Elizabeth, that's a lovely vocal for your new song. Your voice sounds great! Since it isn't about a human, my best guess is a tree, because of the word "canopy". Or, it could mean nature itself. But I'm sticking with tree for now, until I hear more. :) Glad to know you are writing music. I figured you must be creating something since you hadn't posted in a while. As always, I'm looking forward to hearing the full song. I hope everything else is going well, and that you are enjoying the Summer. :)
The rest of this blog was written over the last couple of nights, in snippets, because I was switching back into work mode. So, rather than one long movie review, it will consist of synopses of several films.
Tonight I was in a pinch. It happens sometimes when I'm shifting back into work mode after a couple weeks off. I needed something to watch right away, without spending a lot of time searching, so I chose "Bride of the Monster"(1955) by Ed Wood. Boy was that a mistake! I mean, you expect crumminess from Wood - truly shocking would be if he made a good movie. But what you don't expect is to be bored. That's what happened here, to the Nth degree, despite the best efforts of Bela Lugosi, who - in his final speaking role - gives the meager script everything he's got.
The thing is, I've seen this flick before, about ten years ago. I must've forgotten how bad it was, but tonight I barely made it through. It turns out that "Plan 9" is not Wood's worst film (nor the worst film of all time). "Bride" is much worse, because it's dull. No one cared when they were making it, except Bela (who always cared), but even he can't salvage this disaster. Maybe they gave Wood too much money. Wiki says he had a budget of 70 thousand bucks, his biggest ever, and from the looks of things he was trying to make a "serious" sci-fi film, without the "camp" element that made "Plan 9" so enjoyable. He does have a great looking Mad Scientist lab, but he must've spent most of his dough on that, because his rubber octopus is awful. It just sits there immobile in a puddle of water. When it "attacks", the victim has to flail it's tentacles around him or herself, to make it look like the creature is moving. And how many times can you watch Tor Johnson doing his zombified, black-eyed, monster walk? He was way better in "Beast of Yucca Flats", where at least he had some direction.
Well, you can skip "Bride of the Monster", with Two Thumbs Way Down. If it weren't for Lugosi's crazed speeches, I'd put it below "Mesa of Lost Women". Instead, it's just plain terrible, "plain" being the key word. ////
Let's see, now.......what do we have next? Ahh yes, a reunion with our old friend George Zucco. Like Bela Lugosi, he's always reliable, and in this case his movie was a lot better than Bela's :
We went over to Poverty Row for a cheap quickie from Producers Releasing Corporation called "The Black Raven"(1943). The great George Zucco stars as the owner of a motel by that name, and from the looks of things, he's doing a land office business. Snoopy appears to have written the script, or at least the opening scene : "It was a dark and stormy night".
It's pouring outside. "Mr. Bradford" (Zucco) tells his custodian "Andy" (Glenn Strange) to go out and make sure everything is locked up. While he's doing so, an intruder climbs in through a back window. He enters Bradford's office and confronts him with a gun. It turns out he's a former business partner who just escaped from prison; Bradford's testimony put him there, now he wants revenge. Andy returns just in time to surprise the guy before he can shoot Bradford. He gets him in a headlock, then he and Bradford tie the guy up and lock him in an empty room. After that, several guests check in, seeking shelter from the storm.
The first to arrive is a bank clerk, "Horace Weatherby" (Byron Foulger), a bespectacled, nervous man who clutches a leather satchel. When he signs in as "Mr. Smith", Bradford knows there's something up with him. Also taking notice is "Mike Bardoni" (Noel Madison), a low level gangster who checks in next. He spies on Weatherby, sees he's got money in the satchel - lots of it - and steals it from him. The next guests to arrive are a young couple, headed for Canada where they plan to get married. They're on the run from the girl's father, a high powered judge, who's blocked their marriage in the States on account of she's only 20 (which was underage in 1943). Finally, the judge himself checks in, hot on his daughter's heels.
We're all set up for a heckuva whodunit.
While the young couple hide out in their room, the judge finds out the gangster is staying there. "Say, I remember you! Didn't I put you away a few years back"?
"Yeah, you did. But I'm out now, and you've got nuthin' on me, so buzz off, Judge"! He says this with a Brooklyn accent, following one of the Cinematic Laws of Motion Picture Hoodlums. The Judge doesn't like his attitude, and follows the gangster to his room. There he sees the satchel full of money and confronts him.
"Got nothing on you, eh? Well where'd you get all that money? The last I heard, prison payout is just a hundred bucks". The gangster cops to the theft, then tries to worm out of it. "Yeah, Judge....I stole it, but the guy I stole it from stole it first"! He means the bank clerk, who indeed embezzled the dough from his employer, the First National Savings and Loan. He now admits the theft. The judge, sensing an opportunity, seizes the loot for himself! The gangster is outraged. "Hey, Judge! You can't do that! That money belongs to the bank"!
"Oh yeah? Who's gonna stop me? You? (indicating the gangster), Or you? (indicating the bank clerk). "You two are confessed bank robbers. Who're the cops gonna believe, you or me"?
As it turns out, the cops are gonna be asking questions about a whole 'nuther kettle of fish, because the judge winds up dead! Holy smokes, he shouldn't have stolen the money from the gangster whole stole the money from the clerk who embezzled it from the bank.
If your budget is pocket change and you're making a "stick everyone in a room" movie, this is the way to do it, with tight editing, fast pacing, a good script, and actors who give a darn. Poverty Row films often suffer from wooden line readings, but in this case, the energetic performances - combined with clever banter - make for a very entertaining film. And, for a plot of this type (i.e. Ten Little Indians), it's very well written. "The Black Raven" gets Two Solid Thumbs Up with a definite recommendation. //////
Finally we have "Zombies of Mora Tau"(1957), directed by Edward L. Cahn, who has three sci-fi classics to his name : "Invisible Invaders", "IT! The Terror From Beyond Space" and "Invasion of the Saucer Men". We've watched all of those during the quarantine and loved all three. So how does "Mora Tau" measure up? Well, let's see.
It's got Zombies, a fun bunch at any gathering. It's got Allison Hayes, aka "The Fifty Foot Woman". Hard not to enjoy her company. And it's got a character named "George Harrison". Yep, except he can get away with it because there were no Beatles in 1957. The movie was released in March of that year. John hadn't even met Paul!
A boatload of treasure hunters lands on the island of Mora Tau, off the coast of Africa. They're staying at the home of a Wise Old Lady (Marjorie Eaton from "Monstrosity"), who knows all about the Sunken Treasure the group is after. She tries to warn them about the Zombies who guard the shipwreck, but do they listen? Hell no. Even when they see the Zombies are real, they don't back off. What they do is try to take the Zombies out, by surrounding them at their crash pad - a mausoleum hidden deep in the jungle. That's where they sleep, each in their own coffin. The attack by the treasure hunters backfires, as you probably expected, and the hunters find themselves running for their lives, because - as everyone knows - even though Zombies are slow, they're relentless. You can't just walk away from a Zombie, you've gotta run. One other thing about this particular group - they can walk underwater. Yeah. See, they can't swim, so they just walk around on the ocean floor. The Wise Old Lady tells the treasure hunters there's nowhere for them to hide : "They'll follow you all the way back to America". On foot, apparently!
"Zombies of Mora Tau" doesn't approach the classic status of Cahn's above mentioned masterpieces, but for a run-of-the-mill Zombie flick it has some nice touches that make it very watchable. There's also a romantic triangle happening between "George Harrison", Allison Hayes ("Mrs. George Harrison"), and the captain of the boat. Two Solid Thumbs Up is the verdict on this one. Like "The Black Raven", it's also recommended. ////
That's all for this evening. I'll try to get back on shedge-yoole now that I'm all caught up. See you in a while at the Usual Time.
Tons of love! xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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