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Daily Archives: December 27, 2017

The Skydivers (1963)

Posted on December 27, 2017 | 2 comments

The Skydivers
Directed by Coleman Francis
Written by Coleman Francis
1963/USA
Crown International Pictures
First viewing/YouTube

[box] Joe Moss: Coffee? I LIKE coffee![/box]

The director’s Beast of Yucca Flats was so bad it was good. This later effort is just plain bad.

One has to work pretty hard to find the plot. I think it goes something like this. A married couple is running a sport skydiving business. It is failing largely because fatalities keep it shut down while the FAA investigates. For some reason not related to their physical attractiveness each of the spouses is hit on by outsiders whom they reject. Acid does not react well with parachute material.

[box] Harry Rowe: Suzy, you’re a broad. Get lost![/box]

Unlike most ultra-low budget dreck this film has a cast of thousands. Not a one of them can act. I watched the Mystery Science Theater 3000 riff-track of the movie after seeing the film straight and it was an improvement.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfQ_zNOT9K8

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Posted in Movie Reviews

The Comedy of Terrors (1963)

Posted on December 27, 2017 | 2 comments

The Comedy of Terrors
Directed by Jacques Tourneur
Written by Richard Matheson and Elsie Lee
1963/USA
Alta Vista Productions
First viewing/Amazon Instant

[box] Felix Gillie: [stuck on a roof] Why did I ever escape from prison? It was so peaceful there.[/box]

With this cast and director you can’t help having fun.

The deaf and ancient Amos Hinchley (Boris Karloff) and Waldo Trumbull (Vincent Price) are partners in a mortuary firm. Waldo came into the business via a marriage to Hinchley’s daughter Amaryllis, whom he despises more every time she opens her mouth. Hinchley’s assistant Felix Gille admires Amaryllis from a far.

The business is far from prospering. Understandable since they reuse the same coffin for each burial, Amos can’t deliver a eulogy to save his life, and Amaryllis insists on singing over the body. Finally. landlord John Black (Basil Rathbone) demands the rent money or else. Waldo decides that doing away with Jack will kill two birds with one stone. But Black’s catalepsy throws a spanner in the works.

This isn’t exactly laugh out loud hilarious but it is fun to see all these folks do their stuff. My favorite was Karloff as a thoroughly befuddled old man. I hadn’t seen him like that before and he has nice comic timing.