PRIMITIVE SCREWHEADS

Monolith Monsters 1957

I was excited to see that the Monolith Monsters was coming out on Blu-ray. I ordered one before it had dropped in price because it's one of my favorite of the 1950s SF films. It sure looks nice. Makes me wish I had a larger TV. Someday.

The Blu-ray has a different aspect ratio, the box says 2.0:1 and 1.85:1, and aspect ratio is 1.33:1 on the older Universal DVD. I don't think the cropped version looked too bad. There's a lot of head room in the 1.33:1 version. I'll keep both, the Monolith Monsters comes as part of a set of ten movie set, many of which are turning up on Blu-Ray from Shout Factory right now. I don't need all of the new Blu-rays since I have that nice set. Admittedly some of those other movies don't mean as much to me as TMM and I'd rather spend that money, over 20 bucks a Blu-ray, on some movies I haven't seen before.

I was excited that the new Blu-ray had two commentaries, until I heard them. American film historian Tom Weaver doesn't seem to care for the movie much and I was certainly disappointed in his audio track. He has lots of info but his sarky attitude is annoying. Where's the fleshless skull of Paul Naschy when I need it for some ball cracking mayhem. British film historian Mark Jancovich spends much of his commentary talking about other movies and Jack Arnold. I'm still listening to it and right now he's switched to talking about Orson Wells, left wing politics, and Citizen Kane. What the Fuck? He's also pretty poor at narrating his commentary, he "uumms" and "ahhs" continuously, or his sentences trail off into awkward silence. Another disappointment. Oh, Shout Factory, what dorks you are for putting those track on the disc. Still, the movie looks great and I won't have to waste my time listening to those two commentaries again.

Monster From Green Hell 1957

I don't remember ever seeing Monster From Green Hell before. It's a 1957 giant monster movie, written by Louis Vittes and Endre Bohem, direction by Kenneth G Crane. I had heard of the writers, they worked on some decent shows in the 50s and 60.

Crane on the other hand was mostly a film editor, he only directed 4 films, When Hell Broke Loose was next and that was followed by the US scenes used in Half Human, those were followed by The Manster. An odd lot of films, huh, and all of it happened in 1957 and 1958.

The story is about a space test rocket that stays up for 40 hours and then falls into Africa. Some months later the area is plagued with suspicious animal and human death. Jim Davis plays a scientist, one of the men with the rocket, and he suspects the deaths might have something to do with his rocket. He goes off to Africa to investigate.

It's filled with what seem to be endless jungle scenes, so many in fact, they had to borrow some footage from Stanley And Livingstone. The story is fairly good, giant wasps, but the execution is weak. It was fun enough but it knows it's below average and so do I.

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Up first the 2018 Norwegian disaster movie The Quake. It spends over an hour introducing us to the characters. The main character is a guy who's depressed from surviving the 2015 Norwegian film The Wave. A big wave came and destroyed his town, he managed to save his wife and child but a couple of hundred people didn't survive. Somehow I just don't find a depressed guy an interesting character. It's slowness and draggy scenes make the 108 minute running time seem like crawling time. It takes forever to get to the quake that destroys Oslo's downtown and now that I've seen it there will be no need to buy a copy since I won't want to see it again.

Our second film was the Blu-ray of the 1959 film The Four Skulls Of Jonathan Drake. I'd seen it before and liked it well enough. It's got a script from Orville H Hampton and Edward L Chan is the director. Orville wrote a lot of popular stuff for film and TV. Nothing big time really, just a nice assortment. Edward was no slouch, he directed 128 items, some feature films, some shorts and a bit of TV. The highlight might be It! The Terror From Beyond Space.

The story is about a family with a curse on them. The men die at about 60 and someone steals their skulls. We find out what has been happening and a good cop helps put a stop to that. There's a decent story and good character actors like Eduard Franz, Valerie French and Henry Daniell. The movie doesn't waste much of it's 70 minute running time. The movie is also available as a four pack from Mill Creek. That's a good deal, there are 3 other fairly decent films on the disc.

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First up The Devil's Nightmare, a 1971 Belgium and Italian horror film. It's got a script from Patrice Rhomm and directed by Jean Brismee. I wasn't sure I had seen it before but once it was going there were a few things that were familiar. Turns out I saw it back in December of 2015 and then forgot about it. It was part of the Pure Terror 50 Movie Pack from Mill Creek. I just looked at that copy, it's fairly decent for a film from Mill Creek. Seems to the the same length. You can check it out in the link in the title above.

Much of the movie was films in the Chateau d'Antoing in Wallonia Belgium. Nice place. The Baron who lives there was married during WW2, we see his pregnant wife give birth to a baby girl in a flashback. The mother dies and the Baron kills the little girl. The movie jumps to 1971 and a woman is killed while taking pictures of the Chateau. The locals think it's the work of a succubus. We learn that the Baron's family has a curse, the first woman of each generation is born a succubus.

A bus full of lost tourists get directed to the Baron's place by a bald man in a field. He says the Baron might let them stay. That's where the succubus lives so you know that won't go so well. The body count rises until everyone wakes up and dies again. What the? It's got a twist ending that wasn't that twisty. There's nothing much original from this one, it's only about average, I gave it a generous 6 on the IMDb where it scores not unrealistic 5.8, I thought it was slightly better than a 5 but who knows.

Director Jacques Tourneur's Night Of The Demon was our second film. I've already seen this several times over the years. It's a favorite and I was interested in seeing the Blu-ray. Looks nice. The movie is based on an MR James story called Casting The Runes. The screenplay is by Charles Bennett and Hal E Chester with an uncredited Cy Endfield. The movie came out in Britain in 1957, it came out in the US the next year under the title of Curse Of The Demon. It was cut by 13 minutes to 82 minutes. In the 80s the film was restored to original length in the US. The Indicator Blu-ray has various versions of the film. We watched the longer British version. 

Dana Andrews is an American scientist. He's come to England to attend a convention of scientists.That's Dana in the middle with Peggy Cummins. Who knew I would see a third Peggy film in such a short time. At the convention a professor, played by Maurice Denham, is to debunk a Satanic cult leader, played by Niall MacGinnes. That's Niall in the clown makeup. He's got a nice mansion from his proceeds as a cult leader. Athene Seyler plays his mother. She's not quite so happy with the whole Satan thing.

Maurice pleads with Niall to remove the curse. He won't and Maurice goes home only to see a giant demon coming through the trees. He panics and drives his car into a power pole, he dies when he touches the downed wires. It turns out Peggy is Maurice's niece. She's fearful of Niall even if Dana isn't. They go to visit Niall at his estate and Niall tells Dana he will die in 3 days.

There's plenty of running about as the rest of the movie plays out. At first Dana doesn't believe in the curse but strange things happen to make him change his mind. Brian Wilde plays a man frightened to a catatonic state is woken up and made to relive his encounter with the demon. He jumps out of the building to his death, rather than live with the demon memories. Some might remember Brian from Last Of The Summer Wine where he played Foggy Dewhurst for a number of years. Dana does his research and finds there is a way to defeat Niall. It's a good trick.

There was some strife on the production side. After Jacques finished filming the movie producer Hal E Chester decided that they should show the demon in the film. Neither Jacques nor writer Charles Bennett were for that addition but it was done anyway. Chester asked if Ray Harryhausen could do the demon as stop motion but Ray was busy. I never knew that and the demon appearing doesn't bother me. I do side with not screwing up a director's vision but the people that would do that sort of thing aren't going to listen to anyone. Even with all that it's still a good picture. Worth a look for the horror fan.

Psychotronica Collector's Set

I bought this 6 film set on a whim. Psychotronica Collector's Set collects the first 3 previous single disc releases into one package and at $24.99 it was cheaper than buying the three singles, especially since the first two single volumes are out of print and gotten expensive. There's a fourth volume in the series single disc with two more movies on it and that's $19.95. I'm not buying that disc, I've seen The Wild Women Of Wongo, and $19.95 is too much to pay for that and Jungle Girl And The Slaver.

Delinquent Schoolgirls 1975 Directed by Greg Corarito, he wrote the script with John Lamb and Maurice Smith. Michael Pataki, George "Buck" Flower, Roberta Pedon, Bob Minor, Stephen Stucker, John Alderman and Colleen Brennan were the names I recognized in the script. It has some nice posters.

Michael, Stephen and Bob are some horny mental institution inmates with a plan to break out and get some poontang. Well, two of them anyway, Stephen plays a camp gay guy, he wants some cock. Michael's escape plan works and they're on the run. They hold up in a house before they arrive at the local girls school. Don't worry, most of the women have left at their end of term, there are a dozen left who are being held over for extra work. The escapees get theirs when they try attacking the gals at a self defense class. They'll soon be happier returning to the asylum. It's a fairly decent film about some crazy guys. It's more a comedy than you might think. The worst guy turns out to be a college professor who drugs the girls and puts snakes on their underwear clad bodies. He'll get his too. At least there's some punishment for the baddies. Might be the best film in the lot. I gave it a 5 on the IMDb.

Dream No Evil 1970 Written and directed by John Hayes. Edmond O'Brien, Marc Lawrence, Michael Pataki, Arthur Franz are the cast members that I remember. Story of a crazy woman who's been abandoned by her father. She think he'll come back to her. She lives with Michael, he's a preacher, and they travel spreading his ministry. Edmond plays her father, he turns up dead one day. She goes to visit him and he rises from the dead and kills the undertaker. She goes to live with him on the farm. We see it as an abandoned dump. Someone eventually comes to get her, she's been killing and needs to be locked up. It's kind of sad and certainly less fun than the other film. Not bad but only a 4 for me.

Mondo Keyhole 1966 Director Jack Hill co-wrote the screenplay with producer John Lamb. It's a rapey roughie about a guy who doesn't want to have sex with women unless he can rape them. He's got an unloved and horny wife. We see a few of his encounters and hear his mind's thoughts on them. Part of the problem with this film is that they try to make some of it real and some of it his fantasy and it hardly works well. Jack Hill's not that great a director and he's not keen on the job. He mentions he was jut a guy for hire and he was doing what Jack Lamb wanted in the commentary for the film. There's plenty of nudity and as Jack points out, no fake breasts. What a time! I gave it a 5, I did like the way the film looked. Jack's a better cinematographer than a director.

The Raw Ones 1966 John Lamb directed this movie. After the Supreme Court said nudity of itself wasn't obscene Jack Hill helped John repackage several short nudist films into a feature length with narration telling a bit of a story. There's plenty of everyone naked. The girls are pretty but it's rather dull after a while. This one got a 4 also.

The Mermaids of Tiburon 1962/1987 Written and Directed by John Lamb. Timothy Carey and Jose Gonzales-Gonzales are the cast names I knew. A treasure hunter encounters mermaids while looking for some gold. The ladies help him find the treasure. It's kind of simple and not much better than a 3 or a 4, depending on how bored you get.

John Lamb wasn't happy with the box office on release and he went back and shot some nude mermaids and reedited the film. It was done poorly and on the cheap. The DVD set includes both versions of the film. Neither one is more than a 4 to me.

Yamboa - Cry of the Bewitched 1957 A Mexican and Cuban film written by Julio Albo and Julio Alejandro, Alfredo B Crevenna is the director. It's 1850 in Cuba and Captain Jorge and his wife Beatriz are expecting a child.

One night Yamboa, the daughter of a murdered witch comes back to the area. The slaves are unhappy and fearful, they were the ones that killed the witch. Signs of witchcraft appear on the plantation and things go downhill from there. More a melodrama than a horror film. Not too bad but a bit dull. I gave it a 4.

The Thing From Another World 1951

After that Sherlock Holmes movie I wanted to watch something better so I put on the new Blu-ray of The Thing From Another World. Even the carrot guy is a better actor than the ones I had just seen. Acting is just one of the many good things in The Thing From Another World. Nice sets, good actors, interesting story, it hits all the marks and it's certainly one of my favorite SF movies. An exciting story about an alien invading the Earth and the men who stop him. He's a tough foe and the men have to be resourceful and cunning. It's a film that certainly should be in any good film collection. The Blu-ray is nice looking but there aren't any nice extras, other than a trailer.

I Married A Monster From Outer Space 1958

I picked up a used copy of I Married A Monster From Outer Space the other day at DreamHaven. Only 6 bucks for a Warner Archive copy in great shape. It's going for prices that range from $38.64 to $79.75, there's an earlier edition that's going from $19.90 to $59.99 today. Does that mean Warner Archives is letting films become unavailable? It doesn't seem to be available on their site. Maybe they're coming out with a Blu-ray. Not that I would buy a copy.

It's a 1958 film with a screenplay by Louis Vittes and direction by Gene Fowler Jr. Louis worked mostly in TV and Gene edited more movies and TV shows than he directed. He directed I Was A Teenage Werewolf the year before IMAMFOS.

Tom Tryon plays a guy who's getting married. Before the wedding he's taken over by an alien being. Tom's wife is played by Gloria Talbot, she notices he's different, colder, less human. Things play out for a while and more aliens take over humans.

Gloria finds out the truth but the police have been taken over. She finds help in her doctor and he rounds up some guys he can trust. They make a hash of the aliens and their spaceship. A dying alien radios to warn the invasion fleet of the danger and the fleet turns away.

I was happy to see it again. I hadn't seen the movie in ages. It's got a nice creepy edge to it and the story is pretty good. Glad I picked this up.

Fire Maidens Of Outer Space 1956

Fire Maidens Of Outer Space  is a 1956 British SF film that was written and directed by Cy Roth. I found a used copy of the uncut Olive Films DVD at DreamHaven. You never know what you'll find there, most visits find me bringing more stuff home.

The Wikipedia tells me: many critics have dubbed the film the "worse movie ever made". I know I've seen worse but there's been a lot of film through the movieola since 1956 and those critics haven't seen some of our modern cinematic disasters. Some of the stuff made for the SyFy channel is less entertaining to watch.

Earth scientists discover life on the 13th moon of Jupiter and they decide to send a space ship to check it out. When they arrive they are attacked by a big ugly man like creature. Bullets do little but it runs when they use a gas bomb.

They find the remnants of the people of Atlantis. The doomed Atlantians moved before their city sank and slowly their numbers have swindled. Only 17 people are left, all women, except for the old man who leads them. There's not a lot of action, a guy does climb a tree, but they do shoot their guns a good bit. Not that it does much good. Romance develops between one of the women and lead astronaut Anthony Dexter. The other women are interested. Still, there's a good bit of dead time when people aren't up to much. There's a silly dance in front of the sacrifice. All in all I enjoyed watching even though it's not that great.

Man In The Attic 1953

Man In The Attic is the second disc in the Midnite Movies DVD set. It's based on the 1913 novel The Lodger by Marie Belloc Lowndes. There's plenty of other versions out there, one by Hitchcock, another with Laird Cregar as the lodger Slade. Barre Lyndon and Robert Presnell Jr wrote the screenplay and Hugo Fregonese is the director. Jack Palance plays Slade, he lodges with a family in London. It's 1888 and that pesky Jack the Ripper is slashing in the city. Slade is a research pathologist and he's a right creepy guy. His landlady, played by Frances Bavier, gets suspicious but her hubby can't see it. Slade's interest in Frances's niece brings him to the attention of the police and things get dicey for the lodger. I liked the movie and was glad to have picked up the DVD. Both are worth a look.

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Daikaiju Mono is a 2016 Japanese giant monster wrestling comedy. A giant monster has appeared on the scene and a mad scientist has a way to fight it. He's invented a serum that turns the victim test subject into a giant human. With endlessly expandable shorts. He fights the monster but can't seem to beat it. The science solution is to make a new serum with evil cells. That works.

The movie is directed by Minoru Kawasaki and he co-wrote the script with Takao Nakano. I've seen three of Minoru's other movies, The Calamari Wrestler, The World Sinks Except Japan and The Monster X Strikes Back: Attack The G8 Summit. The last two were better than this movie, which in turn is better than TCW. Still even at his best the comedy is hit and miss for me. Part of that is cultural differences and part of that is the jokes just weren't that good. DM is fairly good fun but it's lacking in the gag department. It's fights are a bit weak but there are some pretty girls. I wouldn't recommend it to most, fans of Daikaiju movies might get a kick out of it, but the average schmoe isn't going to find as much there. I'm likely not going to buy it, so many others higher up the list.

We watched The Cyclops as our second movie. It was written and directed by Bert I Gordon. It's the second film he wrote and the third he directed. I've seen a few of his 2 dozen films, he's been known to turn up on old episodes of Mystery Science Theater 3000, and I like them. They aren't great films by any stretch of the imagination but some do have a bit of imagination. Just no money.

I found the Blu-ray of The Cyclops Thursday and thought I'd splurge a bit. It's going for $22 on Amazon, it's part of the Warner Archives Collection. The used Blu-ray was just over 9 bucks, after a 20% off coupon and some tax. The disc played perfectly fine. There's nothing by way of extras but a trailer. That's OK, I don't mind a bare bones disc, the extras eat up a lot of time, and I don't have to feel guilty if I didn't take to time to watch them. I certainly don't listen to as many commentaries as I used to when the format was new.

I know I had seen the movie before but I didn't remember seeing it on a FNM night back in June of 2011. Here's the text of that post, the accompanying art has changed, but I feel pretty much the same way about the film. Tonight I commented on the four seater plane issue while we were watching the movie. I hadn't seen the movie before and the opening sentence is in reference to the previous movie we watched back in 2011.

I can't say as much about Bert I Gordon's The Cyclops. I hadn't seen it before and I'm always interested in seeing 1950's SF movies. This is from 1957 and it's fun enough and short.  That's the best thing about it, at 65 minutes there isn't much time to waste on padding out the story. Gloria Talbott is trying to find her missing husband. He crashed his plane in the mountains in an uninhabited part of Mexico. She's joined by her friend and hopeful suitor James Craig, hired pilot Tom Drake, and a uranium hunter, Lon Chaney Jr, who supplied some extra travel expense money. The plane has some trouble and lands in a flatish spot surrounded by mountains. Lon's scintillator tells him there's 8.5 on the meter and that gets him all excited. He's thinking to get rich selling the stock option on the claim. If he gets back to put the claim in that is, turns out Gloria owns the plane, and she's sticking to that valley until she finds her husband. They find part of his broken plane. Could he be alive? How would they get him back with 4 people already packing the four seater plane? Bert is like a lot of film makers when it comes to story. You know, film makers who don't care much about the details in their stories. The important thing is to get the giant monsters into the movie. Turns out the highly radioactive area has more than uranium.

That's James, Gloria, Tom and Lon in the plane. Soon after the group lands they encounter some of the local fauna and it's crazy big. A field mouse the size of a dog and a 12 foot hawk. We also have a giant , nearly transparent spider, a couple of huge, slightly opaque lizards and a giant one eyed husband. Yep, the husband is still alive and he's huge. They should have brought a cargo plane but who knew. The guy playing the giant guy is Duncan Parkin who would play a similar character in another Bert I Gordon classic War Of The Colossal Beast a year later. The script is pretty poor but at 65 minutes it goes by quickly. It was fun enough, even though the effects are pretty cheezy. It's barely worth watching for those that are less of a fan of the low budget science fiction film but I enjoyed it enough to be glad that I picked up a copy off of Turner Classic Movies the other night. Now I can watch it again later.