This Italian sci-fi film, originally titled L’umanoide, gives Richard Kiel top billing as a kindly pilot who is turned into a hulking, destructive automaton by a wicked scientist working with an evil tyrant. Barbara Bach plays an evil space queen who lives on young women’s blood and works with the tyrant and the scientist as …
Tôkyô nagaremono (1966)
Stylish, even stylized, cinematography adds visual interest to this movie, also known as Tokyo Drifter, as a reformed gang enforcer (Tetsuya Watari) encounters betrayal when a rival gang takes aim at his yakuza’s holdings. Deliberate pacing and visual set-pieces are punctuated by violence as the enforcer becomes the drifter of the title, but I found …
The Vengeance of Ursus (1961)
The mighty warrior Ursus (Samson Burke) has retired to his farm, where he lives a peaceful life with his young brother. But things change when Princess Sira (Wandisa Guida), whom Ursus loves, is kidnapped, and when the evil King Zagro (Livio Lorenzon) plans to marry her. A less-than-charismatic lead undermines this fairly standard sword-and-sandal flick. …
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Cheyenne Takes Over (PRC, 1947)
A planned vacation at a dude ranch comes to naught for Marshal Cheynne Davis (Lash La Rue) and pal Fuzzy (Al St. John) when they discover that Fuzzy’s ranch-owner friend is dead and those at the ranch want no visitors. A complicated plot involving not one but two impostors — one a good guy, one …
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The Terrible People (1960)
A murderous bank robber vows to kill those he holds responsible for ensuring he is executed for killing a guard while committing the crime, and soon after his execution his threats begin to be realized. It falls to Scotland Yard’s Chief Inspector Long (Joachim Fuchsberger) to put an end to these murders by figuring out …
Montana Desperado (Monogram, 1952)
Johnny Mack Brown is the owner of a ranch whose lessees have been systematically murdered, the last just as Johnny comes back to the area after a long absence. It is clear that someone is killing them, and other ranchers, too, in an effort to gain control of the valley. Johnny spots a masked rider …
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Zoku Zatôichi monogatari (1962)
A year has passed since the events of Zatôichi monogatari, and the blind masseur/swordsman (Shintarô Katsu) is on a journey back to the locale to pay his respects at the grave of a friend. First, however, he learns of a yakuza leader’s secret and is pursued by the man’s minions to silence him, though he …
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Eyes of the Underworld (Universal, 1942)
Richard Dix stars as a police chief with a hidden criminal past who is framed when he tries to crack down on an auto-theft ring. A special investigator (Don Porter) is not convinced of the chief’s innocence, but his loyal and adoring secretary (Wendy Barrie) although it seems that a new romance may be in …
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Sûpâ gun redei Wani Bunsho (1979)
In this grim movie, also known as Super Gun Lady Police Branch 82, two policewomen investigate after a company official is murdered in a crime that is dressed up as suicide. Excessive violence and the degradation of one protagonist and of others make for unpleasant viewing, and a bank robbery-hostage “diversion” drags on for far …
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Somewhere in Sonora (WB, 1933)
John Bishop (John Wayne), wrongfully accused of cheating in a stagecoach race and causing injury to his rival, is backed by his boss (Henry B. Walthall), whose own son was accused of a crime and ended up in the gang of Monte Black (J. P. McGowan), down in Sonora. John heads across the border to …
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