A*P*E / Worldwide Entertainment Corp. - 1976

Now, here's a movie from South Korea with a $23,000 budget (WTF?!) trying to capitalize on KING KONG from the same year. It was seemingly commandeered by Jack H. Harris for American distribution. And, boy, does it suck!! Check the poster, it sez "Not to be confused with KING KONG!" although 'KING KONG' is in huge letters!

I have a sound clip for your approval, sooooo, you can push the big red 'GO' button located there by our other King Kong rip-offs, NOW, Ralphie The Tarantula!.. Here's a little sample from... A*P*E!

It kinda starts with the big APE wrasslin' with a giant shark! Poster fodder.

Joanna Kerns plays actress Marilyn Baker, there to star in a movie and ends up the big APE's main squeeze!

While loose in the countryside, he comes across these kids playing in a playground and gets fascinated with all the fun they're having. How cute!

See that little stuffed cow toy there?.. Well, it's supposed to be a real cow!

Col. Davis, US commander in South Korea, is the salty old crab you can hear in the sound clip giving orders.

Here's Marilyn getting ready for her big scene... Woo Woo!

Here's a shot of the big APE as he carries Marilyn in his smelly old hand! Looks real, right?!

Oh, and, here's a for real helicopter crashing and bursting into flames!

APE's big stinky hand invades an office space! Now, you have to agree the hand looks real in this shot, right?

The big dumb APE acts like this hang glider is a butterfly! So cute...

Welp, it's time to take down the big trouble maker, but, those damn crazy monkey boulders really make it hard on a guy!!

Goodbye, cruel world!.. Check out the arm and hand, clearly a crappy costume.

THE JOHNNY CASH SHOW - Derek And The Dominos - "It's Too Late" (1971)

I love music! And one of the reasons why is all the variety shows I watched on TV as a kid! 

The Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show, and The Rolling Stones on Hollywood Palace are a couple of good examples! Then there was American Bandstand, Soul Train, Where The Action Is, Shindig, Hullabaloo, Midnight Special, etc, etc, that were almost strictly all music! For a music lover, life was good!

The Johnny Cash Show ran for a couple of seasons from 1969 to 1971! Johnny had been working with people like Bob Dylan, and his unabashed appreciation of good music was reflected in a lot of the artists on the show! He was having guests like Dylan, Joni Mitchell, and The Monkees along with the Statler Brothers, and the Carter Family, and it was pretty awesome TV at the time!

Johnny Cash was, and still is, a trendsetter!

Super talented people will come and go, but I'll bet you, in the year 3000, they will still know who The Man is Black was!

Johnny's featured act on the night of season 2, episode 14 in 1971, was Derek and the Dominos led by Eric Clapton! "Layla" which had just come out a few months earlier was, and still is one of my favorite albums of all time! It's one of the records you just can't get tired of listening to. They've pounded the title song into the ground over the years on classic rock radio, but if that gets somebody to reach out and listen to the rest of the album, then it's worth it!

I could tell you exactly where I was the night this came on the television!

At the time, I thought it was the greatest thing I'd ever seen!

Derek and the Dominos were Eric Clapton on guitar and vocals, Bobby Whitlock on keys and vocals, Carl Radle on bass, Jim Gordon on the drums, and the extra kicker was the addition of the second slide guitar of Duane Allman! It was magic!

Bobby Whitlock's soulful vocals were perfect as the main voice or as backup harmony!

Bobby's vocals always pass the goosebump test!

So here's the song they performed that night! From the "Layla" album and one of my favorites,
 "It's Too Late!"

Jim Gordon and Carl Radle complete the package!

Just in case you don't know it, Jim Gordon gets credit for writing "Layla" and is also the one who plays the piano part at the end! Jim Gordon's is a sad story at best. He was one of the best and most sought after drummers for years, and he's played on many fantastic records with groups like The Beach Boys, Frank Zappa, Steely Dan, Alice Cooper and so much more, and he was responsible for the drum solo in one of my favorite songs of all time, "Jump Into The Fire" by Harry Nilsson, but shit got ugly in the 80's, and he developed schizophrenia, got misdiagnosed as being an alcoholic, and ended up killing his Mother! To this day, he is still serving time in a California facility! WTF!?? You know, sometimes life just ain't fair! That whole story is wrong!

Equally talented, Carl Radle died at 37 in 1980 from a kidney infection, most likely accelerated by alcohol and drug use!

I think if I was stranded on a desert island with a turntable and one record, and I had a choice, it would have to be either "Layla" or "London Calling" by The Clash!

Eric looks like he was either really stoned, or just really having a good time being up there with Johnny Cash, or maybe both!

This particular show also featured two of my favorite folksingers, Eric Anderson, and Ramblin' Jack Elliott! If all that wasn't enough, they brought out Carl Perkins to play with Eric and Johnny on "Matchbox!" Damn, that was a good show!!!

XTRO 3: Watch The Skies / Dorian, Inc. - 1995

Hi, today's post is No. 2111 in our quest to review as many wild 'n' weird movies until we just tap out from exhaustion. Thing is, we still have a giant pile of stuff left to do... So you know. Movies that have multiple titles can cause real confusion too, like this one. I bought it because the title did not say XTRO 3, just said XTRO: Watch The Skies. So, I thought it was the original from 1981, but, it ain't.

I have a sound clip for your approval, sooooo, you can push the big red 'GO' button located there by our broken monster cage, NOW, Rufus The Gnat!.. Here are some moments from... XTRO 3!

The movie starts with an alien spaceship entering Earth's atmosphere, undoubtedly here to cause some problems for stupid Earthlings.

Dungeon hero Robert Culp plays Major Guardino, you can hear him talking to an underling in the sound clip as he explains the situation.

Before the group of soldiers ship out on their mission, they get drunk at the bar and cause lots of crap before Captain Fetterman steps in, he pulls the plug on the jukebox and tells them to form a line!

Once the soldiers land at their destination, they form into groups and explore the island. Dumbass goes into the opening and never returns... Dumbass!

XTRO shows his ugly puss and our female trooper gets into some goo it left on a boulder.

When the soldiers go back to the structure and go inside, they find an absolute cavern of horrors waiting for them!

XTRO appears to see WTF! is going on in his lair... Dude can burst into flames!!

The creature is nasty, it loves to perform gruesome medical procedures on its victims!

Break time, let's catch up on the adventures of Marvel's DEFENDERS OF THE EARTH. Looks like we could use them to help out with the current situation.

Anyway, XTRO heads back into space with Captain Fetterman on board. What will happen now?.. Eegah!! is here tomorrow, so, check it out!

DEVIL RIDER - Heros of Cranberry Farm - "Master's Revenge" (1970)

"THE CYCLE JUNGLE OF HOT STEEL AND RAW FLESH! BLOOD & GUTS OF OUTLAWS ON WHEELS! BRUTAL VIOLENCE Turned On By Cool Chicks and Burning Rubber!" Yep, that's exactly how I would have described "Devil Rider" too!

 The thing I like the most about this poster is the mass of humanity on bikes streaming down the right hand side! That's about four thousand more bikers than are actually in this movie!

"Devil Rider" was re-released on tape as "Master's Revenge," which almost make as much sense as the movie itself! The director of "Devil Rider" was Brad F. Grinter, who also directed everybody's favorite turkey "Blood Freak!" "Devil Rider" is not exactly a good movie, and it sure could have used a turkey head or something, but if  you're a Brad F. Grinter completionist, then it's mandatory viewing for sure!

Ridgely Abele was a bonafide world class martial artist! I guess that's what they were trying to capitalize on! His girlfriend is Barry (The Dead One) Mahon's daughter Sharon ( I guess that was the other thing they were trying to capitalize on) in her sole outing! Barry was also the director of cinematography!

Without a doubt, the best thing about "Devil Rider" is this long jam by the Florida band known as Heros of Cranberry Farm at the beginning of the movie! They started out as The Squiremen IV, but other than that, it's hard to find out much about these guys. One guy is named Jim Oliver, and another one is named Jack Vino! Anybody with the real facts is more than welcome to contribute!!

Here's a couple of minutes of what I'm talking about!

She's mad at her martial arts instructor boyfriend, so she goes off with this bunch of Florida bikers led by this dude with an eye patch called The Champ! He's called The Champ because he was supposedly a championship boxer in the Navy!

The shirtless biker with the sombrero cracks me up!

So after what seems like a couple of hours, the girl is reported as missing and her super rich parents are worried about her, but the Mother is worried more about what her snooty friends will think! You can tell how rich they are by their opulent digs!

Just in case you get the shit kicked out of you, the restrooms are conveniently located nearby!

A couple of the biker girls get into a big ole kitty cat fight!

You have to admit that the shots of these neon signs are pretty cool!

The parents are so worried, they hire this private detective to find their daughter! Here he's seen questioning the girl's older sister who is a drunk and a hooker!

She tells him that she ended up this way because she was once raped by a gang of bikers herself, but in her case, the leader was called Playboy instead of Champ!

Finally after what seems like an eternity, Ridgely shows up to go one on one with The Champ, and save his girlfriend!

Ridgely kicks The Champ's ass, but then gets gutted by the guy in the sombrero!

Believe it or not, that's the whole thing!

You'll probably either love it or hate it, but to find out what side of the fence you're on, you can check it out for free right here on YouTube!