Moon Knight 01- The Goldfish Problem

Mild mannered Steven Grant, a "gift shoppist" at some museum in England, is not sleeping well.  He also knows his Egyptian deities.  He tries various means to keep himself in bed at night, but nothing seems to work.  He has vary unusual dreams as well, like he is in a different country as a mercenary.  He also hears voices in his head.  To top it all off, he has gotten involved with a cult of Ammit.  Perhaps he has not been dreaming at all...

MOTW- Hydra

 

The death of a young boy triggers the monster Hydra.  The beast attacks many cars, probably killing a lot of drivers as well.    The boy, Akira, had been killed by a reckless driver, and somehow managed to make a statue of the monster come to life to take revenge.  The Science Patrol tries to stop the creature, but to no avail.  Ultraman shows up, and is about to finish Hydra off with his Spacium Beam, but the ghost of the dead boy shows up and he lets the monster go.  No one questions all the havoc that had been caused at all by the monster.

Cyborg: The Six Million Dollar Man (1973)

 

Watching this pilot all the way through for the first is a pretty interesting experience.  It is based sort of loosely on the  Martin Caidin's 1972 novel Cyborg and the first half is really good.  Lee Majors shows a range that is surprising, and I really enjoy his interplay with Nurse Manners.  There is no Oscar Goldman, but instead we get the old man Darren McGavin as Oliver Spencer.  I love Darren, and later on he would stalk mysteries in the night.  Rudy Wells was played by Martin Balsam, then Alan Oppenheimer for until season 3. Martin E. Brooks finally showed up in for the rest of the series, plus the sequels and return movies.  Oddly enough, I always remembered Brooks being Rudy Wells in every episode I saw.  How the mind plays tricks on you after 50 years.

It Came From Beneath the Sea (1955) - Movie Trailer

                         

A darn good little movie here, and one I have seen many times.  Part One of the stop-motion extravaganza Xenorama issue is almost complete!

Svem- Beast with Five Fingers (1946)

 

It's a study in psychosis, really.  The beast is rather imaginary, but the scenes showing it are very well done.  Peter Lorre is magnificent as always, and damn he was svelte back then.  He doesn't get to show off his humorous side here, but one does rather feel sorry for him.  On the other hand, J. Carrol Naish is very funny as the Commissario, and this role has made me appreciate him even more.  He gets the last line in the movie, and it seems like they wanted to end the movie on a light note.  After all the killing and macabre things going on I think it that was a wise decision.

Goldar versus Gorda

 

Normally I would offer a trailer for Sven's movie tonight, but I just can't too excite by The Beast With Five Fingers (1946),  I hope I am pleasantly surprised and enjoy it, but at this point time... Let's talk about something I greatly enjoyed viewing this time around.

Six Million Dollar pilots

 

I remember the first time I watched The Six Million Dollar Man.  I thought it was the first episode, since it was the show to watch that year.  Later I read the novel Cyborg by Martin Caidin, which the show was based on.  He wrote a few more of stories starring the original Steve Austin, and they are enjoyable.  I was really surprised to learn that there had been three pilot movies before the series started.  I found this out on the Sci-Fi Channel, when it aired the bionic series sometime in the mid-90s.  Seeing Darren McGavin as Oscar Goldman Oliver Spencer was also a surprise.  I haven't seen this movies or episodes now for about 20 years, so I am looking forward to watching them now.

This aired in 1975, just after the last of the Apes movies were fading from our memories.  Well, at least the general public.  We used to watch anything that was related, but this show did not hold my attention, and I don't remember it at all.  It followed the first two movies, but instead of an agrarian lifestyle for said Apes, they are closer to the actual book, where they had cars and other technologies available to them.  However, the Apes fad had faded by the time the cartoon had aired, and it wasn't seen again for almost 20 years.  The Sci-Fi channel aired it when it started, but I wanted the Filmation and Gigantor cartoons, so I never watched it.

MOTW- Banila

 

The second revived devil is Banila.  Despite the worries of the Science Patrol, the monsters did not like each other and battled to the death.  Banila had a fire weapon, but it was no match to Aboras' foam dissolve weapon.  The battle between the monsters is fun, and takes place in an arena of some kind.  That is an unusual place, and the miniatures are great.

Monster Zero and The War of the Gargantuas (1970) - Textless US Theatric...

                   This is a fun redub of the rather poor quality original double feature.  Man, I wish I had been old enough to see these movies at the same time.  Dang, I would have been one happy kid. 

Sven- The Ghoul (1933)

 

This certainly was an interesting movie.  Well, the history of the movie is far more interesting than the film itself, though.  It was lost, then a beat up version was found, then the a pristine nitrate camera negative of the full length movie was found.  This was found in the 1980s in an old hidden vault.  So hope remains that more "lost" movies will be found.  It is a British movie, made when Boris Karloff was over there.  He was having some kind of spat with Universal.  The movie is very British, and full of great actors.  I wish I had liked it more than I did.

Captain Clegg/Night Creatures (1962)

 

After watching Disney's version of this story, I thought I would watch Hammer's version.  This is the second adaption of the story, the first movie was made in 1937.  Since it is an early 60s Hammer movie, it is a little violent, and well shot.  The scenery is great.  It also has Peter Cushing as the hero, along with a young Oliver Reed.  The rest of the cast is pretty great as well.  It is kind of fun to see a movie that doesn't have to have 3 plot twists in the last act.  It is rather predictable now, but the whole movie is a lot of fun.

The Ghoul Trailer

I have never seen this movie, but it sounds interesting.  It used to be a lost movie.  Thanks Sven!

Xenorama #36 the Mark of Xorro!

 

Here is the cover for the next issue, which is under review at Amazon, but I don't think there will be any problems with it.  It should be on sale soon!  It features a lot of Zorro movies, plus some great reviews about some other adventure movies to fill out the issue.  It isn't often you can find Godzilla, Zorro, the Three Stooges and the Scarecrow of Romney Marsh all in the same issue!  There are all the more well known Zorro movies and shows, plus a few of the lesser known ones.  Some of the movies are better than others, I'll tell you what.  When I started this issue, about two years ago Amazon had a lot of strange masked rider movies available to view, so I watched them back then.

MOTW- Aboras

This charming devil gets reincarnated from a time capsule.  His frenemy shows up later, we will see him next week.  These are two deadly monsters, and had been sealed up in order to stop them from destroying the world.  This greatly worried the Science Patrol, but guess who showed up to help them?  You would think they would have learned by now.  This reliance on Ultraman would figure into some episodes in the future.  Aboras had a foam based weapon that could dissolve many things.

non special star wars Blu Ray

Boy I would love a great copy of that first Star Wars movie- as it was released in 1977.  No "A New Hope" title or anything.  I'm really surprised Disney hasn't done this for the first three movies, since they could make another mint off the fans of that series.I know many people who would get a set.  Me, I just want the first one.

Sven- Son of Dracula (1943)

 

He is not really the son of Dracula, this Count Alucard.  It is not really a sequel, since no mention of the last movie is made.  Drac, the Count, I mean, moves to the United States and begins his regular business.  He actually gets the girl in this movie, and right away.  I wonder what the wedding ceremony was like.  The end is odd, as there are no stakings present, just burning the coffins of the two vampires.  For a 78 minute movie, it sure is leisurely in getting to the vampire goings on.

rock reflections ad

I really wanted to get this album when I saw the ads in 1975.  I am not sure how I would have liked it, but I think I would have enjoyed it at the time.  I did not have my own record player, though it was not long in coming.  I have it on a digital release, and some of the music is pretty good, and it comes a wide gamut of styles.  Stan Lee does the narration.  I think the man was a failed actor, since he was everywhere he could do voice overs at this time.  He kept the narrator role for many years for many Marvel projects.  I sure do miss him.

Son of Dracula (1943) Trailer

Once again, Sven is showing a movie I have probably only seen once, and that was way back when on KWGN Channel 2.  I think I liked it, but knew the whole trick right away.  I'm looking forward to it!

Peter and Medusa?

 

The last four or five episodes of the Spider-Man 1981 cartoon series were the best of the bunch.  My favorite one was Spider-Man battling the Wizard (what is with the FF villains showing up in the show?) with a Medusa being threatened by a control collar.  Peter is really taken with Medusa, and she with him.  Now, generally, Medusa is scornful of most humans, but in this version she and Peter had a real chemistry.  It even had the sweetest ending, with May telling Peter he was mooning like he was in love.  It is too bad there wasn't another season, though I doubt there would have been as much continuity as this story like would need.

MOTW- Zarab

 

Zarab has been talked about here before, but Blogspot won't let me edit those posts to include the Monster of the Week tag, so here he is again!  I do quite enjoy this episode, as it was the first Ultraman episode I had ever seen after a span of some 15 or 20 years.  It also features the first imitation Ultra that some being or group is going to use to turn humanity against whatever Ultra is around.  This trope has appeared in almost every Ultra show since this one.  Zarab has not appeared that much at all, but he is too fun to never appear again.

The Vision's first animated appearance!

 

I am watching the 1981 Spider-Man cartoon series.  This was syndicated back then, and contained 26 episodes.  It is... mostly entertaining, but of course, there were no fights at all.  Another interesting thing is that Doctor Doom was the main villain, appearing in six episodes.  More than the Kingpin, more than Doc Ock, more than the ferkin Green Goblin!  Only JJJ appeared more as a villain.  It is an odd choice, for sure.  Be that as it may, in the episode Arsenic and Aunt May, Peter comes home and May turns on the telly so Peter can watch a new show, starring The Avengers.  It is just a brief glimpse, but this is what we see!

Here In The Dark

Boy I love this band.  I wish I had known about them when they had started.  This is a surprisingly gentle song from them, and it is great.

Sven- Dracula's Daughter (1936)

 

I don't remember the last time I watched this movie.  I do however, remember seeing it on Channel 2, KWGN, some Sunday afternoon.  It was not aired nearly as much as the other Universal Horror classics, but I had to have started my viewing of monster movies by then.  I remember enjoying it, but not finding it scary or even very exciting.  Seeing it again I enjoy how it is shot and the actors.  I like that it was a direct sequel to 1931's Dracula, which would never really happen again.  It is a very unusual movie, that's for sure.  They pack a lot of story into 72 minutes.

Dracula's Daughter (1936) trailer

This is what Sven is airing tonight.  I know I have seen it, but it has been a minute.  I remember watching it as a kid and liking it well enough.  I will be interested to see it with much older eyes now.

Happy Birthday, Kaida Trillian

 

She turns two years old today.  She is still a small girl, a hair over  eight and a half pounds.  She seems to weigh more when she is sitting on your chest at 3 AM.  It is easier when she lays down and starts purring.  I got her last May, and she has really started being happy about being here.  She and Emerald chase each other a lot, especially at night.  They do sleep near each other as well, which I am happy about.  The middle name does come from Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, but it is because she is very vocal and part of that is a trill.  She also sounds a bit like a tribble on occasion.

a really good lawyer

I really want a Spider-Man/Daredevil team up movie now.  It was so nice to see that cameo in Far From Home, which made me think of all the times Spidey and Daredevil have teamed up, and even fought each other a time or two.  I had some comic book where Matt told Peter he had known who is was for some time, and then revealed his secret.  DD was always a bit older than Spidey, but they always felt like brothers to me.  I love that dynamic between the two heroes.  I hope it is done in any possible future movie to be made.

MOTW- Bullton

 

This is probably the strangest monster and episode of Ultraman in this original run. It is rather indescribable, to see the least.  It is not really a creature, but it is sentient to some degree. It also can alter reality, or the perception of reality to other beings around it.  Things are never what they appear while this odd thing is around.  Even Ultraman is not immune to the power of Bullton.  The first time I watched this episode I had no idea how it could be stopped.  Ultraman did manage to do it, but this is one strange, strange episode.

Spider-Man (1981)

Never saw this as it was never syndicated in my area.  I think I would have liked it just fine, especially when the guest heroes would show up.  The main issue with the show is that the writers have Spidey spouting "funny" quips all the time.  ALL. THE. TIME.  It's overkill.  They do tone it down a bit, but there is no real drama here in Peter's life, aside from trying to date Betty Brant.  The villains are mostly from Spidey's rogue's gallery, though Dr. Doom shows up in six of the 26 episodes.  That is an odd choice since Doomsy isn't a Spidey villain the any sense of the word.