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Nikkatsu Trailer Theatre # 2: SENSELESS CRUELTY VIVIDLY PORTRAYED!
By most accounts, Nikkatsu didn’t exactly give Seijun Suzuki’s giddy post-modern gangster romp ‘Youth of the Beast’ the big push it deserved back in 1963, but clearly that didn’t stop the studio’s...
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This Month’s Zatoichi: Zatoichi & The Chess Expert (Kenji Misumi, 1965)
Kenji Misumi’s third film in the Zatoichi series – known as ‘Zatoichi Jigoku Taki’ (‘Zatoichi’s Trip to Hell’) to Japanese viewers, despite nothing much more hellish than usual transpiring within –...
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Spare The Rod by Michael Croft (Panther, 1961 / originally published 1954)
Juvenile Delinquency, UK style. Where America had Brando in ‘The Wild One’, ‘Rebel Without a Cause’, Hal Ellson, The Knife and, y’know, this sort of thing, we got the pulse-pounding sight of Max...
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Savage Streets by William McGivern (Fontana, 1962)
Whilst it sadly has nothing to do with the ‘80s Linda Blair uber-trash classic of the same name, this UK repackaging of veteran US crime writer William P. McGivern’s JD drama ‘Savage Streets’ is...
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To Sir With Love by E.R. Braithwaite (Ace, 1961)
To conclude this brief series of loosely connected paperback posts, it’s difficult to say anything snarky about a book as big-hearted as E.R. Braithwaite’s ‘To Sir With Love’, so instead I’ll just...
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VHS Purgatory: Pretty Kill (George Kaczender, 1986)
It’s been a long time since I’ve done one of these posts, isn’t it? To be honest, with my movie watching time increasingly squeezed, and discs of solid must-see titles piling up, throwing on a random...
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Krimi Casebook: Der Frosch mit der Maske / ‘The Face of the Frog’ (Harald...
The phenomenal popularity in Germany of British mystery writer Edgar Wallace, which continued in spite of two apocalyptic world wars between the nations, is one of those odd twists of popular culture...
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Nikkatsu Trailer Theatre # 3: A DRAGON SYMBOL ADORNS THEIR HELMETS!
Well I don’t know about you readers, but I’m already heading to my local picture house to demand a ticket for Yasuharu Hasebe’s third and final instalment in the Stray Cat Rock franchise, and the fact...
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Weird Tales: The Devil’s Bride by Seabury Quinn (Popular Library, 1976...
Whilst H.P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard have proved to be by far the most influential authors whose work found a home in ‘Weird Tales’ magazine during the 1920s and 30s, your chances of finding...
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Japan Haul: ‘A Funeral For Maya’ by Ichijo Yukari (1972)
For one reason or another, I never really got around to scanning most of the junk shop treasures I brought back from my trips to Japan last year, or indeed sharing any of the photographs I took of...
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Krimi Casebook: Die Toten Augen von London / ‘The Dead Eyes of London’...
Amid the greasy cobbled streets of a “London” apparently stuck in some strange amalgam of the 1890s, 1920s and 1960s, a visiting Australian wool merchant loses his way in the obligitory peasouper smog....
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Japan Photo Spectacular: On (Nakano) Broadway.
Located within what I assume to be a post-war multi-story shopping arcade in the Nakano ward on the west side of Tokyo, Nakano Broadway probably ranks as one of my favourite places on earth.An otaku...
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Deathblog: Sir Christopher Lee (1922 - 2015)
Well, what can you say….. whatever we may have said, thought or muttered over the years regarding Sir Chris’s personality, way of life or acting ability, he was Christopher fucking Lee, and you are...
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Franco Files:Tender & Perverse Emanuelle (1973)
AKA:‘Des Frissons sur la Peau’ (‘The Shiver of Fear’, France), ‘Le Chemin Solitaire’ (‘The Solitary Way’, France?), ‘El Ultimo Escalofrío’ (‘The Final Chill’, Spain), ‘French Emanuelle’ (UK),...
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This Month’s Zatoichi: Zatoichi’s Vengeance (Tokuzô Tanaka, 1966)
As observant readers may have noted, April and May saw my household taking a break from our monthly Zatoichi screenings, partly just to allow our enthusiasm to recharge a bit after a few slightly...
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Japan Haul: SM (‘Suspense & Mystery’) Magazine (June 1969)
Although it purports to offer readers an experience in “suspense and mystery”, Japanese periodical ‘SM’ seems to have been fairly blatant in aiming it’s contents at an audience seeking an entirely...
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Krimi Casebook: Der Schwarze Abt / ‘The Black Abbot’ (F.J. Gottlieb, 1963)
I don’t know whether or not anti-clerical sentiment played a role in Edgar Wallace’s writing, but it certainly seems to run rampant in Rialto Films’ series of 1960s Wallace adaptations, to an extent...
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Japan Photo Spectacular: A Visit to Edogawa Rampo’s House.
Within easy walking distance of Tokyo’s Ikebukuro transport hub, on the corner of one of the spotlessly clean boulevards surrounding the prestigious Rikkyo University campus, markings affixed a nest of...
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Mutiny in Space by Avram Davidson (Pyramid, 1969)
By way of a blatant – though hopefully not unenjoyable – filler post whilst assorted summer holiday business keeps me from the writing desk, let me present this archetypal example of two-fisted sci-fi...
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Franco Files: Vampyros Lesbos (1970)
PLEASE NOTE: Although the review below was written after a viewing of the (excellent) 2015 Severin blu-ray of ‘Vampyros Lesbos’, the screenshots above are by necessity taken from the (perfectly...
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