LET'S GO TO THE MOVIES #1

It's Sat. March 19, 1977. Let's see what's playing in the Detroit, MI metro area.

Lots of post-Oscar hype and re-releases for some major studio stuff

Ralph Bakshi's WIZARDS is still playing at multiple theatres 5 weeks after its opening and would soon become a "midnight show" staple on Fri. and Sat. late nights along with various concert films for hordes of stoned patrons.

A triple feature of J.D.'s REVENGE, COOLEY HIGH and CORNBREAD, EARL AND ME at The Mercury on 6 Mile and Schaffer. This trio ran for what seemed like years at local theatres.

Kroger Babb's infamous UNCLE TOM'S CABIN is in its "Second Big Week!". Exploitation huckster extraordinaire Babb was famous for his sex-hygiene, nudie, and birth-of-a-baby films such as MOM AND DAD and had a career going back to the '30s. Cashing in on the MANDINGO and DRUM hype in the '70s, he bought a German-produced version of UNCLE TOM'S CABIN with Herbert Lom as Simon Legree and hired low-budget guru Al Adamson to shoot additional scenes of sex and sadism which he inserted. 

There's a double feature of the kinda/sorta EYES WITHOUT A FACE inspired MANSION OF THE DOOMED (with an early appearance by Lance Henrikson) and Juan López Moctezuma's recut and edited AT THE MANSION OF MADNESS under the title DR. TARR'S TORTURE DUNGEON. 

Based upon a series of unsolved murders around Texarkana in 1946, Charles B. Pierce's atmospheric proto-slasher THE TOWN THAT DREADED SUNDOWN has been held over. With a post-GILLIGAN'S ISLAND Dawn Wells, 70's exploitation stalwart Andrew Prine, and in a bit of bizarre casting Ben Johnson as a Hispanic town sheriff. 

The Fox (which specialized in Kung-Fu and blaxploitation ) is showing the double feature of THE ONE-ARMED BOXER VS. THE FLYING GUILLOTINE (also known as THE MASTER OF THE FLYING GUILLOTINE) and SUPER DRAGON. This was also one of those seemingly perpetual running double features of the time period. I think I saw it twice! 

"The Dirtiest Harry Of Them All!" THE ENFORCER is playing all over the place including the Troy Drive-In which is where I saw it.

The Americana, Eastland, and The Showcase have a preview for the "R" rated SLAPSHOT with the disclaimer "certain language may be too strong for children" - but hey most of the language is fine and makes for a great family movie-night out!

The mythical THE FARMER is getting a pretty wide release in the Motor City. This lost exploitation revenge has never been issued on home video. 43 years on and I'm still kicking myself for missing this one. 

Held over is Michael Winner's gloriously lurid and wonderfully trashy THE SENTINEL which features Burgess Meredith channeling Ruth Gordon from ROSEMARY'S BABY, Beverly D'Angelo & Sylvia Miles as lesbian cannibals along with a pretty unbelievable cast of former Hollywood A-listers and up and comers.  And hey, there's John Carradine in one of his 11(!!) film roles from 1977.

CHATTERBOX staring the wonderful Candice Rialson is just playing at the Fairlane Drive-In after opening back on Feb. 2. It features Railson as a young woman and her adventures with a unique bit of talking anatomy. 

For the kiddies, there's a matinee of BRIGHTY OF THE GRAND CANYON, and Disney's FREAKY FRIDAY is in its "Seventh Freaky Week!"

Italian peplum kiddie matinee at the Northgate with Sergio Corbucci's GOLIATH AND THE VAMPIRES followed by a double bill later that day (not for the kiddies) of the above-mentioned UNCLE TOM'S CABIN and THE KLANSMAN starring Richard Burton and Lee Marvin 

Lots of  X and XXX to choose from!  

And some motocross racing coming up  at the Pontiac Silverdome

THE HOUSE OF SEVEN CORPSES 1974

"Eight Graves! Seven Bodies! One Killer...And He's Already Dead"

      Released amid the 70's satanic horror boom and with such films as THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE and THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT pushing the intensity level, 1974's THE HOUSE OF THE SEVEN CORPSES must have seemed curiously out of place. Devoid of any bare skin and with just a few dollops of blood, its haunted house/family curse setting is almost quaint compared that that decade's other horrors. Because of its PG rating (and a really soft PG for the '70s), it was a favorite on the afternoon/early evening broadcast TV and cable well into the '80s. I remember as a kid this running almost perpetually in the late afternoon movie.
     Featuring a typical John Carradine grouchy old man performance, some solid work by Hollywood "B" listers John Ireland (who would soon go on to SATAN'S CHEERLEADERS) & Faith Domergue (THIS ISLAND EARTH & former girlfriend of Howard Hughes) it's helped immensely by some great locations featuring the old Utah Governor's mansion. With its movie within a movie storyline, there's a kind of meta thing going on here as it's a modest budget horror film that rather appropriately has as its central plot a small group of filmmakers trying film a low budget horror movie.

     In the prologue, we were shown the various past members of the Beal family and their grisly deaths which include shooting, stabbing, hanging & bludgeoning, etc. with each member having a portrait hanging in their namesake house. We then see a satanic ritual being played out by Faith Domergue and upon pulling back we're shown a movie being made as curmudgeonly director Eric Hartman (John Ireland SALON KITTY) has arrived with a small crew & cast to film a horror movie at the Beal house. Grouchy old caretaker Edgar Price (John Carradine - in one of five films he appeared in this year) interrupts the shoot to tell the history of the house and its murders.
     Along with semi-has been actress Gayle Dorian (Domergue) and director Ireland, there's embittered ex - Shakespearean actor Christopher Milan (Charles Macaulay BLACULA), young actress Annie (Carole Wells THE LIVELY SET), and her boyfriend (& all-around lackey for Hartman) David (Jerry Strickler). After the opening credits parade of murder/bloodshed the film falls into the drama and arguments associated with film production as Eric yells at everybody and film sequences in single long takes (just like Hitchcock's ROPE it would seem).
    Things get a bit interesting when David handily finds a copy of a grimoire which here is The Tibetan Book of The Dead and some of the passages are incorporated into the script of the movie dealing with devil worship and the raising of the dead (which the actual book has nothing to do with).

     At times feeling like a NIGHT GALLERY episode stretched out to feature-length, once the book is introduced into the plot the horror elements start to slowly (maybe a bit too slowly...) emerge. Gayle's cat is gruesomely killed and ol' Edgar (Carradine) begins slinking around in the background, even once climbing down into a crypt in the old Beal family graveyard and it's revealed that he has a workshop in the cellar (!?!). Although only in the movie to be the proverbial red herring Carradine does have a bit more screen time than expected and his appearances help keep the horror elements moving along and in the foreground. Gayle is also hotly eager to have a roll in the hay with her director, but he roughly casts her aside with a remark about her "past profession" and things don't move too far along and this is the only instance where sex is even vaguely mentioned.
   With the graveyard, the book, and the family history of the house, it's not too difficult to see where this is headed and at the climax, things get a bit muddled (is there one or two zombies...?) and compress an incredible amount of death into a short time. It takes its time getting there, but when it gets there it does pretty well. The zombie makeup is fairly effective in some shots (kept in the dark for the most part), a close-up of rotted toes wiggling in a ragged shoe, and the resurrection scene in the graveyard has a nice atmosphere to it in spite of some iffy day for night shots.
     The director John Harrison was a TV director, and this was his lone big-screen effort which explains the TV movie feel that drifts in every so often. The film was produced by an outfit called Television Corp. of America, which makes me wonder if this had its genesis as a TV movie? The cinematographer Don Jones had a solid resume in 70's exploitation in various behind the camera jobs including directing SCHOOLGIRLS IN CHAINS (1973), THE LOVE BUTCHER (1975), SWEATER GIRLS (1978) and the 1982 bizarre slasher THE FOREST.  It's unbelievable seeing Carradine in this and then realizing he's going to be acting for another 20 years!!

More 70's TV Terror - THE NIGHT STRANGLER 1973

One & Only Darren McGavin (AKA Carl Kolchak) Returns For Another Classic Small Screen Horror With a Belly Dancing Jo Ann Pflug, Mad Doctors, Alchemy AND John Carradine !

      

  

     With the mega success of 1972's THE NIGHT STRANGLER it was inevitable that ABC would follow it up with a sequel continuing the supernatural adventures of intrepid reporter Carl Kolchak as portrayed by Darren McGavin. Premiering on Jan. 19 1973, THE NIGHT STRANGLER was another major ratings success prompting the network to order up an ongoing series. Playing out almost as a remake of the first the movie THE NIGHT STRANGLER improves on some plot items carried over from STALKER while others fall a bit flat compared to the earlier outing. With the "monster" not reveled until the closing moments STRANGLER plays out more like a mystery but contains enough mention of horror elements to keep us reminded of what we tuned in for.
     After being run out of Las Vegas in the previous movie THE NIGHT STALKER, Kolchak ends up in Seattle, WA. where in a bit of happenstance he hooks up with his old publisher/nemesis Tony Vincenzo (the incomparably grouchy Simon Oakland) and is duly hired to work as a reporter. To add to the fun (and the horror cred) the newspaper publisher is played by everybodys favorite old curmudgeon John Carradine, who not surprisingly enough plays an old curmudgeon newspaper publisher (and sporting a horrible black dye hair job). This was one of six roles for ol' John in 1973 (which is nothing compared to the 11 (!) he would cash a paycheck for in 1977 !).

     Kolchak is immediately assigned to cover the murder of a belly dancer in the rough & tumble area of Seattle known as Pioneer Square and of course (also immediately) begins to come across supernatural elements related to crime. As other bodies begin to appear with their necks crushed and a small amount of blood missing (and all working at the same belly dancing establishment) they seem to tie into a string of murders that go back over 100 years with a string of 8 killings every 21 years. Along the way Kolchak butts heads with the usual bunch of incompetent and/or perpetually pissed-off authority figures. Eventually things lead to a 140 plus year old doctor who's practicing alchemy while hiding in the bowels of underground Seattle preforming experiments that require the blood of young women.

     While it can be augured that the film is basically a remake of the previous movie (the first 20 minutes after Kolchak's assignment to the initial story is almost shot for shot from STALKER) it does stand on its own as a great small screen chiller. Returning scriptwriter Richard Matheson serves up several excellent sequences including the creepy underground city and the doctor's mummified family setting around the cobweb strewn dining room. STALKER producer Dan Curtis (DARK SHADOWS) steps into the directors chair and and in some ways STRANGLER is a better movie that along with Matheson's writing it presents more fleshed out characters and keeps the mystery and "what's going on ?..." aspect of plot more interesting - although having the majority of the victims all working at the same bar is a bit of a stretch (the police don't seem to pick up on it) and was most likely done for economies sake.

     When the movie premiered it ran at usual 74 minute running time in a 90 minute slot but was expanded for European theatrical release to 91 minutes and its this longer version that appears on the MGM DVD. Although its always interesting to see a longer cut, unfortunately the extra time doesn't add anything to story as it drags out several guest star sequences that get in the way of the plot such as Al "Grampa Munster" Lewis as a wino and Margaret Hamilton (THE WIZARD OF OZ) as grouchy professor and alchemy expert.
     For Kolchak's female companion we have the wonderful and bubbly Jo Ann Pflug (who now days works as a motivational speaker) playing a part-time student (and part-time belly dancer - which is one of the STRANGLER's highlights). She's eons better then Carol Lynley's underused and limp noodle character in STALKER and I always thought it was a bit of a shame that she didn't show up in the later series, as the ending leaves open that possibility. Also on hand is Scott Brady (who takes the place of STALKER's Charles McGraw as the grouchy police captain - and also sporting a questionable black dye hair job) and best of all Wally Cox, who in one of his final roles plays a scene stealing newspaper archivist (his scene with Carradine is one of the highlights of both movies). Nina Wayne (younger sister on Carol Wayne), plays a ditsy blonde belly dancer in several alternately creepy/humorous (& 1970's unPC) sequences with her "husband" that would never pass muster today.

     Even though he has a very limited amount of screen time Richard Anderson (who was just starting THE SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN) is excellent in the role of the title character and his final scene still packs a bit of a jolt to this day. For all that's been said of Darren McGavin's portrayal of Carl Kolchak (and it is excellent - literally no one else can you picture in this role) its Simon Oakland as the ever suffering editor Tony Vincenzo who is the background heart & soul of these movies (along with the forthcoming series). Easy to see on just the surface as simply a loud mouthed buffon he helps ground the plots and brings a smile to your face whenever he's on screen.
    The movie has enough filmed in Seattle bits to give it a local flavor (the space needle, Jo Ann's houseboat) with the Universal back lot filling in for the remainder.  I swear after you watch enough Universal 70's television with that same street you always keep expecting to see Adam-12 come cruising by at some point. For a short time afterwards ABC toyed with the idea for a third movie with Barry Atwater returning has the (un)dead vampire Jonas Skorzeny from NIGHT STALKER to confront Kolchak in New York City or an even more bizarre plot idea concerning UFOs, nuclear power & aliens in Hawaii which was to be titled THE NIGHT KILLERS before green lighting a series.