The intros to this semi-popular series keep getting longer with each post, this will be short as this will be the only section but least it features such a massive fave of mine. Am beginning this on April 7th and don't have much of a clue what shows or movies I'll be talking about. Well, it's become the norm for me to begin off with two American TV shows and that'll also be the case for today. One is a continuation of a series I've talked about a few times and am getting close to wrapping up all fifteen seasons! The other is an oldie from fifty years ago which I didn't know much about but it was such an influence on the "X-Files" and I need to get back to that show. After those two have no clue what the rest of the post will contain, have been featuring many older Japanese movies and will try to have at least two but need to start back on some recent Korean series and the good thing about my decisions is that I can't go wrong with any choice!
EDIT: After viewing those two TV shows decided to keep with the 'American' theme and watch some movies as I've never reviewed any up until now. Think there will be five films and will keep the theme for the next two posts so the next will have a combination of Japanese dramas and films. After that will be a post of my latest Korean watches and everything for those next two posts will feature dramas and films I've never seen. I have such a huge amount of things to view which I haven't viewed which is why I may stick with just one country per post for a while but that could easily change.
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So I should wrap this up in June, then will chip away at other shows that are gathering dust so perhaps in September will start on this classic series once again. Have said my top American show is "Gunsmoke" and my second favorite could be "Person of Interest" which would make "Supernatural" my third favorite series. But will say this series has been more enjoyable than those two and I can relate to the Winchester brothers as they appear to be your average guys yet have saved the world from destruction many times over! Because of that it'd be impossible to give recaps of this series or go into many details in only four paragraphs. Plus the amount of characters we've seen in 289 episodes and the only constants have been the Winchester brothers who hail from Lawrence, Kansas. When the series began Sam was 22 in age and was about to graduate from Stanford, he had been a bit estranged from his family. Which was a small one for the mother Mary died when in 1983 when Sam was four months old, still alive was his father John and older brother Dean who was four years old than Sam. Dean visited Sam at his Stanford dorm and told him dad was missing so drop all and help with the search! While many families have a regular line of business the Winchesters are a family of monster/demon/name it(!) hunters and that was also the case with the mother's family.
EDIT: To keep things fresh the sixteenth episode featured the Winchesters in an anime! It was a cross over with the cartoon "Scooby Doo" and with the brothers help solved a murder case. That was a very entertaining episode and after the next drama segment will talk about their appearance and the "Scooby Doo" cartoon a bit more.
So since then the Winchester duo has truly saved the world too many times to count and the series has really changed gears along the way. For many seasons it was like the "X-Files" where they would fight a monster(s) a week or solve some supernatural occurrence. But as time has gone on Sam and Dean have fought many different kinds of demons and ghosts, for instance God has even made an appearance in this series! They also tangled with Lucifer and many others who were in the Bible though this is not a religious show but such stories had never been used and it's kept things fresh but in a way I prefer the monster of the week cases. In this 13th season many characters who were killed have made a return as a portal to an alternate Earth was cracked open plus making a return was the Winchester's mother Mary, she's in the bottom two pics. In the last one with her is Lucifer and at the end of the twelfth season his son was born(!), his name is Jack and he's the youngish lad in a few of the pics. Of all things the Winchesters, along with Castiel, have been raising the lad who grew from an hour old to aged twenty within a day! So much happens in this series and while not every storyline has been terrific there's never a dull moment and it is nice seeing the creators trying to keep the series fresh with new plots and twists. As this season ended Dean's body became the vessel for an archangel named Michael and like many in this show an Angel is not as nice as we've all thought.
Every season comes packed with special features and after the pics is a video from this season which doesn't explain anything about the series but is a fun watch. The Winchesters hail from Lawrence, Kansas which is a decent sized place between Kansas City and Topeka, for this series their HQ is a bunker in Lebanon, Kansas which is a small town near the Nebraska border. The unofficial theme song for this series has been "Carry On Wayward Son" by of course Kansas and will admit that's a tune I like quite a bit. Each year the cast and producers make an appearance at the San Diego Comic Con and "Supernatural" had so many fans at the yearly convention. For the first time in 2017, just before the 13th season began, Kansas made an appearance at the convention to play the song for the fans, in attendance were Sam, Dean, Castiel, Jack and the producers who talk about the song and of course that's in the video. Don't know much about who is who in the band but sure most of the original members were there as they looked to be seventy or so in age, this year marks the fifty year anniversary of the song.
The biggest positive to this 'My Current Watches' series is that you can expect the unexpected!!!! You never know what may be up next and most of the time neither do I. As far as American shows go almost all save for the above will be older ones that aren't as well known these days or a series that I know so little about and didn't have a major star as the lead character. Above mentioned the "X-Files" which until the Summer of 2024 was the only American show I had seen and have viewed it many times. Had heard talk about what inspired that classic series and it was this show from 1975, "Kolchak the Night Stalker". Before the series began there had been two popular TV movies and there were a pair more after this one season series ended. It probably could have gone on longer than that one season but the ratings were just so-so though it's developed such a cult following over the years. Above is the mini box set I have of the twenty episode show and it also spawned novels like the one above. There's no extras on the DVD's but that's okay as the twenty shows averaged 51 minutes or about seventeen hours in all so for $14 it was a good deal. Episodes for most shows prior to 1980 were much longer, these days an 'hour episode' is really just 40-43 minutes in length while in the olden days almost all were over fifty minutes.
Darren McGavin played the lead role of Carl Kolchak and he was also in the four TV movies, in the series he was in almost every scene. Kolchak was a reporter working for the INS aka Independent News Service which was a newspaper that had branches around America, this show was set in Chicago. What makes the "X-Files" so similar to this series are the two main characters, Kolchak and Fox Mulder. Both believe in the supernatural or unexplainable such as demons, aliens, vampires, werewolves, conspiracies and more, we viewers knew both were correct with their beliefs. But the main problem that frustrated Kolchak and Mulder was getting proof for their bosses and the public, both would solve cases that involved what was mentioned and ended up being heroes though no others knew that as none ever believed their stories. That's certainly been the case for Carl Kolchak and am writing this up after viewing nine episodes, will finish this section once I complete the series. Was going to take a break halfway through but thought let me wrap this up so I can move on to something else and hope I made the right decision. Think it will be as even though every episode has been quite good they've gotten better as the show goes on and shame there aren't more than the twenty episodes. One thing that may have hurt ratings as this was the first sort of 'Monster/Demon' show so it was ahead of its time and sure it would have been much more popular had it aired a decade later.
As the episodes have gone on we've been seeing many more monsters and that's made the show so much better. The series is set in Chicago but only about a third of the show was filmed there, the rest in Hollywood. So far we've seen such a variety of monsters but also other kinds of Evil such as a reincarnation of Jack the Ripper! It's not that he came back to life but Kolchak did some research and found out the same sort of demon, such as Jack, keeps arising every decade and kills at least five humans before disappearing again but Kolchak did stop that curse. Kolchak also battled a werewolf on a cruise ship(!), met a man who sold his soul to the Devil and could transform into a coyote or raven! One other creepy mystery was of a man who could kill via his dreams so what an interesting show this is and I'm loving it to the Nth degree! The guest stars have been very key to the stories and all were semi-popular in their day. Kolchak's editor/boss at INS is a gruff man named Tony Vincenzo who is so frustrated with his ace reporter and like Mulder's superior Skinner always debunks Kolchak's wild tales. But Vincenzo must believe Kolchak to an extent as he's he never fired the reporter and the pair are somewhat friends, there's a few other characters but they're not too important to the story. Will stop now to view the second half of the series and will have one final paragraph for it.
Have made my return and it took me exactly seven days to finish this drama which I will miss. There wasn't one dud out of the twenty episodes and as mentioned this series was ahead of its time but has developed a cult following. After that break the stories became even better up to the seventeenth show, the final three weren't up to that high level but were still entertaining. My top show may have been the 11th episode where Kolchak dealt with a demon who could change his appearance, similar to a Shape Shifter in the above "Supernatural" series. In these final eleven shows our quasi hero Kolchak also battled an Android, a Witch and in the fifteenth episode a headless motorcyclist who chopped heads off with a sword and that was my second favorite episode. However fame and fortune never came Kolchak's way for he was ordered to suppress a story, had the police confiscate his photographs of the unbelievable or for the sake of mankind also made the decision to sit on a story and those events often happened to Mulder too! So all in all this was such a pleasant surprise and I have been lucking out with my choices of new things to watch, least with American TV shows and Japanese movies. On YT some of the full episodes are there but no behind the scenes video so after the pics have a promo video from 1972. The series didn't begin until 1975 but there were two popular TV movies before the show began and this was for the first movie, the quality isn't all that superb but I do highly recommend the entire series.
Okay, will admit that my oddity has reached a zenith!!!! That "Supernatural" episode where the Winchester brothers somehow visited the Anime world of Scooby Doo was so much fun and said to myself that I need to learn more about this classic cartoon. Which I've heard of and sure most of you have too but I had never seen an episode and except for Japanese animes don't know much about cartoons. So bought the above DVD set that has three movies which total over 200 minutes and for the low price of $5 thought how could I go wrong? So far, so good as last night viewed the middle film "Aloha Scooby Doo" and will view the next two soon.
In that "Supernatural" crossover episode the Winchesters had helped solve a case at a pawn shop, for a reward the owner told Dean to take whatever he wanted and he chose an older TV. One that had something very supernatural about it for shortly after Dean turned it on him and his brother Sam were sucked into the TV and ended up in the world of Scooby Doo! Soon their Angel mate Castiel joined then in that world and the trio helped the above group solve a crime, one that had murders. In the regular cartoon version of "Scooby Doo" they do solve crimes but there aren't murders though seeing as how this was a "Supernatural" episode there were two. So that was a fun episode, Sam and Dean helped solve a crime that took place at a haunted mansion and after returned to the real world. Dean was a tad bummed out by that as he did have a 'crush' on Daphne even though she was a cartoon character! The bottom pic above are the five regular characters of this long running cartoon which has been airing off and on for over fifty years. On the left is the dog who the show is named after though Scooby Doo tends to get the least amount of screentime. Next to him is Shaggy who is a bit of a hippie and is the handler/best friend of Scooby Doo. The female with the glasses is Velma who is the brains of the group and is usually the one who solves the crimes. Fred is the blond haired man and isn't a surfer dude though he does look like one, he's kind of the unofficial group leader. Last of the five is Daphne who most men drool over but she has eyes only for Fred but don't think the pair have ever been girl/boyfriend.
As the title implies the five took a trip to Hawaii and ended up solving a crime. They arrived for a surfing contest that is held yearly but everyone was leaving the island as the evil spirit Wiki Tiki had arisen from his slumber and was creating havoc all over the island. The dormant volcano was on the verge of erupting and all residents were terrified but not the group of 'Scoobies' who figured out the elaborate plan was a sham by the island's surfing hero Manu who wanted to buy up all the deserted properties and make a killing selling it!!!! That plan was discovered by our five heroes, in the end Manu and his girlfriend were being hauled away by the police, so much more happened but didn't want to go into a lot of detail for this movie which lasted for 74 minutes. I did enjoy this film and it was a nice change of pace, for so long thought "Scooby Doo" was some sort of sappy cartoon made for those 10-14 in age but the stories are serious and there's quite a bit of action in the shows and movies. Will watch the other two in this mini set but probably won't talk about those, there's a trailer for this movie after the pics.
Like Japan my favorite type of American movies are older ones from the 1950's to the mid 60's and the vast majority are in B&W. This is a film I have seen at least ten times but not for a few years as the DVD I had wasn't in terrific shape. So got another copy a week ago and it was just as entertaining as I remembered it but still hate the ending. "High School Big Shot" is just 61 minutes in length so it zoomed right by and will be watching it many more times in the future. The star of this movie was Thomas Pittman and I've seen him make many guest appearances on the "Gunsmoke" and "Have Gun, Will Travel" Westerns and he appeared in many more. This movie was filmed in August/September 1958 but not released until June 1959, on Halloween night 1958 Pittman died in a car accident so this was his last acting role. It seemed he was an up and coming star who was easy to root for in this movie.
Pittman played the role of a high school senior named Marv(in) Grant though he was in his twenties at the time. Marv's life was anything but a happy one as nothing seemed to work out well though none of it was his fault. Marv's mother died when he was young, his father in the bottom pic above was an alcoholic who was constantly out of work and at the end of the film had hung himself. So it appeared attending college was out of the question for Marv who was so bright and did have a teacher who told Marv he would help him get a scholarship. Which fell through for Marv had helped a female student named Betty write a term paper so this teacher withdrew his recommendation, Betty had pretended to like Marv just so he would write the essay which would enable her to graduate. Betty was the prettiest gal in school but had been going out with a boy named Vince who wasn't too bright, neither was Marv for allowing Betty to use him.
But that didn't seen to bother Marv who would do anything to be with Betty and told her after graduation the pair should get married!!!! Marv had been working at a warehouse near the ocean, the film was set in LA and after losing out on the scholarship Marv told Betty perhaps he could go FT at his job after graduating and may make $75 a week! To that Betty rolled her eyes and what a high maintenance young woman she was as Betty wanted to be lavished with jewels and mink coats. On $75/week there's no way Marv could support Betty but one afternoon at work he heard an unbelievable story and were his problems solved? For he overheard his boss talking secretly with a security guard and in two nights there would be a million dollars in the company safe to make a drug transaction with a boat coming from China! But Marv would need help pulling off such a daring robbery and he did find a pair of men suitable for the job. One man was named Samuel who would be the driver and strongman to subdue the guards, the other was his brother-in-law Harry who was an ace safecracker. Marv's scheme was brilliant and he had everything planned out to the smallest detail, the two men agreed to the heist which would take place at 11:00 pm the following evening. Things didn't go smoothly at first as a traffic accident put the trio two minutes behind schedule but that also made the guard late too. So after taking care of two guards the trio entered the warehouse, then the office of Marv's boss and Harry took charge there as it was his role to open the safe.
Which Harry did and as you can see near the bottom of the screenshots the safe had a million dollars in it. The three packed their suitcases with the bills and fled but what a surprise was waiting for the men outside the warehouse. Marv had made such a huge mistake in telling Betty about the million dollar heist and it was to keep her from leaving him, in turn she told Vince about the robbery and said if he robbed Marv she would leave the city with him! What a conniving woman she was and Vince ended up shooting Samuel and then Betty who had arrived on the scene. Also arriving were the police as the warehouse alarm had gone off, they shot Vince so three were dead and the suitcases of money had opened up with the bills floating in the ocean water! So what a tragic ending that was and we have no clue what happened with Marv and Harry as the police were about to arrest them. While it's true Marv ended up being a thief at the end it was hard not to root for him after the life he had led up until then, now he's probably facing a decade behind bars plus he didn't know it then but his father had hung himself! Hard to explain why I love this movie so much but I do and though the quality isn't so terrific there are some versions of the movie on YT. After the screenshots is a rare trailer for the movie, the quality is also not that good but do recommend viewing it and then the film.
This is a first as I've never reviewed the same two movies in a row and I don't mean the exact film but a remake. Mainly because I view so many newish movies or ones after the 1980's but the final two mini reviews will be for the movie "13 Ghosts", the original and remake(didn't happen). Am beginning this before viewing the remake which was released in 2001, the original came out in 1960 and it was such a superb movie though of course there weren't a ton of frights but for their time the special effects were decent plus it was a solid horror story. The man in the above three pics and first two screenshots below is William Castle who had such an interesting career as a movie producer and director. Most of his films were of the B variety and the majority were horror flicks, his most known film was the 1959 movie "House on Haunted Hill" which also had a remake, that same year "The Tingler" was released and that's my top Castle movie. He always had some sort of fun gimmick to attract an audience, for this film it was having spectacles named a Special Ghost Viewer and to put them on when the screen turned blue such as in the second screenshot. This would allow you to see Ghosts but only with the glasses, on the DVD you didn't need those special glasses and let's finally get to the mini review.
There's really only six characters in the film which revolves around the Zorba family who lived in LA. The father's name was Cyrus and he worked for the county museum, it sounds like a distinguished position but Cyrus makes so little for a salary. His wife is Hilda, both are about 45 in age and at the beginning of the film while she was on the phone with Cyrus for the third time in a year the repo men were there dragging away their furniture for not paying the monthly bills. The couple had two children, the oldest was daughter Medea who was quite attractive and was played by Jo Morrow, Medea was about twenty in age. The youngest Zorba was Buck(Arthur) who was likable though could be a brat, he was about 10-12 in age. Will get to the other two characters soon and the movie takes place over a period of 3 1/2 days. The night after getting their furniture hauled away the Zorba's were celebrating Buck's birthday at their rented house when a telegraph was delivered. It was from an attorney named Benjamin Rush and asked the Zorbas to come to his office the next morning for a meeting. Which at the time was an unexpected windfall for the Zorba's as the uncle of Cyrus had died, his name was Dr. Plato Zorba and had left his mansion to Cyrus, that's in the fifth screenshot below. There was no money involved as rumor had it Plato had spent all of his money chasing spirits but a large furnished house was more than good enough for the Zorba clan.
Ben will be a major character, what a nice guy he appeared to be at first but near the end it turned out he was the main villain. The sixth character was the maid Elaine who had been with Plato for two decades, even though Cyrus couldn't pay her a salary for a while Elaine stayed on and mainly to keep tabs on the family. We didn't see much of Elaine until the end but she did turn out to be an important figure. According to Elaine Plato Zorba was known for accumulating.... Ghosts and over the last two decades had found eleven of them who were still living at his mansion! At first they weren't evil but did play some cruel tricks on the Zorba family which became so irritating the Zorba family was thinking of leaving the house. There was a second rumor that Zorba didn't spend his vast fortune on Ghosts but had hidden away at least $100,000 but neither Ben nor Elaine could find it. However the young Zorba boy Buck did one night and happened as he was sliding down a banister, a pair of one hundred bills appeared out of nowhere! At the time Buck's parents and sister were with the maid Elaine who was performing a seance to contact the dead Plato Zorba. It did work as the uncle inhabited the body of Cyrus but almost sent him to his death and while that was going on arriving at the mansion was Ben. Buck told his 'trusted friend' about the money and Ben knew he was right about a fortune being stashed there but there had to be much more than $200.
Last section so there will be a few things left out. Ben convinced Buck not to tell his family about the money and what a devious creep he turned out to be! For Ben tried to scare the Zorba family out of the house that night so the hidden money would all be his and his plan did come so close to succeeding! With Buck's help Ben found quite a bit more money under the stairs and that screenshot is near the bottom. Ben's plan to scare the Zorba's away may have been so low but the plan was good and if it wasn't for some angry ghosts it would have worked. Near the bottom you can see that a Spirit was pushing Ben onto a bed that would crush a person, that's how Ben killed Dr. Zorba and now he was getting a taste of his own medicine! Shortly after his death this 84 minute movie ended and finally the four Zorba's luck became good instead of bad as they found almost $100,000 hidden and decided to remain in the house for once Ben was dead the Ghosts left. There were many scenes that would have required those special glasses if you viewed this in a cinema, those scenes are the screenshots in blue below. So this ended up being such a creepy film with an interesting plot, not much horror but that's okay as the story kept me glued to the screen. So will give this film a recommendation and after the screenshots is the film's trailer, William Castle does the introduction.
EDIT #4(?): Was going to review the 2001 remake but this post is long enough without that plus I didn't think it was all that good. It wasn't a bad film but it jogged my memory on why I don't like remakes and especially current movies as there was too much profanity, special effects/CG and such thin plots. So watch it at your own risk and this was the much better movie, in a way older American horror films remind me of present day Japanese movies that rely more on creepiness and suspense over blood and guts.
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