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FORGOTTEN TELEVISION: U.S. STEEL HOUR SEASON FOUR (1956-1957)

U.S. STEEL HOUR: SEASON FOUR (1956-1957) – “The Broadway of Television” was back for another season. Some standout episodes from this season:

WE MUST KILL TONI – The Oberon Brothers (Fritz Weaver and Norman Lloyd) need money desperately. They were counting on inheriting, but when it looks like the inheritance will instead go to Toni (Lisa Daniels) the brothers try to kill her in this dark comedy.

BANG THE DRUM SLOWLY – PAUL NEWMAN, George Peppard, Albert Salmi, Barbara Babcock and Clu Gulager star in the TV version of this classic story. A major league pitcher (Paul Newman) learns his catcher (George Peppard in his television debut) is dying from a rare disease. He honors the catcher’s request to keep the situation a secret from the rest of the team.    Continue reading →

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FILM REVIEW: SIX-STRING SAMURAI (1998) ONE OF MY FAVORITE MOVIES

Six String SamuraiSIX-STRING SAMURAI (1998) – 91 minutes – Directed by Lance Mungia … Starring Jeffrey Falcon and Justin McGuire … Written by Lance Mungia and Jeffrey Falcon … Soundtrack by Brian Tyler and the Red Elvises  

There’s an old saying to the effect that every American male who loves movies wishes on some level that they had directed The Wild Bunch. Generalizations like that are very seldom accurate and at least in my case that particular one is very far from the truth. If I wished I had directed any one movie it would be Six-String Samurai.  

Trying to offer a brief description of this film is virtually impossible but for the sake of attracting new viewers to this underappreciated flick I’ll take a shot at it by calling it surrealism’s only two-fisted action blockbuster. For its visual style Six-String Samurai slyly adopts the cinematic elements and directorial grammar that are shared by the best samurai films, Spaghetti Westerns and post-apocalypse actioners.  

Fans of the Coen Brothers, David Lynch, Alejandro Jodorowsky and Guillermo del Toro would likely love this film as much as I do. Just as the Continue reading →

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BALLADEER’S BLOG’S COLLEGE FOOTBALL RESULTS: SEPTEMBER TWENTIETH

HEADLINES

DIVISION TWO OVER DIVISION ONE – The NCAA Division 2 team the DELTA STATE STATESMEN traveled to face NCAA Division 1’s MISSISSIPPI VALLEY STATE DELTA DEVILS. After a scoreless 1st Quarter, the Delta Devils went up 3-0 at the Half. The Statesmen took a 14-6 advantage to end the 3rd Quarter before consummating the Upset 21-6 in the 4th. 

DIVISION THREE OVER DIVISION TWO – NCAA Division 3’s BREVARD COLLEGE TORNADOES defeated their hosts the D2 ERSKINE COLLEGE FLYING FLEET by a final score of 27-14    ###    And the D3 team the UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN AT LACROSSE EAGLES won big 47-13 at the D2 WAYNE STATE WARRIORS. Continue reading →

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NEW ZEALAND GRANTED WOMEN OF ALL COLORS THE RIGHT TO VOTE ON THIS DATE IN 1893

SEPTEMBER 19th, 1893 – New Zealand’s suffrage movement ended in success as the Electoral Act of 1893 was signed by Governor Lord Glasgow.  Kate Sheppard was one of the prominent women leading the movement, and the Women’s Christian Temperence Union were also crucial in pushing for women’s suffrage. Continue reading →

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THE RED SKULL: 1940s & 1950s STORIES

Last weekend’s escapist superhero post from Balladeer’s Blog looked at the earliest Dr. Doom stories and was a big hit. This time I’m looking at the earliest Red Skull stories.

CAPTAIN AMERICA COMICS Vol 1 #1 (March 1941)

Story 5: The Riddle of the Red Skull

Synopsis: Even though America has not yet entered World War 2, Nazi agent the Red Skull has been sending his calling cards to assorted American military and intelligence figures, then inevitably ambushes and kills them shortly afterward with poison from a hypodermic needle.

Major Croy is the latest figure to receive the Red Skull’s card. Steve Rogers and J.B. Barnes try to protect him but he waves off the offer. The Red Skull shows up and kills Croy. 

Captain America recognizes how deadly the Red Skull is and orders Bucky to stay out of this case. The sidekick investigates on his own and gets captured by the Red Skull and his men. Captain America shows up and frees him, but the Skull and his underlings escape.

The next day at Camp Lehigh, Rogers and Barnes witness the fiery destruction of industrialist George Maxon’s latest military aircraft during a test flight. The Red Skull is behind this, too. That night the Skull shows up at the home of General Charles Manor in the Virginia suburbs and kills him.

Before he can escape, Captain America shows up. It turns out that the Red Skull has been using George Maxon as an agent and Maxon dies in the fight with Cap. The Red Skull himself is still at large and Cap discovers a note proving that the Skull answers directly to Hitler himself.    Continue reading →

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THE OZIDI EPIC OF NIGERIA: PART TEN

FOR PART ONE CLICK HERE. PART TWO HERE. PART THREE HERE. PART FOUR HERE. PART FIVE HERE. PART SIX HERE. PART SEVEN HERE. PART EIGHT HERE. PART NINE HERE.

PART TEN – We begin this installment with a much more mature and sober-minded Ozidi. We’ve seen him go from his wild and unavoidable embrace of violence during his revenge quest against the murderers of his father to destructively maintaining that reflexive violence after his vengeance had been achieved.

From there we saw him learn humility from facing disastrous setbacks – albeit temporary ones – in combat and last time around we saw Ozidi grow disillusioned with violence due to the tragic circumstances it brought on.

Our now more serious hero has resumed his walks around his unfit uncle King Temugedege’s land Orua. Word reached him about the abuses being inflicted on the people by the brutish Ogodu, a muscular hulk of a man who had a malformed face with the eyes on top of his head.

Now moved by a sense of obligation toward the well-being of the people and no longer just revenge or proving his mettle against any powerful rival he encountered, Ozidi nobly went in search of Ogodu. Continue reading →

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B-MOVIE HOSTESS: SALLY THE ZOMBIE CHEERLEADER (2005-2007, 2009-present)

SALLY THE ZOMBIE CHEERLEADER – This horror hostess is portrayed by Nicole Galeano aka Nicole M. King aka Nicole M. Brooks. The Zombie Cheerleader started appearing on Public Access Cable around 2001, and in 2005 the undead pom-pom girl launched one of her best-known Movie Hostess programs – The Zombie Cheerleader’s School of Horror.

Sally cleverly used a black & white riff on the old MGM roaring lion logo on the production. “Hic Sunt Monstri” is Latin for Here be Monsters, making our subject’s motto a play on MGM’s “Ars Gratia Artis” – Art for Art’s Sake – and “Hic Sunt Dracones” – Here be Dragons, from very old maps. 

The Zombie Cheerleader’s School of Horror lasted into 2007 and the supporting cast consisted of her daughter Genevieve Brooks as Zombette, an underclass and undead cheerleader who assisted the star, as did the monstrous Mr. Hairyhands, played by Daniel Brooks.

Letting her daughter be part of the show reminded me of the old Philadelphia Movie Host Dr. Shock making his child Doreen a co-star as “Bubbles.”

In 2009 our Movie Hostess returned with her new program The Zombie Cheerleader Show, which has been running on various outlets including TV stations from America’s northeastern states westward to Hawaii. The Zombie Cheerleader Show also enjoys runs on assorted cable and streaming platforms, YouTube, Vimeo, The Monster Channel, The Vortex, Tingler TV and Roku. Continue reading →

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ANCIENT SCIENCE FICTION: THE BARZEITSON EXPERIMENT (1888)

THE BARZEITSON EXPERIMENT (1888) – Written by female author Rebecca Rogers.

In Paris, ladies’ man and playboy Ambroise Schlegel strikes up a friendship with mad scientist Professor Barzeitson and his beautiful young wife. Ambroise has obvious designs on the woman, but she is unresponsive.

He persists and as an excuse to keep crossing paths with the lovely lady pretends to take an interest in what he thinks are the lunatic ravings of the professor. One day Barzeitson reveals to Ambroise the results of some of his secret works. Continue reading →

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FOOL KILLER PART SEVENTY-SIX: JULY 1915

Balladeer’s Blog continues its examination of the many facets of Fool Killer lore. FOR PART ONE, INCLUDING THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT IN THE 1850s, CLICK HERE.

PART 76 – As always, it’s fascinating to read the over 100-year-old opinions of James Larkin Pearson (and by extension his Fool Killer), including the opinions that one doesn’t agree with. Here are the Fool Killer’s targets in July, 1915:

*** Frank Holt – real name Erich Muenter – an Imperial German spy who was active in the U.S. despite America not having entered the World War yet. (We would not enter the war until April 1917.) In addition to teaching anti-American sentiments at Ivy League universities Harvard and Cornell, he set off a bomb in the U.S. Capitol building, sabotaged U.S. war aid being sent to the Allied Powers against the Central Powers in Europe and elsewhere and tried assassinating J.P. Morgan’s son Jack in his own home.   

           “Holt” also murdered his own pregnant wife with arsenic before taking his own life on July 6th, 1915.

*** An unidentified ripoff artist in Iowa who was selling a device which he claimed cured blindness. 

*** Cigarette smokers. For newbies to Pearson’s Fool Killer, he was a very early critic of the health dangers of smoking.

*** The rotating series of “official” Mexican governments, which made it hard for other countries to know which one to recognize. Continue reading →

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FILM REVIEW: I WOKE UP EARLY THE DAY I DIED (1998)

i woke up earlyI WOKE UP EARLY THE DAY I DIED (1998) – Directed by Aris Iliopulos, this is the film that was made based on that notorious unproduced script written by THE Ed Wood, the master of badfilm behind Glen or Glenda, Plan 9 From Outer Space and more.

The identity of the screenwriter is the main draw for this cultiest of cult movies. A secondary draw is the way even the smallest roles are performed by famous, infamous or fashionably esoteric figures. Think of I Woke Up Early The Day I Died as an arthouse companion to 1994’s Ed Wood from Tim Burton.

i woke up early zaneThere’s no dialogue, Easter Eggs regarding Wood’s various Golden Turkeys abound and excerpts from the actual screenplay appear on screen at times in case viewers are skeptical that the weirdness they’re witnessing really was in the original script.   

Billy Zane is in the lead role as a violent mental patient who overpowers his nurse, dresses in her uniform and escapes from confinement. He pulls off an armed robbery but has the proceeds stolen from him in turn at a bizarre funeral held by a deranged cult. Zane then commits multiple murders as he works his way through the list of people who may have the money from his heist. Continue reading →

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