TRANSYLVANIA – The pumpkins, costumes and candy corns have arrived in the stores. It’s spooky season! The most exciting news is that the official spooksperson of pre-Halloween time is back. Elvira, Mistress of the Dark has revived Movie Macabre for THiS Network (see your local digital sub-station TV guide). She’s serving up beastly cinema classics. However she’s more than a late night horror hostess. She’s a movie star. Her second film Elvira’s Haunted Hills receives a Special Enhanced Edition DVD from E One.
Elvira’s Haunted Hills was her homage to the Edgar Allen Poe films starring Vincent Price and directed by Roger Corman. Amongst the comic moments were tributes to House of Usher, Pit and the Pendulum and The Tomb of Ligeia. Since they couldn’t get Vincent Price, Rocky Horror‘s Richard O’Brien took the role. Back in 1851, Elvira cuts through Carpathia to get to Paris for a job as a Can Can dancer. She gets booted from the local hotel. She ends up staying in O’Brien’s castle up on a nearby hill. What horrors await her behind the locked doors?
After my review of Oblivion, director Sam Irvin dropped me an email of thanks. Turns out He’s done plenty in his career including helming Elvira’s Haunted Hills. Along with Oblivion, he directed Oblivion 2: Backlash. He was Co-Executive Producer of Gods and Monsters starring Ian McKellen and Brendan Fraser. Plus he directed all the episodes of Dante’s Cove. In between an earthquake, hurricane and a Kardashian marriage, the Party Favors had a chance to swap questions with director Sam Irvin about his experiences with Elvira on the Romanian locations.
Party Favors: What brought you and Elvira together?
Sam Irvin: I met Cassandra Peterson at a party in Hollywood shortly after my first feature film Guilty As Charged was released. The movie starred Rod Steiger, Heather Graham, Lauren Hutton, and Isaac Hayes, and was a dark horror comedy about a deranged vigilante who kidnaps murderers who’ve escape justice and fries them on his own electric chair in the dungeon under his meat packing plant. To my great delight, Cassandra had seen the movie, loved it, and told me she wanted to work with me someday.
At the time, I was in prep to direct a Showtime movie called Acting On Impluse starring Linda Fiorentino as a scream queen B-movie actress who is accused of killing her sleazy horror movie producer. The movie also starred C. Thomas Howell and Nancy Allen, but was loaded with cameos including Isaac Hayes, Zelda Rubinstein, Paul Bartel, Mary Woronov, Brinke Stevens, Dick Sargent (Darren from Bewitched in his last role), Don Most, among others. So, I asked Cassandra to join the cameo line-up as the bouncer at a country-western bar. It was just one scene but she killed it in a big blond Dolly Parton wig (which she borrowed from Darryl Hannah). In the scene, she checks the I.D.’s of Linda Fiorentino, C. Thomas Howell, and Nancy Allen as they enter the bar. Of course, Cassandra — with her training at the Groundlings comedy academy — improvised some hilarious zingers that really punched up the scene. We got along famously and kept in touch, hoping to work more together in the future.
Party Favors: During the shoot of Elvira’s Haunted Hills, did you find yourself confused as to calling her Elvira or Cassandra when she’s in make up?
Sam Irvin: I think if you did not know Cassandra well, you might get confused when she’s in her Elvira drag and call her Elvira — because it is quite a transformation and Elvira looks nothing like Cassandra. But, because I had known Cassandra for several years prior to making the film, I didn’t have that problem. I could mentally block out the get-up and see the real Cassandra peeking out from within. It must seem funny to people around us when I’m talking to Elvira in all her regalia about mundane things like, “Were you able to get an Internet connection from your hotel room?”
Party Favors: Whose idea was it to film in Romania?
Sam Irvin: Cassandra’s relative, Robert Dornhelm, recommended Romania because he was a native of that country. She toured castles and studios there the summer before the film was made.
Party Favors: Elvira’s Haunted Hills pays homage to the Poe films made by Vincent Price and Roger Corman. Did you ever hear from Corman about your film?
Sam Irvin: No, I’ve never heard if Roger saw it. I think he would get a huge kick out of it, though, because both Cassandra and I are nuts about his movies and we threw in every Cormanism we could think of — with heartfelt love and affection.
Party Favors: Did anyone try to rent you his old sets and props from his time with Vincent?
Sam Irvin: I wish those old sets still existed. They were gorgeous. We went to great lengths to recreate them, at least in spirit, if not exact duplications in some cases.
Party Favors: Which of Poe-Corman-Price collaborations is your favorite?
Sam Irvin: No doubt, The Pit and the Pendulum is my hands down favorite — partly because, in addition to Vincent Price, the film also stars the fabulous and wicked Barbara Steele. But I love them all: House of Usher, The Haunted Palace, Tomb of Legeia, Masque of the Red Death, The Raven and Tales of Terror.All of them were seminal influences on me as a kid. I even memorized Vincent Price’s monologue from The Pit and the Pendulum for some school acting presentation and I can still recite it today. Is that geeky, or what?! When I met with Cassandra to possibly direct Elvira’s Haunted Hills, she had no idea just how serious a fan I was of those films and was astounded when I broke into Price’s monologue. Instead of calling security, she offered me the job.
Party Favors: Did you try to get Dick Miller or Jonathan Haze in the film?
Sam Irvin: No, mainly because there weren’t any obvious parts for them and because we had to limit how many people we brought over to Romania — for budgetary reasons. Had we shot the film locally here in L.A., we might very well have thought of some way to wedge them in.
Party Favors: How weird was it going from talking to Richard Chamberlin for the role of Lord Vladimere and ending up with Richard O’Brien? Did the role get altered for Richard O’Brien?
Sam Irvin: The role of Lord Vladimere Hellsubus was designed to be our “Vincent Price” character in Elvira’s Haunted Hills. He was the demented Lord of the castle and he had many afflictions — like super-acute hearing and over-ripe taste buds (traits of Price’s character in House of Usher) and super-sensitive eyes (like Price’s character in Tomb of Ligeia). In fact, we searched everywhere to find the exact style of wrap-around sunglasses Price wore in Tomb of Ligeia. So, when it came to casting that part, we wanted someone who adored Vincent Price as much as we did and who could honor his legacy with a loving send-up. We approached Christopher Lee, Mick Jagger, Tim Curry, and Richard Chamberlain (who is a very close friend of Cassandra’s), but, for various reasons (scheduling conflicts, not enough money being offered, or the part simply didn’t strike a chord), we ended up with the best choice of all: Richard O’Brien. People remember him as Riff Raff in The Rocky Horror Picture Show, but not everyone realizes that he wrote Rocky Horror — the Broadway smash and the movie. The libretto, the screenplay, the music, and the lyrics. All that comes from the brilliant mind of Richard O’Brien. And, of course, of all our choices for the role of Vladimere, O’Brien was head-over-heels in love with Vincent Price and knew the Corman films backwards and forwards just like Cassandra and I did. So, there was instant recognition of exactly what we wanted to do and he hammed it up to the hilt, yet took it very seriously and delivered a nuanced and intelligently layered performance. He was absolutely brilliant… and hilarious! I don’t think our other choices would have been as “into it” as O’Brien. We were very lucky.
Party Favors: Is it odd to think that Richard’s now the voice of the dad on Disney’s Phineas and Ferb cartoon?
Sam Irvin: I didn’t even know that! Hilarious!
Party Favors: Who was more famous in Romania: Elvira or The Rocky Horror Picture Show?
Sam Irvin: Neither one, really. The phenomenon of both had never caught on in that country. Back in the 1970s and 1980s, Romania was under a dictatorship and communism — so these deliciously perverse influences were not allowed across the border.
Party Favors: If a crew member was caught humming “Time Warp” around O’Brien; did they have to pay a performance royalty?
Sam Irvin: None of our crew — which was entirely Romanian — had ever seen The Rocky Horror Picture Show, so it was not a problem. Our American actors were in awe of O’Brien at first, but soon cozied up and became pals. It’s funny but when you’re with him, he dominates the conversation so much, you never have time to slip in a verse of “Time Warp” or anything else. It’s hard to believe in retrospect — because I am such a huge Rocky Horror fan — but I don’t recall asking him much about it. We were having too much fun with what was happening on our movie to dwell on our past career accomplishments. If the conversation drifted to nostalgia, it was centered on Corman / Price / Poe.
Party Favors: What’s the craft service table like in Romania?
Sam Irvin: Scarce and scary. I’d brought my own peanut M&M’s (my drug-of-choice for afternoon pick-me-ups). I also live on Diet Coke so I had to get them to special order a supply to keep me going.
Party Favors: Did you make a pilgrimage to Dracula’s Castle?
Sam Irvin: We did. To all ten or fifteen of them. Every castle in Romania claims that Vlad Tepes lived there at one point or another. I have a feeling that includes those in which he visited for one night — and some that he never stepped foot in. So, you really have no idea what’s real or tourist-trap myth.
Party Favors: Was it interesting to know that you’re one of the few horror films about Romania that went to Romania and not Universal City?
Sam Irvin: Shocking, isn’t it? I expected the country to be in black-and-white and have Una O’Connor, Dwight Frye, and Maria Ouspenskaya wandering the streets.
Party Favors: What is your favorite memory of the shoot?
Sam Irvin: My favorite memory was walking onto the pit and the pendulum set when it was completed — designed and built by Radu Corciova, our brilliant production designer who also designed my two Oblivion movies which were shot in Romania as well. I felt like bellowing my Vincent Price monologue but was afraid they’d call the men in the white suits to cart me away to some Transylvanian asylum. It brought tears to me eyes, though. It was the culmination of everything I’d grown up adoring.
Party Favors: What is the strangest thing you remember about the production?
Sam Irvin: When we were shooting the opening Transylvanian village scene, the local extras’ wardrobe was not provided by our costume department. They wore their every day clothing and it looked authentically period for 1851. Talk about a “time Warp”!
Party Favors: Does it surprise you that after Elvira found her Next Elvira, she resurrected Movie Macabre? Can she really retire?
Sam Irvin: No one other than Cassandra could ever be Elvira — and I think the public agrees with me. She’s got to keep the flame alive herself. There’s just no substitute!
Party Favors: Did you figure out what’s Cassandra/Elvira’s secret for remaining so youthful? Did you find any PAs missing their blood?
Sam Irvin: It is insane how youthful Cassandra remains. I have snooped around her house to see if she’s got an aging portrait hidden in some closet — like Dorian Gray. We just got together last week to record the audio commentary and interviews for this new DVD reissue of the movie. We made the film eleven years ago and she hasn’t aged a single day! The same cannot be said of me. Damn her! I don’t know how she does it.
Party Favors: Do you know what’s extra in the upcoming “Enhanced Edition?”
Sam Irvin: Yes! The first DVD release included a “Making of” featurette, a photo gallery, and an interview with Richard O’Brien. For this new “Enhance Edition,” we’ve added an audio commentary with Cassandra, Mary Scheer (of MadTV and iCarly fame — who played Vladimere’s wife in our film), Mary Jo Smith (who played Zou Zou, Elvira’s French maid), Scott Atkinson (who played Dr. Bradley with the “George Sanders” accent), and me. All five of us also did new on-camera interviews which have been cut together into a dishy 30-minute bonus featurette called: “Transylvania or Bust: Elvira & Company Tell All!” Plus, we’ve also added hilarious outtakes. It’s truly a treasure trove for Elvira fans, to say the least. We’re so jazzed and proud of it.
Party Favors: What concerned you the most about getting to make Oblivion and it’s sequel at the same time? Do you think more low budget films should do this instead of waiting for the original film to come out?
Sam Irvin: We made both Oblivion films together and I shot them as if it was one long movie. When we shot scenes in the town saloon, for instance, we shot all the saloon scenes for both films. The entire schedule was arranged that way. It certainly made economic sense — and I am surprised more low-budget films are not made this way. Big budget franchises are doing this more frequently — like the last two Harry Potter movies and Bill Condon’s upcoming Twilight two-parter. I applied the same formula to my Dante’s Cove television series. We shot each entire season as if it was one long movie, shooting out each set, one by one.
Party Favors: What was it like to work with Julie Newmar on Oblivion and Oblivion 2?
Sam Irvin: Julie Newmar was the cat’s meow. A very charming lady, very serious about her work, and extremely gracious to let us send-up her Catwoman legacy.
Party Favors: Did George Takei recount his time with John Wayne on Green Berets?
Sam Irvin: No, but he had a few choices things to say about a certain cast member on Star Trek — which shall not be repeated here. George is a HILARIOUS man! And, like me, we’re both out and proud gay men, with long term partners, so we have all that in common.
Party Favors: You were a producer on Gods and Monsters so you’ve paid tribute to Boris Karloff and Vincent Price; when will you make a project dedicated to Peter Lorre?
Sam Irvin: I adore Peter Lorre and I’ve always thought it would be great to have a character in one of my comedy projects do an impersonation of Lorre the way that Scott Aktinson imitated George Sanders for Elvira’s Haunted Hills. Wouldn’t that be fun? Fingers crossed it will happen one day. On the more serious side, Peter Lorre led such a fascinating life. I devoured Stephen D. Youngkin’s biography The Lost One: A Life of Peter Lorre, and there’s a movie or two in there just begging to be made.
MGM MOD
Time to salivate with more choice items finally getting released from MGM’s vault thanks to their Manufacture on Demand program. They’re getting out several American International Pictures titles that didn’t get a proper release through the Midnite Movies series.
Jules Verne’s Master of the World was AIP’s attempt to make a Disney live-action movie like 20,000 Leagues Under the Seas. Instead of a submarine, we’re given a futuristic airship piloted by Captain Robur (Vincent Price). He has created new materials to go beyond the lame balloons of his day. When he lands inside a crater, the US government sends John Strock (Charles Bronson) to investigate. He hitches a ride with balloonist Prudent (Henry Hull), his daughter (Mary Webster) and her fiancé (David Franklin). The Captain plans on bring piece on Earthy by taking out all the world’s major military targets. It’s a fun thrill to see Price acting with the stars of Death Wish and Werewolf of London. There’s plenty of model effects for people who can’t stand CGI.
The Glory Stompers dares to let us see Casey Kasem as a biker. That’s right, the voice of Shaggy and America’s Top 40 wears gang colors and a beard. On top of that, he’s part of Dennis Hopper’s gang. He’s got a long distance dedication from his fist to your face! Hopper is extremely sinister when he locks eyes on Chris Noel at a biker shindig. He wants her bad. But she’s Jody McCrea’s old lady. Did you just laugh? Can you not believe that Deadhead from Beach Party is an outlaw biker? Actually he’s still a clean cut guy. He sees the good that can come from being in a biker gang. He likes the freedom of the road. He doesn’t seem to be in it for the drugs and beatings. Well Hopper and Casey stomp McCrea’s ass to the point where they declare him dead. They plot to drag his old lady down to Mexico and sell her into slavery. Casey is evil! The other bikers wants a piece of him and Dennis. This make a great start to a triple feature with The Wild Angels and Easy Rider.
The Incredible Melting Man scared me as a kid. Not the movie itself, but the creepy TV ad. What’s a worst feeling than having your flesh drip off you like wax? The credits don’t list the true star on the box: a young Rick Baker. Whatever you think of the plot, his work on making astronaut Steve West melt on screen can’t be matched. Baker makes the film live up to the title. The movie itself is pure low budget horror. It appears NASA was being run out of a series of abandoned warehouses. But there’s plenty of gross out effects as West’s body drips south. Can his terror outlast his flesh? Is there a cure? Director William Sachs would go on to helm the legendary Van Nuys Blvd. The spot the famous cameo in this production is Jonathan Demme (Silence of the Lambs). Why did he do it? Producer Samuel W. Gelfman had also worked on Demme’s Caged Heat.
Hickey and Boggs reunites the stars of I Spy as a pair of broke private eyes working Los Angeles. Bill Cosby and Robert Culp are so messed up that their office is pretty much the nearest dive bar. After a night of boozing, the duo stumble across a gig to find a missing girl. The client claims she’s his girlfriend. The reality is she’s part of a bank robbing gang. The duo keep on the case since there’s a rather healthy reward that’s more than their client’s payday. The big problem for them is the numerous dead bodies piling up in their path. Isabel Sanford (The Jeffersons) pops up. Culp does a fine job directing the action from Walter Hill’s script. Him and Cosby keep up their great chemistry on the big screen.
BLU-RAY HEAVEN
Dead Cert mixes a British crime flick with a Hammer Horror. An ex-mobster finds a group of mysterious businessmen want his new nightclub. He’s not in the mood to sell so he gives them their whatfors and shows them the door. What the mobster doesn’t know is that the club is on top of a major vampire’s grave. This was the vampires nice way of doing business. Things get messy with the second offer. There’s also plenty of British guys bareknuckle boxing. Ouch. Jason Flemyng of Snatch. is part of the fun. This kinda reminds me of Innocent Blood with the mixture of crime and blood sucking. It’s like a freaky production you’d catch after dark on BBCAmerica. Bonus features include a commentary track from Billy Murray and a few castmates. There’s also a 30 minute documentary about the production. The 1080p picture brings out the darkness and grimy nature of the locations.
CORMAN CORNER
Roger Corman’s Cult Classics All-Night Marathon: Vampires, Mummies & Monsters will keep things spooky during this scary season. Lady Frankenstein, The Velvet Vampire, Time Walker and Grotesque will keep you up all night with low budget fears. Lady Frankenstein gets the immediate cool factor for having Joseph Cotten (Citizen Kane) as Dr. Frankenstein. After he brings his monster to life, there’s an industrial accident. His daughter takes over the family business to make her kinda man. The fine folks at Shout! were able to locate missing scenes that were shown in Europe so you can have the option to watch Corman’s cut or the international version. The missing scenes are from video sources. The Velvet Vampire gets instant watch this status since it has Michael Blodgett of Russ Meyer’s Beyond the Valley of the Dolls. He was the California beach boy of his time. This time he and his wife (Sherry Miles) met up with a strange woman (Celeste Yarnell) during an art exhibit. She invites the couple out to her desert estate for the weekend. What they don’t know about their hostess is that she’s not only bi-sexual, but a vampire who likes to watch. She sits behind a security mirror watch the couple in bed before she infiltrates their dreams. Celeste provides a commentary track about her time in the heat with Blodgett.
Time Walker is best known to MST3K fans as Being From Another Planet. It’s cheese-tasitc low budget scares. Right off the bat you can tell they’re cutting corners when they skip b-roll of Egypt for a montage of holiday snapshots of the pyramids. We’re really supposed to believe Ben Murphy (The Gemini Man) is exploring King Tut’s tomb. He comes across an unusual sarcophagus. He has no problem shipping it back to America for further examination. This film saved a lot on the budget by avoiding any sense of reality. They open up a sarcophagus without any protection. Ultimately they discover the mummy is not one of King Tut’s childhood friends. It’s alive and it wants to go home. Actor Kevin Brophy and producer Dimitri Villard sit for an interview. Where is a Gemini Man boxset? The final entry is Grotesque starring Linda Blair (The Exorcist). She goes to visit her dad, a famous movie effects artist. The house is covered in his best masks which aren’t that great. Punks break into the house to rob them, but get a bigger surprise. Can there be a bigger surprise than Linda Blair? This is a fine all night marathon as you sit in the pumpkin patch.
DVD SHELF
Conan O’Brien Can’t Stop covers the stage tour the TV host set up after he was booted off The Tonight Show. After five years of waiting for the cushy gig, things went bad. Jay Leno’s 10 p.m. experiment nearly wrecked the network. NBC didn’t want to lose Leno so Conan was given tens of millions of dollars to go away. He had to stay off TV for six months. But there was nothing against doing live shows. So he got his creative crew and band together for a cross country tour. He hit the stage like a rock god doing a strange mix of music, comedy, confession and barbs at Leno. Conan O’Brien Can’t Stop gets all over the place and inside Conan’s head. He’s nervous. He’s exhausted. He’s furious. He’s not drunk. It’s kinda his version of Elvis’ That’s the Way It Is if Elvis had been screwed by Pat Boone over a gig. Eddie Vedder walks onto the stage to do The Who’s “Baba O’Riley.” That’s the song your dad keeps calling “Teenage Wasteland.” Jon Hamm sexes it up with a cameo. The odd thought is that Conan might have been able to “save” his Tonight Show gig if he’d been doing live shows all along. Leno is out performing and glad handing. At the end of the tour, Conan got a new show on TBS which led to George Lopez being pushed off the channel. The only bad part is that Conan’s stage success inspired morons to put Charlie Sheen on tour after his feud with CBS.
Secrets In The Walls is another horrifying tale from the world of real estate. Jeri Ryan makes the sad mistake of buying a house at a rate that’s way below market value. How can she get such a deal? Turns out she’s not really buying. She’s merely sub-leasing the space from supernatural evil! Why doesn’t she grab her family and move out at the first sign of demonic actions? Cause you’re stuck with the mortgage. You know how hard it is to sell a house in the economic climate? Try to move one that’s haunted by ghosts that leave bloody nail scrapes on the wall. And it’s not like the bank will foreclose on a house with those issues or give you another mortgage. Jeri’s only hope is to figure out why the ghosts have chosen this house. If she can calm their spirits, maybe they’ll all be good. She should have rented although you can’t get your security deposit back for such messes.
Mystery Science Theater 3000 “Manos” The Hands of Fate – Special Edition is the version the Master has been waiting to buy. Manos has soared up the ranks of Worst Movie Ever Made charts since it debuted on MST3K. The film is a low budget confusion feast. A family gets lost on vacation and finds themselves in the middle of nowhere at a crummy lodge run by Torgo. He’s a misfit with freaky knees. The place is owned by The Master – a demonic love god that wears a robe covered in two giant handprints. It’s just an amazing thing to behold as Joel, Tom Servo and Crow dig right into a film that opens with 10 minutes of a driving scene. What makes this a Special Edition is the unaltered version of the film, the MST3K crew talking about Manos and a documentary about the movie featuring the only person connected to the production that isn’t dead or in witness protection. And that’s not all. There’s entire “Hired!” educational short put together along with a spoof of Jam Handy. This is the ultimate version of Manos.
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation – The Eleventh Season is the last season of Laurence Fishburne (The Matrix) as Dr. Raymond Langston. “Shock Waves Part 3” deals with the cliffhanger of Langston getting stabbed by a serial killer. Of course the stabbing isn’t the highlight since Justin Bieber arrives! Can the teen girls next door stop screaming? “Pool Shark” is my favorite since it deals with the shark tank at the Golden Nugget Casino. I’ve gone through the slide in the shark tank. It’s fun, but little did I know that it could be deadly. Holly Madison, Elliot Gould and Method Man show up for the shark attack on Freemont Street. “Blood Moon” goes for the Twilight viewers with Vampires and Werewolves having a convention. No love for zombies? “Sqweegel” gets me squealing for Ann-Margret. “The Two Mrs. Grissons” brings back Willam Petersen as Gil Grissom. But as usual the kids go nuts for “Target of Obsession” since it has more Justin Bieber. The best bonus feature on the boxset is Dita Von Teese Burlesque Performance. There’s always a bonus seeing Dita unwind her talent on the screen.
CSI: Miami – The Ninth Season kills off Eddie Cibrian’s Jesse Cardoza. I’m going to guess his ex-wife had a viewing party that night cause that’s all the tabloids talked about. “Sudden Death” kills a bottle girl at a hot club. All the high rollers are considered suspects. The price of a bottle of cheap vodka at these clubs can give me a heart attack. “”Reality Kills” offs a reality tv star. Sadly this was not a tie-in with the Kardashians go to Miami series. “Match Made in Hell” spoofs Bravo’s Millionaire Matchmaker. Except this time someone is hooking up millionaires with homicidal maniacs. “Wheels Up” brings death to the roller derby. There needs to be more female roller derby plots on TV. “Caged” has a DOA with MMA implications. Is no 21st century sport safe from being a crime scene in Miami? The bonus features include a focus on the show hitting it’s 200th episode. Who would have imagined David Caruso would stick around for nearly a decade? Perhaps he just can’t leave cause his sunglasses are just too cool?
CSI: NY – The Seventh Season brings big changes to the unit. Melina Kanakaredes left the show after six years and that meant a job opening on the staff. Who could fill the slot of the series that always seems rumored for cancellation? Why it’s Sela Ward (Sisters). Her Jo Danville was a DNA investigator for the FBI. Her attitude is that you’re not a real suspect till the science declares you a guilty bastard. “The 34th Floor” gets her to work fast when she finds a dead body in the crime lab’s office building. She has a good chemistry with Mac Taylor (Gary Sinese). “Shop Till You Drop” has a jerk manager found dead in a department store window. “To What End?” brings a killer clown to Manhattan. “Do Or Die” shows how to make space at a prep school. “Nothing For Something” has Mac’s old partner return. Not Melina, but Peter Fonda (Easy Rider). Always fun to see Fonda when he’s not allowed going nuts about politics. “Wild Ride: On the Set with Peter Fonda” gives glimpses of him with the cast. There’s also a piece about John Larrroquette’s visit to the show.
Thor and Loki Blood Brothers takes the Marvel Knights animation process up another step. Esad Ribic’s artwork takes on a 3-D perspective and subtle motion. His paintings flow across the screen. Robert Rodi’s four-part Loki miniseries is faithfully brought to the screen as it gives Thor’s foster brother a chance to tell his side of the story and get a bit of revenge on Thor. Loki has taken control of Asgard and tosses his enemies in the cells. Now he has to decide if it’s time to execute Thor. David Blair’s voicing of Loki gives the trickster character a hard gravity. This is so much better than that crummy live-action Thor film with Natalie Portman.
Bad Dreams & Visiting Hours – Killer Double Feature is a chilling twosome of hospital based frights from the ’80s. Bad Dreams is about a cult that doesn’t let death get in the way of controlling members. Richard Lynch (Deathsport) heads the Unity Field. They want to truly unify themselves in what’s an “ultimate joining.” Instead of some sort of fun group activity, he douses them with gasoline and lights the room up. Jennifer Rubin (A Woman, Her Men, and Her Futon) survives, but is stuck in a coma for 13 years. She has no memory of the incident. Naturally a psychiatrist helps her remember which also causes the crispy ghost of Lynch to haunt her psych ward. He must have her unify with the rest. Director Andrew Fleming went on to give us The Craft. There’s plenty of bonus features including new interviews with the cast, vintage behind the scenes footage and the original ending with timecode. Visiting Hours lets Michael Ironside (Total Recall) go psycho on Lee Grant (Shampoo) in a hospital. She’s a TV reporter doing a series about a battered woman who killed her abusing husband. She wants it considered justifiable homicide. Ironside thinks she’s wrong and will prove it by beating her to death. He’s got some past issues form it. When he doesn’t kill her during the first attack, he sneaks into the hospital to finish the job. Williams Shatner (Star Trek) is her TV boss. The big bonus is a series of creative TV ads that turn the lights of the hospital building into a skull. These are so spooky, you’ll think twice before getting medical assistance.
Hawaii Five-O: The Eleventh Season brings to an end the era of Danno. Why did James MacArthur split before the final season? His story is that he went on vacation and didn’t feel the need to comeback to the role after a decade. This penultimate season has Jack Lord play Steve McGarrett as the ultimate super cop. While other actors tone down their character, Lord seemed eager to turn McGarrett into an action hero. He’s constantly fighting thugs and dangling off objects. He’s not taking it easy on his stuntmen. “Deadly Courier” brainwashes Danno so he’ll kill McGarrett. You think during one of the takes MacArthur took dead aim at Lord and pulled the trigger? “Death Mask” steals artifacts from King Tut’s tomb. “Stringer” tangles Paul Williams (Smokey and the Bandit) with mobsters. How will the little guy survive? “A Very Personal Matter” puts Cameron Mitchell against a doctor that might have killed his kid with drugs. “The Year of the Horse” sends McGarrett and Danno to Singapore to tackle a heroin ring. Along the way they deal with Barry Bostwick, Victoria Principal and George Lazenby. Finally Jack Lord gets to share the screen with the man that semi-replace Sean Connery as James Bond. There are people who debate how far off the rails Hawaii Five-O went during the final years. But if you’ve been enjoying the ride, the weirdness is an odd treat for the eyes. No date yet for the final season and the arrival of Truck Kealoha. A big aloha to Danno and James MacArthur
Hawaii Five-0: The First Season contains the relaunch of Jack Lord’s legacy. While I’m a hardcore traditionalist, the new cast is fine. Sure they cast Grace Park in the role of the burly Kono. But she did a fine enough job making Boomer a female character on the new Battlestar Galatica. She has the ability to play bigger than she is. Daniel Dae Kim (Lost) remains the connected to the community guy like Detective Chin Ho Kelly. Scott Caan flips around Danno. No longer is he the kid working the hot unit. He’s a guy dealing with a messed up divorce and joint custody. Alex O’Loughlin isn’t a Jack Lord version of Steve McGarrett. He lacks that Holier than Thou attitude of the Lord when busting hoods, pimps and Chinese agents. Which is fine. The original series was 10 minutes longer than the new show. The time cutback appears to be sliced away from the bad guys. This is a shame since watching top notch guest stars go bad is part of the thrill of the original. They do revive Wo Fat, the diabolical foreign agent. In a weird twist of casting, Fat is played by Mark Cacascos, the Chairman on Iron Chef. Now we know what really happened to Mario. There’s a lot of backstory action dominating the scripts which is strange since the original crew didn’t have much of a life outside of work. If McGarrett or Danno ever had a woman in an episode she was either going to die or be busted for running heroin in the stomachs of kittens. There are plenty of bonus features including Grace Park’s Tour of Hawaii. That is the best reason to grab the Blu-ray version of the boxset.
Kojak: Season Two revives the joy that is Telly Savalas. His bald NYPD Detective Lieutenant Theo Kojak quickly became an icon with his lollipop to keep him from smoking. If you ever lose your hair, Telly is an inspiration on how to work the dome. Season 2 has his crack unit busting bad guys including Kevin Dobson and his brother George Savalas (the one that got all the family’s hair). “The Chinatown Murders” opens the season with murders elevating a feud between crime families. Tige Andrews (Mod Squad) gets to play Sgt. Polucci. “Slay Ride” has several convention goers falling to their death. Kojack doesn’t think it’s an accident. Stephen McHattie (Watchman) is drawn into the mystery. “The Best Judge Money Can Buy” packs on the star power with the arrival of Abe Vigoda (Barney Miller). He’s the suspected killer of a judge’s son. How can Fish be evil? Barney Miller: The Complete Series including the first season of Fish arrives October 25. Breaking up is hard to do and Paul Anka might get broken up as an informant with an agenda. “Loser Takes All” scores with Antonio Fargas. Leslie Nielsen gets to play a bad guy with a married girlfriend. “Close Cover Before Killing” torches a building with Erik Estrada (CHiPs) and Alex Rocco feeling the flames. “Acts of Desperate Men” makes Bruno Kirby (Superdad) an revenge fiend. “Night of the Piraeus” has a homicidal stamp collector. Who else should be in the cast except Norman Lloyd! It’s not a real crime until Robert Loggia enters the scene. He does it on “Two-Four-Six for Two Hundred.” “I Want to Report a Dream” predicts Ruth Gordon (Harold and Maude) as a psychic wanting to stop a future murder. Will Kojak believe her vision? No matter what happens, Kojak reminds us to not mess up his dirty version of New York City.
Danny Phantom Season 1 is the Nickelodeon cartoon from the creator of Fairly Odd Parents. Danny Fenton is the son of ghost hunters. Being a pokey kid, he sticks his head inside what’ believed to be a broken Ghost Portal. Well it’s not that busted. His DNA gets twisted to ectoplasm. That makes him half ghost-half boy. Danny uses his new status to be the greatest ghost hunter ever. Although he can’t let his clueless mom and dad know his secret. A lot of well-known actors voice the guest ghosts. “Mystery Meat” has Patricia Heaton (The Middle) as the lunch lady that hunts the school cafeteria. Dat Phan from Last Comic Standing hides on “Parental Bonding.” Twilight‘s Taylor Lautner gets the role of Youngblood on “Teacher of the Year.” Tween girls shouldn’t get so heated since he doesn’t show off his abs. Ron Pearlman (Sons of Anarchy) voices Mr. Lancer in numerous episodes. Chynna Phillips and her husband William “Don’t Call Me Billy Cause There Is a Billy Baldwin in SAG” Baldwin are Kitty and Johnny 13 in “13.” Freddy Rodriguez (Six Feet Under) voices the Mayor in “Public Enemies.” The town is overwhelmed with ghosts. Danny has to stop them. The deep voice of Michael Dorn (Star Trek: NG) powers the Fright Knight on “Fright Night.” Laraine Newman of the original Saturday Night Live also contributes. Who is the most evil of the Johnny’s enemies? How about Vlad – mouthed by Martin Mull (Fernwood 2 Night). He puts a major bounty on Danny’s head for “The Million Dollar Ghost.” Danny Phantom is a cute version of Ghostbusters.
Jake and the Never Land Pirates: Yo Ho, Mateys Away! has seven episodes the latest hit for the Disney Channel. Seems some one has realized that the pirates of Peter Pan were more cooler than the Lost Boys. Wasn’t that the lesson from Hook? The little kid pirates are in competition with Captain Hook for control of the fun contraband on the island. They’re pals with the Croc. Most of the show seems to be set up for musical numbers. There’s even a live action band with a guy who looks like Pawn Stars‘ Chumlee’s brother. The series wins bonus points for casting Adam West (Batman) as the Wise Old Parrot. It somehow also casts Sharon Osbounre as Capt. Hook’s mom. She’s got the perfect nagging mom tone. Little boys gravitate towards the pirate action so it’s a good way to keep them focused in the back of the car. Additional booty in the DVD box includes a 7 song CD and an eye patch.
Live Like A Cop Die Like A Man is a masterpiece of badass cop action. Director Ruggero Deodato is known for Cannibal Holocaust, but he’s not a one hit Italian cinema wonder. Live Like A Cop is the kinda film that would have been made if Clint Eastwood was two actors. Think of this as Starsky and Hutch without a moral compass. Fred (Marc Porel) and Tony (Ray Lovelock) are the ultimate buddy cop pair. They’re plainclothes in sneakers on a motorcycle cruising Rome. They’re part of elite police squad that basically goes after organized crime organizations. What sets them apart from the usual deep cover teams is they have no qualms in breaking the law. They’d rather read a suspect his last rites than his charges. The movie opens with a jaw dropping 10 minute motorcycle chase that trashes the city. While they’re interviewing a suspect’s sister, they have sex with her. They interrupt one crew as they set up for a bank robbery. Fred and Tony are just the ultimate in Dirty Harry ethics. Even though they come off as chauvinistic pigs, they get slapped back. They have keep hitting on their boss’s secretary wanting to know who she’ll sleep with. She got the ultimate comeback that puts them in their place. Their boss is Adolfo Celi (Thunderball). The major bonus feature is 42 minute documentary about the film. Turns out they shot the motorcycle chase without permits. They also include a few of Deodato’s commercials from this era. The transfer looks great. This needs to be required viewing for anyone that wants their cops dirty. Here’s the opening credits.
La Rabbia (The Anger) is an experimental film. Noted Italian directors leftist Pier Paolo Pasolini and right winger Giovannino Guareschi each made films to address the same question. As laid out in the opening credits: “Two ideologies, tow opposing tendencies answer a dramatic question…Why is our life dominated by discontent, by anguish, by the fear of war, by war?” Each man uses newsreel footage to illustrate their essay about life in post war Europe. Do people have it so much better? It’s an interesting piece from 1963. Imagine if Michael Moore and Bill O’Reilly were brought together to make dueling documentaries that ran in the same theater. This is like a rap battle with 50 minutes to build up your ammunition. These aren’t movies, they’re a debate about life using the power of cinema. The audience gets to decide who is the winner. The bonus features include a documentary about the cinema duel, a book of essays and a trailer makes this film look like a prize fight. Maybe there should be more of these cinema challenges being made now in the digital age. The movies are in Italian with English subtitles.
Grandview, U.S.A. should be considered as an obscure classic teen films of the ’80s. It’s more exciting than Footloose. Things start off on a strange footing with the theme song performed by Air Supply. Don’t let their smooth sounds fool you into thinking this is a fluffy feel good story about teens in a small town. This is a gruff story of life at a demotion derby that’s being attacked by developers that want to turn it into a country club. Can the kids save their car crashing fun from the uptight fat cats? Or will the hormonally raging kids self-implode before they can defend their favorite haunt. It’s a bit of a comedy since it’s from the director of Grease and Blue Lagoon. This is packed with young stars including C. Thomas Howell, Jamie Lee Curtis, Patrick Swayze, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Joan Cusack and a really young John Cusack. This is also Michael Winslow’s greatest role in a non-Police Academy film. For those of you who want cheap ’80s laughs, watch C. Thomas Howell rock out in his MTV fantasy scene. Kids in glowing clothes dancing around grain silos. Jamie Lee Curtis wears a skirt made of chains. Why isn’t this beaten to death on VH1? This movie must be seen by addicts of the Big ’80s Entertainment.
Perry Mason: Season 6, Volume 1 brings another 14 cases of the greatest lawyer to not appear on HLN with Nancy Grace. Raymond Burr continues his iconic role as the legal mind who knows how to get people to confess in a courtroom. “The Case of the Bogus Books” starts off the season with an appearance from Adam West (Batman). There’s intrigue about mobsters getting wrapped into the rare book business. “The Case of the Playboy Pugilist” punches Gary Lockwood (2001: A Space Odyssey) as a hot boxing prospect. He gets blamed for killing his backer. “The Case of the Dodging Domino” busts David Hedison (Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea) for murder. He loaned a guy money so naturally he’s a suspect. “The Case of the Unsuitable Uncle” features a bit role from Harvey Korman (Blazing Saddles). “The Case of the Weary Watchdog” sniffs a part for James Hong (Kung Fu Panda). “The Case of the Shoplifter’s Shoe” beams down Leonard Nimoy (Star Trek) into a kleptomaniac incident. This remains the premiere legal series simply because it’s that damn good. Sure it’s not like real law, but who wants that? Even Court TV’s new persona hates trials and love pawn stores. Perry Mason: Season 6, Volume 2 will be released on Nov. 22.
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