Showing posts sorted by relevance for query richard benjamin. Sort by date Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query richard benjamin. Sort by date Show all posts

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

DIARY OF A MAD HOUSEWIFE - Alice Cooper - (What's The Consequence To Be Free?) (1970)

"Diary Of A Madman" with Vincent Price came out in 1963, and was a pretty scary movie, so when "Diary Of A Mad Housewife" came out in 1970, I had high hopes for a similar viewing experience! Boy, was I wrong! Not that it's a bad movie, and even though some of these characters really deserve it, nobody gets killed or even modestly threatened, because "Diary Of A Mad Housewife" is not a horror movie, unless you count the horrors of a modern society! So why is this film on this site?

Here's the happy couple! Richard (WESTWORLD, CATCH-22) Benjamin as stick up his ass attorney Jonathan Balser, and Carrie (THE FURY, TRICK OR TREATS) Snodgress as his misunderstood wife Tina Balser!

The prefect family with the prefect spoiled and brattiest kids on the face of the planet, but there's something weird going on here, between the two of them, Frannie Michel as Liz Balser, and Lorraine Cullen as Sylvie Balser, they only have a total of 6 more acting credits! This film might have had that kind of effect!

So off the Balsers go to party with the innest of the in crowd, and it's pretty obvious who needs to smooze, and who would rather just go back home!

At the arty farty coolest of the cool party they couldn't get The Velvet Underground, so the next band of choice was none other than ALICE COOPER!!

Tina Balser is totally turned off by the sexual arrogance of Frank (DRACULA) Langella as hip author George Prager!

Alice Cooper "Pretties For You" one more time!! That pillow over there turns into one monstrous pillow fight!! The Alice Cooper band was fleshed out by Michael Bruce on guitar, Glen Buxton on guitar, Dennis Dunaway on bass, and drummer Neal Smith!

You'd have to be John Holmes to be a bigger dick that Richard Benjamin in this flick!

At the next "Be there of Be square" party they go to, Tina Balser runs in to George Prager again, and he starts really coming on strong to her! Her stupid husband is just so proud of the fact that she can hang with somebody so intellectually superior, nothing else matters!

This is what it looks like when rich dicks are sick!

I once knew a really nice older man named Richard Peters! One of the last times I saw him, he was wearing a Cox cable hat! He had no idea!

In 1970, if you were exceptionally cool, you had one of these power shoe shiners!

You know you've made it when a Nobel Prize winner steals your shit! Jonathan throws a big party to try and impress the top of the heap, but as luck would have it, everything he pays big bucks for is already passé, and the omelets by the best chef who didn't show up, are already last year's model! Who the Hell serves omelets at a party anyway? Unless they had caviar and lobster in them, I make a better one here every Sunday morning for about nine thousand dollars less!

Very simple but effective shot from Director Frank Perry and Cinematographer Gerald Hirschfeld!

Tina finally cuts loose, and lets her husband know how she really feels about all his bullshit!!

The seductively sweet and stunning Carrie Snodgress (For years I thought it was Snotgrass), undresses and gets dressed again at least 4 or 5 times in this film, and that's not such a bad thing! Carrie was rocker Neil Young's girlfriend for four years, and was the Mother of their son Zeke! She passed away in 2004 at an age of 59, which I consider very young!

The last word is that if Tina was really such a mad housewife, she would have pulled out a giant butcher knife and done away with both her annoying husband, and her eloquent and embarrassing assholish lover, and got away with it, but instead she ends up in therapy with Peter (THE DREAM TEAM, THE MONITORS) Boyle! I doubt it's a coincidence that this film is almost impossible to find!

Monday, September 27, 2021

THE SCI-FI And HORROR MOVIES Of Director HERBERT L. STROCK

It's time to pay some homage to the director who gave us some of our favorite sci-fi and horror movies from the fifties. Besides his work in movies, he also directed 19 episodes of SCIENCE FICTION THEATRE for TV and more..

Here's one they played a lot on local TV in the fifties, it always freaked me out near the end, and loved the magnetized lawnmower in the hardware store. Herb was uncredited for his work on this one as he was an up and coming director in 1953 for this Ivan Tors production.

A year later in 1954 Herb worked as assistant director ( directed by Richard Carlson ) on RIDERS TO THE STARS. This is another movie they played a lot on TV back then. What I remember most is this astronaut that gets toasted by a meteor! Really creepy part for a six year old.

Also in 1954 Herb was the director for GOG, filmed in 3-D, wow! They also played this movie a lot on local TV, soon after it's theatrical release. It had some crazy moments to be sure.

Then in 1957, Herman Cohen called on Herb to direct this all time classic horror flick, can't remember when it played on TV for the first time. Herb stated that he loved working with Whit Bissell, always on time, knew his lines and could play any character he was assigned. The amputated leg was almost considered too shocking for the kids!

The same year he worked on another Cohen movie, BLOOD OF DRACULA. This movie is one crazy murder fest featuring the song "Puppy Love" by Jerry Blaine, who also contributed the song "Eenie Meenie Miny Moe" for I WAS A TEENAGE WEREWOLF.

Cohen called on Herb once again in 1958 to direct one of my favorite movies, HOW TO MAKE A MONSTER. It starred Robert H. Harris as the bad guy, Pete, Paul Brinegar as his helper Rivero, Gary Conway as the Teenage Frankenstein and Gary Clarke as the Teenage Werewolf.

In 1962 Herb directed Lon Chaney in THE DEVIL'S MESSENGER, which has the devil using his rolodex where he has the names of all the souls assigned to Hell. This is one boring movie and comes across as some TWILIGHT ZONE episodes.

Herb even worked for Joseph F. Robertson by directing this insane little movie. Here's some awesome trivia... Burt Reynolds did two screen-tests for the role of the teen character, Paul Lawrence, but his acting was so wooden, Rod Lauren got the part!!! Wild.

In 1980, Herb was assistant director on MONSTROID, which starred James Mitchum, John Carradine, Philip Carey and Anthony Eisley. This cursed film was started in 1971 and it was up to Herb to finish it up. I think I read that Andrea Hartford, the love interest, committed suicide soon after wrapping up the production, over insecurity and being dumped by her lover, so sad!

Last on the list is this sexy horror film also from 1980, based on everyone's favorite novel "Conjure Wife" by Fritz Lieber. It stars Teri Garr, Richard Benjamin and Lana Turner. So, here's our little salute to the fifties monster movie director, Herbert L. Strock.

Saturday, March 11, 2017

WESTWORLD - Michael Crichton - " Where Nothing Can Go Wrong" (1973)

Tonight we've got a Saturday Night Special classic from 1973 called...
WESTWORLD! 
"Westworld" was created and directed by the brilliant Michael (Andromeda Strain) Crichton, and that has a whole lot to do with why it's so good!

I liked "Westworld" when I saw it in 1973, and I enjoyed it again when I watched it a couple of days ago! What I didn't like was that right before I started to write this, my computers, two of them, started acting just like the computers in the movie, and that would translate as totally fucked up!! There's no better way to describe it! Luckily, here at the house, nobody has got killed yet!

"The vacation of the future." Couldn't we all use one of those?

Just a couple of guys getting away for a couple of days in Fantasy Land! James (Way Way Out) Brolin and Richard Benjamin play a great pair of buddies!!

What fun it's going to be to relive the olde west for real!

The bad guys are all robots, and if they give you any crap, you just dust them. The whole thing is supposed to be safe and harmless! Guns won't fire at a warm target like a human!

And besides killing bad guys, there are other advantages to living in the olde west!

So, really, at this point, do you care if she's a whoreborg or not?

At the end of each day's events, the robots are taken back to the laboratory and patched up so they can get right back to work again, even the animals that were involved!

Behind the scenes, these guys are running the show! It's the same guys that are watching you right now!

So everything is cool and groovy in "Westworld," and then piece by piece, the whole thing comes tumbling down, like this robot rattler who suddenly bites for real!

Things over in Medieval World aren't going that swell either!

What the heck? He.....shot me!

And the chase is on...............!!!
Yul Brynner is The King of Badass for more than one reason!!

Steve Franken has a small but memorable role as a fleeing technician! Steve was not only Chatsworth Osborne Jr. in "The Many Loves Of Dobie Gillis," but he was also Cardinal Colbert in Dan Brown's "Angels and Demons," among a horde of other things!

That's a fine looking steed they got for Yul Brynner to ride!

So, like the best way to deal with guys like this and/or the mummy, is to just set their asses on fire!!

Aw, She....ittt! That didn't work either!!

I had a great little sound clip for you from the brilliant mind of the composer Fred Karlin, but the computers just didn't want it to happen, and it was a good one, so may they all burn in Computer Hell! It's filling up fast, better reserve your seat today because the future is now, the future is here!!

Monster Music

Monster Music
AAARRGGHHH!!!! Ya'll Come On Back Now, Y'Hear??