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Celebrate 70 years of This Island Earth with Neca‘s Metaluna Mutant ultimate action figure.

The 7″ scale toy stands 8″ tall and is fully articulated, include pincers.

Two interchangeable heads (regular and battle-damaged) are included. It’s packaged in a window box with opening front flap.

Due out in June, the alien creature costs $36.99.

Praised for its special effects and vivid use of Technicolor, the 1955 sci-fi classic later became known for being riffed in Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie.

Joseph M. Newman directs with uncredited work by Jack Arnold (Creature from the Black Lagoon). Jeff Morrow, Faith Domergue, Rex Reason, Lance Fuller, and Russell Johnson star.

The post Metaluna Mutant from ‘This Island Earth’ Gets Ultimate Action Figure from Neca appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Part of a perfect 1956 matinee double bill, Alex Gordon’s supernatural thriller features an iconic monster, a piece of real horror art from monster-maker Paul Blaisdell. The production can best be described as ‘pedestrian’ but there’s no denying that the movie is an odd nostalgic favorite — a great poster helps. The cast mixes veterans with new blood — but the real reason to watch is starlet Marla English. This one should have been a classic.

The She-Creature

Blu-ray

1956 / B&w / 1:85 widescreen / 77 min. / Street Date June 28, 2022

Starring: Chester Morris, Marla English, Tom Conway, Cathy Downs, Lance Fuller, Ron Randell, Frieda Inescort, Frank Jenks, El Brendel, Paul Dubov, William Hudson, Paul Blaisdell.

Cinematography: Frederick E. West

Production Designer: Art Director: Don Ament

Creature costume: Paul Blaisdell

Film Editor: Ronald Sinclair

Original Music: Ronald Stein

Written by Lou Rusoff

Produced by Samuel Z. Arkoff, Alex Gordon

Directed by Edward L. Cahn

Nicholson...

Great 3-D thrills — Hollywood was working to perfect 3-D movies just as the craze died out. An impeccable Blu-ray 3-D restoration, the glory of young Rock Hudson and some of the best Utah scenery in depth makes this a very enjoyable disc. Director Douglas Sirk was itching to do a western, and the swiftly rising star Rock Hudson wanted to work for him again, even though it meant playing another Indian role. Were these men that desperate to get out of Hollywood for a month? At least they avoided filming in nuclear test sites…

Taza, Son of Cochise

3-D Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1954 / Color / 2.00:1 widescreen / 79 min. / Street Date May 26, 2020 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95

Starring: Rock Hudson, Barbara Rush, Gregg Palmer, Rex Reason, Morris Ankrum, Eugene Iglesias, Richard H. Cutting, Ian MacDonald, Robert Burton, Joe Sawyer, Lance Fuller, Charles Horvath, Jeff Chandler, William Leslie, Barbara Burck, most of Utah.

Cinematography:...

How does Hollywood sell a gritty, realistic western? With a sexy shot of star Tina Louise! Viewers will be surprised: this fine western is a showcase for the elemental ruthlessness we associate with director André de Toth — its convincing snowbound setting is so intense, we can almost feel the cold. Slick writer Philip Yordan sets up an impossible conflict as a blizzard moves in on a tiny town… Robert Ryan must sort out his feelings for the town beauty Tina Louise, as he negotiates with the he-boss of the killer crooks, Burl Ives. It looks as if Ryan has no choice but to volunteer for a suicide journey — but nature has the last word.

Day of the Outlaw

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1959 / B&w / 1:85 widescreen / 92 min. / Street Date August 27, 2019 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95

Starring: Robert Ryan, Burl Ives, Tina Louise, Alan Marshal, Venetia Stevenson, David Nelson, Nehemiah Persoff, Jack Lambert,...

“The supreme excitement of our time! Challenging the unearthly furies of an outlaw planet!” Big-budget space opera finally came to movie screens, in Technicolor and widescreen, in this irresistible kid magnet of a sci-fi extravaganza. Viewers are split on its worth, as the screenplay caroms between mind-expanding visions and puerile dialogue. But it’s the first show to capture the thrills on those pulp sci-fi pocketbook covers, and its visual poetry plays out like an intergalactic fairy tale.

This Island Earth

Blu-ray

Scream Factory

1955 / Color / 1:85 widescreen + 1:37 Academy / 87 min. / Street Date July 9, 2019 / 29.99

Starring: Jeff Morrow, Faith Domergue, Rex Reason, Lance Fuller, Russell Johnson, Douglas Spencer, Robert Nichols.

Cinematography: Clifford Stine

Film Editor: Virgil Vogel

Special Effects: David S. Horsley, Clifford Stine, Cleo E. Baker

Original Music: Henry Mancini, Hans J. Salter, Herman Stein

Written by Franklin Coen, Edward G. O’Callaghan from a story by Raymond F. Jones

Produced...

Big star Gary Cooper kids his screen image as an infallible hero in a western that almost plays as a screwball comedy, complete with the ultimate grouchy sidekick, William Demarest. Loretta Young’s attraction to Coop’s goofy ‘bronc stomper’ seem glowingly authentic. The jokes are funny, and the sentiment feels real, right up to the unexpectedly violent ending. . . for 1945, that is.

Along Came Jones

Blu-ray

ClassicFlix

1945 / B&W / 1:37 Academy / 90 min. / Street Date January 16, 2018 / 39.99

Starring: Gary Cooper, Loretta Young, William Demarest, Dan Duryea, Frank Sully, Don Costello, Walter Sande, Russell Simpson, Arthur Loft, Willard Robertson, Ray Teal, Lance Fuller, Chris-Pin Martin.

Cinematography: Milton Krasner

Film Editor: Thomas Neff

Original Music: Arthur Lange

Written by Nunnally Johnson from the novel by Alan Le May

Produced by Gary Cooper

Directed by Stuart Heisler

At the end of WW2 came forth a burst of new independent film production companies headed by actors and directors.

By David S. Schow

Hall: “Where’s the library?”

Dutton: “No need for books — everything’s in the computer.”

One of the few regrets of my adult life is that I never got to meet Michael Crichton, who died too young, November 2008. Eminently emulatable, he had conquered publishing, film and television and remains a personal hero. I was hooked from the moment my father returned from his Arctic DEWLine duties bearing a paperback first printing of The Andromeda Strain, which I plowed through while in high school. Then immediately re-read, and re-read again.

I still have that paperback.

Subsequently I devoured everything Crichton wrote — the “John Lange” potboilers written to pay his way through medical school; the landmark A Case of Need (written as “Jeffrey Hudson;” a stingingly strong pro-choice novel done prior to the Roe v. Wade decision); even the dope fantasia Dealing, written with his brother as “Michael Douglas.

The New Beverly Cinema in Los Angeles is presenting a double feature of This Island Earth (1955) and It Came From Outer Space (1953) this coming Sunday and Monday. The latter film is often cited by filmmaker John Carpenter as an early influence.

This Island Earth stars Jeff Morrow, Faith Domergue, Rex Reason, Lance Fuller and Russell Johnson and was directed by Joseph M. Newman. Projected on 35mm film.

It Came From Outer … Continue reading →

Horrornews.net...

If you live in the Los Angeles area, the New Beverly Cinema is presenting a sci-fi double feature of This Island Earth (1955) and It Came From Outer Space (1953) on Saturday, January 12, 2014 and Sunday, January 13, 2014. Both films are widely considered to be classic science fiction films of the 1950s and were made during a time in which artists made up beautiful, colorful and spectacular posters first, and then the films were based on the imagery seen in the poster. Sometimes this method worked and sometimes it didn’t.

This Island Earth was directed by Joseph M. Newman, who was fairly prolific during the 1940’s and 1950’s both on the large and small screens, directing episodes of The Twilight Zone and Alfred Hitchcock Presents for the latter. Jeff Morrow, Faith Domergue, Rex Reason, Lance Fuller and Russell Johnson star.

Jack Arnold made a career of directing some of the best known science...