Chances are you’ve seen Planeta Bur (Planet of Storms) and don’t even know it. Roger Corman took footage from the 1962 film and hired then-film student Curtis Harrington to add footage and Americanize it. He somehow got Basil Rathbone and Faith Domergue to appear in it and, in 1965, AIP released it for television (and maybe…

If I knew more about film noir, I have a feeling parts of Brainstorm (1965) would seem familiar. I say “parts” because, from the noir I have seen, this one explores new territory as it escalates into pure horror, at least from one character’s point of view. William Conrad also explores new territory when compared…

During the opening credits of Ladybug Ladybug (1963), a blurry image of a hand holding a stopwatch comes into focus. It’s simply the elementary school principal, John Calkins (William Daniels), telling students that their achievement test has ended. However, when the civil defense alert sounds in his office and the yellow light means there will…

Not a made for television movie, This is Not a Test (1962) was nevertheless never released in theaters and aired on TV sometime in 1962. In it, Deputy Sheriff Dan Colter is instructed to set up a road block in the mountains in an undisclosed location, probably California. He’s simply following orders so sincerely has…

13 Ghosts (1960) starts strong. For the first half, maybe two-thirds, it holds its own with William Castle’s two previous films, House on Haunted Hill and The Tingler, both released a year earlier. I was enjoying it greatly, but then I grew weary.  This was about the time young Buck Zorba (Charles Herbert) goes down…

Curse of the Crimson Altar (or The Crimson Cult in the United States) is not usually recognized as a “good” movie. Watching it, there were times I’d call it, “bad.” However, I read that Christopher Lee, who plays  the owner of an old dark house, regarded it as one of the worst films in his…

Future recipient of the British Distinguished Flying Cross award, Barry Mahon returned from WWII a war hero and became Errol Flynn’s personal pilot. This led him to a producing gig, including Crossed Swords (1954), starring Flynn and Gina Lollobrigida. Soon, though, he widened his horizons by producing and directing over 70 drive-in movies in the…

The third “Yokai Monsters” movie, Along with Ghosts (1969) is the strangest, not because of its content, but because of its lack of content. It has a decent story: When her grandfather is killed by the equivalent of gangsters, a little girl named Miyo ventures toward the city to find her father. However, there are…

If this is the kid-friendly Yokai movie I was expecting, then I must have it confused with something else. Even more than 100 Monsters (1968), The Great Yokai War (1968) has truly terrifying moments with pre-1970s melted Crayola blood and Yokai that curse like drunken sailors. It’s only when the “good” monsters appear to battle…