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Bert I. Gordon rides again, with an excellent encoding of one of his more popular sci-fi monster-ramas. Pert ‘n’ perky June Kenney is so brave that she keeps going back to ‘that old cave outside of town,’ despite not knowing how many giant spiders are on the loose. Teenagers in their thirties and their bebop-crazy rock ‘n’ roll are no match for Gordon’s titanic, screaming arachnid. This spidey is just plain shifty, the kind of unscrupulous fiend that colors his crayons outside the (matte) lines … in crimson B&w blood! June Kenney’s mom knows her girl only two well: “… I hope she hasn’t gone back to that cave.” With some excellent extras, namely about a million rare behind-the-scenes stills from Tom Weaver.

The Spider

Blu-ray

Scream Factory

1958 / B&w / 1:85 widescreen / 73 min. / Earth vs. The Spider / Street Date June 23, 2020

Starring: Ed Kemmer, June Kenney, Gene Persson, Gene Roth,...

A plug for commercial exterminators everywhere, William Alland’s titanic hairy spider provided plenty of chills for 1950s drive-ins, delivering exactly the naïve monster thrills teenagers craved. John Agar and Mara Corday do what they can with the clunker script and Jack Arnold’s direction, while Leo G. Carroll saves face by retreating below a rubber mask that makes him look like Droopy Dog. But for fans that like their monsters as big as the Great Outdoors, Clifford Stine and David Horsley’s startling special effects provide a spider-verse of sensational, surreal insect fear.

Tarantula

Blu-ray

Scream Factory

1955 / B&W / 1:75 widescreen / 80 min. / Street Date April, 2019 / 29,99

Starring: John Agar, Mara Corday, Leo G. Carroll, Nestor Paiva, Ross Elliott, Edwin Rand, Raymond Bailey, Hank Patterson.

Cinematography: George Robinson

Special Optical Effects and Cinematography: Clifford Stine, David S. Horsley

Original Music: Herman Stein, Henry Mancini

Written by Jack Arnold, Robert M. Fresco,...

All hail Bert I. Gordon, who singlehandedly carved out his own niche in ‘fifties monster folklore, and even won a battle or two against those sharpies at A.I.P.. His puppet people were originally just ‘Fantastic,’ but they had to be made into a menace with the “A” word usually reserved for icky poo Giant Leeches, Crab Monsters and 50-Foot Women.

Attack of the Puppet People

Blu-ray

Scream Factory

1958 / B&W / 1:85 widescreen / 79 min. / The Fantastic Puppet People, Six Inches Tall, I Was a Teenage Doll, War of the Puppet People / Street Date November 14, 2017 / 27.99

Starring: John Agar, John Hoyt, June Kenney, Susan Gordon, Michael Mark, Kack Kosslyn, Marlene Willis, Ken Miller, Laurie Mitchell, Scott Peters, June Jocelyn, Hank Patterson.

Cinematography: Ernest Laszlo

Special Effects: Bert I. Gordon, Flora M. Gordon

Original Music: Albert Glasser

Written by George Worthing Yates

Story, Produced & Directed by Bert I. Gordon

It’s easy...

By John M. Whalen

“Death Valley Days” was a half-hour western anthology series that ran for 20 years on radio starting in 1930, continued on TV for 18 seasons (1952-1970), and is still being shown on cable TV today. The series, noted for its authentic detail and historical accuracy, was created by British writer Ruth Woodman at the request of Pacific Coast Borax, the company that made 20 Mule Team Borax. The company wanted a series that tied in with their detergent product, and since Borax is principally mined in Death Valley, Woodman suggested the series be focused on stories based on the history and geography of that area. She made frequent trips to the borax mines and the surrounding vicinity digging up historical tidbits that could be used as the basis for stories. She eventually became one of the foremost experts on that period and place in history.

For the first 11 years of its run,...

There was talk of a new Green Acres TV series a few years back but that project seems to have stalled. Now, there's talk of bringing the community of Hooterville to Broadway in a new musical.

Green Acres debuted in 1965 on CBS as a spin-off of The Beverly Hillbillies and Petticoat Junction. The sitcom follows NY lawyer Oliver Douglas (Eddie Albert) as he moves to live his life-long fantasy of being a farmer. His glamorous and bubble-headed wife Lisa (Eva Gabor) is dragged unwillingly from her sophisticated life to live in a ramshackle farm in Hooterville. The bizarre small town is populated by a wide variety of eccentric characters like dim-witted farmhand Eb Dawson (Tom Lester), oily salesman Mr. Haney (Pat Buttram), scatterbrained county agent Hank Kimball (Alvy Moore), elderly farmers Fred and Doris Ziffel (Hank Patterson and Barbara Pepper, later Fran Ryan) and their "son," Arnold...

It's been over three decades since Green Acres went off the air. Is it time to go back to country life in Hooterville?

Green Acres debuted on September 15, 1965 on CBS as a spin-off of The Beverly Hillbillies and Petticoat Junction. The sitcom followed New York attorney Oliver Wendell Douglas (Eddie Albert) as he lived out his life-long fantasy of being a farmer. His glamorous and ditzy wife Lisa (Eva Gabor) was dragged unwillingly from her sophisticated life to live in a ramshackle farm in Hooterville. The bizarre small town was populated by a wide variety of eccentric characters like dimwitted farmhand Eb Dawson (Tom Lester), oily salesman Mr. Haney (Pat Buttram), scatterbrained county agent Hank Kimball (Alvy Moore), elderly farmers Fred and Doris Ziffel (Hank Patterson and Barbara Pepper, later Fran Ryan) and their "son," Arnold the pig.

Like Hillbillies and Junction, Acres became incredibly popular and the show ran for 170 episodes.