Reviews on non martial arts movies/series

[ShawAngela]

I thought that since we have a thread telling the others which movies other than martial arts we watched, it would be a good idea to create a section in which we could write a few words or complete reviews on these movies.

So, I'll begin with the horror movie I watched yesterday.

Craze 1974

Jack Palance plays an antique dealer who literally fell in love with a black wooden statue that he calls "Chuko" and to which he offers sacrifices...human sacrifices, mainly women.

One day, one of his female former girlfriends comes to tell him that she wants to adore Chuko too, but he tries to expel her, saying that she isn't worth to adore the statue. They fight and she is accidentally killed wy the weapon hold by the statue and he throws the corpse in the river.

His employee (who has been taken care of by Jack Palance for years and even lives in the same flat above the antiques store) doesn't know anything about it, but he begins to doubt his friend when the police arrives and asks questions about the dead woman who has been found in the river.

As the sales aren't very good and they loose money, the employee suggests to sell a desk that had caught the eye of a customer, but when leaning it, Jack Palance discovers a secret hideout in which there are a lot of gold coins, and he tells his friend that it's a present from Chuko and he brings him in the basement in order to adore Chuko and thank it.

And that's the beginning of a series of murders, always women, just to offer sacrifices to Chuko and gain some money. Palance even kills his own old Aunt by frightening her to death.

As I said yesterday, I was afraid to be very frightened by this movie, since it was mentioned on the cover as a horror movie, but in the end, it was just a thriller, with a Machiavellian guy who is obsessed by his idol and tries to satisfy it by all means, and there were just a few bloody scenes (few blood) that are surpassed by all the bloody scenes in the Shaws' movies !!

Even in the series Midsomer Murders I saw bloddier scenes than in this movie...

All in all, I finally enjoyed it.

[ShawAngela]

Special mission Lady Chaplin 1966

The movie begins with a nun arriving in a isolated convent where she kills two fake monks before escaping and throwing her car in the sea with another woman's help.

Secret agent Dick Malloy (Ken Clark) goes with his superior to a kind of conference at which they meet a super milliardaire, Zoltan, and they immediately suspect him to be related to the monks' assassination.

After another murder, there is a survivor, who is killed by an old lady in a wheeling chair, whom Malloy tries to help and hurts her on one of her hand, and when he learns that the survivor has just been killed, he suspects the old lady at once.

Of course, the old lady exists, but it was an impersonator of hers that he saw and he suspects a fashion stylist Lady Arabella Chaplin (Daniela Bianchi, the heroine of James Bond's From Russia with love) at once, because he sees that she is hurt at the same hand he had hurt the old lady.

It appears that Lady Chaplin and her friend work for Zoltan and that they help him stealing 16 missiles that were under the seas in a sinked submarine. In order to get them, Lady Chaplin even goes on a train full of soldiers, drugs them with a gaz and manages to separate the wagon with the missiles from the rest of the train in order to deviate it from its original destination.

After a lot of twists, pursuits, assassination attempts against him and loosing a female colleague of his who had infiltrated Lady Chaplin's organization, Dick Malloy finally confronts Zoltan with Lady Chaplin's help.

A very nice spy movie, in the same vein of the Bonds' movies, with less gadgets, but still some nice ones, and, for once, a heroine who is intelligent and able to do other things than fainting or sleeping with men.
Daniela Bianchi has a part as important as Ken Clark's one in the movie, and she is able to hold a gun, jump from a plane (or rather she is expelled from the plane by Zoltan), and carefully plan her escaping and it was nice to see her character in this movie, even if at the beginning, she is on the villains' side.

 

[ShawAngela]

Mission Bloody Mary 1965

An international criminal organization steals a plane in which there is a miniature bomb called Bloody Mary.
Agent Dick Malloy is sent to Paris by his government to recover the bomb and destroy the organization.

The mission is difficult, because eveyone who could help him (a Chinese girl, a French hotel owner and others) are killed each time they have a rendezvous.

Of course, Malloy is helped by a beautiful agent...but is she really on his side ?

Another very good spy movie with Ken Clark, with lots of twists and action.

[ShawAngela]

From the Orient with fury 1965

Beautiful locations, good songs (one is the theme song, the other one is a Spanish song) and plenty of action, with a very few gadgets à la James Bond;

Professor Kurtz has invented a weapon that is able to desintegrate everything and a man in Istanbul kidnaps him in order to force him fabricate the weapon.

Ken Clark as Agent 077 Dick Malloy must find him and escape the traps of the Istanbulian organization, helped by a Spanish Countess, and later by the Agent Evelyn Stone, played by Margaret Lee. When his daughter is also kidnapped, the professor has no other solution than to obey the man from Istanbul, but father and daughter manage to get rid of some men and there is a twist when the daughter appears to work for Russian agents who also want the plans.

As for the Bond's movies, the finale takes place in an Island and is great.

And as for the Bond's movie, the hero flies away with his female colleague, of course...

 

[ShawAngela]

New York calling Superdragon 1966

I guess that I must be in my Spies period...

Ray Danton plays Brian Cooper, nicknamed Superdragon, a very famous agent. As he is on holidays, he is told by his chief that his best friend has been killed while he was investigating on the mysterious of young people who seem to become completely mad before dying and in whose corpses are absolutely empty of clues.

He decides to investigate with the help of a prisoned called Baby Face, played by Jess Hahn, who is a real fairy when it comes to fabricate useful gadgets that can save Superdragon's life.

After some investigations and with the help of a beautiful agent, both of them discover that there is a new drug hidden in chewing gums and they try to locate the laboratory where it's made and the antidote.

 

Another very good spy movie, with a lot of twists, very good action and very good suspense. Jess Hahn and Ray Danton are excellent.

[ShawAngela]

The tunnel of fear (The Avengers Series 1, episode 20, 1961)

I recently discovered a French forum dedicated to the series The Avengers, where this episode was discussed. It was said lost, and has been discovered after 55 years and released on dvd in 2016 with a lot of bonuses.

As a fan of this series, I managed to buy it and I don't regret it !

The plot is simple : a guy escapes from prison and is almost killed. He is taken care of by Dr Keel (Ian Hendry, who later appeared in one of the more recent episodes of the series ; I don't remember if it was in the series with Diana Rigg, or in The New Avengers), who wants to call the police, but his assistant doesn't believe that the guy is guilty.

Steed arrives and his dog Puppy also doesn't find the guy guilty, so, they all decide to help him to discover the truth.

In addition to that, Steed thinks that the guy's matter is related to a spy matter.

The action mostly takes place in a funfair and Steed as the presenter of a troupe of belly dancers is something to watch !

I really enjoyed this episode and if any of you is a fan of the series as I am, it's worth getting it.

There are still some sellers who have it on ebay. I got it from Ireland.

And for Diana Rigg's fan, I post a video on the forum of another series in which she made her debuts, according to what I read in the French forum.

[ShawAngela]

Mrs Bradley's mysteries

Yesterday, I watched this mini series (only 5 episodes) starring Diana Rigg and Neil Dudgeon (the new Inspector Barnaby from Midsomer Murders series).

Diana Rigg plays a millionairess skilled in criminoloyy and psychoanalysis and Neil Dudgeon plays her chauffeur.

Episode 1 : Speedy death

Diana's god-daughter is paralyzed after a car accident and is about to marry a guy who is found dead in his bathroom and appears to be...a woman. It's up to Diana and Neil to study all family members and friends who are in the house until the real culprit is discovered, with a serious twist at the end...

 

Episode 2 : Death at the opera

Diana returns to the girl's institution where she spent some years (or months) to learn how to be a perfect wife as an honored guest and the Deputy of the school is discovered dead backstage, by what looks like a heart attack. Of course, it's a murder and she discovers all the girls and teachers' secrets before discovering the real culprit.

In this episode, she meets an inspector called Henry Christmas.

Episode 3 : The rising moon

A murder happens during a show from travellers who arrived in a small town, and the locals want them to leave the village. The guy who throws knives to his partner (the victim) is framed as the murderer, but of course, thanks to Diana and Neil, some dirty secrets hidden by the mayor of the village are discovered, and Inspector Christmas can leave with his culprit.

Episode 4 : Laurels are poison

Diana visits an old friend of hers whose daughter is also her god-daughter because it seems that there is a ghost in the manor. Shortly after she arrived with Neil, the main servant is found dead, a series of hidden secrets begin to surface, with several other deaths and a finally surprising discovery leading to the truth of what happened in the manor.

Episode 5 : The worsted viper

Diana and Neil arrive in the village where Neil's daughter is about to marry and they are invited by the vicar to Inspector Christmas' retirement ceremony, during which the vicar's elder daughter is found dead. Diana recognizes the ritual of a killer she had helped the police to catch him and Christmas, Diana and Neil are on the trail on clues to discover who is behind the murders, since the culprit has been hanged years ago. A surprising ending for this episode too.

An enjoyable series, in the same vein as Miss Marple, Hercule Poirot or Midsomer murders series.

Diana Rigg uses the same humor she had in The avengers (she even talks to the people who watch the series...) and she pairs very well with Neil Dudgeon.