Hazel Court, R.I.P.

I wanted to post this last week but time got away from me:

Hazel Court, an English beauty who co-starred with the likes of Boris Karloff and Vincent Price in "The Raven" and other popular horror movies of the 1950s and '60s, has died. She was 82.

Court died Tuesday at her home near Lake Tahoe from a heart attack, her daughter, Sally Walsh of Los Angeles, said Wednesday.

Roger Corman directed Hazel Court in five movies, turning Ms. Court into one of the classic "scream queens" of that era. She co-starred with the likes of Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, Vincent Price, Boris Karloff, Peter Lorre and Jack Nicholson.

Read more at IHT, The Telegraph or The Times. Luckily for us, she finished her autobiography which is on sale now.

A note about the NFL Draft

And a humorous article:

http://fifthdown.blogs.nytimes.com/2006/09/07/the-most-wonderful-day-of-the-year/

Trek Remastered -- "Mudd's Women"

The introduction of con-man Harcourt Fenton Mudd and his "cargo" is this week's episode, "Mudd's Women".

Here's a look at the schedule for the next few weeks:

"Assignment: Earth" (weekend of May 3rd)
"Court Martial" (weekend of May 10th)
"A Private Little War" (weekend of May 17th)
"Whom Gods Destroy" (weekend of May 24th)
"The Mark of Gideon" (weekend of May 31st)

Trek Remastered -- schedule change

According to Trekmovie.com, "Mudd's Women" -- the episode scheduled for this week -- will be shown next week. A repeat of "The Conscience of the King" will air in its place. I didn't write about that one when it first aired last September so I will do so this time.

Next week's episode was supposed to be "The Cage", the original pilot with Jeffery Hunter as Captain Pike. It hasn't been added back into this season's schedule, but maybe it will be in with the proposed 2008/2009 schedule .

Here's hoping that they do offer another season... the Remastered DVD sets are slowly being released (although that's another story), but there's just something fun and nostalgic about watching Trek in syndication again.

Trek Remastered -- "Obsession"

Captain Kirk is determined to hunt down a vampiric cloud creature in this week's Remastered episode, "Obsession".

Trek Remastered -- "The Enterprise Incident"

In this week's Remastered episode, "The Enterprise Incident", Captain Kirk orders the Enterprise into Romulan space unexpectedly, the ship is captured, and Kirk and Spock are held captive aboard their flagship. All according to plan -- they're on a secret mission!

As a kid I often wondered why the Romulans would be using Klingon-designed ships. Fans speculated that there was a Klingon-Romulan alliance, but the truth is more mundane. The Klingon ship model was expensive and the producers wanted to get as much use out of it as possible. The freedom of CG effects has now allowed for a Warbird to make an appearance and bird-of-prey markings on the undersides of the Klingon-designed battle cruisers.

The teaser photos are sweet! I'm looking forward to see what else they enhance in this terrific espionage-themed episode.

Upcoming Hammer DVD News

As you may know, we're big Hammer Film fans here in Kaijuville. Most of the popular titles have already been released on DVD, some still in print and some not.

Sony, like Warner and Universal, is releasing a box of Hammer movies. This time it's a 2-disc set they're calling Icons of Adventure, including 4 historical adventure films originally released by Columbia Pictures. The titles are Stranglers of Bombay (1960), directed by Terence Fisher, Terror of the Tongs (1961), Pirates of Blood River (1962), and Devil Ship Pirates (1964). Christopher Lee stars in the last three. They may have aired on local TV at some point, but I've never seen any of these. Screenwriter Jimmy Sangster provides three audio commentaries and there should be some other extras. It's due on June 10th.

Fox is also releasing The Nanny starring Bette Davis next week. That's another one I haven't seen but I'm more excited about the adventure films.

I'll update the Hammer DVD list accordingly.