Monster of the Day #3224

Well, Tuesday was the day I left Dallas. We got in a showing of Mako Jaws of Death off the recent William Grefe box set He Came from the Swamp. I'd never seen it, so it was good to check it off. Basically it was Willard Meets Jaws, with a typically intense lead performance…
Monster of the Day #3223

Monster of the Day #3223

OK, Monday, still some folks left, so viewings continued. We started with Panic Beats, a Paul Naschy film that was sort of a mix (I mean, Naschy films being highly derivative is not exactly new) of Twitch of the Death Nerve and particularly Diabolique. Fun, but I'll be frank and admit several weeks later…
Monster of the Day #3222

Monster of the Day #3222

As Sunday continued, we watched two horror movies that only faintly offered monsters. The Black Pit of Dr M is probably the best and most atmospheric of the Mexican horror films. It's crazy, of course, but man, it's gorgeous. Then we watched an episode of the original The Tomorrow People, and if you think…
Monster of the Day #3221

Monster of the Day #3221

Following the Fest was Sunday for all the people who can hang around. Sandy re-showed the Man From UNCLE episode that coincidentally guest starred both of the pre-Star Trek William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy, not to mention also Werner Klemperer. It's pretty great. Next we watched the obscure oddity Sound of Horror, known primarily…
Monster of the Day #3220

Monster of the Day #3220

Few monsters this year. Sandy followed Horror and Hamsters with The Battles of Chief Pontiac (1952), a cheapie pre-American Revolution epic with Lon Chaney Jr as the titular, peace-seeking American Indian. There's a James Arness-y style frontier hero who seeks the same, but all is thwarted, not by the British, honest and beleagured, but…
Monster of the Day #3219

Monster of the Day #3219

We opened this year's spring T-Fest with The Brute Man, a neat efficient semi-horror starring the tragic Rondo Hatton.  Next we got our first monster film, the extremely weird anthology flick Horror and Hamsters. It delivers exactly what the title promises; short (if eventually not short enough) vignettes of horror with dollops of black…
Monster of the Day #3218

Monster of the Day #3218

Friday night continued with Fly Away Baby, a film from the Torchy Blaine B-movie series. Torchy was, as GalaxyJane noted (she provided the film from the set of them she owned), "Lois Lane who never met Clark Kent." It's weird, because we know there were never strong, spunky female characters until the current generations…
Monster of the Day #3217

Monster of the Day #3217

So, anyway, T(ween) Fest 2021. A roaring success, in that we had basically everyone return (who was just regularly available) after cancelling one event last year and having limited attendance--for obvious reasons--last fall. Back to normal, baby. Apparently the Houston Group of myself, Jeff and Kirk and Patty missed the very first unofficial flick…

People Still like Comics, but…. Top 20 Graphic Novel Sales for April 2021

It's subtle, but see if you can find the commonality on the top 20 graphic novels sold in this country in April. Per the ICv2 website: "NPD BookScan collects weekly point-of-sale data on print books from over 16,000 locations including e-tailers, chains, mass merchandisers, independent bookstores, and more. NPD BookScan covers approximately 85% of…
Video Cheese: The Ape (1940)

Video Cheese: The Ape (1940)

Perhaps due to my recent trip to Texas, where I actually watched *gasp* films instead of anime (or anime films), I actually broke down and watched one of the zillions of Blu Rays/DVDs I keep buying. In this case, it was Kino Lorber’s Blu Ray of The Ape. I should note that although the…