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 Posted:   Mar 24, 2023 - 12:35 PM   
 By:   Bob DiMucci   (Member)

Although the advertising made no note of it, WAR OF THE COLOSSAL BEAST was a sequel to the previous year’s THE AMAZING COLOSSAL MAN, which starred Glenn Langan as "Col. Glenn Manning." In the new film, Manning was played by Dean Parkin. Russ Bender, June Jocelyn, and Jack Kosslyn appear in both productions, but play different roles in each film.

The new film finds rural Mexico being plagued by disappearing trucks, and clues lead “Sgt. Luis Murillo” (Rico Alcariz) to suspect a sixty-foot giant. Deducing that her brother Glenn Manning might be connected to the story, “Joyce Manning” (Sally Fraser) travels to Mexico and meets Army investigator “Major Mark Baird” (Roger Pace). They find Glenn, who has suffered a gruesome facial disfigurement and a mental collapse -- he now speaks only in growls and grunts. They capture the giant beast-man and Major Baird transports him to the Los Angeles International Airport. He's kept under guard in a hangar while various government agencies dodge responsibility for his care and treatment. It's only a matter of time before Glenn, the growling Colossal Beast with a hole where his left eye should be, busts loose to cause havoc.

Producer- director-special effects guy Bert I. Gordon decided to use the very heavy makeup on Dean Parkin to disguise the fact that a different actor was playing Col. Manning, especially since a dream sequence flashing back to the original film featured Glenn Langan, the star of that film. The new makeup looked much like the makeup for Gordon’s THE CYCLOPS, which not coincidentally starred Dean Parkin as the title monster.

The advertising for the 1958 film promised that you would “See a Sixty Foot Giant Destroyed….In Color,” and indeed, during the monster’s demise in the final minute of the film, it changed from black-and-white to color. Albert Glasser’s score received an aborted release from Dragon’s Domain in 2022.


 
 
 Posted:   Mar 24, 2023 - 4:00 PM   
 By:   Bob DiMucci   (Member)

A man driving along a lonely back road at night is suddenly startled by what he sees, and is promptly killed by something that crashes through his windshield. The next day, in the nearby town of River Falls, teenagers “Carol Flynn” (June Kenney) and “Mike Simpson” (Gene Persson) decide to go looking for her father, who didn't get home last night. They find his wrecked truck and enter a nearby cave to begin searching for him. There they find his blood-covered hat and other signs of human remains and, as they go deeper inside, suddenly get trapped in a huge web -- then they spot its maker, THE SPIDER, which is the size of a small house. They manage to escape and alert the county sheriff (Gene Roth), who doesn't take them seriously but does heed the warning of “Mr. Kingman” (Edward Kemmer), the science teacher at the local high school, to bring a pest-control crew along with his deputies, and a tanker loaded with DDT.

Bert I. Gordon produced, directed, and did the special effects for this 1958 horror film. Albert Glasser’s score for the film was released by Kritzerland in 2010 under the film’s television title, EARTH VS. THE SPIDER.


 
 
 Posted:   Mar 25, 2023 - 11:31 AM   
 By:   Bob DiMucci   (Member)

THE BOY AND THE PIRATES tells of a kid who is far more interested in playing pirate than keeping up his grades or mowing the lawn. During his daily beachside stroll, young “Jimmy Warren” (Charles Herbert) finds a bottle with a genie (Joseph Turkel) in it. The genie comes out to grant Jimmy’s wish of transporting him back to the days of swashbucklers, but in exchange, he has to return the bottle where he found it in three days or else take the genie’s place. This is no easy task, as Jimmy finds himself on the ages-old vessel of Blackbeard (Murvyn Vye), but when he’s forced to swab the deck and clean vegetables, he starts to miss his suburban life and creates a scheme to force the pirate ship to sail back to his homeland. Bert I. Gordon's daughter Susan played dual roles in the film—Jimmy’s friend “Kathy Mannering” and "Katrina Van Keif,” a young Dutch girl whom Jimmy rescues.

As usual, Gordon produced, directed, and did the visual effects for the film. Although no photographic process is listed in the onscreen credits, the film's pressbook indicates that it was shot using "Perceptovision--The Newest Marvel of the Motion Picture." Perceptovision was described as "a patented dimensional matte process which combines travelling mattes and split screen effects." A review added that the process "was utilized in the film to show the foot-tall genie in a bottle floating in the ocean, and an erupting volcano rising out of the sea." THE BOY AND THE PIRATES was Gordon’s first film in color. Albert Glasser’s score was released by Kritzerland in 2010.


 
 
 Posted:   Mar 26, 2023 - 12:23 PM   
 By:   Bob DiMucci   (Member)

Jazz pianist “Tom Stewart” (Richard Carlson) decides to break off his affair with “Vi” (Juli Reding) one week before his wedding to “Meg Hubbard” (Lugene Sanders). Vi refuses, and taunts Tom inside the lighthouse where Tom is staying over the summer. However, at the top, she falls to her death from the railing after Tom decides not to offer a hand and save her. Tom is guilt-ridden but must get on with preparations for the marriage. However, Tom is TORMENTED by Vi, as she comes back from beyond the grave, with her floating disembodied head spewing abuse at Tom (her disembodied hand makes a few special appearances as well).

Bert I. Gordon produced, directed, and did the visual effects for the 1960 film, which was photographed by the renowned cinematographer Ernest Laszlo. Gordon's ten-year-old daughter Susan played the part of "Sandy Hubbard."

TORMENTED was to be the first film made by Cheviot Productions, a company formed by producers Bert I. Gordon and Joe Steinberg, but no additional features were produced by the company. Albert Glasser’s score was released by Kritzerland in 2012. Reportedly, a scene or two was scored with Von Dexter’s music from HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL, which distributor Allied Artists had released in 1959.

In 1961, Gordon created a television pilot, along with Herts-Lion International, called “Famous Ghost Stories.” Vincent Price hosted the hour-long show and played a poltergeist while introducing the ghost story to follow. The story for the pilot show was an edited version of TORMENTED. The pilot was not picked up by any network.


 
 
 Posted:   Mar 27, 2023 - 11:41 AM   
 By:   Bob DiMucci   (Member)

Set in medieval England, THE MAGIC SWORD finds wicked magician “Lodac” (Basil Rathbone) abducting “Princess Helene” (Anne Helm) and planning to feed her to his dragon. The knight “George” (Gary Lockwood), the adopted son of the witch “Sybil” (Estelle Winwood), fell in love with Helene before she was abducted by gazing at her from far away and is primed to rescue her, especially upon learning that the King (Merritt Stone) offers Helene’s hand in marriage to her rescuer. George hurries off to the rescue with the help of six knights he releases from fossilization, as Sybil presents George with a magical sword, invincible armor, and an enchanted horse (all necessary things needed in such rescue work).

Bert I. Gordon did his usual triple duty on the 1962 film—producing, directing, and supervising the special effects. The effects photography took several months to complete, at an estimated cost of $220,000. Richard Markowitz’s score has not had a release. In the UK, the film was shown under its working title "St. George and the 7 Curses." The film grossed a weak $1.4 million in the U.S.


 
 
 Posted:   Mar 28, 2023 - 12:27 AM   
 By:   Bob DiMucci   (Member)

In the 1965 sci-fi film VILLAGE OF THE GIANTS, little “Genius” (Ron Howard) has just developed a serum to make animals grow to giant size, a serum he dubbed goo. His sister “Nancy” (Charla Doherty) has a boyfriend “Mike” (Tommy Kirk) who figures they could make millions with the formula and swears Genius and Nancy to secrecy, but then the ducks they've tried the serum on escape. At the same time, the car of a bunch of teenage troublemakers – “Fred” (Beau Bridges), “Merrie” (Joy Harmon), “Rick” (Robert Random), “Jean” (Tisha Sterling), “Elsa” (Gail Gilmore), “Pete” (Tim Rooney), “Harry” (Kevin O'Neal) and “Georgette (Vicki London) - breaks down nearby. So, they walk into town and break into the local theater that's closed for the season where they take up residence.

They then head over to Hainesville's famed Whiskey A-Go-Go, where they find The Beau Brummels playing live. Catching a glimpse of “Red” (Toni Basil) go-going up a storm, and being happily waved at by her boyfriend “Horsey” (Johnny Crawford), the group joins in on the dancing -- until the giant ducks show up and take over the dance floor.

Bert I. Gordon produced, directed, co-wrote, and did the visual effects for the 1965 film, which was based on a portion of H.G. Wells' Food of the Gods. Vicki London was originally cast in the lead female role, but it was given to Joy Harmon after London refused to show her breasts to Gordon. She said in an interview "During the wardrobe fittings, Bert Gordon wanted us [Joy Harmon, Tisha Sterling, Gail Gilmore] to take off our shirts and show him our breasts because he wanted the girl with the biggest ones to play the lead and be featured in the movie poster. I refused and Tisha did too. They still gave Tisha a very nice part but it was downhill after this for me. They made an issue out of me not willing to show my breasts, so they threatened that if I didn't do it they were going to cut me out of everything, and they did."

Gail Gilmore remembered this incident and said, "They wanted us to show us popping out of our clothes and asked if we minded being nude for it during filming though we would cover our breasts with our arms. I never had any qualms with nudity so I readily said yes. Joy did too, but Vicki refused." Tisha Sterling said in an interview that she felt exploited throughout the whole film. "It was all tits and ass. But that's part of Bert Gordon's thing when making a movie. I thought Bert was very good at making these kinds of films."

The Motion Picture Association of America Production Code Administration ordered the editing of dance sequences featuring scantily-clad actresses Joy Harman and Tisha Sterling, and another in which Johnny Crawford removes a piece of Harman’s clothing. Nearly two months later, the excised footage was stolen from an editing room at Paramount Studios in Los Angeles. The sequences were stored in a box labeled “censored cuts.”

The film was made by Gordon's newly formed Berkeley Productions. It was to be the first of a three-year, 12-picture deal between Berkeley and Joseph E. Levine's Embassy Productions. Some of these were to be for TV, others for theaters. The next two planned films were titled “The Creatures of Dr. Freak” and “Horror House,” but neither one was made.

VILLAGE OF THE GIANTS marked the film scoring debut of Jack Nitzsche. The film played mainly at drive-ins as part of double features and grossed a below-average $1.8 million at the box office.


 
 
 Posted:   Mar 28, 2023 - 11:28 AM   
 By:   Bob DiMucci   (Member)

The 1966 thriller PICTURE MOMMY DEAD finds young "Susan Shelly" (Susan Gordon), suffering from shock and amnesia, and confined to a sanitarium-convent by her father “Edward” (Don Ameche) following the death of her mother, "Jessica" (Zsa Zsa Gabor), in a fire. Hedy Lamarr was originally cast in the role that was eventually filled by Gabor, but she was forced to abandon the film when she was arrested at a Los Angeles department store for allegedly trying to shoplift an $86 pair of slippers.

Bert I. Gordon produced and directed the film, but left the special effects to Charles Spurgeon this time. Star Don Ameche liked the script for the movie, but initially turned down the role because it was to be filmed in California, and he and his family had just settled on the other side of the country. Gordon paid Ameche a visit to ask him to reconsider, and after it came up that they were both born and raised in Kenosha, Wisconsin, Ameche agreed to star in the film.

Almost ninety actresses auditioned for the role of Susan before Gordon cast his own daughter Susan Gordon in the part. This was Susan’s final feature film appearance. After one more television appearance, she left screen acting for good. Susan Gordon died in 2011 at age 62, a dozen years before her father passed away, and five years before her mother, who died in 2016.

PICTURE MOMMY DEAD has an unreleased score by Robert Drasnin.


 
 
 Posted:   Mar 29, 2023 - 1:34 AM   
 By:   Bob DiMucci   (Member)

In HOW TO SUCCEED WITH SEX, “Jack” (Zack Taylor), a man who is having trouble scoring with his girlfriend, reads a book about sex and seduction to get some pointers.

Bert I. Gordon wrote and directed, but did not produce, this 1970 comedy. The film was released on 10 April 1970 by Medford Film Corporation with an [X] rating. It was re-edited in 1974 and re-rated [R]. Sean Bonniwell and Forest Hamilton provided the unreleased score.


 
 
 Posted:   Mar 29, 2023 - 12:45 PM   
 By:   Bob DiMucci   (Member)

NECROMANCY finds “Lori Brandon” (Pamela Franklin) and her husband “Frank” (Michael Ontkean) having just suffered the loss of a pregnancy, but a surprise job offer for Frank in the small California town of Lilith could mean a big break. Despite Lori’s reservations, Frank accepts the job working for “Mr. Cato” (Orson Welles) at his toy factory, but Lori and Frank quickly learn that Cato and the people of Lilith are practicing witches.

The film’s production and release was a complicated affair. Writer-producer-director Bert I. Gordon shot the film from October 1970 through February 1971. The film was produced, under the title “The Toy Factory,” by Gordon’s Group III Productions, which he had recently formed. The film was shot for under $1 million, with the financial backing of Valiant Productions, Zenith International Pictures, and Premiere Investment Corp. Shortly following completion of “The Toy Factory,” executive producer Sidney L. Caplan, president of Premiere, deemed the film unacceptable and assigned Zenith executive vice president Robert J. Stone to revise and complete a new version. Stone made twenty minutes of changes to the film, which, according to a February 1972 Variety article, exceeded the budget by four hundred percent.

In July 1971, Gordon and Valiant Productions brought suit against Premiere to re-gain creative control of the film. A Superior Court judge gave Gordon 21 days to re-cut the picture to his original plan, and then return the film for release to Premiere, which was ordered to make no further changes. Gordon also sued to obtain the right to distribute the film, but in February 1972, the Superior Court ruled in favor of Premiere by giving it full control of worldwide distribution rights to the film, which was now titled NECROMANCY, through a deal with Cinerama Releasing Corp. for domestic release and Cavalcade Pictures for foreign distribution.

In August 1971, it was reported that Zenith had formed a music publishing and recording arm and had plans to record an album titled Emotion containing composer Fred Karger’s film score, as well as a single of the film’s theme song, “The Morning After," composed by Karger and lyricist Richard Quine. Although a March 1972 Daily Variety news item reported that the song would be sung in the film by Mike Clifford, it is unclear as to whether the song was in the release print, and no 1972 reviews mentioned the song. The album was never released.

Several 1972 reviewers criticized NECROMANCY for its choppy editing, and the Boxoffice review mentioned that the film was originally intended to be [R] or [X]-rated. Although the 1972 Variety review did state that Pamela Franklin appeared partially in the nude, it also noted “trade rumors" that “too-spicy scenes” were ultimately omitted to earn the film a [PG] rating.

In 1983, for VHS release, NECROMANCY was radically re-edited by Premiere Productions and Associates Entertainment International. Retitled THE WITCHING, the story was severely reworked, some existing material was cut out, and extended scenes of coven worship were added, including an entirely new opening scene of a Black Mass featuring a lot of male and female frontal nudity from people that appear nowhere else in the movie, as well as an Orson Welles stand-in wearing a goat's head to hide the fact it's a different actor. In addition, an entirely new ending replaced the original one. When all was said and done, THE WITCHING clocked in at 87 minutes, vs. 82 minutes for the original NECROMANCY. Star Pamela Franklin said in an interview that she was shocked by the new "soft core" version when she watched it.

The original [PG] release version of the film may not exist. In 2016, Code Red uncovered what they claim is the sole surviving print of an [R]-rated version before it was re-edited to [PG], and released it on an 82-minute limited edition Blu-ray. However, the MPAA has no record of ever rating the film as anything other than [PG], and the Code Red disc carries both ratings—[PG] at the beginning and [R] at the end. The VHS version, THE WITCHING, was released unrated.


 
 
 Posted:   Mar 30, 2023 - 2:50 PM   
 By:   Bob DiMucci   (Member)

When a man (Chuck Connors) blows up a high school and a hospital, “Lieutenant Geronimo Minneli” (Vince Edwards) gets on the trail of THE MAD BOMBER. He may have a witness in a young mute woman who was raped at the hospital just before the explosion, but she is too ashamed to identify her attacker. In any case, Minneli reasons that it is unlikely that the bomber would stop to rape a woman after planting the bomb, and that the rapist and the bomber are likely different people; therefore, the rapist himself might be the only one who can help the police catch the bomber. Since the police do not know the bomber’s modus operandi, but they do know the rapist’s, Minneli starts questioning his past victims. His commanding officer (Ted Gehring) thinks Minneli is wasting his time, since subsequent bomb threats turn out to be pranks or unrelated…until the bomber blows up a hotel. When the bomber’s letters to the press threaten even bigger catastrophes to punish those who wronged him, Minneli sends out decoys to find the rapist (including one of his earlier victims, a stripper played by Paula Mitchell). He comes up with” Fromley” (Neville Brand), but Minneli will have to find a way for Fromley to incriminate himself in the rapes in order to get him to identify the bomber.

Bert I. Gordon wrote, produced, directed, and photographed this police tale. Michel Mention provided the unreleased score. THE MAD BOMBER opened in Los Angeles and other California venues early April 1973.




The film then went on to open in other areas around the country during 1973, under various titles. In July, it played Indiana and West Virginia under the title CONFESSIONS OF A DIRTY COP.




In July and early August, it played Atlanta and Memphis under the title DETECTIVE GERONIMO.




When it played in Charlotte, NC in May and Tulsa, OK, in early August 1973, the title was shortened to just GERONIMO




And finally, when the film opened elsewhere around the country in late August 1973, its title was changed again to THE POLICE CONNECTION, probably to piggy-back on the popularity of 1971’s THE FRENCH CONNECTION.


 
 Posted:   Mar 30, 2023 - 7:35 PM   
 By:   Paul Ettinger   (Member)

Quentin Tarantino's DEATH PROOF contains one track from Jack Nitzsche's VILLAGE OF THE GIANTS.
Track 1. The Last Race, is the Main Title of the Tarantino film.
It's a groovey, dune-buggy-esqe, teenager-racing track.

 
 
 Posted:   Mar 31, 2023 - 11:42 AM   
 By:   Bob DiMucci   (Member)

Bert I. Gordon, who loosely based his VILLAGE OF THE GIANTS on a portion of H.G. Wells’ novel The Food of the Gods, decided to film some of the novel a tad more faithfully in 1976. In the new film, football player “Morgan” (Marjoe Gortner) goes on a hunting excursion with fellow player “Davis” (Chuck Courtney) and PR man “Brian” (Jon Cypher). When Davis ventures solo on horseback, he is swarmed by giant wasps and his body is found completely swollen. After leaving the remote Canadian island where their friend was killed, Morgan and Brian quickly return to get to the bottom of things.

A visit to the log cabin farmhouse of God-fearing “Mrs. Skinner” (Ida Lupino) reveals a shed full of human-sized chickens – the result of consuming a goopy white substance that comes from the ground, which Mrs. Skinner collects in jars, calling it THE FOOD OF THE GODS. Soon after, greedy businessman “Jack Bensington” (Ralph Meeker) and his sensible assistant “Lorna” (Pamela Franklin) arrive to make a deal with Mr. Skinner for the precious “food.” The group is soon joined by a young couple with child (Tom Stovall and Belinda Balaski) who are forced to abandon their camper. The reason: they were ambushed by an army of enormous flesh-hungry rats who soon surround the Skinner home.

Bert I. Gordon wrote, produced, directed, and did the special effects for the film. Gordon developed a special effects process to allow actors to interact with the giant animals, surrounding the actors with a series of layered screens showing projections of animal footage shot by a second unit.

All the island locations were shot on Bowen Island, British Columbia, off the coast of Canada. Natural incidents hampered the shooting efforts, including two small earthquakes and fifteen inches of snow falling in one day.

The $900,000 production grossed $3 million at the U.S. box office, making it American International Pictures’ most successful release of the year. This encouraged AIP to produce a series of films based on H.G. Wells’ novels. Elliot Kaplan’s score for the film has not been released.


 
 
 Posted:   Mar 31, 2023 - 3:17 PM   
 By:   Rozsaphile   (Member)

Franklin's last theatrical film and Lupino's penultimate role. Both deserved better.

 
 
 Posted:   Apr 2, 2023 - 12:12 AM   
 By:   Bob DiMucci   (Member)

In Bert I. Gordon’s second H.G. Wells tale, EMPIRE OF THE ANTS, sleazy real estate salesperson “Marilyn Fryser” (Joan Collins) is trying to sell worthless swampland to gullible suckers in Florida. She sails them down on a chartered boat, then over cheap liquor talks them into buying land in her future resort that's never going to see the light of day. Sometime before her latest group arrived, a barrel of radioactive waste had washed ashore. Ants get into it and the radiation causes them to get huge…

Gordon produced, directed, and did the visual effects for the 1977 film. Gordon stated that the film would use a then-new depth-photography process called Matex III. The ants’ point-of-view was rendered through a honeycombed “33-prism lens” effect, with their victims appearing onscreen in multiple circles. Some of the special effects of the large ants were created by shooting magnified images of the Panamanian bullet ant.

According to Joan Collins, a delay in the arrival of their stunt doubles forced the actors to do a canoe capsizing scene themselves. She was upset that they were putting stunt people out of work, but pressure from Gordon, suggesting that she was difficult and uncooperative, forced her to go along with it. She feared being called a prima donna and thus losing future work opportunities.

Actress Pamela Shoop said that the sound man had a fight with Gordon towards the end of the shoot and threw all the audio tapes into the swamp. They lost everything, so the entire film had to be looped. Because of this, their voices and actions never quite mesh.

Dana Kaproff’s score was released by Kritzerland in 2010. EMPIRE OF THE ANTS had decent domestic grosses of $6.8 million.


 
 
 Posted:   Apr 2, 2023 - 3:37 PM   
 By:   Bob DiMucci   (Member)

THE COMING begins in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692, where young “Ann Putnam” (Susan Swift) is caught experimenting with witchcraft. She then accuses others to deflect attention from herself. “Reverend Samuel Parris” (John Peters) quickly takes advantage of this. With Ann acting as his chief accuser, he starts a series of purges, burning at the stake victims he knows to be innocent, ostensibly to drive the fear of God into believers. In present-day Salem, the spirit of Ann possesses schoolgirl “Loreen Graham” (also Susan Swift) during a class trip to the museum. Loreen then enters into a cross-temporal battle to stop the evil Parris sending another innocent victim to the stake.

Bert I. Gordon produced, directed, and wrote this horror film. The picture was test-marketed by Universal in El Paso, TX and Albuquerque, NM in early 1982 before being shelved. It was soon released on VHS in the U.S. under the titled BURNED AT THE STAKE. Arthur Kempel’s score has not been released.


 
 
 Posted:   Apr 3, 2023 - 9:48 AM   
 By:   Bob DiMucci   (Member)

In the sex farce LET’S DO IT!, “Freddie” (Greg Bradford), who was breastfed way past an appropriate age, is a college student struggling with sexual impotency. His girlfriend of one year demands that he make love to her if they want their relationship to continue. Desperately searching for a cure, Freddie attempts to make love to various women, including one of his professors and a bevy of hookers. Both Freddie and his girlfriend have surreal dream sequences, including one with footage from the original KING KONG (used without authorization).

Bert I Gordon, wrote, produced, and directed the film, which played in a handful of cities in 1983 before returning to the vaults. The film carried a [R] rating in its newspaper ads, but the MPAA has no record of rating the film. Howard Pfeifer provided the unreleased score.


 
 
 Posted:   Apr 3, 2023 - 10:15 PM   
 By:   Bob DiMucci   (Member)

“Chris” (Lance Sloane) is a teenager who is obsessed with the opposite sex - and sex with the opposite sex, for that is something beyond his means at the moment. Not that this stops him fantasizing about it whenever he gets the chance, as this morning when he goes out to fetch the newspaper and imagines seeing his next door neighbor heading off on a business trip, then going into his house to seduce his wife and teenage daughter “Beth” (Kimberly Evenson). Not that anything like that would happen in real life, but he can dream... and someone else he can dream about is the fashion designer, “Michelle” (Sylvia Kristel), across the road. Then, after THE BIG BET, he really tries to seduce Beth, to only to end up falling in love.

Bert I. Gordon wrote, produced, and directed this sex comedy, which went directly to VHS in 1987. Gary Pickus provided the unreleased score. The film remained unrated until 1993, when it was rated [R] by the MPAA for Spectradyne - Hotel Pay-Per-View.

Star Kim Evenson was a1984 Playboy Playmate of the Month before making this movie, so she had no problem accepting a role with full nude scenes. But she grew frustrated when Gordon kept adding more nudity after watching her do the first scene. She agreed because she didn't want to get fired.


 
 
 Posted:   Apr 4, 2023 - 10:31 AM   
 By:   Bob DiMucci   (Member)

SATAN’S PRINCESS starred Robert Forster as “Lou Cherney,” a top police detective, until a perp with a shotgun shattered his leg. Now, Lou’s a private investigator with a limp, a girlfriend (Caren Kaye), and a learning-disabled son named “Joey” (Philip Glasser). When Lou is hired to track down a missing girl, he discovers that she is now the lover of “Nicole St. James” (Lydie Denier), the head of a modeling agency. Nicole seduces Lou within minutes of meeting him, but when Lou attempts to return the missing girl to her family, Nicole reveals that she is actually an ancient demon and she possesses Joey.

Bert I. Gordon produced and directed the film, which Paramount Home Entertainment picked up for a 1990 video release in the U.S. Norman Mamey provided the unreleased score. The film was Gordon’s last screen work for 25 years.

 
 
 Posted:   Apr 5, 2023 - 12:10 PM   
 By:   Bob DiMucci   (Member)

In 2015, at age 93, Bert I. Gordon came out of retirement and returned to filmmaking for one final project. SECRETS OF A PSYCHOPATH finds “Grace Borden” (Mary Anthony) arriving in the town of Bedford to marry “Henry Foster” (Mark Famiglietti) whom she has met over the internet. Henry lives in a big old house with his sister “Catherine” (Kari Wuhrer). Henry tries to have sex with Grace, but cannot and kills her instead. He and Catherine used to have sex together and even had children. Henry longs to be able to have a normal relationship. He meets other women on the internet and brings them to the house, but kills them after he finds that he cannot have sex. He is certain that his dysfunction is related to something in the past he cannot remember. After killing “Helen” (Caroline Tudor), a girl he meets in a movie theatre, Henry brings her roommate “Georgette” (Mia Serafino) back to the house, making her a prisoner, certain that she will be the one for him.

Gordon wrote and directed the film, which went straight to video. Scott Glasgow provided the unreleased score. In an interview with Rue Morgue magazine about how filmmaking had changed since the height of his career in the 1950s, Gordon said that the biggest and most positive change was being able to work with a digital camera and immediately re-watch scenes he had filmed, since his least favorite part of making movies used to be waiting for dailies to come back.


 
 
 Posted:   Apr 6, 2023 - 11:05 AM   
 By:   Bob DiMucci   (Member)

In 2011, Bert I. Gordon received the Life Career Award from the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films.

Speaking of the audiences for his films, Gordon once said, “If they are supposed to scream in fright… and they scream - that's what it's all about. I love it.” And, despite the sometimes cheapness of his films, we loved it too. So long, “Mr. BIG.”


 
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