The Pumaman - 1980

I initially saw this gem through MST3K. Since that time, it's become something of a classic in my mind.

This movie has a thin "plot." A man discovers he's the Pumaman when Vadinho (a man who really loves his necklace) throws him out a window. A mind-controlling mask is in the hands of Blofeld from the Bond films. He is looking for the Pew-ma-man (he's the only one in the movie who pronounces it that way, and I'm not sure why someone didn't tell him) for reasons I don't understand. I think it's because Pumaman is obligated to get the mask back to the Aztec UFO that my kids said looked like a Christmas ornament.

There are many wonderful things in this movie: mind control, literally flying by the seat of one's pants, getting lost in the nether, phasing through walls, claws of the puma, the ability to play dead, and one of our personal favorites, changing sizes while attacking (?) a helicopter. 

I've watched this movie multiple times, and I've loved it every time. According to my research, it was supposed to be a serious movie, but they didn't know how to operate the special effects camera, so they tried to make this humorous. It's the best thing. I know the director wasn't happy with the end product, but every single person I've watched this with has had a great time. Best watched with friends!

Tower of London - 1939

Next up on our list of Universal Classic Monsters list was Tower of London.

In this "monster" movie, we get a recreation of the murders of Richard III. He wanted to be king, but there are multiple people in line ahead of him. With a little (or a lot) of scheming, he gets there. He also has a weird diorama locked in a little cabinet that he updates with each murder. I like his attention to detail and making sure to change the dolls as the children age. Who made those for him? Probably Mord...

Oh Mord. The Grinch (Boris Karlof) plays the minion of Richard III (Basil Rathbone - I know him best as Sherlock). He really wants to please Basil. I feel like they made him a bit too dedicated. Calling him a god and kissing his hand was a bit much. Props to Basil, though, he did have crazy eyes a few times. He was probably upset about his hair.

Ok. I didn't do any research on this movie beforehand. I don't want to accidentally spoil anything. I remember the basic parts of this story and the hauntings in the Tower of London. What I didn't expect was this listed as a monster movie. I suppose you could make an argument about Basil's character being a monster, but it was definitely not what I expected. I understand The Grinch, Sherlock and Vincent Price are in this, but I don't think that automatically makes it a monster movie. A horror? Questionable. Richard III was definitely a horrible person, but this movie shouldn't have been on the list. Putting that aside, it was okay, but I probably won't remember much about it. Except the diorama. It was weird.

Son of Frankenstein - 1939

Next up in our Universal Monster movie list is this little gem. It has some great actors in it (Lugosi, Karloff and Basil Rathbone), so I was interested in this one for sure.

Basil is the son of Frankenstein. Now that his father is dead, he's bringing his wife and son to the ol' family home. The village meets them at the station with an icy reception, but they do present Basil with a briefcase that he carries around gently for the next 20 minutes. 

Lurking around the homestead is Igor, the hanged man who didn't die. Apparently, when the lab collapsed at the end of the last movie, the monster didn't die. Igor is lurking around the property and convinces Basil to "heal" the monster. Little does Basil realize the man who stole bodies (they say) is actually manipulating him to revive his murder toy.

Okay, so this was another movie where I just felt bad for the monster. Little Peter, Basil's son, was helpful and liked everyone, including the monster. Again, the poor monster just wants to be treated as a sentient being. Unfortunately, Igor is the one in control, so again, the monster is at the mercy of a terrible person. Sigh. Again, they "kill" him,  There was a lot of peeping, and Bela was playing a weird instrument sometimes.

Krogh, the inspector, looked really familiar. The actor has been in a lot of things, but I think the main movie I was thinking of was Beggars in Ermine. His arm was a bit strange. I don't know if prosthetic arms worked like that back then, but I feel like someone should've given him a better arm. And what was up with his story? He said the monster ripped off his arm, but in previous movies, the monster was fine until people provoked him. I mean, he accidentally killed that girl in the pond, but I feel like she could've stood up and walked out of the water. Just my thoughts. Remember in the second movie when he was hanging out with the blind man (probably not, but I do)? He even learned how to speak, but apparently forgot how to do that for this movie. AND! He sacrificed himself at the end for the stupid humans in love! Argh.

Anyway, the movie was okay, but again, everyone was terrible except for the kid and the monster. I wouldn't really ask anyone I like to watch it. My enemies? Maybe...

Warlock - 1989

I had some time on my hands and heard about this movie. Being a fan of Julian Sands, I was interested in checking out this film.

A warlock is sent to the future where he's tasked with finding the three parts of the devil's grimoire. He wants to uncreate creation, but he'll need to go through Redferne first. Redferne followed him to the future (somehow) and employs a young woman to help stop the warlock.

Ok, so first I'm going to address the elephant in the room. The special effects in this movie are AWFUL. They're straight up some of the worst I think I've seen in a LONG time. If I move past that, I tend to lean toward Sands in any of his roles. I think he did a good job here, but it was hard to root for him at times. I can kind of sympathize with him using kids to be able to "fly," but it still looked really bad.

The story was interesting, and I liked it overall. I feel like the warlock acting was better than Redferne. That guy seemed to lean into a caricature or something. I also found it interesting these guys time travel 300 years and seemed to take it extremely well.

There are more movies, even though this one didn't do that well. Julian Sands appears again in the second one, so I might watch it, but I'm trying to narrow down how I feel about this one. I also want to point out how this movie didn't rely on jump scares. I expected one a couple times, but I was never scared. And I am very jumpy. I was entertained the whole time, and I'm going to give it a Good Movie! review. I wouldn't recommend it to everyone. I understand the criticisms, and they are valid, but I had a good time with it. Fly on, Julian Sands, fly on!

Quatermass 2 - 1957

The second half of our double feature was a blind choice. That means we picked it by just reading the description. The other requirement is that neither of us has seen it before. With this being "2" we searched for "1," but Tubi didn't seem to have any other Quatermass movies.

Professor Quatermass (which I kept calling Quartermass) has just been told his moon base program has been trashed. In the meantime, bugs are crawling down the screens of their radar. I guess those were the little cocoons the aliens came in, but it looked like bugs. They've taken over the town of Winnerden Flats and built a replica of the professor's moon base where they're creating "food" so they can survive on our planet. If they come in contact with a human, they make sure to mark them with a handy "V" tattoo. You know - so we can tell who's who.

The professor makes it onto the base with a government man. After the man falls into the goo and dies, Quatermass gets a Scotland Yard man and a newspaperman and heads back to a nearby town. He incites a riot, probably not on purpose, but I appreciate the mob taking on gunned aliens with boards and fists. The domes are housing alien versions of Trash Heap from Fraggle Rock, and when they're blown up, the Heaps are free. I wondered why they didn't insta-die since oxygen was supposed to be poisonous, but whatever. The magic selective radiation rocket deflates them and kills the aliens that had possessed the humans in the area (well the ones that haven't been murdered anyway).

The movie was wild. Since I have no backstory on Quatermass, I had fun trying to figure out what in the world the whole TV series/movie trilogy thing was. I had to stare at the Wikipedia table for a while. I'm still confused. Anyway, a lot of this movie was weird, but the last part of it was great. It reminded me of the way I felt about Phantom of the Opera (1925). Was the end enough to make it a good movie? Oh, and Brand was the real hero in this one. RIP Brand. I think we need more Quatermass watches to make a decision.

Dracula's Daughter - 1936

Movie night! First up in our double feature was our next Universal Monster movie. I was a little wary of this one. It didn't have any names I recognized.

We start with the police finding Van Helsing right after he's murdered Dracula. He's taken into custody where he tells everyone he murdered a vampire. It's not going over well, and Scotland Yard eventually gets involved. Van Helsing call on an old friend, Dr. Garth. He's not an attorney, but Van Helsing thinks the man will believe him.

In the meantime, Dracula's daughter, Countess Zaleska, is stealing her father's body only to burn it out in the forest. Okay...Apparently, she doesn't want to be part of the Curse of the Draculas, and she thinks that since her father's dead, she's free. But she's not. And she left Renfield's body behind. That was funny.

She has this nifty ring that helps her hypnotize people. She leaves a victim partially alive, and when Dr. Garth tries to pry into the young woman's brain, he breaks her, and she dies. The Countess wants the doctor to come with her when she leaves town, so she kidnaps his secretary (it's the romance aspect, but it's not an obvious one) and takes her to Transylvania. I did enjoy how the town was celebrating being without the Draculas, but then they saw the light in the castle and immediately packed up everything.

Of all the characters in this movie, my favorite was Sir Basil Humphrey of Scotland Yard. He was great. He also loved stamps, and his butler, Hobbs, was great too. I needed more of them. It might surprise you to know that the Countess' minion, Sander, is the real hero of the movie. Bet you didn't expect that!

I didn't care about any of the main people in this movie. The Countess was weird. They never said how she existed. They mentioned her mother but not what happened to her. I was just glad Sir Basil was okay. The vampire attacks weren't shown, the marks on their necks weren't shown, and she just casually mentioned there was blood on her cape. I never saw her fangs, and I didn't even get to see a fake bat! This one's a pass.

 

The Phantom of the Opera - 1925

I was scrolling through Tubi and had some time to spare. I hadn't seen this movie, and I was ready to dive into the classic. The only way I'll summarize the plot is a phantom is trying to control an opera house, and when things don't go his way, he takes action.

First, I want to add the caveat that since this is a silent film, it was going to be something of a struggle for me. The one I put on didn't even have random music in the background (I found out later there's a 1929 version that adds music), so it had some marks against it. I'm a person that needs noise, so watching this was hard to begin with.

The next thing I want to address is the choice to make this movie during this particular time. It was in 1927 when The Jazz Singer came out with limited sound sequences. I believe there's a difference between making a silent film about Dracula and one based in an opera. I watched a dancing scene and a couple operatic scenes, but since I couldn't hear anything, they were strange. Had they waited a few years, I think it could have been more interesting.

Next is Christine. She's very dramatic and changes her mind often. She agreed to go with her "master" but then immediately freaked out. I have to admit, his mask was probably worse than his face (the flappy thing over his mouth was so weird), but she's the one who went back there of her own free will. 

I sat there for an hour a bit bored. And then all heck broke loose. The Phantom had some great traps in his catacombs, and he was totally prepared for someone coming in via the river(?). The very end was completely weird. I laughed when Christine jumped out of the carriage. The end of The Phantom was weird. "I'm going to threaten people to keep them away and then show them I was kidding." Great plan.

Ok, so this one has me on the fence. Silent films are hard for me, and I struggled through the dancing and "singing" for that first hour. When it got crazy, I was having a blast. Was it enough to salvage the movie for me? I'm not sure.

 

Psyche 59 - 1964

I read the summary for this one, and I was on board.

A woman is blind, but it's a mental problem. It reminded me of Cricket on the Hearth when the girl goes blind after she finds out her fiancé is lost at sea. Anyway, in this movie, Alison's younger sister, Robin comes to live with her and her husband, Eric. Apparently, those two have a past, and as the plot progresses, it becomes clear what happened between those two.

Later, Alison starts to piece together the traumatic event that blinded her. The past is repeating itself, and it's triggering her memories. The end is just nuts.

I was on board with this movie until the end. When Alison is pretending she's still blind, I know what she's up to, and I was on the edge of my seat what was going to happen. Eventually, the sister and the husband mess up in front of everyone (like morons), and they realize Alison can see. What happens after that? I don't know. The movie ends by Alison walking outside and looking at the sky. That's it. What happens with the two horrible people? I needed justice.

I was afraid Alison was going to take pills, but I guess she chooses life? The crappy ending just ruined it for me. The story is based on a book by Francoise des Ligneris. I'd normally be interested in finding out if there was some kind of resolution in the book, but I was so irritated at the movie, I'm just going to leave it where it is. Bummed.

Act of Valor - 2012

This movie was on my radar because it starred active Navy Seals.

The story is basically a series of events tied together by the experiences of the Seals. A lot of equipment and big toys (I don't know how to describe all the planes, boats, helicopters, etc.) are on display. The Seals are trying to prevent an attack on America by some suicide bombers being smuggled into the country. It starts out as a hostage extraction, and the bread crumbs lead to the bigger picture.

Apparently this movie didn't resonate with the critics, but I really enjoyed it. The action was great, and I liked the way they filmed the missions. It really did feel like I was experiencing things through the eyes of the Seal at times (what they were going for according to the extras). The Seals weren't all emotional and dramatic, and you wouldn't want them to be. It wouldn't make sense under the circumstances. 

I appreciated the effort taken to put this project together and would happily watch it again. The time flew by, and I'm sure I missed some things I'll catch on a second watch. I have the Blu-ray and watched a couple of the extras. It was interesting to learn some of the behind-the-scenes info. The only thing missing was a K-9! Good Movie!