Frankenstein's Bloody Terror (1968)

I'm a softie. I feel, when watching any random movie with Paul Naschy, that he was something special. One of the few really passionate geeks out there, on the same level of geekiness as Luigi Cozzi and Mario Bava. Fans of all thing genre, especially the non-realistic, fantasy-injected genre cinema with more heart than money. Frankenstein's Bloody Terror isn't a Frankenstein-movie. The American distributors added a very, very, very silly pre-credit which explains that the Frankenstein family evolved into the Wolfstein family and that's it - the monster of a mad scientist suddenly becomes a supernatural wolfman.

The story is simple. Two gypsies accidentally awakens a werewolf, who - after killing them - goes after the villagers and infects Naschy, doing his old Waldemar Daninsky part, and makes him the new wolf in town. He seeks help from a famous doctor, who turns out to be a vampire and the battle beings. There's also something with a young loving couple and some old farts (their fathers) rambling stiff lines to each other.

Yeah, it's a bit of a mess - but it's also Naschy's first foray into werewolf-cinema (I just don't count that other "lost" movie, I seriously doubt it got made) and he sprinkles the story with the soul of American horror comic books rather than the old Universal monsters. It's basically lit like a story right out from EC Comics and with a story so wild it could be one of those poverty row monster flicks, but with more colour and very fake RED blood. I love it. It's god damn hard to NOT love, because there's so much fun stuff going on.

Naschy himself is big and bold and takes a big bite from every scene he's in. When he's a werewolf he's just furious and aggressive and just a marvellous fucking monster. One of the best. Maybe THE best werewolf ever existed (yeah, even better than Lon Chaney Jr). I think it's because Naschy goes so far down in the animalistic rage, the sexual tension between him and all the victims. Naschy just doesn't bit people, he almost rapes them - men and women - with his whole body and bodily fluids spurting in every direction. Naschy IS Waldermar Daninsky, he owned that part.

What I miss with this crazy production is - actually - the more straight forward storylines that he used in later movies. Daninsky is such a good and interesting character that he deserves something more than just chaos. Frankenstein's Bloody Terror is a fine movie, fun and silly and filled with love and coolness, but it's still the first trembling step of a master.

Give it a go. But remember that there's a lot of other adventures with Daninsky that's better and bloodier. 

Mark of the Devil (1970)

I can't say I've seen a lot of movies about the witch-hunts and the general stupidity of the medieval ages. Witchfinder General, Cry of the Banshee and of course, Jess Franco's underrated drama The Bloody Judge. So it wasn't until today I first saw Michael Armstrong's Mark of the Devil, a German production shot in Austria with a nice international cast of talents like Udo Kier, Herbert Lom and Reggie Nalder. Michael Reeves signed up to direct it, which it's easy to imagine after the success of Witchfinder General, but died before filming could start. His assistant Armstrong took over and shot most of the stuff, with some additional  material directed by Adrian Hoven. This could have resulted in a highly uneven film, but a good script and excellent actors makes this one of the best witch-movies made! I'll go so far I think it's on the same level of quality as Witchfinder General!

The story is a bit complex to write down, but Reggie Nalder is Albino, the local witch-hunter and everything is great and awesome and he's very aware of what he's doing...until Lord Cumberland (Herbert Lom) enters the town and takes over as the new judge and he's saying he's on a mission from god himself! His biggest fan is Count Christian (Udo Kier), who's his apprentice and student in the holy mission of finding disciples of Satan! All is well until the day Christian starts to suspect that Cumberland is doing this to just earn some extra money, rape women and use his power to get rid of enemies and when he witnesses how even the nasty Albino confronts Cumberland on this, the shit hits the fan!

Oh, it's a lot better story than what I've tried to explain to you. What I find most interesting is the complex characters. No one is really evil or really good, and even the baddies can change, or at least act human when facing danger. The danger is very realistic, so realistic I guess some people might think it's disappointing - but hey, I find it even better that way. More cynical. More real. This happens today to. The alternate ending, lost forever, had a supernatural twist to the story, which have destroyed the almost atheistic message the movie has. So I'm happy it wasn't used (and the director hated it), but it's a pity it's lost and destroyed.

In an exploitation movie like this some might think that the acting doesn't matter, but of course it does. Herbert Lom, who recently left us, delivers cold, dark performance. The work of a master. Udo Kier both looks good and acts well, but is a bit underwritten. He have some challenges as a character and struggles with giving him some more depth. Reggie Nalder is fantastic as always. This combined with amazing locations - and stunning cinematography - makes the movie a visual treat. It's both gritty and echoes of some Bavarian romance movie, and the dark nasty story makes this even more powerful: that such beauty can hold such terror.

Like all of these witch-movies the violence and gore has been widely exaggerated over the years, but it delivers some blood and minor gore - plus the required nudity of course. The effects is cheap and primitive but fits the style. The new German blu-ray includes six minutes of deleted and alternate scenes which is a joy to behold. Before the film was released it was slightly trimmed and here we get a change to see some gore and blood and glimpses of the shooting (some magnificent sideburns on the crew!), all to Michael Holm's beautiful score! Yeah, the score. The main theme is a bit similar to Riz Ortolani's theme to Cannibal Holocaust. Not that much, but I can hear something very familiar in the melody. I think it's just a coincidence and the score is brilliant to both movies.

The new German blu-ray looks stunning. It's a must have for collectors. It's a limited edition of 5000 copies, 3 disc release - one blu-ray (with some extras on it, including the extra footage), a DVD (also with the movie) and a bonus disc with interviews - sadly no subtitles. The video commentary track with Udo Kier and the gang looks fab, but still... no subs! There's also a commentary with director Michael Armstrong, I guess its lifted from an older releases and I will give it a listen some day.

So, what are you waiting for? Buy it!

Masks (2011)

Is the giallo on it's way back to the limelight again? No, I don't think so, at least not as a mainstream-genre. But behind the blockbusters lurks a new generation of filmmakers who loves the combination of mystery and splattery, spectacular murders. Just like me, that's the best combination. A gory Agatha Christie-style thriller is exactly what I want, that's one reason why I'm watching all the old Italian thillers - and of course every international wannabe there is. Masks is a very interesting thriller, a movie I think will be quite big and well-distributed now when it's finally - just a week or so ago - was released on BD and DVD in Germany. It's not English-friendly in anyway, so I had to rely on my very primitive school-German while watching this.

Stella wants to be an actress, but her latest audition doesn't turn out well. Before she leaves the theatre an elderly judge recommends her to take contact with the Matteusz Gdula school of acting. Gdula was a controversial teacher who had is own style of teaching acting, so controversial that he committed suicide and several of his students died because of the soul-breaking way they worked with acting. Nowadays the school just uses some of his ideas - at least that what they says... because something is wrong and more and more students is getting killed, disappears... and soon the killer wants Stella, more than anyone else!

Sounds good yeah? And it is! Director Andreas Marschall has managed to create a very convincing retro-feeling without going neither pastiche or parody. First I was afraid that it would be one of those grindhouse-style genre-tributes because the film was worn and dirty - but it was only an old movie clip, a faked news report, telling us about this very special method of acting. The story is a very fine mix between Suspiria, without trying to hide it, and gialli from the late seventies, when the stories became a bit more edgier, slightly more experimental and less detective-mysteries.

Andreas Marschall also gives us a giallo that works as it's own movie and not just as production referencing other, older, movies. He's a true master when it comes to visual, non-dialogue scenes. An eye for details and beautiful set-ups. Just like François Gaillard's masterful Blackaria, another - French - giallo-style thriller with an excellent story and an overload of imaginative visual, almost orgasmic, treats. Masks has a more money behind and in front of the camera than Blackaria, but they are both in their own splendid leagues.

Like with Suspiria - and even Black Swan - a physical artform is the McGuffin here, an art where you use your body and mind to tell something. I'm not a dance, but I've done my fair share of acting and maybe that's why I feel extra connected to the madness told in Masks? The idea of an acting-style that wears you down so much, makes you give everything you have - maybe even your life - attracts me, and it makes a fine story to. Now, some of the supporting younger actors are a bit uneven, but they're not in the movie enough to bring it down. Instead Susen Ermich, who plays Stella, carries a lot of the story on her (sometimes naked) shoulders with a few good German veteran actors around her (for example Norbert Losch and Maximilian Rüthlein for example).

Masks is a bit slow, it's moody and atmospheric, it takes its time to tell the story, but I would say Andreas Marschall really hits the mark here. It's an amazing tribute to the golden age of thrillers, but with slices of sadistic and graphic violence that's up to date without being too much. Highly recommended!

Necronos (2010)

First of all, I have to admit I never been interested in German gore movies. Never. I never felt interested in any of these hard-working gorehounds. Personally I've always wanted a good story first of all and if it's filled with massive amounts of gore, that's just fantastic. But I rarely find such a movie and to be even more honest, Necronos isn't one of those movies either. Anyway, I first heard of it in 2011 when my fellow buddies Jocke and Jason hanged around the Necronos-table at Weekend of Horrors way too much and later on Dark Entertainment in Sweden released it on DVD... and now, ages later I've seen it and to my surprised was entertained by it! What's wrong with me? Have I finally passed over to the dark, German side of cinema entertainment?

During ancient times an evil warlock (or something), Necronos, who's having a deal with Satan, fucks up everything around him and is killed. Many years later, "now", he wants revenge and sends out his henchman, a zombie named Goran, to fetch humans for the resurrection of Necronos. And that he does. Over and over again until they find the perfect human to use in the ritual to bring the warlock to life again! Yeah. I think that's it.

Director Marc Rohnstock have created a trashy and fast-moving splatter flick, and my fears that the 127 minute runtime would bore me to death didn't become reality. Which by itself is a very impressive thing. A movie of this kind shouldn't be longer than eighty minutes, well until now. So what's so good with it? First of all: it's consistent. It's 127 minutes of cheap, trashy gore and nothing else. Well, a lot of nudity also. But it's not quality rollercoaster, it's a film that stands proud on its two sleazy, naked feet and never tries to look polished one second - just to bring up the production values. It stays true to the consumer camera gore-splatter-nudity-o-rama it set out to make. That is something I respect a lot.

The second thing is that the gore is consistent. There's not just a teaser splatter-effect in the beginning and a lot of off-screen shenanigans, everything you see here is on-screen and very very very gory, graphic and nasty. It's not a movie I would show anyone outside our little awesome sphere of genre fanatics. Never. It's a movie for us and no one else. The gore is mostly quite good to. It's simple effects like chopping of heads and stabbings and ripping of body parts, but they work fine and is quite nicely edited.

The actors...well, it IS a German super-cheap splatter movie and therefore the acting is what it is. But that's also something that belongs in this genre, it's needed and who the fuck cares if someone who's in the movie for thirty seconds just to get his head ripped off actually can act? Not me, that's not the reason why I'm watching it. A third thing that makes Necronos work is the directing. Yeah, it's not advanced, but it effectively tells a long story with very small means. The editing heightens this also of course. I'm impressed.

Necronos, this dirty, sick, twisted little motherf**ker of a movie is not for everyone. But if you're into this kind of indie-film I recommend you to go out and buy it on the double!

Assignment Terror (1970)

I've read a lot of bad reviews about Assignment Terror, and more than a few of them has compared it to Ed Wood's Plan 9 From Outer Space, in that meaning that it's on the same level of crappiness. The thing is that Ed Wood's classics is not that bad, it's just very cheap and very rushed - its made with love and talent, but overshadowed by it's Wood's enthusiasm for filmmaking than his talent. Assignment Terror has a similar storyline, which is hard to deny - but with that nice, sexy eurocult flair that we love so much.

An alien species, lead by Dr. Odo Warnoff (Michael Rennie, without silver underwear), arrives to earth because their own planet is dying. They need a new place to live. The problem is how they're gonna take over earth without destroying it! Warnoff has a brilliant idea: use the superstitions of mankind! So he and his team searches for famous monsters: the werewolf Daninsky, the Mummy, Frankenstein's Monster (which more correctly is doctor Farangslang or something similar...) and of course Dracula! They take control over them and plans to - somehow - multiply their powers with injecting humans with their blood or something and create a monster army to take over the world!

Assignment Terror is as silly as it sounds, but far from bad. It's just another cheesy spin on the old Universal monsters (much like Jess Franco did with The Erotic Adventures of Frankenstein and Dracula: Prisoner of Frankenstein), but with a little bit more blood and stupid dialogue. The most interesting thing is of course Paul Naschy's character of Daninsky, who once again is raised from the dead to suffer under his werewolf-curse. Also written by Naschy, Daninsky is also the only character that gets some depth and also gets a change so fight all the other monsters. Good old Naschy, he knows how to steal a movie!

And do I even need to say that Naschy is the highlight here? When many of the other actors just is doing their jobs and cashing in their paycheck, Naschy is ready for action and dominates the scenes he's in. What a guy! He left this rotten world way too early...

It's impossible to take this film seriously, but why should we? It's a matinee, and a very good-looking matinee with gorgeous locations and splendid, but a bit gritty, cinematography. The comedy is more or less unintentional, but never disturbing - it's just a movie made of cheese, accept it or watch Transformers 3 instead.

What more to say about this film, not much really. Just don't take it serious and get the beautiful DVD from Germany company ArtFilm, who together with magazine Creepy Images put together a nice package including a cool 3D card and a special issue of Creepy Images, only with posters and other promotion materials from the movie. 

Marquis de Sade's Justine (1969)

Someone didn't want me to do a week of Jess Franco, but I told him/her to read another blog instead of Ninja Dixon - I'm sure they have yet another review of Evil Dead or Halloween there so he'll be happy. He claimed Jess Franco is oversaturated on the net, but hey... that's just not true. Not reviews that take Uncle Jess seriously and just doesn't mentions all the "funny bad details" they find in Franco's less-budgeted epics. Justine is Franco's most expensive movie, shot over seven weeks and with an all star cast. Produced by Harry Alan Towers of course and shot in beautiful Spain.

We follow Justine (Romina Power) and her journey into adulthood. From being a maid at a perverted old dirty man, being accused of theft and thrown in prison - where she escapes with the help of crime queen Madame Dusbois (Mercedes McCambridge), almost raped but ends a while later at a rich couple where the man, Marquis de Bressac (Horst Frank), who's gay and having an affair with one of the servants, wants to kill his rich wife (Sylva Koscina) and uses Justine to do this, she escapes from there and finds a monastery lead by the crooked Antonin (Jack Palance) where she's tortured and... well, she's not a happy lady - that's for sure!

Justine is a series of small adventures, some more fun than twisted - and some more twisted than fun, based on the works of de Sade. Franco loved the script written by Towers, but the American financiers wanted a bigger name as Justine and cast 18 year old Romina Power, and suddenly Franco couldn't do the adult, dark, movie he wanted it to be. He describes her as furniture, furniture guarded by her mother and her Italian prick of a boyfriend. This was of course a letdown for Franco, but the movie turned out really good in the end anyway - even of it's a lot tamer than it was planned to be.

It's a big movie, or a "big fake movie" as Franco describes it. Lots of spectacular locations, hundreds of costumes and overall a very glossy look and one f**king amazing score by Bruno Nicolai. This is a classy production in every sense and Franco tells it like a master. The cast, especially, is great. My favourite Horst Frank is so cool as the greedy gay Marquise and Jack Palance - drunker then ever, something that's very visible, is over-the-top as the crazy monk. Franco stalwart Howard Vernon is brilliant has Palace's colleague and Maria Rohm is wonderful. Ah, Klaus Kinski is in it to of course, without any dialogue, as Marquise de Sade. He's great and it's the second Franco-movie I've seen him in where he only sits in a room saying nothing (the other being Count Dracula). Franco himself has one of his funniest roles, as a burlesque turban-wearing ringmaster!

Mercedes McCambridge is just hypnotic as the angry, tough, queen of crime. Imagine she did the voice for the demon in The Exorcist a few years later!

I also love how Franco's love for architecture shows, including two locations designed by Antoni Gaudí. The inclusion of his work gives the film another otherworldly dimension, a sense of a fairy tale, but still stuck in the brutal reality.

Justine isn't THAT tame by the way. It has some blood and a good amount of nudity, mostly boobs and an ass here and there, but imagine if Power didn't get the part and the cool Rosemary Dexter (who plays a smaller part, but first got cast as Justine) did it instead? I think we would have seen a very different movie, an even better and more brilliant production.

Now it's "just" great. 

Love Letters of a Portuguese Nun (1977)

I once read that according to the Catholic church the two most dangerous filmmakers during the seventies was Pier Paolo Pasolini and Jesus Franco. While I personally think Pasolini had a lot of Catholic guilt to deal with, Franco on the other hand never had any problem with bashing religion and hypocrisy of all kinds. This is very visible in Love Letters of a Portuguese Nun, another movie produced by the notorious Erwin C. Dietrich. Movie geeks who claims Franco is ha hack and never made a good movie has obviously not seen so many of his movies, and if they have it's Oasis of the Zombies, Devil Hunter, Mansion of the Living Dead or something even more trashy and easy-to-find. They're too lazy to go any further into his huge body of work. That's a pity, because here we have another excellent and edgy production!

14 years old Maria (played by 17 years old Susan Hemingway) gets caught fooling around (very innocently) with a boy by Father Vicente (William Berger). He brings her home to her mother and uses his best Christian manipulation to send Maria to a convent, lead by the sinister Mother Alma (Ana Zanatti). Maria is soon punished for being completely human and natural and Father Vicente starts to abuse her sexually while Mother Alma uses her in satanic rites! Maria just wants to get away from there, but her newfound love for god makes it even harder to leave the, by god blessed, sadism and torture!

Love Letters of a Portuguese Nun is a point blank fuck you to organized religion and abuse of power. It feels even more fresh today with the tons and tons of sexual abuse being uncovered inside the Catholic church, and while this one deals with satanic rites and more visual terror a lot of what's said from the religious representatives in this movie is eerily similar to what we've heard during recent year from PR-people at the Vatican.

This is also a gorgeous movie. Franco had a lot of fantastic exteriors and interiors to use and he uses them well. I've seen more expensive productions look less interesting and more flat than this one. For those who don't like Franco's trademark (and I would say very important trademark) use of zoom will be happy here, because it's shot in very conventional way, still beautiful, but also very calm and without apparent stress. Like many of Franco's films the cast is the most important thing and I think he has one of his strongest casts ever in this film.

First of all, William Berger is brilliant. He plays probably the most disgusting priest I've ever seen in a movie, mostly because he's a hypocrite and uses his power to get money and other things from poor citizens (just like the church to do today, to support their fancy buildings and huge paychecks) but also his sexual appetite for young girls. The scene where he cums in the confession booth while hearing Maria talk about her wet dreams is both extremely funny in a very dark way, but also sick and disturbed. Susan Hemingway, who looks way younger than she was, makes a fine performance as the frail and innocent Maria - who ironically gets corrupted by the church and not the boy she's in love with. Ana Zanatti balances the religious angest with pure sadism and coldness like no one else.

This is yet another fine production from Jess Franco and I urge you all to give it a try! 

Eugenie... the Story of Her Journey Into Perversion (1970)

This will be the last film of Jess Franco I will review for a while, mostly because it's hard to find new superlatives for each new text. Franco often revisits same themes and ideas and that makes many of these movies seem a bit similar after a while, so I will end it for this time with another fantastic movie, Eugenie...the Story of Her Journey Into Perversion, as the DVD title says. The original title is Marquis de Sade's 'Philosophy in the Boudoir', based on de Sade's text by the same name, but honestly, both titles works very fine in the end. I have a tendency to prefer Franco's dark sexual dramas before his lighter movies and this is no different. Eugenie is a mature, intelligent drama with lots of nudity and a wonderful cast. The story is as simple as genial...

Marie Liljedahl plays plays Eugenie, the daughter of the rich businessman Mistival (Paul Muller). Mistival's mistress is Madame Saint Ange (Maria Rohm) and she makes him allow her to bring Eugenie to her private island for a weekend. There her perverted stepbrother Mirvel (Jack Taylor) awaits them, and what begins as a childish, drunken and weed-smoking day soon becomes more sinister when a cult worshipping de Sade arrives and watches the Madame and Mirvel sexually use and abuse the young Eugenie...

Being a story based or inspired by de Sade (I never read any of his works) Eugenie is a tasteful trip down sexually lane with some light spanking and whipping, tits and asses, drug use and an intercourse or two. Quite far from the excessive sleaziness Franco shot during the later seventies. This is both good and bad. Good because it gives Franco more time to shoot a stunningly beautiful drama and bad because maybe someone wants more sex when it comes to a movie like this. For me, it doesn't matter. This is high-quality sleaze with some kind of ambition to do more than just give the audience a hard-on.

Eugenie is a trip to one of the circles of hell, an almost supernatural story about living in a world about sex. Franco never says if this is a good or a bad thing, there's not judging at all and the open, almost surreal, ending both reminded me of The Beyond and Nightmare City, if you get my point. It also echoes the later Countess Perverse in style and concept. I would love to have been a fly on the wall on this shoot. First of all we have the cast, the very talented Liljedahl, a Christopher Lee that had no idea (yeah sure!) of what was going on, the producers wife, the wonderful Maria Rohm, making it out with Jack Taylor, a gay man that probably have seen more pussy than few other gay men!

Even today, in 2012, Eugenie, feels very fresh and modern. If it had more gratuitous sex maybe, but still. This is a movie that survived the years and still makes an impact that fits both the cult squad and the arthouse-aficionados. It's interesting how Franco had such a bad reputation from the beginning, because most of his works I've seen is actually quite classy - and they easily would gain more attention than his trashier production if we, the cult movie fans, would demand more of our movies than just boobs, gore and goofy action scenes.

Eugenie... the Story of Her Journey Into Perversion is another masterpiece, yeah, a perfect piece of arthouse-sleaze. 

The Devil Came from Akasava (1971)

First of all, I would lie if I said I actually understood the story of The Devil Came from Akasava, but in some weird way I think that's the point with it all. It's a spoof, a send-up, a caper with a lot of humour and of course made by Jess Franco. Officially another Edgar Wallace story, but I'm not so sure it's really one from the beginning. Maybe something Wallace's son wrote down on a napkin once, just an idea,  a few words and somehow the German producers of got their hands on it. So what's it about? I'll give you the basic structure, but that's all.

Somewhere on a tropical location (really Alicante, Spain and the garden of an hotel) a couple of scientists - Horst Tappert for example - find an amazing stone, or metal, that both create huge damage to the people handling it, but also can transform normal metals into gold - or something like that. Suddenly everyone wants this stone, and one of the scientists goes missing and so is the stone. A relative to the scientist, Rex (Fred Williams), starts to investigate but soon finds out that everyone wants to kill everyone in this confusing mess of a story!

I can't say that The Devil Came from Akasava is Franco's best movie, not by a long-shot, but it still holds a certain charm to entertain me. The best thing with it is the cast, from Horst Tappert doing is normal robotic routine as Horst Tappert to Soledad Miranda, in a quite small part, as a thief and maybe even a secret agent. She's cool and beautiful, as usual! Paul Müller and Howard Vernon shows up later in the story and both is perfect in their small parts. Fred Williams, who was that guy? Anyone who knows? He looks good and had some talent, but he's lost as an interview object. I want to hear his story! Someone, please?

The problem - or maybe the point - is that the script is so damn convoluted. Everyone is fucking up things for everyone else, friends becomes foes and foes becomes friends and in the end... I'm not sure how it ends. This could be a part of the concept of course, the movie has humour and a generous twinkle in the eye. One part I really love is the Kiss Me Deadly-reference, the bag with the mysterious stone that kills people with a strong light. The film could be a unofficial goofy sequel to Robert Aldrich's classic noir-masterpiece...

Franco made this at the same time as Vampyros Lesbos and She Killed in Ecstasy and it differs a lot from the two other movies. It's also one of those Franco films that looks less thought through, cheaper and yeah, sloppier. We have the traditional hotel garden standing in for a jungle, there's editing that even I can do better - sometimes - and uglier lighting. It's easy to see that the heart of Franco wasn't involved all the time, this was a normal gun for hired-project.

Still, quite entertaining and a nice cast. A cozy feeling, a movie to look at when you're very tired and just want to see handsome and cool people walking in and out of hotel rooms doing nothing special.

Train Week: The Cassandra Crossing (1976)

One of the first DVDs I ever bought was the UK widescreen release of The Cassandra Crossing, and that might tell you something about my love for train- and disaster movies. It's also a fitting final movie in Ninja Dixon's Train Week because to me it's one of those movies I revisit from time to time and it never fails to entertain me. Maybe it's one of those movies only for us that appreciate disaster movies filled with well-paid stars, but he story itself isn't half bad and the typical criticism against government and military that was so popular in 70's cinema is very evident here. Probably a way for producer Carlo Ponti to cash in a little bit extra on the anti-establishment trend, but it still works quite good.

Three Swedish "terrorists" from the Swedish Peace Movements infiltrates the World Health Organisation building in Geneva, but everything goes wrong and they get shot - inside a secret laboratory. One of them, played by Lou Castel, escapes but is infected with a deadly disease! He manages to get aboard the train to Stockholm and soon he's spreading the illness to the other passengers. A representative from the US government, Mackenzie (a tired Burt Lancaster)  shows up and takes control over the situation and he decides that the only way to deal with the illness is to quarantine the train - and maybe, just maybe, kill everyone aboard!

The Cassandra Crossing is a very competent and maybe a bit to calculated disaster-drama with an awesome cast of both superstars and has-beens (and I love has-beens). Just casting Richard Harris and Ava Gardner as an ex-couple who really loves each other is brilliant. Or Lionel Stander as the conductor... OJ Simpson (when he still was someone people liked) as a priest, or Martin Sheen as Sophia Loren's toyboy! Lancaster is always good and his nearest man is John Philip Law. Add Lee Strassberg, Ann Turkel, Ingrid Thulin, Ray Lovelock and you have one of the best casts in a disaster movie ever. It might not be as good or awesome as Mark Robson's masterpiece Earthquake or John Guillermin's luxurious The Towering Inferno, it's has a more gritty and European feeling and the sense that the government officials doesn't care about us anyway - far from the heroic stars in the two movies mentioned aboved. Maybe The Cassandra Crossing is more connected to the conspiracy thriller in theme and style, something the final scene echoes quite much.

What I never noticed before is the strong holocaust-theme of the movie. Not only because of concentration camp survivor Kaplan (Lee Strassberg), but rebuilding of the train to an air sealed container, the oxygen pumped into the train, which looks like gas, the trip through Poland and into Germany and the sounds of the guards screaming "Achtung!" outside. The movie gets darker from this moment and and ends in disaster for many of the passengers.

As an action-adventure this is a great movie. The fantastic aerial footage on the train and locations looks just stunning and that in combination with some train-climbing stunts, a nice explosion and lots of shoot-outs and even some blood and graphic violence this is a winner. The highlight is the final, and I don't wanna ruin it for you - but it has a lot of very cool and violent scenes (that was cut from the US video version that was released in the eighties) and really good miniature effects and big scale destruction.

The Cassandra Crossing is one of those real underrated thrillers that never seem to handle the bullying from the Hollywood big shots, but if you find the widescreen version on DVD - buy it! A good, spectacular train movie  and one of my personal favourites. 

Darfur (2009)

Yesterday I watched Renny Harlin's 5 Days of War (you can read my comments at the NinjaDixon tumblr), a good b-action movie disguised as a message-movie disguised as a b-action movie. Everything at once. Today I watched a similar movie, Uwe Boll's Darfur. Now, most idiots out there have seen House of the Dead and Alone in the Dark and decided that everything after that is the same thing. Now, I like these two movies - they are simple entertainment made for a lot less money than shitstorms like the Transformers or Twilight-franchises. What's interesting with Boll as a filmmakers is for every "silly" movie, and with that I mean über-commercial popcorn-movie he makes something totally different. Movies like Tunnel Rats, Stoic, Seed, Max Schmeling etc is very different from House of the Dead. They aren't even "fun" violent movies, they are plain disturbing and says more about humanity than very few other movies. Cynical stories about how humans really are. Darfur is the latest of these dramas, a very, very disturbing account of the genocide in Darfur.

We follow a gang or journalists and photographers on a routine mission in Sudan, together with representatives from an organizations that's there to observe. Only observe. They arrives to a small village and spends some time there interviewing the villagers. When they leave they see a Janjaweed convoy getting close to the village and they decide to go back, to just be there as international journalists - hopefully to stop the warriors from attacking the village. But everything goes very wrong...

Darfur is a very realistic movie. It's improvised by the actors and Boll also takes a documentary-approach in the style. Lots of handheld camera, without getting too shaky, lingering close-ups on sweaty faces and a camera that won't stop filming even when something we don't want to see happens. Some less intelligent reviewers have stated that this is just violent porn, that it's entertainment - but believe me, there's nothing entertaining or funny with what we're seeing in this movie. It's graphic yes, but I've seen worse - its more that first half hour of meeting the villagers that makes it so hard seeing them die from the hands of their enemies.

The acting is also very impressive, and its even more fun that Boll only uses actors like Billy Zane, Matt Frewer, Edward Furlong, Kristianna Loken etc - all who do amazing jobs creating realistic characters. I'm not familiar with the South African actors, but all of them are eerily realistic (some of them are also real victims of the terror in Sudan). I'm happy to say that Darfur is very far from the typical DTV movie and I'm actually quite happy that a lot of people out there probably choked on their pizzas after work watching this drama. They probably expected something very different.

Maybe it should be mandatory for every person involved in Lundin Oil to see this movie, for example our incompetent Minister for Foreign Affairs, Carl Bildt, who was involved in the genocide in Darfur indirectly through his work with Lundin Oil and still goes free. You know, you get a lot of power with important friends and millions on the bank. Here in Sweden we call him The Genocide Millionaire, and it's a quite fitting name for him - and a big shame for Sweden.

Give this movie a chance, read up on Lundin Oil and Carl Bildt, and ignore the real war-porn being produced in Hollywood: Saving Private Ryan, Black Hawk Down and the rest of the crap!

Jack the Ripper (1976)

Last week Lina Romay passed away, the iconic actress and partner of director Jesus Franco. It became official yesterday. For me, and for many others, this came as a shock – I had no idea Lina was battling with cancer and I can’t even imagine how Uncle Jess must feel now when his soulmate has left him after so many years. One of the first movies by Franco I saw was Jack the Ripper, the Erwin C. Dietrich-produced thriller from 1976. Hardly a historical correct retelling of mystery of Jack the Ripper, Franco just takes the basic idea of a brutal murderer of whores in London and tells it from Jack’s point of view instead.

Klaus Kinski is Dr. Dennis Orloff (a relative of The Awful Dr. Orloff maybe?), a doctor popular among the poor and freaks in society. He’s very kind and wants to help those who can’t afford to take of their health, but he’s also a sadistic killer of prostitutes and showgirls. Hot on his trail is the ambitious Inspector Selby (Andreas Mannkopff) who also dates a dancer, Cynthia (Josephine Chaplin) – and believe it or not, soon our good old ripper gains interest in her…

Jack the Ripper is not the most loved of Franco’s output in the seventies, and I wonder why? Sure, it’s a bit too talky – but I think that’s only main drawback with the screenplay. I guess Dietrich wanted something serious, something with class – not just gore and nudity – maybe glancing at the more serious Edgar Wallace-thrillers out there or even Hammer. And Franco did what was expected of him. The weak spots is the police procedure, which never gets especially interesting. But every time the story jumps back to Klaus Kinski and his inner demons this becomes a super-classy and original production. Kinski, as the master-actor he was, uses his favorite form of telling his characters story – less dialogue, more acting. He never goes as far like in Count Dracula, where he has not dialogue at all – but here it’s kept to a minimum and it works out very fine.

When watching it now I realized I totally forgot how Kinski is tormented by a former victim (or is it his abusive mother?), who haunts him in his house and makes him feel guilty. His relationship with the lobotomized maid is also excellent, and gives us a great performance from a very convincing Nikola Weisse. But why I first watched this movie again was the presence of Lina Romay. Here she has a minor part – but probably the most spectacular – as a showgirl getting stalked and killed by Kinski. And boy, she’s probably most unlucky victim I ever seen in a Jack the Ripper-movie: she first gets repeatedly stabbed in the guts, then brutally raped and finally carried home to the good doctor and getting chopped up in pieces while still alive! Romay has not much to do except looking sexy, getting scared and then die – but she’s also shows a lot of comedic talent when she performs her dance number, strutting around pouting her lips and having a ball with the scene.

It’s a violent movie, but much is off-screen – but when it’s onscreen it’s bloody as hell and graphic in the cheap way only Franco could do it.

Jack the Ripper is an underrated movie with gorgeous cinematography by Peter Baumgartner and excellent directing from Jess Franco. And if you don’t like those things, watch it for Lina Romay.

Rest in peace, Lina. You will be missed.

Succubus (1968)

I won't even begin trying to tell you about the storyline of Succubus, because it's virtually impossible. There is an outline for something - a nightclub, a producer (Jack Taylor) of nightclub acts, a beautiful woman (Janine Reynaud) who can't see the difference between reality and fantasy, and that's about it. Succubus is so far the most surreal and abstract Jess Franco movie I have seen, somewhere between Bunuel and Jodorowsky and his own work. The story goes from scene to scene, with odd dialogue taking us further and further into a very hallucinogen saga.

But Franco stands with his two feet very steady in the pop culture he always embraced and there's constant talk about authors, filmmakers and musicians. The idea of movies being outmoded even before they are released is interesting, but on the other side - like one character talks about - when we experience the movie it feels modern again, up-to-date if we want it so. In a dream-sequence (or is the whole movie a dream?) several horror characters is referenced, including Godzilla, which is a fun detail for a Kaiju-fan like me.

This is a chance for Franco to discuss in the form of a movie everything he likes. From movies to music (Succubus is of course filled with jazz) and not being forced to into telling an ordinary story. I would call Succubus experimental pop-art with a high dose of improvisation. According to Uncle Jess there was never a proper script and he wrote the scenes the night before every shoot to make it feel fresh and original. Some stuff is genius and some stuff - like the stereotypical symbolic (for what? I have no idea!) dwarf and dancing transvestite is less fresh - but as a whole Succubus is a minor masterpiece in surreal cinema.

The actors is the highlights, from the stunningly beautiful and charismatic Janine Reynaud to the cool and handsome Jack Taylor (without moustache) in his first movie for Franco. Howard Vernon, always brilliant, has a small role as an admiral who sits by a bar where a nude male bartender is making him a drink (must have been a dream for Vernon!) until he's stabbed to death in the eye and surrounded by crying old women in a weird funeral rite.

I'm not sure how to interpret Succubus, and I'm not sure if that's really necessary. It's not made to analyze and dissect, it's made to experience and probably smoke a lot of weed while watching. Succubus is a highly original piece of work from Franco, not for the beginner - but don't leave it to last either. It's a movie to breath and feel while you still have that fantastic groovy sixties feeling inside you.

Love live Franco! 

The Bloody Judge (1970)

It's hard to beat a classic like The Witchfinder General, and maybe somewhere The BloodyJudge was planned to be a rip-off of Michael Reeves near perfect classic, but in the end it's a very different movie that focuses more on the politics and characters around the actually witch-hunt and comes out as a fairly interesting drama with a few scenes here and there of graphic nudity. It's a serious Franco, maybe too serious for some, but I kinda liked it.

Most of the story tells us about "The Bloody Judge" himself, Judge Jeffries (Christopher Lee) who's clearly a coward. He judges innocent men and women to torture and death but never witnesses the violence himself. Instead he acts like the hand of god and being the perfect puppet master of the stupid peasants around him. After ordering the execution of Alicia Gray (Margaret Lee) Jeffries more or less signs his faith, because her sister Mary (Maria Rohm) has no plans to let Jeffries go free and he must stop her before she becomes to much trouble...

The Bloody Judge is a slow movie, slow for being Franco - which means it's extra slow. I would say it's even to long for it's own good, and it would have been a much more powerful movie if it lost 20 or so minutes of talking and walking. I'm not saying it's a bad movie, it's actually very well-made and presents a whole bunch of interesting characters, specially Jeffries, but never live up to the directors legendary sleazy-factor. Sure, there's nudity and blood and a good battle scene with some nice stunts and pyrotechnics, but too much of the time is spent with talking heads and "suggestive eye movements" (to quote that famous religious movie site).

In a few scenes the true Franco comes alive, most notably the short sequences when Mary stands looking at the forest, hears the battle in the distance and sees the smoke slowly coming at her through the trees. It's a quite moment and once again shows the visual poetry Franco loves to treats us viewers. He surely know how to put the camera, and the whole movie look gorgeous and is very stylish. It reminds me of a Hammer-drama with less budget and more nudity.

For the you have problems with slow movies, the cast is well worth watching the movie for. Sir Lee is of course great, but watch out for the wonderful trio of Maria Rohm, Margaret Lee and Maria Schell, all excellent. Howard Vernon drops his suits and good manner and gives us a wonderful, almost cartoonish, hangman with a huge belt and a black hood. Leo Genn has an advanced supporting part and also do a nice job.

The Bloody Judge is a good movie with slow pacing. Franco is a pro and gives the best movie I could have directed during these circumstances, but it's also a movie far away from his favourite themes and lacking his usual acting ensemble. But it's worth watching, just don't expect something out of the ordinary.

Don't Wake the Dead (2008)

Because I have nothing intelligent to write about Andreas Schnaas Don't Wake the Dead I'll just share my comments on Facebook, who I wrote while watching the movie. Please don't hurt me, Mr Schnaas!

Ok, let's talk about Don't Wake The Dead...

First of, Schnaas has a career in movies. I don't. So that gives me full right to hate his movies.

Is this a porn movie or a daytime soap?

A movie always becomes better if you use the camera microphone to record the sound - NOT!

Of lord! And people complain about the digital effects in The Asylum's movies.

Nice location. Can't whine about that! But I would like to!

Aha, the hired a dwarf with an oversized hat. Or maybe he's just a short German guy?

They couldn't even put energy on a decent painting of Hitler. Oh, it's not Hitler. Just a random Nazi.

For being a famous gore-director he's totally incompetent in filming effective gore-scenes!

Oh no. The band. And the act like a bunch of catholic priests at a summer camp for girls: not at all.

A woman is talking loud to herself while stumbling around outside the castle.

Is she being raped by the zombie monks? No, just by the dialogue.

‎"Hello! I'm 38 and pretend to be 19!"

Yeah, to speed up footage to make something look faster is always a brilliant idea.

But seriously, I would give a lot to be able to have a career like Schnaas. The difference is that I would make better movies.

The composer obviously just fed his cat with Chili and locked it in the closet together with his synthesizer.

"This is totally ridiculous!" - both a line from the movie and my opinion about it.

Why do people taking all the time, telling us EVERYTHING they do?!????

An actress tries to act shocked. That or she's having a minor attack of epilepsy.

I guess the zombies can't get in the house because they didn't have permission splash blood inside?

There's no furniture in this castle.

I hope someone mercy-killed the cast and crew afterwards.

A headless body suddenly has a head, and the only thing the camera man had to do was to turn the camera one inch.

It would be more powerful if the woman playing a leather-zombie could stop smiling.

On the positive side, I'm not bored! Which according to my rules means this is a good movie. But rules needs to be broken from time to time.

WTF! A fucking concert!

I guess the members must be from one of those classes for "special kids". They act like that anyway.

Andreas Schnaas gives eurocult a bad name.

The singer of the band sounds like a twelve year old boyscout who needs to take a dump.

Modern Talking is better than this band and Dieter Bohlen and Thomas Anders even look like real zombies, but with more surgery.

Accidentally killed by a broken wine bottle... She fell on it. Just like that.

Another thing I like: the zombies as dry powder blood and the humans as wet blood.

One nice kill now, with realistic prosthetics. First time in this movie.

I'm starting to get bored now. To much talking.

Most of the gore is quite fun, but badly filmed.

God, I HATE this concert scene!!!!!!

It's over!!!! I can tell ya one thing, if Schnaas called me now and said how much he hated me but at the same time told me to come down to Germany and do small role in his next movie to see how fun it is, I would do it without hesitation!

That's it folks!

Baltic Storm (2003)

I’m very fond of conspiracy thrillers, especially if they are based on a true story. One of the rare thrillers in this specific genre is Reuben Leder’s (son of Paul “A.P.E.” Leder) Baltic Storm, based on the journalistic work by Jutta Rabe and Henning Witte. It’s easy to claim that conspiracy’s always to be in the mind of some paranoid wacko, but remember that many of our legendary assassinations and military ops more or less is conspiracies because they involve two or more persons who’s conspired to do make it happen. Why conspiracy theories always come up when something like this happens is of course because no one wants something to be totally pointless.

The Estonia disaster that claimed more than 800 peoples lives the 28th of September 1994 is filled with some interesting facts that never have been explained or commented by authorities, for example the rescue of captain Avo Piht, who without a doubt was alive after the disaster according to several official sources, but later was announced dead together with his passengers. This was way before the conspiracy theories started to grow, it was a just a fact that he was alive and that they were going to interrogate him. Baltic Storm delivers another explanation for his disappearance, but it feels more of a cheap Hollywood knockoff, with out any direct proof – just an idea tossed out in a mediocre script.

We’re following German journalist Julia Reuter (Greta Scacchi) and Swedish survivor Erik Westermark (Jürgen Prochnow) in their search for justice, Erik mostly because his son died in the disaster and he wants a real answer from the Estonian and Swedish governments. But soon their hunt for the truth is being sabotaged by everyone from Julia’s employer to shady and sleazy Swedish government officals and somehow, somewhere the Americans and Russians is lurking trying to hide their part in the disaster…

Because I’m one of those fools that think something was fishy with the disaster (Remember Scandinavian Star, which is still under investigation for insurance fraud – so if that disaster can have a conspiracy behind it, so can M/S Estonia) I’m also very interested in what a movie could offer. Not much, but it could have been a really interesting piece of conspiracy thriller. This is the second time I see it since it was released on DVD ages ago, and it still feels like a very cheap TV-movie, produced by newbies at some local TV-station with to much budget for actors. The script itself is a mess, and feels very amateurish and worst of all, the character of Julia Reuter (obviously based on Jutta Rabe herself) feels like the least believable journalist in the world. Prochnow is better, but he also has some emotions to work with and not a silly superhero-journalist that’s way too glamorized to feel realistic. What Donald Sutherland is doing in this movie is a big question, but he’s slumming around and having a ball, probably crying all the way to the bank.

The Swedish DVD of Baltic Star is worth buying because of one reason, it’s a 2 DVD edition and on the other disc there’s a fairly interesting documentary about the disaster and Jutta Rabe’s theories. This is actually more interesting and thrilling than the movie itself.

Baltic Storm is a lost opportunity, which is a pity. Maybe one day we’ll see this story told in a much more talented way.

Ten Little Indians (1974)

Harry Allan Towers produced three versions of Agatha Christie’s Ten Little Indians, and in 1974 he made this version using the exact same script as the 1965 version, just changing the setting to the Iranian desert. I’ve also been waiting a long time to get a chance to see this movie. It was released a couple of years ago in the UK, but I just waited a bit longer and a little while ago Swedish company Studio S released it. Most reviews I’ve read over the years told us to stay away from this boring piece of shit. This just made my interest even stronger, and I’m happy to say that it’s not as bad as some people have claimed before. It’s just not very exciting.

Not surprising, the same bunch of characters arrives to another location, this time a luxury mansion far out in the Iranian desert. What makes them special is that they are a fantastic collection of great character actors: Oliver Reed, Maria Rohm, Gert Fröbe, Adolfo Celi, Charles Aznavour, Richard Attenborough. Elke Sommer, Herbert Lom and the voice of Orson Welles! They are lured there by the mysterious Mr U.N. Owen (get it, Unknown) who accuses all of them of murder. And whenever one of those silly Indian statues are found broken, someone is being killed… you know the story, and you probably also know the killer if you seen one of the other versions!

But I won’t reveal who’s the killer, I promise.

So, as usual I bring you the good stuff first – because that’s the most important. I never review movies I totally dislike, that’s just a waste of time for be and for you. What’s good is the gorgeous setting, which looks and feels impressive and fits the story excellent. I was afraid it would be to far-fetched (I like scary, deserted islands like in the original story) but the spooky mansion and the wilderness around it worked perfectly here. Peter Collinson is a good director, and crafts a competent thriller around a script that delivers very little surprises. He also shy’s away from the violence and gore, something that this movie would have needed to be something special.

But if you can live with the generic execution you will find Ten Little Indians to be a good little mystery (which unfortunately uses the Agatha Christie-scripted happy ending that was used in the stage version) with a fucktastic cast! I mean, this the highlight of the movie. Adolfo Celi, one of the finest of Italian character actors, Gert Fröbe and Herbert Lom, Attenborough plus a younger hotter cast: Oliver Reed (not sensational, but good), the beautiful Maria Rohm and the awesome Elke Sommer. It’s a cast for film nerds and only this will make this a recommendation from me.

I shouldn’t forget the great score by Bruno Nicolai either! I wonder if this is released on CD? Talking about the music, even Charles Aznavour gets his own song number (which is not surprising, because that’s what he is – a singer). Felt old-fashioned in a good way.

To be honest, if you want to see a brilliant verson of Ten Little Indians watch the Soviet version from 1987, Desyat Negrityat (my review). That’s a very faithful adaptation, maybe the only version 100% true to Christie’s original vision. But until then, this one delivers cozy entertainment for Saturday mornings and that day you need to stay home because of a nasty cold.

Die Farbe (2010)

Remember The Call of Cthulhu from 2005? The black & white very successful adaption produced by The H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society. This is still one of the best movie adaption of Lovecraft ever made, and I’m sure I’m not alone looking forward to their next production, The Whisperer in the Darkness. But until then, get you dirty little hands on Die Farbe, a very impressive and ambitious German production which rivals the title of the best Lovecraft film ever made. Not a movie for everyone, and the competition regarding good Lovecraft films isn’t that big actually, so if you don’t agree with me it’s OK.

Die Farbe is based on the short story The Colour Out of Space from 1927, but it was a long time since I read it and I can’t really comment on the similarities. After reading a couple of summaries of the original story it seem like Die Farbe is very faithful to the source material, but instead of Massachusetts the story is to a big part moved to Germany and a young man and his search for his lost father in the area affected by “the color”.

The color yeah, it comes from a meteorite and is spreading and poisoning the people and nature in the area, slowly killing everything, stealing the energy from everything alive around it. Could this be the first story about a meteorite creating havoc in a small town?

Director and screenwriter Huan Vu goes a whole different route here compared both to productions of the Lovecraft society and older adaptations of the Lovecraft’s work. Die Farbe is also in black & white, but has a very different pacing and idea about telling the story than I’ve seen before. Gone is the goofy monsters and charming b-movie feeling, Die Farbe is a slow and atmospheric horror/sci-fi flick with stunningly beautiful photo and a very European way of storytelling. Not fast editing, no direct action, just dread and death.

I think the choice of making the movie in black & white can be because of two reasons: it looks good and it fits the time when the movie is set to be, but also it makes the use of the color very effective. Because when the color from outer space appears it’s also the only thing in color. The visual effects are very good and never disturb the story by being cheesy or annoying. Overall the acting is good, even if many of the actors are amateurs. The gorgeous landscapes and nature – even if it’s in black & white – is fantastic to watch. I wish I had a house there!

It’s hard to describe Die Farbe, but I can recommend it to anyone interested in Lovecraft and brilliant indie filmmaking. This is as far from SOV cheesiness as possible, this is a real movie and a real story. I bough the BD from the official homepage, and it’s also available on DVD. I’m sure most of you would appreciate this fantastic-looking visual delight, so go get it!

Bloodrayne: The Third Reich (2010)

The name Uwe Boll still angers people with no life. Personally I always liked his slightly demented approach to anger the game nerds all over the world, maybe because I feel no connection at all to gaming and everything around it. It just does not matter if he changes everything in a game when he’s turning it into a movie, as long it entertains me. The last couple of years Mr Boll has been doing other movies, not connected to games, and some of them are very impressive: Seed, Tunnel Rats, Stoic, Rampage… and hell yeah, even craziest stuff like the first Bloodrayne and Far Cry is worth watching because of their mindless violence.

While the first sequel to Bloodrayne was a good-looking b-movie (and well-made) it lacked the energy and the massive gore that the first movie had. Thankfully Boll tries to give us fans of the red juice a little bit more of that in the second sequel, Bloodrayne: The Third Reich. The movie, which is mostly about Bloodrayne killing Nazis and Michael Paré turning into a nazi-vampire, feels hurried and a bit sloppy. This is quite natural because Boll shot three movies at the same time! A drama-documentary about Auschwitz and a something that looks like Bloodrayne, but a bit chubbier: Blubberella.

I never really cared of focusing on the bad things in a movie, but I need to say that our beloved Clint Howard feels a bit weak in one of the bigger parts as Doctor Mangler. Now, like all of us, I love him – but he’s never been a great actor and tends to mostly read the lines in a mechanical way. He’s in the movie to much, but I think this is because they needed to fill the story more and more with dialogue to make the movie longer (it’s very short now, 75 minutes). The final action scene is not as spectacular as I wanted it to be, but delivers some fun.

The best thing with Bloodrayne: The Third Reich is Michael Paré who became a regular in Boll’s movies over the years. He’s a good heavy and looks fresh and healthy and wears his fangs and vampire make-up perfectly. Natassia Malthe is back as Rayne and I always felt she’s better suited for the part than Kristanna Loken. She’s handling the fighting and sword-wielding a lot better anyway.

As usual, even with a low budget, Boll handles the action good and there’s a lot more blood than in part two. A ripped belly and one graphic decapitation is the only thing we get when it comes to more classic gore, but it’s better than nothing.

I would love to see more WWII action from Uwe, but with a higher budget. His style feels very European and fits the grey eastern block perfectly. Like part two not a masterpiece, but a fun time-waster with some blood and tits. The ending is open for a part 3 and I think that would be a good idea, because that scene teasing Rayne vs Hitler is something I would like to see.

Code Name: Wild Geese (1984)

If miniatures are porn for me, Antonio Margheriti’s Code Name: Wild Geese are the ultimate in kinky sex. I hope you all know what I mean, because this movie has so many cool minature-effects its dream come true for miniatureophiles. I guess only Commando Leopard, from the same team, could be a competitor in this special alternative world of small buildings, small bridges, small cars and big explosions.

The story is kinda vague, as usual, with Lewis Collins leading a gang of tough guys into the wilderness to take down a drug factory, or something. Anyway, Lee Van Cleef is helping him and the people who send him out are, among others, Klaus Kinski and Ernest Borgnine. This is one big, fat excuse for showing a lot of action and explosions, a mighty fine bodycount and some impressive scenerys if the Philippine jungle!

I’ve said it before: Antonio Margheriti was one of the finest action directors EVER. No one could shoot a big scale action scene like good old Antonio, with a smart combination of cool miniature work and real life explosions and wild stunts. I also appreciate how he captures local colors, it’s never clean or neat, it’s dirty and raw – but never really nasty. He never was fond of blood and gore. He’s one of the few directors that could make the Philippines look beautiful, even when he’s only shooting in really rundown areas and junkyards!

Also, please, take notice of of how excellent he films miniatures – an artform by itself. The light always feels natural and even if the minitatures themselves can be a bit rought, they are so detailed and so well-shot that you buy the illusion totally. But the magic lies in the lightning, something that only Margheriti and the Japanese had the knowledge to do. Code Name: Wildgeese has one insane sequence, a car-chase, which goes from being real cars outside a tunnel to a miniature-chase where the cars drive on the walls inside the tunnel (yes, like in Men in Black!)! Sure, you can see they are miniatures, but they are so well-made.

So, what do we have except a ton of action? Great actors of course. Lewis Collins is one of my favorites nowadays, a James Bond-ish actor which kills with elegance and handle the most stupid dialogue excellent. Here he’s backed-up by Klaus Kinski, Ernest Borgnine and Lee Van Cleef – all which do decent jobs, even of Van Cleef seem very tired/bored during some scenes. Luciano Pigozzi, the Peter Lorre of Italy, plays a priest and does it well. A nice selection of German actors, for example Manfred Lehmann, does a good job too. What maye tend to forget is that Mimsy Farmer has a nice little part too, but she’s really never any part of the story and feels more like the token female than anything else.

This is one of the finest, together with Commando Leopard, men-on-a-mission flicks from the happy Eighties, and another showcase for the brilliant eye of Antonio Margheriti.