Moving house?

Spent Saturday with Matt's parents driving us around the Mitcham area to look at houses. One out of the six we saw, we really liked and this morning we put in an offer which was accepted, yay! It's tiny, but cute and does need some work done on it, namely the kitchen area, but that should be easy to sort out and it's way cheaper than the one we almost bought last year.

Saturday night we met up with Bex in Farringdon and got quite drunk. Came home and drank more gin, then Jack Daniels, played some old hi energy records and collapsed. I had a nasty hang-over on Sunday and suffered from the horrors and horizontigo, which forced me to sit in front of the TV all day, which wasn't all that bad. Managed to watch these (amongst others we watched during the week):

'The Giant of Marathon' ('La Battaglia di Maratona' Directed by Jacques Tourneur 1959)
Quite good peplum film starring Steve Reeves as Phillipides involved in the fight for Athens against an invading Persian army. There's a great actress (Daniela Rocca) who plays Karis, she's in love with Phillipides, but he's in love with the blond Andromeda, anyway she has the most excellent eyebrows. Reeves isn't my favourite sword and sandal actor, I think it's because he seems to have no humour about himself. The DVD (Gods of War double feature) was one of those cheapo American releases and had a really crappy picture, as most of them do. I'll try to watch the other one - 'The Last Glory of Troy' if it doesn't put me to sleep again.

'Crucible of Terror' (Directed by Ted Hooker 1971)
Jack Davies (James Bolam) goes to see a crazy artist, who lives in a creepy house on the Cornish coast to get some of his work, he takes with him his timid girlfriend Millie (Mary Maude) who works in a boutique selling Victorian clothes...
Seen this at least twice before I got the DVD. It's excellent! Although it doesn't have any real 'stars' (Mike Raven and James Bolam are the only recognisable names) it's a good British 70's horror film and I don't care what anybody else says. It's almost as good as 'Tower of Evil' (Directed by Jim O'Connolly), especially the camp value. I mean, there's a middle aged woman (husband Mike Raven calls her a senile old hag) who wears pig-tails, a 'baby jane' dress and carries dolls and toys around, a foxy artists model, lots of bad acting and some unbelievably funny dialogue - especially between the model and Millie who's been stranded at the isolated artists house when her boyfriend Jack returns to London for more cash.
Director Ted Hooker doesn't seem to have done anything other than this film which is a shame. The DVD was okay, good picture, no features at all though, no chapters or even a menu, still, can't complain - it was only £2 or something.

'Milano calibro 9' (Directed by Fernando Di Leo 1972)
Another great but downbeat action/crime thriller from Di Leo, featuring a cool cast of actors, namely Gastone Moschin, Barbara Bouchet, Mario Adorf, Philippe Leroy and Luigi Pistilli (who's role is a little wasted). Barbara Bouchet plays the unflatteringly named Nelly Bordon, the girlfriend of Ugo Piazza (Gastone Moschin) who's just been released from prison. Lionel Stander plays 'the Americano' the head of a mafia gang, who believes Ugo has his stolen 300,000 dollars hidden away somewhere. Lionel Stander ('Max' from 'Hart To Hart') sounds like Papa Lazarou from 'The League of Gentlemen'. Nice soundtrack and great shots of Milan. The extra disc has three featurettes, but sadly all of them are without English subtitles. Need to get Di Leo's 'La Mala ordina' next...

Salon: Retro Chic

Hmm, hello. Got some great CD's in the post today thanks to the wonder of ebay. The best of the bunch has to be 'Salon: Retro Chic' a Japanese import featuring loads of tracks from the likes of Guido & Maurizio De Angelis, Ennio Morricone, Stelvio Cipriani, Carlo Savina, Riz Ortolani, Armando Trovaioli, Piero Piccioni and others. There's one track with vocals by Grace Jones that I've never even heard of from the soundtrack of 'Nightmare City'. Nice!

As for stuff we (or rather I) have seen:

'Devil's Kiss' ('La Perversa caricia de Satán' Directed by Georges Gigo 1975)
Utterly, utterly dull film about a clairvoyant Claire Grandier (played by the great Silvia Solar) and a Professor Gruber (Oliver Matthau) who go to live in Grandier's brother-in-law's chateau to experiment on reviving the dead (actually a plot so she can get revenge on the person who caused her grief). They do revive a dead person, who looks like a skinny Tor Johnson with heavy blue eye-shadow and the movie does get off to a good start with a fashion show being held in the chateau - most of the models are very chunky and their dance moves are hilarious, especially the blond woman's. That said, I won't be watching this again in a hurry. Oh and the soundtrack is appalling, when used in between the very long gaps of no dialogue.

'Gamera vs. Gaos' ('Daikaijû kuchu kessan: Gamera tai Gyaosu' Directed by Noriaki Yuasa 1967)
Now this was lots of fun and great to watch on a weekend afternoon. I finally bit the bullet and bought the Japanese DVD, which cost a fortune but was well worth it (I'm no longer buying dodgy bootleg copies). Gamera returns to fight evil bat/bird creature Gaos, who's been awakened from his long slumber thanks to construction workers. There's an annoying boy (again) who knows all about our giant turtle and even gets to ride on his back when Gamera rescues him from the clutches of Gaos's claws - when he does rescue him, he leans against a Ferris wheel so he can escape to safety. My favourite part is when the government trick Gaos into drinking artificial human blood on a spinning platform to make him dizzy (!) cool! I love Gamera films and only wish I could afford one of the few Japanese DVD box-sets on the market, the newest one has such a cool figurine of the turtle hero. Ah well, just have to get the single issues, if and when I'm flush.

There are SO many DVD's out there at the moment that I must have. Italy has released two of the 'Kommissar X' films (featuring my current hero Brad Harris) along with all the 'Three Supermen' movies, but sadly these are all in Italian language, not that that has ever stopped me from buying and watching them - I've just won on ebay two Peplum films in German language only. There's the 'Luciano Ercoli's The Death Box Set', 'The Gardener' with gorgeous Joe Dallesandro (still haven't watched 'Vacanze per un massacro' yet), 'Space Ameoba - Yog' and the forthcoming 'Emilio Miraglia Killer Queen Box Set' (with action figure, how bizarre is that?). And then there's all the issues by Blue Underground of more giallo's (all but one I have already, but will need to get again for better picture quality and extras). Aaarrrggghhhh I need more money!

Saturday the 18th

Stuff we've seen so far...

The first seven episodes of the second series of 'Lost' - which has been really brilliant, 'Smallville' and 'Desperate Housewives'.

As for DVD's:

'Uomini si nasce poliziotti si muore' ('Live Like a Cop, Die Like a Man' Directed by Ruggero Deodato 1976)
Bloody excellent film with two lead roles from gorgeous Ray Lovelock and Marc Porel. Typical Italian crime film but this time with a duo. Cool bike chases, lots of violence and with Euro regular Adolfo Celi as their boss. Oh and Silvia Dionisio ('Andy Warhol's Dracula') as the quick talking secertary, her sister is in it too (Sofia Dionisio) as a nymphomaniac!
DVD comes with an interesting 40 minute long interview with all involved, except Porel, who sadly died in 1983.

'Atragon' ('Kaitei gunkan' Directed by Ishirô Honda 1963)
Ok Toho film about a lost civilisation living under the sea who plan to take over the world, using their powers and their snake monster (Manda - probably my least favourite 'Japanese film' monster, maybe it's because his movement is limited). Still, it was fun. Can't wait to see 'Yog: Monster from Space' - that cuttlefish monster is SO cute.

'Eroticofollia' ('Evil Eye' Directed by Mario Siciliano 1974)
Weird supernatural type giallo. Stars hunky Mexican actor Jorge Rivero as a rich playboy (Peter Crane) who suffers from nightmares that he is killing people, only the murders are real. It was difficult watching this as it was only in dubbed German language with English subtitles and the print is pretty wretched (worst I've ever seen on an X-rated Kult DVD release), lots of jumps and scratches and the soundtrack occasionally goes warped. Anyway, I'd waited quite a while to see this, as I'm a fan of Rivero and it wasn't that bad, there are some cool (bad) scenes: the nasty butler spewing up a frog, cigarette butts dancing in an ashtray, a sinister doctor (Richard Conte), a soundtrack by the genius Stelvio Cipriani (where's the CD?) and you do get to see Jorge topless and in a shower (when he's not wearing some fabulous 70's fashions - loved the floral shirt and the front-split flares!).
The DVD come with two trailers for the film (well, sort of) and a whole bunch of giallo trailers for other releases from X-rated Kult DVD. There is also a cute 3" disc with forty minutes of trailers for their other releases, but I wasn't into most of them.

'Der Rote Kreis' ('The Red Circle' Directed by Jürgen Roland 1960)
I found this Edgar Wallace crime thriller really dull, it put both me and Matt to sleep on the first viewing. The only thing that was good to watch was the icy but fun Renate Ewert as Thalia Drummond. Eddi Arent's character isn't as annoying as usual either. Maybe I wasn't in the mood? I hope the other Edgar Wallace films we have left to watch are more exciting...

Brad Harris double-bill

Hooray! Finally got my hands on some more Brad Harris movies recently, both directed by Gianfranco Parolini:

'Cave of Diamonds' ('Die Diamantenhölle am Mekong' 1964)
Usual undercover cops/agents against bad guys, this one set in Thailand. Lots of familiar faces (Marianne Hold, Horst Frank, Dorothee Parker, Gianni Rizzo, Paul Hubschmid etc) oh and Brad Harris, who for once doesn't take his top off but does get down to some serious fight scenes. It's all about a cave of diamonds hidden somewhere in the jungle (really?) and the chase to get them. It's more violent than I thought it would be and camp in places too, the night-club dancer is great as is Dorothee Parker's character (Gloria Pickerstone), an upper class English woman travelling in the Orient who hires Brad (Joe Warren) to be her body guard on her journey through the jungle with her clichéd butler/man servant 'Smokie' (Chris Howland). Not one of my favourite Brad films, but certainly not the worst.

'I Fantastici tre supermen' 1967
Now this was much more up my street. Sadly I was only able to watch it in Italian language (bought the DVD in Turin), but the picture quality was superb and the story was easy to follow. Brad Harris, Tony Kendall and Nick Jordan star as the three fantastic supermen (Brad, Tony and Nick, no less) who fight bad guys, using their wits, acrobatic skills and a fast sports car. There's lots of great typical 'euro' type scenes and bad sixties comedy. The females of the film are great too, both good characters and bad. The soundtrack is cool too and you get to see Brad in a pair of swimming trunks! The DVD comes with a trailer too. Wish I'd picked up the sequels on release in Italy too, now they look especially bad.

80's week

Wow! Got the Eurythmics 'boxed' set this week and bloody hell, was it worth it? Oh yes. The extra tracks on 'In The Garden' are so excellent and worth the price alone. Shame all the 'b' sides weren't on there, but you can't have everything (actually yes you can). I've been in 80's heaven since I got it...

Pete Burns was on 'Richard and Judy' which I've yet to watch and tonight he was on 'London Tonight' (how bizarre) looking totally fantastic as usual. Somebody please, give him his own show! And Pete, give us some new tracks.

Last week my sister gave me a few of my old 7" records and two of them were by the Techno Twins (who I'd totally forgotten about), the 'b' side of 'Can't Help Falling In Love' ('Kings & Queens of Pleasure') is so lush! I'm desperate to get their album now.

Wish Haysi Fantayzee's album 'Battle Hymns For Children Singing' would get another CD release - I need that too.

I've had too many beers and no supper, so I'm off before I type anything stupid.

'Castle of the Walking Dead'

'Die Schlangengrube und das Pendel' ('Castle of the Walking Dead' Directed by Harald Reinl 1967)
Superb German gothic 60's horror starring Lex Barker, Karin Dor and Christopher Lee. Lee is actually only in the film for about twenty minutes but his screen presence is brilliant - he plays Count Frederic Regula, a man sentenced to death by being drawn and quartered (limbs pulled apart by horses in a town square) - his crime? murdering twelve young maidens in the search for eternal youth. Before his said death penalty he swears to get revenge on the man who sentenced him and the woman who trapped him (gorgeous eurostar Karin Dor)... Thirty years later (to cut a long story short) Roger von Marienberg (Lex Barker), Baroness Lilian von Brabant (Karin Dor), her servant 'Babette' and a thief masquerading as a priest are travelling through a forest towards the Count's castle... (On their journey the trees in the forest are covered in body parts!). At the castle all manner of fiendish traps await them, set by the Count's assistant 'Anathol'. A lot of the scenes are reminiscent of Mario Bava films. Some of the jolly soundtrack is so out of place, but kind of works with the film. I loved the snake-pit scene, the Count's return to life in a glass coffin and the corridor of skulls. The German DVD which I had won on ebay (second time lucky) was lovely, superb picture quality (E.M.S. releasing) and had a whole bunch of extras including a vintage interview with the cast ( Christopher Lee's dubbed in German). Director Harald Reinl did a whole bunch of Edgar Wallace films that I look forward to viewing...

Ultraman Hydra Cyclone

Aarrgghhhh! Feeling a little worse for wear this morning. Last night we got monumentally drunk with Jess's friends, went to a pub then back to theirs for more beer. During the day, I blew a fortune on stuff, got another pair of trainers and some god-awful towels from tkmaxx (bright pink/orange/green/brue/yellow roses) and I bought an Ultraman Bandai figure because I liked the look of him, the guy in the shop said his name was 'Peguila', but it isn't, it's 'Hydra'. Me and Matt spent ages trying to find a photo of the figure and some info on the internet but we only found one small photo! Anyway, he's cute and will join my Godzilla and Gamera figures.

Friday night we watched:

'Cyclone' (Directed by René Cardona Jr. 1978)
God how dull was that? Matt was continually falling asleep and I couldn't blame him as the pace was more than a little slow. Hunky Andrés García is back riding the waves on a tour boat when a cyclone storm hits them (High powered water jets and buckets), meanwhile nearby a plane lands in the sea and a trawler ship sinks, leaving lots of people-soup. Eventually everyone ends up on the tour boat, where they squabble for the limited water supply and engage in cannibalism. There's a pregnant woman onboard who luckily for her, goes into labour for about one minute, before giving birth to a healthy boy, who is then bizarrely passed around all the passengers for a cuddle in a sentimental manner. Fellow passenger Shiela (Carroll Baker) later asks the mother if she can kiss the child. Oh yeah there's one hilarious bit where Shiela's much loved dog 'Christmas' (!) is flung into the sea, rescued, has his throat slit, is skinned and used as bait for fishing - all done in front of it's owners eyes. I won't be watching this again in a hurry. It's similar to Cardona Jr.'s 'Encounters In The Deep' which was equally as boring. Sadly, it's hard to like any of the characters and you couldn't care less if they all died, never to be rescued. Well - with the exception of Andrés García, of course, who, unusually keeps his trousers on in this film.

Celeriac

Some more DVD's we've sat through:

'Der Frosch mit der Maske' ('Fellowship of the Frog' Directed by Harald Reinl 1959)
The first film in the Edgar Wallace box-set series. So-so story about a gang hired by a guy who dons an odd outfit with a mask and googley eyes. All the members of his gang have to have a tattoo done of a frog on their right wrist. Some bird in a Soho night-club sings about enjoying love near the river Thames (as if!) - she gets some nasty bullet holes towards the end of the picture. At one point Richard Gordon (a young looking Joachim Fuchsberger) - an amateur detective and his servant James (the annoying Eddi Arent) get locked in a cellar for a couple of days where they grow massive beards. Enjoyable hokum. DVD features five trailers and a (vintage) interview with the director.

'Stay Hungry' Directed by Bob Rafelson 1976
Bought this thinking it was going to be a comedy, it isn't.

'Last Round' ('Il Conto è chiuso' Directed by Stelvio Massi 1976)
Another cool Italian crime film with Luc Merenda, this time playing a bad guy but looking snappy as ever. The story is a basic reworking of 'A Fistful of Dollars' set in contemporary 70's Rome. Marco Russo (Carlos Monzón - a real life boxing champion) plays the part Clint Eastwood did as Joe - Marco's fighting skills are fantastic, he's superhuman! When the soundtrack started it was all panpipes and I thought it was going to be awful (rare for an Italian crime thriller) but it turned out to be great - loved Marco's music box he carries around with him. There is a very unpleasant rape scene, that I knew would happen the minute I saw the character Nina. Yet another great release from NoShame, with an odd 35 minute interview with Luc Merenda at his antique shop.

Cooked celeriac last night for the first time ever. Won't buy that again.