Tag Archives: Bruce Campbell

January 17, 2025 · 5:29 am

BRUCE CAMPBELL AND SAM RAIMI: 1970s and 1980s SHORT FILMS – CLEVELAND SMITH AND MORE

Here at Balladeer’s Blog I’ve made no secret of the fact that I’m an enormous fan of Bruce Campbell, Sam Raimi, Scott Spiegel, Josh Becker, Robert Tapert and all the rest of the Michigan gang who hit the jackpot with the original The Evil Dead (1981, 1983). Ever since then they’ve starred in, written, and directed countless other movies and television projects like Hercules the Legendary Journeys, Spider-Man, Adventures of Brisco County Jr, you name it. 

      Even before The Evil Dead, the gang had been making amateur Super-8 short films emphasizing the kind of cornball, slapstick humor you’d expect of creative teens goofing around with their very first movie productions.  Like many fans I first caught glimpses of the shorts in the Sam Raimi episode of The Incredibly Strange Film Show which also featured Within the Woods, the Evil Dead proof of concept short.

CLEVELAND SMITH: BOUNTY HUNTER (1982) – This last of the Michigan Mafia’s short films is among the most accessible and enjoyable. I review the older ones below. As the title indicates, this 9-minute flick was one of the earliest Raiders of the Lost Ark parodies ever made.

The talent of those involved triumphed over the tiny budget and lame special effects as Bruce Campbell portrayed the mustachioed Cleveland Smith, heroic man of action. This short opens in mock-Republic Serial fashion, pretending this is Chapter 36 of Smith’s adventures.

Cleveland Smith: Bounty Hunter plays like a live-action Warner Brothers or Woody Woodpecker cartoon and is a fun watch on that level. The Michigan gang’s infectious enthusiasm carries the comedy short, helped by the “cool” factor of knowing what the gang members went on to achieve in the years ahead.   

Sam Raimi played a Nazi villain and Evil Dead costar Cheryl Guttridge played Sally, Cleveland Smith’s pith-helmeted girlfriend. Scott Spiegel, Ted Raimi, Robert “Mr. Lucy Lawless” Tapert and Bridget Hoffman portrayed the native jungle tribe like the one in the Indiana Jones movie. Continue reading →

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October 10, 2015 · 11:57 pm

ASH VS (THE) EVIL DEAD COUNTDOWN CONTINUES

Army of Darkness monsterOctober 31st is still the date for the debut of the Starz series Ash vs (the) Evil Dead.

Here’s another cover from one of the various Army of Darkness comic book series’ that came and went over the years.

I’ll check in with a few more as we while away the days before Ashley J Williams once again takes on a variety of Deadites.  Continue reading →

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October 6, 2015 · 12:48 am

ASH VS (THE) EVIL DEAD IS STILL COMING OCT 31st

Army of Darkness big skull faceYes, it’s another cover from one of the many Army of Darkness comic book series to come and go over the years. It’s all part of building the mood for the Starz series Ash vs (the) Evil Dead on Halloween!

Ash Williams, the man with the boomstick and the chainsaw hand takes on Deadites galore in the new cable series just like he did in these comic book series.

I’ll have more covers between now and Halloween. Continue reading →

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October 1, 2015 · 4:55 pm

ASH VS THE EVIL DEAD ARRIVES ON HALLOWEEN

Army of Darkness CthulhuOctober is Halloween Month! And this Halloween brings the extra treat of Bruce Campbell’s character Ash Williams returning to fight even more Deadites in the Starz cable show Ash vs (the) Evil Dead.

The series looks to be in the spirit of the various Army of Darkness comic book series’ that came and went over the years so I will periodically post a few covers until the 31st arrives. Regarding this first cover it’s only appropriate that Ash tangles with Herbert West, Reanimator and even more appropriate that his clash with that graduate of Miskatonic Medical School leads to an encounter with Cthulhu himself! (I’m sure you’ll recall Miskatonic University possessed one of the few surviving copies of the Necronomicon.)  Continue reading →

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September 9, 2015 · 7:29 pm

ASH VS THE EVIL DEAD – DEBUTING ON HALLOWEEN

Ash vs the Evil DeadBruce Campbell, Sam Raimi and Robert Tapert are launching a cable television continuation of the movie that first brought them fame and big bucks – The Evil Dead. The Brucemeister General returns to his role of Ash Williams with tongue firmly in cheek  for the type of self-deprecating humor and gross-out fun that fans have loved for decades now.

In the new Starz series Ash vs the Evil Dead the dark forces unleashed in the original film have returned 30 years later to plague Ash and various supporting characters – including one played by Lucy Lawless (Tapert’s wife), who has grown almost as pudgy as Bruce Campbell himself. That’s not meant in a nasty way, by the way. I point it out because a lot of people fail to recognize Lawless in the series trailer I link to below.

Ash vs the Evil Dead debuts on Halloween of this year. The series’ approach seems to reflect the ghoulishly fun spirit of the Army of Darkness comic book series which saw the man with the chainsaw hand and boomstick battle legions of Deadites while plagued by his frequent bad luck. Enjoy the trailer, but be warned – for some reason NOBODY says “Join us … Join us”.  

CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE TRAILER:  Continue reading →

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June 24, 2015 · 8:49 pm

BRUCE CAMPBELL GOES THE BRUCE JENNER ROUTE

Bruce Campbell after a LOT of surgery.

Bruce Campbell after a LOT of surgery.

BALLADEER’S BLOG SCOOP: My unimpeachable sources in the industry – and by the industry, I mean the business – have informed me that cult figure Bruce Campbell (pictured) was so inspired by Bruce Jenner’s recent decision to go female that he has found the courage to do so himself!

“I started re-evaluating my life a few years ago when I learned that reruns of Jack of All Trades were being used to torture prisoners at Gitmo”, Campbell confided to Balladeer’s Blog.

“It made me seriously rethink my legacy and how I’d like to be remembered. And I want to be remembered as the busty stripper I’ve felt gestating inside me ever since one of the Raimi brothers said to me ‘ Y’know, if I was drunk enough I could go for a real cutey-pie like you.’ … Or maybe it was Julius Carry who said that. It’s all a blur right now.” Continue reading →

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October 25, 2014 · 4:03 pm

PULP HERO G-8 AND HIS BATTLE ACES: STORIES FIFTY-EIGHT TO SIXTY

Once again I'll say that a young Bruce Campbell would have made a perfect G-8 in a television series!

Once again I’ll say that a young Bruce Campbell would have made a perfect G-8 in a television series!

Balladeer’s Blog resumes its examination of the neglected Pulp Hero G-8. This is a story-by- story look at the adventures of this World War One American fighter pilot who – along with his two wingmen the Battle Aces – took on various supernatural and super- scientific menaces thrown at the Allied Powers by the Central Powers of Germany, Austria- Hungary and the Ottoman Muslim Turks.

G-8 was created by Robert J Hogan in 1933 when World War One was still being called simply the World War or the Great War. Over the next eleven years Hogan wrote 110 stories featuring the adventures of G-8, the street-smart pug Nippy Weston and the brawny giant Bull Martin. The regular cast was rounded out by our hero’s archenemy Doktor Krueger, by Battle, G-8’s British manservant and by our hero’s girlfriend R-1: an American spy/ nurse whose real name, like G-8’s was never revealed.

Fangs of the Serpent REAL58. FANGS OF THE SERPENT (July 1938) – Introducing  the German intelligence agent known only by the codename the Serpent. Kaiser Wilhelm himself gives the Serpent his latest mission: to destroy G-8 and his Battle Aces. A-1, Hogan’s fictional head of American Intelligence, personally warns our hero about this new adversary’s abilities.

The Serpent, like plenty of other G-8 villains, sports a memorable disfigurement. In his case a twisted spine from which he gets his codename and his distorted posture.  That would be a detriment to his career as a spy if not for the fact that his real strength lies in his supernatural mastery of the art of hypnosis. Continue reading →

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August 16, 2014 · 4:03 pm

PULP HERO G-8 AND HIS BATTLE ACES: STORIES TWENTY-EIGHT THROUGH THIRTY

FURTHER PROOF THAT A YOUNG BRUCE CAMPBELL SHOULD HAVE PLAYED G-8 IN A TELEVISION SERIES.

FURTHER PROOF THAT A YOUNG BRUCE CAMPBELL SHOULD HAVE PLAYED G-8 IN A TELEVISION SERIES.

Balladeer’s Blog resumes its examination of the neglected Pulp Hero G-8. This continues a story-by- story look at the adventures of this World War One American fighter pilot who – along with his two wingmen the Battle Aces – took on various supernatural and super- scientific menaces thrown at the Allied Powers by the Central Powers of Germany, Austria- Hungary and the Ottoman Muslim Turks.

G-8 was created by Robert J Hogan in 1933 when World War One was still being called simply the World War or the Great War. Over the next eleven years Hogan wrote 110 stories featuring the adventures of G-8, the street-smart pug Nippy Weston and the brawny giant Bull Martin. The regular cast was rounded out by our hero’s archenemy Doktor Krueger, by Battle, G-8’s British manservant and by our hero’s girlfriend R-1: an American nurse/ spy whose real name, like G-8’s was never revealed.

Blood Bat Staffel28. THE BLOOD-BAT STAFFEL (January 1936) – Doktor Krueger strikes again! This time our hero’s archenemy has created menaces that seem more in line with something the Austrian villain Dr Mollfuss would come up with.

Scores of monstrous man-bats are flying through the skies over No Man’s Land, terrifying and killing Allied pilots in this latest super-scientific offensive by the Central Powers. G-8 recognizes the hand of his nemesis Doktor Krueger behind this deadly and horrific threat (though as I mentioned above I’d have laid my money on Dr Mollfuss given his love of animal-men). The man-bats are also able to shoot bolts of electricity from their fingertips for no apparent reason!  Continue reading →

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January 30, 2012 · 11:11 pm

NOT A BAD MOVIE: AMSTERDAMNED (1988)

Amsterdamned

Amsterdamned

AMSTERDAMNED (1988) – Well, this will be an unexpected twist for regular readers of Balladeer’s Blog. Usually I review bad movie classics that don’t have the following they deserve, but in this case I’m reviewing a film that has a reputation for being bad, but really isn’t.

I’ve meant to write this review for awhile now. Amsterdamned is one of those films on the “must see” list for many of my fellow bad movie fans. I felt that way for years, too. After all, the film is from the same director who did The Lift, the hilariously bad “killer elevator” movie that I reviewed long ago on this blog. It also Continue reading →

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