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By Darren Allison

The Film Detective continues to thrill us with a couple of excellent cult classics. Frankenstein’s Daughter is a film that had been denied a great deal of exposure to fans of the strange and macabre. For many, it’s a title that has teased us for decades, with a still or a lobby card appearing once in a while by way of a horror book or a specialist periodical, so it is certainly welcome. It is typically what one would expect from this lush 1950s period. An incredibly low-budget affair, these films would often be produced for around $60,000, but the filmmakers certainly knew how to squeeze every ounce out of that budget. If anything, it ignited creativity and provided a lesson in how to make the most of the limited resources that were available to them.

Frankenstein’s Daughter is a fine example of that.

Richard Cunha’s third of four horror item for Astor Pictures is perhaps the most marketable: in 1958 almost anything with the name Dracula or Frankenstein could get a big release. The Film Detective’s new disc (remastered from a 4K scan) shows the picture at its absolute best and confirms Cunha as a decent director. The monsters are dire but most of the acting is rather good: Sandra Knight, Donald Murphy, Wolfe Barzell and Sally Todd in particular. It’s core nostalgia for monster fans, and much gorier than we remembered.

Frankenstein’s Daughter

Blu-ray

The Film Detective

1958 / B&w / 1:85 widescreen / 85 min. / Street Date October 26, 2021 / Available from The Film Detective / 24.95

Starring: John Ashley, Sandra Knight, Donald Murphy, Sally Todd, Wolfe Barzell, Harold Lloyd Jr., Felix Locher, Robert Dix, John Zaremba, Harry Wilson.

Cinematography: Meredith M. Nicholson

Art Director: Don Ament

Film Editor: Everett Dodd

Original Music: Nicholas Carras

Written by...

“You’ve always treated me as a monster, Trudy. Now you’re going to be one.”

Cinedigm, the leading independent streaming company super-serving enthusiast fan bases, announced today that The Film Detective (Tfd), the classic media streaming network and film archive that restores and distributes classic films, is releasing a special-edition version of the 1950s cult classic, Frankenstein’s Daughter (1958), starring John Ashley and Sandra Knight, on Blu-ray and DVD Oct. 19.

Fans of low-budget horror will recognize many familiar faces,including John Ashley, Harold Lloyd, Jr., and former Playboy Playmate of the Month, Sally Todd. For director Richard E. Cunha, Frankenstein’s Daughter was released in the heat of a historic year for low-budget favorites, also having directed such cult classics as She Demons (1958), Giant from the Unknown (1958) and Missile to the Moon (1958).

Frankenstein’s Daughter finds Dr. Oliver Frank (Donald Murphy) carrying on the legacy of his late grandfather, the notorious Dr.

If you're anywhere near Fort Lauderdale, make the trip over to the Mai-Kai restaurant on October 30th, where they'll have a drive-in screening of Beast of Blood and newly designed tiki mugs!

"What better way to celebrate Tiki Culture and Monster Mania this Halloween season then to attend the World-Famous Polynesian Pop Palace, The Mai-Kai Restaurant. in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, for a Drive-In screening of the Tiki Jungle Creature Feature, Beast Of Blood.

True to its roots as a mid-century icon, the historic Mai-Kai restaurant will reanimate its parking lot as a drive-in theater, complete with a screening of Beast Of Blood, the fourth film in the "Blood Island" Monster franchise. Made in the Philippines in 1970 for the U.S. Drive-In market by Hemisphere Pictures, Beast Of Blood features a lush jungle-island setting with former Rockabilly singer and "Beach Party" star, John Ashley, alongside "Star Trek" alum and former Elvis Presley co-star,...

You’ll have to excuse me. Lately I’ve been gravitating towards a particular corner of the genre room, one in which a lot of films clamor for space and I don’t always recognize the labels. Brides of Blood (1968) is in that corner, one in which Filipino exploitation meets old fashioned horror tropes to the advantage of both.

Released at the end of May stateside by the Philippines' own Hemisphere Pictures, Brides of Blood did well for the company in drive-ins everywhere - well enough that two more sequels followed, Mad Doctor of Blood Island (also ‘68) and Beast of Blood (1970). But Brides is actually the second in what came to be known as the Blood Island series; this was preceded by Terror is a Man (1959) almost ten years prior.

Rudimentary knowledge for some, no doubt; but I’m a Blood Island virgin you see, and my late arrival to...

Before Michael Myers, Jason Voorhees and Herbert West, otherwise known as Re-Animator, there was Mad Doctor of Blood Island and Beast of Blood! The time has come to revive the franchise that influenced them all. The Beasts of Blood are coming back to the Big Screen.

The Blood Island films are iconic as the original drive-in grindcore B-Movie Monster archetypes. They consist of Terror is a Man aka Blood Creature (1959); Brides of Blood (1968); Mad Doctor of Blood Island (1969); and Beast of Blood (1970).

The revival of these Drive-In Grindhouse classics will kick off a year-long, nation-wide tour and merchandising blitz for drive-in theatre and Tiki bar markets across the country, courtesy of Producer/ Promoter David Sehring of Drive-In-Sanity Films.

The Blood Island films will also be coming soon to Blu-ray for the first time from Severin Films beginning November 13th, 2018, featuring re-mastered 4K scans from recently discovered film elements.

These low-budget...

Seventeen years is a long time in Hollywood, and with the Marlon Brando / Val Kilmer version of The Island Of Dr Moreau now just a distant and surreal memory, Warner Bros. have decided to once again dust off the Hg Wells classic. Leonardo DiCaprio's Appian Way production company is behind the "contemporary re-imagining".Wells' 1896 novel sees narrator Edward Prendick shipwrecked and rescued, only to then be taken to the remote Noble's Isle. Here, the bizarre Dr Moreau is conducting vivisection experiements to create beast-hybrids like the Leopard-Man and the Hyena-Swine, but his creations aren't all entirely happy with the process. There may be trouble ahead...It's been filmed a few times before. 1932's Island Of Lost Souls, with Charles Laughton and Bela Lugosi, is probably still the best version. There's also The Twilight People (1972) with John Ashley and Pam Grier, and The Island Of Doctor Moreau (1977) with Burt Lancaster and Michael York.

Eddie Romero dies: Filipino filmmaker best known for his exploitation horror and action movies Eddie Romero, one of most best-known Filipino filmmakers, died of prostate cancer on Tuesday, May 28. Romero was 88. Named a National Artist of the Philippines in 2003, Romero (born on July 7, 1924, in Dumaguete City) began his film career in the late ’40s, when The Philippines were still recovering from the devastation of World War II. His international reputation rests chiefly on his low-budget horror and action movies; usually Filipino / American co-productions made in collaboration with actor-producer John Ashley. Among those are the the horror sci-fier Brides of Blood (1968), featuring veteran Kent Taylor, Beverly Powers, tropical-island natives, and radioactively mutated human-eating plants; Beast of Blood (1971), featuring John Ashley and a headless monster; The Twilight People (1972), which has no connection to either Stephenie Meyer or the Cullen Clan — in the film, reminiscent of Erle C. Kenton’s Island of Lost Souls...

Retro-active: The Best Articles From Cinema Retro's Archives

Bradford Dillman: A Compulsively Watchable Actor

By Harvey Chartrand

In a career that has spanned 43 years, Bradford Dillman accumulated more than 500 film and TV credits. The slim, handsome and patrician Dillman may have been the busiest actor in Hollywood during the late sixties and early seventies, working non-stop for years. In 1971 alone, Dillman starred in seven full-length feature films. And this protean output doesn’t include guest appearances on six TV shows that same year.

Yale-educated Dillman first drew good notices in the early 1950s on the Broadway stage and in live TV shows, such as Climax and Kraft Television Theatre. After making theatrical history playing Edmund Tyrone in the first-ever production of Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey into Night in 1956, Dillman landed the role of blueblood psychopath Artie Straus in the crime-and-punishment thriller Compulsion (1959), for which he...

It’s lucky 13 for the Boston Underground Film Festival as they celebrate their raucous 13th annual edition this year. Opening with the much buzzed about bloody feature film Hobo With a Shotgun starring Rutger Hauer and directed by Jason Eisener, the fest then barrels on for eight wild nights and days from March 24-31.

While there’s plenty of underground goodness from the U.S.A., this year Buff feels like it’s a much more international affair with several sick features from around the globe. There’s gory horror and quirky black comedy from Japan in the guise of Yoshihiro Nishimura’s Helldriver and Sion Sono’s Cold Fish; the Argentinian freak-out Phase7 by Nicolas Goldbart; David Blyth’s Wound is a psychological thriller from New Zealand; and Mark Hartley’s Machete Maidens Unleashed! is a look at Philippine exploitation cinema from the ’70s.

Stateside there’s Usama Alshaibi‘s Profane,...

The Twilight People screens tonight, Wednesday September 29th, at 11:55 p.m. as part of the "Weird Wednesday" series at Alamo Drafthouse Ritz, 320 East Sixth Street in downtown Austin. Submitted for your approval is 1973's  oddity The Twilight People, starring John Ashley, best known as Frankie Avalon's rival in such films as Beach Blanket Bingo and How to Stuff a Wild Bikini, who had gone from his '60s glory days as the Ralph Bellamy of Beach Party pictures to starring in a series of made-in-the-Philippines exploitation films.  The Twilight People is pretty...

Getting the The A-Team movie off the ground has been as challenging as getting Mr. T's character, B.A. Baracus, on a plane. Now, with the release date set and a new director and scriptwriter in place, the project's finally coming together.

The A-Team, a hit TV show for NBC that ran from 1983 to 1986, stars George Peppard as Col. John "Hannibal" Smith; Dirk Benedict as Lt. Templeton "Faceman" Peck; Dwight Schultz as Capt. H.M. "Howling Mad" Murdock, and Mr. T as Sgt. Bosco "B.A." (Bad Attitude) Baracus. The group of ex-Vietnam vets are constantly on the run for a "crime they didn't commit" while trying to help those in need.

Rounding out the cast in varying seasons are Melinda Culea, Marla Heasley, Eddie Velez, William Lucking, Lance LeGault, Carl Franklin, Jack Ging, and Charles Napier, with series narration by John Ashley.

Plans for the A-Team film version...