Week 54: Eddie Romero, Gerardo de Leon and the horror of the Phillippines

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American International, Angelique Pettyjohn, Beast of Blood, Beast of the Yellow Night, Beyond Atlantis, Blood Island Trilogy, Blood of the Vampires, Brides of Blood, Cleopatra Wong, Daughters of Satan, Donald Pleasance, Eddie Romero, For Your Height Only, Gerardo De Leon, Hemisphere Pictures, John Ashley, Joy Bang, Killing of Satan, Mad Doctor of Blood Island, Marlene Clark, Nancy Kwan, Night of the Cobra Woman, Roger Corman, Sam Sherman, Savage Sisters, Superbeast, Terror Is a Man, The BLood Drinkers, Tom Selleck, Twilight People, Weird Scenes Inside the Goldmine podcast, Weng Weng, Wonder Women

If you’re going to talk Sam Sherman and American International Pictures, Roger Corman and Hemisphere Pictures, there’s simply no way you can avoid discussion of the cult cinema of the Phillipines.

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Week 53 – Walk Softly and Carry a Big Stick – the films of Joe Don Baker

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Buford T. Pusser, Burgess Meredith, Charlie Varrick, Final Justice, Fletch, Golden Needles, Greydon Clark, hicksploitation, James Bond, Jim Kelly, Joe Don Baker, John Saxon, Joysticks, Mitchell, MST3K, Mystery Science Theater 3000, Pierce Brosnan, Robert Clouse, The Pack, Timothy Dalton, Walking Tall, Walter Matthau, Weird Scenes Inside the Goldmine podcast

Only in the 70’s could a beefy, drawling television character actor change gears and morph into not only an action hero, but even some measure of sex symbol to an audience bedazzled by an aging, Vegas Elvis and the good humored down home charm of Burt Reynolds and Kris Kristofferson…

Week 52 – Easy Ridin’ with Cap – the films of Peter Fonda

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92 in the Shade, biker films, Cannonball Run, Certain Fury, counterculture cinema, Crazy Larry, Dennis Hopper, Dirty Mary, Fighting Mad, Futureworld, Ghost Rider, hippie films, Jack Nicholson, Killer Force, Lara Parker, Loretta Swit, Nadja, Peter Fonda, Race With the Devil, Roger Corman, Roger Vadim, Spasms, Spirits of the Dead, Susan George, The American Dreamer, The Last Movie, The Trip, The Wild Angels, Warren Oates, Weird Scenes Inside the Goldmine podcast

One of New York’s own, scion of an acting dynasty that includes his famed father, controversial sister and indie film regular daughter, Peter Fonda walked a very different path from the man who raised him, in short order becoming the figurehead of a generation.

Week 48: Watch Out, Baby…It’s Eddie Constantine

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Eddie Constantine, Jean Luc Godard, Jess Franco, Jesus Franco Manera, neo-noir, tough guy cinema, Weird Scenes Inside the Goldmine podcast

A Russian-Pole cabaret singer and contemporary (and collaborator!) of Edith Piaf, Eddie Constantine made his fame in the bohemian Left Bank of Paris…first as a proto-Serge Gainsbourg chanteur…but more famously, as the unlikely star of a long running series of generally hard boiled neo-noir (but just as often, self-mocking and comedically oriented!) crime pictures.

Week 44: The First Gay Action Hero? George Nader and the films of Jerry Cotton

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Edgar Wallace, Eurospy cinema, George Nader, Harald Reinl, Jerry Cotton, krimi, Peter Thomas, Weird Scenes Inside the Goldmine podcast

Groomed as a potential leading man and heartthrob for the Hollywood studio system of the 1950s, George Nader went from a debut in an acknowledged camp classic (Robot Monster) through roles alongside the likes of Tony Curtis, Maureen O’Hara, Esther Williams, Hedy Lamarr and John Saxon, eventually winding up in the career-defining role of FBI G-man Jerry Cotton in an unforgettable series of two fisted German action films that drew equally from the Bondian excess of the Eurospy craze and the wild and wooly vibe of the Edgar Wallace krimi.

Week 42b: Revisiting Bond: the Finale

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Daniel Craig, James Bond, Pierce Brosnan, Roger Moore, Sean Connery, Timothy Dalton, Weird Scenes Inside the Goldmine podcast, Woody Allen

And here you thought you heard it all the first time around…

The long awaited finale to Week 42’s incomplete revisitation of Bond covering everything from Never Say Never Again through Spectre…and even a little more!

The last gasps of Connery and Moore! Dalton! Brosnan! Craig!

Hell, there’s even a nod to both versions of Casino Royale…

Week 25: Lights! Camera! and a whole lot of Action!

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Breakin', Cannon films, Charles Bronson, Chuck Norris, Golan Globus, Michael Dudikoff, Weird Scenes Inside the Goldmine podcast

Starting life as a low end distributor of Joe Sarno’s Swedish-era softcore epics, the advent of Menachem Golan and Yoram Globus elevated Cannon films to the top tier of cult cinema, specifically in terms of action films!

Week 19: Fight the Power!

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Bernie Casey, Blaxploitation, D'Urville Martin, Duane Jones, Fred the Hammer Williamson, Gloria Hendry, Isaac Hayes, Jim Kelly, Marlene Clark, Max Julien, Pam Grier, Richard Roundtree, Ron O'Neal, Tamara Dobson, Thalmus Rasulala, Weird Scenes Inside the Goldmine podcast, William Marshall, Yaphet Kotto

Tonight, we’re gettin’ down and taking on The Man!

One of the most consistently entertaining of genres, the blaxploitation film was an ersatz lovechild of the civil rights movement, often helmed and produced by established white directors (Jack Hill, Greydon Clark) but tailored to inner city urban audiences.