I must go and do battle with this bloody head, lest he use his latent brainpower to reanimate his own headless body, order it to attack me, subdue me, and crush my skull under a heavy machine. Well, the severed head on my desk is calling loudly and seems to have mistaken me for Dr. Many of the most interesting extras are the interviews with the cast and crew originally filmed for Mark Hartley’s 2010’s documentary, Machete Maidens Unleashed! Severin Films’ Blu-ray of Mad Doctor of Blood Island even comes complete with a CD of the movie’s soundtrack music, which I have been listening to on repeat as I write this column to get me in the proper mood. Some shots feature a lot of film grain, but I think that might be the fault of the source material it’s usually when the filmmakers are shooting day-for-night with filters. I never thought I would see late 1960s drive-in quickies look like this. The transfers and extras on the new Severin Films box set are extraordinary. ![]() He eventually moved back to Los Angeles and produced three seasons of the popular television action series The A-Team. Taking a break from acting and producing, Ashley then ran a small drive-in theater chain in Oklahoma for a few years. When Francis Ford Coppola chose the Philippines as the location for Apocalypse Now, Ashley served as an associate producer, helping Coppola scout locations and securing the use of real Huey helicopters from the local government. Looking to get away from LA, he chose to produce and star in a series of low-budget drive-in movies filmed in Manila he fell in love with the island and made his second home there. He was married to Gidget star Deborah Wally, but the marriage ended in divorce. He even had a brief musical career and recorded a few singles and an album. Please follow along:Īshley had appeared as star Frankie Avalon’s friend and sidekick in the popular series of Beach Party films produced by American International in the early 1960s. Speaking of John Ashley… Just when you are thinking, “JB, these Philippines-lensed, drive-in quickies couldn’t POSSIBLY have a connection with Francis Ford Coppola’s Vietnam masterpiece Apocalypse Now, right?” I am here to tell you that THEY DO. This leads me to think the producers either said to themselves, “What if we made a film like James Bond-but with a big monster in it!” or “What if James Bond films starred Elvis Presley?” You see, the final three films in this series feature American John Ashley, who looks, sounds, and acts a lot like The King. Lorca even has a second-in-command who looks and acts… a little too much like Oddjob in Goldfinger!) the beautiful female love interest, and the inevitable destruction of the villain’s lair during the films’ climaxes. Similarities abound: the rogue agent who is handy with the ladies, the use of exotic locales, the megalomaniacal villain bent on world domination, the villain’s horde of loyal minions ( Beast of Blood’s Dr. Except for Terror is a Man, which was made in 1959, the remaining films, made between 19, seem to also owe a debt of gratitude to the popular James Bond series of the early 1960s. The plots of these films are so similar that they may as well all be ersatz remakes of The Island of Dr. This eventually led the pair to team up with American actor John Ashley to make a string of low budget drive-in hits, which came to be known as the Blood Island series because of their shared fictitious location. Their first effort in 1959, Terror is a Man-a loose rewrite of H.G. ![]() An American distributor suggested they make horror films tailored for the growing drive-in theater market instead. In the wake of WWII, Filipino film industry wunderkinds Gerry de Leon and Eddie Romero made a series of war films that were not financial successes. Being introduced to the series of Blood Island films recently was… less than delightful. I had that rewarding experience just last year, when Massacre Gun introduced me to the string of Japanese Crime Films produced by Nikkatsu Studios in the 1960s starring their stable of “Diamond Guys” leading men. ![]() It’s thrilling when a film or series of films take you down a deep, rich rabbit hole of nonsense, plunging you into the dark heart of a film genre that you hitherto never knew existed.
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