1965/Director: / Antonio Margheriti/Writers: Renato Moretti, Ivan Reiner
Cast: Tony Russel, Lisa Gastoni, Massimo Serato, Carlo Giustini, Franco Nero
Antonio Margheriti
I will be honest and say that of all the countries whose films I watch regularly the one I struggle with the most and still have the most ambiguity about is Italy. While there have been some masterpieces like Vittorio de Sica’s The Bicycle Thief and Shoeshine and Fellini’s La Strada most of the stuff coming out of Italy leaves me a little confused and disoriented. For example some people find it amazing that I as a horror fan cannot really stand almost all of Dario Argento’s output. The are incoherent stories and all the ranting about his prowess with camera work and lighting is exaggerated. Then again Mario Bava ranks as one of my all time favorite directors and I have a folder on my hard drive full of Italian horror and giallo films just waiting for me. Now one area that I know basically zip about is Italian science fiction and in particular the genre films of the 1960’s. Other than Bava’s excellent Planet of the Vampires I know virtually nothing of Italian cinema’s visiosn of the future, until watching Wild Wild Planet, or I Crimialli della Gallassia (maybe Galaxy of Criminals). It was directed by Antonio Margheriti (who usually directed as Anthony Dawson and did films like Cannibal Apocalypse and Andy Warhol’s Frankenstein) and co-scripted by the man who brought The Green Slime to life Ivan Reiner. Spaghetti western star Franco Nero has a role as Commander Halstead’s second in command.
The director of Sudakan Boy (which I have queued up to see soon) Noburu Iguchi basically delivers the gory goods in this TokyoShock science-fiction Yakuza revenge blood bath starring gravure model Minase Yashiro. Also in the mix are Japanese AV stars Asami and Honoka. Now I am far from an expert in these matters (though I have done ample research) but I am pretty sure the difference in the terms is that a gravure (a term for how photos are developed for glossy magazines) models pose provocatively but rarely nude or in explicit sexual situations. An AV (adult video) star on the other hand basically does everything you can image plus some things you never have and with the cutest, most innocent faces imaginable. Well there is no nudity in The Machine Girl so don’t get excited. What flesh we see is usually covered in blood and slimy internal organs. While the CGI effects have been criticized online here I have seen much worse and had no major problems myself. The film never looked like a video game to me. If more Japanese horror/action/school girl gore films were being done like this I would praise the genre more rather than berate it or struggle to find kinder words.
Sometimes I run across a film so appallingly bad I fall in love with it immediately. The Creeping Terror is one such film. In fact The Creeping Terror will be the first film to share the opposing categories of Bad Film to Watch Bad film to Avoid. How can this be you ask? Well I am a fan of bad movies and as bad as The Creeping terror is it is still not the worst film I have ever seen. Some of the stuff promoted by Something Weird Video certainly is more dismal than this mess. However director, producer (credited as A.J. Nelson) and star (as Deputy Martin Gordon) Vic Savage’s z-grade science fiction slice of cheese makes the works of Ed Wood Jr. and Ted V. Mikels look more like Orson Welles at his peak. So, I recommend it to those out there who love to see a movie that makes their jaws fall open slack in disbelief. For the less refined or masochistic I would suggest taking a pass.
1960/Director:Edward Dein/Writers: David Duncan (writer), Ben Pivar (story)
Cast: Coleen Gray, Grant Williams, Phillip Terry, Gloria Talbott, John Van Dreelen, Estelle Hemsley
The Leech woman is often given credit for being one of the better budget horror movies from the 50’s and 60’s and it frankly deserves it. It is well acted and the cast is led by two of the most beautiful faces from the time, Coleen Gray (Nightmare Alley, the Vampire) and Gloria Talbott (I Married a Monster from Outer Space). The story is not terrible by any stretch and the photography is above average except for some cheesy stock footage in the jungle sequences, but that is to be forgiven since most films from the period used stack footage. The story, while technically a horror or science fiction film, has no freaky rubber suit monsters or radioactive bugs menacing small town communities. What it has instead is a woman who finds herself getting older and less attractive while trapped in a loveless marriage desperately wants her life to change. The title of the film seems to suggest there will be some sort of mutation between a human woman and a leech but in fact what is sucked out of her victims (men, who all deserve it) is their life force.
Here is a homemade clip of the opening sequence from Star 80 highlighting Eric Robert’s performance as the slimy but lethal Paul Snider. I uploaded it to Google Video and I hope it stays since there are not many clips or decent trailers to be found online for this film. There are no trailers to be found on Youtube or Google Video at all, at least not that I could find and for certain reasons I was anxious to upload this clip to Youtube right now. I got my 1st ever warning at my Video Cavalcade site there for uploading a trailer to the Japanese sex/gore flick Killer Pussy (and you can follow that link to my review and Google Video clip at Necrotic Cinema). Since this scene has some nudity and naughty words I did not want to upset the censor committee at Youtube there and get my site removed. If I can find a good trailer online and download it I will get it back up somewhere and post it here at the Cafe. For now enjoy this homemade clip from Star 80.
1983/ Director: Bob Fosse/ Writers: Teresa Carpenter (article), Bob Fosse (screenplay)
Cast: Mariel Hemingway, Eric Roberts, Cliff Robertson, Carroll Baker, Roger Rees, David Clennon, Josh Mostel, Lisa Gordon
Star 80 is the 1983 film by Bob Fosse that deals graphically and unflinchingly with the rise of Playboy Playmate of the year Dorothy Stratten to modest fame and her brutal murder by her controlling and fame obsessed husband Paul Snider. The film is done in a type of documentary style with actors playing the significant people in Dorothy’s life adding hindsight to the event. We know what the ending of the film will be and Fosse takes us directly right to the bloody scene itself in and then retells the story in various flashbacks and narrations. While perhaps not Fosse’s best movie it is a well shot and edited film that has actually been criticized for dealing with the subject matter in such a glossy and stylish manner. It is significant for Fosse as well in that it is the last film this great director ever directed. He went on to work in other areas of film making and production. This it too bad really as this is the same skilled director who also gave movie goers Lenny and All That Jazz.
I typically shy away from doing R.I.P posts. I just really do not know what to say that will do justice to the person’s life. The net right now is inundated with obits and tributes to these two extraordinary people who passed away recently within about a week of one another. They both have had such a impact on a certain area of my life I felt the need to say a little something. No mini-bios or anything like that. Maybe another day. For now just let me express my sadness at their deaths, though both did live long and adventure filled lives of the type the rest of us mere mortals can only dream of.
Boy do I love that name. I have been trying to decide on a sister blog to The Uranium Cafe for some time now. Last night I was watching a newer style horror film called The Ruins and the name hit me. Necrotic Cinema. I scribbled it down and started work today and it is officially launched. I am using a Blogger template I downloaded and there may be some little bugs in it, I hope not as I like the look. For some time now I have been wanting to do posts on newer horror films I watch, but they did not seem to usually fit into the Uranium Cafe theme unless they were Japanese. I had dabbled with the Son of the Uranium Cafe but I hated that name and it was just a site to do some testing on Blogger, which I am new at. The site will focus on American Horror mostly of the monster, psycho, stalker, slasher variety, but expect some European and Asian material as well. There will less emphasis on comic books and music there, is any at all.After I had the name and found a theme/template that fit I began to experiment with some HTML for the backgrounds and was soon happy. I was going to make a temporary banner and I put the above one together in like ten minutes and was very happy with the results. So happy that I expect it to remain the banner for some time.
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