Big Screen Bombshells + Savage Cinema (Mill Creek DVD Sets)

 

Picture: C     Sound: C     Extras: D     Films: C+

 

 

Mill Creek is back reissuing hilarious B-movies in two new DVD sets that offer films previously issued by BCI Eclipse, usually as double feature DVDs or in other sets.  Some we covered, but others we missed, though I have seen them all personally.  Listed below are the 12 titles from each set (3 double-sided DVDs with two films a side) and links in the few cases we covered them before:

 

From the Big Screen Bombshells set:

 

Chain Gang Women – This 1971 cheapie is features some good footage and a bad script as to guys go on a robbery, rape and otherwise spree.  A bad film, the mostly unknown actors are a hoot and Co-Writer/Director Lee Frost makes a mess of it all.

 

Cindy & Donna – A 1970 drama with much unintentional comedy as the two title sisters are coming of age and wow, does this film have virgin/whore complex all over it.  Still, it is amusing and worth a look.

 

Galaxina

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/6528/Galaxina+(1980/HD-DVD/BCI+Eclipse)

Released on the defunct HD-DVD format, the Sci-Fi satire never made to Blu-ray, yet here is a DVD copy worse than the BCI DVD edition.  At least this one is widescreen.

 

Hustler Squad – From 1976, this film stars John Ericson from the great detective/spy TV series Honey West (reviewed elsewhere on this site) trying to have a feature film career before a pretty good run on TV into the late 1980s.  Dumb and amusing, it is not a great film and Ericson’s tough guy attempt runs into the camp department.

 

Las Vegas Lady – Talk about old Las Vegas!  This 1975 disaster co-stars Stella Stevens and Stuart Whitman in a lame heist film that also stars Lynne Moody, Karl Lukas and Andrew Stevens.  So bizarre, you have to see it to believe it, but don’t believe it will ever be good.

 

Lena’s Holiday – A 1991 release about the title character liberated from Communist Germany, we get the old identical suitcase/heist/smuggling tale and it is never convincing or entertaining.  Also with Michael Sarrazin, Bill Dana, Liz Torres, Susan Anton, Chris Lemmon, Pat Morita and even Nick Mancuso, it is very bad, old, dated and reminds us of a whole cycle of such bad “Cold War is over” films.

 

Pick-Up

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/5823/Welcome+To+The+Grindhouse+%E2%

This copy of the 1975 drive-in movie is exactly the same quality as the BCI DVD previously reviewed.

 

Police Woman – Not to be confused with the hit TV series with Angie Dickinson, this 1974 exploitation howler has Sondra Currie in the title role karate chopping female prisoners and moving on to infiltrate an all-women gang!  Jeannie Bell also shows up and Lee Frost once again co-writes and directs, but with better results.  Will remind some of the Cathy Lee Crosby Wonder Woman TV movie from the same year in some respects.

 

Single Room Furnished – This 1968 film is the last for Jayne Mansfield before her tragic early death and it is a flat, dull drama where she plays an old hooker.  For Mansfield, she was trying to do something respectable, but Co-Writer/Director Matt Cimber lets this one go on and on, but it is a curio just the same.

 

The Sister-In-Law – John Savage plays a man whose brother is having trouble with his wife and the fact that he has a mistress does not help.  When both become attracted to him, look out…  Well, maybe if the film had been better written, sparks might have flown, but this 1974 drama is dull and Savage does the music!

 

The Stepmother – The only Crown film to ever get an Oscar nomination (released in 1972, it made it for the song Strange Are The Ways Of Love) has a wacky plot that lives up to the song as a woman is pushed into seducing the son of her newlywed husband and that is just the beginning.  Larry Linville, Alejandro Rey, Katherine Justice and Claudia Jennings co-star.

 

Superchick – Mill Creek is the third company to release this wacky howler from 1973 with future horoscope expert Joyce Jillson as Tara B. True, an airline stewardess who epitomizes “coffee, tea or me” and when she is not throwing herself into sexual situations, is karate-chopping bad guys!  Yes, it’s that wild.

 

+

 

From the Savage Cinema set:

 

Best Friends – This 1975 drama is a rare theatrical film outing for enduring TV actor Richard Hatch plays one of two best friends (the other is played by Doug Chapin) as they come to terms with growing older, having served in Vietnam and finding women they might settle down with.

 

Burnout – Mark Schneider from Supervan (1977, reviewed elsewhere on this site) returns in this story about a young man who wants to make it on his won in the drag racing world without family support.  By 1979 when this was released, this had become a passé formula tale, so don’t expect much out of this, but it is still period enough to enjoy.

 

Dangerous Charter – From 1962, this drug smuggling thriller is not that great, has flat acting and only the age and time it was made makes it watchable.  This is some generic print, probably for TV.  Contradictory sources say this was shot in CinemaScope or Panavision, but you would not know that from this copy.

 

Death Machines – Weird wacky 1976 Horror/Karate et al genre mix where stereotypical Asian Dragon Lady turns three karate killers into zombies she can control to kill at will is a forgettable mess.  Interesting idea though and shot in Techniscope, but this version is butchered pan & scan/tunnel vision after the opening credits.

 

Death Riders – A 1976 documentary that is a tribute to stuntmen and daredevils that also features famous stunts of the time, Vilmos Zsigmond was one of the two cinematographers/Directors of Photography and I would like to see this one in High Definition.  Easily one of the most interesting and best films in both sets.

 

Hellcats – This is the infamous 1967 cult classic of sorts where a murder has to be avenged by relatives of a dead policeman when they infiltrate a female bike gang.  A campy film, it has its moments, but is also quiet dumb, but you have to see it to believe it.

 

Hell On Wheels – This Marty Robbins racing movie has the formula love triangle and every other formula it can come up with, but some people like the music.  I was not as big a fan of this 1967 feature, but those who like real Country Music might think otherwise.

 

Little Laura & Big John – Another singer, Fabian, was trying even harder to have a feature film career and this 1973 Bonnie & Clyde wanna be (they are robbing banks and bootlegging in the 1920s) is another curio item, but like his other genre work, just does not work too well.  They make an interesting pairing though.

 

Pink Angels – This 1971 biker film is has cross-dressing men as the bikers and its mix of the genre of the time with drug use and daring gender bending makes it odd indeed, but that does not make it a good film.  Fortunately, it fits in this set just fine.  Dan Haggerty and John Alderman star.

 

The Sidehackers aka Five The Hard Way – This sometimes brutal 1969 biker film has rape, murder and violence in a revenge film that is somewhat dark.  Shot in FantaScope, this copy is pan & scan, so I would like to see it widescreen before I make a final verdict, but the interesting cast includes Ross Hagen, Diane McBain, Michael Pataki and a cameo by Goldie Hawn.

 

The Wild Rebels – Well known 1967 biker film where stock car racer pretends to be biker to infiltrate bike gang now that he is a police officer.  They intend to rob a bank, but he has other plans.  Not bad and sometimes interesting.

 

Wild Riders – This 1971 rape/exploitation film wants to rip off every film of the time and then films like Desperate Hours (1955) as bikers kidnap and rape two women, then wait in their place for a while where anything can happen.

 

 

The 1.33 X 1 and in some cases anamorphically enhanced 1.78 to 2.35 X 1 images throughout the two sets are sadly about on par with each other, from the worn out prints to sometimes problematic color to aliasing errors throughout.  Too bad some of the widescreen films are not that way here, in fairness to those who made them, but that’s what we get here.  The Dolby Digital 2.0 sound is usually monophonic and in the few cases in newer films, is harsh, distorted stereo at best.  There are no extras in either set.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo