Monday, October 23, 2023

70's American Horror Part Sixty-One

THE EYES OF CHARLES SAND
(1972)
Dir - Reza Badiyi
Overall: MEH
 
A failed TV pilot that was then delegated to being an ABC Movie of the Week, The Eyes of Charles Sand may be of interest for containing minor appearances by Adam West and Joan Bennett.  The story itself has a nifty enough premise of a man who is gifted/cursed by hereditary, supernatural premonitions after the death of his uncle.  Unfortunately, such a hook is poorly utilized throughout the unfolding hour and fifteen minutes and all but abandoned in the second half where it turns into a lackluster drama featuring two shady relatives that are trying to convince their sister that she did not see them murder her brother.  Before this unfortunate narrative detour though, veteran television director Reza Badiyi stages some freaky scenes concerning Peter Haskell's otherworldly visions, including a woman with cartoonishly-aged make-up on and his uncle with glassy eyes.  Both Barbara Rush and Sharon Farrell turn in obnoxious performances, though this has more to do with the poor writing which has the later behaving like a childish lunatic only because she is being duped by her siblings, while the former is perfectly calm and unassuming until the final set piece where she goes full-blown psychobiddy wackadoo.

KNIFE FOR THE LADIES
(1974)
Dir - Larry G. Spangler
Overall: MEH

Producer Larry G. Spangler's directorial career was exclusively dedicated to the Western genre, making his 1974 effort Knife for the Ladies a slight variation as it is also a slasher movie.  Though the hybrid is unique in some respects and certainly so for the time period, the resulting film is typical of low-budget offerings that were ill-equipped with uninteresting scripts, flat direction, and stagnant pacing.  Set in the Old West of course, Jeff Cooper has a curly blonde afro that is completely clashing with the time period, plus he smirks his way through all of his line readings with a swagger that is not entirely appropriate to a character that is sent to a small Arizona town which is besieged by a mysterious, prostitute-killing psycho.  Though it opens with back-to-back murders done with some POV flare, things permanently settle into boredom from there on out as the movie becomes nothing more than a series of endless talking scenes that offer up regurgitated information while pointing to the obvious culprit the entire time.  Naturally then, the ending is hardly as rug-pulling as was intended, least of all because the would-be shocking set pieces is already telegraphed on the film's poster.  Sans some bloodshed, it has a dated, made-for-TV presentation and no star power, but the major issue is still its lackadaisical flow.

THUNDERCRACK!
(1975)
Dir - Curt McDowell
Overall: WOOF

A black and white, pornographic horror comedy and the third full-length from queer, underground filmmaker Curt McDowell, Thundercrack! is a typically meandering mess that only the most forgiving of midnight movie fans can endure.  Primarily staged as a set of improvisational, cinéma vérité monologues, it over stays its welcome at nearly three hours in length.  Equally uncharasmatic and unphotogenic actors prattle on and talk over each other, each one delivering obnoxious performances that intentionally emphasize high camp and satirical melodrama.  There are numerous sex scenes, (some between a man and woman, some between two women, some between two men, some involving sex toys, some involving a gorilla), but even then, the incessant banter hardly stops and more ridiculous scenarios are described in agonizingly grating detail than shown.  McDowell occasionally treats us to bizarre vignettes and closeups, but for the most part, things stay in its old dark house setting where all of the hedonistic hippies can sit around boring each other and the viewer.  As a desperate genre mash-up, it gets some points for its wild ambitions, (plus John Waters fans will appreciate its gleeful, bad taste button-pushing and risque visuals), but it is borderline unwatchable in its execution.

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