What was the last movie you saw?

Here it is:


Although this says Nurses For Sale, this is NOT the sexed-up and severely edited version Al Adamson created and released under that title. This is the original German version, dubbed in English but with the credits in German (including the original German title.)
Thanks! do you recall when the spider was on?
 
Thanks! do you recall when the spider was on?


Starts about at the one hour and three minutes mark.

Meanwhile:

The Swamp of the Ravens (El pantano de los cuervos, "The swamp of the crows," 1974)

Nutty Spanish/Ecuadoran shocker. Surprisingly young and handsome Mad Scientist figures he can reanimate the dead, as long as they been deceased for an oddly specific eight minutes or less. A committee of medical authorities (played by you in flashback, as we hear multiple voices but don't see them, and the Mad Scientist speaks directly to the camera) refuses to allow him to experiment with super-fresh corpses. He winds up working at some medical facility but having a shack in the swamp (which contains neither ravens, nor crows, nor buzzards [as the English dubbing calls them] but vultures.)

The Eternal Triangle pops up, as his girlfriend has her own flashback to loving a lounge singer, then leaving him for the Mad Scientist. She then goes back to the longue singer (after he serenades a mannequin of her, pledging his love to his "dead robot.") Mad Scientist kills her so he can revive her, but he gets intimate with her before she's alive again.

Meanwhile, body parts from the swamp, where the Mad Scientist tosses away the leftovers from his experiments, show up. leading our Comedy Relief police official to start an investigation. For no apparent reason, living heads (quite obviously just the actors standing in the water up to their necks) pop up in the swamp, but play no part in the plot. They just float there.

The swamp of the not-ravens is a striking location, and the movie is actually pretty nicely filmed in EuroGothic style. That doesn't stop it from being utterly goofy.
 
SALEM'S LOT - 1979
I notice there is a scene shuffling issue since BoomBoom Bonnie knows that Cully will be sent to Portland by Straker a day before Straker even tells Crockett that he needs two men.That's a bit weird unless BoomBoom Bonnie was on friendlier terms with Straker than any of us assumed.
Anyway--it is still one great vampire story. I don't see any problem with David Soul--he gets nervous as it goes--and some of the little things--like where he asks Marie Windsor for a cross is done with a kind of edgy hesitation which gradually increases until they get to the Marsten house. Also, I have heard criticism of Ben dropping the holy water--but I think the point was that he was so hesitant and spooked-Mark is less nervous than him---and then when he drops it--he just says #$%^# this and gets over the fear he has.
Mike Reyerson's head jerks as he gets up from the rocking chair are pretty creepy little performance gestures and also Marjorie Glick's obnoxiously exaggerated lashing out with her arms. I always assumed she was killed by the crucifix but she was in the root cellar too.

But James Mason is endlessly fascinating with his superior contemptuous condescending tone.

Straker: "That will hold you until tonight."

Mark: "What will happen tonight?"

Straker(pats him on the shoulder) : "...Yes."


THE CAT AND THE CANARY -1978 - A dud. Not a good comedy and not a good horror film although it gets some pages in William K Everson's More Classics of the Horror Film. Surprising --maybe he was a Carol Lynley fan. Come to think of it, this is the only work of hers I think I have seen after 1972.
 
Dark Water (2005). It is an American remake of the 2002 Japanese version, but far inferior. It isn't a terrible movie and has some proven actors, but not much to be scared about. Possibly more of a sad story than scary. That said it still has a disturbing atmosphere and is reasonably compelling. I do remember the original had a couple of scary scenes, such as in the elevator, and the child was more chilling. Only reason to watch over the original is if not wanting to watch subtitles.
 
Rifftrax Triple Feature:

Jack the Giant Killer (1962)

Let’s make The 7th Voyage of Sinbad a lot cheaper and sillier! The result isn’t terrible; it’s acceptable kiddie matinee fodder, and I’m a sucker for stop-motion animation. True, the rhyming leprechaun is annoying, but the do-it-yourself costumes for the bad guy’s minions have a low budget appeal. Something that can be enjoyed unironically in the right state of mind.

Samurai Cop (1991)

How to make an action movie and do everything wrong. Terrible script, terrible acting, meaningless plot (it pretty much boils down to “the good guys and the bad guys shoot at each other”), and the samurai gimmick is barely there at all. What makes this really special, however, is the bizarre behavior of very, very minor characters. The nurse who starts talking to the hero, whom she has just met, in a wildly inappropriate manner. The outrageously fey waiter. The cop at the “hospital” (where what must be the intensive care ward, consisting of one patient in a tiny room, is literally next door to a dentist) who has very few lines and is going to milk every word for everything it’s worth. Good times.

Birdemic Shock and Terror (2010)

It does my heart good that, in the 21st century, somebody can make a truly abysmal film with perfect sincerity that it’s something good. None of this SyFy Channel or The Asylum or Troma wink-wink-nudge-nudge we know this is a rotten movie stuff. Genuine amateur ineptitude, bless 'em. Three-quarters of an hour of abysmal romantic drama as software guy courts supermodel (with no outward evidence that he’s a millionaire because of a buyout and so is she, because she’s on the cover of the Victoria’s Secret catalog.) Then the birdemic shows up with the world’s worse special effects. Animated eagles that very slowly flap their wings and hover, the way fake bats did in 1930’s vampire movies. And they somehow cause badly animated fires. Pure, unadulterated, unironic bad movie making.
 
Samurai Cop really is something. It feels incredibly amateurish. The extras are pretty amazing: the whole thing feels as if it was made to win a bet.
 
The Devil Bat (1940) Dr. Paul Carruthers, a scientist (Bela Lugosi) involved in the formulation of perfumes, feels ripped-off, because his employers are rich, while he was rewarded with a mere $10k, which he had chosen rather than a percentage. He uses 'science' to grow bats to enormous size and an after shave with a very particular and powerful scent to attract the bats to the victims.


supporting cast/characters: not even one familiar name!

Just over an hour, my liking of it may be entirely based on the lead actor. 7/10
 
The Thirteenth Chair (1929) Hmm, there are several versions of this film, must have been one of the others I had already seen, because with Bela Lugosi in it, I would almost surely have remembered it better than I did.

So, this was Bela Lugosi's 1st (oneth) film. Prior to this, he had his most famous role on the stage. Here he is among the supporting actors, only one of whom is the least bit familiar to me. Medium Rosalie La Grange (Margaret Wycherly) name seems familiar, though face does not.

So, 13, count 'em, thirteen (D in hexadecimal; 1101 in binary, 15 in octal) chairs are arranged in a circle, facing inward, & a certain medium is there, to contact the murdered man's spirit in order to identify the murderer. Lights are off, as is usual for a séance & oops, there is another murder!

Police Inspector Delzante (Bela Lugosi) is there also to find whodunit.

I must admit, I dozed-off during this film, though my chair was tilted back as far as it would go.


7/10
 
Jack the Giant Killer (1962)



Samurai Cop (1991)
I have seen Samurai Cop but I don't remember it at all. I know it was bad.

Jack the Giant Killer
It's hard to dislike a Harryhausen rip-off, especially given how few they made. Not a bad movie--the sad part is the puppets are so awful-looking compared to his films. If only the puppets were a little better but the producer was the one who had final say on it.
There's a funny story I heard--when they were filming it--the puppet for the chimpanzee was stolen by a school kid who visited (back then--they weren't so fussy about visitors walking around the studio). They had to physically threaten the kid to get it back.
 
The Thirteenth Chair (1929) Hmm, there are several versions of this film, must have been one of the others I had already seen, because with Bela Lugosi in it, I would almost surely have remembered it better than I did.

So, this was Bela Lugosi's 1st (oneth) film. Prior to this, he had his most famous role on the stage. Here he is among the supporting actors, only one of whom is the least bit familiar to me. Medium Rosalie La Grange (Margaret Wycherly) name seems familiar, though face does not.
Is there a line where Lugosi says

"So...there are TWO Helens."

I remember reading about this film and that line was mentioned.
 
Woman of the Hour - new Netflix original drama about the serial killer Rodney Alcala. A deeply uncomfortable watch that focuses on the effects of misogyny within the system. Powerful but very much not a fun watch.

Alien: Romulus - a compilation album of the best bits from the Alien Franchise. Incredible visuals that really capture the feel of classic Alien movies. At its best when it ploughs its own furrow in the first part of the fillum, but when we get on board the titular Romulus it all goes a bit "seen it all before". I can't say I was blown away, but it had some nice set pieces and nostalgia.

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice - I loved the original. This was just okay. It was in need of a script polish for structure. McArthur Park has a starring role that I enjoyed for the music rather than what was on screen. Michael Keaton was fab.
 
Office Space (1999)

A slightly dated but still very accurate story of a reasonable man surrounded by obnoxious weirdos in a bland office job. It lacks some of the misery of the British sitcom The Office, but covers similar territory. It gets stranger than I'd remembered, but has some great minor characters and memorable scenes. In particular, Gary Cole and John C McGinley are very good as the boss of the office and an efficiency consultant respectively.

Office space is a reminder of how good Beavis and Butthead creator Mike Judge is at getting to the heart of modern life, in some ways - as typified by Silicon Valley and the woefully underrated satire Idiocracy.
 
Samurai Cop really is something. It feels incredibly amateurish. The extras are pretty amazing: the whole thing feels as if it was made to win a bet.
Robert D'zar starring in that one. He ws in many b-list films with an early highlight being Maniac Cop.
 
Too Late for Tears (1949) NOIR ALLEY; So, Muller began talking about femme fatales, & how they were described, noting that such descriptions omitted 'housewife.' But this film is an exception.
Jane Palmer (Lizabeth Scott) is one such housewife, and she is very dissatisfied with her middleclass status. While her husband is driving them to a party, she insists she does not want to go, because other women in the group will be looking down on her, etc. Oh, they are driving a convertible with its top down, & it is night. So, husband Alan Palmer (Arthur Kennedy) turns around, and begins driving the other direction. When a car approaching from the other side of the road, its driver tosses a suitcase into their back seat. What was that? so, they stop, open the case, & :giggle: find it is full of money! Jane is elated! Now she can afford all those things she wanted for so long! Suddenly, another convertible approaches, flashing its headlights. They immediately speed away, evading the pursuer.

Alan is the responsible type, he insists on taking the case full on money to the police. Jane is the greedy type, & if this were an animated cartoon her eyes would be dollar $igns. Finally Alan seems to have calmed Jane, and gets her to agree that he will put the case in the luggage check at the train station. Next day, a knock on their apartment door, & Danny Fuller (Dan Duryea) bursts in demanding the money! He slaps jane repeatedly, she denies knowing what he is talking about. Anything more would spoil it.

I loved this! What a wonderful example of noir! 9/10
 

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