DR. STRANGE

Ever since I was a kid, I've always loved checking out the local cinemas whenever I am on vacation. So last week Marneen and I visited the Ward 16 theatres in Waikiki to check out Dr. Strange. The cinema was lovely, reclining leather chairs with foot rests and a retractable table for food and beverages. We both really enjoyed the movie, which succesfully captured the essence of this reasonably obscure (to the masses) comic book character while also making him relatable and appealing to a wide commercial audience. Great casting by Benedict Cumberbatch in the title role, and was lovely to see the very trippy visuals paying tribute to some of those classic mind-bending panels which the great Steve Ditko dreamed up for the Doctor's early 1960s comic book adventures. Certainly, Chris Nolan's Inception may have been the clear inspiration for some of the sequences depicting large cityscapes morphing, but Dr. Strange ups the ante and takes it to a whole new level. Easily one of the best Marvel movies to date for me. The only distraction for me is that Benedict Wong's voice reminded me so much of the voice used for Curt Jergens' Stromberg villain in the 1977 Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me.

Destined to be a stoner's classic. Will definately try to check Dr. Strange out again before it leaves the cinemas - in IMAX 3D if I can.

MADE FOR TV MAYHEM

Along with paranormal activities, UFOs and unexplained phenomena (such as the Bermuda Triangle disappearances), mythical monsters like Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster and the Yeti (aka the Abominable Snowman) became a big pop culture talking point during the 1970s. Whether it was covered on TV (in shows like In Search Of..., hosted by Leonard Nimoy), in cheap mass-market paperbacks or documentary films (such as the low-rent classic The Mysterious Monsters), the world became obsessed with what was hiding deep beneath the waters of Scotland, of high up within the woods of the American Pacific Northwest.

One television movie which cashed-in on all the hysteria, as well as riding the coattails of popular movies like JAWS, was Snowbeast, a 1977 movie directed by Herb Wallerstein and starring Bo Svenson, Yvette Mimieux and Robert Logan. Written by Psycho and The Outer Limits scriptwriter Joseph Stefano, Snowbeast has a strange Bigfoot/Yeti hybrid picking off skiers at a popular Colorado ski resort, just as it is about to host its 50th Annual Winter Carnival (these monsters sure know when to pick the right time to attack).

Snowbeast is one of the movies which I will be discussing at the upcoming Made for TV Mayhem panel event happening at Monster Fest on the evening of Saturday, November the 26th. Joining myself will be Amanda Reyes, Kier-La Janisse and Lee Gambin, as well as Marneen Fields (actress and former stuntwoman who worked on a number of TV movies in the 1970s/80s). We will be discussing the world of American TV movies (mostly from the 1970s/80s), showing lots of clips and using the event as the launch for the upcoming Headpress book Are You in the Hous Alone?, which was edited by Amanda and features written contributions from Kier-La, Lee and myself. Special advance hardcover copies of the book will be available to purchase and have signed at the event, which will be followed by a screening of Buzz Kulick’s bizarre cult classic TV movie from 1974, Bad Ronald.

Should be a fun and informative evening, and one of the many cool highlights of this year’s Monster Fest!

Book MADE FOR TV MAYHEM Tickets Here!

SON OF BLOB

"THE MOVIE J.R. SHOT!"

After watching Chuck Russell's fun 1988 remake of The Blob yesterday, I decided to continue on and watch the 1972 sequel Son of Blob, which is also included on Umbrella's new limited blu-ray release of the original 1958 film and its '88 remake (though only in standard definition and 4:3 aspect ratio). The print on the Umbrella release actually bears the film's alternate title of Beware! The Blob.

If you came into the movie without any knowledge of its history or production, you would swear that Son of Blob was the result of a bunch of college kids heading out for a weekend on the pot and deciding on the spur of the moment to grab a friend's 8mm home movie camera and dream up a horror movie on the spot. But then you realize that it was actually directed by I Dream of Jeannie and Dallas star Larry Hagman, and features performances from the likes of Burgess Meredith, Carol Lynley, Cindy Williamms, Dick Van Pattern, Sid Haig and other recognizable faces and names, and you wonder what must have been going through their heads while the film was being shot.

From what I've read about the production of the film, a lot of it was improvised, and I recall reading a recent interview with one of Larry Hagman's kids stating that he was a big pothead, which may help explain why this film turned out as strange as it did. As either a horror film or a comedy it is very lackluster, but it does have its own weird little charm about it, and it is certainly a real curio and a definite product of its time.

BEWARE OF THE BLOBS!

The oldest home viewing edition of The Blob (1958) along with the latest. Limited to 2300 numbered copies (I scored #982), the new local 2 disc 1080P blu-ray set from Umbrella is pretty good, not only contains the classic Steve McQueen original but also the belated and more comedic 1972 sequel Son of Blob (aka Beware! The Blob), as well as Chuck Russell's underrated 1988 remake. Watched the remake this morning and had forgotten what a cool little 80s gorror gem it is, well worth another look. Anything with Candy Clark in it is usually has something going for it.

HACKSAW RIDGE

Based on the true story of a conscientious objector who served as a medic (without carrying or firing a weapon) in the ferocious battle for Okinawa during the last days of World War Two, Hacksaw Ridge is a stunning return to form for director Mel Gibson. Brutal, uncompromising and poignant, it easily takes its place alongside some of the great war films of the modern era, including Platoon, Full Metal Jacket and Saving Private Ryan (all of which it bears some similarities with). Great performances from former Spider-Man Andrew Garfield (an Oscar-worthy turn), Vince Vaughn, Hugo Weaving and Rachel Griffiths. Even the usually insufferable Sam Worthington is excellent. Definitely at the top of the 2016 film heap.

KILLER BLU-RAY

Received my director-signed new Severin Blu-ray release of the brutal 1981 documentary The Killing of America today, looking forward to checking it out over the weekend, have read some great reviews of it so far.

Also terrific to hear that Ex Film are panning a local Blu-ray and limited VHS release of the movie for early next year, hopefully along with some cinema screenings.

ED WOOD’S 8mm PORN LOOPS

Since his premature death from heart disease at the age of only 54 in 1978, much has been written and documented about the life and work of Edward D. Wood Jr., the infamous low-budget filmmaker responsible for such mind-bending and unique cult gems as Glen or Glenda (1953) and Plan 9 From Outer Space (1959). Wood’s oeuvre and eccentric personal life has been thoroughly dissected and discussed in print and a number of documentaries, as well as Tim Burton’s acclaimed (if somewhat fantasised) 1994 biopic Ed Wood, starring Johnny Depp in the title role and Martin Landau in an Oscar-winning turn as a broken and brittle Bela Lugosi (whom Wood befriended and threw some work to during the famed horror star’s sad last days).

With all this interest, you would think that the Ed Wood archives had been well and truly plundered and exhausted by now. But Wood’s twilight years, spent in an alcoholic haze across various Hollywood dives and crash pads, saw the angora-loving writer and filmmaker struggling to eke out a living in the porno netherworld, his prolific fingers banging out a string of unique adult paperbacks on his old IBM Executive typewriter while also directing a slew of quickie sex films, both soft and hardcore, to help keep his tab at the local Pla-Boy Liquour Store ticking over. Unfortunately, a lot of these books and films were written and directed under pseudonyms (or often lacking any credits at all, in the case of many of his sex film shorts), giving Wood’s fans and archaeologists a tough job when trying to compile a complete filmography and bibliography.

Thanks to the efforts of New York based filmmaker and exploitation historian Keith Crocker, the Ed Wood filmography moves a step closer to completion with the discovery of a number of his Super 8mm porn film loops, which have now been made available through Crocker’s important boutique film label Cinefear Video. Filmed between 1973/74 for the famous Swedish Erotica company, this collection of grimy hardcore XXX shorts were originally produced for home movie sale (advertised in the back pages of men’s magazines), as well as shown in the burgeoning porno cinemas and adult book shops, where they were screened in peep booths and coin-fed viewing machines (in the later, they would play continuously, hence their popular term of ‘loops’).

Above: the young John Holmes

Taken at face value on their own terms, the collection of 10 loops presented here are fairly indicative of and standard for the grainy, low-rent porn material of the day. Swedish Erotica did have a bit of a reputation for (comparative) quality, but these films were produced when the company was still in its infancy, and in fact were the first series of loops which they produced for the commercial market. Each loop runs for around 10-12 minutes in length, and were directed by Wood in the San Fernando Valley area. Originally shot in 16mm, they would later be transferred to 8mm and offered for sale. Filmed in silent with subtitles added (like they were needed), some suitably retro porn fuzz instrumental rock has been dubbed in for some extra mood on this collection. Like many loops, they often start off with a brief outdoors sequence before quickly moving into the boudoir or lounge room and getting straight down to the action. Featuring titles like Wet and Wild, Western Lust, Devil Cult and Girl on a Bike, one of the more interesting things about these early Swedish Erotica loops - apart from the fact that Ed Wood was in the director's chair - is the appearance of the legendary John (Johnny Wadd) Holmes is several of them (Hollywood Starlet, Behind the Ate Ball and the two-part The Virgin Next Door), leading one to imagine what a meeting and working relationship between Wood and the Wadd must have been like. And anyone who has seen Wood’s 1971 adult feature Necromania (released in both softcore and XXX versions) will recognise the bizarre owl eyes wall prop from that feature, which turns up in The Virgin Next Door (as a device which allows John Holmes to peep on his sexy neighbour).

Running at nearly two hours, Ed Wood’s 8mm Porn Loops may not make for particularly arousing erotica, but is an important compilation and artefact of its type, a recommended and worthy acquisition for both fans of Wood as well as those with an interest and fascination in the early days of hardcore filmmaking (even if the interest extends no further than a simple enjoyment of its visual and aural sleaze 'n’ cheese).

Ed Wood’s 8mm Porn Loops is available from the Cinefear website at Cinefear Adult Sinema, and an interesting interview by Robert Monell with Cinefear head honco Keith Croker, talking about the compilation, can be found here: Cinemadrome interview with Keith Croker

Review Copyright John Harrison 2016

MARNEEN FIELDS TALKS ABOUT HER UPCOMING ASTOR THEATRE APPEARANCE

The cool New Zealand based website Love & Pop has posted a nice interview I conducted with Marneen Fields to promote her upcoming appearance at the Astor Theatre's screening of The Gauntlet on September 28. Check it out at the link below!

THE ASTOR THEATRE TO HIGHLIGHT HOLLYWOOD STUNTWOMAN MARNEEN FIELDS

MARNEEN FIELDS Q&A AT THE ASTOR SCREENING OF 'THE GAUNTLET'!

Any film fans who are based in Melbourne, Australia may want to get along to the beautiful old Astor Theatre in St. Kilda on Wednesday, September 28 to see Marneen Fields and John Harrison introduce the screening of Clint Eastwood's The Gauntlet (1977), which the cinema is screening that night, as a second feature to Bruce Lee's classic 1974 martial arts film Enter the Dragon. John will be providing the introduction to The Gauntlet before bringing Marneen up onto the stage to talk about her amazing stunt work on the film. After the screening, audiences will be able to say hello to Marneen in the theatre's foyer, pose for photos, and check out the range of rare vintage memorabilia from The Gauntlet that will be on display. Don't miss out on this very special event, and if you have The Gauntlet on VHS, DVD or Blu-ray, feel free to bring it (or any other items you may have from the film) along to have it signed!

 

See the event flyer below for more details.

 

CLICK HERE FOR THE ASTOR SCREENING PAGE

 

WENG'S CHOP #9 OUT NOW

Looking over some of my contributions to the latest issue of Weng's Chop (#9), which arrived in the post today. Apart from my own pieces (including some blaxploitation reviews and an article on 70s disaster movies, accompanied by an interview with Marneen Fields regarding her acting and stuntwork on several big disaster flicks), there is a stack of great-looking stuff in this massive 234 page issue.

Nice to see a strong Australian presence within its pages, with a continuation of Andrew Leavold's examination of Filipino action/exploitation filmmaker Bobby Suarez, and an interview with Mark Savage regarding his latest (excellent) feature film, Stressed to Kill.

Canadian writer/artist/publisher/adult film historian Robin Bougie (Cinema Sewer) is also interviewed in this issue, Dawn Dabell examines the 1970 British-West German film Deep End, and I'm especially looking forward to reading Stephen Bissette's article on vintage adult paperbacks that revolved around a horror theme.

There's a less expensive B&W edition of Weng's Chop available, but I strongly recommend forking out the extra bucks for the full color edition if you can. It looks stunning and the pages just pop out at you. A great job by designer Tim Paxton and the rest of the WC team (Tony Strauss, Brian Harris, et al).

Order WENG'S CHOP #9 Color Edition here!

HELLHOLE REVIEW

Have just completed a review of the 1985 grindhouse film Hellhole, which has just made its official Blu-ray and DVD debut on the Scream Factory label, and in which Marneen Fields has a prominent co-starring role as Curry, the poor young religious insanity victim who is dragged off to the Hellhole (an illegal experimental facility located at a women's sanatorium) to face unspeakable horrors. Marneen gained great recognition and notices for her performance in this film, and the clip of her scene on the gurney in the Hellhole has racked up over half a million views on You Tube. It's great to see Hellhole finally available in an uncut hi-def transfer, after having to sit through grainy VHS tapes and fuzzy bootleg DVDs for years.

The review can be found at the following link:

HELLHOLE Review by John Harrison

MONSTER! DOUBLE

Received my contributor's copy of Monster! 28/29 in the post today, a huge 220 paged double issue beast. My contributions to this issue include an article on the short-lived 1960s monster mag Shriek! and a look at the Filipino horror flicks Blood of the Vampires and The Twilight People, but there is so much more within the pages of this issue to digest. Another mighty effort from Tim Paxton, Brian Harris, Steve Fenton and crew. Daniel Best continues to dig up obscure and fascinating information in the second part of his article on the 1929 Australian stage production of Dracula, Troy Howarth takes a look at a trio of unique Jess Franco monster mashes, and Stephen Bissette provides an in-depth look at made-for-TV horror.

Buy Monster! on Amazon here

RINGTAILS ARE COMING!

When my lovely American wife Marneen is here in Melbourne with me she is forever worried about leaving a window wide open in case one of our little local possums should make a leap through from one of the surrounding trees or fences and cause all sorts of untold horror. It has inspired me to write a horror fiction story about a plague of infected possums who terrorize the St. Kilda area of 1975, picking off derelicts, streetwalkers, pushers and the odd Luna Park employee.

I'm going to call it Ringtails and write it in homage to those great lurid eco-horror paperbacks pulps from the 1970/early-80s, authored by the likes of Guy N. Smith, James Herbert and Shaun Hutson.

Here's the opening paragraph:

"When they first came out of the darkness en masse, they were already rabid, ravenous, and completely out of control. No one was really sure how or why the problem first started, but it was clear that it had been festering for some time. With a random shrug of her fickle shoulders, Mother Nature had decided to mutate and descend a new horror down upon us, and used as its testing grounds the unsuspecting populace of the Melbourne bayside suburb of St. Kilda."

NEW BLU-RAY BOOKLET ESSAYS COMING!

Earlier this year I was lucky enough to get the job writing the booklet essays for local Blu-ray releases from Glass Doll Films of Thirst (1979) and Dead Kids (1982). I am happy to announce that I have been asked back to compose the essays for two more of the company's upcoming releases from the vaults of the legendary Australian exploitation producer Antony I. Ginnane.

The movies I will be writing about this time around are Snapshot (1979), a Simon Wincer-directed thriller starring a young Sigrid Thornton as a fashion model stalked by a psycho driving a Mr. Whippy ice cream van. This was the film that was released in the USA under the completely misleading title of The Day After Halloween. It was also released as One More Minute.

The other release I will be working on is The Survivor (1981), a big-budget (for Australian cinema at the time) adaptation of James Herbert's 1976 supernatural horror novel of the same name, directed by actor David Hemmings and featuring Joseph Cotten in his final role.

Am looking forward to diving in and and re-evaluating these two films. Have dug out my paperback tie-in of Snapshot and Signet printing of The Survivor to re-read, and digging up some exotic poster art, such as these two samples from Thailand (Snapshot) and Turkey (The Survivor).

The first of these two films should see release from Glass Doll towards the end of the year (which suddenly doesn't seem that far off).

SOAKING IN THE BLOOD BATH

The long and convoluted history of Blood Bath has always intrigued and fascinated me, ever since reading about it in the early days of Video Watchdog magazine, in which editor Tim Lucas delivered a remarkable three-part article titled ‘The Trouble With TITIAN’ that detailed the complex history of the film and its many varied incarnations. The article was a defining moment in the early history of Video Watchdog, and helped set the template and precedent for the type of in-depth examination which the digest magazine became best known for.

Blood Bath started off its life in 1963 as Operation Titian, a moody and very atmospheric B&W Euro-thriller that was filmed in the Yugoslavian seaside town of Dubrovnik and centered around a plot to steal a valuable Titian painting. Directed by Rados Novakovic, the film was co-produced by Roger Corman, who not only sent stars William Campbell (Dementia 13, Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte) and Patrick Magee (later of A Clockwork Orange and Asylum) over to Europe to appear in it, but a young Francis Ford Coppola (coming off directing Dementia 13), whose job it was to oversee the production.

When Operation Titian was completed, Corman found the film to be unsuitable for release to the US market, so he recruited a young female assistant, Stephanie Rothman, to film some new sequences to insert into the movie, which was then recut and released directly to television in 1965 as Portrait in Terror. Portrait in Terror was the first incarnation of this film that I ever managed to see, when it showed up as the late late movie in Australia in the early-90s, the one and only occasion I can recall it getting a television airing in this country. I almost wore out my VHS recording of the film over the ensuing months, as I re-watched it endlessly, drawn in by its baroque atmosphere, arty camera set-ups (in particular, lots of low angles in tight, cramped locales), exotic Dubrovnik locations and clear nods to Orson Welles in its style and sensibilities.

 

Not satisfied with the way in which Portrait in Terror turned-out – or perhaps just eager to get more mileage out of the original Operation Titian footage – Corman recruited another young up-and-coming filmmaker by the name of Jack Hill to recut the film and shoot more additional footage with a number on new actors (including Sid Haig), which was originally intended to be more a juvenile delinquency/gang noir drama that also paid homage to Corman’s 1959 low-rent classic A Bucket of Blood. To convolute the story even further, Hill departed the project before it was completed (to work on his cult favourite Spider Baby) and was replaced by Stephanie Rothman, who did a full 180 with the material and turned it into a vampire film called Blood Bath, which was doubled with Curtis Harrington's Queen of Blood and released theatrically in 1966 (and featured a double directing credit of Hill/Rothman on the posters and opening titles, something of a rarity for the time).

When Blood Bath was sold to television, its meager running time of 69 minutes required some additional padding in order to fill out a TV time slot, so Rothman was once again brought in to recut the film and shoot some new footage – including a five minute sequence of a girl (standing in for actress Linda/Lori Saunders) dancing along the beach – and the resultant film was then sold to television as Track of the Vampire (Rothman later went on to helm some 70s exploitation and horror favorites like The Velvet Vampire and Terminal Island).

With so many variations of the same film floating around on late-night American television for years, it’s likely that some insomniacs started questioning their own state of mind as they watched multiple movies featuring much of the same footage, redubbed and re-edited into different points in each film. It's the kind of movie jigsaw that many film buffs love. So which incarnation of the movie is best? Well, they all have their pluses and minuses. While Operation Titian does have atmosphere, it also has a lot of travelogue footage that stops the film in its tracks. You can clearly see why Corman felt it was unreleasable in the US as is. Blood Bath/Track of the Vampire takes the plot way over the top and also has some nice moments of evocative surrealism in some of the newly-shot footage, but for me Portrait in Terror will always be the definitive and most enjoyable version of this film - I love it's style and plot, and it's the film in which I think Patrick Magee comes across as his villainous best. His voice is so rich and he has a terrific screen charisma and is effectively menacing. William Campbell also makes for an interesting male lead, his character (with implied impotence) always looks so on edge and anxious, like a comic book character drawn by the great Steve Ditko during his 1960s work in comic books like Dr. Strange and Creepy.

Blood Bath has been released on VHS by various public domain and bootleg labels over the years, as well as a limited DVD release by MGM in 2011, while Portrait in Terror received a 2005 DVD release on the budget Alpha label (in a grainy and badly cropped print). Track of the Vampire also received a DVD release in 2014, on the obscure Mutant Sorority Pictures label, but it's fair to say that the new Blood Bath package from Arrow Video renders all previous releases of the film(s) obsolete to all but completist collectors. As usual, Arrow have done a superb job with this release, spreading out all four versions of the film over two Blu-ray discs, with the second disc contain a nice range of supplementary material, including interview featurettes with Jack Hill and Sid Haig and, best of all, a revised and updated version of Tim Lucas’ Video Watchdog article, which Lucas himself narrates over a collection of stills and footage. Running at 80 minutes, this ‘visual essay’ is almost as good as a proper making-of documentary, and well worth the price of admission alone. Adding extra value for money, Arrow also throw in a 40-page booklet containing essays on the films and its stars, as well as a fold-out double sided poster (one side featuring newly-commissioned art, the other the original Blood Bath one-sheet art) and reversible sleeve art on the clamshell case. The disc, booklet and poster are all contained within a slipcase that features the same new artwork as the poster.

Definitely one of the Blu-ray packages of the year, and something I would not have ever dreamed possible or likely when digesting that Video Watchdog article while watching that TV recorded VHS of Portrait in Terror over and over again in my bedroom back in 1992. Took nearly a quarter of a century but it was well worth the wait.