan, Dorothy Patrick, Jeff Corey

TCM's Noir Alley presentation, hosted by Eddie Muller. Muller admitted it's more a police procedural than a noir, but he felt the cinematography by Robert De Grasse (The Body Snatcher, The Leopard Man, Kitty Foyle, Born to Kill and a lot of others) had the noir feel. Enjoyable and brisk B-movie that runs about an hour, it could have been a template for any number of episodes of '50s TV cop shows.

The Judge has left behind several strangling victims over the last six months. The investigators are Lt. Grant (Lundigan) and Sgt. Collins (Corey), who have found plenty of clues from the notes at the scenes of crime railing against the sinful to the size of the Judge's hat band to his brand of cigarette to recognition that he only kills during rain storms, but haven't been able to to put a face to the name. Add to the mix Ann Gorman (Patrick) an impetuous reporter nagging Grant for interviews and the inside scoop, and Grant is near a breakdown.

I wonder if this is among the first movies to have a serial killer who collects trophies? Anyway, Lundigan was discovered because of his voice, a commercial for local radio in Syracuse, N.Y. Turns out he was a good looking guy, so off to Hollywood as a fairly bland lead. More interesting was Jeff Corey, who had a ton of credits despite being blacklisted in the '50s (during which, unable to act, he took on tutoring others in film acting, among them, Kirk Douglas, Rita Moreno, Shirley Knight, Jack Nicholson, Leonard Nimoy). I remember him as a ubiquitous presence on '60s-'70s American TV. Oh, and for The Creature from the Black Lagoon fans, keep your eyes open for Nestor Paiva (a.k.a. Captain Lucas).
 
KGeo777 said:
THE SECRET INVASION - 1964 - Wanted to watch a Roger Corman film and this is one of the more obscure ones I watched before. I forgot how expensive it looks--it has great use of locations, one of the more picturesque war movies. Also has a very sad and horrific scene involving Henry Silva. Definitely not a "war is wonderful" movie using the idea of criminals recruited into military service which Corman had done before in a western and would become more famous with the Dirty Dozen. Another film concept that he got to first.
Click to expand...
Roger Corman, RIP. :cry:
 
Randy M. said:
FOLLOW ME, QUIETLY (1949) dir. Richard Fleisher; starring William Lundigan, Dorothy Patrick, Jeff Corey

TCM's Noir Alley presentation, hosted by Eddie Muller. Muller admitted it's more a police procedural than a noir, but he felt the cinematography by Robert De Grasse (The Body Snatcher, The Leopard Man, Kitty Foyle, Born to Kill and a lot of others) had the noir feel. Enjoyable and brisk B-movie that runs about an hour, it could have been a template for any number of episodes of '50s TV cop shows.

The Judge has left behind several strangling victims over the last six months. The investigators are Lt. Grant (Lundigan) and Sgt. Collins (Corey), who have found plenty of clues from the notes at the scenes of crime railing against the sinful to the size of the Judge's hat band to his brand of cigarette to recognition that he only kills during rain storms, but haven't been able to to put a face to the name. Add to the mix Ann Gorman (Patrick) an impetuous reporter nagging Grant for interviews and the inside scoop, and Grant is near a breakdown.

I wonder if this is among the first movies to have a serial killer who collects trophies? Anyway, Lundigan was discovered because of his voice, a commercial for local radio in Syracuse, N.Y. Turns out he was a good looking guy, so off to Hollywood as a fairly bland lead. More interesting was Jeff Corey, who had a ton of credits despite being blacklisted in the '50s (during which, unable to act, he took on tutoring others in film acting, among them, Kirk Douglas, Rita Moreno, Shirley Knight, Jack Nicholson, Leonard Nimoy). I remember him as a ubiquitous presence on '60s-'70s American TV. Oh, and for The Creature from the Black Lagoon fans, keep your eyes open for Nestor Paiva (a.k.a. Captain Lucas).
Click to expand...
Just watched this yesterday. About 1/2 way through, I realized that I had already seen this firm, because, for a lack of evidence, etc., they dressed-up a mannequin / dummy as the guy, leaving the only lacking details as the face. Took photos from various angles of the dummy, went around town showing booksellers the photos. Oh, almost forgot! the guy left a year old Detective-type magazine at his last victim's home, so the police asked where such an old magazine could be purchased; hence, the used booksellers were sought.

There was one particular scene that I am sorry Muller did not comment on.
The lead cop had the dummy in his office, sitting in a chair & because the scene did not show its face, or lack thereof, I guessed the the real Judge had taken its place, & was right! How unlikely, as I thought, anyway, that the villain could/would enter the Police Dept., go into the guy's office, and sit motionless for several, perhaps 5 minutes, etc. :unsure:

For a cheap film made by a cheap B-grade company, I really liked this one! 8/10
 
COAST OF SKELETONS 1965 - Had seen it before but after watching the first film with the Richard Todd character-- I watched this again. There's not really a connection between the two films. The coastline with a derelict ship on it sure looks cool though.
 
KGeo777 said:
You sure do find some bizarre movies.
Click to expand...


Thank you! I do try. Which may explain this:

Same Title, Almost The Same Year, But Entirely Different Bad Movie Double Feature:

The Astrologer (1975)

There's this secret, apparently semi-government, organization called INTERZOD that uses computers and stuff to "scientifically" calculate people's "zodiacal potential." They already know that there's a guy in India who is super-evil. They send a couple of secret agents to kill the guy, who is now leading this murder/suicide/burn down entire villages cult. The bizarre plan is to use a newly developed gizmo that projects images directly to the brain. The intent is to knock him out with a tranquilizer gun and use the gizmo to make him stab himself with a poisoned knife. Forget all that, because he immediately kills the agents instead, and we never even see the gizmo.

Meanwhile, the leader (or something) of INTERZOD is married to a woman who has the exact same "zodiacal potential" as the Virgin Mary. Somehow a "Jerusalem document" gave them the exact date of the Virgin Mary's birth. That explains why they've been married for five months and she's a virgin. We don't find out until much later that she had a child at age sixteen and gave it up. We see a little girl (presumably the result of the implied virgin birth) and the super-evil guy looking at her. "OK," I said to myself "we've established the premise -- Anti-Christ vs. female Second Coming, I presume --, let's see what happens once the plot actually gets going." And the movie ends.

The plot is definitely nutty, but the execution is pretty bland, mostly consisting of people talking. Amazingly, this was based on a novel of the same name.

The Astrologer (1976)

Amateur vanity project directed and starring some guy, with screenplay credited to his mother. Guy is a sideshow psychic. He gets some woman to live with him in his little trailer, she soon leaves for greener pastures. Guy gets involved with jewel smuggling as the story jumps to Kenya. We get "jungle adventure" stuff -- snakes, quicksand, etc. -- and the guy sails away to Tahiti. We get the entire song "Tuesday Afternoon" on the soundtrack while we see the ship sail. (We get a lot of pop music on the soundtrack, presumably without the rights being paid for.)

Guy sells the jewels to somebody and uses the money to set up a "sidereal astrology" empire. His TV show even gets him an assignment with the US Navy. In a mind-blowing moment of self-referential postmodernism, he becomes the star of a movie called The Astrologer. He finds the woman who lived in a trailer with him in the world's worst room; apparently she's now a very low-level prostitute. They get married, he makes her a movie star. With neck-breaking speed, she leaves him. He shoots her new lover, his empire collapses. The End.

The way the film zaps around the world at high velocity at times, then slows down to a crawl at other times, is really amazing. It amuses me that this guy is supposed to be so famous an astrologer that newspapers carry headlines like ASTROLOGER LEAVES SCOTLAND in huge typeface in an "Extra!" edition.
 
Jeffbert said:
The lead cop had the dummy in his office, sitting in a chair & because the scene did not show its face, or lack thereof, I guessed the the real Judge had taken its place, & was right! How unlikely, as I thought, anyway, that the villain could/would enter the Police Dept., go into the guy's office, and sit motionless for several, perhaps 5 minutes, etc. :unsure:
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Didn't bother me. Given the number of places I could enter in the '70s and '80s without being challenged, I had little doubt a standard-issue white guy could do the same in the 1940s.

Like you, about half-way through I was certain I'd seen it a year or two ago (also on Noir Alley) but watched it anyway and enjoyed it.
 
Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes.
Oh so much spent on special effects, actually superior to Avatar. Loved the first half hour.
And went to see it because the first several episodes of the reboot were as good or better than any continuing SF movie series.
Contradictions, plot holes and huge attempts to mesh intelligent apes with supposedly animal like humans attempt to carry the action.
They don't. If you choose to see it, watch the visuals (Preferably an a big screen) and don't worry your poor little human brain about the plot
 
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40 Guns To Apache Pass - 1967 - Audie Murphy stars with Kenneth Tobey as his adversary in a traditional US cavalry outpost vs Apache story. I know Murphy was some kind of WW 2 soldier extraordinaire and that was his marketing angle. Takes some getting used to since they surround him with people who are more screen friendly than he is. Maybe better acting ability than Chuck Norris but that's not saying much--he is not asked to do anything other than shoot rifles and save the day. I guess if someone was waiting to be shipped off to Vietnam this film might have provided some morale boost, but maybe not as much as a film by the Duke.
 
The Fifth Day of Peace (1970) Just as WWII ends in Europe, Two, count 'em, 2 deserters are swapping their German uniforms for civilian clothes.

Ens. Bruno Grauber (Franco Nero) and Cpl. Reiner Schultz (Larry Aubrey) are rather hungry, and decide to surrender to the Allied Army, a Canadian Unit. At first, they are treated as helpers, rather than P.O.W.s, riding along with the truck driver on his rounds. A day or two later, they are placed in the internment camp, and confronted by their countrymen, who hold a Courts Martial, finding them guilty of desertion, and sentencing them to death by firing squad. Of course, being P.O.W.s, themselves, they have no rifles.

The Senior Officer among them, Col. von Bleicher (Helmuth Schneider), requests to execute them using the Allies' rifles. Camp Commandant Capt. John Miller (Bud Spencer) refuses, citing the fact that they are prisoners, and such request is unreasonable. However, the P.O.W.s except those two, begin a protest, including a hunger strike.

8/10, but no captions.

Also note that the sentence decreed was "death by shooting," which may have been an error in translation, as firing squad seems fairly common in military films.
 
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