Also known as Island of the Doomed, this Spanish-German co-production about a group of tourists who travel to an island to see its exotic botanicals. There they meet Baron von Weser (played by Cameron Mitchell), a reclusive scientist studying rare horticulture and experimenting with crossbreeding dangerous varieties of plants. One of the Baron’s creations is draining the blood of human beings (through a small hole in their cheek) and the tourists are dying one by one. Starring Cameron Mitchell, Kai Fischer, Elisa Montés, and George Martin. Some islands are best avoided. Cameron Mitchell was the TV show High Chaparral.
A stripper is horribly disfigured in a car accident. A brilliant scientist develops a treatment that restores her beauty and falls in love with her. To preserve her appearance the doctor must give her additional treatments using glands taken from murdered women. His unexplained ability to turn into a hideous monster helps with this problem but does nothing to win her love. The doctor's woes multiply as the police and the girl's boyfriend begin to close in on him. Starring Alberto Lupo, Susanne Loret, and Sergio Fantoni. An Italian mad scientist movie with a poor title translation, because there are no vampires in this movie—just mad scientists!
A consortium of American businesses are disturbed by the loss of profits due to Chinese businesses located in Chinatowns in the United States. They hire a pair of Eurasians and their criminal organization to eliminate their competition. Starring Bela Lugosi, Victor Poten, and Herman Brix. This was originally a serial and then was made into a movie. Interesting pre-WWII stuff here.
A mad Russian doctor is determined to take revenge on the family he believes is responsible for his daughter's death. A remake of an earlier silent serial. Starring Warner Oland, June Collyer, and Lloyd Hughes. The lights go out more than once. The phone is dead. A claw-like hand jumps out of the curtain to grab the girl. That kind of movie. An early talkie that is a lot of fun.
A wealthy old recluse wills her fortune and exceedingly-gloomy house to a pair of newlyweds, Robert and Eleanor Lindsay. Years before, Dr. Jackson had been in love with Eleanor's father, who was younger than her and did not return her love. N'Gina, an ape-man, Dr. Jackson brought back from Africa drinks a potion she had concocted in her laboratory, for a specific reason, but N'Gina turns on her and kills her, which is not what she had planned. Then he murders her attorney, Bradshaw, who is hunting for $20,000 in gold she had hidden in her gloomy house. Her brother, Zeno, an ex-convict, finds the gold but N'Gina isn't bothered by the bullets Zeno fires at him and kills him also. Detective Nelson then goes looking for it. Starring Zack Williams, Laura Bowman, and Alfred Grant. Can people get turned into Bigfoot?
Houdini stars in this exciting silent movie! An inventor travels to the South Seas, where there is buried treasure belonging to a girl. The girl's father is being held captive by cannibals until she returns a pearl that belongs to one of their idols. Starring Harry Houdini, Jack Brammall, and Lila Lee. Houdini at his best!
The body of a man, Howard Hillary, frozen for a hundred years, is found in the Arctic ice. Thawed out and awakened, Hillary insists that a young woman, Felice, is his fiancée from a century before. Hillary is interned in a mental institution but escapes and realizes the truth of where he is and that Felice is actually the descendant of his own Felice from long ago. Hillary joins her in searching for her father, who has been abducted by someone known to both. Starring Harry Houdini, Arthur Maude, and Albert Tavernier.
A scientist experimenting with suspended animation decides to use himself as a test subject. Before he is frozen, his wife is killed, and he is suspected of her murder. Starring Mark Stevens, Marianne Koch, and Wolfgang Lukschy. Maybe you want to be frozen alive or maybe you don’t. Life can get complicated. A curious 1960s movie.
The story is about a Nazi doctor and escaped prisoner-of-war who goes to London. There, via the Nazi underground, he poses as an Australian bacteriologist, whom he has killed and taken his place, assigned to do some medical research. His plot is, using British labs and knowledge, to find a method of immunizing the German people against a plague the Nazis are going to use in their next war. Complications arise when his British assistant, Robert Beatty, becomes suspicious of his actions, and an Australian girl who knew the real doctor shows up. Starring Robert Beatty, Mervyn Johns, and Nova Pilbeam. An interesting British thriller made only a few years after WWII.
From his secret laboratory, Captain Z-Ro and his associates use their time machine, the ZX-99, to learn from the past and plan for the future. Starring Roy Steffens, Bruce Haynes, and Jack Cahill. Plus: Tales of Tomorrow-Verdict From Space (1951) Gordon Kent is on trial for allegedly killing a scientist in an underground cavern. Desperately, he tries to explain what they found inside the cave, and the implications for the future of mankind. Starring Lon McCallister, Martin Brandt, and William Lally. Two early 1950s Sci-Fi television shows to give you a taste of the early days of television.
A playboy adventure novelist joins his publisher on an expedition to Voodoo Island in the Caribbean, where a cancer researcher is being forced to turn the tribes-people into zombies. The cancer researcher discovers that by treating the natives with snake venom he can turn them into bug-eyed zombies. Uninterested in this information, the unfortunate man is forced by his evil employer to create an army of the creatures in order to conquer the world. Starring William Joyce, Heather Hewitt, and Walter Coy. This film sat on the shelf unreleased for six years until is was picked up by distributor Jerry Gross (of Cinemation Industries), who needed a horror film to play on the bottom of a double bill with his in-house production I Drink Your Blood (1970). The title was changed to "I Eat Your Skin" and released in 1970.
Based on an Edgar Allen Poe story, a mysterious man is sent deep into the forest to investigate the bizarre behavior of the notorious Dr. Tarr. What he stumbles upon is the doctor's torture dungeon, a hellish insane asylum completely cut off from civilization and presided over by the ultimate madman. The inmates of the insane asylum have taken over the institution, imprisoned the doctors and staff; These people have been savagely chained, tortured and stuck in glass cages, then forced to take part in gruesome games of ritual slaughter. Starring Claudio Brook, Arthur Hansel, and Ellen Sherman. This seems like a British film but it is actually a Mexican movie that was filmed in English. Also called House of Madness.
Ten years before, Michael was hypnotized by a very unstable doctor into killing his own parents. Then he is locked up in the mental institution for it. In the present (or the present time of the movie) Michael, his girlfriend Sandy, and their friends Lucas and Jeannie head to an island for a vacation, where the doctor has moved his work to, and has started a new experiment in reprogramming people's minds. And Michael wants revenge for what was done to him, planning to kill the doctor. Starring Michael Hurst, Margaret Umbers, and William Upjohn. Made in New Zealand you might call this a Kiwi Mind Control Horror film!
The world's water supply has dried up due to some sort of apocalypse. A beautiful woman holds the secret to where one of the last springs being guarded by a group of Amazons. A "Road Warrior" like crew captures her and tries to make her talk through brutal torture. The hero (Styrker) unites with some of the remaining "good guys" and the Amazons and frees the woman. They go on to a "Road Warrior" type of concluding battle with the bad guys. Starring Steve Sandor, Andrea Savio, and William Ostrander. Filmed in the Philippines as a Mad Max type movie you might call this a Noodle-Post-Apocalypse film.
A mad scientist tries to create a man-eating plant to prove that the origin of the human race comes from the sea. "The earth is your mother, lightning is you father, rain is your blood" says the madman who creates the thing as the Baron Frankenstein, with a Japanese hunchback. Then, a NASA scientist is ordered to take a vacation due to showing signs of stress while working on his latest missile project and stumbles across the mad scientist and his man-eating monster plant. Also known as Venus Flytrap. Starring James Craig, Tota Kondo, and Lawrence O'Neill. Yow, those weird Japanese scientists can cook up some strange Sukiyaki!
A former Hollywood make-up artist who now runs a wax museum after his face is disfigured by a movie mogul seeks revenge on all those he feels have wronged him. He becomes the curator of a wax museum and murders his enemies—turning their bodies as exhibits in his museum. Starring Cameron Mitchell, Anne Helm, and Scott Brady. A nicely subdued performance from Cameron Mitchell in this remake of House of Wax.
In a community near a swamp, a local dweller sees a couple of giant monsters but nobody believes him. Later, the cuckold Dave Walker finds his slut wife Liz Walker cheating on him with his friend Cal Moulton. He chases the couple through the swamp, and forces them to jump into the water. The leeches take them and shocked Dave is arrested and accused of murder. Two other locals decide to look for the bodies of Liz and Cal to get the prize of US $50.00 per body, and also vanish in the swamp. Finally, game warden Steve Benton organizes a patrol to investigate the caves under the swamp, finding the lethal giant leeches. Starring Ken Clark, Yvette Vickers, and Jan Shepard. Something of a cult movie, this is all about swamps gone wrong, terribly wrong.
Two federal agents battle a gang that hijacks trucks carrying materials vital for the security of the country and sells them to foreign powers. Starring Walter Reed, Mary Ellen Kay, and Dick Curtis. Great early '50s cars, and lots and lots of fistfights (usually on a moving platform or near imminently explosive materials) will keep your attention. Here you see the genesis of the Indiana Jones fistfights.
Professor “Johnny Longbow” Salina, a man who really knows his stews, introduces Paul Carlson to the practical-joking Kathy Nolan. Paul and Kathy seem to hit it off rather well but, during a meteor storm, a meteorite fragment strikes Paul, burying itself deep in his skull, which has the unpleasant side-effect of causing Paul to mutate into a giant reptilian monster at night and go on murderous rampages. It turns out that this sort of thing has happened before, when Professor Salina rediscovers ancient Native American paintings detailing a similar event many centuries ago. Kathy, however, still loves Paul, and tries to save him. Starring Chase Cordell, Leigh Drake, and Gregorio Sala. An interesting independent movie made in New Mexico in the mid-70s when you could still do stuff like that. Gotta love movies made in the Land of Enchantment! The Andromeda Strain, look out!
Two beatniks get their kicks by dealing drugs and violence. Said the movie poster: Your shocked eyes will see it... your stunned mind won't believe it... Never before... has vice and violence struck with such frightening force! An early movie for Peter Falk. At one point Falk feeds a delivery boy a hamburger laced with ground glass, probably the origin of the Halloween urban legend. Starring Barbara Lord, Jack Betts, and Peter Falk.
