I've lately come across a number of public-domain movies for which the rights have lapsed, that you can watch online. Some of them, while being low-budget, are wonderfully atmospheric, or just plain fun.
I remember watching this one on TV when I was growing up in the early 70's, before it gained acclaim as "the worst movie ever made", and they came up with an annual award for "worst" films, the Golden Turkey awards.
I also love the 1994 semi-bioographical Tim Burton movie Ed Wood, for which Martin Landau won an Oscar for Best Actor, for his portrayal of Bela Lugosi. A quirky fun movie that has the trappings of a horror/sci-fi movie itself, but hilariously portrays Ed Wood and his circle of actor-friends struggling to survive and make films, and also vicariously shares Ed Wood's enthusiasm for storytelling, despite his hardship and questionable talent. My favorite scene is where Ed Wood is walking by a funeral parlor, and sees Bela Lugosi (knowing that he hasn't much longer to live) trying out coffins. The idea of the actor famous for playing Dracula shopping for coffins, and irritably laying in them to try out each one!
Courtesy of Youtube, a post-apocalyptic movie about two men and a woman vacationing in Puerto Rico, who appear to end up the only survivors left on earth, that creates an interesting love triangle, in a fight for the last woman. Low-budget, granted, but with some great location scenery, and social commentary in a world where wealth no longer matters.
Robert Towne (as the lawyer) went on to be an Oscar-winning screenwriter. Another from Roger Corman, who had a long run of entertaining low-budget S-F films.
Another movie that preceded it, The World, The Flesh, and the Devil (1959), explores similar themes, with the twist of one of the last 3 being a black guy (played by Harry Belafonte) where despite the world being gone, perceptions of race still endure even though the former world is gone.
A rather odd movie starring Lon Cheney Jr., a mobster (Cheney Jr.) is convicted and executed, and his body after is given to a scientist, who in his experiments exposes the corpse to a jolt of high voltage that brings him back to life and makes him impervious to bullets or stabbing, and the mobster goes after the lawyer and crime partners who betrayed and testified against him. And the police go on a citywide manhunt to track him down before he can kill again.
I would have gone for the movie title "The Frankenstein Mobster" but maybe that would just give it away.
An odd splicing of classic Hollywood film-noir of mobsters, gritty first-person narration and police detectives clashing with criminals in tough-guy dialogue, mixed with sci-fi/horror elements. But a fun mix. More noir than monster movie.
While from an innocent time and very folksy, the series often has plots where the central characters outwit mischevious or outright dishonest characters, usually with some very clever, ironic and hilarious twists.
In this episode, an indian chief brings his daughter to Daniel Boone, explaining to Boone she is promised in marriage to the son of a rival tribe they've been historically at war with, to create peace between the tribes. But it soon becomes clear she doesn't want to marry the rival chief's son, and the mission is a difficult one for Boone and his friends.
The Princess is resourceful, mischevious, strong-willed, and more dangerous than she looks, and puts high demands on her captors to provide for her, which are very funny in the way things play out.
The actress who plays Princess Little Fawn is Brenda Benet, who was during the 1970's married to Bill Bixby, and they had a son together, that ended tragically after the divorce. Even post-divorce, she appeared in an episode of The Hulk TV series with him, before her death. After the divorce, Benet appaarently switched teams, sexually speaking, and Benet had a sexual relationship with now-conservative lesbian pundit Tammy Bruce up till Benet's death in 1982. At the time of her death, Benet was 36 and Tammy Bruce was 19.
A hilariously paced episode, where Boone's friend visits a town and gets in a bidding war as just a bit of mischief, and ends up unwittingly having to buy and own a beautiful female slave he never wanted, and exposes his averssion to commitment with women in general.
The character is played by Jimmy Dean, who was a recurring supporting character on the last year or two of the series, and he often sings and plays guitar, which I guess he was famous for before appearing in the series.
The voice I thought sounded rather familiar, and it turns out after his singing and acting career, he made an even greater fortune in the food business with Jimmy Dean Sausages, and his voice is still used in the commercials 50 years later. Although he himself has passed away. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Dean
Again, I love how characters who are supposed to be naive country bumpkins are smarter and more worldly than they initially appear. And with some very funny results.
While I intended this topic to display movies, both of these are like short films, with a lot of clever twists, quite funny, and well worth watching.
The character is played by Jimmy Dean, who was a regular star on the last year or two of the series, and he often sings and plays guitar, which I guess he was famous for before appearing in the series. The voice I thought sounded rather familiar, and it turns out after his acting career, he made an even greater fortune in the food business with Jimmy Dean Sausages, and his voice is still used in the commercials 50 years later. Although he himself has passed away.
I bet you're more familiar with him than you know, given you're about the same age as I am.
Jimmy Dean had a huge hit record back in the day with "Big Bad John," .
In addition to music and sausages, he also had a supporting role in "Diamonds are Forever," playing the Howard Hughesque "Willard White."
The Diamonds Are Forever movie appearance I'm familiar with, although I didn't know who Dean was years ago when I first saw it. I actually think that's one of the worst Bond movies. Sean Connery, after giving up the role to Lazenby for one movie, came back and did this one. Unfortunately. Connery never looked worse in a movie, and seemed very over-the-hill in that film, for such a relatively young actor. Afterward Connery gained an aging elegance in a series of movie roles over many decades, that cemented his place as one of the great lead actors. Diamonds Are Forever was also very trite and silly throughout, with a lot of sweaty out-of-shape actors in tacky polyester clothing, and exceptionally cheap low-budget looking sets. Even Jill St. John was disappointing and a chore to watch. That and the Lazenby film that preceded it were among the weakest links in the franchise. The other weakest links for me were A View To A Kill and the two Timothy Dalton films. The movie after Diamonds Are Forever was Live and Let Die, the first with Roger Moore, and a fantastic return to greatness for the bond series, with the best Bond movie theme song by Paul McCartney of the series. A great introduction to the Bond franchise, and the first I saw, on its release in 1973.
Over the years, I've recorded all the Bond films on DVD, so until the next film comes out I have a complete run of the film series.
But yeah, Jimmy Dean has a role in the movie, and he was one of the better parts of the movie. Beyond his musical talent, Dean was also a gifted comedian.
Noteworthy for the role by Jean Stapleton, about 4 years before she reached the heights of fame as Edith Bunker on All In The Family. She looks like a completely different person in this episode. I'm generally not a fan of the street-tough almost film-noir style, and definitely in the style of an earlier era, but well done. Displaying talent in a very serious and touching role, in contrast to her skill as a comedian in her later role as Edith Bunker, demonstrating her verstality and talent at both.
Starring Gregory Peck, James Mason, Steve Guttenberg and Lawrence Olivier. And in a minor role, John Dehner, who I love from a lot of Twilight Zone episodes and other western TV shows he was in.
An interesting globe-spanning thriller about nazi hunters, Dr. Josef Mengele, and secret societies of nazi war criminals hiding out in Europe and Latin America, plotting a Fourth Reich. With an interesting element of science fiction tossed in the mix. Diected by Franklin J. Schaffner, the same director who created Planet of the Apes (1968), Patton (1970), Nicholas and Alexandra (1971), and Pappillon (1973), of which this movie was his last great movie in my opinion. And like the others, was nominated for several Oscars and other awards.
The kid in the movie reminds me of the one in The Omen II (1978), out about the same time, having a sinister look, and projecting an unusual air of power in his role. The Omen and Omen II were both great movies, and back in season with Halloween coming up.
Another of my favorites from 1973, a British television production titled Frankenstein: The True Story. I saw it multiple times on television in the 1970's and 1980's, it generally was serialized in two parts, 2 hours (with commercials) each night for 2 nights. The "true story" part comes from its attempt to tell the original story of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley in her initial novel, before the classic Hollywood-ization of the story in the 1931 Boris Karloff film and subsequent movies. Although this production likewise takes liberties with Shelley's novel, and I think is more interesting for it.
With guest performances by James Mason, David McCallum, Tom Baker, Agnes Moorehead, and most noteworthy of all for me, Jane Seymour, in her second major role, after her breakout performance in Live and Let Die. This version is as elegant as it is horrific, and also with compassionate human element between creator and monster.
Yes, that's it. That's essentially the original FRANKENSTEIN novel, but with several story changes in the movie version. The cliffhanger at the end of part 1 I thought was a particularly good place to break off. Jane Seymour is essentially the bride of Frankenstein, and her character's exit from the movie is a particularly horrific scene. The musical score is both elegant and eerie.
I selected it to post because I thought it was a perfect selection for Halloween.
I haven't been back to his topic in awhile, but here's another acclaimed classic for your midnight viewing, Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), a remarkably well-directed early science fiction classic, way ahead of its time. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Day_the_Earth_Stood_Still
When I first read Alan Moore's WATCHMEN in the late 1980's, I still hadn't seen this movie. Although I was a huge fan of the 1963-1965 series THE OUTER LIMITS, and definitely appreciated Moore's reference in the story to the episode "The Architects of Fear".
A rather odd movie starring Lon Cheney Jr., a mobster (Cheney Jr.) is convicted and executed, and his body after is given to a scientist, who in his experiments exposes the corpse to a jolt of high voltage that brings him back to life and makes him impervious to bullets or stabbing, and the mobster goes after the lawyer and crime partners who betrayed and testified against him. And the police go on a citywide manhunt to track him down before he can kill again.
I would have gone for the movie title "The Frankenstein Mobster" but maybe that would just give it away.
An odd splicing of classic Hollywood film-noir of mobsters, gritty first-person narration and police detectives clashing with criminals in tough-guy dialogue, mixed with sci-fi/horror elements. But a fun mix. More noir than monster movie.
I neglected to include a link to the movie the first time I posted it. And here made it easier o see both the Wikipedia listing for he movie, and access to the movie itself. I've developed a recent new appreciation for the film noir genre, with classics like Casablanca, The Big Sleep, Dark Passage, Out of the Past, and more recent films hat are more recent tributes or expansions on the genre, such as Peeper (1975), Bladerunner (1982), and L.A. Confidential (1997)
