By James Whittington, 21st June 2023
An unstoppable Stallone, a bad-cop Bruce Willis, and classics from the beginning of genre cinema marks a memorable month of premieres on LEGEND, highlighted by the UK TV premieres of the star-filled action thrillers A CERTAIN JUSTICE, starring Dolph Lundgren and Vinnie Jones, and THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME starring Tom Berenger and Bruce Dern.
Fans of American rapper 50 Cent can tune in to see him star in two films - crime thriller GUN, co-starring Val Kilmer and ESCAPE PLAN 3, the final instalment in the Escape Plan franchise, which also stars Sylvester Stallone. Both are Channel premieres. There is also a Channel premiere for action thriller FIRST KILL, which stars Bruce Willis and Hayden Christensen.
Plus, this month's popular THE VINTAGE VAULT strand celebrates the great days of the movies, spanning the thirties and forties, with four classic Channel premieres: THE GHOUL (1933) starring the great Boris Karloff, SON OF FRANKENSTEIN (1939), starring Bela Lugosi, THE INVISIBLE MAN RETURNS (1940), starring Vincent Price, and THE MUMMY'S TOMB (1942), starring Lon Chaney Jr.
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We start on the 1st with a thrilling channel premiere, GUN. Put a gun in the hands of a man and it becomes good or evil, depending on whose finger is on the trigger. Starring 50 Cent and Val Kilmer, the movie tells the action-packed story of how men on both sides of the law cross that barrier and turn basic metals into weapons of wealth, justice, revenge and power. The Vintage Vault on the 2nd contains the monochrome masterpiece THE GHOUL (1933). Egyptologist and Professor Henry Morlant (Boris Karloff) thinks an ancient jewel will give him powers of rejuvenation if it is offered up to the god Anubis. But when Morlant dies, his assistant Laing (Ernest Thesiger) steals the jewel. While a gaggle of interlopers, including a fake vicar (Ralph Richardson), descend on the professor's manor to steal the jewel for themselves, Morlant returns from the dead to punish everyone who has betrayed him. This is followed by another classic from Universal, THE INVISIBLE MAN. Claude Rains plays a mysterious doctor who discovers a serum that makes him invisible. Covered by bandages and dark glasses, Rains arrives at a small English village and attempts to hide his amazing discovery. But the same drug that renders him invisible slowly drives him to commit acts of unspeakable terror. Based on H.G. Wells' classic novel and directed by the master of macabre James Whale, it fuelled a host of sequels, but also features some special effects that are still imitated today.
ESCAPE PLAN 3 on the 8th brings the celebrated franchise to an action-packed conclusion. After security expert Ray Breslin (Stallone) is hired to rescue the kidnapped daughter of a Hong Kong tech mogul from a formidable Latvian prison, Breslin's girlfriend (Jaime King) is also captured. Now he and his team, including Trent DeRosa (Dave Bautista) and Curtis (50 Cent) must pull off a deadly rescue mission to confront their sadistic foe and save the hostages before time runs out. We're back in the Vintage Vault on the 9th and first up we meet the SON OF FRANKENSTEIN where, in this second follow-up to the horror film classic, Boris Karloff gives his final performance as Frankenstein's monster. In this instalment, Basil Rathbone plays the son of Dr. Frankenstein, who inherits not only his father's home, but also his inert project in the basement. Horror film legend Bela Lugosi gives a commanding performance as Ygor, the monster's malevolent and haggard caretaker. THE MUMMY'S HAND follows and concerns two broke archeologists, Steve Banning (Dick Foran) and Babe Jenson (Wallace Ford), who along with magician Solvani the Great (Cecil Kellaway) and his daughter, Mara (Peggy Moran), head to Egypt to uncover the legendary sarcophagus of Princess Ananka. Not only is the tomb cursed, but it also has its own guard- an eternal mummy named Kharis! When expedition members start dying at the mummy's hand, it'll take wits and courage to survive the undying horror uncovered under the sands.
On the 15th we bring you the UK TV premiere of A CERTAIN JUSTICE. After returning home from a tour of duty overseas, John (Dolph Lundgren) finds himself struggling with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. What little peace he has built around him is shattered when he rescues a local prostitute from a group of violent Aryan Brotherhood pimps. Hell-bent on payback, the gang's leader orders the brutal slaying of John's family. It is time for John to unleash the full extent of the unrelenting rage and grief within him. THE INVISIBLE MAN RETURNSis the first movie showing in the Vintage Vault on the 16th. Wrongly accused of murdering his brother, Geoffrey Radcliffe (Vincent Price) is found guilty and sentenced to die. But when sympathetic Dr. Griffin (John Sutton) injects him with a serum that renders him invisible, Radcliffe is able to escape and search for the real culprit. With Inspector Sampson (Cecil Kellaway) of Scotland Yard hot on his trail, Radcliffe begins to suspect that a recent hire in his family's mining company might have the answers he seeks. A classic team-up to beat them all follows, FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLFMAN..Two of the silver screen's most fearsome creatures battle it out when the Wolfman seeks to end his life and looks to the notorious Dr. Frankenstein for help. Featuring the original Wolfman, Lon Chaney, Jr. and Bela Lugosi ("Dracula") as Frankenstein's monster.
FIRST KILL on the 22nd is a channel premiere that will have you on the edge of your seat. In an attempt to reconnect with his son, Wall Street broker Will (Hayden Christensen) takes his family on a hunting trip to the cabin where he grew up. The trip takes a deadly turn when they witness the murder of a robber. After becoming entangled in a bank heist gone bad, which results in his son being kidnapped, Will is forced to help the kidnappers evade the police chief (Bruce Willis) and recover the stolen loot in exchange for his son's life. We're back in the Vintage Vault on the 23rd and start by entering THE MUMMY'S TOMB. Kharis (Lon Chaney Jr.) is back in this sequel to The Mummy's Hand. Although assumed to have been killed by Stephen Banning (Dick Foran) in the previous film, Andoheb (George Zucco) has miraculously survived and is now, with the help of Kharis. planning a terrible revenge on both Banning and his entire family. Sci-Fi thrills follow in IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE. John Putnam (Richard Carlson), an amateur astronomer, is looking at the skies with his fiancee, schoolteacher Ellen Fields (Barbara Rush), when they see what looks like a huge meteor crash into the desert. As events unfold, various townspeople start to disappear, including Ellen, to be replaced by alien "duplicates." As the townspeople become aware of the danger, the likelihood of bloodshed becomes apparent.
Another UK TV premiere for you on the 29th, we dare you to play THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME. A father and son are shipwrecked on a remote island where they are caught up in a trophy hunt held by its mysterious owner, a merciless man who uses the land as an elite hunting preserve for stalking the most dangerous game of all: human. Stars Tom Berenger, Judd Nelson, Bruce Dern, Casper Van Dien. Our final Vintage Vault double is on the 29th and starts with REVENGE OF THE CREATURE. Two oceanographers (John Bromfield and Robert B. Williams) capture the creature and put him on display. Here the hapless Gill-Man is taught a few words of English by compassionate ichthyologists, John Agar and Lori Nelson. Eventually, however, the creature reverts to type, kills one of his captors and goes on a rampage, managing to abduct the heroine and carry her off. Intense underwater photography and practical effects make "The Revenge of the Creature" a horror classic. We stay in the water for the next movie, THE PHANTOM FROM 10,000 LEAGUES. When a post-mortem finds that a murdered fisherman was exposed to unusual amounts of radiation, Dr. Ted Stevens (Kent Taylor) decides to investigate. Out looking for clues, he meets a young beauty named Lois (Cathy Downs), whose father runs a local marine biology lab. Ted discovers that the elder King's secret experiments with atomic energy have resulted in the creation of a murderous aquatic beast, and he must act fast to prevent more needless deaths.
Related show tags: A CERTAIN JUSTICE, ESCAPE PLAN 3, FIRST KILL, FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLFMAN, GUN, IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE, REVENGE OF THE CREATURE, SON OF FRANKENSTEIN, THE GHOUL, THE INVISIBLE MAN, THE INVISIBLE MAN RETURNS, THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME, THE MUMMY'S TOMB, THE PHANTOM FROM 10000 LEAGUES MORE FEATURES Crime and sci-fi adventures headline May 2024 premieres on LEGEND
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