"Battle Beyond The Sun", a Corman/Coppola Collaboration (crummy) + Two Interesting Books

Well, you can't win 'em all, not even with early Corman. We found that out tonight with "Battle Beyond The Sun"(1962), the story of a space race to Mars between the U.S. and Soviet Union. The movie actually began life as a Mosfilm production called "Nebo zovyot"(1959), an impressive looking predecessor to "2001", with a message about cooperation between nations in the exploration of space. Roger Corman bought the rights to it three years after it's release and had Francis Ford Coppola re-cut it. Now the two superpowers are known as "South Hem" and "North Hem", short for Hemisphere as you might guess.

South Hem (USSR) has a manned rocket launch set for Mars that will dock first at an intermediate space station. Astronauts from North Hem (USA) follow them there, feigning engine trouble to get the Soviet's permission to land. They then continue the ruse to quickly re-launch, in order to beat the Russians to Mars. It's a dirty trick, but it's played as being "all in good fun", like a healthy competition. In fact, for a film that was originally made in Russia at the height of the Cold War, it's surprisingly noble-minded and fair toward the U.S.

The Americans gain the advantage and are on their way to Mars when a solar flare magnetizes the space in their vicinity. Now they must call for the Russians' help once again, and this time they really need it. Mission Control in Moscow directs them to a nearby asteroid, where they land, but now they are out of fuel and can't get back. The Russians come to the rescue yet again, sending an unmanned refueling rocket, which crashes, so finally they have to send up their cosmonauts because......

Now there are Space Monsters to deal with, and the Americans can't fight them alone.

Apparently, when Roger Corman bought the rights to this film, he felt there wasn't enough Cheesiness, so he had Coppola not only re-edit it, cutting 15 minutes out of the story, but also create and film some of the most ridiculous monsters in his repertoire. They're.......how shall I put it?.......uh, they're rather obscene looking (and quite hideous too). You can either see them for yourself if you watch the movie or simply read a review or some fan comments on IMDB, where the Monsters are sure to be mentioned. The trouble with them, besides their look, is that they don't fit in here.

I don't know why Corman wanted to acquire this film, other than to make money (obviously), because it isn't remotely in his style. For one thing, it's fantastic looking. I kept thinking, "Wow! The Russians made this movie nine years before "2001". The special effects (models and matte work) are the best I've seen from the 1950s, taking up where George Pal left off. It looks like some pretty elaborate sets were built also. I know Mosfilm, the State-sponsored studio of the Soviet Union, made some movies in the 50s and 60s that had every bit the same level of artistry and production values as any Hollywood release, so they must've put some dough into "Nebo zovyot". And sure enough, when I read the background notes on IMDB, it turns out that Stanley Kubrick did indeed use the drawings for this movie as a guide for what he wanted to achieve with "2001". That's how good looking the Russian film is. But in Corman's hands - much as we love him - it all becomes dumbed down. Coppola was just a film student at the time, and he may not have known what he was doing with his cuts. He removed 15 minutes from the story, reducing the narrative to a simple back-and forth competition to see who will reach Mars first. There's nothing left except the Russians constantly having to bail out their American friends. The "international goodwill" aspect remains intact, but that's all there is.

That and the Space Monsters.  :)

Normally, with a Corman movie I have a plot I can elaborate on with lots of Weird Stuff to point out along the way. This time I don't have that. I'm gonna give "Battle Beyond The Sun" Two Regular Thumbs Up anyhow, just because of the way it looks, which really is amazing for it's time. But if  you're gonna watch it, I'd try to find the Russian version instead. ////

Let's see, what else can I tell ya since the movie review was short? I've finished two books recently, one being "Denial of Justice" by Mark Shaw, a follow-up to his bestseller "The Reporter Who Knew Too Much", about Dorothy Kilgallen and her investigation into the JFK assassination. Many people today would not know who Kilgallen was. She was known in the early 1960s for her weekly appearances as a panelist on "What's My Line", the popular game show, but before that, she'd made a career as a reporter and columnist. She became so famous that she was as much in the news as those she wrote about. Kilgallen was the only journalist who was given access to interview Jack Ruby after he killed Lee Harvey Oswald, and the things he told her set her on a path to break the case wide open. She was the first reporter to openly question the "Oswald Alone" story, laid out by J. Edgar Hoover. Her doubts led her to undertake an investigation of her own, which began with her interview of Ruby and included many others. By November 1965, she had compiled a thick folder of notes and information, which were to become the basis for a book she was planning, the very first JFK assassination review questioning the official story of the Warren Report (which was a joke).

Then she turned up dead, the "official story" being an accidental drug overdose or suicide, take your pick. Fifty years later, attorney Mark Shaw became intrigued with her case and conducted an investigation of his own, and in the two books he has written about Kilgallen he has not only proven beyond a shadow of a doubt she was murdered, but he's proven who did it, and the person is still alive.

Wow, what a story. We basically know now who killed JFK. It was most probably a Mafia hit, headed up by Carlos Marcello, but there is no way he could have gotten away with it and there is no chance it could've been covered up all these years unless a higher power was involved, and in this case that has to be not just J. Edgar Hoover but also the man who became President of the United States, Lyndon B. Johnson. Until our country comes clean on that fact, we will continue to suffer the repercussions of sweeping it under the rug. I shant go on a tirade, but if you are a JFK buff, be sure to read the two Shaw books. Dorothy Kilgallen was an American hero who stood for the truth. Her efforts should not be forgotten.

The other book I read was called "The Paris Wife" by Paula McClain. It was loaned to me by Pearl's daughter, and though I'm not usually a reader of historical fiction it turned out to be quite interesting and a page-turner at that. It's the story of Ernest Hemingway's first marriage to a woman named Hadley Richardson who was nine years his senior. He is only twenty when they meet, but they fall in love, get married and move to Paris, where he establishes himself as a writer and eventually becomes famous. They get to know all of the expatriate authors and artists of the time, including Ezra Pound, Gertrude Stein and F. Scott Fitzgerald. Their child is born and it seems like they are having a grand old time, but then the bottom begins to drop out and it is absolutely brutal. Hemingway was a alcoholic who could drink anyone under the table and also a womaniser, in addition to being a man who constantly felt the need to show off his machismo. He loved bullfighting, for instance (which I find horrible), boxing and big-game hunting (ditto). The book focuses mostly on the love story and the lives of the Jazz Age crowd in Paris, but as the whole scene becomes a train wreck and the Hemingways' marriage comes to an end, it's devastating. I might not have sought the book out on my own, but I'm glad I read it. It's also what caused me to Google "Ernest Hemingway", which is how I discovered The Hemingway App that I mentioned the other night. /////

So there you have it, a good looking movie butchered by Corman and Coppola, and two interesting books. See you later tonight at the Usual Time.

Tons of love.   xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)

"It Conquered The World" by Roger Corman + Elizabeth

You can think of our recent run as the Corman Retrospective, akin to the film fests of yore at the good ol' CSUN Cinematheque. I don't know how Professor Tim would feel about Roger Corman, but if he devoted a semester to his movies, I think he'd be sure to include "It Conquered The World"(1956), the tale of an Alien from Venus who attempts to take over humanity with the help of Lee Van Cleef.

Van Cleef stars as "Dr. Tom Anderson", a physicist vehemently opposed to the American Space Agency's satellite program. I'll jump in to comment that Corman sure has a bee in his bonnet about this subject, having milked it in several of the movies we've seen. In this case, Dr. Anderson feels that the United States, by continually sending up satellites, is intruding upon the sovereignty of the other planets in the solar system, particularly Venus.

Anderson's colleague Dr. Paul Nelson (Peter Graves) can't understand why he's so worked up. "What do you mean by sovereignty? Are you suggesting there are other people out there"? Anderson invites Nelson to his home and shows him a radio assembly hidden behind a wall. "Watch this", he advises.

Van Cleef adjusts some dials, picks up a microphone and proceeds to make contact with someone he calls "The Benefactor". While Graves listens, he gives The Benefactor instructions as to where the latest satellite can be located, in orbit above Venus. The plan calls for The Benefactor to stow away aboard the satellite so that when it is brought back to Earth, he will land with it. Van Cleef is assisting him because he believes humanity needs help. "In this century alone", he tells Graves, "we've fought two World Wars. Now we're testing the H-Bomb. It's only a matter of time before we destroy ourselves. That's why we need The Benefactor. He is one of the last of his kind, a race of super-intelligent beings who have evolved past emotion. He is incapable of anger, his mind runs on pure reason. We need him to show us a way out of warfare".

Graves us thunderstruck. "You mean you're guiding him here"?

"Yes! I can no longer sit by and watch our leaders drive us to the brink of extinction"!

Graves keeps his mouth shut for the time being, but he's clearly worried about his old friend. The feeling is seconded by Van Cleef's wife (Beverly Garland), who thinks he's losing his mind. "Darling, you've been talking to that thing all day. Don't you think you should take a break, maybe eat some dinner"?

"He's not a Thing! He's coming to help us"!

Van Cleef is getting paranoid by now, so he rats everyone out to The Benefactor, giving him the names and addresses of Graves, the two Generals in charge of the satellite program and also his wife. When The Benefactor boards the satellite to return to Earth, he brings with him a supply of mind-control devices, to use on these subversives. After crash landing in Bronson Canyon, he releases the devices, which are carried to their targets by Weird Venusian Bats. Soon, all resistance to the plan has vanished as The Benefactor takes over the minds of the authorities. The Generals call for martial law in the town of Beechwood, where the satellite base is located (actually the Beechwood Drive neighborhood of Hollywood). Peter Graves manages to kill the bat carrying his mind-control device, so he's still thinking for himself, but so far he can't persuade anyone to help him. The martial law order is then upgraded to a full evacuation of Beechwood, so now Graves' only hope is to try and convince Van Cleef that The Benefactor is not a friend. "Can't you see, he's been using your nature against you, your sense of trust"!

Van Cleef is at first not convinced. He continues to stand at the radio "directing traffic" for his buddy, and I have to mention that these scenes are one of the best things about this movie : the sight of Lee Van Cleef of all people, who usually plays taciturn tough guys, standing there at a table full of radio equipment, microphone in hand, giving instructions and carrying on a one-sided conversation with a Space Alien, is a sight to behold. We aren't used to seeing Van Cleef emote, but he does so here, demonstrating not only his acting ability but his true belief in The Benefactor and their plan to save mankind. He spends much of his screen time in these radio conferences, and is later crushed to realise how naive he's been. The Benefactor is just another User after all.

Beverly Garland has suspected this from the get-go. She's been worried about her husband and now she's gonna do something about it. Like Graves, she's been able to avoid being injected with a mind-control device. She overhears Van Cleef discussing The Benefactor's location, then grabs a shotgun and drives out to Bronson Canyon. This causes Lee to finally snap out of it. He and Peter Graves haul ass out to the caves in hopes of saving Beverly, and this is where we finally get to meet The Benefactor.

As in "Day The World Ended", Corman has saved his monster for the last few minutes of the film. In this case I can see why, because it is without doubt The Cheesiest Space Monster we've seen so far. It looks like an oversized traffic cone with big eyes and lots of teeth. It has no discernible feet and yet it gets around with no problem. Following the movie, I read on IMDB that Frank Zappa so loved this creature that he dedicated the song "Cheepnis" to it on the "Roxy and Elsewhere" album. I agree with Frank, so on the one hand, it is certainly the worst Rubber Suited Monster of all time, but it's also super cool because it's so bad. So in that way, it's very effective! The Benefactor must be seen to be believed, but the real draw for "It Conquered The World" are the radio scenes with Lee Van Cleef. They uplift an ordinary "body snatchers" type plot to a level of near-absurdity, while maintaining the ultra serious tenor of Cormanesque Realism, where you never for a second let on that this isn't possible or even probable! In Corman's world, these things are not only going to happen, they already are. That's why you don't wait around for a Cone-shaped Alien to take over the Earth, you buy yourself a radio setup and help him do it for God's sake!

The standard-issue plot aside, this is another great one from Roger Corman. It's not quite a classic like "Bucket of Blood" or last night's "The Undead", but it still merits Two Big Thumbs Up, just on weirdness alone. Charles B. Griffith didn't write it this time, but he does have a small role as a rocket scientist, which seems appropriate, lol.

I have to admit, even with egg on my face for once calling him a hack, that Roger Corman is now becoming one of my favorite directors, at least for these early films and his 1960s horror output, some of which we watched last Halloween. I'll still avoid all of his "Death Race 2000" and Hell's Angels movies, and the black comedies and most of his efforts as a producer, but with the low budget monster flicks, he's the King as far as I'm concerned. Thanks, Roger!  /////

Elizabeth, I'm glad to see you're recording with the PRS. Don't worry about being "metal" or otherwise, just be Yourself and the music will come. That' a nice line you're playing there, btw. Keep up the good work and post more when possible!  :):)

Here I go on my walk, see you at the Usual Time.

Tons of love!  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)

"The Undead" by Roger Corman + Elizabeth (PRS)

This blog was begun Monday night April 27th, and completed the following day :

We're sticking with Corman for the time being, going through his directorial credits to see what sounds good, then searching Youtube to find out if the chosen title is available. Tonight we found "The Undead"(1957), a horror film with Shakespearean dialogue that begins in the Modern Era.

A psychiatrist solicits a prostitute named "Diana" (Pamela Duncan), not for the usual reason but to put her under regressive hypnosis. He and his mentor believe in the concept of reincarnation, and in the possibility that a soul's previous life can have an effect on it's present one. In this case they are studying why Diana has become a streetwalker. The shrink puts her under and........trizzle, trazzle, trozzle, trome......she is sent back in time, to France in the Middle Ages. Her name is now Helene. She finds herself locked in a dungeon, accused of witchcraft and scheduled to be executed the following day.

She is innocent of the charges, and in order to escape she pretends to seduce her guard, then knocks him cold and unlocks her cell. On the road that night, she comes across a gravedigger driving a hearse. I have to break in here to say that you are gonna love this guy! He sings while he works, taking nursery rhymes and rewording them with macabre lyrics. The songs are a riot - you've gotta hear them for yourself, lol. At any rate, he refuses to give Helene a ride, so she sneaks into the hearse and hides herself in a coffin which......(ahem)........already has another passenger (jiminy christmas!).

She finds safety at an Inn, where the proprietor knows nothing of the Witch Trials, but then she is visited in her room by a Good Witch, "Meg Maud" (what a great name!). Meg Maud has the Witches' Look, right down to her beaked nose and pointy chin, both made of Silly Putty. Hooray for the inventiveness of Roger Corman! Meg Maud informs Helene that she has been set up by a truly evil witch named Livia (played by "50 Foot Woman" Allison Hayes). We see Livia plotting away with her Imp (Billy Barty), planning Helene's downfall so she can impress The Devil (Richard Devon in an ingenious portrayal). Livia and Barty transform themselves into butterflies, cats and birds to infiltrate Helene's space and monitor her conversations. This is a particularly good special effect for Corman, considering his usual low budget. The Gallant Knight Pendragon (Richard Garland) is unaware of this deception. He has set out to rescue Helene, having been told of her innocence by Meg Maud, but now he is being sidetracked by the beautiful Livia, who swears eternal devotion to him.

Back in the 20th century, inside the psychiatrist's office, the shrinks realise something is wrong. Helene is in double jeopardy, with the Witchfinder and Livia both on her trail. She is due to be executed at dawn, only hours away. If Livia discovers her whereabouts she will die, which might also kill Diana, the woman on the couch and Helene's current incarnation. The head psychiatrist decides to take action, regressing himself back to Helene's time so he can rescue her. In Medieval France he becomes a Knight and enjoins the Gallant Pendragon to help him save Helene. Now, The Devil is no slouch. He's aware of the shrink's time traveling escapade, but being a believer in fair play (yeah right), he offers the Good Guys a bargain : Helene can be spared execution and live out her natural life, as long as she signs over her soul, meaning that none of her future lives will take place, including that of Diana who is laying on the psychiatrist's couch. Or......Helene can go through with the execution and by dying, allow her future selves to have life. Thus Diana will live.

Livia is of course eager for the latter option. She detests Helene and wants Pendragon for herself. She couldn't care less about Diana in the 20th Century. Pendragon beseeches Helene to choose life so they can be together, but his partner, the Psychiatrist/Knight tells Helene there is a third way, if only she will ride away with him. In truth, he's not sure of this. He's trying to save both Helene and Diana but The Devil may have him beat.

The sun is cresting over the hillside as all gathered wait for Helene's decision. She has only moments to choose. The Devil smirks, finding the whole thing a riot.

Okay, folks. I loved this movie! It's entirely different from all the other Corman films we've seen. There's no Weird Stuff and the dialogue is written in Olde English, so as with Shakespeare you've gotta pay attention to make sure you're following the plot. But, it's got a great sense of humor and the actors throw themselves into the drama with everything they've got. Most of them are decent Shakespeareans too, especially Pamela Duncan as Helene. I have been so impressed with the dialogue in Corman's movies that I finally looked up his screenwriter, a guy named Charles B. Griffith. This is the man who wrote the Formal Alien Conversations in "Not Of This Earth", the Philosophically Justified World Domination Rant of the Crab Monsters in that picture, and now, the humorous yet authentic sounding interplay of the 16th century characters in "The Undead". He's a genius in my book and should get equal credit for Corman's success, at least in the early movies.

I'm gonna give "The Undead" Two Huge Thumbs Up. It's one Corman film I could watch again and again, like a stage play. The print I saw was passable but I'm gonna see if there's a restored copy available on Amazon. Watch it and have a blast, highly recommended!  //////

Elizabeth, I saw the picture of your PRS. That is one beautiful guitar! I remember when you bought it, way back in.......2012 or 2013? I know it was a long time ago. Now, didn't you first try a PRS when you did some recording at your friend Paul's studio? That was also way back in time, but I seem to remember some pics of you playing a green one. Maybe it belonged to Paul. But yeah, I remember you liking the PRS sound and getting one for yourself. Man, I'd love to have one (maybe in the future). The clean sound alone is incredible on those guitars. They are super versatile. Maybe in an upcoming song you can record with it, overdub a lead or harmony or something. Just a thought, but yeah.....it's a beauty and I'm glad you got a good deal on it!  :):)

That's all for moment. I'm gonna go for my CSUN walk and I'll see you at the Usual Time.

Tons of love.  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)

"Day The World Ended" by Roger Corman

Tonight we went back to see how it all began, with Roger Corman's first sci-fi picture "Day The World Ended" (1955). He made a couple of Westerns before this, but it was here that he found his niche. The story is more conventional than those he would become known for. It's a tale of "Atomic Apocalypse" that uses the common plot device of gathering a group of survivors together, then trapping them until their disparate personalities cause conflict.

"Jim Maddison" (Paul Birch) knew this day was coming. That's why he and his daughter Louise moved to the middle of nowhere, to protect themselves from nuclear war. Now that it has happened, they appear to be the lone survivors, at least in the immediate area. Maddison receives no replies to his s.o.s. calls, there's no sign of anyone left in charge.

Then comes a knock on their door. It is "Rick" (Richard Denning),  a man desperate for food and shelter. He is carrying another man who is unconscious and badly wounded with radiation burns on his face. Maddison doesn't want to let them in but is persuaded by daughter Louise (Lori Nelson) : "Dad, we can't just leave them out there to die". Maddison relents, but soon there is another knock. "Louise, we can't take in any more people! We only have enough food for two in the first place"!

The point is moot, for she has already answered the door and the caller has a gun. He is "Tony Lamont" (Mike Conners), a hoodlum accompanied by his stripper girlfriend "Ruby" (Adele Jergens). Maddison convinces Tony to put his gun away, but the tension has already been established. Tony is not gonna go along with the program, whatever it turns out to be.

The final addition to this nest is "Pete", a straggly old prospector who arrives with his burro in tow. Maddison puts them up in a backyard shed where Pete is content. He will be no trouble but he is still another mouth to feed.

Maddison checks everything and everyone with his Geiger counter, constantly monitoring radiation levels. Everyone except the Wounded Man is clean; he measures a dose that should be lethal, but by nightfall he is up and walking around. He asks for food : "For some reason I crave raw meat". Maddison explains that he has some on hand but it must be rationed. "We don't know if we'll be able to get more".

"Okay, then I'll go outside. There's game up in the mountains. I need the meat....I can feel it, I have to have it".

Maddison is against this : "You can't go out there! You're barely recovered. Besides, we don't know who else may be running around". He gives a nod to Tony, indicating other criminals. But the Wounded Man is determined to be let out, so he can get his fresh meat. Maddison opens the door and lets him go.

Had Corman followed this plot thread more succinctly, the film would've been tighter and more interesting. Instead, he spends the next half hour building up the conflict between Maddison and Tony, who now has eyes on Louise. "I've always wanted a country girl", he smirks. This irritates his city chick Ruby, who then goes out back to drink moonshine with old Pete the prospector. Ruby will try to seduce good guy Rick with a pseudo-striptease, and this will set Tony against him as well, so you've got all of these personality clashes happening instead of focusing on the trajectory of the Wounded Man. Corman will return to him when he is found dead, at which point it becomes clear there is a Monster on the loose, but the movie would have benefited from a cut of fifteen minutes, slashing all the personal stuff. This is what Corman learned to do in his later films, where the personalities are kept to a minimum and the Monsters are unleashed very quickly His best early works all run in the 60-67 minute range.

Maddison confesses to Rick that he was once a Navy captain, stationed off a Pacific atoll during an H-Bomb test. "What the public was never told was that some of the animals on the island survived that test. I was in charge of bringing them back for study. I made a few sketches that I've held onto all these years". He takes out a folder to show Rick his drawings of a large, fanged squirrel, a ferocious, wild eyed fox and a ten foot monkey with horns growing out it's head. "You see it's skin, that rough look? It was hard as steel, like armor plating".

That's what the group will finally have to deal with, although it's never explained if it's the same giant monkey from the H-Bomb test or a new one created by the nuclear war. You the viewer won't care, however, because you'll be too busy having The Beejeezus scared out of you by this thing. It's without doubt one of the best Rubber Suited Monsters evah, and I just wish Corman had devoted a little more time to it instead of the overlong power struggle between Mr. Maddison and Tony the Hoodlum. The last 20 minutes with the Monster are where the film takes off and shows us flashes of the future Corman Brilliance, so for that reason I'm gonna give "Day The World Ended" Two Solid Thumbs Up. Many fans on IMDB rated it higher, some saying it is one of his best works, but I prefer the films with the weirder storylines, like Crab Monsters who have ESP, or The Sculptor with a Bold New Technique.

Still, Corman does a competent job with this more traditional story, getting good performances out of Paul Birch (who we last saw as the Alien in "Not Of This Earth) and especially Mike Conners as "Tony" the Hood. He's young here, and I had to keep asking myself, "Is that 'Mannix' "? Sure enough it was. Give this movie a look just to see how Corman got started. It's a little slow in the middle but certainly worth a view.   /////

That's all for the time being. I am having fun with something called The Hemingway App, a website where your writing is corrected to be more Hemingwayesque. It keeps telling me my sentences are too long, haha, and they probably are, but then I've read some Hemingway and I don't like his style anyhow. It's too choppy, too clipped, and he does something I go out of my way to avoid, which is using the same word over and over : "The boat rocked in the choppy sea. The man tried to steady the boat, but the boat could not be stilled". I'm paraphrasing, lol, but he does that, and apparently it was on purpose! For myself, I double check my sentences to make sure I'm not doing that, because I have a tendency to inadvertently use words or phrases repeatedly, and to me it sounds clumsy. I have no formal training whatsoever. I got poor grades in every English class I ever took and the study of grammar and sentence construction bored me to tears, so I never remembered where an adverb was appropriate (never, according to Hemingway), or what a participle was or any of that stuff. I learned to write by reading a lot of books and then trying it myself. Over the years of blogging, I have become very conscious of the need to write proper sentences, ones that are readable and make sense, but I still don't know the technical details of writing, so I'm cracking up when I put a paragraph into the Hemingway App and it kicks my butt.  :)

But then, to me the most important thing with my own writing is it's rhythm, and my attempt to sound like myself, and besides.........Stephen King once said that "Hemingway sucks"! Yikes.....better not put that in The App.  :)

I'm gonna go for my CSUN walk. See you at the Usual Time.

Tons of love.   xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)

"Attack of the Crab Monsters" by Roger Corman

I suppose you could say we were pushing our luck with a title like "Attack of the Crab Monsters", and you're right, it wasn't on a par with our previous triple play of classics, but neither was it as bad as it sounds. it made up in weirdness what it lacked in plot, and the monsters - while cheesy - were focused and determined to take care of business. They were Serious Crab Monsters in other words, which means the movie could only have been directed by Roger Corman, who doesn't fool around.

A group of scientists, all from different disciplines (hmm, we've seen this before) arrive at a small island in the Pacific, where an atomic test has taken place. They are replacing another group who've disappeared without a trace, and in addition to finding out what happened to them, the new team is there to study the severe erosion that has occurred since the bomb blast. Huge craters are opening up daily. The island seems to be dissolving in on itself. Is this due to the constant earthquakes, and have they been caused by the test? The arriving team hopes to answer these questions.

They are led by physicist "Dale Brewer" (Richard Garland) and his fiance, biologist "Martha Hunter" (Pamela Duncan), but the one you notice more than these two is radio operator "Hank Chapman" (Russell Johnson), because he's The Professor from "Gilligan's Island". He's going six years back in time here, but in finding himself stranded on an island and attempting to fix broken radios, he will be gaining valuable experience for when The Minnow runs aground, and he winds up in similar circumstances.

The team is left high and dry when their seaplane explodes after dropping them off. This is inexplicable, but then the radio breaks and The Professor can't fix it, and now they're in real trouble. They hear an unusual tapping sound that first night, and Brewer wonders if it might be a survivor from the previous team. He sends one of the Navy assistants outside to check it out, but he doesn't return (though we know what happened to him).

The next morning, the team is examining a Giant Crater that wasn't there the day before. Brewer speculates it was caused by the seawater, which is likely highly irradiated. But then The Professor notes that the bottom is filled with Land Crabs. If radiation is the cause, why haven't they been affected? How could they still be alive? You will ask why the team is wearing no protective gear, but that isn't the point. It's all about the Land Crabs.

That night, Hunter the biologist is awakened by a voice, coming from what seems like all directions. She wonders aloud if she was having a dream, but then there it is again. Is it a ghost? It sure sure sounds like one, but she's a scientist. She doesn't believe in such things! The others hear it too, and now they are certain it is coming from a surviving member of the previous team. There is no time to waste. They must get to him immediately, but where is he? "Let's check the caves down by the lagoon".

These would be the Bronson Canyon Caves, naturally, which are to Sci-Fi what Iverson Ranch is to Westerns. When the scientists get to the caves - via the crab-infested crater - they will indeed find a prior team member, but he will be deceased and there won't be a whole lot left of him. Suddenly.....there's that tapping sound again. It gets louder and louder and then......

OMG it's a giant Crab Monster! It's got Enormous Claws, a Ravenous Maw and Feelers that Plug Into It's Head like electrical cords.

Good thing the team brought along a supply of hand grenades, but before they can blow it to smithereens, the Crab Monster starts talking to them - in a human voice! And it's the voice of the dead former team member, a man they all knew! Okay, that does it : "KA-Boom"! Hand grenade time.

They can deal with Crab Monsters, but ones that talk like your former co-worker? Unh-uh. Not gunna dooit, as George Bush would say. Back at their hut, Brewer and his team work furiously to determine how the Crab Monster could have learned to speak English : "But it isn't just that! It was speaking with Carson's voice"!

"Yes, it seems to have assimilated him".

What follows is some fairly sophisticated yet nonsensical Biophysical Jargon involving atom-jumping free electrons, and how an organism possessing same (like a irradiated Crab Monster), would be able - upon consuming a human victim - to absorb not only it's various bones and tissues but it's mental processes as well. The print I watched had insufficient volume, so I'd like to go back and hear this scene again on a properly uploaded soundtrack in order to better understand the digestive issues involved, but from what I gathered, they are quite complex.

However, when the process is complete, the Crab Monster has Entirely Assimilated the human being it had for dinner. It isn't clear if it and it's fellows plan to take over the Human Race in this manner, but the scientists are not gonna wait around to find out. They're running low on grenades, but....."what about electricity"?  An ingenious idea by The Professor! He will bravely risk another encounter with the Crab Monster to rig up some parabolic high-voltage shooters inside the caves. Soon the final showdown will take place, with the future of mankind at stake.

Meanwhile, it is discovered that the Crab Monsters also have ESP (shades of Tobor!) That is how they were able to explode the seaplane back at the beginning, by "thinking" it to happen. They also apparently have a well-developed justification for World Dominance, logically worked out to an Aristotelian degree. There was a lot of philosophical jabbering back and forth at the end, between the Crab Monsters and the Scientists, but again I didn't catch it all due to the lousy sound. By all indications, though, it was very important, so a repeat viewing is in order and even as I write this blog I have discovered another print of the movie that has a suitable soundtrack (and wouldn't you know it, on that copy the picture is soft......). But I must know what the Crab Monsters have planned for us, and so I will simply listen to the salient dialogue, sound only.

As mentioned above, "Attack of the Crab Monsters" is not a Corman Classic due mainly to inferior production values. I don't know why this is, as he made other movies in the same time frame demonstrating his technical abilities with lighting, camerawork, etc. I think the problem could be that he had so much riding on the Crab Monster itself, that he had to devote excessive time to the scenes it was in. This may have "eaten up", haha, a great deal of his budget, which wasn't much to begin with. Hence, a less than full grey scale and some sloppy editing compared with "Bucket of Blood" and "Not Of This Earth", both of which likely had a similar budget but no "special effects" to worry about, so they were technically superior.

I will still give "Attack of the Crab Monsters" Two Solid Thumbs Up, because of it's taut, highly weird storyline and the presence of Russell Johnson. Corman directs his actors to take the material Very Seriously, as usual, a standard he should be commended for. Never should one surrender to unintentional laughs, MST3K be damned!  :):)   /////

That is all for the moment. 'Tis another Hot One in the 'hood, so I'll now venture out of The Tiny for some fresh and less stifling air on my nightly walk around the campus. I trust all is well and I'll see you in a little while, tonight at the Usual Time.

Tons of love!  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)

"Tobor the Great" starring Charles Drake, Billy Chapin and Taylor Holmes

This blog was begun Friday night April 24th, and completed the following evening :

Tonight's movie was one I've had my eye on almost since we began our public domain quest. It was called "Tobor the Great"(1954), and the reason I put off watching it all these weeks is that in the promotional frame that appears on the CCC Youtube channel, I got the impression that it was a "kid's movie", the kind of "gee whiz"- inspiring, pre-Space Age serial that would attract 10 year olds en masse to a Saturday Matinee. Now, there's nothing wrong with that, because you have to have a Kid in you to like sci-fi in the first place. You have to have wonder, no matter your age. But when the pandemic began, I just wanted Monsters : Brains at first, and Mad Scientists too, and all the weird stuff I could get my hands on. I wasn't ready for Streamlined Chromium Adventure Stories, which is what I assumed "Tobor" was, so it could wait until the feeling of unease died down, and I would watch it then.

It took several weeks but tonight the time was right, and now I wished I hadn't waited so long, because the title is correct : "Tobor" is one "Great" movie!

Charles Drake plays "Dr. Ralph Harrison", in charge of monitoring the health of potential astronauts as they are subjected to the extreme physical testing required before man can be sent into space. After a recruit is nearly killed during a centrifuge g-force test, Drake feels the program managers are being reckless with human life, and he resigns in disgust from the space agency ( named something like CISF, this was before NASA existed). The next day, his colleague, a technological genius named Professor Nordstrom (Taylor Holmes), comes calling to try and persuade Drake to come back.

Nordstrom agrees with Drake that the tests are too dangerous, added to the risk of sending men up in nuclear-powered rockets, but then tells him that he has a solution to the problem. He invites Drake to his home the next evening, where a demonstration will be given to a dozen respected guests, including famous scientists and a reporter with exclusive access. When Drake arrives, he meets the Professor's 11 year old nephew Brian (Billy Chapin), who's known by his nickname "Gadge" (he loves gadgets). Gadge is a boy genius with an aptitude for mathematics. He wants to attend the meeting too, as all boys would, but the Professor tells him that this time it's not possible, because what will be shown is Top Secret, and Gadge doesn't have such a clearance. He does rig up a set of headphones with an extension cord, however, so Gadge can listen from his room.

The meeting begins, and after a short preamble, Professor Nordstrom raises a hydraulic platform and a tall cylinder appears. Using a remote control device, he opens the cylinder to reveal a robot, whom he introduces as Tobor : "that's robot spelled backwards". Pleased at his little joke, he goes on to explain that the robot is able to think critically and make the split second decisions that would occur during a space mission. Some technical specs are discussed and then the reporter asks a pertinent question, "Okay, professor. Let's say he could act as a pilot and perform any of the mechanical duties that might come up, but what about the unexpected? What happens if there's an occurrence he isn't programmed for, what then"?

A sly smile creases the Professor's face. "Ahh, yes. I was expecting someone might ask that". Taking the remote control device, which resembles a small ray gun, he flips a switch and startles the assembled with his answer. "I've considered emergency situations where he'd not know how to respond, and so we developed, Karl and I (his assistant), a beam that will allow us to communicate with Tobor by mental telepathy. That way, if there is an onboard problem, we can show him how to deal with it via Though Transfer".

The reporter : "Are you telling me that bag of bolts can think"?

"In a manner of speaking, yes. And he can do more than that; he can also feel emotion. Here, we will try a little experiment. Come up here if you will, and project goodwill at him. Think a welcoming thought".

The reporter indulges him and "thinks" a hello at Tobor, who responds by reaching out his metal arm for a handshake.

"Now if you will, try projecting enmity". The reporter laughs, but thinks an "unfriendly" thought. Tobor smacks him to the ground.

"So you see, gentlemen, he is quite capable of spontaneity! We will need to perform further tests to ensure the long range communication mechanism is failsafe, but otherwise, he is mission ready. We can use Tobor and other robots like him until space flight is proven safe enough for man to take over".

The demonstration is a huge success. Dr. Drake is back on board and all the scientists in attendance are mightily impressed. But wait........after the guests have departed, Drake notices something. "Professor? Didn't you say there were to be twelve guests this evening"?

"Yes".

"But I count thirteen chairs".

This is not good. We in the audience have already noticed a silent gentleman hanging around the space lab, looking Slightly Sinister in his rimless glasses. Tonight at the Professor's house, we saw him present his papers at the gate. The guard waved him through, but he wasn't legit. Naturally, he's a Commie Spy, but they can't track him down because he used a fake name and licence plates. And now he has all the information on Tobor!

The plot will do a one-eighty now, and what you were expecting to be a space adventure will turn into a Cold War thriller, but all of Tobor's attributes will still come into play, especially his much-vaunted ESP. Before the communists can carry out their Evil Plan to abduct him, Tobor will bond with young Gadge, and their emotional connection will become an important factor after he and the Professor go missing one night, following a meeting at the Griffith Park Observatory.

In this sense, the story does have an element of "boy's adventure". Gadge actually says things like "gee willikers", giving his character genuine 1950s appeal. He will have to learn how to control the mighty Tobor all on his own, and a lot of furniture will be destroyed before he gets the hang of it, but Gadge trusts his instincts and believes in his own scientific flights of fancy. He's a kid Spielberg would love, and I'll bet SS saw this movie as a boy himself.

I loved "Tobor the Great". It had an exciting story, with a total plot switch halfway through. It had some great stock footage in the opening scenes of actual g-force testing. I'm guessing this was taken at an Air Force facility for jet pilots, as we hadn't even put up a satellite yet, let alone selected the Mercury astronauts in 1954, but yeah, there's also some stock atomic blasts, lots of great hardware. Tobor is one of the coolest looking robots I've ever seen, and I was pleased to discover that he was designed by our old pal Robert Kinoshita, who we recently mentioned for his work on "The Phantom Planet".

Besides the idea of using ESP to communicate with a robot, there is a lot that is futuristic about this film. Professor Nordstrom lives in a "smart" house, where every appliance is operated by photoelectric cell. He has a security gate that opens on coded sound waves. His clock even tells the time in a Siri-like voice. He's got Bill Gates beat by several decades. In playing the genial Professor, Taylor Holmes steals the show. He was an early actor whose career began on the stage in 1900! So he'd already been around 54 years when he made this picture, which makes him the perfect foil for the youthful Billy Chapin as his energetic nephew Gadge.

The movie is very Spielbergian in it's portrayal of the villains also, as they are EE-vil enough to threaten Gadge with Terrible Harm if he will not do their bidding, but he has the Gee Whiz factor in his favor, something Mr. S has often used in his own films.

"Tobor the Great", shot in black and white, in part at Iverson Ranch, is a terrific movie that gets "Two Huge Thumbs Up" and a big recommendation from me. We've hit the Trifecta, folks - three outstanding movies in a row. Hopefully we can keep it going!  :):)

Tune in later tonight to find out. I'll see you then at the Usual Time.

Tons and tons of love.  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)

"A Bucket of Blood" by Roger Corman (a masterpiece)

This blog was begun Thursday night April 23rd, and completed the following evening : 

Tonight I am happy to report that after more than a month in the public domain, we have our first masterpiece. It comes from none other than Roger Corman, the director I derided not all that long ago but whom I've since become a big fan of. Last night we scored big with Corman's "Not Of This Earth", and I especially raved about the Alien to Alien dialogue, superbly formal and faux serious. Overall I was impressed with what I saw as an individualistic style being developed by Corman, right down to his arty title graphics. Style is not something you'd expect in low-budget sci-fi; competence perhaps (which should be expected), but style? It seems like a bonus. For many of these directors, just making a coherent picture is sufficient.

Imagine my joy, then, as a movie buff, one who loves both sci-fi and horror, and who has only recently come to appreciate Roger Corman, having the good fortune to experience the one-two punch of "Not Of This Earth", followed tonight by (drum roll please)......"A Bucket of Blood"(1959). I must've won the Corman Lottery.

I'd seen the title before in my searches but it never grabbed me because it sounded generic and garish at the same time. "Is it another vampire movie? A gore movie? What is it"? I figured it was one of Corman's lesser works, and make no mistake, he's got several. So because of the title I hadn't thought of watching it until I saw a recommendation from an IMDB fan. He praised the lead performance in "Bucket" of Dick Miller, a recognizable character actor who had a small role in "Earth". Miller is one of those idiosyncratic performers who, by their mere appearance, add something extra to any scene or movie. I liked him as the vacuum cleaner salesman in "Earth", so I took the fan's advice to check out "A Bucket of Blood". Corman wasted no time. I was hooked from the opening moment.

As the film begins, the camera pulls back from a man speaking on a small stage. He is "Maxwell H. Brock", a Bohemian Poet (in an ingenious portrayal by Julian Burton), whose large, bearded presence holds his audience of fellow artists in thrall at The Yellow Door coffehouse in Venice, California. In a booming voice, Brock recites words of existential doom and condemnation. His fellow Bohemians lap up every syllable, breaking into applause at the poem's conclusion.

Right away I've got to step in to say that this opening scene is so great, that I knew I was looking at a five star review right away. If you thought the dialogue in "Not Of This Earth" was on target, wait til you get a load of this stuff! "Dig it, man"! And it's not just the words, but the way they are read by Burton, and responded to by the other actors in the scene. It could easily have crossed the line into black comedy (which some fans call this film, but it isn't) or camp, which would have been worse. I don't know how he does it, but Corman somehow manages to step right up to the threshold of those two possibilities, without ever crossing the line. It's as if he knows that to invite laughs would be to cheapen what he's attempting. Notice that I said "invite" laughs. That is what happens in an actual black comedy where the director wants you to laugh at the onscreen morbidity or pretentiousness. But Corman doesn't do that. He plays his Bohemianism "deadly serious" (i.e. overly serious), knowing that you might laugh, but not necessarily intending you to do so. I've never seen anything like it, and really, it's too perfect to laugh at. But back to the plot!

"Walter Paisley" (Dick Miller) is the busboy at The Yellow Door. He idolises Brock the Masterful Poet, wishing he could be like him. He also is secretly in love with Carla (Barboura Morris), the Door's resident sketch artist. As a true nebbish, he keeps his feelings to himself but his neuroses are writ large for all to see. He fawns over Carla and Brock, hoping they will notice him, then fumbles and fidgets when the owner "Mr. de Santis" (Antony Carbone) orders him back to work. Back home at his shabby apartment, he shapes the block of clay he has purchased, hoping to sculpt something....anything at all that he can take back to The Door for the others to admire and admit him to their circle. At first, Walter is all thumbs with the clay, working it and getting increasingly more frustrated. When his landlady comes knocking : "Walter, have you seen my cat"?, he gets an idea. "That's it, I'll mold a cat"! Rejuvenated, he starts his project anew, only to be interrupted again by the meowing of a real cat, "Frank", the one who belongs to the landlady.

This will be the point where I'll have to tread my own fine line, between telling you too much or not enough. So how can I put this? Hmmm, let's just say that Frank gives Walter a great idea for a sculpture, one that's even better than making a plain old cat.

The next day, Walter takes his new sculpture back to The Yellow Door, where is it roundly celebrated as a true Work of Art. Even the two dazed beatniks sitting in the corner (who spout the Craziest Lingo in the joint) agree that Walter has stepped up, and they usually pooh-pooh everything. Mr. de Santis, a gentleman hipster, is happy for Walter's acceptance but unlike the house artists, finds his sculpture a tad depressing. He urges Walter back to work once again, and Walter obliges, tucking his tail between his legs, deflated. Before he gets off work, however, an ultra-Way Out young woman named "Naolia" (what an awesome name, lol!) walks over to console him. "Don't worry about Mr. de Santis", she tells Walter. "The rest of us think you're The Most".

"Even Brock"?, asks Walter.

"Especially Brock", replies Naolia. "And Carla, too. They couldn't stop talking about your sculpture. Oh, Walter.....I'm so honored just to be in your presence! You've given us so much tonight....I've got to contribute something of my own. Here, take this as a token of my appreciation". And she places something in his shirt pocket that we don't see. Walter goes home elated, knowing that he's now an equal in the eyes of his idols, Brock and Carla. As he is preparing supper, however, there is a knock at his door. This time it is Lou (Bert Convy), a regular at The Yellow Door. Lou is more collegiate than bohemian and Walter doesn't know him well. "Oh, uh........hi....Lou is it"?

"Yes, Walter. Can I come in"?

"Uh...sure, what is it about"?

"Walter, did you talk to a girl named Naolia tonight"?

"Yes, Lou. Why"? (getting more nervous and nebbishy)

"And Walter, did she give you something before you left"?

"Yes.....why"?

"And do you still have it"?

"Yes.....it's right here in my pocket". He takes it out and Convy takes it away from him, then whips out his wallet to display a badge.

"Police, Walter. You're under arrest for the possession of narcotics".

"But I......I.......she gave it to me.....Naolia....".

"It's Heroin, Walter. We've been staking out the place for weeks, now we've got you to help us bust the entire ring".

"But I.......but I"......

Walter is no druggie, but Detective Convy doesn't know that. Walter is, however, terrified at the thought of going to jail. Here is another instance where I must leave out what happens next, and I'm not certain that I should tell you anything more about the plot. I know I usually reveal almost everything, but this is one instance where I just can't do it. I guess I can tell you that regardless of his arrest, Walter goes on to have a budding career as a sculptor. Mr. de Santis even grudgingly arranges for him to have a showing, where collectors vow to pay any price to obtain one of his works of genius. Walter makes de Santis nervous, though. He wishes Walter would give up sculpting. Walter might consider it, if only Carla would marry him, but he doesn't understand that his love for her is unrequited.

"A Bucket of Blood" has got to be Thee All-Time Ode to The Beat Generation, made during the period when it was still happening, and Corman nails every nihlistic note of it. This movie is all about the characters, the way they talk and the way they see themselves and the world around them. Walter is the spun-out nexus who brings them all together, so proud are they of the Undiscovered Iconoclast in their midst. I'm gonna leave it at that and just tell you to see it, but I'll add that there is not one ounce of fat in the story, nor really a hair out of place in the entire film. The whole thing is perfect; there's even a Protest Singer who appears onstage occasionally, guitar held chest high, singing earnestly about murder of all things, and justice. This is two or three years before Bob Dylan became famous, so again Corman is aping the scene as it is happening.

'"A Bucket of Blood" is a classic any way you look at it, low-budget or A-list, cheapie horror or Oscar caliber arthouse. I give it my highest rating, Two Gigantic Thumbs Up, and urge you to see it at the earliest possible opportunity. One note for the sensitive : there are moments that may be a little too macabre for some viewers, nothing over-the-top, but be forewarned anyway. /////

(oh, but that dialogue.......and those two beatniks!........ and poor Mr. de Santis, all he wants to do is run a nice little cafe, but Walter makes him so nervous!)

That's all I've got for you tonight. I hope I didn't disappoint you by revealing less of the plot than usual. I'm also getting a later start in finishing this review because we had a blackout in my building for a little while, due to the heat and everybody running their AC, so I'm just now finishing at 9pm. Soon it'll be time for me to begin my next blog, lol, so I'll go for a quick CSUN walk, then come back to look for tonight's movie, and I'll see you in a little while at the Usual Time.

Tons of love!  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)

Elizabeth + "Not Of This Earth" by Roger Corman + Hack Discrepancy Resolved

Elizabeth, that is an interesting photo you posted this afternoon, because the trail is green but the field is light brown. There's a disconnect to looking at it, because if the field is dried out then the trail should be too, and vice versa, if the trail is green then the field should be green. Rain falls on everything. But then I thought "I'm looking at it from a California point of view". Out here when it rains the whole hillside turns green, but maybe in your picture beige is the natural coloring of the vegetation in the field, like wheat or something. It's also interesting because the trail itself is not dirt, it looks like a newly mown strip of grass that runs through a crop of some kind. You'll have to elaborate on this location!  :):)

Tonight's movie was a Roger Corman classic, but before I get to it I wanna clear up a discrepancy about a director I misidentified as being a "hack". You may recall that in this time of public domain viewing, we've watched two films from director Bert I. Gordon, both of which I found surprisingly well made. I was surprised because I'd read that Gordon was a hack, and these movies were of professional quality, especially in the technical sense. The matter continued to puzzle me ("why would someone call this guy a hack when there are real offenders out there to choose from"?), until finally today the matter was cleared up. As I was searching my new IMDB list for tonight's movie, I came across one that was directed by a Herschell Gordon Lewis. A lightbulb went off in my brain and I thought, "Eureka! I have found it"! You will notice a similarity between the two names, there is a Gordon in each one. So I was getting Bert I. Gordon mixed up with Herschell Gordon Lewis, a genuine hack, and......

How do I know this, you ask? Well, at some point I did indeed read an article or two about HGL, but as it turns out, I actually had the first hand experience of attending one of his movies. This would be waaaaay back in about 1980 or so. My friends and I were art house fans, and we also loved horror. We heard about a screening at the Nuart or one of the West L.A. moviehouses of a film called "The Gore-Gore Girls", an obvious take on the 1960s go-go dancer phenomenon. It was supposed to be really cool and hip, and also very gory as inferred by the title. As aficionados of all things gruesome, we thought we'd better go see this picture, even though the title sounded stupid. I think we'd read about it in a local paper called the L.A. Weekly, which was devoted to L.A. culture and the arts. The reviewer would have certainly mentioned the film's creator, Hershell Gordon Lewis, who is now heralded as the father of the "splatter" genre. Well at any rate, long story short, several of us went to see this movie, and about 20 minutes into it, I got up and walked out of the theater. That's how bad "The Gore-Gore Girls" was. Another friend joined me in the lobby shortly thereafter. He couldn't believe I'd walked out because I never did that. I'd even sat through "Don't Go In The House" and loved every sick minute of it, but this movie was on a whole 'nuther level of terrible. It was absolute garbage in every way, including it's sub-amateur production values, and it's "blood for blood's sake". I don't remember if the rest of our friends walked out on "Gore-Gore Girls". I think it was just me and John. But here's how bad Herschell Gordon Lewis' movie was : I didn't even remember his name or his motion picture until tonight, when I came across it on the IMDB list and realized I'd confused him with Bert I. Gordon. So, my mistake Mr. Gordon! I apologize for calling you a hack, when it was the name of Herschell "Gordon" Lewis that was bubbling up from my subconscious. He was a genuine hack, one who made - if I'm not mistaken - the only movie that's ever caused me to walk out of a theater.

So there you have it. Long live Bert I. Gordon, talented director, and phooey on Herschell Gordon Lewis.

This brings us back to tonight's Corman Classic, which was called "Not Of This Earth" (1957), and starred Joseph Birch and Beverly Garland respectively as a black suited Alien and his live-in nurse. Birch, a solidly built character actor known mostly for Westerns, is here speaking with a European accent. In addition to his suit, he wears a hat and wrap around sunglasses. As the movie opens, after scaring a young lady half to death, he enters a doctor's office, demanding a blood transfusion. Through negotiation involving mind control, the doctor agrees to give him what he needs. During the visit, Birch meets Garland and hires her on at $200 a week (big bucks for '57) to be his personal nurse. He needs one on duty round the clock because his blood is in the process of evaporating, thus he requires daily transfusions to stay alive.

He tells Nurse Garland not to worry about the supply. He's now got his own source to obtain blood. You see, when he was out riding through Griffith Park with his weasely chauffeur (Jonathan Haze), they came across a group of winos enjoying a morning Thunderbird. "Who were those gentlemen"? Birch inquired, to which Haze responded, "You mean the stumblebums? They're vagrants who sleep in the park".

"Do they have jobs or families"?

"No. Nobody cares about their kind".

Hmmm. This gives Mr. Birch an idea. "After you drop me off, I want you to come back to the park and pick up several of those men. Invite them to dinner, bring them back to the house". The "dinner" works out very well for Birch as you can imagine. With plenty of winos in the park, he no longer has to worry about a blood shortage and can turn his attention to The Matter at Hand - making contact with his Superior on Planet Davana. Behind a sliding door in his living room, Birch has an Interplanetary Teleportation Machine, and I have to step in here to tell you that I spent some time Googling and checking Youtube after the film was over, to see if I could locate a clip of the scene where this machine is revealed. I think it's one of the greatest scenes in low-budget sci-fi history, and you absolutely have to see it! After activating the Teleporter, his Superior appears in the framework.

"Have you a progress report"?, he asks.

"Yes", Birch replies. "Their blood is suitable for our use, although it must be replenished regularly".

"Good. We will transfer down gradually so as not to endanger the supply. This will give our scientists time to work on a simulation, to be used when the last sub-human is gone". That's how these guys refer to us, as "sub-humans", which - though it's never stated - caused me to assume that they consider themselves the real Human Race. The problem with their blood is that it's been irradiated by an all-out nuclear war on Davana, so they're looking for a new place to live. They've sent Birch here to Earth to test out the blood of the sub-humans, and so far the results are looking pretty good! The thing is, folks, that I could never hope to replicate the dialogue in this scene, between Birch and the Superior. The screenwriter uses Sentences Of Great Significance, spoken in Formal Alien English, to explain the Utter Seriousness of the Earth Mission, which both agree is of Dire Importance. He (the writer) somehow manages to straddle the fine line between campiness ala "Plan 9" and really good sci-fi dialogue, which would be Too Weighty and Philosophical for this movie. I mean, he nails it, and as played out by Birch and the other actor as The Superior, it's reason alone to watch this movie.

Now, Beverly Garland has done a little snooping around down in the basement, where she was of course forbidden to go (the ubiquity of this directive was once dealt with in the clearly titled "Don't Go In The Basement"(1973), after  the release of which no one could claim ignorance). While she is down there, curious about the unexplained and never ending blood supply, she leaves her swim cap behind as she's just gotten out of the pool. I was shocked, because the Beverly Garland of "Decoy" would never be so absent minded. Here, though, she's in Scream Queen mode, and she'll have plenty of screaming to do once Mr. Birch discovers the swim cap. He, in turn, will have his hands full with the plucky Garland, who is nobody's fool and also has a cop for a boyfriend (Morgan Jones). During a further search of the house, the couple will accidentally discover the hidden Teleportation Machine and also a crematorium, which Birch has been using to dispose of bodies.

Now the Constantly Smoking Chimney makes sense! The pieces are coming together regarding Mr. Birch (or "Mr. Johnson" as he is called in the movie). Confronted with the evidence against him, Birch admits to the Davanians' evil plot, and a chase through the hilly streets of Hollywood ensues. Can Garland and her boyfriend escape Mr. Birch, and more importantly, can they prevent him from teleporting back to Davana? The future of the sub-humans depends on it!

Friends, this one is a classic, as noted at the beginning of the review. The only thing preventing me from giving it my highest rating is a slightly low-budget look (minor lighting & sound issues) and the lack of a complex plot, which isn't a deal-breaker here because the script is otherwise excellent as also mentioned. It does earn my penultimate rating, however, and so "Not Of This Earth" gets Two Huge Thumbs Up, and is considered a must see for all fans of sci-fi, B-Grade or otherwise. I should also mention that Roger Corman has some very artful and inventive opening title sequences, using paintings and clever graphics. I've noticed this in several of his movies, a nice touch that ups the expectancy of a well-made picture. Boy did he succeed with this one!  ////

That's all I have for the moment. It is now Thursday evening and Elizabeth, I see by your most recent post that you're preparing to do some recording. That's always good news and I'll be glad to hear the outcome when it is ready! I've been playing a lot of guitar myself since the lockdown began, more than I've had time to in recent years, and while my chording takes some work due to Dupuytren's, I can still play lead just fine and do a lot of smaller voicings too. So I've been playing every morning and have some good ideas too. For now they'll have to remain in my head and on the fingerboard, but at some point when I have a larger living space I'll try to do some recording of my own (and hopefully I can get a technical wizard like yourself to help me, lol).

Now I shall go for my CSUN walk. It was 97 degrees today (oh boy!) but it's now cooling off. Stay well and I'll see you later tonight at the Usual Time.  :):)

Tons of love.  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)

"Frankenstein's Daughter" starring Donald Murphy and Sandra Knight

Are you sick of these movies yet? Lol, I hope not because it's gonna be a while before we get back to watching Criterion quality films, and I did find a good one tonight through diligent research : "Frankenstein's Daughter"(1958), a combination horror/sci-fi that delivered the scares and the weirdness, while adding a dash of good old teenage '50s fun.

Sandra Knight (Jack Nicholson's first wife) stars as "Trudy", the young niece of "Professor Morton" (Felix Locher), a research scientist studying the healing properties of the drug Degenerol. He believes it can reverse the aging process, among other miracles. He has an assistant, Dr. Oliver Frank (Donald Murphy), who by all appearances seems to share the professor's humanitarian goals. What the professor doesn't realise is that Dr. Frank - whose name has been shortened, haha - has built a second, secret laboratory behind the wall of the professor's workshop. Frank is carrying out his own research in that lab, with the help of the estate's gardener, a creepy old guy in a ballcap who leaves and enters through a revolving bookcase.

As the movie opens, Trudy's girlfriend Suzy (Sally Todd) is coming over for a visit, but before she can get to the door, she is startled by the sight of a Hideous Creature coming down the sidewalk, in broad daylight! How many Monsters walk around in the daytime? That takes nerve, man. Anyhow, this monster is wearing a dress and has the figure of a girl, but it's face is horribly disfigured. Suzy screams and pounds on Trudy's front door, pleading to be let in. When she reports what she just saw, Trudy says "that's strange.....I was just having a dream of the same thing, only I was the monster". The girls talk about how weird it all is. how terrifying, but then their boyfriends arrive for a double date and the conversation is cast aside. Trudy's boyfriend Johnny (John Ashley) in particular doesn't believe in Monsters. He chides her, and Suzy, for telling tall tales.

Back inside the Secret Lab, Dr. Frank is working on his latest experiment. He wants to take up where his grandfather, a famous surgeon, left off. However, he becomes infuriated when the creepy gardener calls him by his full name. "My name is Frank! Do you understand that? Never call me by that other name"! He then asks the gardener if he has procured the needed "part" for the evening's operation. The gardener opens a cloth to reveal a bloody hand. Dr. Frank explodes once again. "Is that all you brought?! I specifically told you to bring the head"! To which the gardener explains, "I'm sorry Doctor, but there were too many cars on the road. Several ran over the body before I could get to it. This was all that was left".

Ahem!........(cough, cough).......it appears that the Doc and his assistant are using car accidents as the source for their body parts (yikes!). Can't they just get 'em from the morgue like Frank's grandfather did? I mean, how uncouth! Well anyhow, on the following night, Dr. Frank sends the gardener back out to obtain the necessary head, and he returns a while later with the specimen from a young woman.......Suzy!, who's been murdered by Dr. Frank after refusing his advances.

I've got to butt in here to say that as sick as this all sounds (holy smokes!), it doesn't play that way onscreen, thank goodness. It's all very Frankenstinian ("don't ever call me by that name"!) but in a B-Movie way.

Now where was I? Oh yes - at first Dr. Frank is once again upset with the old gardener. "This is a girl! My Creation is male! How to you expect me to put this head on that body"? The gardener is sheepish. "I'm sorry Dr. Frank, but there were no accidents tonight. She was the only available specimen, and look! She is in perfect condition"! The Doc considers this for a moment, and then it strikes him : "Yes! Yes! This is perfect. A female brain will be more compliant and less aggressive than a male's! That was my grandfather's downfall, his Creature was uncontrollable. But we will have success by using the mind of a female"!

A sly smile crosses the gardener's face as he says, "Ahh......Frankenstein's Daughter"!

"I told you never to call me that! But yes.......she will be my creation so I suppose you could say that of her".

Soon, they will bring their new Monster to life after a lengthy operation and some huge doses of electricity. I've gotta say, this is one of the scariest looking Frankensteins ever, except that it doesn't look the slightest bit female and in no way resembles the former character of Suzy. According to IMDB, the make-up man was never given a copy of the script, and had no idea the Monster was supposed to be female. He went ahead a made an ultra-ugly Frankenstein, whose face looks like raw hamburger, and because the producers were running low on money they had to go ahead and use it, even though it was the wrong gender. But no matter. It's scary and that's all that counts. Best of all, it's compliant. This is 1958, long before Women's Lib and the modern era of equality, so you'll just have to accept a Frankenstein who obeys orders because it has a female brain (hey, I didn't write the script...)   :)

Because it obeys him, Dr. Frank gets the idea to use his Monster to get rid of the Professor, whose do-gooder ways are beginning to get on his nerves. With the Prof out of the picture, Dr. Frank will be able to put the moves on Trudy, maybe do a little experimenting on her as well. This will result in a scene like we saw at the start of the movie, where a girl in a skirt with a disfigured face will run loose all over town, alarming the citizenry. Then the police will become involved, which will spell the beginning of the end for Dr. Frank. He won't go down without a fight, however, and he's got Suzy the Monster to back him up.

"Frankenstein's Daughter" is a winner on all counts. It has the professional look of a film shot at a studio and all the technical aspects are sound. So often, with the more amateurish pictures, we've had a passable movie degraded by poor lighting or sloppy editing. Not so here. One fan on IMDB called this film "The King of the B-Horror Movies", and he's not inaccurate. It's definitely as well made as any of the classic B scare flicks, so I suppose it depends on your preference, but I found it excellent in every respect. Donald Murphy is diabolical yet suave as "Dr. Frank", and young Sandra Knight (18 years old here) is perfect as a fresh-faced 1950s good girl. Makes me wonder what she ever saw in Jack Nicholson, haha, but then she divorced him in 1968, probably when he was turning into a wild man. There's also an extended back yard party scene in the movie, featuring a late-50s hepcat band complete with bongo player. We have another good script with subplot layers, including one involving the Professor and his need for more Degenerol. And toward the end, we have the police investigation, so "Frankenstein's Daughter" is the full package. It gets Two Big Thumbs Up, our third highest rating, and is not to be missed as far as our current theme is concerned. The print I saw was perfect.  //////

Things are heating up here in The 'Ridge. We finally got rid of the heavy overcast layer that had been sitting over the Valley like a lid for the past three weeks. Now it's gonna get hot, hot, hot, with temps into the upper 90s by the weekend, and plenty o' sunshine. Now if there was only a hiking trail available, I'd be all set.

See you tonight at the Usual Time. Stay well.

Tons of love!  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

"Unknown World" starring Victor Kilian, Bruce Kellogg and Marilyn Nash

Tonight we backpedaled a bit after the spectacular success of "Phantom From 10,000 Leagues". I found a movie that sounded great on IMDB, but didn't turn out to be so hot when I actually watched it. But hey! It wasn't terrible (not compared to "Petrified World" anyway), so I guess the situation could've been worse. It was called "Unknown World" (1951), the story of a team of scientists who drill deep into the Earth in search of a safe haven against nuclear warfare. Physicist Jerimiah Morley (Victor Kilian) is worried about The Bomb, so worried that he organises a tunneling expedition, to look for caverns below the Earth's crust. Morley is a believer in the Honeycomb Theory, that our planet is pocketed with giant caves, created over the eons by dripping seawater. He gathers a team of scientists, from different disciplines, all with the same goal of saving civilisation. Now all they need is the dough for their drilling machine.

After a corporate bigwig pulls the plug on funding, the expedition is saved when his son (Bruce Kellogg), a carefree playboy, agrees to front the cash himself - but only if he's allowed to tag along. The team's chief engineer (Andy Ostergaard) doesn't like this idea, feeling - rightly, as it turns out - that Kellogg is a reckless dilettante, one who could cause problems for the group once their journey is underway. But the Chief's warnings are overruled by Dr. Morley, who declares that the mission is too important to be canceled. Bottom line, either Sonny Boy gets to go, or no one does. Okay, hop in then, kiddo.

A Gigantic Excavating Machine, known as the "Cyclotram", is manufactured to Dr. Morley's specifications and soon the jaunt is underway. Morley, Kellogg and Chief Andy are joined by four others, among them a Geologist, a Wise and Genial Professor of European Extraction (de rigeur in these movies), an Air Force Hard Guy, and a Beautiful but Serious Female Doctor, so don't try any hanky panky you Bozos.

As they bore ever deeper - 2 miles, 50 miles, 300 miles......2500 miles! - they encounter many problems, such as lack of water and oxygen, personality clashes that lead to a life or death challenge, and a loss of faith in the Honeycomb Theory : the Earth appears to be solid after all. But the main problem they run into is a lack of imagination, or perhaps an insufficient budget. Maybe it's not fair to blame this one on the screenwriter because he does present a series of conflicts, most of them psychological in nature, that offer some interesting exchanges between the characters.

"Why are we doing this"? "Is Mankind Worth Saving"? "Does Man Rule Nature or Nature Rule Man"? "Wouldn't It Be Better For Us To Fight Against War Than To Run Away From It"? This is all very thought provoking, but it goes on too long. These diatribes are broken up by the antics of young Master Kellogg, who - in trying to get his money's worth - is continually agitating for some action. "We'll never find these caves if we don't get out of this contraption and look around"! This is where the Mortal Challenge will occur, when the Hard Guy gets sick of Kellogg's complaining and accedes to his demands. "You wanna get out? Alright, follow me"! This leads to a Journey To The Center Of The Earth - type moment, where Kellogg - not as macho as he though he was - finds himself clinging to a ledge by his fingertips, with only the Hard Guy to help him up. Something else will take place here, but I can't tell you what it is.

There will be a romance, also. The Serious Female Physician, of all people, will fall for the immature, posturing Kellogg. She takes to the spoiled rich boy because he's now the underdog. The others aboard have all shunned him, and as predicted, Chief Andy's warning has come true. Kellogg has nearly ruined the mission. But the Beautiful Doctor sees something good in him. Will he change his ways and man up, in time to redeem himself? She believes he will.

There's a decent story in all of this, not a complex one, but never "boring" (if you'll pardon the Tunneling Pun). The thing is, this is supposed to be a Sci-Fi Adventure, and there's very little adventure. Where's the Mole People? Where's the Hidden Underground Nazi Base? Where is the Strange and Unaccountable Oscillating Force? That's the trouble : there's no Weird Stuff going on, and to my understanding, Rule #1 in Science Fiction is that "There Has To Be Weird Stuff".

Here, in "Unknown World", the Stuff is mostly psychological, as if the team is really tunneling into Man's Collective Id. If they'd just taken 15 minutes to battle a Rubber Suited Dirt Monster, it would've livened things up considerably, but instead they substituted the running egomania of the Kellogg character, depriving the plot of some much-needed tension.

The movie deserves a good rating anyhow, because of the intelligent dialogue and the Cyclotram itself, a cool-looking thingamajig that resembles a classic late 40s Nash if you put a Giant Drill Bit on the front end. I could swear I've seen it, and the movie, before. Scenes of it tunneling, tunneling, tunneling, caused me some Deja Vu. "Did I see this movie in the theater as a little kid"? I pondered the possibility, but the release year (1951) suggested not. They did, however, use to re-release Sci-Fi and Horror movies to show on special double bills back in the day.........cause I'm certain I've seen the Cyclotram somewhere, and what seems like long ago. Well at any rate, Two Regular Thumbs Up for "Unknown World". See it for an early example of 1950s-style Science Fiction, in glorious black and white. ////

That's all I have for the time being. I hope you're hanging in there. One day this situation will be behind us. Too bad the Corona Virus isn't wearing a Giant Rubber Suit like one of the Monsters in our movies, then we could trap it in Bronson Canyon or underwater, blast it with a Death Ray or something.......

Stay well and I'll see you in a little while, at the Usual Time.

Tons of love!  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

"The Phantom from 10,000 Leagues" starring Kent Taylor and Cathy Downs

Hooray! Tonight we finally have a winner! I took a little time with my research this evening and found a new public domain list, on which there were titles of many unseen films. One of these was "The Phantom from 10,000 Leagues" (1955), which struck me as a melodious re-wording of "The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms", released two years earlier. I'd seen "Beast" and it delivered the goods big time, featuring a Gigantic Sea Monster created from models, using stop motion photography. Just now on Wikipedia I am reading that the movie grossed five million bucks, huge money in 1953, and that it directly influenced the famous "Godzilla". It was so good that when I saw "Phantom" on my newly discovered movie list, I decided to give it a try. After all, the ingredients sound similar : you've got Phantom/Fathom, you've got 10,000/20,000, and you've got Leagues/Beast, although the latter combination haven't much to do with one another save their vowel sounds. But, it all works out, and rather ingeniously I might add.

Okay, so as the movie starts, a fisherman washes up dead on the beach in Santa Monica. His body is found by Dr. Ted Stevens (Kent Taylor), who just happens to be strolling the shore in the middle of the night. Moments later, he is joined by a "Mr. Grant" (Rodney Bell) from the Department of Defense. Grant asks Stevens what he's doing there : "Oh, I'm just a beachcomber". 

Stevens is not just a beachcomber; in fact he's a renowned physicist, but Mr. Grant doesn't know that yet. In turn, Dr. Stevens is curious about why the Department of Defense would be interested in a deceased fisherman : "Sorry, that's classified".

The two men are interrupted by a third party, a young man skulking about on the bluffs, holding what appears to be a harpoon gun. When Stevens climbs up for a closer look, the man runs away. The next day, the coroner reports the fisherman's cause of death - radiation burns - so Dr. Stevens goes to visit Professor King (Michael Whalen) of the College of Oceanography. It must be noted here that we've encountered a lot of oceanographers of late, call it The Motif of the Week! At any rate, both men are previously aware of one another. Stevens knows King is the expert of experts on marine biology, and a talented physicist in his own right, while King for his part recognises Stevens from the cover of a book he's been reading. "Why, you're Ted Stevens! I've followed your work for years"!

Stevens : "Yes, I know. I've followed your career as well. I've come to ask you about that fisherman who washed ashore last night. He died of radiation burns. You know every square inch of this area. Are you aware of any underwater deposits of rare elements........uranium, say"? The question makes Professor King nervous. "Well.......no I don't, actually".

Dr. Stevens then lowers the boom : "Professor, you may or may not know this, but that fisherman was not the first person to turn up dead here. Three others have also died from radiation poisoning in the past month, right here on this beach. There's got to be something in or under the water that's causing it. Now, you say you've followed my work. Then you're aware that I generated the first chain reaction using heavy water, and......"

King cuts him off : "Yes.......you invented a Death Ray". He says this in hushed tones.

Stevens : "That's what they called it, yes, but it was never developed. You, however, have been trying ever since to replicate it"!

King : "How did you know"?

Stevens : "Oh......we've got our little secrets".

This is me talking now. I'd better do some 'splainin. You see, like Mr. Grant from the Defense Department, Dr. Stevens has been sent by Washington. He's been working undercover to avoid causing panic, but he did once invent a so-called Death Ray that worked by placing a critical mass of uranium into "heavy" water. The result was deadly enough to wipe out anything that came in contact with the ray, an actual ray of light shining from the uranium source. Stevens, a humanitarian, destroyed his invention, which even the Pentagon agreed was Too Evil To Use. But they co-opted Dr. Stevens, who's been working in secret ever since, to prevent the Death Ray from being re-created by some less-altruistic soul........like Professor King, perhaps?

"Oh no......I would never harm another human being"!

"But you do admit to advancing my invention"?

"Yes.....yes.........but only to experiment with marine life! I've.....I've tried to reverse the process, to use the radiation for healing"!

Isn't that always the case with these guys? They mean well, but you know how that usually works out.

So what you've got at this point are four dead fisherman, all from radiation burns. You've got Dr. Stevens, the inventor of the original Death Ray, investigating Professor King, who admits to having built one himself. It's located at the bottom of Santa Monica Bay, close enough for a scuba team to recover, but there are two problems involved. The first is that there is a Huge Creature rumored to be guarding the area around the Death Ray. We know the rumor is true because we've seen the Creature at the beginning of the movie. But Professor King won't admit it exists.

Stevens : "Are you saying there's no truth to the rumors, that it's nothing but a Phantom"?

King : "I know of no such Creature. My goodness, we're scientists Dr. Stevens! Would you believe the word of some superstitious locals"? King is trying to misdirect, when in truth he knows all about the Creature. He knows it's no Phantom because he created it. But Dr. Stevens can't prove it at this point, and all he wants to do is remove the Death Ray from the ocean. Get the scuba gear ready.

This brings us to our second problem : If the Phantom is from 10,000 Leagues, as claimed in the title, then how could they possibly scuba dive to find him? I just Googled it, and a League is stated to be 4 kilometers in depth (about 2.5 miles). That means he's approximately 25,000 miles below the surface, which - even if you could suba down that far - you still couldn't do it because you'd go through the ocean floor and come out on the other side of the world. The diameter of the Earth is 8,000 miles, so if you scubaed down 10,000 leagues, you'd come out on the other side and end up 17,000 miles into Outer Space.

I'm pretty sure you can't scuba dive in Outer Space (not 100% sure but reasonably certain), but anyhow, that's the Second Problem with the attempt at a Scuba Recovery Operation to remove the Death Ray from the ocean floor.

I''m severely confused now. Lemme take a break.

Okay, feeling much better. Let's resume.

While the scuba search gets underway, a subplot ensues involving the harpoon slinging man from the beginning of the picture. He turns out to be an assistant to Professor King and an ambitious one at that. He knows of the Professor's Death Ray and wants to recover it for himself, to sell to the Commies. You see, his girlfriend (Helene Stanton) is a Russian spy (pronounced Roosh-ian) in the mode of Boris and Natasha. She's got him over a barrel to deliver the Ray or it's splitsville, and he'll be kaput in the bargain. Harpoon Guy is thus doing everything he can to get into Professor King's locked laboratory, to discover the location of the Death Ray, so he can dive down and recover it himself. In this regard, he enlists the help of King's secretary (Vivi Janiss), a sneaky sort who's always eavesdropping on King's conversations. She will finally be recruited by Mr. Grant of the Defense Department to catch Harpoon Guy in a ruse, which will enable Grant to stop the Russian spy ring.

Did I mention this film has one heck of a plot? See, this is what we keep talking about. This is how you weave together a great script! There's even time for a romance between Dr. Stevens and Cathy Downs, who plays the Professor's daughter. You could even call it the centerpiece of the story, as Downs acts as a mediating influence between her father, whom she loves and trusts, and Dr. Stevens, who she's falling in love with but who doesn't trust her Dad.

"The Phantom From 10,000 Leagues" scores high on every level. It has a professional look, good widescreen camera work & lighting, good sci-fi acting, and an Incredible Rubber Suited Monster that will.........(all together now!) : Scare the living bejeezus out of you! Most of all, it's got a great, great script and a well developed plot that has multiple threads and characters. It has all the attributes of a first-run theatrical release, in the B-Movie sense, and the print was perfect, too. I'm gonna give it Two Big Thumbs Up and place it in the Top Ten of the thirty or so public domain films we've watched thus far. Highly recommended!  //////

That's all I know for now. I'm gonna go for a CSUN walk, then come back and do a little more research, make sure I've got my 10,000 Leagues straight (on that score I've got some questions for Jules Verne, too). I trust all is well and if so, I will see you back here later tonight at the Usual Time.

Tons of love.  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)

Elizabeth ("Notepainting") + Zen and "The Beast of Yucca Flats"

Elizabeth, I just wanna congratulate you again on "Notepainting". From the heartfelt music to the inspired cover art, you put out an album that deserves to be on a shelf in a record store. It reminds me of the days when an album was a complete artistic package, and you'd go into your favorite record shop and spot an album cover that drew your attention, and even if the artist or band was new to you, you'd give their record a try. In those days, everything wasn't categorized; you didn't have to be "metal" or "hip-hop" or "pop country" or "techno". You just had to be creative and put your heart and soul into your music, and the result was that music lovers were always hearing something new and different from artist to artist. So if you went into your favorite record store, you might come home with a rock album by a band you were already a fan of, or an album of beautiful piano instrumentals by a brand new solo artist. In those days, the two records could sit side by side on the wall racks. So that's the spirit in which I see "Notepainting", an album coming from a place of creativity and artistic freedom. It has given me great listening pleasure for three years now, and I should also mention that the arrangement of the songs, the running order, works to make it unfold like a musical story. So thanks, Elizabeth! If you decide to record another album, you know I'll be looking forward to it.  :):)

Well, I wish I could say the same for some of these movies, i.e. that they were made in the spirit of creativity and artistic freedom, but that hasn't consistently been the case, lol. Some, like "The Alligator People" and "The Indestructible Man", have fit that description (and others have been in-between), but then there's flicks like "The Incredible Petrified World".......yikes! I'm petrified just thinking about it. Tonight, however, I watched a movie called "The Beast of Yucca Flats"(1961) that was an interesting combination of the two. On the one hand, it had next to no story (as usual of late), and the minimal plot that does exist was more or less preposterous, even by low-budget sci-fi standards. By that criteria, it was an awful movie, and indeed, some critics have called it worse than "Plan 9" and one of the worst films ever made. But then there is another school of thought, expressed by several fan reviews and even a critic or two, that the film has an unusual meditative quality, one that is almost soothing or reflective.

I happen to agree with these opinions, and I was noticing the same effect as I watched, even before I read the viewer comments. The tranquilizing aspect, it is agreed, comes about from the film's narration, which appears at intervals throughout the 53 minute running time. It is spoken by "Yucca"s writer/director Coleman Francis, who was not able to include dialogue in his movie. One explanation claimed the soundtrack was destroyed in post-production, another that Coleman didn't have the money to record dubbing, but whatever the reason, there is almost no talking by any of the characters. Instead, there is a surprisingly good score, upping the "dramatics" considerably, and then there is Coleman's narration, which is sparse, intermittent yet persistent, and delivered in clipped, serious half-sentences that amount to proclamations. The famous 1950s wrestler Tor Johnson (an Ed Wood perennial) plays the brilliant Russian physicist Joseph Javorsky. Introducing him, narrator Coleman might utter something like : "Joseph Javorsky, Soviet hero..........a space program......a flag on the Moon. How did it get there"?  This is spoken over footage of Javorsky arriving at the Nevada Test Site, where he is to meet with American military brass (he is defecting). Then maybe 30 seconds passes and the narrator intones : "Joseph Javorsky.........from hero to hunted........the desert heat........a nuclear explosion........from hero to hunted to Beast........man's inhumanity to man".

This last segment is narrated over a scene in which Javorsky is chased into the desert by KGB agents. As they fire at him, a test bomb is detonated. Javorsky is transformed into a bloodthirsty beast while the mushroom cloud rises.

So you get the idea about the narration. One viewer called it "haiku-like".

Later in the film, after Javorsky has strangled two motorists, the cops are hunting for him. Our narrator picks up the story from here : "Jim and Joe............protectors of the wasteland........Jim and Joe........climb a rock, stop a killer.............Touch a button, things happen - a scientist becomes a Beast".

And on and on it goes. As the hunt continues, a family happens to drive down the highway. They stop at a lonely gas station and we hear "small boys........feeding soda to thirsty pigs". Okay fine. That's what they're doing. The pigs live out in back of the gas station. But we can see the boys giving them soda, so why the need to tell us same? I mean, lol! The narration veers from abstract to obvious, but it's the rhythm of it that is so hypnotic and Zen-like. Some of the facial expressions on the actors, the two policemen in particular, seem out of a poorly made art movie, like the cliche angled poses that are mocked from Bergman's films. I know I'm giving Coleman too much credit, haha, but as terrible as this flick is, he has included an interesting combination of techniques, including the anguished close-ups, and some better-than average photography (for this kind of movie, anyway). Also good are the remote desert locations (Santa Clarita, actually), the old gas station and a small town, possibly Saugus or Newhall. When you take these positives and add the continual voice over, you have a movie that is both Horrifically Bad yet compellingly watchable. Some fans mentioned dozens of repeat viewings. For myself, I would love to just have a CD of the soundtrack, the music and the voiceover, although it must be added that the visual - of the peaceful desert locale being stalked by the murderous Beast - does increase the incongruity and therefore the overall soothing effect.  :)

For these reasons, and for it's unique stature as A Godawful Movie with Therapeutic Properties, I am gonna give "The Beast of Yucca Flats" Two Solid Thumbs Up and recommend you see it at least once, no matter your stance on sub-amateur cinema. Pay no attention to the story or you'll be bored stiff. Prepare instead to enter a trance-like state, and see if "Yucca Flats" doesn't take you there.  /////

That is all for this Sunday evening. I shall now go for my second walk of the day, across the familiar CSUN campus. Later tonight we'll get together at the Usual Time, and I hope to see you then.

Stay well, stay strong.

Tons and tons of love.   xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)

"The Incredible Petrified World" starring John Carradine + Elizabeth

We've talked a lot about the importance of good screenwriting, especially in short format films, to make a story more complex and interesting. On that score, since the quarantine began I've been watching a lot of half hour episodes from some of the tv series I've purchased on dvd in the past couple years, among them "Alfred Hitchcock Presents", "Tombstone Territory" and "Decoy" (starring Beverly Garland). The writing is exceptionally good on all three of these shows, and what I am noticing, in addition to the standard practice of keeping the scenes brief, is the amount of plot information contained in every sentence of dialogue. In a 30 minute format, you don't have time for anything non-essential, and in watching these three shows, I am so impressed with the writing, because in each one (and in so many other great series from the early tv era), it's all about story, story, story. With "Tombstone Territory" in particular, there's enough plot information in just 25 minutes (half an hour sans commercials) to fill a short format film, say 70-75 minutes. That's how good the writing is, that it could be stretched to fill a movie three times as long.

I mention all of this because with some of these low budget sci-fi flicks we've been watching, the films could've been infinitely better if someone had just managed to present a tight, well rounded script, one with "no fat" as we say, and at least some measure of complexity in the plot. Several of our recent movies have started out with an interesting story, only to go flat later on, usually around the halfway point. "The Snow Creature" is a perfect example and I detailed it last night. The first half of the movie presents a number of possible threads and conflicts that could be explored, but instead, the filmmakers gave up, and turned the remainder of the picture into a "monster on the loose" flick. Ho-hum, "gotta catch him, where could he be hiding"?........that's what the rest of the movie consists of basically, a game of hide and seek. For the life of me, I don't understand why this happens. If you can write a good first half of your script, why can't you write the rest of it to build and crescendo on what you've already developed? Then your low budget and cheap looking sets wouldn't matter as much, wouldn't detract from your film, because you'd have a killer story. Every episode of the tv shows I mentioned has, at the very least, a good story, and many are excellent. Again, what I notice is that the scenes are short (which keeps the story moving constantly forward), the threads of different characters are intercut to provide conflicting perspectives,  and a truckload of plot information is delivered in each scene. That's how you do it; that's how you tell a tight & interesting story in 25 minutes.

I'm harping on screenwriting because once again we have a movie that begins with a strong premise, "The Incredible Petrified World"(1959). I must interject here, in case you are looking it up on IMDB as we speak, to say that I don't want to mislead you. This is not a good movie by any standard. It will turn bad even before the halfway point, so bad that it will become one of the worst films we've seen, but having said that - it does begin with an interesting premise, which means the writer had a good idea........

As the movie opens, an oceanographer (George Skaff) is giving a presentation to a small group of scientists, discussing the deep sea world which at that time remained largely unexplored. He's talking about all the unusual creatures that live at depths where no light penetrates. Then he mentions an unusual phenomenon his research has uncovered - there appears to be a "boundary layer" at which sonar signals aren't returned. What's more, this layer seems to be arbitrarily distributed, existing in some parts of the ocean but not others. What could be down there? Holes in the ocean floor? Honeycombed "hollows" inside the Earth? There's a way to find out, because John Carradine (hooray!) has just invented a diving bell that can withstand pressures at the greatest depths, enough to allow a research team to dive deep into the blackness and explore the hollow earth theory.

Sounds good, right? You've got some interesting science, regardless of how plausible it may be, and you've got the making of a "Journey to the Center of the Earth" type of adventure. This is basically given away by the title " The Incredible Petrified World". So after you see the beginning, and you know it takes place at the bottom of the ocean, you are expecting - due to the superlative in the title - to see something Incredible, a discovery along the lines of an a lost civilization, or a vast desert beneath the sea, or even a world of dinosaurs. Whatever the "boundary layer" might entail, it could be explored and an adventure would likely ensue, maybe even an "incredible" one, as promised.

Then the diving bell breaks down. Carradine is aggrieved ("damn those design flaws"!) but not to worry because his son (Joe Maierhauser), a Scientific Genius, is working on an even better bell that will be sent to rescue the first! Hooray again! Don't worry, John Carradine; everythig will be okey dokey. Your reputation as a Savior of Z-Grade Sci-Fi is safe. The  mission will continue.

Annnnd..............that's more or less the end of the movie. At least, it should end there, because nothing else happens. Well, one thing does, but it's so ridiculous I don't even wanna mention it (alright, alright, I will, in a minute). With a broken cable, the first bell continues to sink until it hits bottom. The team sees light through the window. Where could it be coming from? They're at a depth of 16,000 feet! Now the levels on the bell's oxygen meter are rising......Holy Smokes, there's an atmosphere down here!

"I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm getting out of this sardine can"!, the leader intones.

The team crawls out of the bell and finds themselves inside a large cavern (shot at Colossal Cave Park, Vail, Arizona). It does look petrified, I suppose, but doesn't that term indicate something that's been turned to stone, like the wood of a tree? This cave is already stone. So if you were expecting a Petrified World, a bizarre place with all kinds of natural objects that've become stone, I'm sorry to disappoint you. Instead, there's just this cave, which is really big and has some stalagmites, but that's about it. There's nothing Incredible down here, no dinosaurs (though you do get five seconds of a Kimodo dragon), no hidden World, nothing.

Except a creepy old dude who looks like Charles Manson if he was a Cave Man. That's the Ridiculous Thing I was telling you about. As the other characters from the research team wander around the cave talking about nothing in particular, they stumble upon this guy, who speaks with a European accent. He tells them his boat sank and he's been down there 14 years! How he avoided drowning remains a mystery, but at any rate, he seems trustworthy at first. In the guise of helping them, he grills up a fish dinner and then points the explorers to an undersea volcano, through which they can climb back up to the surface! Now, all of this is far more exciting than it sounds, because the characters basically just yack some more about absolutely nothing, and decide whether to take the Volcano Route home, or to wait for potential rescue from the new and improved Second Diving Bell.

Meanwhile, the Old Man has other plans : to kidnap one of the women on the team. Turns out he was more like Manson than we anticipated.

I'm telling ya, this movie is so dumb, and worse! - so boring - that I dunno how I made it through the 71 minute running time. Credit John Carradine, I suppose. Something about that Baritone voice of his keeps you engaged. But yeah.......talk about taking an interesting premise and throwing it in the trash can! This flick is the primest example we've seen so far. At least with some of the other really bad ones, like "They Saved Hitler's Brain", there was nothing good to begin with, so we had no expectations. Which brings us back to the subject at the beginning of the blog, which was "if you can begin with an interesting idea, why can't you complete it by developing the plot threads you've opened up? I just don't get it. Why even write the possibilities to begin with if you aren't gonna use them? Sheesh, even "Bride of the Gorilla" was better than this.

Maybe from now on we can cut a deal : either write a good script or an entirely bad one, but please don't hook me with an Interesting Premise, only to take the rest of the night off as far as your screenplay is concerned. Just write a crummy movie from the get-go so I don't end up watching it. Is it a deal? Okay, thanks.

Two Thumbs Decidedly Down for "The Incredible Petrified World". There's no reason to see it unless you need a John Carradine fix and can't find a copy of "Vampire Hookers" anywhere. /////

That's all I know for the moment. Time for my Incredibly Petrified CSUN Walk. See you in a while at the Usual Time!  :):)

Tons of love.  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxooxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)



P.S. Elizabeth, regarding the selfie you posted yesterday, I think you look nice in hot pink, quarantine or no quarantine!  :):) I know you've been branching out from your former wardrobe of all black to try different colors, and that is a good one. You look mah-velous as Billy Crystal would say. :):)