Movies: Unknown World (1951)

It's not all Bgrade and classic movies, but bank holiday mornings do seem to attract coffee and movies.
Bank Holiday Monday is kicking off with :

Unknown World (1951)
Dr Morley wants to save us from nuclear disaster! Fuck me, there's a female scientist, she's blonde and cute. All the others are elderly males. Morley wants to drill down into the earth to create a safe location for humanity. There's a lot in common with Jules Verne (and Rick Wakeman!) here. Society to Save Civilisation. Brilliant name that. He's using the Cyclotram, sadly no theremins  involved, yet.
Ahhh the 50's, they're smoking inside the Cyclotram, the female biochemist is making notes on people, ohhhh she's judgemental *gasp*. Cripes, even more rip from JV, they've found some notes from people who went that way in 1938! there's conflict in the team. Toxic Gas! Andy's dead. I know, I'm pretty cut up about it too. They've found an underground world, with waterfalls and everything. "Like a dream, or a nightmare".
Could have been worse, pottered along nicely, excessive sexism, all the usual 50s tick boxes.

Movies: Savage Beach & Little Shop of Horrors

Savage Beach  (1989)
More Andy Sidaris. Opening with some guy doing vague moves with a sword on a beach, he's 'the warrior'. He's just bowed to a rock. Blondes in jeep with big hair? Check. Ohhh they've used other hot babes as a diversion, and are sneaking into the Delight Pineapple company, where they're putting a white powder inside pineapples !!! Well I never ! Just so they can arrest them, all the girls are narcotics agents!! Now all four are topless in a pool. As you do.
lots of car / motorbike chases, and shooting people. With pulsing 80s music underneath.
For some reason, they're searching for a sunken japanese warship. Everyone is looking very intense, and meaningful. Our blondes are flying through a thunderstorm, I've lost track why they're doing this, and they've been hit !! There are also generic asians looking for the gold, they're now doing karate. Ahh our blondes have crash-landed on the island where everyone else is heading.
I have fuck all idea what the plot was.

The Little Shop of Horrors 1960
A very early jack nicholson movie. With a great jazz soundtrack, and directed by Roger Corman, how could it fail...
More Jewish jokes than you shake a dreidel at. It's more snappy than the remake, but lots of the lines were kept between the two. This holds together really well, and maybe darker than the remake. Jack plays a pain obsessed chap, Wilber Force, visiting the dentist. And there's a Mrs Fishtwanger. More movies need a Mrs Fishtwanger.

Movies: The Atomic Brain / A Bucket of Blood / House on Haunted Hill

Been a hellish couple of weeks, which may even get blogged about shortly. In the meantime here's some more movie reviews as I catch up on the significant backlog of flicks.

House on Haunted Hill 1959

black screen, screaming, much screaming, vincent price. floating heads. this starts well !

there’s a gathering at the house, a haunted house party, hosted by vincent’s wife. lots of moody dark shots. good stuff. mr and mrs vincent want to kill each other, good stuff there too.

the guests get a payout if they stay the night. so pretty standard scoobydoo set up ;)

fuck yeah there’s a theremin

7 strangers gather for a party, and we’re on the tour of the house describing the murders including stabbing and acid (this is led by the alcoholic of the group). 

“boy I’ve never seen so many doors” scintillating stuff, but oddly it worked.

some nice very creepy turns, really enjoying this.

mrs lawrence / price is now showing people their bedrooms. saucy ! she’s concerned mr lawrence/price is going to kill her. 

Vincent Price just said ‘It’s close to midnight’ !!!! OMFG. 

hysterical woman (tick) - offered sedative by psychiatrist. sigh.

oh noes. vincent’s wife is dead !! she’s been hung. the harmonium is now playing itself, except it sounds like a hammond organ. (or farfisa??)

The Atomic Brain (1963)

A movie dedicated to eternal life. Explained, extensively, by voiceover. rich 80yo wants new body, pet scientist does the nasty business. And implied nasty with 80yo in a 20yo body.

Black and white, but lighting so bad it’s mostly black with hints of lighter grey.

There’s a problem, all he can produce are zombies. No brain. It’s a quandary all right!!

the evil Dr is using the hired help as his test subjects, our pick is th blonde is next to go - ooohhhh he’s carrying a black cat. The dude *is* evil. Oh hang on, voiceover has informed us the cat is being used as the brain transplant. 

A Bucket of Blood (1959) Roger Corman

A 1959 beat poet jazz influenced movie. It promised much, and I think I’ve seen it before, the Burroughs-like introduction continues throughout the movie. It’s a beat poet movie made by Roger Corman, so I guess it may actually have reflected the late 50s beat generation. Walter has made a cat, out of clay, only we know it’s made from his actual cat. This won’t end well for Walter needs to make more art works.

Walter is accused of being a drug dealer by an undercover cop - damn those square narcs, things spiral a bit and the cop ends up permanently poorly. I’m guessing his next artwork is about to happen… Everyone loves Walter's art, it's very lifelike. The critics love him too. It's all coming up mill house for Walter. Oh dear, except someone has seen through him, and is breaking his exhibits. poor Walter, exposed, just like Damian Hirst.

Enjoyable soundtrack too.

Because they're so good, here's the opening credits, and then as the movie is public domain, the full thing. I'm too good to you.

Movies: The Amazing Transparent Man & Don't Answer the Phone

It's bank holiday weekend, and aside from cycling and wanderings, it's also movie time...

Yesterday saw me watch Don't Answer the Phone. Every cliche from 70s/80s cop shows was ticked. And even by the standards of the time, it was misogynistic to truly disturbing levels. Honestly, I can't think of one redeeming feature of this movie. Utter, almost unwatchable crap. Basically soft core torture porn, without the redeeming feature of being honest about what it was. I'm not usually too bothered by crap, but this one, yeah not good.

Today's viewing is a classic, the Amazing Transparent Man (1960). So far we've had exposition, a crazy doctor (with supposed german accent), an escaped criminal, casual 60's sexism, badly lit scenes and music more in keeping with 40/50s melodramas. So yep, this one is ticking far more of the boxes :) currently a guinea pig is being subjected to experiments, everyone is smiling maniacally, and the guinea pig has disappeared!!! shocking! Damn I love those 1960s science machines, dials, flip switches, electricity flowing everywhere, screw you PCR. I want bubbling beakers. A Nazi sub current is appears to be adding to the confusing mix. Our crazed guy has made himself invisible. everyone is very confused. Although people now want to make an invisible army. As you do.
At which point things became even more confusing. Things were resolved by blowing up the lab, which the ex-nazi scientist thought was the best way of resolving things.
We even ended with a straight to camera comment. Brilliant !

Movies: Ape Man & Point of Terror

Pottering around today, time for a couple of rubbish movies.

Ape Man (1943) with Bela Lugosi.

It's only 63mins, but feels longer. Not a great transfer, but Lugosi does manage to make the ape man sympathetic.
To be honest I kinda lost interest in this one, but the plot seemed to be scientist (Lugosi) accidentally turns himself into half man half ape, hirsute!!! and then decides an injection of spinal fluid will fix things, at which point a rampage occurs.

It has 4.3 on IMDB. Even as a b-grade fan, it was slow. More a 1-2 for me.





Point of Terror (1971)
Tony, our hero, is a nightclub singer who dreams of stardom. Tony doesn't have much time (not sure we find out why, although ironically the actor died in 1973 - when the movie was finally released, so y'know, foreshadowing). Tony commits adultery to hopefully get a recording contract. The movie was on a horror compilation, so far it's far more poor acting, slightly sleazy, and script writing of the worse kind. But yes, better than ape man. Awesome cheesy 70s soundtrack, in fact I've found you the opening credits... the full movie is also on youtube. More exposition than you can shake a stick at, brilliant! The woman who is going to make Tony's career, is married to a wheelchair bound ex-music executive, she apparently had her own life before marriage. Tony meanwhile is having nightmares of stabbing. We don't know why. Tony's adulterous manager has now knocked off her wheelchair bound husband, in a twist, he screamed in pain when she knocked his legs. He then drowned in a swimming pool, something the Para Olympics may contest as unlikely. This has made Tony an accessory to murder, apparently. Oh yeah, more 70s cheese music, and they're (tony's other woman) riding through forests on horses, following by snogging on the beach in the sunset. Oh right, this other woman is the managers daughter, tony has broken it off with the manager who took it poorly, and has gone for a flight down the hill - courtesy of Tony. She's looking a bit broken now.
Eh definitely not a horror, but OK background crap.

Movies: Andy Sidaris classy dude Pt 1

I splashed out on a 12 movie set, 4 quid. All by Andy Sidaris. He's known for boobs, bombs, and bullets (summarised on wiki as BBB) movies in the 80's, and in a sop to providing employment for the unemployable, he frequently used playboy bunnies in his movies. As I said, classy dude.

First up was: Malibu Express 

Had to wait 4min before the first boob shot. Un-fucking-believable.
The movie was carried by extensive exposition/voiceover but the lead (a PI called Cody). This was essential as the plot was loose, at best. Cody managed to sleep with pretty much every woman, all of whom seemed desperate to drop their pants/tops, and all of whom were enthusiastic adopters of the 'commando' approach to panty wearing.

A reoccurring motif was a drag race with some hill billies. For no obvious reason.
Cheesy doesn't begin to describe the movie. Much beer is required for viewing. The scenes are not so much linked as lurch from A to F, the linking appears to be boobs and Cody shagging.
Music: country and western




Hard Ticket to Hawaii
Empowered woman = pilot. Still obligatory boob shot tho' (huzzah!). There's also a very plastic looking snake, and some very Chicago/Cetera style music. Oh no, they've discovered the snake is contaminated!! But the women don't know!! They're sitting on the island, and they've found some contraband in a R/C helicopter, attacked by the smugglers they escape as they're highly trained operatives - and carry ninja stars. Yes. Ninja stars.
Oh knowing reference back to Malibu Express!! And the contraband is diamonds, the girls know that they'll be traced as they've got a distinctive plane. Sensible!!
The snake has, predictably, escaped - it doesn't move much, just sits there looking like plastic.
Woohoo, more exposition.
"you've got a great ass" "so do you pilgrim".
oh yeah, there's a weird kung fu subplot too. that one I've decided to avoid, it's too confusing.
I won't be spoiling the ending to say that things work out. I'm presuming you'd already guessed that. There is more coherence to the story than Malibu Express, which is saying very little.

Cooking with Bruce: Squid with stuff

It's been awhile. I know. You'll be thrilled to hear I haven't starved.

today's menu comes from my head. I wanted squid, I had squid. I didn't want chips. So I made something. It probably has a name. I'll call it 'steve'.

Ingredients
squid hoods for however many people you're feeding
plain flour
cayenne pepper

sunflower oil for frying

olive oil
onion finely chopped
2 sticks of celery, chopped
3 tomatoes, chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1t caster sugar
1T (ish) pomegranate molasses
10 green olives [stones removed]
1T capers, rinsed
parsley

Cooking stuff

1. Remove squid guts, and scrape clean, score lightly in a crosshatch pattern.
2. Heat olive oil, and cook onions until slightly browned, remove (and drain).
3. Add a bit more olive oil, cook celery, garlic, tomatoes, sugar for a couple of minutes, add pomegranate molasses, olives, capers until starting to collapse. Add the onions to the mix, mix in the parsley. Cook for a couple of minutes and place into bowls.
4. Add sunflower oil to pan and heat to very hot, toss squid in the flour+cayenne pepper until well coated, and fry for 1-2 mins per side. 
5. Place squid on the mixture, eat.

I was thinking of using balsamic vinegar, but I'd run out, I think the pomegranate was a better choice anyway.

B

Whisky Live

Half of the cabal reconvened to visit Whisky Live in London. Samples were small, so although there's a large number below - it's not as bad as it looks. Honest. Notes were brief, and at times, 'challenging' to decipher, but let's see how it goes...

Arran Whisky Port Finish
50%, very sweet, quaffing whisky, short finish 7/10

Wemyss Hive Honey, slight spice, not hugely complex 6/10

Wemyss New Spirit - nice [not rated]

Kavalan Whisky - Taiwanese whisky
Single Cast strength Solist Sherry - nice enough 6/10
Solist Fino Sherry Finish - smooth, honey, spices, superb, 9/10  [I think it's the Solist Fino anyway]
Ito Sherry 9.5/10 lighter than the Sherry finish [again, not sure on this one]

Tomintoul 16yo 
Always enjoyed this, nice and light, refreshing - almost, light spicy and short finish 7/10

Compass Whisky
King St Glasgow - very quaffable, light smoke, 7/10 - 7.5/10 (Alec!)
Orangerie - very nice.
This is not a luxury whisky - not heavily sherried, very long, lovely 8/10

Nomad - Sherried Blend. Ridiculously good for the price (£30) - probably best value whisky of the show. 7.5/10

It's at this point we decided to get a bit radical and try bourbon and Irish Whisky, we've never been that addicted to it...

Tincup Bourbon Whisky : sweet, kinda interesting. 5/10 (A) - 6/10 (B).

Blackbush - Irish Whisky. Fucking close to water. 2/10.
Right, well we learnt from that experience.

18yo Arran. Superb stuff, light but interesting. 8/10

Laphroaig Brodir - port, spiky, salt, bacon, very similar to their PX. 8/10
This is one of their export/travel exclusives, yeah we liked it.

Strawberry Liquor. Look we were keen to try stuff and it was nice, even nicer in the cocktail..

Elements of Islay:
Br6 - feisty, bacon, very nice 8/10
Bw5 - ok-ish, 7/10
Lagavulin - very vigorous, salty, bacon, 7/10
Peat (blend) not too bad 7/10

there follows two bourbons, which could be deciphered (maybe) as Pink and Red. The ?pink? one was described reasonably complex 6/10, and the 'red' as a bit boring 5/10.

Longmorn - and some work something like 'Bortgary', juicy green apples 6/10, we also tried a 40yo which wasn't that great 6/10.

16yo Glen Moray. Pretty standard, 6/10
25yo Glen Moray. 8.5/10 - we do like our GMs :)

Ancnoc
23yo - apples ! 8/10
25yo 8/10
peaty 7/10

We had a few more repeats of drams we liked, but that seems to be the main list.

Best value, by some distance, is the Nomad. Best whisky? Probably the Taiwanese sherry monster, although the 18yo Arran is very very nice.
There are rumours of a Cabal reunion, so you may yet get another Cabal update...

me (and Alec)

Cooking with Bruce: Creamy Chicken Pies

Yorks Alordy. It's been awhile since a recipe has graced these pages. Let's fix that...and yes, I know this has meat, but eh.
Inspired by my wandering to M&S to get new pillows, and ending up with some pie tins as well.

Creamy Chicken Pies
2T olive oil
3 bacon rashers, finely sliced
1 red onion, finely chopped
1 medium leek, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1T plain flour
250gm shredded roast chicken
150ml dry white wine
250ml chicken stock
2t thyme
60ml double cream
2T parsley
350gm puff pastry
1 egg, beaten
[for gluten free, use gf pastry and gf flour]

Heat over to 200C.

• Heat oil, and cook bacon until crisp. Remove, and fry onions and leeks gently for 10mins, add garlic and fry for 2 more mins.
• Return bacon, add flour, stir, add chicken, wine, stock and thyme. Season and simmer for 15 mins, cool down, add cream and parsley.
• Roll out pastry, add to pie dishes, fill them with mix, brush egg over top of the pastry and add the lids. Make a slit in the top for steam.
• Bake 35mins until golden.

Six Nations

Yeah damn you Scotland. We're going to have relationship issues if you continue on in that fashion.
In theory they had a damn good chance of beating the English. But the English looked well organised, and even had a backline. The Scottish forwards didn't seem to dominate or control the ball as well as hoped.
France looked great, for about 15mins, then lacked leadership and focus. And were very lucky to beat Italy.
Wales v Ireland was, by far, the best game. I still maintain that the Irish play very boring rugby, sure they do it well, but it's very predictable. Wales seemed to get through with minimal injuries, which is a win for them. The draw was probably a fair result.

This weeks predictions.
France v Ireland - err, again depends how the french play. No leadership could be an issue again, and I don't like their half back / first five combo (based on last weeks lineup), so I may go for, slightly, Ireland.
Wales v Scotland - As much as I'd like to see Scotland win, I'll pick Wales for this one. Probably by 5 or more. They've got more game breakers who are firing at the moment.
England v Italy - Should be an interesting tussle up front, but I suspect England by 10+.