DR. BLACK & MR. HYDE 1976
Bernie Casey (Dr. Henry Pride), Rosalind Cash (Dr. Billie Worth), Marie O'Henry (Linda), Ji-Tu Cumbuka (Lt. Jackson), Milt Kogan (Lt. Harry O'Conner), Della Thomas (Bernice Watts)
Directed by William Crain
"Brother man...this situation is rapidly becoming insalubrious... meaning we are 'bout to stomp a mud hole in yo' ass!"
The Short Version: Silly, but fun latter period blaxploitation horror flick full of Ho's, Joe's and Afro's. Dr. Pride becomes Mr. Hyde and late at night gives suckas a fright. Pimps shiver and quiver when he's around. The fuzz want him six feet under the ground. Unbeatable! Unstoppable! Enraged and uncaged! Hookers and pimps beware, Hyde is somewhere out there! Slow in spots, but enough skin, stunts, jive talkin' and jive turkey's gettin' snapped, crackled and popped, chopped, kicked and kung foo'd for soul skillets and lovers of sleaze who aint hard to pleaze.
A scientist employed at a Free Medical Clinic in Watts has concocted a serum with the power to regenerate dead liver cells. Testing the serum on himself, Dr. Pride becomes Mr. Hyde stalking the streets of LA at night killing hookers and drug pushers till the police surround him after the now monstrous doctor has climbed atop the Watts Towers.
William Crain of BLACULA fame attempts that old black magic a second time with this rambunctious, yet intermittently tepid and late blooming blaxploitation sensation. While BLACULA was an upper class affair due in no small part to William Marshall, DR. BLACK is frequently fun, if lower class entertainment that often gets mired in unintentional hilarity. Crain's movie is enjoyable enough, only by 1976, the blaxploitation genre had pretty much ran its course in terms of excitement and production quality. The script attempts to tackle real social issues of poverty stricken lives in Watts, but this subtext gets lost between energetic scenes of the superhuman Hyde hurling victims through the air and tedious attempts at a love triangle between Dr. Pride, his female colleague and a hooker with a heart of gold. It's also interesting to note that Hyde is virtually impervious to bullets till the KING KONG styled finale when he's climbed the Watts Tower and riddled with gunfire from the police.
I first saw DR. BLACK on Elvira's Movie Macabre and having not seen it since this dubious '35th Anniversary DVD', it fits in just fine with some of Elvira's other low grade Macabre Movies like BLOOD BATH (1975) and THE DAY IT CAME TO EARTH (1979). Unlike BLACULA, this picture fails to take advantage of its source material and make something imaginative out of it. It does manage to derive some laughs from Cumbuka's character of Lieutenant Jackson who fluctuates between jive speech and intellectual jargon--in the same sentence. Fans of SANFORD AND SON will recognize Della Thomas from 'The Party Crasher' episode wherein Lamont and Rollo royally disappoint their two dates till Fred shows up with a pot of onion stew and a bottle of Ripple.
Former football star, Bernie Casey has had quite a career appearing in everything from spectacle westerns like GUNS OF THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN (1969) to dramatic tearjerkers such as BRIAN'S SONG (1971) to blaxploitation flicks such as HITMAN (1972) and CLEOPATRA JONES (1973) and on to black themed dramatic classics like CORNBREAD, EARL & ME (1975). Casey tries to do something with his role, but when he's not skulking around breaking necks and furiously throttling street punks he's about as charismatic as petrified wood.
That's stuntman/co-ordinator Bob Minor doubling for Casey and wearing the pancake batter make up of Mr. Hyde.
The make up by a then up and coming Stan Winston is passable, but fails to impress if we're supposed to believe that Hyde is actually a lumbering white guy. In that respect, Hyde looks little more than Dr. Pride with pancake mix on his face and some flour in his hair complimented by demonic contact lenses and a pronounced brow. Before moving on to much bigger things, Winston was also sharpening his teeth on various horror movies of the decade like the TV terror of GARGOYLES (1972), the minor league THE BAT PEOPLE (1974), the gruesome MANSION OF THE DOOMED (1976) and the hilarious DRACULA'S DOG (1977). Tak Fujimoto, who photographed the classic BADLANDS (1973), dove head first into a field of lovable trash immediately thereafter with CAGED HEAT (1974), DEATHRACE 2000 (1975), CANNONBALL! (1976) and BAD GEORGIA ROAD (1977) before ascending the ladder of success with such credits as SILENCE OF THE LAMBS (1991), GLADIATOR (1992) and several of M. Night Shyamalan's movies.
For a disc touted as the 35th Anniversary of a veritable obscurity, VCI comes up short delivering nothing of substance aside from a short, yet hilarious trailer and a noticeably worn print accompanied by a less than stellar audio soundtrack. The fact that it's widescreen and the relatively cheap price is enough for those who've had to make do with even more worse for wear VHS dupes. DR. BLACK & MR. HYDE (1976) offers up some cheap thrills and lots of intentional and unintentional laughs; more the latter than the former, but compared with Crain's earlier horror favorite, HYDE pales (haha) in comparison. For a much better example of blaxploitation horror that succeeds in creating a memorable main character, check out J.D.'s REVENGE from the same year. Blaxploitation buffs will still want to have HYDE in their collection.
This review is representative of the VCI DVDDVD stats: 1.78:1; 1:26:30; anamorphic
TREASURE OF THE AMAZON 1985
Stuart Whitman (Gringo), Donald Pleasence (Klaus), John Ireland (priest), Bradford Dillman (Clark), Pedro Amendariz (Pablo), Hugo Stiglitz (boat captain), Sonja Infante (Morinba), Ann Sidney (Barbara), Emilio Fernandez (Tacho)
Directed by Rene Cardona Jr.
The Short Version: A great cast, some juicy gore and a throwback storyline to the serial adventures of old enliven this Mexican mishmash of 'B' movie cliches. As a bonus, there's some amazing cinematography that captures both the danger and splendor of the Amazon jungle. Occasionally collapsing into unintended hilarity, fans of RAIDERS style rip offs and Italian gut crunchers may wish to seek out this obscure minor league treasure.
***WARNING! This review contains images of nudity and gore***
An aging gold hunter, a myriad group of danger seekers and a Nazi intent on creating a race of superhumans are on an expedition to locate a vast treasure in gold and diamonds hidden away somewhere in the amazon jungle. While everyone has their own agenda, they all face an onslaught of treacherous obstacles including alligators, piranhas, flesh eating crabs and a vicious band of cannibalistic head hunters.
This pulpy adventure yarn melding elements of the Italian cannibal sub genre, Disaster movie cliches, RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK styled thrills and a dose of SCAVENGER HUNT (1979) is enjoyably fluffy nonsense from Rene Cardona Jr, the mastermind behind such trash as NIGHT OF A THOUSAND CATS (1972), TINTORERA (1977), CYCLONE (1978) and GUYANA, CULT OF THE DAMNED (1979); the latter of which also starred Stuart Whitman. Making movies was a family affair in the Cardona household and they certainly have accrued a fair amount of notoriety throughout the careers of both Cardona junior and senior. Their films are so similar you'd swear they were made by the same person.
Cardona senior was a well known commodity in the Mexican exploitation arena churning out a load of crappy, if frequently entertaining Mexi-horror-wrestling movies such DOCTOR OF DOOM (1963) and WRESTLING WOMEN VS. THE AZTEC MUMMY (1964) being two of the more tolerable. His most famous flicks--outside of Mexico, anyway--includes the gory excess of NIGHT OF THE BLOODY APES (1969) and the box office success, if forgotten to time SURVIVE! (1972) about the Andes crash survivors who resorted to cannibalism to stay alive.
TREASURE OF THE AMAZON is probably the younger, yet late Cardona's best and most likable exploitation picture. It's not quite as long nor does it suffer from the severe pacing issues of his TINTORERA and CYCLONE, but could afford to lose about ten minutes nonetheless. The great cast helps immensely and lends the proceedings a Disaster Movie vibe, albeit one with lots of nudity and gore; the latter of which this sync sound Mexican production has a healthy dose of. There's blood squibs, multiple throat slashings, a few noggin removals and even a shrunken head or two. The gruesome showstopper is an attack by an army of flesh eating crabs(!) that bite, rip and tear away at one of the cast members. This sequence is almost verbatim from the 'Spider Attack' seen in Lucio Fulci's THE BEYOND (1981). Only here, the effect is more convincing.
Stuart Whitman tries to hide himself underneath a bearded mash of facial hair and proves to be the life of the party in what quickly becomes a running gag watching him frequently get a little too excited whenever the subject of gold and jewels is brought up. Whitman's character of Gringo isn't much of a good guy, but he does provide some humorous moments both intentional and otherwise. The messy script is too ambitious for its own good teasing us with some interesting backstory for some of the characters, but no one here is really worth rooting for. Everyone's out for themselves and the knives come out when backs are turned.
Pleasence is anything but pleasant as Klaus, a Nazi with dreams of starting the new Aryan race. He treks through the danger riddled fauna armed with a sub machine gun and guided by Morinba, an attractive guide whose wardrobe appears modeled on Maria Socas's lack thereof from THE WARRIOR & THE SORCERESS (1984). With her bouncing bosom popping and jiggling into view with veritable frequency, Klaus never once cops a feel, nor shows the least bit of interest. Sadly, the script underwrites him, too. Klaus has the potential to be a grand villain, but he takes a backseat to the jungle savages. These head shrinking, noggin lopping, flesh chompers (we only hear about their flesh munching exploits) run around the jungle painted up in bright colors, firing off poisonous blow darts while feverishly slashing throats, hanging victims by their tongues with meat hooks and removing heads with gleeful abandon.
Mexican cinema mainstay, Emilio Fernandez starred in many big budgeted American westerns such as RETURN OF THE SEVEN (1966), GUNS FOR SAN SEBASTIAN (starring Anthony Quinn [1968]) and most famously in Peckinpah's THE WILD BUNCH (1969) where he played the brutal bandito who spurs the BUNCHes blood soaked vengeance. He's also seen in PAT GARRETT & BILLY THE KID (1973), BRING ME THE HEAD OF ALFREDO GARCIA (1974) and the Charles Bronson action-comedy-thriller BREAKOUT (1975).
Hugo Stiglitz was also a popular and prolific Mexican star, but his role here as the river boat captain is mostly inconsequential. He has a few lines and that's it. He appeared in many of the Cardona family's more notorious pictures and also headlined Lenzi's ambitiously grim NIGHTMARE CITY (1980). Pedro Armendariz (CHISUM, EARTHQUAKE!), Bradford Dillman (ESCAPE FROM THE PLANET OF THE APES, PIRANHA) and John Ireland (HATE FOR HATE, SATAN'S CHEERLEADERS, THE INCUBUS) round out the big names.
In the face of some cumbersome 'B' level dialog and a delightfully ravenous throwback appeal, Daniel Lopez's photography is nothing short of stunning. The crew took full advantage of the South American floral surroundings capturing some awe inspiring vistas and a beautiful selection of waterfalls. Honing its 'B' movie nature, TREASURE OF THE AMAZON makes a flub rather quickly during the opening credits in an attempt to label this as a true story. A title card states the setting is a fictional one, but both the films title and dialog from the cast state otherwise.
Whether a move to protect its tourism trade (does the amazon have such a thing?), the film manages to showcase the South American hot spot as a great source of eye candy and popcorn entertainment, but not such a nice, nor hospitable place to visit.
Boasting a boisterous score by Mort Garson, the abrasive soundtrack sounds like it should be in a bigger movie, but still has a slight hint of a TV Movie of the Week sound despite all the nudity and bloody shenanigans. Those with a fondness for Euro items like MAN FROM THE DEEP RIVER (1972), MOUNTAIN OF THE CANNIBAL GOD (1978) and RAIDERS rip offs like HUNTERS OF THE GOLDEN COBRA (1982), ARK OF THE SUN GOD (1984) and JUNGLE RAIDERS (1985) will most likely feel right at home here in Mexico's entry into the 'Violent Jungle Adventure' sub genre capped off with an ensemble cast of familiar Hollywood faces and cult cinema vets.
This review is representative of the VCI DVD
DVD stats: 1.85:1; non-anamorphic; 1:45:02
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William Crain of BLACULA fame attempts that old black magic a second time with this rambunctious, yet intermittently tepid and late blooming blaxploitation sensation. While BLACULA was an upper class affair due in no small part to William Marshall, DR. BLACK is frequently fun, if lower class entertainment that often gets mired in unintentional hilarity. Crain's movie is enjoyable enough, only by 1976, the blaxploitation genre had pretty much ran its course in terms of excitement and production quality. The script attempts to tackle real social issues of poverty stricken lives in Watts, but this subtext gets lost between energetic scenes of the superhuman Hyde hurling victims through the air and tedious attempts at a love triangle between Dr. Pride, his female colleague and a hooker with a heart of gold. It's also interesting to note that Hyde is virtually impervious to bullets till the KING KONG styled finale when he's climbed the Watts Tower and riddled with gunfire from the police.
I first saw DR. BLACK on Elvira's Movie Macabre and having not seen it since this dubious '35th Anniversary DVD', it fits in just fine with some of Elvira's other low grade Macabre Movies like BLOOD BATH (1975) and THE DAY IT CAME TO EARTH (1979). Unlike BLACULA, this picture fails to take advantage of its source material and make something imaginative out of it. It does manage to derive some laughs from Cumbuka's character of Lieutenant Jackson who fluctuates between jive speech and intellectual jargon--in the same sentence. Fans of SANFORD AND SON will recognize Della Thomas from 'The Party Crasher' episode wherein Lamont and Rollo royally disappoint their two dates till Fred shows up with a pot of onion stew and a bottle of Ripple.
Former football star, Bernie Casey has had quite a career appearing in everything from spectacle westerns like GUNS OF THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN (1969) to dramatic tearjerkers such as BRIAN'S SONG (1971) to blaxploitation flicks such as HITMAN (1972) and CLEOPATRA JONES (1973) and on to black themed dramatic classics like CORNBREAD, EARL & ME (1975). Casey tries to do something with his role, but when he's not skulking around breaking necks and furiously throttling street punks he's about as charismatic as petrified wood.
That's stuntman/co-ordinator Bob Minor doubling for Casey and wearing the pancake batter make up of Mr. Hyde.
The make up by a then up and coming Stan Winston is passable, but fails to impress if we're supposed to believe that Hyde is actually a lumbering white guy. In that respect, Hyde looks little more than Dr. Pride with pancake mix on his face and some flour in his hair complimented by demonic contact lenses and a pronounced brow. Before moving on to much bigger things, Winston was also sharpening his teeth on various horror movies of the decade like the TV terror of GARGOYLES (1972), the minor league THE BAT PEOPLE (1974), the gruesome MANSION OF THE DOOMED (1976) and the hilarious DRACULA'S DOG (1977). Tak Fujimoto, who photographed the classic BADLANDS (1973), dove head first into a field of lovable trash immediately thereafter with CAGED HEAT (1974), DEATHRACE 2000 (1975), CANNONBALL! (1976) and BAD GEORGIA ROAD (1977) before ascending the ladder of success with such credits as SILENCE OF THE LAMBS (1991), GLADIATOR (1992) and several of M. Night Shyamalan's movies.
For a disc touted as the 35th Anniversary of a veritable obscurity, VCI comes up short delivering nothing of substance aside from a short, yet hilarious trailer and a noticeably worn print accompanied by a less than stellar audio soundtrack. The fact that it's widescreen and the relatively cheap price is enough for those who've had to make do with even more worse for wear VHS dupes. DR. BLACK & MR. HYDE (1976) offers up some cheap thrills and lots of intentional and unintentional laughs; more the latter than the former, but compared with Crain's earlier horror favorite, HYDE pales (haha) in comparison. For a much better example of blaxploitation horror that succeeds in creating a memorable main character, check out J.D.'s REVENGE from the same year. Blaxploitation buffs will still want to have HYDE in their collection.
