Golden Dawn (1930)

Director: Ray Enright

Writers: Otto A. Harbach, Oscar Hammerstein II, Walter Anthony

Composer: Rex Dunn

Starring: Walter Woolf King, Vivienne Segal, Noah Beery, Alice Gentle, Dick Henderson, Lupino Lane, Marion Byron, Edward Martindel, Nina Quartero, Sojin Kamiyama, Otto Matieson, Julanne Johnston, Eduardo Cansino, Nigel De Brulier

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Music drama of the jungle!

Plot: Dawn (Segal) is a white woman thought to be a godess born unto a black tribe but Tom (King) discovers her true parentage and tries to stop her from being sacrificed to the gods.  Naturally everyone sings about it.

My rating: 6.5/10

Will I watch it again?  No.

Let's play a game called, "Is It Racist?".  It is.  Thanks for playing.  Be sure to get your copy of our play-at-home game for the family.  You've got to see this for yourself.  It's outrageous and entertaining.  I was surprised at how often I laughed in between the grins.  Looking at this 88 years after it was released, it's jaw-dropping in how acceptable things like blackface were back then.  Noah Beery is especially bad (as in racist bad) with his darkened skin and his Amos & Andy's Kingfish voice (as in "now lookee here").  It's so outrageous it's laughable.  That's just the beginning.  The timeline jumps ahead sometimes months at a time.  Then there's the abundance of songs and many of them are quite good and catchy.  Shep (Beery) sings a song devoted to his whip, Dawn sings about loving her Bwana (that's the East African word for 'master') and Joanna (Byron) warbles out how she's looking for a man who will smack her around and treat her like shit (you know, the fun side of domestic abuse that no one talks about these days).  It's just your typical songs about love and devotion.  And all of this takes place in the jungles of Africa.  The whole thing is a wild and crazy ride on the wrong side of the movie tracks (and history) but it can be very entertaining in the weirdest ways.  It's one curiosity you probably won't regret seeing.  I can see this playing well with a group of friends and some liquor.

Inn of the Damned (1975)

Director: Terry Bourke

Writer: Terry Bourke

Composer: Bob Young

Starring: Judith Anderson, Alex Cord, Michael Craig, Joseph Furst, Tony Bonner, John Meillon, John Morris, Robert Quilter

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Murder... Mystery... Madness...

Plot: A sheriff investigates why the guests at a secluded hostelry check in, but never check out.

My rating: 5.5/10

Will I watch it again?  No.

Hmmmm.  I bet this looked a lot better on paper.  In execution, it loses something.  It feels like it was made by a first time director/writer but it's Bourke's fourth or fifth picture.  Bourke adds odd bits of out and out comedy every once in a while and it's completely against the tone of the film.  The music doesn't help, either.  Young composed a nice main theme in the vein of a Spaghetti Western but much of the rest of the score doesn't quite hit the right beats.  Part of it is the orchestration.  Maybe the music budget suffered.  Alex Cord does a fine job and some of the photography looks good but it's the pacing and overall lack of suspense that brings the picture down.  Add some very nice nudity to the plus column.

Easter Bunny Bloodbath (2010)

Director: Richard Mogg

Writer: Richard Mogg

Composers: Chris J. Clements, Rob Rochon

Starring: Shayan Bayat, Meghan Kinsley, Travis Turner, Adrian Daniels, Laura Hope, Jessica Hill, Chris J. Clements, James Lawson, Halie Hunter, Jim Hunter

More info: IMDb

Tagline: He's not just hunting eggs... he's hunting YOU.

Plot: Twenty years ago, young Peter McKay watched his father decapitate his sister on Easter morning. Peter never celebrated the Easter holiday again... until now.

My rating: 4/10

Will I watch it again?  No.

Everything about this holiday retro-slasher is just below average.  The gore is simplistic which also relies on computer generated camera lens blood spatter, the acting is as you'd expect for a no budget picture but never crossing over into the so-bad-it's-good territory, the story is generic but without anything special to add and so on.  The music is sometimes worthwhile although some repetitive cues get played too long and often..  Overall the movie is missing a sense of fun.  There's no nudity (but not without ample opportunity), fun kills or any of the other stuff you'd need/want for a slasher picture to strive for.  I would say it's a good thing it's only 78 minutes long but it feels much longer.  Keeping this around 45 would've made it a little better and more easily digestible.   Now, having said all of that, It is producer/editor/writer/director Mogg's first film.  There are some moments where you can tell he had some ideas he wanted to try out.  With more experience he'll obviously get better.  It's an OK start.  I'll check out his other work.  He's got some great titles like BANGIN' VENGEANCE! (2011) (about talkin' tits), TEENAGE SLUMBER PARTY NIGHTMARE (2014), MASSAGE PARLOR OF DEATH (2015) and BIGFOOT ATE MY BOYFRIEND (2016).

Hannibal Brooks (1969)

Director: Michael Winner

Writers: Michael Winner, Tom Wright, Dick Clement, Ian La Frenais

Composer: Francis Lai

Starring: Oliver Reed, Michael J. Pollard, Wolfgang Preiss, John Alderton, Helmuth Lohner, Peter Carsten, Karin Baal, Ralf Wolter, Jurgen Draeger, Maria Brockerhoff, Til Kiwe, Ernst Fritz Furbringer, Erik Jelde, James Donald

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Supersoldier in the Super Adventure

Plot: A prisoner of war working at a zoo gets the chance to escape from the Germans, so he does and he takes with him the elephant that he's been caring for. Together they head for the Swiss border and freedom.

My rating: 6/10

Will I watch it again?  No.

I've been wanting to see this for more than thirty years since I saw it sitting on the shelf at the video store.  I also had the soundtrack LP for two decades in which the cover is total bullshit with only Pollard's face on the cover.  Well, now I've seen it.  It's a weird flick.  It feels like it wants to be a comedy but it's only mildly amusing at best.  There are no jokes, per se, just the occasional character laughing and smiling.  That hardly makes it a comedy.  You could make the case that it's a family film except for the abundance of killing and that the world is at war with the Germans and our 'hero' is behind enemy lines trying to get to safety.  Pollard is horribly miscast.  His goofy grin doesn't belong in this film.  His line deliveries and behavior is off enough to where you'd think he was high on weed the whole time.  I normally dig the guy but he had no place in this film in that role.  The Austrian location shooting is GORGEOUS and it's worth watching just for the mountains and the countryside.  Lai's music is lighthearted and family friendly but, like the 'humor' in the film, it's sometimes at odds with what's on the screen.  The story itself is pretty ridiculous.  How possible is it for someone to take an elephant behind enemy lines like this and have any hope of making it to Switzerland?  I'd say none at all.  I'll hate myself in the morning for saying this but that's the elephant in the room.  You'll have to suspend your disbelief a lot for this picture.  I'm surprised there were enough people of influence that thought this was a movie that should or needed to be made.

Machine Gun Mama (1944)

Director: Harold Young

Writer: Sam Neuman

Composer: Mort Glickman

Starring: Armida, El Brendel, Wallace Ford, Jack La Rue, Luis Alberni, Ariel Heath, Julian Rivero, Eumenio Blanco, Anthony Warde

More info: IMDb

Tagline: It's a rollicking riot of double barreled fun!

Plot: Ollie and John are stuck with car trouble. Luckily they have Bunny the elephant. They try to sell him to a fair in financial trouble.

My rating: 5.5/10

Will I watch it again?  No.

The title is bullshit.  Near the beginning of the picture when the boys are at a carnival, things get a little crazy and Nita (Armida), who works there, somehow gets stuck randomly shooting a shooting game machine gun which apparently shoots real enough bullets to do some damage.  It's supposed to be funny.  That's the only time a machine gun is seen, heard or mentioned.  Then what the hell is up with the title?  I was all set for some chick crime action with a title like that.  Instead it's just a Poverty Row low budget romantic comedy.  Armida is adorable and Ford, as John O'Reilly, is pleasant and amiable.  There's a really cute moment when John starts spinning a tall tale to Nita about his gangster days and how he was going to do this hit on this fella.  "Did you have a gun?" she says and he responds that he didn't but one of his 'gun girls' did.  I laughed but that was the only time.  For the most part I was close to boredom but it is mildly amusing.  It's low budget cute at best.  Everyone looks like they're giving it that old college try but the material proves to be the weakest link.

Tony Arzenta (1973)

AKA: Big Guns

Director: Duccio Tessari

Writers: Franco Verucci, Ugo Liberatore, Roberto Gandus

Composer: Gianni Ferrio

Starring: Alain Delon, Richard Conte, Carla Gravina, Marc Porel, Roger Hanin, Nicoletta Machiavelli, Guido Alberti, Lino Troisi, Silvano Tranquilli, Corrado Gaipa, Erika Blanc, Anton Diffring

More info: IMDb

Tagline: By mistake they killed his wife and child - THAT was a hell of a mistake!

Plot: A mob hitman wants to retire, but his bosses don't think that's a good idea. Complications--and many bloody shootouts-ensue.

My rating: 7/10

Will I watch it again?  No.

Fans of the Poliziotteschi genre will dig this more than others.  It's got some great car chases and action scenes but it's the pacing that would be a deal killer for a novice Eurocrime viewer.  The movie is better than average but there are moments where it goes above and beyond like the aforementioned action scenes.  They're nicely edited and executed.  The plot is a by the numbers revenge picture so what's needed, as long as nothing sucks, is good action, kills, maybe some nudity (there's a little) and a good ending.  This picture ticks off those boxes.  I dig the ending but it could've been handled a little better.  It's not hard to guess what's going to happen.  If it had been, that would've been something.  Overall the movie can be a little slow going but there's enough to punctuate it throughout to keep it interesting.  I've seen it twice now and I think that's all I need.

Night World (1932)

Director: Hobart Henley

Writers: P.J. WOlfson, Allen Rivkin, Richard Schayer

Composer: Alfred Newman

Starring: Lew Ayres, Mae Clarke, Boris Karloff, Dorothy Revier, Russell Hopton, Hedda Hopper, Clarence Muse, Dorothy Peterson, Bert Roach, George Raft

More info: IMDb

Plot:  In the course of one night at a Prohibition-era nightclub, dreams and aspirations are made, tested and realized but there's also murder in the air.

My rating: 8/10

Will I watch it again?  YES!!!

Seek this one out.  Karloff is playing something I don't think I've ever seen him do...a smiling nightclub owner who also knows when to get nasty and throw some punches.  I can't recall ever seeing him smile so much.  It's refreshing.  But don't cross him or he'll bust you in the chops for sure.  It is weird, though, hearing him use slang like "baby".  The characters are fun and this picture movies at a lightning fast pace.  It's just under an hour long and it was over like that and the fast pace starts from the top with a great little montage of night life from inside the clubs (this is during prohibition) and outside on the streets.  There's even a John picking up a hooker!  Then it's one long, in-time, sequence with the dance girls and the rich club goers until eventually it settles down and we get some exposition here and there.  But then even when that's happening it moves quickly.  This is a great exercise in sustaining momentum.  It's fun, too.  There's a lot less melodrama than other pictures of the era which was welcome.  And people die, too!  Alfred Newman provided the energetic score and it goes a long way to sustain the energy.  This was great fun.