April 27: Kayfabe Cinema — A movie with a pro wrestler in it.

Made between Scream of the Demon Lover and Hell Comes to Frogtown, Donald Jackson directed this pro wrestling mockumentary based around Big Time Wrestling in Detroit and super villain The Sheik. It states that this came out in 1985, but it was filmed in the 1970s, long before pro wrestling gained popularity — it never wasn’t, despite what accepted WWE history may tell you — in the mid-1980s.

If you’re unfamiliar with the Detroit area, Ed Farhat was known as The Sheik, starting in 1947, after serving in World War II. Despite being a Maronite Catholic from Lansing, Michigan, in the world of wrestling, he became an Arab Muslim from the Syrian Desert. Managed by Abdullah Farouk — The Grand Wizard in WWF — he was quite different than other stars of his day, as he rarely wrestled and instead used weapons, chokeholds and fire. His most famous feuds would be with Bobo Brazil, Fred Blassie, the Funks, and Abdullah the Butcher.

Unknown to many fans was the fact that he ran both Toronto and Detroit wrestling, with his father-in-law, Francis Fleser, as his business partner and kayfabe owner. Until Big Time Wrestling faced issues after the 1973-1975 recession, they were running weekly live events and two to three TV shows a week, all in Detroit.

For example, booking was the main reason why shows really lost their draw, as well as losing wrestlers to other promotions. You’ll pick up on that formula booking in this, as no one beat The Sheik, even ex-NWA champs like Terry Funk, big box office names like Dusty Rhodes, and even Andre the Giant, who lost to The Sheik in Toronto.

In this film, there is a storyline about the Stop the Sheik Society, which features Joyce Farhat, the Sheik’s real-life wife and former valet, Princess Saleema. They keep begging anyone to defeat the madma,n and the only reason helosese to Ox Baker (he’s in Escape from New York) is because he gets sold out by his manager, Eddie Creachman, bringing back Abdullah Farouk.

There’s also “Bulldog” Bob Kent, who says the main line of this movie, “I like to hurt people.” Plus, Heather Feather, who wants to wrestle men. There’s no storyline — this is almost a mondo movie where things just seem to happen.

According to an interview with director of photography Bryan Greenberg, this was initially intended to be a horror movie called Ringside In Hell. Continuity was impossible with wrestlers coming in and out, so they decided to make a documentary. In that SLAM! Wrestling story, it’s explained that Greenberg had no idea the movie was going to be released until he saw it for sale. The article goes on to say, “Donald G. Jackson, director and producer of the film, had struck a deal with New World Video to sell movies he produced for New World’s new laserdisc line. New World funded Jackson to shoot additional footage in 1984, which is when “Stop the Sheik” footage was shot (for those who have seen the movie, no explanation is needed).”

I also discovered that cameraman Dennis Skotak would go on to work on special effects for films such as The Abyss, Aliens, Forbidden World, Galaxy of Terror, and more. There’s also a therapist in this, Sonya Friedman, who would go on to have a show on CNN, Sonya Live.

Other wrestlers that appear include Dick the Bruiser, Al Costello, Don Kent, Luke Graham, Abdullah the Butcher, Andre the Giant, The Funk Brothers and so many more. In a world where the past of wrestling is controlled, this serves as a reminder that it has always been popular, consistently drawn crowds, and has always featured unforgettable characters like The Sheik.

You can watch this movie on Daily Motion.

April 26: Oh Giorgio! — Pick a movie with a Giorgio Moroder score. Here’s a list to get you started.

Also known as Cyber Eden, this movie is wild.

Gloria Ruckhauser (Carroll Baker) has enabled scientists to reverse the aging process. However, they have done their job too well, as all the old people are becoming children. And also — all of the scientists are little kids.

The budget for this movie had to be insane or maybe I just think Christopher Lee should cost more money.

Giorgio Moroder doing the music, Luciano Tovoli shooting, Pietro Scalia editing and a whole vault of cash and this movie, which gets into AI and virtual reality years before that was a thing…it’s just weird.

It’s also the last acting role outside of a TV mini-series for Adriano Celentano. IMDB says that he was “one of the most important singers of Italian pop music, but he’s also been a creator of a comic genre in movies, with his characteristic way of walking and his facial expressions. For the most part, his films were commercially successful, in fact in the 70s and part of the 80s, he was king of the Italian box office in low budget movies.”

This TCM write-up tries to explain the movie: “Special effects comedy about seven brilliant children, hidden away in a secluded laboratory where they are perfecting an anti-aging drug. To help them relax, a lovable “idiot” is engaged to teach them about “lunacy”, but the results are too much for one of the young geniuses who creates a fantasy city.”

It’s like Toys but even harder to understand.

This proves that I will watch anything with Carroll Baker in it.

You can watch this on YouTube.

April 26: Oh Giorgio! — Pick a movie with a Giorgio Moroder score. Here’s a list to get you started.

Also known as Mamba, this has video game designer Gene (Gregg Henry) get upset when Eva (Trudie Styler, soon to marry Sting) leaves him, so he injects hormones into a mamba to kill her.

Directed (and co-written with Lidia Ravera) by Mario Orfini, who also directed another Moroder-scored movie, Jackpot, this film also features Bill Moseley in the role of the man who sells the snake.

Then, in real time, we watch Eva get stalked by that mamba. Watch as she gets dressed and it slithers by. She takes a bath and there’s the snake. And then…it gets closer while she narrates everything in her brain. It’s no Venom.

It’s shot by Dante Spinotti, so it looks good. However, it doesn’t really go as hard as you want it to. That said, the Moroder score may make this worth watching.

You can watch this on Tubi.

April 25: Bava Forever — Bava died on this day 43 years ago. Let’s watch his movies.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Jennifer Upton is an American (non-werewolf) writer/editor in London. She currently works as a freelance ghostwriter of personal memoirs and writes for several blogs on topics as diverse as film history, punk rock, women’s issues, and international politics. For links to her work, please visit https://www.jennuptonwriter.com or send her a Tweet @Jennxldn

There’s been so much written about this early giallo that I almost didn’t want to take this one on. But after seeing a digital screening at London’s Prince Charles Cinema in March of 2025, I felt I needed to share the experience of watching the brutal murders of European models in a 1960’s Roman fashion house with a much younger audience. Would they be as enraptured by the mystery as I was when I first saw this movie in the early ‘90s on video? 

Many of the patrons that night had never seen the film and yet it was sold out. Initially, this filled my Bava-loving heart with joy. “A whole new generation will be introduced to Mario Bava’s creamy purple, green, and blue gels!”, I thought. My joy was quickly doused sounds of the young audience’s laughter. Most of the little pricks found the film hilarious and outdated. 

Yes, the film is old. Yes, it’s filled with meme-able moments where the camera zooms in to a close-up on a possible suspect’s gaze, accompanied by a classic Carlo Rusticelli music sting. Little did they know, it’s precisely because of films like this one that we know this to be a cliché in 2025. Yes, Cameron Mitchell is delightfully smarmy, and yes, the use of cocaine is over-dramatized. The moment that got the biggest laugh? The close-up of German text written in Isabella’s diary. 

This last point was apparently so confounding to one couple, they were still trying to figure it out in the lobby after the screening. That this was their focus was disappointing. The whole point of the diary isn’t what language it’s written in. The diary is the object that drives the murderer and makes every main character look guilty. Everyone wants to know whether Isabella wrote something about them in her diary as they each have skeletons in their closets next to their mink coats. Or perhaps even, wearing the coat. It gets chilly when you’re a skeleton. 

Here’s the Italian version: 

I walked out into the cool, early March night air hoping that this couple would look up the film and read a bit more about the film’s international co-production between companies in France, West Germany and Italy following Bava’s departure from Galatea Films. “Maybe…” I thought, “they liked it enough to seek out Bava’s other works, too.” 

I’m still trying to move past my disdain for that night’s group of morons and hold onto my gratefulness to the Prince Charles for screening the film in the first place. I’m happy they made money that night. Whether or not the brain-dead among that night’s audience liked it is not my nor their concern.  

This film is gorgeous on the big screen. Every murder is staged to perfection, with each shadow and highlight revealing only the details Bava wants us to see. Every trumpet note on the theme song is perfectly placed, accentuated with cues used in Bava’s 1963 supernatural thriller The Whip and The Body, creating a sultry soundscape for the beautiful actors and actresses to sway in and out of the lush backgrounds. 

In terms of story, I’ll not bother going over it again. If you’re here, you likely already know it. It’s the prototype for the Italian giallo, mixing elements of the German Krimis with the Agatha Christie novels, peppered with black-gloved killers, gorgeous, flawed, horny protagonists who literally and figuratively stab each other in the back the first chance they get until the final twist leads us to a downer ending. 

To those who laughed during the screening, I can only say, “Fuck You.” 

Blood and Black Lace is the base of the giallo pyramid, on which stands everything that came after it. Perhaps someday, someone will write a giallo about a group of shallow, disrespectful audience members who get murdered one by one after a screening of one of the greatest giallos ever made. 

In the meantime, you can watch the entire film here: 

April 25: Bava Forever — Bava died on this day 43 years ago. Let’s watch his movies.

Known in Italy as Gli invasori (The Invaders), this is the story of two Vikings, Erik (George Ardisson) and Eron (Cameron Mitchell), who are separated when Sir Rutford (Andrea Checchi) of England makes a surprise attack on their father, King Harald (Folco Lulli). In the battle, Eron is rescued, and when King Lotar (Franco Ressel) becomes angry that Rutford has gone against his orders, he is also killed. His wife, Queen Alice (Françoise Christophe), rescues Erik and raises him.

Twenty years later, King Olaf (Jean-Jacques Delbo) has made Eron his warrior of choice, ready to take the fight back to England. Meanwhile, Erik is made Duke of Helford and leader of the English Navy, but Rutford sabotages his ship and sets it on fire. In the battle to come, brother fights brother, brother discovers sister, and Eron dies, naming Erik to his title.

Together, the Viking, English, and Scottish armies defeat Rutford. At the same time, Erik becomes King of the Vikings with vestal virgin Rama (Alice Kessler) while her twin sister Daya (Ellen Kessler) sails alone with the body of her lover, Eron.

Shot in Rome’s Titanus Studios, this is director Mario Bava making use of all his camera tricks while also having good acting and amazing sets to work with. This is only the second movie he’d directed, and already you could see his power. There’s an incredible spider death trap and a mesmerizing beauty in the story of two brothers, long kept apart, first enemies and the twin sisters who love them. Yes, it was inspired by The Vikings, but the best Italian movies start with another movie and then do something all their own.

You can watch this on Tubi.