ARNOLD - 1973

ARNOLD - 1973

A sick 70's black comedy/horror movie has an all star cast acting as campy as ever spells:DELICIOUS!!
Arnold is a dead wealthy millionaire, but his gold digging mistress marry him anyway in a wedding/funeral ceremony. The ceremony followed by a reading of the will; Arnold left everything to his new bride under one condition, that she will remain by his side no matter what.



Arnold's family consisted of all the stereotypical characters, looking like something out of a Parker Brothers board game. Elsa Lanchester plays Arnold's wacky sister Hester, Roddy McDowell plays the greedy kid brother; Robbie and Stella Stevens as his bride along with cameos featuring Victor Buono, Farley Granger, and Jamie Farr.





With such a large estate; characters are dropping dead one by one, and everyone is a suspect! A haunted house is the setting, Arnold's corpse is spotted all over the place, and a there is a eye peeping through the portrait of our dead hero.



This is an entertaining gem with Arnie's casket serves as part coffin with a tape deck and stereo attached so that Arnie can leave recordings to his family after he is gone.
In addition to all the camp "Arnold" featured a catchy go go theme song titled: "LOVE HAS FOUND A WAY"

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THIS WOMAN IS DANGEROUS - 1952

THIS WOMAN IS DANGEROUS - 1952


Another Joan Crawford classic; to me "This Woman is dangerous" is kind of like a sequel to "The Damned Don't Cry". Once again Joan is teams up with David Brian as two law breaking lovers. Brian is mobster Matt Jackson running from the law, Joan plays Elizabeth, his moll.



Elizabeth is losing her sight, so while her lover go into hiding, she checks in to the hospital for extensive surgery to recover her eyesight. There she was treated by a handsome young doctor Ben Hellack (Dennis Morgan). As expected not only the doctor successfully open her eyes, he also opened her heart for him.



During all this her mafia boyfriend go on a killing spree, the FBI uses Joan as bait to lure her lover to their trap. Once again we find Joan torn between two lovers, one a brilliant doctor; who saves lives, the other a cold blooded killer who takes lives!

WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO AUNT ALICE? - 1969

WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO AUNT ALICE?- 1969

From wonderful man who brought us "What ever happened to Baby Jane?", Robert Aldrich present us with another "What ever happened to...?" .



This time it's Geraldine Paige as Mrs. Claire Marrable; Mrs. Marrable discovered she is penniless the day after her husband's funeral when her lawyer revealed her late husband lost all his wealth from bad investments.
Soon after than Claire moves to a small cottage owned by her nephew located in the middle of nowhere in Arizona. There she started a new hobby planting pine trees in the her yard, but beneath the pine trees lie the dead bodies of her house keepers!



After a series of losing house keepers, Alice Dimmock (Ruth Gordon) take the position as the new housekeeper/ companion. At the same time an annoying dog, a kid and his aunt move in to the coach house across the street from Mrs. Marrable. Things become complicated as the new house keeper is more than what she seems...

This is another wonderful piece of comedy featuring old ladies being mean to each other, I love the loud thud sound effect use each time Geraldine Paige swings a shovel at the head of her victims. There's even an awesome cat fight between Paige and Gordon in the climax of this mystery.

WHO SLEW AUNTIE ROO?

WHO SLEW AUNTIE ROO? - 1972

Is a twisted version of "Hansel and Gretel". First we meet Auntie Roo (Shelly Winters) singing a lullaby to her daughter... a mummy lying in a crib. Roo; a former show girl and the wealthy widow a magician; lost her daughter when the little girl hit her head falling down a banister.

Ever since then, Roo was never the same. She sings to the corpse every night in the cradle. Each year she hosts an extravagant Christmas party for the children of the local orphanage. 10 to 20 children were hand picked by the mean matron to spend Christmas eve and Christmas Day at Auntie Roo's mansion.



Christopher and Katy, 2 mean selfish orphans that weren't invited to Christmas party because they tried to run away from the orphanage many times. But eventually they crashed Roo's party; but Roo graciously accept them into her home.



Later Katy forced her way into nightly seance, where she discovered Roo's hidden jewels and cash. Roo took Katy's appearance as return of her dead daughter and decides to hold Katy captive in her house with many secret passages and traps. Later we wonder who is the true evil villain in the story; Is it Roo the crazy lady? Or Christopher and Katy the two brats who think they are the real life "Hansel and Gretel"? Or Roo's psychotic butler out to get his hands on her money and jewels?

TOO YOUNG TO KISS- 1951

TOO YOUNG TO KISS

A direct imitation of "The Major And The Minor" "Too young to kiss" featured an unconvincing June Allyson as a 30 year old woman pretend to be a 14 year old to take part in an audition for young musicians.
Van Johnson plays Eric Wainwright is the fool who thought he discovered a musical prodigy.

Even back in 1951 June Allyson already look like the old lady on the adult diapers commercials from the latter part of her career. At first I thought the Eric Wainwright character was in on the joke, but things became creepy when I realized he was not; as a matter of fact Johnson decided to take the young Molly (Allyson) away from her legal guardian and older sister Cynthia (Allyson as a grown up) to his playboy mansion to mentor her!






This is a suggests some really sick pedophile joke but it's 1951 so it seemed even humorous to see Wainwright putting "little' Molly across his knees to spank her for misbehaving!
Of course things get even more disgusting as you see Wainwright a grown man in his late 30's falling in love with this 14 year old, even though the audience know she too is in her late 30's but still the concept sends all kinds of creepiness!!
I didn't buy into the Ginger Rogers in Bobby socks act in "The major and the minor", I find this one even less appealing... But I am so wrong here because June Allyson won a golden globe award as best actress in a comedy in this feature.