MILL CREEK THE SWINGIN’ SEVENTIES: The Deadly Trap (1971)

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Directed by René Clément, who wrote this with Daniel Boulanger, Sidney Buchman and Ring Lardner, Jr., The Deadly Trap is based on The Children are Gone by Arthur Cavanaugh.

Jill (Faye Dunaway) and her husband Philipe (Frank Langella) are Americans in Paris. Phillipe may just work in an office now, but he used to be in a spy group that wants one more mission. The lovely couple also is having issues, because Jill is losing her mind and thinks that Phillip is cheating on her. This isn’t helped when their neighbor Cynthia (Barbara Parkins) knows way too much. And oh yeah, she keeps blacking out, which nearly kills the kids in a car accident and then the little fellers suddenly go missing. The cops think the mom did it. Phillipe can’t reveal his past. And Jill keeps going bonkers.

Rex Reed said ”Rene Clement, the French Alfred Hitchcock, has sculptured a masterwork of suspense and human emotions that put sweat on my palms and kept it there.”

What movie did he see?

I kid, I kid. There are some effective moments here, particularly the car crash that sends kids and mother sailing into the street. But you have to wonder about a criminal or spy group that is dumb enough to just leave a gun out around some kids. Surely they know better. No, they don’t.

You can watch this on YouTube.

Cisco Kid Movie Collection: Robin Hood of Monterey (1947)

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Eduardo Belmonte (Travis Kent) overhears his new stepmother Maria (Evelyn Brent) and her lover Don Ricardo Gonzales (Jack La Rue) planning on getting his father Don Carlos Belmonte (Pedro de Cordoba) off the ranch and in the ground, so to speak. Eduardo offers her money to get out and she accuses him of trying to sleep with her, which leads to his father attacking him. The lights go out, dad is dead and Eduardo is shot.

He’s saved by The Cisco Kid (Gilbert Roland) and Pancho (Chris-Pin Martin) try to solve this, but Cisco is arrested and killed by a firing squad. But you know that this can’t be real and he’s going to show up — he does — and save Eduardo.

This is one of the 167 movies that were directed by Christy Cabanne and 192 movies written by Bennett Coleman.

The Cisco Kid Western Movie Collection is available from VCI Entertainment. It has 13 movies and extras like two Cisco Kid TV episodes, interviews with Duncan Renaldo and Colonel Tim McCoy, and photo and poster galleries. You can get it from MVD.

TUBI ORIGINAL: The Last Exit (2023)

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Originally called Little Bone Lodge, this was directed by Matthias Hoene (Cockneys vs. Zombies) and written by Neil Linpow, who plays Jack in the movie.

Mama (Joely Richardson, daughter of director Tony Richardson and Vanessa Redgrave, granddaughter of Sir Michael Redgrave and Rachel Kempson, niece of Lynn Redgrave and sister of Natasha Richardson; she certainly has some star power for a Tubi original) is been caring for the paralyzed Pa (Roger Ajogbe) with the help of Maisy (Sadie Sovernal, Saltburn) in a home far off the beaten path.

One night, a rainy night of course, a knock on the door brings Matty (Harry Cadby) and his injured brother Jack (Linpow) into their hidden world. Jack has a pipe impaled into his body and is near death and Mama wants to throw them back into the darkness. Maisy begs for them to stay and Mama has the medical abilities to save him. But what’s the story with the cash and dead person in their car? And what secrets does this family have?

Jack and Matty have some secrets of their own. There’s McCallister (Cameron Jack) after them for some reason. And that worries Jack so much that he’s pulled a gun on Mama. Bad idea.

This ends up being way creepier and also so much better than I expected when I saw the name on Tubi. Stick with it, as this has some really good acting and plenty of tense moments. All is never as it seems. I mean, why does Pa need so much medication?

You can watch this on Tubi.

Spagvemberfest 2023: Pancho Villa (1972)

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An Italian Spanish co-production, this was directed by Eugenio Martín and produced by Phillip Yordan as part of three movies they’d make together, which also include Bad Man’s River and Horror Express.

After being double-crossed in an arms deal by a gun merchant McDermott (Luis Dávila) from New Mexico, Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa (Telly Savalas) and his American lieutenant Scotty (Clint Walker) attack a U.S. Army weapons depot and seize McDermott.

Colonel Wilcox (Chuck Conners) is stationed on the American side of the border and is assigned to rescue the shady McDermott, who is as bad or worse than the Mexican revolutionaries.

In his book Hollywood exile, or, How I learned to love the blacklist: A memoir, producer Bernard Gordon goes into how little Telly Savalas and Clint Walker liked one another. Savalas made attempts to upstage Walker while — unlike their characters in the movie — Anne Francis and Walker got along quite well. Walker was also not far from a near-death experience. The actor Walker skied out of control and had his heart stabbed with a ski poke. He was pronounced dead until a doctor heard a faint sign of life and performed life-saving surgery.

Walker is pretty much Rick Dalton. He was the lead on Cheyenne before getting into Western and war movies. He eventually moved into TV movies, several of which are pretty good, including Killdozer! and Snowbeast.

Pancho Villa even has a song, We All End Up the Same”, which was written by John Cacavas and Don Black and sung by Savalas. This feels very Vietnam-era, in that Connors has a scene where the entire army can’t kill one fly. It ends as all movies should with a train on train head to head crash.

You can watch this on Tubi.

TUBI ORIGINAL: Family Ornaments (2023)

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“An angry wish brings a family’s Christmas ornaments to life, unleashing havoc on Christmas Eve.”

I guess I’m watching holiday movies early.

Directed and VFX Supervised by Gregory Oehler, whose Mammal Studios has created effects for The Walking Dead: Worlds Beyond, Black Widow, Asura, Men In Black 3 and many more movies, this is the story of Meredith (Alicia Blasingame as an adult, Marla Robison as a teenager, Payton Sweeney as a kid) and Shannon (Autumn Harrison as an adult, Caitlin Charles as a teenager, Kynlee Heiman as a kid), two sisters who have never gotten along. Even the death of their mother Jean (Elyse Mirto), which should bring them together, has found them further apart.

When their father Pat (Michael Paré) brings the whole family together for the holidays, an errand wish on an ornament given to the family by The Trickster (Marian Elizabeth) unleashes a deadly array of Christmas tree ornaments. That allows the Mammal team to create a series of wild-looking things on the tree that come to life and attempt to destroy the family and even erase them from one another’s memories.

Written by Liam Finn, this is a movie about crafting, family in-fighting and what it takes to have people get along over the November and December weeks where everyone has to come together and pretend to get along. It’s not as scary as Krampus but has some of the same feel while remaining high energy throughout.

You can watch this on Tubi.

MILL CREEK THE SWINGIN’ SEVENTIES: The Death of Richie (1977)

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Thomas Thompson wrote Richie, all about the death of George Richard “Richie” Diener Jr. at the hands of his father, who was not charged with the shooting death of his son. The TV movie is directed by Paul Wendkos, who also made another great drug movie, Cocaine: One Man’s Seduction. He also directed the remake of The Bad Seed and The Mephisto Waltz, among many more movies.

Richie Werner (Robby Benson) and his friends only care about getting high, which means more than school, work or anything else. That’s something his father George (Ben Gazzara) can’t understand, that his mother Carol (Eileen Brennan) attempts to and that he himself tries to shield his brother Russell (Lance Kerwin) from.

Richie and his dad do at times get along, like when he gets a job working at a fast food place and when he’s trying to win the heart of Sheila (Cynthia Eilbacher). Yet their relationship is often one of near violence and constant arguments. By the end, Richie is taking handfuls of Secobarbital and threatening his dad with a pair of scissors, telling him he doesn’t have it in him to shoot him. He does, cut to a funeral.

I’m maddest at Sheila, who went from a cute date to telling Richie she already had a guy to finally reading Psalm 23 at his gravesite. You know when he needed you, Sheila? When he was taking handfuls of pills and smoking that reefer.

The sound of Richie yelling and the loud gun blast upset so many people that it was edited from future showings of this on TV. Speaking of being out of control, Richie’s thug friend Brick grew up to be Roger Rabbit. Yeah, Charles Fleischer. And his friend Peanuts? Clint Howard. No wonder his dad was worried, those are some insane friends.

Don’t have the box set? You can watch this on Tubi.

MILL CREEK THE SWINGIN’ SEVENTIES: David Copperfield (1969)

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Delbert Mann won the Academy Award for Best Director for the film Marty as well as the infamous NBC TV movie Heidi, Which interrupted the upset of the Oakland Raiders beating the New York Jets. The adaption was by Jack Pulman, who was also the writer for I, Claudius.

It stars Robin Phillips (who I know as the rich guy who kills Arthur Edward Grimsdyke in Tales from the Crypt) as David Copperfield. The cast is packed with stars, including Richard Attenborough as Mr. Tungay, three-time Academy Award nominee Edith Evans as Betsy Trotwood, Cyril Cusack as Barkis, Pamela Franklin (The Legend of Hell House) as Dora Spenlow, Susan Hampshire (The Trygon Factor) as Agnes Wickfield, Wendy Hiller as Emma Micawber, Ron Moody (Dominique) as Uriah Heep, Laurence Olivier (do I have to tell you?) as Mr. Creakle, Vanessa and Lynn’s father Michael Redgrave as Daniel Peggotty, Ralph Richardson as Wilkins Micawber, Emlyn Williams as Mr. Dick, Sinéad Cusack (Cyril’s daughter) as Emily, James Donald (Quatermass and the Pit) as Edward Murdstone, James Hayter (The Blood On Satan’s Claw) as Porter, Megs Jenkins as Clara Peggotty, Anna Massey (The Vault of Horror) as Jane Murdstone, Andrew McCulloch as Ham Peggotty, Nicholas Pennell as Thomas Traddles, Corin Redgrave as James Steerforth, Isobel Black (Twins of Evil) as Clara Copperfield and Liam Redmond (23 Paces to Baker Street) as Mr. Quinion.

This was on NBC in the U.S. but was in theaters everywhere else.

I think it proves how cultured I am that I went through everyone in a movie based on a classic and told you what British horror movies they were in.

Tales from the Crypt S2 E1: Dead Right (1990)

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This episode is based on the story that originally appeared in Shock SuspenStories #6, written by William Gaines and Al Feldstein and drawn by Jack Kamen. There was also another “Dead Right” that was in Tales from the Crypt #21 but that was turned into the episode “Abra Cadaver.”

I look into the future, my darlings… and for you, I see something… grotesque. It will sicken and disgust you! It’s me! Tonight’s tale is a sickening stab at suspense, about a gold digger who wanted big bucks to buy baubles and bangles. Look out, Cathy! I see you just might buy the big one!”

Directed by Howard Deutch (Pretty In Pink, Some Kind of Wonderful, The Great Outdoors) and written by Steven Dodd and Andy Welk, this episode really has some star power with Demi Moore playing Cathy, an exotic dancer told by Madame Vorna (Natalija Nogulich) that she will soon marry a man who will die and leave her great wealth. She thinks that it’s one of her customers, Charlie Marno (Jeffrey Tambor), who always speaks of his rich family. Yet the fortune doesn’t seem to be coming true. That is…until Cathy becomes rich at an automat. She didn’t see her dream ending up this way.

Speaking of exotic dancers, one of the girls in that scene is former GLOW and adult star Tiffany Million.

The second season of this show gets off to a decent start, as this is well shot and moves quickly. That said, no one consulted a lawyer because a murderer can’t inherit anything. Then again, if that was true in movies, we wouldn’t have so many plots that use it.

MILL CREEK THE SWINGIN’ SEVENTIES: Hannah Queen of the Vampires (1973)

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Also known as La Tumba de la Isla Maldita (The Tomb of the Cursed Island); Young Hanna, Queen Of The Vampires; Crypt of the Living Dead and Vampire Woman, this Spanish film was originally directed by Julio Salvador with new footage added by Ray Denton (Deathmaster, Psycho Killer). TV western-bred scribe Lou Shaw, who wrote The Bat People, tweaked the Spanish dialog for the less-gory U.S.-version.

Andrew Prine (Simon King of the Witches) stars as Chris Bolton, a man who has traveled with his sister Mary (Patty Shepherd, The Werewolf Versus the Vampire Woman) to attempt to remove his father’s body from where he died. It turns out that there was a heavy sarcophagus that he found inside a hidden tomb but now his body lies smashed under it. The townspeople refused to help, as inside that coffin lies Hannah (Teresa Gimpera, Lucky the Intrepid) and they don’t want her ever coming back.

The 70s were filled with female vampires of all shapes and sizes, from the Hammer lesbian-tinged vampires of The Vampire Lovers, the Satanic Twins of Evil, Jean Rollins’ sexual starved bloodsuckers, Daughters of Darkness, the fairy tale world of Lemora, Lina Romay as Jess Franco’s Female Vampire and the future vampires of Thirst. Every one of these films makes me happy despite the darkness and gloom of these days.

Don’t have the box set? You can watch this on Tubi.

Cisco Kid Movie Collection: Riding the California Trail (1947)

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Rancher Don Jose Ramirez (Martin Garralaga) wants to marry off his niece Delores (Inez Cooper) to Raoul (Ted Hecht), because when she’s wed, he’ll be able to get her inheritance. The problem is that Raoul also is involved with Raquel (Teala Loring).

Where does the Cisco Kid (Gilbert Roland) and Baby (Frank Yaconelli) come in? Well, Cisco is a womanizer, but it’s one lady at a time, like the lovely saloon girl Delorez (Inez Cooper), who is known as The Angel of San Lorenzo for how kind she is.

It’s kind of wild that all Cisco does is smoke, drink and love the ladies, yet he was a matinee hero for kids. It’s a strange comparison to the singing Gene Autry to Tex Ritter and his whip.

This was directed by William Nigh and written by Clarence Upson Young, who also wrote The Strange Case of Dr. Rx.

The Cisco Kid Western Movie Collection is available from VCI Entertainment. It has 13 movies and extras like two Cisco Kid TV episodes, interviews with Duncan Renaldo and Colonel Tim McCoy, and photo and poster galleries. You can get it from MVD.