The Legend of Blood Mountain

My first wife and I were dancers in the beach party scene with Marriane Gordon. I worked with George Ellis who played Bestoink Dooley at Dimension Incorporated in Atlanta, GA and he offered me and my wife the bit parts in the movie. The beach party scene which lasted just a few minutes took all night to film. BTW This movie was one of the top 10 grossing movies of 1965, by grossing over a Million dollars. I assume it played at a lot of drive-ins. I have a DVD copy of the movie that I have shown to my family until they were sick of it. George Ellis also starred in "Moonrunners" that movie was a prequel to "The Dukes of Hazzard" TV show.

Wannabe reporter Bestoink Dooley (George Ellis) hears that Blood Mountain is "bleeding" again and heads there to try and get the scoop. He meets some locals and a scientist, who soon discover the ancient Indian legend about the bleeding mountain is true. Woooo boy! This horror-comedy indie shot in Georgia and uses Stone Mountain to pretty good effect. Unfortunately, there is the rest of the film which suffers in both the horror and comedy departments. Director Massey Cramer draws it out to such a degree that you feel sorry for audiences that didn't have the advantage of fast forwarding. Not that I did any of that because I felt it was essential to my life to watch Bestoink Dooley -- BESTOINK DOOLEY!!! -- slowly eat some cookies before bed or have dreams where he is a private eye who slooooowly sits with two girls. Ellis looks like a Zero Mostel knockoff minus the funny bone. Camp Video put this out on VHS in 1988 and were really selling it on the fact that Kenny Rogers' wife appears in one scene as a background extra (they even put a full pic of her on the back). They also re-titled it Demon Hunter and gave a fuzzy look at the monster with the hope some unsuspecting fool would pick up the VHS and watch it...oh dang, that's me!

Regional schlock(in color, amazingly) about a humble reporter named Bestoink(!), who is trying to solve an ages-old cowtown mystery. It seems that a certain mountain has been known to "bleed" human blood, marking the start of a killing spree by an ancient beast which lives within the mountain's hollow.

Said monster does, indeed, turn up...and it's one sad looking critter, let me tell you...sort of a mangled conehead with furry riding britches and tails hanging from both hips, covered with what appears to be cottonballs. The creature growls like a lion, kills a couple of the resident good ol' boys, and chases Bestoink around for several minutes of unsuccessful intended comedy.

This is pure amateur-night dross with rampant sub-adequacies in every facet of production. In short, its gold-star entertainment for enthusiasts of artless American filmtrash. Leading lady Erin Fleming became a a hot topic for tabloid fodder concerning her strange and often turbulent relationship with Groucho Marx during his later years. Country singer Kenny Rogers' ex-wife, Marianne Gordon(who also had a bit part in ROSEMARY'S BABY), is also featured.

3.5/10.

DEMON HUNTER aka THE LEGEND OF BLOOD MOUNTAIN was an Atlanta-lensed monster flick starring Atlanta TV legend George Ellis as his "Bestoink Dooley" character. The writing and cinematography are "freshman year film school" at best but the film has a surprising amount of charm and is helped by a running time of just over one hour. It is comprised of set pieces that make you constantly go "WTF??". The blood and monster effects are pretty lame even by 1965 standards (you have to remember that American had already been hit over the head by the appalling excess of BLOOD FEAST by this point) so more laughs and chuckles than real horror. Despite the massive flaws it DID make money and the cast has a certain charm that is hard to ignore. Especially George. No matter how bad the comedy bits get and no matter how bumbling Bestoink is, he manages to maintain a certain dignity during the proceedings that most actors would never be able to manage with such material. You often watch this movie and swear that it was written and shot by Hal P. Warren of "Manos" infamy. Even some of the background music is very reminiscent of the jazz tooting in "Manos". From a "film school" standpoint, this movie is a complete bust. From a "have a few beers and let her rip" point of view, LEGEND is a film that can easily go toe to toe with such other anti-classics such as "Manos", "Monster A-Go Go" and "The Giant Spider Invasion". Not bad company to be in if you are a bad film...

Bestoink Dooley (George Ellis) was the host of The Friday Night Big Movie Shocker! shown at 11:00 PM on the Atlanta area CBS Affiliate WAGA.Later it was also shown on Saturday mornings at the end of the "kiddie" line up. George and his brother later purchased and managed the Ansley Mall Film Forum in Atlanta. As bad as "Blood Mountain" might have been, his taste in films was excellent. I saw numerous cult films, such as "A Boy and His Dog", and "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" at the Forum, along with other great movies like Zefferelli's "Brother Sun, Sister Moon" and "Ballad of Narayama". I'd love to get a video of "Blood Mountain", are there any out there?