Friday, September 2, 2011

PSYCHIC KILLER / Lexington Productions - 1975

Welcome to Friday Night Drive-In with Tabonga, here at The Dungeon!.. Tonite's offering is one of those flicks that has lots of guest stars, something that become really popular in the seventies. Stars like Neville Brand, Aldo Ray, Whit Bissell, Della Reese, Greydon Clark and Nehemiah Persoff.

The story goes... Arnold Masters is a mental patient behind bars for a murder he didn't commit. At the prison, he learns astral projection from a fellow inmate, then, upon his release, he uses the power to bump off the people responsible for his arrest and even a butcher who overcharges for his meat!

You'll hear the narrator repeat this insightful theory by noted physicist Sir James Jean in the soundclip, as quoted in Time Magazine, no less! ...Who the Hell's Sir James Jean?

The cool music is by William Kraft, a percussionist with a grand total of 6 composing credits... That's probably him playing the drums in the soundclip.

Since it's Friday, you know what that means!.. Well, maybe you don't, but, it's time to bring in our littlest of all Dungeon helpers and button pusher, sure 'nuf, Rufus The Gnat!.. So, then, lettuce get the show on the road! Push the big red 'GO' button right there in front of your nose, or, whatever it is... NOW, Rufus!! Here's... PSYCHIC KILLER!

Jim Hutton plays prison mental patient, Arnold Masters, wrongly accused of murder. Tall at 6' 5", Jim was in a few major movies like THE GREEN BERETS and HELLFIGHTERS, but, unfortunately, died at age 45 from liver cancer in 1979.

Arnold is friends with this sweaty weirdo, an uncredited Sheldon Lee playing... 'Inmate.' He has serious psychic abilities... and, problems!

This shot is killer!! Before the tortured inmate goes on the ultimate astral projection, seen here, he gives Arnold the key to a box full of secrets on how to use the power to exact revenge on his friends!

One of the key elements to attain the astral state is this here pendant. Something you can get at any head shop!

Arnold likes to read before he head trips, after smoking a big hooter of Panama Red, of course!

Showing this photo for nostalgic reasons alone...

The seventies was cruel to actors like Whit Bissell, like here, where he has to do a hot sex scene with this topless broad. I watched this part carefully, Whit never once stopped gazing directly into her eyes! Weird... If it was me, I'd be looking directly at her boobs! But hey, that's just me. One of the oddest things, Whit plays the evil doctor in both I WAS A TEENAGE FRANKENSTEIN and I WAS A TEENAGE WEREWOLF, and, the movies played together as a double bill!

This nurse teases the crap out of this patient since he can't move. Could this be considered torture, since the old buzzard could possible die of a heart attack from all the excitement?!!

Minutes later, the nurse gets a visit from Arnold's evil side while she showers. She was the nurse that let his mom die while he was behind bars.

Then, he appears in the rear view mirror of one of the people responsible for him going to jail.

He makes the guy run over a motorcycle cop, then, makes the poor sap drive off a cliff!! Gee, if I had that kind of power, I know what I'd do with it!!

The cops, Paul Burke, Aldo Ray and Julie Adams, get in on the action, they're secretly keeping an eye on Arnold from across the street.

Here's a good gag, right out of Popeye and Bugs Bunny cartoons!

While he's in a trance, the gang do a few tests on him!

Neville Brand plays Lemonowski, the greedy local butcher, and, he's next on Arnold's list! He gets his via that whirring, carcass cutting band saw blade coming toward him... Ever closer, and closer!..

Things don't go too well for Arnold at the end, he catches the whole damn place on fire!.. Oh, and, he threw up a little bit.

The perfect ending, the cat inherits the pendant! Tune in tomorrow for another 'special' posting with Eegah!!..

2 comments:

Prof. Grewbeard said...

Whit Bissell, NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!...

Douglas McEwan said...

Actually, Tim Hutton was in a LOT of movies, and shortly after this turkey, starred in the popular whodunit TV series ELLERY QUEEN. He holds the distinction of being the only actor other than Cary Grant to play the romantic lead in a Cary Grant movie, Grant's last movie, in fact, Walk, Don't Run. (I guess when Grant stopped getting the girl, and instead played Cupid to young lovers, he felt "Time to go home and spend it.") I very mucy enjoyed Hutton in The Halleluiah Trail with Burt Lancaster and Martin Landau. And his son is the movie star Tim Hutton.

I also first saw I Was a Teenage Frankenstein and I was a Teenage Werewolf as a double bill. Keep Whit away from the teenagers! I suspect that Whit's day shooting that scene with the topless broad was a day where he drove home singing to himself: "And they PAID me! I've got the best job in the world."

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