Category: Movie Discussions
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Class Reunion (1982)
Welcome back to another month of “April Fools!” After unintentionally launching a month-long theme last year at this time, I’ve located four more horror spoofs that came in the wake of the Slasher phenomenon of the 1980s. Student Bodies (1981) set the high bar, but we’ll see if any of the films this month come…
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Sexton Blake & the Hooded Terror (1938)
If you’re keeping track at home, you might expect today’s review to be The Ticket of Leave Man (1937.) I’m sorry to disappoint, but it’s virtually the same film as It’s Never Too Late to Mend (1937), and while I could barely stand watching the two so closely together, I certainly can’t fathom thinking of…
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It’s Never Too Late To Mend (1937)
A title card before It’s Never Too Late to Mend (1937) reads, “Controlled and Presented by The Rev. Brian Hession, M.A., copyright Dawn Trust.” My puzzlement was reinforced when I learned that Hession, who was at the time a vicar, had created Dawn Trust Films to bring religious themes to mainstream cinema. So this was…
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The Crimes of Stephen Hawke (1936)
The fact that key roles in both movies are played by Tod Slaughter, Eric Portman, and D.J. Williams caused me to automatically compare The Crimes of Stephen Hawke (1936) with the trio’s earlier film, Maria Marten, or the Murder in the Red Barn (1935.) That further caused me to compare Slaughter’s two performances. My conclusions…
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Tender Dracula (1974)
The poster for Tender Dracula (1974) aka The Big Scare, gives us a good idea about how conflicted the movie is going to be. Drawn with dripping red blood in the background is a gorgeous image of Peter Cushing baring fangs as a vampire (perhaps the titular Dracula,) yet in the foreground are green caricatures…
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Doctor Jekyll (2023)
Before it was announced that the latest incarnation of Hammer Films was going to release Doctor Jekyll, I was intrigued by the fact that it starred Eddie Izzard, who was apparently going to play the titular character as a woman. What exactly did that mean? Was there going to be a reversal of gender, an…
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Blood Suckers (1971)
After watching only 30 minutes of Blood Suckers (1971), I stopped the Blu-ray and turned off the television. I wan’t enjoying it at all and I simply could not continue. The next day I awoke knowing that I had to finish it. I figured there would be either another 50 minutes to grin and bear…
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The Man Who Finally Died (1963)
The Man Who Finally Died (1963) completes a trilogy of films Peter Cushing made for British Lion in the early 1960s. However, it comes at the end of 10 films sandwiched between it and Suspect three years earlier. So prolific was the actor that you’d never have known that, according to author Jonathan Rigby, he…
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Suspect (1960) aka The Risk
The movie Suspect (1960) was as much an experiment as the ones its characters perform. Producer/directors John and Roy Boulting wanted to “raise the level” of the supporting feature, or B-movie, shown at the bottom of a double bill. With the budget of a supporting feature, they completed the film in 17 days, hoping to…
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Cone of Silence (1960)
Peter Cushing once claimed to have played only four villains during his lengthy film and television career. One of these was Captain Judd in Cone of Silence (1960) aka Trouble in the Sky. Sandwiched between two Hammer horrors, The Mummy and The Brides of Dracula, and following The Flesh & the Fiends, Cone of Silence…
Classic Horrors Club 