Saints and Mostly Sinners

Shanty Tramp (Joseph G. Prieto, 1967)

Respect to Nicolas Winding Refn for curating and restoring a bunch of lost films from the dingy annals of B-movie cinema. Joseph G. Prieto's extreme slice of Southern Gothic melodrama, Shanty Tramp (1967) is one such forgotten entry. Bereft of a modest budget, and a cast possessing an ounce of acting talent, the film is a riveting viewing experience, thanks to its gritty atmosphere and a sleazy plot that chaotically descends into unexpected and shocking direction. This exploitation cinema of its era that still packs some potency today.

Emily Stryker (Eleanor Vaill; credited as Lee Holland) is the titular scrubber in question, and much like the the Rising Sun, has been the ruin of many a poor boy. From the God fearing simpleton to the corrupt and sleazy minister; Emily gets a kick out of teasing men and having them lusting over her. Bizarrely, she hardly looks the southern belle type like Daisy Duke, therefore, it's both equally amusing and perplexing watching men fawning all over her. Despite Vaill's only landing the lead for her nonchalance in getting her kit off. She's surprisingly convincing delivering the odd line or two.

The film's opening titles has the titular character strutting her stuff while a bombastic rendition of the hymn When the Saints Go Marching In is sung. Sardonically, it sets the tone of the film, as male bar patrons ogle at Emily's round derrière. The song gets rinsed again once it jumps to Preacher Fallows (Bill Rogers), the travelling minister, swindling his geriatric congregation to chip in some dough for his collection basket. Unsurprisingly, the conman evangelist has carnal desires for the flirtatious floozy attending his night time sermon and wants to show her "the power and the glory!" in the back of his caravan.

Despite warnings from his religious mother, country bumpkin Daniel  Smith (Lewis Galen) falls victim to the tawdry thirst trap. Like a knight in shining armour, he rescues the wicked wench from a potentially serious encounter involving the Chuck Connors-lookalike biker Savage (Lawrence Tobin). Unbeknown to Daniel, there's a revenge attack at his home while he's busy gooning for the salacious stop-out. Succumbing to Emily's temptations in a barn, he quickly regrets slapping cheeks with the heinous harlot as the pair are caught by her drunken white trash of a father (Otto Schlessinger; credited as Kenneth Douglas). "Blasphemy!" he yells. Falsely crying she was raped, Daniel is now on the run. Since Daniel is black, and Shanty Tramp is set in a Dixie town, you can put two and two together and see where this is headed.

Worth noting Shanty Tramp was released in the same year as other and more familiar Southerns: the racially charged In the Heat of the Night and the prison drama Cool Hand Luke. The micro-budgeted Shanty Tramp isn't anywhere near the level of competency of those two films. However, it does have them beat with a whole array of Southern preconceptions of the region. Nearly every southern film cliché is check marked: the trashy temptress; the inebriated and abusive patriarch; rampant racism; the innocent black victim; the police manhunt, replete with tracker dogs; the bible thumping evangelist; the moonshine distillery in a rickety shack; the elderly eccentric with an Old Testament sounding name, like Ichabod or Jeremiah. All of those elements are herein, painting a rich canvas.

Some flaws, like the unprofessional actors' bad performances, don't inadvertently lend to the film's charm. An important loose end involving Savage's biker gang is left completely unresolved. Without giving away too much, it's a crucial element, which was either edited out, or completely forgotten about during the writing process. Much of the dialogue sounds like it was recorded in a bathroom during post-production; it's out of sync with the actors' lips. There are also noticeable jumps in some of the dialogue scenes, which suggests that some of the derogatory racist language might have been edited out, although, according to Refn's restorationists, there doesn't seem to be a stronger cut of the film in existence. It is jarring in the film, however.

The cast might be relative unknowns, but Shanty Tramp's director is a name I'm somewhat familiar with, having seen Joseph P. Prieto's feverishly bizarre horror Miss Leslie's Dolls (1973). What's puzzling about this director is he might be an alias to Joseph P. Mawra; the director who helmed the notorious Olga roughies from the sixties. Although, there's no solid confirmation available online to confirm this, Google and MUBI lists Mawra instead of Prieto as Shanty Tramp's director. What is for certain is Shanty Tramp's second unit director is none other than Bob Clark; who went on to direct personal faves Black Christmas (1974), Murder by Degree (1979) and Porky's (1981).

Unsurprisingly, Shanty Tramp never earned any plaudits for its handling of social political issues; especially ones engrained in America's turbulent racial history. Realistically speaking, the film was made to court controversy in the aid of getting bums on seats. Almost sixty years on, and it still packs some punch to the easily offended today. However, for those of a less sensitive disposition, Shanty Tramp excels at weaving an entertaining exploitation romp; comparable to southern trash masterpieces Two Thousand Maniacs! (1964) and Mudhoney (1965). For this reason alone, Shanty Tramp is an uncouth, yet beguiling film that is definitely worth checking out.

Peak Era #3

Melinda Clarke

Rewatching Return of the Living Dead III (1993) over the weekend reminded me how hot Melinda Clarke (credited as Mindy Clarke in the film) was as the tragic, grungy femme Julie Walker; both before and after her exposure to the zombie gas Trioxin. Way hotter than Linnea Quigley's Trash from the first film, in my honest opinion. The concept of being eaten alive by the undead is absolutely terrifying, but I’d rather it be Julie chomping on my noggin than that horrifying CeeLo Green looking zombie in Zombie Flesh Eaters (1979). Every self-respecting horror film aficionado ought to include Julie Walker when compiling their Greatest Zombie Characters lists.

It's an absolute travesty that the best scene in the film; the part where Julie prepares for battle by piercing her face and body with pieces of sharp metal and glass to fight against the evil thug Santos and his street crew (perhaps the most middle-aged looking Latino gang on film), is only available on YouTube in its censored version, and to rub further salt to the wound, a poor quality VHS  rip. For shame!

From Julie Walker to Julie Cooper, Melinda Clarke managed to draw me to the naughties teen drama The O.C. (2003-2007) as the show's resident Alexis Colby. Melissa had aged like fine wine and reached upper echelon M.I.L.F status during her tenure on the show. Her come-to-bed eyes could bring any man to ruin. Little wonder she turned gold digging into an art; like marrying her best friend's mega wealthy, old dad, cheating on him with her daughter's boyfriend, and conspiring with his murder.

To emphasise what a veritable fox she was during this period, ruminate over this: when Melinda Clarke hit her forties, she looked like this. Can't say the same about her ex co-stars nearing the same age today; including the once great Olivia Wilde.

Bottom >>>> Bottoms

Guest House Paradiso (Adrian Edmondson, 1999)

To the uninitiated, Adrian Edmondson and the late Rik Mayall were two of British alternative comedy's shining stars from the eighties and nineties. Along with their comedic talents exhibited in the classic sitcom The Young Ones (1982), they were core members of the collective known as The Comic Strip. The pair really shone as a couple of crude and juvenile lowlife flatmates in the sitcom Bottom (1991-1995). 

Guest House Paradiso (1999) features Bottom's comedic duo; albeit with minor changes to their surnames: Rik Mayall's Richard "Richie" Richard is renamed to Richard "Richie" Twat, while Adrian Edmondson's Edward "Eddie" Elizabeth Hitler becomes Edward "Eddie" Elizabeth Ndingombaba. The changes are never explained. However, other than this change, both characters' are indistinguishable from their TV counterparts. Thus, the spirit of Bottom is more than evident during the very opening scenes. Guest House Paradiso would be Mayall's second feature film role after his transatlantic outing in Drop Dead Fred (1991) - embarrassingly not seen it. Edmondson makes his film debut in this film and not make an appearance again until his bit part in the franchise killer Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017).

Guest House Paradiso is loud, crude and unapologetically juvenile. Witnessing Eddie and Richie administering Looney Toons level of violence to one another is like watching Laurel and Hardy ramped up to eleven. The film isn't only reliant on its cartoonish violence, it also possesses some truly idiotic dialogue, like the Richie having to repeat 'it's pronounced "Thwaite"' whenever trying to correct anyone from saying his surname as Twat. Much like Hyacinth Bucket has to endure. The styles of humour don't just end there, as the film as the film doesn't shy from Mayall acting like a sexually depraved individual, along with gross out vomit comedy in the film's final act. Very much in the spirit of Peter Jackson's early films.

Simply put, the premise of the film is essentially Fawlty Towers (1975) with Eddie and Richie running the worst hotel in Great Britain. It's built on top of cliff and adjacent to the phallic looking nuclear power plant. It's a miracle the pair even manage to retain any staff, like their Romanian chef Lardy Barsto (Steve O'Donnell), let alone any paying guests due to their obnoxious behaviour. A subplot involving famous, Italian actress Gina Carbonara (Hélène Mahieu) jilting her playboy, racing driver fiancee, Gino Bolognese (a fish out of water Vincent Cassel) on the day of their wedding and hiding out in the grotty establishment adds a welcome layer to the film. The G.O.A.T comedy Carry On Screaming's Fenella Fielding plays the senile guest Mrs. Foxfur, while Simon Pegg makes his film debut as the timid, but closeted pervert, Mr. Nice. An unforgettably cringeworthy scene involves him being hoisted with a fishing rod whilst asleep via his nipple ring. Two other cast members from Shaun of the Dead (2004), Bill Nighy and Kate Ashfield, play an adulterous couple whose romantic getaway is ruined at the hotel.

Written by both Edmondson and Mayall, the idea came to them whilst in various hotels during Bottom's live tour. The pair had written three and half-hours worth of comedy material for their first treatment. A revision of it had shaved it down to two and half hours, which was still too lengthy. Mayall had just recovered from a coma due to a quad bike accident in 1998. During this period, he had urged Edmondson to go it alone with a further rewrite to a more acceptable run time during his recuperation. With a final script completed, the producers of the film got Edmondson to direct the film. The result is an unapologetic gross out comedy and a surprisingly stylish one, too.

Worth praising Guest House Paradiso's art direction as its sixties pastiche give it a vintage Ealing Studios vibe. The production sets look suitably old and grotty. The hotel itself, is very much a major highlight as it's reminiscent of Man and Woman's dwelling in Wes Craven's The People Under the Stairs (1991). The secret passageways within the walls and various crawl spaces of the hotel, are what spark this comparison. As a matter of fact, Guest House Paradiso, could have very easily been a horror film given all the various elements mentioned.

Guest House Paradiso was released in 1999 with little fanfare. It was largely panned by the critics; Poncey Pete over at The Guardian likened it to "a Jim Davidson 'adult pantomine'". Fast forward several decades, and he's positively gleaming over the played out goofiness of last year's nauseatingly overblown Bottoms (2023). The comedy might not be a classic, but it absolutely stomps Emma Seligman's boring writing that qualifies as zoomer humour. Similarly, an Empire critic no one knows was turned off by the film for being too puerile, despite being aware of its creators' comedic style and the source material. Worst of all, are the legions of wannabe Roger Eberts on Letterboxd offended over its irreverent humour. When mankind turns its nose at comedy at its most honest and base level, then the human race is definitely doomed.

Surprised by Guest House Paradiso receiving the boutique blu-ray treatment when it's usually focused on the serious cinephile and genre ends of the spectrum, but it makes absolute sense after seeing it. The slapstick comedy and gross out scenes are written and performed by absolute legends of the British comedy industry, not to mention it being far more deserving of some high definition love and fancy packaging than the average Troma film and long forgotten straight-to-video comedy for trash movie aficionados with money to burn. Like Kolobos and Freeway II: Confessions of a Trick Baby, Guest House Paradiso is another film from 1999 being discovered decades later that's turned out to be an unexpected gem. 

Rick Mayall passed away from a heart attack in 2014. Tragic how he was far more talented and deserving of success across the pond compared to insufferable comedians Ricky Gervais and Russell Brand. 

R.I.P Rick Mayall.

It's a Right Royal Cockney Barrel of Monkeys

Guy Richie isn't a director I'm particularly fond of. His success can be attributed to mimicking Quentin Tarantino’s whole style and filling the void left behind from the dying Britpop zeitgeist. I do enjoy a bunch of songs which were new to me from his films, though.

The Castaways' Liar, Liar is a prime example. It’s heard during the poker scene in Richie's mockney, gangster film Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998).

The Castaways - Liar Liar

Liar Liar/Sam single, 1965

The Castaways · Liar Liar

It wasn't until finding a YouTube clip of The Castaways performing the song in the film It's a Bikini World (1967) when I realised the high pitched voice on it was a bloke and not a woman after all these years.

Other songs I've discovered in Guy Richie films:

Wanda Jackson - Funnel of Love (1960)

The Pretty Things - Rosalyn (1964)

Kim Fowley - The Trip (1965)

The Sonics - Have Love, Will Travel (1965)

Nina Simone - Take Care of Business (1965)

David Axelrod - The Mental Traveller (1968)

George Guzman - Banana Freak Out (1968)

Dusty Springfield - Spooky (1970)

Roxy Music - In Every Dream Home a Heartache (1973)

Cymande - Brothers on the Slide (1974)

War - Outlaw (1982) 

E-Z Rollers - Walk This Land (Remix) (1996)

Klint - Diamond (2000)

Electrelane - Atom's Tomb (2005)

Mattiel - Count Your Blessings (2018)

Can't hate on some of Guy Richie's music inclusions, but I can shake my head in dismay at the undeserved success of Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch (2000) when they were nothing but inferior Brit flicks compared to Croupier (1998) and Sexy Beast (2000) during that period. Well ow ov aw-da, innit?

Juvenile Hell: Part 8

Pump Up the Volume (Allan Moyle, 1990)

Needed to cleanse the palate after watching some absolute abominations last month. Allan Moyle's Gen X classic Pump Up the Volume (1990) is the perfect solution. This is the second entry in what is unofficially dubbed the Christian Slater Holy Trilogy around this part of the internet. The other films being Heathers (1988) and True Romance (1993). Being that True Romance doesn't fit in this Juvenile Hell series, and skipping Massacre at Central High (1976) for its spiritual ancestor, is akin to running before learning to walk, the sensible option is to revisit Happy Harry Hard-ons pirate radio shenanigans. Besides which, the Heathers 4K I ordered the other week hasn't arrived yet.

If ever a film encapsulated the pent-up frustrations of the disillusioned generation beset by conservative authoritarianism, Pump Up the Volume would be it. Set in a suburb of Phoenix, Arizona, lonely newcomer Mark Hunter (Christian Slater), turns his parents' basement into a pirate radio show where he anonymously expresses all his teen angst and and music tastes over the radio waves. His fellow students of the oppressive Hubert H. Humphrey High School are eager listeners of the show and tune in every night to hear his antics.

The increasing popularity of the pirate radio show encourages the students into becoming more expressive and rebellious. The results range from suburban white kids gathering around a tape deck and nodding in appreciation to Ice-T's explicit Girls L.G.B.A.F, to the school's very own Claire Standish hilariously blowing up her parents' microwave, to that one random black student always in the background eventually wearing a kufi on his head. In the case of  Hubert H. Humphrey's resident Pam Ayres, Nora Diniro (Samantha Mathis) AKA the "Eat me! Beat me!" Lady, it's sending dirty poems and being potential serial killer bait to Happy Harry Hard-on with letters like this:

"You're the voice crying out in the wilderness. You're the voice that makes my brain burn and my guts go gooey. Yeah, you gut me. My insides spill on your altar and tell the future. My steaming, gleaming guts spell out your nature. I know you, not your name, but your game. I know the true you. Come to me, or I'll come to you."

Other than that one strike against her, Nora is pretty much the dream around the way emo girl from this era: Angela Franklin may have been demonically hot, but  I'll take Nora being everyday hot and not having to worry for my life; plus, she still looked art school bird fit even in old granny dresses and striped stockings; also, she didn't have dandruff like Allison Reynolds. Thus, Nora Diniro is the gateway goth girl of that era. The only other major drawback is the sad reality of her being an entirely fictional character. It's the only explanation as to how any person living in their parents' basement with a penchant for chronically fake fappin' and dry humping a dress for the entertainment of their listeners, manages to land a beauty like her - even if they're cool like Christian Slater. Only in the movies. Interestingly, Slater and Mathis were already a couple during the production of the film. That explains their chemistry feeling so authentic.

The plot involving a tyrannical school regime, headed by Principal Loretta Creswood (Annie Ross) suspending and expelling potential problem/underperforming kids and syphoning their funds to achieve the school's impeccable record, is very much secondary in the grand scheme of the film. It's really all about how one voice can rally others against their oppressors. This makes the film still poignant today. Alternatively, it's also all about Christian Slater's incredible charisma and acting chops. Interestingly, Slater's earliest films performances often draws comparisons to Jack Nicholson. This is the perfect litmus test for any seventies baby, as he comes across as a hyper-realistic version of the actor.

Young ‘uns, take note: the film's social message comes well before the rise of dullards posting cat memes and the existence of echo chambers. Therefore, if scenes of H.H.H and Nora broadcasting in a jeep to outwit the Federal Communications Commission (F.C.C), sounds a tad far fetched and antiquated for you, then please consider, that's far more noble than terminally online folk pretending to care about our freedoms.

Other noteworthy scenes and observations related to the movie are: the fat, entrepreneurial kid selling tapes of the show for $5 while Above the Law's Freedom of Speech is playing on the school speakers; a very young Seth Green not being annoying as his mate; the superior Pixies' Wave of Mutilation (UK Surf) heard in the film; the dumb Pauly Shore lookalike getting punched by Principal Creswood's rottweiler; and finally, the girl who played Cheryl Biggs (Holly Sampson) eventually winding up as an adult film actress.

Pump Up the Volume may be regarded as a nineties classic, but it's timeless for me as it became the go to movie whenever your host was undecided about what to watch to kill time. It was a staple, until my DVD got lost when lending it out to a mate. The disc was already out of print at the time, and it was far too expensive to replace. The pain. From that point on, I stopped lending any films out. Fortunately, I managed to eventually replace it with a a blu-ray upgrade (albeit, a bare bones disc), that was released last year. It's a treasured film here at Case de Spartan.

An undeniable classic.

Viewings: August 2024

Soi Cheang's roaring actionfest Twilight Warriors: Walled In and László Benedek's revenge thriller The Night Visitor were unequivocally the film highlights this month. 

Amazed I never discovered Peter Graham Scott's mini-series Children of the Stones until now. Probably the best slice of vintage TV I've watched in ages.

Film:

The Horrible Dr. Hichcock (Riccardo Freda, 1962)

The Possessed (Luigi Bazzoni, Franco Rossellini, 1965)*

The Sorcerers (Michael Reeves, 1967)

Mississippi Mermaid (François Truffaut, 1969)*

The Night Visitor (László Benedek, 1971)*

Tony Arzenta (Duccio Tessari, 1973)*

Dead Man’s Letters (Konstantin Lopushansky, 1986)*

Spectre (Marcello Avallone, 1987)*

Door II: Tôkyô Diary (Banmei Takahashi, 1991)*

Deadly Instincts AKA Breeders (Paul Matthews, 1997)*

Bruiser (George A. Romero, 2000)*

Napoleon: The Director’s Cut (Ridley Scott, 2023)*

Borderlands (Eli Roth, 2024)*

The Killer (John Woo, 2024)*

Kinds of Kindness (Yorgos Lanthimos, 2024)*

Longlegs (Osgood Perkins, 2024)*

Sting (Kiah Roache-Turner, 2024)*

Trap (M. Night Shamalamadingdong, 2024)*

Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In (Soi Cheang, 2024)*

Television:

 Doctor Who - Inferno (Sydney Newman, 1963-2024)*

Space: 1999 - Various Episodes (Gerry Anderson, Sylvia Anderson, 1975-1977)*

Children of the Stones - Complete Series (Peter Graham Scott, 1977)*

Hammer House of Mystery and Suspense - Child's Play (Val Guest, 1984)*

Hammer House of Mystery and Suspense - The Corvini Inheritance (Gabrielle Beaumont, 1984)*

Hammer House of Mystery and Suspense - In Possession (Val Guest, 1984)

Hammer House of Mystery and Suspense - A Distant Scream (John Hough, 1984)*

Hammer House of Mystery and Suspense - Paint Me a Murder (Alan Cooke, 1984)*

Mastermind - Episodes 1-3 (Bill Wright, 2024/2025)*

 

*First time viewings.

Dada Debaser Notes:

• Banmei Takahashi's horror thriller Door (1988) is one of my fave discoveries so far this year, but its sequel has absolutely no connection and belongs in an entirely different genre (erotic drama) altogether. Just cashing in on the name, I suppose.
  
• There aren't enough words to describe how bad Borderlands is.
• As far as nightmarish, nuclear holocaust films go, Soviet cinema's Dead Man's Letters gives Threads (1984) a run for its money. Way too Tarkovsky for me, though.
• M. Night’s new film is unbridled nepotism and serves as a shameless promo for his daughter’s turgid music. Her acting is worse than Sofia Coppola's performance in The Godfather Part III (1990).
• The Possessed is the art house giallo Antonioni ought to have made instead of Blow-Up (1966). You can liken it to his Decadence trilogy (without its pretentiousness, thankfully).
  
• Yorgos Lanthimos proves he can't make an entertaining anthology movie; three bizarre stories, each of them dragged out to almost an hour in length, and still laced with predictable twist endings. Heavily reliant on its celeb cast acting strange to carry it and to indulgently appease Lanthimos' weirdo fetish. By no means horrible, but why watch the epic slog that is Kinds of Kindness ever again when you can watch any of Amicus' superior portmanteaus?
  
• Was hoping for Mississippi Mermaid to be as good as Truffaut's other Hitchcockian film, The Bride Wore Black (1968), but even peak era Catherine Deneuve flashing her breasts couldn't save it from being a snoozefest.
• Disappointed with Longlegs. Obvious inspiration is taken from many cat and mouse horror thrillers, winding up worse than the sum of its parts. Nicolas Cage's performance in it was exactly what I expected.
  
• RIP Alain Delon! The French actor plays another trench coat wearing assassin in the actioner Tony Arzenta. Decent film with a great supporting cast and locations, but nowhere near in the same league as Le Samouraï (1967).
  
• Speaking of assassins, the demake of the heroic bloodshed classic The Killer (1989) is absolutely atrocious. Nathalie Emmanuel might have gone from Hollyoaks to Hollywood, but John Woo went from Sam Peckinpah to Sam Smith. What a fall off.
  
• I wrote about my fave movie scenes set inside a supermarket this month. 

Geeked for Strange Darling (2024) and The Substance (2024) being released next month. Curse my luck they're out on the very same day!

Youth in Revulsion

The Substance (Trailer)

Coralie Fargeat, 2024

Excited to finally see a proper trailer after that short clip from a few months back for Coralie Fargeat's upcoming film The Substance (2024). The short blurb about it reads: "A fading celebrity decides to use a black market drug, a cell-replicating substance that temporarily creates a younger, better version of herself." With a sixty-something Demi Moore being in it, I'm expecting some satire/commentary on the beauty industry along with the inevitable shock factor.

Seeing a bunch of early reviews mention other famous body horror movies like The Fly (1986), Society (1989) and... The Nutty Professor films in the same breath as The Substance, has me eagerly anticipating its release next month.

Revenge (Trailer)

Coralie Fargeat, 2017

 

Neither anything helmed by acclaimed, femme New French Extremity directors Claire Denis or Julia Ducournau made me rush out to the cinema like Fargeat's captivating debut, the rape revenge thriller Revenge (2017). Ended up having to drive miles away to see it in an art house cinema after Mark Kermode's review. In the wake of the #MeToo movement, the film gained a cult following amongst horror audiences. Personally, I consider it an insult to most people's intelligence (there is no way the protagonist would have survived in the desert), but it's incredibly entertaining, regardless. I'm kind of expecting the same deal with Fargeat's latest film. Bound to be better than the highly overrated and soporific Titane (2021) at least.

Going full circle: what links the notorious rape revenge exploitation film I Spit on Your Grave (1978) with Demi Moore? Answer: Demi Moore is the model posing in that iconic film poster. An interesting tidbit I learned whilst watching a documentary on the film during lockdown.

Kowloon Ruck

Twilight Warriors: Walled In (Soi Cheang, 2024)

Director Soi Cheang first came onto my radar with his Hong Kong crime thriller Limbo (2021). Despite its incredible production design and hyper-stylised noir aesthetic, the central core of the film was like every generic crime thriller involving the hunt for a serial killer. It was superficially alluring, at best. His latest film, adapted from a graphic novel known as City of Darkness, is also laced with fantastic visuals, but more importantly, it also has a more interesting plot.

Twilight Warriors: Walled In is set during the eighties in Hong Kong's shanty city of Kowloon. The historical region resembled a post-apocalyptic nightmare rather than an actual urban province. The gargantuan ramshackle is the basis for the film's amazing look. Within its corrugated walls is a densely populated feudal society with triad bosses acting like governing elders.

After being ripped off obtaining a fake ID card by Mr. Big (the legendary Sammo Hung still kicking arse in his seventies), Chan Lok-kwan (Raymond Chan) runs afoul of the triads by mistakenly snatching a bag of drugs thinking it was the money owed to him. The result is an epic chase fight into the Walled City, where the triads are prohibited from venturing in. Lok-kwan finds sanctuary in the urban shit hole to be temporary when he runs into another gang led by the chain smoking, martial arts master Cyclone (Louis Koo). After some more fighting, Lok-kwan goes through the motions of finding acceptance with the inhabitants of the Walled City.

The police free zone has its own laws and politics, which is fascinating during the downtime of not having a violent fight light up the screen. This also benefits the film's world building along with defining its central characters. There's a back story to Lok-kwan, which eventually leads to serious consequences for everyone living in Kowloon.

A refreshing concept is how Mr. Big isn't the major villain in the film. That duty falls to his maniacal second-in-command, King (Philip Ng), who looks like an Asian verison of Paul Calf. Controversially, King the power of invulnerability. He is impervious to lethal machete strikes, a sledgehammer to his skull, and can chew on red hot coal like it's a chicken nugget. This comic book style villain is more than a challenge for Lok-kwan and three of his comrades during the film's epically climactic showdown.

The fight choreography comes somewhere in between Steven Chao's cartoonish action in Kung Fu Hustle (2004) and the brutal grittiness of Gareth Evans' The Raid films. Thus, Twilight Warriors: Walled In does not disappoint with its entertaining action scenes. Did not expect the emotionally effective drama sequences, either. A good example is the brotherhood of Lok-kwan's inner circle: Shin (Terrance Lau), Twelfth Master (Tony Wu) and the masked AV (German Cheung). From playing mah jong to dispensing street justice to a prostitute killer, a tight bond is formed with the foursome, where they're willing to sacrifice themselves to prove it.

The film is superior to the average John Wick-core actioner, which has long outstayed its welcome. Of course, there is the potential of the comic book style combat being a turn off for some, but it more than makes sense considering it's based on an actual graphic novel. A rare win for comic book movies over the last few years.

Overall, Twilight Warriors: Walled In is a quality action film. Not only does it deliver an abundant amount of shit kicking, but it does it with resplendent glee. Apparently, there are another two films (one, a sequel; the other, a prequel) planned and this instalment has managed to get its hooks in, and left me willing to check them out too. Recommended.

Liberator Liberated

Blake's 7 (Season One Trailer)

Various, 1978

Another Dada Debaser wish come true! Terry Nation's sci-fi series Blake's 7 (1978-1981) is receiving some blu-ray love from the BBC this autumn, according to a recent announcement. At least... the first series is.

Truthfully; I never saw it really happening on account of infinitely more popular BBC programmes like Porridge (1974-1977) and Open All Hours (1976-1985)  still only being available on DVD format.

Other films sprinkled with the Dada Debaser magic dust are listed below, along with the respective labels which released them:

Freaks - Criterion

Blood Sucking Freaks - Vinegar Syndrome

After Hours - Criterion

Evil Dead Trap 2: Hideki - 88 Films

A Gun for Jennifer - Vinegar Syndrome

Frog Rock

In theory, an early 1970s British horror involving a frog worshipping, undead biker gang wreaking havoc in shopping centres, and Beryl Reid as a witch, ought to be right up my alley. Regardless of its cult following, I've regrettably never been able to appreciate Psychomania (1973), even if it's ironically like most of its fans. The film lacks any real edginess and is a bitter disappointment.

Better known for playing the best versions of Shere Khan and Mr. Freeze, the unmistakably upper class sounding George Sanders would receive top billing, as Psychomania would be his final film appearance since he took his own life. You can almost understand why, if you’ve seen it.

John Cameron - Psychomania Front Title

Psychomania OST, 1973

John Cameron · Psychomania Front Title

 

On a more cheerful tip, I do like John Cameron's main theme from Psychomania's soundtrack. It manages to be both suitably eerie for the film and possesses the distinctive seventies British prog rock, which is seldom replicated convincingly by today's retro sounding millennial bands.

 

Cameron would also contribute to library music label KPM's Afro Rock album the very same year. Standouts include Swamp Fever and Afro Metropolis by the musician, but it's his fellow contributor, Alan Parker, who shines the most with his track Punch Bowl for me. The pair were members of C.S.S, better known as that band covering Led Zeppelin's Whole Lotta Love used as the Top of the Pops theme.

Alan Parker - Punch Bowl

Afro Rock, 1973

 

1000Sereez · "Punch Bowl" (Alan Parker/John Cameron)