What Have You Watched Recently?

[death tribble]

Bride of Frankenstein

One of the definitive horror films. It starts with Mary Shelley starting the sequel to her husband and Lord Byron. Karloff is back as the monster who escapes a flooded windmill and goes back on a rampage until he comes across a blind hermit who shows him kindness and teaches him how to speak. It comes across Dr Pretorious who is trying to get Dr Frankenstein to help him. The two coerce Henry into building a mate. Predictably this goes wrong. Worth seeing.

 

Frankenstein meets the Wolfman

Lawrence Talbot is released from his grave by tomb robbers and wanting to end his life he seeks out the gypsy Maleva and then Dr Frankenstein. He comes across the Monster after transforming into a wolf and being chased by the locals. Contacting Frankenstein's descendants he tries to find a way to die. A doctor who has followed him from England agrees to help him and transfer his life into the monster. The locals however decide to put a stop to the monster by blowing up the dam. So as the moon rises and Werewolf and Flesh Golem fight it out they are swept away. You have to know or have seen previous films like The Wolfman and Frankenstein in order to appreciate this.

 

The Invisible Man

Claude Rains is the scientist who has made himself invisible and then goes mad. His reign of terror is brought to an end by snowfall and bullets. A short film but effective.

 

The Mummy's Hand

The mummy is now Kharis not Imhoptep and he is protecting Princess Annaka. The priests try subterfuge and violence to deter expeditions before bringing the mummy into it. Again this is short. It works.

 

Revenge of the Creature

This is the sequel to creature from the Black Lagoon. The same captain from the previous film takes a new group to the lagoon and they capture the beast using explosives. They take him to an aquarium and try to study and train him. He escapes and stalks one of the scientists before being gunned down by the police.

 

The Bat

An author rents a home for the Summer and is menaced by a killer called The Bat. The home belongs to the bank president who has stolen money from his bank and now intends to fake his death wioth the help of his friend the local doctor played by Vincent Price. This has some nice red herrings and throws the audience of the scent. Well worth a look.

[death tribble]

The Spiritualist

A widow starts hearing voices and runs into a spiritualist who tries to help her come to terms with her grief. Her sister and her boyfriend try to dissuade her and expose him as a fraud. However her husband is also still alive and works with the spiritualist in order to take money from his wife. They fake voices in the house but the sister gets suspicious. The husband tries to kill both wife and sister but the spiritualist revolts and helps them get safe. He is shot and the police arrive and kill the husband. A nice little noir from 1948.

 

Kiss of Death

Victor Mature is a robber who is shot and caught in a raid. He refuses to name names and gets a lengthy sentence. His wife dies and his children are sent to an orphanage. When he finds out about his wife's suicide he agrees to help the DA. He meets a hood Tommy Udo (played by Richard Widmark in his first film role) and passes information on him to the DA. In return he gets to see his kids. However the trial fails and Udo gets out. Mature then sets himself up so that Udo will try and kill him and the police can arrest him. Very good. A must not miss noir.

 

Morituri

A German pacifist masquerading as a Swiss in India is co-opted by the British to sabotage a blockade runner that is leaving Japan. The idea is that he must disable the scuttling charges. The captain of the vessel is upset at the crew he has been given but has no choice. The embassy staff do not know about the pacifist but are away when he sneaks aboard as a security man (Gestapo). The ship is taking rubber which is essential.to the war effort to France but the crew do not know that until well underway. The ship runs into fog and then a British convoy and narrowly avoids being boarded by a destroyer. Although supposedly barred from most areas of the ship the pacifist sneaks around and begins neutralising the charges. The pacifist befriends the mate who is a Nazi as he will help him against the captain if necessary. The pacifist is also seen by other members of the crew who are anti-Nazi and he tells them the truth that he is a saboteur and they agree to help. The ship runs into a Japanese submarine which has torpedoed a ship carrying American soldiers and a Jewess and transfers these prisoners to the ship. The Jewess is disliked by the Americans and the captain tries to help her before her identity is revealed. The sub has two German staff officers who are suspicious of the pacifist and radio Berlin for confirmation. Thus he has little time to finish disabling the charges and then call in the Allied ships. He tries to incite a mutiny but this fails and the mate kills the Jewess. The captain has been replaced after finding out his son sank a hospital ship and ranted about it. The pacifist manages to detonate a charge he had not managed to dismantle and this causes the crew to abandon ship. The mate is wounded in doing so and drowns as a consequence. The pacifist and the captain remain on the ship which retains buoyancy due to some of the cargo opening. The pacifist asks the captain to notify the Allies where they are which he does. The captain is played by Yul Brynner and the pacifist by Marlon Brando. The film was a flop at the box office but it is unusual and worth a look.

 

Call Northside 777

James Stewart is a journalist who is tasked by his editor to look at an advert for information about the killing of a policeman during Prohibition. Two men were tried, convicted and sentenced to 99 years for the crime. The advert is placed by the mother of one of the men. At first sceptical he becomes convinced that the men are innocent and then tries to prove it by use of a lie detector and then finding discrepancies in the case. This is based on a true case where the men were released. It is a fascinating watch.

 

The Quatermass Xperiment

A spaceship crashes on its return to Earth. Only one of the three astronauts is still aboard, the others have vanished but the suits remain. Professor Bernard Quatermass who is responsible for the flight investigates and finds that film shows something bizarre happening on the ship. The surviving astronaut is mutating and kills a number of people before a denouement at Westminster Abbey. Brian Donlevy plays Quatermass in a Hammer film based on the TV series. Well worth seeing. 1950s sci fi at its finest.

 

Undercover (1943 film)

This is a British propaganda piece about the war in Yugoslavia. This is based on the royalist partisans not the Communists but was overtaken by politics and the British support for Tito and the Communists. A fictional family fight against the German invasion and occupation. Interesting period piece with an early role for Stanley Baker.

[csyphrett]

Two more Columbos as Jack Kennedy and Robert Culp play the murderers. Jack Kennedy's character has made sure that his blackmailer is dead returns to find Columbo looking in his cabin windows. I was like he's home. Here's Columbo.

CES

[mattingly]

11 hours ago, death tribble said:

The Quatermass Xperiment

A spaceship crashes on its return to Earth. Only one of the three astronauts is still aboard, the others have vanished but the suits remain. Professor Bernard Quatermass who is responsible for the flight investigates and finds that film shows something bizarre happening on the ship. The surviving astronaut is mutating and kills a number of people before a denouement at Westminster Abbey. Brian Donlevy plays Quatermass in a Hammer film based on the TV series. Well worth seeing. 1950s sci fi at its finest.

 

My favorite is Quatermass and the Pit aka 5 Million Years to Earth.

 

 

[wcw43921]

Five Million Years To Earth is a great movie.  My brother, however, got to see it in the theater--and he didn't like it at all.

 

I find that--disappointing.

[Michael Hopcroft]

Ah, yes. The remake of the classic BCC serial Quatermass and the Pit.

 

I haven't seen it in a while, but I did enjoy it when I did.

[Joe Walsh]

Barry, S2. Wonderful right to the end.

 

Doom Patrol, S3. Not quite as good as S1 and S2, but very, very good nonetheless.

[Spence]

On 11/10/2021 at 10:56 AM, Michael Hopcroft said:

Ah, yes. The remake of the classic BCC serial Quatermass and the Pit.

 

I haven't seen it in a while, but I did enjoy it when I did.

 

Just made me want to see it again.  Remember just enough to know I liked it. 

Now to find it again.

[slikmar]

8 hours ago, GM Joe said:

Doom Patrol, S3. Not quite as good as S1 and S2, but very, very good nonetheless.

I am really hoping it gets the Titans treatment and S1 appears on TNT this year.

[Starlord]

Doom Patrol...definitely not as good as S1 or S2.

 

Shang-Chi...Grade B

[Spence]

Just watched Shang-Chi. 

No idea why people are so down on it. 

It was a fun supers movie and I enjoyed it more that The Dark World, Iron Man 3 and Endgame.  

 

I may still think Ironman 1, Captain America 1 and Avengers 1 were better.  But that is because they were my favorites out of the movies made.

 

All in all Shang-Chi was a good supers movie. 

[csyphrett]

Columbo night and two more episodes down as Columbo matches wits with a general who romances the witness to his murder, and an art critic trying to frame his aunt for his uncle's murder. Ross Martin played the art critic, and he was great at the end when he realized that he had framed himself.

CES 

[Spence]

5 hours ago, csyphrett said:

Columbo night and two more episodes down as Columbo matches wits with a general who romances the witness to his murder, and an art critic trying to frame his aunt for his uncle's murder. Ross Martin played the art critic, and he was great at the end when he realized that he had framed himself.

CES 

I always thought the old murder mystery shows were more interesting than the newer ones.  They spent more time on plot and deduction than gimic.  Now it is all DNA and electronic surveillance.

[Joe Walsh]

On 11/12/2021 at 10:10 PM, slikmar said:

I am really hoping it gets the Titans treatment and S1 appears on TNT this year.

 

Fingers crossed. It really deserves to be available more widely.

[Ternaugh]

Jungle Cruise: Movie loosely based upon the theme park attraction. Some things will seem familiar if you've seen any of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies (a magic MacGuffin, a linked magic curse, undead pirates conquistadors). A decent watch. (Disney+)

 

Shang-Chi And the Legend of the Ten Rings: Entertaining martial arts-themed Marvel movie. (Disney+) 

[Lord Liaden]

6 minutes ago, Ternaugh said:

Jungle Cruise: Movie loosely based upon the theme park attraction. Some things will seem familiar if you've seen any of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies (a magic MacGuffin, a linked magic curse, undead pirates conquistadors). A decent watch. (Disney+)

 

I haven't seen Jungle Cruise (don't plan to, frankly), but the promo clips I saw made it look like they were trying to channel Humphrey Bogart and Katherine Hepburn in The African Queen.

[Lord Liaden]

On 11/10/2021 at 6:51 AM, mattingly said:

 

My favorite is Quatermass and the Pit aka 5 Million Years to Earth.

 

 

 

On 11/10/2021 at 1:56 PM, Michael Hopcroft said:

Ah, yes. The remake of the classic BCC serial Quatermass and the Pit.

 

I haven't seen it in a while, but I did enjoy it when I did.

 

On 11/12/2021 at 3:46 PM, Spence said:

 

Just made me want to see it again.  Remember just enough to know I liked it. 

Now to find it again.

 

The free file-sharing website, Daily Motion, has both the movie and television serial versions of Quatermass and the Pit. I'm quite fond of the movie version myself, in fact I downloaded and saved it from Daily Motion. Not the greatest quality, but quite watchable.

 

Here's the movie - hopefully you won't mind French subtitles :

 

 

 

Here's a link to the first episode in the TV serial. I won't link them all here, but they're easy enough to search for on the website.

 

 

[Spence]

And Lord Liaden destroys what little free time I have left....😟

[tkdguy]

On 11/10/2021 at 3:51 AM, mattingly said:

 

My favorite is Quatermass and the Pit aka 5 Million Years to Earth.

 

 

 

That movie freaked me out so bad when I was a kid!  

[Ternaugh]

18 minutes ago, Lord Liaden said:

 

I haven't seen Jungle Cruise (don't plan to, frankly), but the promo clips I saw made it look like they were trying to channel Humphrey Bogart and Katherine Hepburn in The African Queen.

 

I don't remember Bogart telling dad jokes.

 

It's definitely not anywhere near the quality of The African Queen.

[Bazza]

The Rock is no Bogie. Maybe Robert Mitchum. 

[wcw43921]

Actually--Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson is more like the 21st Century Schwarzenegger, in that his presence in any movie all but guarantees its success at the box office.  And to my mind he has enough acting talent that he can do other roles besides action movies.  Check out his performance in Gridiron Gang if you don't believe me.

[Pariah]

Hey, he did a two minute song in an animated movie about how cool he was, and it was one of the best parts of the film. What more proof do we need?

[Bazza]

Which film was that? 

[Pariah]