Thursday, August 7, 2008

Manson Vampire

Robert Quarry as Deathmaster..... savor the bogus hippie goodness! I do have to say, when you see it in its entirety, they got the whole cult mumbo jumbo right.



Directed by frequent shower-upper-in-stuff Ray Danton.

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Hitchcock/Truffaut


If you haven't noticed, and forgive me if you have, Tom Sutpen at Charlie Parker has been posting the taped conversations that made up the classic volume Hitchcock/Truffaut, which I was first introduced to in my film classes in college. It is Hitchcock. It lives. It's also long - as evidenced by the clatter of silverware and crockery in the background.

Tom's up to episode 24 and here's the link to all posted so far (also at pic).

Leave us not forget Slammerers, he's the man who made Ed Gein acceptable to our palates, and plucked out eyeballs with animatronic crows.

Candy Barr Teaches Joan Collins To Strip!








Candy Barr was hired as a choreographer for Seven Thieves and here she is teaching Joan Collins how to strip for the role of Melanie aka 'Madame De La Cruz' . The pictures are from plastico fantastico's photostream. Check out his website here.

"Charming, don't you think?"

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Miracles

I don't know what I like more, the way it looks in a movie or the fact that someone filmed this off the TV screen!


I can directly trace my OCD to Fatima. When I was a kid my mother told me, "The Blessed Mother appeared to the little children at Fatima and told them when the world was going to end. They told the Pope, and he wrote it down and locked it away in a box." Every night I prayed over and over, "Please God, please make the Pope tell us when we're going to die!" Every time I saw the Pope on TV I would think, "He knows! And he won't tell us!"

And there you have it.

FILM FUN!







FILM FUN MAN sez:
"If'n ya want more Film Fun, click here and have fun with it!"

Monday, August 4, 2008

Dream Sequence From "The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies"



If your dreams start to bear any resemblance to this sequence, it's a sign that everythings going to be alright.

She Who Must Be Obeyed




“SHE” 1935

I finally got a chance to watch the film “She” the adventure film Merian C. Copper made after the success of King Kong after it languished on my my DVD shelf for several month after receiving it as a gift. There have been quite a few version of this film (including a 1965 version with Ursula Andress and Christopher Lee), based on novel and, though minor details change, the basic plot remains the same. A young man discovers his family knows of a secret place where the “flame of life” can keep you alive forever. He goes on an expedition to find it and does.. along with the beautiful queen, SHE who must be obeyed. She thinks he is his ancestor who found her and the flame (500 years before) and plans to keep him there and get rid of his current love interest. This version stars Randolph Scott, Nigel Bruce (who can't help but look like Dr. Watson in everything he does, poor thing) and Helen Gahagan.

First of all, this film is fantastic, in spite of... or many because of it many flaws. The acting is nothing short of atrocious. You might though the actors were in a hypnotic daze the whole time as in Herzog's “Heart of Glass”. The plot holes are so big and obvious, they don't even try to hide them. In fact, the end is so confusing, they point out in the last lines that the character have no idea what happened either. It takes Randolph Scott forever to figure out SHE thinks he is his own great great great grandfather and the SHE is 500 years old even though she tell him practically straight away. In fact, the whole cast is so dense, if you could reaching into the screen and slap some sense into them you would. Why does the queen (who was the inspiration for the evil queen in Disney's “Snow White' apparently) get old when she goes back into the flame again, when that never happened before? Why did it take 500 years for the family to send someone else to find the secret flame of eternal life? Not interesting enough a trip for them until now?

Yet somehow... the whole thing works. The sets are awe inspiring, the matte paintings even better than Kong and some of the effects, like the “primitive slave” (yes this film has a race of cave dwellers ruled by a “higher race” who dress like Roman centurions, doesn't every adventure film?) who swings from giant statue to giant statue to light the fires for the human sacrifice. An avalanche that destroys the camp at the base of an ice mountain and exposes the frozen lake beneath is truly amazing.

Some later versions of this film were called “She Who Must Be Obeyed” and don't think I am not designing myself a T-shirt saying that as soon as I finish writing this!

Saturday, August 2, 2008