Jungle movies get the Carry On treatment, with Sid James as a boozing safari guide and hunter who can’t seem to hit anything but one of his bearers; Terry Scott as Ugh, a Tarzan-like individual who finds his “June” in Jacki Piper, the companion to Lady Evelyn Bagley (Joan Sims), who has come on safari …
Read the full post →“<em>Carry On Up the Jungle</em> (1970)”
Kay Curtis (Glenda Farrell) and June Dale (Mary Brian) are two golddiggers left stranded in Florida when their mark (Guy Kibbee) gets wise that he’s not going to get any action. When a former fellow performer marries a millionaire (Ben Lyon) but disappears, perhaps kidnapped, on their wedding night, while a local gambler (Harold Huber) …
Chaotic horror-comedy, originally titled Hong tiao jing has three grave robbers getting mixed up with a Shaolin master and a vampire preying on locals. There’s plenty of killing, humor varying greatly in its effectiveness, and a hard-to-follow sequence of events. Not recommended. Otto thinks you should avoid this movie. Movie 380 for 2021.
Jimmy Bondi (Rudolf Zehegruber) and Dudu take part in a stunt show in England, but the organizer absconds with the take, so Jimmy and his car help his friend Aldo (Sal Borgese) to chase after the fellow. The pursuit eventually takes them to Switzerland, where the guys end up working in an antique car restoration …
Read the full post →“<em>Superbug on Extra Tour</em> (1973)”
The first movie that Mel Brooks directed was this uproarious backstage comedy, in which a conman producer (Zero Mostel) tempts a mild-mannered accountant to cooperate on a massive swindle, in the form of a guaranteed flop: a paean to Hitler by a mad former German soldier. Yet pitfalls await: Can they raise the money needed? …
Earlier this summer, to celebrate Mel Brooks’s 95th birthday, we watched two of his movies. The first was his parody of Star Wars, Spaceballs, a delightful and spot-on skewering of its target. Memorable characters abound, including John Candy as the Wookie-like Barf, Rick Moranis as the not-so-menacing Dark Helmet, and Brooks himself as President Skroob, …
Two idiotic photographers (Franco Franchi and Ciccio Ingrassia) are recruited by the British secret service after Agent 007 is killed, and they are tasked with foiling a plot by a sinister mastermind, Goldginger (Fernando Rey) that involves taking control of government leaders. There are some laughs and decent echoes of Bond, but Franco can be …
Read the full post →“<em>The Two Crazy Secret Agents</em> (1965)”
Jimmy Bondi(Rudolf Zehetgruber) and his car Dudu are on their way to Europe when they find themselves mixed up with a shady marquess (Karl-Otto Alberty) and his gang and their opponents, a former prisoner with a secret (Joachim Fuchsberger) and a gal who is accompanying him (Heidi Hansen). There are plenty of funny fights, as …
Read the full post →“<em>The Superbug Rides Again</em> (1972)”
The success of Disney’s The Love Bug appears to have inspired writer-director Rudolf Zehetgruber in the creation of a German competitor (fittingly, given the Beetle’s origin), and through the 1970s he directed five films starring Dudu, the extraordinary Beetle (or Käfer) and himself as the car’s owner/customizer/builder, with his wife (Kathrin Oginski) appearing in a …
A nightclub singer (Mae West) is pursued by several suitors, including rival crooks, but is herself attracted to a temperance worker (Cary Grant) with a secret. There’s a plot here, but the movie is really a star vehicle for West, who dominates the movie with her smoldering, saucy, and strong personality, even opposite folks such …
Read the full post →“<em>She Done Him Wrong</em> (Paramount, 1933)”
