Semiquincentennial Movie Project #7: Explorers

 

 

 

The Semiquincentennial  Movie Project is an ongoing celebration of the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States. During the course of this project your humble blogger is choosing a movie a week to represent each of the 50 states in the Union, as well as a movie scheduled for 4th of July weekend that will represent the nation's capitol, Washington D.C. The order of the weekly entries will coincide with the order of each state's entry into the fold (although, not necessarily coinciding with the date of their entry into said fold).

 

 

 

Week #7: Maryland -

 

The state of Maryland was established on April 28, 1788

Details about Maryland:

State bird: Baltimore oriole

State flower: black-eyed Susan

State tree: white oak 

Additional historical trivia:

Francis Scott Key wrote the poem that eventually became the national anthem while observing a battle in the Revolutionary War from a ship in Baltimore harbor.

The official state sport of Maryland is jousting. (Really! Would I lie to you...?)

The state flag of Maryland (pictured above) is the only state flag based on British heraldry.

Elijah Wood, a native, created the ouija board (and thus was peripherally responsible for The Exorcist)

Famous people born in Maryland: John Wilkes Booth (assassin of Abraham Lincoln), Babe Ruth, Robert Duvall, Frank Zappa, Tom Clancy and Spiro T. Agnew (Vice-President under Richard Nixon) 

 

Explorers (1985): 

Children in sci-fi settings became a huge thing in the early 80's. Thanks (or blame, depending on your viewpoint) to Steven Spielberg and his huge E.T. the Extraterrestrial, children focused science fiction movies became a big thing in Hollywood, although to varying success. Trying to mine the gold that Spielberg found with his mother lode proved to be a difficult project. In the space of 8 years after the release of E.T we got several movies featuring pre-teens or teens in sci-fi and fantasy settings,  the likes of which included  Flight of the Navigator,  D.A.R.Y.L., Back to the Future, Wizard, The Last Starfighter,  and SpaceCamp in sci-fi settings, as well as kid-centric fantasies like Labyrinth, The Neverending Story, The Goonies and The Monster Squad.

The movie opens with Ben (Ethan Hawke) fast asleep and dreaming of flying over a circuit board that reminds me of nothing so much as the virtual world in the movie Tron. When he wakes up he hurries to his desk to sketch out a part of his dream, a diagram of the circuit board. Even though it is 3am, he calls his best friend, Wolfgang (River Phoenix), who is some sort of child prodigy... (and if you are having trouble picturing River Phoenix as a nerd, you and I are in the same boat...)

 

The next day at school Ben is getting the crap beat out of him by the school bully, Steve (Bobby Fite).  A fellow classmate, Darren (Jason Presson), jumps in to help Ben and as a result gains an initially unwanted friend. All three are sort of outcasts, and thus in terminology of the day, "nerds". Thus the three naturally develop a friendship.

 

Wolfgang has been hard at work trying to program the stuff that Ben gave him. (Firstly, let me point out what may be a nitpick. Wolfgang is working with a primitive, by today's stands, 128K computer. You have to suspend any disbelief that what he accomplishes here could even be done with that limited capacity of power, but then the whole movie does require some suspension of disbelief in order to watch, so...) Wolfgang creates a self-contained sphere, but then the computer starts working by programming itself.

 

 Eventually the three make the sphere big enough that they can crawl inside of it, but with limited oxygen, they can only stay in it a short while. But dreams to the rescue because Ben has another dream that night which solves the oxygen issue. Now they can actually use the sphere and navigate it around. To which they include making a seating arrangement by building a spaceship out of junkyard parts, which include a left over seat from a carnival Tilt-A-Whirl.

 

Thus seated in the Tilt-A-Whirl and surrounded by the sphere the three take off. among their first encounters is a jet that investigates this "U.F.O." Charlie (played by Dante film regular Dick Miller) gains a particularly strong motivation to investigate. (Charlie essentially becomes the comic relief in a movie that already had comedic elements, but...)

 

Eventually the kids make it into space and then the weird stuff starts to happen. Something takes over the computer controls and the boys are suddenly rocketed into deep space, where it appears aliens have commandeered the fledgling ship. And here's where it really gets weird... For the next 20 or 30 minutes the kids interact with the aliens, whose primary form of communication seems to be using stuff from old TV and radio shows.

 

It turns out that the aliens way of learning about Earth had been from intercepting the broadcasts of American TV and radio. (Just so you know, from a scientific standpoint, those broadcasts continue on indefinitely in a straight line after leaving Earth. But the question that comes to my mind is why only American TV? Didn't they intercept any signals from the other nations?) 

(As a side note: One of my favorite science-fiction authors, Jack L. Chalker, wrote a short story "Adrift Among the Ghosts" which had a similar theme. In that story an alien who was convicted of a crime is sentenced to a life in space collecting some of these old radio and TV signals for posterity in the alien's own society. Check out Dance Band on the Titanic which collects the entire short story output of a prolific novelist, but only rarely short story writer.)  

The comedy of this part is relentless, but at some point the boys are finally able to communicate with the aliens on some level. But you get the idea that these aliens are a couple of rocks short of a riot.

It turns out that these particular two aliens are not the ones in charge. And they aren't exactly supposed to be playing around with the controls of the spaceship they are on.

I'll leave it at that for now. 

Explorers had several unfortunate details in it's history that made it a less than stellar box office bonanza. For one thing, it was released only a week after Back to the Future and we all know what a blockbuster that one was. Secondly, it was also released just the day before the broadcast of the first Live Aid. 

The film ran into several problems during it's production. One of the excuses for it's slapdash finish was that the studio told Dante to wrap it up forthwith because they wanted to release the film much earlier than planned. A director's cut of the film was never released primarily because much of the footage that could have been used was lost or no longer available. It was not the film that the director wanted to release, so much as the movie the studio demanded on a shorter timetable, then.

The hurried release as well as the competition from movies still in the theater as well as those released shortly after (In addition to Back to the Future, Cocoon was still in the theaters, and E.T. The Extraterrestrial had been re-released) served to help sink it. It only managed to make about half of it's budget back while in theatrical release. 

Rotten Tomatoes currently holds the movie as "48% fresh". A blurb on the website claims that "Despite dazzling effects, a terrific young cast, and tons of charm, Explorers fails to soar past its '80s kiddie flick competitors." That cast, by the way, was full of first or early castings. Ethan Hawke and River Phoenix made their feature film debuts here. Both Amanda Peterson and Jason Presson had appeared in a couple of TV movies, but were also first timers in a theatrical release. Robert Picardo, who most people will recognize as The Doctor from Star Trek: Voyager got an early role here too, although you won't recognize him... he was the alien Wak and Wak's father. But he was also the character "Starkiller" in the movie playing at the drive-in when the boys fly by, so you might recognize him there...

Explorers  did not have the profound effect that people behind the scenes hoped it would have. It comes off a lot like a knock-off of a classic Spielbergian kids movie, and even the soundtrack has that feel. Jerry Goldsmith, the multi-time nominee for Oscars in the category of music, did the honors, but even that feels like something from a Spielberg movie.

Still, all in all, it's not a bad movie At least, not until they actually meet the aliens... I thought that part was a little ridiculous and a bit too long. I wish I could see the movie that Dante originally wanted to make. I have warm feelings for Gremlins and Matinee, and his segment in The Twilight Zone: The Movie ("It's A Good Life") is not at all bad. 

Well folks, until next time drive safely.

Quiggy 

 

 

 

 

 

Claustrophobic Terror

 

 

This is my second entry in the Film. Release. Repeat. Blogathon hosted by Hamlette's Soliloquy and yours truly.

 

 

 

I make no bones about it. My favorite director is John Carpenter and five of his films are in my top ten favorite movies of all time. I missed out on Halloween when it first hit the theater, so my first John Carpenter movie was actually Escape from New York. Not long after I saw that, which highly impressed me, I went back and saw the aforementioned Halloween, as well as The Fog. And I also began to anticipate each new film that came out in subsequent years.  The five that occupy space in my top ten (in no certain order) are Big Trouble in Little China, They Live, The Thing, Escape from New York and Christine. 

My review of The Thing has been a long time coming as a feature film at The Midnite Drive-In. I feel certain if I hadn't gone through a lethargic period of writing during Covid that it would have long been reviewed. Same goes for Christine (and that will soon be remedied too.) Carpenter made four films with Kurt Russell back in the day, including a TV movie on Elvis, Escape from New York and it's sequel Escape from L.A., Big Trouble in Little China and The Thing. 

 

The Thing (1982):

Note: In the interest of not turning off some of the more skittish readers, I have refrained from using any pics in this review depicting the creature in it's changing process. If you really want to see them you can google images of The Thing 1982...

 

The film starts out with a dog. The dog is being chased by some guys in a helicopter. The occupants seem intent on killing the dog. When they arrive at the U.S. based camp they are still intent on killing the dog, but this is seen as an attack on the scientists and they kill the interlopers. Of course, if one or the other groups had been fluent in the other's language the US group might have been forewarned, but the interlopers only speak Norwegian and the US guys only understand English.

 

The base helicopter pilot, MacReady (Kurt Russell) and the base doctor, Copper (Richard Dysart) decide to go up to the Norwegian base and see what might have happened. They find the base in shambles, and an odd malformed body which they take back to the US base camp. The camp biologist, Blair (Wilford Brimley) is given the task of performing an autopsy on this weird body. What Blair finds inside are normal human organs, heart, liver and the like.

The crew decides to go try to find out what the Norwegians had been doing just prior to the havoc that happened at their camp. The end up finding a spaceship that appears to have been hidden under the ice for some 100,000 years. They also find the leftover remains of what may have been a body the Norwegians uncovered in the spaceship. 

 

The dog is put in the kennel with the base camps' dogs, because, after all, as far as they know, its just another dog. But this "dog", of course, is NOT a dog. Which is why those Norwegians were trying to kill it. The camp kills the odd thing as it is in the process of changing, and the day is saved. Roll credits.

 

Not so fast. The creature is able to replicate itself and disappears into the attic above the dog compound. Blair autopsies the dog thing the group killed and comes to the conclusion that the creature could assimilate any living organism, and through computer simulation estimates that if it got loose it could assimilate every living thing on the planet within a few years. As a result Blair becomes just a wee bit paranoid, since virtually any one of them could now be the thing, posing as one of them.

Blair, in his paranoia, wreaks havoc on the compound, virtually destroying any avenue that the thing could use to escape the compound: demolishing all radios, computers, sleds, etc. The crew manages to subdue Blair and lock him in the tool shed. Dr. Copper suggests that they take blood samples from each of them and compare them to blood samples held in storage in the compound, but of course, the thing has anticipated this and contaminated the samples.

 

No one knows exactly who to trust. Each of the crew immediately begins to look with suspicion upon his co-workers, and since they are isolated at the bottom of the world now, without any lines of communication with the outside world, it gradually becomes a matter of finger-pointing. Of course, everyone insists that he himself is the same as when he first came into the camp and thus not the alien creature. The one that is the creature also claims this, of course, but then why would it admit it was an alien?

In the end, virtually everyone in the crew has been killed, either because it was actually a part of the thing's assimilation process, or through misadventure. The remaining three crew members determine that the alien plans to go into hibernation again. MacReady and his remaining cohorts decide to demolish what is left of the base camp, although, since the creature can apparently survive in hibernation indefinitely, I am not sure what this would accomplish. As MacReady and Childs await the inevitable freezing to death that is coming now, they decide to share a bottle of Scotch.

 

The Thing  was a remake of a classic sci-fi film from the 50's, The Thing (from Another World). The original novella, Who Goes There? by John W. Campbell, Jr., has much more in common with the 1982 remake than it does with the 1951 original film. Basically the creature in the 1951 film, joking referred to these days as "an intelligent carrot" was just an alien form of a vampire. It killed, but it didn't kill to propagate it's species, it only killed to find sustenance off of the humans. (The "intelligent carrot" remark refers to the fact that, although it was filmed in black and white, the alien itself was orange, and had characteristics of a vegetable life form.)

What made this version of The Thing so compelling is that, like predecessors in such films as Invasion of the Body Snatchers, this creature had the ability after it consumed its victims, to take over their characteristics. (Much the same way the creature in the original novella did.) Carpenter had some good help in the special effects department on this film. He brought on board Rob Bottin, with whom he had worked on The Fog, to create the special effects of the creature transformation.

BTW, if the effects in the first Alien movie had you running for the porta-potty, let me just say "You ain't seen nothing yet". The special effects are one of the reasons that the movie got such initially bad reviews from critics. Initially Carpenter was not going to direct, because at the time he preferred directing movies in which he was actively involved in the original story, and filming a previously published story was not in his interest. As such Tobe Hooper (of Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Poltergeist fame) was approached, but producers became disenchanted with the way Hooper was doing it. Eventually they were able to convince Carpenter to do it.

As far as Kurt Russell as the star was concerned, he wa the last of the film's characters to be cast. Not that Carpenter was reluctant to work with him but he just wanted to keep his options open. Some of the actors considered were Christopher Walken, Brian Dennehy, Scott Glenn, Jeff Bridges and Nick Nolte. The most intriguing of those, in my opinion, would have been Jeff Bridges. I think Walken would have taken the character in an entirely different and not altogether sympathetic direction.

When the movie was initially released it was not well received, but in retrospect it has garnered some praise. Personally I think that it is an excellent remake. The creature in the original just never gave me the willies like the Carpenter/Bottin creation. And the atmosphere created by the film made it all that much more attractive. The claustrophobic situation, what with all the action taking place in an isolated are like Antarctica and the fact that no one can trust anyone else to be whom they seem to be has a profound effect on the terror the situation creates.  

The film barely made its original investment back and was NOT the hit that Carpenter hoped would boost his credibility. Coming in on the heels of Steven Spielberg's E,T.: The Extraterrestrial, which was a much more upbeat movie, to the say the least, of aliens, the dark and somewhat nihilistic The Thing was viewed as probably coming in at the wrong time for the political landscape. The country was in the middle of a recession, and hope for a better future was not prevalent in the film. In retrospect, however the film has been gradually gaining some more appreciative audiences. 

Watching this film in conjunction with the Philip Kaufman 1978 version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers might cause the most susceptible paranoiacs to run for the hills. Still, all in all, one of the reasons why  I consider this movie to be a good remake, not withstanding Carpenter's hand in it, is the fact that it entertains, even despite some of it's flaws.

Well, folks, time to crank this old Plymouth up and head home. There is snow predicted tonight, so my isolation may be a little discomforting...

Quiggy

 

 

 

 

10th Anniversary of The Midnite Drive-In

 

Well, folks, your humble(??) blogger has achieved yet another milestone! 

Friday marks the 10th anniversary of this blog.  (As to why today, instead of Friday for this post, I have another entry already committed to post on that day, and I didn't want to overwhelm you with multiple posts...) 

Back in October of 2015 I came across a blogathon: The Universal Pictures Blogathon. That blogathon was hosted by Silver Scenes, and it inspired me to create this blog with the intention of delving into the kind of shock and schlock of the old drive-in theaters of yesteryear.  A daunting task in itself, I admit, but made even more daunting by the fact that I kept straying from my original goal.

True, there were plenty of low budget trips into the kind of stuff that both my idol, Joe Bob Briggs, and I love.  But often I would stray into mainstream fare, too (what Joe Bob referred to as "indoor bullstuff").  And worse, between late 2020 and early 2023 the blog was pretty much in idle. I managed only 4 posts during that period. Blame it on COVID. But in late 2023,  I made an effort to revive it. And this time I have (mostly) kept to that theme of drive-in shlock.

When I realized that the 10th anniversary of the blog was coming up, I decided, much as I did with the 5th anniversary, to try to find a suitable set of movies that would exhibit the heart of the drive-in experience.  So, I browsed some pictures of old drive-in movie newspaper ads to inspire me.  Unfortunately, many of the ones that appealed to me included one movie I had already covered, and I was loathe to rehash it just to get to the other movie(s).

But finally I found one that had three new movies for the blog. And after watching them, I thought they really were meant to be for this anniversary celebration, given that I am trying to return to cheesy schlock.  All three were released in a landmark year, 1958.  The three movies in question, reviewed below, were: Night of the Blood Beast, The Brain Eaters, and The Screaming Skull.

Among the other great classic movies released that year were: The 7th Voyage of Sinbad, Attack of the 50 Ft. Woman, The Blob,  The Fly, Frankenstein's Daughter, From Earth to the Moon, I Bury the Living,  I Married a Monster from Outer Space, It! Terror from Beyond Space, Missile to the Moon, Queen of Outer Space, The Space Children, Teenage Caveman and War of the Satellites. 

You could also add to that list Attack of the Puppet People, Blood of the Vampire, Colossus of New York, The Crawling Eye, Curse of the Faceless Man, Earth vs. The Spider,  Frankenstein 1970, The Lost Missile, Macabre, Monster on the Campus, She Demons, Space Master X-7, Terror from the Year 5000, and The Thing That Couldn't Die.

(Oh, yeah... The year also saw the release of A Night to Remember, Auntie Mame, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Damn Yankees, Gigi, I Want to Live!, The Inn of the Sixth Happiness, King Creole, The Last Hurrah, No Time for Sergeants, The Old Man and the Sea, Separate Tables, South Pacific and Teacher's Pet...  if you're into that kind of stuff... But you are going to wait a loooong time if you expect to see most of them being shown at The Midnite Drive-In...)

So now the management presents you with a triple feature.  A trio of movies that will have you on the edge of your seat.  A trilogy of films that will make your hair stand on end. A trifecta of cinema from Spook Central. In other words...

An event to give you THE SCREAMING MEE MEES!

The horror genre would be seriously deficient without the efforts of American International Pictures. Elsewhere on The Midnite Drive-In, I have given bits and pieces of the history of the company, so I won't rehash it here. (Feel free to click on "AIP" link in The Greatest Movie Studio of All Time (American International Pictures) section of the home page. You'll find every AIP movie I have reviewed there. Or you could just click that highlighted link in the text above...) All of the movies today were a product of AIP.

 

Night of the Blood Beast (1958):

Directed by Roger Corman, one of the first things you notice in the credits is it was written by Gene Corman. That's right, the director's brother. Boy, Roger knew how to save money in more ways than one... Along with a newcomer, Martin Varno, who did most of the screenplay credit, this script, which was originally titled Creature from Galaxy 27 went into production in early 1958, with a 7 day shooting schedule and a budget of $68,000.

The film starts out like it might be a science fiction movie as opposed to a horror movie because we get a scene of a rocket ship about to blast off into space. After some fairly cheap special effects during the opening credits (except for the scene where it blasts off from Earth, the ship looks like cartoon drawings, rather than models), the film wastes no time in getting to the meat of the story.

 

 

The astronaut, Major John Corcoran, has successfully completed his space launch, but on trying to re-enter the Earth's atmosphere he experiences a malfunction. Neither the rockets nor the emergency chute that would slow down the space ship seem to be working and the rocket crashes to the Earth, killing Corcoran.

At the scene of the crash two fellow scientists inspect the wreckage. They are informed by higher ups to clean up the wreck site, but there are some strange things around. For one, one of the scientists, Donna Bixby (Georgianna Carter) says that the wreck has traces of some strange mud composition. And when other scientists show up, the other scientist who was first on the scene, Dave Randall (Ed Nelson), points out to the newcomers that the hole in the space ship seems to have gotten much larger. (Not to mention the fact that there appears to have been some invisible creature or something moving through the underbrush, unnoticed by either of the first scientists...) 

 

Coming up on the scene are fellow scientists, Dr. Alex Wyman (Tyler McVey), Steve Dunlap (John Baer) and Julie Benson (Angela Greene). Julie has the added interest in the events because she was engaged to be married to Corcoran sometime after his return. Dr. Wyman notices something strange when he examines Corcoran's body. After 3 hours since the crash there is no sign of rigor mortis in Corcoran's body! Wyman says they are going to take Corcoran's body back to the lab to continue his examination.

At the lab Wyman is a bit perplexed. Corcoran's body is almost assuredly dead, but the expected after effects of the deterioration of his body issue is still not there. 

 

Also, all communication with the outside world seems to be stopped. They can't raise HQ or the Air Force or anybody on the short wave radio. While the body is still being examined, with Wyman finding a mysterious scar on Corcoran's body, Dave heads outside to see if he can find a problem with the communications tower. While out there he is attacked by a mysterious creature coming from the nearby woods.

Although Dave survives, things continue to seem to be going wrong at the station. It appears that someone, or something, wants to isolate the station. Both vehicles that could be used to go get help have been disabled somehow. There is a magnetic force field surrounding the area that is the cause of the malfunctions of the radio and the vehicles... 

And Corcoran's body continues to act weird. Now it seems like his blood pressure is back to normal for a body that should be alive, not dead. Plus a blood sample taken reveals that it has, not the normal two blood cells, white and red, but a third type of blood cell that seems to be attacking the other two. And there seems to be alien embryos growing inside of him. At this point, most people would probably say there is too much weird s**t going on here and abandon the base, but these are scientists who have more curiosity than prudence in their make-up.

The crew decide that they have to stay at the station and keep watch, but things go drastically wrong. Something kills Wyman, taking Wyman's head, and (apparently), Corcoran's body. (Because, after all, Corcoran is dead, so he couldn't move himself... or...) Well, it turns out that Corcoran has come back to life, which can't happen, but it did.  He seems to be normal at first, curious about what is going on. But gradually it becomes apparent that some alien creature has a telepathic communication going on with Corcoran. (OK, so it is science fiction after all..)

 

 

The alien finally makes it's appearance and Corcoran pleads with his friends not to kill it. Why? Because the creature is not a threat it only wants to help the human race... (Yeah, so do any number of alien races who supposedly come in peace...) Corcoran (or maybe the alien communicating telepathically through him) tries to plead with his friends to give the alien a chance to explain itself. ("Can't we all just get along?" and all that folderol...) 

Well, as it turns out, the plan to "save" the human race is to actually destroy it and replace it with the aliens. Corcoran realizes this and realizes that the only way to stop this plan is to kill himself, and thus the alien embryos inside him.

 

This is a much better movie than it sounds like, believe me.  While there are some parallels that make it seem like it is sponging off of previous better films, such as The Thing from Another World and even Invasion of the Body Snatchers, the film does have a bit more in it than just a cheesy knockoff. To be fair, it wasn't well received, and some reviews are downright scathing. One reviewer claimed that the alien looked "like the San Diego Chicken after it had been tarred and feathered"and another said that it resembled "a human-sized parrot that had been covered in feces"...  Ouch.

 

 

OK, the alien aside, which admittedly does look kind of ridiculous, the story is pretty good. The creature does resemble a bird man, but that was made necessary because someone in the front office said the original alien's nose looked "too Jewish". The film was not without it's controversy. Martin Varno sued Roger Corman twice over the writing credits. Check out the "WGA arbitration" section of the wikipedia article on the film if you are interested.

 

Aliens come in all sizes, however, as the next feature will prove.

 

 

 

The Brain Eaters (1958):

"A few weeks ago Riverdale, Illinois was just another quiet small town. Then on that Saturday, shortly after midnight, a living nightmare began."

 

And with that not so subtle beginning, the movie jumps right in to the meat of the story.  Two men encounter each other and one bumps in to the other, causing the first man to drop his glass container.  Rather than have a cordial (or maybe not-so-cordial) discussion about the accident, the man carrying the container starts to beat the crap out of the other man.

 

The star and narrator, Glenn (Alan Frost) is traveling with his fiancée, Elaine (Jody Fair), to meet with his father to share the good news about his impending wedding. But they get sidetracked. Something odd is going on up ahead, so the two get out to investigate. While walking through the woods they come upon a couple of dead animals. But the weirdest thing is they discover a cone like object that they don't understand. 

 

 

 

Elaine asks Glenn "What is it?"

Glenn: I don't know. (Which turns out to be an oft repeated phrase....)

The curious object becomes a point of interest in Washington. A senator, Senator Powers (Jack Hill), demands to be apprised of the situation and takes control of the investigation. One wonders how much free time the Senator has if he can go off gallivanting around the country rather than spend time voting in Congress, but this is the movies, so I guess he can vote on his time off...

 

 

 

So off he goes to the site, where the scientist of note investigating this object, Dr. Kettering (Ed Nelson) is finding some intriguing facts. And using some highly questionable methods to do so. (One of the most ridiculous things he does is fire a gun into the interior of the cone. Seems to me that a qualified scientist would realize that that could result in the bullet ricocheting around and ultimately damaging valuable equipment inside, if not actually ricocheting enough to come back out the opening and hitting HIM...)

 

Eventually Kettering clambers inside, but doesn't find anything useful. Meanwhile, Glenn's father, who is coincidentally the mayor of the local town of Riverdale, has returned from a disappearance.  And he is emotionally unstable.  The crew go back to his office to find out what has happened to him. The mayor tries to kill his son and his friends, but he, himself, is killed instead.

 

 

 

After he dies, they inspect the body and find that some parasite has attached itself to the back of his neck. They figure that the parasite had injected some kind of poison that would have eventually killed him if they hadn't shot him. There is something going on with these parasites, but where did they come from?

Eventually they determine that the cone did not come from outer space, but actually came from the interior of the Earth.

 

Seems these parasites are a remnant from an earlier prehistoric age. They are determined to take over the Earth and bring about an age of peace, and their intentions are good (at least to their way of thinking...) The essence of their takeover and their motives is reminiscent of the typical "red scare" movies of the time. (In other words, mankind is diseased and only the parasites can bring about a new age where everything can be fixed, as long as the populace submits to their rule.) One look at these creatures and you'll get the idea that maybe they need to grow a pair before they try taking over the world...

 

 

(No that's not some delicacy from the buffet table at the sushi bar... those are the intelligent parasites...)

 

Of course, the humans don't want to be controlled by the "saviors" and put up a fight.

 

Leonard Nimoy (curiously, credited as Leonard "Nemoy") makes an appearance late in the film as Dr. Cole, a scientist who had disappeared 5 years before. He is alive, but he has been controlled now by the parasites.  (BTW, you might not recognize him, because he is made up to look like an old man. Only his voice is enough to trigger your recognition.) 

 

 

 

The Brain Eaters has one claim to fame in the fact that the producers were sued by Robert A. Heinlein, a science fiction author who found many similarities in the story to his own novel, The Puppet Masters. He got $5,000 dollars in a payoff and one stipulation, that no mention of his name be used in conjunction with the film.  A plan to adapt the novel, The Puppet Masters, to the big screen was jettisoned as a result.  Although, eventually a film version more true to the original novel would be produced in 1994.

 

As this film is also only an hour in length (and even that seems a little long considering), it has some entertainment value.  The suspense is enough to keep you watching, but it suffers from some pretty subpar acting. There are some familiar faces here however, if you watch the same kinds of movies I do. Joanna Lee, who plays Alice, was also in Plan 9 from Outer Space, as Tanna, one of the aliens,. Ed Nelson was a frequent actor in many AIP films, including the first movie in this entry Night of the Blood Beast.  

 

 

 

 

 

The Screaming Skull (1958):

Frightfest Guide to Ghost Movies, by Axelle Carolyn, lists The Screaming Skull as one of it's 200 "must see" ghost movies. She refers to this one as an "atmospheric, yet unevenly paced" picture.  

And, BTW, you can't go wrong if you add the Frightfest Guide series to your reference collection. All of them are not only entertaining in their own right, but excellent go-to guides for the horror genre. As of this writing there are seven books in the series, covering, in order of publication, (with each having "Frightfest Guide to" preceding them) Exploitation Movies, Monster Movies, Ghost Movies, Werewolf Movies, Grindhouse Movies, Vampire Movies and Mad Doctor Movies.

  

The film opens, in the time honored tradition of such exploitation film makers like William Castle, with a warning: 

"The Screaming Skull is a motion picture that reaches it's climax in shocking horror. It's impact is so terrifying that it may have an unforeseen effect... It may kill you! Therefore, it's producers feel they must assure free burial services for anyone who dies of fright while seeing... The Screaming Skull."

And to put an exclamation point on that the camera zooms in on an open coffin with a placard that reads

 

(BTW, unlike William Castle, who went so far as to actually hiring people to pose as nurses in the lobby to deal with frightened patrons, and even had a real insurance company on hand to sell life insurance policies in case the patron died of fright (Macabre), there is no indication that the producers followed through with any subterfuge of having someone on hand to provide "burial services" to patrons...) 

 

OK, so now that you are well informed and, if you wish to continue on despite that warning I will begin this portion of the review... don't say you weren't warned...

 

The film opens with newlyweds Eric (John Hudson) and Jenni Whitlock (Peggy Webber) arriving at Eric's estate.  Eric is on his second marriage. His late wife, Marian, had died not long after their marriage.  The house that Eric and Jenni are now planning to make their newlywed home is barren, because Marian had all the furniture in it moved out in preparation for she and Eric to stock it with new furniture. (Eric apparently never put the old furniture back in after she died...) But he tells Jenni he will bring it all back tomorrow.

 

 

 

Unseen by either is a figure peeking in on the two. This is Mickey (Alex Nicol, who was also the director of the movie), the gardener for the home, who is later revealed to be mentally disabled. Mickey kept up the garden for the two years Eric had been away, and as Eric tells Jenni, he and Marian used to spend hours working in the garden.

 

 

 

The Reverend Snow (Russ Conway) and his wife, only introduced as "Mrs. Snow" (Tony Johnson), show up to greet them. Mickey shows up and Eric introduces him to Jenni. The two visitors each take one of the pair aside, and during the course of discussion it is revealed that Jenni is rich and Eric is barely struggling to keep his head afloat. (And if you don't see what's coming, boy, are you naive...)

 

Mickey is somewhat reserved in talking or even greeting Jenni, and instead seems to have a longing for the return of Marian. He even talks to a portrait of Marian and asks her to "send them away." Apparently Mickey is still not convinced that Marian is actually gone.

 

Eric reveals to Mrs. Snow that Marian has had an unhappy past, which included her losing her parents. They had been in a drowning accident. Coincidentally then, that Reverend Snow reveals to Jenny that Marian, too, had been in an accident that resulted in her drowning in a pool on the garden property.   

 

During their first night as newlyweds, Jenni is awakened at night by a weird banging downstairs. When she goes to investigate she finds an open window banging in the wind, but after she closes it she sees a painting of Marian and it startles her.  

 

 

 

She tells Eric it looks just like her mother. She confides her fears to Eric, and Eric tells her (implants the idea, that is) that Mickey is up to some shenanigans.  He is mentally disabled, after all, and just can't accept the idea that Marian is actually gone.

 

At least, that's what Eric tries to convince Jenni is going on.  Except nothing entirely untoward has even happened yet. Just a window left open, maybe inadvertently, and a leaf from the pond in the house. But that doesn't last for long. Jenni hears strange noises and finds a skull in a cabinet, one that wasn't there the last time she looked.

 

 

 

Eric, ever the loving husband, tries to help her by burning the portrait of Marian with Jenni.  But in the ashes Jenni sees a skull. Eric insists that there is no skull.  But after Jenni passes out, Eric picks up the "non-existent" skull, and hides it in the pond.  At this point, you are probably coming to the conclusion that this is just a cheap cheesy knock off of Gaslight.

 

 

 

Ah, but friends, this isn't the world of psychological thriller, this is the world of horror. Admittedly, up to this point there is nothing entirely "horror" about the movie, and I admit, by 50 minutes into this 70 minute movie I was getting kind of bored. But as it turns out, Eric was involved in a superficial attempt to scare his newlywed rich wife to death, but someone still blames him for the death of Marian, his previous wife.  No, it's not Mickey, who is probably too mentally challenged to even dig up a grave to find a skull.

 

Nope, and I probably don't need to tell you who is going to enact revenge on Eric, who apparently was responsible for the death of Marian, after all. 

 

 

 

Alex Nicol, who played Mickey, chose this script for his first attempt at directing. The script was based on a story by Francis Marion Crawford, which in turn drew it's inspiration from a real legend of a screaming skull. Every review quoted in the Wikipedia article on this film is pretty dismissive of the film. One claimed it was a "truly awful example of drive-in cinema". That may be my opinion for the first 50 minutes of the film, but really. if you can last until that last 15 minutes, I think it improves the film exponentially. Cheesy as it is. 

 

Better yet, just find a copy of it and skip everything up to the point where Jenni tells Eric that Reverend Snow is convinced the skull is real as is going to bring a crew of people onto the property to search for it. (About the 53 minute mark). At that point the movie actually becomes interesting. Eric begins to look for the skull he hid earlier, but now cannot find, and suspects Mickey of having seen him hide it and  taking it.  

 

Although much of that last 15 minutes, including the expected attack on Eric by an unknown force, is kind of shoddy, it is still intense enough to garner some interest. Eric, as expected, gets his comeuppance. 

 

Of the three movies in this entry, I think this may be the worst of the three, but still, it's not as bad as Teenage Zombies...

 

Well, folks, sleep well. 

 

Quiggy

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lust in Space

 

 

One thing you can be sure of: Men can't do without women. Even men from other planets realize that women are important. Not as viable members of the working society, if you take these two movies into consideration, however.  No, these two movies are firmly entrenched into the concept that a woman's basic usefulness begins and ends with their part in the continuation of the species. You know, "barefoot and pregnant". (Although having them look halfway decent in the process is a bonus...)

I think it's pretty interesting that there were at least two science-fiction movies that had this concept as their basis. (There might have been more, but these are the only two I've ever come across.) Not only that, but both have a theme that some unfortunate accident in the past has caused a situation where all of the women on the invader's planet (in both these cases, Mars) have virtually been eliminated, and the only solution available is to invade Earth and take some hostages back to Mars to continue the species.

Fortunately, for the women, these aren't the little green men normally associated with Mars (see Mars Attacks). They at least look nominally humanoid. (And in the case of the second feature, at least one of them looks like Tommy Kirk {Old Yeller}). 

 

 

 

 

 

Frankenstein Meets the Space Monster (1965):

In the never ending quest to find the most obscure and cheesy movies for The Midnite Drive-In, sometimes I find stuff that really is "way out". It is a given fact that the 50's and 60's were a hot bed of low budget movies, especially in the realm of the drive-in movie. With a few thousand dollars to spend and enough willing actors and actresses hard up enough for a role they would take on virtually anything, you could crank out a movie that was bound to secure a profit.  Maybe not enough for you to retire on, but at least enough to finance your next Schlock Theater entry.

One of the things that always got a draw in those halcyon days was the "invasion" entry, in which some aliens with less than altruistic intentions came to Earth, either to enslave the inhabitants, or just looking for a quick bite on the way home at the Human buffet table. Another thing that drew in the crowds was the next Monster of the Month club entry. Put "Dracula" (or "vampire"), "Terror", or "Creature" in the title and sit back and wait for the crowds.

So including the words "Frankenstein, "Space" and "Monster" in the title and you had the essence of the themes that would draw the necessary crowd to the local drive-in theater.  

It didn't matter that the titular "Frankenstein" had nothing to do with Mary Shelley or the numerous variations thereof in film.  And it didn't matter if the actual "Frankenstein" of the title didn't actually meet the "Space Monster" until the last 5 minutes of the film. At least you got, in the interim, some wacky antics by a midget Spock look alike, and a Martian princess (looking like a refugee from some ancient Egyptian sword and sandal epic) trying to do their own invasion of the Earth.

 

The only thing going for this movie is the bevy of bikini clad women the Martians are trying to capture. And those "Bikini-clad" women don't have to do a damn thing but just appear on screen... they don't even have to act. (It's probably a good bet that if they did, they would have acted rings around some of the actors who actually DID have lines in the film...)

 

The set up is this.  The Americans keep launching missiles into space, but unbeknownst to them, there is a spaceship out there shooting them down. But you can't keep down that good old American "can-do" spirit, so they keep banging away.  Their next goal is to send up a rocket piloted by Col. Frank Saunders ( Robert Reilly).  But the scientists do have one trick ace card up their sleeves.  Frank is not really human.  He's an android.  (The cat is almost let out of the bag when "Frank" seizes up during an interview with the press.  But since this press contingent is a couple of apples short of a pitcher of lemonade, they don't really catch on...)

So, back to the aliens.  The alien contingent is lead by a group of soldiers commanded by Princess Marcuzan (Marilyn Hanold, fresh from her gig as Playboy Playmate of the Month {June 1959}) and her adjutant (psychiatrist?) Dr. Nadir (Lou Cutell). The reason the aliens keep knocking down the rockets the Americans are firing is because they think they have been spotted and the Earth is trying to knock them out of orbit. Which would put a serious damper in their plans...

So just what are the plans?  It seems that there has been a serious war going on back on the home planet. A nuclear war.  With whom, it is never said. But the ultimate result of the war is that all the women on the planet have been killed. (That is one seriously selective nuclear bomb... And what comes to mind is... how was the princess able to escape this outcome?)

The advance alien contingent has come to Earth to attempt to kidnap some Earth women to take them back and "repopulate" the species. How? Well, for one thing every girl has to be "purified", which basically involves them being put on a conveyor belt and sent through some kind of alien CAT scan device, although I don't know what the end result does.   (When they are eventually rescued late in the movie it doesn't look like they've changed much).

 

One of the things that really make you scratch your head is, all these women that the Martians capture seem to be docilely submitting to their capture.  I don't quibble over them not actively trying to resist, after all the Martians have those Whamm-o ray guns that can disintegrate anybody they aim them at, but these women don't even raise up a vocal resistance... I mean, they don't even cry or whine over their situation.  Are the Martians really that much better an option than the Human men they have been around?

Meanwhile, back at the lab, the head scientist, Dr. Adam Steele (James Karen, the only actor you will probably even recognize), and his assistant, Karen (Nancy Marshall), try to track down Frank, who, because he is an android, is sending out signals that they can pick up that he is still alive. Although, since he has taken damage, they know he is not necessarily a stable android. 

 

Karen: What would he do?

Adam: I don't know. It would depend on what happened to him. If he'd had any bad experiences, he might react violently... out of his built-in preservation unit. Anything could happen.

Karen: What you're saying is he could turn into a...Frankenstein...

(You knew they had to justify that title somehow, didn't you...?)

Adam and Karen go out searching for Frank. And thus we get essentially a travelogue, as they cruise around Puerto Rico, showing off the local landscape.  They must not be in too big a hurry to find him, since they are riding a moped.

 

Frank has indeed gone rogue, because he is randomly killing people for no reason at all.  Meanwhile the Martians have opted to land the spaceship on Earth. You have to see the spaceship to believe it.  It looks like something like a beach house shaped like a spaceship with what appear to be pool cues supporting it as it stands. 

 

 

This is so the Martians can better load up their captives.  They hit every beach and pool party in site to take as many women as possible.

One wonders where they are going to go when they've finished their mission.  The princess says that the planet is "unfit for further habitation" as a result of the nuclear war, but Dr. Nadir claims they are looking for women so that they "can repopulate our planet". If the planet is unfit for habitation what is the point of repopulating it?

Eventually Adam and Karen find Frank, and while Adam does some work on him he sends Karen back to base to call in the Army and destroy the spaceship.  But the army's weapons prove to be useless (probably because the pilots in the airplanes couldn't hit the broad side of a barn...) And Karen is captured.  She is put in a cage with Mull (the name of the titular "Space Monster" in an effort to get her to talk.

 

Ultimately it comes down to Frank battling Mull and saving the Earth (all in the space of the last 5 minutes of the movie). And Frank destroys the command console of the space ship and blows it up. And we end with a happy ending as Adam and Karen do another Puerto Rico travelogue.

One of the many titles that this movie has been shown under is Mars Invades Puerto Rico. Which accounts for the brief interludes that I refer to as travelogues (else how would you know where the movie was being filmed?) Along with such titles as Duel of the Space Monsters ( the UK title) and Operation San Juan (again a reference to the location of the film), it is clear the producers had no idea what to do with the film.

 Frankenstein Meets the Space Monster is one of those movies where the plot is intriguing enough, but the outcome that was presented leaves a little something to be desired.  It is entertaining on some levels, but the people involved seem a little less interested in presenting a feature film than they are in just getting something out the door to draw in the unsuspecting audience.  As a feature film it is worth a watch, but I seriously doubt that many of you would return for multiple viewings.  It does however have at least a smattering of devotees.

 

 

 

 

Mars Needs Women (1968): 

There is a message coming from space.  It is very simple. Mars Needs Women. But, as opposed to the previous film, at least initially the Martians aren't out to force women against their will to become Martian mothers. (although, at the beginning of the movie three women disappear from Earth and I bet none of them were asked first...) 

As mentioned above, the first three women just disappear, with no explanation.  One is playing tennis with a male companion The second is on a date with a man and disappears while he is off refreshing his supply of cigarettes at the cigarette machine (remember those things?) The third disappears while taking a shower.  

None of these first three women were asked if they wanted to be volunteers to help out the Martians.  But apparently something happened and the first "abductions" were not altogether successful.  So the Martians have been sending a message.  "Mars needs women".

 

The Martians contact the big wigs in the Armed Forces to tell them of their situation.  Apparently a genetic  problem has cropped up in recent years leading to a male to female ratio on Mars of 100:1. So the representative Martian, Dop (Tommy Kirk), tells the brass they are trying to recruit women to come back with them. Essentially implying the women would be volunteers.  (Except for those first three, however). But the bigwig in charge, Col. Page (Byron Lord), is not so diplomatic and tells Dop to go fly a kite. 

 

Thus, the five Martians land in Houston (Why Houston? Why not?), hide their spaceship and embark on a quest to take prospective women by force.  Well, not physical force, thank God, but they are not averse to using techniques that would still be frowned upon by polite society.  They are going to hypnotize the women.

Each of the 5 Martians goes out to seek his own prospect.  One goes to the local airport and starts stalking a stewardess. One of them goes to a local college football game (which appears to be a home game between the Houston Cougars and the Baylor Bears) and picks out the winner of the homecoming queen competition as his prospect.  

A third goes to (where else) a strip club. Hey, if Dr. Cortner in The Brain That Wouldn't Die could seek a prospective body for his fiancee at one, there must be something to the prospective venue. (And since this is a TV movie, and a TV movie from the late 60's to boot, it's a pretty tame strip club. But you gotta take what life deals ya...) 

 

Meanwhile, Dop is seeking out the brilliant (and conveniently, female, and good looking to boot) genetics scientist, Dr. Marjorie Bolen (Yvonne Craig), who just so happens to be speaking at a conference in town. Dop, as you might expect, and Dr. Bolen hit it off and it seems it might just be that he wouldn't have to hypnotize her; she might just come along willingly, for the scientific knowledge. 

 

 

Meanwhile, the Air Force brass is desperately trying to find out where the Martians have hidden their spaceship.  And before you can say "coincidentally advanced speculation" they determine that the best place for a spaceship from a colder planet would have to be an abandoned ice factory, they figure out, sure enough, that there is such a place in a deserted part of town. (OK, 70's Houston was about 50% smaller than it is today, but I doubt there was much of the town that could be that remote, even back then...)

So the Martians end up having to abandon their mission and escape the frying pan before it gets too hot. Although one really has to wonder... the 5 Martians are bringing back 1 woman apiece, so how that could really help the genetic problem back on Mars becomes a little problematic.  I think 5 more women would hardly make a sizable dent in the mathematical ratio, but never let it be said that logic was a primary factor in these kinds of movies.

Of course, if you were paying attention, at this point there were only 3 (or possibly 4, if Dr. Bolen willingly accompanied them)  But the Martian doctor who was on the crew was with Dop and I guess he didn't feel the urgency to find a prospective woman of his own. Either that, or he was jealous that Dop, who wasn't even a doctor on TV, much less in real life, got to get the human female doctor...

 

Compared to the previous movie, this film has less to give to the prospective viewer in terms of it's plot, and some of the actors seem like they were just there to pick up a paycheck. Bryon Lord as the Colonel is probably one of the worst.  He has a grimace pasted on his face throughout the film that just seems to be saying "Can you just say 'Cut' and get this damn scene over?"  Lord reminds me of the Colonel in A*P*E*, but even Alex Nicol had more emotional range...

Except for Craig, not many of the other players stand out either, and that includes Kirk, who was at least half-way decent in the aforementioned Old  Yeller, but somehow never seemed to find a niche in Hollywood after that film. 

Both of these movies are good enough to watch once, but except for that common theme of aliens needing women, neither would probably be good for much but a few laughs, especially the sexist dialogue that many of the men exhibit when around Dr. Bolen in Mars Needs Women. (And I say that despite the fact that I usually defend a movie that is a product of it's time. That sexist attitude was common in the 70's, so it shouldn't be a big issue if taken in context. But it seems to me they took it a little farther than necessary here.) 

Well folks, the Quiggy household needs women (or at least one woman), but I'm not about to abduct one just to fulfill the opening. Volunteers can apply, however.

Drive safely, folks. 

Quiggy