Psycho A-Go-Go | |
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Directed by | Al Adamson |
Starring | Roy Morton Tacey Robbins Lyle Felice Kirk Duncan |
Cinematography | Vilmos Zsigmond |
Distributed by | Hemisphere Pictures |
Release date |
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Language | English |
Psycho A-Go-Go (also known as Echo of Terror) [1] is a 1965 crime thriller directed by Al Adamson, starring Roy Morton and distributed by Hemisphere Pictures. [2] The film was originally a straight action thriller, about a psychotic jewel thief who stalks a young woman and her child into the wilderness to get back some stolen jewels hidden in the child's doll. There were a number of musical nightclub scenes in the film, as director Adamson was trying to promote actress Tacey Robbins' singing career at the time. Al Adamson played a cameo in the film, playing one of the jewel thieves who gets shot to death on a rooftop by one of his own cohorts.[ citation needed ]
A psychotic young man named Joe Corey (Roy Morton) participates in a diamond heist with some friends, and kills one of his own cohorts during their escape. Corey hides the stolen diamonds in a pickup truck, where a little girl finds them and hides them inside her doll. The little girl who owns the doll and her mother set off on a trip to a national park with the doll in their car. Corey and his fellow thieves beat up the little girl's father in his home, thinking he has the jewels hidden somewhere in the house, but eventually they realize he knows nothing. Corey lures a sexy nightclub singer, who was friends with the little girl's mother, to a motel room where he forces her to tell him where the little girl and her mother went on their vacation, before brutally murdering her.
Corey pursues the girl and her mother into the snow-covered wilderness to retrieve the missing loot. The little girl's father, who has recovered from his beating, follows them into the woods with a police detective to try to intercept Joe Corey before he can harm his family. Corey winds up getting shot by the policeman, and plunges off a cliff, clutching the girl's doll and the jewels in his hands as his life slips away. [3]
In 1969, Psycho A-Go-Go was completely re-edited, with additional footage featuring actor John Carradine as a mad scientist added, and the film was re-released by American General as The Fiend with the Electronic Brain . [2]
Still not satisfied with the result, in 1971 Adamson added still more new footage featuring actors Kent Taylor, Tommy Kirk and Regina Carrol, and re-edited the whole thing into an entirely different film titled Blood of Ghastly Horror . The confusing result, a patchwork film consisting of footage taken from three different variations, was theatrically distributed by Adamson's company Independent-International. [3] [4] [5] It was also later released to late-night television under yet another title, The Man With the Synthetic Brain, [6] with the violent nightclub singer's murder scene excised.[ citation needed ]
The original 1965 version of Psycho A-Go-Go still exists today and has been released on DVD by Troma Pictures, with an introduction by Sam Sherman. [4]
Corey Ian Haim was a Canadian actor who rose to fame in the 1980s as a teen heartthrob. He starred in Silver Bullet (1985), Murphy's Romance (1985), Lucas (1986), License to Drive (1988) and Dream a Little Dream (1989). His role alongside Corey Feldman in The Lost Boys (1987) made him a household name. Known as The Two Coreys, the duo became 1980s icons and appeared together in seven films, later starring in the A&E American reality show The Two Coreys.
Bunny Lake Is Missing is a 1965 psychological mystery thriller film, directed and produced by Otto Preminger and starring Carol Lynley, Keir Dullea and Laurence Olivier. Filmed in black-and-white widescreen format in London, it was based on the 1957 novel Bunny Lake Is Missing by Merriam Modell. The score is by Paul Glass. The rock band the Zombies also appear in the film.
Albert Victor Adamson Jr. was an American filmmaker and actor known as a prolific director of B-grade horror and exploitation films throughout the 1960s and 1970s.
Jane Withers was an American actress and children's radio show hostess. She became one of the most popular child stars in Hollywood in the 1930s and early 1940s, with her films ranking in the top ten list for box-office gross in 1937 and 1938.
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Psycho is a 1959 horror novel by American writer Robert Bloch. The novel tells the story of Norman Bates, a caretaker at an isolated motel who struggles under his domineering mother and becomes embroiled in a series of murders. The novel is considered Bloch's most enduring work and one of the most influential horror novels of the 20th century.
Sorrowful Jones, also known as Damon Runyon's Sorrowful Jones, is a 1949 American comedy-drama film directed by Sidney Lanfield. The film stars Lucille Ball and Bob Hope.
Blood of Ghastly Horror is a 1967 science fiction horror film directed by Al Adamson and starring John Carradine, Tommy Kirk, Kent Taylor, and Regina Carrol.
Angels' Wild Women is a 1972 biker film written and directed by cult director Al Adamson. Preceded by Satan's Sadists (1969) and Hell's Bloody Devils (1970), it is the last in a trio of (unrelated) motorcycle gang films directed by Adamson for Independent-International Pictures Corp., a company he co-founded with Sam Sherman. The plot centers on a group of tough biker babes who leave their cycle gang boyfriends to go on a violent rampage. When a cult leader kills one of the girls, the others go out for revenge.
These are the films directed by the pioneering American filmmaker D. W. Griffith (1875–1948). According to IMDb, he directed 518 films between 1908 and 1931.
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Lila Loomis is a fictional character created by American author Robert Bloch in his 1959 thriller novel Psycho; she is the sister of Norman Bates's victim Marion Crane. She is revealed as the real protagonist of the novel in the final chapters, after several false protagonists, including her sister, who gets murdered. Lila is portrayed by Vera Miles in the 1960 film version and by Julianne Moore in the 1998 version. Additionally, Lila appears in Bloch's 1982 sequel novel Psycho II, and the unrelated 1983 sequel film of the same name, in which she serves as an antagonist.
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Francine York was an American actress and model. She also used the name Francine Yerick.
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Thieves is a 1977 American comedy film directed by John Berry, written by Herb Gardner, and starring Marlo Thomas, Charles Grodin and Irwin Corey. It was released on February 11, 1977, by Paramount Pictures. The film was based on Gardner's Broadway play, and has almost the same cast, with the main exception being that Charles Grodin is playing Martin rather than Richard Mulligan, though Grodin directed and produced the play.
Paddy O'Day is a 1936 American comedy drama film directed by Lewis Seiler and released by 20th Century Fox. It stars Jane Withers, Pinky Tomlin, and Rita Hayworth. The story follows the adventures of a plucky Irish girl who arrives at Ellis Island only to discover that her mother, a cook in a wealthy Long Island home, has died. Hiding from the immigration officers who want to deport her, she charms everyone she meets, including the service staff and reclusive young master of the house. She goes to live with a family of Russian dancers that she met on the ship, and performs with them in their nightclub. Withers uses a heavy Irish brogue for her character and sings one song with an Irish accent and another song with a Russian accent. She also dances in several numbers, while Hayworth performs a traditional Russian dance in a nightclub revue.
The Fiend with the Electronic Brain was a 1969 low-budget science fiction film directed by Al Adamson and starring John Carradine. In 1971, this film was re-edited, with newly filmed footage added, into a very different version that was re-released to theaters as Blood of Ghastly Horror.