Return To Blogging

Can't believe I have been away for 8 months. Hopefully I will be more frequent. It has been interesting looking back at some of the old posts (and I do plan to edit the atrocious typos!) What I have noticed is how some of my views on certain films have already altered a bit e.g I'm a bit more kindly disposed to Strip Nude For Killer than I was when I originally wrote about it. But changing opinions are good. I am constantly learning more about film and certain viewpoints are bound to change from time to time and if I find myself horrified at what I wrote last year I may review the film again. My film watching has a tendency to move in waves and I'll go through a giallo phase to a silent comedy phase to a Paul Naschy phase and so on. It is a routing that means I can now tell when a change is going to take place which is kind of weird. External influences also play a hand in this, as at this moment Mrs Cinegator has had enough of low budget flicks and is desiring some classic movies to redress the balance, but we'll see what happens. Not that I'm agaisnt the classics, far from it but I get the feeling it won't be long before we're back to gratuitous sex and violence. I have an ace up my sleeve for tonights flick which I'm hoping to be the third part of Dallamano's schoolgirl in peril trilogy Rings of Fear; I have an ace up my sleeve, a secret weapon - that fine Italian actor Fabio Testi is the lead and Mrs Cinegator likes him.... a lot!

The Brute Man (1946)

The Brute Man has long been considered one of the lowest points of Universal's cycle of horror films, and this view rests soully on the use of Rondo Hatton as the films 'star'. Hatton was a handsome, college football hero who, according to most sources, after being gassed in WWI developed the disfiguring disease Acromalgy which cause slow, but relentless , abnormal growth giving him overly pronounced features. The man, it's fair to say was no beauty.




Because of these abnormailities he was billed as the monster that needs no make-up! Not very nice, more akin to something you hear at a carnival side show. He had made films before coming under contract from Universal but it was Universal who shamlessly brought him to the fore. The best known film he appeared in was the Basil Rathbone Sherlock Holmes pic, The Pearl Of Death where he played the Hoxton Creeper, a character he would reprise in The House and Horror and The Brute Man, although subtley different each time. Quite what Hatton's thoughts were about these roles is up for conjecture. He was apparently a religious man who, through his beliefs, he probably came to terms with his condition, but being billed as The Monster Who Needs No Make-up must have hurt a bit. The Brute Man came out after Hatton had passed away following a heart attach, a direct result of his condition.

But what of The Brute Man? Well as you can probably imagine it's a low budget affair although directed with some flair by Jean Yarborough. Hatton plays Hal Moffett a former handsome, college football hero (art imitating life?) who through an accident in the science lab while he is in detention, gets disfigured and goes into hiding. He reappears years later bumping off all the people he blames for his being in detention in the first place, including his old best friend Clifford and Clifford's wife, Virginia who he fancied himself back at college. As he gets chased around the city he meets a blind pianist, who, in shades of Bride Of Frankenstein, does not cower in repulsion and he becomes sweet on her. A pretty straightforward plot and unfortunately Hatton isn't much of an actor, unable to draw both the menace and the pathos from his performance. In all fairness to the man it must be quite difficult to act when you have very little movent to your face, although Karloff had shown 15 years previously exactly how to do just that. In essence the film exists purely to showcase the disfigured Hatton which leaves a bad taste in the mouth.

The film does thow up a few interesting nuggets, such as the place where Moffat/The Creeper lives.



It's like a wharf version of railway arches where mechanics like to ply their trade. In the piuc you can even make out that it has a house number, The Creeper lives at number 23. Rather prone to a bit of flooding I would have thought. I wonder if people did let these places out for living or whether the producer just thought it was a good location, no doubt cheap also.

Happily Rondo Hatton's name lives on, most notably in The Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Awards. Also, in Disney's The Rocketeer there is a character clearly based on The Creeper and I'm happy to say that the actor, Tiny Ron Taylor, had to use prosethetics.

Saturday Top Ten: Edwige Fenech

Has there ever been a more delightful lady to grace a cinema/tv screen? I think not. Though her numerous appearances in Italian comedies and giallo films Edwige has been a towering presence. Never looking less than an angel fallen from heaven she has provided me (and countless others) of hours of rapt attention. So without further ado, here's my Top Ten of of Ms Fenech:

1. La Pretora - a highly welcome double dose of Edwige here as she plays both a prudish magistrate and her twin, fun loving sister. Directed by Lucio Fulci this has immense charm, actual comedy (sometimes rare in Italian comedies) and copious opportunities for Edwige to lose her clothes. A delight which should have nabbed her an Oscar - and I jest not.
2. Top Sensation - aka The Seducers. A sleazy thriller that is helped enormously by having another Italian goddess on board - Rosalba Neri. If the the film had been those two having a cup of tea for 90 minutes I would still have been happy! Watch out for the unforgettable scene with Edwige and a goat. Really!
3. The Case Of The Bloody Iris - A cracking giallo with her sometimes co-star George Hilton.
4. All the Colours Of The Dark - A deliscious mix of giallo and supernatural thriller./
5. The Strange Vice of Mrs Wardh - Yet another top notch giallo
6. Ubalda, All Naked and Warm - A period romp set in the times of the crusades. Genuinely funny and has an extended scene of of Edwige running topless through a field. 'nuff said.
7. Your Vice Is A Locked Room And Only I Have The Key - An excellent title (actually a line from number 5) and reminiscent of Poe's The Black Cat.
8. Grazie Nonna - Comedy with Edwige playing a young man's grandma to whom he loses his virginity. Really.
9. Five Dolls For An August Moon - A film that many see as Bava's worst (including the great man himself), but I like it - even if Edwige isn't featured heavily.
10. Secrets Of A Call Girl - This is the film I would point unbel;ievers to if they say that Edwige coasts throughb her roles without acting.

Viva Fenech!

Barb Wire Dolls (1975)

It seems fitting (if not a legal imperative) to renew this blog with a classic exploitationer from the leading exponent of explotation films - Jess Franco. Uncle Jess has been churning them out an at alarming rate for over 40 years, and though he has slowed down a lot (and to be fair, he's 80) he is still making them.

Barb Wire Dolls is one of the many Women In Prison films that he made and, for me, one of his best. I do have a preference for 99 Women, but that does have Herbert Lom, Maria Rohm and especially Rosalba Neri to help it along. Anyhoo, the plot of Barb Wire Dolls is that Lina Romay has been banged up for killing her father, and apart from an 'out of left field' plot twist that's about it. But when has the sparcity of plot held our man back? Never, that's when. So without having to think about the plot too much, Jess gives us the lesbian warden, the lebian trysts, the gynaelogical zoom shots (often), the torture scenes and the ultimate escape. And he manages to make it fun and keep the viewer (me) tuned to the screen. Sleaze can oh so easily become boring after a while and it's to Franco's credit that he manages to keep things rolling along quite nicely. The actors fit there roles competently with a special nod to Monica Swinn as the sadistic, masochistic, hotpants wearing warden who keeps a monocle firmly embedded in her eye, unless she is asking one of her charges to slap her about making it fly off.

As is most usually the case, you kind of need to already be a Franco fan to enjoy this, but luckily I am.

Death Steps In The Dark (1977)

After the electricity is cut, a train enters a tunnel and a women in a compartment is killed, and one of the other five in the compartment must be the killer, but who? And what lengths will the killer go to to remain free?
A late entry in the giallo boom, this is a very workmanlike entry with very little to recommend it. Director Maurizio Pradeaux sleepwalks his way through the proceedings and brings nothing memorable to entice the viewer to recommend it to anyone. If you have ever seen a giallo before there is no need to see this one. There are signs that the director himself knew this as he has added some off the wall humour that comes across as being totally out of place.
It's a shame really as the initial premise could have been put to much better use.