Mondo Macabro has been releasing several examples of Greek exploitation cinema lately, which is a genre I have only recently started to dip my toe into. This is directed by Kostas Karagiannis, who directed more than a hundred movies between 1961 and 1990, including Land of the Minotaur, The Wife Killer and Tango of Perversion.
Deborah Shelton, a former Miss USA and star of Dallas, Body Double and Sins of the Night, plays the captain’s wife. That’s right. That’s the only name she gets. When her husband is killed by pirates, she’s left alone with these rough and brutal men on the roughest of seas. That said, she’s not unafraid to use her body and cunning to stay alive and start to plan her revenge.
Set entirely on a ship carrying an illegal cargo of dangerous nitroglycerin, this film places all the many sides against one another. No one is blameless. No one is safe. Not many people have clothes on, either.
Complicating matters is that one of the film’s stars is named Kostas Karagiorgis, when the director is Kostas Karagiannis. Perhaps these names, in Greece, are as common as John Smith.
The original Greek title, Anomalo Fortio, translates as An Abnormal Load, which makes the 12-year-old in me laugh to no end.
You can get this from the fine folks at Mondo Macabro, who were kind enough to send us a review copy. It’s also available on their new site.
David Lowell Rich directed Eye of the Cat andSatan’s School for Girlsbefore this made-for-TV movie, which originally aired February 25, 1977 on ABC. He also directed The Horror at 37,000 Feet, which probably is why he was selected to make the final movie in the Airport series, the absolutely insane The Concorde … Airport ’79.
There’s also a European version of this called Death Flight that has nudity in it, if you want some more death in the sky with breasts action. You’ll get that but no realism, as the plane model used for the film is actually American SST as the first of its kind. The aviation sequences utilized a Concorde with Boeing 747 turbofan engines attached in some scenes and a Lockheed L-2000 in others. Neither of these planes ever flew at these speeds.
On the maiden flight of Maiden 1, Captain Jim Walsh (Robert Reed, The Brady Bunch), Flight Engineer Roy Nakamura (Robert Ito, Quincy M.D.), stewardess Mae (Tina Louise, Gilligan’s Island) and steward David (Billy Crystal, City Slickers) are preparing for the first supersonic flight from New York City to Paris. Joining them are plenty of guest stars, like the designer of the ship (Burgess Meredith, Rocky), the head of PR (Bert Convy!) and the supermodel who he’s sleeping with (Misty Rowe, Hee-Haw, Meatballs Part 2) and a former pilot (Doug McClure, Firebird 2015 A.D.).
There are so many people in this and you know that I love movies like that. Peter Graves, John de Lancie (the Q!), Season Hubley (Hardcore, Escape from New York), Susan Strasberg, Regis Philbin, George Maharis, Martin Milner, Brock Peters …1977 was such a great time for TV movies like this.
There’s also a virus unleashed on the plane beyond all the mechanical failures that you’d expect. Man, disaster films — on a budget! — are where it’s at.
Somehow, despite both being on Route 66, Milner and Maharis don’t appear in a single scene together.
This was one of the first movies that Mystery Science Theater 3000 riffed back when they were KTMA. Here it is on YouTube so you can watch the unadulterated movie all on its own:
Before NBC and CBS eschewed adult soap opera programming and started programming divisions concentrating on weekday, young adult programming, ABC-TV blazed the trail with their Afterschool Special that ran for 25 years from October 1972 to January 1997. The series topics, which touched on illiteracy, drug abuse, bullying, spousal abuse, and teen pregnancy, earned a record-breaking 51 Daytime Emmys.
The series has far too many standout episodes to mention, but here’s just a few of them, starring actors you know all too well.
Santiago’s Ark (1972), about a 14-year-old Puerto Rican boy who builds a boat to sail around Central Park, co-starred Bill Duke (Predator, Commando; recently in American Satan and Mandy). Child actor René Enríquez would go onto star for several seasons as Lt. Ray Calletano on NBC-TV’s Hill Street Blues.
Other standouts include Me and My Dad’s Wife (1976; Kristie McNichol), Schoolboy Father (1980; Rob Lowe), Stoned (1980; Scott Baio), and Dinky Hocker (1979, the late Wendie Jo Sperber from Back to the Future). Then there’s Rookie of the Year (1973), which starred Jodie Foster (Silence of the Lambs, The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane) as an 11-year-old girl who joins her brother’s Little League Team.
Image courtesy of randy rodman/eBay/MeTV.
But it’s this first episode of the sixth season that aired on October 12, 1977, that we loved the most. You’ll recognized Russell “The Professor” Johnson from Gilligan’s Island and a then 16-year-old Perry Lang, later of Alligator, Spring Break, Eight Men Out, and 1941.
Lang is Hewitt Calder, a mentally-challenged teen cared for by his father (Johnson). Hewitt comes to make friends with Willie Arthur (Moosie Drier, later of American Hot Wax, Hollywood Nights). Together, they overcome the school bully, Nully (played by Tom Gulager, the son of Clu, the star of Return of the Living Dead and Hunter’s Blood), and teach the neighborhood kids that “Everybody Matters.”
Image courtesy of coolcanoga/eBay.
Sadly—even with all of the uploads of Afterschool Special episodes—this one’s missing. And that’s a damn shame, because Perry is incredible in his acting debut. He’s long since moved into directing, with credits across all three major TV networks, along with the 2018 Christian-based film, Interview with God.
You can watch the episodes mentioned in this review—and more—on a pretty nifty catch-all playlist we found on You Tube.
About the Author: You can read the music and film reviews of R.D Francis on Medium and learn more about his work on Facebook.He also writes forB&S About Movies.
Editor’s Note, January 2023: Lance Kerwin passed away on January 24, 2023, at the age of 62. Lance got his start in acting by way of his mother, who worked as a booking agent, and his father, who worked as an acting coach. Kerwin, who came to prominence for his work in the Michael Landon TV movie The Loneliest Runner (1976), the NBC-TV series James at 16 (1978), and the Stephen King adaptation, Salem’s Lot (1979), left Hollywood in the late ’90s to serve the Lord as a Christian youth minister.
Thank you for the films, Lance. You were loved and you will be missed.
We’ve talked a lot about the prolific career of director Paul Wendkos at B&S About Movies. While Wendkos got his start directing Jayne Mansfield in the since forgotten rom-com The Burglar (1957) and directed a lot of Gidget movies, he built up pretty cool horror movie oeuvre with the theatrical feature The Mephisto Waltz, and the TV movies Good Against Evil, Haunts of the Very Rich, the 1985 remake of TV remake of The Bad Seed, and the legendary 1975 TV movie The Legend of Lizzie Borden.
In 1976 Wendkos was hired by NBC-TV to direct this, the second of two U.S. TV movies Robby Benson shot at the height of his teen idoldom, just before experiencing his first taste of international fame with his back-to-back theatrical hits of Ode to Billy Joe (1976) and One on One (1977). Benson’s first TV movie was ABC-TV’s Death Be Not Proud (1975).
Here, Benson stars in this true story based on the grim article and non-fiction book by Thomas Thompson regarding a father forced to kill his drug-crazed teenage son who came at him with an ice pick after one of their arguments about his litany of drug-induced troubles and his less-than-desirable friends (Charles Fleischer of A Nightmare on Elm Street and the voice of Roger Rabbit in Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Clint Howard of Ice Cream Man and Tango & Cash fame).
Keen eyes of ‘70s TV will notice “Capt. Nicole Davidoff,” Susan Pratt from the Saturday Morning “Star Wars,” Jason of Star Command, (one of my favorite ‘70s actors) John Friedrich (Thank God It’s Friday, Almost Summer, The Wanderers, and The Final Terror), and Cindy Eilbacher (TV movie Bad Ronald and Slumber Party Massacre II) as Richie’s friends. Lance Kerwin (of the TV movies The Loneliest Runner and James at 15; “Wooster” in Enemy Mine), Ben Gazzara (The Neptune Factor and Inchon; “Brad Wesley” in Road House), and Eileen Brennan (FM) star as Richie’s put-upon family.
Critics have written this off as an Afterschool Special (we’re reviewing a few of those this week) with violence added. I disagree. This is an intense, emotionally sad story; one that, unlike most book-to-film transitions, is very faithful to the book. And even though you know the outcome, you remain gripped to the screen because you wonder just how much worse things will digress.
Since this was a ratings juggernaut that everyone in middle school watched, most of us went out and bought the book ($1.25 new!). Our school’s library even carried it. And we watched the film in civics class more than once. The subsequent VHS release dropped “The Death of” prefix and released this under the book’s original title of Richie—even toning down some of the violence from the original TV print, which is forever lost. Beware of the DVDs marketed as “digitally remastered”; there’s no official DVDs and all are grey market rips of varying quality.
This spins frequency as part of EPIX’s cable catalog (their print is rife with sound and visual issues). While you can also stream it on Amazon Prime, we found two free rips on You Tube HERE and HERE—and those same prints air on EPIX. You can read the scans of Thompson’s Life Magazine article HERE and HERE. Here’s the network TV trailer. You can also watch The Death of Richie as part of Mill Creek’s “The Swingin’ Seventies” 50-film pack box set, which also includes The Young Graduates, itself on Mill Creek’s “B-Movie Blast” 50 film pack.
Join us tomorrow—Wednesday, and Thursday at 9 PM—as we take a look at two more “ripped from the headlines” troubled-teen TV movies with The Killing of Randy Webster and Angel Dusted.
About the Author: You can read the music and film reviews of R.D Francis on Medium and learn more about his work on Facebook.He also writes forB&S About Movies.
This Brian Taggert (Visiting Hours, Poltergeist III and Omen IV: The Awakening) film was originally aired on NBC on February 20, 1977. It was supposedly written before Stephen King’s Carrie. Although it was supposed to be a theatrical film, it was relegated to movie of the week because De Palma’s filmed version got on screen first.
Rita Matchett, a shy, overweight 15-year-old girl, is the central character who, like Carrie, is subjected to bullying. However, her powers manifest much quicker. In a shocking turn of events, as one of the mean girls climbs the rope in gym class, Rita uses her powers to make her fall to her death, setting the stage for a unique and unexpected plot twist.
While Rita comes from a wealthy family, she isn’t close with her sister (Helen Hunt) or her father (James Olson, Father Adamsky from Amityville II: The Possession). Her mother (Lee Grant, who reviewers said deserved better than this movie, but I love this kind of ridiculous TV movie, occult magic, so screw those people) tries to understand her, but once she starts speaking in tongues, all bets are off.
This is the kind of movie where an old woman spontaneously combusts, where the gym teacher (Lelia Goldoni, who, if I was artistic, I’d tell you that she was in Cassavetes’ Shadows, but we all know that she was in the 70’s Invasion of the Body Snatchersand The Unseen) teaches sad teens how to find Satan and the mom ends up having powers too, throwing knives at her daughter in a scene that again has nothing to do with Carrie at all.
Jack Colvin, who plagued David Bruce Banner on the TV version of The IncredibleHulk, and Wright King (Invasion of the Bee Girls) show up. So do some audio cues from the classic Star Trek.
Directed by Lee Phillips, known for his work on The Girl Most Likely to…, this film may be derivative, but it’s a lot of fun.
This is one of the few made-for-TV movies that have come out on DVD. Thank Shout! Factory for that and beg them to release more!
Quinn Martin (The Fugitive, The Streets of San Francisco, Barnaby Jones) produced this failed pilot, which stars Roy Thinnes (The Invaders, The Norliss Tapes) as Diamond Head, a secret agent who must stop double agent from stealing a chemical weapon.
He also goes by Johnny Paul, with his cover of being a gambler and ladies’ man living in Hawaii. The double agent, known only as Tree, ends up being Ian McShane.
France Nuyen (Alma from Battle for the Planet of the Apes) is in this, which is ironic, as she was also in the 1963 Charlton Heston movie Diamond Head. She’s joined by Zulu (Kono Kalakaua from Hawaii Five-O), Ward Costello (Bloody Birthday), Eric Braden (Victor from The Young and the Restless) and Eric Christmas (The Changeling).
It was directed by Jeannot Szwarc, whose strange resume saw him making all manner of movies from The Devil’s Daughter, Bug and Jaws 2 to Somewhere In Time, Supergirl and Santa Claus The Movie.
You can watch the Mystery Science Theater 3000 version of this movie on Amazon Prime and Tubi. It’s also on YouTube.
There had not been a James Bond movie for three years.
Seeing as how The Man with the Golden Gun did so poorly with audiences and critics, this movie would be very important to the franchise.
After all, it would be the first since the departure of producer Harry Saltzman, who was sold his half of the franchise in 1975, as the result of some bad investments, the loss of his wife and his own clinical depression.
One of the first issues the film faced was its director. Steven Spielberg wanted to make it, but was still in post-production on Jaws. Guy Hamilton, who had directed the past three films, decided to direct Superman instead (he was eventually replaced by Richard Donner). Lewis Gilbert ended up being the director, as thanks to You Only Live Twice, he had experience in the world of Bond.
The next issue? Who would be the villain? It couldn’t be Ernst Stavro Blofeld, as Kevin McClory, who owned the film rights to Thunderball, had a legal order that kept the producers from using Blofeld. To make things even more difficult, Fleming had requested that no elements from his original book be used and only the name of the novel could be used. This is why this is the first film that doesn’t have the author’s possessive name before the title.
Writer Christopher Wood was brought in by Gilbert to fix what he saw as a major issue with the Roger Moore Bond films. The writers were forcing the actor to be Sean Connery instead of being himself. He also added a henchman who would capture the attention of the fanbase, Jaws, who would be one of the few villains to return for another film and to redeem himself.
The result of all this work? Probably one of the best-regarded Bond movies ever, definitely the greatest of the Moore era. I probably watched this one more than any other as a kid, thanks to HBO, where it ran in heavy rotation. The Lotus Espirit sub scene, Jaws, Barbara Bach, the Carly Simon theme song — it is all things Bond.
Eon executive Charles Juroe said during a premiere screening — attended by Prince Charles — that when the Union Jack-parachute scene happened, “I have never seen a reaction in the cinema as there was that night. You couldn’t help it. You could not help but stand up. Even Prince Charles stood up.”
This scene, originally suggested by George Lazenby, changed the way that England felt about Bond. He went from just being a character who happened to be British to an iconic hero like King Arthur, Sherlock Holmes or Robin Hood.
The idea of two countries missiles being used against one another is recycled from You Only Live Twice, but that’s the only downside I can think of in this film.
Curd Jurgens (The Mephisto Waltz, OSS 117 – Double Agent) plays Karl Stromberg, a grand villain who wants to destroy the world with nukes and then begin a new civilization underwater. Richard Kiel plays his henchman, the aforementioned Jaws, who has metal teeth and superhuman strength. Playing his personal pilot? Only one of the most attractive people to ever live, Caroline Munro.
So who is the spy who loved Bond? Anya Amasova, who is KGB Agent Triple X. Played by Barbara Bach (Black Belly of the Tarantula, Short Night of Glass Dolls, Screamers, The Unseen), she’s no shrinking violet. She’s as capable and deadly as 007 and ready to kill our hero after she learns that he’s the man who assassinated her lover Sergei Barsov.
Here’s a great secret in this spy film: Stanely Kubrick worked on it. As the eyesight of cinematographer Claude Renoir was failing, he was having trouble finishing the film. Ken Adam turned to his friend Kubrick, who asked for complete secrecy if he would help with the lighting, using floodlights to make the supertanker scene more dramatic. His stepdaughter Katharina also worked on the movie, making the dentures that Richard Kiel used to become Jaws.
This is also the first film in which Bond kills a female henchperson, as he takes care of Naomi. Wondering why Caroline Munro looks so angry in all her scenes? She sat on a bee right before some of them and that’s her actually in pain and using it for the role. Also: Sylvia Kristel auditioned for this role. Can you imagine that horrible choice between picking Munro or Kristel?
AUTHOR’S NOTE: I just had to include this movie in James Bond month, because it’s the only film I’ve seen where Bruce Lee fights 007 in Hell. It originally appeared on our site in April of 2019.
You’ve got to love the balls of the people who made this movie, starting it with the words, “This film is dedicated to millions who love Bruce Lee.” Then, they have a fake Bruce Lee literally go to Hell.
Bruce (Bruce Leung Siu-lung, The Beast from a movie that’s just as crazy as this, Kung-Fu Hustle) wakes up from being dead and faces the lord of the underworld, who threatens him with an earthquake. Then, Bruce goes to a restaurant where he meets three new friends: Caine from TV’s Kung Fu, Fang Kang the One-Armed Swordsman and of all people, Popeye. Yes, really.
To Bruce’s surprise, there’s been a gang terrorizing hell, made up of Dracula, James Bond (yes, in this universe, Bond is a villain), Zatoichi the Blind Swordsman and Clint Eastwood. Our hero does what you or I would do were we in hell: he starts a martial arts school.
Meanwhile, the Godfather Vito Corleone, Regan from The Exorcist and Emmanuelle (played by Jenny, Emmanuelle of N. Europe, blowing my mind that if there can be a Black Emmanuelle and an Emanuelle with only one m, there can be honorary Emmanuelles from different regions of the globe) decide to take over the King of the Underworld’s throne.
Bruce ends up becoming the King’s bodyguard before he finally battles the leader of the Underworld, wins and goes back to Earth. So is Bruce alive again? The mind boggles.
THere’s also an extended part of the film where the “third leg of Bruce” is discussed. Yes, his real power is in his penis. I can’t believe that this movie exists and that it’s taken me so long to find it.
You should just watch this whole movie. It’s on Amazon Prime. Or watch the link below.
In 1977, there hadn’t been a James Bond film since 1974’s The Man with the Golden Gun. After the film’s release, producers Saltzman and Broccoli dissolved their relationship, with Saltzman selling his stake in Eon Productions’s parent company, Danjaq, LLC, to United Artists.
There was also the possibility that there would be two different Bond franchises, with Broccoli’s 1977 effort being The Spy Who Loved Me and Kevin McClory using his lawsuit to perhaps make James Bond of the Secret Service.
Lindsay Shonteff decided to fill the void.
Sure, he’d made The 2nd Best Secret Agent in the Whole Wide World, The Million Eyes of Sumuru and Spy Story, but now he was going to make his very own Bold movie.
Instead of James Bond, Charles Bind (Nickey Henson, Psychomania) has the license to kill.
He’s up against K.R.A.S.H. (Killing Rape Arson Slaughter and Hit), their leader and a weirdo named Arthur Loveday (Richard Todd, Asylum) who is killing off rich financiers.
If you think the Roger Moore-era films are too silly, you’d best avoid this movie. I mean, what did you expect? The name Charles Bind comes from Carry On Spying, after all.
This was followed by two sequels that had different actors play 008: Licensed to Love and Kill with Gareth Hunt and Number One Gun, which has Michael Howe in the lead role.
If the theme song “Givin’ It Plenty” is familiar, well, you may have seen Tintorera as many times as I have. It’s in that movie too.
People to keep an eye out for include former Dr. Who Jon Pertwee, Katya Wyeth (Hands of the Ripper), Geoffrey Keen (Minister of Defence Frederick Gray in six Bond films), former pro wrestler Milton Reed (who is in all manner of spy films, from Dr. No and Casino Royale to The Spy Who Loved Me and Deadlier Than the Male) and Oliver MacGreevy (The Ipcress File).
Bond never would use a .357 Magnum Smith & Wesson Model 66 revolver, much less the 50 calibre Browning machine gun.
Most of the budget of this movie went toward special effects, with stop motion dinosaurs that pay homage to the work of Ray Harryhausen. Hardly any of the budget went to the actors or the props, including the Kool-Aid that was used for the film’s berry juice. That said — the locations look great. The Vasquez Rocks area of California’s desert have been used in several other films and TV shows. You’ll recognize them mostly from Star Trek and as a result, the primary rock formation has been named Kirk’s Rock.
The spaceship Odyssey crashes on a planet that seems much like Earth but is many light years away. Within moments, the ship has sunk, the communications offer has been eaten by an undersea dinosaur and the radio is gone. Captain Lee Norsythe (Louie Lawless, who under the pseudonym Leo Rivers was the cinematographer and associate producer of the 1973 documentary Manson; of note is that due to his thick Canadian accent, director James K. Shea dubbed all of his dialogue, which is mixed much higher than anyone else’s) is in charge, but the remaining crew soon realize that they’re up against some pretty tough odds.
Then one of them drops the laser gun in the swamp.
Then one of them drops all their food off a mountain.
Then one of them tries to steal dinosaur eggs.
Then they all fight about whether or not they should establish a new civilization instead of doing something about it.
Yes, welcome to a movie with heroes so idiotic that you’ll boo when they finally kill the Tyrannosaurus Rex and win the day.
The only actors other than Lawless that had any previous experience were Max Thayer, who played Mike and his previous experience was Ilsa, Harem Keeper of the Oil Sheiks; James Whitworth, who was Jim, was in The Hills Have Eyes as Jupiter, The Candy Snatchers and Bury Me an Angel; and Harvey Shain had been in some softcore movies like 2069 A.D., Office Love-In and The Secret Sex Lives of Romeo and Juliet under the name Forman Shane.
Derna Wylde, who played Derna Lee, the crew member who dumped the laser blaster, went on to be a researcher on Chained Heat. Charlotte Speer, who was smart enough to discover what plants were poisonous, was in one other film, the 1985 slasher oddity Appointment with Fear. And Pamela Bottaro, who was Nyla, who lost all of the food, shows up in Al Adamson’s Death Dimension, which has Jim Kelly, Harold Sakata, George Lazenby, Terry Moore from Mighty Joe Young and Aldo Ray. That movie, I gotta see!
Here’s another weird fact. Writer Ralph Lucas also was behind the screenplay of The Child! And James Aupperle, who co-wrote the story, also wrote Flesh Gordon and would go on to be the lighting technical director for the Twilight films, as well as the digital effects artist for the first Hellboy movie and various effects work for The Gate II: The Trespassers, RoboCop2 and many more movies.
The best actor in this movie? The Rhedosaurus, which was The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms. Harryhausen himself visited the studio and gave his consent for his creature’s cameo appearance.
You can watch this on Amazon Prime. It’s also available with commentary by Rifftrax on Amazon Prime and Tubi. How much do we love this movie? We also reviewed it back December 2019 as part of our “Ape Week.”
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