The Mysterious Castle In the Carpathians(Tajesmstvi Hradu V Karpatech) 1981, Czechoslovakia, 97 min.: A unique and almost indescribable mix of Gothic fiction, steampunk gadgetry (designed by Czech animation wizard Jan Švankmajer), slapstick comedy and romantic opera, director Oldřich Lipský’s wonderfully bonkers delight has elements of The Fearless Vampire Killers, Terry Gilliam, Mel Brooks and “The Benny Hill Show.” Based on an 1892 Jules Verne novel The Carpathian Castle (which partially inspired Bram Stoker to write Dracula), the film follows Count Teleke of Tölökö (Michal Dočolomanský) on the trail of the count’s lost lover, opera singer Salsa Verde (Evelyna Steimarová) – only to discover she’s been abducted by fiendish Baron Gorc of Gorceny (Miloš Kopecký), whose castle home is filled with the bizarre inventions of mad scientist Orfanik (Rudolf Hrušínský). Littered with puns, sight gags and non-sequiturs – “Later, in Werewolfston”, an invented dialect, a detached golden ear for eavesdropping, a staff topped by an enormous TV eyeball – Mysterious Castle was the third fantastical film from the team of director Lipský and writer Jiří Brdečka after their much-loved musical western spoof Lemonade Joe (1966) and their detective/horror satire Adela has Not Had Supper Yet (1977), both major Czech cult hits. (Note that actor Miloš Kopecký and Jiří Brdečka worked on the supernatural anthology Prague Nights, also released by the Národní filmový archív, Deaf Crocodile and Comeback Company.) In Czech with English subtitles.
Benny’s Bathtub (Benny’s Badekar) – 1971, Fiasco Film (Denmark), 41 min. Dirs. Jannik Hastrup and Flemming Quist Møller: How can you not love a psychedelic animated kids’ film in which a young boy, bored with the dreary and gray Adult World, follows an enchanted tadpole through the drain in his bathtub – where he discovers a surreal and musical undersea world?? Populated by singing (and barely dressed) Mermaids, a funky hepcat Octopus and whiskey-drinking Skeleton Pirates, the underwater kingdom is the grooviest scene this side of Yellow Submarine, with helpings of Dr. Seuss, Sid & Marty Krofft and Harry Nilsson’s The Point thrown in. (Kids’ entertainment in the early 1970s was truly outtasite!) In addition to the candy-colored, kaleidoscopic visuals, the film is famed for its incredibly addictive soundtrack featuring Jazz heavyweights of Copenhagen circa 1970, with vocals sung by the cream of Danish 60s Pop and Rock including Peter Belli, Otto Brandenburg, Poul Dissing and Trille on tracks like “Octopus Song/ Blækspruttesangen” and “Seahorse Song/ Søhestesangen”. Considered something of a national treasure in Denmark (where it was selected for the country’s Cultural Canon alongside works by Carl Th. Dreyer, Isak Dinesen and Hans Christian Andersen), Benny’s Bathtub has been beautifully restored in 4K from the original camera negative and sound elements for its first-ever U.S. release. In Danish with English subtitles.
November 3: The Iron-Fisted Monk: Rice Miller Luk (Sammo Hung) is just a simple man trying to live a quiet life, until one day the Manchu Bannermen bully their way through town, killing his uncle in the process. When a nearby Shaolin monk, San De (Chan Sing), easily defeats them and sees the fallen Luk, he offers him a chance to learn martial arts at the Shaolin Temple. However, Luk’s impatience with his training sees him return to his town to witness an even more ruthless organization of Manchus, led by a depraved official (Fung Hak-An) who has a nasty and violent habit of taking whatever (and whoever) he wants. Will Luk’s incomplete Shaolin teachings, combined with the skill set of San De, be enough to put an end to the Manchu stronghold plaguing their people? Predating The 36th Chamber of Shaolin‘s variation of the story of San De and Miller Luk by a year, and notorious for its uncensored version receiving a retroactive Category III rating in Hong Kong (the equivalent of the American NC-17), The Iron-Fisted Monk pulls no punches, literally or figuratively, explosively marking the beginning for one of the greatest martial arts film directors of all time!
November 6: Actor, director and magician Andy Nyman shares the titles that inspire his art and illusions: “Dear ARROW viewer. I’m delighted to share my choices with you. As I look again at my list I realize there is a common thread, they all illicit a gut reaction from me. For the most part it’s shock and astonishment, with the occasional nightmare – but in two cases unstoppable tears – I’ll let you work out which those movies are. You’re in for a treat.” Titles include Bird with the Crystal Plumage, Zombie Flesh Eaters, Ringu.
November 10: Beware busting a move! Shaking it can lead to snuffing it in this curated collection of foxtrotting flicks where getting down is likely to get you killed. Titles Include: Enter the Void, Showgirls, The Escapees.
Also: Growing Up With John Waters and Hockney on Photography and Other Matters.
November 17: ARROW are proud to showcase a collection of weird, wonderful and downright insane award-winning short films from director Brian Lonano. Led by the festival decimating Content: The Lo-Fi Man, Lonanorama also includes the utterly outrageous Gwilliam (winner of the ‘Most Effectively Offensive’ award at the Boston Underground Film Festival), gruesome comedy-horror Crow Hand!!!, a superhero story like no other in BFF Girls, the Halloween-themed nuttiness of Gwilliam’s Tips for Turning Tricks into Treats, chilling demon opus The Devil’s Asshole, and much, much more, even including some exclusive extras!
Brian Lonano & Blake Myers Selects: “It is really kind of ARROW to let me select 10 films from their amazing library to share with you. Many of these films have shaped me as a filmmaker. They are great examples of how to push boundaries and expand the language of cinema.” Brian Lonano: “I’ve chosen 10 films that I believe to be excellent examples of persistence of vision, wild unhinged storytelling and underdog outsider filmmaking.” Titles include Children of the Corn, The Boxer’s Omen, Basket Case.
November 20: Steven Kostanski Selects: “Choosing my favorites from Arrow’s weird catalogue of movies is a welcome nostalgia flashback to my video store days when I’d shove all sorts of sci-fi and horror nonsense into customers’ faces. After reviewing my list, it’s clear that my tastes have not changed in 15 years: I’m forcing Hellbound: Hellraiser 2 on people just as passionately as I was back then, and in these tumultuous times that gives me a certain level of comfort. Enjoy!” Titles include Elvira: Mistress of the Dark, Hellbound: Hellraiser 2, Dead or Alive.
November 24: Inside the Mind of Coffin Joe: Part One: Cultural icon, anti-establishment statement, sadistic lord of carnival horror! With his iconic long fingernails, top hat and cape, Zé do Caixão (Coffin Joe) was the creation of Brazilian filmmaker José Mojica Marins, who wrote, directed and starred in a series of outrageous movies from 1964 to 2008. An unholy undertaker in search of the perfect woman to propagate his bloodline, Zé do Caixão made his screen debut with the first Brazilian-produced horror film, At Midnight I’ll Take Your Soul. Three years later, his quest would continue in This Night I’ll Possess Your Corpse, with Zé embarking on an even more brutal campaign of terror, aided and abetted by his hunchbacked assistant. The Strange World of Coffin Joe, meanwhile, is an anthology of three short horror films featuring a strange dollmaker, a necrophiliac balloon seller with a foot fetish, and a psychotic professor involved in sadistic rituals. Sex, perversion and sadism abound in The Awakening of the Beastas a psychiatrist experiments on four volunteers with Lsd in this surreal examination of 60s drug culture. Diverging from horror toward satirical black comedy, The End of Man sees a naked stranger emerge from the sea to perform miracles in a nearby town and become a modern messiah whose deeds will affect the whole world. Newly restored from the best available elements and packed with new and archival extras, Inside the Mind of Coffin Joe is a love letter to one of the great iconoclasts of horror, who forged his films in the face of military dictatorship and religious censorship to become Brazil’s national Boogeyman.
Found Footage: From terrifying and troubling events caught on camera by our heroes (or villains), to forbidden footage that when uncovered and viewed spells doom, to seldom-seen peeks at the unseen lives of everything from slime mould to the stars of Barbarella, Found Footage is a collection of the unearthed, the dangerous, the forbidden and the behind-the-scenes. Titles include The El Duce Tapes, Phantom, Kolobos.
Head over to ARROW to start watching now. Subscriptions are available for $6.99 monthly or $69.99 yearly.
ARROW is available in the US, Canada, the UK and Ireland on the following Apps/devices: Roku (all Roku sticks, boxes, devices, etc), Apple TV & iOS devices, Samsung TVs, Android TV and mobile devices, Fire TV (all Amazon Fire TV Sticks, boxes, etc), and on all web browsers at https://www.arrow-player.com.
With a slickly designed and user-friendly interface, and an unparalleled roster of quality content from westerns to giallo to Asian cinema, trailers, Midnight Movies, filmmaker picks and much, much more, ARROW is the place to go for the very best in on-demand entertainment.
I am happy to report that the latest Halloween Horrors month on Horror and Sons has an article by me on the weird and wonderous Litan. Check it out!
There are so many great writers this month and I’m excited that I can share this little known movie with the readers of this great site.
In the review, I said: “Seeing as how this is running in the month of Halloween, I have to confess that this movie won’t be spooky for everyone. Yet, I’ve been obsessed by age as of late, by life change, by legacy. I don’t know if it even matters sometimes. What matters? I’m not sure. I just know that movies make me feel things, deep and meaningful things, and this movie brought me a flood of joy and as there’s a dearth of that in this current timeline, I wanted to share it with you.”
B&S About Movies is the one thing in my writing career — I pretty much write from when I get up until when I go to bed for people who pay me — that is outside of making money. I like that there are no ads on the site and the most commerce that intrudes on this page is mentioning what label sent me a film to review.
I don’t ever want to run ads, but if I could make just a little bit doing this, I’d be happy. Or at least feel like the hours I spend every week weren’t me writing for an audience of one.
There are four ways you can help:
Go to our Ko-Fi site and just donate. There’s no set amount and I won’t tell you what to do. In fact, if you just keep reading for free, we can still be friends.
Join as a monthly member for just $1. That makes you a Little B&S’er.
As a Medium B&S’er at just $3 a month, if you pick a movie or a director, I’ll write about them for you. In fact, I’ll do one a month and even dedicate the post to you.
For $5 a month, you basically get some major power. As a Big B&S’er, I’ll write an entire week on any subject you’d like. How awesome would that be? In fact, I’ll do it for every month you’re a member. Do you think any of your other movie sites will do that for you?
If you sent money before, good news! I have time set aside in December to post movies for several of you:
Jennifer Upton: Requiem for a Dream, A Simple Plan
AC Nicholas: The movies of Radley Metzer
Chris Salazr: Heartbeeps
Thanks so much for reading and being part of this site. And let me know what you want to see!
A mysterious older woman seeks revenge on the corrupt legal guardian who destroyed her life.
London/Toronto/Tallinn, October 13: THE G, from writer/director Karl R. Hearne and 3Buck Productions, starring Dale Dickey (Hell or High Water, Winter’s Bone, True Blood) has been Officially Selected for the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival. In competition, it will celebrate its World Premiere on November 11th.
In further news, levelFILM has acquired all rights for Canadian distribution with a release date scheduled for 2024.
Ann Hunter (aka “The G”, played by Dale Dickey) and her husband retired to an unnamed American suburb 10 years ago to be near his family. But one day out of the blue they are snatched from their home by a corrupt legal guardian who believes they have hidden wealth. Their home and assets are legally stripped from them and they are put in a prison-like “eldercare facility,” victims of an exploding old age industry. Trapped in a corrupt and terrifying system, THE G begins to show her true mettle as she and her loyal granddaughter fight to get them out… and get revenge on the people who did this.
A “winter-noir” based on real events/inspired by the filmmaker’s own family experience, THE G is an original portrait of a fierce older woman in the kind of role that a woman is rarely cast in. A highly atmospheric blend of suspense, dark humor, and moving human relationships that confronts age-related issues head on, THE G is driven by one astonishing main character, rivetingly portrayed by Dale Dickey, “One of Hollywood’s Great Scene-Stealers” (Vanity Fair, Fall 2022).
THE G also stars Romane Denis (True North, Slut in a Good Way), Roc Lafortune (Beastly, I’m Not There, Pluto Nash), Bruce Ramsay (Alive, Collateral Damage) and Jonathan Koensgen (FUBAR, Reacher).
The film is line-produced by José Lacelle (Enter The Void, Racer), edited by Arthur Tarnowski (Bestsellers, The Sacrifice Game) with music by Philippe Brault (The Fireflies are Gone, Maria Chapdelaine) and sound design by Pierre-Jules Audet (Arrival).
Writer/director Karl R. Hearne says, “This film is a “winter-noir” based on real-world elder scams, and inspired by my own grandmother’s story and character. It’s about a woman who- regardless of her age or situation- refuses to accept that her life is over. In a world where the elderly are frequently marginalised, neglected or abused, I think of this film as a revenge story against old age itself… old age being a condition that my grandmother once said she “would not tolerate.”
“At levelFILM, we strive to partner with talented creators and share their stories like this one to ensure they find their Canadian (and beyond!) audiences,” said Olivier Gauthier-Mercier, VP of Distribution at levelFILM. “THE G speaks to an unfortunately all-too-common human experience through incredible performances driven with heart.”
THE G will celebrate its World Premiere at Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival on November 11
Since it’s the Halloween month of October, Deaf Crocodile is thrilled to announce its acquisition of 3 rarely-seen Eastern European genre classics for release in 2024 in newly-restored versions, co-presented with Seagull Films:
The fourth release by legendary Russian fantasy master Aleksandr Ptushko following Ilya Muromets, Sampo and The Tale of Tsar Saltan: his final film Ruslan and Ludmila, a 2-part, 2-1/2 hour epic fantasy in a gorgeous new 4K restoration.
Belarusian director Valeri Rubinchik’s long-unseen folk horror masterpiece The Savage Hunt of King Stakh, in a new restoration of the 2-hour director’s cut.
Georgian filmmaker Georgiy Daneliya’s surreal, comic sci-fi gem Kin-Daz-Dza!, available for the first time ever in North America.
Deaf Crocodile plans to release the 3 films in Spring – Summer 2024:
Ruslan and Ludmila – 1972, Mosfilm, 150 min. The final film from Russian fantasy master Aleksandr Ptushko (ILYA MUROMETS, SAMPO), Ruslan and Ludmila was a glorious and magical summation of his career: a 2-1/2 hour greatest hits package filled with the sweeping lyricism, bejeweled visual F/X and mythic storytelling that put him on par with Walt Disney, Ray Harryhausen and Mario Bava. Based on an epic fairy tale written in 1820 by Alexander Pushkin (Ptushko had previously adapted Pushkin’s The Tale of Tsar Saltan, and half-jokingly said they were related), the film opens with the seemingly-joyous marriage of bogatyr (warrior) Ruslan (Valeri Kozinets) to Ludmila (Natalya Petrova), the daughter of Prince Vladimir. (Like his earlier Ilya Muromets, the action of the film is set during the legendary era of the Kyivan Rus’ culture that pre-dated both modern Ukraine and Russia.) On their wedding night, Ludmila is spirited away by the long-bearded wizard Chernomor (Vladimir Fyodorov), and taken to his sinister palace where she’s held prisoner. On their epic quest to rescue her, Ruslan and his three rivals encounter some of Ptushko’s most unforgettable imagery: a giant’s monstrous, decapitated head slumbering on an open plain, magic rings and stone warriors, sorcery and sacrifice, all in the hope of reuniting lost lovers. Newly restored by Mosfilm for release by Deaf Crocodile and Seagull Films. In Russian with English subtitles.
“One of Ptushko’s richest works, a compendium of all the techniques and special effects he had developed in previous films. His miniature work reached its peak here, especially in the model of Chernomor’s icy kingdom with its gloomy castle perched atop a craggy cliff. Just as memorable are the sequences of Ruslan riding through the haunted woodlands at sunset …” – Alan Upchurch, Video Watchdog.
The Savage Hunt of King Stakha (1980, Belarusfilm, 126 min. Dir. Valeri Rubinchik): “We have more ghosts than live people,” murmurs the pale, haunted mistress of the mansion of Marsh Firs (Elena Dimitrova) to a scholar of ancient folklore (Boris Plotnikov) who has arrived at her castle to research the bloody legend of King Stakh, a murdered 15th century nobleman whose spirit supposedly thunders through the local woodlands. (The Wild Hunt is a fixture of northern European folklore in which a sinister figure leads a chase followed by ghostly companions.) Part folk horror, part supernatural mystery, King Stakh is a melancholy, chilling mixture of Terry Gilliam, Italian Gothic Horror, 1960s Hammer Films and The Wicker Man – and a major rediscovery for genre fans. The longer the young scholar stays in this mysterious house of “shadow, gloom, madness and death,” the more strange and surreal the imagery becomes: a mad widow in a white wig; a man bleeding spontaneously from his skull; a dwarf hiding in a decayed doll’s house; screeching ravens and maniacal puppet shows. Based on the novel by Belarusian writer Uladzimir Karatkievich, the long-unavailable King Stakh has recently been restored from the original film elements in its extended 126 min. Director’s Cut by Deaf Crocodile and Seagull Films for its first-ever U.S. release. (In Russian with English subtitles.)
Kin-Dza-Dza! (1986, Mosfilm, 135 min. Dir. Georgiy Daneliya.): Imagine Andrei Tarkovsky circa Solaris directing Douglas Adams’ The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and you’ll come close to the existential weirdness of the wonderfully loopy Soviet-era sci-fi comedy Kin-Dza-Dza! Two average Muscovites – a plainspoken construction foreman (Stanislav Lyubshin) and a Georgian violin student (Levan Gabriadze) – encounter an odd homeless man on the street who asks, “Tell me the number of your planet in the Tentura?” In a flash, they’re teleported across the universe to the planet Pluke in the Kin-Dza-Dza galaxy – a Tatooine-like desert world whose inhabitants are hilariously noncommunicative (their main words are “ku” for good and “kyu” for very bad) and where common wooden matches are tremendously valuable. A deadpan, absurdist mixture of Kurt Vonnegut, Monty Python, Samuel Beckett and Jodorowsky’s never-made Dune where alien cultures are even more haphazard and WTF? than our own, the film is also a savage satire of bureaucratic idiocy and dysfunction no matter what political system you’re living under – or what planet you’re living on. Recently restored by Mosfilm for its first-ever U.S. release by Deaf Crocodile and Seagull Films. In Russian with English subtitles.
“Possibly the most underrated science fiction film of the past 50 years … A collapsed Ferris wheel provides a home for destitute desert dwellers. Graves are marked by balloons containing the deceased’s final breath. The colour of your trousers signifies social status, so they are powerful barter items… There is no convoluted plot, but instead a convoluted universe, and its incredulous victims ready to point out the farcicality therein.” – Joel Blackledge, Little White Lies
November is the annual Mill Creek Month and this year I’ve picked two different sets. I’d love to have you write for the site and here are the movies that you can choose from.
Sci-Fi Classics: Choose from fifty science fiction movies, which you can find on this Letterboxd or IMDB list. You can get the set from Amazon. There are some used ones for $3.49!
The Alpha Incident
The Amazing Transparent Man
Assignment: Outer Space
The Astral Factor
The Atomic Brain
Attack of the Monsters
Battle of the Worlds
Blood Tide
The Brain Machine
Bride of the Gorilla
Colossus and the Amazon Queen
Cosmos: War of the Planets
Crash of the Moons
Destroy All Planets
Eegah
First Spaceship on Venus
The Galaxy Invader
Gamera the Invincible
Gamera vs. Guiron
Gamera vs. Viras
Giants of Rome
Hercules Against the Moon Men
Hercules and the Captive Women
Hercules and the Tyrants of Babylon
Hercules Unchained
Horrors of Spider Island
The Incredible Petrified World
Killers From Space
Kong Island
Laser Mission
The Lost Jungle
Menace from Outer Space
Mesa of Lost Women
Monstrosity
Moon of the Wolf
Phantom From Space
The Phantom Planet
Planet Outlaws
Prehistoric Women
Queen of the Amazons
Robot Monster
She Gods of Shark Reef
The Snow Creature
Snowbeast
Son of Hercules: The Land of Darkness
Teenagers From Outer Space
They Came From Beyond Space
Unknown World
Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women
Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet
Warning From Space
The Wasp Woman
White Pongo
The Wild Women of Wongo
Zonar: The Thing from Venus
The Swingin’Seventies: Choose from fifty movies from the 1970s, which you can find on this Letterboxd or IMDB list. You can get the set from Amazon. There are some used ones for $3.47!
Movies include:
Against a Crooked Sky
The Border
The Borrowers
C.C. and Company
Cold Sweat
Concrete Cowboys
Congratulations, It’s a Boy!
The Cop in Blue Jeans
Hannah, Queen of the Vampires
David Copperfield
The Death of Richie
The Deadly Trap
Identikit
Evel Knievel
Fair Play
Firehouse
The Four Deuces
Get Christie Love!
Good Against Evil
The Gun and the Pulpit
The Hanged Man
How Awful About Allan
James Dean
Jane Eyre
Jory
Katherine
The Klansman
Las Vegas Lady
F. Scott Fitzgerald and the Last of the Belles
Maybe I’ll Come Home in the Spring
Rulers of the City
Mr. Sycamore
The New Adventures of Heidi
The Proud and Damned
A Real American Hero
The River Niger
Rogue Male
Stunts
The Swiss Conspiracy
The Squeeze
They Call It Murder
To All My Friends On Shore
The Treasure of Jamaica Reef
Wacky Taxi
The Baby Sitter
The War of the Robots
Warhead
The Werewolf of Washington
The Young Graduates
AND!
On Thanksgiving, the site will celebrate like it’s the 70s and we;’e watching WOR. Giant monsters all day, so send in your favorite.
B&S About Movies 
You must be logged in to post a comment.