True Grit (A Further Adventure) (1978) – Richard T. Heffron.

Bravura character actor Warren Oates lustily takes on The Duke's iconic role in a Richard T. Heffron's good-natured, enjoyably roustabout small screen sequel. Our grizzled, one-eyed, six-gunned hero, and his querulous charge Maddy (Lisa Pelikan) are temporarily waylaid in a corrupt mining town, courageously confronting greed and injustice in this lawless locale with true grit and determination! Heffron's altogether amiable return of the ornery, booze-soaked lawman is given credibility by Oates's robust acting, cheeky demeanour, and compelling charisma, his precocious sidekick portrayed with a rigorous petulance by disarming red head Lisa Pelikan. Ultimately lightweight fare, True Grit (A Further Adventure) has an appreciably earthy production design, the dankly inhospitable town has a ramshackle authenticity, and the sudden outbursts of violence are excitingly realised by director Heffron. This stolid, well made western might have worked without Oates, yet it is entirely fair to state that the engaging drama's continued spark of relevance is largely down to his dominating performance, for me, True Grit (A Further Adventure) remains a remarkably rousing adventure!

 Dark Night of The Scarecrow (1981) - Frank de Felitta.

'Bubba don't preach!!'

Backward, yet empathic man-child Bubba (Larry Drake) falsely accused of killing friend Marylee (Tonya Crowe), is unjustly hunted down, and cruelly executed by a murderously enraged, beer-soaked posse, but Bubba didn't do it, his vengeful spirit therefore enacting a righteous justice, that the law so unfairly denied him. While light on gratuitous grue, De Felitta's deeply atmospheric chiller Dark Night of The Scarecrow has nuanced characters, flourishes of Stephen King-esque backwoods whimsy, and a satisfying intensity permeates the macabre inventory of wickedly creative kills! Another notable element is the moody score, and the suspenseful shocker's cathartic climax which additionally felt like the beginning of a beautiful friendship! Arguably one of the most deservedly celebrated TV horrors is given a gloriously glistering HD restoration, this magnificently creepy, greatly beloved Halloween classic is set to delight another generation of fright fans. Dark Night of The Scarecrow's lofty reputation among supernatural horror fans is well deserved, remaining both warmly nostalgic and resolutely credible as a spookily shock-stuffed, small-screen, wide-scream Halloween treat!

 The Force on Thunder Mountain (1978) – Peter B. Good.

With their loyal pooch Jake in tow, a kindly father and son's bonding hiking trip up Thunder Mountain takes a decidedly tweaked turn into the realms of shamanic 70s Sci-fi when they eerily encounter an apparently hostile, manifestly alien force! The two conspicuously wholesome leads are sympathetically drawn, and the bucolic scenery, plenitude of cutesy animal footage recalls the similarly off-beat nature of cult backwoods slasher Prey, and I'm fairly certain that I've seen the neat-o UFO FX and Indian petroglyphs reused on Ancient Aliens! Overall, the film is enjoyable, and competently made, with an endearingly folksy vibe, some spectacular vistas, and the Twilight Zone'd sequence in the deserted town proving most effective. During one conspicuously expository scene, a character pointedly remarked that his unnerved companion was experiencing 'rock fever', which may well prove to be the very first reference to the future scourge of crack cocaine! In closing, it would have been lovely if The Force on Thunder Mountain had been a legitimate documentary, as I welcome the idea of 1000 year old stoner Ohm and his mushroomoid thought translator being real. The sense of the scriptwriter having previously experimented with psychoactive manna seems entirely plausible, since the sky-high narrative is woozily inflected with lysergic interludes, and the glaring omission that Big Foot didn't beam down from his pan-dimensional conveyance is, perhaps, the film's only real flaw.

'May The Force on Thunder Mountain be with you.'

 CB Hustlers (1976) – Stu Segall.

Pussy hungry truckers excitedly twiddle their tiny knobs as they illicitly procure themselves some pristine roadside beaver in affable lo-fi 70s sex romp CB Hustlers. Seasoned smut-seekers are more apt to appreciate the voluptuous antics of these lustful, short-panted hotties, and their heroically hot-rodding, Joystick jumpin' jackanapes! It would be unkind broadcasting the inadequacies of the unlovely text, so I will focus upon CB Hustlers more meritorious points, namely the altogether divine presence of that most exquisitely titillating Teuton Uschi Digard, and the distractingly juicy-looking, bodaciously bonnie, blazingly boff-able terror temptress Janus Blythe! Being overtly critical of dopey Drive-In fare like CB Hustlers makes bout as much sense as knocking Pabst Blue Ribbon for its lack of quaffable finesse. The film's more prosaic elements are frequently revivified by the electric scenes with bouncy Blythe and triumphantly top-heavy teaser Uschi Digard, and her dynamically Double D'd distractions! I am quite open about my frequent lapses of taste, but as I am solely answerable to myself, enjoying peek-a-boo bobbins like CB Hustlers isn't anything that I'll lose much sleep over. I have always earnestly believed that true B-Movie beauty resides in the eye of the beholder, and CB Hustlers is replete with two great beauties!

'if we didn't have pussies, you'd have to work for a living!!!!!'

 Let's Get Laid' (1978) – James Kenelm Clarke.

As one might glean from the nakedly bawdy title, this raunchy 70s comedy is a far from subtle affair! Gordon Laid (Robin Askwith) returns from WW2, is set up in a posh Mayfair drum, and promptly becomes dangerously enmeshed in nefarious espionage shenanigans that frequently engenders implausible scenarios for full-frontal nudity, ribald humour, and fleshly, soft-lensed in-out. Production values are higher than one might expect, and I can't imagine two more quintessentially smutty stars than the Baron of bonkage Robin Askwith, and sensational strumpet Fiona Richmond! To those with scant interest in vintage British burlesque, Let's Get laid may seem rather flaccid fare, yet connoisseurs of Askwith's scurrilous 70s shag-o-rama might appreciate the spicier ingredients of this frothy, easily digested souffle. While Ms. Richmond's dazzlingly pulchritudinous charms far outweighs her rudimentary acting skills, her prodigious facility for being deliciously naughty provides ample compensations! Let's Get Laid may not have been selected for the Berlinale that year, and the absurd premise makes Billy Bunter's exploits look like a le Carre masterclass, it somehow remains a surprisingly fun romp, generously buoyed by capable jester Askwith's amiable buffoonery, and luscious Fiona Richmond's appetisingly lascivious personality! If you are open to keeping your brain in neutral for the duration, this is an unexpectedly watchable 70s lark, enlivened by a quality supporting cast, including a slinky interlude with sublime nymphet Linda Hayden!

 Crime Hunter: Bullets of Rage (1989) – Shundo Okawa.

Following the slaying of his younger, inexperienced partner (Riki Takeuchi), the severely injured detective Joe (Masanori Sera), licks his mortal wounds, hands in his badge, hunting down those responsible, aided by a delicious, gun-toting nun, with her own score to settle. For 58 propulsive minutes of thrillingly unleavened, bullet-blasting hysteria, neophyte film-maker Okawa's frantic Crime Hunter: Bullets of Rage provides action addicts with a dopamine rush of gloriously gun-happy heroic bloodshed! With a zesty, but not altogether logical text, charismatic characters, and a killer synth score, Okawa packs in a blazingly high volume of kinetic gun-play, double-twisted duplicity, plus a gonzo John Woo'd climax, gorily replete with all the orgiastically blood-squibbed pathos the genre demands! While the director seems overtly critical of his own film, and apparently Beat Takeshi isn't a fan, I manifestly adored it! Crime Hunter: Bullets of Rage demonstratively retains all of its bravura, bullet-blasted brilliance, an auspicious debut, wholly deserving of its stunning HD restoration!

 Diary of a Bad Lad (2007) – Michael Booth.

Aspiring indie film-maker Barry Lick(Jonathan Williamson) documents the increasingly nefarious machinations of ambitious hoodlum Tommy (Joe O'Byrne), Lick's painfully intimate fly-on-the-wall approach drawing him uncomfortably closer to the sh#t than he had planned for! This volatile, lo-fi admixture of Man Bites Dog and 'Downs Terrace' on Redbull & Steroid Slammers is more ambitious, and inventive than one might think, while a scrappy, grainy, visibly low budget entry into the bellicose Brit-Thug pantheon, Diary of a Bad Lad frequently had a visceral quality that surprised me. Natural, wholly credible performances, showcasing a dynamically deviant turn from O'Byrne as the brutally opportunistic thug Tommy. While occasionally blighted by the lack of funds, Diary of a Bad Lad is entertaining B-movie fare, employing a wicked streak of black humour, with the film's sleazier elements pointedly aimed at a more Grindhouse-savvy audience. Many independently produced British Gangster films share a not altogether disagreeable uniformity, Michael Booth's grungy Found Footage approach proved effective, giving Diary of a Bad Lad a perversely voyeuristic quality that I found enormously appealing.