Nobody doesn’t like Ricardo Montalban. From Mr. Rourke to his memorable villain roles, his suave charm and magnetic charisma kept him a star for decades. Here’s a look at his swashbuckler movies.
RAGE OF THE BUCCANEERS (1961) – Montalban stars as 1600s buccaneer Captain Gordon aka the Black Pirate (no relation to the Douglas Fairbanks silent film). He’s a former slave turned pirate and his favorite targets for plunder are slave ships.
Gordon liberates all the slaves on such vessels and loots all valuables. His suffering when he was a slave drives him still and he has a “secret identity” of sorts as a wealthy landowner in San Salvador. Through that identity he covertly keeps abreast of ships with valuable cargos as well as the actions of slave merchants trying to avoid his pirate attacks.
Ricardo has two ladies vying for his love – stowaway Luanal (Liana Orfei) and the governor’s daughter Manuela (Giulia Rubini). Vincent Price himself plays Romero, an evil politician and slave trader plotting to overthrow the governor and take his place. He also wants Manuela for himself.
Romero’s most dangerous ally is Captain Tortuga (Jose Jaspe), a ruthless slaver who has clashed with Captain Gordon over the years. Montalban shines as the hero viewers can’t help but cheer for, especially when he thwarts the efforts of slavers to dump their chained human “cargo” overboard to drown rather than have our pirate captain liberate them.
This movie should have been remade in recent decades. I know studios consider pirate movies to be risky ventures but this one seems like it couldn’t miss. 88 minutes. Continue reading
My recent blog post about the short-lived General Mills cereal mascots 
BRIDE OF FRANKENBERRY 
ADVENTURES IN RAINBOW COUNTRY (1970-1971) – This forgotten Canadian series starred LOIS MAXWELL herself as Nancy Williams, a widowed single mother raising her teenage son and daughter in a home on Lake Huron in the late 1960s. 
STANDOUT EPISODES: 
JOHN CARPENTER’S CANCELED 1988 REMAKE OF THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON: IN-DEPTH SCRIPT REVIEW – The internet is crawling with all manner of scripts for movies that didn’t get made, but this is the first time I’m mentioning one. That’s because I feel this one could have been a hit. Maybe not a cash cow but a solid hit. 
At this point the term “Lovecraftian” has been incredibly overused but let’s face it, that atmosphere is needed to breathe new life into this long-dormant franchise. Lovecraft’s tales of Dagon and Innsmouth and the underwater ruins in The Temple would fit this franchise like a glove. 
CUCUMBER CASTLE (1970) – Eight years before the Bee Gees embarrassed themselves on the big screen with a horrible movie forcing a storyline to the Beatles album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band they embarrassed themselves on the small screen forcing a storyline to their own album Cucumber Castle. 
Cucumber Castle is so awful that not being in it was presumably brother Robin Gibb’s greatest professional triumph. He had recently left the Bee Gees in a huff to try a solo career, and little Andy Gibb was only twelve years old, so Barry and Maurice, who also produced, were left holding the 
THE Nth MAN (1920 – 1924?) – Written by Homer Eon Flint, who died in 1924. Though this short novel was not published until 1928 many fans of the author argue that it was actually written in 1920. 
Time for another look back at a clash of cereal mascots. Previously, Balladeer’s Blog covered 
General Mills tried replicating their Monster Cereal success with a pair of cartoon World War One flying aces as mascots for two new cereals. Sir Grapefellow was a stiff upper lip British fighter pilot whose cereal featured oats and grape-flavored marshmallows called Starbits. Baron Von Redberry, clearly based on Germany’s Red Baron, represented a cereal with oats and berry-flavored marshmallows/ Starbits.
CLOSE CALL FOR NUMBER ONE – The nation’s number one team – the NORTH AMERICAN UNIVERSITY STALLIONS – clashed with the visiting TEXAS A&M AT TEXARKANA EAGLES (should be Texarks). The 1st Half ended with the Stallions on top 37-29 but Texarkana was ready for a comeback. Their rally fell short as NAU held on to win 74-71. Jayden Jackson led the Stallions with 23 points, while teammate Joseph Cormier got a Double Double of 11 points and 12 rebounds. 
CENTURY CLUB – Teams scoring 100 or more points in Regulation: The (6) NEWPORT NEWS APPRENTICE SCHOOL BUILDERS (Shipbuilders) obliterated the CENTRAL INTERNATIONAL COLLEGE CARDINALS 121-65 ### The BLOOMFIELD COLLEGE BEARS won 110-108 at the BRYANT & STRATTON COLLEGE (Albany) BOBCATS ### And the (10) PAUL QUINN COLLEGE TIGERS mauled the WILEY UNIVERSITY WILDCATS 107-53. 
SPIDER-MAN Vol 1 #50 (Jul 1967) 
Over the next few weeks, the crime rate in New York City skyrockets with no Spider-Man getting in the way of villainy and only Daredevil fighting street-level wrongdoing. Our hero’s absence is noted in criminal circles, inspiring the Kingpin to at last operate openly. 
Balladeer's Blog 