Monday, December 8, 2014

ISLAND CLAWS - BLU-RAY REVIEW


Taking its cue from any number of ‘50s monster flicks, Hernan Cardenas’ ISLAND CLAWS finally made its digital debut this past October courtesy of Scorpion Releasing, and despite its flat TV-like origins, it looks absolutely fantastic on this Limited Edition Blu-Ray.

A small island off the coast of Florida has seen a sudden, rather alarming, increase in their crab population, and even worse, these marauding little critters are making their way out of the ocean and are on the offensive.  Their aggressive behaviour could be attributed to a large toxic spill from the nearby nuclear power plant or it may have something to do with Dr. McNeil (Barry Nelson) and his team of marine biologists.  They’re working on accelerating the growth cycle of some marine life and the local crustaceans are showing signs of progress, which they hope will help eventually alleviate the global food shortages.  Of course, like any “nature runs amok” film, these rather imprudent ideas always give way to some bigger, more dangerous problem.  This time, a crab the size of a house terrorizes the local populace.

Not sure if this was ever meant to play theatrically, but ISLAND CLAWS plays out like any TV “Movie of the Week” with lots of padding and some innocent PG-rated mayhem; the only thing missing are the usual fade-to-black intermissions for commercial breaks.  Coming across like a mid-day soap opera, there is plenty of build-up with lots of characters and various sub-plots, some of which vanish as quickly as they’re introduced.  Even though the film opens with a toxic spill, this angle is barely expanded on and even the power plant’s head supervisor Frank Raines (Dick Callinan), who is conveniently set-up as the bad guy, disappears from the rest of the film as well.  He is only mentioned in passing when his daughter Jan Raines (Jo McDonnell), a reporter researching a story on world hunger, teams up with Dr. McNeil’s assistant Pete (Steve Hanks) and his surrogate father Moody (Robert Lansing), whose hostility towards Frank is still very much a sore point; apparently Frank “drove off the causeway” and killed Pete’s parents many years ago.  Moody runs ‘The Half Shell’, a local fisherman’s bar that is right out of a B-movie western, whose clientele seem to be employed more as barflies than fisherman.  When Amos (Mal Jones), the town drunk, is killed by the giant crab in his out-of-the-way trailer, a mob mentality is formed against the local, and illegal, Haitian population (“It’s them Haitians who done it!”) by the consistently inebriated Half Shell crowd.  Although Moody tries to dissuade them, they can’t get past the Haitians' “voodoo” practices, which they blame on just about everything.  Of course, Pete and Jan begin to suspect something far more dangerous when they discover an inordinately large and recently shed crab shell.  It’s here, in the film’s final act where the locals finally put aside their petty squabbles and band together against the giant killer crab, which at first glance, is actually quite impressive.  Even though the climactic showdown is well cut for maximum excitement, the crab doesn’t do a whole lot other than wave it’s “giants claws” and angrily roar, but despite its limitations, it’s great, silly fun that any monster-fan will enjoy just the same.

Although everyone in the cast offer decent but unspectacular performances, the film definitely benefits from Robert Lansing’s turn as the crusty old islander, which at times feels like a combination between Roy Scheider’s Captain Brody and Robert Shaw’s Quint from JAWS (1975), no doubt as much an inspiration on this film as the ‘50s monster flicks it tries to emulate.  Ironically, Mr. Lansing also battled giant ants a few years earlier in Bert I. Gordon’s EMPIRE OF THE ANTS (1977) and then battled flesh-hungry cockroaches in Terence Winkless’ The NEST (1988).

Perfect as a Saturday morning timewaster, ISLAND CLAWS will most likely not endear many new fans, but those that caught this either on TV or via Vestron’s 3-decades old VHS will be pleasantly surprised by the clarity of this Blu-Ray.  Limited to 1200 copies, pick up a copy from Diabolik DVD before it scuttles away into oblivion for good.  

Tuesday, November 25, 2014

ROKO'S REVENGE - A LOOK AT ANTONIO MARGHERITI'S VENGEANCE


Reviewed by Steve Fenton, with Michael Ferguson

Cinevision ad-line: “FIVE MEN HELD THE BALANCE OF DEATH... his revenge exploded in a massacre of hell!” 



I’ll begin with a synopsis, so those wishing to avoid spoilers might want to skip this paragraph: The time is the 1870s. After a botched robbery at an old fortress, halfbreed Cheyenne outlaw J. Roko – pronounced “Rocko” – Barrett (Richard Harrison) stumbles across the remains of his friend, Richie (Alberto Dell’Acqua); who has been horribly drawn-and-quartered by a rival gang for refusing to reveal the whereabouts of some stolen gold. Thus, Roko seeks retribution. He first finds Domingo (“Alan Collins”/Luciano Pigozzi), their former lookout-man, who had made off with the gold, and Roko learns that Mendoza (Claudio Camaso), mastermind behind the robbery, was killed while trying to escape. Roko accuses Domingo of being in complicity with the killers. Frightened for his life, Domingo offers up the names of three of the killers, a gringo called Yuma (Goffredo “Freddy” Unger), a Mexican named Laredo (“Louis Santis”/Lucio de Santis) and “The Kid” (Werner Pochath), but Roko is nonetheless forced to kill the informant. The vengeful halfbreed then locates Yuma, a professional card shark, killing him in self-defence following a saloon brawl. Roko subsequently arrives in a small border town that is terrorized by Laredo and his bandits. After pinning on a tin star, Roko imprisons Jane Mason (Sheyla Rosin), Laredo’s recently-purchased woman. When Laredo returns to town and tries to free Jane from jail, after an extended bandit siege of the jailhouse, Roko eliminates the gang, followed by their leader. Moving on, Roko is shadowed by a mysterious Pinkerton agent (“Paul Lino”/Paolo Gozlino), who is searching for the gang’s stolen gold. Roko is soon made a prisoner and tortured by The Kid and his boys, including an Indian named Chataw (Aysanoa Runachugua). The Kid foolishly takes Roko into town to show off his captive prize to the recently-liberated townsfolk, but Roko kills him during a staged duel in the bar. Realizing his old friend and cohort Mendoza was not really killed during the robbery, Roko catches up to him at a disused sulphur mine. A battle breaks out, with Roko methodically killing off Mendoza’s gangmembers, leading into the final fateful – and fatal – showdown… 

Lyrics of the U.S. theme song: “No contemplating / Revenge is waiting (Vengeance!) / Who’ll be the winner? / Who’ll be the loser? (Vengeance!) / Revenge is waiting / So keep on riding / Ride on (Vengeance!) / Ride on (Vengeance!)...” 

Composer Carlo Savina and singer Don Powell’s haunting theme prepares you for this way-above-average 1968 spaghetti vendetta. An Italian/German co-production directed by “Anthony Dawson”/Antonio Margheriti, VENGEANCE (whose original Italo title is JOKO INVOCA DIO... E MUORI! / “Joko, Invoke God...and Die!”) is a violent, well-paced action yarn with a gut-wrenching opener (from the U.S. pressbook: “Jocko [a.k.a. Roko] finds the mutilated body of his friend and vows vengeance”). Atop a slippery carpet of mud, stunt actor Alberto Dell’Acqua tugs and strains at the ropes attached to his extremities. The presiding bandit (Goffredo Unger) draws a Queen of Spades and says, “Bad luck.” American pressbook quote: When Ricky [a.k.a. Richie] will not talk, the marauders tie his hands, legs and neck to ropes which they hold while mounted on their horses. They spur the animals and rip Ricky [a.k.a. Richie] to death.


Unger is subsequently killed when star Richard Harrison power-boots the broken neck of a booze bottle into his throat. A bandit’s stomach is lacerated by a close range blast from a sawed-off shotgun. When captured, Harrison is staked out under an exploding scarlet dawn, his eyelids propped open with short twigs by reputed authentic Aboriginal American actor Aysanoa Runachugua (“Mother Sun shine for those she like!”). Incidentally, Giuliano Gemma had suffered a similar fate and was temporarily afflicted with sun blindness as a result in Giorgio Ferroni’s lively FORT YUMA GOLD (1966), which also included a major action sequence set in a mineworking, as here. The violent mood of the present film is often effectively perforated by stabs of psyched-out electric guitar.Appropriately considering its macabre horror movie-styled violence, VENGEANCE sprang from the pen of Italo fantasy film maestro Antonio Margheriti; concerning whom author David Pirie wrote in Monthly Film Bulletin: 


Judging by this distinctive if piecemeal revenge Western, his work (which has ranged from traditionally anglophile Italian horror to some picturesque science fiction) deserves closer attention. VENGEANCE has a strange and colourful Gothic flavour...  visual panache and ingenuity lift [it] out of the Italian Western rut and lend it a flavour more commonly associated with Bava or Freda.


Richard Harrison gettin' some VENGEANCE.


As a fantasist, Margheriti had often found himself obscured in the long shadows cast by his countrymen Mario Bava (THE ROAD TO FORT ALAMO [1964]) and Riccardo Freda (DEATH AT OWELL ROCK [1967]). All three gentlemen had by this point tried their hands at a western, with mostly mediocre results. Here Margheriti seated himself more squarely in the saddle at the directorial reins, and, by besting his two rivals, earned his silver spurs...with bells on. First off, the revenge-driven script (including such grim nuggets of dialogue as “Right now, he’s ridin’ the Devil in Hell!”) well suits the morally claustrophobic confines of the spaghetti western, more-so than had Margheriti’s earlier, lighter-hearted effort DYNAMITE JOE (1966). Here Margheriti demonstrates his ability to transfer the baroque atmosphere of the Italian horror movie to the dusty plainscape of the western. He also better uses his knowledge of lighting, camera setups and frame compositions to give the entire affair an eerie timbre; including some nice usage of warm yellow/golden hues, and in the hot flames and cold shadows licking the walls of the sulphur mine setting. Claudio Camaso (née Volontè, Gian Maria’s ne’er-do-well kid bro), who wears a sulphur rock around his neck as a lucky charm, uses the booming echo chambers of his mine lair to psychologically toy with Richard Harrison.

Blue-eyed American lefty Harrison pulls off a strong performance as the mixed-blood Cheyenne, who is scorned by both whiteman and Indian alike. Indicating he is a Northern supporter despite his mixed heritage, upon deputizing himself before liberating Laredo’s enslaved town, Harrison respectfully dusts off a portrait of Abe Lincoln. VENGEANCE is one of Harrison’s best western outings, ranking up there alongside his earlier starrer $100,000 FOR RINGO (1965), directed by Alberto de Martino, and the actor proves once again he can do the ol’ Clintsquint with the best of ’em if given the proper vehicle to strut his stuff in. When asked why he prefers rolling his own cigarettes to smoking cigars, Harrison curtly responds in regards to the latter option, “I don’t like ’em!” When luckless “Alan Collins”/Luciano Pigozzi – that perpetual doormat /whipping boy of Italo-based antiheroes! – is ordered by Harrison to “Stay awhile!” you just know he means a real lo-o-o-ong while (like, maybe Eternity). After killing Collins, Harrison places a short length of the rope used to murder Richie next to the bandit’s corpse, a ritual he obsessively repeats like a serial killer with each successive victim. The writers make fine use of Harrison’s sinister gunhand not once but twice, as our hero outwits his opponents: “You cheated, but you made a mistake...I’m left-handed,” he explains to mortally wounded Werner Pochath, now feeling the tightening clutch of the Devil’s right hand for his careless oversight. A similar error is made by Camaso, who flicks a knife into Harrison’s wrong right hook rather than his southpaw (“Ready ta shoot, friend?”).

Central portion is devoted to a longish flashback – narrated ’40s noir gumshoe-fashion by Harrison and accompanied by Sheyla Rosin’s softly-plucked guitar – detailing the robbery and events immediately following leading up to Richie’s death and Roko’s revenge. Camaso, so memorable in Romolo Guerrieri née Romolo Girolami’s 10,000 DOLLARS BLOOD MONEY and “Sidney Lean”/Giovanni Fago’s VENGEANCE IS MINE (both 1967), is here virtually thrown away in a ‘posthumous’ supporting role, which he later reprises when revealed to be still very much alive. Working overtime, costumer Mario Giorsi further honed the film’s look by concocting just the right attire – piss-yellow tophat, matching long coat, kid gloves and walking cane – to spruce up our chief bad guy, the strangely droog-like “Professor” Camaso (in a role literally tailor-made for Brit bad boy Oliver Reed!). Playing Kid, German actor Pochath makes for a convincing cowardly psycho in a small but memorable role, reminding fans of his countryman colleague, Horst Frank.

Thereon billed under the Anglo alias of “Don Reynolds,” the film’s original story-writer Renato Savino went on to direct Harrison’s entertaining lesser league oater HIS NAME WAS KING (1971) – for which the star evidently wore the same hand-me-down chamois shirt seen here – and Savino was presumably responsible for some of the current film’s dubious translated English dialogue (Lucio de Santis to Harrison: “You stinking Indian, come out and fight! You’re a yellow redskin! ...What’s the matter, halfbreed? You afraid to fight a Mexican face to face?!” [Okay, okay, enough already, amigo!]). To the memory of his lamented segmented buddy, Harrison downs de Santis with a pistol-shot delivered in flawless unison with twin shotgun barrels (that oughta do it). Final image freezes on Camaso’s grinning dead face, with one eye – the Evil one – left open, getting its own personal glimpse of the hell to which he has been consigned.


VENGEANCE is often (arguably) cited as Richard Harrison’s best western, but “Nick Howard”/Nick Nostro’s ONE AFTER THE OTHER – made that same year – ain’t too shabby none neither.

Notes:  Promoted in France as a faux “Django” film, and in Hispanic markets as a phony “El Rojo” outing (see: “Leo Colman”/Leopolda Savona’s EL ROJO [1966], which did at least star Harrison). VENGEANCE was included as part of Seven 7 (France) video’s DVD 5-pack that also includes Giorgio Stegani’s BEYOND THE LAW (1968) and Tonino Valerii’s DAY OF ANGER (1967), both starring Lee Van Cleef; plus Duccio Tessari’s two-pack A PISTOL FOR RINGO and its sequel The RETURN OF RINGO (both 1965), both starring Giuliano Gemma.

Sunday, October 26, 2014

A LOOK BACK AT NG SEE YUEN'S LITTLE GODFATHER FROM HONG KONG


Reviewed by Steve Fenton. 

As has since become the stuff of legend, Bruce Lee had taken a working vacation in Rome to shoot location inserts of historical landmarks for his self-directed MA actioner The WAY OF THE DRAGON / a.k.a. RETURN OF THE DRAGON (HK, 1973).  While that film guest-starred (quote) “Italian Beauty” Malisa Longo in a throwaway non-speaking bit – and tit – part and culminates in an epic battle between writer-director-star Lee and Chuck Norris inside the Coliseum, bulk of the footage was actually lensed back in Hong Kong.

Directed by “M. Cardinal”/Ng See Yuen and also variously known under a plethora of alternate titles – including other such Anglo ones as LITTLE GODFATHER and The GODFATHER SQUAD – the present 1974 HK film (whose original title is 香港小教父 / XIANGANG XIAO JIAO FU), clearly took some cues from the aforementioned Lee one, and primarily seems to be an exclusively Hong Kong production which was evidently never given much of a release (if any?) on Italian soil, despite being shot in Rome and its supporting roster of domestic players.  Such sightseeing highlights as the Coliseum and the Trevi Fountain plus authentic footage of a public address delivered by the Pope from a Vatican City balcony further stress the strong Italian Connection (“…Rome was not built in a day.”).

In Hamburg, London and Paris, international dope traffickers have commissioned a clan of Mafiosi under Godfather Don Caro (Nuccio Fava, in coppola and long-coat) to murder Interpol drug enforcement agents via firearm, garrote and even an exploding attack dog (!).  After he bravely interferes with the Caro family’s Hong Kong hit, for daring to presume his martial artistry is superior to mafia might (!!), kung fu movie star Wang Liu/Wong Lei (seasoned HK MA player Bruce Liang Hsiao/Leung Siu Lung) is marked for death by the mob (“You’ll get that Chinese punk’s head on a plate!”).  In order to have an opportunity to liquidate him, they dupe Wang into jetting to Rome to star in a flick bearing the ironic shooting title “The LAST OF KUNG FU” (not!).  With all the contracts signed in more ways than one, no sooner has Wang’s brother warned him to return to Hong Kong out of harm’s way than he is stabbed to death… thus providing Wang with a much stronger motive for sticking around.  Only the unexpected advent of his production company’s insurance broker Ivy (Shirley Corrigan) saves Wang and his preteen brother Stone (Yasuaki Kurata) from being blown to bits by a bogus tourist’s booby-trapped camera.

Don Caro’s gang consists of his three sons, two of whom are adopted: peplum / spagwest fan favourite Gordon Mitchell co-stars as sadistic Duke (“The son of a top Nazi… When he was ten, he killed two negro kids!”), who openly struts around in public wearing a complete pseudo-Gestapo uniform; while Sakana (Chong Tin Bui Chiu) is the progeny of a vicious Japanese army officer!  Caro’s biological #1 son is Cani (Mario Cutini), who makes an unsuccessful attempt on Wang’s life with a silenced pistol during aforementioned papal speech and gets brained against an architectural landmark for his ineptitude.  Another bid is made on Wang’s life when a stuntman on his film switches blanks for real bullets in his prop pistol; a detail which eerily prefigures events surrounding the real-life premature death of Bruce Lee’s son Brandon, who was accidentally killed by a malfunctioning SFX firearm on the set of Alex Proyas’ The CROW (1994).  In one of the present film’s more lurid moments, Mitchell unloads a tommy-gun at Liang while laughing like a maniac; leading into an epic rooftop chase/brawl that ends with Mitchell’s dummy substitute taking a lofty nosedive from a water tower.

Toronto Chinatown handbill courtesy of Mike Ferguson.

No stranger to appearing in cheap chop-socky flicks of Italian origin, also in ’74 Gord Mitchell guest-starred in Franco Lattanzi’s frankly embarrassingly awful ‘eastern western’ TIGER FROM THE RIVER KWAI, a co-production between Italy, Thailand and Hong Kong which co-starred Thai kickboxer Krung Srivilai.  A comparative masterpiece, the year previous Mitchell had appeared in Mario Caiano’s The FIGHTING FISTS OF SHANGHAI JOE (1973).

Liang’s ever-resourceful character (“He’s famous in Hong Kong.  People call him ‘The Little Godfather’”) uses a short-circuiting electrocardiogram machine to frazzle a hitman disguised as a doctor; and stuffs another attacker headfirst into a blazing fireplace – while over-amped sizzling noises are heard on the audio track! – holding onto his victim until the body stops twitching.  Fight choreography is pretty damn good by mediocre kung fu movie standards.  Liang high-kicks a gangster (stunt actor Fortunato Arena) in the head during a parking lot altercation, and mops up the set with a pair of “Russian” surly-burlies (seasoned spaghetti westerners Claudio Ruffini and Lorenzo Fineschi, both also stuntmen) who harass him during his movie shoot, including making racist remarks (“He’s scared… he’s yellow!”).  Corrigan’s also no slouch with her fists and feets.  Liang’s secondary love interest is provided by the film-within-a-film’s leading lady Lily (the raven-haired, blue-eyed Maria d’Incoronato), whose death-screams are drowned out by hard rock blasting from a car radio.


Before you can say unexpected turnaround, Don Caro and Wang dismiss their mutual feud for the sake of a $2-million diamond deal with the Hill Gang (“I just pulled the old switch trick!”).  But vendetta ever runs deep…on both sides.  For Liang’s ‘epic’ cross-country kung fu duel with Chong, right in mid-stride the locale inexplicably changes from sunny downtown Roma to alpine Asian countryside heavy with fallen snow (!!!).  But even a razor-sharp ace of Spades can’t save Chong’s worthless neck, and it’s time for the little godfather to face the big one…


In spite – and perhaps because – of some hilarious overacting (especially from Mitchell and Cutini) which doesn’t hurt the basic entertainment value one bit, LITTLE GODFATHER FROM HONG KONG amounts to a surprisingly watchable, fast-paced and at times gleefully violent piece of trash exemplifying the short-lived crimeslime / chop-socky crossover.

Ng See Yuen also directed another obscure Italocrime hybrid, KIDNAP IN ROME (1976), whose supporting cast includes stunt-grunt Pietro Torrisi.

For those living in the USA, this is still available from Code Red.  All others have to try their luck on Ebay or Amazon since they don't offer international shipping. 

Saturday, October 18, 2014

THE NOSTRIL PICKER - DVD REVIEW


Long forgotten and never released in the US or Canada, Mark Nowicki’s The CHANGER (1988) became better known as The NOSTRIL PICKER, when it debuted on UK home video sometime in the early ‘90s.  Specialty label Massacre Video has decided to stick with this preposterous title, which in all honesty, is much more eye-popping than The CHANGER, but in a nice gesture, Massacre Video has also provided reversible cover art for each title.

Carl Zschering plays Joe Bukowski, a pathetic loner that doesn’t do a whole lot except wander aimlessly through the streets, hang out in his rundown apartment and, when he gets really desperate, even eats “beef flavor dog food” out of a can.  Obviously, his luck with women is equally hopeless (“All I wanna do is talk to ya”), that is, until he meets a homeless guy who teaches him about “morphosynthesis… a kind of spell”, which enables him to change his appearance at his own volition and “live out his perverse fantasies”.

Like most ‘80s direct-to-video horror, The NOSTRIL PICKER is mostly played for laughs, and despite a nasty edge and underlying mean streak, it’s still overshadowed by its mostly lame attempts at comedy.  After mumbling some gibberish, or as he calls it, “jive-ass bullshit”, Joe inadvertently discovers his new powers, and as “Jo” (Ann Flood), the new girl in school, he quickly gains the friendship of other high school girls, which is certainly discomforting knowing his motives.  Then, out of nowhere, a lowly John Hughes-inspired montage unfolding to the strains of Schoolin’ - a suitably tacky song that most ‘80s video junkies will undoubtedly love – thankfully nullifies that queasy atmosphere as he wanders the hall, attempts to do homework, fends off advances from other guys, and yes, even picks his nose.  Later that night, babysitting with one of his “girlfriends”, they watch “Attack of the Cannibal Girls” on the local “Horror Showcase”, which eventually triggers him to kill.  Not revealing too much, his killing spree continues to escalate as a local detective (Edward Tanner) gets on the case and, in a typically contrived plot twist, he just happens to be the father of Jennifer (Laura Cummings), one of “Jo’s” new friends.  Of course, it all gets a little too overwhelming for Joe and, in another memorable moment, he gets into a scuffle with one of his potential victims using a pair of “marital aids” before getting knocked out cold.  But, even at a scant 76 minutes, this is still pretty fat through the middle, which is somewhat redeemed by the nifty and equally nasty twist ending.

Distributed by Cinevest Entertainment Group, this was a small production and distribution company headed by Arthur Schweitzer.  Under this banner, Schweitzer produced a handful of films in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, many of which, like this film, also never saw a release in the US or Canada.  Although Vinegar Syndrome (hence the VinSyn logo on the bottom right hand corner on the back of the DVD) acquired his small library of films, Massacre Video will also unleash Brett Piper’s barely released MUTANT WAR (1988), another Schweitzer production, sometime in the near future.

The most significant extra is a 20-minute interview with producer/cinematographer Patrick J. Mathews who, along with Nowicki and writer Steven Hodge, worked at CBS/Fox Home Video in the film transfer department as colorists and video editors.  This informative interview highlights the making of the film, their collaboration and certain pitfalls of making a low-budget film in the ‘80s.  Well worth the listen. A very detailed behind-the-scenes stills gallery and trailers, including one for this film, round out the extras.

Anyone weaned on this type of stuff – low-budget ‘80s trash – will find plenty to enjoy, but it’s also spirited enough to entice new viewers or, as one character sneakily remarks watching “Horror Showcase”, “It’s probably great if you’ve been smokin’ dope!”

You can order The NOSTRIL PICKER from Diabolik DVD here.