In The Jew In American Cinema, Patricia Erens calls out this made in Pittsburgh low budget film as one with “perhaps the oldest Jewish husband in crisis” and says, “Despite the amateur acting and a rather unsavory depiction of contemporary Jewish life, The Devil and Sam Silverstein delivers one overriding message. Unlike their Christian neighbors, the Jews are incorruptible and unconvertible. Thus, despite the temptation, the Jew manages to beat the devil — no easy task.”

It was directed and written — from a story by Sanford Robinson and Stan Cohen — by Russell Streiner, who most know best as Johnny in Night of the Living Dead. Maniacs like me also recognize him as the assistant director of the beer commercial in There’s Always Vanilla and the preacher in The Majorettes.

The Devil (Owen Hollander, who was in The Happy Hooker and Christmas Evil)  is upset that his son — Devil Jr. (Robert Trow, who was a DJ in town, as well as Ralph in There’s Always Vanilla, Detective Mills in Season of the Witch and was probably best known outside of Pittsburgh for playing Bob Dog on Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood) — might never be good enough to take over the family business. If the Devil Sr. sounds like Brando in The Godfather, well, at least you recognize the impression.

The Lord of Lies wants his boy to corrupt Sam Silverstein (Allan Pinsker, who like many a Yinzer actor is also in Sudden Death), a senior citizen Jewish husband who says — to quote this film’s other title — My Wife Cut Me Off Forty Years Ago. First, El Hijo del Diablo wants him to embrace Christianity, then sell his soul for some young lust. Every time he’s close, things blow up, even when he’s picked to be in an adult film or is stuck washing off blackface next to a gorgeous dancer, one assumes at the old Edison.

Other actors who show up before Sam goes back to his wife Bessie include prank artist Alan Abel (who once got Buck Henry on TV as the president of the Society for Indecency to Naked Animals and also the PR for this movie; he promoted the film by persuading Allan Pinsker to become a candidate for president under the name Sam Silverstein and getting him on the news with Walter Cronkite),David Emge (Stephen from Dawn of the Dead) and George Kosana (Sheriff McClelland from Night of the Living Dead and My Uncle John Is a Zombie, who famously says, “Yeah, they’re dead. They’re all messed up,” “Boy, somebody had a cookout here” and “Put that thing all the way on the fire.”).

I’m always interested in the non-zombie films of the Night of the Living Dead crew. This may be PG but feels a lot like the early 60s nudie cuties that were once so scandalous and now seem so chaste.

EDITOR’S NOTE: This was first on the site on September 22, 2018. It’s back as Synapse is releasing it on both DVD and blu ray, which you can get from MVD by clicking on each link. Both options have a brand-new 4K restoration from the original 35mm camera negative, audio commentary with author/filmmaker Michael Gingold and film historian Chris Poggiali, a featurette with Director of Photography Dean Cundey, the original theatrical trailer and a radio spot.

If I’ve learned anything from my week of watching Bigfoot movies, it’s that Yankees aren’t wanted in the places where Bigfoot resides. You can also rewrite that sentence to cover city folks aren’t wanted when Bigfoot decides to walk on through Western Pennsylvania or Southeastern Ohio.

This one is all about two dudes: Rives (John David Carson, Empire of the Ants) and Pahoo (Dennis Fimple, House of 1000 Corpses). That’s right, Pahoo. Dennis Fimple was 36 when he played this young twenty-something just back from ‘Nam and looking for something, anything, maybe even Bigfoot. Rives is more concerned with hamburgers, fries and Cokes. And oh yeah, redhead goddesses. Well, everyone gets what they want in Black Lake.

You get a lot of character actors in here, like Western star Dub Taylor as Grandpa Bridges, Bill Thurman whose career stretches from The Last Picture Show to Mountaintop Motel Massacre, and Jack Elam, who is the best part of this film as the tracker Joe Canton.

Elam lost an eye to a sharpened pencil at a Boy Scout meeting as a child (he also literally grew up picking cotton) before serving in WW II, becoming a studio accountant and even managing the Bel Air Hotel in Los Angeles. A character actor in numerous gangster and Western films, as well as TV, Elam came up with a quote that many have stolen over the years in relation to how Hollywood sees people. He said that casting directors would say this about him:

• Stage 1: “Who is Jack Elam?”
• Stage 2: “Get me Jack Elam.”
• Stage 3: “I want a Jack Elam type.”
• Stage 4: “I want a younger Jack Elam.”
• Stage 5: “Who is Jack Elam?”

He shows up in some crazy roles, such as Doctor Nikolas Van Helsing in the Cannonball Run films and in The Norseman, Charles B. Pierce’s bonkers ode to Vikings that stars Lee Majors.

This was re-released theatrically in 1982 as part of a multi-film package called “5 Deranged Features”. Also on the bill were Dracula vs. Frankenstein (1971) (under the title They’re Coming to Get You so perhaps people went thinking they were about to see the American cut of All the Colors of the Dark), The Wizard of Gore under the name House of Torture, Shriek of the Mutilated and The Corpse Grinders under the title Night of the Howling Beast.

If you’re up for seeing college students try and get laid while eating burgers and hunting Bigfoot, then this is probably the exact movie you’re looking for.

What this movie really has going for it is cinematography by Dean Cundey (Halloween, The Fog, Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, Rock ‘n Roll High School and many, many more great movies). There are some interesting shots and it’s not your typical dark swampy seventies affair.

Bruce Lee’s death in 1973 didn’t cripple martial arts films. It could have. But the industry somehow took that loss and ended up making a ton of movies that cash in on the star’s death whether that means using clones of Lee or trying to tell his story.

Bruce Lee: The Man, the Myth is an attempt by director and writer Ng See-yuen to tell us the tale of Lee’s life with Bruce Li as the man himself.

From his move to Seattle, battles with other kung fu schools and success and failures in Hollywood, the film stays pretty close to Lee’s life. I mean, it’s all fights, but maybe that was a big chunk of his life. It does feature his real-life best friend Unicorn Chan playing himself, as well as Ip Chun as Lee’s Wing Chun teacher, the legendary Ip Man. Ip Chun is the best person for that role, as he’s that legendary man’s son.

The end of this movie is a montage of all the ways Bruce did not die as well as a theory that he will come back in 1983. Man, I wish that was true, but it’s not, but then again in the wake of the Dragon’s death, we got so many little Dragons, right? I guess that’s the one good thing to come of it.

You can watch this on Tubi.

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

Much has been written about the achievements of Shaw’s star director Chang Cheh. Here, I will give some love to their equally talented Chor Yuen who passed away in February of 2022. The Magic Blade is among his finest work, filled with plenty of wonderfully framed shots, expertly choreographed fight scenes and great acting. 

A Wuxia tale starring Ti Lung and Lo Lieh who must find a powerful weapon called the peacock dart before an evil swordsman can claim it for himself to to rule the underworld. 

Fu Hung Hsueh (Ti Lung) is a stoic and extremely skilled wandering swordsman. The story (based on the novel by Gu Lung) opens with Fu engaged in a showdown with Yen Nan-Fei (Lo Lieh) over a previously unresolved duel. Soon, their rivalry is put aside as the warriors of an unseen evil sorcerer named Yu attack Yen. Fu saves Yen’s life and the two join forces against Master Yu in a race to find the ultimate weapon…the exploding peacock dart!

After fighting more killers in a wonderful scene set up like a cinematic game of chess, Fu and Yen procure the peacock dart from its keeper. Along with the beautiful pure-hearted Chiu Yu-Cheng (Cheng Lee) the two men set off to find the elusive Yu. Eventually Fu and Chiu are separated from Yen, leaving Fu to carry the rest of the film on his deliciously broad shoulders.  

Fu and Chiu fall in love and meet many people along the way who all want the dart. Their journey is filled with as many plot twists, traps and poisoning as wire-flips and Fu gets through it all by his wits as much as his skill as a swordsman. No one played intelligent like Ti Lung. Well… maybe Tony Leung. 

The end battle with the as-yet-unseen Yu in Tien Wai mansion is a real showstopper. Ti Lung proves once and for all that he didn’t need David Chiang as a co-lead. His physicality and acting are in top form here. 

Compared to other Shaw Bros. classics, The Magic Blade contains more splatter and nudity. There’s even a quick lesbian scene at Yu’s mansion. Director Chor Yuen very wisely made sure there was something for everyone and it’s a very enjoyable movie overall. 

The production isn’t as grand as some of the older Shaw Bros. pictures, but it does appear to have had a significant budget with the sets, costumes, choreography and supporting actors all being top notch. As was often the case, the music contains cues from the original Planet of the Apes edited together with original themes and to great effect. The weapons are some of the most creative in the genre with the best being Ti Lung’s sword. It’s a very effective combination of a nightstick and spinning machete. In the hero’s hands (and director Chor Yuen’s) it is definitely a Magic Blade.

A Chinese series based on the same novel came out in 2012 and in 2015 and 2018 reports surfaced that Celestial Pictures was slated to partner with Tencent Pictures to produce a remake titled Moonlight Blade, but it doesn’t appear to have happened. In 2019 director Xu Haofeng, creator of several modern Kung Fu classics, announced he would be directing, but as of 2022 there’s no breaking news on that front. 

It’s perhaps for the best, as The Magic Blade is one of my favorite of the Shaw classics and more than worthy of repeated screenings. Best of all, it’s available for rent in pristine form on YouTube! 

EDITOR’S NOTE: You can see To the Devil a Daughter this weekend at the Drive-In Super Monster-Rama! Get more info at the official Drive-In Super Monster-Rama Facebook page and get your tickets at the Riverside Drive-In’s webpage.

Dennis Wheatley’s writing reflected his conservative worldview, as his heroes defend the monarchy, the British Empire and its class system. If you’re evil in one of his books, you either are from Satan or you’ve stood up to those ideals. As for how well he knew the occult, he was known as an expert on Satanism, exorcism,and black magic, even publishing The Dennis Wheatley Library of the Occult, personally picking the titles and writing introductions for each book. The series included works by Theosophist H. P. Blavatsky, Alesiter Crowley and Bram Stoker amongst many others.

He was not a fan of this movie, saying “This is disgusting, obscene, has no relationship to my book. It’s outrageous and disgraceful. And I will never again let this company turn one of my books into a film.”

I kind of loved it.

American occult writer John Verney (Richard Widmark) has been asked by Henry Beddows (Denholm Elliot) to pick up his daughter Catherine (Nastassja Kinski) from the airport. She’s had quite the life, being a member of Father Michael Rayner’s (Christopher Lee) Children of the Lord, a religious order that her mother was also part of. The group wants her back and uses black magic to battle Verney.

Catherine is set to become the human form of Astaroth when she turns eighteen and only Verney can save her from the Satanic forces of the former priest.

While Kinski is nude in this movie — and fourteen years old, which is pretty upsetting even if she had been topless already at the age of twelve — Lee is not. That was his stunt double Eddie Powell. Also: Klaus Kinski turned down the lead, saying that he may have had no issue being in a film where his daughter was fully naked, there was no way he’d stay sober.

If you’re in the mood for more Dennis Wheatley, Hammer also made The Devil Rides Out.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Before Menahem Golan took over 21st Century in 1989, it had existed since the mid 70s, as Tom Ward and Art Schweitzer formed the company as a film production company and distributor. It also owned most of Dimension Pictures’ films when that company went into bankruptcy in 1981. 21st Century also released many films on home video on their own label Planet Video as well as Continental Video. The first movie they released in theaters was an import, The Three Fantastic Supermen, before putting together some of their own movies. As I finish out the second — but by no means the final — Cannon Month, I’ll be covering some of 21st Century’s most interesting movies. This was originally on the site on January 22, 2020.

Also known as The Devil Master, Master of Evil and Coven, this movie purported to tell you the whole truth — finally — about demons. It seems that demons are kind of like the kids left behind in my small hometown, stuck drinking in bars, doing drugs and balling because there’s nothing else to do but rot.

It comes from the team of Donald Jackson — yes, he of the Roller Blade, Rollergator and Hell Come to Frogtown fame — and Jerry Younkins, who only made this film. It was shot close to my wife’s hometown in Jackson, Michigan.

MIT graduate students Jeff Kreines and his girlfriend Joel DeMott, along with soundman Mark Ranc, shot a video diary while filming this movie, entitled Demon Lover Diary. It details the film falling apart as its being filmed. However, it’s been alleged that the incompetence and infighting shown in this video were all made up to get publicity for the film. But who can say? Any movie that ends with Ted Nugent’s guns being fired directly at the filmmakers is totally worth a watch. Kreines and DeMott would go on to co-direct the documentary Seventeen while Kreines would be a cinematographer on the documentary Depeche Mode: 101.

As for the actual film The Demon Lover, it’s all about a group of teenagers hanging around a cemetery that gets involved with a Satanic priest named Lavall (Younkins) who conjures up a demon from hell that looks like an ape that kills all of them. That’s pretty much the entire movie, right there, minus some scenes of the upper class dabbling with the occult that go absolutely nowhere. Oh yeah — there are also disco, nude sex slave and kung fu scenes just to ensure that this regional wonder got to play on some screen, somewhere.

Also — Younkins severed a finger at work to pony up the $8,000 to make this movie, so that pretty much explains why he got to do pretty much anything he wanted. He’d go on to write Combat and Survival Knives: A User’s Guide and wears a black glove throughout to hide his missing digit.

According to L.A. Weekly, the filmmakers so loved The Texas Chainsaw Massacre that they “initially consulted director Tobe Hooper for info on film stock, hired Chain Saw cinematographer Daniel Pearl until their money ran out, solicited original Leatherface Gunnar Hansen for a two-day top-billed cameo, and eventually played the Lyric Theater on 42nd Street in New York City, whose marquee can be glimpsed sporting the Chain Saw title in a famous shot from Taxi Driver.”

Damian Kaluta, one of the protagonists of the film, is played by Val Mayerik, who is also one of the creators of Howard the Duck. I’d assume that’s his art on the poster as well. The name of his character Kaluta comes from 1970’s comic book artist Michael W. Kaluta and many of the names in the film are also derived from comic and horror icons of that era, like Detective Tom Frazetta (painter Frank Frazetta, who designed most of Fire and Ice), Officer Lester Gould (Chester Gould, creator of Dick Tracy perhaps?), Profesor Peckinpah (director Sam Peckinpah), Elaine Ormsby (Alan Ormsby of Children Shouldn’t Play With Dead Things), Alex Redondo (Filipino Swamp Thing artist Nestor Redondo), Susan Ackerman (Forest Ackerman, of course), Charles Wrightson (Berni Wrightson, who drew the comic for Creepshow), Jane Corben (Richard Corben, who created Den from the Heavy Metal magazine and movie, as well as the painter of the poster for Spookies), Garrett Adams (Neal Adams), Janis Romero (George Romero) and Pamela Kirby (Jack Kirby).

This movie also features early special effects work by Dennis and Robert Skotak, who would go on to work on movies like Escape from New York, Aliens, Terminator 2: Judgement Day, Mars Attacks!, Galaxy of Terror and so many more.

While this movie is junk — enjoyable junk that I will force people to watch — there’s a lot to be learned from it. Isn’t that what loving movies is all about? Actually, it’s also what the occult is all about too: the secret messages lurking behind the veneer of what seems like nothing.

You can watch this for free on Tubi or just check out the highlights below.