The Night Stalker (1972), The Night Strangler (1973)

Based on the unpublished novel The Kolchak Papers by Jeff Rice, The Night Stalker was a TV movie made for ABC in the early 70's, its was popular enough that a second tele-film was made for the network a year later The Night Strangler, which was itself followed by a full television series that ran from 1974-1975 (a series reboot, tie-in novels and comics would follow later). The films and series are acknowledged for runners to the later, and more successful X-Files Franchise. In fact the latter shows creator Chris Carter wanted to have Kolchack star Darren McGavin reprise his role as  on his series, McGavin declined to play Kolchack again but did appear as another character (agent Arthur Dales) on the program in the late 1990's.

Carl Kolchack is an investigative reporter, tenacious, but with a habit of getting himself fired. Now in middle age Kolchack is working for a paper in Las Vegas, he is investigating a series of murders of young women that start to look more and more like they may be the work of a vampire, which of course they are. Kolchack tries to get somebody, anybody to listen to him, but of course he is rebuffed by the police, his editor, his colleges, ect. This in turn gives birth to what will turn out to be Kolchacks standard formula, he is right about a supernatural element in a recent crime spree, but no one, or  almost no one, will believe him, and in the end he defats the bad guy and gets the story, but no one will publish it and he is forced out of town (in Night Stalker it's Las Vegas and a vampire, in Night Strangler is Seattle and a 144-year old alchemist). Kolchack also tends to end up with beautiful young girlfriends, which is the wish fulfillment part of the show.

The first film was really fun, it felt clever and original, the 2nd film though the plot is arguable more interesting and better constructed still  feels mostly like a re-tread of the first film. Doubtless this how the TV series will largely feel, but these movies are still good enough, and McGavin likable enough that I am interested in watching the TV show. Kolchack in short has the makings of a guilty pleasure.

The Night Stalker ***
The Night Strangler **1/2

In Like Flint (1967)

Sequel to the 1966 movie Our Man Flint, gives us further adventures of America's suave ladies-man, super-genius, super-spy Derek Flint (James Coburn). This time Flint is pitted against a group of uber -powerful feminists in tenuous league with a radical faction of the US military to rule the world through control of a newly launched orbital platform. This plot offers a certain degree of symmetry with the first film, where the plot involved a very male chauvinist groups plot to rule the world. In addition to Coburn as Flint, Lee J. Cobb ( I always like Lee J. Cobb) reprises his role as Lloyd C. Cramden, Flints former boss at the spy agency, now in charge of the launch of the orbital platform. Like its predecessor this film is a parody of James Bond, but its plot is more coherent and grounded then the later Austin Powers films. This movie is loaded with attractive women, some well done action sequences, and a surprisingly substantive sub-plot for Mr. Cobb. Andrew Duggan plays both the U.S. President and his villainous doppelganger, Dugan would go on to play real world presidents Dwight Eisenhower in the mini-series Backstairs at the Whitehouse and Lyndon Johnson in  the movie The Private Files of J. Edgar Hoover. ***

Disco Godfather (1979)

Yes I admit it, the only reason I watched this movie is its awesome title, sadly it doesn't really deliver. There is disco sure, but most of that is dispensed with in the first 20 minutes, and the organized crime aspect is there, but not anywhere near the level of The Godfather. The 'Disco Godfather' of the movies titles is in fact an ex-cop named Tucker Williams (Rudy Ray Moore) who has reestablished himself as the "Disco Godfather", owner and chief DJ of a popular night spot. When Tucker's beloved nephew Bucky (Julius Carry) nearly overdoses on "Angle Dust", Tucker leads a small group of concerned locals in an effort to take down the PCP operation of some guy whose name I can't be bothered to look up. The acting here is consisting some of the worst I've ever seen in a film, and I've seen Ed Wood movies. I swear the guy who plays the police Lieutenant must have been helping to finance this thing because I don't see how otherwise he's not kicked off the project after his first line reading. Unexpectedly this movie is surprisingly boring, except for the last ten minutes or so when the bad guys capture the Disco Godfather and get him hopped up on PCP. That is crazy, but it can't save this sadly disappointing example of blacksplotation cinema. *1/2

ABC Movie of the Week Channel- Youtube. Made for TV flicks from the late 60's and early 70's.

Dracula: Prince of Darkness (1966)

Belated "true sequel" (ignore 1960's tangential and misleadingly titled The Brides of Dracula) to the 1958 Hammer Studio release Horror of Dracula. Set 10 years after the events of the first film (that would place this movie some time in the 1890's), Van Helsing has moved on, and while paranoia about vampires continues throughout Transylvania, things have been pretty safe on that front for the last decade. In fact a local, Grizzly Adams type monk named Father Sandor (Andrew Keir) has a bit of a hard time keeping the locals from needlessly impaling there recently deceased through the heart, you know just to make sure. Anyway Father Sandor comes across two English brothers and their wives traveling through the country on vacation, he invites them to come and visit him at his monastery and cryptically warns them away from the Karlsbad area they are thinking of visiting (home to Castle Dracula).

The English of course ignore the good Father and journey to Karlsbad anyway, their carriage driver freaks out and leaves them alone in the woods so the four stranded tourists make way to the  nearby castle. There they are greeted by and fed by the castle keeper Klove (Philip Latham) who informs them that it was his late masters desire that the castle be kept open as a sanctuary for any stranded visitors that may come across it. Three of the four seem more then happy with their luck by one (Barbara Shelley) is terribly freighted by the place remembering Father Sandor's warning. Well its not long before Barbara is turned into a vampire after Klove brings his master back from the dead- dead by spilling the blood of Barbara's husband (Charles "Bud" Tingwell) on Dracula's ashes laid out in a coffin (kind of ingenious way for the writers to bring back Christopher Lee).

Lee's Dracula doesn't say much, well anything except hisses in this film because apparently the dialogue written for him to say was so awful he just refused to say it. The morning after Dracula's resurrection the castles two remaining guests (Francis Matthews and Suzan Farmer) can't find the others and leave the castle, but then come back, but then get away again, and then end up in Father Sandor's monastery, but Dracula comes after Suzan and ect ect. The movie ends with Dracula plunged under some ice into freezing water that will no doubt preserve him to come back to life in the half dozen or so remaining sequels in this Hammer Franchise. All in all a satisfactory Dracula outing that paves the way for the doubtless increasingly campy sequels to come. **1/2

Timeless Classic Movies- Public Domain Movies on Youtube

The Tingler (1959)

Early William Castle horror gimmick film with Vincent Price. Price plays Dr. Warren Chapin a pathologist who has developed a theory that extreme fear in humans manifests as a physical creature he calls 'The Tingler', that attaches its self to the spine which it is capable of breaking should its host be unable to release its tension through screaming, once the host screams however the 'The Tingler' dissolves into nothingness. Eager to prove his theory Dr. Chapin conducts an ethically wanting experiment on a deaf mute women, a 'Tingler' is brought into being and kills her. Because she did not scream the 'Tingler' continues to exist, proves nearly indestructible and gets lose. The highlight of the film on its original release was  a scene in with  'The Tingler' getting lose in a movie theater, Castle had little joy buzzers attached to seemingly random seats in the theaters which were activated during that scene to create a surprise 'tingling' sensation for unlucky audience members. Sometimes this effect would be heightened by having paid actors scream in the theater during that sequence.

A ridicules movie really, it holds together surprisingly well, the actors play things straight and once the silly rules of the movie are established, they are never deviated from. There is even a pretty good twist thrown in near the end that I really didn't see coming, Castle's track record with his movie twists compares well with M. Night Shymalan's, I'd say they both work about half the time. The Tingler is a strange, enjoyable movie that works better then you might expect. ***

The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971)

Vincent Price horror/schlock vehicle set in 1925 London finds the awesome voiced one playing Dr. Anton Phibes, who is not a medical doctor but rather a wealthy and famous organist who has doctorates in music and theology. Dr. Phibes is presumed dead in a car accident which followed shortly on the death of his beloved wife Victoria Regina Phibes (an unaccredited Caroline Munro, appearing only in photographs). But years after his suspected demise Dr. Phibes returns from the dead to murder the nine member medical team who failed to save his wife in surgery. He dispatches the team via elaborate executions inspired by the Biblical ten plagues of the Book of Exodus, such as having one doctor stung to death by bees, a nurse eaten by locusts, that sort of thing. (A very similar premise in structural conceit is followed by the 1973 Price film Theater of Blood, where failed actor Price kills hostile critics through elaborate tortures inspired by Shakespeare's plays.)

Scotland Yard Inspector Harry Trout (Peter Jeffery) suspects that there must be some kind of connection in regards to this recent spike in highly ideocentric deaths of medical professionals, and eventually he tracks things back to the Victoria Phibes case, and enlists the aid of the chief surgeon there of Dr. Vesalius (Joseph Cotton). Phibes, Trout and Vesalius eventually have something of a final confrontation but Dr. P gets away paving the way for a sequel Dr. Phibes Rises Again released the next year. In the end Scotland Yard only manages to save the life of one of the nine, so congratulations to inspector Trout on figuring things out, but you still leave a lot to be desired in your execution, or more precisely your ability to prevent them. Oh well, maybe next film.

My one huge nit about this movie has to do with Dr. P's beautiful but silent assistant Vulnavia (Virginia North). It is never revealed where she came from, or how it is Dr. Phibes knows her. Now we do know that Dr. Phibes is using Vulnavia as his public face, as it were, in carrying out his cryptic plans, and that the doctor somehow funneled a large portion of his estate into her name following his supposed death. But where did she come from? Dr. Phibes is suppose to be obsessively in love with his late wife, so how come he had a pliant babe so handy when he despaired from the world. This would be an important plot point to know, but it is completely and unsatisfactory dropped by the filmmakers, resulting in my writing this paragraph long rant. Otherwise this movie is a mildly satisfying piece of Price horror camp. **1/2

The Lepord Man (1943)

This Val Lewton produced horror 'thriller' is not one of his best. A serial killer in New Mexico is murdering young women in such  a way that at first there deaths are blamed on a leopard. Potentially intriguing premise, and slightly unusual location hold promise, but films is rather plodding and the leads (Dennis O'Keefe & Jean Brooks) are terminally bland. Even the killer didn't have a lot of effort put into him, the most interesting characters are the three victims, who gets nice little character vignette's before they are dispatched off screen. Sadly forgettable. **

Gravity (2013)

Director Alfonso Cuaron's first film since the excellent 2007 feature Children of Men. It was Alfonso's son Jonas who convinced his father to get back in the directors saddle and make this film which the two of them co-wrote. It is the story of a disaster in space, (which not to give too much away is the Russians fault) that strands two astronauts (Sandra Bullock and George Clooney) in space and kills the rest of their shuttle crew. The film is done in close to real time, and is quite hart ponding, it has a kinetic off kilter cinematography as there is no up and down in space and your constantly moving. It is technically very much a triumph, the space effects mostly quite convincing and with the glut of making of DVD features anymore I am usually not interested in how visual effects are achieved, I've seen it all, but this one I am genially curious to learn more about.

There is not a ton to the plot, if the movie can be said to be about anything its about the will to live, and of course the visual experience. The writing is a little bit lazy in shoe horning in a stock back story for the Bullock character, but her performance is quite strong, this looks like it would have been an exhausting shoot and she certainly conveys the sense of strain someone in her characters position would undoubtedly be feeling, George Clooney meanwhile coasts by mostly on charm. Defiantly a film worth seeing on the big screen and in the 3D  format it was shot in, its a film that conveys pretty much everything its got to say to you directly on screen so there is not a lot of subtext to analyze. Its one of those movies that is an experience more then anything. ***1/2