Blackenstein!

Blackenstein (don't you just love the title) is a flick I've been eager to see for many many moons. I caught part of it one night on a late-night fright show once years ago, but by and large the movie has escaped me. Every once in a while I get on a Frankenstein kick and want to check out all the versions I can and this one was always a gap in my knowledge. But no more!

Now despite starring a Lone Ranger, the ironically named "Ivory Stone" and the perfectly named "Roosevelt Jackson", I cannot say this is in any way a "good" movie by any measure normally applied to cinema. But it's a pretty nifty diversion and offers up a "Frankenstein" who is almost noble and a "Frankenstein's Monster" who is especially sympathetic. A woman wants her boyfriend, a veteran horribly wounded in Vietnam to get special medical treatment and her former mentor (John Hart as "Dr. Stein") has just the right techniques to possibly help if he will. He does, and does so with the appropriate  and balanced motivations, to help a patient in pain and then to further his understanding of the science he is seeking. Others such as his not-so-nice butler Malcom (Roosevelt Jackson no less) manage to corrupt that process and of course as in every such movie mayhem erupts.

"Blackenstein" is played by Joe De Sue, a hapless non-actor who just sort of looks out of his face most of movie, even when he's nibbling on a victim (yest this Creature is a cannibal). That and the mostly catch-as-catch-can sets really limit what can be seen, that and the meager lighting in any scene not on an interior set (or room). The tried and true Frankenstein electrical equipment fashioned by Kenneth Strickfadden so many years before for the Universal classics and I guess will be used a year later in Young Frankenstein by Mel Brooks. Blackenstein is not a good movie, but it's still fun to watch.

Rip Off

Dr. Black - Mr. Hyde!

Dr. Black / Mr.Hyde is a better-than-I-expected blaxploitation movie. The reason is Bernie Casey who gives a sensitive portrayal of Dr. Henry Pride, a madman, a man driven by the pain of the death of his mother and his compulsion to save the world. He's a good man (or appears to be) who goes over the line, who forgets the  dignity of other human beings and imagines the necessary momentary evil act is worth it for the greater good. It's a deluded attitude, but not one the viewer cannot immediately dismiss. For a movie directed to a black audience this surely has more resonance.

Though the co-star of the movie is Rosalind Cash who plays another doctor who cares for Dr. Pride, the real power in the movie comes in the relationship between Casey and Marie O'Henry who plays the classic hooker with a heart of gold. She becomes the object of obsession of the Doctor who wants her to help him test a new drug to cure liver damage, but she quite logically and reasonably says no. And when he insists things get ugly.

The slow descent of Dr.Pride steadily presented, his self-destruction is on the screen for us to watch until he realizes he is lost and  gives into the drug which turns him "white" and gives him great power, at least power to do harm. In a potent but somewhat uncomfortable finale at the Watts Towers, our hero-villain climbs the towers in a King Kong fashion as the authorities seek a final solution to the rampage of Dr. Black and Mr. Hyde.

I've seen a lot of deep analysis of the messages this film (also called The Watts Monster) delivers to diverse audiences and I don't reject them, but best of all it's a compelling story pretty well told.

Rip Off

Scream Blacula Scream!

William Marshall is so convincing as "Blacula" and brings such heft to the part that you know that even a movie titled Scream Blacula Scream can't be all bad. Actually for a "blaxpoitation" bit it's no t bad and once again casting saves the day. Tagging in to help Marshall this time is the vivacious Pam Grier and Don Mitchell (of Ironside fame). They are all mingled in and around voodoo and it's by use of this practice that the deadly Blacula once again treads the night.

This one also has the charm of a movie which doesn't take itself too very seriously. The animating villain is a loathsome cat played by the novice Richard Lawson, a douche who is jealous that he hasn't been named head of the local voodoo cult. He lost out to Pam Grier and from where I sit, it was a wise move indeed. He uses his powers to revive (wrong word I know) Blacula who immediately makes him his vampire slave. One of the funniest scenes is where this utterly vain character realizes for the first time that as a vampire he cannot see himself in a mirror.

Other victims come and go and go and come and the cops get involved. We get a finale with zombie-like vampires battling cops in the passages of a large mansion and it's above average stuff for movies of this ilk. Michael Conrad is a hoot as the obligatory decent white guy and he and Mitchell have actual chemistry. The director of this movie is Bob Kelljan who also directed both the Count Yorga movies and some of the same gimmicks show up here.

This one is a ton of vampire fun if you give it a chance.

Rip Off

Blacula!

Blacula is everything you're looking for in an exploitation film. First it's a major part of the sub-genre "Blaxploitation" which in the late 60's and early 70's especially created low-budget entertainment for black audiences and others who wanted to see different faces in familiar stories. Blacula is directed by Willaim Crain and based on what I've seen by him, I have little to complain about. He tells his stories clearly and with limited confusion, something low-budget films often fail on.

The central strength of this film is William Marshall in the lead role of Prince Mamuwalde who along with his princess Luva visit Dracula who is an unknown quantity. Mamuwalde wants to convince Dracula to help him end slavery but of course the sadistic Dracula has other plans. He turns the Prince into a vampire and then locks him away in the bowels of his castle for hundreds of years. Needless to say when he emerges thanks to two hapless antiques dealers. Unleashed on the modern world "Blacula" goes about getting his fill of blood and creating vampires in the wake.

He is opposed by the cops led by Thalmus Rasulala an actor with the chops to stand up to Marshall's character with some level of credibility. These two are joined by a strong cast with the likes of Denise Nichols and Vonetta McGree. Smaller parts are a pleasure to watch with Ketty Lester as the most memorable taxi driver you'll ever see and Ji-Tu Cumbuku was is a delight to see but adds nothing to the plot that I can remember. The legendary Elisha Cook is around as a morgue attendant and Gordon Pinsent of Red Green fame is a cop.

This is a top of the line thriller, not really scary all that much but with lots of bombastic scary-like bits that entertain immensely.

Rip Off

The Banana Splats!

There always seems to be a backlog of movies around here waiting for me to get the time or to get into the proper mood to completely enjoy them. One such is The Banana Splits Movie, a Halloween offering I'm just now clearing off the DVR. I was actually too old to thoroughly grok the Banana Splits who showed up on TV in 1968 following on the offbeat popularity of rock group / TV shows like The Monkees and The Archies.

The Banana Splits are a pop-rock band made up of Snorky an elephant, Fleagle a dog, Drooper a lion and Bingo an ape. Now none of these anthropromorphic critters is going to found in the wild, but such a conglomeration does suggest something about the weirdness of the time. Both Hanna-Barbera and Sid and Marty Krofft are responsible for this oddball band, with the latter designing them and the former using their antics as the frames for other shows, some live-action cliffhangers and others animated. The Banana Splits Adventure Hour was more than the faux critters seen above, and an interesting attempt to showcase some slightly different storytelling.

But that's not what's going on here. This is a horror movie and the setting is "Taft Studios" where the last episode of The Banana Splits Show is being recorded for broadcast in the dingiest and most forlorn looking studio you can imagine. Our doughty protagonist, a youngster who loves the Splits goes to the taping with his family and all too soon the deadly mayhem gets underway. The Splits are actually highly refined robots and something in their programming or perhaps the news that the show is being cancelled causes them to go "Westworld" on the unfortunates who came to see the show.

This is tagged as a horror-comedy and I see that, but for my money there's too much gore and a little too much blood, and not enough pure terror and it really could use a bit more humor. There are some neat twists, but the body count is too high for the giggles to linger erupt much or linger long, and the fact that really young kids are threatened and not the usual cadre of annoying teens makes this outing a little hard to watch in places.

But it was nice to see the old gang again, though I am very glad it was not in person.

Rip Off