Good Friday?

Went out with David and Matt's work crew last night, so I'm nursing yet another hangover.

Today I watched the anthology movie 'A Miracle Can Happen' (or it's other title 'On Our Merry Way' 1948) which was on a double DVD I found in Spain (the other film being 'Lady of Burlesque', with Barbara Stanwyck) Anyway the version I saw had Charles Laughton in it, playing a minister and on the imdb it says that piece wound up on the cutting room floor, weird huh? The US Kino Video's version doesn't have that segment either. Wow maybe I'm sitting on a gold mine!

Watched a B&W peplum too 'Sins of Rome' (Spartaco' 1953) but sadly this kept putting me to sleep. It's the story of Sparticus. Gianna Maria Canale who plays Sabina Crassus a Roman noblewoman was cool though and had great eyebrows!

Also this week we have watched 'Predator' with Arnold Schwarzenegger (brilliant) and Lucio Fulci's 'A Lizard in a Woman's Skin' ('Una Lucertola con la pelle di donna') which was totally brilliant and SO worth the wait (years to come out on DVD, kept being postponed) I can see why this giallo is one of the favourites among fans of the genre. Florinda Bolkan is great as the confused looking Carol Hammond, but Anita Strindberg is always my favourite to watch, she's in so many great films...

More than half way through the 'The Champions' box-set (brilliant) and at the end of 'Lost In Space' series 2 (childish and campy fun, though tiresome at times). Finished watching the 'Night Gallery' first series (disappointing, even the Vincent Price episode also starring Bill Bixby was dull).

My sister Jess rang early this morning. I think we were both still drunk as we were talking nonsense. (what's new?)

Sunday Supermen

Awoke with a hangover and decided to watch Brad Harris in the pre-cert VHS of 'Supermen' - 'Che fanno i nostri supermen tra le vergini della giungla?' directed by Bitto Albertini 1970, Albertini worked with Harris again in 'Zambo, King of the Jungle' 1972. Anyway, this was totally brilliant, campy trash. Fantastic opening credits with coloured lights and the 'Supermen' logos (which I am going to get tattooed!)

Brad stars as Brad, one of the three supermen, along with Martin and Dick (a mute who 'talks' weird and makes silly faces). They have to go into the jungle to stop some pesky Russians from obtaining land rich with uranium. Martin and Dick are being held prisoners by some sheiks (?) and are about to be put to death, by spikes up the bottom so Brad is forced to leave his wedding to get there, first by rocket and then by some underground vehicle with a large drill bit.

Once in the jungle (stock footage of stampeding elephants) which looks more like a forest, the men meet an old guy who has a map to the uranium and they go off together in a jeep. They stop off for a swim in a lake and meet Jungla, a queen of a tribe of white chicks in bikinis. Meanwhile the Russians meet the owners of the land and try to buy it off them with gold, they don't like that but do like their offering of party toys, and dance around madly, blowing little plastic trumpets - actually everybody in this film dances at some point. The Russians along with the tribe attack the 'Supermen', but their red suits are invincible to the bullets, spears and arrows - Jungla and co help out, which leads to a pointless cat-fight with the Russian girl losing most of her clothes!

The men then end up about to be cooked by Jungla and her tribe, Martin as a cake, Dick as soup in a large pot and Brad roasted on a fire (they've all been stripped down to their black thongs, giving the viewer ample scenes of Mr Harris's huge muscles). The cooking is called off when a witch doctor announces that Jungla wants to marry Brad. Next thing the girls of the tribe are doing a campy dance number and all the men are canoodling with chosen women (Jungla wants to 'devour Brad with kisses' in her tent).

It all ends up with car chases, more fight scenes, double crosses, triple crosses and Brad dressed as a chinese man. Absolutely brilliant, I couldn't ask for more in a film which was a mixture of super heroes, daft comedy, cave girls, rubber crocodiles and campy costumes. And (!) a superb soundtrack by Sante Romitelli, who I've never heard of.

Straight after this I watched 'Tuareg - The Desert Warrior' ('Tuareg - Il guerriero del deserto' directed by Enzo G. Castellari 1984, who did the giallo 'Cold Eyes of Fear') Sadly this was beyond boring and went on for hours. The only thing going for it was the soundtrack by Riz Ortolani. Plus a very buff looking Antonio Sabato is only in it for about fifteen minutes. Oh well...

Yay! Weekend & 'The Fifth Cord' DVD

Hello, well thank goodness, another two days off work! Had another dull week. Haven't done much, actually did get to meet Justine's new girlfriend Sue on Monday, who's really nice, but looks about 17! We met in Baker St, along with Rosa, Caroline (who's moving to Mexico city, lucky cow) and Matt, I had too many beers, then we went to 'Cassa Becci' an Italian restaurant and brought the class down a peg or two. Had a gorgeous meal then got the tube home. Last night, being Thursday, David came over for a meal, I did Fajita's (?) and have decided I no longer like them.

Have watched 'The Fifth Cord' (Giornata nera per l'ariete - directed by Luigi Bazzoni 1971), really, really enjoyed this giallo. The DVD was the Japanese import (part of 'The Style Of Italian Action Films' collection) and cost me a small fortune, but was SO worth it! Franco Nero stars as a boozing journalist who is assigned to investigate a brutal assault on an acquaintance. Soon people start to get murdered and the only clue is a black glove left at the scene of the crime with the finger missing (one missing for the first murder, two missing for the second etc.) Franco (Andrea Bild) has a blonde girlfriend Helene (Silvia Monti - who looks like Edwige Fenech when wearing a black wig) who seems untrustworthy, like most of the characters except for another blonde ex girlfriend of his, who has a young boy and lives in a really cool, 70's open plan house full of cacti...

Among the highlights are, an outdoor prostitute with the compulsory Italian bonfire, a silhouetted live sex show, fish-eye lensed shots, some campy over-sized sunglasses, a wheelchair bound death scene very much like the one used in Bava's 'Twitch Of The Death Nerve', fantastic curvy architecture, Nero's usual great fighting, and a really chilling bit with the boy alone at home with the killer. One old guy who works at Andrea's office was in Lenzi's 'Spasmo'.

I'm now thinking of getting the Japanese import of 'The Last House On the Beach' ('La Settima donna'), but not sure the subject matter is really my thang...

'The Black Panther' and 'The Man From Atlantis'

Awoke with a huge hangover, after spent the evening with Matt and David in 'The Agricultural' in Islington then came back to the flat to watch camp DVD's and drink sloe gin.

Anyway watched 'The Man From Atlantis' starring Patrick Duffy and Victor Buono. Found this in a charity shop in Salisbury and I presume it's the pilot to the series that aired in America from 1977-1978. Wish it would get a DVD release as I thought it was excellent. Always love anything related to the sea... Ooooh just looked on ebay, the pilot is available on DVD, but no series officially.

Then I watched 'The Black Panther' ('Der Schwarze Panther von Ratana' directed by Jürgen Roland 1963) got this on ebay for only 99 pence only because Brad Harris is in it (as Larry Finch). It was really good too, filmed in Thailand, which made lovely backdrops and the colours are really bright and lurid. There's a girl called Yvonne (Luciana Gilli) who is an outrageous hussy and wears great slutty clothes, there's near-death by high-power water hose and a superb unexpected camp twist at the end. Brad plays a whisky drinking lush and doesn't get to do all that much, there is the usual fight scene (in a smokey bar, after an exotic dancer in white stilettos and red bikini has done her turn) - you do get to see a flash of his pecs though, right at the beginning of the film. The score's by Gert Wilden, which I have on CD - thanks to bear records, at one point Brad puts a dime in a duke box and Wilden's music plays - brilliant!

Personal Update

Had a great weekend in Salisbury (went down for Mother's Day). Stayed at my Grandparents on the Friday (had fish and chips) then met up with my old friend Fay in town on Saturday afternoon. She's pregnant (it's SO fashionable right now) and was lots of fun. Spent about £25 in charity shops, but bought some bloody brilliant things (like 'The Man From Atlantis' VHS, a 60's tacky china cat, two 70's Wombles duvet covers, a weird vase, a 'My Little Pony' - with magnetic hooves (!!!) and an original 60's 'Mr Bali Hai' cocktail mug for only 50 pence!). Met my stressed sister Jess later on and she took us (me and Matt) back to her house, after having a drink in the BHS canteen - God! that caff was SO hideous you wouldn't believe. Every table was full of dirty crockery and all the ashtrays were stacked with butts. They didn't even have mugs or cups and one woman had to wait for ten minutes just to get a coffee, well, I mean, how rubbish. AND I just missed having a tray of dirties being thrown over me by some slapdash waitress with attitude (John Waters would love this place). Phew, anyway back at Jess and Rik's farmhouse she made us an enormous curry with samosas and stuff, drank lots of lager and went to bed after watching some 'Little Britain' DVD extra features. Sunday morning went over to Fovant to see Mom and surprise her, was a bit rubbish actually as she didn't hear the door being knocked and by the time she opened it we were all standing there : ) Drove to Salisbury again and went to the 'Lemon Tree' restaurant in Crane Street, very pleasant, stayed in there for a couple of hours then went to Wilton House as an antique fair was on, only it was £4.50 to get in and only an hour left - bloody cheek, so we looked around the crappy gift shop (how many people need lavender scented drawer sheets?). Said goodbye to Mom and Jess drove us to the train station, where we got the train back to Waterloo.

Encounters In The Deep VHS (!)

Hmmm, I picked this one up in a weird charity shop in Salisbury last weekend, I say weird as it was more of a pet shop that had a side line in selling junk for charity.

Anyway, this was realised by Elephant Video and had weird cover art featuring an exploding aeroplane above an ocean full of sharks fins, people over-board a ship and an odd large alien shaped hand, so it had all the usual things I look for in a film (minus a hulking brute, an over-busty female and a man-in-a-monstersuit). Anyway as the credits rolled for this Italian/Spanish co production, I noticed the music was by the (usually god-like genius) Stelvio Cipriani and the main star was Andrés García, the handsome muscle guy who starred in Tintorera (until he gets eaten by the shark) and the directors name rang a bell too (Anthony Richmond), though I don't know why.

The film starts with a voice-over intro about U.F.O's and the Bermuda Triangle...
Strange occurances begin happening in the Bermuda area (will they ever learn?) as boats, ships and helecopters (yeah!) disappear into thin air after a high pitched screeching noise is heard, the sea water bubbles and a weird green light pulsates into red (very basic not so special effects).

A rich old guy's much loved daughter and her new husband (wearing possibly the smallest white hot-pants I have ever seen on a human being) experience the same fate and the old guy wants to find out what happened to them. So he hires a bloke (money no object) with a theory about the disappearances to go and search the area they went missing. He takes with him Andrés García and an old sailor who likes the whisky, an Alsation dog and some some other bland characters (divers etc.) Anyway, as they search and search you really expect something to happen, but sadly it never really does. They search the area for what takes up nearly the entire film, dodging the occasional stock-footage shark and discovering rocks unlike any other found before. One of the divers who sports a beard gets possessed by something in the water and the dog growls at him. It really is this exciting. Eventually Andrés and the other guy discover an underground grotto with a huge statue like one found on Easter Island.

I won't give away the ending, because I want other people to watch the entire film (like I had to) see what the climax would be. I will say though, that silver body suits and silver crash helmets do not make for good space aliens with intelligent and supreme powers!

The score by Stelvio Cipriani was a lot more orchestral than I was expecting (not like the superb 'Tentacoli') and there's no suspense to speak of, but if you like the look of Andrés García, you wont be disappointed as you do get to see him in very skimpy pants for almost the entire film.