Okay. You know how we've had a lot of fun over the past year or so, discovering movies written by Bill Raynor who lived across the street from us in Reseda in the 50s and 60s. And you also know how we've had a lot of fun discovering movies in which the actor Richard Reeves appeared, mostly during that same time period. "Mr. Reeves", as all the kids called him, was also our neighbor. And in fact, Bill Raynor and Mr. Reeves lived next door to each other. All three of our houses were separated by no more than 100 feet, and so we've gotten a big kick out of discovering the two men's movies.
But what if we were to find a movie involving both of them? A movie, say, written by Bill Raynor and starring Mr. Reeves. Could there be such a film?
Ladies and freakin' Gentlemen, I bring you "Target Earth"(1954), a sci-fi flick I'd never heard of before it popped up tonight on my Youtube recommendations, and folks, it must've been channeled directly to me, because I'm sitting here in Pearl's house, just around the corner from the other three houses in question, and I could throw a baseball and hit any one of them, and I've been feeling pretty low and it's like this movie popped up not only to cheer me up but to blow my mind.
It's a Reseda Trip and it's one of those things where you'd have to have been there. I mean, just a few weeks ago, before Pearl passed away, we were talking about how Mom used to say "don't bother Mr. Reeves", and how it was like the 11th Commandment and should be Written in Stone.
These factors alone are enough to qualify it as a mindblower. But then, early in the movie, the main characters enter an empty appliance store, in search of a battery powered radio. The plot follows four survivors who find themselves alone in Chicago in the aftermath of a catastrophe. Has there been a nuclear war? They don't know, and there's no one else around to ask. So they enter the store to look for a radio, and in the middle of the movie frame is a product placement, prominently situated so you can't miss it. It's a large cardboard box, with the name of a famous vaccuum cleaner manufacturer printed in big letters on the side, in the font of the manufacturer's logo. This manufacturer shares it's name with a U.S. President, just to give you a hint, and I'm being coy for privacy reasons, but the thing is, that this is also Pearl's last name, right there in the middle of the frame, in a Raynor/Reeves movie straight out of our neighborhood. And not just our neighborhood but our corner.
So yeah, it blew my mind and cheered me up. It was like Pearl, Mr. Reeves and Bill Raynor (who also took my baby pictures) were saying, "Hey Ad.........we gotcha"! Bill Raynor also took a classic photo of me getting a haircut. I'm about two years old, and we're in our backyard on Hatton Street. Dad is holding me on his knee, Pearl's husband Roy is wielding the electric shears, and I'm cringing, looking like I'm about to cry. Bill Raynor captured the moment. As I've mentioned, in addition to being a screenwriter he was also a talented amateur photographer. Supposedly on his tombstone it says "He Never Voted Republican".
"But hey, Ad.......how was the movie"? For a low budget apocalyptic Sci-Fi, it was doggone good. As the movie opens we see "Nora King" (Kathleen Crowley) waking up after a suicide attempt. A bottle of pills is at her bedside. She was despondent following the end of a relationship, but soon she'll forget all about it. She walks outside to find no one else around. The street remains empty down the block and on the main drag. By now she's becoming afraid. What's going on? Where is everybody? Nora then sees a dead body and starts yelling for help. That's when "Frank Brooks" (Richard Denning) appears. "It's okay, I'm not going to hurt you", he tells Nora, but then he has to slap her because she's getting hysterical. When she calms down, he's able to explain to her that there's been some kind of invasion. "I don't know who or what it it is, though", he continues. That question is answered when they see a giant shadow on the building across the street. It's a robot! Run for your lives, Frank and Nora!
They do, and soon they are traversing the city, moving from place to place, looking for somewhere to hide. In a deserted restaurant, they hear music. A piano is tinkling. Tiptoeing into the main room, they see a woman (Virginia Grey) and a man (Mr. Reeves). She's the pianist and he's her boyfriend, even though they just met. Hey, that's how it is when the world ends. You've gotta hang on to whoever's around. "I'm Vicki Harris and this is Jim Wilson", she says. The two couples are now a foursome and will stick together for the rest of the movie, in solidarity against the Robot Army.
Mr. Reeves gets in a lot of good one-liners. He plays a sardonic big lug who's forever in search of a drink, but later, when the group encounters a psycho with a gun, he'll put his life on the line to save the others. Whit Bissell, a fixture in these kinds of pictures, plays an Army research scientist, tasked with reverse engineering a captured, inoperative robot, to see not only what makes it tick but where it's communication signal may be coming from. Who sent these things? Some communist nation bent on hostile takeover? Or are the robots controlled by Beings From Another Planet?
Bill Raynor wrote an excellent, intelligent script that includes accurate scientific details, military strategies and existential philosophy galore. While the movie does look and feel like a typical low budget Sci-Fi from the 1950s, I am not the only one who noticed that it has qualities that elevate it from the mass of cheapies in that genre. The acting, while stylised and therefore stilted, is very good. You can't take your eyes off Mr. Reeves, and the dialogue is unfailingly interesting (or funny). There's also an earnestness to the whole enterprise that gives it an individualistic quality. Many fans, at Amazon and IMDB, say they've sought this movie out for years, as they remembered it from childhood. Some say they've watched it over and over, and I can see the compulsion. "Target Earth" is it's own self-contained world, and you can imagine yourself in it. If robots really did attack our planet, you might wanna be with these guys. Two Big Thumbs Up. ////
That's all for the moment. I know it's only one movie and I usually do two but I'll make it up in the next blog. I was so excited by the Raynor/Reeves collab that I had to rush this one out. Hope you had a great day. I send you Tons of Love as always! xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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