“The Great Diamond Robbery” (1954) starring Red Skelton / Z-View

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The Great Diamond Robbery (1954)

Director:  Robert Z. Leonard

Screenplay: László Vadnay, Martin Rackin, George Oppenheimer

Stars: Red Skelton, Cara Williams, James Whitmore, Kurt Kasznar, George Mathews, Harry Bellaver, Steven Geray and Larry J. Blake 

Tagline: A NEW Uproarious Role in the Career of the World’s Funniest Man

The Plot…

Ambrose C. Park (Skelton) as found on a park bench when he was a tiny baby.  No one ever came to claim him. Now Ambrose is a diamond cutter who dreams of having a family.  He’s searched for his family for years with no luck.

A shyster lawyer named Mr. Remlick (Whitmore) plans to swindle Ambrose out of a few thousand dollars. Remlock pulls together scam artists to play Ambrose’s mother, father and sister.  Their plan goes sideways when hard core thugs learn of a diamond worth two million dollars sitting in a safe where Ambrose works.  The thugs take over the scam and plan to kill anyone that gets in their way!

Thoughts (beware of spoilers)…

The Great Diamond Robbery is the type of light-hearted, sweet film that isn’t made any more. Red Skeleton is perfect as the naive diamond-cutter who wants a family.  Cara Williams plays his love interest and this is the first film I’ve seen with her.  I want to see more.  The actors playing the scammers and gangsters are well cast.

The Great Diamond Robbery was Red Skeleton’s last film while under contract to MGM.  It contains one of Red’s more subdued performances and I enjoyed it.

The Great Diamond Robbery earns 4 of 5 stars.

RIP: Pedro Miguel Arce

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Pedro Miguel Arce died on December 9, 2022 after a short battle with cancer.  Pedro Arce played football and college.  After graduating college Mr. Arce was working as a bouncer when he was discovered by an agent.  Throughout his career Pedro Arce acted in both television and feature films.

Some of Pedro Arce’s feature film appearances include: Fall: The Price of Silence; Land of the Dead; Step Brothers and Polar.

Some of Pedro Arce’s television appearances include: Street Time (3 episodes); CSI: Miami; How I Met Your Mother; Las Vegas; The Transporter; The Strain (4 episodes); True Detective (2 episodes); Gangland Undercover (2 episodes); The Ballad of Hugo Sánchez (4 episodes); Warigami (2 episodes); Coroner (3 episodes) and Diggstown (3 episodes).

I first saw Pedro Miguel Arce in George Romero’s Land of the Dead.  My favorite role that he appeared in was as Felix on The Strain.  Pedro Arce always made an impression no matter the size of his role.  It’s sad that he was taken at such a young age.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to Pedro Miguel Arce’s family, friends and fans.

CREEPY ARCHIVES VOLUME 1 is Coming!

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When I was a kid I’d sometimes get to read a Creepy magazine.  Creepy contained, well, let’s just go to the synopsis…

Gather your wooden stakes, silver bullets, and the skeletons in your closet, and prepare for a descent into horror and science-fiction history with Creepy Archives Volume 1!

Reanimated in all its gruesome glory in a value-priced paperback format, and in its original magazine size, this terrifying tome presents some of the finest work by comics legends Archie Goodwin, Frank Frazetta, Al Williamson, Reed Crandall, Alex Toth, Joe Orlando, Gray Morrow, and more. Collects Creepy magazine issues #1–#5 and includes original letters pages, text features, and ads.

I love that the reprint will contain the original ads, letters pages, etc.  It goes without saying when you have artists like Frazetta, Toth and Williamson that they are worth the price of admission.  I think I’m gonna have to get this.  Pre-Orders are available now.

Creepy Archives Volume 1

“Cactus Makes Perfect” (1942) starring The Three Stooges / Z-View

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Cactus Makes Perfect (1942)

Director:  Del Lord

Screenplay: Elwood Ullman, Monte Collins

Stars: Moe Howard, Larry Fine, Shemp Howard, Ernie Adams and Vernon Dent

Tagline: None.

The Plot…

The boys (Moe, Larry and Curly) are brothers out to make their fortune.  They buy a bogus gold mine map and end up finding gold. Little do the Stooges know, two crooks are waiting to rob them!

Thoughts (beware of spoilers)…

Catus Makes Perfect is a fairly generic Stooges short.  Still any outing with Curly is worth a look!

Cactus Makes Perfect earns 3 of 5 stars.

Is This the Best Curt Swan Superman Drawing Ever?

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Is this the best Curt Swan Superman drawing ever?  It gets my vote!

Curt Swan first drew Superman in 1948.  After that he drew most every comic in the Superman “family” (Superman, Superboy, World’s Finest, Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen, etc.).  In the 1960s, Swan’s Superman became “the” definitive model for the character.

Art Source: Colin Smith.

IT DIES WITH YOU by Scott Blackburn – For You or Someone You Love!

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I’ve been hearing a lot of great things about It Dies With You by Scott Blackburn.  Here’s the synopsis…

Scott Blackburn’s searing literary debut explores the dangerous world of secrets threatening to upend a rural Southern town, perfect for fans of David Joy and Brian Panowich.

For nearly a decade, twenty-nine-year-old Hudson Miller has made his living in the boxing ring, but a post-fight brawl threatens to derail his career. Desperate for money, Hudson takes a gig as a bouncer at a dive bar. That’s when life delivers him another hook to the jaw: his estranged father, Leland, has been murdered in what appears to be a robbery-gone-bad at his salvage yard, Miller’s Pull-a-Part.

Soon after his father’s funeral, Hudson learns he’s inherited the salvage yard, and he returns to his Bible-belt hometown of Flint Creek, North Carolina, to run the business. But the business is far more than junk cars and scrap metal. It was the site of an illegal gun-running ring. And the secrets don’t end there; a grisly discovery is made at the yard that thrusts Hudson into the fight of his life.

Reeling for answers, Hudson joins forces with his father’s former employee, 71-year-old, beer-guzzling Vietnam vet Charlie Shoaf, and a feisty teenage girl, Lucy Reyes, who’s fiercely seeking justice for her own family tragedy. With a murderer on the loose and no answers from the local cops, the trio of outcasts launch an investigation. The shocking truth they uncover will shake Flint Creek to its very core.

The It Dies With You lowdown has all of my Spidey-senses tingling so much that it made my Christmas Wish List. (I have it on good authority, I won’t be disappointed.)  If It Dies With You sounds like something you or someone you love would like,  it is available now.

It Dies With You Hardcover

It Dies With You Kindle

“Spooks” (1953) starring The Three Stooges / Z-View

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Spooks (1953)

Director:  Jules White

Screenplay: Felix Adler

Stars: Moe Howard, Larry Fine, Shemp Howard, Norma Randall, Philip Van Zandt and Tom Kennedy

Tagline: Hollywood’s First Comedy Featurette in 3-D

The Plot…

The boys (Moe, Larry and Shemp) are private detectives hired to find a kidnapped woman.  The trail leads to a spooky house where the woman is being held hostage by a mad scientist, his hulking assistant, and a gorilla…

Thoughts (beware of spoilers)…

If Spooks reminds you of Dopey Dicks it should. Both contain the same elements: a spooky old mansion full of hidden passages, a mad scientist, his hulking assistant, a woman in distress and the Three Stooges. Spooks kicks it up a notch by adding a gorilla and a release in 3D!

Spooks earns 5 of 5 stars.

“Killer Sally” (2022) / Z-View

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Killer Sally (2022)

Director:  Nanette Burstein

Stars: Sally McNeil, John McNeil

Tagline: None.

The Plot…

Sally Dempsey was a talented high school athlete. After graduation she became a marine.  While in the service Sally took up competitive bodybuilding.  That’s when she met Ray McNeil,  Ray was already a bodybuilder on his way to the top.  Sally and Ray were married after dating just a couple of months.

At first they had a great marriage.  Ray made it to the Mr. Olympia competition. Sally was becoming a well-known bodybuilder.  Somewhere along the way, the marriage turned sour.  Then on Valentine’s Day, 1995, Sally called 911 to say she had just killed her husband.

Killer Sally provides background on the case over the course of three episodes.  Was Sally a victim of spousal abuse or a cold-blooded killer?

Thoughts (beware of spoilers)…

Killer Sally is an interesting docuseries that could have been told in two episodes.  By stretching it out to three, some of the impact is lost.  The first episode provides background. Even after marriage Ray was a player and abusive.  He’s the bad guy.

In the second episode we learn that Sally was also abusive.  Even worse she had a criminal record for violence!  She had beat up her mailman,  attacked a female bodybuilder at a competition and got into a drunken confrontation with a bouncer (she wouldn’t stop dancing on a table) that led to police intervention.

Making Ray as the total villain in the first episode while holding back all the bad stuff on Sally until the second probably felt like a shocking reveal to the filmmakers.  It just felt a bit cheap to me.

There’s no question that Sally killed Ray.  She claims he was beating her up and she killed him in self-defense.  The facts show Ray was shot twice with a shotgun.  I won’t spoil the verdict, but will say I agreed with the outcome.

Killer Sally earns 3 of 5 stars.

Timothy Dalton is 007 in “Licence to Kill” by Bob Peak!

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Bob Peak was a master and one of the greatest movie poster artists of all time.  Above and below are two pieces Mr. Peak did for “Licence to Kill” (1989).  If you don’t remember them being used, well. let’s have Jon Donahue explain…

Late artist Bob Peak’s unused hand painted illustration of Timothy Dalton as #JamesBond in “Licence to Kill” (1989). Unfortunately, the studio went with still photography for the final poster.

Source: Jon Donahue.

“Dopey Dicks” (1950) starring The Three Stooges / Z-View

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Dopey Dicks (1950)

Director:  Edward Bernds

Screenplay: Elwood Ullman

Stars: Moe Howard, Larry Fine, Shemp Howard, Christine McIntyre, Philip Van Zandt and Stanley Price

Tagline: Don’t lose YOUR head howling at the Stooges!

The Plot…

A woman rushes into a detective’s office where janitors (Moe, Larry and Shemp) are cleaning.  She mistakes the boys for detectives. She says she’s being followed.  Moe, Larry and Shemp head into the hall checking in all directions.  When they return to the office, the woman is gone but  a note has been left behind.

The trail leads to a spooky house where the woman is being held hostage by a mad scientist, his hulking assistant, and a headless robot…

Thoughts (beware of spoilers)…

Dopey Dicks contains all of the elements needed for a classic Stooges short.  We get a spooky old mansion full of hidden passages, a mad scientist, his hulking assistant, a woman in distress and the Three Stooges.  Dopey Dicks is one of the best!

Dopey Dicks earns 5 of 5 stars.

“If a Body Meets a Body” (1945) starring The Three Stooges / Z-View

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If a Body Meets a Body (1945)

Director:  Jules White

Screenplay: Jack White from a story by Gilbert Pratt

Stars: Moe Howard, Larry Fine, Curly Howard, Theodore Lorch, Fred Kelsey and Al Thompson

Tagline: None.

The Plot…

When Curly is named as a benefactor, the boys show up at the late uncle’s spooky old mansion for a reading of the will.  Instead of a will reading, all of the guests are kept in isolation as Detective Clancy (Kelsey) attempts to determine who murdered Curly’s uncle!  While the boys are kept in a bedroom strange things begin to happen…

Thoughts (beware of spoilers)…

This same plot was used in The Laurel and Hardy Murder Case. Fred Kelsey played the investigating cop in both!  This is the first short filmed after Curly suffered a stroke.  That’s why Larry and Moe get more individual gags than usual.

If a Body Meets a Body earns 4 of 5 stars.

“Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein” (1948) / Z-View

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Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948)

Director: Charles Barton  (Walter Lantz directed the animation sequences)

Screenplay: Robert Lees, Frederic I. Rinaldo, John Grant

Stars: Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Lon Chaney Jr., Bela Lugosi, Glenn Strange, Jane Randolph, Frank Ferguson and Bobby Barber

Tagline: Jeepers! The creepers are after Bud and Lou!

The Plot…

Chick Young (Abbott) and Wilbur Gray (Costello) work at a shipping company.  They receive a call from Larry Talbot (Chaney). Crates scheduled for delivery to McDougal’s House of Horrors contain the real Dracula and Frankenstein monsters!  Unfortunately before Talbot gets them the message, he transforms into a werewolf.  Chick and Wilbur deliver the crates.

When Talbot shows up, he convinces Chick and Wilbur that Dracula and the Frankenstein monster are real! Meanwhile, Dracula plans to place Wilbur’s brain in the monster.  Soon we have Abbott & Costello, Frankenstein, Dracula and the Wolfman in a battle royal with the winners being the audience.

Thoughts (beware of spoilers)…

Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein is a perfect example of how horror and comedy can work together seamlessly.  We get Abbott and Costello’s verbal comedy and sight gags.  Costello dealing with a lady who wants her bag from a cart full of luggage is classic.  The Boys’ interactions with the monsters at the castle is priceless.  Having Lugosi recreate his signature role is a plus (and only the second time that Bela Lugosi played Dracula in movies).  Watch, I mean listen for a Vincent Price cameo at the end!  Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein is my all-time favorite Abbott and Costello movie and one that I can re-watch anytime.

Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein earns 5 of 5 stars.

“The Pale Blue Eye” starring Christian Bale – The Full Trailer is Here!

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The teaser for The Pale Blue Eye had me in.  Today we get the trailer.  I’m still in.

West Point, 1830. A world-weary detective is hired to discreetly investigate the gruesome murder of a cadet. Stymied by the cadets’ code of silence, he enlists one of their own to help unravel the case — a young man the world would come to know as Edgar Allan Poe.

The Pale Blue Eye on Netflix, January 6.