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brett-peake
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A Tattered Web (1971)
Gripping And Unique Ideas; Let Down By Sluggish Production.
This is a clever and unique forgotton gem of a movie with a taught perfomance from uner-rated movie vet Bridges. Sadly it has poor production values and less than stellar direction working against it. The movie is certainly a tattered web at the beginning with a very slow build up. Spiders can spin even a tattered web faster than this! But there are gripping moments here and there are, building to the suspenseful and memorable scene in which Bridges cold blooded cop tries to convince a pathetic drunken bum he has committed the murder Bridges cop perpetrated - using an almost svengali like form of persuasion ... truly disturbing to watch. A Tattered Web is a vintage seventies tv movie worth sticking with - for all its flaws.
You'll Find Out (1940)
Wasted Goldmine Of An Opportunity
Who the hell is Kay Kyser ??? I thought it was a woman ... isn't Kay a woman's name? Seemingly HE is a sort of poor man's Glem Miller ... but now long forgotten (phew)! Cut out all of the scenes with him and his tuneless orchestra and include only those of the three titular horror legends and you might have a half decent (paper thin on scares) horror movie. But as it stands this movie is a wasted goldmine of an opportunity. Like getting Clint Eastwood Gary Cooper and John Wayne all in there prime and deciding to make Blazing Saddles II!
Two Lost Worlds (1951)
Why is this movie called 'Two' Lost Worlds, when there is only one?
Two Lost Worlds is a solid, if rarther curious, Jamaica Inn / Jurassic Park amalgamation that is compentently scripted, if rather unremarkable. The appeal is routed in the odd crossover genre premise ... most will probably be wondering while watching 'when are we going to get to these two lost worlds'? Since the bulk of the picture concerns a love triangle between Willard "Bill" Kennedy, Kasey Rogers (Laura Elliott) and of course James 'Gunsmoke' Arness (Jim Aurness). Both Arness and Kasey Rogers give surprisingly strong performances for a movie of such tawdid calibre ... the already sultry Rogers becoming even sexier as the movie progresses in glamourously torn clothing! The only real blot in this movie is the relenless and unnecessary voice over narration of Bill Shaw.
The Return of Charlie Chan (1972)
OLD CHINESE PROVERB SAY 'WHEN HORSE FINALLY DEAD, DO NOT ENTER IN RACE'!
Consumate character performer Ross Martin was clearly always up for a challenge from a thought provoking script and a wonderful part. Forget The Wild Wild West, I remember him as the towering self-obsessed murderer in Columbo! Equally capable of emotive nuance, though, as in his two memorable Twilight Zone appearances. On occasion however it all just seemed to go wrong! The Return of Charlie Chan is one such occasion. Try as he might, Martin's overwhelming on-screen personality simply cannot fit that of the Earl Derr Biggers subtle crime solving genius. To make matters worse, we have Gene Kearney's script that is about as interesting as a leftover fortune cookie. Add to this the woeful dialogue ... some of which seems to never end! And finally pasty faced Leslie Nielsen no less as a Greek shipping tycoon! At one point we even see him try to convince us he is Zorba himself during a Syrtaki Dance! Enough to make Nikos Kazantzakis whince ... where the heck was Telly Savalas for this part? Or even Nana Mouskouri for pity's sake!
The Return of Charlie Chan will unfortunatly make you long to see John Wayne's turn as Gengis Khan. Since it has been bungled in just about every constipated department. The final explanation of the killer for instance will evoke painful memories of Ted Rodgers on 321. 'AYE'?
By the way it is an error to say this TV movie was made in 1971 and finally released in 1979 ... this was simply how long it took Universal execs to sit through the film!
Ghost Story: Touch of Madness (1972)
Multiple Possibilites
Just who is the alliterative Lynne Loring? The doe eyed bambi-queen of the shell-shocked stare! I must confess in my 40 years of watching bad television ... i have never actually heard of her. The criteria for the casting of this show always seems to be 'oh yeah there's the bloke from Columbo', (Ghost Story even poached the music score), but alas Miss Loring seems to have popped up from nowhere. What of this rather comatose episode in general? Well, while Rip Torn and Geraldine Page could even stifle Perry Como between them, Touch of Madness does have some interesting multiple ideas working at once. Is the episode all gothic mood and unseen rats? Or is janet (Loring) actually bonkers, and this tale is simply a straight-forward study of madness? On the one hand one can assume that her eccentric mother has already spun endless yarns about the house and its inhabitants. While on the other, her rose-tinted nostalgia for the house, revealed early on, would explain why Janet Sees the crumbling hell-house interior as immaculate. Or is Janet just drinking too much drugged milk? Whatever the outcome, it is at least fascinating to peel back the layers of human sub-conscious when viewing this episode ... its just a shame the plot couldn't have moved with a little more alacrity - like that humming bird i just saw in my garden.