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THE BODY BENEATH (1970/Cine Media/Nova International) 85mins. 16mm.
US/UK.
Credits: Dir., Prod., Sc. & Ph: Andy Milligan; Ed:
Gerald Jackson; Sets: James Fox.
Cast: Gavin Reed, Emma
Jones, Jackie Skarvellis, Susan Heard, Richmond Ross, Colin Gordon, Berwick Kaler.
Vampire preacher Reverend Ford, (Reed), transfers his flock of bloodsuckers from Britain
to California. This particular vampire can appear in daylight thanks to a special
injection and kidnaps a pregnant relative, (Skarvellis), to continue his bloodline.
Inept and amateur nonsense that concentrates on pornography rather than plot. Filmed in
some of the graveyards in Britain including Highgate cemetery with Milligan's usual home
movie standards. Kaler's creepy performance stands out.
Nova International transferred the 16mm. print to 35mm. in 1971.THE BODY SNATCHER
FROM HELL (1968) see Kyuketsuki Gokemidoro
THE BODY SNATCHERS (1956) see Ladron de Cadavres
THE BODY STEALERS (1969/Tigon British) 91mins. UK.
Aka: INVASION OF THE BODY STEALERS; THIN AIR (US).
Credits: Dir: Gerry Levy; Prod: Tony Tenser; Sc: Mike
St. Clair & Peter Marcus; Ph: John Coquillon; Ed: Howard Lanning; Art: Wilfred Arnold;
Mu: Bunty Phillips & Roy Ashton; Mus: Reg Tilsley. From a story by Mike St. Clair.
Cast: George Sanders,
Maurice Evans, Patrick Allen, Neil Connery, Hilary Dwyer, Lorna Wilde, Robert Flemyng,
Allan Cuthbertson, Michael Culver, Sally Faulkner, Shelagh Fraser, Carl Rigg, Carolanne
Hawkings, Michael Graham.
Parachutists are disappearing in a strange red mist, so a perplexed military call in the
services of a specialist to find them. Bob Meegan discovers that aliens want to kidnap the
men to save their dying planet named Mygon. Although Meegan foils their plans, he
volunteers to start an expedition to the planet to help the aliens.
The threadbare plot is made even more irritating by the inappropriate music score and the
wooden acting, while Sanders tries his level best to try and keep things together.
Note the uncanny similarity in mannerisms Neil Connery has to his famous brother Sean.
LA BONNE DAME (1966/SOFAC) 25mins. France.
Credits: Dir: Pierre Philippe.
Cast: Valeska Gert, Constantin Nepo. Narrated: Gemaine Kerjean.
Features vampires.
BOREI KAIBYO YASHIKI (1958) see Black Cat Mansion
THE BOSTON STRANGLER (1968/TCF.) 116mins. US.
Credits: Dir: Richard Fleischer; Prod: Robert Fryer;
Sc: Edward Anhalt; Ph: Richard H. Kline; Ed: Marion Rothman; Art: Jack Martin Smith &
Richard Day; Mus: Lionel Newman. From the book by Gerold Frank.
Cast: Tony Curtis, Henry Fonda, George Kennedy, Mike Kellin, Hurd
Hatfield, Murray Hamilton, Jeff Corey, Sally Kellerman, William Marshall, George Voskovec,
William Hickey, James Brolin, Carolyn Connwell, Jeane Cooper, Austin Willis, Lara Lindsay,
George Furth.
A semi-factual account of the brutal murders of women in Boston during the sixties when
psychotic killer Albert DeSalvo, (Curtis) left his wife and children at home while he
preyed on young women posing as a plumber to gain entry to their apartments.
Curtis plays the part exceedingly well with a moody restraint that keeps the character
believable. The equally good photography makes this a chilling tale that dwells mostly on
the police investigation. The use of split screen, however, detracts from the intensity of
the film.
Although DeSalvo was sentenced, he was stabbed to death while incarcerated. Some
"experts" maintain that DeSalvo was innocent and the real murderer is still at
large.
THE BOWERY BOYS MEET THE MONSTERS (1954/Allied Artists) 65mins. BW. US.
Credits: Dir: Edward Bernds; Prod: Ben Schwalb; Sc:
Elwood Ullman & Edward Bernds; Ph: Harry Neumann; Ed: William Austin; Sfx: Augie
Lohman; Mu: Edward Polo; Mus: Marlin Skiles.
Cast: Lloyd Corrigan, Ellen Corby, Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, John
Dehner, Laura Mason, Bobby Jordan, Gabriel Dell, Billy Benedict, Bernard Gorcy, Paul
Wexler, Bennie Bartlett.
The Bowery Boys meet a mad doctor, a vampire, (Wexler), a robot named Gorak, (Corrigan),
and a gorilla, (Denher), when they approach the Gravesend family to use their old dark
house as a playground for the local children. Huntz Hall is also transformed into a
werewolf.
Typical Bowery Boys nonsense, choc-o-block with their zany humour and awful sight gags.
Even fans of the Bowery Boys series will find this a chore to watch.
The Bowery Boys began life as the Dead End Kids in 1937 and then became the East Side Kids
in the early '40's.
When Leo Gorcey's father, Bernard Gorcey, died in 1956, Leo left the series which
continued until 1958.
BOYICHI AND THE SUPER MONSTER (1967) see Gamera Tai Gyaos
THE BOYS FROM BROOKLYN (1952) see Bela Lugosi Meets the
Brooklyn Gorilla |
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THE BRAIN (1964/Governor Films/CCC/Stross) 83mins. BW. UK./Germany.
Aka: VENGANCE; EIN TOTER SUCHT SEINEN MÖRDER.
Credits: Dir: Freddie Francis; Prod: Raymond Stross;
Sc: Robert Stewart & Philip Mackie; Ph: Bob Hulke; Mus: Ken Jones. Based on
"Donovan's Brain" by Curt Siodmak.
Cast: Anne Heywood, Peter
Van Eyck, Bernard Lee, Cecil Parker, Jack MacGowan, Maxine Audley, Jeremy Spenser, Miles
Malleson, Frank Forsythe.
"Instrument of terror! The pounding of the afterbrain signals vengeance and
death!"
A skilled doctor saves the brain of a ruthless tycoon who dies in a plane crash, but the
tycoon's brain slowly takes over his mind, and causes him to wreak revenge on those who
were responsible for his "death". However it doesn't take the brain long to
learn that the real culprit is his own daughter, and the crash was accidental.
A pointless third remake of the famous novel. Much too talky to hold interest even though
the ending has changed with the brain triumphant over the doctor's will.THE BRAIN EATERS (1958/AIP./Corinthian) 60mins. BW. US.
Aka: THE KEEPERS OF THE EARTH.
Credits: Dir: Bruno Ve Sota; Prod: Edwin Nelson; Sc:
Gordon Urquhart; Ph: Larry Raimond; Ed: Carlo Lodato; Art: Burt Shonberg; Mus: Tom Jonson.
Based loosely on Robert A Heinlein's "The Puppet Masters".
Cast: Joanna Lee, Alan Frost, Leonard Nemoy (Nimoy), Jack Hill, Edwin
Nelson, Jody Fair, David Hughes, Robert Ball, Greigh Phillips, Orville Sherman.
"Crawling, slimy things terror bent on destroying the world!"
A strange cylinder arrives from the centre of the earth in Bellville, Illinois, filled
with furry little parasites. Once the cylinder is discovered Senator Powers takes charge
of the investigations, but the parasites have already bored into his neck and taken over
his mind. Other townsfolk become controlled by the parasites in a bid to create a new
social order and take over the world. The surviving townsfolk, led by scientist Dr.
Kettering, (Nelson), eventually discover that electricity can kill the invaders, but all
those he asks to help him are already in the creatures' power, including his assistant
Alice, (Lee). While he tries to help Alice, an electric power cable falls and electrifies
the ship, destroying Alice, the doctor and the creatures.
Even though the cheap charm of many of these films makes some of them enjoyable, this is
an exception with shoddy acting, incessant meandering dialogue, and pitiful monsters that
don't even provide a few unintentional laughs. The pathetic parasites were created by
covering wind-up toys with pieces of fur and using pipe cleaners as their antennae.
THE BRAIN FROM PLANET AROUS (1957/Howco In’tl/Marquette
Prod.) 68mins. BW. US.
Credits: Dir: Nathan Hertz (Nathan Juran); Prod. &
Ph: Jacques Marquette; A.Prod: Dale Tate; Sc: Ray Buffum; Ed: Irving Schoenberg; Mu: Jack
P. Pierce; Sound: Philip Mitchell; Mus: Walter Green.
Cast: John Agar, Joyce Meadows, Robert Fuller, Thomas B. Henry, Ken
Terrell, E. Leslie Thomas, Henry Travis, Bill Giorgio, Tim Graham, Morris Ankrum. Vol's
voice: Werner Erhard.
"Diabolical power! Unequalled in science fiction!"
Gor, is an evil floating alien brain that takes over the body of nuclear physicist Steve,
(Agar), who begins behaving uncharacteristically including an attempt to rape his fiancée
Sally, (Meadows). At a demonstration of his powers to world leaders, Gor causes a plane to
crash just by looking at it and forces the leaders to become his slaves in an effort to
build an interstellar craft that will enable Gor to conquer his own world. Vol, a law
officer from the same planet, pursues Gor to Earth and possesses Steve's dog. As Gor needs
to leave the man's body once every twenty-four hours to materialise, Steve returns to
normal and takes the opportunity to hack Gor to death with an axe.
A silly, but highly original idea is turned into an effective B-movie adventure despite
some of the more laughable plot devices. Aided by Agar's ham performance, some of the
unintentionally funny scenes are priceless.
Originally double-billed with Teenage Monster (1957).
John Agar was Shirley Temple's first husband.
THE BRAIN MACHINE (1954/Snowden/Merton Park) 83mins. BW. UK.
Credits: Dir. & Sc: Ken Hughes.
Cast: Elizabeth Allan, Patrick Barr, Maxwell Reed, Russell Napier,
Vanda Godsell, Gibb McLaughlin.
Using an electroencephalograph a psychiatrist discovers that his patient is a psychopath.
Despite the science fiction elements this is just another poorly produced and acted
thriller involving drug smugglers.
THE BRAIN THAT WOULDN'T DIE (1959/Sterling/AIP.) 81mins. BW.
Released 1962.
Aka: THE HEAD THAT WOULDN'T DIE.
Credits: Dir. & Sc: Joseph Green; Prod: Rex
Carlton; Add.Dial: Doris Brent.
Cast: Herb Evers (Joseph Evers), Virginia Leith, Adele Lamont, Bruce
Brighton, Leslie Daniel, Paula Maurice, Eddie Carmel. "Alive...Without a
body...Fed by an unspeakable horror from Hell!"
Surgeon Dr. Bill Carter, (Evers), succeeds in keeping his fiancé‚ Jan's, (Leith),
head alive after she is decapitated in a car accident, but he is forced to find a suitable
body to attach it to. Deciding on an well-endowed stripper, (Lamont), as his subject, he
fails to realise that Jan's anguished head only wants to be allowed to die. To this end
Jan wills one of the surgeon's earlier experiments, (Carmel), out of a closet to rip the
assistant's, (Daniel), arms off, and attack Carter when he returns.
A bizarre love story is successfully given the B-movie horror treatment to create a minor
classic.
THE BRAINIAC (1961/ABSA) 85mins. BW. Mexico. Aka: EL BARON DEL
TERROR.
Credits: Dir: Chano Urveta; Prod: Abel Salazar; Sc:
Adolpho Portillo & Federico Curiel; Ph: Jose Ortiz Ramos; Sfx: Juan Munoz Ravdo.
Cast: German Robles, Abel Salazar, Ruben Rojo, Rosa Maria Gallardo,
Luis Aragon, Maurico Garces, Rene Cardona, Ariadna Welter, Federico Curiel, Roxana
Bellini.
Baron Bitelious of Estera, (Salazar), burnt at the stake in 1661, comes back to life
during the wake of a passing comet to have revenge on his persecutors by extracting their
brains. The Baron takes the form of a shaggy creature with a long tongue, which he uses to
bore into the skulls of his victims to suck out the brain, but he is finally destroyed by
policemen armed with flame-throwers.
A tale so outrageous that the film works well.
Shot one month before La Cabeza Vivente.
BRAM STOKER'S DRACULA (1970) see El Conde Dracula
THE BRASS BOTTLE (1964/Scarus) 89mins. US.
Credits: Dir: Harry Keller; Prod: Robert Arthur; Sc:
Oscar Brodney; Ph: Clifford Stine; Sfx: Roswell Hoffman; Mus: Bernard Green.
Cast: Tony Randall, Burl Ives, Barbara Eden, Edward Andrews, Ann
Doran.
A young architect, (Randall), discovers an old bottle which contains a meddlesome genie,
(Ives). Once released, the genie is unaware that things have changed since the time of
King Solomon and his antics to try and please the architect cause the young man to
experience even more chaos than he ever imagined.
A one-joke farce with poor effects.
BRENN: HEXE (1970) see Hexen Bis Aufs Blut Gequalt
BREWSTER McCLOUD (1970/MGM./Adler-Phillips/Lions Gate) 105mins. US.
Credits: Dir: Robert Altman; Prod: Lou Adler; Sc:
Doran William Cannon; Ph: Lamar Boren & Jordan Cronenweth; Ed: Louis Lombardo; Art:
George W. Davis & Preston Ames; Mus: Gene Page.
Cast: Bud Cort, Sally Kellerman, Michael Murphy, William Windom,
Shelley Duvall, Rene Auberjonois, Stacy Keach, John Shuck, Margaret Hamilton.
Brewster, (Cort), who lives in the depths of the Huston Astrodome dreams of escape by
using a pair of wings. Aiding him in his dream to fly is his sexy fairy godmother,
(Kellerman), who is also a mass murderess and prevents anyone from taking advantage of her
charge. While plans for Brewster's solo flight are underway, strange murders occur with
all the victims covered in large bird droppings. A detective, (Murphy), investigates.
Altman pokes fun at various accepted social values in this dated, but occasionally amusing
fantasy.
THE BRIDE AND THE BEAST (1957/Allied Artists) 78mins. BW.
Aka: QUEEN OF THE GORILLAS.
Credits: Dir. & Prod: Adrian Weiss; Sc: Edward D.
Wood Jnr.; Sfx: Gerald Endler; Mu: Harry Thomas; Mus: Les Baxter. From a story by Adrian
Weiss.
Cast: Lance Fuller, Charlotte Austin, Johnny Roth, William Justine,
Jeanne Gerson, Steve Calvert, Gil Frye, Slick Slavin, Bohgwan Singh, Jean Ann Lewis.
A big game hunter, (Fuller), discovers that his wife, (Austin), is the reincarnation of a
gorilla which explains why she seems overly fond of her husband's captured ape. When they
go on an African honeymoon, she regresses to her ape form and re-joins her own kind and
chooses to stay when her husband comes to rescue her.
Ed D. Wood of PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE fame penned this typically inept tale complete with
terrible dialogue. The African scenes are from stock footage of safari films.
Steve Calvert portrays a gorilla that kidnaps Charlotte Austin.
BRIDE OF THE ATOM (1955) see Bride of the Monster
BRIDE OF THE GORILLA (1952/Broder/Realart) 65mins. BW. US.
Credits: Dir. & Sc: Curt Siodmak; Prod:
Jack Broder; A.Prod: Herman Cohen.
Cast: Lon
Chaney Jnr., Raymond Burr, Barbara Payton, Tom Conway, Paul Cavanagh, Giselle
Werbisek, Woody Strode.
"Primitive! Passionate! Monster and a girl!"
A jungle policeman, (Chaney), attempts to catch an apeman, (Burr), who was created from a
rubber plantation foreman when he was administered leaves from the "plant of
evil" by an elderly servant after the foreman killed his employer. Now married the
man's widow, (Payton), the foreman’s hideous transformation repulses his new wife and
the police officer eventually shoots the creature.
The success of this cheap and ridiculous jungle adventure inspired Broder to make Bela Lugosi Meets the Brooklyn Gorilla.
BRIDE OF THE MONSTER (1955/Rolling M Prod./Banner) 69mins.
BW. US.
Aka: BRIDE OF THE ATOM. Shooting title: THE MONSTER OF THE MARSHES.
Originally titled: THE ATOMIC MONSTER.
Credits: Dir. & Prod: Edward D. Wood Jnr.;
Ex.Prod: Donald McCoy; Sc: Edward D. Wood Jnr. & Alex Gordon; Ph: William C. Thompson
& Ted Allan; Ed: Warren Adams & Igo Kantor; Sfx: Pat Dinga; Stunts: Eddie Parker;
Mus: Frank Worth.
Cast: Bela Lugosi,
Tor Johnson, Tony
McCoy, Loretta King, Harvey B. Dunne, George Becwar, Paul Marco, Don Nagel, Bud Osborne, Eddie Parker.
"The screen's Master of the Weird in his most daring shocker!"
Mad scientist, Dr. Eric Vornoff, (Lugosi), and his Tibetan assistant Lobo, (Johnson), flee
from Europe to California, where they try to harness atomic energy in order to create a
race of obedient atomic beings. After several deaths and a few experiments on the bodies,
reporter Janet Lawson, (King), and her fiancée Lt. Dick Craig, (McCoy), become suspicious
of the doctor's activities, but they are captured and made Voronoff’s prisoners. Lobo
saves the girl and aims the doctor's atomic rays at his master causing Voronoff to gain
superhuman strength. Voronoff kills Lobo, but becomes the victim of an earlier experiment,
a giant mutated octopus that lives in the swamp.
A dire production whose star was obviously drugged to the eyeballs.
The film was originally titled THE ATOMIC MONSTER in 1953 from a script written by Alex
Gordon, but the project was abandoned.
The special atomic harnessing machine was actually a photographic enlarger hung on a
microphone boom.
The octopus that ended Dr. Voronoff's life was created for the John Wayne movie WAKE OF
THE RED WITCH, but Wood never found out how to work the motors, so Lugosi had to flail
about while trying to make the octopus look like it was killing him. The final scene of an
exploding nuclear bomb was put into the film on the insistence of the executive producer
who was the owner of a meat packing plant in Arizona. He felt it would be a good statement
against the arms race.
During production the film was being called THE MONSTER OF THE MARSHES and then premiered
at the Paramount theatre in Hollywood on May 11th.'55 as BRIDE OF THE ATOM only to be
retitled a day later.
This was Lugosi's last mad scientist, and the last time audiences ever heard his voice for
which he was only paid $1000.
BRIDES OF BLOOD (1968/Hemisphere) 92mins. US/Philippines.
Aka: BRIDES OF DEATH; GRAVE DESIRES; ISLAND OF LIVING HORROR; TERROR ON BLOOD ISLAND.
Credits: Dir: Gerardo De Leon & Eddie Romero;
Prod: Eddie Romero.
Cast: John Ashley, Kent Taylor, Beverly Hills, Eva Darren.
Radiation causes people to turn into chlorophyll men and start eating the local natives of
Blood Island and molesting their women.
The first of a series of three poor "Blood Island" movies that are all very much
alike including the poor monster makeup and the boring hero. This was re-released in 1979.
Sequel: The Mad Doctor of Blood Island (1969)
BRIDES OF DEATH (1968) see Brides of Blood
BRIDES OF DOCTOR JEKYLL (1964) see El Secreto del Doctor
Orloff
THE BRIDES OF DRACULA (1960/ Hammer/ Hotspur) 85mins. Released
by Columbia. UK.
Credits: Dir: Terence Fisher; Prod: Anthony Hinds;
Ex.Prod: Michael Carreras; A.Prod: Anthony Nelson Keys; Sc: Jimmy Sangster, Peter Bryan
& Edward Percy; Ph: Jack Asher; Ed: Jim Needs & Alfred Cox; Art: Bernard Robinson
& Thomas Goswell; Sfx: Sydney Pearson; Mus: Malcolm Williamson.
Cast: Peter Cushing, Freda Jackson, David Peel, Yvonne Monlaur,
Michael Ripper, Martita Hunt, Andree Melly, Henry Oscar, Mona Washbourne, Miles Malleson,
Norman Pierce, Vera Cook, Michael Mulcaster.
"In the privacy of a girls school he sought his prey - turning innocent beauty
into a thing of unspeakable horror!"
The young Baron Meinster, (Peel), is a vampire, and kept in his mother's chateau under
lock and key. The Baroness, (Hunt), invites a young girl named Marianne, (Monlaur),
back to her chateau, but she unwittingly releases the vampire Baron. A vampire hunter,
(Cushing), tries to destroy the creature, and eventually succeeds by using the cuneiform
shadow of a windmill.
The producers intended Christopher Lee to star in this intelligent sequel to Dracula (1958), but Lee refused the part and for fear of
typecasting and did not play Dracula again until 1966.
This remains the better of Hammer's DRACULA sequels.
THE BRIDES OF FU MANCHU (1966/7 Arts/Anglo Amalgamated)
94mins. UK.
Sequel to: The Face of Fu Manchu.
Credits: Dir: Don Sharp; Prod: Oliver Unger &
Harry Alan Towers; Sc: Peter Welbeck (Harry Alan Towers) & Don Sharp.
Cast: Christopher Lee, Douglas Wilmer, Howard Marion-Crawford, Tsai Chin,
Marie Versini, Rupert Davies, Heinz Drache, Burt Kwouk, Roger Hanin, Kenneth Fortesque,
Joseph Furst, Carole Gray.
"Better dead than wed!"
At Fu Manchu's headquarters, in a secret part of North Africa, twelve beautiful girls are
imprisoned. Each of them is related to an influential figure whose collaboration Fu
Manchu, (Lee), hopes to obtain to further his plan to dominate the world by building a
destructive death ray machine. Nayland Smith, (Wilmer), is called in to foil the master
criminal's plans.
The second of the Lee, Fu Manchu films, that is not as exciting as the original, but still
intelligent and well scripted.
As a publicity stunt beauty contests were held and the winners hired to portray the 12
daughters.
Sequel: The Vengeance of Fu Manchu.
BRING ME THE VAMPIRE (1961) see Echenre Al Vampiro
THE BROTHERHOOD OF SATAN (1970/LQ JAF/Columbia/4-Star Excel.)
92mins. US.
Credits: Dir: Bernard McEveety; Prod: L.Q. Jones &
Alvy Moore; Sc: William Welch; Ph: John Arthur Morril; Ed: Marvin Walowitz; Mus: Jaime
Mendoza-Nava.
Cast: Strother Martin, Alvy Moore, L.Q. Jones, Charles Bateman, Ahna
Capiri, Charles Robinson, Geri Reischl, Helene Winston, Debi Storm, Jeff Williams, Judy
McConnell, Joyce Easton, Robert Ward, John Barclay, Phyllis Coughlan.
A Californian Devil-cult leader, (Martin), arranges for elderly members to transfer their
souls into the bodies of children. A couple, trapped in the mysterious town, discover that
they are meant to handover any children they produce and that the cult’s powers cause
children's toys into instruments of destruction.
A well made and imaginative witchcraft thriller.
Theatre patrons were given packets of Satan's Soul seeds at the box office for protection.
LA BRUJA (1954) 90mins. BW.
Mexico.
Aka: THE WITCH. Sequel to: El Monstruo Resucitado.
Credits: Dir: Chano Urueta; Prod: Sergio Kogan; Sc: Alfredo Salazar &
Chano Urueta; Ph: Victor Herrera; Sfx: Jorge Benavides & Antonio Bustos.
Cast: Lilla del Valle, Ramon Gay, Julio Villarreal, Charles Rooner, Luis Aceves
Castaneda, Fernando Wagner, José Rene Ruiz (Tun Tin), Guillermo Hernandez (Lobo Negro),
Gullermina Tellez Giron, Diana Ochoa.
A respected doctor, (Villarreal), skilled enough to make ugly people, beautiful, is
targeted by envious colleagues when they destroy his laboratory. To gain revenge, the
doctor transforms the ugly La Bruja, (del Valle), into a beauty and sends her to kill his
enemies. However, the woman falls in love with one of her victims and tries to flee the
doctor's control. On the run with her lover, they are captured by a society of beggars
called The Tribunal of the Night, who are grateful for the doctor's work and sentence the
couple to death. La Bruja manages to free her lover, but she is stabbed in the process and
reverts back to her former ugliness.
Neither a satisfying romantic melodrama, or a horror film. The transformations are crude
and the acting is awkward.
Urueta later filmed another witchcraft movie titled El Espejo de
la Bruja (1960). |
