This blog was begun Wednesday night May 6th and completed the following day :
Warning : Spoilers Ahead!
Tonight's movie was another Brrrittissh Production, "The Strange World of Planet X"(1958), in which a Mad Scientist messes around with magnetic fields, disrupts the balance of nature and ticks off an Alien in the process. The singularly named Alec Mango stars as "Dr. Laird", whose laboratory in the English countryside contains a generator that rivals HAARP in electromagnetic power. That this movie predates HAARP by 40 years is uncanny, but more to the point, Laird's present experiments are causing havoc in a nearby village. Every time he cranks up his circuit, the power blows out at the local pub. The owner is getting pissed at having to buy a new TV set every couple of weeks and you can't blame him.
But Laird's experiments are causing more than just electrical surges. Down at the police station, an Inspector has noticed that every time the pub has blown up, there's been a coinciding lightning storm that arrived out of the blue. He pays a visit to Dr. Laird but is assured there's no cause for concern. "We're only doing research for medical purposes. Every piece of equipment here is shielded and well insulated. Any lightning is merely a coincidence, and likely what's damaging the pub after all". Oh, okay. Nevermind then.
Except the Inspector doesn't say that. He's suspicious of Laird and assigns an undercover officer to keep an eye on him. At the lab, a computer expert (Gaby Andre) is brought in to run the control panel, which is proving to be too complicated for Laird's assistant, Forrest Tucker (of "F-Troop" fame). Their next experiment is to be on a block of metal the undercover officer has brought to the lab for analysis. The metal is turned to dust, giving the officer something to report, but more startling is that a set of keys in the control room have been magnetised. They zip through the air and nearly conk Miss Andre on the head. She quickly realises that the magnetic field has escaped the lead walls of the test box. Forest Tucker puts two and two together, knowing now why the pub keeps overloading. He pleads with Dr. Laird to call off all further experiments until the problem can solved, but Laird won't hear of it.
"Even if there was a slight bleed-through, it would hardly be of enough strength to cause a power outage. Our research will continue"!
The undercover officer has seen enough, though, and when he gets back to headquarters, the Inspector informs him of a new problem on their hands : A psychopath has strangled a woman in the nearby woods. He is described by a witness as having a large burn mark on his face. We have already seen him; he is a homeless man who lives the area. He's thought to be harmless, a little neighbor girl even vouches for him. "He helps me with my bug collection". How then did he turn into a Crazed Maniac? And what about the burn on his face?
Right around this time, a new man arrives in the village. We first see him in the woods, introducing himself to Jane, the young bug collector. "Hello, my name is 'Mr. Smith'. Might you know of a 'Dr. Laird' in this area"?
Hmmm, seems to me we've dealt with another "Mr. Smith" recently. Ahh yes, that was in "Beast From Haunted Cave". That "Mr. Smith" was a gold thief. This new one seems honest enough, however.
Little Jane tells Mr. Smith she doesn't know of a Dr. Laird, but refers him to the pub, as that's where all the adults gather. Smith goes there and gets an earful. "That Laird, 'ees crazy, he is"! (crazy is to be pronounced "CRY- zee", Cockney-style) " 'Ees th' cause of all the madness goin' round, what with the lightnin' (pronounced LOIT-nin) and me tellys explodin'. Now there's e'en a madman on the loose (madman pronounced MAD-mn). It's all down to Laird and his experiments, it is! His laboratory is just down the road".
Mr. Smith takes all of this in, then asks to be directed to the Inspector's Office. Arriving there, he introduces himself and states his business. "I am an expert in the field of electromagnetism and I'm here to warn you about the dangers posed by Dr. Laird and his experiments".
"Your name is 'Smith', you say"?
"Yes it is".
"And who sent you"?
"If I told you, you wouldn't believe me".
Smith continues : "Electromagnetic radiation does not dissipate, but expands, like a radio signal. The walls at Dr. Laird's facility have not been sufficient to contain the radiation he is producing. As a result, he has created a magnetic field that is spreading in all directions - up into the atmosphere and down into the ground. Now it's even reached space, making it a problem for others as well".
This gets the Inspector's attention. "You're going to have to tell me how you know all of this".
"I'm afraid I can't do that. Not yet, anyway. But I'm advising you to stop Laird immediately, before it's too late. He cannot be allowed to start a"......
Start a "what"? An interplanetary incident? Is that what you're saying, 'Mr. Smith' ?
The Inspector doesn't exactly broach the subject, but that's what Smith is hinting at. As further proof he's not to be trifled with, Smith produces a ray gun that stops everything in the office. Phones, clocks, lights, radios, all dead. Then he turns it all back on. "This is just a toy, basically. We have much more efficient ways of reversing the situation if you cannot control Laird on your own. But let's not argue the matter. I hear you've had a murderer running about in the woods, with a noticeable burn mark on his face? He too is a result of Laird's radiation. You'll need my help to stop him, and I think we should proceed right away".
But when they get to the woods, they discover a problem several orders of magnitude worse than a crazed strangler. There are Giant Bugs everywhere. Roaches, crickets, grasshoppers, praying mantises......all over the joint! And they're huge! (pronounced HYOOGE!)
Thankfully, there are no Murder Hornets. Those hadn't been invented yet, in 1958, but there's every other kind of creepy lookin' insect, and they're crawling over everything. Roach Motels ain't gonna cut it, folks. The Inspector calls out the military, but even they will need help. It's a good thing Mr. Smith is there. And wouldn't you know it, in a case of Extremely Bad Timing, little Jane just happens to be out in the woods working on her bug collection when all this is taking place! Time for Smith to reveal himself.
No, he doesn't suddenly turn into a Big-Eyed Bean From Venus. His visage remains quite human, and he quietly explains that he is! "Did you really think you were the only human beings in the Universe? Or that you were the most advanced? Where I come from, we've done away with violence and atomic power and other problems you've yet to solve, whether from arrogance or insanity. In fact, we teach of your history in our schools, so it will never be repeated! Our children know your world as 'Planet X' ".
So there you have it! 'Mr. Smith' wasn't an Alien after all. He was from another planet........but was it Earth? I'm still not sure. Sorry to reveal the ending, but it was so cool I couldn't resist. I'll put a Spoiler Warning at the top of the blog. But yeah, wow.........what a great twist. I would love to see this movie restored. The print I watched was soft, so the Giant Bugs were not as defined as they originally must've been on the silver screen. But the story and plot are first rate, with a lot of Hard Science in the dialogue. My one complaint is that the movie is waayyyy too talky. Yak, yak, yaketty yak yak. Gee whiz, c'mon you Brits, can it already! There's also a romantic subtheme between Forrest Tucker and Gaby Andre that could probably have been cut, but overall, with a crisp print, this flick would be top notch. Alec Mango is great as the mad "Dr. Laird", and his laboratory is well-appointed with lots of high-voltage levers and meters.
As viewed in it's present condition, I'm gonna give "The Strange World of Planet X" Two Solid Thumbs Up, It gets docked a bit for too much jabbering, but with a restoration it would get Two Big Thumbs for sure. Watch it anyway, for the interesting story, and for the mysterious 'Mr. Smith'! //////
That's all I know for the moment. Except oh yeah, I almost forgot : they're gonna open up our parks and trails starting on Saturday, so I'll be able to hike again! Yippee and super-duper! Thanks, Mayor Garcetti. Now I will go for my CSUN walk. See you in a little while at the Usual Time.
Tons of love! xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
Thursday, May 7, 2020
Wednesday, May 6, 2020
Elizabeth + "First Man Into Space" starring Marshall Thompson
Elizabeth, that sounds like a wonderful book you are reading. And, you are at a great reading spot by the lake! I just now did a quick Google of Sigurd Olson and it said he wrote a lot about the lake country around Superior, so that's perfect. I am enjoying my book, too, the Velikovsky, and I just finished reading about a long vanished glacial lake in Canada, up above the Great Lakes, that was named Lake Agassiz after the geologist who discovered it. It was formed during the Wisconsin Glaciation and covered an enormous area. According to the book you can still see remnants of it, not the water but the sediment and boundaries.
I am glad you're able to visit your lakes and rivers and all the places you love. I have to say that's a very nice picture of you, holding your book. There is no doubt of your happiness in that pic! Thanks as always for including the sound. It's a beautiful place for sure. :):)
On the movie front, we got lucky last night. In a last minute search I clicked on a link I hadn't used before ("Old Sci-Fi Movies For Free"!) and a title popped up : "First Man Into Space". It was a little long for my liking, 78 minutes, and the title sounded generic, but the name of the star grabbed my attention : Marshall Thompson, who was in the classics "Fiend Without A Face" and "IT! The Terror From Beyond Space". A quick check of IMDB revealed a decent rating of 5.5 for this picture (not that that makes any difference), but more importantly a game-clinching synopsis.
"A Navy pilot crash lands after becoming the first man to fly into outer space. He is presumed dead, but then a series of grisly murders occur in the surrounding area, and a growling thing is seen wandering the countryside".
That was all I needed to hear, so I went to Youtube, and sure enough they had a copy. The movie opened with stock footage of what looked like the Bell X-1 being carried up in the air by a B-50. IMDB lists only MGM England as a location (the film is an English production), but the jet and rocket scenes have gotta be from Edwards and Vandenberg AFBs, respectively. I don't know how the filmmakers obtained this footage but it's a real find and a great way to start things off. In the movie, the experimental jet is known as the Y-12. The film was released right around the time the legendary X-15 program was getting underway. That was the first X-plane to take man past the boundary of space, so I suppose the Y-12 is meant to stand in for the X-15.
Anyhow, Marshall Thompson is "Commander Prescott", in charge of the budding Y-series program, designed to test the anatomical effects of high altitude flight. His younger brother Dan (Bill Edwards) is the program's #1 pilot. He's also a risk-taker who is prone to break the rules. On the test of the Y-12, he takes the jet up higher than he is supposed to, because he wants to break the altitude record. On the way down, though, the Y-12 spins out of control. Dan is able to bring it in for a hard landing, but the jet is ruined and he is lucky to escape with his life.
However, when his brother the Commander rushes to the site with a rescue squad, Dan is nowhere to be seen. "I have a hunch where to find him", Thompson fumes. The next thing we see is the interior of a living room. The camera pulls away to reveal Dan on a couch with his Italian girlfriend (Maria Landi). They are making out, haha, so it's all in day's work for Dan the Daredevil : you get in your rocket jet, fly to 250,000 feet, you crash land and then head over to your girl's house for a smooch session.
Commander Thompson doesn't think it's very amusing. He storms in to Landi's house and chews Dan out big time. Dan lets the scolding roll off like water from a duck's back. "Ho hum. You know I'm the best pilot you've got. If it wasn't for me there wouldn't even be a Y-program".
"But you just wrecked a 10 million dollar plane"!
"So what? Do they want us to just play it safe? What's the point of going up if we're not gonna push the envelope? Besides, they've already got Y-13 ready to go. This time I won't lose control, I've already got the bugs worked out".
Thompson is riled by his brother's attitude but has to shrug it off because Dan is right. He is the only pilot capable of pushing the jet to the limits of it's design. The next day, the Y-13 is set for takeoff and Dan is cleared for flight. They don't waste any time with the Y-program, lol. He promises his brother he'll obey the rules this time, but when he gets up to the 350,000 foot limit, he can't resist. "I've gotta do it"!, he tells Control. "I'm almost there. I know I can make it, I'm gonna be the first man into space"!
It's extremely reckless of him, but at least he got the movie's title spoken. That's imperative, you know. Dan pulls back on the throttle and the Y-13 soars. The special effects are awesome as he passes through the exosphere and into the blackness of space. A carpet of stars awaits him as he passes 500,000 feet, but hold on a minute!..................what's that cloud coming toward him? Oh my God it's a swarm of Millions of Meteorites! They pummel the jet on all sides, pitting it's skin, leaving a plethora of pockmarks. Dan struggles to maintain control but then the engine quits. The Y-13 disappears off radar. What could have happened? Is Dan still alive?
The wreckage of the jet is finally located in New Mexico by a rancher, who - in addition to reporting the crash - also mentions the mutilation of one of his cows. Oh man, are you thinkin' what I'm thinkin'? Marshall Thompson hauls ass out to the crash site, this time bringing the Base Commander along with him. The jet is broken apart, but this time it's covered in a weird rubbery film of some sort, like a skin.
"What do you think this is"?, asks the BC.
"I don't know sir. But look at this.......when you peel it off, the metal underneath is intact. It isn't burned or scratched. Could this be some kind of protective coating"?
Hmmm.........it's looking that way. But what is it protecting? Where the hell is Dan? Once again there's no sign of him.
Later that night, a blood bank is broken into in a nearby town. The place is thoroughly ransacked and all the blood is gone. A trucker has also called in to report a carjacking (or truckjacking to be precise). Could the two crimes be connected? Did the blood thief steal the truck? The state cops set up a roadblock to find out, but holy smokes, now whoever it is has ditched the truck and stolen a car. Worse, he's killed the couple inside, and........and..........he's drained every drop of their blood.
Why is he doing this!? What's up with all the blood? Who is this maniac?
The New Mexico State Police are about to find out. They make the Huge Mistake of pulling over the stolen car, and............(folks, you've gotta be ready for this.......I'm not joking........prepare yourselves) :
A Monster gets out of the car, so horrible looking that you'll probably never recover, hence the warnings. By this time, you can guess it's identity. Or, I'll just tell ya. It's Dan, the pilot. Somewhere along the line, when the meteorites hit his jet at 500,000 feet, he got covered in the same skin that enveloped the Y-13, and I'm telling you the result isn't pretty. He can still drive a car, though, and because he's now got an insatiable thirst for blood, he's racing around all over New Mexico trying to find more.
Now the State Troopers are dead and the General wants to bring in artillery. Marshall Thompson pleads with him to spare Dan's life, not just because he's his brother but because he believes Dan is a victim of the Slimy Stuff, whatever it is that's covering him. He volunteers to take responsibility if they'll just let him coax Dan back to the base. There, they can perform tests to see why he's acting this way. The base doctor thinks the High Altitude Tank might help.
Folks, you're gonna get a much closer look at Dan if they agree to Thompson's proposal, so you might wanna make your voice heard if you're against it. Remember, you have a say in this too, but if they go ahead and bring him in anyway, you might wanna keep the remote control nearby in case you need to hit "Stop"! real quick. (man oh man......this Monster.......I mean "Dan"........yikes!)
I'm gonna let you discover the rest of the plot yourself, but I'll leave you with two items of note. The first is that this movie was a big influence on Ridley Scott's "Alien". The second is that it's part of the Criterion Collection. Wow! I didn't know either of those things until after the film was over, but it's worthy of both honors. The Air Force stock footage alone makes it look big league. Somebody went to a lot of trouble to get shots of rocket engine tests, and the stuff from the Bell X-1. We're in Grade A "B-Movie" territory now, with a much higher budget than we're used to. There are fantastic special effects, as noted, and solid acting, especially from Bill Edwards as Dan the pilot/monster. "First Man Into Space" gets Two Huge Thumbs Up, but it's one movie I'm glad I never saw as a kid. One IMDB reviewer called it "The Scariest Movie I've Ever Seen" and claimed he's been scarred for life.
My goodness, sci-fi fans, and to think we stumbled upon it by accident. Highly recommended, of course! //////
Well, it's another Hot One in the 'Hood and time for my nightly walk. I hope you'll be able to sleep after that review. I'll check on ya when I get back, somewhere around the Usual Time....... :)
Tons of love. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
I am glad you're able to visit your lakes and rivers and all the places you love. I have to say that's a very nice picture of you, holding your book. There is no doubt of your happiness in that pic! Thanks as always for including the sound. It's a beautiful place for sure. :):)
On the movie front, we got lucky last night. In a last minute search I clicked on a link I hadn't used before ("Old Sci-Fi Movies For Free"!) and a title popped up : "First Man Into Space". It was a little long for my liking, 78 minutes, and the title sounded generic, but the name of the star grabbed my attention : Marshall Thompson, who was in the classics "Fiend Without A Face" and "IT! The Terror From Beyond Space". A quick check of IMDB revealed a decent rating of 5.5 for this picture (not that that makes any difference), but more importantly a game-clinching synopsis.
"A Navy pilot crash lands after becoming the first man to fly into outer space. He is presumed dead, but then a series of grisly murders occur in the surrounding area, and a growling thing is seen wandering the countryside".
That was all I needed to hear, so I went to Youtube, and sure enough they had a copy. The movie opened with stock footage of what looked like the Bell X-1 being carried up in the air by a B-50. IMDB lists only MGM England as a location (the film is an English production), but the jet and rocket scenes have gotta be from Edwards and Vandenberg AFBs, respectively. I don't know how the filmmakers obtained this footage but it's a real find and a great way to start things off. In the movie, the experimental jet is known as the Y-12. The film was released right around the time the legendary X-15 program was getting underway. That was the first X-plane to take man past the boundary of space, so I suppose the Y-12 is meant to stand in for the X-15.
Anyhow, Marshall Thompson is "Commander Prescott", in charge of the budding Y-series program, designed to test the anatomical effects of high altitude flight. His younger brother Dan (Bill Edwards) is the program's #1 pilot. He's also a risk-taker who is prone to break the rules. On the test of the Y-12, he takes the jet up higher than he is supposed to, because he wants to break the altitude record. On the way down, though, the Y-12 spins out of control. Dan is able to bring it in for a hard landing, but the jet is ruined and he is lucky to escape with his life.
However, when his brother the Commander rushes to the site with a rescue squad, Dan is nowhere to be seen. "I have a hunch where to find him", Thompson fumes. The next thing we see is the interior of a living room. The camera pulls away to reveal Dan on a couch with his Italian girlfriend (Maria Landi). They are making out, haha, so it's all in day's work for Dan the Daredevil : you get in your rocket jet, fly to 250,000 feet, you crash land and then head over to your girl's house for a smooch session.
Commander Thompson doesn't think it's very amusing. He storms in to Landi's house and chews Dan out big time. Dan lets the scolding roll off like water from a duck's back. "Ho hum. You know I'm the best pilot you've got. If it wasn't for me there wouldn't even be a Y-program".
"But you just wrecked a 10 million dollar plane"!
"So what? Do they want us to just play it safe? What's the point of going up if we're not gonna push the envelope? Besides, they've already got Y-13 ready to go. This time I won't lose control, I've already got the bugs worked out".
Thompson is riled by his brother's attitude but has to shrug it off because Dan is right. He is the only pilot capable of pushing the jet to the limits of it's design. The next day, the Y-13 is set for takeoff and Dan is cleared for flight. They don't waste any time with the Y-program, lol. He promises his brother he'll obey the rules this time, but when he gets up to the 350,000 foot limit, he can't resist. "I've gotta do it"!, he tells Control. "I'm almost there. I know I can make it, I'm gonna be the first man into space"!
It's extremely reckless of him, but at least he got the movie's title spoken. That's imperative, you know. Dan pulls back on the throttle and the Y-13 soars. The special effects are awesome as he passes through the exosphere and into the blackness of space. A carpet of stars awaits him as he passes 500,000 feet, but hold on a minute!..................what's that cloud coming toward him? Oh my God it's a swarm of Millions of Meteorites! They pummel the jet on all sides, pitting it's skin, leaving a plethora of pockmarks. Dan struggles to maintain control but then the engine quits. The Y-13 disappears off radar. What could have happened? Is Dan still alive?
The wreckage of the jet is finally located in New Mexico by a rancher, who - in addition to reporting the crash - also mentions the mutilation of one of his cows. Oh man, are you thinkin' what I'm thinkin'? Marshall Thompson hauls ass out to the crash site, this time bringing the Base Commander along with him. The jet is broken apart, but this time it's covered in a weird rubbery film of some sort, like a skin.
"What do you think this is"?, asks the BC.
"I don't know sir. But look at this.......when you peel it off, the metal underneath is intact. It isn't burned or scratched. Could this be some kind of protective coating"?
Hmmm.........it's looking that way. But what is it protecting? Where the hell is Dan? Once again there's no sign of him.
Later that night, a blood bank is broken into in a nearby town. The place is thoroughly ransacked and all the blood is gone. A trucker has also called in to report a carjacking (or truckjacking to be precise). Could the two crimes be connected? Did the blood thief steal the truck? The state cops set up a roadblock to find out, but holy smokes, now whoever it is has ditched the truck and stolen a car. Worse, he's killed the couple inside, and........and..........he's drained every drop of their blood.
Why is he doing this!? What's up with all the blood? Who is this maniac?
The New Mexico State Police are about to find out. They make the Huge Mistake of pulling over the stolen car, and............(folks, you've gotta be ready for this.......I'm not joking........prepare yourselves) :
A Monster gets out of the car, so horrible looking that you'll probably never recover, hence the warnings. By this time, you can guess it's identity. Or, I'll just tell ya. It's Dan, the pilot. Somewhere along the line, when the meteorites hit his jet at 500,000 feet, he got covered in the same skin that enveloped the Y-13, and I'm telling you the result isn't pretty. He can still drive a car, though, and because he's now got an insatiable thirst for blood, he's racing around all over New Mexico trying to find more.
Now the State Troopers are dead and the General wants to bring in artillery. Marshall Thompson pleads with him to spare Dan's life, not just because he's his brother but because he believes Dan is a victim of the Slimy Stuff, whatever it is that's covering him. He volunteers to take responsibility if they'll just let him coax Dan back to the base. There, they can perform tests to see why he's acting this way. The base doctor thinks the High Altitude Tank might help.
Folks, you're gonna get a much closer look at Dan if they agree to Thompson's proposal, so you might wanna make your voice heard if you're against it. Remember, you have a say in this too, but if they go ahead and bring him in anyway, you might wanna keep the remote control nearby in case you need to hit "Stop"! real quick. (man oh man......this Monster.......I mean "Dan"........yikes!)
I'm gonna let you discover the rest of the plot yourself, but I'll leave you with two items of note. The first is that this movie was a big influence on Ridley Scott's "Alien". The second is that it's part of the Criterion Collection. Wow! I didn't know either of those things until after the film was over, but it's worthy of both honors. The Air Force stock footage alone makes it look big league. Somebody went to a lot of trouble to get shots of rocket engine tests, and the stuff from the Bell X-1. We're in Grade A "B-Movie" territory now, with a much higher budget than we're used to. There are fantastic special effects, as noted, and solid acting, especially from Bill Edwards as Dan the pilot/monster. "First Man Into Space" gets Two Huge Thumbs Up, but it's one movie I'm glad I never saw as a kid. One IMDB reviewer called it "The Scariest Movie I've Ever Seen" and claimed he's been scarred for life.
My goodness, sci-fi fans, and to think we stumbled upon it by accident. Highly recommended, of course! //////
Well, it's another Hot One in the 'Hood and time for my nightly walk. I hope you'll be able to sleep after that review. I'll check on ya when I get back, somewhere around the Usual Time....... :)
Tons of love. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
Tuesday, May 5, 2020
Elizabeth + "Attack of the Giant Leeches"
Elizabeth, that's an excellent sketch of the tree at Porcupine Mountains. I always like to take photos of the sun's rays filtering through the trees, and you captured it in your drawing. How long does it take you to complete a sketch like that? Do you draw it all in one sitting? When I draw, it takes me about a week to finish one, doing anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour at a time. Well anyhow, good work as always! I also like your new Vocal Booth. You know I listen KUSC, and all of their DJs have been broadcasting from their closets, too. At first I was wondering why, and then I figured it must be because of the dead air. Maybe in a living room or bedroom the sound would bounce around too much? Best of luck on your recordings of "the all-important vocal melodies" as I call them, lol. The more I see how many simple chord progressions were used in hundreds of classic songs, the more important I consider the vocal line. In fact, today's chord progression is for "Hard Day's Night" by The Beatles. It's got a G-C-G to start the verse, but then moves down to G-F, just like in "Ramblin' Man" by The Allman Brothers. So there you have two songs using similar chord progressions, but with very different vocal lines and overall sounds and styles. Interesting, too, is that in both songs, when the guitar drops down briefly to F, the vocal goes higher. In rock music, the building blocks are the same over and over again, but the layers on top - the vocals, guitar sounds, harmonies, etc. - make all the difference. Go back and listen to Buddy Holly, see how much mileage he got out of E-A-B. He was one of the kings of simple inventiveness, not to mention great guitar sound...... :)
Last night's movie was another good one : "Attack of the Giant Leeches"(1959), in which a Park Ranger (Ken Clark) and a Doctor (Tyler McVey) try to solve the disappearance of several yokels in a Florida swamp. Roger Corman was in the producer's chair this time, having farmed out the director's job to Bernard Kowalski, who does an admirable job with a pared-down script.
An old geezer is down at the swamp one night, checking his otter traps when he hears a rustling noise in the reeds. Suddenly his eyes bulge and he screams, then starts blasting away. After emptying his rifle into Whatever It Was, he hurries back to the local roadhouse to tell his story, adamant when the rednecks on hand laugh at him.
"I'm tellin' ya it weren't no gator! I've seen enough gators in my time to know what one looks like. This thing had........arms! It had arms like one a them octopuses, and it had great big suckers, like.....whataya call 'em?...........tentacles, yeah! But it wadn't no octopus, neither. I filled it full o' shot and it didn't flinch"!
The 'Necks at the bar laugh him off and his tale is quickly forgotten. The bar's owner, for one, has other things on his mind. His purty little wife is cheatin' on him with the town stud. When he catches them together, he forces them down to the edge of the swamp at gunpoint. While the deceitful duo beg for their lives, he makes them tread out into the water. The night is black and they are terrified. Curiously, there are no gators around, a strange fact noted by Dave, the bar owner and jilted husband. "Y'all got nuthin' to worry about. The gators must be takin' a nap. You two are gonna stay out there until you learn your lesson".
"Oh please Dave, please Dave....we swear we'll never do it again"! Cheat, that is.
But just as Dave is getting ready to let them come ashore, they are grabbed by a gigantic slimy shape that takes them quickly under the surface. The thing was hard to identify in the darkness. Dave's not sure what it was, he tells the Sheriff, who remains skeptical. "I think you shot 'em both and dumped 'em in the swamp", he replies. Dave swears it isn't true. "I was just tryin' to scare 'em, really"!
The Sheriff, eager to solve the case, offers a reward (pronounced REE-ward) of fifty dollars to anyone who can locate the bodies. Two moonshiners take up the task and set out on their canoe the next morning, gator poles in hand, to search for the missing couple. They too notice the absence of the alligators. "Should be 70-80 of 'em in a swamp this size........what could be makin' em leave"?
They're about to find out. Now there are four people missing. The Sheriff is a cantankerous sort who figures they all got what was coming to them : a couple of cheaters and two drunks. He wants nothing more than to shut down the case, but the Park Ranger, a clean-cut good guy (and non-Redneck), is determined to solve the mystery. He enlists the help of the town Doctor and the pair make an exploratory scuba dive into the depths of the swamp. While down there, the Ranger sees a Gigantic Slimy Shape suddenly swimming at him. Good thing he brought along his harpoon gun.
THH-WAKKK!
But it does little good. The Thing just swims away.
Back at the Sheriff's office, the cold, hard facts must now be faced : "Looks like ol' Cal was tellin' the truth about that Thing he shot". Yessirree, you guys should've listened in the first place!
But finding the Thing still doesn't explain what happened to the bodies of the four who went missing. "If they're in there, they shoulda floated to the surface by now".
The Park Ranger muses on this for a moment, then suggests a possibility. "You know, when I was in Italy during the war, we did some diving off the coast. Once we found a shipwreck, and in some cabins you could still come up into the room and remove your face mask. There were air pockets all through that ship, and I wonder if there might be some at the bottom of the swamp".
"Like in caves, you mean"?
"Exactly. Now, old Cal was saying that Thing had tentacles, like an octopus, only he first called them 'suckers'. We've been wondering why the bodies haven't floated to the surface, but is it possible they aren't dead? Maybe that Thing is a Giant Leech, and instead of killing those folks, it's feeding off them. What if it's got them trapped in an underwater cave and is slowly draining their blood"?
Okay, it's me again. Sorry to be so graphic but that's exactly what's going on. I felt it wasn't right to soft-pedal it, so I'm giving it to ya straight. It's true : The Thing is A Giant Leech, and it is indeed feeding off the missing folks at the bottom of the swamp. Making matters worse, there's two of them. Bullets and harpoons haven't done any good, so it's time to bring out the explosives.
Leo Gordon wrote the script this time for Roger Corman, but like Charles B. Griffith he's got a good ear for dialogue, in this case the slang of the South (which I have humbly tried to recreate, haha). Also like Griffith, he dispenses with anything extraneous. Gordon doesn't share Griffith's penchant for weirdness - there aren't any philosophical rants coming from his leeches - but he is able to write a multi-layered story that has a fair amount of character development, mixed into the "whodunit" plot with a layer of hard science as the icing (supplied by the presence of the Doctor and Park Ranger). Gordon knows his Backwoods Culture, and in that sense "Attack of the Giant Leeches" has an authentic Southern feel along the same lines as "Eaten Alive", haha. All of the solid production values of the better Corman movies are on display here, and the acting is serviceable and sometimes better. The always-entertaining Bruno veSota, a Corman vet, stars as Dave Walker the bar owner.
I give "Attack of the Giant Leeches" Two Big Thumbs Up. Ironically, it was one Creature Feature that could've benefited from ten or fifteen extra minutes, just to flesh out the plot a little more. When was the last time you heard me say a movie should be longer, lol. Especially a short one. But I say it because "Attack" was well made and had a solid, forward moving story. I would have welcomed the extra minutes, but it's still one of the Better Cormans at it's finished length. Highly Recommended for Rubber Suited Monster fans. //////
That's all I know for the present. It was 101 degrees today, still warm as I write. It's time for my CSUN walk, then a little music to go with my reading. I'm excited because I got a new CD in the mail : "Early Iberian Organ Music" on the Naxos label. Oh boy! See you later tonight at the Usual Time. :):)
Tons and tons of love! xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
Last night's movie was another good one : "Attack of the Giant Leeches"(1959), in which a Park Ranger (Ken Clark) and a Doctor (Tyler McVey) try to solve the disappearance of several yokels in a Florida swamp. Roger Corman was in the producer's chair this time, having farmed out the director's job to Bernard Kowalski, who does an admirable job with a pared-down script.
An old geezer is down at the swamp one night, checking his otter traps when he hears a rustling noise in the reeds. Suddenly his eyes bulge and he screams, then starts blasting away. After emptying his rifle into Whatever It Was, he hurries back to the local roadhouse to tell his story, adamant when the rednecks on hand laugh at him.
"I'm tellin' ya it weren't no gator! I've seen enough gators in my time to know what one looks like. This thing had........arms! It had arms like one a them octopuses, and it had great big suckers, like.....whataya call 'em?...........tentacles, yeah! But it wadn't no octopus, neither. I filled it full o' shot and it didn't flinch"!
The 'Necks at the bar laugh him off and his tale is quickly forgotten. The bar's owner, for one, has other things on his mind. His purty little wife is cheatin' on him with the town stud. When he catches them together, he forces them down to the edge of the swamp at gunpoint. While the deceitful duo beg for their lives, he makes them tread out into the water. The night is black and they are terrified. Curiously, there are no gators around, a strange fact noted by Dave, the bar owner and jilted husband. "Y'all got nuthin' to worry about. The gators must be takin' a nap. You two are gonna stay out there until you learn your lesson".
"Oh please Dave, please Dave....we swear we'll never do it again"! Cheat, that is.
But just as Dave is getting ready to let them come ashore, they are grabbed by a gigantic slimy shape that takes them quickly under the surface. The thing was hard to identify in the darkness. Dave's not sure what it was, he tells the Sheriff, who remains skeptical. "I think you shot 'em both and dumped 'em in the swamp", he replies. Dave swears it isn't true. "I was just tryin' to scare 'em, really"!
The Sheriff, eager to solve the case, offers a reward (pronounced REE-ward) of fifty dollars to anyone who can locate the bodies. Two moonshiners take up the task and set out on their canoe the next morning, gator poles in hand, to search for the missing couple. They too notice the absence of the alligators. "Should be 70-80 of 'em in a swamp this size........what could be makin' em leave"?
They're about to find out. Now there are four people missing. The Sheriff is a cantankerous sort who figures they all got what was coming to them : a couple of cheaters and two drunks. He wants nothing more than to shut down the case, but the Park Ranger, a clean-cut good guy (and non-Redneck), is determined to solve the mystery. He enlists the help of the town Doctor and the pair make an exploratory scuba dive into the depths of the swamp. While down there, the Ranger sees a Gigantic Slimy Shape suddenly swimming at him. Good thing he brought along his harpoon gun.
THH-WAKKK!
But it does little good. The Thing just swims away.
Back at the Sheriff's office, the cold, hard facts must now be faced : "Looks like ol' Cal was tellin' the truth about that Thing he shot". Yessirree, you guys should've listened in the first place!
But finding the Thing still doesn't explain what happened to the bodies of the four who went missing. "If they're in there, they shoulda floated to the surface by now".
The Park Ranger muses on this for a moment, then suggests a possibility. "You know, when I was in Italy during the war, we did some diving off the coast. Once we found a shipwreck, and in some cabins you could still come up into the room and remove your face mask. There were air pockets all through that ship, and I wonder if there might be some at the bottom of the swamp".
"Like in caves, you mean"?
"Exactly. Now, old Cal was saying that Thing had tentacles, like an octopus, only he first called them 'suckers'. We've been wondering why the bodies haven't floated to the surface, but is it possible they aren't dead? Maybe that Thing is a Giant Leech, and instead of killing those folks, it's feeding off them. What if it's got them trapped in an underwater cave and is slowly draining their blood"?
Okay, it's me again. Sorry to be so graphic but that's exactly what's going on. I felt it wasn't right to soft-pedal it, so I'm giving it to ya straight. It's true : The Thing is A Giant Leech, and it is indeed feeding off the missing folks at the bottom of the swamp. Making matters worse, there's two of them. Bullets and harpoons haven't done any good, so it's time to bring out the explosives.
Leo Gordon wrote the script this time for Roger Corman, but like Charles B. Griffith he's got a good ear for dialogue, in this case the slang of the South (which I have humbly tried to recreate, haha). Also like Griffith, he dispenses with anything extraneous. Gordon doesn't share Griffith's penchant for weirdness - there aren't any philosophical rants coming from his leeches - but he is able to write a multi-layered story that has a fair amount of character development, mixed into the "whodunit" plot with a layer of hard science as the icing (supplied by the presence of the Doctor and Park Ranger). Gordon knows his Backwoods Culture, and in that sense "Attack of the Giant Leeches" has an authentic Southern feel along the same lines as "Eaten Alive", haha. All of the solid production values of the better Corman movies are on display here, and the acting is serviceable and sometimes better. The always-entertaining Bruno veSota, a Corman vet, stars as Dave Walker the bar owner.
I give "Attack of the Giant Leeches" Two Big Thumbs Up. Ironically, it was one Creature Feature that could've benefited from ten or fifteen extra minutes, just to flesh out the plot a little more. When was the last time you heard me say a movie should be longer, lol. Especially a short one. But I say it because "Attack" was well made and had a solid, forward moving story. I would have welcomed the extra minutes, but it's still one of the Better Cormans at it's finished length. Highly Recommended for Rubber Suited Monster fans. //////
That's all I know for the present. It was 101 degrees today, still warm as I write. It's time for my CSUN walk, then a little music to go with my reading. I'm excited because I got a new CD in the mail : "Early Iberian Organ Music" on the Naxos label. Oh boy! See you later tonight at the Usual Time. :):)
Tons and tons of love! xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
Monday, May 4, 2020
"Monstrosity" starring Marjorie Eaton and Frank Gerstle
Tonight we bounced back from the stupendously cretinous experience of "Mesa of Lost Women" to enjoy one of the weirdest pictures we've seen so far : "Monstrosity"(1963). In my searches I've been wary of venturing too far into the 1960s. Sci-Fi took a dive by the middle of that decade as cultural changes altered the landscape of the movie industry. There were still cheesy monster movies, but now they'd lost their Atomic Age flavor, which was replaced by elements of sex, drugs and rock n' roll. As the 60s progressed, many B-movies of all genres were filtered through the Generation Gap, with an emphasis on rebellion or psychedelic experimentation, and what happened in sci-fi was that the conservative, science-based ingredients of 1950s America were lost. The studio system also broke down around this time, and while we've been viewing independent, low-budget movies during the quarantine, that style of filmmaking - no matter how inept at times - was still influenced by the studio formula. Free form experimentation in cinema didn't begin until the mid-60s, and while it worked well in the hands of the European auteurs, the same can't be said for most American efforts, which is why so many of our films from that era look dated nowdays.
Fortunately, if you draw the line around 1962/63, you can still find a few movies that retain the '50s atom splitting ethos while adding a dash of early 60s neurosis brought on by extreme mental breakdown flicks from the new decade, like "Psycho" and "Baby Jane". Cutting bait at this point also ensures the film will usually be in black and white, color being in this reviewer's opinion the Great Ruiner of Science Fiction (with some notable exceptions of course).
Such were the boundaries in which we took a chance on "Monstrosity", and it paid off. The movie wasted no time in getting to the good stuff.
A Mad Scientist (Frank Gerstle) is working in his laboratory in the basement of a mansion. I have to butt in right away to say that it might be Greystone in Beverly Hills. I'm not certain about that but the movie was shot in Los Angeles and I don't know what other mansion you could use on such a low budget. I will conclude my intrusion by adding that the scientist's lab is one of the best ones we've seen. You could call it an Industrial Strength Radiation Lab. Okay, so back to the plot. We see him through the window of his operating tank. He's wearing a hazmat suit with face shield, checking on the status of his latest creation, a young woman - recently deceased - whom he has tried to reanimate. He's only succeeded in bringing her back to Zombie status, but it's an improvement on his earlier works, all of which involved brain transplants - from animal to human.
He has a henchman, for instance, who wanders the yard like a guard dog, and that's because he is one, in a manner of speaking. The guy was the recipient of a dog's brain in a previous operation. Now he's got big teeth and a rubber nose. He doesn't say much but he growls a lot.
So the Doc has proven he can transplant brains. Now he has to show he can do it human-to-human. You see, he is being bankrolled by the Old Lady (Marjorie Eaton) who owns the mansion. She is rich beyond belief and rules over him with an iron fist. She keeps the Doc afloat, with the proviso that he will eventually transplant her brain into the body of a beautiful young woman. She hates the idea of getting old and now, with the ongoing success of the doctor's experiments, she won't have to.
The Doc does his own dirty work, but has attracted the attention of the police by breaking into crypts at the local cemetery. This is where he's been obtaining his bodies, but it's off limits now that the heat is on. Besides, he hasn't yet demonstrated the ability to restore a corpse to a "fully functioning" state. The Old Lady isn't shelling out millions to become a brain-dead Barbie Doll; she wants to get her money's worth and live life to the fullest. Her great regret is that she's never experienced true love. Men have only ever wanted her for her money. Now she's gonna show them, but first she's gotta get into that Youthful New Bod, and it's gotta be in full working order.
"The cemetery's out"!, she tells the Doctor. "I can't have the police coming here. What about a living transplant? Could you perform one? I'm getting tired of waiting".
After considering the possibility, the Doctor answers in the affirmative. He's not certain he could pull off a Live One, but he doesn't wanna lose his grant so he tells the Old Lady what she wants to hear. "Yes, I can do it. But we're going need a donor. How should we go about getting one"?
The lady puts an ad in the paper for housekeepers and the response is overwhelming, leaving her plenty of candidates to choose from. She selects three young women, all from foreign countries, the reason being that they will be too far from home to run away when they discover their fate. Also, she can hold immigration law over their heads. After careful examination of each lass (taking of body measurements, etc.), the Old Lady picks "Bea" (Judy Bamber) from England, a statuesque beauty with a vibrant manner. The Doc asks for one last preliminary experiment to ensure all systems are go, so the lady gifts him with "Anita" (Lisa Lang), one of the rejected housekeepers. He's been wanting a cat to go along with his dog, so he takes the brain of Xerxes, his black kitty, and transplants it into the head of Anita. Now she's climbing the furniture, clawing the curtains and generally hissing a lot. Bea doesn't understand her behavior and tries to talk to Anita, but this only causes her to run up to the roof, where she perches on the parapet. When Bea comes up after her, Anita claws her eye out. Now her pretty face is ruined! She can no longer be used for the transplant. Boy is the Old Lady pissed off.
Fortunately for the Doc, there is one housekeeper still available, the pert "Nina" (Erika Peters) from Germany. She's not the knockout Bea was but she's not unattractive either. "She'll do. Just don't louse her up like you did the other one". Nina, however, is on to the Doc's scheme. She's already plotted her escape through a passageway in the basement. The problem with this route is that it will take her within biting distance of the Dog Man, who's chained up right next to the door. She's gonna have to chance it, though. It's either that, or she's gonna become the Old Lady by tomorrow morning. Or the Old Lady is gonna become her. Something like that. Anyway, yeah! It's all as Weird as it sounds, and doggone good, too. It's professionally made, moreso than many of the films we've been watching, featuring excellent, multi-angled camera work (at times reminiscent of Hitchcock movies). It's got creepy lighting and better than average acting from TV veteran Gerstle and "Old Lady" Marjorie Eaton, who was in movies as diverse as "Mary Poppins" and "Revenge of the Jedi". There is good location footage from Burbank Airport, the 101 Freeway (in 1963!), and inside the mansion itself. And as macabre as the story sounds, it never descends into being sick or gross. It's always played from the classic Mad Scientist angle, where he believes he's doing the right thing. :)
I can't for the life of me understand why "Monstrosity" has but a 2.9 rating on IMDB. It's production values alone should rate it higher than that. "Mesa of Lost Women" has a 2.7 and this film is light years better. Well, there's no accounting for taste I suppose, especially in brain transplant movies, but I for one admired it greatly. As such, I'm gonna give "Monstrosity" Two Big Thumbs Up". It's a tight 65 minuter that doesn't waste time on the boring stuff. It gives you what you want and then some. Highly recommended. ////
That's all for the moment. Time for yet another CSUN walk. See you a bit later, at the Usual Time.
Tons of love! xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
Fortunately, if you draw the line around 1962/63, you can still find a few movies that retain the '50s atom splitting ethos while adding a dash of early 60s neurosis brought on by extreme mental breakdown flicks from the new decade, like "Psycho" and "Baby Jane". Cutting bait at this point also ensures the film will usually be in black and white, color being in this reviewer's opinion the Great Ruiner of Science Fiction (with some notable exceptions of course).
Such were the boundaries in which we took a chance on "Monstrosity", and it paid off. The movie wasted no time in getting to the good stuff.
A Mad Scientist (Frank Gerstle) is working in his laboratory in the basement of a mansion. I have to butt in right away to say that it might be Greystone in Beverly Hills. I'm not certain about that but the movie was shot in Los Angeles and I don't know what other mansion you could use on such a low budget. I will conclude my intrusion by adding that the scientist's lab is one of the best ones we've seen. You could call it an Industrial Strength Radiation Lab. Okay, so back to the plot. We see him through the window of his operating tank. He's wearing a hazmat suit with face shield, checking on the status of his latest creation, a young woman - recently deceased - whom he has tried to reanimate. He's only succeeded in bringing her back to Zombie status, but it's an improvement on his earlier works, all of which involved brain transplants - from animal to human.
He has a henchman, for instance, who wanders the yard like a guard dog, and that's because he is one, in a manner of speaking. The guy was the recipient of a dog's brain in a previous operation. Now he's got big teeth and a rubber nose. He doesn't say much but he growls a lot.
So the Doc has proven he can transplant brains. Now he has to show he can do it human-to-human. You see, he is being bankrolled by the Old Lady (Marjorie Eaton) who owns the mansion. She is rich beyond belief and rules over him with an iron fist. She keeps the Doc afloat, with the proviso that he will eventually transplant her brain into the body of a beautiful young woman. She hates the idea of getting old and now, with the ongoing success of the doctor's experiments, she won't have to.
The Doc does his own dirty work, but has attracted the attention of the police by breaking into crypts at the local cemetery. This is where he's been obtaining his bodies, but it's off limits now that the heat is on. Besides, he hasn't yet demonstrated the ability to restore a corpse to a "fully functioning" state. The Old Lady isn't shelling out millions to become a brain-dead Barbie Doll; she wants to get her money's worth and live life to the fullest. Her great regret is that she's never experienced true love. Men have only ever wanted her for her money. Now she's gonna show them, but first she's gotta get into that Youthful New Bod, and it's gotta be in full working order.
"The cemetery's out"!, she tells the Doctor. "I can't have the police coming here. What about a living transplant? Could you perform one? I'm getting tired of waiting".
After considering the possibility, the Doctor answers in the affirmative. He's not certain he could pull off a Live One, but he doesn't wanna lose his grant so he tells the Old Lady what she wants to hear. "Yes, I can do it. But we're going need a donor. How should we go about getting one"?
The lady puts an ad in the paper for housekeepers and the response is overwhelming, leaving her plenty of candidates to choose from. She selects three young women, all from foreign countries, the reason being that they will be too far from home to run away when they discover their fate. Also, she can hold immigration law over their heads. After careful examination of each lass (taking of body measurements, etc.), the Old Lady picks "Bea" (Judy Bamber) from England, a statuesque beauty with a vibrant manner. The Doc asks for one last preliminary experiment to ensure all systems are go, so the lady gifts him with "Anita" (Lisa Lang), one of the rejected housekeepers. He's been wanting a cat to go along with his dog, so he takes the brain of Xerxes, his black kitty, and transplants it into the head of Anita. Now she's climbing the furniture, clawing the curtains and generally hissing a lot. Bea doesn't understand her behavior and tries to talk to Anita, but this only causes her to run up to the roof, where she perches on the parapet. When Bea comes up after her, Anita claws her eye out. Now her pretty face is ruined! She can no longer be used for the transplant. Boy is the Old Lady pissed off.
Fortunately for the Doc, there is one housekeeper still available, the pert "Nina" (Erika Peters) from Germany. She's not the knockout Bea was but she's not unattractive either. "She'll do. Just don't louse her up like you did the other one". Nina, however, is on to the Doc's scheme. She's already plotted her escape through a passageway in the basement. The problem with this route is that it will take her within biting distance of the Dog Man, who's chained up right next to the door. She's gonna have to chance it, though. It's either that, or she's gonna become the Old Lady by tomorrow morning. Or the Old Lady is gonna become her. Something like that. Anyway, yeah! It's all as Weird as it sounds, and doggone good, too. It's professionally made, moreso than many of the films we've been watching, featuring excellent, multi-angled camera work (at times reminiscent of Hitchcock movies). It's got creepy lighting and better than average acting from TV veteran Gerstle and "Old Lady" Marjorie Eaton, who was in movies as diverse as "Mary Poppins" and "Revenge of the Jedi". There is good location footage from Burbank Airport, the 101 Freeway (in 1963!), and inside the mansion itself. And as macabre as the story sounds, it never descends into being sick or gross. It's always played from the classic Mad Scientist angle, where he believes he's doing the right thing. :)
I can't for the life of me understand why "Monstrosity" has but a 2.9 rating on IMDB. It's production values alone should rate it higher than that. "Mesa of Lost Women" has a 2.7 and this film is light years better. Well, there's no accounting for taste I suppose, especially in brain transplant movies, but I for one admired it greatly. As such, I'm gonna give "Monstrosity" Two Big Thumbs Up". It's a tight 65 minuter that doesn't waste time on the boring stuff. It gives you what you want and then some. Highly recommended. ////
That's all for the moment. Time for yet another CSUN walk. See you a bit later, at the Usual Time.
Tons of love! xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
Sunday, May 3, 2020
"Mesa of Lost Women", The New Champ for Worst Movie Ever Made + Elizabeth
This blog was begun Saturday night May 2nd and completed the following evening :
Here's another good chord progression for ya : the one in "Ramblin' Man" by The Allman Bothers. It's basically a combination of G-C-D but with a G-F thrown in at the beginning of the verse and an Em added toward the end. Google it for the specifics. It's another one that when I start playin' it, I can't stop lol. It causes a major "earworm" as they say. I was trying to learn the solo because I love Dickey Betts. His playing is so melodic, and he shows what you can do with just a simple pentatonic scale if you hit all the right notes. :)
On to tonight's movie :
News Flash, folks : We've uncovered The Worst Film Ever Made. Forget "Plan 9", "Robot Monster" and even "The Incredible Petrified World". I'm gonna go out on a limb and say forget even the films of Arch Hall Jr. I wasn't prepared for the unequivocal awfulness of "Mesa of Lost Women"(1953) until I sat through it tonight, and friends, all else pales in comparison.
I first noticed the title several weeks ago, when I began looking up public domain movies to watch during seclusion. Over and over, I kept seeing "Mesa of Lost Women" popping up everywhere - on Google, on IMDB lists, in fan references, and yes.......on lists of Worst Movies Ever Made. That alone wouldn't have stopped me; witness "The Beast of Yucca Flats". I watched that masterpiece in it's entirety and even found something to like in it's Zen-like rhythms. But "Mesa"?.......well, I kept putting it off for the usual reason regarding an unseen cheesy film : the title didn't grab me. It sounded like an exploitation flick (i.e. "Lost Women") and while I claim no moral high ground in life, the fact remains that exploitation pictures are boring.
Howwwevver........we are constantly looking for films to support our nightly habit and we're can't be as choosy as we once were. The pickins are getting slimmer every day, and despite my success in Gooling new lists and titles, there are some nights when I can't find a selected film on Youtube, or when the print is too lousy to watch, and when that happens I have to have a back-up plan. What I do is pick something I've known about but put on the back burner due to suspected crumminess, like "Yucca Flats" or "They Saved Hitler's Brain". We got lucky with the former due to it's theraputic benefits (which many have noted), but with the latter we bottomed out. The good news, though, for "Hitler's Brain" is that it's now only the "Second Worst Movie of All Time", because there's a new champion to crown: "Mesa of Lost Women". Yessiree, I know it's hard to believe, but listen up and I'll tell ya how it came to earn the title.
Surprisingly enough, the film starts out with promise. We see an aerial shot of the "Muerto Desert" in Mexico. Craggy rock formations tower over the foreboding landscape. A grim-voiced narrator (Lyle Talbot) speaks rhetorically of man's arrogance in thinking himself superior to the insect world, which outnumbers him by the billions. "The Insect, adaptable to any condition or climate, uncomplaining and without want, needing only the basics of survival. Man, on the other hand, proud and foolhardy, thinking himself invincible, above other creatures, including the spider. It is only when Man gets in over his head that he realises how helpless he truly is, but by then it is often too late".
A man and a woman stagger from a canyon, dehydrated and near death. Lucky for them, a geologist is exploring the desert in his jeep. He and his partner rescue the couple and take them to the hospital where they tell an Astounding Tale. Here we enter into flashback mode, and : The man had been a pilot for a wealthy European named Jan Van Croft. Mr. Van Croft had come to know a scientist named Masterson who in turn knows a Brilliant Doctor named Aranya (played by "Uncle Fester" Jackie Coogan). Aranya is doing research into insect biology with a view toward introducing spider genetics into human beings. He believes this will make humans more durable, able to survive even nuclear war. He's aware his studies are controversial, so he's built his laboratory in the most remote place possible, at the top of a 600 foot mesa in the middle of the desert. It's accessible only by plane, which is how Dr. Masterson arrives. He is planning to work with Dr. Aranya, until Aranya shows him around the lab. He's got an awesome setup, with lots of levers, scopes and bubbling beakers. So far we have a decent beginning to the movie. Fester......er, I mean "Dr. Aranya"....then trots out the Prime Specimen from his initial experiments. Her name is Tarantella (Tandra Quinn). She looks human enough, but she's got an unnerving stare and she hovers close to Dr. Masterson as if sizing him up for prey.
Dr. Aranya explains that she's undergone arachnid gene splicing and her body has already adapted to the changes. "She may live several hundred years", he remarks, adding that she can grow a new limb should she lose one. He leaves unsaid what she uses for food, but Masterson has heard enough. "This is evil! You are evil, and I'm going to put a stop to this"! Well, that's what he thinks, because no sooner does he shoot his mouth off than Fester nods to Tarantella, who grabs a needle and shoots Masterson up with something that knocks him cold. The next we see of him, he's in the Booby Hatch at "Amerexico Hospital", having gone completely insane. From now till the end of the film, he will wear an Idiot Grin that never leaves his face. If you remember the scene in "Eraserhead" where Mary's Dad asks Henry, "So, Henry.......whataya know"? and then freezes in place with an overstretched smile, well..........that's what happens to Dr. Masterson, but in this case it lasts for the whole movie.
We're now about ten or twelve minutes in, and we've had a decent setup so far, but that's all we're gonna get and we've still got an hour to go.
The scene then cuts to a Mexican restaurant where Tarantella is performing an Interminable Dance. This goes on forever (or does it only seem that way?), until Dr. Masterson, having escaped from the asylum, enters the place and shoots her. She falls to the floor but doesn't die; remember she's got spider genes. Masterson just stands there. In addition to his grin, his gun will become an Everpresent Fixture on his person. He will point it at Odd Angles for the rest of the picture, smiling the entire time.
It's a good thing The Pilot and the Wealthy European man are at the restaurant to spirit Masterson away, otherwise he'd stand there all night. The Wealthy Man has a Young American Girlfriend with him. The four of them will get his plane and fly back to the top of the mesa to try and stop Dr. Aranya, but friends, this isn't near as exciting as it sounds. In fact, being in a coma might be more stimulating, because after their plane lands, the "director" chooses to show every.........last.......step.......of their trek to the laboratory. Here he's got a fairly cool lab with all the bells and whistles, and he's got Uncle Fester as his Mad Scientist for cryin' out loud, but does he use them? Hardly not even! We only get a few minutes of Fester at the beginning and thirty seconds more at the very end of the film. If you thought Tarantella's Spider Dance dragged on ad nauseum, wait til you get to the Jungle Hike. There you will learn the meaning of the word "Tedious". Occasionally some midgets will be sprinkled about the scenery. These guys are meant to represent the males of the spider genera, smaller and less powerful than the females. We see some of them too, but they have no special costumes save for long fingernails. They look more like Roller Derby teammates than tarantulas.
Oy! No matter what I tell you, no words can convey the monotony that is felt by sitting through this mind-numbing excuse for a picture.
But there is one more thing I have to report, a factor so annoying that it caused almost every IMDB reviewer to comment. There is a soundtrack to this film that should require a warning label. It consists of a single relentless loop, perhaps 20-30 seconds long, of a rapidly strummed flamenco guitar melody. And while you can thank your lucky stars it does not play for the entirety of the film's 70 minutes, it nevertheless is repeated often enough to finish the job of driving you crazy, if the movie itself hasn't done so already. One commentator remarked that the guitarist must've developed carpal tunnel syndrome by the end of the shoot. I don't doubt it, but he does just as much or more damage to the viewer's eardrums and brain cells.
Having said all of this, if you still want to watch "Mesa of Lost Women" - just so you can say you've seen The Worst Movie Ever Made - then by all means have at it. Just don't say I didn't warn ya. Two Thumbs Down to the dead center core of the Earth for this one. Yikes and My Goodness is it bad! /////
Well, needless to say we will try to do better this evening. We can't help but do so, there is only one way we can go after that movie, and that's Up! :)
Elizabeth, I enjoyed your pictures from the river this morning. That is indeed your Happy Place. The picture of the trees looks like a beautiful spot to relax and listen to the water. Thanks for including the sound again, this time I could hear the birds chirping, something I always enjoy. I like point out the birdsong to Pearl when we go on our neighborhood walks. One of these days when this lockdown ends, I'll be back on the job and the parks will be back open too. I look forward to both of those things. I also liked the poem that you included in your post. The words fit the scene to a "t".
That's all for the time being. Now I will go on my CSUN walk, back in a little while at the Usual Time.
Tons of love! xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
Here's another good chord progression for ya : the one in "Ramblin' Man" by The Allman Bothers. It's basically a combination of G-C-D but with a G-F thrown in at the beginning of the verse and an Em added toward the end. Google it for the specifics. It's another one that when I start playin' it, I can't stop lol. It causes a major "earworm" as they say. I was trying to learn the solo because I love Dickey Betts. His playing is so melodic, and he shows what you can do with just a simple pentatonic scale if you hit all the right notes. :)
On to tonight's movie :
News Flash, folks : We've uncovered The Worst Film Ever Made. Forget "Plan 9", "Robot Monster" and even "The Incredible Petrified World". I'm gonna go out on a limb and say forget even the films of Arch Hall Jr. I wasn't prepared for the unequivocal awfulness of "Mesa of Lost Women"(1953) until I sat through it tonight, and friends, all else pales in comparison.
I first noticed the title several weeks ago, when I began looking up public domain movies to watch during seclusion. Over and over, I kept seeing "Mesa of Lost Women" popping up everywhere - on Google, on IMDB lists, in fan references, and yes.......on lists of Worst Movies Ever Made. That alone wouldn't have stopped me; witness "The Beast of Yucca Flats". I watched that masterpiece in it's entirety and even found something to like in it's Zen-like rhythms. But "Mesa"?.......well, I kept putting it off for the usual reason regarding an unseen cheesy film : the title didn't grab me. It sounded like an exploitation flick (i.e. "Lost Women") and while I claim no moral high ground in life, the fact remains that exploitation pictures are boring.
Howwwevver........we are constantly looking for films to support our nightly habit and we're can't be as choosy as we once were. The pickins are getting slimmer every day, and despite my success in Gooling new lists and titles, there are some nights when I can't find a selected film on Youtube, or when the print is too lousy to watch, and when that happens I have to have a back-up plan. What I do is pick something I've known about but put on the back burner due to suspected crumminess, like "Yucca Flats" or "They Saved Hitler's Brain". We got lucky with the former due to it's theraputic benefits (which many have noted), but with the latter we bottomed out. The good news, though, for "Hitler's Brain" is that it's now only the "Second Worst Movie of All Time", because there's a new champion to crown: "Mesa of Lost Women". Yessiree, I know it's hard to believe, but listen up and I'll tell ya how it came to earn the title.
Surprisingly enough, the film starts out with promise. We see an aerial shot of the "Muerto Desert" in Mexico. Craggy rock formations tower over the foreboding landscape. A grim-voiced narrator (Lyle Talbot) speaks rhetorically of man's arrogance in thinking himself superior to the insect world, which outnumbers him by the billions. "The Insect, adaptable to any condition or climate, uncomplaining and without want, needing only the basics of survival. Man, on the other hand, proud and foolhardy, thinking himself invincible, above other creatures, including the spider. It is only when Man gets in over his head that he realises how helpless he truly is, but by then it is often too late".
A man and a woman stagger from a canyon, dehydrated and near death. Lucky for them, a geologist is exploring the desert in his jeep. He and his partner rescue the couple and take them to the hospital where they tell an Astounding Tale. Here we enter into flashback mode, and : The man had been a pilot for a wealthy European named Jan Van Croft. Mr. Van Croft had come to know a scientist named Masterson who in turn knows a Brilliant Doctor named Aranya (played by "Uncle Fester" Jackie Coogan). Aranya is doing research into insect biology with a view toward introducing spider genetics into human beings. He believes this will make humans more durable, able to survive even nuclear war. He's aware his studies are controversial, so he's built his laboratory in the most remote place possible, at the top of a 600 foot mesa in the middle of the desert. It's accessible only by plane, which is how Dr. Masterson arrives. He is planning to work with Dr. Aranya, until Aranya shows him around the lab. He's got an awesome setup, with lots of levers, scopes and bubbling beakers. So far we have a decent beginning to the movie. Fester......er, I mean "Dr. Aranya"....then trots out the Prime Specimen from his initial experiments. Her name is Tarantella (Tandra Quinn). She looks human enough, but she's got an unnerving stare and she hovers close to Dr. Masterson as if sizing him up for prey.
Dr. Aranya explains that she's undergone arachnid gene splicing and her body has already adapted to the changes. "She may live several hundred years", he remarks, adding that she can grow a new limb should she lose one. He leaves unsaid what she uses for food, but Masterson has heard enough. "This is evil! You are evil, and I'm going to put a stop to this"! Well, that's what he thinks, because no sooner does he shoot his mouth off than Fester nods to Tarantella, who grabs a needle and shoots Masterson up with something that knocks him cold. The next we see of him, he's in the Booby Hatch at "Amerexico Hospital", having gone completely insane. From now till the end of the film, he will wear an Idiot Grin that never leaves his face. If you remember the scene in "Eraserhead" where Mary's Dad asks Henry, "So, Henry.......whataya know"? and then freezes in place with an overstretched smile, well..........that's what happens to Dr. Masterson, but in this case it lasts for the whole movie.
We're now about ten or twelve minutes in, and we've had a decent setup so far, but that's all we're gonna get and we've still got an hour to go.
The scene then cuts to a Mexican restaurant where Tarantella is performing an Interminable Dance. This goes on forever (or does it only seem that way?), until Dr. Masterson, having escaped from the asylum, enters the place and shoots her. She falls to the floor but doesn't die; remember she's got spider genes. Masterson just stands there. In addition to his grin, his gun will become an Everpresent Fixture on his person. He will point it at Odd Angles for the rest of the picture, smiling the entire time.
It's a good thing The Pilot and the Wealthy European man are at the restaurant to spirit Masterson away, otherwise he'd stand there all night. The Wealthy Man has a Young American Girlfriend with him. The four of them will get his plane and fly back to the top of the mesa to try and stop Dr. Aranya, but friends, this isn't near as exciting as it sounds. In fact, being in a coma might be more stimulating, because after their plane lands, the "director" chooses to show every.........last.......step.......of their trek to the laboratory. Here he's got a fairly cool lab with all the bells and whistles, and he's got Uncle Fester as his Mad Scientist for cryin' out loud, but does he use them? Hardly not even! We only get a few minutes of Fester at the beginning and thirty seconds more at the very end of the film. If you thought Tarantella's Spider Dance dragged on ad nauseum, wait til you get to the Jungle Hike. There you will learn the meaning of the word "Tedious". Occasionally some midgets will be sprinkled about the scenery. These guys are meant to represent the males of the spider genera, smaller and less powerful than the females. We see some of them too, but they have no special costumes save for long fingernails. They look more like Roller Derby teammates than tarantulas.
Oy! No matter what I tell you, no words can convey the monotony that is felt by sitting through this mind-numbing excuse for a picture.
But there is one more thing I have to report, a factor so annoying that it caused almost every IMDB reviewer to comment. There is a soundtrack to this film that should require a warning label. It consists of a single relentless loop, perhaps 20-30 seconds long, of a rapidly strummed flamenco guitar melody. And while you can thank your lucky stars it does not play for the entirety of the film's 70 minutes, it nevertheless is repeated often enough to finish the job of driving you crazy, if the movie itself hasn't done so already. One commentator remarked that the guitarist must've developed carpal tunnel syndrome by the end of the shoot. I don't doubt it, but he does just as much or more damage to the viewer's eardrums and brain cells.
Having said all of this, if you still want to watch "Mesa of Lost Women" - just so you can say you've seen The Worst Movie Ever Made - then by all means have at it. Just don't say I didn't warn ya. Two Thumbs Down to the dead center core of the Earth for this one. Yikes and My Goodness is it bad! /////
Well, needless to say we will try to do better this evening. We can't help but do so, there is only one way we can go after that movie, and that's Up! :)
Elizabeth, I enjoyed your pictures from the river this morning. That is indeed your Happy Place. The picture of the trees looks like a beautiful spot to relax and listen to the water. Thanks for including the sound again, this time I could hear the birds chirping, something I always enjoy. I like point out the birdsong to Pearl when we go on our neighborhood walks. One of these days when this lockdown ends, I'll be back on the job and the parks will be back open too. I look forward to both of those things. I also liked the poem that you included in your post. The words fit the scene to a "t".
That's all for the time being. Now I will go on my CSUN walk, back in a little while at the Usual Time.
Tons of love! xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
Saturday, May 2, 2020
Odds & Ends + "Beast From Haunted Cave" + Elizabeth
A few Odds & Ends before we begin :
Tonight I watched an episode of "Tombstone Territory" that had a great cast : Pat Conway, who stars as "Sheriff Hollister", with John Carradine, Dick Reeves and a young Michael Landon as The Bad Guys. I've mentioned Reeves before, he was another neighbor of ours in Reseda who lived right next door to Bill Raynor, the screenwriter for "Phantom From Space" and dozens of TV shows. Both of them lived across the street from us. "Mr. Reeves", as he was known to the neighborhood kids, drove a neat little car called a Metropolitan. His house was always dark at night and it was rumored that he had a drinking problem (he did). We kids used to knock on neighbors' doors for various reasons, usually for some kind of treat. There was The Tomato Lady around the corner who gave us salted tomato slices, and the legendary Cookie Tom, whose backyard abuts Pearl's. He doesn't live there anymore, but in the early 1960s, he had a small potted tree on his front porch that he and his wife would hang homemade cookies on for us to grab. Cookie Tom was an engineer who worked at the Marquardt plant in Van Nuys, where they built rocket thrusters for the Gemini and Apollo programs. So we had some interesting neighbors, and we'd knock on their doors, but Mom always said "don't bother Mr. Reeves". We wouldn't have anyway, because kids sense when something is wrong and Mr. Reeves rarely came out of his house.
But before that, in the 1940s and '50s, he was in literally hundreds of movies and TV episodes. He was a big man with a recognizable face and slanted eyes, and when I see him now on an old show, I get a kick out of it because he lived across the street. Mr. Reeves died in 1967, while we were still living in Reseda. I don't recall his death, but I was only 7, and he lives on anyhow, in great shows like "Tombstone Territory". Conway, Carradine, Reeves and Landon.........now that's a great cast, especially for a Western.
I'm also very much enjoying the weekly Facebook episodes of "The Von Trapped Family", featuring David Gilmour, Polly Sampson and their family, live from inside their barn, which is made up to look like a Greek cafe. Their son Charlie is the host, and every Thursday they play music, read poetry and answer fan questions in addition to promoting Polly's book. David and his daughter Romany open every broadcast with a melody from one of his solo albums that has the progression : A-Em-G-D, strummed slowly with arpeggiated "connector" notes. It's my new favorite chord progression and I can't stop playing it myself. :) If you're a fan of David, Polly or Pink Floyd, or if you just wanna hang out with some friendly and funny English people for a half hour each week, be sure to check them out. :)
I've begun two new books today, "Earth In Upheaval" by Immanuel Velikovsky, building on the theory of catastrophism he first developed in his landmark "Worlds In Collision". I'm only forty pages in, but it's already a mindblower. My second book is "The Temple of Man" by Rene Schwaller de Lubicz, a two volume "life's work" type of achievement that I discovered a few years ago through one of Dr. Farrell's books. It is about the innate knowledge hidden in Egyptian symbolism that leads to the Understanding of Existence - which sounds pretentious no doubt - but de Lubicz was an undisputed scholar in his field of hieroglyphics and he has a lot to say. The trouble, haha, is how he goes about saying it. He's profoundly intelligent, to be sure, but the first time I tried to read the book (in 2017), I had to put it aside. His use of language was so obtuse that I was unable to finish it. Since then, I have read that the translation from the original French may have been a problem, but even on the second go-round, I find myself wondering why he could not have expressed himself more clearly. Perhaps he was smoking something, lol, but in any event, this is a book you absorb, rather than comprehend (though you do that too, slowly & by osmosis). So, to recap : the Velkovsky is a page turner I can pound, but the de Lubicz is more ponderous. It'll take at least a month to finish, maybe longer. Stay tuned. ////
Okay, so now on to the business at hand, tonight I found a film called "Beast From Haunted Cave"(1959). It has the Corman imprint (brother Gene this time, as producer), but more importantly it was written by the great Charles B. Griffith, who wrote many of Roger's classics. We've been raving about Griffith for a couple weeks now, so when I saw his name on the story I knew it was gonna be a good one.
Two guys calling themselves "Mr. Smith" and "Mr. Jones" are seen casing a ski resort in Deadwood, South Dakota. They take some Polaroids of the joint and then meet up at a nearby motel with a big mustachioed dude named "Alexander"(Frank Wolff), who is planning a gold robbery at a mining office nearby. Alexander keeps Smith and Jones on a tight leash because they're a couple of dimbulbs, but he can't pull off the heist without them. Along for the ride is his girlfriend "Gypsy" (Sheila Carol), a space cadet whose running commentary falls into a time warp between the Beatnik and Hippie eras. Alexander doesn't trust Gypsy either, telling her : "Someday I'm gonna shut that pretty mouth of yours". He's a macho bully, but there's gold in them thar safe (in the mining office), so the other three put up with Alexander's tyranny.
Their plan is to create a diversion on the morning of the robbery by setting off an explosion in an abandoned mine. This will draw the town cops away so they can crack the safe and abscond, with two thick gold bars apiece. The foursome relocate to the aforementioned resort, where they will have easier access to the mine via a cross country ski route. Here they meet the proprietor "Gil" (Michael Forest), a ruggedly handsome outdoor type. Gil will also be the group's ski instructor, and it is at this point that Alexander's grip on his underlings begins to slip away, because Gil is also an Alpha Male, very self confident and charming. Right away, Gypsy is attracted to him, causing Alexander to resent Gil's presence. Mr. Jones (Richard Sinatra) is also a problem. He fancies himself a ladies' man, and right away he hits on Gil's little sister Jill, but when he sees it's not gonna happen he switches his attention to the resort's barmaid, Natalie.
That night, he takes her out to the old mine for a makeout session, but he's got a dual purpose in going there : he also needs to plant the dynamite charge for the explosion the next morning. But holy smokes, while he is deep inside the mine, Natalie comes looking for him, and then.........
A Beast appears! We only see it's long, spidery arm at first, but it's got Natalie. There's nothing Mr. Jones can do but run, so he does, and when he gets back to the resort he has no choice but to confess his screw up to Alexander, who's now doubly pissed off. "What moved you to bring a dame there"?!
"I'm sorry, Alexander! That thing came out of nowhere. I wasn't expecting it"!
"What'd it look like? Gil says there's been a cougar on the loose".
"It wasn't no cougar! It was........it was........horrible looking"!
He's right on that score, though we won't discover just how horrible till the end of the movie.
Things are going wrong with the plan now. Gypsy is off skiing with the handsome Gil. Alexander's gotta worry if she's gonna run her motor-mouth and let slip to Gil about the robbery. He's also gotta deal with the contingency of Natalie's sudden disappearance. Nitwit Jones blew it big time by leaving her up at the mine, but maybe when it explodes her body will be buried. Then she'll be forever marked as a missing person; problem solved. Even so, Alexander's gonna have to get rid of Gil at some point. The guy's a Dudley Dooright; sooner or later Gypsy will spill the beans to him and he'll go straight to the cops.
A storm is coming. The robbers are holed up for the night in a cabin halfway between the resort and the mine. With them are Gil and his housekeeper, a stout Indian woman named Small Dove. The gold heist will take place in the morning, the dynamite is set to go off at 9am. But Mr. Jones can't sleep. He's spooked by being so close to the mine.........and the horrible monster inside! He stands watch all night, rifle in hand, ready to fire away if the thing approaches. The others think he's crazy. In their minds it was a cougar that killed Natalie, if not Jones himself.
The robbery goes off as planned, but Alexander still feels the need to get rid of Gil, and a wild night results. Gil knows he's toast and has his own escape plan, which includes Gypsy. Meanwhile, Small Dove has fallen in love with Mr. Smith, but then she is carried away by the Beast and he follows, all the way to the mine, where he is cocooned alongside her. Things are falling apart for Alexander, who now has only the insane Mr. Jones by his side. They make a pact to kill all the others and split the gold two ways, so they head for the mine to fulfill the deed, and.......
Now we finally get to see the Beast, and man, lemme tell ya - you might wish you hadn't. This thing looks like Eddie from Iron Maiden if he was covered in slithery tendrils and had the legs of a spider, and a gross drooling mouth. There's still a Cheesiness Factor involved, so no worries on that score, but it's minor compared with how ugly this thing is, and how terrifying. It's a good thing I never saw this movie as a kid or I'd probably still be traumatised. This is no rubber-suited monster we're talking about but a dripping, drooping, hairy-lookin' "creation" of some kind, photographed and edited to maximum effect. Big time kudos to whoever designed this Beast, and to director Monte Hellman who saves him for just the right moment and then springs him on us full force. Wow!
You wanted a Scary Monster, you got one!
You've got a good story, too (as per usual with Griffith), one that the actors throw themselves into with vigor, especially Frank Wolff as "Alexander" and Michael Forest as "Gil". Griffith has an ear for slightly exaggerated dialogue, the way characters might talk if they were more intelligent than they actually are, or if they had more on their minds. There are classic lines in all of his scripts and there is no shortage here, including a few knee-slappers that you'll want to rewind and rewatch. You get all of that and a great Beast, too. I give "Beast From Haunted Cave" Two Big Thumbs Up. This is one creature feature you don't wanna miss, highly recommended. ////
Well, that's all for the moment. It's now Saturday night. I just had some pineapple to go with my early evening yogurt. Now I will embark on my CSUN walk. Elizabeth, I am glad you got to go to the lake. That's great that you guys don't have all your parks and beaches closed like we do. Thanks for including the sound of the lapping water in your post, it brings the lake all the way here to California. :)
Stay well, thanks for reading and I'll see you tonight at the Usual Time.
Tons of love! xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
Tonight I watched an episode of "Tombstone Territory" that had a great cast : Pat Conway, who stars as "Sheriff Hollister", with John Carradine, Dick Reeves and a young Michael Landon as The Bad Guys. I've mentioned Reeves before, he was another neighbor of ours in Reseda who lived right next door to Bill Raynor, the screenwriter for "Phantom From Space" and dozens of TV shows. Both of them lived across the street from us. "Mr. Reeves", as he was known to the neighborhood kids, drove a neat little car called a Metropolitan. His house was always dark at night and it was rumored that he had a drinking problem (he did). We kids used to knock on neighbors' doors for various reasons, usually for some kind of treat. There was The Tomato Lady around the corner who gave us salted tomato slices, and the legendary Cookie Tom, whose backyard abuts Pearl's. He doesn't live there anymore, but in the early 1960s, he had a small potted tree on his front porch that he and his wife would hang homemade cookies on for us to grab. Cookie Tom was an engineer who worked at the Marquardt plant in Van Nuys, where they built rocket thrusters for the Gemini and Apollo programs. So we had some interesting neighbors, and we'd knock on their doors, but Mom always said "don't bother Mr. Reeves". We wouldn't have anyway, because kids sense when something is wrong and Mr. Reeves rarely came out of his house.
But before that, in the 1940s and '50s, he was in literally hundreds of movies and TV episodes. He was a big man with a recognizable face and slanted eyes, and when I see him now on an old show, I get a kick out of it because he lived across the street. Mr. Reeves died in 1967, while we were still living in Reseda. I don't recall his death, but I was only 7, and he lives on anyhow, in great shows like "Tombstone Territory". Conway, Carradine, Reeves and Landon.........now that's a great cast, especially for a Western.
I'm also very much enjoying the weekly Facebook episodes of "The Von Trapped Family", featuring David Gilmour, Polly Sampson and their family, live from inside their barn, which is made up to look like a Greek cafe. Their son Charlie is the host, and every Thursday they play music, read poetry and answer fan questions in addition to promoting Polly's book. David and his daughter Romany open every broadcast with a melody from one of his solo albums that has the progression : A-Em-G-D, strummed slowly with arpeggiated "connector" notes. It's my new favorite chord progression and I can't stop playing it myself. :) If you're a fan of David, Polly or Pink Floyd, or if you just wanna hang out with some friendly and funny English people for a half hour each week, be sure to check them out. :)
I've begun two new books today, "Earth In Upheaval" by Immanuel Velikovsky, building on the theory of catastrophism he first developed in his landmark "Worlds In Collision". I'm only forty pages in, but it's already a mindblower. My second book is "The Temple of Man" by Rene Schwaller de Lubicz, a two volume "life's work" type of achievement that I discovered a few years ago through one of Dr. Farrell's books. It is about the innate knowledge hidden in Egyptian symbolism that leads to the Understanding of Existence - which sounds pretentious no doubt - but de Lubicz was an undisputed scholar in his field of hieroglyphics and he has a lot to say. The trouble, haha, is how he goes about saying it. He's profoundly intelligent, to be sure, but the first time I tried to read the book (in 2017), I had to put it aside. His use of language was so obtuse that I was unable to finish it. Since then, I have read that the translation from the original French may have been a problem, but even on the second go-round, I find myself wondering why he could not have expressed himself more clearly. Perhaps he was smoking something, lol, but in any event, this is a book you absorb, rather than comprehend (though you do that too, slowly & by osmosis). So, to recap : the Velkovsky is a page turner I can pound, but the de Lubicz is more ponderous. It'll take at least a month to finish, maybe longer. Stay tuned. ////
Okay, so now on to the business at hand, tonight I found a film called "Beast From Haunted Cave"(1959). It has the Corman imprint (brother Gene this time, as producer), but more importantly it was written by the great Charles B. Griffith, who wrote many of Roger's classics. We've been raving about Griffith for a couple weeks now, so when I saw his name on the story I knew it was gonna be a good one.
Two guys calling themselves "Mr. Smith" and "Mr. Jones" are seen casing a ski resort in Deadwood, South Dakota. They take some Polaroids of the joint and then meet up at a nearby motel with a big mustachioed dude named "Alexander"(Frank Wolff), who is planning a gold robbery at a mining office nearby. Alexander keeps Smith and Jones on a tight leash because they're a couple of dimbulbs, but he can't pull off the heist without them. Along for the ride is his girlfriend "Gypsy" (Sheila Carol), a space cadet whose running commentary falls into a time warp between the Beatnik and Hippie eras. Alexander doesn't trust Gypsy either, telling her : "Someday I'm gonna shut that pretty mouth of yours". He's a macho bully, but there's gold in them thar safe (in the mining office), so the other three put up with Alexander's tyranny.
Their plan is to create a diversion on the morning of the robbery by setting off an explosion in an abandoned mine. This will draw the town cops away so they can crack the safe and abscond, with two thick gold bars apiece. The foursome relocate to the aforementioned resort, where they will have easier access to the mine via a cross country ski route. Here they meet the proprietor "Gil" (Michael Forest), a ruggedly handsome outdoor type. Gil will also be the group's ski instructor, and it is at this point that Alexander's grip on his underlings begins to slip away, because Gil is also an Alpha Male, very self confident and charming. Right away, Gypsy is attracted to him, causing Alexander to resent Gil's presence. Mr. Jones (Richard Sinatra) is also a problem. He fancies himself a ladies' man, and right away he hits on Gil's little sister Jill, but when he sees it's not gonna happen he switches his attention to the resort's barmaid, Natalie.
That night, he takes her out to the old mine for a makeout session, but he's got a dual purpose in going there : he also needs to plant the dynamite charge for the explosion the next morning. But holy smokes, while he is deep inside the mine, Natalie comes looking for him, and then.........
A Beast appears! We only see it's long, spidery arm at first, but it's got Natalie. There's nothing Mr. Jones can do but run, so he does, and when he gets back to the resort he has no choice but to confess his screw up to Alexander, who's now doubly pissed off. "What moved you to bring a dame there"?!
"I'm sorry, Alexander! That thing came out of nowhere. I wasn't expecting it"!
"What'd it look like? Gil says there's been a cougar on the loose".
"It wasn't no cougar! It was........it was........horrible looking"!
He's right on that score, though we won't discover just how horrible till the end of the movie.
Things are going wrong with the plan now. Gypsy is off skiing with the handsome Gil. Alexander's gotta worry if she's gonna run her motor-mouth and let slip to Gil about the robbery. He's also gotta deal with the contingency of Natalie's sudden disappearance. Nitwit Jones blew it big time by leaving her up at the mine, but maybe when it explodes her body will be buried. Then she'll be forever marked as a missing person; problem solved. Even so, Alexander's gonna have to get rid of Gil at some point. The guy's a Dudley Dooright; sooner or later Gypsy will spill the beans to him and he'll go straight to the cops.
A storm is coming. The robbers are holed up for the night in a cabin halfway between the resort and the mine. With them are Gil and his housekeeper, a stout Indian woman named Small Dove. The gold heist will take place in the morning, the dynamite is set to go off at 9am. But Mr. Jones can't sleep. He's spooked by being so close to the mine.........and the horrible monster inside! He stands watch all night, rifle in hand, ready to fire away if the thing approaches. The others think he's crazy. In their minds it was a cougar that killed Natalie, if not Jones himself.
The robbery goes off as planned, but Alexander still feels the need to get rid of Gil, and a wild night results. Gil knows he's toast and has his own escape plan, which includes Gypsy. Meanwhile, Small Dove has fallen in love with Mr. Smith, but then she is carried away by the Beast and he follows, all the way to the mine, where he is cocooned alongside her. Things are falling apart for Alexander, who now has only the insane Mr. Jones by his side. They make a pact to kill all the others and split the gold two ways, so they head for the mine to fulfill the deed, and.......
Now we finally get to see the Beast, and man, lemme tell ya - you might wish you hadn't. This thing looks like Eddie from Iron Maiden if he was covered in slithery tendrils and had the legs of a spider, and a gross drooling mouth. There's still a Cheesiness Factor involved, so no worries on that score, but it's minor compared with how ugly this thing is, and how terrifying. It's a good thing I never saw this movie as a kid or I'd probably still be traumatised. This is no rubber-suited monster we're talking about but a dripping, drooping, hairy-lookin' "creation" of some kind, photographed and edited to maximum effect. Big time kudos to whoever designed this Beast, and to director Monte Hellman who saves him for just the right moment and then springs him on us full force. Wow!
You wanted a Scary Monster, you got one!
You've got a good story, too (as per usual with Griffith), one that the actors throw themselves into with vigor, especially Frank Wolff as "Alexander" and Michael Forest as "Gil". Griffith has an ear for slightly exaggerated dialogue, the way characters might talk if they were more intelligent than they actually are, or if they had more on their minds. There are classic lines in all of his scripts and there is no shortage here, including a few knee-slappers that you'll want to rewind and rewatch. You get all of that and a great Beast, too. I give "Beast From Haunted Cave" Two Big Thumbs Up. This is one creature feature you don't wanna miss, highly recommended. ////
Well, that's all for the moment. It's now Saturday night. I just had some pineapple to go with my early evening yogurt. Now I will embark on my CSUN walk. Elizabeth, I am glad you got to go to the lake. That's great that you guys don't have all your parks and beaches closed like we do. Thanks for including the sound of the lapping water in your post, it brings the lake all the way here to California. :)
Stay well, thanks for reading and I'll see you tonight at the Usual Time.
Tons of love! xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
Friday, May 1, 2020
"Frozen Alive" starring Mark Stevens & "Terror in the Midnight Sun", a cheapie Swedish Sci-Fi
Tonight we took a break from our Roger Corman Fest to watch a weird little thriller called "Frozen Alive"(1964), starring Noir hero Mark Stevens as a doctor researching the medical benefits of cryogenics. In the modern day, the process involves folks who are preserved after death, but in the movie, the researchers are studying the effects of freezing living beings, starting with monkeys. The screenwriter didn't bother to explain exactly why they were cooling the chimps, other than to see if they could be brought back to life once thawed out. I believe the premise was to stop the progress of cancer and other diseases until a cure could be found, whereas now the idea is to stop death itself.
At any rate, Stevens and his partner "Dr. Helen Weiland" (Marianne Koch) are about to give a speech in front of the Low Temperature Research Foundation, where they will announce their intention to freeze a human subject within the next year. They display the frozen monkeys to the group and all are impressed, except for one man, "Professor Hubbard" (John Longden). He draws the line at freezing a human being. As he oversees funding, the future of the project is in his hands.
"Using apes is one thing but I will not be a party to this. When the current budget runs out the project will be cancelled".
The doctors are crushed by this news and try to convince Hubbard to change his mind, but Stevens has another problem to deal with; his wife Joan (Delphi Lawrence), a reporter, is having an affair with "Tony" (Joachim Hansen), a co-worker. Tony wants Joan to leave her husband, but she's only cheating on him to make him jealous. She believes Stevens is having his own fling with the attractive Dr. Weiland. He isn't- their relationship is only professional, but that doesn't quell Joan's suspicions. She drinks and carries on with Tony and blames it all on Stevens and his project, which takes up all his time and keeps him in the company of his female partner.
One day, Joan steals Tony's gun and shows up at the lab to threaten Dr. Weiland. Stevens arrives in the nick of time and talks her down. They go home together where he once again reassures Joan that he loves only her. This time, Joan believes him. She's embarrassed by her behavior and vows to stop drinking and seeing Tony. The next day, she goes to his apartment to return the stolen gun, but Tony catches her in the act. An argument ensues when she tells him the affair is over, and while Joan is waving the gun around she accidentally shoots herself. Tony, being a shady guy to begin with, wipes the gun and stages the scene to look like a murder. Then he leaves his apartment and sets up an alibi for himself. When Joan's body is discovered by the maid, she calls the cops. They immediately suspect Dr. Stevens, Joan's husband. After all, his wife was seeing another man. The doctor must've found her at his place and shot her, happens all the time.
If you're wondering where the sci-fi went, that's why I referred to this movie as a "thriller" at the top of this review. I was expecting it to focus on the cryogenics experiment with perhaps an unusual story of freezing a man into another dimension or something along those lines, but instead it turns first into a domestic dispute and then a murder mystery. Now the police are involved and trying to locate Stevens, but wouldn't you know it, he's just this minute frozen himself. Yes indeedy. The cops show up at the cryo lab and are told by a Veddy Brrrittissh senior scientist that Dr. Stevens isn't available for questioning because he's now unconscious with a body temperature of minus 80-C.
"A likely story", right? But it's true, and a total coincidence! Stevens did not jump into the cryo tank to escape a murder charge - as we've seen, he didn't do it and besides, he doesn't even know his wife is dead. He only volunteered for chillin' because he didn't want the project to end without a human experiment. They had no one else lined up so he decided to do it himself, and it was the perfect time because he was no longer preoccupied with the turmoil at home. He and his wife had just reconciled and all was well.
Yeah, but try telling that to the cops. They aren't buying it, and the Intimidating Inspector demands a thaw-out. "We've got to talk to talk to him"!
"Yes, well I'm afraid that isn't possible"! - the senior Brit.
This tug-of-war will lead to a climax where Dr. Weiland is forced to resuscitate Stevens, to avoid being hauled off as an accomplice. When it looks like he might die in the process, she stops in mid warm-up and orders the liquid nitrogen turned on again. Will Dr. Stevens have to remain frozen forever, or will there be a last minute reversal? I can't tell ya, but it's not gonna be a huge surprise. The movie gets points for the murder mystery and for having a "cool" cryogenics lab (couldn't resist the pun), but I was a little disappointed that it wasn't the full-on sci-fi movie I was expecting. I'm still gonna give it Two Regular Thumbs Up because it only runs 66 minutes and the story never lags. See it for yourself if you're running low on Cormans.
Since we once again have a shorter than usual review, I'll give you a quickie about another flick I watched last weekend but neglected to mention because it wasn't that great and I did have some Corman Classics to write about. It was called "Terror in the Midnight Sun"(1959), a Swedish production in which a meteor strikes Lapland. At least, it looks like a meteor but on closer inspection it turns out to be an Alien Spacecraft. The "meteor effect" at the beginning of the movie is pretty good considering the budget, and so is the photography. The movie was actually filmed above the Arctic Circle, in the land of the midnight sun, so there is truth in the title, and the filmmakers get bonus points for selecting Lapland, of all places, as the setting for an Alien Invasion. But the Swedes also show that they can make as incoherent a cheapie sci-fi as any American outfit, and instead of building on the impressive opening sequence, the "director" shifts gears to spend the next twenty minutes developing a romance between the scientist sent to study the meteor, and a local ice-skating champion - the daughter of his mentor.
Huh? (yeah, that's what I was thinking too).........Ice Skating? In the middle of a Monster Movie? I mean, I know we're in Sweden, but.....
Well anyway, you just know the Ice Skater is gonna end up getting carried off by The Monster. It's just too bad they spent so much time getting to this point. Maybe they avoided the eventuality because they knew they had One Of The Worst Monsters in Sci-Fi History. He's supposed to look like a Yeti, but instead his costume resembles a lot of throw rugs sewn together with an ALF Halloween Mask where the face goes. He isn't the pilot of the spacecraft, either. There are a couple of Coneheads who are controlling him with the Standard Intent of world domination. The Coneheads are really cool and I don't understand why the director didn't make more use of them. He could've had a good movie if he did. Instead, I've gotta give "Terror in the Midnight Sun" a below average rating of just One and One Half Stars. It's worth seeing for the Coneheads and the unusual setting, but overall it was nothing to write home to Lapland about. /////
That's all I've got for the moment. See you later tonight at the Usual Time.
Tons of love! xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo
At any rate, Stevens and his partner "Dr. Helen Weiland" (Marianne Koch) are about to give a speech in front of the Low Temperature Research Foundation, where they will announce their intention to freeze a human subject within the next year. They display the frozen monkeys to the group and all are impressed, except for one man, "Professor Hubbard" (John Longden). He draws the line at freezing a human being. As he oversees funding, the future of the project is in his hands.
"Using apes is one thing but I will not be a party to this. When the current budget runs out the project will be cancelled".
The doctors are crushed by this news and try to convince Hubbard to change his mind, but Stevens has another problem to deal with; his wife Joan (Delphi Lawrence), a reporter, is having an affair with "Tony" (Joachim Hansen), a co-worker. Tony wants Joan to leave her husband, but she's only cheating on him to make him jealous. She believes Stevens is having his own fling with the attractive Dr. Weiland. He isn't- their relationship is only professional, but that doesn't quell Joan's suspicions. She drinks and carries on with Tony and blames it all on Stevens and his project, which takes up all his time and keeps him in the company of his female partner.
One day, Joan steals Tony's gun and shows up at the lab to threaten Dr. Weiland. Stevens arrives in the nick of time and talks her down. They go home together where he once again reassures Joan that he loves only her. This time, Joan believes him. She's embarrassed by her behavior and vows to stop drinking and seeing Tony. The next day, she goes to his apartment to return the stolen gun, but Tony catches her in the act. An argument ensues when she tells him the affair is over, and while Joan is waving the gun around she accidentally shoots herself. Tony, being a shady guy to begin with, wipes the gun and stages the scene to look like a murder. Then he leaves his apartment and sets up an alibi for himself. When Joan's body is discovered by the maid, she calls the cops. They immediately suspect Dr. Stevens, Joan's husband. After all, his wife was seeing another man. The doctor must've found her at his place and shot her, happens all the time.
If you're wondering where the sci-fi went, that's why I referred to this movie as a "thriller" at the top of this review. I was expecting it to focus on the cryogenics experiment with perhaps an unusual story of freezing a man into another dimension or something along those lines, but instead it turns first into a domestic dispute and then a murder mystery. Now the police are involved and trying to locate Stevens, but wouldn't you know it, he's just this minute frozen himself. Yes indeedy. The cops show up at the cryo lab and are told by a Veddy Brrrittissh senior scientist that Dr. Stevens isn't available for questioning because he's now unconscious with a body temperature of minus 80-C.
"A likely story", right? But it's true, and a total coincidence! Stevens did not jump into the cryo tank to escape a murder charge - as we've seen, he didn't do it and besides, he doesn't even know his wife is dead. He only volunteered for chillin' because he didn't want the project to end without a human experiment. They had no one else lined up so he decided to do it himself, and it was the perfect time because he was no longer preoccupied with the turmoil at home. He and his wife had just reconciled and all was well.
Yeah, but try telling that to the cops. They aren't buying it, and the Intimidating Inspector demands a thaw-out. "We've got to talk to talk to him"!
"Yes, well I'm afraid that isn't possible"! - the senior Brit.
This tug-of-war will lead to a climax where Dr. Weiland is forced to resuscitate Stevens, to avoid being hauled off as an accomplice. When it looks like he might die in the process, she stops in mid warm-up and orders the liquid nitrogen turned on again. Will Dr. Stevens have to remain frozen forever, or will there be a last minute reversal? I can't tell ya, but it's not gonna be a huge surprise. The movie gets points for the murder mystery and for having a "cool" cryogenics lab (couldn't resist the pun), but I was a little disappointed that it wasn't the full-on sci-fi movie I was expecting. I'm still gonna give it Two Regular Thumbs Up because it only runs 66 minutes and the story never lags. See it for yourself if you're running low on Cormans.
Since we once again have a shorter than usual review, I'll give you a quickie about another flick I watched last weekend but neglected to mention because it wasn't that great and I did have some Corman Classics to write about. It was called "Terror in the Midnight Sun"(1959), a Swedish production in which a meteor strikes Lapland. At least, it looks like a meteor but on closer inspection it turns out to be an Alien Spacecraft. The "meteor effect" at the beginning of the movie is pretty good considering the budget, and so is the photography. The movie was actually filmed above the Arctic Circle, in the land of the midnight sun, so there is truth in the title, and the filmmakers get bonus points for selecting Lapland, of all places, as the setting for an Alien Invasion. But the Swedes also show that they can make as incoherent a cheapie sci-fi as any American outfit, and instead of building on the impressive opening sequence, the "director" shifts gears to spend the next twenty minutes developing a romance between the scientist sent to study the meteor, and a local ice-skating champion - the daughter of his mentor.
Huh? (yeah, that's what I was thinking too).........Ice Skating? In the middle of a Monster Movie? I mean, I know we're in Sweden, but.....
Well anyway, you just know the Ice Skater is gonna end up getting carried off by The Monster. It's just too bad they spent so much time getting to this point. Maybe they avoided the eventuality because they knew they had One Of The Worst Monsters in Sci-Fi History. He's supposed to look like a Yeti, but instead his costume resembles a lot of throw rugs sewn together with an ALF Halloween Mask where the face goes. He isn't the pilot of the spacecraft, either. There are a couple of Coneheads who are controlling him with the Standard Intent of world domination. The Coneheads are really cool and I don't understand why the director didn't make more use of them. He could've had a good movie if he did. Instead, I've gotta give "Terror in the Midnight Sun" a below average rating of just One and One Half Stars. It's worth seeing for the Coneheads and the unusual setting, but overall it was nothing to write home to Lapland about. /////
That's all I've got for the moment. See you later tonight at the Usual Time.
Tons of love! xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo
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