Halloween Month continues as Balladeer’s Blog takes an anticipatory look at Terrifier 3, which hits theaters tomorrow, October 11th. Despite making his first appearance in 2008, Art – the blood-and-gore-soaked supernatural killer of the Terrifier franchise – still gets hailed as a “new” figure because general audiences were unaware of him until 2016.
Regular readers know I’ve long been pushing this ultra-violent series which is a return to the kind of uncompromising horror films from the distant past. Though critics of this latest movie are outraged at Art’s “no limits” approach to victims, let me remind people who feel that way that this grotesque figure has been killing children in his movies since All Hallows’ Eve in 2013.
WARNING: I chose the tamest Terrifier 3 picture I could find to start off this blog post, but this is one of those times when I’m giving a warning that readers who want to avoid excessive gore and intensely disturbing concepts should not click “Continue reading.” Continue reading
Maggie Smith (1934-2024) is no longer with us, unfortunately. To many fans, Smith embodied sophistication and withering wit. She and Sian Phillips were long among the elder stateswomen when it came to traditionally classy British actresses. 
DESTINATION INNER SPACE (1966) – In a true rarity Scott Brady got to be the less-than- hunky action lead in this film! THE Sheree North and The Green Hornet‘s Wende Wagner were along for the ride in this flick that plays like an episode from Jon Pertwee’s Doctor Who era recast with Americans.
Here at Balladeer’s Blog people who can make me laugh are my favorite kind of people! YT reviewer Snarky Jay, as she calls herself, is entertaining, engaging and hilarious with her reviews. 
RED SUN (1971) – I had originally planned to review this international production during Frontierado Season of 2025, but French superstar Alain Delon’s recent death made me decide to post it now. Red Sun was a French-Italian co-production starring America’s Charles Bronson, France’s Alain Delon and Japan’s Toshiro Mifune in a Spaghetti Western. 
The train also carries a shipment of gold targeted by a gang of outlaws led by a charismatic but cruel man called Gauche (Alain Delon) and his longtime partner in crime Link Stuart (Charles Bronson). The bandits rob the gold as the train passes through the western deserts. Gauche displays his callous ruthlessness by not caring that he has to kill an innocent passenger while gunning down a man trying to play hero.
SAMSON AND DELILAH (1902) – This 6-minute short was directed by Ferdinand Zecca, Walter Pathe’s right-hand man. This film has survived and is an interesting historical piece. It’s the earliest surviving silent movie about Samson, the iconic Zecca’s first Samson film, plus Samson and Delilah is one of the silent era shorts that were tinted by hand – frame by frame. 
This 1902 effort opens with Samson’s “labor” of tearing off the gate of Gaza, then just dumping it rather than carrying it away. We get other standard bits from the tale of this Biblical Judge including, of course, the seductive Philistine woman Delilah learning that the secret of Samson’s strength lies in his uncut hair. 
THE BIONIC BOY (1977) – This joint production of the Philippines and Hong Kong starred child martial arts champion Johnson Yap from Singapore. It was also released under alternate titles like Superboy, Trionic Warrior and others. 
Sonny wins the Jackpot on the game show because he’s as intelligent as he is skilled at martial arts. When Not Liberace brings on Sonny’s parents, some gangsters watching the show see that his father is really a former Interpol agent who brought down several of their colleagues and has been living in a Witness Protection Program ever since. (Pretty stupid to let your face get televised to millions then.)
THE SHEIK (1921) – Edith Maude Hull’s 1919 novel came to the big screen to cement Rudolph Valentino’s rising star. He shone as Sheik Ahmed Ben Hassan with Agnes Ayers as Lady Diane Mayo.
A lot of Gothic Romance Novel antics follow in this film that has not aged well. Valentino’s wide eyes and flaring nostrils were masterfully parodied by Peter Sellers in a comedy bit decades later. 
As their battle of wills goes on, Diane is seized by caravan robbers and taken to their leader’s lair. Sheik Ahmed leads his men to the rescue, and, with Stockholm Syndrome well and truly in charge, Lady Diane “realizes” how much she has fallen in love with her abductor.
BREAKHEART PASS (1975) – (Frontierado is coming up August 2nd and, as always, it’s about the myth of the Old West, not the grinding reality.) Alistair MacLean may be more closely associated with espionage and crime thrillers like When Eight Bells Toll, The Eagle Has Landed and Puppet on a Chain but his lone Western, Breakheart Pass, is a very solid story which transfers MacLean’s usual themes to the American West. 
Some critics bash this above-average film because they apparently thought Alistair MacLean’s name on the script meant it would be an over-the-top Western Spy actioner along the lines of Robert Conrad’s old Wild Wild West television series crossed with Where Eagles Dare. Instead, Breakheart Pass comes closer to grittiness than slickness and is all the more enjoyable for that. 
THE FRONTIERADO HOLIDAY IS COMING UP ON FRIDAY, AUGUST 2nd! 
MAVERICK (1994) – Richard Donner directed and Mel Gibson starred in this excellent tribute to the 1950s and 1980s Maverick television series. The original series starred James Garner as slick-talking gambler/ gunslinger Bret Maverick AND, in old-age makeup, as “Pappy” Beauregard Maverick, the gambler and con-man patriarch of that family of rogues. (No relation to the real-life Maverick family of Texas, for whom “maverick” cattle were named.)
Mel Gibson portrays Bret Maverick since by 1994 James Garner was too old for the role. Jodie Foster co-stars as rival gambler Annabelle Bransford and the iconic James Garner provides memorable support as a lawman. 
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