David Duncan Movies
- 2005
- PG
- Add The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe to QueueAdd The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe to top of Queue
Four siblings -- Edmund (Skandar Keynes), Lucy (Georgie Henley), Peter (William Moseley), and Susan (Anna Popplewell) -- are sent from their London home to the country estate of an eccentric professor in order to ensure their safety during World War II. The house is very dull, except for a large, ornate wardrobe discovered by young Lucy during a game of hide-and-seek. Venturing inside of it in the hopes of finding a hiding place, Lucy is transported to a snowy alternate universe: a magical world called Narnia. The land is populated by talking animals and ruled over by the benevolent lion god Aslan (voiced by Liam Neeson), but sadly, the world is also in a state of perpetual winter. The white witch Jadis (Tilda Swinton), lustful for power and governed by narcissism, has cursed Narnia with a tyrannical decree that it will always be winter but never Christmas. Now, the children must fight alongside Aslan for the salvation of Narnia, but one of them, seduced by the charisma of the white witch, may choose to fight on the wrong side. ~ Cammila Albertson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Georgie Henley, Skandar Keynes, (more)
- 1993
- R
In Witchboard 2, naive Paige Benedict (Ami Dolenz) moves into an artist's studio loft, finding a Ouija board he left behind. A former tenant of the apartment, Susan, contacts Paige through the board, telling her that she was murdered. In no time, Paige's fellow tenants are being killed off, and she is haunted by vicious nightmares. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- 1990
- R
A woman is caught in the middle of a cat-and-mouse game between fugitive aliens in this sci-fi thriller. A mysterious man named Townsend (Lance Edwards) attempts to steal a gun from a police car; an altercation results, and Townsend is repeatedly shot by the cops. Medical Examiner Dori Caisson (Hilary Shepard) is performing an autopsy on Townsend's seemingly dead body when his wounds suddenly heal, and Townsend forces Caisson to help him escape. Townsend and Caisson are soon approached by Yates (Robert Forster), who attempts to kill them and sends them on a high-speed chase. The next morning, Townsend tells Caisson that he is actually a law enforcement officer from another world, and that Yates is a criminal from his planet whom he is assigned to apprehend. Townsend's ability to resist bullets and heal himself convince her that he is indeed from another world, but she's not so sure who is the good guy. Peacemaker also features Robert Davi as a cop involved with Caisson, and Bert Remsen as Doc. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Forster, Lance Edwards, (more)
- 1966
- PG
Stephen Boyd heads a team of scientists sent on a bizarre experimental mission. Through a revolutionary and as-yet untested process, the scientists and their special motorized vehicle are miniaturized, then injected into the blood stream of a near-death scientist (Jean del Val). Their mission is to relieve a blood clot caused by an assassination attempt. One member of the expedition is bent on sabotage so that the scientist's secrets will die with him. Another member is Raquel Welch, seemingly along for the ride solely because of how she looks in a skintight diving suit. The film's Oscar-winning visual effects (by Art Cruikschank) chart the progress of the voyagers through the scientist's body, burrowing past deadly antibodies, chunks of tobacco residue in the lungs, and other such obstacles. Oscars also went to Jack Martin Smith and Dale Hennesy's art direction and Walter M. Scott and Stuart A. Reiss' set decoration. Fantastic Voyage was later spun off into a Saturday morning cartoon series. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Stephen Boyd, Raquel Welch, (more)
- 1966
The FBI investigates a possible case of sabotage when a chemical plant is blown up. What Erskine (Efrem Zimbalist Jr.) doesn't realize is that the "saboteur", research chemist Roger Mason (Bradford Dillman), was driven by neither politics or monetary gain, but by mental illness. A schizophrenic, Mason has cracked under the pressures of both his job and his home life--and worse, he has no idea of why he's behaving so monstrously, nor where he plans to strike next! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1964
In the eighth volume in a collection culled from the 1963-1965 science fiction anthology television series, a bizarre experiment causes a psychiatrist and his unbalanced patient to swap identities. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
- 1960
An uninspired horror film by Edward Dein, this ragged story begins in darkest Africa and in the even darker psyche of a mentally deteriorating woman. June Talbot (Colleen Gray) goes on a trip to Africa with her husband Dr. Paul Talbot (Phillip Terry), only to discover that she is to be the trial balloon in one of his experiments on an anti-aging compound. Not willing to jump off into the unknown, the already unbalanced June kills her husband after she learns of a tribal ritual that will keep her youthful if she can obtain a hormone from the pineal gland of a human male. The problem is that she will revert back to a wrinkled woman unless she keeps replenishing her stock of the hormone. That, of course, leads to gruesome killings and ultimately, one disastrous mistake. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Coleen Gray, Grant Williams, (more)
In George Pal's version of the H.G. Wells classic, Rod Taylor stars as George, a young scientist fascinated with the concept of time travel. On December 31, 1899, George seats himself in his jerry-built time machine and thrusts himself forward into 1917. A dyed-in-the-wool pacifist, George is distressed to see that World War I is raging all about him. He moves past the 1920s and 1930s into the 1940s, only to be confronted by another, even more terrible war. Next he stops in 1966, just as London is destroyed in a nuclear explosion. Retreating to his Time Machine, George is sealed in his cellar by molten lava. By the time he and his machine manage to escape their tomb, the year is 802,701. Looking around, George observes a seemingly idyllic world populated by gentle people. But he also notices that the citizens of the future, known as "Elois," behave more like mindless sheep than human beings. Befriending the lovely Weena (Yvette Mimieux), George learns to his dismay that humankind has forgotten all that it has learned through the centuries, preferring instead to frolic endlessly under the sun. Plot holes and inconsistencies abound in The Time Machine, but the film's true selling points was its Oscar-winning special effects; in this respect, producer-director Pal succeeded beyond anyone's wildest dreams. Another plus: the haunting musical score by Russell Garcia. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rod Taylor, Alan Young, (more)
- 1958
In this sci-fi film, a college professor must deal with the cataclysmic consequences that ensue when a transmogrifying dragonfly bites a prehistoric fish from Madagascar. Soon after the bite, the strange fish becomes gigantic and begins passing on its new ability to morph all it comes in contact with back into their primal forms. When it bites a dog, the dog becomes a wolf. When some fish slime ends up in the professor's pipe, the professor put it to his lips, and he turns into a rampaging Neanderthal with a very large stone-axe that he freely wields around the terrified college campus. Bloody mayhem ensues. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Arthur Franz, Joanna Moore, (more)
- 1958
A young woman plays with a divining rod and ends up finding much more than water in this horror movie. Instead of the desired liquid, the woman finds a 400-year-old human head, and it is still alive. The horrific creature, seeing that the woman is properly innocent, hypnotizes her into looking for the rest of his body. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- William Reynolds, Andra Martin, (more)
Filmed in Mexico, The Black Scorpion was the last theatrical feature to bear the imprimatur of special-effects maven Willis O'Brien. Allegedly an outgrowth of a ten-minute "test" film, the story is set in motion by a volcanic eruption which releases dozens of giant scorpions from a cave. American geologist Richard Denning and his cohorts try to drive the scorpions back into their lair, but the huge arachnids are soon at large in civilization, munching on innocent bystanders as they go their merry way. The authorities are able to destroy all but one scorpion, who unfortunately is the nastiest of the bunch. The climax takes place in a Mexico City bullring, where the scorpion does battle with a fleet of military helicopters. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Denning, Mara Corday, (more)
- 1957
- Add The Monster That Challenged the World to QueueAdd The Monster That Challenged the World to top of Queue
The Monster That Challenged the World is the misleadingly title for one of the more well-regarded second-echelon horror films of the 1950s. An underwater earthquake in the Sargasso sea yields up the eggs of a long-extinct sea monster. Once hatched, the monster's offspring (which resemble huge snails) sustain themselves by sucking the life forces of various unlucky human land dwellers. Even worse, these horrendous creatures procreate at an incredible rate, laying 3000 eggs per sitting. Eventually, the monsters are neutralized by Modern Science, save for one stray snail that very nearly lunches on a little girl.. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tim Holt, Audrey Dalton, (more)
- 1954
In this adventure, four explorers search for a vast treasure in the Amazon jungle. One of the explorers is a woman who got involved after she traveled from California to marry her fiance whom she hasn't seen in two years. Another man tries to convince her that her fiance has become an alcoholic idealist obsessed with finding gold in the jungle. Another takes her into the jungle to find her love. En route he falls in love with her. Later they learn that her fiance has been killed by the Jivaro headhunters. The other man, who went in before them is also attacked, but the woman's guide saves his life. This film did not use stock footage. Much of it was actually filmed in the jungle to provide the backgrounds. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Fernando Lamas, Rhonda Fleming, (more)
This romantic adventure takes place in the jungles of Southern Mexico and centers upon an archaeologist and a photographer who have come to find a lost Toltec civilization. Their handsome guide takes them deeper and deeper into the jungle. As they progress, both the archaeologist and the guide become rivals for the photographer's affections. In the end, they are confronted by a great danger. To save his clients, the guide sacrifices his life. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- William Lundigan, Peggie Castle, (more)
- 1953
Filmed in 3-D, Sangaree is a satisfactory swashbuckler adapted from a novel by Frank G. Slaughter. Fernando Lamas portrays the son of an 18th century slave whose fortunes take a radical turn when he inherits a huge cotton plantation in the American colonies. Arlene Dahl (later Mrs. Fernando Lamas) is the haughty aristocrat whom the rough-hewn Lamas tames, while Francis L. Sullivan is a pirate chieftain who plans to sack Lamas' property. Best unintentional laugh: Two different villains, in two separate scenes, say "I've waited this long...I can wait a little longer." Sangaree enjoyed its widest distribution when released "flat," thereby rendering pointless the various 3-D stunt effects. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Fernando Lamas, Arlene Dahl, (more)
