MILL CREEK LEGENDS OF HORROR: The Cheney Vase (1955)

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Season 1, Episode 13 of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, “The Cheney Vase,” stars Darren McGavin as Lyle Endicott, who is hired to be the personal assistant of Martha Cheney (Patricia Collinge). What he really wants is the money he’ll get when he takes a family heirloom, the Cheney Vase.

He’s already found a buyer in Herbert Koether (George Macready), but Cheney wants to keep the vase in her family until she dies. This may not be far from happening. And hey — Carolyn Jones is in this!

Directed by Robert Stevens and written by Robert Bless (Frogs), this seems like Endicott has it all figured out. Then again, this is an Alfred Hitchcock show, so it’s one thing to replace the maid and shut an older woman off from everyone else. It’s another thing to get away with it.

You can watch this on YouTube.

MILL CREEK LEGENDS OF HORROR: Number Seventeen (1932)

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Based on the stage play by Joseph Jefferson Farjeon, this begins with Detective Barton (John Stuart) encountering an unhoused man, Ben (Leon M. Lion), as well as a dead body. As people continue to arrive at the house — one falls from the ceiling — the dead body disappears. In fact, it may still be alive. There are also three thieves — Brant (Donald Calthrop), Nora (Anne Grey) and Henry Doyle (Barry Jones) — a man named Sheldrake (Garry Marsh) and a necklace hidden in a bathroom.

There’s also a train chase right onto a ferry, which is some significant action. However, this sadly wasn’t a box-office success. Hitchcock said it was a disaster; he was in a strange phase of his career, remaking stage plays that never seemed to work. Those miniatures of the chase are good, however, and it’s an hour or so long. Not a lot to invest, and you get to see a master early in his career.

You can watch this on Tubi.

88 FILMS BLU RAY RELEASE: Eleven Days Eleven Nights 2 (1991)

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Joe D’Amato and Rosella Drudi reteamed for this sequel in name only to Eleven Days Eleven Nights, even though the character of Sarah comes back. Now she’s played by Kristine Rose and has been married and separated and given the new job of the executor of the estate of Lionel Durrington (James Jackson), one of her past lovers and the richest man in Louisiana.

Guess what? This is actually the third film in the series because Sarah was the lead character in Top Model, which is also listed in plenty of places as Eleven Days, Eleven Nights 2. Look — it wouldn’t be Italian movies if it weren’t confusing.

There are four heirs and one after another, they all get with our heroine, who will determine which one is worthy of the money based on how good they are in bed, one supposes. Sonny is the only one with no interest in Sarah, even when she danced for him at a strip club, but that’s because his last girlfriend was abused in front of him by friend of the family Alfred, who is also trying to get the money.

Because Italian films really don’t care about how insane or twisted — actually, this is what they run toward, not from — things get, Sarah disguises herself as Sonny’s old lover and goes to the impotence institute and gets a rise out of him.

By the end, she realizes that no one deserves the money, so she comes up with a plan. She’ll write a book about the family and its secrets while they split the $500 million with a mystery person. They quickly sign and yeah, the mystery guy is the man who was supposed to be dead and we have a happy ending. We also have Laura Gemser in the blink and you’ll miss it role of Sarah’s jogging publisher and Ruth Collins from Lurkers, Doom Asylum and Prime Evil show up.

For a movie about people getting naked, D’Amato has plenty of women in sweaters show up. I’m all for this.

Also: This has also been listed as The Web of Desire and Eleven Days, Eleven Nights Part 4 because Italian movies are wonderful and confusing.

88 Films has released this in an incredible slipcase with art by Sean Longmore. It also has a booklet with notes by Calum Waddel and Rachael Nisbet. Inside, you’ll find a new 4K remaster from the original negatives, audio commentary by Eugenio Ercolani and Nanni Cobretti, interviews with Mark Thompson Ashworth, Piero Montanari and  Pierpaolo De Sanctis, and Italian opening and closing titles. You can get this on 4K UHD or Blu-ray from MVD.

Ladies? It’s DIA time.

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Ladies (and gentlemen and anything you identify as), the DIA is DTF. Down To (watch) Films. Join Bill and Sam at 8 PM EDT this Saturday on the Groovy Doom Facebook and YouTube channels.

Want to know what we’ve shown before? Check out this list.

Have a request? Make it here.

Want to see one of the drink recipes from a past show? We have you covered.

Up first, The Single Girls. You can watch it on YouTube.

Here’s the first recipe.

For the Single Ladies

  • 1.5 oz. Watermelon Pucker
  • 1 oz. vodka
  • 1 oz. sweet and sour mix
  • 2 oz. club soda
  1. Mix all Pucker, vodka and sweet and sour mix in a shaker with ice. Strain in a glass.
  2. Top with club soda, enjoy. Cover your drink and watch it at all times.

The second movie is Swinger’s Massacre and it’s on Tubi.

Here’s the second drink.

Dirty Swinger

  • .5 oz. Midori
  • 1 oz. vodka
  • 1 oz. Malibu
  • .5 oz. pineapple juice
  1. Mix everything up in a shaker.
  2. Strain in a shot glass and see where the evening takes you.

See you Saturday.

MILL CREEK LEGENDS OF HORROR: The Sorcerer’s Apprentice (1961)

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“The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” is a seventh-season episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents and was scheduled to be episode 39 of season 7. However, the network was worried about it. Robert Bloch, who wrote the screenplay and the short story that it was based on — it was in the January 1949 issue of Weird Tales — said,  “When the network censors viewed the teleplay, there was thunder from on high. This show was simply too gruesome to be aired. Nobody called me on the carpet because of this capricious decision. As a matter of fact, when the series went into syndication, my show was duly televised without a word from the powers that be.” 

Sadini the Great (David J. Stewart) rescues a young boy, Hugo (Brandon deWilde), sleeping in the cold. The magician’s wife, Irene (Diana Dors), thinks it’s a waste of time; he tells her to get the boy something to eat. The kid goes all over the big top and soon learns that Irene has been sleeping with another performer, George Morris (Larry Kert). In truth, Irene is using Hugo, setting him up to kill her husband by telling him that he can gain magic powers by killing Sadini.

As you can expect, it doesn’t work out well for anyone. This won’t be the first time Diane Dors is sawn in half. Just watch Berserk! 

Director Józef Lejtes started his career in Poland and went on to work on numerous episodic TV shows.

You can watch this on YouTube.

B & S About Movies podcast Episode 111: Is It BS?

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I went a little crazy this week and got into The Late Great Planet Earth, Mysteries from Beyond Earth, Overlords of the UFO, The Force Beyond, Mysteries of the Gods and Chariots of the Gods.

Also: If you hate samples and long trailers, this is not the episode for you.

You can listen to the show on Spotify.

The show is also available on Apple Podcasts, iHeartRadio, Amazon Podcasts, Podchaser and Google Podcasts

Important links:

Theme song: Strip Search by Neal Gardner.

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MILL CREEK LEGENDS OF HORROR: East of Shanghai (1931)

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This is what Hitchcock’s Rich and Strange was released as in the U.S. His title is better, because it comes from The Tempest: “Full fathom five thy father lies, / Of his bones are coral made, / Those are pearls that were his eyes: / Nothing of him that doth fade, / But doth suffer a sea-change / Into something rich and strange”

Fred and Emily Hill (Henry Kendall and Joan Barry) are on a cruise but seem to be falling in love with other people. Despite that, Emily still wants to take care of Fred, at least until he gives all their money to his new love, stranding them in Singapore and nearly sinking them until they’re saved by some Chinese folks who eat a cat. Yes, really. A 1931 movie is like that sometimes. Hitchcock even said it was one of his favorite scenes.

You can watch this on Tubi.

ATTACK OF THE KAIJU DAY: The Great Buddha Arrival (2018)

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The lost 1934 film The Great Buddha Arrival holds a special place in film history, inspiring tokusatsu and kaiju movies, while intriguing fans and history buffs alike.

In 2018, director Hiroto Yokokawa created a modern reimagining of this story with the blessing of the grandson of the original director Yoshiro Edamasa. Yokokawa also made Nezura 1964, a reimagining of a 1964 Daiei movie that was canceled, connecting the past and present of kaiju filmmaking.

Nearly a mockumentary of the Great Buddha coming to life, this is filled with kaiju stars, including Yoshiro Uchida, who played Toshio Sakurai in Gamera vs. Gyaos; Peggy Neal (Terror Beneath the Sea, The X from Outer Space); Akira Kobu (Son of Godzilla); Yukijiro Hotaru (the Heisei Gamera movies); Yoshihiko Otsuki and Junichiro Nirasawa (Godzilla: Final Wars); Bin Furuya, the original Ultraman and Akira Takarada, famous for his role of Hideto Ogata in the original Godzilla.

While we may never see the original movie, this is still an interesting effort.

You can watch this on Tubi.

ATTACK OF THE KAIJU DAY: Mighty Lady Sparkle (2009)

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Eventually, otaku who are all into tokusatsu grow up and become perverts. This movie is for them, a Sapphic ode to sentai rangers and giant women called forth to battle kaiju and get goo all over their chests.

There’s a whole series of these Mighty Lady movies. In fact, this is not the first movie by director Ichiro Omomo that I have seen, as he also made Star Virgin. That means that when you read that paragraph above, know I am not knocking any of my fellow pervs. I get it, perhaps more than anyone.

There’s also a 1984 movie, All About Mighty Lady, in which she nails a stuffed Garfield doll to a wall.

Now I have to see it.

Thanks, Bleeding Skull!

Is this porn? Well, I found a copy on eBay, so the answer is no. It’s…I can see how some people could be into it, but it’s mostly how they did the effects. That said, there are a lot of makeout scenes and guys are kind of fascinated by that. Then again, ladies love Boys Love yaoi or Girls Love yuri manga, which is focused on same sex romance. It’s a big world filled with lots of flavors, so why limit yourself, even if you want to be stepped on by a fifty-foot-tall Japanese superhero?