Balladeer’s Blog
Recent online discussions among film critics dealt with how the Jurassic Park series could be livened up.
Personally, I think it shot its bolt and should be done and left alone. Filmmakers who still want to deal in large numbers of dinosaurs should start adapting the Pellucidar novels of Edgar Rice Burroughs instead. They’re just begging for modern adaptations!
AT THE EARTH’S CORE (1914) – This tale was originally serialized in several issues of All-Story Weekly in 1914, then was assembled in novel form in 1922. American mining heir David Innes and his much older inventor friend Abner Perry test-drive Abner’s diesel-punk subterranean tunnel-drilling vehicle the Iron Mole.
The pair inadvertently drive the train engine sized vehicle to an Inner Earth realm called Pellucidar in the language of the native inhabitants. Amazed by this find, David and Abner set out on foot to explore some of the rainforest region and realize it is inhabited by thousands of dinosaur species long extinct on the Earth’s surface. Continue reading
DANGEROUS ASSIGNMENT (1952) – Brian Donlevy, famous as Professor Quatermass in a pair of movies, starred as secret agent Steve Mitchell. He received his missions from a man called “The Commissioner” (Herb Butterfield). 
NUMBER FIVE TOPPLED – In NCAA Division Two, the 8th ranked COLORADO STATE AT PUEBLO THUNDERWOLVES visited the number 5 team in the nation – the WESTERN COLORADO UNIVERSITY MOUNTAINEERS. By Halftime WCU was in front 21-7, but the Thunderwolves shut them out from there. It was 21-21 in the 3rd Quarter with CSU-Pueblo winning 24-21 in the 4th. 
DOWN GOES NUMBER EIGHT – Down in NCAA Division Three, the number 9 UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN AT RIVER FALLS FALCONS played host to the 8th ranked UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN AT WHITEWATER WARHAWKS. UW-River Falls made a definite statement, leading the Warhawks 31-7 at the Half before embarrassing them by a final score of 52-14 
CENTURY CLUB IN FOOTBALL? – My Century Club notes usually apply to college basketball teams that score 100 or more points in Regulation. In a very, very rare case in football, the NJCAA’s SNOW COLLEGE BADGERS welcomed the CALIFORNIA COMMUNITY CHRISTIAN COLLEGE SAINTS and utterly eviscerated them ONE HUNDRED ONE to SIX! 
DYNAMO 
BLACK LION 
HAPPY HALLOWEEN! Balladeer’s Blog wraps up its 2025 Halloween blog posts with a look at the horror films of the one and only Paul Naschy, real name Jacinto Molina, Spain’s King of Horror Cinema. 
THE MARK OF THE WOLFMAN (1968) – Paul Naschy wrote and starred in this first of his many movies as the tormented lycanthrope Waldemar Daninsky. This movie was also released under the title Frankenstein’s Bloody Terror with an edited-in introduction claiming that a branch of the Frankenstein family was cursed to become werewolves. That was done purely so the distributor could pass this off as a Frankenstein film. 
It turns out the couple are actually vampires who prey on victims all over Europe. They kill a few of Waldemar’s friends and then sic Wolfstein on him. Daninsky wins that battle of werewolves and kills Wolfstein, then fights and kills the Mikhelov vampires. 
SHERLOCK HOLMES IN THE GREAT MURDER MYSTERY (1908) – Shamelessly, the Crescent Film Company of New York adapted Poe’s Murders in the Rue Morgue but replaced his master detective Auguste Dupin with Sherlock Holmes and the orangutan of the original story with a gorilla. 
THE SEALED ROOM (1909) – Poe’s The Cask of Amontillado was adapted by film pioneer D.W. Griffith in this movie. Besides changing the title, Griffith altered the story to feature a philandering man and woman being walled up to die. Showing up in small parts during this 11-minute short were America’s future sweetheart Mary Pickford, and Mack Sennett, future comedy icon. 
AGAINST THE DARK (2009) – As Halloween night creeps ever closer, let’s take a look at the most atypical movie from Steven Seagal’s Down Years. Say what you will, but Against the Dark at least stands out among the Waddlin’ Warrior’s many direct to video turkeys during his Fat Elvis phase. 
Viewers are thrown right into the post-apocalypse setting. A disease has heavily reduced the global population. Many are dead but many more live on as violent predators who feed on the living.
### 1. GRAND VIEW UNIVERSITY VIKINGS ### 2. BENEDICTINE COLLEGE RAVENS ### 3. KEISER UNIVERSITY SEAHAWKS ### 4. MONTANA TECH OREDIGGERS ### 5. DORDT UNIVERSITY DEFENDERS ### 
### 1. HARDING UNIVERSITY BISON ### 2. FERRIS STATE BULLDOGS ### 3. UNIVERSITY OF WEST FLORIDA ARGONAUTS ### 4. PITTSBURG (KS) STATE GORILLAS ### 5. KUTZTOWN STATE GOLDEN BEARS ### 
PHANTASM – Don Coscarelli wrote and directed four of the five films in the Phantasm franchise but let David Hartman write and direct the last one in 2016. 
With this movie franchise Don Coscarelli forever changed the way we look at funeral homes. And funeral home directors. Actor Angus Scrimm (1926-2016) owned the role of the sinister mortician the Tall Man as surely as Robert Englund owns the role of Freddy Krueger. 
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