Recent Viewings, Part 2

[Trevor]

SUPERFUZZ was such an early 80s HBO staple. I have no actual proof of this but I feel like it must've been a big enough hit in the U.S. to inspire "The Greatest American Hero" starring Terence Hill lookalike William Katt and Robert Culp well-cast as Ernest Borgnine.

It was released here as SUPER SNOOPER and as with almost all Terence Hill films, either him alone or together with Bud Spencer, did well. 😊🐢

[M.10rda]

SEVEN FOOTPRINTS TO SATAN (1929):
A late era silent from the director of the very good MYSTERIOUS ISLAND, the quite bad BLIND JUSTICE, and the famously interesting HAXAN. A wealthy four-eyed Poindexter and his hapless galpal get shanghaied to an Old Dark House where weirdo servants inform them they must be the guests of "Mister Satan" (or else) and other guests alternately frolic or scamper about in terror. 7FTS seems at first like a ROCKY HORROR precedent but actually ends up a lot closer in spirit to THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE. 

Doors are constantly being thrown open; hulking figures lurch out, grab hysterical victims, and pull them into passageways; and then the doors slam shut again. Everyone is constantly screaming their heads off - and yes, it's a silent film, but the performances and staging and cinematography are so intense, I felt like I could hear the screams. After the twenty minutes or so it takes to get going, this thing never stops. Guns go off; characters appear to shift allegiances without explanation; there's a dwarf (young Angelo Rossito!), a fairly convincing rampaging gorilla-thing, two Fu Manchus (actually played by Asian dudes, fortunately), and a congenial wolfman named "Professor Moriarty". There are also some nice-looking ladies. One of them gets tied up (by the gorilla!) and whipped (tastefully, off-camera). Also, 7FTS is a comedy. 

At the end, the wimpy hero has to walk the "Seven Steps To Satan", a reality game-show challenge that would stress me out if I was confronted with it! Creighton Hale is the protagonist and, though he isn't terribly compelling, he does some pretty funny acting with his eyeballs and executes the "Seven Steps" stunt nicely. (He went on to play uncredited bit parts in CASABLANCA, MALTESE FALCON, and tons of other huge films.) Doomed starlet Thelma Todd is pleasant enough as Hale's girlfriend. Honestly I thought 7FTS was a full-scale riot. Because it's a comedy, there's a twist at the end similar to that in Fincher's THE GAME - except it's actually scarier to think about the backstory that would make such a charade possible.    4/5    Totally bonkers movie.