The Mighty Peking Man (1977)

If you can see only one campy 70's King Kong remake, see The Mighty Peking Man. If you wanna see two campy 70's King Kong remakes, see The Mighty Peking Man twice.

When an earthquake in the Himalayas unleashes a gigantic ape man and his bikini-clad pet blond girl (played by Evelyne Kraft), fortune seeking adventurer Johnny (played by Danny Lee) hauls them both off to Hong Kong and puts them on display. The ensuing antics pretty much follow the rest of the plot of King Kong.

 This movie the Shaw Brother's response to Dino De Laurentiis's 1976 King Kong remake. The Shaw Brother's film in my opinion manages to be much more fun while having a smaller budget than other.

I got my copy as part of the Rolling Thunder Pictures Presents
triple feature along with Detroit 9000 and Switchblade Sisters. However if the prospect of nearly six hours of low budget movies doesn't excite you, this movie is also available to stream on Netflix.

Also known as Goliathon.

 

Amazon vs. Supermen (1974)

This is a silly, silly movie.

When militant bikini-model amazons ride out on the warpath it is up to local superhero Dharma (Aldo Canti) to protect the  villages in the valley (that is why they give him one-fifth of all their harvests after all!) But Dharma can't fight off an army of Amazons with just his mad jumping skills, his spiffy leather mask, and his half-length red cape, so he enlists the help of superstrong Moog (Marc Hannibal) and kung fu master Chung (Shaw Brothers actor Hua Yueh). Together the three of them spend much of the following ninety minutes getting into fights. With all this fighting going on, will they ever manage to find enough down time to fashion a stockpile of homemade firebombs and three wooden tanks for their final battle against the amazons?

This movie was a co-production by legendary Hong Kong studio Shaw Brothers and Italian studio Cinemotografica, and was released the same year Shaw Brothers released the better know Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires with Hammer Studios. The film was shot in Italy and despite the  Shaw Brother's participation, it doesn't have that their Hong-Kong movies do.

Should you decide to look up this movie yourself, I must warn you, the soundtrack just might drive you to jab pencils into you ear.

Also known as Supers Stooges vs the Wonder Women.

Atlas in the Land of the Cyclops (1961)

Also titled: Maciste Nella Terra Dei Ciclop

When the evil Queen Caprys invades a neighboring city state, it is up to heroic strongman Maciste (played by bodybuilder Gordon Mitchell to prevent her from completing the job by preventing her from feeding it's infant king (and descendant of Ulysses) to her pet Cyclops.  What follows is a series Maciste's heroic exploits: wrestling a lion, helping the bad guys move giant containers of wine into their palace, playing tug of war over a pit of hungry lions (the makers of this movie must have been fond of lions), and waking up next to a very large muscular man after a night of heavy drinking. All while wearing nothing but a loin cloth.

The film is fairly typical of Italian Sword and Sandal movies of the time and the main character, Maciste, is also featured in a whole series of Italian movies in the 1920s and again in the 1960s. The film has faded badly to a yellow color, but this is common among old low budget films. The plot isn't the most coherent in the world and I found myself wondering how the various scenes connected to each other. If you like old B movies I would recommend rounding up a group of victims -er "friends" to watch it with while. (Though I think that's the only way anyone ever watches these movies!)

Atlas Against the Cyclops

Sock Monkey

More homemade plush toy fun! This time I made a sock monkey from a pair of pair of neon leopard print socks and a pair of purple hair clips. It was a fun little project.

More Weird Stuffed Animals

After making my catbat, I decided to try my hand at making more weird stuffed animals. So after finding a fleece remnant for less than $5 at the fabric store, I made this handsome monster:

Ollie the Four-Eyed Monster. And Myself.

Now I'll have to figure out what to make with the other 3/4 yard of that fleece!