Tag Archives: review

Song of the Day: Somebody Has To Pay by Susie Van Der Meer

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Today’s song of the day comes from the soundtrack of 1998’s Run, Lola, Run.

Whisper my darling
I didn’t have the time to say goodbye to you
Flow into silence
My mouth is full of blood and my mind is too
And my mind is too

And you see me walking miles away
Somebody has to pay
And you see me walking miles away
I’m gonna take your pain with me

Golden reunion
I will always wait for you to be with me
Secrets in heaven
I’ll complete the mission if you want me to

And you see me walking miles away
Somebody has to pay
And you see me walking miles away
I’m gonna take your pain

And you see me walking miles away
Somebody has to pay
Somebody has to pay
Somebody has to pay

Somebody has to pay
Somebody has to pay

Late Night Retro Television Review: Freddy’s Nightmares 2.14 “Easy Come, Easy Go”

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Welcome to Late Night Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Fridays, I will be reviewing Freddy’s Nightmares, a horror anthology show which ran in syndication from 1988 to 1990. The entire series can be found on Tubi!

This week, Mary Crosby returns.  And hey — is that Wings Hauser!?

Episode 2.14 “Easy Come, Easy Go”

(Dir by William Malone, originally aired on January 14th, 1990)

In this sequel to Lucky Stiff, Greta (Mary Crosby) is still living in her mansion with her new husband, Eugene (Tracey Walter).  She’s married to Eugene so that Eugene won’t turn her in for having killed her previous husband.  Eugene says that he’ll leave the mansion as soon as they consummate the marriage.  Greta, however, has standards.  As a result, Eugene lives in the basement.

When her former brother-in-law, Wes Roscoe (Richard Eden), shows up, it doesn’t take long for a lingerie-clad Greta to seduce him.  It soon becomes apparent that Wes wants her money and vengeance for the death of his brother.  She makes plans to poison him but, when Wes attacks her, her life is saved by Eugene.  Greta realizes that she loves Eugene.  She sleeps with him.  Immediately afterwards, Eugene accidentally drinks the poison and dies.  Sorry, Eugene!

Shortly afterwards, Greta’s sister, Peggy (Jill Jacobson), shows up with her husband, eyepatch-wearing Sonny (Wings Hauser).  Sonny is Greta’s ex.  In fact, he blames her for the loss of his eye.  (They got into an argument in a car and a slap from Greta sent Sonny plunging eye-first into the gear shift.)  Greta seduces and then kills Sonny, just as she’s done with every man who has tried to take her money.  But then Peggy turns out to be a sociopath herself (“I killed mom and dad.”) and proceeds to shoot Greta.

“Easy come, easy go,” Greta gasps.

This episode was so over-the-top and cheerfully sordid that it was impossible not to enjoy it.  Mary Crosby threw herself into the femme fatale role.  Wings Hauser, as always, was amusingly disturbed as the bad guy.  Both stories were wonderfully sordid.  Even without any supernatural elements, this was a truly fun episode.

Retro Television Review: St. Elsewhere 3.21 “Murder, She Rote”

Posted on 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 Fridays, I will be reviewing St. Elsewhere, a medical show which ran on NBC from 1982 to 1988.  The show can be found on Daily Motion.

This week, we’ve got a great episode of St. Elsewhere.

Episode 3.21 “Murder, She Rote”

(Dir by Mark Tinker, originally aired on February 27th, 1985)

This week, Mrs. Hufnagle dies!

  • After spending the entire season getting on the nerves of the doctors and the nurses, Mrs. Hufnagle died in this episode.  She is found dead and apparently crushed in her bed.  (Hufnagle could never figure out how to properly lower and raise the front and back of it.  In this episode, it appears that she raised both at the same time.)  “Hufnagle in a half-shell,” Ehrlich says.  Meanwhile, the perpetually angry Nurse Lucy (Jennifer Savidge) blames herself for not responding when Hufnagle was desperately pushing her help button.  Gee, Lucy, you think?  Isn’t it your job to respond?
  • Now, I should note that this episode features both Westphall and Craig calling out the doctor for the treatment that Hufnagle received.  Both let it be known that doctors can’t just take care of the likable patients.  Everyone who enters the hospital deserves quality care.
  • What did Hufnagle die of?  That’s what Craig is determined to find out.  His first instinct is to blame Ehrlich.  Then he tried to blame Kochar (former serious regular Kavi Raz, making a guest appearance).  He tries to blame the nurses.  But, in the end, Craig examines his notes from Hufnagle’s heart surgery and he discovers that he’s the one who made a mistake.
  • In a wonderfully acted moment, Craig tells the residents that the mistake was his.  William Daniels does an excellent job of showing that Craig, for all of his arrogance, is not one to shirk responsibility.  When he explains how he made the mistake that led to Hufnagle’s death, it’s a brave moment for both the character and the actor.
  • That said, Craig is lucky Hufnagle didn’t have a family or he would definitely be getting sued.

While Hufnagle died, Shirley Daniels returned to the ER:

  • Given that Shirley has confessed to killing Peter White (even though she hasn’t gone to trial yet), clearing her to work at a hospital seems …. odd.  That said, a psychiatrist says that Shirley is not a threat to others and Auschlander seems to be oddly eager for her to get to work.
  • It doesn’t take long before Shirley pulls a gun on a patient.  She also points the gun at Fiscus and then Morrison.  She pulls the trigger and a little flag pops out that says, “Bang!”
  • It was a joke!  Oh, Shirely!
  • Shirley laughs and then leaves the hospital.

Elliot has a date:

  • Dr. Axelrod goes out on a date with Nurse Rosenthal’s odd daughter, Marcy (Jeannie Elias).
  • Marcy is impressed with Elliot’s goofy sense of humor.
  • Elliot takes her to the same Hawaiian restaurant that Ehrlich took the Craigs.
  • A sudden fire breaks out.  Elliot heroically saves the life of the restaurant’s owner.
  • Marcy explains that she liked Elliot because he seemed goofy and harmless.  Now that he’s a hero, she respects him too much to sleep with him.

This was a great episode!  William Daniels gave his best performance in the role of Dr. Craig so far.  Ellen Bry, in the role of Shirley Daniels, got one of the all-time great exits.  And the underused Stephen Furst got a storyline where he did something more than just get insulted.  I do feel sad for Mrs. Hufnagle, though.  She wasn’t that bad.

Late Night Retro Television Review: Hunter 1.6 “Flight of the Dead Pigeon”

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Welcome to Late Night Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past!  On Thursdays, I will be reviewing Hunter, which aired on NBC from 1984 to 1991.  The entire show is currently streaming on Tubi and several other services!

This week, Hunter searches for a pigeon.

Episode 1.6 “Flight of the Dead Pigeon”

(Dir by Michael Preece, originally aired on November 9th, 1984)

When a little girl (Marissa Mendenhall) shows up at the police station and asks for Hunter’s help in finding her stolen carrier pigeons, Hunter’s like, “Buzz off, kid!”  However, when it turns out that the girl’s uncle was a degenerate gambler and that he was thrown off the roof of a building by the mob, Hunter and McCall get involved.  It turns out that the Mexican cartels want to use the pigeons to carry drugs into America.  Because the little girl is the only one who knows how to train the pigeons, they want to kidnap her as well….

Yeah, this was a pretty dumb episode.  I don’t doubt that pigeons could be used to smuggle drugs but I do doubt that any successful criminal organization would go through all the trouble that they go to in this episode.  There are far simpler ways to smuggle drugs.  I’m also sure they could have found someone to train the pigeons without abducting a child.  Hunter and McCall are able to rescue the girl and the episode ends with her smiling cheerfully as she’s sent into foster care.

“Hunter,” McCall asks, “have you ever wanted kids?”

“Nope,” Hunter replies.

“Me neither,” McCall says, not sounding particularly convincing.

What a sad ending!  Seriously, if Hunter and McCall aren’t married by the end of this series, I will throw a fit.  They’re totally meant for each other.  Even in a kind of dumb episode like this one, their chemistry saves the day.

Retro Television Review: Decoy 1.32 “Fiesta at Midnight”

Posted on 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 Thursdays, I will be reviewing Decoy, which aired in Syndication in 1957 and 1958.  The show can be viewed on Tubi!

This week, Casey is an accused man’s only advocate.

Episode 1.32 “Fiesta At Midnight”

(Dir by Michael Gordon, originally aired on May 19th, 1958)

Juan Ortega (Tomas Milian) comes to New York City from Puerto Rico and finds himself in jail, accused of robbery and assault.  Ortega, who is still learning English, says that he was at a community dance when the crime happened and that there are two women who can provide him with an alibi.  Unfortunately, one of them (Gloria Marlowe) is married and refuses to testify that she had been talking to another man.  The other, a mysterious woman named Maria, cannot be found.  Casey tries to help.

This was an okay episode.  The episode calls out the NYPD for being too quick to assume that Ortega is guilty just because he speaks Spanish and he’s a newcomer to the neighborhood.  That said, it bothered me that a translator was never provided for Ortega.  Ortega was clearly not comfortable speaking English but he had to do so when talking to Casey because Casey didn’t know much Spanish.  I get that this was probably all done to avoid having to ask the viewers to read subtitles but, in-universe, it felt strange.  It was hard not to notice that, even in a precinct located in Spanish Harlem, there weren’t any Spanish cops.

This was an early role for Tomas Milian, who would go on to star in countless Spaghetti Westerns and who also played the corrupt general in Steven Soderbergh’s Traffic.  Though there’s little of the cunning or wit that distinguished Milian’s later performances, he still makes Juan Ortega into a sympathetic figure.

As for the episode’s ending, Maria (Miriam Colon) is revealed to be a nun and she testifies that Juan was with her when the crime occurred.  Casey tells us that Juan got his miracle.

Villain of the Day: Klaus Wortmann (Antropophagus)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Yesterday, it was announced that George Eastman had passed away at the age of 83.

George Eastman was born Luigi Montefiori in Genoa, Italy.  Montefiori began his career by appearing in Spaghetti westerns.  The tall and often bearded Montefiori had the dangerous look that made him a natural for outlaw and henchmen roles.  Like many Italian actors, he took an “Americanized” alias for his acting roles.  He appeared in his share of American and British films (he appeared opposite Charlton Heston in Call of the Wild and played Goliath in King David) but his fans will always remember him best for the work that he did in his native Italy.  Occasionally, he played a hero.  He gave a particularly strong performance in — don’t laugh — Erotic Nights of the Living Dead.  That said, Eastman will always be best remembered for his villians.

Klaus Wortmann is the one who will always give me nightmares.  Eastman played Wortmann in Joe D’Amato’s infamous 1980 film, Antropophagus.  Klaus Wortmann was a wealthy man who lived on a Greek island with his wife, daughter, and his sister.  Unfortunately, when he and his family were shipwrecked, Klaus resorted to cannibalism to survive.  As the movie begins, Klaus is back at his mansion and being sheltered by sister.  He’s also become an obsessive cannibal.  He’s surrendered his humanity.  He can no longer speak and instead just growls.  He attacks everyone that he sees and he does things to his victims that led to this film being banned in several countries.  Also known as The Grim Reaper, Antropophagus is film that delights in showing people being ripped to pieces and George Eastman is right in the middle of it all.

And he’s absolutely terrifying.

In real life, George Eastman was a handsome man.  That’s one of the things that made him such a fascinating villain in countless western and crime films.  He was usually playing a total psycho but there was still something about him that made you want to get to know more about him.  Klaus Wortmann, on the other hand, is a terrifying monster.  Unwashed, bearded, hideously scarred, continually bathed in sweat, growling and howling as he chases his victims, Klaus is a nightmare come to life.  Eastman throws himself into capturing every grimy detail of Wortmann’s twisted existence and he comes across as a creature who seems to have literally jumped out of the shadows of our greatest fears.

In many ways, Antropophagus is not a particularly good film.  Not even the notoriously shameless Joe D’Amato appeared to think much of it.  The story drags because there aren’t enough victims and therefore there’s a lot of travelogue padding, especially early on in the film.  Along with Eastman, there are some recognizable people in the cast — Tisa Farrow, Zora Kerova, Serena Grandi (who would later co-star with Eastman in Delirium) — both most of them come across like they’d rather be anywhere but there.  But when George Eastman is on-screen, the film become horrifying.  No one — not the pregnant woman and her husband, not the innocent blind girl, not even the flakey card reader — is safe.  By the end of the movie, Klaus is literally eating pieces of himself.  It takes a talented actor to pull that off.

That actor was George Eastman.

Villain of the Day

Song of the Day: Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood (performed by Santa Esmeralda)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Many, many years ago, when I first heard this song on the soundtrack for Kill Bill Volume One, I immediately fell in love with it.  I have to admit, as well, that when I first heard Santa Esmeralda’s version, I assumed that the cover had been recorded specifically for the Kill Bill soundtrack.  Well, turns out I was not only wrong, I was way wrong.  This cover version was actually recorded way back in 1977.

I also thought, before I started writing this post, that the song was originally performed by the Animals.  Wrong again.  The song was first written in 1964 by Bennie Benjamin, Gloria Caldwell, and Sol Marcus and it was originally performed by Nina Simone.  Then, in 1965, the Animals did their famous cover.  The Animals’ version of the song is the one that used to get stuck in my head when I was in high school because it used to play constantly at the Target where I would skip school.

But the Santa Esmeralda version is my favorite and it is today’s song of the day.

Late Night Retro Television Review: 1st & Ten 4.2 “The Inmates Buy The Asylum”

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Welcome to Late Night Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Wednesdays, I will be reviewing 1st and Ten, which aired in syndication from 1984 to 1991. The entire series is streaming on Tubi.

The center cannot hold.

Episode 5.2 “The Inmates Buy The Asylum”

(Dir by Stan Lathan, originally aired on October 12th, 1988)

If there’s one thing that you can depend on when it comes to this show, it’s inconsistency.

Last week, the players decided to buy the team.  This was portrayed as being a genius move on their part.  Dr. Death dressed up in a suit and said that he was ready to be a businessman as well as a player.  TD Parker (OJ Simpson) told the players that it would be a good idea to take a blade to the typical player/owner relationship.

This week, the players buy the team and everything starts to fall apart.  Suddenly, the players are all too concerned with their own petty issues to be smart businessmen.  Dr. Death is no longer wearing a suit and shows up for a meeting of all the team owners in a denim jacket.  (All of the owners except for one walk out on him.)  The team decides to fire Coach Grier.  Why?  They just don’t like him.  T.D. delivers the news to an embittered Grier and admits that the players are not good owners.  Gee, TD, maybe you shouldn’t have told them to buy the team!

In other words, the players have seized the means of production and screwed everything up.  If nothing else, this episode was a good example of why communism will never work.

Meanwhile, agent Max Green was still in Louisiana, trying to sign college linebacker Sonny Clowers (Gary Kasper).  Fortunately, a chance meeting with the preacher of Sonny’s church gave Max an inside track.  But with the Bulls be able to get it together in time to draft him?

I guess we will find out next week.  As for this episode, it felt as if the writers suddenly realized that it was a mistake to have the players buy the team so they set out to course correct at the last minute.  Myself, I’m wondering how being both a player and an owner would work.  Who sets the salaries?  If a player is traded, is he still an owner?

Seriously, this all seems like a bad idea.

Retro Television Review: The Love Boat 7.21 “Ace’s Valet/Mother Comes First/Hit or Miss America”

Posted on 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 Wednesdays, I will be reviewing the original Love Boat, which aired on ABC from 1977 to 1986!  The series can be streamed on Paramount Plus!

This week, the Love Boat has a few special passengers.

Episode 7.21 “Ace’s Valet/Mother Comes First/Hit or Miss America”

(Dir by Richard A. Wells, originally aired on February 25th, 1984)

Ace is back from photography school and not a minute too soon because the Love Boat is playing host to not only Miss America Vanessa Williams (playing herself) but also several former Miss Americas.  Unfortunately, for Ace, his mother insists that the family valet, Finley (Jeremy Brett), accompany him.  Ace decides that Finley needs a distraction …. maybe a girlfriend!  Hey, at least one of the former Miss Americas is single….

Meanwhile, Vanessa Williams is getting annoyed with various men hitting on her.  In order to get them to leave her alone, she tells them that she has a boyfriend and he’s on the cruise.  In fact, he’s working as a bartender on the boat!  Tyrone (Glynn Turman) is disappointed but Isaac is overjoyed when he hears that Vanessa is “crazy” about him.  Poor Isaac!  And actually, poor Vanessa as well.  A few months after this episode aired, she stepped down from her position after Penthouse magazine published some risqué pictures that were taken during her modeling days.

Finally, Jenny Rhodes (Audrey Landers) wants her mother, Mrs. Rhodes (Marian Mercer), to find love on the boat.  Gopher helps out by wearing bronzer and a fake beard and pretending to be a wealthy and powerful Indian named Punjab.  Uhmm …. yeah, I’m not really sure what to say about that.  On the one hand, this episode featured the first black Miss America.  On the other hand, it also featured Fred Grandy wearing brownface and speaking in a exaggerated Indian accent.  It’s as if the show was so proud of itself for not being racist in one story that it didn’t notice that it was being totally racist in another.

So, this was, overall, a pretty stupid episode.  I hate to have to say that because I usually really do enjoy The Love Boat.  But having Fred Grandy pretend to be Indian and then having Mrs. Rhodes not get upset about the deception just felt …. well, stupid.  As for the other two stories, Jeremy Brett was amusing and Ted Lange was, as always, endearing.  This could have been a good episode if not for that third story.

Oh well.  Not every cruise can be a winner.  That said, I know what your main question is about this episode.

Julie didn’t do much this episode.  Overall, she really hasn’t done much this entire season.  On a scale of one to ten, I would actually give her an 8 as far as this episode goes.  I mean, she really did lose it when she saw Ace was back on the boat.  For that matter, the Miss Americas all appeared to be in a surprisingly good mood as well.  This was the coke cruise.