Murder By Television ~ 1935 -BW


QUICKIE: We've always suspected, but now we know.... Tv kills!

PLOT: The inventor of a new television transmission process refuses to sell his invention to any existing broadcast companies and plans on revealing his invention through a debut broadcast. Midway through the initial broadcast, the inventor is killed and when the police arrive to investigate the death, the inventor's assistant is found murdered. With plenty of suspects to choose from and all with a motive for the deaths, it falls on the Chief of Police and a Federal Agent to figure out who did the crimes

SUMMARY: ......SPOILERS BELOW!
Bela in a non-vampire role! And not a mad scientist either! This movie is pretty good. I had no idea who did it, as everyone had a motive. It's a pretty standard mystery, but what is really great here is the ending. The professor was killed by two frequencies combining to produce a cosmic radiation known as The Death Ray! And no, that wasn't Bela who got killed, it was his twin brother! Those two bits came out of nowhere and sure surprised me. What a crazy surprise ending because of it too.
Mystery Collection: Disc 12 - side A
Watch for free:

Guest in the House ~ 1944 -BW


QUICKIE: PDMR rule: Some women are just bad.

PLOT: A young woman (Anne Baxter), who is emotionally unstable, stays at the home of her physician where she ends up meeting his brother (Ralph Bellamy). The woman becomes obsessed with the man, in spite of the fact that he is happily married (to Ann played by Ruth Warrick), and decides to do everything in her power to win him over and prove her love. The dangerous actions of the young woman leads to some tragic consequences for those involved. Aline MacMahon plays Aunt Martha, Marie McDonald as Miriam the model, and Margaret Hamilton has a small role as Hilda the Maid.

SUMMARY: Not having seen All About Eve I found this movie to be absolutely wonderful. Having read a review of All About Eve on IMDB.com I can understand why critics downplayed Ann Baxters' portrayal of Evelyn as "preparation for Eve" in All About Eve. Hence the futility of reading "critics". I am not a critical person, preferring to focus my time on good things, and skipping over the losers.

I found this movie to be completely engrossing. It sucked me in and carried me along and in the end made me thrilled with the whole ride. Ann Baxter was great, I didn't think she over acted at all. I especially enjoyed how the whole movie got darker and the lighting more dramatic as the emotions progressed. Some have said the characters' gullibility was too hard to believe, and I did agree with that a little, but pushed it away with the rational that times were indeed different then. Also, if one has never interacted with a sick individual, one has no way of knowing what they're capable of. So, their naivety was believable for me.
If I rated movies around here, I'd give this 10 out of 10 stars, I liked it that much. It is a really good film start to finish. And boy, what a finish!

Mystery Collection: Disc 14 -side A
I can't find it online yet.

Eegah ~ 1962 -colour


QUICKIE: Eh Gads! It's Eegah!

PLOT: A teenage girl driving through the desert is confronted by a huge Neanderthal-like man and she returns to the city to share her story with her father, an explorer, and her boyfriend. When her father doesn't return from searching for the creature, the girl and her boyfriend head out to the desert to find him and the girl is taken hostage along with her father. It's up to the efforts of the boyfriend to rescue the father and daughter before the caveman can make the girl his mate.


SUMMARY: I said to my mom that I watched this movie about a caveman that somehow survived until 1950 & lived outside LA and met a girl on the highway and fell in love with her. She said let me guess the plot: he kidnaps the girl and takes her back to his cave. Although he's a caveman she learns he's not such a brute, he's just "misunderstood" because he's different. Either her ex, or current boyfriend gathers a mob and comes to save her. She pleads for Eegah not to be killed and then everybody lives happily ever after. (I should shorten that to HEA.) I was amazed at how close she came to nailing the plot. Yes, it's predictable, but it's still kind of charming in a mildly entertaining way.


Just add in the Dad, who wants to write a book about Eegah, but gets captured by him instead, the boyfriend continually breaking out his guitar and boring us with some rotten music, and that the cops kill Eegah in the end (for crashing a pool party in LA) and there ya go! In almost every scene with Arch Hall Jr., all I can do is stare at his hair. WHAT is going on there?!!??? The top part sticks straight out, totally unruly. I don't know if it's intentional, but it looks dumb. Point, stare, laugh. Anyway, this is the same doorknob who was in Wild Guitar. A really boring film about Arch becoming a rock star.


This film has Arch's Dad, Arch Hall Sr. in it. At least Dad can act better than Jr.. But every film that is a family affair is inevitably bad. Marilyn Manning is the girl Eegah falls for. Richard Kiel (Jaws from James Bond's Moonraker) plays Eegah the misunderstood caveman. He actually manages to be rather funny in playing up to his dead relatives who are seated in his cave. The scene where he gets a shave is also amusing. It's a fun movie to watch with a friend and crack jokes through it. You can't get mad at a film that fails on so many levels. It's a charming little mindless distraction. "Great film" it is not.

available on Google video

Destroy All Planets ~ 1968 -colour


QUICKIE: (sung like BOC's "Godzilla")
Well he spins through the air
with fire coming out his butt
Everyone points at the sky
and then they yell "what?"

Taaaa-DA! There goes Taki-ma.
Ha-HA Gamera!

(ok, I'm no poet)

PLOT: Gamera, the giant flying turtle returns to save humanity when an alien spacecraft approaches Earth intent on world domination. Gamera destroys the alien ship, but a second craft captures two boy scouts to shield them from Gamera. The aliens then place a control device on Gamera to make him attack Tokyo. The boys foul their plans when they manage to reverse the controls and Gamera confronts the squid-like beings in a climactic battle.

SUMMARY: Another great Gamera story where everybody's most beloved turtle saves the day by fighting a monster. These super sci-fi special effects are not to be missed! The alien ship is 5 painted beach balls on a hula-hoop. Our heroe Gamera is a special effect along the quality lines of Godzilla. It is also a Japanese film. With the typical "monster destroys the model town" scene. The begining has a recap of a few previous Gamera battles.


I love how the little boys shout fighting directions at the giant turtle like he wouldn't know how to fight if not for the guidance of an 8 year old boy. It's a cute movie although very typical and very predictable.