Halloween Month continues with this review of one of the zombie movies of French Director Jean Rollin. Balladeer’s Blog’s reviews of Rollin’s films always point out that his works range from brilliant and artistic to just plain awful.
The Living Dead Girl is one of the director’s best in my opinion, but deals with extreme concepts and gore so I’m providing my courtesy WARNING for readers who don’t like such movies to refrain from clicking on “Continue reading.” Continue reading
Filed under Halloween Season
Wednesday means another current events roundup from Independent Voter Site Balladeer’s Blog.
FLORIDA DEMOCRAT ARRESTED FOR MURDEROUS THREATS AGAINST VOTERS WHO DON’T SUPPORT HIS CANDIDATE. More HERE.
NEWSPAPER THE DETROIT NEWS SUGGESTS NOT VOTING FOR TERRORIST-LINKED ABDUL EL-SAYED.
MICHIGAN SHERIFF REJECTS EL-SAYED TO SUPPORT HIS OPPONENT MIKE ROGERS.
PRESIDENT TRUMP AND FIRST LADY MELANIA TRUMP WORKING TO IMPROVE WOMEN’S HEALTH ISSUES.
U.K. SENDS FIGHTER JETS TO DEFEND SAUDI ARABIA FROM THE HOUTHIS.
PRESIDENT TRUMP UNITING DEMOCRAT AND REPUBLICAN ELEMENTS FOR THIS REFORM BILL.
DEMOCRAT MEDIA EMPLOYEES STILL TRYING TO SPIN THE RIOTS IN FRANCE AND ITALY DESPITE ALL THE RIOTERS’ PALESTINIAN AND COMMUNIST FLAGS. More HERE.
PRESIDENT TRUMP SEEKS TO MAKE MORE CITIZENS ELIGIBLE FOR TRUMP ACCOUNTS. The greatest president for the working class and the poor during my lifetime.
NEW YORK ADULT DAYCARE CENTERS CAUGHT IN SCANDAL OVER MEDICAID FRAUD AND KICKBACKS. Continue reading
COUNTDOWN CANADA (1970) – Here at Balladeer’s Blog I am amazed that this vintage Canadian Television work of speculative fiction hasn’t received renewed fame in 2026. And not one IMDb review as of this writing.
Countdown Canada uses the approach of the Orson Welles War of the Worlds radio broadcast and the later television production Special Bulletin. Throw in other examples like James Burke’s After the Warming if you like.
Though this aired on Canadian television in 1970 the story is set in 1979. The current head of Canada’s government won election on a campaign of holding a referendum on Canada officially joining the United States, and its provinces each becoming new states in the union. All except for Quebec, which in this fictional 1979 achieved independence earlier in the decade.
The referendum to become part of the United States resulted in a victory for the “yeas” and Countdown Canada is set a few years later as all bureaucratic and constitutional red tape has been dealt with and the last day of an independent Canada has arrived. Continue reading
Filed under Forgotten Television, opinion
Halloween Month continues here at Balladeer’s Blog with a look at another old Movie Host.
MADD FRANK – This ghoulish character was played by Kent Kamron, whose real name is Delray K. Dvoracek (but everyone knew him as Nancy). He hosted Madd Frank Presents on KVRR in Fargo, North Dakota from May 1985 to an unknown date in 1995.
The program originally aired Friday nights at 10:00pm, then was moved to 11:00pm Fridays and finally to Saturday nights in various timeslots.
Madd Frank Presents would open with the title character descending stairs which seemed to go on forever, deep down into the bowels of the Earth until Madd Frank reached his studio. He would then light a candle which rested on top of a small talking skull named George, also voiced by Delray Dvoracek.
Frank would then drape his cloak over the upright coffin in which rested a never-seen monster named Harvey, with Dvoracek doing the monster’s voice as well. After comedic opening patter – with Madd Frank’s intentionally groan-worthy jokes punctuated by rimshots – the Madd Programmer (James Erickson) would select a bad or campy movie from the crypt for Frank to present.
The flicks would be the usual So Bad They’re Good fare like The Corpse Grinders, Attack of the Giant Leeches, Day of the Triffids, Santa Claus Conquers the Martians, etc. Continue reading
Filed under Bad and weird movies, Movie Hosts
THE GALLERY OF MADAME LIU-TSONG aka MADAME LIU-TSONG (1951) – The great Anna May Wong starred in this Dumont Network program, which was THE FIRST U.S. TELEVISION SERIES WITH AN ASIAN-AMERICAN STAR. Wong had worked in Silent Films like Peter Pan and The Thief of Bagdad, then as Fu Manchu’s daughter in a few talkies.
After decades of dramatic roles on the big screen, Anna May Wong was offered this vehicle in which even her character’s name was rooted in her real past – Wong Liu-Tsong was Anna May’s birth name.
Madame Liu-Tsong ran her title gallery as well as a string of others. She also did her own detective work regarding thefts, fakes, murders and other crimes involving the world of international art and relics. Think of the female pawn shop detective Miss Hagar Stanley from 1898.
If this show had been done in the 1970s it likely would have been produced in the format of programs like Murder, She Wrote, Banacek, The Snoop Sisters and others. In 1951 it was a half-hour detective series which lasted just 13 episodes. (Some sources mistakenly claim 10 or fewer.) Continue reading
Filed under Forgotten Television
Independent Voter Site Balladeer’s Blog is here with a Monday current events roundup from an America where 2026 Democrats long to unleash the kinds of destruction going on in France and Italy. The rioters conveniently left Muslim businesses unharmed. The “students” nonsense about the Urban Warfare – in France especially – reminds me of the way corporate media kept calling the terrorists who seized the American embassy in 1979 Teheran “students”, too.
THINK, VOTE, WIN. J.B. Shurk on voting in the midterm elections.
FAILED MACRON ABANDONS FRANCE TO VISIT KUWAIT. He even refuses to accept his Interior Minister’s resignation HERE.
DEMOCRAT ELISSA SLOTKIN OPENLY ADMITS THE PARTY WILL PERSECUTE POLITICAL OPPONENTS TO MAKE CITIZENS AFRAID TO WORK FOR POLITICAL FIGURES THE DEMOCRATS WANT TO WIPE OUT. More HERE.
ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT IN NEVADA CAUGHT TRANSPORTING ENOUGH FENTANYL TO KILL UNTOLD NUMBERS OF PEOPLE.
DRUG OVERDOSE DEATHS DOWN FORTY PERCENT UNDER TRUMP.
CITIZENS’ WAGES RISE AS ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION DECREASES.
FLASHBACK: IT TAKES A VILLAGE IDIOT – HILLARY CLINTON FLUNKED THE BAR EXAM.
WISCONSIN DEMOCRAT CANDIDATE STATES HER PRIORITY IS GETTING ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS DRIVERS LICENSES. Continue reading
CANON ALBERIC’S SCRAPBOOK – Written by Montague Rhodes James, and I’m shocked that I still encounter people today who are not familiar with him and his works. Anyway, that made me decide to examine his first supernatural horror story.
Canon Alberic’s Scrapbook was originally written by James and was read aloud by him in October 1893 to his friends in the ChitChat Society at King’s College, Cambridge. It was published in 1895.
The story features Dennistoun, a Cambridge Scholar who takes a vacation on the Continent so he can tour, photograph and sketch old cathedrals in France. Dennistoun bicycles to the town of St.-Bertrand-de-Comminges near Toulouse to cover its cathedral.
A very nervous old Verger is assigned to accompany him and while Dennistoun contentedly whiles away the day lost in the ancient appeal of the cathedral he becomes increasingly aware of the Verger’s discomfort. The older man refuses to leave our main character alone in the building, even when sinister, hollow tittering is heard throughout the cathedral. Continue reading
Filed under Halloween Season
HEADLINES
KNOCKING OFF NUMBER SIX – In NCAA Division 3 the MARYVILLE COLLEGE SCOTS paid a visit to the number 6 team in the nation – the TRINITY (TX) TIGERS. The Tigers were on top 9-6 at Halftime, but Maryville College went up 13-9 by the end of the 3rd Quarter. In the 4th, the Scots held on for a 16-12 Upset.
WELCOME TO THE OAK BOWL – Up in the NAIA, the PERU STATE BOBCATS defended their Oak Bowl home field against the MOUNT MERCY UNIVERSITY MUSTANGS. The Bobcats parlayed their 10-3 1st Quarter edge into a 38-3 advantage by the Half. After the break, Peru State coasted to a 59-10 triumph. Continue reading
Filed under college football
RABID GRANNIES (1988) – This review of Rabid Grannies applies ONLY to the original uncut edition, NOT the edited version distributed by the Troma Team. The uncut version is well worth watching but the cut version is awful.
The Troma label on display on recent DVD versions of this movie has made some people dismiss this as the usual Troma goofiness – fun and violent but not much of an actual horror film. Wrong!
This Belgian production is, in certain scenes, up there with Italian cannibal movies for gruesomeness and for unflinching violence and gore. The (very) dark humor adds to the overall feel of the flick but it’s not laid on by the ton like in other indie films picked up for distribution by Troma. Continue reading
Filed under Halloween Season, opinion
This weekend’s escapist superhero post looks at milestones in the original saga of the android Avenger called the Vision, since the Marvel tv series VisionQuest is coming out.
AVENGERS Vol 1 #57 (Oct 1968)
Title: Behold … The Vision
Villain: Ultron-5
NOTE: When Ultron made his earliest appearances, he/it numbered his iterations. After Ultron-7 he stopped numbering and just went by Ultron.
Synopsis: The Avengers’ recurring foe Ultron shows up again, intent on wiping out all human life on Earth. This time he has created an incredibly powerful fellow android called the Vision to help kill the Avengers.
The Vision initially helps Ultron, but his logical android mind lets him reject his creator’s commands. He turns against Ultron, saves the Avengers and seemingly destroys Ultron, but obviously he’ll return as Ultron-6.
NOTE: This cover was a partial salute to the very first appearance of the Golden Age Vision created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby (Just like Captain America) in 1940 when Marvel was called Timely Comics. Continue reading
Filed under Superheroes
