Print

[The Australian Panther]

Jonathan Winfrey,
who directed the two Black Scorpion movies, isn't well-known as a director, but they seem to be his entry into Directing 7 of the Mike Hammer Private Eye movies - All in the second series.
I've seen the first movie and quite enjoyed it.Not the second as yet.     

[The Australian Panther]

my local film society was having a fundraiser today. I should never walk into these places with Money in my pocket.
I picked up:-
1/ Spanish Spaghetti Western, 'A minute to pray, a second to die'
This stars American actor Alex Cord, in one of his few roles and co-stars Robert Ryan. I have discovered that anything with Robert Ryan in it is worth watching. This is no exception.
Different and recommended. 
I downloaded this some time ago but that copy was obviously spliced together from various sources, from which  I figured that the movie must be pretty hard to find. So more than happy to find a complete copy.
2/ The Big Knife. Noir featuring Ida Lupino and Jack Palance and directed by Robert Aldrich. No further comment.
3/ The motherlode. I am not a great expert on Hammer films so I was surprised to find a DVD box set,
'Hammer Film Noir' with 6 moives in it. [Bad Blonde, Man Bait, A  stolen face, Blackout, the Gambler and the lady and Heat Wave.]
Blurb on the box, [In 1950, Hammer films set up a deal with American Producer Roberet L Lippert to co-produce low-budget crime dramas to be made in the UK. Lippert  would send over a shop-worn Hollywood star or promising American newcomer to give the films box-office appeal in the states, supported  by the usual fine cast of British character actors....... This five year arrangement produced a dozen well-made little B-noirs that have seemed to have fallen through film indusry cracks..until now.
Directors include Terrence Fisher and Ken Hughes and actors include George Brent, Paul Henreid and Lizabeth Scott.
I will have to track down the remaining 6 (?) Hammer noirs. I am looking forward  to watching these.
This is the only one I have found on YouTube.
The Gambler and the Lady (1952)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTjHBtEU0pQ
Gives you an idea of the quality.
Also on the same YouTube channel there is this.
The Monster of Piedras Blancas (1959) Cult Classic Horror, Sci-Fi Movie
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYKl4PtdPUA
Excellent movie, similar plot to 'Monster of the Black Lagoon'

Cheers!       

[profh0011]

Some of those are pretty good.

The "Men who made Hammer" documentaries tend to feel that Terrence Fisher "found" his calling when he finally got around to making "THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN".

At one of the "Hammer" FB groups, every so often I'll post a pic of MIKE HAMMER as a joke.

I'm working my way thru my decades-old MIKE HAMMER tv series videotapes taped off CBS.  When I finally run out, I plan to go buy the syndicated series with Stacy Keach, as thanks to bad scheduling and some weird defect in the cable signal, I've only ever seen maybe 2 episodes of that, to this day.

As I did with several other series recently, I wanna plow thru my old videotapes "one more time" before eventually upgrading to DVD.  There's only so much I can afford at once... plus, taking my time allows me to really appreciate whatever I buy more, and, I have a storage problem to address...

[The Australian Panther]

That DVD box set, of 'Hammer Film Noir' was Collector' set #1. I now have set #2 with 8 films, and I think that makes all the Hammer Noirs. So, 14 movies in all. Fascinating to see UK faces that became well known later in other contexts.
Most interesting of those is Sydney James who plays roles in several films and all of them dramatic and not comedic. And very good he is too.
The films are all good, some better than others.
More later.       

[profh0011]

VOYAGE:  "The Death Watch"
"DON'T ever volunteer"     *******   (of 10)

Nelson finds the Seaview empty... except for Sharkey... who says the Admiral ordered him to meet him there. But Nelson can't remember this. Next thing, Crane comes aboard... and is hell-bent on trying to MURDER Crane. Why? WHY? And Nelson refuses to answer any of Sharkey's questions, which make HIS actions suspect as well.

This one had me guessing. Were foreign saboteurs and/or brainwashing involved? Alien invaders? SOMETHING ELSE? A near-empty Seaview had been done before (and a similar scenario played out on "The Mark Of Gideon" episode of STAR TREK), as had a story about Crane being brainwashed.

What set this apart was the remarkably better-than-usual directing by Leonard J. Horn (who, among many other credits, did "The Zanti Misfits" on THE OUTER LIMITS-- aaaugh!!!), and, the opportunity for Terry Becker to REALLY do a tour-de-force bit of acting. Sharkey hasn't always been the most likable crewman onboard The Seaview, too often using his position in "middle-management" (heh) to boss around more-intelligent men he outranks. But for once, we got to see him thoughtful, concerned, clever (well, not too much of that), and even powerfully-emotional, all in one story.

The solution to this madness I found a BIT disappointing, but that didn't take away from this being one of the more intense episodes in a show outright notorious for being the TV drama equivalent of a ROLLER COASTER. By the time each hour is over, you're EXHAUSTED, making watching this show ONE episode a week about all my nerves can handle!

I saw at least 2 sets I'd never seen before-- one was the supposed "engine room" which was full of computers (the last time they set up the ship for automatic control, they put the computers on the bridge), and the room where Crane & Nelson have their climactic fight at the end, with an OPEN floor for diving into (or being pushed into) the ocean. I suppose they built these with the money they saved on the regular cast, all of whom were given the week off-- EVEN Chip-- apparently, this was the ONLY episode out of 110 he was missing from!

Man, was that woman's pre-recorded announcements irritating!  I'm glad I don't have that kind of thing in MY old car.  Sue England also did the voice of the evil female robot in 2 different episodes of LOST IN SPACE.

[Captain Audio]

Crane & Nelson have their climactic fight at the end, with an OPEN floor for diving into (or being pushed into) the ocean.

Those are called a "Moon Pool". Usually only deep sea habitats have them because in order to work the internal air pressure must match the external sea pressure exactly. Not easy to do with a submarine that is constantly altering its depth.
The Original Movie Seaview had a large seawater filled pool for housing marine creatures but I don't think it operated as a Moon pool unless that was an option using an external hatch (bay door) that could be kept closed when not in use.

A large moon pool in a spacious and specialized compartment would be very useful in launching and retrieving mini subs and salvaged items.

Considering the extreme depths they often dived at a compartment that doubled as a communal decompression chamber that could hold a large team of divers at one time would also be useful.

[profh0011]

Interesting comments, thanks for replying.

A lot of that probably crossed my mind as I was watching. It just seemed odd that room had never been seen before, while there was a hatch opening on the bottom in the missile room.  Yes, that room reminded me a bit of a similar room in The Nautilus in Disney's "20,000 LEAGUES", and even had a chain hanging down for lowering / lifting.  But no apparent hatch (unless it was built right into the floor).

VOYAGE was never one of my favorites, yet I decided it would be cool to get my hands on the ENTIRE series and watch it from start to finish, something you really couldn't do by the mid-70s, when they yanked the entire 1st season out of circulation... because it was in B&W.  I keep imagining, if LOST IN SPACE (my favorite Irwin Allen show) had lasted to 4 seasons, its 1st might also have been pulled for the same reason.  And the difference in quality between seasons 1 & 2 is even more pronounced on that show, so losing season 1 of LIS would have been horrible.

[The Australian Panther]

Re Film Noir,
In researching the Hammer Noir via Youtube I came across reference to a Noir film starring Cesar Romero called Shadow Man. Only a few minutes are on YouTube. More on Cesar Romero at the end of this.
Today I went to the same place where I found the Hammer Film Noir Collections and found a folder called Forgotten Noir which unfortunately had only 2 out of the 6 movies that were in the collection. But one of those was Shadow Man.
These were in collections by Kit Parker who runs
https://www.vcientertainment.com
which repackages movies which I would imagine are PD. But unlike some companies who do that sort of thing, the quality of the prints are excellent.
The Noirs are listed here
https://www.vcientertainment.com/product-category/film-categories/film-noir/
The Hammer Noirs are all produced by Robert L Lippert, but some of the other Noirs are also produced by Lippert.
Lippert was an interesting character.
Before Roger Corman?there was Robert L. Lippert
https://vciclassicfilms.wordpress.com/2011/06/02/before-roger-corman%E2%80%A6there-was-robert-l-lippert/   

Here is the VOI Catalogue and I have highlighted one page - the Box set of Mr Wong Movies, which will be of interest to some at CB+.
https://www.vcientertainment.com/product/mr-wong-detective-the-complete-collection/

enjoy!   
   

[The Australian Panther]

Cesar Romero!
Came across this movie - the title grabbed me for reasons those who follow the reading group will understand.
Frontier Marshal 1939
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnMJlr1MGqg

This is yet another movie based on Wyatt Earp, and this is a highly enjoyable movie, but probably the least historically accurate of Earp's life that I have yet seen.
Randolph Scott has made more than one movie in which although he's the featured star, he's not the key character in the movie. In this one that would be Cesar Romero as Doc Holiday.He really shows what he was capable of as an Actor.
Probable not much of an exaggeration to say that he probably set the template for portraying Holiday in subsequent films. 
The film also features John Carradine and Lon Chaney Jr.
In the YouTube comments some wag wrote,
'stars Dracula and the Joker'
They forgot the Wolfman!'

[The Australian Panther]

Here is a rather obscure NOIR featuring Warren William. He always seems to enjoy himself immensly in his films.
Fear - 1946
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77UDvTbOkgg
Peter Cookson, Warren William, Anne Gwynne, James Cardwell, Darren McGavin & Ernie Adams.
If you can spot Darren McGavin in this you are better than I am. Only spotted him in the credits. He's obviously one of the students.
And its unlikely you will anticipate the ending. No spoilers from me.
Cheers!

[paw broon]

We're watching reruns of Whitechapel which started this week. Superb cast.  Rupert Penry Jones, Steve  Pemberton, Alec Jennings and the always excellent Phil Davis. We just shut our eyes at the gory bits.

[paw broon]

Sherwood started on BBC this week.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0c724lz
Simmering tension which will lead to violence and more.  Excellent cast.  Getting to grips with all the characters took a while but worth the effort.

[bowers]

 Thanks for the tip on this one, Paw! Hope we'll be getting "Sherwood" sometime- watched the trailers and it looks quite good. Loved David Morrissey's work in "Britannia"- quirky and overly-gory, but I stuck with it.
Just finished an Irish/Belgian series, "Hidden Assets"- not great, but kept our interest until the conclusion. Our Acorn service seems to be offering more new series from Eire and some are quite good, such as "Harry Wild".
New season of "Endeavour" stars Sunday!
Since the weather here has been absolutely terrible all year (no Spring and a very late start to Summer), I've been binging on two of my "Swinging 60's" favorite series- "The Protectors" and "The Prisoner". Cheers, Bowers

[paw broon]

David Morrissey was very good as "a"Doctor in the Tennant special, The Next Doctor.
Endeavour is always a good watch, but this Sunday, there's a new short series of McDonald and Dodds starting. Jason Watkins - always good value - and Tala Gouveia. It looks like Claire Skinner is their new boss.
https://www.itv.com/hub/mcdonald-dodds/2a7401
Don't know if you can access this outside the UK.

[paw broon]

We watched the 2nd part of Sherwood. Excellent, complicated, secrets, dodgy police.  A lot going on.

[The Australian Panther]

This one is too good [bad?!] to ignore.
The Humanoid
Or posted on YouTube as;-
Italian Star Wars (1979) [For good reason, as you'll see.]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGWA0y2_uA8
Richard Kiel, with his own teeth, as the lead?! and with Mrs Ringo star, Barbara Bach.
Who is bringing the popcorn?
Cheers!   

[The Australian Panther]

I have recently discovered that there are a lot of 60's European James-bondman type secret agent movies on YouTube. Hugely entertaining. More on most of them later.
This post is about 'Kiss the girls and make them die'. 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upp8-1GFEcQ
Produced by Dino De Laurentiis.
The version here on YouTube is the Deutsch version, with english dialogue, Some of which I think, is dubbed.   
German Title was Our man in Rio.
Both titles are apt for the film. 
OK.
The description on YouTube says, 'EUROSPY SPOOF'. No, its not. Whoever wrote that got it from IMDB. Just another example of IMDB not always being right.
It never seems to occur to the current generation, that once upon a time, films were just meant to be entertaining, and an escape from reality, and Spy  films, UNCLE and Roger Moore Bonds were never meant to be anything but escapism. This film is no exception. Yes, it's lighthearted. Tribute would be a better description. 
The lead is Mike Conners [Mannix - got to find my DVD set of Mannix]  and he is excellent.
Female lead is Dorothy Provine, also excellent. Can't make up my mind if her voice is dubbed or not in this print, but its different.
And then there's Terry-Thomas. He is fantastic in this. This is the only film I've seen where he doesn't play his classic Terry-Thomas character,  he was actually a Comedian and and excellent actor, and he shows it here.
Again, IMBD has it wrong. They credit him with one role, whereas in fact he plays two and the second role is the more interesting. Since he's in costume for the first and dies quickly and then never faces the camera full-on for much of the film for the second role,I took me a while to realize it was him.
And sometime after watching the film, a light-bulb went off in my head. 
Terry-Thomas and Dorothy Provine are playing Lady Penelope and Parker!
Obviously the script-writer was a Thunderbolts fan!
And their Rolls Royce in this film is truly awesome!   
So, we get James Bond teamed up with Lady Penelope and Parker, A really nasty world-class villain with a Peter Lorre standard minion.[ You loath this guy, just at the sight of him]  and 60's standard high tech and computer screens, and many pretty girls. And some great stunts. And some clear riffs/tributes to Connery James Bond. Oh, and great shots of Rio and Brazil. Oh, and Bananas! What's not to like? Excellent  film. Thoroughly recommended.
To get serious for a minute, The Villain is cut from the same cloth as Ra's al Ghul, although slightly more deranged and actually what he has in mind is very 2022 contemporary. 
Batman Ra's al Ghul's Theme
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h154iG7Apjw
There are some wondering if the scenario depicted in the film is not actually currently in play right now. If you look at birth-rate statistics in countries where they have reliable data, for the last year or so, they have dropped seriously. Who Knows?
Anyway, if I haven't given you enough reason to watch this film, I quit!
Cheers!

[crashryan]

I think the description "spy spoof" came from mistaking Our Man in Rio for That Man from Rio (L'Homme de Rio,) Philippe de Broca's 1964 feature, which was a spy spoof. A good one, too. It starred Jean-Paul Belmondo, Fran?oise Dorleac, Jean Servais, and Adolfo Celi. Great fun, supposedly inspired by Tintin and an inspiration for Raiders of the Lost Ark.

[The Australian Panther]

That Man from Rio (L'Homme de Rio,) Philippe de Broca's 1964 featureThat Man from Rio (L'Homme de Rio,) Philippe de Broca's 1964 feature 

Saw that when it first came out and became, as many of us did, a huge Belmondo fan. That film had a number of sequels too, if I remember correctly.
Dictionary.com gives the meaning of SPOOF as , 'Spoof definition, a mocking imitation of someone or something,' Mel Brooks films are spoofs.
These two films fit into the second category from Dictionary.com, 'usually light and good-humored; lampoon or parody' And there was a degree of serious irony in both films, the plot of the villain of 'Kiss the girls and make them die'.  and the ending of 'That man from Rio' are both surprisingly prescient.
That Man From Rio (2K Restoration, 2014) | Official US Trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceB4bqJVEYg
cheers!       

[The Australian Panther]

THE SPIRIT (1987)
Like most of us, I suspect, I didn't know this existed.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094017/?ref_=ls_mv_close

This little documentary has some shots of Will Eisner at work.

Superhero Films - The Spirit (1987)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-QQUH4ZALs

Like the reviewer, I think this was a lot more satisfying than Frank MIller's attempt.
Had they turned this pilot into a series, I think I would have been successful.
Ellen is played by Nana Visitor. She wouldn't be my first pick for the role, but hey, Nana Visitor!
I like both Sam Jones and Nana Visitor in the roles.
What do you think?           

[paw broon]

A new 3 episode series of Van Der Valk  started on Sunday.  Marc Warren as the Dutch detective once again.  A good, complicated story.  Lots of views of Amsterdam.  But quite how they got from Amsterdam to Scheveningen in around 5 minutes, I don't know.  Or did I miss something???  Well worth a couple of hours of your time.
At the same time, another channel is showing the original series with Barry Foster as Van Der Valk.

Shetland is back this week but it might be too dark and emotional fir me.  Excellent cast as usual.

[profh0011]

I saw THE SPIRIT when ABC ran it in the summer of 1987, as part of a series of "unsold pilots".  (They also ran the regrettable KUNG FU: THE NEXT GENERATION, which I'm glad didn't make it.)

I liked it, and thought it was, like WONDER WOMAN, a somewhat less-ridiculous show in the style of the Adam West BATMAN (only, like I said, LESS ridiculous).

Gary Walberg looked nothing like Commissioner Dolan, buit I felt he captured the character perfectly.  (I'll probably always remember him from QUINCY, M.E., a show that started out a lot of fun... until Jack Klugman objected, and then it became dull and boring for the next 7 whole years.)

Sam Jones, as always, was the weak link in the chain, as I'm afraid he'll never be a great actor... but, I had to admit, he was WAY better in this than he'd been in FLASH GORDON in 1980.

Nana Visitor just about stole the film.  By the time she turned up on DEEP SPACE NINE, I'd completely forgotten I'd seen her in a number of other shows, including IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT, NIGHT COURT (where she played a dangerous schizophrenic), or THE SPIRIT.  She REALLY had a knack for physical comedy.  I wish she'd done a lot more stuff like this.  One of my favorite scenes is probably when Denny Colt is lying unconscious on the floor of her Dad's office, and she wants to take off his mask.

"No!  The mask must NEVER come off!"
"WHY, Daddy?"
"Because..." (he has to think about it)  "...because, criminals FEAR the unknown! And a man without a face is a man without limits!"
"Oh, Daddy, do you know what that sounds like?"
"Yeah, The Lone Ranger, but what can you do?"

And then there's Laura Robinson as P'Gell Roxton, who's just plain NUTS.  I love when she has The Spirit at her mercy, and he agrees to join her so stop her killing a whole building full of innocent people.  She decides to seal the deal with a kiss, and begins to take off his mask...

"NAHHH, it's KINKIER with the mask ON!"

It wasn't perfect, but it was a lot of fun.  I wish it had gone to a series.  Seems like ABC couldn't do anything right.

[ComicMike]

A friend gave me

NCIS Season 16-18 ,

so my next few days are filled with action pleasant anticipation. Mark Harmon has held up well for his age , I'm not his age yet , but I've held up well too.

[ComicMike]

I just discovered many episodes of the series "The Ghost & Mrs. Muir" on Youtube. What a wonderful series, I loved it as a kid and still do today. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ghost_%26_Mrs._Muir_(TV_series)

So many old comics, so many old TV series - who would have thought, that retirement would be so beautiful. 

[Robb_K]

I just discovered many episodes of the series "The Ghost & Mrs. Muir" on Youtube. What a wonderful series, I loved it as a kid and still do today. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ghost_%26_Mrs._Muir_(TV_series)

So many old comics, so many old TV series - who would have thought, that retirement would be so beautiful. 

I'm glad to know that you are enjoying your retirement.  I love the original film, "The Ghost & Mrs. Muir" from 1947, starring Rex Harrison and Gene Tierney, much more than the US TV series (which was based on the film).