utgard14

Uneven but entertaining sequel to Fright Night. The early parts are a bit of a slog. The filmmakers made the decision to start the story off with Charlie believing what he went through in the first film was "all in his head," and he no longer believes in vampires. This is stupid. To make matters worse, when he finally does realize vampires are real and there's a new one in town, Peter Vincent suddenly doesn't believe him. Again, stupid. Contrived situations to delay plot points. Hack stuff. Just about everything our heroes do in the first thirtysomething minutes defies common sense.

The movie is missing Evil Ed's humor and Traci Lind's Alex is a poor substitute for Amanda Bearse's much more likable Amy. She does become more bearable in the last act, which is driven by action so no time for her to annoy anyone. The humor in this comes mostly from the villains, in particular comic relief henchmen played by Jon Gries and Brian Thompson. Gries especially chews the scenery.

The biggest strength of this movie is surprisingly not Roddy McDowall. I went into this expecting he would be the one sure thing to entertain me. He's fine here, given his limitations with the weaker script. But the real star of this is Julie Carmen playing the vampire. She's sexy and evil and a worthy successor to Chris Sarandon's Jerry Dandridge.

Overall it's worth a look if you're a fan of the first and need to scratch that itch a bit more. But it is the definition of an unnecessary sequel and really adds nothing of note to make it a must watch.

WW2 short film starring Frank Sinatra, released after the war ended, designed to remind Americans that we should all get along and not hate each other, specifically for having different religions. It's basically a speech sandwiched between two songs, the latter of which is the title song and the main reason to watch this. It's pleasant enough stuff but might come across preachy and naive to some today. For future reference, if you're ever being chased by a lynch mob of kids, don't run down an alley expecting a crooner to save you.