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In Search of...: Jimmy Hoffa (1980)
An episode without any theories of the paranormal.
A very entertaining episode of "In Search Of....". Jimmy Hoffa is definitely in the category of "larger than life", as one guy in the episode said, even though Hoffa was only a little guy, around five feet five inches tall, he had a larger man's hand shake.
Suggestions of his links to organised crime did little to dent his popularity with union members and it may well be that the likes of John and Robert Kennedy were both jealous of Hoffa's popularity with working class people not just his power and influence.
The theory that Hoffa was stuffed into a 55 gallon barrel which was then put in a car that was crushed and then smelted sounds like a solid possibility, far more likely than he went into hiding. The bosses of organised crime were more into murders that left no trace rather than a St Valentine's Day Massacre.
There's one glaring error in this episode and I don't know HOW Leonard Nimoy could make it or HOW the makers let it slip through: when Leonard Nimoy talks of "The Crime Of The Century" and President Kennedy being assassinated...on November TWENTY THIRD 1963!! I'm British and even I was alarmed by his error.
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea: Nightmare (1968)
Irwin Allen at his cheap-skatery worst.
The introduction to this episode promises far more than it ever gets near to delivering. It doesn't take very long before the experienced "Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea" viewer/fan will recognise that the usual main cast of Richard Basehart, David Hedison, Terry Becker and Bob Dowdell's camera time has been culled, and no doubt for cost purposes.
There's only 17 minutes left when Basehart, Becker and Dowdell finally do a scene together with Hedison as Captain Crane is tried for "treason against The Seaview" as he attempts to stop the launching of the vessel's nuclear missiles...against Washington DC!! The cost cutting meant that Kowalski and Patterson are in far fewer scenes than usual and the rest of the control room "boilersuit brigade" are missing altogether. As for the episode's guest "star", I'd ask "WHY bother?". Paul Mantee was dreadfully wooden but he was hardly given anything to work with.
It's been suggested that Irwin Allen was putting together his latest baby, "Land Of The Giants" if this is the case, it would explain this dreadful episode and the obvious cost-cutting. Allen treated his show's fans abysmally.
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea: No Escape from Death (1967)
ZERO stars out of ten, hear that? ZERO!!
This under cooked pudding of an episode is an absolute disgrace where the cheapskate Irwin Allen patches together stock footage with a questionable set of new scenes and expects fans not to notice stuff (or if they notice, not to mind) from the opening series that was made in black and white. Some of these scenes were used more than once during the show's run, eg Nelson getting knocked out and very very wet in a storage compartment.
I can't imagine that the regular cast were too happy about this, and maybe the sly exclusion of Richard Bull ("Doc") and Arch Whiting ("Sparks") was doing them both a good turn...but it was sooo hamfisted. Kowalkski exiting sickbay tells Crane that Doc is looking after Clarke ( the wretched Paul Carr) who got his injuries in series one and then we get Patterson sat in the radio shack. We've had "Sparks" played by anonymous extras in other episodes but of course, having Patterson sat in the radio shack saved Irwin Allen the cost of paying either Arch Whiting (credited or not) or some unknown face.
The whole thing just reeked of cheapness. Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek wasn't immune, re-using the original pilot episode and filling it out to a two parter with the idea of putting Mr Spock under trial but Irwin Allen was guilty of this over usage of stock footage over and over again.
A solid 0/10.
Special Branch: Entente Cordiale (1974)
Haggerty kills his first villain.
This fairly unusual episode of "Special Branch" has something for all fans of the series as it begins with Haggerty (Patrick Mower) shooting a man, in self defence and thus landing himself in hot water with a particularly odious officer from A10, the internal investigation branch.
Meanwhile, Alan Craven (George Sewell) finds his ex-wife (played by the gorgeous Dora Reisser) on his door step, uninvited and unwanted. However, when he finds that she is truly scared for her life, he can't resist riding in on his white steed to rescue her. What he doesn't know is that Strand (Paul Eddington) and his political puppeteers have an interest in both the dead man and the ex-Mrs Craven as they're suspected of being involved in terrorism in connection with France and Algerian independance.
Haggerty and Craven pretty much ignore protocol, Craven points out that HE is the perfect man to find his missing ex-wife and Haggerty pretty much tells the odious A10 man to go and do one. It was telling that the A10 officer threatens to "break" Haggerty the next time he got into trouble and he feels SURE that he WILL get into trouble again. It's a sad pointer that the series could've gone on, with Sewell and Mower, there was plenty of life left yet.
Morris Perry who used to play "Moxon" in "Special Branch" was born to play the oily man upon high whose political intrigues would frustrate law and order and allow someone to "get away with it" because it suited a few politicians. Paul Eddington, best known for his comedy acting did a fine job as "Strand", just as believable as Perry was.
In George Sewell, Patrick Mower, Dora Reisser and Gary Files. We get four actors from Gerry Anderson World meeting up, Sewell (SHADO's Colonel Alec Freeman) roughing up Files (Spectrum's Captain Magenta) in a scene that showed that Craven was a lot like Jack Regan of "The Sweeney" where George Carter pointed out that Jack could be a bit free with his fists at times. Mower played a Moonbase Alpha geologist in the episode "All That Glisters" and Dora Reisser played one of the whip wielding Mistresses in the "Space 1999" episode "The Devil's Planet".
A solid 9/10.
I Want to Live (1983)
A great example of just how bad a movie can be.
This pretty unwatchable unnecessary rewarming of the original 50s hit movie lacks any redeemable feature as it stars the vaguely attractive Lindsay Wagner in the famous Susan Hayward part and the totally unnattractive Pamela Reed taking on Simon Oakland's trailblazing press reporter role and turning him into a loathsome feminist hag. Her presence is permanently grating as Reed has only got one facial expression: SOUR.
They obviously DIDN'T want any close comparison to the original here, well they succeeded in THAT! Really, the only aspect they matched well was the questionable acting of the lead female. The job of portraying Barbara Graham was a dream role for any actress, a rare title role, and a truly meaty part in a true-life thriller. Susan Hayward overdid the acting and because timescale was lost after the murder trial, she seemed limited to overdoing the Bi-Polar flip-flop between "Hey, life's a ball, turn up the radio, I wanna hear that jazz!" and "Peg, I'm going to go to the gas chamber! I wish the waiting were over, I wanna die!" Thus it wasn't Susan's best film performance, merely the best part she ever had. Her job was to oversell the maker's objection to the death penalty and I suppose that coloured every aspect of the movie. As Wagner couldn't act, it's hard to tell if this was her best effort.
The original film had some serious acting talent, in the re-hash, Martin Balsam was pretty much on his lonesome. I suppose budgets count, but even the great Mr Balsam couldn't save this rotten movie, not even unwitting comedy could save this clunker, but fast-forward to the gas chamber scene and Wagner's facial expressions, it's acting right up there with the Pink Panther discovering the only food in the house, a carton of eggs, have gone rotten.
A solid 0/10.
Victim (1961)
High quality drama that couldn't be matched today.
This brave film highlights the unfairness of Victorian laws against homosexual men. It is crammed full of star talent who tell the story wonderfully well, especially Dirk Bogarde and Dennis Price. Given the sexuality of these two fine actors, it probably seemed and felt like a "career risk" that just had to be taken, especially for Dirk Bogarde who was such a big name in British cinema and a heart-throb idol for women. It is for sure that he did lose some of these fans for daring to star in a movie like "Victim", there'd be little consideration given to him for the fact that he was an actor and earned his living by playing a role, even if it was someone deemed unacceptable in some way.
In the 1960s, the British class system was still very much alive and kicking and thus we get Bogarde's well regarded legal eagle about to take silk, getting involved with a common building labourer (played by Peter McEnery). The labourer is being blackmailed, having been caught sitting in Bogarde's fancy car. In trying to protect the barrister, McEnery's character steals money from his employers and gets caught by the police. He has no way of explaining where these thousands of pounds went to, without admitting to being a homosexual who was "victim" to blackmail. He was caught with a scrap book full of news articles featuring Bogarde's exploits in court. Rather than reveal his relationship with/love of Bogarde, the labourer hangs himself in his cell. Bogarde feels responsible and even with his own liberty and career at risk, he feels driven to break up the blackmail ring.
There is excellent support play by the likes of Donald Churchill, Charles Lloyd Pack, Norman Bird and Derren Nesbitt who displayed with ease, the heartless villain he became so well used to playing. Like Yvonne Mitchell ("The Trials Of Oscar Wilde"), Sylvia Syms plays the star character's wife who finds herself with a male love rival, Syms is a little more convincing. She wasn't scared of being involved in career-risking films.
10/10 for a film well worth watching as a documentary of a time not all THAT long ago.
Thunderbirds: Trapped in the Sky (1965)
A great way to begin the series.
In this opener to the series, we get to meet most of the regular characters and the often used formula where people in danger attempt to perform their own rescue but lack the exotic equipment and expertise that International Rescue have.
The Hood shows that he has good intelligence (as in secret information, as we all know, he's a great bumbler in reality!) he already knows of International Rescue before they pull off their first ever rescue and torturing Kyrano into revealing that International Rescue are ready to start operating, The Hood places a bomb in the guts of the Fireflash preventing it from landing, luring "a veritable ssthwarm of Thunderbirds" to the scene.
As mentioned earlier, the authorities at London Airport attempt their own rescue and we get some humour when an airforce pilot says that he joined the service in the hopes of getting some excitement but all he does is tow drogues all day. As ever, it's International Rescue who pull off the miracle rescue. As for The Hood, he gets his photographs of the Thunderbird craft but is foiled in his getaway by Parker's good shooting with the FAB 1 machine gun.
The episode finishes with the show's first howler. When the doctor visits to give Kyrano a checkup, Jeff Tracy announces "operation cover up" but when the camera shows the wall of portraits behind the doctor, instead of the boys being in civilian clothing, it's the photos of them in their International Rescue uniforms!!
The Twilight Zone: The Big Tall Wish (1960)
One of my least favourite episodes.
I despise this episode, mainly because of the annoying brat. His wheedling voice really annoys me and as he takes up too much screen time he renders this episode unwatchable for me.
The guy playing the washed up boxer isn't much better as his makeup sells his character more than his acting does. The dialogue is poor too, the only cliche missing is "I/You coulda been a contender." We DO get the crooked manager figure who bets his money on his fighter's opponent, and we get the little leprechaun corner man. I think the most fascinating thing in this episode is how the annoying boy looks a lot like actor, Roscoe Lee Browne.
1 star because IMDb insist upon it.
Star Trek: Miri (1966)
Average episode, average score, thanks to some daft casting.
"Miri" is a mixed bag of an episode of "Star Trek", they made better and they made much worse. I don't mind the over usage of "Earth style" planets, the series was made to a budget and they couldn't avoid using sets you might see in another tv show or film. Here we get a duplicate Earth rather than "Semolina Four" which just happens to have Earth style architecture and cars.... Janice Rand was no "dumb blonde" as she was the first to call the planet "Earth" when Spock read aloud, the vital statistics of the planet.
The story boils down to a planet with no adults, thanks to scientists messing about with life prolongation experiments causing death when anyone had gone through puberty. The landing party catch the killer disease and even Mr Spock is marooned as he is a carrier.
Kirk attracts the notice of a (just) pre-pubescent girl named Miri (played by the incredibly dull Kim Darby). Even though she is over 300 years old (thanks to those experiments) she is so thick as not to realise that puberty is a death sentence on that planet.
McCoy and Spock are tasked with finding a vaccine, but a "boy" named Jahn (played by the ridiculously mature Michael J Pollard) steals the landing party's communicators. The theft was ludicrously easy plus the two red shirt security men would surely have been carrying their's rather than leaving them in the laboratory? Also, there was the equipment that sent out the automatic distress signal that drew Kirk and his ship to the planet.... I'm sure that Spock could've sent a message in Morse code?
Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned and Miri is jealous of the attention Kirk is giving to Janice Rand so she arranges for Janice to be kidnapped. Him finding her gives the kids a chance to "Bonk! Bonk!! Bonk!!! Bonk on the head!!" and he points out that it is now THEM who are doing the hurting....and conveniently forgetting the girl he killed with his phaser.
With no access to the Enterprise computers, McCoy and Spock come up with a possible cure but no means of determining the safe dose. They argue and McCoy out logics Spock by countering "It could be a beaker full of death..." with "Well we know the disease is deadly....what is there to lose?" As the Chief Medical Officer, the final decision should've been McCoy's anyway but he waits until Spock is out the way then takes a syringe full. He collapses in agony, Spock and Mr Osbourne return and watch the killer blue splotches on McCoy's face fade away. Even this early in the series, we get Spock muttering "I never will understand the medical mind." Logical or not, McCoy was never going to use someone else as a guinea pig.
Combat!: A Little Jazz (1967)
Reaching the end of the road for Combat!
"A Little Jazz" features a US jazz combo whose truck suffers a puncture close to the front line. Oblivious to the danger, they start playing and attract the notice of a nearby German patrol. The patrol decides to open fire but luckily, Chip Saunders and his squad are nearby and saves the musicians though the truck driver and accompanying MP "buy the farm".
Naturally, Chip Saunders is angry at the band's stupidity, but even more so with the band leader (played by Dan Duryea) who repeatedly acts as if the lives and mission of his combo outweighs the job of Sergeant Saunders and his men, and that his status as a civilian with the authority of an officer means that Chip Saunders should obey him when he demands to be escorted back to the safety of the US lines.
Without asking for Chip's permission, the wretched band leader decides to fly a white flag of truce, out of sight of Chip and his squad. The Germans cease firing and a sergeant & soldier are ordered to go forwards and tell the Americans to surrender, hands in the air. Not knowing WHY the Germans stopped firing and assuming that the enemy is merely closing in for the kill, Saunders' squad open up, Caje ends up killing the two Germans under a flag of truce. Saunders and his men can expect ZERO sympathy if taken alive now.
Running short of ammunition and extra Germans having arrived, Saunders does that rare thing of scrounging up weapons and ammunition from dead Germans. As could be expected, the US reinforcements arrive, just in time, to save Saunders and his men.
Combat!: Masquerade (1963)
A real problem for the Allies.
"Masquerade" is an episode of "Combat!" that I can enjoy watching, time and again, for the performances of James Coburn ("Our Man Flint") and the inimitable Vic Morrow. Coburn's cold hearted German spy is evil and believable and of course, men like him caused all kinds of panic as the Allied lines became stretched and German spies were able to infiltrate.
Chip Saunders has a gut feeling about a 2nd Lieutenant and a Corporal, transporting a captured German high ranking officer to Divisional Headquarters. Although Lieutenant Hanley appears to lack faith in Chip's gut instinct, it doesn't stop him from making sure anyway.
The German Lieutenant is poor at his job of pretence so the Corporal kills him in a brief fire fight with a Kraut patrol, and just to look good in front of Saunders and the squad, he polishes off most of the Germans himself. It was the Lieutenant being vague and the Corporal being self-assured that triggers Sgt Saunders' suspicion. Hanley finds that both men were in the outfit they claim to be in, but Chip Saunders still isn't happy. Then Hanley finds out that the real US men have been Missing In Action for five days. In a suitable stroke of irony, Coburn is killed by a fellow German and naturally, Sgt Saunders survives.
9/10.
The Earth Dies Screaming (1964)
There are worse ways of passing an hour.
"The Earth Dies Screaming" is another of those 1960s British science fiction films where an American hero (Willard Parker) is shoe-horned into the action, to save the Brits and hopefully sell the movie to the American market.
Like "The Village Of The Damned" we get a beginning where we the viewer, get to witness the inexplicable, pilots dying via the seeming "controlled flight into terrain", steam locomotives and carriages de-railing at high speed, and numerous bodies littering an otherwise beautiful English village. As this is a low budget B-movie and those pesky Americans cost more than even the venerable Dennis Price and Thorley Walters, you kind of know that the rest of the movie's action is going to be strictly of the very low budget kind, but that doesn't stop it from having a few very creepy moments and a wonderful background score in parts (Elisabeth Lutyens). Filming in black and white helps the atmosphere and the rural setting is lovely, you just have to hope that the government vandals haven't driven a bypass through the area!
The American hero ensures a happy-ish ending, at least for some of the more deserving characters. Dennis Price had an absolute gift for playing sly, slimey characters who go way past the description of "He's an absolute cad." whilst Thorley Walters excelled at the jovial bumbler. The hour of running time just seems to fly by, so if there are any scenes that seem to to drag, for your tastes, they don't last too long.
A solid 8/10.
Lost in Space: Flight Into the Future (1967)
Dr Smith does it again....
"Flight Into The Future" sees Will and the Robot checking over the space pod systems when Dr Smith enters, demanding the use of the Robot. As usual, Smith screws up and the three are launched towards a strange planet. Having gotten a trace on the pod, John Robinson and Don West follow the pod onto the planet, making a rough landing.
Luckily, they've landed near to the pod but when they speak to Will on the radio, he reckons they've landed in a rain forest whilst his dad and Major West can see nothing but desert.
Feeling fatigued, Will and Dr Smith have a nap, but when they awake, they find the Robot is covered in rust and mildew, as if they've slept for decades rather than minutes. When they find the Jupiter Two, it's in a wrecked state and covered in rust and mildew too. The Robot finds a statue, in his honour and it now seems that Will and Smith slept for over 200 years and they were somehow left behind by the rest of the Jupiter Two crew. They then meet some space archeologists, supposedly from Earth. Naturally, Smith is only interested in getting back to Earth whilst Will wants to know where the rest of his family are, what happened to them, and why did they leave him behind.
Having been given a three course dinner, Smith is happy but Will is not, he doesn't trust the two men from Earth. Then he meets "Judy" (wearing an ultra sexy outfit that surprises him) but she explains that Judy passed away decades ago and that Judy was her great great great grandmother! Will is not taken in by her lies.
Meanwhile, Professor Robinson and Major West find the abandoned pod and they too, are starting to doubt their own senses, and that some alien force is trying to scare them off. Will believes the same. Smith feels it imperative that he get back to Earth as one of the archeologists says his treachery has besmirched the Smith name for generations, he believes he can clear himself!! The three castaways are told to lift off in the pod and rendezvous with the Earth ship, but Will refuses to comply, and of course, Smith can't fly the thing. The alien force now bombards Will with imaginary "spookies" but he convinces himself that they're not real. Robot eventually zaps the alien machine and the Jupiter Two gang are all rejoined.
It's pretty much standard LiS fayre in that Smith gets Will, himself and Robot into trouble. Marta Kristen gets more to do than usual and shows off her gams, so her fans will be pleased. There's the usual humour plus the Robot singing his own praises on finding the statue!! I know many fans prefer the early episodes where the atmosphere was much darker, but the Robot with character is hilarious at times.
Solid 8/10.
The Twilight Zone: Shadow Play (1961)
I won't die again, I won't!
"Shadow Play" begins with a courtroom scene and Adam Grant (Dennis Weaver "Duel") being convicted of murder and getting sentenced to the electric chair. As he's being taken away, he yells that he "Won't die again!" and that when he dies, everyone in the courtroom will die. The prosecutor (Harry Townes "Star Trek") thinks that Grant is talking nonsense and that he's getting what's due to him. News reporter Paul Carson (Wright King) feels that Grant's story is so wild, that it has to be true.
We then get Grant sitting on Death Row and he spots things that just wouldn't happen in real life, like being sentenced the same day as he was found guilty and another Death Row inmate wearing a watch. He tells the guy that it's all so pat because that's how it is in the movies. Because it's a recurring nightmare, he's able to say just how many steps it is from the cells to the electric chair, and what it feels like to be strapped in then fried.
Meanwhile at the prosecutor's home, his missus is cooking steaks when reporter Carson turns up, half drunk and terrified that he and his world will end at one minute past midnight. He eventually convinces Townes to go and see Grant on Death Row. As this has happened every night Grant sleeps, he knows exactly what Townes will say. I always laugh when Townes says that if Grant knows it's all "just a dream", why not just enjoy the ride, including the electric chair!! Before leaving, Townes is told by Grant that there are steaks in the oven but when he gets home, it'll be something different.... Townes goes straight to the kitchen: the steaks are now a roast. That shakes him.
The reporter nags Townes into asking the Governor for a stay of execution on the grounds that if Grant believes his dream theory, then he may not be fit enough to execute. As one might guess, the executioner throws the switch, just as the Governor is phoning. The dream starts all over again, only this time, the reporter is Grant's defence attorney and the convict in the cell opposite to Grant's is now the judge.
As I'll watch this episode 2 or 3 times per week, I have to give it 10/10. Weaver, Townes and King are excellent and the story is just classic TZ stuff.
Combat!: The Old Men (1965)
Replacements with a difference....or mind your elders.
"The Old Men" features a trio of replacements for Chip Saunders' squad. Instead of a bunch of kids who've seen no action, here we get the likes of Pvt Clawson (Simon Oakland "I Want To Live!" "Kolchak") who has seen plenty of action and is willing to see plenty more. Oakland played this kind of role so well, bad tempered, doesn't suffer fools easily. From the off, the viewer gets the feeling that these 40 somethings (Kirby couldn't have been much younger!) will surprise Sergeant Saunders and gain the respect of our squad regulars, even though they LOOK like members of The Home Guard/Volkssturm and naturally, Kirby has no faith in their ability when they turn up, suggesting that they came from an old people's home!!
Clawson soon puts Kirby in his place (calling him Caje) as Kirby doesn't stop sniping about the "old guys" turning a 4 or 5 hour patrol (to grab a prisoner for S2) into a patrol taking 4 or 5 weeks. Clawson volunteers to take point, proving his knee and his guts are up to the job. It's very similar to the episode with Demosthenes and having more experience with a rolling pin than he does with an M1 rifle....but when Sgt Saunders needs you, you chip in as best as you can. So Clawson repeatedly volunteers himself into danger and Chip Saunders is confident enough to take him along. Sooner or later Kirby, you are going to show respect towards that "old man"!!
Private Todd is a would-be politician who felt that his political career would benefit from volunteering for service then returning home as a "hero" and he used all his influence to get sent to the front rather than be some rear echelon pen pusher. Selfish perhaps, but not as bad as being a psychopath!! (Robert Walker Jnr in the episode "Ollie Joe") This mission is his first frontline action.
Private Barnhill is the most frightened of the three replacements and wants the squad to return to their lines before the mission is anywhere near complete and even accuses Saunders that his decision to proceed will get them all killed. William Phipps excelled at playing these gutless, whining blancmanges.
All this episode lacks is Doc because he's just the kind of guy who'd get the likes of Barnhill through his personal terror, with his gentle wisdom and getting the new man to believe in Sergeant Chip Saunders and "You do just as he tells you and he'll get you back home safe." As it is, Chip gets his prisoner for S2, Barnhill rehabilitates himself as a soldier, Todd has seen combat and Clawson finally admits that he's not as young as he wishes he was.
10/10.
Combat!: One at a Time (1966)
Too obvious with a squad full of nobodies.
"One At A Time" sees a German (Jan Merlin "Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea") attempting to get revenge on Chip Saunders and his squad. As we have nobodies in the squad, the viewer knows that Merlin will have at least some success. I think we all know that Sgt Saunders would never go on a hunt like this, but we get the Germans acting like brutish Klingons and that Klingon who said that a running man could cut four thousand throats in a single night would no doubt admire Merlin's efforts.
Merlin was a wizard (ouch!!) at playing despicable villains, he just had the face for it, so he was very well cast in this episode. It begins with a thousand squibs going off and the Germans getting the worst of it. Merlin is the sergeant and his squad of youngsters panic and get shot down, trying to make a run for it. The sergeant hides and overhears Saunders' scathing comments, eg, they ran when they should've stayed and made a fight of it. He also hears Saunders telling his squad their destination. From this moment on, he wants to pick off the squad, one by one, leaving Chip Saunders until last, so that HE will feel what it's like to lose your entire squad.
It's not promising at first as one of the nobody squad members finds him and calls for help. In a bit of weak writing, Saunders orders a nobody to take the sergeant back to S2. I doubt that even Caje, Kirby or Littlejohn would be given this task alone, but here we get a nobody doing the job, alone, so it's all too obvious that he's going to fail miserably in his assignment and that the German will notch up his first revenge killing. It's all too obvious to make it that compelling an episode, a squad full of nobodies, we know where this episode is going.
Only 4/10.
Combat!: Soldier of Fortune (1965)
Chip Saunders the only regular in this episode.
"Soldier Of Fortune" features a very long lead in, to the opening credits. Sergeant Chip Saunders with two guys we've never met before, Wallace (William Campbell "Star Trek" "Cell 2455 Death Row") who is extra fire power and the wretched Marsh who is a communications specialist whose job is to listen in on German telephone communications. One can accept this being a three man mission rather than taking the whole squad as stealth is the name of the game.
The building is shelled and Marsh refuses to tell Chip Saunders what he heard as he is trapped and doesn't believe Saunders and Wallace that they'll pull him free and get him back to the American lines. Right from the off, he is sold as a fink as he wanted to go back to the American lines before completing the mission. He's a lot less likeable than the Sgt that Jack Lord played in the episode "The Linesman". Wallace doesn't believe Marsh has any worthwhile information but Saunders can't take that chance and says they'll have to give in to Marsh's blackmail. For those of us not scared of death, the thought of a bronze or silver star winging its way to our loved ones might well have been all the incentive we needed. Marsh is not made that way.
Sgt Saunders cuts some wires to lure the Germans down to the cellar, a German (Wesley Lau "I Want To Live!") is happy enough to call his comrades down to the cellar as Saunders has his Tommy gun pointed at him. Saunders gets the three Germans to lift the rubble that's pinned Marsh in place. Two of the Germans attack Saunders and Wallace and are dealt with, whilst Lau promises he'll not be so stupid as to try anything. An attempt to escape to US lines in a German Jeep fails as Wallace crashes the vehicle.
Rat-fink Marsh refuses, once again, to tell Saunders what information he heard (even though Wallace had pointed out that he'd draw a Court Martial for his behaviour) then Lau's German tells Sgt Saunders that Marsh is making a fool of him as he heard nothing of military value, he's merely making sure that he gets taken back to the American lines. Wallace believes Lau, Saunders wants to be sure.
A German patrol arrives, to investigate the telephone post because it has been silent. The town is littered with dead and dying Germans so they know that there are "Amerikana!!" in the area. There may only be five Germans but Saunders and Wallace are slowed down, having Lau as prisoner and Marsh who can't walk. Cue the first fire fight of the episode.
Saunders asks Marsh for the information, again, he refuses to give. Wallace calls Marsh a liar. Saunders decides that Lau will tell S2 what they want to know and tells Wallace to get some brush and hide Marsh. Wallace seems quite happy with this decision. As they begin to walk away, Marsh tells Saunders that the 6th Panzer Regiment plan a surprise attack. Lau claims that this is nonsense as the 6th Panzer Regiment are on the Russian front. Later, Saunders is forced to kill Lau but sadly, the Germans get Wallace.
(In a very weak scene, the German patrol were grouped by their command vehicle and could've been taken out but Saunders lets the opportunity pass.) Marsh uses a grenade to save Chip Saunders but even though Marsh told the truth about the 6th Panzer attack, he tells Marsh that he'll still be put up for a Court Martial.
Solid 9/10.
Combat!: The First Day (1965)
Kirby shows his feelings towards "punks"!!
"The First Day" sees Sgt Saunders, Doc, Kirby and Cage getting lumbered with a bunch of kids, straight out of basic training, as squad replacements. As Kirby mutters to Cage "We better win this war fast, we're running out of men."
Though Chip Saunders tells these kids that they're to avoid a fire fight, one of the kids spots a couple of Germans and shoots one of them, Sgt Saunders gets the other. He tells the kid that he might've brought a whole company of Germans down on them and gotten them all killed. It was a mistake, but a well meant one.
On the other hand, there's the instantly dislikeable, pug faced short house, Tate, who froze in the first piece of action he ever saw but lied about being terrified when told off by Kirby. He has the brazen nerve to tell Kirby that he'll soon find out differently and calls Kirby "Pop". He does some more mouthing off, claiming that because they're the new boys, Sgt Saunders will sacrifice them first. (Saunders has Kirby clear a path through a mine field....no preferential treatment there!!)
I think it's the episode's most satisfying scene when the squad are hiding in a wheat field as a German half track passes by that Tate starts mouthing off and Kirby tells him to shut up or else he would belt him one. Tate panics and runs and the machine gunner on the half track kills him. Sgt Saunders deals with the Germans, a grenade and his 45 automatic doing the job. Rightly enough, Saunders wastes no words on Tate's demise, Kirby calls him a big mouthed punk.
Combat! Had it right, that many young men bought the farm very soon after hitting the front, whilst others survived, and most more than likely, because they listened to the experienced NCO's and Kirby's of this world and allowed THEM to do the thinking. Of the four replacements, only one kid comes through unscathed and Doc in his inimitable fashion tells Saunders that you couldn't tell the kid from the rest of us. Thus, he is given the job of telling the next bunch of replacements what gear they really need and what to leave behind and that your first day of action on the front line is your most important.
A solid 9/10.
Joe 90: International Concerto (1968)
"Mr Sladek will now entertain us with a lively rendition of "Roll Out The Barrel" in G Major"
This episode of "Joe 90" begins with Joe, the Professor and Sam Loover enjoying a piano recital at the Maclaine cottage. Loover has had Maclaine record a tape of Sladek's brain patterns, the Professor not realising that Sladek is a secret agent of the World Intelligence Network who is going to use an upcoming world tour as cover for some spying.
In Moscow, Sladek uses a recording device in an ink pen and discovers that a military base is going to be built at a new location. Sladek types an innocent letter then signs the note in ink, the ink acts like recording tape which World Intelligence are able to listen to. (I wonder how many times that real boffins working for the world's various intelligence agencies took their lead from the imagination of writers of science fiction series?)
Sladek is under suspicion and will need safe passage out of Moscow and the idea is to replace Sladek with Joe who is present at a concert, turning over Sladek's sheets of music. At a suitable break in the music, Sladek escapes via Moscow's drainage system and Joe with glasses on, continues playing the joanna in Sladek's "inimitable style" which the head Colonel can recognise from any would-be copyist, thus giving the time for Sladek to escape with Professor Maclaine.
The concert is being broadcast live on radio and studio baffles have been placed so that Sladek's escape couldn't be seen. Joe's note perfect knock-off of Sladek even fools a border guard so Sladek (as "Frederick Nijinsky") makes good his escape.... "NOBODY can play like Sladek, so how can HE be playing HERE, and be there, trying to exit the country??" As with stealing the new unstoppable fighter plane, the authorities can hardly be seen punishing 9yr old Joe or Mac but the Colonel's failure is sure to get him an appointment with a firing squad!
7/10.
Island of Terror (1966)
"Creatures??" "Creatures???" "No bones??" "No bones."
"Island Of Terror" is a cracking little British sci-fi film of the 1960s. It partnered "Night Of The Big Heat" and similar to that film, we have a lonely island being terrorised by an inhuman foe, and only the help of some boffins from the mainland is going to save the ill educated local "yokels".
This help comes in the form of two eminent doctors played by Edward Judd and Peter Cushing.... Peter appeared in the sibling film. Instead of the invading aliens of the other film, the enemy here are creatures of our own making, scientists looking for a cancer cure create creatures based on the silicon atom and who live on bone....hence the title of my review. Fittingly, the scientists are the first victims. The creatures spread on the island, killing livestock and any humans who are handy. Reproducing by division, they threaten to totally infest the island inside a week. Luckily, Judd and Cushing happen upon the "Silicates" only apparent weakness: radiation poisoning. Using the island's remaining cattle, they give all the cows a radioactive shot and wait for the Silicates to eat the radioactive cattle. Judd says they were "lucky" as the island location meant the creatures were stopped there. The film ends with a scene of a Japanese laboratory....they've created their very own Silicate problem!!
Judd and Cushing were ably assisted by Niall MacGinnis as the island's de facto leader and Eddie Byrne as Dr Landers who originally contacts Judd and Cushing. The wooden Carole Gray plays the obligatory love interest of Edward Judd. I can't help but laugh when Judd tells the crowd of yokels to "Listen to Miss Merrill." as if ANYTHING she had to say was worth listening to, or was going to soften their panic as the Silicates close in for the kill, with them all trapped in the village hall!! The attitude is that if the lights fail, then the yokels will panic.
Cushing is fabulously witty, a Silicate has him by the arm, Judd has to chop his hand off with an axe: "I can't!! I CAN'T!!" "You must!! You MUST!!" He has blood transfusions and says one more transfusion and he'll be a full blooded Irishman! Judd offers him a morphine shot and Cushing says "First you carry out a shoddy piece of surgery and now you're trying to turn me into a drug addict!" Of his two doctor roles in this pair of films, Peter certainly had fun with "Island Of Terror" and I think you will too....though you may be put off tinned spaghetti for good!
10/10.
UFO: Timelash (1971)
Not your average UFO episode!
"Timelash" is one of my favourite episodes of "UFO" for lots of reasons, from little ones like the lovely Miss Ealand being on the verge of tears when a dishevelled Commander Straker exits his office and orders her "Nobody is to come through THAT door! NOBODY!!" and moments later, Colonel Foster demands that she open the door. She is bewildered because Straker never went INTO his office so WHERE did he come from?? We get a concerned Paul Foster calling the Commander "Ed"....a rare moment where rank is tossed aside in favour of friendship.
The bigger reasons are the spooky scenes where Straker and Virginia Lake are driving down the much used country road at night and they spot a UFO, more to the point, the aliens spot Straker's car. I always find the UFO's more spooky in a night time scene. The UFO opens fire. Straker's mobile phone isn't working so they can't warn SHADO HQ. Straker pulls in under the cover of trees and drives off again. (The car bouncing all over the road is a bit of a weakness in the model making dept). Straker and Lake get zapped by a strange light.
When they enter the studio (not via the usual road where we see the big studio sign and office block, this is a back road) they suddenly find themselves in bright daylight. Creepier still, everyone at the studio seems to be frozen in time, even birds and sawdust hang in the air, unmoving. Naturally, they are totally baffled. Entering the SHADO HQ, they find the same thing, all the operatives are like statues, until Virginia spots a man running....the villain of the week, played by Patrick Allen. He's a SHADO operative who has a grudge against Straker "The BIG man!!" and has sold out SHADO for a share in the aliens' power to move time, backwards or forwards.
He toys with Straker and Lake, taking shots at them and deliberately missing. Straker and Lake feel themselves slowing down, like everyone else in the area, so they inject themselves with a dangerous drug that could make them burn themselves out. They try to shoot Allen but he can move through time, even replay events. It's only when, in a Mysteron style giveaway, he tells Straker that he has to shoot where Allen is GOING TO BE, and NOT where he is, that Straker doing a 360 degree blast of machine gun fire kills Allen.
There's a UFO about to destroy SHADO HQ and Straker is the only one left, Virginia Lake having been knocked out by Allen. He takes it out with a rocket launcher. It's a rare episode where Straker and Lake got to see plenty of action. It's a pity about the mini-car chase between Straker and Allen's villain (the villain even replaying his crash into some crates), it LOOKS ridiculous and sadly, it's probably what many viewers will remember the episode for. I bet every kid in 1970 wanted one of those cars when they saw this episode.
It was certainly different from other episodes and again, showed that it wasn't ALWAYS about Interceptors, Skydiver and so on. The special effects were well done and as I stated at the beginning of the review, SHADO camaraderie was much in evidence here.
A solid 9/10.
In Cold Blood (1967)
Chilling and totally compelling viewing.
"In Cold Blood" is probably the best movie ever made about totally senseless murders, that netted the killers nothing but a death sentence, that actually happened in real life.
When compared to the hand wringing of Susan Hayward & Simon Oakland's "I Want To Live!" (not the thoroughly dreadful TVM re-hash) there is less anguish with regards to the sentence meted out by the court (no females being executed here) other than the possibility of being caught and hanged didn't deter two men from killing four people for ten dollars apiece. Even when they'd crossed the border into Mexico where they were beyond the reach of justice, they STILL returned to the USA. The inference here is that the death penalty deters no killer and the Prosecutor makes it clear that retribution was good enough reason to hang the two killers.
The film features Robert Blake and Scott Wilson as two hardened criminals who meet up after being released. Blake's character Perry is a bit of a dreamer for whom nothing has panned out, be it a career as a singer-guitarist in Las Vegas, gold prospector or a treasure hunter. Wilson's character Dick is more realistic, but his error was in believing jailhouse scuttlebutt that there's a lonely farm in Kansas with $10,000 in the safe. Perry agrees to aid in the theft when Dick says that to go hunting for 16 million dollars worth of lost treasure in Mexico, they need capital and the Clutter family's ten grand is an easy steal. Chillingly, Dick admits that he chose Perry as the plan is to leave no witnesses, and Perry is a natural born killer with a hair trigger temper.
The robbery is a failure and Perry admits that although he had no grudge against the Clutters, he killed them all. The police note that hog-tied as they were, their comfort was considered. As the psychiatric experts have it, neither one would've done the killings alone but Perry and Dick together equalled a third personality. They weren't legally insane so they were sentenced to hang.
Filming in black and white really adds to the atmosphere and their road trips provide some wonderful vistas that made this viewer think of "Duel". The score is suitable too. We get many flashbacks of Perry's miserable life, a mother who skips the family and a bad tempered, violent father who Perry loves and hates at the same time.
The scene where Perry recalls him and his father building a lodge in Alaska was brilliantly done, rain falling down the window reflected on his face, looking like tears running down his cheek. (At the time he is trussed up like a turkey and minutes away from the gallows). Besides the hangings themself, the scene is maybe the most memorable.
The hangings are chilling, but made even more so by the grin of satisfaction on Dick's face as he is taken to the execution shed called "The Corner". Dick tells the witnesses that he is certain that they're sending him to a better world than this one ever was. It pretty much sums up the fact that the road to Perry and Dick ending up on the gallows was a long and miserable one.
A very much deserved 10/10.
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea: The Lost Bomb (1966)
No monsters this week.
"The Lost Bomb" could've been a tedious episode of "Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea" but for a guest character bomb expert turning out to be a childhood pal of Chief Sharkey and a rat-fink traitor into the bargain. His supposedly vital expertise seems to become less vital as Sharkey and Admiral Nelson seem to do as much as he does, to disarm the bomb, once it has gone rogue.
The episode begins with the SSRN Seaview (oops, Sparks uses the call sign "SSNR Seaview" repeatedly, I'm amazed that Arch Whiting didn't pick himself up on that mistake, maybe he did, but Irwin Allen decided to save a few bucks on redoing the scene?) has a new bomb to install in an underwater base, it's a new Doomsday weapon supposedly going to prevent any future wars. Dr Bradley will see to its installation. It's here that he meets up with his old pal Francis Ethelbert Sharkey. They're buddying up when the plane carrying the bomb is downed with a Polaris missile (the usual stock footage), the bomb falls into the ocean at a depth of 800ft. Bradley is secretly carrying a homing device and a submarine called "Vulcan" attacks Seaview with a salvo of torpedoes, which miss. A laser burst cripples Seaview's ability to fire torpedoes back.
Luckily, the good guys find the bomb first, but its clock is running. Bradley and Sharkey swim out to de-fuse the thing. Meanwhile, Lee Crane and Kowalski take the Flying Sub out to keep the Vulcan "busy". They pretend to be searching for the bomb. Kowalski is pretty hilarious when Crane makes it clear that "Keeping the Vulcan busy at all costs." is a possible suicide mission....he obviously wasn't told this before donning his leather flying jacket!!
Capt Vadim of the Vulcan has changed his plan. Getting his mitts on the bomb and destroying Seaview is now altered, he wants to take both back to his anonymous country. When he realises the Flying Sub is a decoy, he blasts it with a laser and Crane and Kowalski are taken prisoner. This is of less importance to Nelson than neutralising the bomb which will destroy that part of the world in 15 minutes! Vadim says he will give Nelson his 15mins but he believes that Nelson is lying about the bomb and that he's really getting ready to fire his torpedoes, even with Crane and Kowalski on the Vulcan.
Bradley makes his first mistake when Sharkey discovers a hollow spanner full of electronics. Bradley gives Sharkey some plausible hogwash, but Sparks tells Nelson that there's a homing signal and that it's coming from the missile room where the bomb is. Nelson orders a search for the device and finds it himself. Sharkey gives the traitor a right cross and then helps Nelson with the bomb. The Vulcan hits Seaview with the laser beam, prior to a planned boarding party. In the brief "Seaview Rock And Roll" the bomb rolls and crushes Bradley to death.
Crane and Kowalski have escaped the Vulcan's brig and they use gas grenades, incapacitating Vadim and the control room staff. The Seaview launches its torpedoes even though Crane and Kowalski would be killed. The Vulcan is destroyed. Nelson and Sharkey have stopped the bomb just in time. Then Crane radios Seaview to say "mission accomplished....permission to come aboard."
There's far less "Seaview Rock And Roll"/fireworks/fire extinguishers in this episode, but it's probably better for it, it was certainly better off without monsters. The Vadim character was the usual Luger toting villain from a non-existant villainous country, tick that box. Bradley was the interesting one. He reminds Sharkey of diving into the East River to gather scrap metal....it was quite easy to think of Sharkey as the poor kid made good.
Solid 8/10.
The Trials of Oscar Wilde (1960)
One for the fans.....
"The Trials Of Oscar Wilde" was pretty much, a commercial failure but WHO did "tortured soul" better than Peter Finch, be it here, or "Far From The Madding Crowd" (which I sadly didn't value when I saw it in the cinema aged 15) or the cult figure of Howard Beale in "Network." You could say that Faye is "Dunawaywith" as I fast forward through her and ecumenical halfwits and the rest, Peter Finch is the star of the movie and is head and shoulders above the rest, even above the great William Holden.
As Oscar Wilde he is the perfect example of arrogance and extreme hedonism, it's quite possible to think "He had it coming to him, flaunting himself like that in Victorian Britain." and "The law was unbelievably savage towards men with his sexual proclivities." and how wretched that the "blackmailer's charter" survived until 1967, all at the same time. In that sense, this film and Dirk Bogarde's "Victim" were risky and very very brave to star in as the lead character under scrutiny.
If this film has a weakness, it's in the form of Lionel Jeffries, whose performance as the raving lunatic, Queensberry is too much of a cartoon caricature, even if the wretched oaf WAS mad. I'm not sure who I would've preferred in the role, but Jeffries was surely not the best choice around?
But apart from him, the performances are excellent, John Fraser, James Mason, Nigel Patrick and Emrys Jones give Finch a run for his money. Yvonne Mitchell seemed a bit uninspiring to me, and in their shared scenes, Maxine Audley was able to out-act her with just a look. Audley would've been the better choice as Constance Wilde. That said, Sylvia Syms played Mrs Farr in "Victim" very much the same way as Mitchell played Constance Wilde, simply not understanding losing her husband to a younger man and all the while, living a lie and dreading the mockery if the secret got out. "Dignity...always dignity." comes to mind.
The sets were fine....it's an irony that both Peter Finch and Maxine Audley appeared at Oscar's favourite theatre "St James's" before the act of vandalism that saw it demolished. COULD any actor or actress who played on that stage NOT think of its history and solid connection with Oscar Wilde's plays? The home of the Queensberry's is seen to be an uninviting, marble infested, cavernous tomb. Even without the raving mad Marquis being present, it looked a horrible place to be. Add the glorious colours and this was a movie that was meant to be seen then talked about. The music score is memorable, if a bit too strident for my own tastes.
Well worth 9/10.
Night of the Big Heat (1967)
Cushing and Lee top class as usual.
"The Night Of The Big Heat" is a movie I'll watch, every few weeks or so, mainly for the performances of Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee, Lee as an imperious scientist named Hanson "carrying out his activities" in an out of the way inn, is especially satisfying. The owner of the place, a part time writer, Jeff Callum (played by Patrick Allen) is less than enthused by the secrecy the scientist surrounds himself in, never allowing anyone into his room, and "creeping around the countryside" and "what with the damned heat" tempers are roused. Add into the mix, the arrival of Callum's former bit-on-the-side Angela Roberts (played by the lovely Jane Merrow) as his new agency secretary, life on Fara is nowhere near as peaceful as the Callums had hoped for.
Scientist Godfrey Hanson is trying to gather evidence for his theory as to why the Island of Fara is cooking with desert temperatures when the rest of The British Isles are in the depths of a winter freeze. He believes it's the vanguard of an alien invasion by creatures who live on a hot planet. He believes they're consuming all forms of energy so that they can generate the heat needed to survive.
We get strange deaths of livestock and people and Fara finds itself cut off from the mainland as telephones and radio/tv equipment are rendered useless. The village doctor (Peter Cushing) and Callum finally get Hanson to reveal what he believes and what he already knows for certain...that they're in a fight for survival against alien beings.
This film partnered "Island Of Terror" with a similar theme of a remote island having to defend itself against an inhuman enemy and "the local yokels" being led by more sophisticated, better educated mainlanders. I'll often watch them, one after the other. The special effects are low budget, but with the likes of Cushing, Lee, Allen and Edward Judd as the stars, the acting is top notch. I very much recommend both films to any fan of old sci-fi movies.