Seven Obscure Movies That I Curiously Remember (Vol. 4)

1. The Sword and the Dragon (1956) - When I was a wee lad, I pestered my Dad until he took me to this movie because... well..it had a dragon in it. Alas, the dragon doesn't appear until the climax, so hopefully I didn't drive my family nuts. Many years later, I learned this was actually a Russian film called Ilya Muromets, which Roger Corman purchased and re-edited for U.S. release in 1960. Dell even published a comic book tie-in and I had a copy.

2. Eegah! (1962) - Probably the worst caveman movie ever made, Eegah! stars Richard Kiel (Jaws in The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker) as the title character. A young woman named Roxy discovers him in a California desert and the caveman falls in love (sort of). Arch Hall, Sr. produced, directed, and acted in it. His son Arch Hall, Jr. portrays Roxy's boyfriend. The Halls made several bad flicks in the 1960s, but you gotta love their colorful titles such as Wild Guitar, The Nasty Rabbit, The Corpse Grinders, and, of course, Eegah!

Sean Flynn on the set.

3. Son of Captain Blood (1962) - Sean Flynn, Errol's only son, made a handful of European movies in the 1960s before deciding that acting wasn't for him. The handsome, younger Flynn's best-known film is this sequel to his father's Captain Blood (1935). A Spanish-Italian co-production, The Son of Captain Blood also starred Ann Todd in the Olivia de Havilland role. Sean Flynn later became a photo journalist who is believed to have been killed in Cambodia in 1970. My father was a huge Errol Flynn fan, so my family saw this one when it played (appropriately enough) at the Robin Hood Drive-in in Winston-Salem, NC.

4. Quackser Fortune Has a Cousin in the Bronx (1970) - A young man (Gene Wilder) makes a living in Dublin by scooping up horse dung and selling it as garden fertilizer. He becomes smitten with an American student played by Margot Kidder. This offbeat Irish comedy was made before Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein made Wilder a star. I rather enjoyed Quackser Fortune when I saw it on The CBS Late Movie--back when you never knew what might pop up on that venue.

McCallum as Sol Madrid.

5. Sol Madrid (1968) - At the height of their Man From U.N.C.L.E. fame, both David McCallum and Robert Vaughn tried to establish themselves as big screen leading men. In Sol Madrid, McCallum played an undercover narcotics agents in Mexico mixed up with organized crime and heroin. At least, it featured a pretty good cast with Stella Stevens, Telly Savalas, Ricardo Montalban, and Rip Torn.

6. The Venetian Affair (1967) - This was Robert Vaughn's post-U.N.C.L.E. effort. Unlike McCallum, Vaughn had flirted with stardom in earlier supporting roles like The Young Philadelphians (1959) and The Magnificent Seven (1960). Of course, that didn't make The Venetian Affair--his attempt at a serious spy film--any better. I saw this one at a theater with my parents when I was 11. I didn't understand it. I'm not sure I would now, though I have become an Elke Sommer fan over the years.

7. The Maze (1953) - A man (Richard Carlson) suddenly breaks off his engagement and moves into his uncle's creepy castle in the Scottish Highlands. A huge maze and a big frog (well, maybe frog-like creature is a more accurate description) are featured in this 3D cult pic directed by famed set designer William Cameron Menzies. When my wife and I ran a nonprofit film society in the 1980s, we showed The Maze in 3D. We had to turn the 3D glasses upside-down to see the three-dimensional effect. Go figure!