GORILLA (1956)

GORILLA

So, Gorilla is a lot of things. It's the first Swedish film in color. The shot it in the Belgian Congo and it deals with a gorilla that has turned into a man killer. Apparently, the gorilla's mate died and it went off the deep end so, they go get the great white hunter to kill the gorilla.
A lot of this feels like a documentary and it's obvious that none of the villagers are actors of any kind. They aren't all that nice to the pygmies either and consider them to be a lower life form. But the elephant attack on the village is obviously staged.
And the ending is sudden and horrific. I realize that it's a pretty old movie so, spoilers are what they are. At the end the great white hunter finds the gorilla and someone, probably not the actor, shoots it out of the tree. Then we see the great white hunter check the corpse and yeah, they killed a gorilla in this movie. Just kind of jarred me out of the picture.
It succeeds in showing what mankind was like decades ago and I'm glad we're not like that anymore. Well, except for the assholes who still hunt gorillas.
This one, like all of the recent ones can be found at Something Weird Video 

The Adventures of Busty Brown (1967)

So, this fella that owns a strip club wants to get into the Japanese heavy machinery business because, hey who doesn't? Now, instead of going by the normal industrious route he figures if he kidnaps the CEO of the company's young daughter and hold her for ransom. The ransom being made a partner in the company. How long would you keep a partner whose initial move is to kidnap your daughter? Anyway, the business man doesn't waste any time in hiring Busty Brown who lives up to her name and reputation. Soon, she is in the club showing off her ample assets until she can get close to the daughter, whisk her away on horseback (???) and when they bad gets too close she hits him with her knock out spray, no not her boobs, actual knock out spray. Then they stuff him in the trunk of his car and push it off a cliff. Again (???).
Does it feel like I've given everything away? Yeah, not really. There is so much going on in this movie. Did I mention that for the darker scenes they had one good light and no real idea of where to place it so we could see important things like the actor's faces?
Busty herself is very nice to look at as are all the lovely naked ladies that grace the film. The bad guy has a huge nose and one of his henchmen is probably the most stilted actor on the planet. They even throw in a little kung fu for good measure.
My favorite part would have to be the German Shepherd that looks like he just wandered in the movie
All in all The Adventures of Busty Brown was a fun flick. Shame it never became a series.
And, as always this and many more fantastic films can be found at Something Weird Video. 

HUNCHBACK OF SOHO 1966

A young lady has arrived from the United States to receive her inheritance. But the lawyer's secretary records everything and calls someone to kidnap the girl so they can steal her inheritance. They take her to a home for wayward girls that is a front for a laundry that is also a front for a gambling prostitution ring.
This one has so much fun going on. We have the hunchback who does the dirty work for the people in charge of the laundry/prostitution ring. The organ that the matron plays during choir practice is rigged with alarms that are scattered throughout the house. We have secret one way mirrors, secret doors behind sliding mirrors. There are double crosses and weird reveals that I never saw coming. In other words; another great flick from Something Weird Video

The Indian Scarf (1963)

A group of family members are there to hear the will of their rich relative who had been strangled in the beginning of the movie. The will states they are to stay at the castle for six days before they can divide the money.
That's when the bodies start to hit the floor. Each strangled by a silk Indian scarf, hence the title of the film.
This is one of those great old films with a castle full of secret entrances and butler with a wry sense of humor and a cook that is a mountain of a man named Chico.
It's hilarious that the man reading the will deems himself the one to investigate the murders, but with every accusation comes another murder, usually the person he just accused. He never gets it right.
Throw in a baby faced Klaus Kinski and you get a silly, tongue in cheek murder mystery with a silly little joke at the end that you just have to see to appreciate.
As always, Something Weird Video has what you need. 

THE SINISTER MONK (1965)

An old man passes away, but not before changing his will to cut out the rest of his greedy relatives out of it. The lawyer drives away, but is knocked from the road and the will stolen. A Monk is stopped by a police officer, but with a brief distraction the Monk is able to use his bull whip to snap the police officers neck.
This is literally the first five minutes of the movie.
Soon, the actual person in the will, Gwendolyn, is invited to the all girl school run by one of then relatives. Each one has their own scheme to get on her good side, but that Monk keeps popping up to knock them off one by one.
Soon, the police are involved and then we find out there is more behind the scenes than we thought was possible.
This was so much fun. We get a weird artists who makes death masks. An odd handy man who always seems to be in the way. There are carrier pigeons, a white slavery ring, trap doors and squirt guns filled with sulfuric acid.
Just a great time and a great movie.
Get yours from Something Weird Video!

JIMMY THE BOY WONDER (1965)

Something Weird Video knows we are all completists in our collecting so they made sure to give us one of Herschell Gordon's Lewis' forays into children's matinee movies. He probably saw all that money that K. Gordon Murray was raking in and figured he could do that as well.
Sure, why not?
So, Jimmy on the first day of school wishes that time would stop so he wouldn't have to go. He just happens to make his wish at the exact moment that the clock at world's end is vulnerable to such a wish and everything stops. Well, except the wind. H.G. just had people freeze in place instead of freezing the film so, while they are stock still their clothes are still affected by the warm Florida breezes. Mr. Fig The Time Waster is ecstatic that time has stopped, but the magical astronomer sends his daughter Aurora to find Jimmy, armed with the pendulum of the clock at world's end to restart the clock before it is too late for all of us.
Add in a few musical numbers and a point in the film where Aurora tells Jimmy a story of a previous child who attempted this and we get a imported cartoon with a modified soundtrack to match the live action shenanigans.
Question though; how often does this damned clock do this so that we have two kids already risking life and limb to make amends for their foolish wishes? Seems they could make sure that doesn't happen so often.
Mr. Fig is hilarious and chews the scenery for all it's worth. Aurora is squeezed into a dress that leaves little to the imagination and the kid they got playing Jimmy did an adequate job.
Honestly, I loved every minute of it and I was really excited to see The Coral Castle in it.

SHAMELESS PLUG

I have a series of novellas called The Monster Killer and Volume 2 The Skunk Ape Skirmish has The Coral Castle in it. Click the book cover if you're interested.


CLICK HERE!

CRAZY WILD AND CRAZY (1965)

Something Weird Video graces us with what might be one of the oddest flicks in their massive selection of pretty odd flicks. We get a camera man checking the film that he has recently shot. We get a lot of naked girls that way with a pretty minimal plot. I got it for no other reason than it has Gigi Darlene in it. Pretty sure it's just left over shots that didn't make it into Nudes on Tiger Reef. Since it's the same nudist camp and she has the same white headband on. That's okay with me, but some of these shots with spinning and flipping and weird effects can be a little disorienting at times.
Like I said...pretty odd