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The Mystery of Thug Island (1964)

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Hello. Let me take you for a walk through the strange mystery called the Thuggee cult that once dwelt in the jungles and byways of India. History is sketchy but we're here for the mythology and entertainment. At a young age I was drawn to the dangerous and exotic adventures told to me by the movies of the 30's, 40's and 50's. Monsters, zombies, jungles, castles in Transylvania, Martians, weird religions and more. One of my favorite movies was Stranglers of Bombay (1959). I'd ask my mom questions about the Thuggee cult to which she had no answers. At that young age there was no internet, no book on the Thuggee at my local library. In a few years though, I made myself accessible to wildly unusual people and books to satisfy my curiosity. Beware the Thuggee! People that love the unusual Hey! I haven't seen Mystery of Thug Island. I'll take a look at that. My first impression: oh, an Italian movie... this should be interesting. Guy Madison stars? Please excuse m...

Planet Earth (1974)

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 "This is the 22nd Century, the land renewed, the air and water pure again." I thought this would be a blast, but something else happened when I was watching it. Planet Earth is a made for TV movie created and written by Gene Roddenberry. I had no idea about that when I pulled it out of the hat... just that John Saxon was in it and the women ruled the planet. Sounded like it had potential for me to throw in a decent amount of witty comments here and there. The opening theme is a dramatic 70's style introduction to the story, but with a bit of mysterious Star Trek sci-fi undulation. Planet Earth was produced by Robert H. Justman, who also produced the original Star Trek among others. Oh, no wonder the music was so similar. We're introduced to Dylan Hunt, our main character. Ok. At least his first name isn't Rock. He was lost in a suspended animation accident in 1979, found and awakened by the people of Pax in 2133. Somehow the only place on Earth not destroyed by t...

The Skull (1965)

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   When I first chose The Skull (1965) as my subject, I thought perhaps I could offer witty insight into the removal of flesh from bone. I was once tasked with creating entertainment for a Jurassic Park themed company picnic. One contest involved a confirmation of manly strength and agility by tossing a "dinosaur bone' the furthest. Not a simple plastic bone under my watch, I needed the closest to actual dinosaur I could muster in the modern era. The friendly neighborhood butcher procured a nice large cow femur. Before every bit of information was on the world wide web, I went about this by the seat of my pants. Already a little rank, I started with a heavy boil. Not a good smell. Left outside to the elements and flies, hung by a rope into the creek for the crawdads and finally bleached by the sun. But within the first few minutes of this Amicus Production, I realized how much simpler a bottle of skin reducing acid would have been. So much less fun, however, as the entire comp...