kapelusznik18 Reviews

The Recruit (2003)

Spooks run wild

[5/10 · 10 November 2017]

****SPOILERS****Hard to swallow and even harder to digest spy drama that involves computer whiz kid James Douglas Clayton ,Colin Farrell, who attempts to join the shadowy C.I.A in order to find the truth about the fate of his dad who disappeared in the wilds of Puru some 13 years earlier while on a secret assignment for the agency. It's not known if Papa Clayton was killed kidnapped or even abducted by space aliens since the agency C.I.A he worked for has a policy of not releasing information of its personnel even to their immediate relatives like Popa's son James Clayton.

It's top C.I.A spy Walter Burke, Al Pacino, who seeks out James for the job whom he feels, like father like son, he'll make a 1st class spoke-spy-for the agency. Going through the rigorous mental & psychical training for becoming a spook at the agency's Langton Farm James meets and falls in love with fellow spook Layla Moore, Bridget Moynahan, that seems to upset his controller Burke. It's Burke who suspects that she's in fact a spy for the other side-Russia China Iran or maybe North Korea- who's using her position to get important and critical computer information to the nation that she's spying for.

***SPOILERS**** Like in most modern spy movie no one knows what's going on and on who's side their on their or working for until the films final moments. James who gets booted from the agency for cracking under pressure finds out later that he in fact passed with flying colors. Given a menial job as cover by his controller Burke at the agency emptying out ash trays and garbage cans James is told to keep an eye on Layla who's suspected of being a mole for the outer side. It's later that James finds out the truth and that leads to him also finding out just who the mole is that really is no surprise to anyone in just how crazy, just get a load of his reasons for selling out his country are , and obvious he is. As for James' Pop he in the end finds out what really happened to him as well as the person he was involved with who may have set him up for the kill.

Columbo: A Trace of Murder (1997) Season 10, Episode 11

A trace of senility

[5/10 · 6 November 2017]

***SPOILERS*** After some 25 years of the job Let. Columbo, Peter Falk, is starting to show signs of losing it where in this "Columbo" episode he's far more nuttier that he usually is. Being put in charge of the Howard "Bubbly" Seltzer, Raye Birk, murder investigation Columbo at first seems confused in how Seltzer allowed his killer into his house by turning off his alarm system and then later, about 10 minutes, press the panic button after he was supposedly shot and killed by him? This was all planned out by his partner Clifford Calvert's, Barry Corbin,wife the icy blond Cathleen,Shera Danese, who together with her lover police forensic expert Patrick Kinsley,David Rasche, planned to frame Clifford for Seltzer's murder.

Columbo picks up a number of clues to who Saltzer's killer's-that left him flat-are that go far beyond the normal police procedures and almost borders on the supernatural. It's Kinsley who slips up not by showing Cloumbo that he together with Cathleen murdered Saltzer but that they in fact knew each other, which they denied, before Saltzer was murdered. Bumbling his way through the investigation Columbo soon convinces Cathleen that her partner in crime Kinsley is going to rat her out in order to save his own neck. This all incredibly has to do in how her husband Clifford cuts his expensive as well as illegal Cuban cigars before he smokes them?

***SPOILERS*** For a crime that's supposed to be perfect it in fact turned out to be the brainless crime of the century with the two master mind criminals, Danese & Kinsley, giving Columbo enough clues as well as rope the hang themselves with. Not that Columbo would have had an easy time to have the two indited in Saltzer's murder by framing Clifford Calvert for it but by having them implicate each other when there was no evidence strong enough to convict them! That only amounted to number of cat hairs and cigar butts.

P.S Columbo had to do a ten minute epilogue, like was done in the end of the movie "Psycho", to explain to the audience as well as cast how he came up with the evidence that both Danese & Kinsley slipped up in letting him know that they were Saltzer's killers. And after he was through with his explaining those in the audience as well as on screen were far more confused then they were before!

Perry Mason: The Case of the Spurious Sister (1959) Season 3, Episode 1

She came to Vages to see me not the gaming table

[5/10 · 5 November 2017]

***SPOILERS*** Perry Mason, Raymond Burr, has to dig deep almost all the way to China to find the killer of Marie Chapman , Peggy Knudsen, who's husband-Perry's client- Bruce, Karl Weber, is on trial for her murder. It's after Bruce came home from a business trip that he found Marie's body decomposing in her car at the bottom of a ravine that was left unattended for almost ten days. It was the greedy and degenerate gambler Marie who had threatened to sue Bruce for divorce and take half of his property and money unless he gave her a flat $25,000.00 payment to fly down to Las Vages to gamble with it on the crap and card tables. It soon turned out that while Marie was dead someone was impersonating her to get her hands on the $25,000.00 check that Burce sent to the casino of her choice in Vages for her, the impersonator, to pi** away on the gambling tables.

Far too complicated to go into the plan that hinged on the fact that nobody knew that Marie was dead but still alive and in having the check cashed as well as it was gambled away before her body was discovered after her killer with his accomplice would be long gone before the police knew what happened. It was the luckless Bruce who faced ruination who not only ended up broke but arrested for Marie's murder. Perry following a number of clues at a local nightclub who Marie's Bopsie Twine act partner impersonated her to get the $25,000.00 in payoff money that her husband Bruce mailed to her.

****SPOILERS**** With Perry really getting nowhere he gets help from the killer himself who should have know better that a sharpie like Perry Mason would easily find the connection to his involvement with Marie that not only had him purger himself but also, by shutting her up, have her murdered. This little tidbit that Perry dug up about Marie's past and her killers connection to it was all Perry needed to get him to confess without even being cross-examined by him. As for Marie's Bopsie Twin partner she was so brainless that she left herself wide open for at least a charge of perjury or even worse accessory to murder by claiming that she was never at the murder scene even though she knew-or should have known-there was a photo of her being there!

Perry Mason: The Case of the Angry Astronaut (1962) Season 5, Episode 25

Testing the very limits of credibility

[5/10 · 1 November 2017]

***SPOILERS*** Taking advantage of astronaut John Glenn, who's even mentioned in this Perry Mason episode, circling the globe in outer space six weeks earlier there's the mixed up in the head astronaut Mitch Hiller, Robert Bray, losing it when he's kicked off the Moonstone project for being mentally incompetent by his boss Gen. Addison Brand, James Coburn, who's later accused in the general's murder. With Perry Mason, Raymond Burr, taking the case on for Hiller he ends up going through a number of legal as well as physical acrobatics to get Hiller off that blows the mind of the prosecuting D.A Hamilton "Ham" Burger, William Talman, as well a those of us watching. After being fired by Brand Hiller is invited to his house not knowing that his girlfriend Linda Cary,Jeanne Bal, is there with him. This only get the already somewhat unstable Hiller even crazier then he already is.

It's later when Hiller is told, by phone, to meet Brand at a local McDonalds to smooth things out over a Big Mac & fries he's stopped in transit by the police and charged with Brand's murder. Even though he talked to Brand not less then ten minutes ago Hiller is told that Brand's been dead-murdered-for at least two hours! Perry feeling that Hiller didn't kill Brand finds out that someone has been involved in framing him for Brand's murder in order to get back at Brand for what he did, that without knowing, to him early in the Moonstone project that ended up bankrupting him.

***SPOILERS*** Mindless story that has so many complications to it that if the killer didn't admit his crime no jury on earth would have been able to find him guilty. That even in his admission of guilt he makes no sense at in his actions. The killer himself looks totally confused in confessing his crime with no one in the courtroom including Perry Mason and Hamilton "Ham" Burger seeming to either take him seriously or understand what the heck he's talking about. James Coburn who luckily for him was killed off at the beginning of the episode, thus limiting his suffering in it, was to repeat the same kind of performance as a crazed gong ho and mentally unstable US Navy Cmdr. Paul "Bus" Commings two years later-1964- in the film "Emily" with James Garner & Julie Andrews.

Columbo: Strange Bedfellows (1995) Season 10, Episode 10

I'm sorry they don't pay me enough for doing these things

[6/10 · 30 October 2017]

***MAJOR SPOILERS*** Let. Francis-Yes that's his first name- Columbo, Peter Falk, is forced to team up with big time Mafiso kingpin Don Vincenzo Fortelli, Rod Steiger,in getting Graham McViegh, George Wendt, to confess to two murders that he committed. One of his good for nothing younger brother Teddy, Jeff Yagher, and the other of mobbed up restaurateur Bruno Romano, Jay Acovone, to whom Teddy was in for, in gambling debts, a cool $200,000.00. Having had enough of bailing out his leach of a brother Teddy losses to mob bookies Graham sets him up in losing a horse race that he tipped off Fortelli was in the bag. That in reality , due to Graham doping up the horse, he lost after having bet $30,000.00 on the nag to win. A panic stricken, in knowing what Fortelli got in store for him, Teddy runs to his brother for help only to get shot and killed by him and making it look like it was one of Fortelli's goons, Bruno Romano, who murdered him.

To make things even better Graham later has Romano killed in tricking him into coming into his house to pick up the $200,000.00 that his brother Teddy owes him. The one thing that Graham didn't count on is that Let. Columbo was put on the case who despite his lame brain and clueless demeanor figured out that he was behind both murders. The only problem for Let. Columbo was to trick Graham into confession to his crimes and that's where Mafiso Don Vincenzo came in. Wanting Graham knocked off Mafia style for murdering his good friend Bruno Romano Fortelli is talked into by Let. Columbo in letting justice take its course.

***SPOILERS*** It doesn't take much to get a scared out of his wits Graham to confess to his crimes knowing that if the wheels of justice don't get him Vincenzo'a hit men will. Let. Columbo knowing that a confession on his part will convict Graham of the double murder that he committed he used Vincenzo as a back up in convincing him that if he ends up getting off a far worse fate would awaited him on the outside. Let. Columbo played it right knowing how the by now sweaty and fearing for his life Garham would react. But if Let. Columbo was wrong and Garham was killed because of his inaction he would have well been an accomplice in his murder!

The Baron of Arizona (1950)

The con of the century

[7/10 · 29 October 2017]

***Minor Spoilers***Samuel "Sam" Fuller's second directed film after "I Shot Jesse James" tells the true story of con artist and womanizing creep James Reavis played by Vincent Price who uses this little Mexican peasant girl Sofia, Keren Kester & later Ellen Drew, in a plan to get control of the US territory of Arizona by claiming that it was given to her ancestors back in 1748 by the king of Spain. After spending years going to Spain and forging the official papers, or land grants, to prove Sofia's legal claims to the Arizona territory Reavis come back to the US and married the now grown up and sexy looking Sofia to become the sole owner of the future state of Arizona: All 113,990 square miles of it!

It's US Government official- for the Department of the Interior- James Griff, Reed Hadley, who smells a rat in all this and plans to expose Reavis' attempt to swindle the government as well as tens of thousands of Arizonans out of their land. That ends up with Reavis together with Sophia running for their lives in trying to avoid a neck tie party being thrown for them when they show up to notarize their claims at the state government office.

Were told all this to a state of local board of directors by US Government official Griff at the very beginning of the movie. While their smoking Havana cigars and drinking brandy who were in fact victimized by Reavis but had since gained great respect for him in what he did to pay for his many crimes. As rotten as Reavis was and what he was facing,a rope round his neck, his ace in the hole-That saved his miserable life- was that if he's killed by the outraged Arizonans everything he took from them will be gone in him not facing trail and admitting to his guilt.

Having lived high off the hog, as well as the fat of the land, for some 10 years now a broke an beaten man Reavis was to spent 10 years behind bars knowing that he got the best deal he can get from the US Government, as well as his fellow Arizonans, compared to what he did to it. In the end a free man but without as much as a pot to p*** in Reavis is met by his loving wife Sofia as well as her adopted father Pepito,Vladimir Sokoloff, and former governess Loma, Beulah Bondi,outside the prison gates to welcome him back to freedom as well as getting a new start in life. The film made James Reavis look a lot more likable then he really was due to the great acting of Vincent Price not the fact that in real life he his actions were really to enrich himself at the expense of others whom- like Sophia Pepito & Loma-he lead into a life of crime & deceit without them even knowing about it.

The Outer Limits: Wolf 359 (1964) Season 2, Episode 8

Brake the Glass!

[5/10 · 27 October 2017]

***SPOILERS*** Far out even for an "Outer Limits" episode about this guy professor Jonathan Meridith, Patrick O'Neil, attempting to created a planet of his own in his laboratory exactly like the one called Wolf 359 that's almost 8 light years, something like 43 trillion miles, away from the Earth. At first everything works fine with the planet-Wolf 359-evolving at 11.5 days every second but soon this strange thing looking like "Casper the Friendly Ghost" appears and freaks out not just Jonathan but his assistant Peter,Peter Haskell, and wife Ethel,Sara Shane, as well with its ghostly appearance.

Trying to see what would happened to the planet Wolf 359 when it reaches the age of the Earth or beyond, which would be in about 5 months, Jonathan starts to get seconds thoughts but it seem to be too late for him to stop his now out of control experiment. Peter Johnatan's loyal and obedient, he never as much as takes a day off from work, assistant after seeing with a microscope what going on in Wolf 359 freaks out and leaves the laboratory leaving the door open for this "Casper the Friendly Ghost" to escape and cause damage to the world outside.

***SPOILERS*** It takes a strong woman like Ethel, long before the advent of Women's Lib", to finally break the glass that keeps planet Wolf 359 from disintegrating into nothing with her husband, the man of the house, Jonathan as well as Peter too scared and chicken liveried to do the same thing . And that also goes for the "Casper the Friendly Ghost" character that's destroyed along with it. Jonathan found out the hard way that messing around with the future can lead to a far worse future for the person doing it. The only future left for the now recovering Jonathan now is to forget this crazy experiment-Wolf 359-and go back to the real world-Earth-that he left behind.

Perry Mason: The Case of the Glamorous Ghost (1962) Season 5, Episode 19

The Apartmemt

[5/10 · 24 October 2017]

***SPOILERS***Perry Mason, Raymond Burr, is forced to deal with a number of glamorous babes here that involves a jewel smuggling operation that his client Elenore Corbin, Mary Murphy,is accused of murdering her future husband Dough Hepner, played by what looked like a storefront dummy, just before the two were to elope to Las Vegas. Elenore is found wondering around in her nightgown in the vicinity of Dough's body who claimed to have had amnesia and can't remember a thing that happened.

It soon becomes obvious to Perry that Elenore knows a lot more then she's letting on to but is somehow being framed in her being a pasty for Hepner's murder by those who murdered him. It's Hepner who turns out to be a jet setting gigolo as well as diamond smuggler who uses beautiful woman to get the goods on other diamond smugglers by blackmailing them and forcing them-In him claiming he works for law enforcement- to give him a cut of their ill gotten gains.Elenore who in fact was one of his victims by unknowingly working with him who's now being charged with his murder.

****SPOILERS*** Perry soon finds out that before Hepner was murdered he was kidnapped and drugged by his killers in order to have him tell them where he had the hidden cash of jewelry hidden he's been smuggling. Not in the apartment as suspected that shared with his accomplice but in her make-up kit where it was hidden all along. Despite the almost incomprehensible story-line the hot looking women in the "Perry Mason" episode made it more then worth watching. It was easy to spot the one involved in Hepner's murder in that she was the least glamorous-just a run of the kill plain Jane-of them all. Watch for "Perry Mason" regular Douglas Dick as the snide and creepy looking Apartment manager Watler Richey who spent almost all his time not doing his job but hiding in the women's closets, who live in his apartment house,and spying on them.

The Plague of the Zombies (1966)

Oh Fiddlesticks!

[6/10 · 22 October 2017]

***SPOILERS**** After it's huge success with former 1930's horror films about Frankenstein & Dracula Hammer Films took a crack at Zombie movies with "Plague of the Zombies" that predated the far more popular "Night of the Living Dead" by some two years. The movie takes place in a Cornish village circa 1860 where a number of villagers died of a mysterious illness and were buried without even having been examined-autopsy-to find out what killed them. With the village boss or Squire Clive Hamilton, John Carson, refusing to have Dr. Peter Thompson,Brook Williams, check out what was the cause of the villagers strange deaths he gets in touch with his former medical teacher Sir James Forbes, Andre Morell, to help him out in finding what killed the villagers. Only to have the local police, on orders From Clive Hamilton, to have them both arrested for body snatching.

With the graves of those who died opened and finding them empty it becomes apparent even to the police that something fishy is going on and that Clive Hamilton is behind it. It's when Hamilton overreaches himself in trying to make or turn Thompson's wife, whom he seems to have the hots for, Sylvia, Diane Clare, into a member of his Zombie slave work force. That's working around the clock in 24 hour shifts-at minimum wage-at his deserted salt mine outside of town that things really start to heat up.

***SPOILERS*** The end for Clive Hamilton couldn't have come soon enough when the zombies under his control started getting hot in the pants as well as their entire bodies. Learning about the black arts as well as voodoo while on a trip to the Caribbean island of Hyatiee, or Haite, Hamilton became obsessed with the thought of creating a Zombie workforce as well as army to do his evil bidding. That with the help of a number Haitians that he brought back to England as well as local villagers to fill its ranks. With Sir James Forbes uncovering William's sinister plan he had Williams' entire Zonmbie army let loose on him. That only to have them together with Williams go up in flames when the salt mine was set on fire during a life and death struggle between Forbes & Williams. That put an end to Williams plans that went up in flames as well as Williams and his entire Zombie workforce .

Kojak: Mojo (1974) Season 1, Episode 20

I got ripped off in Roanoke

[5/10 · 20 October 2017]

***SPOILERS*** After a shipment of morphine was stolen from the pharmaceutical company run by the wheezing and suffering from asthma CEO Clay Dexter, Dennis Patrick,Let. Kojak, Telly Savalas, feels that it's an inside job and decides to go undercover. That in Kojak acting as the company's chemist to check the "Stuff" out and see if it's legit-which it turns out it is- to pay the hijacker Floyd, Ed Lauter, the ransom he wants for its return. As things turn out Floyd has other plans for the morphine shipment and that's screwing his partner in crime,???, out of his share of the loot.

With one of Floyd's partners the drug addicted Marty, Russell Wiggins, almost overdosing on the morphine Kojak put the squeeze on him while he's recuperating in the hospital to spill the beans on who's behind the crime. Marty keeping his mouth shut didn't help him with Floyd who later knifed him to death, in an alley, and thus exposing himself to both Let. Kojak and the NYPD in being the man behind the robbery.

***SPOILERS*** Just as Floyd was about to knock off his partner in crime he was caught red handed by Let. Kojak & Co in a deserted Queens junk yard before he could finish the job. It was Floyd's attempted escape that in the end did him in by him sipping on a pile of junk and ending up almost breaking his neck as Let. Kojak made the pinch on him. As for Floyd's accomplish he ended up getting the worst of both worlds in his partner screwing him out of his share of the loot and Let. Kojak having him sent away-for 10 to 15 years- for his part in the robbery.

Alfred Hitchcock Presents: The Changing Heart (1961) Season 6, Episode 14

Getting one's clock cleaned

[5/10 · 17 October 2017]

***SPOILERS*** Even the "Master" Alfred Hitchcock Is at a loss for words here in explaining the strange ending of this "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" episode about clocks that have a mind of their own and the master clock-maker Ulrich Klemm, Abe Sofaer, who cleans and maintains them. It's Dane Ross, Nicholas Pryor, who shows up at Ulrich's watch shop to fix a old watch that's been in his family for some three generations that suddenly stopped ticking. As the old guy starts to work on the watch his grand daughter Lisa, Anne Helm, shows up with her home cooked dinner that the hungry Dane wolfs down as if he haven't eaten in days. Dane also notices Lisa's sweet smile and hour glass figure and like he did with what she cooked up for him falls madly in love with her.

It's wise old Ulrich who sees what's coming and does everything to keep Dane from marrying his daughter Lisa but try as he must love wins out in the end. That's with Urich dropping dead, from exhaustion, in his study and leaving a note for Dane explaining what he's to face in the future if his plans to marry Lisa becomes a reality. The poor schmuck never saw it coming but in the end Dane found out what the love of his life Lisa was really all about and what she was made out of.

***SPOILERS*** Dane ends up going totally cuckoo in the head in him seeing what he did not only to himself but to Lisa who's dad Urich did everything to protect her from the outside world that he kept her hidden from. It was when Urich slipped up and let Dane into the house for dinner and meet Lisa that the world that he created for himself and his daughter fell completely apart. And with that the deep secret that he kept from everyone all these years that was to lead to his sudden and not so unexpected death.

My Blood Runs Cold (1965)

I've lost you before I won't lose you again

[5/10 · 13 October 2017]

***SPOILERS*** Somewhat strange and ridicules story of love and reincarnation that spans something like 100 years with 29 year old former teenage heartthrob Troy Donahue as the mysterious and at the same times freaked out and delusional Ben Gunther. It's Ben who literally runs into-with his motorcycle- pretty and filthy rich Julie Merriday, Joey Heatherton, while zooming along the Pacific Highway at 120 mph. As if it were fate or a sign from heaven Ben realized that Julie and him were lover back in the 1870's who ended up killing themselves-Like Romeo & Juliet- when their parents disapproved of them getting married to each other.

At first Julie thinks that Ben is suffering from brain damage due to his accident but in time he proves to her that his crazy statements about him knowing her in a past life are legit. That by providing evidence like photos and trinkets of his romance with Julie 100 years ago when she was actually her own great-great-great grandmother! It's Julie's dad Julian, Barry Sullivan, who sees Ben as a both fraud and gold digger who tries to get Julie to stop seeing him only to have her end up eloping, in Ben's boat,to Mexico with him to get married.

"""SPOILERS***The truth about Ben's true identity slowly comes to the surface together with two of his victims who he strangled to death and dumped into the Pacific Ocean. With the fact coming out about Ben being an escaped inmate from a hospital for the criminally insane he tries to kidnap Julie only to have the local police as well as Julie's former lover and fiancée Harry Lindsey, Nicolas Coaster, try to rescue her before he does her any harm. In the end it's Ben who does himself in-in knowing that the jig is up- by jumping some 200 feet to his death in order to avoid ending up locked up for life in a mental institution or being strapped into the San Queinton gas chamber for multiple murder.

P.S This film -"My Blood Runs Cold"- turned out to be the last major movie that Troy Donahue was to star in before his film career hit rock bottom co-staring in such low budget and forgettable films like "The Cock Fighter" and "The Chilling" before dropping out of sight altogether. Troy in the end ended up broke and homeless sleeping on a park bench in New York City's Central Park and dying of a heart attack in 2001 at the age of 65.

General Electric Theater: The Eye of the Beholder (1953) Season 2, Episode 13

The many faces of Michael Girard

[5/10 · 11 October 2017]

***SPOILERS*** This GE Theater episode comes across like a badly dubbed 1950's Japanese horror/monster movie in that even it being spoken in English the words don't seem to match up with the lip movements of those in it. Wacked out and delusional artist Michael Girard, Richard Conte,spots this woman Louise, Martha Vickers, at a restaurant he's having a drink at and goes totally hog wild over her. It's that Louise reminds the crazy nut-case of the perfect woman that he's been looking for all his life and wants to paint her portrait to hang up and display for all to see-In what the perfect woman really looks like- in his den. Totally ignoring Louise's boyfriend-Charles Victor-as well as getting punched in the nose by him Girard makes a play for her and in no time at all Louise agrees to go to his studio to get her portrait painted by him.

It's between him introducing himself to Louise to the final moments when she finally sees him at his studio we, the audience, as well as those he associates with get to see the real Girard from some half dozen different observations and to put it mildly it stinks. Not that he-Girard-is a total whack job but his idea of womanhood and the woman or girl of his dreams-Luoise- is just as whacked out as he is. Girard who seemed to think that he knows everything about what a woman should be, to please him, ends up getting stuck with a drunk and totally out of it Louise. Who after trying to get him as drunk as she is he ends up slapping her around and almost knocking her out unconscious in his art studio when she refused to leave.

If Michael Girard learned anything after this episode is that not to judge a book by it's cover or woman by her makeup dress or jewelry. Girard turned out to be as shallow as Death Valley or the Dead Sea in his judge of people who in the case of Louise she turned out to be no better then he is and Girard ended up finding that out the hard way. And in that case he also found out that he was nowhere the perfect man that he always thought that he was either. A fact that everyone, except himself, in this GE Theater episode knew all along.

Tales of Tomorrow: The Evil Within (1953) Season 2, Episode 37

James Dean as the assistant

[5/10 · 8 October 2017]

***SPOILERS***Even though he gets top billing here on the IMDb James Dean-who has 20/400 vision-wearing his glasses has a small part as scientist Peter's, Rod Steiger,lab assistant that last less then 5 minutes and is quickly forgotten. That's before the you know what hits the fan with Peter's wife Anne, Margaret Phillips, going off the deep end and about to murder him. It was a secret formula that Peter developed that brings the worst out of people that accidentally landed in the apple pie Anne ate that he brought home for dinner that turned the sweet and loving Anne into a homicidal maniac.

Peter desperate to reverse the damage that his formula created in turning his loving wife into a nut-case in a race against time, before she kills him, tries to find an antidote but time is quickly running out for him. That's until Ralph, off camera, give him a call telling Peter that the formula's effect will ware off in 24 hours that gives him just a 15 minutes window -with already 23 hours and 45 minutes passed after she ate the apple pie-for him to keep her at bay while she's still effected by the formula.

Peter does his best keeping Anne's mind off from killing him talking about sports as well as the weather and runs out the clock which soon has her back to her good old and normal self. Even though he originally had third billing in this "Tales of Tomorrow" episode James Dean as assistant Ralph saved the day as well as Peter's life by getting the important information-vital telephone-to him in time and thus Peter holding off Anne long enough until the deadly formula's effects wore off and brought her back to sanity.

Career Opportunities (1991)

Target after Dark

[6/10 · 5 October 2017]

***SPOILERS*** The very sight of the drop dead gorgeous and ultra sexy 20 year old Jennefer Connelly, as spoiled little rich girl Josie McClellan, riding and rolling on a electronic pony was more then worth the price of admission then the duration of the entire movie. Josie gets herself locked up in the Target's ladies dressing room trying to shoplift a $20.00 pair of ladies underpants even though she had as much as $52,000.00 of cash on her to pay for it and ends up having the run of the place. That's until two crooks Nester & Gil, Demont & Kieran Mulroney who are obviously brothers, show up-after hiding and smoking pot in the store men's room- to rip the place off.

The good for nothing $4.40 cent an hour night clean-up boy Jim Dodge, Frank Whaley, on his first day or night on the job ends up getting stuck-lucky guy-with Josie for the entire night that's a lot more then he ever bargained for. And in the end goes off with her to sunny California to start a new life as well as career opportunity in the up and coming multi-billion dollar industry of Silicon Valley. The fact that Josie comes from the richest family in the state of Georgia is nothing compared in what she got from hooking up with the cute clean-up boy Frank who showed her just what a good time, in running for her life and safety from the two Mulroney brothers as well as the local police, rally is.

Jenniffer Connelly who just was seen in the movie "The Racketeer" who soon rocketed to the top as the hottest actress in Hollywood in this so-so movie about America's youth. As for actor Frank Whaley with the exception of playing accused but not proved JFK assassin Lee Harvey Oswald in movies like "JFK" & "Fatal Deception Mrs. Lee Harvey Oswald" he never had a part in a film as good or satisfying with a co-star as Connelly as the lowly Target night time clean-up boy Jim Dodge in "Career Opportunities".

Traitor (2008)

Here we eliminate all doubts

[7/10 · 1 October 2017]

***SPOILERS*** The conflicted and all screwed up life of US special operation sergeant Samir Hom,Don Cheadle, is tested by both his adopted country the USA and his religion Islam in him going through with a planned terrorist attack against the US on of all days Thanksgiving that involves the destruction of 50 cross country buses carrying hundreds of unsuspecting and innocent civilians. Forced to go undercover as an Islamic terrorist Samir was already involved in a terrorist attack on the US consulate in Nice France that killed 8 people. Now he's told by his US controller Carter, Jeff Danials, to provide the explosives that can kills almost as many US citizens that were killed back on 9/11.

It's US CIA agent Roy Clayton, Guy Pearce, who got wind of Samir's working for the US Government not against who it who tried to get him to reveal those terrorists like his good friend Omar, Said Taghmaoui, plans to blow up America. With Samir not really trusting anyone, including Agent Clayton, he decides to go it alone leaving himself open to be killed by the both the terrorists as well as US Government's homeland security agents. That by him secretly planting all the explosives with the 50 designated Islamic terrorists and their American victims. And he did it in a way that no one including the terrorists as well as Agent Clayton ever expected.

***SPOILERS*** We get to see Samir finally see the light in just who his friends as well as enemies are. Even though he works for the US Government Samir was still a loyal and practicing Moslem at heart but he soon realized that those he worked with-like Omar- actions were anything that had to do with his faith or religion. Which like him witnessing as a young boy his father being blown to bits in a terrorist car bombing back in the Sudan. He knew that those terrorists that he was secretly working for were no better then those who murdered his father and in the end acted accordingly.

Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Mother, May I Go Out to Swim? (1960) Season 5, Episode 26

The loving Son

[5/10 · 29 September 2017]

***SPOILERS*** Like a previous reviewer brought out the fact that William Shatner's John Crane is a lot like Anthony Perkins' Norman Bates' "Psycho" in this Alfred Hitchcock Presents episode. In that he's an uncontrollable mama's boy who has to choose between his control freak mother Claire, Jessie Royce Landis, and his "It's either my way or the Highway" girlfriend Lottie Rank,Gia Scala, a recent immigrant from West Germany. It's Lottie who John met while he was on vacation with his mom selling men's jewelry in Vermont and fell heads over heels for her. But it's his overbearing and over protective mom who wants to keep her boy John all to herself and share him with on one, man or women, else.

Mama goes so far out of way to cause friction and mess things up for John by her going to the store where Lottie works and bust her chops about how crummy the cuff-links are that she's displaying which Mama was looking to buy John for a birthday present.Things got so out of hand between Mama & Lottie that her son John prepared for them to meet at the waterfall that he and Lottie spent most of their time to make a peace settlement between the two and stop their fighting each other.

***SPOILERS***We already saw at the beginning of the episode that John was at an inquest in the death of someone that he claimed was an accident. By the end of the episode we finally get to see who his victim was due to process of elimination. And in him being the good and obedient son that he is it wasn't all that hard to see who his victim was and even more why he was acquitted of causing her death! In this case it didn't really matter who got killed since both-Mama & Lottie-were cut from the same cloth in trying to get the what seemed like feather and lame brain John to do their dirty work for each other. And it didn't matter whom John did in since either one of them deserved everything that they got.

Armstrong Circle Theatre: The Contender (1954) Season 5, Episode 13

Inside the ring your the boss

[6/10 · 27 September 2017]

***SPOILERS*** Two years before he made his break-out movie as boxer Rocky Graziano in "Somebody up there likes me" an unknown Paul Newman played a very similar part on TV as boxer Jimmy Polo who's about to get his big brake in fighting the #1 Middleweight contender Patty Packer in Madison Square Garden for a shot at the title. A funny thing happened to Jimmy as he went to fight Packer in that he ran into an old friend and fellow boxer Jeff Gardell played by Nehemiah Persoff the guy who that same year-1954-palyed the creepy looking taxi driver in the movie "On the Waterfront". Poor Jeff has lost his marbles fighting long after he was already washed up now is selling handkerchiefs- 5 for a dollar- on the street corner. And a shocked Jimmy soon realized that he'll soon end up the same way-brain dead-if he doesn't quit the fight game while his brain is in still functioning condition.

With the big fight just hours away Jimmy has second thoughts to go through with the fight but finally decides that win lose or draw this will be his last fight and then call it quits so he can spend the rest of his life with his pretty wife Bess, Inger Stevens, and 12 year old son Jackie, Dickie Belton, as a normal and not mentally damaged ex professional boxer. With his both manager and trainer trying to get Jimmy against his will back into the ring in the end it's his pride that takes over. In not wanting to be a quitter Jimmy gets back into the ring for the very last time and what happens to him is left up to the imagination of those of us watching.

You can see in both Paul Newman and Inger Stevens that they were to see bigger and better things to come in their future in the movies as well as on TV. Newman for his part showed both his violent as well as sensitive side playing the confused Jimmy Polo who now realized that he's not really cut out for the fight game that up until then he's been-in having a record of 26 wins and four defeats- so successful in. And as for the 20 year old Inger Stevens despite her being in her only second movie or TV role she was as convincing as any actress much older and more experienced then her who could have been playing the part of Jimmy caring and concerned , for his safety, wife. And as things turned out it was Persoff the oldest and most beat up looking of the trio he's now still with us alive & kicking at 98 years of age.

Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Death Sentence (1958) Season 3, Episode 30

The death of innocence

[5/10 · 26 September 2017]

***SPOILERS*** The Master-Alfred Hitchcock-really outdoes himself here with a totally unexpected ending to the bad guy in the episode smoothie blackmailer Al Revnel,Steve Brodie, getting everything that's coming to him in spades when his victim real estate agent Norman Frayne, James Best, turns the tables on him. It was Frayne who was involved in a robbery that his partner Renvel ended up shooting to death the night watchman that Frayne chickened out to do. Spending 12 only years in the can-jail-for 1st degree murder-He must have had a real sharp lawyer-Revnel is back on the street to get Frayne to pay him back-a cool $50,000.00-for the lost time and income he spend all those years behind bars.

At first Frayne plays along with Revnel letting him live in his house together with Frayne's totally clueless wife Paula,Katharine Bard, telling her that Revnel is an old army buddy of his and even giving him a monthly allowance of $800.00 to mostly gamble with. It's later when Renvel gets a little too cute with Paula and asks for more money to play the horses with that Frayne finally decides to put his foot down. That by him planting a bomb in his car-That Revnel has to keys too- and when he starts the car up blow the creep to kingdom come.

***SPOILERS*** The ending has the law abiding Frayne have a sudden change of heart and eventually do the right thing. Not in doing in that dirty blackmailer Renvel by explosive but by the law in exposing his blackmail scheme as well. That by punishing himself not just for being involved in a robbery/murder together with Renvel 12 years ago but by keeping that not only from the police but from his wife Paula who believed and trusted in him.

Halloween (2007)

Death comes to Hoddonfield

[7/10 · 24 September 2017]

****SPOILERS*** Remake of the 1978 horror classic "Halloween" gives us a much deeper insight on the serial murderer Michael Myers state of mind and what drove him on his crazed and insane road to mass murder. It's Michael whom we see as an misunderstood and abused, by his classmates, young boy who turns his anger and frustration out on the world at large at the tender young age of 10 as he goes on a murder spree against all those who've been kicking him around. Having murdered some half dozen people before his 12 birthday Michael is sent to the Smith Grove Sanitarium for pre-adult offenders where he's assigned Doc. Samuel Loomis as his personal psychiatrist. It's Dr. Loomis who over time realizes that the young boy is pure evil and should be kept from society for the rest of his life and have his brain, while alive, dissected for future study to see just what in it makes him tic as well as murder. Michael also develops a fascination with masks that he makes himself out of paper and cardboard to keep anyone from viewing his face and dropping dead of fright from seeing it.

The story plods along for some 15 years when Michael now an adult with supernatural powers-He works out for hours at a time in his jail cell- breaks out of his confinements and heads straight for home-Hoddonfield-just in time to celebrate Halloween-his favorite holiday-and take care of some unfinished business. That by murdering those he feels did him wrong over the years including family members while he was a resident there. There's also the fact that Michael's kid sister Laurie Strode still lives there and, after murdering as much as half the town, wants to start a new life together with her as brother & sister.

***SPOILERS*** By the number horror flick with a new and improved as well as deadlier Michael Myers doing his thing-murdering-far more people then in the 1978 version. And even getting to use the William Shatner Halloween mask, that he found in the attic of his former home, like in the original to cover his face so he can't be recognized by the police as well as the public so he can keep on killing totally unhindered as well as unnoticed. As for the thankless Dr. Loomis he ends up being one of Michael's victims when he tries to talk him into giving himself up to the police as well as the men in the white suits before he ends up murdering the entire movie cast. It's in fact Laurie who not knowing just who Michael really is who ends up putting an end to his rampage by stabbing him with his own butcher knife only to have him, like he always does, come back to life and surprise her as the movie finally comes to a close.

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: The Dancing Men (1984) Season 1, Episode 2

Dancing the night away

[5/10 · 21 September 2017]

***SPOILERS*** The great Sherlock Holmes who's been having trouble paying his bills due to the public's lack of interest in his detective work-not counting the money he needs for his serious cocaine addiction- by those who used to depend on his expertise has a problem in getting paid as crime solver finally gets himself a well needed client in American Elsie Cubitt who's British husband Hilton feels that her past in American is suddenly catching up with her. Holmes also checks out a number of clues left by Elsie's tormentor that involve drawings of a dancing man that looks a lot like the future Fred Astaire doing some kind of tap dance at the Hollywood Hilton hotel.

With the help of his partner and live in tenant, which helps in Holmes paying the rent, doctor Watson it's soon discovered that Elsie fled the city of Chicago to avoid getting married to mobster Abe "Dead Eye" Slaney who runs the mobs beer & booze rackets. It's Slaney who won her during a card game of strip poker at the mobs south side headquarters and is determined to do anything, even murder , to get her back. Holmes soon realizes that Staney is in town disguised as the local mailman trying to break into the Cubitt mansion while delivering the post/mail and get Elsie to go back with him to Old Chicago his-Slaney's-kind of town.

***SPOILERS*** As Holmes soon deduces that the drawing of the dancing men are some kind of code by the what is obvious cooked up by the deranged Slaney that only he and Elsie knows that he's using to drive her insane so that her British husband Hilton would soon drop her knowing that his loving and pretty wife has gone off the deep end. The love crazed Slaney determined to get Elsie back breaks into the Cubitt mansion and tries to kidnap her and bring her back, kicking & screaming-to America only to be confronted by Hilton who himself gets shot and killed by the crazed gunman. Elsie in an attempt to escape all this insanity ends up shooting herself only-Lucky for her- having the bullet miss her skull and surviving the impact. it's too bad that Hilton ended up dead in all this confusion but Elsie survived to live another day as well as inherit her late husband's money and mansion to live out the rest of her life in peace and comfort. As for Holmes and his partner Doctor Watson they finally got a pay check for solving this crime that came in handy for the next months rent as well as tobacco-for Watson- and cocaine-for Holmes- not to mention food money.

Mr. Moto Takes a Vacation (1939)

So What! Do you think a little Japanese dick is gonna scare me!

[5/10 · 16 September 2017]

***SPOILERS*** The last of the "Mister Moto" series with Peter Lorre as the famed international Japanese detective who's involved in preventing the heist of the Queen of Sheba's crown jewels that was recovered from under the desert sands of an Egyptian Pharaoh's tomb that was sent to the San Francisco Art Museum for public viewing. There's the usual Judo and karate fighting scenes by Mister Moto against the bad guys as well as him giving Judo lessons to a picked on 98 pound hotel bus boy who ends up flattening the bully, with a body flip, who's been making his life miserable.

With mobsters Ruba & Perez, Anthony Warde & Morgan Wallace, planning to both rub out Mister Moto and steal the crown jewels Moto is also hindered by his bumbling partner-whom he wanted no part of-Archie Featherston, G.P Huntley, who's only in the movie for comedy relief and nothing else. Yet in was by Archie in being the only person who could identify-by photographing him- the person who was on the scene of the attempted robbery of the crown of Sheba that broke the case wide open for Mister Moto.

Mister Moto finally uncovers the person only known as "Metaxa" when his two partners in crime Ruba & Perez get caught by the police with Mister Moto's help. As we soon find out this "Metaxa" was the inside man in trying to steal the Queen of Sheba's crown who despite all his brilliance as a master criminal greatly underrated Mister Moto and in the end paid for it. The movie released in 1939 at a time when people were not that sensitive about racial stereotypes in the movies it had both Chinese as well as black-and even white- members of the cast look ridicules, by 2017 standers, without anyone getting worked up over it. In fact there was a scene with Archie Fetherstone at what looked like a Halloween party in black face that was played for laughs and not only didn't offend anyone on the screen as well as even Mister Moto, who in being Oriental, seemed to find nothing wrong with it.

The Spell (1977 TV Movie)

I put a spell on you!

[5/10 · 14 September 2017]

***SPOILERS*** Carrie clone that has homely but, unlike she's made out to be in the film, slightly overweight teenager Rita Matchett get revenge against her tormentors both in school as well as at home by using her telekinetic powers that we later learn that she was born with. It's the slim and sexy looking Jackie who's the first of Rita's victims who loses her grip while doing the Indian rope trick hitting the floor of the gym breaking her neck. Jackie made the mistake of getting under Rita's skin by calling her "Tubo" and "Fatso" every time she saw her.

Back at home it was Rita's dad Glenn who always treated her like she was dirt or dog poop that got her to take revenge against her kid sister the slim and athletic looking Kristina, the apple of her dad's eye,whom she caused to lose her balance as well as coordination while competing in a swimming contests at school. It was in fact Rita's weird looking swimming coach Jo Standish a secret master of the black arts who took Rita under her wings and gave her the power by chanting together with her a number of unintelligible "Mombo Jumbo" phrases to do her tormentors in. There was also the spaced out and creepy looking Dale Boyce an expert in the paranormal who realized just what Rita was all about but knew that no one would believe him or that Rita would do him in if he ever opened his mouth about her. So he kept it-his mouth- shut all throughout the movie keeping it, his terrible secret, from both the police and the school authorities.

***SPOILERS*** Most of the real action was saved until the very end of the movie when Rita was ordered by her dad ton take a flight to Great Britain to get rid of her as well to see the changing of the guard at Buckingham Placer that really flipped her out. The last thing that Rita wanted to see is those clowns in their red coats and fur hats making monkeys out of themselves for the public's amusement. This had Rita strike out not at her dad but Jo Standish whom she now felt was just using her and her telekinetic powers for her own selfish advantage. ***MAJOR SPOILER*** It turned out that the person behind Rita's supernatural powers was non other then her All-American & apple pie looking mom Marilyn Matchett who once was a witch herself in what seemed like another lifetime! And she also kept that secret from Rita until she got so out of hand, in destroying everything in sight, and finally had to put an end to it!

The Magic Face (1951)

The Fuhrer hasn't quite been himself lately

[5/10 · 9 September 2017]

**Minor Spoilers**Much like the hilarious 1942 Hollywood propaganda laugh riot "Hitler Dead or Alive" in the case of "The Magic Face" it's author William L. Shirer who wrote "Berlin Diary" and "The Rise and fall of the Third Reich" that gives the mind numbing film some kind of credibility. That in the fact that Hitler's body was never recovered that lead to rumors that he may have well escaped from Berlin back in April 1945 before the Soviet Red Army captured the bombed out city. In here we have German impressionist Rudi Janus, Luther Adler, after studying and perfecting Hitler's voice and mannerisms becomes Hitler's butler and kills the unsuspecting German Fuhrer, with a glass of spiked milk, and then take over his identity! As well as his conducting the war which at the time Hitler was winning and turns the table on him as well as his beloved Nazi Germany with his lame brain military strategy.

We see through a number of WWII newsreels how Janus purposely causes the mighty German Army to lose almost every battle it was involved in that has soon his general staff feel that the Fuhrer is either suffering from dementia or is working for the other side: The allied side. With his-Rudi's- widowed wife Vera and now Hitler's lover, no not Ava Braun,Mariana played by blond bombshell Patricia Knight electing to stay with her beloved Fuhrer in his bunker until the end comes she's shocked to find out that the Fuhrer is in fact her former husband, whom she thought was killed in a bombing raid, Rudi Janus and completely freaks out. As for Rudi he takes it all in stride as we last see him disappear into the night and the bombed out streets of Berlin never to be seen or heard from again.

Was it true that Rudi Janus is one of the most unknown and unsung heroes of WWII who single handled and all by himself not only killed Adolf Hitler but in taking over his leadership of the Third Reich helped the allies win the war against Nazi Germany like William L. Shirer seems to suggests? The fact that he as well as his wife of one day Eva Braun's bodies were never found gives this movie far more credit that it should have. It wasn't until 1956 11 years after the end of WWII that Hitler was officially declared dead by the British and world courts and even the fact that the Soviet Union claimed to have parts of Hitler's skull and lower jaw in the Kermlin archives have been proved false due to DNA examinations that proved that they really belonged to a middle aged woman. As for the star of the movie-Not Hitler- actor Luther Adler he was so convincing in the part that he revived his role as Adolf Hitler some two months later in the movie "The Desart Fox" as well some ten years later in the "Twilight Zone" episode "Man in a Bottle".

Love Affair (1932)

A man and his motor

[5/10 · 8 September 2017]

***SPOILERS*** A young and boyish looking 32 year old Humphrey Bogart doubles as both flight instructor and inventor Jim Leonard a man with an idea-the perfect motor- who's time has yet to come. It's Jim who loses his interest in inventing the ultimate automobile motor when he falls heads over heels in love with "Gold Digger" with a heart of gold Carol Owens,Dorothy Mackaill, whom he took for a ride flying loops & circles and figure 8's at the beginning of the film. So smitten was Jim by the rich and classy Carol that he lost his interest in both flying as well as inventing and spent all his time trying to get her to tie the knot and settle down with him. We soon find out that Carol is not the poor little rich girl that she wants Jim to believe that she is . Carol-who doesn't known it- is in fact poor but not rich at all without even as much as a pot to pi** in with her family financial adviser as well as no so secret secret lover- who's always trying to get into her pants- Bruce Hardy "Harr Harr" Hardy,Hale Hamilton, having lost her family's money in the devastating 1929 stock market crash.

There's also Jim's kid sister Linda Lee-obviously a made up name- played by Astrid Allwyn who involved with con artist boyfriend Georgie Keller, Bradley Page, who's using her to get very friendly with Hardy. That's to get him to finance a play with the money-$10,000.00-that he gave Jim at Carol's insistence to start up his motor producing company in far off-from NYC-Detroit. That plan on Jim's part ends as soon as it starts with him paying all his attention on Carol then on his job that like the stock market soon goes bust.

***SPOILERS*** All this confusion comes to and end when Jim finds out that both Carol whom he was made to think was rolling in dough is dead broke and that his sweet and innocent as the morning snow little sister Astrid was as big if not a bigger gold digger then even Carol is. And is involved with the sleazy Georgie who's taking her , by promising her the world, for every dime that she has. It's then that Jim put an end to all this by cold cocking Georgie-with a solid straight right- and knocking some sense into his kid sister's head. As for himself he goes back to flying planes this time around with Carol doing the driving or flying. That almost has him drop from the plane that she's flying without a parachute and end up breaking his neck. That's until Jim took control of the aircraft and landed it safely.