Lon Chaney Jnr Top Ten

 1) The Wolf Man (1941) - what else? I'm not allowed to do a sequel, but I love them all.

2) Of Mice and Men (1939) - before he was a horror star he got plaudits for this.

3) High Noon (1952) - probably the best film he was in.

4) Spider Baby (1964) - splendid late period stuff.

5) One Million Years BC (1940) - makes a great cave person.

6)  Son of Dracula (1943) - he's not good but the film is.

7) The Black Sleep (1956) - very moving.

8) Witchcraft (1964) - brisk late period horror. 

9) Man Made Monster (1941) - pulls out all stops, great fun.

10) Pillow of Death (1945) - one of the inner sanctum films .

Movie review - "Dementia 13" (1963) **1/2 (rewatching)

 I wanted to see this on the big screen. Thoughts:

- wanted to like it more than I do but as a quickie it's impressive

- Luanda Anders is wonderful and the film never recovers from her death, the best bit

- Bobby Campbell a little odd, the other female lead a little erratic, Patrick Magee terrific

- needs a Vincent Price

- spooky atmosphere

- lots of chat, I got confused. 

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

 Fun. Ticks all the boxes for the genre. Vicious lesbian guard. Showers. Mud wrestling. Escape. Revolutionaries. Third world setting. All the characters are different. It's made with energy. Star turns from Pam Grier, Roberta Collins. Sid Haig fun. The movie works.  Stephanie Rothman had the film rewritten by Don Spencer - I wonder what her contribution was.

It's a shame she and Jack Hill seem to clash.

Movie review - "Dementia 13" (1962) **1/2

 Coppola's Psycho knock off has a great murder sequence with an axe to show how tremendous he is with genre. There's a memorable opening, with another guy dying, a superb Luana Anders performance. Once Anders dies half way the film never quite gets its groove back though Patrick Magee does all he can.

I got confused in the second half to be honest. Mary Mitchell is a rather bland blonde - Coppola loved his blondes. Bill Campbell is alright.

Clearly made by someone with talent. Some great moments. I do find it patchy.

Movie review - "Blood Bath" (1966) (re-watching) **

 I previously reviewed the Track of the Vampire version of this - this one is Blood Bath, shorter at 60 minutes. You need Tim Lucas to talk through the versions.

There's an opening, stylishly shot vampire murder. That's Stephanie Rothman. Beatniks in a bar - that's Jack Hill. There's two girls chatting. One girl goes and dances on the beach, Sandra Knight (this is Rothman). Then the other girl, Marissa Mathes, meets artist William Campbell. He kills her. I think that's Hill. But also he turns into a vampire. Which is Rothman.

Basically vampire = Rothman and artist Campbell = Hill. I'm not sure how much Yugoslavian stuff remains. 

It's confusing. The two stories don't mesh (if Campbell didn't return they should have had a Campbell plus a vampire... or had a second psycho). I know why Hill is frustrated Rothman made the changes but also I think his stuff involved a little too much comedy at the beatnik store - I'm assuming that's all mostly Hill.

Still, the sheer novelty of this film is fascinating. The directors, Corman, the cast - which includes Sandra Knight (Mrs Jack Nicholson) and Jonathan Haze, who were both in The Terror (a more satisfactory patchwork quilt). You've got Sid Haig. The photography is genueinly beautiful. The ending genuinely dumb. Movies!

Movie review - "The Terror" (1963) *** (re-watching)

 I've seen this so many times but did it again in light of rewatching the Corman Poes. It's a jagged mess, full of charm, and familiar faces - even support like Jonathan Haze. It's better than Comedy of Terrors because it's serious and Corman goes for mood. The plot is erratic but at least stuff does happen. Sandra Knight is genuinely evocative and otherwordly. Jack Nicholson is charming. Poor Karloff in that flooding water!

Movie review - "The Bellboy and the Playgirls" (1962) **

 Technically Francis Coppola's first movie. He was given a West German comedy and told to add nudity. It's easy to spot his stuff because it's not dubbed... and most of it is in colour. It's not that much.

Jack hill helped Coppola shoot the extra sequences. I liked this more than Coppola's second nudie - production values are higher.

Movie review - "Tonight for Sure" (1962) *

 Before Coppola worked for Roger Corman he did some nudie cuties. This is about two men who meet and travel through Sunset Strip. There's lots of gryating women. Jack Hill worked on this as did Coppola's dad Carmine. It's dull. The photography isn't as good as say Russ Meyers. There's some quirky bits. You'd be hard pressed to know it was Coppola. Not really a porno more a "nudie".

Movie review - "The Terror" (1963) **1/2 (re-watching)

Look, it's a mess. I love this, love the story behind it's making, what film fan doesn't, but it's all over the place. It varies in tone and logic.

But it's got Dan Haller sets, Sandra Knight is beautiful and evocative, the atmosphere is creepy, Jack Nicholson is in a French officer's uniform, Jonathan Haze is creepy, Dick Miller is fun as the butler, Karloff is supericonic. The flood stuff works.

A movie of its own genre.

Movie review - "The Terror" (1963) **1/2

Watched this again because Dick Miller died. There is a lot of walking around. I mean a lot. Jack Nicholson, Boris Karloff do a lot of walking. There's also padding - people talking about what's happened or what might happen.

It does have atmosphere though. It looks great. I love the waves, and the credits, and the castle. I love the homey-ness of the old lady's place.

Jack Nicholson is very miscast but he's still Jack Nicholson. Sandra Knight is perfectly ethereal. Dick Miller is absurdly miscast. Jonathan Haze is fun. Boris Karloff is perfect.

This film has a magic. It is slow and confusing.

Movie review - "Sorceress" (1982) **

The success of Conan the Barbarian kicked off a cycle of copycat sword and sorcery films from Roger Corman, starting with this one, where he hired his old comrade Jack Hill. Hill disliked the experience and result so much he took off his name as writer (Jim Wynorski gets sole credit) and director, but kept it on as producer.

It's about two identical twin women of royal lineage, which actually is a great idea, but the film doesn't do anything with it - instead of using the stock Corsican Brothers route of having them grow up apart as different people, this one has them grow up together, so they're basically the same person, so you get no conflict. Literally they are identical. This for me is the biggest problem in the movie. The Corsican Brothers has a great concept - twins grow up separately, one rich and one poor, and unite to take on the baddies.

There's some funny silly moments like the girls being so naive they don't know what a naked man looks like, and quite a sexy one where one girl is having sex and the other one feels it - more of this stuff would have been great.

The special effects are hokey but I didn't mind. There are some spooky scenes towards the end in a cave - given a lower than expected budget director Jack Hill would have, in hindsight, been better off doing more scenes like this. (I realise that's easy to say from this point of view.)

It is undercast - the leads are twins and good looking, they are fine, but they needed stronger support and don't get it. There's too much emphasis on the dull male hero with a weird perm and I get where the comic viking was meant to be coming from but the actor doesn't get there. The satyr is just creepy.

The story should be simple but winds up needlessly complex. Why kill off that guy at the beginning and have him come back? Why not just keep him alive? The lead girls aren't central to the action enough - they're saved too often.

And yet... there is action, it looks good set on film (much better than later Corman productions) and it was shot a lot on location (in Mexico). It has a sense of adventure. Not as bad as I had been led to believe, more frustrating because it could have so easily been better. It's such a waste Jack Hill hasn't made a film since this time.

Movie review - "The Woman Hunt" (1972) **

John Ashley helped Roger Corman made The Big Doll House in the Philippines for New World Pictures, then New World financed some Ashley productions of which this was the last. It's a riff on The Most Dangerous Game - well, kind of. The plot has some white women kidnapped by vicious Eddie Garcia, but there's no official hunting because the women escape.

Ashley plays a mercenary who helps kidnap the women... but then he changes his mind and helps them escape. This kind of feels like a cheat because in the best of these films the women would get themselves out of trouble.

There are three main women, none of them particularly memorable: Pat Woodell (who was in a few of these movies), Charlene Jones (the black one) and Laurie Rose. The film badly needed someone with a bit more star power, like a Roberta Collins or a Pam Grier. Lisa Todd has the best role as the lecherous lesbian head of security for Garcia.

There's some nudity and lots of rape and uninspired action. None of the actors are on fire, except for Garcia. But then no one really has much of a character to play - I really struggled to tell the girls apart, and the men too.

I didn't enjoy this film. The handling felt too heavy or something. Jack Hill (who provided the original story) might have been a better choice as director than Eddie Romero - Hill had a lighter touch and more energy.  Scenes which should have been great like Pat Woodell sacrificing herself blowing away hunters before being killed herself, are just flat. There's also stupid bits like Laurie Rose and Ashley going for a frolicking swim when they're still in danger, and Garcia deciding to kill himself when he clearly should've been killed, and Todd going from bad ass sidekick to dopey girl.

Maybe it never would have worked with Ashley being the one who saves the girls. But its an unattractive, unexciting, poorly-made movie.

Movie review - "Island of the Snake People" (1971)

Towards the end of his life Boris Karloff worked with some exciting new directors - Peter Bogdanovich, Michael Reeves and Jack Hill. He actually made more movies with Hill than the other two - four at the end of his life which were Mexican films with some Karloff footage shot in Los Angeles.

They are not very highly regarded movies, even by the most devoted Karloff fan, and really only for completists. There are some effective moments here however and it's not a bad story: a voodoo cult is running riot on a small island, under the thrall of a priest. Karloff plays a rich local landowner - do you reckon he had anything to do with it? He's got a niece who is a temperance campaigner, one of several interesting little tidbits.

There's also a few ceremonies involving a snake, one where a woman puts a snakes head down her throat; a dwarf, some necrophilia and chicken sacrificing, plus two heroic police investigators, one handsome the other a character actor, a snake dancer, and some half-decent atmosphere. It lacks logic and Karloff's absence for most of filming is irriatingly evident at times - this one boosts his presence by featuring his photo heavily during the credits but it's not enough.

Book review - "Jack Hill: The Exploitation and Blaxploitation Master, Film by Film" by Calum Waddell

One of the great mysteries in 70s cinema - why did the directing jobs dry up so much for Jack Hill, despite an incredible run of successes at the box office: The Big Doll House, The Big Bird Cage, Coffy, Foxy Brown, and The Swinging Cheerleaders? Okay, sure, Switchblade Sisters didn't do as well as everyone hoped (despite being a terrific movie), but I'm still thrown as to why Hill only directed one more film.

That question is only half answered here. Hill seems to have had his chances: he almost got a film up under James T. Aubrey at MGM (which seems a natural fit) but claims his agent stuffed the negotiation; he wrote several scripts in the late 70s which were made - but shot in Canada so he couldn't direct them (I was unaware of this stage in his career - his credits include Death Ship, Sky Riders and City on Fire); he got up a film in the 80s with Roger Corman but had a bad fight with Corman over money so didn't make any more movies for him.

Still, you would've thought someone with such a strong track record of making low budget popular films that launched stars (well, one - Pam Grier) and helped establish genres (female blaxploitation, women in prison, cheerleaders) would never have been out of work, especially in the video era.

Maybe Hill didn't want it bad enough - he admits to not being super ambitious or career minded; he never had the self promotion capabilities of, say, Peter Bogdanovich. I also got the impression here he could be prickly - he takes a big swipe at Stephanie Rothman for the stuff she shot on Blood Bath (Waddell joins in on this, which I thought was unfair), calls Bogdanovich "a jerk" for not inviting him to a screening of The Last Picture Show, suggests Coppola (who came up at the same time as Hill) used his short film as inspiration for Apocalypse Now, mocks John Milius (whose Dillinger was made at the same time as Coffy and was meant to be a big hit but disappointed, apparently). Maybe he just worked so often with inadequate budgets on films that caused him too much hassle that he lost puff.

There are some great stories here: making those dodgy flicks with Boris Karloff in Mexico toward the end of the latter's life (Karloff was disappointed Targets didn't do that well and was angry at Corman for being ripped off apparently), trying to stop Ich, Ein Groupie from being a soft core porn in Germany, the partying antics of Roberta Collins (finally explaining to me why this beautiful, talented exploitation star never did more), his vision for Switchblade Sisters, the disaster of Sorceress (including a big fight with Corman whose penny pinching ways are not charming as described in this book).

Still, this book feels vaguely disappointing. Too much time is taken up with recaps of plots and Waddell's analysis of the film; he gets really hung up on some of their non-PC aspects, particularly gay jokes. I take his point about the rape jokes/scenes which always mar my enjoyment of Hill's movie but the gay comments are justified by the script (e.g. Pam Gier talking about lesbianism as being a "disease" in The Big Doll House it's clear to me in the film she doesn't mean what she's saying). I guess this is all personal, it depends on what offends you, but Waddell goes on about it so much at times I wondered why he bothered writing a book about Hill. The films are fun - at least to their fans - and this doesn't come across.

Movie review – “Track of the Vampire” (1965) *1/2

An early collaboration between two directors who later became cult favourites – Jack Hill and Stephanie Rothman, both working for Roger Corman. It starts with a sort of Bucket of Blood flavour, with a bunch of beatniks and artists (including Sid Haig, so you know Jack Hill directed that bit) hanging out in a café.

The film gets progressively weirder, as befits its reputation. Basically it’s about an artist vampire who kills his models and dips them in wax. But you’re more likely to remember the disjointed feel and shocking continuity. There’s a long sequence where a girl dances on the beach; a hot bit where William Campbell paints a topless model while he does this monologue about an insane artist; an attractive woman changes into a bikini, walks into the water then straight out again to be menaced; weird dream sequences; another actor to help flesh out William Campbell’s role; Patrick Magee badly dubbed; a laughable bit where a vampire jumps in a pool after a victim.

Still, there are some spooky bits – deserted streets at night, an okay finale with Campbell’s creatures rebelling against him; attractive women in the cast; the novelty of Sid Haig and Jonathan Haze as beatniks.

There five versions of this movie – the original part-Roger Corman-financed Yugoslavian film, Operation: Titian, starring Campbell and Patrick Magee (on which Francis Ford Coppola apparently worked); a version for this adapted for TV as Portrait in Terror; the Jack Hill version, Blood Bath, where Hill did some extra work in the US (why Sid Haig and Jonathan Haze are in the film); the Stephanie Rothman version, also called Blood Bath, which turned Campbell into a vampire (only with a different actor playing Campbell’s part); the extended Rothman version, known as Track of the Vampire, with additional footage inserted to make up the TV running time. Of interest for fans of Hill and Rotham, which is why I saw it, but for the most part this is a mess.

Movie review – “Foxy Brown” (1974) **1/2

A sort-of sequel Coffy with Pam Grier back as a hot black chick out for revenge under the direction of Jack Hill. Instead of being motivated by a drug addict sister (she does have a druggie brother but he’s totally unsympathetic) she’s out to get revenge on behalf of her murdered boyfriend (Terry Carter – Colonel Tigh from the first incantation of Battlestar Galactica). So she goes undercover as – what else? - a call girl. (Coffy was a nurse but Foxy Brown isn’t given a job.)

There’s a great credit sequence with Pam Grier dancing along to the terrific Willie Hutch theme song. Its reminiscent of James Bond movies and so is this film, with its sexy superhero and outlandish villains (one of whom even has a swivel chair). It is still 70s in some unpleasant ways, including the throat cutting of a naked woman.

Grier is fantastic value, all big afro, massive boobs and attitude. She shoots at her brother, beats up a bunch of lesbians in a barroom brawl (a another great Jack Hill girl on girl fight), various gangsters, etc. She also gets tortured and raped but manages to triumph by bringing in some black revolutionaries who help her castrate one of the baddies. Full on! Then Foxy delivers the dick in a pickle jar to the girlfriend of said baddy. Fuller on!

The audio commentary by Jack Hill is interesting – particularly as Hill seems bitter about his cavalier treatment by AIP. (Though to be fair he does admit some things he didn’t have control over and was opposed to at the time – clothes, music – he says really works.) He also complains about the fact the success of this and Coffy didn’t turn him into a hot property in Hollywood, partly because the films were dismissed as “black films”. (At the end of the commentary he says he’s doing what he really wants to do now – which is develop romantic comedies!) I'm surprised that Hill's career didn't kick on after the mid 70s, even if only as a script writer (most of his films had very strong stories and were full of great scenes and images); maybe he just got jack.

Movie review – “The Swinging Cheerleaders” (1974) **1/2

Jack Hill enjoyed success with women in prison and women blaxploitation, so he turned his area to a sub-genre of the “three girls” movie – the cheerleader film. It gave him another financial success, although it’s not as well known today as Big Doll House or Coffy. The three girls here are Jo Johnson (a very likeable performer with an usual look whose career never really took off), Rainbeaux Smith (a sweet-looking thing who later got on heroin and who, like so many 70s drive in female stars, died young) and Rosanne Katon (token black).

The plot involves Johnson going undercover as a cheerleader to write an article, Smith trying to lose her virginity (she gets gangbanged in a very unpleasant sequence), and Katon having an affair with her professor. The best scene is when the professor’s wife goes Katon with a knife – it’s brilliant (Hill always did great female fight scenes and you wish the film had more of them). The support cast includes a young Colleen Camp (who doesn't go nude) as one of the cheerleaders. It's bright and energetic, though a little dodgy - Hill's own description of the film as "a Disney sex comedy" is spot on.

Movie review – “Coffy” (1973) ***

Jack Hill discovered Pam Grier and launched her in The Big Doll House and the Big Bird Cage in the Philippines, then devised an actual vehicle for her. It’s a fondly-remembered blaxploitation classic – 70s TNA feminism par excellance - with Grier as the title character, a nurse who spends her spare time blowing away drug dealers. It’s a shame Grier didn’t manage to keep going in the late 70s as a star. She’s magnificent, with that massive Affro (she puts razors in it), huge chest, imposing physique. Not the best actor in the world, maybe, but she’s a genuine action star, and if you think that’s easy – well, who else could you imagine playing this sort of role? If you remade it today, who could do it – out of not just black actors (Halle Berry?) but of any race (maybe Angelina Jolie).

There are some flat scenes, like dialogue with her bland cop friend, and a mostly inadequate supporting cast, but the film is terrific fun. There’s magnificent cat fight – women ripping each others tops off at a party (Hill enjoyed filming cat fights, he did several throughout his career) - plus some top-notch action scenes: Grier blowing people away (often in cold blood), driving a car into a house, smacking prostitutes around, etc. Grier learns she has to rely on herself – her sister’s a druggie, the cops are useless, even her black politician boyfriend is a crook. (NB I wonder if Hill was inspired by The Naked Kiss.)

(NB The film came about because Larry Gordon, AIP’s head of production, had wanted to make Cleopatra Jones but the producer of that film went to Warner Bros, so Gordon wanted to get revenge. Hill agreed, partly because of his relationship with Pam Grier. Foxy Brown was originally meant to be a sequel but then AIP decided originals made more money that sequels and had Hill change it.)

Movie review – “Spider Baby” (1964) ***

There’s something quite lovely that all the great Universal horror stars all made cult classics towards the end of their careers – Karloff had Targets and The Sorcerers (if you go back a few more years you could add The Terror and The Raven to the list), Lugosi had the Ed Wood movies, and Lon Chaney Jnr had this. It's an enjoyable wacked-out low-budget film with fresh handling and a neat idea: old Lon plays the chauffeur who looks after a family who suffer from a degenerative condition. That’s the angle – the plot is a solid, old-fashioned will dispute.

The acting is very strong across the board; Chaney is effective in a role that suits his gentle, sad eyes (as an added bonus for Chaney fans there’s a reference to the mummy and the wolf man). There’s a very good performance from Sid Haig as the most visually interesting of the children. The downside is that once these weird and wonderful characters are set up the film doesn’t seem to have any really good ideas to top it. Still, the ones that it has are easily enough to keep things engaging and interesting.

Movie review - "Switchblade Sisters" (1975) ***1/2

How good is this film? Not originally one of the more famous 70s exploitation films (it lacks stars, was not produced by Roger Corman and director Jack Hill never left the exploitation genre), it has recently been championed by Quentin T (who else?) and for good reason - it still holds up brilliantly, mostly because of its top story: the sisters of the title are a tough high school girl gang, associated with the boys.

It starts like a woman in prison film, specifically Hill’s The Big Doll House with Joannie Nail as the new innocent who isn’t so innocent and joins the gang, led by Robbie Lee (the funny-voiced hellcat from Big Bad Mama). They wind up in the reform house but soon get out and back to school where the fun begins. The boy gang gets into a fight with another boy gang which results in the girl gang having to learn their independence – they get into cahoots with a female black revolutionary gang (no Pam Grier unfortunately). There are subplots about Lee’s boyfriend falling for Nail (after raping her – the most unpleasant aspect of the film ), a traitor in the gang.

This film keeps delivering knock out punches – the girls attacking a debt collector in an elevator, the riot at reform school, the shoot out at the roller rink (a wonderful set piece), the shoot em up finale with tanks and guns, the final switch blade fight, Nail’s monologue delivered with a snarl despite her face being bloody and cut up – it’s wonderful.

Is this a feminist movie? Well, Nail is raped and doesn’t seem that bothered, indeed its implied she’d go out with the guy if he wasn’t already with Lee – though she does threaten the guy with a knife if he does it again. (Jack Hill in his DVD commentary with Quentin Tarantino says he was inspired by the rape scene in The Fountainhead; he also admits he regrets the rapes.) The females learn to stand on their feet, they grow increasingly political, one of the girls whose bloke makes money by getting her to take her clothes off dumps the bloke, the girls beat the boy gang and kick some serious butt.

Robbie Lee’s character is fascinating – she talks in a little girl voice and looks young but is the evident leader, though in love with her guy so much she causes his death. Monica Gayle plays a gang member with a patch over her eye, an evident inspiration for Daryl Hannah in Kill Bill. The finale is deliriously over the top and quite wonderful.