From Beyond the Grave (1974)

Four stories, each revolving around haunted items purchased from a curio shop run by an old man (Peter Cushing).

Story one concerns a haunted mirror that needs to be fed blood. The second is about a man with a shrewish wife who purchases stolen valor to impress a street vendor and his creepy daughter. In the third a man is haunted by an invisible ‘elemental’, and in the last one a man purchases a fancy door he uses for his office supplies closet.

The creepy daughter of the street peddler (Donald Plesence) was played by Pleasence’s actual daughter. Buxom Diana Dors was the shrewish wife. Something of a British Marilyn, she was featured in a successful run of films I have never seen. She would appear in soft core sex comedies at the tail end of her career before cancer would take her.

I didn’t get the ending of ‘The Elemental’. I think it was implying something more than was on screen. It was the weakest of the four, although I did find the Madame Orloff character quite amusing. I'm not sure what my favorite was. The haunted item only plays directly into two of the four stories.

A good thing about anthology movies (I bristle at the term ‘portmanteau’) is that I can start them late at night knowing I'll have good stopping points for the night. I took advantage of this. From Beyond the Grave has some creepy scenes but none of the stories would have survived a longer treatment. But it is good for what it is. AMRU 3.

Frankenstein Created Woman (1967)

Baron Frankenstein (Peter Cushing), having moved from his familial castle into a tastefully decorated townhouse, is working on a plan with his Dr. Watson to transfer the soul of a recently executed man into the body of his dead lover. What could possibly go wrong.

No longer content to build monsters from spare parts, the good Baron is now in the soul transference business, and the result is a hot chick out for revenge. And calling Thorley Walters’ Dr. Hertz “Doctor Watson” isn’t far off the mark, having played the Watson character several times on film and TV. 60’s party girl Susan Denberg plays our fetching reanimated corpse. Her film career was very brief before leaving it all behind. She was one of Mudd’s Women.

Frankenstein Created Woman is a fresh take on the story, but it's a horrorless horror film that lacks the sex appeal of contemporary Hammer films. Stylish with some appropriately good performances, but pretty bland overall. And apart from box office considerations, there is no reason to link it to the Frankenstein franchise. Cushing could just as easily have been playing Dr. Jekyll. Very much a lesser Hammer. AMRU 2.5.

The Killer Shrews (1959)

A man delivering supplies to a scientist on a secluded island must stay the night because a hurricane is coming, eventually. The crew must remain indoors overnight because of an experiment gone wrong. I don’t want to say too much, but it’s Killer Shrews. Giant, ravenous, killer shrews.

Visual effects technician Ray Kellogg wanted to direct a movie, and scratched together some money and talent for the project. Our hero is Thorne Sherman (James Best). Tall, handsome Best was a could-have-been minor leading man but instead had a long career as an extra, secondary character, or character actor in both film and television. He will forever be remembered as Sheriff Roscoe P. Coltrane on TV’s Dukes of Hazzard.

The low budget and rushed schedule is evident on every frame. The opening narration contradicts the actual premise of the film, much of the dialog seems to have been written by someone with only a passing familiarity with human conversation, and the shrews were dogs in costume. Truth be told, I liked that last part.

Baruch Lumet, father of director Sidney Lument, is the well-intentioned doctor with a thick  Yiddish accent. Pretty, young Swedish model Ingrid Goude plays his daughter with a decidedly non-Yiddish accent. Much of the rest of the small cast also served as producers.

The Killer Shrews has a certain charm. It’s a low budget, quickie to the drive-in film and knows it. Much more could have been made of the resources at hand, but at an hour nine, it doesn’t overstay its welcome. AMRU 2.5. A sequel was made in 2012 featuring Best, but not Goude. She may have dodged a bullet with that one.

“Don't you wonder about the unusual things around here? The guns. The fence. The shattered windows. My accent. Anything?”

Deep Red (1975)

A pianist witnesses the brutal murder of a psychic but the assailant escapes unseen. He pries into the case with a nosy journalist and finds himself the murder’s next target.

Hyper stylized horror-adjacent thrillers, giallo is a very niche genre similar to noir. Defined more by style and mood elements than by story or setting, plot and character are sometimes given short shrift. Not so much here as we follow the sometimes nonsensical investigation as it twists and turns to an inevitable conclusion.

The journalist was played by Daria Nicolodi, who seemed awkward and annoying in the role. I found her to be an odd choice until I learned she was dating the director. The film features what would later be interpreted as a trans character, in a non villainous role. They were played by actress Geraldine Hooper.

I don’t fully get Giallo. Deep Red presents a better than fair mystery that leaves the viewer more than a little confounded. Rated on many online sites as high or higher than Dario Argento’s more famous Suspiria, I enjoyed the latter a bit more. Visually interesting and certainly held my interest, but maybe the style just isn’t for me. AMRU 3.5.

Horror Express (1972)

Professor Saxton (Christopher Lee) makes an amazing discovery in the Siberian wilderness: a mummified early human. To keep his discovery under wraps, especially from nosy rival Doctor Wells (Peter Cushing), Saxton locks it up in a giant box for the train ride home. When the baggage man is found murdered and the mummy missing, there can be only one explanation: the mummy has come back to life and is killing people. I mean, no other explanation even makes sense.

There is much more to the story and much of it is silly. This is saved by the fact that our principles play it seriously. No wink and nod, no sly grin. With the exception of Telly Savalas, who shows up in the third act for some reason. He looked like he was having a grand time.

Starring both Lee and Cushing and set almost entirely on a train, it has a very Hammer feel, although it’s not. Reportedly a minor cult classic, Horror Express has a lot going for it. I, however, found it to be just ok. I couldn’t get past the silly parts. AMRU 3.

Robot Monster (1953)

A family picnicking in Bronson Canyon turns out to be the last humans on Earth. The Ro-Men, an entirely indestructible race of aliens, have devastated much of the planet. But for reasons they cannot eliminate this one last family.

What an utterly bonkers film. This is the one with the guy in a gorilla suit wearing a space helmet. Notoriously bad, it takes garbage science into a realm all its own, includes elements that simply make no sense, has acting and dialog that feel intentionally bad, and goes into directions you will not expect. Seriously! But perhaps the most surprising part is how the closing scene puts it all back together. It’s rather remarkable.

Don’t get me wrong, Robot Monster is not a great film. It is low budget beyond low budget. It was filmed in four days on $16k with literally no sets, used footage from other films, yet it grossed a million. And I enjoyed it. Soak in the actor’s campy yet self-serious performances, the absurd science exposition, and the whole ridiculousness of it all. It’s not very long and a lot of fun. AMRU 3.5.

“I cannot - yet I must. How do you calculate that? At what point on the graph do ‘must’ and ‘cannot’ meet? Yet I must - but I cannot!”