Whispering Ghosts (1942)

Hollywood studios copying or revisiting what was making their competitors money isn’t a new phenomenon. Since I just covered the Cat and the Canary remake I went back and watched the original, which I love. That got me to thinking I should go see what knockoffs that I could find. With Bob Hope doing that movie and then following it up the following year with the equally awesome The Ghost Breakers I figured someone would have taken notice. While there are a lot of poverty row flicks the one that stood out to me was Whispering Ghosts. This was a decent production and starred Milton Berle. If you couldn’t get Hope in your flick, then the next best thing… as far as former vaudevillian performers go… was Berle.

The movie opens with a woman, Elizabeth, checking out her uncle Eli’s unusual home. He was a sailor and had his ship hauled up on land for him to live in. He was murdered and while it took time, she has finally officially inherited the place. There is also the rumor of a cache of diamonds, so we get a fun buried treasure twist as well.

Then we meet up with famous radio detective H.H. Van Buren (Berle’s character) who claims to have solved Eli’s murder. Though it turns out that he is wrong but still has a week to figure it out as he has promised his audience the big reveal on a live broadcast. That means he and his manservant/sidekick Euclid Brown have to head off to the house looking for clues. There is also a subplot of him playing a mean trick on a fellow performer who sends some actors to the house to mess with him as revenge. This serves to add a couple extra character for shenanigans. Van Buren meets Elizabeth and the actors. Some others show up as well as a storm blows in and wrecks the road. Then shenanigans ensue. In the end though the mystery is solved, and the treasure is found.

This is a decent movie. The pacing is solid as it gets right to the story and the action/comedy. I can’t think of a slow spot in the proceedings as things are spaced out evenly from start to finish. Though it does follow the formula closely with the goofy characters and wisecracking hero that didn’t bother me at all. Like I’ve already mentioned this was made to cash in on the success of the Hope flicks, so I knew what to expect. Berle, while not as great as Hope, is still great in the lead cracking wise and dropping one-liners like the practiced professional he was. The guy was really funny, and I’ve noticed has been forgotten by a lot of younger people. That is a damn shame.

Look kids it's John Carradine!

The rest of the cast is good. Willie Best, who was also in The Ghost Breakers, does his thing. Though much like Mantan Mooreland this doesn’t play well to a modern audience. Plus, there are a couple cringeworthy jokes cracked by Berle at Best’s expense that haven’t aged well at all. Though as someone who has watched movies like this as well as every vaudevillian recording I could find it is obvious that Berle is giving Best some of the best gags so there was some respect there. Though it still is uncomfortable at times. We also get John Carradine as one of the actors hired to mess with them. This allows him to ham it up and chew some scenery in a couple funny gags. Plus, it also leads to a Dracula line from Berle that I found funny. There is some good stuff here.

While not anywhere as fun as the previously mentioned Hope flicks Whispering Ghosts isn’t too bad. Milton Berle is funny and is surrounded by a supporting cast that can help carry the load. The movie gets in cracks some jokes and gets out before getting repetitive and boring. This is totally worth a look. You can find it online for free if you dig a bit.

 

© Copyright 2024 John Shatzer

Madame Death (1969)

Dr. Favel is a mad scientist conducting experiments that involve the deaths of young women. We know this because the “star” John Carradine, who plays Dr. Favel, has a monologue before the action starts. Yep, he is talking right to the audience.

When the movie starts we are introduced to Marlene who is married to a man that can’t stop talking about death. In fact, they are rolling around in bed and he is still all mopey about his impending doom. Brother that is a pretty lady right there, get your head in the game! Anyhow he has some sort of episode, and he tells her to call Dr. Favel. She doesn’t want to because the doctor has been dismissed due to his theories and actions. But he insists so she does. Then we see them in the laboratory with Dr. Favel and his hunchbacked assistant (not much of one but it is there depending on the scene). He announces a terminal cancer diagnosis and offers a special treatment that immediately kills the husband.

But lucky for Marlene he offers to bring him back to life if she gives him all of her blood. So the next night she tries to do just that, but it fails and she is horribly scarred. But then the doctor tells her he can fix that and cure her husband being dead if she brings him the blood of other young women. Okay Marlene should have figured by this point that he was a bad doctor, but instead she starts to kill folks and drain their blood. For some reason this also temporarily cures her scars. I mean she doesn’t take a shot or have some formula from the doctor… it just happens. Eventually the police figure it out, she runs back to the lab, the doctor reveals that it was his plan all along for her to get sick and die so he could do another experiment. And the hunchback blows the lab up. The end.

This movie makes no sense. The story is a muddled mess that has no logical plot at all. Why does killing make her scars go away? Why does she keep trusting the doctor after he repeatedly screws up? How does she go from nice to murderous monster in a hot minute? Toss in odd choices like her just showing up at wax museum to throw acid on a guy so she can then lure her actual victim there for what seems to be the sole purpose of guillotining her after draining her of blood! That seems overly complicated and pointless. But that is pretty much how I’d describe the plot of Madame Death, so I suppose that makes some sense.

The “star” John Carradine is barely in the movie. They must have only had him a day because all his scenes are on the same set with just three of the other characters. This is an early example of what I like to call “stunt casting”. Basically putting someone in the movie so you can feature them on the poster when they have hardly anything to do with the proceedings. Being a production in Mexico featuring a cast entirely of Spanish speaking stars I’m guessing this was done to sell it to an American audience. Not a bad business idea but it doesn’t help the movie as entertainment.

I did like a few things about the movie. The soundtrack has a groovy late sixties vibe. The makeup when Marlene “monsters” out is a very simple appliance, but it looks decent and gets the job done. We also get a mad scientist lab done on a budget that looks cool. But other than these I can’t find a lot of positives about Madame Death. I had some hope for the movie as I’ve seen a lot of great Mexican horror from the fifties and sixties but this one isn’t among them. I can’t recommend it.

 

© Copyright 2023 John Shatzer

Throwback Thursday - My Favorite Al Adamson Movie

note: I wrote this for the Grindhouse Purgatory issue dedicated to Al Adamson. I'm not a big fan of his but I've always dug Five Bloody Graves and was happy to cover it for the issue. 

My Favorite Al Adamson Movie: Five Bloody Graves

by John Shatzer

How is everyone doing? Here I sit putting the finishing touches on my article for the latest issue of Grindhouse Purgatory quarantined in my house. We are living in a strange world my friends. I had kidded that sitting at home on the couch watching movies was something that I had been training for my entire life. It was fun for a week or two, but then I got bored. Thankfully, I have this article and a few other projects to keep me occupied while I wait for the world to get back to some sort of normalcy. Hell, maybe by the time you are reading this we are all hanging out again and talking movies. Enough with all of this depressing shit lets dive into some Al Adamson Western goodness

When Pete told me that the next issue of the magazine was going to be a tribute to Al Adamson I sort of panicked. While I love cheesy low budget movies, I’ve always felt like many of Adamson’s flicks were boring and not at all fun. Sure, I dig Satan’s Sadists and Angel’s Wild Women, but those were already spoken for. Then I remembered Five Bloody Graves and did a little jig. While I haven’t seen it in years, I did think that I enjoyed the movie so after asking to make sure it was available, obviously it was, I went looking for a copy to review. There is a surprising amount of options, but I decided to watch a beat-up print complete with scratches and pops. It just seemed right.

Before I get to talking about the movie, I suppose I should give a bit more explanation when I say that I find Adamson’s work boring and not fun. To begin with let me stress that I have watched all of his movies. I’m a big drive-in nerd and love bad movies. Hell Ted V. Mikels is one of my favorite directors, so I’m not unrealistic when it comes to independent movies from the ‘60s and ‘70s. When I watch an Adamson flick it doesn’t seem like there is a complete script as characters seem to do random actions that don’t always make sense. There is also normally a ton of padding which makes for a tedious viewing experience. I’ve seriously used his movies to help me fall asleep during bouts of insomnia. I’m not being a smart ass about this it’s the truth. There are some exceptions like those I’ve mentioned above, but they normally are helped along by a great cast having fun. But this one is different in that it has maybe the most unique and best story that Adamson ever shot. Now that you know where I’m coming from let’s get to talking about Five Bloody Graves.

Ben Thompson, played by drive-in legend Robert Dix, is riding back from somewhere when he starts to meet up with people. One is an old flame, another is a half-breed Indian that he is friendly with, and yet more are a group of stranded travelers stuck when their wagon rolled over and the horses ran off. The connection between all of these characters, other than Thompson, is that they are all being menaced by some Indians that have gone on the warpath. Toss in some gun runners that have been providing the means for the Indians to stir up trouble and we have our characters.

Robert Dix is excellent

After watching some bad things happen eventually all the characters end up together and have to fight their way out of the territory they are in while being harassed and picked off along the way. If the Indians trying to kill them isn’t bad enough you also get some internal conflict as most of the characters are flawed and turn on each other. By flawed I mean cranky and downright abusive. Between the ambushes and bickering most are lost on the way. I can’t say more without explaining a very important plot device.

The story of Five Bloody Graves is an interesting one that is surprisingly complex and filled with action. Almost immediately we get this strange narrator talking directly to the audience about Thompson and his history. How he lost his wife to a bullet that had been intended for him and how he had been seeking out death since then. But he couldn’t die because he was a servant of death and that death wasn’t done with him yet. Then you start to figure out and eventually are told that our narrator is death and that he is explaining why things are happening. So basically, the idea is that everyone who Thompson meets up with either dies by his hand or gets caught up in the violence surrounding him. This is best summed up by one of the last lines in the movie, “…there can be but one victor and that is death…”. This is kind of deep.

Referring back to what I had mentioned above I was a bit concerned when I started watching this one because it starts off with that feeling of random characters and action scenes not really fitting together. It seems like Dix’s character is just going to ride around stumbling over one fight to another for the duration. For a good half an hour that is what happens, but this is actually just introducing the characters and setting up the rest of the story. Once they all meet up what felt like disconnected plot lines suddenly click together. At that point all of the stuff that was set up gets resolved and we find out more about Thompson and his connection to death. I had forgotten the details in the years since I last watched Five Bloody Graves and found myself really getting into and enjoying it as the narrative progressed. The pacing is wonderful with a lot of shootouts and fighting to keep things interesting and moving along briskly.

Speaking of the shootouts and fighting the stunt work is top notch. You get a lot of gun play with actors that clearly know their way around firearms. Many of the cast members had a long history working on Westerns, more on that later, and it shows. Nothing can kill a flick more than seeing people who are clearly not comfortable with guns trying to act as if they have lived their lives with one strapped to their hip. Same goes for riding horses, which again this cast is total comfortable with. This includes a lot of trick riding, especially falls. The fight choreography is very good as the fights feel real and there aren’t the awkward pauses that you sometimes get in low budget flicks. Considering that John ‘Bud’ Cardos helped with the stunts as well as starring in one of the roles that shouldn’t be a surprise.

John Carradine sighting!

I’ve already mentioned Robert Dix but that isn’t the only familiar face you get to see. Scott Brady, veteran of many drive-in favorites as well as a frequent guest star on television shows sinks his teeth into an abusive pimp traveling with his “girls”. Jim Davis, another veteran of television as well as a ton of Westerns, gets to play a gun running rapist that gets what is coming to him. John ‘Bud’ Cardos is Joe Lightfoot, the half-breed Indian and sort of side kick to Thompson. It doesn’t end well for him. Best of all is John Carradine in the most John Carradine of characters the cranky old preacher Boone Hawkins. Seriously guys there is a lot of “A” list drive-in talent in this movie.

One more thing that I wanted to mention that I found amusing. I had just covered Beyond Atlantis for the Sid Haig tribute issue and was shocked when I heard some familiar music at the opening of Five Bloody Graves. Now this isn’t the first time that I had that happen to me where someone used the same music library to score their flick (Night of the Living Dead and Teenagers from Outer Space come to mind) but it was weird that it happened in back to back movies I was covering for Grindhouse Purgatory. Plus, I’m such a huge nerd that immediately after the end credits rolled on Adamson’s flick I had to pop in my Blu-Ray of Beyond Atlantis.

Honestly, I found this movie to be very entertaining and highly recommend that people check it out. My opinion about Al Adamson’s work in general hasn’t changed. I’m still not a fan of most of it. But I think that it is important, especially in this day and age when everyone is looking to get offended, that you all understand something. I’m not saying that his work has no value. Adamson has a lot of fans and if you are one of them then good for you. There are plenty of filmmakers and movies that I love, and other people hate. The majority of his stuff just doesn’t appeal to me. 

Well I suppose this is all I have to say about Five Bloody Graves. As always you can email me with any questions or comments. I’m even willing to debate the value of Adamson’s work with anyone out there. I’d love to hear from you regardless of whether we agree or not. That email address is gutmunchers@gmail.com. Until next time stay safe and keep watching the classics. Thanks, as always, to 42^nd Street Pete for letting me write for such a cool magazine. Don’t forget to support him by buying back issues and check out his Gunslinger books. They kick much ass!

 

© Copyright 2022 John Shatzer

House of the Long Shadows (1983)

I’m a huge fan of director Pete Walker’s movies, especially his output from the seventies. He had retired by the end of that decade only to return for this one last time. With House of the Long Shadows he was hired by Cannon films to make an old school horror flick and boy did he succeed at that.

Desi Arnaz Jr. plays Kenneth, an American author touring England promoting his latest novel. When his publisher makes a comment about how they don’t write them like they used to Kenneth bets him that he could knock out an old school story in twenty-four hours. The bet is accepted, and an isolated country house is chosen as a nice quiet location to work. Only the place turns out to not be so peaceful. The weekend that he arrives to write also happens to be the same time that the former inhabitants decide to revisit their ancestral home. If that weren’t enough the publisher also sent his lovely assistant Mary along to spook Kenneth and distract him! I suppose all is fair when bets are involved.

Now if this alone were the story it wouldn’t be terribly interesting, would it? The family has a skeleton in their proverbial closet, as well as one upstairs in a locked room! Before anyone realizes it they are all being stalked and killed off one at a time by an insane brother bent on revenge. It doesn’t matter if you are family or not, being present is enough to make you fair game. The rest of the movie plays out as a mystery/stalk and kill. Along the way we get a couple old school twists and turns to make things entertaining.

I love this movie for a couple of reasons. The first of which is the casting. When Walker was hired to direct an old school horror movie, he basically cast everyone still living from the old days. The patriarch of the family is played by John Carradine with his sons being portrayed by Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, and Vincent Price. Let that marinate in your brain for a few seconds. Here we have four of the greatest horror actors ever, and certainly the best still living at the time. The only bummer was that they had intended to cast Elsa Lanchester as the only daughter, but she was too ill to travel to the set. Not only is it amazing to see these guys working off of one another, but individually they are each able to bring something unique to the screen. Cushing plays the mousy, cowardly brother with zeal. Price is larger than life delivering over the top soliloquies and chewing up scenery, and well Lee is awesomely creepy. This alone makes House of the Long Shadows worth a watch. But that isn’t all we get.

Look at this cast... seriously drink it in. Amazing...

The source material for the movie is based on an old play, Seven Keys to Baldpate, which itself had already been made into a movie seven times as well as a television adaptation in the fifties. While this story only loosely references the material in spirit it is very close. Basically, this is a more modern, for the early eighties, take on the old dark house movies that were immensely popular in the thirties. We get hidden doors, cobwebs, candles, and a big storm outside effectively trapping our characters in a giant spooky house. Of course, there is murder and a family secret that no one wants to revel as well as an unknown and unseen killer lurking about. The filmmakers effectively took these classic actors and put them in an equally classic story completely succeeding in making a fun throwback film.

I could and want to go on talking about House of the Long Shadows, but I’m afraid I’d spoil things and I really don’t want to do that. The decade of the eighties was dominated by Slasher movies and other gorefests. While I love those movies there is something special about seeing these old favorites getting a chance for one last hurrah together. Plus, this is the only movie where the big three of Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee, and Vincent Price appear onscreen together. How can you pass that up? In case it isn’t obvious I’m going to recommend that you don’t pass on it. For many years you could only find this movie on bootlegs of varying quality, but now there is a very nice and affordable Blu-Ray from the fine folks at Kino Lorber. I suggest this as the best way to check out the movie.

© Copyright 2020 John Shatzer

Will to Die (aka. Legacy of Blood) (1971)

This little drive-in flick was one that I had forgotten about until I heard another reviewer talking about it. That inspired me to track down my own copy. I couldn’t find the thing anywhere. I was sure it was on one of those Millcreek sets. Luckily the internet provides, and I was able to find a copy to stream.

The story is simple and fun. Rich old guy, played by the always awesome John Carradine, dies and divvies up the money between his four children and three servants. He is a bit of a sadist and hates everyone, so he has a perfect setup. A pool of money is set aside for the servants and over a hundred thirty million is split between his kids. To collect it all they need to do is spend the week in the house. If any of them should leave or die their share gets split between the rest. That is a recipe for murder and mayhem.

Sure enough the old guy knows his family. Starting with a dog (damn it movies stop murdering dogs!) the killing gets rolling on the first night. In fact, the whole movie takes place that first night. The family can’t make it twenty-four hours before the murdering begins and considering this motley crew that isn’t surprising. Makes me thing that maybe the old guy had a point? The rest of the movie are the bodies piling up and as a result the suspect list shrinking. By the end credits all is revealed, and one final bit of fun is tossed to the audience.

So much of what makes a movie a good drive-in flick is here. The veteran actor, Carradine, was clearly on set for a day or so as he is hardly in the movie. It is done really well so I consider this a bonus and it is fun to see how they cut him into scenes. There is also a bit of sleaze with one set of the siblings having a relationship that is clearly not appropriate. Can’t have a fun murder mystery without a bit of incest, am I right? The acting is okay with some intentionally over the top work coming from Richard Davalos as the tortured sister loving brother Johnny! Dude screams his dialogue for most of the movie. It was also cool to see Faith Domergue who was in a lot of classic fifties movies getting some work towards the end of her career. This and the equally fun The House of Seven Corpses were nice ways to end a film career.

Is there anything manlier than an ascot?

The kills are pretty tame and, in some instances, played for laughs. Sure, you get the straightforward death by gunshot and poison, but they also toss in bees and boobytrapped lamps. This isn’t the kind of movie that you watch for gore and scares. It is almost a comedy without trying outright to be one. I also have to say something spoiler free about the ending. We get a couple different twists and a really amusing last line right before the credits roll. Even if you aren’t having fun trust me you will want to stick around to the end.

Will to Die is a strange movie to explain and categorize. I can’t say that it is a good movie, but it hits all of those must have bullet points for a decent one. The most important of those was that I never was bored. Silly as it might be at times there was always something on screen to hold my interest. I’m going to recommend that if you can track down a copy that you should check it out.

note: I couldn't find the trailer to link above but I did find the entire movie! No reason not to watch it now.

© Copyright 2019 John Shatzer

The Night Strangler (1973)

The made for T.V. fun continues with this sequel to The Night Stalker. I figured it made sense to follow up the original with a review of the sequel. It doesn’t hurt that both movies are great! I guess that was a spoiler. In addition to Richard Matheson returning to write the script we get the genius Dan Curtis actually directing it!

Kolchak is back in action in this follow up to the Night Stalker movie. Sometime after being run out of Las Vegas Kolchak finds himself in Seattle. His old editor, Vincenzo, bumps into him at a bar. Kolchak is trying to convince anyone that will listen about the vampire that terrorized Vegas. Vincenzo offers Kolchak a job at a paper in Seattle, and a juicy story covering a series of murders. But of course, it becomes apparent that something odd and perhaps supernatural is going on with the killings. A similar set of killings happen every twenty-one years and have since not long after the Civil War! This leads to all sorts of talk of alchemy and exploration of the creepy Seattle underground.

If you have seen the Night Stalker you know what happens when Kolchak tries to convince anyone about the odd nature of the crimes. Just like in Vegas he helps the police track the killer down only to find himself again out of a job. Only this time it ends a little more upbeat with him and a couple friends driving out of town headed to New York City and what was supposed to be a third movie that became the series instead.

It isn’t often that a sequel lives up to a movie that I enjoyed as much as I enjoyed the Night Stalker. This is one of those movies. Richard Matheson again writes the script, only this time it isn’t an adaptation but something from his own imagination. If anything, Matheson’s story is an even more entertaining than the original, while keeping to the basics of humor and character that made the first so entertaining. Moving on from the classic horror character of the vampire this film has Kolchak pitted up against a mad alchemist that has discovered the secret of eternal life. Unfortunately, one of the main ingredients for the formula is the blood of a recently dead young girl! I’ve always thought that the mad scientist is the most underappreciated of the classic “monsters”, so it was great to see it used.

Kolchak vs Dracula? Okay maybe just John Carradine.

This story also again makes wonderful use of the city in which it is set. In the first film it was the Las Vegas strip, this time the story makes use of Seattle and it’s forgotten underground. If you don’t know what this is I suggest you check it out on the net, because it is fascinating. As I mentioned earlier this allows the finale to take place in a surreal underground that is locked in time, much like our main villain. I don’t think it is as scary as the first, but still is creepy enough for a bit of fun.   

The cast is again spectacular with McGavin again carrying the movie in the role of Kolchak. He nails the characters confrontational challenging of authority. Simon Oakland returns as his put-upon editor Vincenzo, with John Carradine and “Grandpa” Al Lewis joining the cast in supporting roles as a newspaper editor and doomed bum respectively.

If you are expecting a gore fest then this isn’t the movie for you. But for a TV movie from the early ‘70s you do get to see some dead bodies and a funny sequence with a bottle of scotch in the morgue that is gross if you pay attention. As with the first the movie is shot very well, capturing both the city of Seattle as well as it’s creepy dark corners on film with equal skill. Along with the Night Stalker these movies are the gold standard of made for television horror and are must see. 

© Copyright 2018 John Shatzer