INESCAPABLE OBSESSION

I don't want to get into the weeds on this one, but I now only watch American TV Movies from the 1970s, and there's nothing you or anybody else can do about it. 

There are hundreds of these damn things, and all human life is here. Genre themes dominate, particularly horror, espionage, sci fi (in contemporary settings) and natural disasters, lots of them, from fire to floods to avalanches, earthquakes, swarms of killer bees and Bigfoot. They usually run for about 70 minutes and are only now available in faded recordings that are spread across a number of platforms. Very few of them are loved and cared for; only a small proportion achieve genuine greatness or, in some cases, even quite good-ness. However, as we've already established, that's all I watch now, so I'm forced to just make the best of it.

If I were to try and evidence some of the attraction, let me draw your attention to Escape, a Movie Of The Week originally broadcast by the ABC network on April 6th, 1971. It's about an escape artist / private detective / bon viveur / all round good guy called Cameron Steele who battles a badly scarred mad scientist who has developed a virus that will turn humanity into slaves. The Bond-like supervillain operates out of an amusement park, and his secret lair is under the ghost train. The climax of the movie takes place on the roller coaster. It's fantastic, and if you don't want to see it based on that brief description I wash my hands of you.

Star Christopher George is in lots of TV movies (and some entertaining b-pictures). He's believably tough without being macho, charming without being slick, and he keeps on top of things nicely. I'm rather fond of him and his steady presence, and the fact that he didn't speak English until he was 6 (he was born in the USA to  Greek immigrant parents) makes him even more likeable. 

More TV Movies soon. I've told you twice already, that's all I watch now.

WATCH - ENJOY - KICK STUFF

Black Samurai, d. Al Adamson (1977)

Al Adamson wasn't a very good film maker, but he was prolific and consistent. Black Samurai is a work of almost unlimited imagination, completely unhampered by constraints of budget and aptitude. In it, secret service bad ass Jim Kelly uses a jet pack to fly to a mysterious island where a black magic cult are holding his beautiful Chinese girlfriend against her will. He fights snakes, midgets and one inch punches a vulture to death. It's an excellent way to spend ninety minutes, and no-one was safe from me in the house afterwards, so intent was I on kung fu-ing everything in my path.

Incidentally, why don't more adults act out scenes from films after seeing them? It seems a suppression of a natural urge. First time I saw Zulu, my brother and I took all the cushions off the sofa and used them to recreate the redoubt at Rourkes Drift; Christmas showings of Bond films were immediately followed by lengthy re-enactments of the best bits, sometimes using toy cars, often just mime. If this blog has one message, let it be this: if it stimulates your imagination, exercise your right to act it out, age be damned.