Balladeer’s Blog’s annual end of the year retrospective resumes with this look at August’s best.
BAD MOVIE REVIEW: TOWING (1978) – Even though this film’s cast includes JOE MANTEGNA, SUE LYON and DENNIS FRANZ it is a thoroughly bizarre attempt at a comedy. It’s based on some real-life unethical procedures by towing companies in Chicago. Relentlessly unfunny and very weird. Click HERE.
ETRUSCAN MYTHOLOGY – Or “Those darn Etruscans” as their category was always called on Jeopardy. I took a look at some of their gods like Tinia, Hercle, Aita and Usil plus some of their goddesses like Uni, Turan, Vanth and Feronia. They’re all HERE.
FORGOTTEN TELEVISION – Bird of the Iron Feather (1970), the pioneering soap opera about the lives of black Chicagoans HERE. Barbary Coast (1975) starring William Shatner and Doug McClure working for the U.S. Secret Service on the 1870s Barbary Coast HERE. Espionage (1963), an anthology series about spy operations from the Cold War, World War 2 and earlier wars HERE.
SOME HILARIOUSLY INACCURATE ERRORS FROM A.I. YOUTUBE CHANNELS – Click HERE.
COOL NAMED COLLEGE SPORTS TEAM – Gulf Coast Christian College HERE.
WHISKEY JIM – A neglected Old West gunslinger who interacted with the likes of Billy the Kid, Pat Garrett, Hoodoo Brown, Bushwacking Joe and the 4th Cavalry. He also fought in the Buffalo Hunters War and later against the Las Lagunas Comanchero Gangs. Click HERE.
GULLIVAR JONES ON MARS (1905): ANCIENT SCIENCE FICTION – The conclusion of this pre-John Carter novel about an American naval officer winding up on Mars where he romanced a woman named Princess Heru and had various adventures. Click HERE.
KARATE GIRL (1973) – This Turkish martial arts film is one of that country’s premier violent revenge flicks. Fun-bad yet badass all at once. I reviewed it in detail HERE.
COOL NAMED COLLEGE SPORTS TEAM: MONTCALM COLLEGE – Click HERE.
GIANT OF THE EVIL ISLAND (1965) – Mission Impossible‘s Peter Lupus starred in this swashbuckler movie about the Spanish Navy clashing with pirates who use a place called Evil Island as their base. Click HERE.
THE DEFENDERS: AFTER THE EVIL EYE – Marvel’s superteam the Defenders followed up their war with the Avengers over the Evil Eye of Avalon with battles against Xemnu, Nebulon, Magneto, Asmodeus and QuasiMoD.O. Click HERE.
ICE CUBE’S WAR OF THE WORLD (2025) – The unintentional comedy hit of the year! The absolute worst ever adaptation of H.G. Wells’ novel about Earth being invaded by extraterrestrials. I reviewed it HERE.
KILLRAVEN: WAR OF THE WORLDS (1973-1976, 1983) – Marvel’s combination of Wells’ novel with its original sci-fi character Killraven, who led a human uprising against Earth’s alien conquerors in the 21st Century. Click HERE.
COOL NAMED COLLEGE SPORTS TEAM: SWEET BRIAR COLLEGE – Click HERE.
DEATHLOK THE DEMOLISHER – Marvel’s 1970s series about a near-future dystopia in the wake of a failed big business coup attempt on the U.S. government. Deathlok is a cyborg soldier who fights for survival and for his freedom amid the many-sided high-tech conflict. Click HERE.
VENUS (1948-1952) – Marvel’s Golden Age series about the goddess Venus coming to Earth and clashing with assorted evil mortals and immortals. She even took on the one and only Loki. Click HERE.
CONAN THE BARBARIAN: RED NAILS – Marvel’s 1973 adaptation of the Robert E. Howard classic about Conan and the she-pirate Valeria taking on dragons, sorcery and a genocidal civil war in the enclosed city of Xuchotl. Mature themes, graphic violence and more HERE.
LONI ANDERSON AND LYNDA CARTER TOGETHER: PARTNERS IN CRIME – This forgotten television series from 1984 starred Loni and Lynda as private investigators who are partnered with each other. Click HERE.
JEFF CHANDLER’S SWASHBUCKLER MOVIES – The late screen star’s swashbucklers like Yankee Buccaneer (1952) about the U.S. Navy fighting Caribbean pirates in the 1820s; Flame of Araby (1951) about a sword-wielding Bedouin Chief who is allied with a Tunisian princess (Maureen O’Hara) against several hostile factions; and Yankee Pasha (1954) with Chandler as an American mercenary around 1800 who fights pirates and military intrigue among a Pasha’s court during the war against Barbary Pirates. They’re all HERE.
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