Retro Television Reviews: The City (dir by Harvey Hart)

Posted on October 16, 2022 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Sundays, I will be reviewing the made-for-television movies that used to be a primetime mainstay. Today’s film is 1977’s The City. It can be viewed on YouTube!

“Civilization began when man realized that he could not survive alone. He left the wilderness and built his citadels, security against intruders and erosion from within. The cities of the world have since become the crossroads of trade and ideas. Ideas that have made the human race more powerful than primitive man could ever have dreamed. Among these was an invention, a machine that conquered to contemporary enemies of man: time and distance….”

So goes the opening narration of 1977’s The City. The narrator is the veteran character actor (and television producer) William Conrad and, as he speaks, we sees images of the California desert eventually being conquered by the growing city of Los Angeles. It’s a bit of a portentous opening for a film that turns out to be fairly standard police procedural but it makes sense when you consider that The City was apparently meant to be a pilot for an anthology series about the people of Los Angeles.

The City features Mark Hamill, shortly before Star Wars would turn him into a cultural icon. Hamill plays Eugene Banks, a sweaty, wild-eyed petty criminal who has made his way to Los Angeles from Texas. Banks manages to get a nice apartment and a job working at a gas station. One day, after a lawyer demands that Banks fill the tank of his Porsche, Banks snaps. He grabs a wrench and attacks the car. Then, he attacks the lawyer, beating the man until he dies. Banks proceed to go on a crime and killing spree across Los Angeles, flashing a particularly scary-looking knife whenever he gets the chance.

Searching for Banks are two mismatched cops. Matt Lewis (Robert Forster) is the tough-as-nails, emotionally reserved veteran with a bad knee and a determination to catch the bad guys. The case becomes personal for Lewis after Banks kills his partner. Brain Scott (Don Johnson) is a shaggy-haired country boy, much like Banks. Brian comes from a wealthy family and is a bit more idealistic in his approach than Lewis.

Banks, it turns out, is obsessed with a country singer named Wes Collins (Jimmy Dean). Banks not only resents the fact that Collins has everything that Banks has ever wanted but he’s also convinced that Collins is actually the father who abandoned him when he was a baby. Banks wants to get revenge and he’s not going to let anyone, whether they be a bystander, a cop, or a dog, stand in his way.

Yes, Eugene Banks kills a dog in this film. Fortunately, it happens off-screen but it’s still an indication of just how different this role is from Hamill’s best-known live action role. As the two cops, Forster and Johnson work well together and bring their somewhat stereotypical characters to life but the main reason most people will watch this film will be for the chance to see Mark Hamill play an absolute lunatic. With the exception of his somewhat dodgy Texas accent, Hamill does a good job with the role. He’s got the crazy eyes down and he’s actually frightening when he attacks the lawyer at the start of the film. The film itself is a bit predictable (i.e., the mismatched partners learn to work together, the bad guy gives a speech at an inopportune time) but The City is worth watching for the cast.

International Horror Film Review: The Final Sacrifice (dir by Tjardus Greidanus)

Posted on October 16, 2022 by Lisa Marie Bowman

The 1990 Canadian film, The Final Sacrifice, opens in the snowy northern wilderness. A man who I can only assume is a pro wrestler is hanging out with another man, who I can only assume is the lead singer for an emo band. According to the film, the man in the suit is named Satoris (Shane Marceau) and he’s the leader of a cult. All the other members of the cult wear a mask, even when they’re wandering about in broad daylight. Why doesn’t Satoris wear a mask? I’m not sure.

This is Troy McGreggor (Christian Malcolm), a teenager who looks like a mash-up of Anthony Perkins and Roddy McDowall. For some reason, seven years ago, Troy’s father was murdered by Satoris and the cult. Troy’s father was an archaeologist who was searching for a lost city that apparently used to exist a few miles outside of Toronto. Now, for reasons that are never exactly clear, the cult is after Troy. In order to escape from the army of masked men who are after him, Troy runs into the wilderness of Canada.

He’s going to need help to survive! Preferably help with a mullet and a denim jacket…

This is Zap Rowsdower (Bruce J. Mitchell), whose name might as well just be Zap Canadian. Zap not only rescues Troy from the cult but it also turns out that Zap is a former member! It’s up to Zap and Troy to not only defeat Satoris’s evil plans but also to find this lost city. It’s never quite clear what Satoris’s plan is, other than it involves taking over the world. Speaking for myself, if Satoris can be defeated by a gawky teenager and an aging hockey fan, I really have to wonder if Satoris is actually as powerful as everyone assumes that he is.

This is my favorite character in the entire film, Mike Pipper (Ron Anderson). Mike used to know Troy’s father and lives in a cabin in the woods. Mike has a grizzled old prospector’s voice, which makes it impossible to understand what he’s saying but he was still fun to listen to.

Anyway, it’s not always easy to keep up with what exactly is going on with The Final Sacrifice. The film’s low budget is obvious in every single shot and the poor sound quality often makes it difficult to keep track of what the characters are actually talking about. The film has a sort of “make it up as you go along” feel to it. Interestingly enough, that low budget is both the film’s biggest weakness and its great strength. It may not be any good but you have to kind of respect the fact that a bunch of Canadian college students with no money still managed to make a movie.

The Final Sacrifice is one of those movies that works best if you watch it with a group of friends. I watched it a few years ago with the members of the Late Night Movie Gang and we had a blast trying to figure out just what exactly was supposed to be going on.

The Final Sacrifice: Don’t watch it alone!

Horror Film Review: The Craft (dir by Andrew Fleming)

Posted on October 16, 2022 by Lisa Marie Bowman

This 1996 film tells the story of four witches, all of whom attend the same very judgmental high school.

Nancy (Fairuza Balk) is their leader, the one who is most dedicated to worshiping the ancient deity “Manon.” Nacy dressed in black, like all good people. She also lives in a trailer park with her pervy stepfather and her chainsmoking mother. Sarcastic and quick with an insult, Nancy is an outcast and she’s proud of it.

Bonnie (Neve Campbell) is the quiet witch. She’s the one who wears baggy clothes and hardly ever seems to wash her hair. She’s insecure because her back is covered in scars, the result of a car accident. Bonnie follows Nancy’s orders.

Rochelle (Rachel True) is the witch who never seems to get to do much. As one of the only black students at the high school, she faces constant discrimination. She likes to swim. To be honest, we don’t find out much about Rochelle beyond that.

And then there’s Sarah (Robin Tunney). She’s the new girl at school, having just moved from San Francisco to Los Angeles. Bonnie is the first one who notices that Sarah has powers of her own. Even though Sarah is, at first, freaked out by Nancy’s talk of Manon, she eventually joins the group after a male student, the loathsome Chris Hooker (Skeet Ulrich), starts to spread rumors about her.

Together …. they solve crimes!

No, actually, they don’t. Instead, they cast spells. Fortunately, now that Sarah has joined the group, they’re finally powerful enough to actually make their spells mean something. Soon, each girl is getting exactly what she wants but they’ve forgotten the Rule of Three — every action returns to you threefold.

And, even worse, Nancy’s starting to act just a little bit crazed….

I love The Craft. In fact, to be honest, I have yet to meet anyone who doesn’t love the film. That doesn’t mean that the film is flawless, of course. There’s actually a whole lot of things that I could point out that don’t quite work about this film. For instance, the character of Rochelle is totally underdeveloped. Robin Tunney, as good an actress as she is, sometimes seems to be miscast as Sarah. (It’s hard not to feel that she and Neve Campbell should have switched roles.) The film starts out as a clever and sharp-tongued satire but it kind of loses its way towards the end, becoming a far more conventional supernatural thriller.

But no matter! Sometimes, the flaws just don’t matter. The Craft works because anyone who has ever felt like an outcast — and, let’s just be honest, that’s pretty much everyone — can relate to the film. At some point in their life, everyone has felt ostracized. Everyone has felt like they were on the outside looking in. Everyone has wished that they had the ability to cast a spell whenever they wanted. Everyone has felt like Sarah, Bonnie, and Rochelle and, even more importantly, everyone has felt like vengeful Nancy.

Perhaps appropriately, it’s the actress who plays Nancy, Fairuza Balk, who steals the entire film. It’s not that the other actors are bad. Indeed, the strong and likable cast is one of this film’s main strengths. But no one can quite match Balk’s intensity as Nancy. Balk manages to remain believable even while going totally over the top. In the end, Nancy is the most compelling character in the film. She may be a villain. She may kill a few people. But she’s also the only character willing to stand up for herself. Sarah’s magic may be powerful but she never seems to be having much fun with it. Nancy, on the other hand, is all about showing off what one can do with enough power.

I rewatched The Craft a few Halloweens ago and I’m glad that I did. It provided the perfect conclusion to that year’s October holiday. I look forward to watching it again in the future.

Horror On The Lens: Mark of the Witch (dir by Tom Moore)

Posted on October 16, 2022 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Today’s horror on the lens is Mark of the Witch, a little oddity that was filmed in 1969 and released in 1970. It’s a film about what happens when the spirit of an executed witch possesses a college student.

This is an admittedly low-budget and, some would say, amateurish production but certain scenes have a nice dream-like feel and, in the role of the witch, Marie Santell doesn’t leave a bit of scenery unchewed. I especially enjoy her speech at the start of the film.

Plus, Mark of the Witch was filmed in my hometown of Dallas, Texas!

Enjoy!

October Positivity: Senior Year (dir by Bruce Lood)

Posted on October 15, 2022 by Lisa Marie Bowman

First released in 1978 and undoubtedly played at dozens of church youth group retreats for years afterwards, Senior Year tells the story of Steve and Angie.

Steve and Angie are both high school seniors. (Hence, the name….) They’re also both Christians. Steve used to be a jock who enjoyed drinking and having a good time. However, over the summer, he decided to give all that up and dedicate his life to Christ. The rest of his classmates aren’t sure how to deal with this. They all wonder what happened to the Steve that they used to know. They’re all worried that this new Steve is going to constantly try to preach to them. Steve confirms their suspicions by constantly trying to preach at them. As he quickly discovers, it can be awkward forcing your beliefs on people, especially when they’re just trying to make it from class to class. Still, the local young minister encourages Steve to keep trying.

Joe has no interest in what Steve is saying. Joe is a jock who doesn’t get all of that Christian stuff and kind of takes it personally the Steve is now religious. Joe decides that he’s going to date a Christian girl, just to upset Steve! Joe’s a real jerk. However, Joe starts to develop real feelings for her. He even trades in his van for a sports car, all in an effort to seem more respectable. Anyway, as things often go in these type of movies, it all leads to a tragedy that leaves one person in wheelchair but which also inspires everyone in the high school to start reading their bible. Steve finally manages to successfully witness to one of his coworkers. At no point does it seem to occur to anyone that maybe there was another way that message could have been spread that didn’t involve paralyzing someone for life.

Senior Year is a pretty typical faith-based high school film. One thing that I’ve noticed about these films is that they always take place in these upper middle class suburban high schools where nearly the entire student body is vehemently anti-Christian. I went to an upper middle class suburban high school and my experience was markedly different. That could just be because I’m from Texas but still, there was an element of paranoia to this film that felt more than a bit forced. It wasn’t enough for Joe to just not be interested in reading the Bible or going to church. No, Joe had to be a full-on sociopath who specifically tried to ruin a girl’s reputation just because she was a Christian. It’s all a bit melodramatic. It also doesn’t help that Steve comes across as everything that Joe claims he is. Despite the film’s intentions, Steve does come across as being preachy and a bit self-righteous. The actor playing him is believably awkward but also kind of creepy. Anyone who has ever had the experience of having a complete stranger start grilling you about your religious beliefs will empathize with those who don’t want to get trapped in a conversation with Steve.

After watching this film, I checked out its imdb page. I found two pieces of trivia. I have no idea if either of these are correct but, for the record, imdb claims that John Travolta was offered the role of the youth minister. That’s possible, I suppose. Though the film was released in 1978, it features a theater marquee advertising Marathon Man and Two-Minute Warning, which both came out in 1976. If the film was shot in 1976 than it was probably in pre-production in 1975. If the film was in pre-production in 1975, it’s totally possible that a relatively unknown John Travolta may have been offered the part. The other piece of trivia is that Kevin Costner appears as an extra during a high school basketball game. Costner was 21 in 1976 and was studying acting in college so, again, its possible. I certainly didn’t see him but, then again, I wasn’t looking.

Anyway, regardless of whether Costner is lurking in the background or not, Senior Year is forgettable. Today, it’s best viewed as being a time capsule of the era in which it was made. I mean, selling a van is a major plot point! This film couldn’t be more 70s if it tried.

Horror on TV: Circle of Fear 1.15 “Dark Vengeance”

Posted on October 15, 2022 by Lisa Marie Bowman

In today’s episode of Circle of Fear, Martin Sheen plays a construction worker who finds a box at a site. He brings it home to show his wife, Kim Darby. When they open the box, they discover only a mirror and a toy horse. Hey, that doesn’t seem too bad, right? But then Darby starts to have nightmares that indicate that the horse might be cursed!

This episode aired on January 12th, 1973. It’s always a little bit jarring to see Martin Sheen playing a regular guy, back before The West Wing brought out his pompous side. Young Martin Sheen was quite a good actor. His resemblance to Emilio Estevez is uncanny. I wonder if they’re related.

(That’s a joke, everyone. Calm down.)

Enjoy!

The TSL’s Horror Grindhouse: The Killer Shrews (dir by Ray Kellogg)

Posted on October 15, 2022 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Genetic modification. Sure, it sounds like a good idea. But are the results ever worth it?

Dr. Marlowe Cragus (Baruch Lumet) thought it was a good idea. That why he and his daughter, Anne (Ingrid Goude), and Anne’s boyfriend, Jerry (Ken Curtis), all moved to an isolated island. Dr. Cragis though he could perform some experiments on some shrews and that he would unlock the secret of how to …. well, who knows what Dr. Cragis thought he was actually doing. (I mean, to be honest, who is really sure what a shrew really is?) Cragis claims that he was trying to end world hunger but that sounds like a convenient excuse. To be honest, it seems like Dr. Cragis was just experimenting for the sake of experimenting.

Unfortunately, Cragis’s experiments somehow led to the shrews turning into giant and carnivorous beasts. At first, the doctor kept them locked up. But then Anne broke up with Jerry and Jerry got drunk and he let all the shrews go free. Yep, it’s a mess. Now, the shrews are running around the island and the doctor and everyone else is trapped in the lab. Boat captain Thorne Sherman (James Best) has arrived to take everyone back to the mainland but, unfortunately, there’s a hurricane approaching. The humans will have to survive one more night on the island of …. THE KILLER SHREWS!

Directed by Ray Kellogg, The Killer Shrews was filmed in 1959. It was a regional production, filmed just outside of my hometown of Dallas and released to local drive-ins. It did well enough to get national distribution and it continues to be popular among aficionados of bad cinema. The main problem with The Killer Shrews is that the shrews themselves are obviously just dogs that are wearing shrew masks. For the most part, the dogs seem to be happy to be there. I’m pretty sure that I saw a few of them wagging their tails shortly before launching their attack on the humans. We’re told that the shrews are killers but they don’t look like they’ve ever killed anything. Instead, they look like very good boys. One gets the feeling that they were a lot of fun to play with between filming.

That said, The Killer Shrews is entertaining if you’re looking for a short movie that will inspire a good laugh or two. James Best and Ken Curtis play romantic rivals and the fact that they both attempt to give serious performances only serves to highlight the absurdity of a group of people being held prisoner by a pack of shrews. Baruch Lumet, the father of director Sidney Lumet, acts up a storm in the role of Dr. Cragis, yelling all of his dialogue like the stage veteran that he was. And, of course, the dogs playing the shrews appear to be having the time of their lives. Hopefully, someone tossed around a tennis ball with them after they finished their scenes because they definitely earned the reward.

The Killer Shrews is not exactly a killer movie but at least the dogs are cute!

Retro Television Reviews: California Dreams 1.13 “Where’s Dennis?” and 2.1 “Jake’s Song”

Posted on October 15, 2022 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Saturdays, I will be reviewing California Dreams, which ran on NBC from 1992 to 1996. The entire show is currently streaming on YouTube!

This week, season one comes to an end and season two begins. And with season two, an important new character is introduced. With the start of the second season, we also get new opening credits.

But first, let’s get the end of season one out of the way.

Episode 1.13 “Where’s Dennis?”

(Directed by Don Barnhart, originally aired on December 5th, 1992)

With their parents out of town, Matt and Jenny throw a big party at the Garrison house and, naturally, the Dreams perform. A promoter comes by the party and tells the Dreams that they’re “sick.” (“That means good,” he adds as the Dreams breathe a sigh of 90s relief.) However, younger brother Dennis feels that his old siblings are neglecting him and he runs away. Can Matt and Jenny find Dennis before their parents come home?

Eh, who cares? The worst episodes of the first season of California Dreams were the ones that focused on the Garrison family.

Episode 2.1 “Jake’s Song”

(Directed by Don Barnhart, originally aired on September 11th, 1993)

In between the end of the first season and the start of the second season of California Dreams, NBC delivered an ultimatum to the show’s producers. If the show was going to continue, it would need to lose the adults and focus on the band. It would also need to add some more Saved By The Bell-style hijinks.

As such, the Garrison adults were largely dropped, as was younger brother Dennis. Whereas the first season didn’t feature a single scene that actually took place in a high school, the new California Dreams would feature clueless teachers, sputtering principles, and the same high school interiors that would later show up in Hang Time.

Most importantly, the first episode of the second season introduced viewers to Jake Summers (played by Jay Anthony Franke). Jake was a tough guy who rode a motorcycle, wore a leather jacket, and who never lost a fight. Jake was a rocking rebel with the soul of a poet and he was obviously added to the show to try to give the California Dreams some sort of edge. Of course, California Dreams was still a TNBC show so “edgy” really just meant that Jake looked like he might have smoked a cigarette at some point in his life. Jake wore a leather jacket and got a serious look on his face whenever it was time to play guitar but the music was still Disney-level pop. Jake was the toughest California Dream in the way that Joey Fatone used to be the toughest member of NSYNC.

Jake makes his first appearance in California Dreams when he walks into the high school, wearing a leather jacket and followed by several adoring girls. “Woooooooooo!” the audience yells, showing that they already know that the new star of the show has arrived.

Anyway, Jake says that he wants to talk to Matt. Everyone’s terrified that Jake is going to kill Matt but instead, Jake just likes some music that Matt wrote and he wants to offer him some lyrics for the song. Matt discovers that Jake can play guitar and he invites Jake to join the Dreams. The rest of the Dreams are like, “Jake’s too tough and scary!” Can’t they hear how crazy the live audience goes whenever Jake enters a scene? The Dreams need Jake! Of course, Jake isn’t even sure that he wants to join the Dreams but then they all play together at Sharkey’s. Jake becomes a Dream and immediately start to overshadow the star of the show. The future is set.

Jake would eventually become a bit of a neutered character, especially after Matt was written out of the show and Jake took over the band. But, in his first appearance, he actually has enough rebel charisma that it’s easy to understand why the show’s producers decided to build the new California Dreams around him. His surly attitude actually provided a nice contrast to Matt’s more vanilla style. In their first episode together, Jay Anthony Franke and Brent Gore brought out the best in each other.

Would Jake and Matt continue to bring out the best in each other? We’ll find out next week!

International Horror Film Review: The Night Digger (dir by Alistair Reid)

Posted on October 15, 2022 by Lisa Marie Bowman

The 1971 British film, The Night Digger, revolves around three people.

Maura Prince (Patricia Neal) lives in a dilapidated mansion out of London. She has never married and spends almost all of her time taking care of her blind mother, Edith (Pamela Brown). Edith goes out of her way to make sure that Maura will never have the courage to leave her and find happiness on her own. However, with the mansion falling apart around them, it’s becoming obvious that Maura cannot take care of the entire place on her own. That’s when a mysterious but handsome man named Billy Jarvis (Nichols Clay) rides up on his motorcycle and asks if the women need a handyman.

Billy has a dramatic story about his past, claiming that he lost almost everything that he owned as the result of a fire in a barn, one which also led to the death of his mother. Billy is charming and handsome and he ride a really impressive motorcycle and he looks good in a leather jacket. He represents youth but he’s also the epitome of the rebel without a cause, the sensitive but inarticulate Marlon Brando of The Wild One or the biker played by Peter Fonda in The Wild Angels. Some may look at him and only see a somewhat seedy character on a motorcycle but others look at him and see someone who is running from something and needs someone to take care of him. They see the soul of poet within the body of a drifter, someone who needs to escape from his past and who can also provide a better future. He’s the rebel without a cause, the one that everyone dreams about, even if some of those dreams are dreamt in secret. Though one may have rode a bicycle and the other was knight of the round table, there is much Nicholas Clay’s future performance as Lancelot in John Boorman’s Excalibur to be found in his performance in The Night Digger. Much like a groundkeeper in a D.H. Lawrence novel, he represents the secret and potentially dangerous earthy sensuality of Britain.

As a result, You certainly can not blame Maura for starting to fall in love with him. Nor can you blame Edith for wanting to have an athletic young man around as there have been stories about a madman who stalks the night, killing women. The Traveling Maniac, some have taken to calling him. Complicating the matter, though, is the fact that Billy just happens to be The Traveling Maniac. With Maura falling in love with him, will she discover the truth or will she become his next victim?

The Night Digger took me by surprise. I wasn’t expecting much from this film when I watched it last year but it turned out to be rather clever and suspenseful thriller, one that told its story with a good combination of black humor and emotional honesty. Atmospherically directed by Alistair Reid and featuring a trio of excellent lead performances, The Night Digger was compelling compelling thriller, a gothic horror story with a great ending. This is definitely one to keep an eye out for!

Horror Film Review: I Walked With A Zombie (dir by Jacques Tourneur)

Posted on October 15, 2022 by Lisa Marie Bowman

The 1943 horror film I Walked With A Zombie tells a zombie story that would probably seem strange to modern zombie fans. There’s no cannibalism. There’s no feasting on brains. There’s no talk about how the only way to stop a zombie is to shoot them in the head. In fact, the zombies in I Walked With A Zombie may be referred to as being the “living dead” but they’re not actually dead. Instead, if anything, they’ve been cursed. Maybe they’re possessed. Maybe they’ve been brainwashed. Maybe they’re lobotomized. Who can say for sure?

Instead of being the type of zombies that were made famous by George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead, the zombies in I Walked With A Zombie hew closer to the zombies of Haitian legend. These zombies suffer from a sort of mental paralysis. Unable to think for themselves, they wander about in a sort of permanent limbo, trapped between life and death and under control of the voodoo priests who transformed them.

This moody and, at time, rather dream-like film deals with Besty Connell (Frances Dee), a Canadian nurse who has been hired by Paul Holland (Tom Conway), who owns a sugar plantation on a Caribbean island. Paul’s wife, Jessica (Christine Gordon) has apparently been taken ill and, as a result, is behaving strangely. Often, she wanders about with a glazed look in her eyes, almost as if she’s trapped in a sort of dream-state. Paul believes that it’s the result of the severe fever that Jessica previously suffered with. The locals, meanwhile, gossip that, right before Jessica was taken ill, she was having an affair with Paul’s alcoholic half-brother, Wesley (James Ellison). Betsy’s attempts to care for Jessica and understand her condition will lead to Betsy exploring not only the island’s voodoo culture but also …. walking with a zombie!

I Walked With A Zombie is a deliberately paced film, one that focuses more on creating and maintaining an ominous mood than on going for the type of jump scares that we’ve come to expect from most horror movies. I Walked With A Zombie is all about atmosphere and ambiguity. Indeed, it’s never determined for certain whether or not Jessica’s condition is due to a voodoo curse or if perhaps it really is just due to her earlier fever. It’s left to the audience to decide.

Directed by Jacques Tourneur and produced by Val Lewton (the same time team behind the original Cat People), I Walked With A Zombie is an effective and well-acted film, one that also features some gorgeous black-and-white cinematography and an interesting subtext about colonialism. (Upon arriving on the island, Betsy discovers that the Holland family made their fortune through the slave trade and that they still have the figurehead of an old slave ship displayed in their courtyard.) It may not be frightening by today’s standards but it is still a thought-provoking film and one that should be seen by anyone who is a serious zombie fan.