Reviews

Reviews of this episode seem to be mixed since a lot of time is spent where Steve Trevor romances the scientist's daughter while Diana Prince rebuffs the advances of a handsome latin at a dinner party in Argentina where the two are trying to get a secret formula for indestructible rubber. Diana is conflicted somehow because she cannot love a mortal man even though she came from a human island here on earth. The soap sudsy nature of a romantic subplot seems to be at odds with the weekly universal appeal of the characters with all age groups. Younger children might get bored easy, even though the end rebounds with enough excitement to finish watching it..

I wonder why people reviewing movies call them franchises. Are they selling hamburgers like McDonalds or something? So, the new ghostbusters are out to defeat an evil force from a ball left at a frozen explorers club in 1904 that plans to freeze the earth if not stopped. Dan Ankroyd encounters it at his second hand antique shop called Repossessed. There are plenty of special effects with the ghost mobile but not a very involving plot. Even the first hour is absent the familiar Ray Parker theme music that made these movies so popular. My rating might improve if I catch a rerun outside the deafening volume level at most of these mall movie theaters.

A frustrating feature of this film are the comic one liners, like the politician who worries the nude body might have his necktie on. The dialogue is too drawn out and stagy at times. The female victims of the murderer that he frames his friend up for aren't sympathetic enough to for us to hope the bad guy is caught and the good guy isn't nice enough for us to hope he is found innocent of the crimes. Overused is the long exterior shot of the room, especially during the second murder where we're supposed to guess what's happening inside. Michael Caine refused the villain role because it was too different from his screen image as a charming lady killer. He didn't want to become known as one in the literal sense. Absent the comic under plotting, the movie would be much better.

Edward Nassour was well known for producing family oriented jungle shows like Bamba, The Jungle Boy or Sheena, Queen of the Jungle. He didn't venture into sci fi very much, and the awkwardness of his efforts show up here. The dinosaur here is very slow and clumsy one minute, and running around the next, giving his victims easy chances to escape. In one scene it is supposed to be running after the cowboys, but seems to be on a foot race opposite them instead. Guy Madison and Patricia Medina do pretty well but aren't given much character to develop The dinosaur has to catch the bad guy after he's been rescued several times, an obviously contrived plot point planned without too much logic involved. Madison does a pretty good rope stunt, looping a tree limb 30 feet up without missing. Pretty hard to believe indeed. Or was it?

At the troubled recording company, a face painted group. (some mimics of KISS) is tossing smoke bombs and playing bad jokes, but no clue suggest they are a band, just a traveling mime or clown troupe, I guess, kidnap the top singer hiding out for an increase in the value of his records, even though he's bankrupting the company while absent and giving blackmailers a good target there. In this mix, Judge Reinhold and Sarah Purcell are a pair of twin dressed singers helping the blackmailers carry out their scheme. Sarah Purcell of Real People, really playing an evil character, right? They dress like Aldrich brothers and the Oswell Twins on Lawrence Welk show. I think the plot was cooked up quick just to showcase Linda Carter's singing talents. It's fun, but to see Sarah Purcell grin while she belches out some really ugly, nasty lines was an ordeal to endure. It was co-written by a writer from Batman and the cartoonish bent seems to be from that show, too.

Mike Horner is a down and outer who sells his soul to the devil (Hershel Savage) for a chance to get rich in the stock market. When the devil collects, his entrapments are very scary indeed. Savage's voice is heavily disguised for the part. Paul Thomas plays a future Adam attempting to restart the human race after atomic Armageddon has ended the world. His Eve apparently was created by his own imagination. John Leslie is a freewheeling playboy cheating on his wife while a blackmailer keeps threatening him on the phone, soon his next girlfriend (Traci Lords) becomes wise to the secret and has carried out similar plans. Overall, a bit too plot driven to be erotic often enough.

It's sort of a surprise this film flopped when it was new, but it might have been because Robert Taylor and Barbara Stanwyck weren't familiar or as interesting to film goers as the more youthful Janet Leigh and Anthony Perkins in Universal's hit film, Psycho. Producer Castle hired Robert Bloch from that film to write this one, but the disguise failed to frighten as much toward the end, where the tone changes to more of a TV murder mystery. It's still not very convincing to believe Irene (Babara Stanwyck) simply thought she was dreaming when she was taken different places where real events were being staged for her. Why would she fall asleep again? Why would she not know someone woke her up? Why wouldn't other people see what happened besides the lawyer and the detective? Vic Mizzy's music was good enough for an Oscar, and no, not the same as Food, Glorious Food in Oliver, made four years later. Mizzy's music was in minor key.

Wonder Woman is one of the best live action comic book series ever made for TV. The special effects are impressive and Linda Carter was perfect for her part. It's such a disappointment Metv cancelled showing the series. The last episode had Leif Garret play a pop star and his twin brother seamlessly. Everyone who likes the show should let Metv know you don't want it cancelled. I think my favorite episodes were the ones that take place after World War 2 in a modern setting. The guest stars are often unusual people, like sportscaster-model Jayne Kennedy, that aren't seem very much in parts on movies and TV shows.

Keep seeing incarnations of Roger Corman witchcraft movies throughout here. A villain beheaded by Francis Drake returns to hunt for his body and possess two ladies with evil spirits. Filmed on an empty western back lot, it has much to supply in unintentional laughs. I can really agree with what Steven Schuer wrote about it: an improvement would be if The Thing That Couldn't Die would mate with the headless female from The Brain That Wouldn't Die! Wooden is the keyword throughout. Very wooden characters difficult to relate to. A turkey close to the top of any worst film of the fifties list, for sure.

I had trouble sitting through the long stretches of dialogue that fill the first hour almost completely. It's very hard to believe reviewers who said "It's rumored" to be directed by Howard Hawks. His trademark of corny overlapping dialogue is in every minute. Many an advanced level film class was spent dozing off or just wishing to leave my seat during his famous black comedy, His Gal Friday. The romantic subplot almost feels like Cary Grant and Roz Russell over again. Oh, this is a sci-fi movie? Wish some suspense could be built around a reporter who's always giving away his plans, a space ship that just burns up and vanishes, and a frozen corpse that comes alive. Good ingredients for the remake of which I saw once and don't remember. This boring gabfest is what I wish I could forget.

Joyce Jillson seemed to be a shaggy dog type waiting for the studio bosses and celebrities to adopt. She did well on stage, but on screen a peculiar deadpan voice seemed to emerge not very appealing in this film. Since she wasn't given many chances to improve, she found a niche for herself as an astrologer. Her suggestions for new projects weren't that bad, after all, The Love Boat became a long running hit TV show. Superchick is of course a low budget spoof of Superman and Supergirl. Meanwhile disguised as homely airline stewardess Tara B True, Superchick fought for truth, justice and the American way! Not a bad idea for a TV series, either. But you know nobody ever wants to put a good show on TV, so we're stuck with this turkey. Tara has 3 men she's in love with in different cities, and can't decide which one she wants to marry. Nice karate work, though. Somebody younger might have given the part a little more enthusiasm.

A lot of reviewers think this film is like the Universal horror pictures using many of the same actors. Universal had films with a frightening plot, acting and direction. They didn't need some of the low budget shock gimmicks here where Dracula's victim screams before the opening credits roll or he attacks a little girl in bed before fog covers the room. It still returns to some classic value when Dracula tries to lure his victim (Nina Foch) to the graveyard with his spell so he can finally possess her. Sad that Amand Tesla couldn't invent a self filming sequel without some distracting gimmicks added. (Aside to the audience)

The noir love triangle is similar in someways to James Cain's "The Postman Rings Twice" in this well produced and directed movie. Belita's skating numbers are choreographed by Nick Castle who worked on many a spectacular MGM musical. Barry Sullivan plays a heel down on his luck who gets promoted from peanut sales at Belita's ice skating show to Vice President of the whole production when he invents her daring stunt of leaping through a ring of knives. The only obstacle is his boss who is Belita's husband. A girlfriend from his past ( Bonita Granville from Nancy Drew series) also doesn't like his romantic involvement with the star skater and might be the key to his undoing when the skater's husband, thought to be dead in an avalanche, comes back to be the victim of a perfect murder. The ending was a real surprise I couldn't have guessed. It seems too many clues are given at the start, but no one could have guessed the end before seeing it.

This was one of Traci Lords' first adult films..she has a trim figure without the puffy face and shadowy eyes often seen in her later films. She has a couple of scenes with one of two guys disguised like girls to get into a summer camp full of gorgeous ones. Some Like it Hot is even mentioned but we have Josh Brolin and Robert Downey-types (really Jerry Butler and Jay Sterling) replacing Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis. Kristara Barrington has a great scene..they're all exciting scenes not too short or too long that would've stifled the mood of it. The film also has plenty of good jokes but the seduction ploy gets repeated too often..see..the ugly girl wants to talk to her alone just to tell her he's really a guy..but is she scared or surprised much? No. But the sex scenes are so good, who cares about the plot, anyway?

Before he became popular directing Charles Bronson films, J. Lee Thompson directed two prison movies based on books written by his future wife, Joan Henry. Glynis Johns does very well as the gambler who is framed for insurance fraud and sent to prison for one year. Here she meets the inmates who relate their stories of crimes that sent them up for time: a shoplifter, a blackmailer, and a neglectful mother. She stops one from stabbing a cruel guard and is rewarded with a transfer to a prison without walls. It's also very touching in the visitation scenes with her fiancé and doctor (John Gregson) how she feels the stigma of her sentence from the outside world. Only beef with the film I have is that there is no flashback to explain what crime her best friend, Betty (Diana Dors) did to serve two years. Her chum is desperate to find a boyfriend, Norman, that never writes or visits.

Saw this on TV a long time ago, In English. Sophia plays three parts in some hilarious, sometimes absurd vignettes. First, she's a cigarette girl trying to evade authorities about smuggled smokes by having an impossible number of children in a short period of time. Next, she's a wealthy wife who can drive an expensive car and bump into somebody on every corner, but no one even gets mad or yells at her. Then, she's a nail trimmer of loose virtue secretly in love with the priest next door. Don't know why there are no English versions of these movies. Sophia was in Houseboat back in 1958, a completely English language film. But this is only available in Italian.

I agree with the viewers who like to watch this movie over again. The music is just so good and the rebellious delinquent types that join the bad where they sort of play different roles in an extended family are really talented performers. I thought the best were Justine Bateman, Brita Phillips, and Julia Roberts while they travelled the road in a van searching for that big break they find when they meet up with the older song writer played by Liam Neeson. Plenty of laughs and poignant moments really make this show worth seeing several times over again. Also interesting to see Julia Roberts in one of her more youthful parts.

So, in the spirit of Airplane! And Scary Movie, a cast of amateurs are assembled to spoof all of the overdone clichés in your average Friday the 13th Part 5 horror movie. It's a nice effort, tries to hard to be gross and tasteless, but most of the time, it's everything except funny. The nicest looking guy really did it! A naked guy helped give the show an R rating! Paramount hired these wannabes to fill time during an actors strike in 1981. You might notice their careers didn't continue beyond this, probably because union members can't work during a strike and the movie wasn't a very impressive reference, anyway. A reprint of a MAD magazine movie satire would probably be funnier to read than watching this show.

There are just too many grotesque, violent and sadistic scenes added to this movie that just don't fit into the plot. The writer visits a prison to inquire about the accused prisoner that was executed there. A prisoner is savagely whipped right in front of him while he is asking questions of the warden. Why would the warden want an outsider to be seeing this who could have him and guards reprimanded if the info is released? Mice and rats pop in at the strangest places, and the graveyard has an unburied skeleton on the ground. Why would anyone in a graveyard want to do that? Just by touching the knife, his face changes into the real haunted strangler. A change that isn't physical might prove more surprising. The story is just some kind of loose frame to hang all sorts of scary stuff on whether it fits or not.

Every popular TV show and movie is built around a consistent character and premise that stays the same every episode. Radar doesn't imitate Groucho Marx or brew his own gin on MASH, that's Hawkeye's part. Superman and Wonder Woman never reveal their disguised character. But the last season comes, no one worries about the ratings, and it's always time to try something different. In the "different" episodes, it's sort of depressing to see Wonder Woman show up and look helpless while the bad guy gets away. So, I rated this show lower because it happened over so often. It's a nice parody of Invasion of Body Snatchers, but a bad misfit for the characters and it was too gruesome and violent for younger age groups, I thought. Plus, they could have avoided letting the guy think he knew Wonder Woman's secret from the way it ended.

I've been wanting to see this for 40 years now since the time it was on the CBS late movie, never to return to any home media. Even now, I haven't seen it all because of problems with my video stream. That makes my view a little more critical. Ralph is a black coal miner who discovers after being stuck a few days in a cave in that a nuclear catastrophe wiped all the life off of earth except plants and no bodies are even left behind. He meets Sarah, the last woman alive, "the flesh." Both cling to some very puritanical moral standards, even for the 50's, where he can't even sit at the same table because "people might talk." Ralph begins to like this forced romance until meeting an even stranger survivor. Benson, a boat captain, sick, but still alive for no explainable reason. Benson wants Ralph eliminated so he and Sarah can have the planet to themselves. The messages about racism and the consequences of war couldn't be any stronger than writing it on the characters backs. I grew up watching a lot of these slick MGM movies but found unpolished low budget features like Panic in the Year Zero to be more in my taste. Fine musical score by Miklos Roza who never disappoints me in any film.

Have you ever seen an episode of Wheel of Fortune where the player turns over nearly all the letters on the wheel before he solves the puzzle? The ending of this movie begins to feel like that. About four murders happen in 15 minutes and the same clues are left behind. The movie does start out in a much more interesting way, though. Mind over Matter is applied in a way too strange to believe. We know Kurt Ingston's sister has seen the swamp creature in the fog, she knows who he looks like, but she is afraid no one would believe her if she told the detectives about it. Good atmosphere is applied throughout.