Saturday, March 10, 2012

BLACKENSTEIN - Cardella Di Milo - "I Can't Find No One To Love Me" (1973)

The original title is "Blackenstein," I don't know what brain pilot thought "The Black Frankenstein" needed to be added! Talk about redundancy!

This is Ivory Stone as Doctor Winifred Walker in her only film appearance ever!

This is Winifred's boyfriend, Joe De Sue as Eddie, a quadriplegic Vietnam veteran! This would also be Joe's only acting effort! "Blackenstein" is a story about love and devotion..........kind of!

John Hart is Doctor Stein! What a contrast! John Hart had a monstrous career that went all the way back to 1937, and he just passed away in 2009 at the age of 91! Everybody knows that Clayton Moore was the Lone Ranger, but from 1950 to 1953 John Hart had the role of The Lone Ranger for 54 episodes while Clayton Moore sat it out during a contract dispute. John also had his own TV show in 1957 that ran for 39 episodes called "Hawkeye and the Last of the Mohicans." He had the lead role as Nat 'Hawkeye' Cutler! If the set looks pretty amazing for a cheap movie, it's because they dusted off, and used some of the original lab equipment from "Frankenstein!"

After working on numerous cult titles like "The Cremators," "Baby Needs A New Pair Of Shoes," and "KISS Meets The Phantom Of The Park," cinematographer Robert Caramico went totally mainstream TV in the 80's, as the Director of Photography on "Lou Grant," "The Waltons," "Falcon Crest," and "Dallas!"

"Blackenstein" might be the only Frankenstein character on record who wears patent leather boots!

"Blackenstein" is pretty blase' until Eddie really goes on a rampage. All of a sudden he's ripping off limbs, ripping open blouses, and ripping his hapless victim's guts out!

The marvelous Liz (Thrill Killers, Nasty Rabbit, Hot Rods To Hell, Body Fever) Renay was awarded the role of one of the hapless victims!

You could take about three or four minutes of carnage out of "Blackenstein" and it would be rated 'G' instead of 'R'!

While James (Friday Foster) Cousar only ever acted in four films, Don Brodie, on the right, had 310 acting gigs, and also served as Assistant to the Producer on this film! Here's the most amazing fact of all, Don's mug was used by the animators of "Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs" as the model for the features of The Old Hag!!

For a minute there, I actually had convinced myself that "Blackenstein" was produced by Mr. B.I.G. but it's not!

Time to get on over to The Parisian Room, and the soulful sounds of Cardella De Milo, backed up by The Art Hilary Trio!

Now That's, three cool cats!

The writer and performer of the very soulful "I Can't Find No One To Love Me", is Cardella Di Milo as herself! Cardella Di Milo was also in some movies with Rudy Ray Moore like "Dolemite," The Human Tornado," and "Rude!"

The one major thing I don't get about this whole film is that Eddie is THE new reigning king of The Slowest Moving Monsters Ever Club! The Mummy moves like The Roadrunner compared to Eddie. I'm pretty sure a snail would win a race against him, but he still manages to catch victims with massive head starts! It's truly mind boggling! Not only does he manage to kill a bunch of innocent people, he also kills an amazing amount of on-screen time!!

One line was, "I saw a shadow 15 feet tall!" The guy on the right about to get pummeled is Roosevelt Jackson as Malcom, Doctor Frankenstein's assistant. Roosevelt only resurfaced for one other film, the 1992 blockbuster feature "Zhong Hua Jing Hua!"

Eddie would have been okay, if Malcolm hadn't juiced his DNA because he was so hot for Winifred! It's not a happy ending for anybody!

Here's another example of more good use of that original lab equipment!

Who let the Dawgs out? Two other titles cinematographer Robert Caramico was associated with were "The Doberman Gang" in 1972, and "The Daring Dobermans" in 1973, imagine that! For more information, you can catch Eddie and the gang on Netflix!

2 comments:

  1. oh man, you reminded me of the ending, what a hoot! great post. back when black was the new green...

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  2. I'm still waiting for Blackzilla.

    ReplyDelete