Reviews

Son of Cleopatra was included in the DVD Son of Samson that I had ordered through Amazon. I had ordered Son of Samson, because I am a Chelo Alonso fan. I held no expectations for Son Of Cleopatra, so I was happily surprised by this near epic movie. It was filmed in both Rome and Egypt. The acting was excellent for this sort of film, because with the exception of Mark Damon, it was an all Italian-Egyptian cast. They were great actors! There are innumerous amounts of people in some of the battle scenes. I suppose to pay that many people; they must have been citizens of Egypt at that time. The battles were excellent. The plot was thick, and action suspenseful. This is definitely a better than average Gladiator movie superbly directed. Sadly Son of Samson fell to second place behind this Desert Oasis. The quality of the DVD was very good, and the color was impressive.

More Dead Than Alive is a decent film that starts off with a lot of great action, but it gets slow at times, especially with Ann Francis, who just plays a minor role in this movie. Paul Hampton who stars as Billy carries the movie with hilarious acting, but excellent! I am a big Clint Walker-Vincent Price fan, and the reason I purchased the DVD is because I wanted to see Vincent Price in a Western. He did a good job as did Clint, but if it were not for Paul Hampton; this movie probably would not fly. After viewing this movie, I have become a Paul Hampton fan, great performance! For anybody who is a Clint Walker fan, I highly recommend the movie "Snow Beast". For those viewers who love Westerns, More Dead Than Alive should be included in your library, because of good acting, action, uniqueness, repressed humor, and it is enjoyable.

The title for this flick is a connotation, and the McMasters is a riveting Western if I ever saw one! Wow hard core to say the least, but the film was professional from Cast Extras to the Director of this post civil war drama. This Western would be way out in outer space by today's standards for "Political Correctness". I respect the harsh intones that are portrayed for record of what some men really were like at that time. Nudity and worse are part of the action, not to mention language that is intolerable in today's public. Barbarism is pervasive throughout this action packed thriller. Jack Palance as always performed wonderfully, but Burl Ives's immortal abilities carries this movie in support of Brock Peters. Actions and words in this movie shook and shocked me, but not by the actions and words in of themselves, but by the ingenious ways in which they were introduced into this masterpiece. The quality technicalities of this film on DVD were good, color, etc.

Two Thousand Maniacs is as demented as a film could possibly be. It is psychologically depressing, and possibly destructive and influential to certain mindset viewers. I was truly horrified by certain scenes that were not artistically creative, but a simple disgrace of indiscriminate bloody mangling of a beautiful woman. I wonder if this movie could have influenced the likes of Ted Bundy, Jeffery Dalmer, etc. It concerns me that Director-Writer Herschell Gordon Lewis could and would have created such an offensive film. I have to wonder what goes through a man's mind to have actually written and directed such a hideously thought processed movie that only a serial killer could relish and appreciate. I love horror movies that scare me, have gore, etc. But Two Thousand Maniacs is another genre altogether. I would not relate this as a horror movie, but as the title suggests, it should be deemed a forum for killers and maniacs.

He acted fine, great an actor as can be for sophisticated horror flicks, Vincent Price, no bones about him. It was the plot and summary that stinks about this film, and using shots from his other films used as reference in this film was just a ham-bone of a production. Vincent Price starred in some fantastic movies such as "Last Man On Earth", "House On Haunted Hill." But I hope this is the last flop I see of Vincent Price Movies. "Theater of Blood" was the other Vincent Price movie that turned me off. He acted great in that movie, but as a whole I was bored. Madhouse was a flop and a bore. One could guess who the real Dr. Death would turn out to be by the lack of sophistication in the movie, but I won't spoil it and give that away to Die Hard Vincent price fans. This movie could have been great if done right, and not focused on Vincent Price in the movie as being a famous macabre actor as part of the plot.

The Killer Shrews is a must see end of the 1950's classic. It is unique among horror movies all to itself. The movie runs in high suspense the entire length of the film. The howling wind, lightening, and music are beautifully done for the soundtrack. The Shrew monsters are believable, and not cheaply appearing as monsters too often are in other flicks of that era. Some reader comments on this forum suggest that the Shrews are collie dogs, well maybe they are, but it certainly is not obvious. The shrews were filmed in a very creative and professional way to make them believable. Some moviegoers only enjoy modern computer graphic action movies, and those types will never be satisfied with the artistically crafted creations that preceded this current age in time. Personally, I prefer non-computer graphic generated movies. Ken Curtis renowned as Festus in the TV series Gunsmoke, produced and starred in this movie. He did an excellent job as supporting actor, and had some action packed fights with the lead actor James Best, with Best employing some of his other profession in this film having been a Black Belt in karate in real life. I give the movie a ten out of ten rating based on its originality and non-stop action.

I always enjoyed Night of The Living Dead. It is a fantastic horror movie that I would recommend to any Ghoul loving fan. But up until recently, I had thought that George Romero and John Russo were the originators of what some here have described as a Classic influential movie, but is it really? I think not! Prior to Night Of The Living Dead, William Leicester and Richard Matheson wrote The Last Man on Earth that in 1964 was turned into a movie, and directed by Ubaldo Ragona. This was the classic that influenced Night Of The Living Dead. It stars Vincent Price who is subjected to the very same terror as Duane Jones suffers as Ben in Night Of The Living Dead. The script for The Last Man On Earth was far superior and there is much more substance to that movie. I still rate Night Of The living Dead a Ten, but a classic it is not other than the dead come up from out of the ground and coffins, but Dracula had also done that!

The Trollenberg Terror stands out as having had a superb script for a 1950's Sci-Fi Horror flick. The story builds on itself with thrillers of various sorts each one leading to a more intense horror. It is not just the monster that kills. Forrest Tucker carries the movie with a strong supporting cast. Forrest Tucker also starred a year earlier in what I consider to be the best Horror movie made in the 1950's, The Abominable Snowman. The beautiful Janet Munro, who starred in the 1960's Swiss Family Robinson as Roberta Bertie, plays a strong supporting actress in this Crawling Eyed movie. The scenery is set in the Swiss Alps with gondolas and a genuine Swiss ambiance, but in black and white. This chiller comes highly recommended by me.

I had held high expectations from all the praise that I had heard regarding this movie. I felt the movie lacked substance , and had a terrible script. Much of the English translated dialog was weak. Much of the acting was mediocre. Yes, there were some very violently graphic death scenes, but it was not impressively scary. It reminded me of the Friday the Thirteenth series, substandard comparatively to the Hammer Production thrillers of that age. The movie had great color, and a couple of good looking, but not exceptionally great looking ladies, and not much revealing. I would rather watch Vincent Price! To my consideration, Blood and Black Lace was highly overrated.

Target Earth is the very first of Herman Cohen's exploitation cheap low budget Sci-Fi films. To put it bluntly, the movie was so lousy that I felt cheated for having bought the DVD based on other user comments here on this forum. The invasion force was only one man dressed in a Robot Suit. There were no sound effects of the robot whatsoever, except for a clink noise when it walked. Most of the movie was dialog from the supposed alcohol intoxicated characters, which was annoying. There was no charm or cult intrigue, which is characteristic in many of the adorned fifties Sci-Fi flicks. This film lacked anything that would make it a worthwhile purchase. I could not even laugh at this movie. My Target Earth DVD went into the trash, would not give it away.

Forgetting whether or not you are a movie monster buff, if you are an avid skier, then you should enjoy this film. It is so well filmed, you would think that you are right there on the mountain. Beautiful shots of the mountain, skiing, and outdoors makes it a worthwhile film. The way the monster is portrayed gives one a constant feeling of foreboding, and the monster is convincing. The acting is also convincing. As like spaghetti westerns, this is a relaxing film that I could watch over and over again. The only let down was the way the monster died, but it was thrilling right up to the end, and Bo Svenson was convincing! I fail to understand why some others gave it a less rating.