Thursday, March 31, 2011
SCREAMING WEREWOLF NEWSPAPER AD
This is a newspaper ad for the Jerry Warren movie THE FACE OF THE SCREAMING WEREWOLF. I ment to place it at the end of my review of the movie but something went wrong with the load up and it did not appear on the page.
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
BRUCE LEE FIGHTS BACK FROM THE GRAVE (1976)
There has been a lot of rip off movies that fail to deliver what they promised on their posters (Or now DVD case art) the movie BRUCE LEE FIGHTS BACK FROM THE GRAVE is a classic in ripping off the movie viewers.
I first encounter the movie in the form of a newspaper ad that showed a picture of a muscle bound Bruce Lee leaping out of a grave in the middle of a grave yard as a pretty woman in a torn dress and a bat like creature with a humanoid head looks on. The poster told you that you would be seeing a weird kung fu supernatural thriller of some sort.
I did not know at the time that the art work on the poster was a rip off of the cover of singer Meatloft's BAT OUT OF HELL record cover.
I did not get to see that film at that time it was released to movie theaters. I did not get to see the trailer for it until recently. In the trailer they show action scenes from the movie as the narrator tells the viewers that the movie is about Bruce Lee coming back from the dead to take revenge against those who killed him. It was all a lie. The film is not about Bruce Lee and his search for revenge.
I saw the film a few years ago on DVD. I had always wanted to see the movie and see if it matched the great poster art. I bought the DVD cheaply by mail. I don't remember if I got it from eBay or Amazon.
If you ever want to see just the first minute of a minute this is the one.
After the opening credits there is a shot of a grave yard and there in the yard is a tombstone with the name Bruce Lee written in big letters so you can't miss it. The scene cuts quickly to a shot of lighting flashing and then back to the grave where a man is shown jumping out of the grave. You don't get to see the face clearly. What happen to the dirt that covered the grave? The shot then cuts to the poster art for the film as if you tell the viewers this is what the scene would have looked like if they had a lot of money to spend on the scene.
The rest of the film has nothing to do with the opening scene. It's a run of the mill kung fu movie from Korea. It's as if they made an one minute long movie and decided to pad it out by adding a feature kung fu movie after it. I never seen the whole movie after the opening minute. Some reviews say it's a funny movie in a chop socky schlock way.
Directed by Doo-yong Lee.
aka: AMERICA BANGMUNGAEG
I first encounter the movie in the form of a newspaper ad that showed a picture of a muscle bound Bruce Lee leaping out of a grave in the middle of a grave yard as a pretty woman in a torn dress and a bat like creature with a humanoid head looks on. The poster told you that you would be seeing a weird kung fu supernatural thriller of some sort.
I did not know at the time that the art work on the poster was a rip off of the cover of singer Meatloft's BAT OUT OF HELL record cover.
I did not get to see that film at that time it was released to movie theaters. I did not get to see the trailer for it until recently. In the trailer they show action scenes from the movie as the narrator tells the viewers that the movie is about Bruce Lee coming back from the dead to take revenge against those who killed him. It was all a lie. The film is not about Bruce Lee and his search for revenge.
I saw the film a few years ago on DVD. I had always wanted to see the movie and see if it matched the great poster art. I bought the DVD cheaply by mail. I don't remember if I got it from eBay or Amazon.
If you ever want to see just the first minute of a minute this is the one.
After the opening credits there is a shot of a grave yard and there in the yard is a tombstone with the name Bruce Lee written in big letters so you can't miss it. The scene cuts quickly to a shot of lighting flashing and then back to the grave where a man is shown jumping out of the grave. You don't get to see the face clearly. What happen to the dirt that covered the grave? The shot then cuts to the poster art for the film as if you tell the viewers this is what the scene would have looked like if they had a lot of money to spend on the scene.
The rest of the film has nothing to do with the opening scene. It's a run of the mill kung fu movie from Korea. It's as if they made an one minute long movie and decided to pad it out by adding a feature kung fu movie after it. I never seen the whole movie after the opening minute. Some reviews say it's a funny movie in a chop socky schlock way.
Directed by Doo-yong Lee.
aka: AMERICA BANGMUNGAEG
 |
| Poster Art for BRUCE LEE FIGHTS BACK FROM THE GRAVE. This art was used in the opening scene. |
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
THE DRAGON LIVES AGAIN.
THE DRAGON LIVES AGAIN (1977)
aka LI SAN JIAO WEL ZHEN DI YU MEN.
Directed by Kei Law.
I watch mostly horror movies and some art house type films but from time to time when I will watch a kung fu movie for laughs. My favorite type of kung fu movies is the schlock kind known by fans of this kind movies as 'chop socky'. These are cheap funny badly made movies.
After actor Bruce Lee died there was a bunch of kung fu movies made exploiting his name and image. These films might have some footage of Lee from other movies clipped in but mostly they featured actors calling themselves Bruce and trying to act like him. Lee's wife sued some of these filmmakers to keep the Bruce Lee image and trademark in the family estate.
THE DRAGON LIVES AGAIN is a 'Bruceploitation' about Bruce Lee and his adventures in the after life.
The film begins with the spirit of Lee coming to the after life and it looks a lot like a Chinese village like you would see in many kung fu movies. Someone points out that he does not look like Bruce Lee and other person reminds her that people change their looks when they come to the after life. This line saved the producers the trouble of looking for someone who looked like Lee and can kung fu fight.
There Lee encounters The Godfather and his gang who are trying to take over the after life world. The Godfather's gang includes The Exorcist, Clint Eastwood (Dresses in his spaghetti western outfit and as of this writing is not dead), James Bond, Emannuel, The Blind Sword man, and Count Dracula.
Lee fights The Godfather's evil gang with the help of his friends that includes The One Arm Sword man, Cain from the Kung Fu TV series and Popeye the Sailor.
Yes Popeye the Sailor is in the film, He is played by a shave head Asian actor who plays the role for laughs and is very funny. The print I saw was dubbed in English and Popeye does not sound like Popeye of the cartoons. Maybe in the original soundtrack he does. But then again maybe the Popeye cartoons in China are dubbed and he does not sound like Popeye as we know him in the United States. In the scene where Popeye fights a group of mummies the Popeye theme plays after he eats his can of spinach.
After Bruce Lee and his friends beat The Godfather and his gang the king of the after life world allows Bruce Lee to return to the Earth and live again. The last scene of this weird movie shows Lee flying away.
I am surprised that this movie played anywhere without the producers being sued to death. They used copyrighted and trade marked characters from various movie and TV series as well as the name and image of Bruce Lee himself. At one point Bruce Lee fights people dressed up as Kato from THE GREEN HORNET TV series.
aka LI SAN JIAO WEL ZHEN DI YU MEN.
Directed by Kei Law.
I watch mostly horror movies and some art house type films but from time to time when I will watch a kung fu movie for laughs. My favorite type of kung fu movies is the schlock kind known by fans of this kind movies as 'chop socky'. These are cheap funny badly made movies.
After actor Bruce Lee died there was a bunch of kung fu movies made exploiting his name and image. These films might have some footage of Lee from other movies clipped in but mostly they featured actors calling themselves Bruce and trying to act like him. Lee's wife sued some of these filmmakers to keep the Bruce Lee image and trademark in the family estate.
THE DRAGON LIVES AGAIN is a 'Bruceploitation' about Bruce Lee and his adventures in the after life.
The film begins with the spirit of Lee coming to the after life and it looks a lot like a Chinese village like you would see in many kung fu movies. Someone points out that he does not look like Bruce Lee and other person reminds her that people change their looks when they come to the after life. This line saved the producers the trouble of looking for someone who looked like Lee and can kung fu fight.
There Lee encounters The Godfather and his gang who are trying to take over the after life world. The Godfather's gang includes The Exorcist, Clint Eastwood (Dresses in his spaghetti western outfit and as of this writing is not dead), James Bond, Emannuel, The Blind Sword man, and Count Dracula.
Lee fights The Godfather's evil gang with the help of his friends that includes The One Arm Sword man, Cain from the Kung Fu TV series and Popeye the Sailor.
Yes Popeye the Sailor is in the film, He is played by a shave head Asian actor who plays the role for laughs and is very funny. The print I saw was dubbed in English and Popeye does not sound like Popeye of the cartoons. Maybe in the original soundtrack he does. But then again maybe the Popeye cartoons in China are dubbed and he does not sound like Popeye as we know him in the United States. In the scene where Popeye fights a group of mummies the Popeye theme plays after he eats his can of spinach.
After Bruce Lee and his friends beat The Godfather and his gang the king of the after life world allows Bruce Lee to return to the Earth and live again. The last scene of this weird movie shows Lee flying away.
I am surprised that this movie played anywhere without the producers being sued to death. They used copyrighted and trade marked characters from various movie and TV series as well as the name and image of Bruce Lee himself. At one point Bruce Lee fights people dressed up as Kato from THE GREEN HORNET TV series.
Sunday, March 27, 2011
THE FACE OF THE SCREAMING WEREWOLF
Director/producer Jerry Warren said in an interview once that he did not really care about making good movies. He seem to care less about the movies he imported into the United States to play in movie theaters and TV.
THE FACE OF THE SCREAMING WEREWOLF (1964) Was an incredible butcher job by Warren. The movie is made up of two Mexican movies that Warren bought the rights to. He chopped down both feature films down into an one hour feature.
The first half of the movie is a short version the movie ATTACK OF THE MAYAN MUMMY. This was a really badly re cut version of the Mexican classic LA MOMIA AZTECA (1957)
ATTACK OF THE MAYAN MAYAN was a little over an hour long and half of it was made up of footage from LA MOMIA AZTECA and the rest was shot in English scenes that Warren that directed. The new scenes are mostly of people talking about what happen in the Mexican footage Warren did not use the original ending to the film. He cut the last scene with the mummy to make it look like the mummy is killed by a car hitting him.
Warren then got a hold of the Mexican horror comedy LA CASA DEL TERROR (1960) and cut out all the comedy footage including most of the role of the film's star Tin Tan aka German Valdes. There is about two scenes with Tin Tan left in because he saves a woman at the end of the film and he could not be cut out of the ending. He is given no credit in the film even tho he was a big star in Mexico.
The footage Warren used from LA CASA DEL TERROR was of guest star Lon Chaney Jr. Chaney plays a mummy that is bought to life by a scientist working in a secret lab in a wax museum and it turns out that it is the mummy of a werewolf. The werewolf escapes the lab and attacks some women.
Warren took ATTACK OF THE MAYAN MUMMY and edited in the werewolf footage from LA CASA DEL TERROR and the results is one bad werewolf movie.
Warren would release this movie on a double bill with CURSE OF THE STONE HAND another movie Warren made by butchering together two movies.
THE FACE OF THE SCREAMING WEREWOLF (1964) Was an incredible butcher job by Warren. The movie is made up of two Mexican movies that Warren bought the rights to. He chopped down both feature films down into an one hour feature.
The first half of the movie is a short version the movie ATTACK OF THE MAYAN MUMMY. This was a really badly re cut version of the Mexican classic LA MOMIA AZTECA (1957)
ATTACK OF THE MAYAN MAYAN was a little over an hour long and half of it was made up of footage from LA MOMIA AZTECA and the rest was shot in English scenes that Warren that directed. The new scenes are mostly of people talking about what happen in the Mexican footage Warren did not use the original ending to the film. He cut the last scene with the mummy to make it look like the mummy is killed by a car hitting him.
Warren then got a hold of the Mexican horror comedy LA CASA DEL TERROR (1960) and cut out all the comedy footage including most of the role of the film's star Tin Tan aka German Valdes. There is about two scenes with Tin Tan left in because he saves a woman at the end of the film and he could not be cut out of the ending. He is given no credit in the film even tho he was a big star in Mexico.
The footage Warren used from LA CASA DEL TERROR was of guest star Lon Chaney Jr. Chaney plays a mummy that is bought to life by a scientist working in a secret lab in a wax museum and it turns out that it is the mummy of a werewolf. The werewolf escapes the lab and attacks some women.
Warren took ATTACK OF THE MAYAN MUMMY and edited in the werewolf footage from LA CASA DEL TERROR and the results is one bad werewolf movie.
Warren would release this movie on a double bill with CURSE OF THE STONE HAND another movie Warren made by butchering together two movies.
Saturday, March 26, 2011
ROBOT MONSTER (1953)
Once in a while you hear about a movie being released direct to DVD or not being released at all. So it make you wonder how some really bad movies end up playing in movie theaters. ROBOT MONSTER (1953) is one of those movies.
Shot in four days for $16,000 and with some scenes in 3D ROBOT MONSTER is one of those movies you think of when you think of bad sci fi films of the fifties. It is said that director Phil Tucker upset over a disagreement with the producer and the bad film reviews tried to kill himself.
The screenplay is by Wyott Ordung who claimed in an interview that the screenplay he wrote was rewritten by someone else.
Later on Phil Tucker helped Edward D. Wood Jr. edit PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE (1959) But he and Wood had a fight and Tucker did not finish the job and was was not given any credit. A writer working on a book about Wood tried to talk to Tucker about him but Tucker refused to talk about Wood. Tucker was already an object of fun over ROBOT MONSTER and did not want to be link to Wood who was called at the time the world's worst film director by the book THE GOLDEN TURKEY AWARDS.
The title monster of the film is a man in a gorilla suit and a space helmet for a head. The monster was played by gorilla actor George Barrows.
This monster by himself wiped out most of the people on Earth except for a handful of survivors. This monster who wiped out the Earth has a lot of trouble trying to kill this group of people. Then this inhuman monster falls in love with one of the humans.
If you are a fan of schlock like THE CREEPING TERROR or THE BEAST OF YUCCA FLATS then you will enjoy this film. Other wise you better pick up a better DVD like THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL or 2001.
The flier below was for an website I use to have. It is no long up. I had artist LADYMAVERICK81 draw up the ROBOT MONSTER for it and she designed the flier. you can see more of her work at: http://www.ladymaverick81.com/ .
Shot in four days for $16,000 and with some scenes in 3D ROBOT MONSTER is one of those movies you think of when you think of bad sci fi films of the fifties. It is said that director Phil Tucker upset over a disagreement with the producer and the bad film reviews tried to kill himself.
The screenplay is by Wyott Ordung who claimed in an interview that the screenplay he wrote was rewritten by someone else.
Later on Phil Tucker helped Edward D. Wood Jr. edit PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE (1959) But he and Wood had a fight and Tucker did not finish the job and was was not given any credit. A writer working on a book about Wood tried to talk to Tucker about him but Tucker refused to talk about Wood. Tucker was already an object of fun over ROBOT MONSTER and did not want to be link to Wood who was called at the time the world's worst film director by the book THE GOLDEN TURKEY AWARDS.
The title monster of the film is a man in a gorilla suit and a space helmet for a head. The monster was played by gorilla actor George Barrows.
This monster by himself wiped out most of the people on Earth except for a handful of survivors. This monster who wiped out the Earth has a lot of trouble trying to kill this group of people. Then this inhuman monster falls in love with one of the humans.
If you are a fan of schlock like THE CREEPING TERROR or THE BEAST OF YUCCA FLATS then you will enjoy this film. Other wise you better pick up a better DVD like THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL or 2001.
The flier below was for an website I use to have. It is no long up. I had artist LADYMAVERICK81 draw up the ROBOT MONSTER for it and she designed the flier. you can see more of her work at: http://www.ladymaverick81.com/ .
Friday, March 25, 2011
THE FACE OF FIRE (1959)
FACE OF FIRE (1959) Is a good movie that has disappeared thur the cinema cracks. It use to play all the time on late night television before informerials ruined late night entertainment.
The film is based on a short story by Stephen Crane entitled THE MONSTER. In the film James Whitmore plays Monk Johnson a lovable handyman in a small American town. The film was shot in Sweden but the film takes place in an American town around the year1900.
Monk one night runs into a burning house to save the son of the town's doctor who is played by Cameron Mitchell. Monk saves the boy but his face is badly burned and also suffers brained damage. The doctor saves his life even tho others tell him it would be better for him to let him die.
After surviving the fire Monk is rejected by the town people who once loved him and thought of him a good man.
The film does not at this point take the easy way of the exploitation movies and make Monk into a monster. It is the people around him who become the monsters.
One night the brain damaged Monk wanders away from the people taking care of him and walks into town to relive his last normal day before his accident. He is unaware of the fact that people around him are frighten of him. The only one to treat him the same is a dog who brings him a stick to throw. This same dog is used by a mod searching for him later on in the film.
This is a good drama that is worth seeing if you can find it. I use to see it for sale on EBay from time to time and from time to time someone post it on You Tube.
The film is based on a short story by Stephen Crane entitled THE MONSTER. In the film James Whitmore plays Monk Johnson a lovable handyman in a small American town. The film was shot in Sweden but the film takes place in an American town around the year1900.
Monk one night runs into a burning house to save the son of the town's doctor who is played by Cameron Mitchell. Monk saves the boy but his face is badly burned and also suffers brained damage. The doctor saves his life even tho others tell him it would be better for him to let him die.
After surviving the fire Monk is rejected by the town people who once loved him and thought of him a good man.
The film does not at this point take the easy way of the exploitation movies and make Monk into a monster. It is the people around him who become the monsters.
One night the brain damaged Monk wanders away from the people taking care of him and walks into town to relive his last normal day before his accident. He is unaware of the fact that people around him are frighten of him. The only one to treat him the same is a dog who brings him a stick to throw. This same dog is used by a mod searching for him later on in the film.
This is a good drama that is worth seeing if you can find it. I use to see it for sale on EBay from time to time and from time to time someone post it on You Tube.
Thursday, March 24, 2011
FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE SPACE MONSTER
The two most important parts of an exploitation movie are the title and the poster. The film it self is not important since by the time you are sitting in the theater watching a piece of junk with a great title and poster they already have your money at the box office and at the snack bar.
FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE SPACE MONSTER (1965) is one of those films that have a title that make people want to see it. I doubt if the film would have been remembered under it's UK title of DUEL OF THE SPACE MONSTERS even tho it is a much more classy title.
The screen writers for this movie claimed it was written as a comedy. One of them said he saw the film in a theater and they ran the reels out of order and no one really noticed.
Maybe the director did not know he was making a comedy. That would be for the best since the best film camp is done when played straight. the film THE GIANT CLAW is one of the greatest camp sci fi films because the cast did not see the awful giant bird special effects till after the film was released. They would have not been able to play it straight if they saw the incredibly silly looking giant bird prop.
Frankenstein in this movie is an humanoid robot who is shot in the face by a space man with a ray gun. The actor playing the now out of control robot spends the rest of the film with one side of his face made up as burned off.
The space monster is a man in a hairy ape like suit with claws and a skull like mask. This would be one of the last of the 1950's style man in a suit monsters.
(Note: Screen capture is from the public domain trailer for the movie)
FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE SPACE MONSTER (1965) is one of those films that have a title that make people want to see it. I doubt if the film would have been remembered under it's UK title of DUEL OF THE SPACE MONSTERS even tho it is a much more classy title.
The screen writers for this movie claimed it was written as a comedy. One of them said he saw the film in a theater and they ran the reels out of order and no one really noticed.
Maybe the director did not know he was making a comedy. That would be for the best since the best film camp is done when played straight. the film THE GIANT CLAW is one of the greatest camp sci fi films because the cast did not see the awful giant bird special effects till after the film was released. They would have not been able to play it straight if they saw the incredibly silly looking giant bird prop.
Frankenstein in this movie is an humanoid robot who is shot in the face by a space man with a ray gun. The actor playing the now out of control robot spends the rest of the film with one side of his face made up as burned off.
The space monster is a man in a hairy ape like suit with claws and a skull like mask. This would be one of the last of the 1950's style man in a suit monsters.
(Note: Screen capture is from the public domain trailer for the movie)
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