Trailers:
Destroy All Monsters
Godzilla Vs The Smog Monster
Village of the Giants
36. MIGHTY PEKING MAN (1976) In the 1970s, Shaw Brothers Studios was the greatest producer of classic martial arts films, but during that time they also dipped into other genres like sci-fi, horror, comedy and dramas. Mighty Peking Man was the Shaws’ cover version of King Kong and the Japanese Toho/Toei Monster movies with a dash of Tarzan done in their own incredibly entertaining way.
A group of exploiteers have heard about a legendary creature living in the Himilayas called “The Mighty Peking Man”. They decide to try to find the monster so they can make lots of money, but they need to find someone to head their exploration. Their first choice is a young guy named Johnny Meng (Danny Lee). Johnny has just broken up with his girlfriend Lin, after finding her with his own brother, a successful TV producer. Johnny accepts the challenge and he and a group of adventurers set off into the mountains to find the Mighty Peking Man.
When the group get to the small village where the Mighty Peking Man was originally seen, they find noone there, but suddenly a large stampede of elephants comes through the village and we see the natives are hiding out to stay safe. The elephants violently trample several of the people. Later, as the group moves on, a large tiger attacks them from the wood (look out for the two men who jump directly into quicksand: OOPS!) and one of the native trackers wrestles with the animal, Johnny tries to help save the native, but the tiger bites the man’s legs right off. The tiger takes off into the woods. This scene is hilarious.
The group bed down for the night, and this is where we find out about Johnny’s past and why he is on the exploration. We see a flashback explaining just how Johnny’s girlfriend had an affair with his brother Charlie. The next day, Johnny wakes up and finds he’s all alone, the others have mysteriously dissapeared. Out of the corner of his eye, Johnny sees a woman running through the jungle. He then chases after her and they finally come face to face. The beautiful blonde woman is Samantha (Evelyn Kraft) and she has been living in the jungle since a young age. After a plane crash, her parents were killed and only she survived. The Mighty Peking Man himself rescued her and gave her food and found a place for her to live. Johnny is amazed and also highly attracted to her. Samantha can’t speak English very well, but they communicate good enough. She climbs a tree and picks some fruit for her and Johnny to eat. When Johnny takes a bite of the fruit, he spits it out, but Samantha happily chows down on it. As Samantha eats, a cobra slithers up from behind and bites her leg. Johnny is there to suck out the poison right away. He brings Samantha back to her cave, and Mighty Peking Man comes to their aid dropping a large batch of medicinal leaves down to Johnny so he can mash them up into a paste and rub it into Samantha’s snakebite. Soon, Samantha gets better and everythings alright again. This is where we get a really fun 70s style musical interlude complete with slow motion and a great tune called “Could It Be Love?”. Samantha and Johnny frolick through the jungle with her tiger and have a great time.
Johnny decides to head home to Hong Kong and bring Samantha with him. Now that he’s found The Mighty Peking Man, he knows that he’ll be regarded as a big hero when he gets back. He contacts his boss (who left him high and dry) and they bring The Mighty Peking Man back on a boat. The Mighty Peking Man is chained up and placed on the deck of the ship. The main exploiteer we can see, is a nasty guy and doesn’t care one bit about The Mighty Peking Man, he just wants a big pay day. Johnny is unaware of his true intentions and meanwhile, he gives Samantha a present, A new leather dress to wear. Samantha tries it on, but its uncomfortable for her and she throws it right out the window, preferring to be naked. No complaints there. Johnnys ex-girlfriend Lin happens to be aboard the ship and when Johnny sees her, he forgets all about Samantha. Lin tells him that her affair with Charlie meant nothing, Johnny is turned to putty. Suddenly, Samantha encounters the two and she rushes off in anger.
When the boat finally gets back to Hong Kong, the whole city is in an uproar because of The Mighty Peking Man. Johnny is in the spotlight and he even makes up with his brother Charlie who plans on helping him get plenrty of press for his big find. Johnny is feeling great, but Samantha is now lost, shes out of place in the big city and doesnt know where to go just like the poor Mighty Peking Man. The Mighty Peking Man is being held in a large cage and we find out that he is not feared or respected by any of the people, instead he is being tortured by them. When The Mighty Peking Man spots Samantha being raped by the main exploiteer in a building nearby, he begins to go crazy and rips the chains off and breaks out of his huge cage. He then smashes his hand through the window and tries to grab the fiend, but he gets out with Samantha. This is where we see the films biggest Mighty Peking Man destruction sequence as he smashes the entire city of Hong Kong to rubble. The miniature cityscape is very believable and looks great on screen. This sequence in particular reminded me of one of my favorite “Man In Suit” films, War of The Gargantuas. The films explosive climax takes place at night in a very similar scenario as the 1976 version of King Kong as Johnny and Samantha do everything they can to save The Mighty Peking Man from the evil society that doesn’t care about him.
Mighty Peking Man is a gem of 1970s filmmaking, especially since its not a Japanese monster movie, but a Chinese one. It moves at a great pace, and theres lots of fun sequences, dialogue, beautifully shot sunsets and of course Evelyn Kraft in her ultra skimpy jungle bikini which amazingly stays stuck to her body when shes running around, swinging on vines and climbing trees. Mighty Peking Man himself is bizarre looking, in several scenes you can see the actors eyes underneath the unreal monkey mask. Regardless of its silliness, Mighty Peking Man is simply an exciting film to watch. Director Ho Meng Hua utilizes all kinds of interesting cinema tricks to create something unique. While some of the FX are certainly not up to today’s standards, they work well and provide both laughs and excitement. If you love crazy cult films, Mighty Peking Man will knock your socks off!
Trailers:
The Gorgon
Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter
Dr Jekyll and Sister Hyde
Frankenstein and the Monster From Hell
37. THE BEAST MUST DIE (1974) For The Beast Must Die, Amicus Productions added a slight twist on the typical horror movie themes they were dealing with and capitalized on the Blaxploitation horror subgenre which was huge at the time of the films release with films like Blacula and others. In some regions the film was actually promoted under the title “Black Werewolf”. The title score for the film features a funkier urban sound that differs from the other Amicus horror films. This film also brings in the “strangers invited to a mansion” subgenre which you can see examples of in movies like The Haunting and Clue.
A wealthy big game hunter named Tom Newcliffe (Calvin Lockhart) has hired a tech expert named Pavel (Anton Diffring) to help him design a special security system which will help him see and hear the wherabouts of his next big prize: a werewolf. The guests brought to the estate are a bizzare mix of characters including: Bennington (Charles Gray) an ex British diplomat, Jan Jarmokowski (Michael Gambon) a pianist who enjoys the taste of human flesh, his girlfriend Davina (Ciaran Madden) and Tom’s wife Caroline (Ganja and Hess’ Marlene Clark) and Dr Christopher Lundgren an expert on lyncanthropes.
When Tom explains to his guests that he invited them because he believes on of them is a werewolf, they are outraged. Tom starts off with a test to see which one is a werewolf. He passes around a silver candlestick which they all must touch. The story goes that if a lycanthrope touches silver, it will die. Surprisingly, none of the guests die from coming in contact with it. Dr Lundgren relays that the testing conditions were not completely right. Later on, Tom is attacked by a masked assailant, and he never finds out who it was. Meanwhile, He and Pavel begin tracking the werewolf which appears at the first full moon. In a twist of fate, the werewolf enters the mansion and kills Pavel. Tom now has to try to find and kill the werewolf on his own while each of his guests begin to get killed by the blood thirsty beast. You may notice that for this film, they did not use a man in suit but an actual trained wolfhound. This provided some really genuine scares when Tom is looking for the creature.
Another interesting and fun aspect of this film is the special “Werewolf Break” that acts as an intermission during the film in which the members of the audience must try and guess who is the werewolf. A nice William Castle style bonus feature there.
The Beast Must Die is a fun 70s Drive-In Horror film. It provides some nice scares and the acting is well done. If you’re a fan of 70s Exploitation Horror or werewolf genre films, you’ll want to check this one out!
(Didn’t have time for trailers last night)
(Bruceploitation)
35.EXIT THE DRAGON,ENTER THE TIGER (1976)
Thought this would’ve been a fun one since it involves Bruce Lee’s death at the hands of drug dealers (A drug did lead to his real death, anyhow) but this turns out to be a dull,listless dud.
Bruce Lee’s #1 student, David (Bruce Li) spends a majority of the movie just talking to source,after source,after source…To find out who the bad guys were that got Bruce killed (His death is offscreen, btw) and as far as the action goes, there’s only about a total of 4 fight sequences in the whole movie. To make things worse, Bruce Li never fights a martial artist. Only a “Giant” in the movie’s only notable fight.
The only highlights for me was the use of the music for “Three Tough Guys” (The same exact music used for KILL BILL when Pei Mei goes fist to fist with the Bride) which plays over the neato opening-credits sequence. It was also nice to hear excerpts from Pink Floyd’s “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” used on another scene.
Oh and Bruce Li gets to wear both the old man disguise AND the telephone-repair man disguise from Fist of Fury in this movie. Don’t ask me why.
(The Kung Fu Channel)
Trailers:
Seven Blood Stained Orchids
A Black Veil for Lisa
Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I have the Key
(Euro-Crime/Revenge)
36.SHE KILLED IN ECSTACY (1971)
Mrs. Johnson (Soledad Miranda) has nothing but revenge on her mind. What happened was her M.D. husband just committed suicide thanks to getting expelled by the medical board for embryo research that they didn’t happen to be fans of. But Mrs. Johnson won’t join her husband in death untill she takes care of them doctors first!
My first Jess Franco entry in this marathon. Gotta say that Franco’s work have been more of “Misses” than “Hits” for me, but I was pleased to have a winner with this one. Certainly not a tremendous winner, but one that I could definetly recommend. There was some nice touches in this one. Notably the jazzy,psychadelic music score (Which stole the show in Vampyres Lesbos) returns once again. Even Jess Franco himself gets the most screentime I’ve seen him get yet as one of the victims!
And the sultry Soledad Miranda is, thankfully, given a lot more to do than to just writhe around looking all horny.
On a side note, just found out that this was her last movie before being killed in an auto accident. RIP.
(VHS)
Trailers:
Angel Unchained
She-Devils on Wheels
Knightriders
(Biker/Hippie/Revenge)
37. THE PEACE KILLERS(1971)
Kristy (Jess Walton) is on the run from her evil biker boyfriend, Rebel (Clint Ritchie) who’s the leader of the “Death Row” Biker gang. She ends up seeking shelter and protection in a hippie compound led by Alex (Paul Prokop), and believe me, this guy is super hippie! But it isn’t long before Rebel and Death Row finds out where she’s at. From there, they terrorize the hippies,Crucify Alex on his large, home-made Peace Symbol,and brutally have their way with Kristy which includes drugging her up,raping her, and dragging her with their motorcyles.
Barely conscious, Kristy escapes and is picked up a mostly-black biker gang who have a female leader named Black Widow (You gotta see this chick to believe it!) Come to find out, Black Widow and Rebel go way back…And they aren’t friendly! So a re-cooperated Kristy once again is back at Alex’s hippie farm, but Black Widow warns the hippies that Death Row will come back for Kristy. The hippies ain’t taking this shit no more and are gonna team up with Black Widow’s gang to turn their peaceful playground into a bloody battlefied! But will Mr. Super-Hippie, Alex, finally muster up some balls and join in on the carnage?
Despite the one-dimensional plot and one very long chase sequence, I can’t find too many other faults in this one. The movie just KICKS ASS! You can’t help but to just stand up and cheer at the climactic, big brawl in the end.
Acting is decent for this kind of material. Probably the big stand-out is Rebel. Ritchie’s performance as the evil biker is uneven at times. Scary one second, and over the top in the next, which works out just fine (Even the way he frequently yells, “SHUTUP!” is guaranteed a laugh) And Black Widow (played by Lavelle Roby) is certainly a scene stealer. Sure, she’s got a few good lines, but check out those wild facial expressions on her! Some pretty good special FX in this one too. Including one nice brief but effective machete-splatter in the final fight. And OUCH! Watch out for the pencil torture scene! Yes, I’ve seen Evil Dead, but gah…this one sure made me wince!
The director, Douglas Schwartz, went on to uhhh…Ahem direct some episodes of Baywatch, but man oh man, he sure left behind one delicious slice of Grindhouse euphoria. Here’s wishing that justice gets served and that THE PEACE KILLERS soon finds it’s way on DVD so that more cult-nuts won’t miss this one.
(VHS)
Trailers:
Eaten Alive
Jungle Holocaust
Cannibal Ferox
Zombi 2
38. CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST (1980) If you really love movies you feel the need to explore everything cinema has to offer. As a kid I never really got to see much international cinema other than Kung Fu films. Later on in my teens when I began to look at cinema from other countries I found I really had a unique love for Italian genre films. It probably began with seeing Sergio Leone’s classic Spaghetti Westerns The Good The Bad and The Ugly (1966) and Once Upon A Time In The West (1968). What I didnt know back then was that there was a whole world of even more Italian genre cinema made in the 60s through to the early 80s just waiting for me to discover.
The Italian genre directors were all friends or co workers in one way or another. Most had worked on projects together then went off to make their own films. What resulted was a fresh, exciting time in Italian cinema. The Italians were doing in the 70s what the French had done in the 60s, they took popular genres/stories we had seen before from Hollywood and put their own Italian spice on them. The most popular films were the pepla (Sword and Sandal movies), Spy films, Gialli (thrillers), Polizioteschi (crime), War films, Spaghetti Westerns, Sci Fi films and later on the Zombie and Cannibal films. Alot of filmgoers still look at 70s Italian genre cinema as cheap and schlocky but I really feel that these directors were some of the most brilliant of their time. They were daring, inventive and highly influential.
In 1979, Director Ruggero Deodato (who directed one of my favorite polizioteschi’s: Live Like A Cop, Die Like A Man) shot one of the most controversial works of genre cinema to come out of Italy. This film was called Cannibal Holocaust aka The Green Inferno. Deodato made the film as a response to the violence he saw so much on TV and also as a way to take a closer look at the journalists that were reporting about the events.
A group of four award winning documentary filmmakers that had gone on an expedition to record the tribal environments months earlier were never heard from again. An Anthropology Professor named Harold Monroe (Robert Kerman) travels with a guide deep into the jungle to track them down and find out what has happened. What he finds in the process is two warring jungle tribes. Monroe and his guides Chaco (Salvatore Basile) and Miguel watch the lifestyles of the tribes from a distance. This includes witnessing some truly horrific sights such as animals (monkeys, rats) being chopped up and the rape and killing of a female native. When Monroe is invited in to eat raw guts of an animal with one of the tribes, he finds some of the belongings of the four documentary filmmakers including the actual cannisters of film they shot, which the natives have saved.
Professor Monroe returns to New York City to look at the contents of the film to see what the filmmakers were up to, but what is revealed on these rolls of film is some of the most savage and brutal occurences ever seen by man. Professor Monroe screens the footage shot by the filmmakers to a group of producers and finds out that the filmmakers themselves were running amuck in the jungle and terrorizing the local tribes. We get to know the four filmmakers: Tina ‘Faye’ Daniels (Francesca Ciardi), Alan Yates (Gabriel Yorke), Jerry Anders (Perry Pirkanen), and Mark Tomasso (Luca Barberschi) through these film reels, but we see them as truly dispicable human beings. They burn a village, take part in killing a sea turtle (one of the most extensively graphic sequences in the film) they even rape a young tribeswoman, taking turns in a gang bang scenario. This sequence was reminiscent of the rape sequence in Meir Zarchi’s I Spit On Your Grave (1978), another brutal film that was highly controversial when it was released. Ruggero Deodato’s Cannibal Holocaust shares much in common with that film because like ‘I Spit’, the film is both extremely disturbing and vile, and a brilliant piece of daring cinema.
After commiting their own atrocities in the jungle, the four find themselves trapped by the cannibal tribes and soon they are mutilated in very graphic ways including castration, decapitation and rape. These scenes are very hard to watch, but while you see these things happening you feel the filmmakers deserved payback for what they did.
One of the main aspects I really loved about this film is the music by Il Maestro Riz Ortolani. The score for this film works perfectly as it accents the horrific scenes. There is different cues that play, a strange, electronic throbbing noise and a beautiful but tragic theme which opens the films credits and plays over violent acts committed by the four filmmakers. Incredible!
Trailers:
tick…tick…tick
Soul Vengeance
The Black Gestapo
Bucktown
Scum Of The Earth
39. FIGHT FOR YOUR LIFE (1977) Fight For Your Life is known to cult film buffs as a real classic of the 70s Grindhouse era. It shares the same kind of infamy as films like I Spit On Your Grave and Last House on The Left. This was a regional independent Exploitation film made in New York. The film went by several alternative titles including: Blood Bath at 1313 Fury Road, Getting Even, Held Hostage, I Hate Your Guts, Staying Alive and The Hostage’s Bloody Revenge.
The story follows a trio of escaped multi-racial convicts led by the super redneck bigot Jessie Lee Kane (Blade Runner’s William Sanderson) who steal a car from a pimp and drive to upstate New York where they hold up a liquor store. While there, Mrs Turner (a black woman) gets caught in the crossfire and the convicts hijack her and they go back to her house to hideout. When they arrive at the woman’s home, they find her family is there including a handicapped grandmother (Lela Small) her daughter Corrie (Yvonne Ross) and her son Floyd (Reggie Blythewood). When her husband Ted (Robert Judd) arrives home, the craziness begins.
Fight For Your Life is a highly charged, highly offensive Exploitation film. The amount and variety of racial slurs spewed by Sanderson’s Jessie Lee Kane is jawdropping. One thing that went through my mind while watching this film was how uncomfortable the actors must’ve felt while performing these roles. William Sanderson really is incredibly believable as Kane. There is no half hearted acting here, its pure sicko stuff. As far as racists on film go, his performance is up there with the best of them. Its over the top in parts, but very effective. During its run in inner city theaters it was a real crowd favorite that had everyone going nuts due to the foul language and the depravity. While watching it on DVD at home, you can only imagine how riled up the ethnic audiences got when it was released. The film pulls no punches and deals not only with racism, but rape and the senseless murder of a child.
Fight For Your Life is sharply directed by Robert Endelson, photographed expertly by Lloyd Freidus and the writing by Straw Weisman is especially realistic and very raw. The film mostly takes place inside the Turner house, but we do get some outdoor scenes and some scenes involving the local police.
If you love cinema that deals with truly shocking subject matter, Fight For Your Life belongs in your collection!
TRIVIA: Reggie Blythewood grew up and directed Biker Boyz (2003).
Trailers:
The Streetfighter
Sister Streetfighter
Killing Machine
Killing Machine 2
Golgo 13
40. RETURN OF THE STREETFIGHTER (1974) When we last saw Terry Tsurugi (Sonny Chiba) he had just fought Junjo on a large oil barge. At the end of the battle in the rain, Terry got the best of poor Junjo and ripped his throat right from his neck. An awesomely brutal, over the top, Grindhouse Karate film ending if there ever was one! In Return of The Streetfighter, Terry is back, this time hes mixed up in a war between a man named Otaguro (Donald Nakajimi), the Mafia and his old friend Masuoka (Masafumi Suzuki), whom he feels a certain loyalty to after their honorable battle in the first Streetfighter. At the beginning of this film, the evil Otaguro hires Terry to take out two men that previously worked for him, but then split with a priceless gold figure he plans to use for his criminal activities. Terry reluctantly agrees only after Otaguro doubles his price. Terry may be a real mean bastard, but hes not dumb. He wont work for scraps. Terrys first target is Gentoko Reo who is being held in a jail in the city. Terry decides to play it real smooth. He hops on a motorbike and guns it through downtown Tokyo. Pretty soon cops are on his tail like white on rice. Terry then heads straight for the police station to spare time. After he jumps off his bike and flips over the gates of the station, the police are there waiting for him. Terry rips open the gates and the opening credit of the film and that iconic Streetfighter style music blasts out triumphantly. Awesome! Inside the station, Terry is being brought to a cell, but as soon as he finds out Gentoko is in Room No. 8 as Otaguro stated, he breaks free from the guards and begins to go Krakatoa on all the police trying to stop him. Terry then sees Gentoko and using his deadly two finger punch, he sticks his fingers right into Gentokos neck, destroying his vocal chords so he cant talk to the cops and spill the beans about Otaguro, who has been known as an honest man. Terry then kicks the window pane several times (with his super strength), breaking it apart so he can escape. He then jumps right out the window and lands perfectly on the car thats waiting for him driven by his new little sidekick: Kitty (Yoko Ichui). Terrys next target is Rio Grando, whos hiding out in a movie theater with the stolen package. When Rio walks outside, the cops are also on his trail and they begin chasing him down an alley. Suddenly, another person has him cornered. Its Terry and hes ready to kick more ass! Terry gets the package away from Grando and before he knows it, the cops are after him too. Terry grabs a nearby hanging chain and swings up onto a platform that stands over the street. Lucky break!! Terry then sends Kitty with the package to deliver to Otaguro. When Kitty opens the case, we see its a solid gold statue. Otaguro is indeed fronting his martial arts school to create funds to make money for his criminal business. Otaguro sends a recorded message to Terry hiring him again to kill Masuoka. The message tells Terry to pick up a package at the train station. He and Kitty goto get the package and the key is being held by an American hippie looking dude who doesnt talk at all. Terry asks him who gave him the key but the guy is mute and cant explain. When Terry opens up the locker and reads hes been hired by Otaguro to kill his friend Masuoka, even all the money in the briefcase isnt enough to convince him. Terry rips up the note and heads to the mountains to go skiing instead. Terry and Kitty get to the top of the mountain and when Terry gets off he sees hes not alone. Hired killers have been sent to take HIM out since he refused to kill Masuoka. Terry fights each one of them in the snow. As the wind howls Terry goes ballistic on each of them. Turning the white snow, crimson red. One of Terrys victims gets punched so hard to the back of his head, his eyes literally pop out like a party favor! Another battle won by The Streetfighter!! Terry returns to the city, but hes in need of some relaxtion. He heads to a spa and decides to soak awhile in the sauna. While hes in there, another guy sees Terrys been bruised up and tells him he needs to “learn karate!” As the goofy guy tries to impress Terry with his stories, we get some laughs from his zany antics. Even Terry cant supress his giggling when the guy proves his karate power by picking up one of the sauna’s volcanic rocks!! As Terry gets a massage, he realizes that somethings wrong. Suddenly an entire group of thugs rush into the spa to take Terry out AGAIN. Terry uses his scratchy breathing to redistrubute his chi (inner strength) and proceeds to bash the men down with his super karate moves. Quick and brutal once again Terry drops each opponent that attacks him with sharp blows. Noone can stop Terry Tsurugi! Kitty stands on a bridge as the sun begins to set. Shes thinking about how she let Terry down. Suddenly a limo pulls up and men jump out and grab her and take her away. Terry goes looking for Kitty and when he arrives at the school. He sees Kitty lying on the ground, shes been beaten to a bloody pulp. Its very dark inside, but soon Terry realizes hes not alone and hes been cornered when some flashlights turn on. The American hippie he ran into at the train station is none other than the Mafias main capo: Don Costello (Claude Gannyon). Terry sees hes in really big trouble when he sees Junjo is there as well. He knows he must become a fighting machine to get out in one piece, which is what he does. The next sequence is a huge fight between Terry and all the thugs in the dark. Terry takes them all out singlehandedly and poor Junjo finally meets his death by being electrocuted. The only one who gets away unharmed is Don Costello. He tries to run from Terry by jumping on a Mobil oil truck thats driving by, but after a short battle, it catches fire and it explodes, killing the Don and we see that Terry isnt too angry about it, in fact he gives us that nice evil Streetfighter grin. As the end credits play, the fire roars in the night.
Return of The Streetfighter is a classic Japanese Karate film from the 70s and its a must see for all lovers of Kung Fu and Exploitation cinema. Sonny Chiba rules as Terry Tsurugi in the series and he has a certain personality that is one of a kind. Unlike other action heroes, Sonny Chiba plays Terry as a totally outlandish karate fighter. His breathing techniques are loud and scratchy, his fighting is quick, over the top and brutal and his personality is mean and cool. In other words: Hes the MAN!!! If you havent seen these classic films yet, Go out and get them!
Trailers:
Black Christmas
Dont Go In The House
The Burning
Friday The 13th
41. THE HOUSE ON SORORITY ROW (1983) In the early 80s, the slasher film was essentially a new genre in Horror cinema. After important blueprint slasher films like Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960), Roy Boultings Twisted Nerve (1968) Bob Clark’s Black Christmas (1974), John Carpenter’s Halloween (1978) and Sean Cunningham’s Friday The 13th (1980), these films were the new rage in Exploitation cinema in the late 70 through the 80s. With Mark Rosman’s 1983 slasher film The House on Sorority Row, we get a film that is probably one of the better slasher films from the early 80s. It reminded me alot of Black Christmas (girls terrorized at sorority house) mixed with Friday The 13th (family revenge). After watching this film you will know where I Know What You Did Last Summer came from too! June 19th, 1961: A young woman is ready to have a child. Dr. Beck (Christopher Lawrence) begins to give her a C-section to take the baby out. Afterwards, she asks where her baby is. She finds out that the baby has been taken and she screams in anguish. Flash forward 20 years later. The place: A sorority house on a college campus. The girls of the sorority are graduating and they are getting ready to leave to find jobs and start their lives. Katie (Kathryn McNeil) is conflicted about what she wants to do with her life, but she knows she doesnt want to move back home again. Vicki (Eileen Davidson) pops into Katies room explaining shes going to have a big farewell party. The girls have a little gathering where they all drink some booze, but the old sorority mistress, Mrs Slater (Lois Kelso Hunt) finds out about this and she is totally pissed. Knowing her unstable mental condition, she plans to have as much peace and quiet as she can. She tells the girls they have to leave right away. The leader of the sorority is Vicki and she is a troublemaker. She and her boyfriend go out into the woods to an old abandoned building and practice shooting with a gun he has. Vicki blasts away. The next night Vicki and her boyfriend come back from a date and they go up to her room to have sex. Mrs Slater hears the groans and moans from the attic (her getaway spot) and she barges in on Vicki in mid coitus, then tries to actually stab Vicki with her bronze bird cane. Instead, she misses and slices open Vickis waterbed spilling water everywhere. Mrs Slater calls Vicki “trash” and tells her to get out. Now Vickis really pissed off and plans on getting back at Mrs Slater. The next day, out by the sorority’s murky pool, the girls make a plan to play one last big prank on Mrs Slater. They dont realize that Mrs Slater has been slowly getting mentally sicker by the traumatic loss of her child. Mrs Slater’s doctor comes to a conclusion that any further traumatic incidents could shatter Mrs Slater’s sanity altogether. While the girls are putting up the party decorations in the main room, Mrs Slater comes in and tells them they cant have the party and to get out ASAP. Vicki sees Mrs Slater and asks her if shes missing anything she usually has. Mrs Slaters cane is not with her. Vicki pulls out her boyfriends gun and forces Mrs Slater to walk out to the pool, where the girls have placed Mrs Slaters cane on an inner tube floating in the murky water. Vicki tells her to go get the cane or else. Mrs Slater slowly gets into the dirty pool and goes to get her cane. As Mrs Slaters getting out, Vicki accidentally shoots one of the other girls in the ankle with the gun. They all laugh at this sick joke of Vickis letting Mrs Slater know its a big prank after all. While Vicki’s back is turned, Mrs Slater pegs her with her cane. Suddenly, Vicki lets a round off accidentally hitting Mrs Slater point blank. Mrs Slater falls into the pool and the girls begin to freak out. They dont know what to do and Katie says shes going to call an ambulance. Vicki tells her to not do that because their whole lives will be ruined by her doing it. Just as all this happens the trucks and vans for the party are arriving. The girls all make a pact to keep this a secret and they tie up Mrs Slaters body in towels and push her body back into the pool. The girls all run into the sorority house to get ready for the party. As the leave, Mrs Slaters body ominously floats back to the surface…
A fun early 80s slasher film with good acting and direction that is well executed. The House on Sorority Row combines elements from Black Christmas, Carrie, Halloween and Friday The 13th into one film. Elite Entertainment has done a wonderful job on the transfer of the film to DVD. It has some great shock moments and every slasher film fan should have this film in their collection for sure!
Trailers:
Corruption
The Child
Color Me Blood Red
38.HOUSE ON THE EDGE OF THE PARK (1980)
This is a tough one to classify. Giallo?Slasher?Rape-Revenge?Crime-Thriller? Even a Politico? It seems to be all those things, but at the same time, it isnt. And I shouldn’t go into great detail for this one because of the possible spoilers that a noob might not want to find out.
What I will say is that David Hess returns to reprise his Krug character from Last House/Left. Maybe not as evil this time, but just psychotic enough. Also another thing to take note of is Ruggero Deodato’s direction which proved his versatilty. Of course, Deodato’s best known for the infamous cannibal epics, but with HOTEOTP, the core of this movie seems to be more stage-play inspired. And that’s thanks to the fact that there’s no more than 8 characters in the whole movie and about 97% of the movie takes place in a house.
I generally have mixed feelings towards HOTEOTP, but I actaully feels that the positive reactions outweighs the negative. Again, it’s frustrating to not go into detail of why I feel this way without giving away some “surprise” twists and turns in the end. Maybe if this movie happens to get it’s own thread, I’ll open up.
(Media Blasters DVD)
Trailers:
Women in Cages
Fugitive Girls
The Big Doll House
(WiP/Revenge)
39.FEMALE PRISONER #701: SCORPION (1972)
Nami Matsushima (Kaji Meiko) just can’t get a break. Everytime she tries to escape from her hell-hole prison, all her fellow inmates are forced to recieve punishment as a result (So she definetly ain’t winning too many fans on the prison block) If that wasn’t tough enough, the ill-tempered warden is trying his best on making his prison escape-proof, but Nami is always breaking out somehow. Now it’s time for the guards to beat some sense into Nami!
And what’s the reason why Nami is always looking to get out? To seek revenge on the man who put her there, her lover. Or a man she thought was in love with her. A crooked cop who sold her out just so he could make a big score. And now you know that there’s gonna be some hell to pay!
What I love most about this movie is that when you get caught up in the prison storyline, you have to remind yourself that you still wanna see Nami break break out and wreck vengeance. And she still gets to do it! So you can’t go wrong with this one at all. All the women-in-prison ingredients are there (Shower scene,lesbian scene,torture scene,Uprising/Revolt climax) and then you got Nami hitting the streets wearing an all-black outfit (Bonus Points for that!) out to spill some blood!
Director Shunya Ito also manages to make things much more interesting by throwing in some surreal imagery for both Nami’s state of mind and just for the look of the movie. While this technique was used in the sequel and looked splendid, I felt it was overdone. But here it’s used to greater effect and prevents the viewer from saying "WTF was that?"
Rarely does a movie truly give me everything that I want. FEMALE PRISONER #701: SCORPION succeeds on that level.
(Media Blasters DVD)
Trailers:
Tepepa
Keoma
Navajo Joe
Day Of Anger
The Great Silence
42. CUTTHROATS NINE (1972) In this early 70s, Spanish Western production, a group of Civil War criminals are being transported by wagon through the mountains by Sgt Brown (Robert Hundar aka Claudio Undari) whos accompanied by his daughter Sarah (Emma Cohen). The criminals are the dregs, extortortionists, rapists, killers and the like (they are a sort of Civil War Dirty Dozen minus three) At the opening of the film we get a voice over by Sgt Brown describing the basic plotline. how he has to transport the crinimals to a place on the other side of a large mountainous range which is supposed to be in the US but its obviously the Spanish Alps. When the wagon the men are in gets hijacked by a bandit and his son, they hold up the wagon, looking for a cache of gold. The only problem is, they cant find it. so they let Sgt Brown go. What the old bandit didn’t realize was that the gold was right in front of his eyes: its the actual chains the convicts are wearing! They continue driving on, that is until they have an accident and the wagon tumbles down an enbankment, throwing the convicts around and destroying the wagon itself. Now the criminals have to be brought to jail by foot. We learn that Sgt Brown’s wife was killed by one of the convicts he’s transporting, but even he doesn’t know which one it is. Director Joaquin Marchent utilizes flashback sequences in slow motion to tell the backstories of some of the convicts in the group as well as Sgt Brown, Sarah and his wife and their happy life before her murder by the mysterious killer in the group.
The group begin walking through the snowfilled mountains, and they only have a weeks worth of provisions. The men end up eating all the food earlier than expected, so they must kill animals like deer to survive. When the men get into a battle of wills with Sgt Brown, one of the men refuses to move from the spot they are at. Sgt Brown shoots the man in the head, then cuts one of his legs right off. When the group finally make it to a cabin, they begin drinking and then one of the men rapes Sarah as the others watch on. Sgt Brown is strung up and cant do anything as this happens. This film doesnt relent in the violence and we get a total shock when Sgt Brown doesnt get any chance for a comeback, the men simply torch the cabin and we see Sgt Brown’s burnt-to-a-crisp body melting in the fire! Sarah follows the men for one reason, shes in love with one of them. The men find some train tracks where they realize its a perfect place to cut their chains off. They lay down inside the train tunnel and wait for the train to come. Sarah stays with the group and they arrive at another cabin where during the finale we find out who the murdered of her mother really is and what follows is literally an explosive ending.
Cutthroats Nine isnt one of the better Euro-Westerns I’ve seen. The film, like the stories atmosphere is very stark and cold. Its actually a pretty tedious movie and other than the gore scenes and some artistic touches, its not a film I’d highly reccomend that is unless you’re a completist who wants to see every Spaghetti Western made in the 60s and 70s.
Trailers:
My Name is Nobody
They Call Me Trinity
Death Rides A Horse
The Return of Sabata
The Big Gundown
43. DAY OF ANGER (1969) In the late 1960s through to the early 1970s, the Italian Western, (affectionately referred to as “Spaghetti Westerns” by most) was a new and exciting take on the American westerns we had seen come before. Spaghetti Westerns took our own Western stories/mythos and brought them into a different light. The atmospheres were just a little bit strange, almost alien like. The characters were just a bit more otherworldly and grand. The Italian Westerns took us to a more romanticized universe where often times, evil banditos and bounty killers were the heroes or anti-heroes of the stories being told. The most famous of these genre films were of course made by the master Sergio Leone. As many film geeks know, Leone directed the Dollars Trilogy (“Fistful of Dollars”, “For A Few Dollars More” and “The Good The Bad and The Ugly”). These films were really the cream of the crop as far as the Italian Westerns went. Although Leone was the King of the Spaghetti Westerns, there were other Italian Westerns which had really great stories and direction. Directors such as Damiano Damiani, Tonino Valerii, Lucio Fulci and Duccio Tessari brought their own styles and visions to what Leone had started. Another aspect of these films was the big emphasis on music. Composers like Ennio Morricone, Riz Ortolani, Bruno Nicolai, Piero Piccioni and Armando Travajoli created beautiful iconic scores to accompany these films and their exciting and daring visuals. As Sergio Leone once stated “The music makes up 40% of the film”.
One thing that will strike you as soon as the “Day of Anger” (1968) begins is its completely awesome opening credits sequence. Now, you may think its very Leone-esque, and it is, but I personally feel its even cooler than the opening credits of “A Fistful of Dollars” or “The Good The Bad and The Ugly”. It simply rules. Its more explosive and colorful and the score by Riz Ortolani is one of THE best Spaghetti Western scores next to any of Morricones brilliant work. When you hear the music for “Day of Anger”, you will hear why music is so important for a film. An nteresting note about Director Tonino Valerii is that he actually was a protege of Sergio Leone. Valerii was the Assistant Director just a few years earlier on Leone’s “For a Few Dollars More” (1965). After “Day of Anger”, Valerii went on to direct another one of my favorite Spaghetti Westerns “Ny Name is Nobody”(1973) starring Henry Fonda and Terrence Hill which had a slightly similar storyline to Day of Anger.
Day of Anger is a classic Spaghetti Western that every fan of the genre should own. The new DVD released by Wild East is as close to a perfect print you will get for this film. The only thing it was missing was an anamorphic transfer, but other than that its gorgeous. (edited)
Did Fucli make westerns as well? A spaghetti-western director you forgot to mension is Sergio Corbucci( Django, Il Grande Silenzio). Add Luis Bacalov to your list of composers.(We know him from Kill Bill…)
Yeah he did: Massacre Time and Four of the Apocalypse. Im not sure if he did others too.
I do know Sergio Corbucci (Django, Navajo Joe, Companeros etc) and Luis Bacalov (see my Wipeout review).
Trailers:
Cannibal Apocalypse (Billed as “Invasion of the flesh-hunters”)
Night of the Bloody Apes
Cannibal Ferox (Billed as “Make Them Die Slowly”)
40.ZOMBIE HOLOCAUST (1980)
I was a little faded last night so I didn’t exactly follow the plot of this one. All I could make out was a female American doctor (And by now in this marathon, I’ve noticed that if you’re an American character in an Italian production, you HAVE to be from New York) who travels to some remote island to unravel the mystery of a tattoo found on Islander cannibals who have invaded the east coast. She ends up taking Ian McCulloch with her along with a couple of other accomplices to start their adventure. The group is then stranded on an island where cannibal tribes attack them on a daily basis. These definetly are some wicked mofos. They instantly kill you and eat your remains upon first sight.
Now I know what you’re saying to yourself. The movie is called ZOMBIE Holocaust. Not Cannibal Holocaust. So where are the freakin’ zombies?? At 50 minutes into the movie, they finally appear. But don’t get your hopes up. There’s only about 5 zombies in the whole movie. And for the most part, they just wander around and stare at things.
Ok (back to the plot) Come to find out, the group was purposely led to the island so the resident mad doctor (And resident zombie maker) can conduct his latest experiment by implanting a caucasian brain into a young native and sees what the results are.
Welp, sorry to let your hopes down, but this one sucks. On paper, combining cannibals,zombies,and a mad doctor could be a horror-fan’s wet dream, but the results are disastrous. This is mostly just a cannibal show and if it wasn’t for the decent gore-FX which saved the day, this would be among the biggest turds I’ve ever seen.
(Media Blasters DVD)
Trailers:
Ilsa, She-Wolf of the SS
SS Girls (Sorry, had to watch it again because I couldn’t find another similar trailer)
SS Hell Camp
(Nazisploitation)
41.SALON KITTY (1976)
Madame Kitty (Ingrid Thulin) runs the most popular brothel in Berlin. But on the eve of WWII, Commandant Wallenberg (Helmut Berger) arranges to have Kitty turn SS agents into prostitutes for a new brothel where the only clients are members of the Nazi party. But the plan is to tape conversations between the men and women to find out if any secrets will be unveiled.
It’s here where a young and defiant prostitute, Margherita (Teresa Ann Savoy) will eventually cause the downfall of the brothel.
Director Tinto Brass is perhaps best known for making exploitation epics, but damned if some “art” can’t be found among those works. Large, lavish production sets are used to great effect, but thankfully it’s also the characters and the acting which helps pull this one through. Seriously, if you take away the film’s most controversial sequences, which include “experiment” scenes where the prostitutes engage in sex acts with mutilated/deformed men (No FX here. It’s the real deal), you would still have a respected and well-acclaimed film from the higher ranks who are above Grindhouse material.
It seems that Brass could be the only guy who could intertwine shocking sequences and follow them up with great, musical numbers performed by Madame Kitty which appear throughout the movie.
For that reason alone, Salon Kitty remains one of the most unique and unforgettable experiences you’ll ever come across.
(Blue Underground DVD)
[quote=“PopeyePete”]
Yeah he did: Massacre Time and Four of the Apocalypse. Im not sure if he did others too.
I do know Sergio Corbucci (Django, Navajo Joe, Companeros etc) and Luis Bacalov (see my Wipeout review).
[/quote]
Sergio Corbucci(or: The other Sergio) is the most well-known spaghetti-western director after Leone isn’t he? Massacre Time and Four of the Apocalypse look cool. Added them to my to-see list.
Yeah he made some really good ones. Hope you like the Fulci ones!
Trailers:
Adios Amigo
Boss Nigger
The Legend of Nigger Charley
Mandingo
Drum
43. TAKE A HARD RIDE (1975) Italian Director Antonio Margheriti aka Anthony M. Dawson was a true explorer when it came to film. He worked in a whole variety of genres like the sci fi film (Wild Wild Planet, 1965 and War of The Planets, 1966) Gialli (The Young, The Evil and the Savage, 1968), Soft-Porn (1001 Nights of Pleasure, 1972) Westerns (And God Said to Cain, 1969, and Take a Hard Ride, 1975 Disaster (Tornado, 1983) War (The Last Hunter, 1980, Crime (The Squeeze, 1978) Spy Films (Bob Fleming Mission Casablanca, 1966) Mondo (Go! Go! Go! World, 1964).
By 1975, the Spaghetti Western was quickly fading into history, the Blaxploitation era was at its peak and almost over as well. Take a Hard Ride could be seen as a swan song for both of those genres.
At the opening of the film we meet a bounty hunter named Kiefer (Lee Van Cleef). The introduction of Van Cleef is perfect as the sounds of a harmonica play ominously like a rattling snake. Margheriti spins the camera from below and moves out in front of Kiefer who is sitting on a church’s porch. The camera then dollies backwards as it slides right through the center of a fence post. Kiefer finds his target and he kills him after a quick gunfight. Yep, Van Cleef is still the fastest gun in the West!
After the main credits sequence we meet a rancher named Morgan (Dana Andrews) and his right hand man, a trail boss named Pike (Jim Brown). The two have a large sum of money ($86,000) they need to bring back to their ranch near the border of Mexico. Tragically, Morgan has a heart attack but asks Pike to give his word that he’ll get the money back to his family and friends so they won’t go bankrupt. Pike gives his word and Morgan passes away.
As soon as Pike hits the trail, word spreads like wildfire that he’s carrying a big load of cash and every outlaw in the territory begins looking for him. One of the high rollers who plans on catching up with Pike is a gambler/dandy named Tyree (Fred “The Hammer” Williamson). In no time, Tyree finds Pike being ambushed by some bandits, but they get out okay. Tyree makes an offer to Pike to help him get to where hes going on one condition, as soon as they reach their destination, they’ll fight it out for the money. Pike needs any help he can get, so he reluctantly agrees and lets Tyree ride along with him. The two run into none other than Kiefer, but instead of holding the two up, he just rides by them.
While on the way back to the ranch, Tyree and Pike meet a prostitute named Catherine (The Cat O’ Nine Tails’ Catherine Spaak) and her mute, half breed bodyguard-friend Kashtok (Enter The Dragon’s Jim Kelly). The group decide to travel a together as the more people to help fight off the outlaws on their trail, the better. After Catherine is killed, Kashtok continues to tag along with Tyree and Pike. I have to say, Jim Kelly is alot better when hes speaking, in this role he just didn’t have much to do except the occasional leap from a hill to beat up the bad guys.
Take A Hard Ride was a bit of a dissapointment for me because I was expecting a real genre classic. There really was no standout performance by anyone. Van Cleef is relegated to constant close ups. Hes more of a voyeur who moves in and out of the story. Fred Williamson is fun as Tyree and hes probably the most entertaining character. Jim Brown doesn’t do much as Pike, hes pretty dull overall. The main problem in this film is definitely the writing. It just doesnt hold together and the character of Kiefer played by Van Cleef makes no sense. Throughout the film, you just dont know where he stands, does he want to help Tyree and Pike or steal the cache of money? By the end of the film, nothing really is resolved between him, Tyree and Pike.
Being a longtime fan of both Hollywood and Spaghetti Westerns, I can’t say that Take A Hard Ride is a particularly good one. It tends to meander alot and the writing just doesn’t keep the structure of the story going strong. I found the most interesting aspect of the film is the iconic cast. It joins the three biggest stars of the Blaxploitation era with Spaghetti Western icon Lee Van Cleef.
Trailers:
All The Colors of the Dark
Short Night of Glass Dolls
Cat O Nine Tails
Next!
Case of the Scorpions Tail
44. THE NIGHT EVELYN CAME OUT OF HER GRAVE (1971) Director Emilio P. Miraglia aka “Hal Brady” only officially directed five films during his career, but you can see that he was an excellent stylist from his time behind the camera. His foray into the giallo genre came with The Night Evelyn Came Out Of the Grave, a stylish gothic horror style thriller that is known as one of the best to come out of Italy during the 1970s.
At the opening of the film we see a man escaping from a mental instituion, as the hospital guards chase him we hear Composer Bruno Nicolai’s amazingly atmospheric score playing. This man is Lord Alan Cunningham (Anthony Steffen). Alan finally is released from the hospital and goes back to his estate, a large castle which is in partial ruin. In no time, hes back to his debonaire self. Alan picks up a beautiful red haired woman and he heads back to his castle, but before he does, he stops on the side of the road and changes the license plates on his sportscar. When the two arrive back at his mansion, the darkness of night saturates the screen. They head inside, walking through the dark. Suddenly, Alan flips on a light switch and the entire room is alive with bright colors and stark white walls. Its a complete mood shift from the previous shots and you dont expect such a modern room in a decrepid castle. Alan brings the red headed beauty into another room where we see his collection of S&M devices (uh oh!) We then realize that Lord Alan certainly isnt cured of whatever was wrong with him. As the woman undresses, Alan picks up a whip and playfully swirls it around, but then he starts to really hit her hard and he begins to strangle her. Alan begins to exude evidence of psychosis as we see in his thoughts, visions of his wife, another beautiful redhead naked with her secret lover. Alan’s twisted acts are due to his obsession with his late wife. Whenever Alan sees a redheaded woman, he loses his mind and begins to break down mentally. Alan has Dr. Richard Timberlane (Giacomo Rossi Stuart) help him, but when he reveals his thoughts, Timberlane tells him he will end up right back in the mental institution if things go too far, not knowing Alan has been preying on women all along. Alan sees another redhead at a nightclub. She is a beautiful stripper named Suzy (Erica Blanc). Alan quickly connects with her, and brings her back to his S&M dungeon where he strangles her, but she manages to stay conscious get away from him.
For Alan, relief finally comes when he meets a blonde beauty named Gladys (Marina Malfatti) at his friends party. In a desperation, Alan asks her to marry him right away. The two become lovers and Alan’s psychosis is gone, until he sees his late wife Evelyn appear in the courtyard outside the castle. Evelyn calls to Alan, but he can’t take it anymore. More murders begin to occur, but is it Alan or someone else? There are some very shocking death scenes that gore lovers will surely enjoy, one of the most thrilling involves a cage of wild foxes.
The visual audacity created by Emilio Miraglia and his DP Gastone Di Giovanni in this film is particuarly beautiful. The luminous colors in the film pop off the screen and the darker scenes are rich and saturated. The film looks simply stunning. There is also an incredible score by Bruno Nicolai which adds another wonderful layer of haunting mood to the twisted atmosphere. The Night Evelyn Came Out Of The Grave is a giallo masterpiece accented by gothic horror themes in the tradition of Mario Bava’s best work!
“THE NIGHT EVELYN CAME OUT OF HER GRAVE” never heard of this, it sounds really interesting.
Trailers:
Welcome Home Brother Charles
Dolemite
Cleopatra Jones
Cleopatra Jones and The Casino of Gold
The Black Six
45. THE BLACK GODFATHER (1975) The 1970s were when Blaxploitation was the new rage in cinema. During those years (approx 1971- 1976) hundreds of films were made in the genre. One of the biggest hits alongside Shaft (1971) and Superfly (1972) was The Black Godfather. Written, Produced and Directed by John Evans, The Black Godfather wasnt as flashy and as iconic as some of the other big Blaxploitation hits, but it did gross $1,000,000 at the box office during its run which was a great triumph for a film in this era.
J.J. (Rod Perry) and his friend are looking for money, J.J.‘s pal is a junkie and since hes broke, he has to break into another hustlers place to rob him. After JJs friend is killed by the hustler and J.J. gets away, a local businessman and part time hustler named Nate Williams (Jimmy Witherspoon) helps J.J. get back on his feet again. Nate tells J.J. that he has to be honest with him and make sure he doesnt get into more trouble. J.J. agrees and Nate lets him leave with some new bread to get himself going again. In this scene you meet Sonny “Spyder” Brown (Tony Burton) a boxer, the man Nate manage’s. Sonny doesnt like J.J and he shows it.
After J.J. gets some new threads and cleans up, he makes a decision: hes not going to go down the path his friend took by doing drugs. He also wants to clean up the streets and the drug selling by taking down the main contributor to this disease thats happening in the hood. Tony Burton (Don Chastain) is a rich white gangster whos the one reponsible for all the drug trafficking thats going on around J.J.s hood, so he decides that he must get rid of Burton by getting the word out that his dope peddling is destroying the black people.
J.J. goes to a rival gangleader, who is a head of a black militant group (sort of like the Black Panthers) named Diablo (Damu King) and explains the situation and what he wants to do. Diablo gets pissed at J.J. because he knows for a fact J.J. himself is a hustler and is on the dirty side of the game. J.J. explains that he knows what Diablo and others think about him, but he wants to make a change for the better and drive Tony Burton and all the junk out of their hood. Diablo listens and decides to go along with J.J., but he must have control over his own men. J.J. agrees and Diablo joins him.
One of the other players in this game is Lt. Joe Sterling (Duncan McLeod). Sterling acts as the go between for J.J. and Tony Burton. While he never really chooses to be on one side or the other, he is corrupt cop who gets himself in too deep with the underworld figures. When J.J. tells Sterling whats going down, Sterling gives the info to Burton. While J.J. and Diablo start to work together to squeeze Tony Burton out, Burton decides to pay a visit to Nate Williams who he knows is a close confidant of J.J.s. Tony tells Nate that he needs to tell J.J. to back off because if not, things will be bad for him. Nate tells Tony off and makes sure he knows that hes on J.J.s side and that Tonys time for running things are coming to a close.
At a club, J.J. hang out with his maiun squeeze Yvonne (Dianne Sommerfield) who also happens to be Nate’s daughter. When Nate shows up to see J.J, he explains to J.J that what hes doing about Burton is just going to cause big trouble. J.J knows this but he still believes he has to do this for the community and for the memory of his dead friend who was hooked on junk and died because of that fact.
J.J. sends Diablo and his men out to track down one of Burtons men and theres a big car chase and after a big car crash, Burtons guy gets killed. Afterwards, Diablo picks up a local hustler that has been around on the streets for years named Cockroach (John Alderman). Diablo brings J.J. to his place and they both interrogate Cockroach to find out what he knows about Burton’s operations. Cockroach has a slight studdering problem so as he tells J.J and Diablo all he knows he sputters it out. They let Cockroach go in the end so he can warn Burton that they are going to take him down.
J.J. and his gang find out that Tony is expecting to get a shipment of heroin at a small local airport. Before Tony shows up, JJ and the gang get ready with plenty of guns and hideout behind the airport. When Tonys men show up they let them have it, blasting away with their shotguns and one of the cars gets driven right into Tonys plane, setting off and explosion in the rainy night.
When Tony finds out about this he is pissed and he realizes he has to flush J.J out of the hood so he can get the upper hand. While hes thinking, J.J. even calls Tony up and tells him theres nothing he can do. Only problem is, Tony has one more trick up his sleeve. He goes to see Sonny Spyder Brown and his thugs beat him up. Then along with Lt Joe Sterling, Burton and his thugs show up at Nate’s house and try to get information out of Nate about J.J.s whereabouts, interrogating and beating him up while his daughter Yvonne (Dianne Sommfried) watches. When Lt Joe Sterling tries to intervene, Tony kills him then beats up and kills Nate when Nate tells him he doesnt know where J.J. is. He then kidnaps Yvonne and brings her to a hospital where he hides her out as a patient.
J.J and Diablo have a hideout in a warehouse where new coffins are stored. While they are trhere they hear on the radio that Nate has been murdered. J.J. knows his game is up. Tony gets ahold of J.J. and lets him know that hes got Yvonne. J.J. listens up and makes a deal with Tony, he will deliver Tonys shipment of drugs for a $350,000 cut and Yvonne. Tony agrees. After J.J. hangs up the phone, we see he has recorded the chat. J.J. plays the recorded conversation back again and recognizes something. While Tony is speaking, church bells can be heard behind him. One of J.J.s men realizes that they are the bells of St Marks Church near a hospital in the city. J.J. asks him if hes sure and he says yes. To make sure, J.J calls up another friend and plays the tape over the phone and tells his friend to check it out.
After J.J. finds out Yvonne is in fact in the hospital, he gets Diablo and his gang together and they goto find her and bring her home safe and sound. J.J. and Diablo both get to the hospital where Tony Burton has Yvonne hostage. They take the elevator up to the floor where she is and they get in a gunfight with Tony’s men. Tony grabs Yvonne and hides in a kitchen. After getting rid of Burtons thugs, J.J. and Diablo surround Burton and they dont know if theyll be able to get Yvonne out of there since shes backed into a corner with Burton. As J.J. and Diablo creep in closer to Burton, Burton fires at them, but one thing Burton didnt expect was that Yvonne would defend herself by grabbing a butchers knife off the wall of the kitchen and planting it in Burtons back killing him. J.J and Diablo rejoice as they know everythings Kool and the gang.
The Black Godfather is a cool, solid film from the Blaxploitation genre. While its not too over the top and wild, it has some good dialogue and good acting. The film never gets dull which is another big plus. The funky film theme is another highlight of the film, you’ll want to turn it up and sing along, maybe even do some dancin’! Check it out!
Trailers:
I Spit On Your Grave
Ms 45
Foxy Brown
Bury Me an Angel
Jackson County Jail
46. THRILLER: A CRUEL PICTURE (1974) A young girl plays in a park, looking at the beautiful leaves. She wears a bright yellow dress. She picks up a leaf and brings it to an old man. The old man lifts her up and smiles, but suddenly his facial expression changes and a dark bile-like tobacco juice seeps from his mouth. In the next shot, we see his face from the little girls point of view. He is raping her. Later, as the police take the man away, the girls mother holds her and when the man tries to say hes sorry the woman slaps him. Flash forward to several years later, Frigga (Christina Lindberg) is now a beautiful teenager living on a farm with her adoptive parents. Frigga is not a regular girl, she became mute (unable to speak) after the savage rape by the old man years before. Two of the local women goto get their milk from Frigga on the farm and as they leave they gossip about Frigga and whats wrong with her.
Frigga decides to go into the city one day and as she comes to the end of her road, she just misses the bus. While looking at the bus schedule, a man in a sports car stops and asks Frigga if she wants a ride into the city, she agrees and they take off. While driving along we meet Tony, he is a smooth talking guy who gets Frigga to smile. He tells her all about his new car and although unable to speak, Frigga seems impressed by him. When they reach the city, it is nighttime and Tony takes Frigga out to dinner. He orders for both of them and they enjoy a nice meal as he shmoozes her up. Afterwards he takes her back to his place and they have a few drinks. When Tony goes to his cabinet to get the liquor we see a quick shot of what looks to be some kind of drug in a glass vile. Things seem pleasant enough at the time. Tony talks to Frigga, and she finally relaxes some and sips the wine. As he looks at her, we see from Friggas POV that shes starting to get blurred vision. The wine was laced with something.
When Frigga wakes a few days later, Tony tells her, that he wants her to sign a letter he wrote to her parents. She gets up and she tries to run away, but before she can get out the door, Tony slaps her, knocking her out and brings her back into the room. He then shoots her up with more of what he has been giving her: heroin. As the screen shows a calender page, we see days go by. Frigga is now hooked on heroin, but she doesnt realize it. When she wakes up again days later, she runs out of the room and this time she makes it down the street and into a park, but she collapses from exaustion and Tony brings her back to the house once again.
Tony explains that she is hooked on heroin and unless she cooperates with him, shes going to be in big trouble. He tells her that in return for her “services” for him she will receive her heroin fix and some money. Frigga seems cooperative. When Tony sends the first “customer” to see Frigga she scratches his face, leaving big red bloody marks. When the man yells to Tony about what Frigga did, we realize Frigga is in deep trouble. Tony enters the room with a scalpel and we see is deadly shine. He then holds Frigga down and slowly we see the scalpel from Friggas point of view come closer and closer. As the scalpel cuts the eye, it bursts Un Chien Andalou style. Note: Theres a rumor about this scene that Director Vibenius used an actual corpse for the close up eye gouging.
The next time we see Frigga she has a brand new white patch on her eye. Tony tells her that shes going to have a new client named Weirdo Anderson. Frigga holds out her hand and Tony remembers that she needs her heroin. He gives it to her. When Weirdo comes into Friggas room he orders her to take off her clothes. Then he takes out a camera and starts snapping photos of her. Her next client comes in and this is where we get the XXX porno scenes. This will be a turning point for most viewers because the film becomes an outright Swedish porno. We also see Frigga doesnt show any emotion during the sex act, she is completely detached. Around this time, Frigga meets another one of Tony’s girls and she tells Frigga that she knows what shes going through. Frigga doesnt respond, just sits idly in despair. As the girl breaks down, we can see she is broken by this brutal way of life, she gets up and bolts from the room.
Tony sends Frigga’s parents a note saying she is not coming back and that she never loved ot trusted themn. Her parents are crushed and they both commit suicide over the depression and heartbreaking letter. This part of the film hit me the hardest, because you could see Frigga’s mothers face full of anguish and hurt. Frigga decides to take the bus back to the farm to let her parents know shes ok. We see that Frigga’s colored eyepatch matches her outfit (bright red), and she looks sexy and very devilish at the same time. When Frigga arrives at her home, she sees the funeral caskets and overhears her neighbors talking about how her parents couldnt get over her devastating letter and so they committed suicide.
Frigga decides to train herself for her big revenge spree. Yet, instead of being full of rage, we see her methodically learning new skills: martial arts, guns, and stunt driving. Meanwhile, back at the whorehouse, Frigga has her first lesbian client. This woman has to have the manliest flat chest Ive ever seen in a film. Pretty nasty looking stuff. When Frigga goes to see her friend in her room, Frigga discovers a very very bloody scene. The girls bed is drenched in blood and Frigga breaks down and nuzzles the girls bloodsoaked pillow. Frigga takes all the money shes saved from her work as a prostitute and she goes to see an underground dealer. Even though she cant speak, he still is able to figure out what she wants: a brand new car and enough heroin to hold her over until her revenge spree is over. Frigga goes back to the training academy where shes been training as a marksmen. She breaks into one of the gunsheds and saws off a shotgun, then she grabs some shells and leaves.
The rest of the film, Frigga starts her rampage of revenge on her pimps clients. Her first area of attack is the big guy whos been banging her regularly. Frigga rings the doorbell, when the dude opens it, she blasts him in the head and in the chest. These revenge killing scenes are all in slow motion, it echoes the balletic action bloodletting that we first saw in Sam Peckinpah’s masterpiece The Wild Bunch. The only difference being its even slower and the bloodletting isnt as heavy. At least I didnt feel it was. They act as a drawn out catharsis for Frigga who has been used over and over. We can get the sense these slow motion attacks are her only way of filling herself with emotion.
Last on her list is the man who started this whole hellish nightmare for her. She writes Tony a letter saying that she wants to have a duel on the fjords. She waits with her shotgun alone as the wind blows. Tony finally arrives and tries to charm his way out of the confrontation…
THRILLER certainly doesnt pack the punch of a film like I Spit On Your Grave but it plays well and is an interesting piece of foreign Exploitation cinema. It mixes explicit sex with violent revenge and it does it in a semi artistic fashion.
Trailers:
Death Walks on High Heels
Slumber Party Massacre
Strip Nude For Your Killer
(Euro-Horror/slasher)
42.SLAUGHTER HOTEL (1971)
Actually, the original title is Cold-Blooded Beast or The Beast Who Kills in Cold Blood, but even those don’t seem like the right titles. “SEX CLINIC SLAUGHTERHOUSE” probably would have been more appropriate.
The movie takes place at a clinic (Not a hotel) for gals who have some personal issues. But since this takes place in movie-land, all the girls are gorgeous glamour queens (Even the nurses don’t look too bad!) but wouldn’t you know it, some phantom-maniac is roaming around the clinic killing the girls off one by one…Thanks to the arsenal of medieval weapons found in the basement!
Klaus Kinski’s the star here, but his lackidasical performance here will leave fans disappointed. Apparently, he was to play the part in suspicious manner so that audiences would think he’s the killer. But is he?
Even though the movie has a standard 97-minute running time (Depending on which version you get your hands on) the movie really seemed to breeze by nicely upon my 2nd viewing. Just the whole ludicrous concept and execution worked like a charm. Just go into this one leaving your brain miles away and try to have fun.
On a side-note, the version I watched was courtesy of Media Blasters which contains an odd, audio error during one of the murder sequences. I was already aware of this mistake, but for a goofball movie such as this, this bizzarre inclusion turned out to be a right touch.