Pieces of History

I was in a bit of a documentary mood and since I wanted to find something to share with you, I went to Youtube and found myself a couple of documentaries about WWII, more specifically Hitler as well as the still ongoing hunt for lost Nazi gold.

The first documentary is The Hidden Side of World War II: Last Secrets of Nazis. This is a horrible title as the film itself all about Hitler, his start, and his rise to power. Most of what is presented here I knew about, but there were a couple of details I had never come across before. All in all, a good watch.

The second entry is The Hunt for Hitler's Lost 'Gold Train'. This is a much better title and concerns the hunt for hidden tunnels, buried trains, gold and even the fabled Amber Room. I liked this one a lot, it has a good sense of mystery without going overboard and making myths into fact.

So enjoy and I'll see you next time. Until then, have a great and safe week!

 

 

 

Getting in the mood.

Summer is almost over and Autumn is around the corner and I figured we could get into the spooky season with some light practice. So I have a trio of horror parodies for your amusement. 

Please enjoy and join me again next time, and until then, have a great and safe week!  

 

 

  

 

 

Funny Ads

I have had a busy week so today we're doing a bit of blast from the past with funny commercials. It's been a while since we did this so I hope you enjoy!

Join me again next time and until then, have a great and safe week!

 

 (One of these is muted due to copyright)

 

 

The House that needed a Bandaid

Last night, I watched:

The House That Dripped Blood (1971).

Despite the macabre title, the house itself does not drip blood, nor is there any blood in the entire film. It is the setting for four stories that make up the movie, all of who were written and scripted by horror veteran Robert Bloch. The movie is directed by Peter Duffell who has mostly got TV credits in his resume and it doesn't surprise me. The House That Dripped Blood feels like a TV show more than a movie, not that it really matters. The House That Dripped Blood was distributed by Amicus, the second fiddle to Hammer Horror. It can be hard at times to distinguish the difference between the two studios, but it is classic British horror in the end anyway.

The house is the central theme that unites the stories, and the plot is driven by a Scotland Yard inspector who is investigating the disappearance of a famous actor who rented the house.

The first episode Method for Murder is about a horror writer, Charles Hillyer (Denholm Elliot) and his wife Alice (Joanna Dunham). They rent the house in order to help Charles get over his writers block. This works too well as he invents a mad strangler and can't stop writing. Soon he starts seeing his creation in real life and things spiral out of control.

The second part is called Waxworks and stars Peter Cushing as the retired stock broker Philip Greyson. He wants a quiet life and is content to listen to music and work on the garden. He broods over a woman he was obsessed about and is shocked to find her likeness in a local wax museum of horror. An old friend and romantic rival, Neville Rogers (Joss Ackland) visit him and well, things don't go well.

The third entry is Sweets to the Sweet and here we find that John Reed (Christopher Lee) movies in with his strange daughter Jane. He soon hires Ann Norton (Nyree Dawn Porter) to be the girls tutor as he insists on keeping Jane isolated. Ann is puzzled by his decisions but he promises to tell her everything in time. I'm sure you can see the pattern as horrible things soon happen.

Last but not least, we have The Cloak starring Jon Pertwee as Paul Henderson, a veteran horror actor and amateur occultist. He and his costar/girlfriend Carla (Ingrid Pitt) are starring in a new horror movie together and he likes the house as it is convenient for him. He is however disgusted at the cheap props that are being used and goes off to buy a cloak from a creepy shop. The cloak however causes him some... trouble.

The four stories themselves are not really anything new, but they each contain something different. A twist on a familiar trope, a variation on a common theme and so on. The direction is fine, nothing to really comment on, but the music is a bit atrocious. The actors are outstanding as you can see above. Cushing, Lee, Elliot, Pitt and Pertwee who at the time still portrayed Doctor Who are excellent and to be fair carry the movie a great deal. The atmosphere is surprisingly good though. Even in the weaker stories, there is a good sensation of doom lurking around the corner.

So, do I recommend this movie? Yes, I think I do. Seasoned horror fans will likely fall asleep unless they love older movies like this, but for someone who wants to dip their toes in the murky waters of horror, The House That Dripped Blood might be just scary and tense enough.

That's that and all that. Join me again next time and until then, have a great and safe week!

 

Horror Express

I found the time to finish the movie I mentioned last week so today we're talking about:

Horror Express (1972).

Starring Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, Telly Savalas and directed by Eugenio Martin, Horror Express is a great horror story wrapped in a stiff movie.

Minor Spoilers ahead! The plot is loosely this: In 1906, an anthropologist, Sir Alexander Saxton (Lee), discovers a frozen half man - half ape in Manchuria. He intends to bring it back to Britain on a Trans-Siberian train. He runs into his rival Dr. Wells (Cushing) who is curious about what Saxton has and accidentally help set the evil free. The monster, an alien intelligence that can kill with a look, leaving its victims with white bleeding eyes, is a real treat. With everyone confined to a train hurtling through the Siberian winter, the tension and the danger ramps up quickly.

End of minor spoilers. I say minor, because if you google the movie, you will get the above info immediately.

The actors are good, particularly Lee and Cushing, and Savalas is entertaining even though he is barely in the film. Cushing had just lost his wife so it is understandable that this is one of his weaker performances. In fact he nearly left on the first day as he felt unable to work due to his grief, but Lee talked him around and went out of his way to make his old friend as comfortable as possible.

The story is possibly plagiarized from John W. Campbell's story “Who Goes There?” which is sometimes re-titled “The Thing (from Another World)”. This story is the origin of The Thing from Another World (1951) and The Thing (1982). This comes as no surprise to me as I was struck by how similar Horror Express is to The Thing, even though Horror Express is nowhere near as grisly as The Thing. That is not to say Horror Express is without blood. There is some but the “Ick Factor” mostly comes from the bleeding white eyes and some pretty gruesome autopsy scenes.

My biggest gripe with the movies is how stiff it feels. Several scenes feel clumsy as the actors stand around awkwardly and it is mostly the experience of the actors that save the scenes. The story itself is good, and although the movie is low budget, they did a lot with what they had. It's hard to nail down the problem, perhaps the director wasn't up to it, perhaps it took too long to redress the few train cars they had between scenes, I don't know. I do know that I actually want to see a competent remake.

I also loved the ending. As with many horror movies, everything accelerates towards the end, and Horror Express is no different. All in all, this movie does it's thing differently and with intelligence rather than relying on shock factor and nudity.

So, do I recommend this movie? Yes, absolutely. Horror fans should give it a look if they haven't already, and even occasional horror watchers could have a good time here. It's not a great forgotten gem, but Horror Express does deserve its cult status.

That's that and all that. Join me again next time and until then, have a great and safe week!

Not what I had planned.

I started watching a Hammer Horror movie starring Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing, but I didn't have time to finish it, so that is on next week's agenda.

This left me in the lurch for this week, so I'm forced to improvise. Thus I present History of Japan by Bill Wurtz, the same genius that made the History of Everything video I shared a couple of years ago. Then I also have The Fallen of World War II, which is obviously very somber but a very interesting watch.

So, enjoy and join me next time, and until then, have a great and safe week!

 

Tower of Evil

This week's entry is:

Tower of Evil (1972).

Also known as Horror on Snape Island and Beyond the Fog, this delightful horror movie is directed by Jim O'Connolly and stars Bryant Haliday, Jill Haworth. Mark Edwards, Jack Watson, Anna Polk and Derek Fowlds amongst others. The name that stuck out the most is Derek Fowlds who is most known for playing Bernard Woolley in Yes Minister/ Prime Minister.

First off, an epilepsy warning. There are a few scenes with strong flashing lights and you may need to be careful if you are sensitive.

The story is this; a group of young Americans are found murdered on Snape Island, a grim and lonely place that even the seagulls avoid. The only survivor is obviously the main suspect but she is completely catatonic from whatever horror befell them. One of the victims was killed with an ancient Phoenician spear made from gold. Such a find on a British island causes quite a stir and an expedition is put together to see if they can discover more. Of course, this being a horror movie you can probably guess that a lot of horrible stuff follows, and you'd be right.

Tower of Evil is a surprisingly slick little horror movie. Apart from one scene it is completely shot in a studio and although it shows, it didn't detract from the experience. The entire island and its decrepit lighthouse is already such an unbelievable place that it didn't bother me to see how clearly it is a set piece.

The actors are good, most of them veterans of British TV and film, although many weren't veterans yet. The music is also fine and the movie itself is pretty stylishly shot. Beyond a couple of plot holes, I have no complaints about this movie. There was a scene or two that I thought were screw-ups at first but they made sense upon further reflection. For my money though, it's the beginning that really sold me on this movie. It is really one of the best openers in horror movie history in my book. Not the best, no, but up there. Sadly I can't go into more detail, but I won't spoil this film.

There are several scenes with grisly gore and quite a bit of nudity, so adjust your watching companions accordingly.

So, do I recommend this movie? If you couldn't tell, then yes, absolutely. Overall it is a product of the 70's. It's not really all that scary, not by today's standard and the fashion and the haircuts are something else, but for a low budget horror movie it does a good job. Any fan of older horror movies do need to see Tower of Evil, but do keep your expectations in check and you'll have a good time. They didn't try to reinvent the wheel and as a result they got a solid piece of work and sometimes that is all you need. 

 

That's that and all that. Join me again next time and until then, have a great and safe week!