Here are some of the most obscure films we’ve watched at the Saturday Movie Conspiracy since we started keeping The List. These are arranged in roughly chronological order of release, with Amazon links for those who want to track them down.
- Trick Baby: Blaxplotation film starring Kiel Martin and Mel Stewart as a pair of con men in 1970s Philadelphia. Based on an Iceberg Slim novel. Really good film that’s worth tracking down. (Note: It’s a Kino Lorber Blu-Ray, and they have periodic sales.)
- Cockfighter: Solid low-budget film starring Warren Oates as the titular character. Based on the Charles Wilford novel.
- Killdozer: Mediocre science fiction TV movie about a bulldozer possessed by a malevolent alien entity based on the much-superior Theodore Sturgeon short story of the same name. Not to be confused with the documentary Tread, which we still haven’t seen yet.
- Golden Needles: A pretty decent Joe Don Baker action mystery set in the U.S. and Hong Kong about a stolen golden statue with acupuncture needles that, if used in the proper sequence, give a man tremendous sexual power. Yeah, they’d never remake that today…
- The Barbary Coast: The TV movie pilot for a William Shatner series featuring him as a master of disguise working as the governor’s agent to clean up rough, corrupt 1870s San Francisco with a casino owner partner. Both the movie and the show are a hoot, and both available in the DVD set, now sadly out of print and pricey.
- Taoism Drunkard: Absolutely insane Hong Kong action film. Come for the titular drunkard riding in a giant shoe, stay for the giant penis-eating kung fu ball.
- The Siege of Firebase Gloria: Sort of an 80s remake of the base siege segment of The Green Berets, but not as good. Interestingly, the tactics in both those films, as well as those seen at the beginning of The Lost Command (the fall of Dien Bien Phu) are all broadly similar. A Kino Lorber Blu-Ray that slipped out of print while I wasn’t looking.
- Elves: Grade-Z, thrill-free horror movie starring Dan Haggerty fighting Nazi elves. Actually, there’s only one “elf” in evidence, and it’s so pathetic it makes the Hobgoblins in that MST3K staple look good by comparison. Only available in a long out-of-print VHS, so the link goes to a YouTube rip.
- Upstream Color: Intelligent Shane Carruth science fiction film focused on two people victimized by the same scammer using an organism that has linked them and other victims into a sort of meta-organism. Well worth watching, and his some great sound design.
- Chasing the Dragon: Sold Hong Kong crime drama loosely based on the real life triad boss and drug lord Crippled Ho, and partially set in Kowloon Walled City.
- The VelociPastor: Complete schlock that knows its schlock about a priest who turns into a velociraptor to fight bad guys. And ninjas. Look for the “[Insert VFX here]” scene…
- Girls of the Sun: Interesting but not great film about a Kurdish Pershmerga unit of former female captives fighting the Islamic State done on what appears to be a European TV movie budget. About 40% of the film is about the lead character’s captivity and escape, which is probably a bit much. Also has a French photojournalist that provides a coda of commentary about The Meaning of It All. Not available from Amazon for some reason, but available through through Kino Lorber (again, worth waiting for one of their sales.)
I’m excluding anything from the Criterion Collection (Haxan, Daisies), anything with a major Hollywood star, and any MST3K/Rifftrax/etc. films.
Feel free to share obscure films down in the comments.
Tags: Bad Movies, Horror, Movies, Science Fiction, Shane Carruth, Vietnam, Vietnam War, War Movies, William Shatner
The biggest problem with the Killdozer TV movie is that it has an idiot plot that’s totally absent from Sturgeon’s novella. Otherwise, it makes a respectable double bill with Duel. And I can’t totally hate a movie starring both Clint Walker and Neville Brand.