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Bill’s Bizarre Bijou Meets the CAPTIVE WILD WOMAN (1943)

Posted in 1940s Films, 2013, Animals Attack, B-Movies, Bill's Bizarre Bijou, Carnival Chills, Classic Films, Mad Doctors!, William Carl Articles with tags Acquanetta, Ape Woman, Captive Wild Woman, Clyde Beatty, Edward Dmytryk, Evelyn Ankers, John Carradine, Milburn Stone on May 9, 2013 by knifefighter

Bill’s Bizarre Bijou

By William D. Carl

This week’s feature presentation:

CAPTIVE WILD WOMAN (1943)

Welcome to Bill’s Bizarre Bijou, where you’ll discover the strangest films ever made. If there are alien women with too much eye-shadow and miniskirts, if papier-mâché monsters are involved, if your local drive-in insisted this be the last show in their dusk till dawn extravaganza, or if it’s just plain unclassifiable – then I’ve seen it and probably loved it. Now, I’m here to share these little gems with you, so you too can stare in disbelief at your television with your mouth dangling open. Trust me, with these flicks, you won’t believe your eyes.

Universal Studios was THE place to go for great horror movies in the early days of cinema. From DRACULA (1931) and FRANKENSTEIN (1931) to THE MUMMY (1932), THE INVISIBLE MAN (1933) to THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON (1954), Universal spent money on their horror films, creating atmospheric, beautifully made monster pictures that still hold up to viewings today. In between their A-Pictures, however, they churned out lots of fun B-movies as well. These movies didn’t have the best directors in the canon; nor did they employ the top box-office actors. They utilized lots of money-saving stock footage and re-used sets from the big movies. This doesn’t mean the films weren’t often very entertaining. Many of them exude a certain second-tier charm that makes them more than bearable. Often, they are as much fun as the big productions. Some examples of these B’s were MAN MADE MONSTER (1941), NIGHT MONSTER (1942), and our feature presentation, CAPTIVE WILD WOMAN (1943).

While circus animals are being unloaded from a ship, Fred Mason (Milburn Stone, Doc Adams from GUNSMOKE, also in INVADERS FROM MARS – 1953) meets his fiancé and secretary, Beth (Evelyn Ankers from THE WOLF MAN, 1941 and THE PEARL OF DEATH, 1944), who is dressed in great clothes. She kind of resembles Auntie Mame in every scene of this movie; the costumes are that fabulous! After playing kissy-face, he tells her about all the big game he has brought back for his circus, including Cheela, a huge female gorilla (okay, a man in a pretty decent gorilla suit). He introduces Beth to the gorilla as a crate holding a tiger bursts open and the wild beast escapes. Fred grabs a chair and tames the snarling tiger (more on this footage later). It’s actually a hell of an exciting opening!

Milburn Stone and Evelyn Ankers in CAPTIVE WILD WOMAN.

Beth tells Fred all about her little sister, Dorothy (played by Martha Vickers as Martha MacVicar) —from THE BIG SLEEP (1946) and THE MUMMY’S GHOST (1944)) —who has developed a glandular problem and was taken to the Crestview Sanatorium. Dr. Sigmund Walters is a well-known doctor who specializes in the glandular issues between races. The good doctor has changed several people who were deformed, making them normal by messing with their pituitary gland. His nurse assistant helps him with his experiments with sex hormones, where he wants to take human hormones and transplant them into animal subjects.

In his very first starring role, John Carradine (STAGECOACH, 1939 and THE ASTRO-ZOMBIES, 1968, and over three hundred other shows and films) plays Dr. Walters, a mad scientist (is there any other kind, especially with Carradine on hand?). Walters is obsessed with glandular disorders and charming young women. He joins Beth and Fred to have a look at the circus, where they are all waiting on famous lion-tamer Clyde Beatty to answer them about his new act. We get to see these beautiful animals, lions and tigers especially, caged, fed, and trained.

Cheela, the gorilla (of my dreams —sorry, couldn’t resist) attacks one of the handlers. Carradine is instantly smitten by the looks and talent of the gorilla. He wants to buy her, but the circus says no. So, he pays a thief to steal the animal. “It’s a deal, mister. You got yourself a monkey!” Instead of paying the thief, Dr. Walters pushes the man into the cage, where Cheela kills him!

The legendary John Carradine as Dr. Sigmund Walters.

Once in the lab, Walters begins his nefarious experiments, and Dorothy is included in this mysterious research with Cheela. Why does he want to turn a gorilla into a hot woman? Who knows? Maybe he can’t get a date any other way. Dorothy starts to die on the operating table, but the gorilla changes through the magic of stop motion photography (like in THE WOLF MAN, 1941) into a sexy young woman, played by Acquanetta (who only had one name, much like Cher or Madonna and was known as the Venezuelan Volcano in press releases and also played in JUNGLE WOMAN, 1944 and DEAD MAN’S EYES, 1944). Using his nurse’s glands, Walters finishes the experiment. He saves Dorothy for future surgeries. He renames the ape-woman Paula Dupree. Acquanetta plays her as a mute, acting pretty much with only her eyebrows, although she looks stunning doing so.

Meanwhile, back at the circus, Fred gets to try out his new act, mixing lions and tigers in the same cage with himself. Once again, the animal footage is terrific, exciting and scary and realistic. The two big cats actually get into a fight, which was supposedly staged and filmed in a single take. They really look like they’re tearing into each other. This is not a film for PETA!

Walters brings Paula Dupree (aka Cheela) to the circus, where the animals go crazy, sensing her unnaturalness. She steps into the lion cage, and the big cat is so afraid of her it backs away. Fred believes she may be the best lion-tamer of all time. He hires her, and she becomes a part of the act. She also falls in love with Fred. Rut-ro!

Paula Dupree hides a sinister secret in CAPTIVE WILD WOMAN.

When Paula/Cheela sees Fred kissing Beth, she gets angry and starts to change back into a gorilla. Her teeth grow to gigantic form, her skin turns darker, and hair begins sprouting all over her body, her brow becomes huge. The transformation is primitive and crude, but it works in context. It’s created by the great Jack P. Pierce, who also created all the classic make-ups for the Universal monsters like Frankenstein and The Wolf Man.

She immediately goes after Beth in her home, determined to kill off her romantic competition, but she’s interrupted by a landlady. The poor older woman is jumped and chewed to death. Paula escapes, but Dr. Walters knows he needs to perform more operations to get her hormones back to normal. Things aren’t looking good for Dorothy, who’s still at the sanatorium!

Will Dr. Walters get Paula’s glands back in order? Will Fred be able to control all those big cats without the help of Paula, and with a big thunderstorm on the way? Will Paula kill Beth and get the love of the man she adores? How the hell does Beth afford those terrific glamorous outfits on a circus secretary’s salary?

Tune in to find out, but it all ends in a spectacular circus finale with crazed big cats, a huge storm, and a lovelorn gorilla. Watching the stunt footage, I can’t believe somebody didn’t get killed during the filming of these scenes.

A credit at the beginning of the picture reads “We hereby make grateful acknowledgement to Mr. Clyde Beatty for his cooperation and inimitable talent in staging the thrilling animal sequences in this picture.” In other words, thanks to Clyde (a world famous lion-tamer) for letting us borrow all your scenes from THE BIG CAGE (1933), a jungle adventure in which Beatty performed the thrilling lion-taming acts. In fact, it’s rumored that Milburn Stone, a rather bland leading man, was only hired onto CAPTIVE WILD WOMAN because of his diminutive stature and resemblance to Clyde Beatty.

Other than Stone, however, the acting is quite good for this sort of picture. Evelyn Keyes looks gorgeous in her beautiful outfits and is completely natural, even when spouting dubious dialogue. Acquanetta is also unbelievably beautiful, and she does a good job, working the whole movie in short, sequined dresses and pantomiming everything she does. She’s like an animal in a lot of ways, the way her eyes follow things, the way her lips curl when disappointed or angry, and the way she stomps more than walks. Also impressive is John Carradine in a low-key role. I love me some John Carradine, and in this film he could’ve turned into the later Carradine, mugging for the camera and camping it up as a mad doctor. Instead, he reigns his performance inwards, and we can easily see how he could charm women. He also exudes an innate intelligence. The man was a terrific actor, and it’s too bad he was relegated to high-camp roles so often in his later years. A lot of people should watch his earlier work to see how good he truly was.

As noted before, the gowns in this movie are pretty spectacular for a B-picture. This is due to Vera West’s costume design. West was the gown designer behind most of the Sherlock Holmes movies of the 1940s, as well as THE GOOD FAIRY (1935), GREAT EXPECTATIONS (1934), MAGNIFICENT OBSESSION (1935) and SHADOW OF A DOUBT (1943), as well as ALL the major Universal horror films of the thirties and forties. She designed the gowns for 342 movies, almost all at Universal.

CAPTIVE WILD WOMAN was directed by stalwart Edward Dmytryk, who also helmed such classics as THE CAINE MUTINY (1954), CROSSFIRE (1947), BACK TO BATAAN (1945), and HITLER’S CHILDREN (1943). The son of Ukrainian immigrants, Dmytryk started working at Universal as a messenger boy at the age of fifteen. Later in life, he was one of the infamous Hollywood Ten who refused to cooperate with HUAC and Joseph McCarthy. He refused to name names as communists, and he ended up in prison. After a few months, he testified again, informing on several “communists.” He always believed he had done the right thing, but he was never forgiven by the rest of Hollywood, and his career stalled out in the 1970s.

Overall, CAPTIVE WILD WOMAN is a bit predictable, but that doesn’t lessen its entertainment value. This is a fun movie, and it moves amazingly swiftly. That’s a lot of plot and action for 61 minutes! The acting is generally very good, the make-up is cool, and the big cat action (thanks again Clyde) is truly jaw-dropping.

I give CAPTIVE WILD WOMAN three glands out of four.

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Bills’ Bizarre Bijou visits the COMMON LAW WIFE (1963)

Posted in "So Bad They're Good" Movies, 2013, 60s Movies, B-Movies, Bill's Bizarre Bijou, Campy Movies, Drive-in Movies, Exploitation Films, Hillbillies, Just Plain Fun, Revenge!, Romance, Swamp Movies, William Carl Articles with tags Anabelle Weenik, Common Law Wife, drive-in movies, Eric Sayers, exploitation films, Larry Buchanan, Libby Hall, Max W. Anderson on April 25, 2013 by knifefighter

Bill’s Bizarre Bijou

by William D. Carl

This week’s feature presentation:

COMMON LAW WIFE (1963)

In the wild, wild world of exploitation films, bits and pieces of one movie can often make a ‘guest appearance’ in another film, spliced into the new film as padding for the running time, or as a way to save on the budget. Most of the time, this created annoying sequences that have nothing to do with the movie you’re viewing at your local drive-in, distractions to the main plot. Other times, the footage was inserted so well a casual viewer never noticed he’d been duped. A lot of film buffs, such as me and you, my fans in the dark, take great pleasure in noticing such scenes and shouting out, “Hey, that was stolen from INVASION OF THE STAR CREATURES!” It’s a fine, old exploitation tradition, and we at the Bijou salute the filmmakers who managed to pull it off.

In 1960, Larry Buchanan, the infamous director of such sublimely awful fare as THE NAKED WITCH (1961), ZONTAR, THING FROM VENUS (1966), MARS NEEDS WOMEN (1967), and THE LOCH NESS HORROR (1981) started shooting a hicksloitation epic called SWAMP ROSE. Starring Lacey Kelley (NUDE ON THE MOON – 1961, THE DEAD ONE – 1961), the unfinished film dealt with a moonshiner obsessed with a woman of easy virtue. This footage was purchased by M.A. Ripps, who wanted to make it into a hit drive-in feature, as he so famously transformed the movie BAYOU into POOR WHITE TRASH (1957). New director Eric Sayers used many Buchanan regulars: (Anabelle Weenik (going by Anne MacAdams) of CREATURE OF DESTRUCTION (1967), A BULLET FOR PRETTY BOY (1970), DON’T LOOK IN THE BASEMENT (1973); Max W. Anderson of HIGH YELLOW (1965), IN THE YEAR 2889 – (1967); and THE NAKED WITCH herself Libby Hall (as Libby Booth)). Sayers shot a whole new storyline with these actors, including an unbilled woman to take Lacey Kelley’s role (and they don’t look much alike) using only bits and pieces of Larry Buchanan’s SWAMP ROSE. There is a scene with Lacey Kelley walking down the street, her boom-boppa-boom stride mocked by a little girl, some scenes in a park, and a chase between a crazed hillbilly moonshiner attacking Lacey that make up most of the old footage. Everything else is newly shot with actors from other movies. Confused yet? You won’t be once you watch COMMON LAW WIFE (1963), Sayers’ adults-only white-trash melodrama set in Texas. It’s easily one of the greatest exploitation films from the period. Other than a few film stock mis-matches and a character that switches actresses several times, you’d never know this was once two films edited into one trashy grindhouse gem.

But what about the story of COMMON LAW WIFE?

The film opens on a typical night at the Raineys’ rather tacky abode. Old man Shug is playing darts in his bathrobe before drinking the biggest damn glass of wine in existence. When his live-in mistress, Linda, tells him he’s not supposed to drink, he throws five darts at her head, embedding them into the wicker chair behind her. He asks, “Do you want me to put one right between your eyes?” Turns out, she’s lived with him for five years, and it’s taken a toll on her beauty. He wants her to get out so his niece Jonelle (“Call me Baby Doll”) can come live with him. “What’s she got?’ she shrieks. Shug answers, “My attention right now, which you haven’t.” Linda, shocked says, “Why she’s your own blood niece! That’s incest!” He replies, “Words don’t mean much to me. I’ve already sent for Baby Doll. Go pack your things.”

In New Orleans, we are introduced to Jonelle, a gorgeous stripper in a nightclub who resembles Traci Lords. She packs her dresses and heads for rural Texas to stay with her uncle (Eww). Turns out, Jonelle’s sister, Brenda, is married to the Sheriff, Jodi, who was having flings with both sisters during high school. Jodi’s more than a little interested in rekindling his torrid affair with Jonelle, while good wife Brenda stays at home.

Shug and Jonelle, what a cute couple! (Ewwww)

Meanwhile, Linda consults a lawyer and discovers she’s lived long enough with Mr. Shug Rainey to be his common-law wife. Mrs. Rainey buys herself a wedding ring and informs Shug that she is his legal wife, and if he wants his niece serving him in his house (Eww), he has to divorce her and pay alimony or give her the house. Secretly, though I have no idea why, she loves the old dude.

Jonelle kick-starts her affair with Jodi (what a nice sisterly thing to do), but she throws a hissy fit after he says he doesn’t want to help her murder Shug for the old man’s money. In spite, she gets up and starts stripping and dancing in front of what looks like several farmers and their wives who are either shocked or bemused. She leaves with another old beau, Bull, who takes her out to the swamp to see his moonshine still. Ah, romance in Texas! When he gets fresh, she runs away through the swamp. This whole part is Larry Buchanan’s, and it’s a bit rougher and grittier than the newer footage.

She runs all the way back to her sister’s house (the actress changes here), but Brenda has figured out what’s happening between her husband and Jonelle. She tosses her sister out of her house, but not before Jonelle steals the booze. With nowhere to go, Jonelle hunts down Bull and they return to the swamp (wait, wait, didn’t he try to rape her the previous night? Ah, romance in Texas!)

The original Jonelle.

Jodi goes after her (the heel!) and tracks her to Bull’s house, where a gunfight erupts over Jonelle. He abducts her to his home, where the cold facts about their past relationship come to light. Brenda catches them together and holds them at gunpoint!

Will Jonelle get one over on Linda? Who will get old man Shug Rainey’s money when he dies? What about the cyanide-laced bottle of whiskey? Will we ever get to see a full print of SWAMP ROSE? Probably not, but this common-law version is a real hoot!

COMMON LAW WIFE is filled with great, hateful dialogue delivered in authentic, delightful accents. It was Grace Nolan’s only writing credit, and I wish there’d been a lot more. Some choice cuts of the nasty, mean-spirited dialog include:

“I was a stray cat lookin’ for a home, and I took it however I could.”

“Folks around here might think the circus has come to town.” “They might be right!”

“From now on, this is my house. And I don’t want any tramps hangin’ around it!”

“The only way I’ll see any of that old man’s body is over his stinkin’ dead body.”

“You couldn’t hit a bull with a bass fiddle. Let alone that cap gun.”

“I met a couple of strangers in town today, and they claimed they didn’t know you. You want their names so you can bat a thousand?”

“You’ve put on weight. City food must be good.”

“A girl can learn a lot of lessons in the dark.”

Vengeance, thy name is Linda!

The black and white photography is crisp and full of noir shadows. The music is great jazz, heavy on the sax and trumpet, but the composer is unbilled. Who knows where that great score came from? The acting is campy and over-the-top, as it should be in a swamp melodrama like this one. And the ending is brutal and shocking in a way few films of that era ever were. COMMON LAW WIFE may be confusing sometimes, what with actresses switching and film stock not matching, but it’s loads of fun. It’s like Douglas Sirk on tainted moonshine.

I give COMMON LAW WIFE three and a half revolving actresses out of four.

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Bill’s Bizarre Bijou: SHE DEVIL (1957)

Posted in 1950s Sci-Fi Films, 2013, 50s Horror, Bill's Bizarre Bijou, Femme Fatales, Insect Horror, Lost Films, Mad Doctors!, Mutants! with tags 50s Horror, Albert Dekker, Jack Kelly, Kurt, Mari Blanchard, Neumann, sci-fi, She Devil on April 11, 2013 by knifefighter

Bill’s Bizarre Bijou

William D. Carl

This week’s feature presentation:

SHE DEVIL (1957)

Kurt Neumann is the well-known director of one of the greatest mad scientist/monster movies of all time, THE FLY (1958). We’ve all seen it, and we’ve all quoted the infamous “Help meeee!” line in a falsetto voice. Neumann, however, was quite a prolific filmmaker, with many terrific little movies under his belt, including KRONOS (1957), CARNIVAL STORY (1954), ROCKETSHIP X-M (1950), and numerous Tarzan titles. Yet, everyone remembers him for his creation of a bulbous, fly-headed human. Far less known, is Kurt Neumann’s other insect/mad scientist horror movie, SHE DEVIL (1957), which he also wrote. No, this isn’t the Rosanne atrocity, but a full-blooded, low-budget shocker that surely freaked out the drive-in crowds.

The film opens in glorious black and white – A Regal Film (a company that went bust just after the release of SHE DEVIL, which explains the obscurity of the title…also, the movie was shot in Cinemascope, and most theaters weren’t able to handle the technology). We see a view through a microscope of an obviously hand-drawn fruitfly, which is what Dr. Scott (Jack Kelly of CULT OF THE COBRA, 1955 and FORBIDDEN PLANET, 1956,) is looking at when he gets a visit from his colleague, Dr. Bach, played by stalwart character actor Albert Dekker (who was in THE KILLERS,1946, THE FURIES, 1950, EAST OF EDEN, 1955 and THE WILD BUNCH, 1969, but who is probably best known to genre fans for his portrayal of DR. CYCLOPS, 1940,). They discuss Scott’s new research, in which he is using the invulnerability of the fruitfly, which can heal itself through adaptation to its environment. Since fruitflies are the most adaptive of all insects and produce the most neutons (?), he creates a serum that has worked wonders on lab animals. “These guinea pigs were tubercular, and the serum cured them in three days!” His leopard turns from spotted to black after taking the drug, and it grows very aggressive (uh-oh!). He needs a human test subject, but, darn it, nobody wants to volunteer to ingest the serum during their final days.

Enter gorgeous Kyra Zelas, a dying woman in the final stages of tuberculosis, played by the lovely Mari Blanchard (ABBOT AND COSTELLO GO TO MARS, 1953 and DESTRY, 1954). She has no relatives or friends or money, and no hope of surviving. The perfect subject for Scott’s serum! They inject her, and in just six hours, she is doing much better. In another day, she is fully recovered and admiring herself in a mirror. Her hair was never so lustrous! Dr. Scott starts to fall for Kyra, even after he can barely get a needle through her newly-strengthened skin. Luckily, it seems it has also given her a Max Factor makeover that is permanently beautifying her face.

Dr. Bach (Albert Dekker) operates on Kyra.

Dr. Scott decides she should be kept under observation in case there are any side effects, so when she is released, she will be living with the good doctor so he can, ahem, keep an eye on her. When she heads to his house, she informs the men that “From now on, I’m going to do only what I want…everything I want. I’m going to get everything I can out of life. Everything I always wanted.” She starts by going to an expensive boutique where she observes a sugar daddy buying stuff for his woman and flashing a lot of cash around. She grabs the money, bashes the man over the head with an ashtray, and heads for a dressing room. By shaking her hair out, shampoo-commercial style, she changes from brunette to blond, a really cool special effect for the time. After changing into another dress, she fools everyone, even the police, and uses the stolen money to buy a new wardrobe.

Dr. Scott is easily fooled by the beauty, but Dr. Bach sees her for the conniving little tramp she is. He discovers she hasn’t dyed her hair blonde; she is mutating! His warnings fall on deaf ears as Scott throws a sort of coming out party for her. This is where she meets insanely wealthy no-goodnik Barton Kendell (John Archer of DESTINATION MOON, 1950 and BLUE HAWAII, 1961) and his shrewish wife Evelyn (Fay Baker of NOTORIOUS, 1946 and THE STAR, 1952). “Now, Evelyn, you know we never quarrel till our third drink.”

Barton flirts shamelessly with Kyra, who encourages his attentions, but when Evelyn says she wants to leave the party, Kyra does her head-shake again, turning her blond hair brown (there’s a Crystal Gayle song in there somewhere.) Then, she kills Evelyn in the garden by using her super-strength to strangle the older woman. She’s spotted, but everyone is looking for a brunette, and she’s reverted back to blond again!

Scott and Bach decide to create an anti-serum in case Kyra gets out of hand. They are too late, however, and she’s had a taste of freedom. She allows the black leopard in the lab to claw her, and the bloody wound heals in seconds. She can’t be injured, no matter how badly she is attacked. They try to drug her, but she wakes up and threatens them before departing for richer shores.

She marries the smitten millionaire Barton Kendell, but she grows bored with him quickly and their marriage turns sour. “Stop pawing me!” she cries out. On a drive, she spins the car’s wheel, sending the car over the cliff with Barton and herself inside. “Stop it, Kyra, you’ll kill us!” “Not US, Bart. Not US!” (The car crash footage is from a Robert Mitchum movie, ANGEL FACE, 1952). At the bottom of the cliff, she emerges unscathed from the wreckage and walks back to Dr. Scott, who welcomes her with open arms, even though he knows how evil she is!

Blonde she-devil Kyra meets the leopard.

Will Dr. Bach convince Scott of what a monster Kyra has become? Will she succeed in taking out Bach and living with the man who loves her? Can they operate on her to restore Kyra to normalcy (in other words, not a murderous, thieving witch with fabulous hair)?

SHE DEVIL is loaded with bitchy, fun dialogue (“I’m not creating a scene. You are.” “Oh yeah? I’m not the one necking with this trollop!” SLAP! “You don’t want a divorce; you might actually have to marry one of your girls.”). Sometimes, the script gets a bit too talky for its own good, but when the words coming out of the characters’ mouths are so tasty, who cares? The crisp cinematography is by the great Karl Struss, who worked on SUNRISE (1927), Chaplin’s THE GREAT DICTATOR (1940), and ISLAND OF LOST SOULS (1932), before moving on to trashy greats like THE ALLIGATOR PEOPLE (1959) and Neumann’s own THE FLY. The acting is fine, if a bit over the top, with Mari Blanchard standing out as the murderous, monstrous, indestructible femme fatale. She gyrates and whispers and is sex personified. Plus, that hair trick is awfully cool.

On a side-note, co-star Albert Dekker, the star of so many terrific, Oscar-nominated films, is also the victim in one of Hollywood’s most notorious death scenes. In May of 1968, he was discovered on his knees, dead in a bathtub with a noose around his neck, hand-cuffed, a ball gag in his mouth, blindfolded, with sexual words written on his body in lipstick! The coroner declared the death was “accidental”, and he was cremated. Today, he is remembered more for his sexually kinky death than his body of work, and that’s a sad thing. We at Bill’s Bizarre Bijou loved the guy’s over the top performance in SHE DEVIL, as well as his nuanced portrayals in other, more mainstream films.

Kyra as a brunette.

SHE DEVIL is a fun sci-fi/horror hybrid with an unforgettable female lead and more than a few memorable moments. Plus, Olive Films has released a stunning Blu-Ray of the film which looks absolutely beautiful.

I give SHE DEVIL three fruitflies out of four.

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Bill’s Bizarre Bijou Watches WRESTLING WOMEN VS. THE AZTEC MUMMY (1964)

Posted in "So Bad They're Good" Movies, 1960s Horror, 2013, B-Movies, Bad Acting, Bill's Bizarre Bijou, Campy Movies, Detectives, Evil Doctors!, Just Plain Fun, Mexican Horror, Mummies, Secret Codes, William Carl Articles, Wrestlers with tags Aztec Mummy, Black Dragon, Gloria Venus, Golden Rubi, K. Gordon Murray, Luchadoras, Wrestling Women on March 28, 2013 by knifefighter

Bill’s Bizarre Bijou

William D. Carl

This week’s feature presentation:

WRESTLING WOMEN VS. THE AZTEC MUMMY (1964)

K. Gordon Murray imported a second Luchadoras (Lady Wrestler) movie directed by Rene Cordona one year after the initial series entry, DOCTOR OF DOOM (1963). Once again, kiddie matinee audiences were treated to the adventures of a tag team of female wrestlers—Mexican Gloria Venus and the American Golden Rub—against an assortment of hissable villains and monsters. They are once again played, respectively, by Lorena Velazquez and Elizabeth Campbell, each looking as gorgeous as in the first movie. Their boyfriends, the pair of bumbling Mexican detectives, are also back as the WRESTLING WOMEN VS. THE AZTEC MUMMY (aka ROCK ‘N ROLL WRESTLING WOMEN VS. THE AZTEC MUMMY) flutters across our disbelieving eyeballs. My goodness, but this one is even weirder and crazier than the first. And that’s sayin‘ something! On to the story!

Oh! According to the credits, the cast includes the Milagros India Ballet!

We start off with a bang, as a bloody man is tossed onto a city street from a speeding car. The headlines shout (in Spanish) “Black Dragon Gang Kills Archeologist!” A second body is tossed from a car, this time in the desert. “Black Dragon Strikes Again! Dr. Van Dyne Disappears!” Yet another scientist is tortured by a Fu Manchu/Yellow Menace-type. Another scientist is chased from his home by a carful of thugs. He drives to the coliseum where a wrestling match is taking place between two tag-teams, Gloria Venus and Golden Rubi (whose hair has turned brunette since last time!) and two rather butch, um, ladies. If the wrestling footage looks familiar, it’s because it was lifted from the first movie. The wrestling gals are cheered on by their detective boyfriends in the audience. We aren’t even five minutes into the feature, folks.

The girls go to their dressing room and discover a man lurking in the shadows, Dr. Mike Sorba, who wants to talk to Mike the Detective, Gloria Venus’s fiancé. He informs the detective that the Black Dragon is making threats against him and the detective’s uncle. The older scientists have discovered something, and the Black Dragon is killing and torturing all the scientists who have a certain codex. Now, only Dr. Sorba and the uncle remain. Well, until Sorba is suddenly killed in the locker room by a poison dart.

The mysterious Black Dragon.

The thugs head back to Fu Man…I mean…the Black Dragon and his evil sisters. He tells his henchmen to go after the last scientist remaining, Detective Mike’s Uncle, Dr. Tracey (from THUNDERBIRDS ARE GO?).

The group, two detectives and two lady wrestlers, drive to the uncle’s house, where Dr. Tracey tells his nephew about the codex. The Black Dragon has half and Uncle Tracey decides to give the two wrestlers and his nephew each a third of the half he has. A pretty blond girl has become Dr. Tracey’s ward, Charlotte. Within minutes, Charlotte is kidnapped by hoodlums while Dr. Tracey sneaks off to get his half of the codex.

Dr. Tracey digs the codex from between bricks in an abandoned house and splits it into thirds as planned. He disburses them in the girls’ lockers and a post office box. Meanwhile, The Black Dragon uses a flashy machine and injections to brainwash Charlotte to hate the ones she once loved, and she’ll do exactly as he orders. His sisters are impressed (although one speaks with a Natasha Badinov Russian accent; who knows why?). Under the Black Dragon’s influence, Charlotte returns to the scientist’s house. First, the foursome split up, following clues to find the thirds of the codex.

So far, no one has explained the what or why of the codex. Everyone just wants it badly. And the Black Dragon has bugged the house, so he has sent his thugs to intercept the heroes before they find the hiding places. Golden Rubi and her boyfriend are captured. Luckily, Gloria Venus and her detective follow and everybody brawls. The thugs get away with that part of the codex. The Black Dragon decides to set his judo-expert sisters against the two wrestling broads.

All sorts of shenanigans occur until our heroes have one part of the codex and the Black Dragon has all the rest. Black Dragon bets all his parts against the one in a tag-team match between his sisters and our gal wrasslers, and it’ll be held in public in the coliseum. Seems a lot easier than just calling the police and arresting the gang. Yeah, right…

They must have waited a few days and advertised, because the place is packed for the judo vs. wrestling match. I swear, during the crowd noises, I heard someone shout, “Andelay! Andelay!” And we get the pleasure of watching four women in tight clothing beat the crap out of each other for a good eight minutes. Hey, there are certainly worse ways to spend eight minutes.

Of course, Gloria Venus and Golden Rubi win the match. The Black Dragon gives away the codex (well, he’s a bad guy with honor, don’t ya’ know), and just as he was going to be arrested, his sisters judo chop their way through the cops and break him loose. The Dragon hatches a plan to follow the good guys to wherever the codex leads them and get…whatever the hell is the goal. Coherency isn’t given a second glance in this flick.

Our heroines snap into action.

The codex leads the group (and The Black Dragon and his henchmen) to Tezomoc’s Burial Ground, a witch doctor who can change his shape, just like the moldy mummy in DEATH CURSE OF TARTU (1966). As the professor reads the translated codex, we get to watch a flashback to Aztec times that shows a maiden who was to be sacrificed to the gods and the witch doctor who saved her by carrying her away. The lovers were found and returned to the temple where the man, Tezomoc, was buried alive and required to maintain a vigil over his lover’s burial ground and the gold breastplate placed over her chest. And, yeah, the tomb is cursed if the breastplate leaves the grounds.

The tomb is easy to find (did no one ever spot the ninety foot pyramid above it?), and the group fumbles around in the dark for what seems like three and a half hours. Finally, they find the temple. As they are about to read the breastplate, a tomb opens and Tezomoc pops out like a dusty Kate Moss. It’s extremely skinny, bony, and hideous. Bullets can’t stop it, and it moans, stretching its mouth open so wide it looks like its cheeks could split. It also turns into a bat, which is really hard to wrestle. “Look, Loretta, he’s a vampire now!” Who’s Loretta?

Will our heroes translate the breastplate and send the mummy back to the land of the dead? Or will the Black Dragon and his minions find it first and get the treasure? Is there ever any doubt?

K. Gordon Murray’s dubbing techniques for his Mexican imports lend a tone of the surreal to the proceedings. Being one of the first to dub movies into English from another language, he hired a sound technician from Disney, Manny Fernandez and a bilingual writer, Ruby Guberman, to change the words coming out of the characters mouths. Instead of trying to make a literal translation, the team attempted to match the lip movements as closely as possible, which resulted in pretty good synchronization, but truly bizarre phrasings. An example from tonight’s film: “Now, just as the Dragon heard this, and what motives he has have yet to be explained, he hunted down all the others and he tortured them without pity to get them to reveal who had been designated to guard the records.” Whew! What a mouthful.

WRESTLING WOMEN VS. THE AZTEC MUMMY isn’t as much fun as its predecessor, DOCTOR OF DOOM. We don’t even get to the Aztec Mummy until the seventy minute mark, and then, despite the title, the mummy is on the side of good. The pacing is all over the place, too. Sometimes, this movie flies by at a lightning pace, and at other times the characters get so bored they stop all forward plot motion and play cards. I am not kidding. And where in the world was the Milagros India Ballet?

Beware Tezomoc, the AZTEC MUMMY!

Still, we get lots of wrestling, beautiful women, fun gadgets, the Yellow Menace, judo-chopping twin sisters with different accents, crummy dubbing, and a creepy mummy. It’s still worth a gander, even if it doesn’t rise to the heights of silliness of the first movie.

I give WRESTLING WOMEN VS. THE AZTEC MUMMY two and a half breastplates out of four.

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Bill’s Bizarre Bijou Has An Appointment with the DOCTOR OF DOOM (1963)

Posted in "So Bad They're Good" Movies, 1960s Horror, 2013, Action Movies, Apes!, Bill's Bizarre Bijou, Bizarro Movies, Campy Movies, Mad Doctors!, Mexican Wrestlers, Wrestlers with tags campy movies, Doctor of Doom, Gloria Venus, Golden Rubi, Gomar, Mexican Horror, Wrestling Women on March 14, 2013 by knifefighter

Bill’s Bizarre Bijou

William D. Carl

This week’s feature presentation:

DOCTOR OF DOOM (1963)

K. Gordon Murray strikes again! The infamous importer of Mexican kiddie matinees has delivered another badly dubbed (at Soundlab! In Coral Gables, Florida!) arrow to my heart with a film I love beyond any reasonable credulity. It’s truly awful, but in all the right ways. I should turn away in horror at this vivisection of artistic film, this shadow of celluloid, but I can’t take my eyes off the terrible thing. It goes beyond bad cinema to become one of the most entertaining stinkers of all time. Yes, I’m talking about that “gorgeous ladies of wrestling versus the mad scientist south of the border” opus, DOCTOR OF DOOM (1963), aka ROCK ‘N ROLL WOMEN VS. THE AZTEC APE, aka THE SEX MONSTER!

The amazing movie begins with a pre-credits attack on a woman by what looks like Captain Caveman, followed by two rather burly gals wrestling in a ring and stock footage of an enthralled, applauding audience. Gloria Venus, the winner, has a moment with her sister, Alice. Then we’re suddenly in a mad scientist’s laboratory, where an obviously mad scientist tries to perform a brain transplant on the girl who was kidnapped by the hirsute horror, whose name is Gomar. The operation is a failure, because the brain they transplanted wasn’t strong enough. The doc believes this is because they’ve only used women with low IQs, and they need to find an intellectual woman with a stronger brain. The mad doctor keeps Gomar locked in a basement. Gomar is a man with a transplanted gorilla’s brain, a perfect half man / half beast, his animal instincts dominating the human in their the symbiotic relationship. Yes, one day, Gomar will turn into a real gorilla.

How lady wrestlers train.

The next morning, the papers proclaim “Mad Scientist Strikes Again!” Alice works in a scientific laboratory, with a Professor Ruiz who really, really likes her. Two detectives are on the case of the Mad Scientist Murders, discovering the fourth female with her brain scooped out of her skull. The short one is intended to provide the dubious comic relief. Really, the flick is funny enough without his shenanigans.

Next, we are in a room where two men wear strange white masks that resemble KKK hoods. One of them, the mad scientist, instructs a room full of crooks to go with Gomar and his nifty new bullet-proof mask and shirt, and kidnap a smart woman….and it’s ALICE! Sure enough, she’s easily hijacked, shoved in a cab, and Gomar has a long fight with patrolling officers before escaping.

Back in the lab, the masked surgeons operate on Alice and, even though she’s an intelligent woman, she also dies on the slab. “Isn’t there any human being who can survive the shock?” the mad doctor asks. His partner suggests an athlete, a powerful woman . . . like a lady wrestler?

The taller detective goes to the lady wrestler training gym. He asks Gloria Venus (who is in training) to accompany him.

“It’s your sister,” he says.

“Is she sick?” she asks.

“She’s suffered a very bad accident.”

“Alice is hurt?”

“Would you accompany me?”

“To the doctor’s?”

“To identify her.”

“OH!”

Yes, the dialogue is certainly on par with that of Robert Altman.

Alice’s boss, the scientist (a scientist . . . hmm. . . ) mourns the girl, offering his services if the police need any help. Gloria Venus is understandably upset, but the detective tells her, “You must trust in the local police. Although, we haven’t got a single clue.” Yeah, I’d trust them with that kind of confident revelation.

Back in the training gym, Gloria Venus gets a new partner, Golden Rubi, when a fight breaks out amongst the lady wrestlers. Both women have that glamorous 1960s look, and they look nothing like any real female wrestlers. Gloria Venus is a dead ringer for Elizabeth Taylor and Rubi resembles a ponytailed Marie Windsor. They decide to shack up in an apartment together (now that’s more like the lady wrestler’s I’ve seen in the past) and they win their first tag team match together soon afterwards. The detectives are in the audience to watch the match, falling for the two women in the process. This match goes on for a good five minutes, and the choreography is pretty good, actually. It ends happily, with dinner and dancing between the foursome!

And in this corner..Golden Rubi and Gloria Venus in DOCTOR OF DOOM.

Later that night, the girls awaken to discover several kidnappers climbing in their apartment window, and they proceed to beat the hell out of them! This disappoints the hooded mad scientist. The cops recommend they allow themselves to be kidnapped if these men try it again (What? What? What?). The cops will follow them and arrest the bad guys.

Later, after the women work out, Gomar stalks the two girls in his bullet-proof duds, and he easily overcomes them and places them in the crooks’ car. The detectives follow, but they set off ‘the danger signal’ at the lab. They are assaulted by the criminals, but they fight back. Gloria Venus awakens on the slab, and she gets Rubi and they join in the fighting. They unmask one of the white hooded scientists and discover it is Boris, the assistant to Alice’s boss, the professor. Boris demands police protection. They want to know who the main mad doctor is. He stand, says, “The mad doctor is… is… argh!” He has a heart attack! During the autopsy, they find a needle in his skin covered in poison. It was murder, and it was the killer was someone in the policeman’s office at the time!

The chief mad doctor (still at large and still disguised under a hood) orders his number one crook to find three or four other bad guys and kill those two detectives. The guys give the wrestling gals watches that have transmitters and locators in them. Within twenty four hours, the two detectives are kidnapped, and the girls are going to have to locate and rescue them! Feminism thrives in low-budget Mexican horror films!

The boys are taken “to the death chamber,” locked in a room near Gomar. Suddenly, the walls grow spikes and start contracting towards each other. Soon, they’ll be speared and squished, but they turn on their transmitters, and the gals drive the streets of Mexico City until they find them at the same warehouse/laboratory where they were nearly brain-transplanted. They break in and are immediately attacked by teams of bad guys in black, wearing black hoods. Let the brawling begin! They save the day just in time.

The detectives chase after the mad doctor while the girls attack his new assistant, splashing acid all over his hooded face and setting the place on fire. They leave the mad doctor to burn to death (not very sportsmanlike, but, hey, he tried to take out their brains), but Gomar breaks loose and saves his creator from the inferno.

Later, the girls find out one of their fellow lady wrestlers has been missing for several days, taken by the professor, Alice’s boss, who is the remaining mad doctor. Well, duh, who else could it have been?. Sure enough, she’s been kidnapped by the crazed quack, and he has transplanted Gomar’s brain into the woman’s head. “She’s alive! She made it!” He names her Vendetta, and he commands her to destroy Gloria Venus and Golden Rubi in the wrestling ring in front of thousands of spectators, wearing a nifty cape, Spandex leotards, and a cool lightning mask. Hahahahahahahahaha!

Who will win the match? Will Alice’s death be avenged? Well, this is a family film. What do you think?

The movie is capably directed by that Mexican auteur Rene Cardona, who supplied the world with Taco-Trash flicks for decades. He made such inspired exploitation films as SANTA CLAUS (1959), NIGHT OF THE BLOODY APES (1969), the soccer players-turned-cannibal epic SURVIVE! (1976), and numerous Santo masked wrestler flicks. Interestingly, his son Rene Cardona Jr. has continued the exploitation tradition, upholding his family name with such hits as GUYANA, CULT OF THE DAMNED (1979), TINTORERA: KILLER SHARK (1977), BEAKS:THE MOVIE (as opposed to BEAKS: THE STAGE MUSICAL? 1987), and the ultra-trashy CYCLONE (1978). Ah, the grindhouse family tradition continues. It almost brings a tear to one’s eyes.

Apeman Gomar models his new bullet-proof duds.

The wrestling women are quite beautiful. Gloria Venus is played by Lorena Velazquez, who is still working today in Mexican soap operas. She’s much better than the material here, although the dubbing makes nearly everything she says amusing. She can also be seen in PLANET OF THE FEMALE INVADERS (1967), SANTO VS. THE ZOMBIES (1962), and the great SHIP OF MONSTERS (1960). Golden Rubi is played by American Elizabeth Campbell, who co-starred with Velazquez in several Luchadoras (female wrestler) movies in Mexico before dropping out of sight and returning to America.

DOCTOR OF DOOM is an insane movie, full of campy dialogue and wrestling women thrashing the crap out of each other. It has bumbling cops and robbers, brain transplants, pretty women in short nightgowns, great jazzy bongo-filled music, tacky comic relief, a finale atop a water tower with police shooting at Vendetta, and Gomar the ape-man. Honestly, what else do you need in a cheap movie? A lot happens in only 80 minutes, so there’s never a boring second.

Plus, there’s a sequel, THE WRESTLING WOMEN VS. THE AZTEC MUMMY (1964)!

I give DOCTOR OF DOOM three half-nelsons out of four.

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Bill’s Bizarre Bijou visits THE CREATURE FROM BLACK LAKE (1976)

Posted in Animals Attack, Drive-in Movies, 70s Horror, Bigfoot!, 1970s Movies, Bill's Bizarre Bijou, William Carl Articles, Swamp Movies, 2013 with tags Black Lake, Creature, Dennis Fimple, drive-in movies, Dub Taylor, Jack Elam, Jim McCullough, Joy Houck on February 28, 2013 by knifefighter

Bill’s Bizarre Bijou

William D. Carl

This week’s feature presentation:

THE CREATURE FROM BLACK LAKE (1976)

Howco International Pictures was a small, independent film production company that was established in 1951 by Joy Newton Houck, Sr. Based out of New Orleans, they produced little movies for the Southern Drive-In circuits, usually double features like Lash Larue Westerns or the John Agar wonder THE BRAIN FROM PLANET AROUS (1957). After releasing everything from Roger Corman to Ed Wood to Ron Ormand movies, they really hit the big time with a giant hit, THE LEGEND OF BOGGY CREEK (1972), which effectively combined documentary footage with the story of a Bigfoot-like creature called the skunk-ape. The movie made millions and was a hit world-wide. Hoping to play on the success of that film, Joy Houck, Jr. directed a script by his pal Jim McCullough, Jr. entitled THE CREATURE FROM BLACK LAKE (1976) and created the creepiest Bigfoot movie ever made.

The film begins with Joe Canton and a fellow trapper tranquilly boating through the swamps around Black Lake, checking their traps. Suddenly, a hairy arm emerges from the water and snatches the buddy from the boat, leaving Joe Canton (played by stalwart Western veteran Jack Elam—ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST, 1968 and RIO LOBO, 1970) screaming for help. Nobody believes the old drunk except for two cryptozoology students in Chicago who read about the experience in the papers. The two men take off in their van for Louisiana on a hunt for the monster. Pahoo (what the hell kind of name is that for a Yankee?) is a Vietnam Vet who jokes about everything, hates chicken with a passion usually reserved for despots, and is played by Dennis Fimple (KING KONG, 1976, the MATT HOUSTON TV series, 1982, and he was Grampa Hugo in HOUSE OF 1000 CORPSES (2003). Rives is more serious and good-looking and a draft dodger, and he is played by ex-model John David Carson, who appeared in such diverse movies as EMPIRE OF THE ANTS (1977), PRETTY WOMAN (1990), and THE DAY OF THE DOLPHIN (1973). Together, they encounter a hostile sheriff, who warns them to get out of town, locals who proclaim the creature a myth, a practical joke-playing waitress, and more yokel southern-fired, hee-haw stereotypes than you can shake a Confederate Flag at.

Joe Canton (Jack Elam) swears he wasn’t drunk when he saw THE CREATURE FROM BLACK LAKE,

Pahoo accidentally finds Joe Canton, but he loses him, but not before Rives encounters a young man named Orville Bridges, played by hawk-nosed screenwriter Jim McCullough, Jr. (the multi-talented guy also wrote and sang the songs for the movie). Orville informs them he saw the creature when he was a toddler in a car crash that killed his parents. Now he lives with his grandparents, and he’ll show them around if they don’t talk about Bigfoot. They go home to a big country dinner. Grandpa is played by Dub Taylor, from THE WILD BUNCH (1969), BONNIE AND CLYDE (1967), and BACK TO THE FUTURE III (1990). The old man is a walking advertisement for hick Southern trash, wheezing and making jokes nobody finds amusing. During dinner, a mule brays loudly, and Pahoo shouts out, “Is that him? Is that the creature?” Grandma goes into a PTSD inspired sobbing fit, and Grandpa kicks the two Yankees (who, by the way, both possess southern twangs) to the barn for the evening. While getting ready for bed, they hear the howling, haunting cry of Bigfoot closer than is comfortable. They are terrified, but not so much that they don’t pick up two pretty southern belles in the local hamburger joint and invite them to their camp for the evening.

Dennis Fimple, Jim McCullough and John David Carson commiserate in THE CREATURE FROM BLACK LAKE.

The girls show up, and they all party a bit, playing over the recording of the Bigfoot cry. Soon, they discover one of the girls has a father who is the sheriff – the same one who warned the boys out of town on the first day. He hauls them into jail, where they stay the night with stinky Joe Canton, who is in the tank for getting drunk and chasing the creature with a shotgun. Instead of heeding the sheriff’s warning, the two boys head for the woods to track the beast, which leads to a night of harrowing horror as the Bigfoot stalks them, separates them, and brutally attacks them. These scenes are incredibly intense for a PG-rated film, never gory, but always scary and suspenseful.

The acting is good enough – nothing to shout over, but tolerable for this sort of yee-haw Southern horror tale. Jack Elam chews the scenery with gusto, camping his drunken role up to the tenth degree. Dennis Fimple and John David Carson make for likable heroes, and their interactions are natural and believable. The extras and small roles are filled with people who obviously live in the town where this was filmed. Their non-acting abilities actually lend an air of documentary-like verisimilitude to the proceedings, and the accents are to die for!

THE CREATURE FROM BLACK LAKE benefits most, however, from the wonderful cinematography of Dean Cundy. Cundy started his career with the exploitation circuit, lensing such films as BLACK SHAMPOO (1976), the amazing THE WITCH WHO CAME FROM THE SEA (1976), HALLOWEEN (1978), WITHOUT WARNING (1980) and ROCK N ROLL HIGH SCHOOL (1979). He moved on to larger pictures like THE THING (1982), WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT? (1988), JURASSIC PARK (1993), APOLLO 13 (1995), and THE HOLIDAY (2006). THE CREATURE FROM BLACK LAKE is filmed in a gritty, sun-fried style, much like THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE (1974), and this lends a feeling of you-are-there realness to the action. The scenery is beautiful, but never intrusive, and the Bigfoot creature is wisely kept mostly in the shadows, so the movie is about suspense and the threat of violence more than the actual acts of violence. This may be what makes that final fifteen minutes so disturbing and exciting. We do care about these two men by this point, and it appears as if we are watching documentary footage of their stalking and possible killing by his monster. The suspension of disbelief is suspended way up in the sky somewhere, never interfering with our nerve-wracking enjoyment of the movie.

One of the CREATURE’s victims floats to the surface.

The movie isn’t perfect. There’s a bit too much of the folksy humor, especially around Dub Taylor’s character, who seems like he should be plucking a banjo and attacking Ned Beatty any second. It slows down the momentum of suspense in the film and the characters strains credibility as much as he strains his overalls. Plus, the epilogue of the movie seems tacked on in order to pacify an audience that wanted a happy ending. After the sheer terror of the previous night, the sun is shining and everything is just hunky-dory. In the real world, this would have ended very differently.

But why quibble? On the whole, THE CREATURE FROM BLACK LAKE is a wonderfully spooky Bigfoot movie, possibly the best one out there. The scares at the end are earned, and the photography is fantastic.

I give THE CREATURE FROM BLACK LAKE three trespassing Yankees out of four.

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Bill’s Bizarre Bijou Helps a GIRL ON THE RUN (1953)

Posted in 1950s Movies, 2013, B-Movies, Bill's Bizarre Bijou, Carnival Chills, Crime Films, Dancing Girls!, Femme Fatales, Film Noir, Gangsters!, William Carl Articles with tags Bill's Bizarre Bijou, Carnival Movies, Charles Bolander, film noir, Girl on the Run, Hoochie Coochie Girls, Richard Coogan, Steve McQueen on February 14, 2013 by knifefighter

Bill’s Bizarre Bijou

William D. Carl

This week’s feature presentation:

GIRL ON THE RUN (1953)

Film noir is one of my favorite sub-genres in the industry. With its double crossing dames, doomed heroes, dark shadowy alleys and sets, and general bad attitude, the noir genre contains the darkest mysteries in an already shrouded playing field. Films like DOUBLE INDEMNITY (1944), DETOUR (1945), THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE (1946), and the amazing OUT OF THE PAST (1947) established the guidelines of noir, although pulp fiction books and magazines had been promoting such grimy, sordid tales for many years.

Along comes 1953, and with it, one of the grubbiest, sleaziest film noirs of all time – GIRL ON THE RUN. This one takes place in a traveling carnival, therefore making it – what? – carny noir? Hoochie coochie crime drama? In any case, it’s a real find, and it’s a hoot and a half if you’ve imbibed earlier in the evening. Which I highly recommend.

The titles roll over the strains of John Phillips Sousa, and we get a look at the carnival, complete with Ferris Wheel, funhouse (with a laughing clown that’ll give you nightmares for weeks), a merry-go-round, and, most important, a burlesque coochie dancer show! A hen-pecked man escapes his wife and makes for the girlie show, where they gyrate with feathers sticking out of their butts like cut-rate exotic birds, with black kitty-kat masks, and sequined bras and grandma-panties. A dwarf, Blake, (played by Charles Bolander who was also in DARK INTRUDER, 1965), runs the carnival and hangs out behind the coochie tent with the main girlie attraction, Gigi. He discovers that a vice probe on the carnival has been suspended and the reporter who instigated the investigation has been fired and is on the run from the mob. A beat cop also goes behind the curtain to keep an eye on things, making the little guy furious. Turns out, the editor in charge of the paper that called off the investigation has been murdered, and the sarge thinks the young reporter who was fired did it. The reporter, Bill Martin (played by TV’s Captain Midnight himself, Richard Coogan) and his girlfriend, Janet, luckily happen to be right behind the curtain while this conversation takes place. He needs to hide in the carnival to prove his innocence and someone named Reeves’s guilt. Janet is standing by her man, but she also needs to hide. The cops are everywhere in the carnival, so they require disguises. So, Bill becomes a boxer in the fighting tent and Janet puts on the sequined black bra and granny-panties and mask of the coochie chorus line.

The dwarf among the girls.

After the show, the dancers cackle like a bunch of hens, watched over by an older woman who smokes cigars and cracks wise. Soon, its costume changes (exposing just enough leg), and they’re out front with the barker. “All right now folks,” he shouts, “Take yer time. Don’t hurry. We don’t want ya’ to hurt yourselves. I now give you a cavity of beauty, a peerless pulchritude all set to entertain you. A treat for the lovers of real art. An exhibition to make the old feel young and the young feel better! Six tantalizing morsels of loveliness from every corner of the world” (Cut to a lip-smacking bull lesbian in the crowd watching the show enthusiastically!) “I now present to you . . . hey, this ain’t a show for boys. This is for adults only. All right boys, beat it. Come back in ten years.” We then get treated to six slightly overweight dancers trying to look exotic. Fatima of the Veils; Dolores, who shows the boys a little rumba; as well as the horsiest face ever committed to celluloid, Miss Pineapple of 1953 aka Love on the Dole! It’s actually a lot of fun to watch these time-capsule dancers who strut their stuff and bare just enough skin to earn a PG rating nowadays. We finish with the star, Gigi, from Paris (Kentucky).

Bring on the dancing girls!

Reeves visits the dwarf, who’s angry at the presence of all the cops when the whole vice investigation has been called off. Reeves is looking for Janet, who’s seen too much . . . like a murder? Reeves starts obsessing over Gigi. While the old woman, Lil, who oversees the dressing and undressing of the girls, helps Janet turn into a coochie dancer. Janet asks, “Is that all you expect me to wear?” The old woman asks, “You ain’t deformed are you? Put it on!” Turns out, Janet knows about a girl from the chorus line that Reeves “got in trouble” last year and who disappeared, so Reeves is actually in charge of running the town as well as the prostitutes out of the carnival. Lil hates Reeves as well, because she’s married to his boss, and Reeves will do anything to be Mr. Big on top of the town.

Blake the dwarf talks turkey to Boxer Bill.

The dwarf, Blake, blackmails Reeves for twenty thousand dollars, because he has a lot on Reeves, although we don’t know what. Meanwhile, Lil convinces the other girls to circle their pasties around Janet to protect her from Reeves’s prying eyes.

Bill Martin, reporter (remember him?), becomes a volunteer to fight the champ in the boxing ring, almost knocking the big galoot unconscious. He was supposed to take a dive, but instead he becomes the new champ attraction!

Gigi goes into her dance, and we see why she’s the star of the burlesque show. Yowza! Wearing bat-wing veils and a leather bikini, she gyrates to a sultry sax solo. And, hey. . . in the audience . . . is that? Steve McQueen? From THE BLOB (1958), THE GREAT ESCAPE (1963), THE SAND PEBBLES (1966), and BULLITT (1968)? It is! In fact, it was his first role in a feature. He doesn’t say anything, but it’s freaking Steve McQueen, so the movie just got fifty percent cooler.

The dwarf strikes an uneasy alliance with Bill, offering him a job until they get over the state line. Bill accepts, but not before Janet has to dance semi-nude in public. Oh, the shame! The horror! But she nearly pulls it off. Reeves, however, can count, and he notices there’s an extra girl in the hoochie line. Lil goes after Reeves with her fingernails, and he shouts, “After twenty years, you’re interfering with my life again!” Reeves figures out Janet is the witness, and a trap is set for Bill using Janet as bait! But the leering dwarf wants to save her . . . if she’ll do something for him. Wink wink, nudge nudge.

The double crosses and the fights keep coming until the bodies start piling up. Lil narcs on Reeves and his soiled past, Bill may be throwing Janet over for another dame, the dwarf seems to be lying to everyone in America, and Gigi has her own agenda.

The script by Arthur J. Beckhard (who previously wrote Shirley Temple movies for God’s sake! CURLY TOP and OUR LITTLE GIRL, both 1935 – shame shame shame, Mr. Beckhard!) and Cedric Worth is a muddle. The pacing is all over the place, although it never seems slow. The dialogue is mostly hateful and bitter, which makes everything better. The photography is suitably dark, and the carny atmosphere is sordid and grimy. The actors all do what they can with the material, but it’s kind of a hopeless cause.

Girls! Girls! Girls!

GIRL ON THE RUN is a really fun little carny noir that zips along for its brief 64 minute running time. You get a somewhat complicated plot with little back story, a shooting, slimy, mustache twirling villains, catfights, rescues, insane plot twists, and more double crosses that you can shake a scary clown at. Whenever things get slow, they bring out the dancing girls! And really, what’s wrong with that? One part of Gigi’s act is so good, they show it twice. Plus, a cameo by Steve McQueen and boxing and corrupt cops. Now, that’s entertainment.

And did I mention it has dancing girls?

I give GIRL ON THE RUN three coochie dancers out of four.

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Bill’s Bizarre Bijou goes to GHOST TOWN (1988)

Posted in "So Bad They're Good" Movies, 1980s Horror, 2013, Bill's Bizarre Bijou, Drive-in Movies, Ghosts!, Westerns, William Carl Articles with tags Catherine Hickland, Charles Band, Empire Pictures, Franc Luz, Ghost Town, Jimmie Fl Skaggs on January 31, 2013 by knifefighter

Bill’s Bizarre Bijou

William D. Carl

This week’s feature presentation:

GHOST TOWN (1988)

Ah, Empire Pictures: A Charles Band Production – at one time those words sent anxious chills down my spine as I waited for the credits of the second feature to end and the next movie at the drive-in to begin. Charles Band brought us unbelievably cheap, shoddy, stupid, and FUN movies during the 1970s and 1980s. This is the man who unleashed lizard aliens in LASERBLAST (1978), a killer Chuck Connors in TOURIST TRAP (1979), Demi Moore pursued by a chest-bursting Alien-wannabe in PARASITE (1982), midget Satanist monsters in GHOULIES (1985), Tim Thomerson time traveling in TRANCERS (1985), and the list goes on and on. . . . TROLL (1986), TERRORVISION (1986), RE-ANIMATOR (1985), FROM BEYOND (1986), PRISON (1988), CELLAR DWELLAR (1988), CANNIBAL WOMEN IN THE AVACADO JUNGLE OF DEATH (1989), and who can forget 1988’s SORORITY BABES IN THE SLIMEBALL BOWL-A-RAMA? With a few exceptions, these were bad B-movies, maybe even D or E movies, but there was a certain charm to the “I Can Do It” attitude everyone at Empire brought to their projects that compensated for most of the budgetary restraints. What remained were fun little movies that many remember fondly.

One of the last Empire Pictures produced by Charles Band was GHOST TOWN (1988), a horror western hybrid that was actually head and shoulders above almost everything Band unleashed upon the poor suckers still in their cars at drive-ins at two in the morning. This little baby fell between the cracks as Band folded Empire Pictures and brought forth Full Moon Pictures, which threatened to (and sadly, for a while, did) release a new movie on video every month. Don’t get me started on Full Moon movies. They made the Empire flicks look like Ernst Lubitsch in comparison, although they had their followers.

Anyway, as GHOST TOWN begins, a beautiful woman in a convertible, Kate, (Catherine Hickland from the TV shows CAPITOL, WEREWOLF, and ONE LIFE TO LIVE) races through the desert. A fallen power line stops her, and she takes a shortcut (Uh oh! We all know how those turn out). She tosses a bridal veil from the moving car and she hears the hoof-beats of an invisible horse and rider following her. Her tire blows, and a mysterious sandstorm envelopes her, all to the sound of many invisible horses, and something takes her, leaving the road completely empty.

Enter scruffy Sheriff Langley, played by Franc Luz (THE NEST, 1988 and WHEN HARRY MET SALLY, 1989). He’s called out to the missing girl’s Mercedes. Turns out she’s the spoiled daughter of the richest man in the county, who just turned runaway bride. Langley has always had a yen for her, so he goes searching for Kate, and instead spots men on horseback who fade into the heat-waves (a cool effect). Suddenly, a Wild West outlaw attacks his car, shooting it up. Then, the tires explode and the car catches fire, leaving him on foot and stranded. He finds a sign for a town, Cruz Del Diablo, and when he reaches for it, a desiccated zombie grabs his arms and rises from the sand. It says, “You’re the one – the one who will rid my town from this fate worse than death. Go! Now!” And the talking dead man promptly folds itself back into its grave. This is followed by a raging storm, and Langley takes refuge in a dilapidated house.

Franc Luz as Langley

In the morning, Langley discovers the old house is part of a rundown, deserted Western town. Eventually, he runs into The Dealer, a drunken gambler played by Bruce Glover (CHINATOWN, 1974 and GHOST WORLD, 2001). He informs the sheriff that the girl is in the town, and that they have nothing but time…nothing but time. Okey-dokey. Langley finds a sheriff’s badge in the local bar, and when he puts it on, he starts seeing the inhabitants of the town, including bar-owner/ bartender Grace (Penelope Windust of V, 1983 and IRON WILL, 1994). She disappears just after informing him the telegraph wire has been down for “some time.”

The town is stuck in time, reliving the wild days before the Devlin gang killed everyone in the place, letting some roam as ghosts and others becoming only voices in the night, crying between heaven and hell. Now, the zombified Devlin (the despicable Jimmie F. Skaggs of PUPPETMASTER, 1989 and OBLIVION, 1994) and his gang of thieves hold the remaining townspeople hostage. Kate, who looks an awful lot like Devlin’s old girlfriend who was killed by Devlin for rebuffing his advances, is being held hostage by his gang of outlaws while Devlin tries to (yuck) romance her.

Langley learns his modern day weapons don’t work on the ghostly Devlin gang, but when he uses the old, dead sheriff’s six-shooter, it kills ‘em real good! So, it’s showdown time with a chase through Cruz Del Diablo and a final gunfight that, while not worrying John Ford, is exciting enough for a popcorn flick like this one.

Welcome to GHOST TOWN

GHOST TOWN is filled with alternating action set pieces and moments of creepy imagery. There’s also plenty of gore during the exciting shoot-outs, as well as a man dragged by horses, skulls crying blood, a crucifixion on a windmill, silver smelting, and a Phantom of the Opera-type unmasking scene. It gallops along fairly quickly, aided immensely by Luz’s self aware performance as Langley (you actually root for him; he’s earnest as hell and he’s actually pretty smart for a hick sheriff character, though his jeans are so tight you wonder how he runs in them at all) and the over-the-top histrionics of Skaggs as Devlin. He isn’t just chewing the scenery; he’s putting a bib around his neck and sitting down for a buffet. Beneath his yellow fake teeth and his scarred, shot-up face, he rolls his eyes and hisses every line of dialogue, laughing wildly while killing people and spouting lines like “I’ve seen the devil. When you get to Hell, give him my regards.”

GHOST TOWN is beautifully shot on desert vistas by Mac Ahlberg who photographed dozens of Full Moon and Empire productions (MERIDIAN, 1990, CRASH AND BURN, 1990 and FROM BEYOND, 1986) as well as many bigger productions like DEEPSTAR SIX (1989), INNOCENT BLOOD (1992), BEVERLY HILLS COP III (1994), and A VERY BRADY SEQUEL (1996). He’s lately returned to the Band family wagon with such unimpressive credits as PUPPET MASTER: THE LEGACY (2003) and KILLER BONG (2006). He died this year, but he thankfully left us the sepia-toned and sunset-infused photography of GHOST TOWN. He made this low-budget movie look like it cost twenty million bucks. It raises the whole production from decent to quite respectable.

It’s really too bad GHOST TOWN is almost completely forgotten after a token VHS release from New World. It’s a fun little B-movie, full of action, with contemptible villains, heroes to applaud, pretty women, and several great action sequences.

I give GHOST TOWN three zombified outlaws out of four.

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Bill’s Bizarre Bijou wants you to GET CRAZY (1983)

Posted in 1980s Movies, 2013, Bill's Bizarre Bijou, Campy Movies, Cult Movies, Drive-in Movies, Just Plain Fun, Rock 'n' Roll Movies, Roger Corman with tags Allan Arkush, Allen Garfield, Get Crazy, Hoochie Coochie Man, Lee Ving, Lou Reed, malcolm mcdowell, Rock and Roll Movies, Talking Penis on January 17, 2013 by knifefighter

Bill’s Bizarre Bijou

William D. Carl

This week’s feature presentation:

GET CRAZY (1983)

After director Allan Arkush released the wonderful drive-in hit ROCK ‘N’ ROLL HIGH SCHOOL in 1979, he was tapped to make the big budget Christmas release, HEARTBEEPS, co-starring Andy Kaufman and Bernadette Peters in 1981. Have you seen it? Neither did anyone else, so Arkush returned to the genre that gave him his biggest hit – rock and roll comedy! In 1983, he found a great script about the final concert given at a rock theater and all the people involved in that New Year’s Eve show. In his wayward youth, Arkush had been an usher at the Fillmore East, and he’d seen more than his share of great concerts. So, this was a project close to his heart. Once completed, Arkush gave the world its first Robert Altman multi-storylined, actor-centric movie by way of the Zucker Brothers (AIRPLANE, 1980). GET CRAZY is rock and roll heaven.

Daniel Stern and Gail Edwards get involved with some monkey love.

Max Wolfe (Allen Garfield of THE CONVERSATION, 1974 and THE STUNTMAN, 1980) owns the Saturn Theater, and he’s had one chili-dog too many, causing a heart attack. He decides to throw one last, huge concert on New Year’s Eve, invite everyone who’s played there, and turn the reigns of the Saturn over to one deserving soul. His kiss-ass nephew, Sammy (played by Miles Chapin of THE FUNHOUSE, 1981 and THE PEOPLE VS. LARRY FLYNT, 1996) wants to sell the theater to big-time promoter Colin Beverly (Ed Begley Jr. of AMAZON WOMEN ON THE MOON, 1987 and the ST ELSEWHERE TV series), who only cares about how much money he can make by bulldozing the hall and putting up a shiny new theater, getting rid of the sex and drugs and rock and roll forever. Max wants to keep the place as it is, so the kids can see the artists, afford the tickets, and enjoy themselves. He is followed by his two minions played by none other than (former teen heartthrobs) Fabian and Bobby Sherman. Meanwhile, the stage manager, Neil Allen (Daniel Stern of HOME ALONE, 1990 and CITY SLICKERS, 1991) is falling in love with the new girl on the crew, Willy Lomann, played by Gail Edwards (star of TV’s FULL HOUSE and BLOSSOM). She once worked for Max years ago, but gave up the rock when she thought she had a future with a bigger promoter. Neil’s little sister is desperate to see the concert and sneaks out of the house, but Neil must make certain she doesn’t get into too much trouble. Plus, their unobservant parents are played by the great Dick Miller and Jackie Joseph (LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS, 1960 and GREMLINS, 1984)! Electric Larry, the local drug dealer, delivers plenty of speed to keep the staff moving at top velocity. The lighting tech (Mary Woronov of EATING RAOUL, 1982 and SILENT NIGHT, BLOODY NIGHT, 1972) is having electrical failures; the local doctor (Paul Bartel, also from EATING RAOUL and HOLLYWOOD BOULEVARD, 1986) is trying to keep Max alive for the night; and lighting intern Joey (Dan Frischman of TV’s HEAD OF THE CLASS), just wants to lose his virginity. A bus full of hippies led by Captain Cloud and the Rainbow Telegraph arrive with a pass for New Year’s Eve 1968, take over the green room, and immediately get high while planning the finale for the show. The fire inspector (“No spark too small.”) is on the warpath and refuses to allow any fireworks or open flames. Meanwhile, Max puts through a deathbed request to Auden, a Bob Dylan-type of folk singer who hasn’t performed in years and is played by Lou Reed! Auden gets in a taxi and starts planning what song he’ll play for Max’s last big show.

Electric Larry brings the New Year’s speed.

Then, the bands arrive!

First up is a slightly punk all girl group (much like The Go-Gos) called Nada (fans scream Nadanadanadanada!) with special guest, Piggy, a pierced punker locked in their trunk, played by Lee Ving (lead singer of the real band Fear and one of the stars of STREETS OF FIRE, 1984). Nada is played by the lead singer for King Creole and the Coconuts, Lori Eastside. After an all-blind, all-blues funeral, King Blues (an awful lot like Muddy Waters) and his new guitarist, Cool, show up, but they are accidentally sent a Jews band instead of a Blues band to back them. Then, along comes Reggie Wanker, a Mick Jagger type of English strutter played by Malcolm McDowell (of A CLOCKWORK ORANGE, 1971 and CAT PEOPLE, 1981). He has a midlife meltdown onstage and during a truly existential moment (and a truly extended drum solo), he has a long conversation with his penis in which he decides how to live the rest of his life! It’s a funny moment, but McDowell wrings it of every bit of pathos he can. Remember when he was a great actor and not just someone who took every part that came his way? His girlfriend, the Countess Chantamina wants more out of life, and she decides to find a new love.

Malcolm McDowell plays Reggie Wanker.

When the concert starts, all hell breaks loose with multiple story-lines overlapping while awesome music plays constantly in the background. One great joke involves every single band playing a cover of King Blues’ “Hoochie Coochie Man,” including a fantastic, adrenaline-fuelled punk version by Piggy. “Who says a white boy can’t sing the blues?” the old bluesman says. Every band gets to play an original number and a version of the hilariously familiar “Hoochie Coochie Man.” Oddly enough, the music is all pretty terrific, and it raises the silly comedy to a whole new level of insanity. I suggest you crank it to eleven and make the walls shake!

Piggy (Lee Ving) and the Nada band perform "Hoochy Coochy Man."

Piggy (Lee Ving) and the Nada band perform “Hoochie Coochie Man.”

The crowd goes insane, LSD ends up in the water supply, romance blossoms, a giant living joint is chased all over the theater, the bathroom is infested with sharks, the fire inspector ends up naked and hallucinating, a bomb is hidden in the theater, and every actor gets a bit where they can do something funny. Somewhere in that great, gigantic cast you can also find Clint Howard, Robert Picardo, and Linnea Quigley.

With so many plots and musical performances flying around like an air traffic controller’s nightmare, it would have been easy for Arkush to drop the ball, but he maintains the juggling act right through the explosive finale. Everything works so well, I can’t find anything to criticize. The comedy bits drop so fast and furiously, if one joke falls flat, the next one works beautifully. And the editing is special, too, especially when the bomb is being planted while Reggie Wanker sings his heart out onstage.

Plus, “Hoochie Coochie Man” is a really great song!

It’s too bad the movie didn’t do well; GET CRAZY epitomizes a fun time at the theater. This would be a perfect comedy to watch on New Year’s Eve with your buddies and plenty of cocktails. You need to see it!

I give GET CRAZY three and a half giant joints out of four!

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THE LIFE OF PI (2012)

Posted in 2013, 3-D, Adult Fairy Tales, Animals Attack, Art Movies, Based on a bestselling book, Bill's Bizarre Bijou, CGI, Fantasy, International Cast, Man vs. Nature, Visually Stunning Films, William Carl Articles with tags Ang Lee, Irrfan Khan, Life of Pi, Richard Parker, Suraj Sharma, Yann Martel on January 11, 2013 by knifefighter

LIFE OF PI (2012)
Movie Review by William D. Carl

Ang Lee’s film version of Yann Martel’s best-selling novel, Life of Pi, is nothing short of miraculous. The director who introduced most Americans to the beauty and grace of martial arts films in CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON (2000) and took on gay cowboys in BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN (2005) has achieved a nearly impossible task in filming Martel’s masterpiece. The novel is a gorgeous rumination on storytelling, truth, God, and our place within God’s universe, hidden within the guise of an adventure novel. Lee has managed to film this adventure story without losing any of the beauty or depth of Martel’s musings. It’s a tricky move, and it could be Ang Lee’s best film.

A young writer visits a middle-aged Indian man, Pi (Irrfan Khan of SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE, 2005 and THE AMAZING SPIDER MAN, 2012), after hearing he has a story that will make him ‘believe in God.’ Pi fixes him dinner, walks with him, and relates his tale…the story of how he came to Canada and how he became the man he is today.

Piscine (pronounced pissing) Patel (played by newcomer Suraj Sharma) changed his name at an early age to Pi, for obvious reasons. Growing up in India within his father’s zoo, he communes with the animals while learning about God. Throughout his youth, he becomes a Hindu, a Christian, and a Muslim, never understanding how the various religions contradict each other; he only sees the ways they work in conjunction. Through this process, his idea of God becomes very real and very different from most people’s concept of a higher being. He falls in love with a young dancer at the same time his father decides to move the family to Canada. They will transport the animals from the zoo on a steamer ship and sell them to start a new life.

Pi and “Richard Parker” circle one another in LIFE OF PI.

During the crossing, a horrific storm destroys the ship, killing everyone and leaving Pi alone on a 26 foot lifeboat with a crippled zebra, an orangutan, and a 400 pound Bengal Tiger named Richard Parker (the same name as a cannibalized character in Edgar Allan Poe’s ‘The Case of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, “who survived a shipwreck only to be eaten by the men on a raft). Richard Parker makes short work of the other animals and turns his hungry eyes upon our hero, Pi. Most of the film involves the grudging respect each of these characters form for each other, with a brief detour on a deadly carnivorous island in the shape of the Lying Vishnu, the Destroyer. Pi raves against God, accepts the world as it is, becomes disappointed, marvels at the world’s wonders (including a stunning scene where a whale breaches above his boat after chasing bioluminescent plankton), and eventually survives the ordeal (obviously, since he is relating it to the writer.)

The ship sinks.

But here’s where everything gets truly interesting. How much of Pi’s story is true and how much is created in his brain? Does the truth make it a better story, or is the story good on its own terms? These are questions not easily answered, and the ending is challenging, especially to modern viewers who like everything spelled out for them in twenty foot letters. But it retains the amorphous truth of the novel beautifully, and we are left to form our own opinions about truth and the beauty of a story.

Speaking of beauty, LIFE OF PI is the most beautiful film I have seen since THE LAST EMPEROR (1987). Every single frame sparkles as if encrusted with jewels. The colors are so vibrant, they create a 3D effect, and the depth of vision in the 3D version is astonishing. This isn’t used for shock effect, but for a clear depth of vision that really puts you into a life boat on that sea that seems to stretch out forever. The cinematography by Claudio Miranda (CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON, 2008 and TRON: LEGACY, 2010) is never short of dazzling. In India, the world appears as though a memory, an impossibly beautiful world. The carnivorous island is a relief after so much ocean, but the danger is always there beneath the surface. In the scenes where Pi speaks with the writer, the photography is flat, normal, dull, reinforcing the theme of storytelling as an art, as an act of beauty and creation.

A whale dives overhead.

As for the much-discussed special effects, they are certainly special in every way. At no point does the viewer wonder if Richard Parker or the other animals are CGI. They are as real as Pi himself. Every hair, every nostril flare, every drop of water is so real as to be hyper-realistic. It’s an amazing feat, and I believe it will win the Oscar for special effects. Rarely do special effects blend so realistically into the rest of the film as to become unnoticeable.

Another beautiful image from LIFE OF PI.

LIFE OF PI can be a heady brew for some with all of its references to various religions, deities, works of literature etc. It is also a grand adventure in the old fashioned Robert Louis Stevenson vein, suspenseful and often terrifying. How Ang Lee intertwines these two facets of the story make for one of the most brilliant and astonishing films of the year. It’s a nearly perfect jewel of a movie.

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Archive for the Bill’s Bizarre Bijou Category

Bill’s Bizarre Bijou Meets the CAPTIVE WILD WOMAN (1943)

Bills’ Bizarre Bijou visits the COMMON LAW WIFE (1963)

Bill’s Bizarre Bijou: SHE DEVIL (1957)

Bill’s Bizarre Bijou Watches WRESTLING WOMEN VS. THE AZTEC MUMMY (1964)

Bill’s Bizarre Bijou Has An Appointment with the DOCTOR OF DOOM (1963)

Bill’s Bizarre Bijou visits THE CREATURE FROM BLACK LAKE (1976)

Bill’s Bizarre Bijou Helps a GIRL ON THE RUN (1953)

Bill’s Bizarre Bijou goes to GHOST TOWN (1988)

Bill’s Bizarre Bijou wants you to GET CRAZY (1983)

THE LIFE OF PI (2012)

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