Balladeer’s Blog’s annual retrospective continues with this look at April’s best.
SCREAMBOOK (1984) – This low, low budget horror anthology film was written, produced and directed by THIRTEEN-YEAR-OLD Joseph Zaso.
He went on to a still-going career in Psychotronic filmmaking, but this debut effort saw him directing (mostly) his fellow teens, even in the adult and elderly roles. Sort of a Bugsy Mallone feel. Click HERE.
AIHEC: COOL NAMED TEAMS AND LOGOS – A look at 21 cool-named sports teams and their logos from the American Indian Higher Education Consortium. Meet the Turtle Mountain College Mighty Mikinocks, the Red Lake Nation College Migizi, the Leech Lake College Leech Lakers and more. Click HERE.
WINK MARTINDALE, RIP: HE DID MORE THAN JUST GAME SHOWS – I reviewed some of Mr. Martindale’s other productions, like his role on the sci-fi series Mars Patrol (1953-1955), the Rock and Roll movie Let’s Rock (1958), the 26-minute short about life in the future titled 1999 A.D., and the PureFlix series Hilton Head Island. Click HERE.
VAL KILMER, RIP: TOP SECRET (1984) – Click HERE.
FOR APRIL 1st, THE THIRD FOOL KILLER LETTER – From June 28th, 1861.
The folk figure created by Charles Napoleon Bonaparte Evans in the 1850s expressed his disgust with the fools who brought on the Civil War. Click HERE.
FORGOTTEN TELEVISION – Bracken’s World (1969-1970) Leslie Nielsen as the head of a Hollywood studio with as many stars as The Love Boat. Click HERE. The Engelbert Humperdinck Show (1969-1970) – Singing and comedy sketches with celebrity guests. Click HERE. Empire (1962-1963) Ryan O’Neal, Charles Bronson and Richard Egan starred in this modern ranching drama HERE.
ANCIENT SCIENCE FICTION – Consolations in Travel (1830) A journey to see the alien life-forms on the Moon, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and on comets HERE. The Guardian of Mystery Island (1896) Hemp that grants long lifespans and a large man-eating tree with tentacles for branches. Click HERE. A Story of the Year 2236 (1900) – A war between Earth’s interstellar empire and a hostile alien empire from Sirius. Click HERE.
ARGENTINA’S SUPERHEROES – I examined the country’s male and female heroes like Caballero Rojo, Cybersix, Sonoman, El Cazador, Alien Girl, Arana Negra and many more. Click HERE.
BAD MOVIES – A look at Werewolves on Wheels (1971), Psychomania (1973), Black Angels (1970), Bigfoot (1970), She-Devils on Wheels and several more HERE.
THE SUCCESSOR (1965) – Forgotten drama which fictionalized the College of Cardinals’ process for their selection of a new Pope. Click HERE. Continue reading
DECEMBER 11th, 2019 – On the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, cave art was discovered that has been recognized as the world’s oldest example of pictorial storytelling, dating to approximately 43,900 years ago. 
A DIVA’S CHRISTMAS CAROL (2000) – Balladeer’s Blog’s Sixteenth Annual Christmas Carol-a-Thon continues with a look at this Vanessa Williams venture. Due to the nature of this adaptation of the Dickens classic it is often categorized as one of the “African-American versions.” Among other such Carols I have reviewed are Christmas is Comin’ Uptown with Gregory Hines and John Grin’s Christmas starring Robert Guillaume. 
SEAN FLYNN: ERROL’S SON IN MOVIES – The son of swashbuckler Errol Flynn and Lili Damita starred in several overlooked films, among them The Son of Captain Blood, The Sign of Zorro, and Temple of the White Elephant (think Indiana Jones adventures). 
FORGOTTEN TELEVISION – The Blue Palace (1974-1976): A German sci-fi series that was like a cross between Doomwatch and The X-Files. Click 
MARIE WALCAMP: THE DAREDEVIL OF SILENT MOVIES – Forgotten by everybody except us Silent Film geeks, Marie did most of her own stunts and from 1913 to 1920 starred in adventure serials like The Lion’s Claws, Liberty: A Daughter of the USA, and the Fu Manchu-inspired The Dragon’s Net. She also did jungle adventures like The Jungle Queen, A Daughter of the Jungle, and Cast Adrift in the South Seas. Plus westerns like The Red Ace and her 9 flicks as female gunslinger Tempest Cody. Click 
I WAS A TEENAGE TIME LORD – Young me and Bad Movies like Frankenstein Meets the Space Monster, From Hell It Came, The Creeping Terror, Robot Monster, Teenagers from Outer Space and more 
APPOINTMENT WITH ADVENTURE (1955-1956) – This forgotten program from the 1950s presented LIVE performances that were filmed and could be aired as reruns in the future. Appointment with Danger ran for 53 half-hour episodes and featured writers like Rod Serling as well as actors like Paul Newman and Gena Rowlands. If you don’t like black & white, some episodes have been colorized. 
FIVE IN JUDGMENT – Paul Newman and Jack Lord star in this drama about two brothers who take shelter from a storm in a small-town diner filled with other patrons waiting out the dust storm. News reports make the locals suspect that Paul and his brother are a pair of fugitives who just murdered a 16-year-old girl. Patricia Breslin and James Gregory also starred. 
A CHRISTMAS CAROL (2012) – This adaptation of A Christmas Carol was a noble effort to try something different that was not just a gimmick. Ignore the negative IMDb reviews which accuse this adaptation of using “Elizabethan language.” They’re off by a few hundred years, since in reality the dialogue follows that in the Dickens novel of 1843. 
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