Shameless Self Expression

The son (Richard Alan Hench) of an Egyptologist and the niece (Susan Stokey) of a collector of ancient artefacts try to solve the murders of their respective family members. At the heart of all of this is an expedition conducted by adventurer/ancient artefact thief John Banning (David Pearson) disrupting the resting place of an ancient Egyptian vampire priestess named Nefratis (Michelle Bauer). The latter unsurprisingly rises to regain what was stolen and the usual world domination deal. Cameron Mitchell plays Stokey’s doomed uncle, whilst John Carradine appears briefly as an academic on Egyptian history. Sybil Danning appears at the very beginning as a woman involved in an ill-fated sale of ancient artefacts. Somewhat of a loose retelling of “Blood From the Mummy’s Tomb” (or Bram Stoker’s Jewel of the Seven Stars , if you prefer), this ultra-cheap, dead-shit boring piece of schlock comes from cult director Fred Olen Ray. I’ve not seen too much of Mr. Ray’s work over the yea...

Adam Nimoy was shown on TV’s “The Big Bang Theory” to be making a film about his father Leonard and the character of Mr. Spock, and indeed he actually did make this 2016 documentary about both his father and his most famous character. I’d love to tell you that it’s a wonderful, heartfelt success. Sadly, whilst Adam Nimoy may indeed be the right guy to talk about his dad, he’s definitely not the right person to be directing a documentary. All of the stuff about Leonard Nimoy the man, is fascinating stuff. However, every time Nimoy Jr. focusses on the character of Spock, we get corny Trekkie convention geeks, and unnecessary celebrity talking heads offering up a whole lot of piffle you can get in plenty of other documentaries about the show, the films, and the subculture. Combining the two might’ve seemed like a good idea at the time, but it really isn’t. The Spock stuff just gets in the way of the more interesting and for me, less oft-told stuff about Leonard Nimoy the man, a...