Until recently, the Doberman movies of the 1970s represented that rarest of film franchises: a series I didn’t even know existed. Indies all directed by one Byron Chudnow, they walk a weird line between comedies and crime films, all featuring Doberman Pinschers trained to commit and/or thwart felonies. Ostensibly family pictures, they’re kind of weird; therefore, I love them.

Following The Doberman Gang and The Daring Dobermans — in which the dogs robbed a bank and pulled off a high-rise heist, respectively — the five canines return in The Amazing Dobermans as guard dogs to freelancing security expert Daniel (Fred Astaire), an ex-con turned Jesus freak who lives in an RV. Daniel does no dancing, but plenty of Scripture-quoting and, via a chunky remote control with buttons marked “jump” and “go,” dog manipulation.

Crossing their paths is Lucky (James Franciscus), who owes $13,000 in gambling debts to a mob boss, but is really a Justice Department agent undercover. To that end, Lucky befriends a circus midget named Samson (Billy Barty), gets a job shoveling elephant poo, and falls for Justice (Barbara Eden), who rides Wonder Horse under the big top in a bejeweled bikini that highlights her great ass.

From there, a third-act caper takes place that involves the Dobermans, dynamite, an armored car and a goon who looks Gene Shalit. Like the two films preceding it, Amazing is harmless fun. What else would you expect from a movie where one of the bad guys is played by somebody named Roger Pancake? —Rod Lott

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The second film in Canadian director Rafal Zielinski’s immortal Screwballs trilogy (Screwballs and Screwball Hotel round out the series, which does not include the crassly retitled Colleen Camp vehicle Screwball Academy), Loose Screws is less a sequel than an updated remake of the ’60s-set original, featuring the same character archetypes, but only two of the original actors.

In Screwballs, we watched as four different kinds of douchebags (cool, rich, nerdy and fat) competed to see who would be the first to behold the unclad body of gorgeous class prude Purity Busch, despite the fact that they seemed to find naked female bodies everywhere they went. In Loose Screws, we watch those same douchebags compete to see who will be the first to bed hot French teacher Mona Lott (presumably no relation to our humble editor), while also earning points for all of the other naked bodies they connive to uncover.

Both films conclude with the four plucky young assholes coming together to unclothe the objects of their desire in front of large audiences. In the first film, they use magnets; in the second, an unspecified gaseous aphrodisiac.

If you’re lucky, you’ll be able to quickly shake the film’s frequently miserable attempts at comedy and come away knowing that a surprising amount of attractive Canadian women were willing to appear nude for the sake of art in 1985. Beyond that, Loose Screws remains memorable only for its two strange attempts at musical numbers, both of which are just inexplicable enough to stay with you for far longer than the film itself deserves. —Allan Mott

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Once or twice in a life span, a movie comes along that grabs your eyeballs by the lapels and kicks them right in the nuts. It’s something that, once experienced, is never forgotten. Such a movie is Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter. I’ll wait while check out the trailer below to see if I’m making this up.

Back now? Satisfied?

It’s almost time for the End of Days, but before Jesus and his Old Man can crank up the Judgment Juggernaut, the junior member has to find out why the vampires of Ottawa are kidnapping and killing lesbians. Jesus enlists the aid of his two fighting Holy Rollers — Mary Magnum and the Mexican luche libre wrestler El Santo — and, as the film’s tagline has it, “The Power of Christ Impales You!”

Billed as a “kung-fu action/comedy/horror/musical about the second coming,” JCVH is one for the (rock of) ages. Directed by Lee Demarbre, the picture can’t be accused of having low production values because it has no production values at all. Non-actor Phil Caracas has the title role, and if Jesus ever looked down from his Throne of Gold at people on Earth and laughingly mumbled “you assholes,” he was probably catching a midnight screening of this movie.

As a side note, I’d never heard of El Santo, a real guy and a hero in Mexico, until I saw this flick. I was incomplete before that day. Now I’m too complete for my own good. —Doug Bentin

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My Son, the Vampire should win the prize for the most misleading title in the history of cinema. Not only is there no son, but no vampire, either. Sure, Bela Lugosi plays a character who calls himself The Vampire, but that’s just backstory.

He believes himself to be descended from a famous vampire and likes to wear a tuxedo while sleeping in his coffin. The Vampire is actually just a non-bloodsucking mad scientist named Von Housen who’s created a killer robot that he wants to use to take over the world. Which, you know, is still pretty awesome. My Son, the Vampire may have a misleading title, but that doesn’t mean it … um, sucks.

It’s the last film in Britain’s Old Mother Riley series in which a cross-dressing Arthur Lucan plays an elderly, Irish woman in a variety of outlandish situations. Other titles include Old Mother Riley MP, Old Mother Riley’s Ghosts and Old Mother Riley’s Jungle Treasure. Which still doesn’t explain whose son The Vampire is supposed to be. Because if he’s Mother Riley’s, that makes Von Housen’s flirting with her even creepier than it already is. The last thing anyone wants to see is Lugosi hooking up with Lucan.

But it’s creepy in a good way. My Son, the Vampire is nothing if not fun. Lucan is hilarious and the movie’s got some genuinely funny gags, an insane musical number that comes from nowhere, Lugosi hamming it up like I’ve never seen him do (and I’ve seen a lot of Lugosi films), and more slapstick than you can shake a Stooge at. —Michael May

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If you were to check the leaderboard for comedies about illegal cross-country road races, you’d find that The Gumball Rally is firmly in the #2 spot. Trailing behind Paul Bartel’s Cannonball (which is even better if you imagine it as an unofficial prequel to Death Race 2000), it’s still miles ahead of Hal Needham’s The Cannonball Run series, which are classic examples of how movies that were obviously a lot of fun to film, usually aren’t a lot of fun to watch. (And if you’re wondering about Speed Zone, everyone involved in that fiasco died crashing into the wall or, at least, they wish they did).

Starring Michael Sarrazin as a wealthy businessman who relieves his existential boredom by running an annual underground race from New York City to Long Beach, Calif., the film follows the same loose, character-based structure of all those other films (a mold whose origins can be traced directly to Stanley Kramer’s It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World).

Although The Gumball Rally lacks the star power of Needham’s films, its lack of recognizable celebrities is mitigated by the fact that its cast actually made the effort to inhabit likable characters, rather than just mug shamelessly until the director announced it was time to get back to the hotel and par-tay.

Director/writer Charles Bail keeps the film light and slightly cartoony, and although some moments don’t quite work, the majority of the film moves as quickly as the vehicles it depicts right until the finish line. —Allan Mott

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