Movie review - "Dr Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine" (1965) ***

Silly, really fun AIP film with Vincent Price having a fine old hammy time in the title role, a mad doctor who creates a machine that produces beautiful women. He tries to get the women to marry rich men (in particular Dwayne Hickman), but when one accidentally cracks on to a secret service agent (Frankie Avalon) he finds himself in trouble.

I loved this film as a kid and it still holds up well, with jaunty Les Baxter music, a bright theme song sung by the Supremes, Price on good form, ditto Jack Mullaley (as Igor, Goldfoot's assistant), Fred Clarke (as Avalon's uncle and boss of the secret sertvice), Avalon and Hickman (they form a strong buddy duo - its a buddy comedy as much as anything), and even when the gags don't really work (which is often) they keep coming and it is all rbight and likeable.

AIP fans will find this a smorgasbord: not only does the cast feature AIP regulars like Price, Avalon, Hickman and Susan Hart (the beautiful robot who marries Hickman and who in real life would marry AIP co-founded James Nicholson), but there's music by Baxter and art direction from Dan Haller, the film pokes fun at the Poe series especially Pit and Pendulum, there is a final silly chase very much like many of the Beach Party films, and there are cameos from Deborah Walley, Annette Funicello, Aaron Kincaid and Harvey Lembeck - all promoting, according to the end credits, a film called The Girl in the Glass Bikini, which presumably became The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini.

(NB was Kincaid really a big enough name, even at AIP, to warrant a cameo? Probably not - but he had been signed to a seven year contract with AIP in 1964, who hoped to build him into a star. He's in the v beginning of the film, as is Walley - the other two come at the end.)
 

Avalon and Hickman use the same names of the characters they played in Ski Party. There was a sequel, Dr Goldfoot and the Girl Bombs - plus a 30 minute TV special, The Wild Weird World of Dr Goldfoot, with Price, Hart and Tommy Kirk.

Movie stars and Orlando

Interesting article in the New York Times on the lack of emerging movie stars with a focus on Orlando Bloom.

The article was entertaining but it didn't bring up a few obvious points:

- Orlando is a pretty boy ingenue. He fitted in well in Lord of the Rings where he didn't have to carry the film; ditto Troy and Pirates of the Caribbean. In all those films you had other actors to carry the kick arse duties.

- Who wants to see Orlando kick arse? He's a pretty boy, a metrosexual. Cast a decent tough guy. Kingdom of Heaven was a film with problems (notably the central story - the heroes should really have been the Muslims, instead it was about a siege that was not only lost it was pointless) but putting him as the lead in it... who wants to watch him be a tough guy? His performance isn't that bad - but having him in the movie was annoying.

- Ditto Elizabethtown - what sort of problems do pretty boys have? This might be unfair, but the thought of him in a rom com was irritating.

Orlando is good for one sort of role only. His fan base is young girls. Men do not like him. His moment will pass, as it did for Troy Donahue, Tab Hunter and all the rest. If he is lucky he will manage to survice a la Bob Wagner.

Movie review - "Antonia and Jane" (1991) ***

Lovely sweet British film about the friendship between two women over the years - its told from the point of view of both, and we see the different ways they see each other. A simple idea well done, with some lovely writing and memorable performances from Imelda Staunton and Saskia Reeves. Nice ending. Seen it twice - didn't enjoy it as much the second time round, perhaps because it wasn't as a nice a surprise.

Movie review - "The Fantasy Film Worlds of George Pal" (1985) **1/2

Solid documentary on the influential filmmaker who helped popularise science fiction. The best thing about the doco is it has plenty of clips, both from Pal's famous films such as The Time Machine but also his earlier work like The Puppetoons. It also has a number of newsreels, photos and interviews with people who worked with Pal, including Rod Taylor. Main drawback: it stops at The Seven Faces of Dr Lao in 1964, when Paul made a few more films- The Power, Doc Savage. I know the filmmakers wanted to end on a high but it feels weird - they didn't have to do into too much detail, but they should have mentioned he made two more films and died, at least.

Movie review - "The Grissom Gang" (1972) **1/2

The last hurrah for Robert Aldrich's dream of a studio, which followed Too Late the Hero and Whatever Happened to Aunt Alice? and The Killing of Sister George into the red, and forced him to become a jobbing director again.

All of Aldrich's films are worth watching - except The Choirboys - and this is no exception: a tough, unromantic adaptation of James Hedley Chase's famous pulp novel No Orchids for Miss Blandish. Its about a rich heiress (Kim Darby, surprisingly sexy here), who is kidnapped by one gang, then kidnapped by another. The dimwit killer in the second gang (Scott Wilson) falls in love with her - he's such a vicious moron its hard to have too much sympathy and hard not to feel glad when he's shot full of lead. The vicious family of the killer are good value - with that old stand-bye, blood thirsty "Ma" - and there is plenty of action.

Although there are no stars, the acting is solid. But its too long and I know that Aldrich is trying to challenge audience sympathies by making the psycho hero sympathetic and stil be a psycho, it just makes it an unpleasant film to watch. Despite the craze for Depression-era violent films at the time (Bonnie and Clyde, Big Bad Mama, etc) it is not hard to see why this flopped.

Movie review - "Comedy of Terrors" (1963) **1/2

Not officially part of a Poe cycle, though it was made by AIP and stars Vincent Price, Basil Rathbone, Boris Karloff and Peter Lorre. It was written by Richard Matheson, but is not based on Poe, and was directed by Jacque Tourneur, not Roger Corman.

The cast are a delight and the film easy enough to watch - there isn't enough story here for a feature though, it would have been better as a chapter in an omnibus film.

Vincent Price plays a useless funeral director who occasionally kills people to ensure he has some business; Lorre is his assistant and Rathbone his landlord and Karloff (who does barely nothing in the film) is his father in law.

The film has a lot of energy - it is often silly and full of knockabout comedy including "speeded up action" that was an AIP staple in their beach party movies - and seems faster paced than the Corman Poes, but this is a comedy and in Corman's films the characters seemed to spend most of their time walking around spooky house, so its natural it seems slower.

Movie review - Corman #21 - "Teenage Caveman" (1958) **

Surprisingly solid caveman flick with Robert Vaughan as a questioning teenager in the stone age who can't understand why his parents generation won't let him cross the river. So he rebels and finds out the Truth. Right on! (Although the title was originally Prehistoric World, Teenage Caveman is actually for more appropriate.)
Vaughan is good and Sarah Marshall is a pretty cavewoman. Some of their fellow tribespeople are played by actors familiar with other Roger Corman films, such as Jonathan Haze and Ed Nelson. Some of them don't look terribly convincing (a lot are out of shape) - neither do the fights with dinosaurs. Still, a decent story, with a surprise (and quite moving) ending.

Movie review - Corman #35 - "The Young Racers" (1963) **

Every now and then Hollywood decides to make a film about car racing. One can understand why – it’s a popular sport, good promotional tie-ins, you go to the races and see the cars whizzing by, the charismatic drivers, smell the burning rubber. Why then, have there been no great or even reasonably popular car racing films – Days of Thunder, Le Mans, Grand Prix? The main reason is that the cars just go around in circles. You can crash a car occasionally but that’s it. (cf car chase films, where you can crash heaps of cars an have people trying to kill each other). It’s kind of like films about models – you go to a fashion show, see all these sexy chicks wearing great clothes (or nothing), all the behind the scenes bustle, and go “this would make a great movie”. But it never does because at the end of the day models just wear clothes (eg Models Inc, Pret a Porte).

The plot of this OK racing film is about a former racing car driver turned writer (Mark Damon from Fall of the House of Usher) who follows an egotistical driver (William Campbell) around the circuit to write a book. It is really a love story between two men – Damon initially thinks Campbell is a wanker but comes to admire him. There is a lot of high falutin’ dialogue about death and being a race car driver, and some footage of real races in Europe (the best thing about the film).

The most interesting thing about the film is the way it was shot: producer-director Roger Corman filmed it in Europe, going from race to race and city to city, allowing the crew (who had to pay their own way over there) to have a holiday in between). A nice way to make a film! The crew included Francis Coppola (doing sound), Menahem Golan, Robert Towne and Charles Griffith.

During one of the filming breaks, Coppola persuaded Corman to let him make a film in Ireland – Dementia 13, which starred many of the Young Racers cast. So although it wasn’t much of a movie, it has its place in history.

Movie review - Corman #43 - "The St Valentine's Day Massacre" (1967) **1/2

A rare Roger Corman film made for a Hollywood major studio - although he enjoyed having a larger budget, he disliked the experience, the lack of creative control and waste. 

This is a perfectly fine gangster film centred around the famous massacre. It continually emphasises how accurate it is - an opening spiel does, and every time a character is introduced the narrator gives a bit of a brief biography of that character.

This is kind of interesting, but it prevents the audience from investing in anyone particular person. The story feels like a collection of shoot outs - the most effect bit is the final massacre, because they spend a bit more time over the build up to it. Also there are a lot of characters and since many of the actors look the same it is hard at times to tell who is who.

Jason Robards offers an interesting version of Al Capone - personally I thought he was dreadful but he has his fans. George Segal is set up to be a major character - high billing, in the early scenes - but his character kind of fades away. The writer, Harold Browne, later wrote Capone for Corman.

Movie review - "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang" (2005) ***1/2

A joyous tonic for those worried about Hollywood's inability to make decent commercial films any more: a funny, clever action-murder mystery with Robert Downey Jnr getting involved in kidnapping plot while on holiday in LA. He runs into a gay private eye (Val Kilmer), an old flame (Michelle Monaghan), a millionaire actor (Corbin Bensen) and other low lives. Plenty of twists and turns, funny dialogue, good work from all the cast. Its fun to see two of Hollywood's bad boys, Downey Jnr and Kilmer, play the buddy leads, and Monaghan is a nice find. Written and directed by Shane Black who had to struggle to get this made - this had to struggle to be made?? It's a commercial film??? Yet it must be admitted - it hasn't been a blockbuster. C'est la vie... all I can say is the audience I saw it with really enjoyed it, and this was several weeks after release, so word of mouth must be good.

Some random things I liked: Shane Black really has to start thinking of other things to use in his movies apart from buddy duos, kidnapping and Christmas; I loved the bit where Monaghan is talking away and Downey is just looking at her boob; the depiction of crazy women in LA is depressingly accurate; Val Kilmer can't afford to put on pounds - he only has to add a few and he becomes unattractive, as here; this remains Monaghan's best role.

Movie review - "Crazy Mama" (1975) **1/2

Jonathan Demme's second film for director is like his first, Caged Heat, clearly the work of a man of great talent but suffers from a patchy story. This one is a sort of follow up to Big Bad Mama - it starts off in the Depression when a dirt poor farmer is shot by the bank, leaving a widow and child. One would expect the film to follow straight on with the widow and daughter wrecking havoc, and indeed this does happen - only in 1958, when the daughter has become Cloris Leachman and has a daughter of her own (Linda Purl). For that is where we cut to, with the family (mom is played by Anne Southern) running a beauty salon in Long Beach.

They go bust, and decide to get the farm back - this over 20 years on. So they go to Vegas along with the daughter's boyfriend (Don Most from Happy Days), pick up a smooth talker (Stuart Whitman) for Leachman, a really old lady as a mate for Southern, and a greaser as another boyfriend for Purl. They rob a few places.

In Depression era films it was easy to get sympathy for robbers, but setting something in 1958 has problems as America was quite prosperous then and the family are only in financial trouble because of their own incompetence. They don't even check to see if the farm is for sale and just go around robbing people - it reduces the sympathy. Frequent references back to the Depression era shooting only make you wish it had been set during the Depression - at least there could have been villains (the cops here are only doing their job).

In the film's favour is the production design, lavish, kitsch and colourful (sets and costumes) and most of all the easy oddball sense of camraderie among the lead characters, one of Demme's early eccentric families - he and the actors create a real feeling that they belong together, which is tremendously endearing, and make one wish the story problems had been solved.

Not very exploitative at all - very little nudity (a glimpse of Purl's arse), some decent action, little blood, and some very exploitatable elements (like Purl having two boyfriends) are not exploited at all. In Demme's defence, he was brought on to the film with only a few week's notice after original director Shirley Clarke pulled out.

Julie Corman, Roger's wife, produced it and John Milius has a cameo as a gun-toting sheriff.

Movie review - Corman #46 - "Gas-s-s-s-s-" (1971) **1/2

Roger Corman's second last film until he stopped directing, and the film that marked his break from AIP (though he did produce Boxcar Bertha for them later) - after years of no interference, Corman claims that AIP cut the film around, changing the ending, and removing the voice of "God" from the film. While AIP owed Corman better, one can be sympathetic because this is a totally insane film - genuinely free-wheeling and anarchic, even more so than the films Corman made from scripts by Charles Griffith (George Armitage wrote this script).

It is set in a world where a gas has killed everyone over 25 (some links to AIP's earlier Wild in the Streets (1968)). Robert Corff and Elaine Giftos play the leads, two young kids who meet in a confessional (he’s on the run from the cops after a prank and is pretending to be a priest; she is confessing having an affair with his professor). They like each other instantly and form a bond as they flee persecution from their fellow youngsters. They hook up with a black revolutionary (Ben Vereen), his 60s pop-mad girlfriend (Cindy Williams), a cowboy (Bud Cort) and a freak girl (Talia Coppola, later Talia Shire) and set off to find a pueblo in New Mexico where everyone is living together. That’s all the plot really, an excuse for various adventures – they run into various conservatives, most notably a bunch of football players but also some golf-loving bikies.

Although Corff and Giftos dig each other he winds up sleeping with a girl at a drive in concert a quite sexy psychedelic love scene, reminiscent of the one in The Trip. Giftos doesn’t mind. For all the peace and love stuff, note how the hippies get their car back by using guns, and that they break up the interracial couple (Williams wants to hang out listening to rock music, enabling Vereen to run off with a black woman.)

Corman fans will see a lot of self parody - a character on a motorbike dressed as Vincent Price called "Edgar Allan Poe", references to Westerns and biker movies, The Trip love scene.

The cast are enthusiastic (Corff and Griftos make a likeable pair of leads, Cindy Williams has a great monologue, there is a strong support cast) but the real star is the script - well, that's half correct: the script is frustrating and episodic, but just when you get sick of it they throw in a curve ball of some line of brilliance. The ending is unexpectedly uplifting - everyone coming together in a party (I'm not exactly sure why). Some of the highlights: a shoot out where the characters keep yelling out cowboy star names (Vereen yells out “Jim Brown” – because “he’s the only one” i.e. only black); Billy the Kid having a horse called “pretentious”; Country Joe and the Fish talking to God and God responding about a car in the parking lot having left its lights on; a footballer tries to inspire a crowd – after yelling “one more time” the crowd replies “one more time”); bikers talk in war metaphors on the golf course; some tangy dialogue: “was that a bomb?” “no it was more ironic than that”. It pokes fun of the military, Nixon, the JFK assassination, Westerns, early 60s rock, B movie Western stars, Edgar Allen Poe, football players.

On the downside, the stuff where football players practiced their rapes was a little off.; ditto the scene where Giftos offers herself up as a “rapee” – she ends up having sex with three men and apparently enjoy it. Also, the film feels abrupt in places – one moment the world is normal, then we hear the gas is coming – then the gas has hit and kids are already recreating fascism. There’s never any weeping for anyone’s parents, relatives or friends over 25 – it’s all a bit of a joke.

Stephanie Rothman and Charles Swartz worked on the film as production associates – which on this sort of movie was presumably everything.

Movie review - "Jackson County Jail" (1976) ** (warning: spoilers)

Apparently this New World film has a bit of a cult reputation - it really isn't that good. It sure hates those fly-overs, though. Yvette Mimieux plays a professional woman who leaves life in LA (crummy boss, unfaithful partner) to drive across country to New York. On the way she is nice to a female traveller, sticks up to a snarly counter worker who tries to rip her off, gives a lift to a young couple (including Robert Carradine) who steal her car and leave her in a ditch, goes to help at a bar where the owner tries to rape her, is arrested by the police, is raped by a police officer who she then kills. Then a fellow prisoner (Tommy Lee Jones) escapes, taking her with her.

Normally you would expect in this sort of film for Mimieux to be radicalised and start robbing banks and rooting Jones and becoming a Hell cat, but that doesn't happen here. Mimieux just sort of whimpers and looks weak. Jones takes over the film - they go on the lamb, eventually the cops track them down, giving Jones a chance to die spectacularly at the end.

The film sort-of sets itself up as feminist (Mimieux being persecuted by men) - but then once she escapes from jail it becomes Jones' movie. Jones is in best glowering, good looking form - its kind of fun to see him paying dues in something like this and he's perfectly fine. The mess that the heroine gets in does fell quite contrived.

The film is not that very exploitive (little nudity - only a glimpse of Mimieux's breasts as she is being raped, but we very much feel her agony, the rape is not done salaciously like in some women in prison films) and there is some good action stuff towards the end. A bit of political "comment" - Jones saying he was "born dead", the final shoot out during a bicentennial parade - but it isn't rammed down our throats. A feminist article unfavourably compared the film with The Great Texas Dynamite Chase.

Book review - "Gregory Peck" by Michael Munn

Fairly average biography - some press clippings, a few interviews (mostly with other movie stars which consisted of quotes like "he was great to work with"). I didn't know that much about Peck's work to start off with - just that he became very famous very quickly. He came from a broken home and did put in some hard yards on the New York stage but was fortunate enough to have a dodgy back during WW2 and took advantage of a lack in leading men. His serious demeanour seemed to fit in with serious post-WW2 atmosphere. He also had excellent taste in material, ensuring his name was kept in front of the public eye until the late 60s when a rash of box office flops saw him become "famous name" rather than "star". Peck seems to be a decent, hardworking nice guy, with a bit of an ego but he doesn't let it get out of control (eg he grumpily let Bob Mitchum steal the show in Cape Fear which Peck produced.) He seems to have had a bit of a drinking problem and his eldest son killed himself in 1975, but both are not really dealt with in much dept.

Fat Kids in Movies

Ever noticed the recent trend in Hollywood to cast fat kids in movies? The Kid, Bad Santa, Bad News Bears (this had two)... Also the TV series Two and a Half Men. I guess casting a fatty automatically gives the actor extra personality.

Book review - "One Day in September" by Simon Reeve

The story of the 1972 Olympic massacre at Munich, with the same title as the brilliant documentary on the subject. (The book accompanied the film) The documentary has it over the book in that it has the vision and the interview with the one surviving terrorist - the book is excellent, but reading it you kept wanting to watch the documentary! Its a gripping, harrowing tale - the German rescue attempt comes in for a deserved shellacking, as does the IOC (what a gutless, pathetic organisation this is). The book can pay more attention to the background to the conflict, add interviews (such as those with the family of the Palestinians) and to the attack's fall out, such as the Wrath of God avenging operation. Well written, with good footnotes and lots of original research. Few books have better described the link between terrorism and statesmanship - both Israel and the PLO are very into promoting their, shall we say, "special ops" people into leadership roles.

Movie review - "The Bad News Bears" (2005) ** 1/2

Hollywood's recent obsession with remakes of the 70s - that also saw Amityville Horror, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Assault on Precinct 13, The Longest Yard, etc - continues with this un-needed redo of the 1976 Walter Matthau-Tatum O'Neal hit.
The film should really have been called Bad Santa Meets the Bad News Bears, as star Billy Bob Thornton reprises his Bad Santa persona (and the Bad Santa writers worked on the script). Actually maybe it's more Bad Santa Meets the Bad News Bears Meets School of Rock, as the director is Richard Linklater.
In School of Rock Linklater showed a good eye for kid casting and he's done that again here as well. Everyone turns in professional work but you can't help the feeling that everyone is slumming it - slumming it professionally, but still slumming it. It really is the same old crappy sports movie (recruitment then thrashing then low point then turn around then improvement montage then obstacle then climax) with a couple of really funny gags and moments inserted. The kid in the wheelchair is pretty funny, as is Thornton's taste in women and his habit of dumping rats in eskies.
The sort of movie I would have enjoyed more if I'd watched it at a hotel or on a plane. Greg Kinnear is a good villalin opponent coach.

Movie review - "Big Bad Mama" (1974) ***

For the first few years of Roger Corman's New World Pictures, this ranked with The Big Doll House as the studio's most popular film. It certainly has energy and verve, as well as some good performances from semi-names. 

 

Angie Dickinson plays a white trash widow in 1930s Texas who takes her daughters around the country, getting them involved increasingly in crime, eventually winding up robbing banks and kidnapping. Tom Skerrit plays a bank robber they hook up with; he starts an affair with Dickinson, but she eventually dumps him for smooth talking gigolo William Shatner, so he takes up with the eldest daughter - then the youngest daughter - at the same time (the scene where one daughter brings the other one into bed with Skerritt is exploitation filmmaking at its finest). 

 

It moves along at a fair clip; Dickinson is good value as the rather ruthless woman with ambition for her girls. There is requisite New World nudity; everyone gets in no the act including Dickinson and (unfortunately) Shatner. Dickinson's two girls are played by Susan Sennett and Robbie Lee, who give crackerjack, livewire performances, perfectly appropriate for this sort of film, yet both actors faded from view after this. 

 

There is also some vaguely left wing social commentary, with rich characters rabbiting on about unions and socialism. Probably the best of the Bonnie and Clyde rip off genre, which also includes Little Laura and Big John, Dillinger, Bullet for a Pretty Boy, Crazy Mama and Corman's own Bloody Mama.

Movie review - "Deathsport" (1978) **

A follow up to Death Race 2000 (1975) (Cannonball (1976) was an earlier follow up) - although David Carradine once more plays a warrior of the future engaged in a deadly game on wheels, it isn't as good. The main thing is a total absence of humour - the film is played totally straight. The setting is 1000 years into the future, with the world divided into city states. One of the city states kidnaps some "rangers" (free spirited types who live outside the cities) in order to be killed in Death sport, a games used to kill people; the leader of the city state wants to show off his new deadly motorcycles.

It is a bit confusing, with some ripe dialogue. The first 30 minutes are convoluted. But once the film settles down into people on motorcycles trying to kill Carradine and his friends (including Claudia Jennings, who looks great in some of the outfits), it is fine, albeit hurt by the low budget.

Clearly influenced by Star Wars with its swords, swooping sound effects, a villain who was once a goody but turned evil to serve an evil lord, sand-people type creatures; Carradine wears a loin cloth a lot of the time but he and Jennings actually pass believably for warriors. Richard Lynch is a strong opponent. 

 

There is some gratuitous nudity, unfortunately mostly in torture scenes (Jennings appears in one - it seems like a 70s disco where you go nude only get electrocuted; this was her penultimate film). 

 

The choppy nature of the film is partly explained by the fact that two directors are credited - Allan Arkush apparently took over when original director, writer Nicholas Niciphor, wasn't producing the goods. Produced by Roger Corman.

Movie review - "The Great Texas Dynamite Chase" (1976) ** ½

An example par excellance of 70s New World “tits feminism” – an exploitation movie with strong female characters who frequently take their clothes off. The women in this case are Claudia Jennings and Jocelyn Jones. Jennings is an escaped prisoner who robs a bank using dynamite to save the family farm; Jones is a bank teller who helps her in Jennings’ initial robbery. The two decide to team up to rob banks; Johnny Crawford plays a love interest for Jones. Most of the action is jokey and tongue in cheek until it gets serious towards the end with some deaths.

The script is episodic, (one bank, then another bank) – Danny Peary in his book on cult movies correctly pointed out the film really needs someone chasing the girls instead of just random cops. 

The two leads dress in skimpy shorts and tight tops and are very sexy and often nude, particularly Jennings, who has a hot love scene with her own love interest. (NB if you want to know the reason why this film appeared in a book on cult movies it is mainly because this is the best known performance from Jennings, a kind of Queen of the Drive Ins in the 1970s who died in a car crash in 1979 and became a cult figure).

Totally unpretentious and bright enough; the final shot of the two girls galloping off into the sunset is genuinely rousing. Interesting for similarities to Thelma and Louise – the men in the film are either lecherous morons or dumb helpful studs. One thing – the two are shown to rob banks with dynamite. The thing with dynamite though – unlike a gun, if you use it isn’t the robber going to blow up as well?

Movie review - "Caged Heat" (1974) ** ½

A film I was really looking forward to seeing, because it was the first film directed by Jonathan Demme and was supposed to be one of the best women in prison films. I enjoyed it and its certainly well directed, but to be honest found it a bit boring at times. Erica Gavin (from Vixen) is the newcomer to the gaol (arrested after a very exciting sequence which gets the film off to a terrific start), who finds a bit of brutality, mostly from fat male guards, a sleazy pipe smoking male doctor, and the wheelchair bound sexually repressed warden (Barbara Steele).

Demme seems to struggle at times to combine the requisite exploitation elements with a desire to make a really good film – things like the warden don’t quite mesh with the more naturalistic other aspects. 

There is still a lot of nudity and the requisite fight scenes, although in Demme’s film the women have a lot more solidarity with one another – for instance, Gavin escapes with a Queen B who was her former enemy, and Roberta Collins and a black prisoner have a very supporting friendship. 

Structurally wise, the film is hurt when Demme’s script splits off into two separate stories: Collins in the prison as a drug guinea pig, and Gavin on the lam. (Although it does reunite the stories again for an exciting escape sequence). Roberta Collins, a fixture of women in prison films, displays a nice flair for comedy. The film is actually set in America as opposed to the Philippines. I will give this another look later on because of Demme – I stress it is very well directed, edited, shot, etc – it’s just less fun than The Big Doll House.

Movie review – “King Kong” (2005) ***1/2

Everyone loves Naomi Watts in the new King Kong - the monster of course, who not only beats up dinosaurs for her on Skull Island but then basically dies for her in New York, plus the crew of the boat that goes to Skull Island and mostly gets wiped out looking for her (at what point do they go "hang on, she's not worth 15 of us" - its ok for Aiden Brophy because he's going to get to have sex with her but what about the rest); there's also Peter Jackson who gives Watts lots and lots of close ups.

I really enjoyed the film: tremendous special effects, good performances, a great gorilla, plenty of roller coaster action, moving finale, better developed love story between monster and girl (he likes her partly because of her acting skills, which is a nice touch), the humans on Skull Island are truly terrifying, all of Skull Island is terrifying, they improve on the original by making sure that Watts is no part of Kong's humiliation in New York.

Some debits: a bit overlong (did we need all the Watts backstory?), why all the emphasis on that young kid (Jamie Bell) and the Heart of Darkness?, the captain comes to the rescue twice when once was enough (and what happends to his character?), the scenes with tommy guns smacks a bit too much of thinking-about-the-video-game spin off. But a worthy remake of the original.

Book review – “While I Live” by John Marsden

After helping fight off enemy attackers in the Tomorrow series, this new book marks the first of the Ellie Chronicles, the adventures of Ellie in peace time. It is turbulent peace time, though, with Ellie living on the border of a smaller Australia with the enemy not living far away, and frequent border raids. (One feels Marsden was inspired by the recent East Timor experience). Poor old Ellie hasn’t had much time to readjust to peace time when her parents are killed in one of the said border raids – couldn’t Marsden give her some happiness? Of course this enables her to struggle against the odds without parents like she did in the other books. And we never got to know the parents that well so we don’t feel their loss that much – just feel sorry for Ellie. The plot of this is a bit more episodic than the Tomorrow books – there’s no big mission to blow something up, just a series of adventures, some encounters with the enemy, Ellie meets some new friends (setting up for further novels), hears about a secret society of people who retrieve people still held by the enemy (not really used here but setting up for further novels), battles to save her farm. There are a few Aussie baddies this time, giving Marsden the chance to create some personalized villains (the enemy are always unpersonalised) and presumably settle some scores. Mr Sale the dodgy lawyer is a great villain and has a satisfying come-uppance. Odd bit where Ellie recalls her dead parents and remembers her father's penis.

Movie review – Corman #7 - “It Conquered the World” (1956) **1/2

Early Roger Corman sci-fi flick which was really too ambitious for its limited budget, being about the attempt of a Venus space creature to take over the world – here the “world” is limited to some scientists and their wives, a group of soldiers, some townspeople. But it is a surprisingly strong story – the creature does it by using bat-like creatures who attack locals and convert them into mind controlled slaves, there is a scientist (an intense Lee Van Cleef) who, frustrated by humankind’s failings, helps the aliens, and there are some full on scenes when a good scientist (Peter Graves) shoots various humans who’ve been taken over by the alien – including his own wife! (He doesn’t even try to lock her in the basement or anything, he just shoots her). Also surprising was the scene where the traitor scientist’s wife (Beverly Garland) who for most of the film is shown to be a can’t-help-loving-that-man ninny, goes after the alien with a shot gun – but ends up dead. These things all make the film unexpectedly powerful. OK, it’s a limited sort of power – the sfx are dodgy, the flying bats and the alien itself looks like a giant cucumber (there are times when it appears the audience should see the monster but don’t – I have a feeling it was cut out after screenings because it looked so ridiculous and incurred laughter rather than screams). Good role for Van Cleef and it moves along briskly.

Movie review – Corman #26 - “The Creature from the Haunted Sea” (1961) **1/2

Roger Corman considered this as part of his “comedy” trilogy, the first two being Bucket of Blood and Little Shop of Horrors. All three were written by Charles Griffith, and the films feel a lot more “Griffith” than they do “Corman”: that is anarchic, parody, free-wheeling, hilarious.

This one is totally way out – its about a bunch of Cubans fleeing Castro who hire a gangster to transport some gold and them out of the country. The gangster plans to kill off the Cubans and steal the gold, blaming the deaths on an old sea monster. Problem is, there turns out to be a real sea monster.

It's not a bad story, even if the sea monster looks a bit too much like the cookie monster. Its main interest are all the way-out touches Griffith puts in: an undercover agent hero (Edward Wain, who later became the writer Robert Towne), whose real name is X11 and who wears a phony glass and moustache, falls in love with the gangster’s moll, incompetently investigates the crime and says things in the voice over like “it was getting dark – I could tell because the sun was going down”; there is also the gangster’s henchman who is obsessed with making animal noises, the moll’s brother who falls in love with a member of a ‘waterside sorority house’ who falls in love with Wain even though Wain is in love with the moll, the constant wacky narration.

Not as tight as Bucket or Little Shop - bit over the place, and technically the copies of the film out there are very poor. But crazy and entertaining, worth catching if you enjoyed the other two films. Corman commissioned this up at the last minute while down in Puerto Rico making Battle of Blood Island and The Last Woman on Earth; the result is more memorable than either, chiefly due to Griffith.

NB Retro Media did a special DVD with commentary by Besty-Jones Moreland, Steve Latshaw and Anthony Carbone. According to this, Roger Corman intended to make a serious movie but only realised he was making a comedy half way. Surely this can’t be true? But the actors confirm this – they say they thought they were making a serious film until they saw the monster.

On the commentary, Moreland seems to become bored and drifts off at times; also she and Carbone occasionally get impatient with Latshaw’s questions (not they they’re dumb questions, I think Latshaw's just interested in stuff which they have no idea about.)

Movie review – Corman #23 - “The Wasp Woman” (1960) **

Early Roger Corman effort for his own Filmgroup company which has a great central idea, an interesting variation on the vampire legend : cosmetics research reveals a wasp-inspired anti-aging formula, used by the head of a cosmetics company (Susan Cabot). Of course even though it works it also turns you evil, and she goes on a rampage. Not enough of a rampage, though – far too much of the film is spent doing research, then on the scientist who makes it and disappears.

There are misogynistic overtones, unusual in Corman works – two male execs get Cabot’s secretary, Barbara Mouris, to spy on her – which she does. (It doesn’t help the leading men are so unmemorable – as they usually would be in Corman films unless they were insane or killers). 

 

The wasp make up is a bit iffy but the attacks are great – Cabot leaps across rooms and fangs these victims. Right on! Although the film cheats when the wasp woman doesn’t kill the irritating secretary who is investigating her, although she has the chance. The story appears very influenced by The Fly (1958) and isn’t as good – though it could have been. Good performance by Cabot. The technical quality of the print I saw on DVD was very poor – grainy and murky looking. Awful music.

Movie review – "The Big Bird Cage" (1972) **

The phenomenal success of The Big Doll House saw Roger Corman order Jack Hill back to the Philippines and to come up with more of the same. Hill was given the script for the original but wrote this one from scratch, so he really doesn’t have anyone else but himself to blame for the fact it isn’t as good (and wasn’t anywhere near as popular, though Hill claims it has become cult success).

There are several reasons for this:

(a) the casting isn’t as good. Although Pam Grier returns (as a revolutionary) and the statuesque Anitra Ford steps into the innocently-accused-but-not-really-an-innocent-type role played by Judy Brown in the first film, and both are terrific, the rest of the cast aren’t up to it – the other female prisoners, in particular feel very undercast, look like they belong more in a summer camp movie than in a women in prison film, which requires big personalities (one of them is an Aussie chick who was in Manila at the time, met Hill and found herself in the film)

(b) The prison is too nice! Instead of a grimy gaol, there are airy bungalows with dorm accommodation and it is all out in the open – it out be a resort.

(c) There are too many men. The warden is a man, the guards are men (all gay, incidentally), much of the plot revolves around Grier’s fellow revolutionary boyfriend Sid Haig. We don't watch women in prison films to see men!

Having said that the film has some highlights – it is a fun idea to have Grier break into prison in order to recruit revolutionaries, and there are some memorably bizarre moments, like the seven foot lesbian character who covers herself in grease so other prisoners can’t tackle her enabling her to attack a fellow bitchy inmate, the mad house of mad female prisoners, and a scene where the horny female prisoners rape one of the gay guards (one of them squats on his face to stop his screams of terror). There is also a gratifyingly chaotic revolt at the end, and Grier and Haig’s relationship is unexpectedly touching.

Hill’s commentary on the DVD is interesting – he seems a little defensive about the film, continually going on about its cult status and saying he isn’t PC every time a character on screen says something particularly full on (eg Ford telling Haig “you can’t rape me, I enjoy sex”).

Movie review – Corman #44 - “The Trip” (1967) ***

After sparking off the biker cycle of films with The Wild Angels, Roger Corman and AIP kicked off another sub genre of films, albeit a shorter-lived one, with this, which led to a series of LSD films. It’s actually one of Corman’s more personal films, with the character played by Peter Fonda (a TV commercials director who dresses conservatively and decides to take LSA and does it in a very methodical way) seemingly based on Corman.

This has about 20 minutes of story – Fonda takes some LSD at a friend’s (Bruce Dern’s) place, hallucinates a bit, goes running through the streets, goes back to the friend’s place and chats with a drug guru (Dennis Hopper – alright!), picks up a girl and has sex with her and wakes up the next day. Most of the film is taken up with Fonda’s hallucinations, and most of them are well done.

AIP inserted a Reefer Madness-like “drugs are bad” opening spiel and took the final frame over Fonda at the end and put a “crack” in it to indicate a smashed mirror – but for all that it is pretty much an ad for LSD: Fonda is freaked out a little but also has lots of cool visions and gets to go to bed with a hot chick. Lots of groovy 60s visuals, like the scene where Fonda and ex-wife Susan Strasberg make love amidst psychedelic lights. (This is perhaps Corman’s sexiest film, with a surprising amount of nudity - bare boobs, Peter Fonda’s arse.) Great music.

Movie review – “Love and Other Catastrophes” (1996) ***

One of the most influential Australian films ever made – shot for $45,000 it later enjoyed AFC post production funding up to $500,000 and was sold for $1 million, inspiring scores of other Australian films to follow suit, none of which enjoyed this one’s success.
There are several reasons this one broke through (although it should be pointed out it was not a massive hit at the box office, earning around $1.6 million which puts it a long way from “Castle” status): Emma Kate Crogan’s expert, energetic direction, the sheer likeability of the film (it quotes from pop culture in manic, Gen X style but never seems affected or pretentious), the excellence of the cast (including two future world stars, Radha Mitchell and Frances O’Connor, plus an international name in Matt Day and a very likeable Alice Garner – even Matt Dkynstski who comes across as a bad actor pretentious wanker fits the role), an unaffected lesbian angle (then rare in a romantic comedy) and the title.
If it had a stronger story an a bit more plot it might have done even better (the filmmakers didn’t get away with it on their next film “Strange Planet”), but it is an impossible film to dislike.
I remember watching O’Connor in the cinema when this came out and going – “that person is going to be a star”. It’s only happened a few other times for me – Ewen McGregor in “Shallow Grave” and Colin Farrell in that Joel Schumacher Vietnam War thing he was in.
NB the DVD lists this as having a “director’s commentary” but actually it’s a commentary from Stavros, the producer. Slack, guys!

Movie review – Corman #27 - “The House of Usher” (1960) ***

The film that marked a move by AIP and Roger Corman into bigger budgeted first-run films as opposed to double features and it paid off brilliantly for both, ushering in the Poe cycle of films. This was a series of films based on or inspired by the works of Edgar Allan Poe, and were set in the 19th century usually about people who arrive at a house where a lot of strange stuff is going down, normally involving Vincent Price and his wife/sister/daughter (played by some interchangeable AIP starlet who were all stunning but I had trouble telling them apart), and people being buried alive/coming back from the dead/faking it to go insane. Oh, there was usually a butler, too.

This one has Mark Damon arrive at a house to collect his fiancée, Vincent Price’s sister (Myrna Fahey). It starts terrifically, looks great (Daniel Haller did the art direction), is genuinely spooky – but goes on too long with too many scenes of Damon walking around the house investigating. Another big debit is Damon’s performance – he isn’t a very likeable actor and isn’t very expressive, though he tries (he later chucked in acting and became a successful producer). Price is good value, in a blonde wig – less hammy and tongue in cheek than he would become. His best scene is showing Damon portraits of his ancestors – slave traders, harlots, etc – it’s wonderful.

Apart from Price the best thing about the movie is its atmosphere – gorgeous Dan Haller art direction, Lex Baxter’s music, Floyd Crosby’s cinematography. Richard Matheson’s script is quite good too given there isn’t a lot of story – Damon walking around the house, getting surprised (the dream sequence felt like padding in particular). The big twist comes when his fiancee dies, but doesn’t actually – she’s buried alive. This is a good twist, and was used in many subsequent Poe films. And there is a marvelous climax – footage of which was used in many later Poe films. Followed by The Pit and the Pendulum.

(It’s interesting that Poe has been so frequently adapted for movies when his books are more about mood than story. But I guess being buried alive and family insanity is always a good twist.)

Movie review – Corman #42 - “The Wild Angels” (1966) **

For anyone who doesn’t think Roger Corman could direct should check out this effort, which shows him at the confident height of his powers – interesting, experimental visuals, fast pace, differing techniques. It’s a shame the story he is filming is so uninvolving. Although this film was incredibly popular and sparked an entire sub-genre of films, the biker film, it is not a lot of fun to watch.

The Hells Angels are so unsympathetic and unlikeable and stupid – a member of the gang (Bruce Dern) is shot fleeing the cops so they bust him out of hospital (!!), one of them trying to rape the nurse as he goes, then Dern dies so they have a funeral and rape Dern’s lady friend (Diane Ladd) then bury him. I guess Corman didn’t want to glamorize them but did they have to be so stupid and unglamorous. Even the leader of the gang (Peter Fonda, a charismatic actor in a way but not very believable as the head of the Hells Angels) is the one who comes up with the dumb plan to break Dern out of hospital.

Some real Hells Angels were employed giving the film a feeling of authenticity (they look as though they wouldn’t listen to Peter Fonda – the actor who plays his 2-in-C is especially imposing looking). The best scene is the funeral, with some great music, nice scenery, and suspense as the townsfolk gather to beat up the Hell’s Angels. The script is credited to Charles Griffith but doesn’t seem very Griffith-like; Peter Bogdanovich (who can be glimpsed as a townsperson and who worked on the film as second unit) said he rewrote 80% of it, which is why perhaps it is more visual than other Griffith scripts.

Movie review – “Domino” (2005) ***

You’ve got to hand it to Tony Scott, although best known for his Bruckheimer epics like Top Gun he likes to march to the swing of his own beat and he’s done that with this tale of Domino Harvey, daughter of actor Laurence Harvey who became a bounty hunter. It’s a bizarre tale on one level – on another, I guess she’s just another rich kid seeking thrills on the dark side of life. Keira Knightley isn’t much of an actor and doesn’t really give a great sense of what makes Domino tick (the film doesn’t mention the real Domino’s 15 year drug habit, for instance, which I think explains a lot about her) but she is a star and you certainly watch her; she’s certainly better than Laurence Harvey was in his movies.

For a while this film seems like an exercise in stylistics rather than an attempt to create a story with characters we care about – Scott is mega-hyped up on visual pyrotechnics for this one, with far out camera angles, vision stock, sound, etc – but once it settles down into the “missing $10 million” story it is fine.

Great supporting cast, with Mickey Rourke terrific as the gnarled bounty hunter who basically hires Domino because she’s hot and will make him look cool, and nice work from Edgar thingy who plays the love interest. Two Beverly Hills 90210 stars, Ian Zering and Brian Astin Green, are good sports playing themselves – the scene where Domino punches Green in the nose is very satisfying for all those who couldn’t stand David Silver on the show. The ending is spectacular and unexpectedly moving. Nice touch with the end credits listing the actors only by their first names.

Movie review - "The Arena" (1974) **1/2

New World try a variation on the women in prison film by having women in prison in Ancient Rome. A bunch of ladies are imprisoned as slaves by Romans (in particular one black and one white); they are bought by a gladiator owner who is having trouble entertaining the jaded crowd with his men gladiators, so he eventually gets the women to fight.

The women in prison influence is notable in a few scenes - the obligatory initiation shower sequence, a fight in the "mess hall", an escape sequence - but it's better as a gladiator movie, with a rousing climatic fight that is the best thing about the film.

The two main gladiators are the regal, former high priestess of something or other Bodicia (Margaret Markov) and Pam Grier, who really looks like she would have made a good gladiator. Markov and Grier work well together and there is a nice scene where Grier is forced to kill a fellow female gladiator or be killed in turn; also good is when Markov and Grier's love interests both get killed on the same day. 

Worst scene: the bitch gladiator (a Roman) ends up pack raped. (There's too much rape and sexual assault, as there was in many of these films - something people who seek to rehabilitate 70s cinema seem to forget). 

Directed by Steve Carver and producer by Mark Damon, former star of Fall of the House of Usher.

Movie review - "Women in Cages" (1972) **

Follow up to The Big Doll House which was again made by New World and has many of the same cast. The one cliche lacking from Doll House was having an innocent new fish as a protagonist (Judy Browne's character wasn't really innocent).

That is rectified here, with Jennifer Gan as the annoying simpering whining innocently-convicted American (though she's a gangster's moll who is introduced enjoying a cockfight, so she can't be all that innocent, either) who winds up in prison.

Her cell mates include Roberta Collins (playing a heroin addict) and Judy Browne; Pam Grier who played a big butch dyke prisoner last time, here plays a big butch dyke warden, who spends her time seducing and/or torturing the prisoners (she even has her own torture chamber). There is an escape sequence, the girls wind up on a brothel boat, from where there is another escape sequence.

Not nearly as much fun as Doll House, lacking that film's energy, with, annoyingly, a male hero (a cop) who comes to rescue at the end, and some genuinely unpleasant moments - the two definite lesbians both wind up gang raped and murdered by men.

Movie review - "Death Race 2000" (1975) ***1/2

Anarchic, free-wheeling futuristic action road movie that is heaps of fun. Set in the future where America has become a dictatorship and the masses are entertained by a race that involves drivers driving across country and running people over.

There are five drivers (and their navigators) including David Carridine (a good solid anti-hero performance), Sylvester Stallone (very funny), Mary Woronov, Martin Cove and the gorgeous Roberta Collins. The equally stunning Simone Griffeth plays Carradine's navigator, who is also a revolutionary.

Some really off the wall humour - co-writer was Charles Griffith and the film bares his influence. He complained that producer Roger Corman cut out a lot of the laughs but there are plenty there - because most of the movie takes place within fast driving cars the film feels fast paced, and there are some good stunts.

Apart from the action there is also some patented gratuitous New World nudity (courtesy of Griffeth, Collins and Woronv - talk about score). Exceedingly good fun, subversive and wild. Came out the same year as Rollerball and has inspired heaps of imitations, such as Cannonball (1976) and The Running Man (1988). Director Paul Bartel has a cameo. Lewis Teague, who worked on the crew, plays the matador who gets run over and John Landis plays a mechanic.

The DVD has a commentary from Roger Corman and Mary Woronov works very well; unlike some actors who do commentary (eg “it was cold that day”) Woronov is smart and funny. Corman is also fun; he’s always talking about how low the budget as and ways they saved money. He also says he did a lot of the driving and rarely mentions Chuck Griffith at all, who co-wrote it and surely contributed a lot to the insane humour (he only mentions that Griffith added some dialogue). He also says that the film was always meant to be comedy which Griffith and Bartel have denied – but Corman was not averse to black humour throughout his career

Note on Charles Griffith – it was pointed out to me recently that the Paul Bartel-Mary Woronov comedy Eating Raoul used the same structure as Little Shop of Horrors and Bucket of Blood. Obviously the definitive black comedy template.

Book review – “Last Days of Disco” by Whit Stillman

I love the film so was eager to see what Whit Stillman came up with for his novelisation. Stillman’s movies are talky so his screenplays make marvelous reading – Metropolitan and Barcelona were both published (the scripts) but not Disco which presumably won’t be because of this book. 

It's written from the POV of Jimmy Steinway, which offers some useful insights but sometimes feels odd because he wasn’t really the main character of the film (he says interviews were done with the participants, which doesn’t seem right – maybe a couple of different POV accounts would have worked better). 

A lot of the time Stillman seems content to reproduce the script – watching the movie it sometimes felt continuity was odd - eg at the end “that’s why you took my passport” – this faults are not fixed up for the novel, which is frustrating. Some bits are added – a scene where the gang go to a festival, discussion of a Labor Day party that is referred to in the film, a bit of an epilogue to explain what happened to the characters in the subsequent 20 years. 

Most of it is just fleshed out screenplay, but since most of that was wonderful in the first place it doesn’t really matter. I wonder if this and the other two films are the only stories that Stillman has to tell. I hope not.

Movie review - "Before Sunset" (2004) *** 1/2

I loved Before Sunrise so much I was nervous about seeing the sequel. What if they stuffed it up? For one thing, Ethan Hawke was now credited as one of the co-writers and he’s become such a wanker. Well, this is an entirely worthy sequel. It has its flaws but it fully respects the original and has many lovely moments. It even dares to be a bit different in that it is done in real time, whereas the original took a bit longer.

Questions from the original are satisfactorily answered, and Julie Delpy is as captivating as ever. Ethan is a bit irritating (“I spent some time in a trappist monastery”, “I was in a band”) and has that skinny look that looks like a holdover from Assault on Precinct 13 but still works. Main debit for the film – Ethan’s crapping on about how his marriage is basically dead. I wanted to believe him but couldn’t shake the feeling that if his marriage was fine and he just wanted a holiday root he’d say exactly the same thing (and Ethan’s breakdown in the limo is the only really jarring “actor”-y bit out of it).

I didn’t like the ending that much when I saw it but it’s stuck with me ever since and now I love it, if that makes sense.

Movie review - "The Big Doll House" (1971) ***

The film that kicked off the early 70s “women in prison” cycle, and it's terrific – exotic setting, sadistic guards, pseudo left-wing leanings (basically some of the prisoners are revolutionaries), violence, Pam Grier as a lesbian prisoner, junkies, cobras, women in cages, more torture, a riot in the food hall.

Basically, everything you want in a WIP film, this has got.

It's very exploitative – there are lots of scenes involving showers and women being stretched out on racks or whipped; there’s even a scene where two women start fighting and end up wrestling in mud! The women are gorgeous - Roberta Collins particularly - and the action moves along at a fair clip.

With all these remakes of 70s films around at the moment, why doesn't someone give this another go?

Movie review - "Eat My Dust" (1976) **1/2

A hot genre in the late 70s was the car chase/crash film, best exemplified by Smokey and the Bandit. This Roger Corman production made a lot of money for New World, one of his biggest ever hits. Corman thought this was due to a combination of cars, crashes, laughs and the fact that the hero was a teenager – played by the ever likeable Ron Howard. Howard is a car mad teen who in order to impress a girl in short pants (Christopher Norris) steals a stock car and goes on a mad drive over one afternoon. Normally these sort of films try to make the hero more respectable by making the pursuing cops baddies but not here, here they’re just incompetent.

Although the action and crashes are clearly meant to be tongue in cheek, Howard and co wreck and awful lot of havoc and really does do a lot of dangerous driving. He is a bit of a menace.
The film is light hearted with a bright banjo-esque soundtrack, lots of speeded up front-fender-cam vision, and moves at a flying pace. There is some off the wall humour (mostly courtesy of the adult characters) distinctive of Chuck B. Griffith, who wrote and directed.

Norris’ character is a user, a femme fetale who gets off on speed, but at least she roots Howard’s character twice so he can’t really complain! It all takes place over the one afternoon, going into evening. Howard then starred in Grand Theft Auto, which he also directed.

Movie review - Wood #3 - "Bride of the Monster" (1955) **

Classic Ed D Wood film actually isn't that bad. Yes, you heard me. The story is a perfectly acceptable Mad-Scientist-in-the-woods concoction, with a senstive henchman, an investigative reporter, and her fiancee. There's even a subplot about the commies. But we watch Wood films for the little fourishes and there are plenty of those. The best is the deaths involing the monster (a fake octopus and some stock footage) - actors thrash around in it enjoyably unconvincingly. There's also the script which has the Loch Ness Monster removed to America for a mad scientist. Bela Lugosi looks a bit wasted away but is still in pretty good form and Tor Johnson is fun. Dolores Fuller, Wood's woman, has a very small role.