Movie Review: The Blood on Satan's Claw (1971)

I'm getting quite a kick out of satanically-themed movies of the 70s at the moment. This one from British studio Tigon fits into an even smaller genre known as 'folk horror' which includes the likes of Witchfinder General (1968 - also Tigon) and The Wicker Man (1973). These films explore the pagan traditions of the countryside (often set in past eras) and the brutality of religion (both pagan and Christian).

But where Witchfinder concentrates on the abuse of power by religious bigots and Wicker Man shows the horrific effects of pagan superstitions gone mad The/Blood on Satan's Claw (the film was released under both titles) differs in that its religious authorities and lawmen are in fact, no matter how brutal their methods, largely in the right. There genuinely is something nasty and supernatural going on in the simple country lives of these 17th century English folk.

The film gets off to a cracking start with several different story lines linked by the discovery of a deformed skeleton by local plowman Ralph. Believing the remains to be some sort of demon, Ralph's tale is met with skepticism by Judge Wymark who is staying with Mrs Banham. The widow Banham's nephew has also come to visit, bringing with him his betrothed. But the unfortunate girl meets an icy reception and during the night suffers some sort of fit accompanied by nasty visions before being carted off to Bedlam, sporting a nasty-looking claw where her hand used to be. Then there is the case of Angel Blake (played by the absolutely stunning Linda Hayden) who has found a claw in the field and seemingly succumbs to its power. All these intertwining story lines are evidence of an early version of the script that was set out like one of Amicus' horror anthologies. I'm glad they went with keeping it whole as it all makes for a very interesting first act.

Things soon take a turn for the seriously nasty with local children sprouting patches of scaly, hairy skin on their bodies and following the increasingly bitchy Angel Blake with all the fanaticism of a murderous cult. In a surprisingly gruesome and harrowing scene, Widow Banham's nephew suffers a similar trauma to his ex-fiance when he is attacked in bed by a clawed hand. After cutting the demonic hand off with a knife, he is distraught to discover that the hand was in fact, his own.

I was pleasantly surprised by the gritty and downright creepiness of the film. Most British horror films from this era are more than a little campy, playing up on the sex and blood. But this film made me feel genuinely uneasy, aided no doubt, by an extremely creepy musical score and eerie cinematography. While Blood on Satan's Claw certainly does not shy away from the gore and also includes, as one might expect, the almost obligatory rape/sacrifice scene, none of it feels gratuitous.

Movie Review: Race with the Devil (1975)

A fine example of the 1970s obsession with the occult and the Satanic here, only this movie crosses the old 'evil cult out to getcha' plot with the car chase genre. Peter Fonda and Warren Oates play a couple of chums who take their wives (one of them being Loretta Swift - 'Hot Lips Houlihan' from M.A.S.H.) on vacation in an RV. Things go pear shaped when the two fellas witness a satanic ritual where a young, naked female is sacrificed by a bunch of be-robed cultists. Spotted lurking in the bushes, our two all-American heroes make for the RV and put pedal to metal in an attempt to escape.

What follows is a fairly usual tale of out-of-towners up to their necks in the Texan outback where seemingly everybody is in league with the cult (including the Sheriff) and is out to get them although they mask their evil intentions behind that brand of polite local friendliness seen in stuff like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. The real selling point of this movie is the climactic car chase where various locals pit their trucks against the RV causing more than a little destruction along the way.

It's pure Grindhouse trash of course, but great fun all the same. The Satanic cult is extremely generic with as much thought put into it as one might expect from a low budget movie made in the 70s. People seemed terrified that this kind of stuff was going on all over the US at that time but I've never actually heard of any evidence of real sacrificial cults. It was just one of those paranoid knee-jerk reactions we've seen before in the witch hunts of the seventeenth century and the mass-panic over communism in the 50s.

Movie Review: Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984)

It seems like only last week that I was doing posts on Halloween, and yet here comes Christmas already. I'm still kind of in 'horror movie mode' and so what better way to make the transition than with Silent Night, Deadly Night?

Released the same month as A Nightmare on Elm Street, this less influential slasher flick was understandably overshadowed by Wes Craven's more inventive project. But Silent Night, Deadly Night outdid Freddie Kruger in one respect - parents and religious organisations really hated it! The idea of Santa Claus going on a killing spree was not one relished by many and the film was banned for a good while.

The story revolves around a youngster called Billy who, after a Christmas visit to his senile old grandpa (who warns him that Santa punishes naughty children) sees the murder of his parents by a felon dressed as the jolly man in red. Understandably this traumatises him no end, a fact that has little effect on the iron-handed Mother Superior of the orphanage he winds up in - a woman whose method of raising kids is thrashing the living daylights out of them with a leather belt.

Flash forward a few years and Billy is all grown up and working in a toy store. Things are going well for him until Christmas time comes around and he is asked to suit up in the dreaded red costume and be nice to kids. At an after hours party in the store, Billy (still in his Santa suit) sees the female co-worker he has a crush on getting manhandled by a fellow employee. This pushes him over the edge and he kills them both before embarking on a rampage across town that will eventually lead him back to the orphanage for a confrontation with the old Mother Superior.

I can't not mention the toy store in this movie which is a great snapshot of 1980s childhood. Many people have spotted treasured items from their own past on the shelves in the background and I'm no different. Jabba the Hutt action figures! He-Man and Battle-cat (on some sort of kite)!

Anyway, back to the movie. What makes this one different from most other slashers is that it is played out from the point of view of the killer. Most entries in this genre begin by establishing a group of teenagers who will eventually be picked off, one by one by a masked killer as the film progresses. Silent Night, Deadly Night spends the first half of its running time establishing the killer! In fact, I can't really remember any of the victims, except the ways in which they are killed. And there are some great ways including impalement by deer's antlers, strangulation by fairy lights and my personal favorite - a swinging chop of an axe that decapitates some young miscreant as he hurtles down a slope in his sleigh (incidentally the film's working title was 'Slay Ride').

But the 45 minutes spent setting up the killer's motive still doesn't quite warrant his sudden turn into a zombie-like killer of all 'naughty children'. Sure, he's got more motive than the likes of Michael Myers or Jason Voorhees, but the film still falls into the trap of almost every slasher - there is never enough credibility to make us believe that somebody would really go out and do this stuff. But never mind. A noble and entertaining entry in the genre nevertheless.

Movie Review: The Black Hole (1979)

Odd that I've only just got around to seeing this. It was pretty big news in the late '70s when a lot of films were keen to follow the success of Star Wars (1977) and as I love pretty much everything from that decade it's strange that it's taken me this long to discover it.

Anthony Perkins and Robert Forster star in this Disney production which invested heavily in the special effects department and it certainly is a very pretty film to look at. The story is simple enough; a space exploration team discover the titular black hole along with a massive craft identified as the USS Cygnus which went missing twenty years ago. The ship appears to be deserted but the team soon come across Dr. Hans Reinhardt, something of a mad scientist, who has spent the last two decades living alone with only his robotic crew (which he built) and large, red, robot henchman, Maximilian for company. Reinhardt explains that rest of the old crew fled back to earth after the Cygnus was disabled by a meteorite shower. He remained and now has ambitious plans to travel through the black hole and see what lies on the other side.

Suspicions arise that Reinhardt may not be so devoid of human company as he claims as the crew discover a garden with enough food reserves to feed a small army and one of them witnesses some sort of funeral procession. As they gradually uncover Reinhardt's scheme, they discover the true fate of the old crew and soon find themselves his prisoners and at the mercy of his army of robots.

The main thing this film has going for it is its production design. It really is stunning. True, it's very much a product of its time with its browns and beiges reminiscent of other '70s sci-fi such as Battlestar Galactica and Space: 1999, but the effects and sets are still very impressive today. From the cavernous interiors of the USS Cygnus and its sprawling views of space and walls of consoles to the laser gun fights and floating robots, the film is what I suppose one would call a 'visual feast'.

But the film is not without its flaws. Primarily these revolve around the character of V.I.N.CENT, a robot buddy of the main characters. Clearly included as some sort of comic relief, R2-D2, this guy ain't. As a result the movie can't seem to decide whether it is a light-hearted family romp or serious science fiction and ends up being neither.

Of course, the film was merchandised to the hilt alongside other sci-fi extravaganzas of the late '70s.

Movie Review - Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982)

A controversial film for many horror fans, Halloween III is probably the most despised entry in the series for many. This would be on account of the fact that it is the only Halloween movie that does not feature masked killer Michael Myers. But is that really such a bad thing? I mean, honestly?

The Halloween franchise suffered a very similar fate as the Friday the 13th series did at roughly the same time. The original concept for both franchises was to do a movie based on something completely different each year or so, making a series that would be something of an anthology of different horror stories. But after the huge success of the first film, Michael Myers, like Jason (despite the latter never actually appearing in the first 'Friday' movie) was revived for the sequel with mixed results. So I have to give credit to the filmmakers of part III for going back to the original concept and making something completely different, despite the fact that this entry is largely ignored by Halloween and horror film fans alike.

Based on a script by Nigel Kneale, the British force behind the classic sci-fi horror Quatermass series (although Kneale went uncredited after disputes with the producers), the story involves the machinations of 'Silver Shamrock' - a company that manufactures Halloween masks.

The film opens a few days before October 31st with a man being chased by some suited Agent Smith types. Evading one, the man winds up in hospital and is able to babble a crazed warning; "They're gonna kill us. All of us!" to a Dr. Dan Challis before he is killed in his sleep by another goon who then sits in his car, douses himself with gasoline and sets light to himself.

Dr. Dan Challis, mystified by the turn of events, is soon joined by 'Ellie' the daughter of the man who was killed. Ellie informs Dan that her father was involved with the Silver Shamrock company, a toy and mask factory based in the small farming town of Santa Mira. Deciding to do a little detective work, Dan and Ellie make their way to Santa Mira where they find the town totally subservient to Mr. Conal Cochran, the founder of the Silver Shamrock company.

Of course the suited goons turn out to be androids and agents of Cochran who plans to kill all the children of America with a TV commercial that will activate special chips fashioned from fragments of a stone recently stolen from Stonehenge, hidden within Silver Shamrock masks. This will cause their heads to dissolve into heaps of bugs, worms and snakes in some sort of parody of the Celtic festival of Samhain. Why? Something to do with pagan sacrifice. At least that's all I could gather from it.

As you can probably tell, the plot doesn't make a whole lot of sense and the film fits more within the territory of sci-fi thriller than gothic horror as its title might lead us to believe. But it's not too bad in a b-movie kind of way, certainly undeserving of the scorn regularly heaped upon it by Michael Myers fans. It's a shame that more stuff from Nigel Kneale's script didn't make it into the film as all the talk of Samhain and the stolen stone from Stonehenge comes across as pretty convoluted in the final film. Kneale's script contained references to ancient demons and gateways to other worlds that never made the final cut. A little more clarity certainly wouldn't have gone amiss.

The film bombed on its release, not helped by the fact that it was up against First Blood (1982) when it opened. Having learned its lesson to not be so damn original, the series picked up with Michael Myers once again in 1988 and hasn't looked back since. Disappointing though Season of the Witch may have been, I think it's a shame that no other non-slasher stories were ever attempted as the series certainly ran out of steam fast.

Movie Review: Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998)

As much as I love the original Halloween (1978), it's been a relatively recent infatuation. The late 70s was a bit before my time. My time was the 90s when Wes Craven's self-referential Scream (1996) had turned the slasher genre on its head after many years of stale sequels and had inspired a new boom in the field of masked killers stalking teenagers. This, the seventh entry in the Halloween series, was the first Halloween movie I saw in the cinema and I can remember thoroughly enjoying it. But like most movies of the 90s, I haven't paid it so much as a second thought since seeing it back in '98. Deciding to watch it again, more than 10 years since its release, I discovered not just another generic Halloween sequel, but a thoroughly well made entry in the franchise and a damn good update on the original.

Largely ignoring the three sequels that dealt with Laurie Strode's daughter and her own encounters with her uncle Mike, H20 returns to Jamie Lee Curtis' character, who is now the headmistress of a fancy private school in California where her 17-year old son (Josh Hartnett) attends. Having faked her death and changed her name to 'Keri Tate' in an effort to throw her murderous brother off the scent should he still, by some miracle, be alive, Strode suffers from recurring nightmares and is pretty heavy handed with the old liquor bottle. During a very well done opening sequence, the home of a nurse who used to work with the now deceased Dr. Loomis is robbed and the file on Laurie Strode (presumably containing details on her new alias and current whereabouts) is stolen. Soon Myers is doing what he does best in an effort to kill his nephew who is now 17 (the same age Strode was when Myers resurfaced the first time).

Apart from the awesomeness of seeing Jamie Lee Curtis return to the role that she did so well twenty years previously, The film contains a large number of 'in joke' type stuff that us nerds love. From Joseph Gordon-Levitt's sudden appearance wearing a hockey mask often sported by another psycho-killer from a different franchise to the cameo of Janet Leigh (Jamie Lee Curtis' mother) who was the star/victim of Psycho (1960) alongside the very car she drove in said classic, H20 is just as self-referential as Scream. And, unlike most entries in the genre, H20 actually takes its time with characterisation and exposition. In fact it's nearly an hour into the movie before Michael Myers makes his appearance at the California school to begin his one-night rampage. Curtis is just as great to watch as she was in the original and her quick-thinking and motherly toughness is a breath of fresh air from all the running, screaming teenagers we've seen in pretty much every slasher movie since 1978. In fact the movie spends a surprisingly little amount of time on the teenage victims, instead focusing on the more mature storyline of a mother's over-protective tendencies and psychological trauma of her past. One other plus is the film's musical score. Using John Carpenter's iconic theme tune, the tinkling piano notes of the original are replaced by sweeping brass and strings, making the eternally creepy theme a much grander and more epic affair.

My only real complaints with the movie lie with the character of Michael Myers himself. I don't know what it is but he just doesn't seem as menacing as he was in the original. Despite some shots that bear striking similarity to ones in the original (reflections in glass, appearing and vanishing in the blink of an eye etc) there still seems to be something missing. Also, with all the time taken explaining Laurie Strode's reappearance after her supposed death (mentioned in one of the sequels), you would have thought that a bit of attention would have been directed towards the killer himself. What exactly has he been doing for the last 20 years (assuming that the sequels are now non-canon), and how did he survive the blazing inferno that concluded part 2?

All in all, a great conclusion to the series. Too bad it was all spoiled by the awful Halloween: Resurrection (2002) and the recent remakes. But nevermind Rob Zombie, H20 remains the true successor to the 1978 original.

Movie Review: Friday the 13th Part II (1981)

With Halloween just around the corner, I've been watching a few classic horror films. While the second entry in the infamous 'Friday' series can hardly be considered a 'classic', it's actually pretty good considering how awful the series eventually became. The franchise is also called the 'Jason' series, but strictly speaking, such a series would have to begin with this entry as it is the first appearance of Jason Voorhees who, despite wearing a pillow case throughout the movie instead of his trademark hockey mask, would go on to become a horror icon as famous as Michael Myers or Freddie Kruger.

Good a sequel though this movie is, I can't help but feel a sense of missed opportunity considering how the creators of the first installment originally envisioned a long running 'Friday' series that would focus on a different story with each entry. After all, Jason Voorhees was supposedly dead at the bottom of Crystal Lake, with his appearance in the original movie only a nightmare vision and the real killer being his mother. But various big shots in control of the money side of things demanded that the killer in part 2 be an adult Jason who had somehow survived his childhood drowning incident and spent the rest of his youth living as a hermit in the nearby woods until witnessing the decapitation of his mad mother. Taking her severed head, he builds a shrine to her and starts his own killing spree supposedly on her whim.

That's the more than slightly preposterous set up for the second Friday movie. After the credits we are re-introduced to Alice Hardy, the surviving heroine of the first installment. It has been two months since all her friends were massacred at Camp Crystal Lake and she is now trying to get on with her life and forget all about it. But somebody is not about to let her get off the hook so easily and she soon departs this world via a screwdriver in the temple. I hate it when this happens in sequels. Killing off the protagonist in a post credits sequence really undermines everything they achieved in the previous movie. I felt the same way about Alien 3 (1992) when Hicks and Newt are revealed to have been killed before the credits even started! What a downer!

But I digress. Not long after this gruesome affair, a group of teens are Crystal Lake bound once more. A new training camp for camp counsellors has been set up and soon we are subjected to watching these hopefuls perform various wholesome activities like forest runs, carpentry and cook-outs (all done whilst wearing obscenely small shorts, I might add). Crazy Ralph turns up to do his doomsaying bit and 'heed my warning' speech just as he did in the first film, and of course he goes ignored by the gleeful youngsters. There is also a spooky campfire story which serves to inform us that there are folks about who believe that little Jason Voorhees didn't drown all those years ago and is in fact living in the woods like a savage.

With all that exposition out of the way, the film is free to get on with its killings. First up is poor old Crazy Ralph who is garroted while spying on a couple of teens making out. Don't know why he was still lurking around, but that'll learn him! The following day another couple, inspired by the local tales, decide to check out the abandoned (and strictly off limits) Camp Crystal Lake. All they find is a dead dog belonging to one of the other camp counsellors. A cop catches them snooping around and hauls them back to the training camp for a stern ticking off before getting a claw hammer in the skull whilst chasing a mysterious stranger into the woods on his way back to the station.

Things really get moving when most of the counsellors head out for a night on the town, leaving just six remaining for an evening of arm wrestling, making out and playing video games on some antiquated handheld device that even I don't recognise. Needless to say, they don't quite get the quiet night in they were hoping for.

One of the best things about the movie is it's protagonist. Amy Steel plays 'Ginny' the girlfriend of the camp leader. She proves to be the epitome of the 'Final Girl' archetype - brave, resourceful and smart. Despite a scene where she is hiding under a bed, literally urinating with terror (what the hell was that all about anyway?), Ginny uses her smarts to outwit the killer in the film's conclusion - donning Mrs Voorhees's old sweater and playing mind games with Jason.

Oh, and then there is that final scare which is a retread of the most popcorn-tossing moment in the first movie - Jason's sudden appearence just when we think it's all over. Turns out to be a dream of course, but we at least get to see what he looks like under that pillow case and it ain't pretty.

Movie Review: Cleopatra Jones (1973)

Another Blaxploitation classic here. Overshadowed by the more memorable Coffy (released a month before), Cleopatra Jones is still a huge amount of fun. Both films center on the war against drugs, and whereas Pam Grier played a night nurse on a quest for vengeance, Tamara Dobson here plays a government agent who works closely with the police. The film opens with the spectacular bombing of a poppy field in Turkey on Jones's orders. This results in immensely cheesing off a drug queen called 'Mommy'.

I'm certain that this 'Mommy' character (played by Shelley Winters) inspired the 'Mom' villain in Futurama with her three idiotic sons whom she verbally and physically abuses throughout the movie. Only this Mommy has a rather lesbian penchant for the young ladies under her employ.

Ordering a police bust on an African-American anti-drug centre, Mommy rouses the ire of Cleopatra Jones who launches an all out crusade against Mommy's empire. Things are further complicated by the resignation of one of Mommy's crew, Doodlebug (Antonio Fargas) who wishes to set up his own little crime empire.


There's a lot going on in the film as the kung-fu kicking mama tries to clear her friends' names whilst attempting to frame the crooked cop who is on Mommy's payroll at the same time as evading the various hitmen the crime boss sets on her trail. Also, there's a girl who needs saving - the girlfriend of Doodlebug whose life is forfeit after her hubby is gunned down by Mommy's goons. But with all this happening, the film never gets convoluted and the action doesn't let up for a second. Cleo's car is a beautiful souped up Corvette with a small armoury stashed in the door panels a la James Bond. And the car chase midway through the film is spectacular.

Movie Review: Black Caesar (1973)

A little while ago I was on a Blaxploitation kick and was watching as many movies in the genre as I could get my hands on. As well as the classics like Shaft (1971) and Coffy (1973), I was pleasantly surprised by Black Caesar, a rise and fall type story which we've seen since in stuff like Scarface (1983) and American Gangster (2007), a film which has much in common with Black Caesar.

The film centers on Tommy Gibbs, a tough shoeshine kid in 1950s Harlem. After a savage beating from a nasty Irish cop (which leaves him with a permanent limp), Gibbs disappears for a few years and returns in the shape of Fred Williamson. Gunning for the mob, Gibbs soon has his own territory and is on the up, surrounding himself with a posse of hoodlums and running Harlem with the old tools of fear and respect.


Such a story could easily be a generic shoot em up style film, but Black Caesar has enough heart and message in it to make it more than worthwhile. The main morale in the film (as in Scarface) is of course that money isn't the answer to all problems. This is highlighted in a particularly poignant scene between Gibbs and his mother who has worked as a maid for rich white folks all her life. When Gibbs is finally wealthy enough to buy her the very apartment she has spent so many years cleaning and gives it to her to live in, she is far from happy, claiming that she 'wouldn't know how'.

The film also has a great sense of irony. As with most gangsters, Gibbs loses all sight of what's important in his quest for money and power and at the film's conclusion he is back exactly where he started (he is robbed and beaten to death in the derelict remains of his childhood home by a gang of young urchins none too different from what he once was).

James Brown's soundtrack is also excellent with classic songs of the genre 'Down and Out in New York City' and 'The Boss'.

Movie Review - Dr. Strange (1978)

My goodness, superhero movies were a different breed back in the 70s. Here we have Marvel's Dr. Strange in a made for TV movie which was aired September 6th 1978 on CBS. Unlike most superhero movies these days, there isn't a single building demolished, car tossed through the air or suspension bridge torn up. In fact its all pretty low-key, gradually building up through character development and exposition to quite an abrupt ending.

I'm not familiar with the comic books, but after reading a bit about the character, I get the feeling that this movie doesn't stick too closely to its source material. Here, Morgan Le Fey (she of Arthurian legend, who originally appeared in the Marvel universe as a nemesis for Spider-Woman) is sent forward in time to the present day (well, 1978) to destroy the Sorcerer Supreme who is an old man called Mr. Lindmer (Merlin, presumably). Possessing a young woman called Clea Lake, Morgan has Lindmer tossed off a bridge into oncoming traffic.

Enter Dr. Stephen Strange, a playboy type who works on a psychiatric ward. Witnessing the apparent murder of the old man via a psychic dream, Strange is surprised to see Clea Lake admitted to his ward in a state of confusion. As he tries to uncover the mystery surrounding her, Mr. Lindmer (who survived his fall at a great cost to his powers) contacts Strange and tries to convince him to join forces against Morgan Le Fey.

Stephen Strange has the potential to become the next Sorcerer Supreme (and even has the inherited ring to prove it). As Lindmer attempts to explain the existence of magical forces, Strange realises that the battle between good and evil must be played out on a different plane of existence.

Low budget to be sure, Dr. Strange isn't all that bad. Originally devised as a pilot for a proposed TV series ala The Incredible Hulk, the film was unfortunately shown at the same time as a re-run of Roots. Such stiff competition meant that Dr. Strange received little attention and the movie (and any hopes for a TV series) drifted away into obscurity.

Movie Review: Torture Garden (1967)

As well as being the name of a fetish nightclub in London (I don't know why or how I know that), Torture Garden is also the title of a 1967 horror film by British studio, Amicus. I already said in my post on Hammer Horror, that Amicus was one of the studios (along with Tigon) that were keen to cash in on Hammer's success with colourful gothic horror films, and Amicus put a new spin on them by crafting 'anthologies' of several stories based on a theme. Torture Garden was the second of these with 1964's Dr. Terror's House of Horrors being the first.

Written by none other than Robert Bloch (he of Psycho fame) and helmed by veteran Hammer director, Freddie Francis, Torture Garden is one of those films which probably had a name before it had a plot. At least that is the only explanation I can think of for the film includes neither a garden, nor much in the way of torture. Instead we have Dr. Diablo (Burgess Meredith), who runs a circus sideshow. Drawing in customers, he promises to show them unspeakable horrors relating to their futures. All the customer has to do is stare into the shears of a doll-like woman whilst Diablo murmurs hypnotic humbug, causing the person to see future events unfolding...

First up is Colin, who has a sick old uncle with a large stash of loot hidden somewhere in his house. Upon the old man's death, Colin frantically begins searching for the treasure and finds it buried in the basement, along with an old cat that seems to have been buried with it. Pretty soon things take a turn for the worse and Colin begins to suspect that his old uncle buried the cat for a reason.

Next is Carla, an attractive Hollywood socialite who starts dating a big shot movie type. When her new squeeze is shot and thrown from a moving car by a couple of hoods, Carla assumes that he is dead. But she didn't count on the brilliant Dr. Heim who can seemingly bring people back from the dead.


Following that is Dorothy's story. She's a reporter who interviews a pianist. Now this young man has a rather special piano which was a present from his dearly departed mother. As Dorothy develops a more intimate relationship with the young musician, she begins to feel that the piano doesn't like her one bit.

The final segment features Jack Palance as Ronald Wyatt, a fanatical collector of Poe memorabilia. Upon meeting fellow collector (Peter Cushing), Ronald is shown perhaps the most complete collection in existence, including several unpublished manuscripts written in Poe's own hand. But where this mysterious collector got such treasures is a dark and frightening secret.

Of course the whole narrative is wrapped up in the dark doings of Dr. Diablo who reveals himself to be more than a mere circus trickster. Torture Garden isn't a bad piece of 60's British horror. But nothing particularly stands out as brilliant from any of the segments and Amicus would go on to make much better anthologies in the years to come.

Flash Gordon Movie Serial (1936)

I've always loved Flash Gordon. The 1980 movie, the original comic strip, the Defenders of the Earth cartoon, whatever. For me it's always been the epitome of wonderful retro-pulpy goodness; total nonsense and thoroughly entertaining. This is demonstrated no better than here in Universal's 13-chapter serial from 1936. This was only three years after Alex Raymond began the weekly newspaper strip so the character was as fresh and as exciting as could be.

Starring Larry "Buster" Crabbe (they don't name 'em like that anymore!) as Flash and Jean Rogers as Dale Arden, this was the first of three Flash Gordon movie serials. This was back in the days before TV of course, and so this sort of thing was shown in cinemas, one chapter per week, along with a cartoon, a newsreel and perhaps another short film before the feature presentation. When the advent of TV arrived, many serials were cut down to 90+ minutes and shown as 'movies'. This was no different with Flash Gordon which was renamed 'Space Soldiers' for the small screen.

Also starring in this classic adventure is Charles Middleton as the wicked Emperor Ming the Merciless and the stunning Priscilla Lawson as his daughter Princess Aura. Nobody seems to know what became of poor Ms. Lawson. I heard that in a later interview, Jean Rogers related that Lawson lost a leg in a car accident during the war and drifted off into obscurity, and was last heard of running a stationary shop. Something about that story just makes me sad because I think she is great here and she should have gone on to do other things instead a few uncredited roles before vanishing circa 1941.

Chapter 1: The Planet of Peril

The serial is remarkably true to the original newspaper strip, particularly the first chapter in which the plane carrying Flash and Dale is hit by a meteorite and crashlands in Dr. Zarkov's back yard. Kidnapping them, Zarkov takes off in a homemade rocket ship headed for Mongo; a planet on a collision course with Earth. After encountering some giant lizards (iguanas with bits stuck on them) the trio are captured by Ming's guards and taken to the palace where introductions are made. After being thrown into the arena for insolence, Flash fights off several ape-men before Princess Aura (who has developed quite a fancy for Flash) steps in to his aid. The chapter ends with Flash and Aura plummeting into blackness as a trapdoor is opened beneath their feet...

Chapter 2: The Tunnel of Terror

Caught by a giant net, Flash and Aura are saved from certain doom and make their way through the tunnels beneath Ming's palace. Hiding Flash in a rocket ship, Aura heads back to the palace whilst our hero changes into some Mongo attire just in time to witness a fleet of flying saucers attack the city. These are piloted by the Lion Men of whom Flash promptly shoots down two. Making pals with Prince Thun of the Lion Men, Flash is shown a secret way into the palace. Hurrying onwards, Flash hopes to save Dale from a forced marriage to Ming, but instead finds himself up against a dragon that dwells in the tunnels...

Chapter 3: Captured by Shark Men

Defeating the dragon and rescuing Dale from Ming's clutches, the heroes escape back down into the caverns beneath the palace. Thun is caught up battling some guards whilst Flash and Dale tumble through a trapdoor that drops them into an underground river. Enter the Shark Men (swimmers in silver bathing caps). Taken by submarine to the underwater palace of Kala, King of the Shark Men, Dale once more finds herself in somebodies harem and Flash is again tossed into an arena to fight for his life. This time its against a giant 'octosac'...

Chapter 4: Battling the Sea Beast

Thun and Aura arrive at Kala's palace in time to persuade Kala to stop Flash's death. Split up, Aura and Flash make for the control room where Aura blasts the pressure controls resulting in flooding and loss of oxygen for the underwater kingdom. Flash heads back to rescue his friends but a wall gives way and all are swept away in the rush of water...

Chapter 5: The Destroying Ray

Controlling a device in his laboratory, Ming raises the city of the shark men to the surface, saving his daughter (and Flash) from a watery grave. Zarkov meets Prince Barin, the true heir of Mongo who pledges his allegiance and the two of them take off in his rocket ship. Flash and his companions are soon attacked by the Vulture Men upon leaving the risen city and as Barin and Zarkov arrive on the scene, Dale and Thun are captured and taken to the floating city of the Vulture Men where Dale is once again at the pleasure of a beastly ruler and Thun is put to work in the furnaces. Flash, Zarkov, Barin and Aura approach the sky city in Barin's rocket ship only to be targeted by King Vultan's 'melting ray'...

Chapter 6: Flaming Torture

Surviving the fall, Flash and his friends are captured by King Vultan and put to work in the furnaces alongside Thun (except Zarkov, of course, who finds himself at work in a new laboratory). Flash organises a rebellion which fails and soon he is chained up at the mercy of Vultan's torturers...

Chapter 7: Shattering Doom

Aura rushes in with a ray gun and forces Vultan to stop torturing Flash. After being revived by Zarkov, our hero soon finds himself back at work in the furnaces, only this time with an electical wire around his ankle that will kill him if he tries any more tricks. Ming and his entourage arrive and argue with Vultan who seems to be double-crossing his emperor. Zarkov connects Flash's wire to his shovel which the youth promptly hurls into the furnace creating a massive explosion...


Chapter 8: Tournament of Death

Flash makes a run for it during all the confusion and makes his way to the throne room. Ming orders his execution, but the gravity rays holding up the city fail due to the explosion and everybody starts to slide about. Zarkov promises to fix the problem if Vulatn and Ming let his friends go free. Vultan agrees and so Zarkov complies. But upon rectifying the city's gravity problem, Ming orders a tournament of death in which Flash must enter. First he fights a masked swordsman (who turns out to be Barin) and then a 'mighty beast of Mongo'...

Chapter 9: Fighting the Fire Dragon

Flash is saved from a grisly end at the hands of the beast man by Aura who hands him a spear which he promptly jabs into the creature's weak spot. Reluctantly agreeing to honor his word, Ming lets Flash and his companions live. But dastardly plans are afoot. Aura drugs Flash and has him taken through the tunnel of terror, intending to revive him in the Temple of Tao where they can live happily ever after. But Ming's High-Priest, for reasons of his own, rings the gong that awakens the fire dragon...

Chapter 10: The Unseen Peril

Zarkov arrives just in time to destroy the fire dragon with a grenade and Flash is carried back up to the palace to be revived. Only, the effects of the drug mean that he has lost his memory. Aura convinces Flash that he is in love with her and Barin is his enemy. A fight ensues and Flash is knocked unconscious and taken down to Zarkov's lab where the professor tries to reverse the effects of the drug. Ming sends his guards down to execute Flash, but fail to do so as our hero mysteriously turns invisible before the order to fire is given...

Chapter 11: In the Claws of the Tigron

The guards, terrified by Flash's vanishing act, quickly flee, leaving Zarkoz to explain that he had targeted Flash with a newly discovered invisible ray. One it is established that the effect is not permanent, Flash takes a second dose of the ray and heads off to Ming's throne room to cause havoc and then down to the dungeons to rescue Vultan. Meanwhile, Barin takes Dale down into the catacombs. Unfortunately, this has been overheard by Aura who has the terrifying 'tigron' released (a pretty normal looking tiger)...

Chapter 12: Trapped in the Turret

Flash arrives on the scene and defeats the tigron single-handed. Barin talks some sense into Aura who seems to come around to the idea of helping the Earthlings and the group head off to confront Ming once and for all. Once it is agreed that Flash and his companions can go in peace, they head off to rendezvous with Barin at the lake of rocks. The Prince's ship arrives but begins firing upon them, causing the group to scurry into a rocky cavern for shelter but are consumed by a fiery explosion...

Chapter 13: Rocketing to Earth

Narrowly escaping the explosion via a trapdoor that leads down into the catacombs, Flash and co. head onwards, encountering Barin who had been captured previously. They make for the lab and try to barricade themselves in, but soon the palace is under attack by Thun and the Lion Men in their space gyros. Ming brings Flash and his friends to the throne room to witness the destruction of the Lion Men. Only Ming's forces lose. The Lion Men storm the palace and in the ensuing scuffle, Ming sneaks out and heads for the sacred temple of the great god Tao, where he is consumed by smoke and presumably meets his maker. Victorious, Flash, Dale and Zarkov head for home on a rocket ship, but discover a time bomb on board, placed there by Ming's high priest. Flash tosses the bomb out of the rocket ship and our heroes continue onwards towards Earth.