In his career, Elvis Presley covered a number of popular songs. He did not typically write his own music and so relied on lyrics written by others to build his career. One song he covered to great, devastating effect was “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry.” Elvis was a longtime fan of its original singer, Hank Williams, and described the song as the saddest he’d ever heard.
A Hank Williams song was the saddest tune Elvis had heard
Elvis’ deep, crooning voice was perfect for ballads, and he tackled a number of sad songs in his career. One of his favorite artists was Williams, and Elvis often sang his melancholy songs in casual settings with friends. He covered the song “Your Cheatin’ Heart” in 1965 and would later go on to sing “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry.”
Williams released “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry” as...
A Hank Williams song was the saddest tune Elvis had heard
Elvis’ deep, crooning voice was perfect for ballads, and he tackled a number of sad songs in his career. One of his favorite artists was Williams, and Elvis often sang his melancholy songs in casual settings with friends. He covered the song “Your Cheatin’ Heart” in 1965 and would later go on to sing “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry.”
Williams released “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry” as...
- 10/21/2023
- by Emma McKee
- Showbiz Cheat Sheet
In the grand pantheon of superheroes, one figure shines with an enduring brilliance – Superman. He’s not just one of the earliest caped crusaders to grace the pages of comic books; he’s the embodiment of truth and justice, a beacon of hope in a world often shrouded in darkness.
As we delve into the cinematic realm of this iconic character, we unlock a treasure trove of storytelling that has captivated audiences for generations. From the Man of Steel’s inaugural flight on the silver screen to his most recent epic adventures, our journey will span decades of cinematic excellence, exploring every twist, turn, and triumphant moment in the history of Superman movies.
Related: The Evolution of Superheroes: 12 Movies That Shaped the Genre
So, fasten your seatbelts and join us on an exhilarating flight through time and space as we present “All the Superman Movies in Order.”
In this comprehensive guide,...
As we delve into the cinematic realm of this iconic character, we unlock a treasure trove of storytelling that has captivated audiences for generations. From the Man of Steel’s inaugural flight on the silver screen to his most recent epic adventures, our journey will span decades of cinematic excellence, exploring every twist, turn, and triumphant moment in the history of Superman movies.
Related: The Evolution of Superheroes: 12 Movies That Shaped the Genre
So, fasten your seatbelts and join us on an exhilarating flight through time and space as we present “All the Superman Movies in Order.”
In this comprehensive guide,...
- 9/27/2023
- by Israr Ahmed
- buddytv.com
Mill Creek’s latest disc collection gathers three Columbia Sci-fi faves and throws in a Blu-ray debut for a fourth. It’s a good selection: two giant Ray Harryhausen monsters, one marginal bad-taste Sam Katzman zombie epic, and a quirky Lou Costello comedy with Dorothy Provine doing a wholesome take on Allison Hayes’ biggest role. Do these encodings measure up to fancier editions? We give them a spin.
Sci-Fi from the Vault: 4 Films
Blu-ray
Creature with the Atom Brain, It Came from Beneath the Sea, 20 Million Miles to Earth, The 30 Foot Bride of Candy Rock
Mill Creek Entertainment
1955-1959 / B&w / 303 min. / Street Date February 14, 2023 / Available from Mill Creek Entertainment / 29.99
Starring: Richard Denning; Kenneth Tobey & Faith Domergue; William Hopper & Joan Taylor; Lou Costello & Dorothy Provine.
Directed by Edward L. Cahn, Robert Gordon, Nathan Juran, Sidney Miller
Disc collectors are now tempted weekly by plenty of interesting disc releases...
Sci-Fi from the Vault: 4 Films
Blu-ray
Creature with the Atom Brain, It Came from Beneath the Sea, 20 Million Miles to Earth, The 30 Foot Bride of Candy Rock
Mill Creek Entertainment
1955-1959 / B&w / 303 min. / Street Date February 14, 2023 / Available from Mill Creek Entertainment / 29.99
Starring: Richard Denning; Kenneth Tobey & Faith Domergue; William Hopper & Joan Taylor; Lou Costello & Dorothy Provine.
Directed by Edward L. Cahn, Robert Gordon, Nathan Juran, Sidney Miller
Disc collectors are now tempted weekly by plenty of interesting disc releases...
- 2/25/2023
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
CineSavant’s reviews for the new Blu ray set, Cold War Creatures-Four Films from Sam Katzman, are in two parts. You can find Glenn Erickson’s review of Zombies of Mora Tau and The Giant Claw in Part One.
Cold War Creatures: Four Films from Sam Katzman
Blu ray
Arrow Films
1955, ’56/ 1.85
Starring Richard Denning, S. John Launer, Steven Ritch
Directed by Edward L. Cahn, Fred F. Sears
Sam Katzman began his Hollywood career in 1933 with His Private Secretary, a romantic comedy starring John Wayne made for Screencraft Pictures—he endured for five decades, hopscotching from Victory Pictures to Monogram to MGM before bowing out in 1972 with The Loners, an Easy Rider rip-off starring Dean Stockwell (who called the movie “a mess”). But it was at Columbia where the familiar Katzman brand was born—exploitation fodder inspired by the fish stories found in tabloids. These were movies about headlines, not human beings,...
Cold War Creatures: Four Films from Sam Katzman
Blu ray
Arrow Films
1955, ’56/ 1.85
Starring Richard Denning, S. John Launer, Steven Ritch
Directed by Edward L. Cahn, Fred F. Sears
Sam Katzman began his Hollywood career in 1933 with His Private Secretary, a romantic comedy starring John Wayne made for Screencraft Pictures—he endured for five decades, hopscotching from Victory Pictures to Monogram to MGM before bowing out in 1972 with The Loners, an Easy Rider rip-off starring Dean Stockwell (who called the movie “a mess”). But it was at Columbia where the familiar Katzman brand was born—exploitation fodder inspired by the fish stories found in tabloids. These were movies about headlines, not human beings,...
- 9/25/2021
- by Charlie Largent
- Trailers from Hell
Hello, everyone! We’re back with our round-up of this week’s horror and sci-fi home entertainment offerings, and we have some really fun titles headed home tomorrow. Leading the pack is Jack Sholder’s feature film debut Alone in the Dark, which is getting the Collector’s Edition treatment from Scream Factory. Arrow Video is showing love to a quartet of films from Sam Katzman in their Cold War Creatures Limited Edition set. As far as recent horror goes, both Censor and Howling Village are being released on Tuesday, and if you need to catch up with the most recent season of Eli Roth’s History of Horror, season two is headed to Blu-ray as well.
Other releases for September 14th include Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters 4K, The Shawshank Redemption 4K, and Stinger.
Alone in the Dark: Collector’s Edition
At a secluded mental institution, Dr. Bain...
Other releases for September 14th include Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters 4K, The Shawshank Redemption 4K, and Stinger.
Alone in the Dark: Collector’s Edition
At a secluded mental institution, Dr. Bain...
- 9/14/2021
- by Heather Wixson
- DailyDead
Yes, sometimes a producer could earn ‘auteur’ status making B pictures. A name that’s never going to be uttered in the same breath as Val Lewton is Sam Katzman, who for the 1950s settled into a profitable tenure making Columbia program pictures. They pretty much stayed in the category of ‘obvious junk’ yet include a number of endearing favorites. And Katzman deserved to slip through the pearly gates just for helping get Ray Harryhausen’s feature career into motion. Besides their minimal production outlay, Katzman’s horror/sci fi attractions have one strange thing in common: they don’t carry Columbia torch Lady logos. Part One of this review takes on two of the four features in Arrow’s gorgeously appointed boxed set; reviewer Charlie Largent will follow with a review of the second pair of creature features.
Cold War Creatures: Four Films from Sam Katzman
Part 1: Zombies of Mora Tau...
Cold War Creatures: Four Films from Sam Katzman
Part 1: Zombies of Mora Tau...
- 9/11/2021
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
It’s a collection of 6 — count ’em Six — horror and sci-fi curiosities from the ’40s and ’50s, aimed straight at covetous fantasy film addicts. Wacky scripts, strange characterizations and poverty row production values are on view, but the fine transfers reveal professional cinematography and occasional impressive direction. The films are definitely of their time — the censor-inhibited 1940s pictures rely on spooky situations because they can’t show blood or too much violence. And a pair of low-end B&w ‘scope thrillers from the ‘fifties drive-in era do more with less, cutting corners in interesting ways. Viavision anoints the shows with expert commentaries and a couple of real surprises: an entire extra feature and a rare 1950s TV show.
Silver Screams Cinema
Region-Free Blu-ray
Return of the Ape Man, The Phantom Speaks, The Vampire’s Ghost, Valley of the Zombies, She Devil, The Unknown Terror
Viavision [Imprint] 54, 55, 56
1944-1957 / B&w / 2:35 widescreen...
Silver Screams Cinema
Region-Free Blu-ray
Return of the Ape Man, The Phantom Speaks, The Vampire’s Ghost, Valley of the Zombies, She Devil, The Unknown Terror
Viavision [Imprint] 54, 55, 56
1944-1957 / B&w / 2:35 widescreen...
- 8/17/2021
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Cold War Creatures: Four Films From Sam Katzman Available on Blu-ray September 14th From Arrow Video
” Now, I don’t don’t care if that bird came from outer space or Upper Saddle River, New Jersey; it’s still made of flesh and blood – of some sort – and vulnerable to bullets and bombs.”
Cold War Creatures: Four Films From Sam Katzman will be available on Blu-ray September 14th From Arrow Video.
Zombies! Werewolves! Atomic Mutation! Intergalactic Avians! Let this quartet of classic terrors take you back to the golden age of B-Movie Monsters!
A mob boss hires an ex-Nazi scientist to reanimate his dead thugs in Creature with the Atom Brain. An auto-accident survivor is used as an experimental subject to create a vaccine for nuclear fall-out with hair-raising side-effects in The Werewolf. Treasure hunters get more than they bargained for in the search for a cargo of diamonds that went down with a sunken ship when they discover the zombified crew members are guarding the...
Cold War Creatures: Four Films From Sam Katzman will be available on Blu-ray September 14th From Arrow Video.
Zombies! Werewolves! Atomic Mutation! Intergalactic Avians! Let this quartet of classic terrors take you back to the golden age of B-Movie Monsters!
A mob boss hires an ex-Nazi scientist to reanimate his dead thugs in Creature with the Atom Brain. An auto-accident survivor is used as an experimental subject to create a vaccine for nuclear fall-out with hair-raising side-effects in The Werewolf. Treasure hunters get more than they bargained for in the search for a cargo of diamonds that went down with a sunken ship when they discover the zombified crew members are guarding the...
- 8/13/2021
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Mill Creek and Kit Parker have raided the Columbia vault once again in search of Noir Gold from the ‘fifties. Their selection this time around has a couple of prime gems, several straight crime thrillers and domestic jeopardy tales, and also a couple of interesting Brit imports. They aren’t really ‘Noir’ either, but they’re still unexpected and different. The top title is Don Siegel’s incomparable The Lineup, but also on board is a snappy anti-commie epic by André De Toth. Get set for a lineup of impressive leading ladies: Diana Dors, Arlene Dahl, Anita Ekberg — and the great Colleen Dewhurst as a card-carrying Red!
Noir Archive 9-Film Collection Volume 3
The Shadow on the Window, The Long Haul, Pickup Alley, The Tijuana Story, She Played with Fire, The Case Against Brooklyn, The Lineup, The Crimson Kimono, Man on a String
Blu-ray
Mill Creek / Kit Parker
1957 -1960 / B&w...
Noir Archive 9-Film Collection Volume 3
The Shadow on the Window, The Long Haul, Pickup Alley, The Tijuana Story, She Played with Fire, The Case Against Brooklyn, The Lineup, The Crimson Kimono, Man on a String
Blu-ray
Mill Creek / Kit Parker
1957 -1960 / B&w...
- 9/10/2019
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Turn of the century detectives typically dispatched the bad guys with handcuffs or handguns – commonplace but effective best practices. In 1938 the aptly named Action Comics flipped that script with a new kind of crime fighter.
This depression era RoboCop didn’t just brush off bullets – he snatched up getaway cars with one arm while corralling bank robbers in the other. And he flew. Written by Jerry Siegel and illustrated by Joe Shuster, the mysterious crusader was a high profile hero with a low brow reputation – in spite of his Olympian physique and matinee idol looks Hollywood remained dubious until 1941 when Paramount rolled the dice with a series of animated shorts.
Produced by Max Fleischer’s studio and directed by his brother Dave, the cartoons were expressionist showcases featuring geometrically precise action sequences that felt retrograde and futuristic at the same time – wisely evoking Fritz Lang’s Metropolis rather than Shuster’s blandly conceived cityscapes.
This depression era RoboCop didn’t just brush off bullets – he snatched up getaway cars with one arm while corralling bank robbers in the other. And he flew. Written by Jerry Siegel and illustrated by Joe Shuster, the mysterious crusader was a high profile hero with a low brow reputation – in spite of his Olympian physique and matinee idol looks Hollywood remained dubious until 1941 when Paramount rolled the dice with a series of animated shorts.
Produced by Max Fleischer’s studio and directed by his brother Dave, the cartoons were expressionist showcases featuring geometrically precise action sequences that felt retrograde and futuristic at the same time – wisely evoking Fritz Lang’s Metropolis rather than Shuster’s blandly conceived cityscapes.
- 4/20/2019
- by Charlie Largent
- Trailers from Hell
Mill Creek and Kit Parker package nine mid-range Columbia features from the 1940s and 1950s, not all of them strictly noir but all with dark themes — crime, creepy politics, etc. None have been on Blu-ray, and all but one are in fine condition.
Noir Archive 9-Film Collection
Address Unknown, Escape in the Fog, The Guilt of Janet Ames, The Black Book, Johnny Allegro, 711 Ocean Drive, The Killer That Stalked New York, Assignment: Paris, The Miami Story
Blu-ray
Mill Creek / Kit Parker
1944 -1954 / B&W / 8 x 1:37 Academy; 1 x 1:85 widescreen / 734 min. / Street Date April 23, 2019 / 49.95
Starring: Paul Lukas, Nina Foch, Rosalind Russell, Robert Cummings, George Raft, Edmond O’Brien, Evelyn Keyes, Dana Andrews, Barry Sullivan.
Cinematography: Rudolph Maté, George Meehan, Joseph Walker, John Alton, Joseph Biroc, Franz Planer, Joseph Biroc, Burnett Guffey, Henry Freulich.
Written by Herbert Dalmas, Aubrey Wisberg, Louella MacFarlane, Philip Yordan, Karen DeWolf, Richard English, Harry Essex, William Bowers,...
Noir Archive 9-Film Collection
Address Unknown, Escape in the Fog, The Guilt of Janet Ames, The Black Book, Johnny Allegro, 711 Ocean Drive, The Killer That Stalked New York, Assignment: Paris, The Miami Story
Blu-ray
Mill Creek / Kit Parker
1944 -1954 / B&W / 8 x 1:37 Academy; 1 x 1:85 widescreen / 734 min. / Street Date April 23, 2019 / 49.95
Starring: Paul Lukas, Nina Foch, Rosalind Russell, Robert Cummings, George Raft, Edmond O’Brien, Evelyn Keyes, Dana Andrews, Barry Sullivan.
Cinematography: Rudolph Maté, George Meehan, Joseph Walker, John Alton, Joseph Biroc, Franz Planer, Joseph Biroc, Burnett Guffey, Henry Freulich.
Written by Herbert Dalmas, Aubrey Wisberg, Louella MacFarlane, Philip Yordan, Karen DeWolf, Richard English, Harry Essex, William Bowers,...
- 4/9/2019
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
It’s big, it buzzes, and it screams like a banshee. So why is the Mantis monster so ho-hum? Universal-International tries to squeak out another boffo big bug epic, but 1957 screens were already crowded with grasshoppers and scorpions — and the screenplay is derivative — and somebody allowed producer William Alland to throw in every stock shot that wasn’t nailed down.
The Deadly Mantis
Blu-ray
1957 / B&W / 1:85 widescreen / 79 min. / Street Date March 19, 2019 / 27.99
Starring: Craig Stevens, William Hopper, Alix Talton, Donald Randolph, Pat Conway, Florenz Ames, Paul Smith, Harry Tyler.
Cinematography: Ellis W. Carter, Clifford Stine
Film Editor: Chester Schaeffer
Original Music: Irving Gertz, William Lava, Henry Mancini
Written by Martin Berkeley, William Alland
Produced by William Alland
Directed by Nathan Juran
I grew up partly in the Mojave Desert. Our red ants were aggressive (and they stung!), our grasshoppers big and strong, and our scorpions were as scary as the...
The Deadly Mantis
Blu-ray
1957 / B&W / 1:85 widescreen / 79 min. / Street Date March 19, 2019 / 27.99
Starring: Craig Stevens, William Hopper, Alix Talton, Donald Randolph, Pat Conway, Florenz Ames, Paul Smith, Harry Tyler.
Cinematography: Ellis W. Carter, Clifford Stine
Film Editor: Chester Schaeffer
Original Music: Irving Gertz, William Lava, Henry Mancini
Written by Martin Berkeley, William Alland
Produced by William Alland
Directed by Nathan Juran
I grew up partly in the Mojave Desert. Our red ants were aggressive (and they stung!), our grasshoppers big and strong, and our scorpions were as scary as the...
- 3/16/2019
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Not enough love is set aside for this ambitious, under-budgeted Lost Civilization epic. John Agar and Cynthia Patrick find love in an ancient albino race that worships a Death Ray and enslaves a race of Subterranean Humanoid Underground Dwellers — Mole Men, what else? It’s unconvincing and the production lacks polish, but it’s also got clever story gimmicks and sympathetic monsters, so it gets a warm reception at CineSavant Central.
The Mole People
Blu-ray
Scream Factory
1956 / B&W / 1.85:1 + 2:1 widescreen / 77 min. / Street Date February 26, 2019 / 27.99
Starring: John Agar, Cynthia Patrick, Hugh Beaumont, Alan Napier, Nestor Paiva, Phil Chambers, Rodd Redwing, Robin Hughes, Frank Baxter, Eddie Parker.
Cinematography: Ellis W. Carter
Film Editor: Irving Birnbaum
Mask Maker: Jack Kevan
Special Photography: Clifford Stine
Written by László Görög
Produced by William Alland
Directed by Virgil Vogel
“Mole Hole, Mole Hole — A land of renown!
Iraq is Up and Sumeria’s down!
The Mole People
Blu-ray
Scream Factory
1956 / B&W / 1.85:1 + 2:1 widescreen / 77 min. / Street Date February 26, 2019 / 27.99
Starring: John Agar, Cynthia Patrick, Hugh Beaumont, Alan Napier, Nestor Paiva, Phil Chambers, Rodd Redwing, Robin Hughes, Frank Baxter, Eddie Parker.
Cinematography: Ellis W. Carter
Film Editor: Irving Birnbaum
Mask Maker: Jack Kevan
Special Photography: Clifford Stine
Written by László Görög
Produced by William Alland
Directed by Virgil Vogel
“Mole Hole, Mole Hole — A land of renown!
Iraq is Up and Sumeria’s down!
- 2/26/2019
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
It’s a spooky, snowy train ride across thousands of miles of Siberian rails — trapped on board with a victim-possessing creature from outer space, with eyes that kill! Actually, ‘Pánico en el transiberiano’ is a fine show for Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee, a Spanish-made chiller with a smart script and some effective shocks.
Horror Express
Blu-ray
Arrow Video
1972 / Color / 1:78 widescreen / 90 min. / Street Date February 12, 2019 / Available from Arrow Video
Starring: Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, Telly Savalas, Alberto de Mendoza, Silvia Tortosa, Julio Peña, Ángel del Pozo, Helga Liné.
Cinematography: Alejandro Ulloa
Original Music: John Cacavas
Written by Arnaud d’Usseau, Julian Zimet
Produced by Bernard Gordon
Directed by Eugenio Martín
Dedicated horror fans look to the past to uncover forgotten chillers, or just to complete their lists of rare items unseen. For instance, although no release date has been given, we’re told that Kino Lorber will be giving...
Horror Express
Blu-ray
Arrow Video
1972 / Color / 1:78 widescreen / 90 min. / Street Date February 12, 2019 / Available from Arrow Video
Starring: Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, Telly Savalas, Alberto de Mendoza, Silvia Tortosa, Julio Peña, Ángel del Pozo, Helga Liné.
Cinematography: Alejandro Ulloa
Original Music: John Cacavas
Written by Arnaud d’Usseau, Julian Zimet
Produced by Bernard Gordon
Directed by Eugenio Martín
Dedicated horror fans look to the past to uncover forgotten chillers, or just to complete their lists of rare items unseen. For instance, although no release date has been given, we’re told that Kino Lorber will be giving...
- 2/9/2019
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Since the early days of home video Ray Harryhausen’s films have been a lightning rod for companies eager to one-up the competition with bigger and brighter releases of the beloved animator’s work. Located in the UK, Powerhouse/Indicator is the latest to jump on the bandwagon with lavishly appointed blu ray sets each featuring three of his films. Though all these movies have been previously released through other companies, Powerhouse has upped the ante with fresh transfers and a broad slate of new extras.
The Wonderful Worlds of Ray Harryhausen, Vol. One: 1955-1960
Blu-ray – All Region
Powerhouse/Indicator
2001 / 1:85 / Street Date September 25, 2017
Starring Kenneth Tobey, William Hopper, Kerwin Matthews
Cinematography: Henry Freulich, Irving Lippman, Carlo Ventimiglia, Wilkie Cooper
Film Editor: Jerome Thoms, Edwin H. Bryant, Raymond Poulton
Produced by Sam Katzman, Charles H. Schneer
Music: Mischa Bakaleinikoff, Bernard Herrmann
Directed by Robert Gordon, Nathan Juran, Jack Sher
It Came from Beneath the Sea...
The Wonderful Worlds of Ray Harryhausen, Vol. One: 1955-1960
Blu-ray – All Region
Powerhouse/Indicator
2001 / 1:85 / Street Date September 25, 2017
Starring Kenneth Tobey, William Hopper, Kerwin Matthews
Cinematography: Henry Freulich, Irving Lippman, Carlo Ventimiglia, Wilkie Cooper
Film Editor: Jerome Thoms, Edwin H. Bryant, Raymond Poulton
Produced by Sam Katzman, Charles H. Schneer
Music: Mischa Bakaleinikoff, Bernard Herrmann
Directed by Robert Gordon, Nathan Juran, Jack Sher
It Came from Beneath the Sea...
- 9/30/2017
- by Charlie Largent
- Trailers from Hell
Bela Lugosi fan alert! This Monogram horror opus is yet another narrative-challenged fumble of unmotivated, incomprehensible characters… but Bela’s great in it, in a central role. He’s a sympathetic, non- maniac this time, if you don’t count his tendency to go into trances and smother random houseguests. Savant’s review has the lowdown on the interesting cast; Tom Weaver’s commentary has the authoritative lowdown on whole show.
Invisible Ghost
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1941 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 64 min. / Street Date March 21, 2017 / available through Kino Lorber / 24.95
Starring: Bela Lugosi, Polly Ann Young, Clarence Muse, John McGuire, Betty Compson, Ernie Adams, Terry Walker, George Pembroke .
Cinematography: Harvey Gould, Marcel Le Picard
Film Editor: Robert Golden
Original Music: hahahahah, good one.
Written by Helen Martin & Al Martin
Produced by Sam Katzman
Directed by Joseph H. Lewis
Horror movie fans come in two varieties, obsessive and dangerously obsessive. Back...
Invisible Ghost
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1941 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 64 min. / Street Date March 21, 2017 / available through Kino Lorber / 24.95
Starring: Bela Lugosi, Polly Ann Young, Clarence Muse, John McGuire, Betty Compson, Ernie Adams, Terry Walker, George Pembroke .
Cinematography: Harvey Gould, Marcel Le Picard
Film Editor: Robert Golden
Original Music: hahahahah, good one.
Written by Helen Martin & Al Martin
Produced by Sam Katzman
Directed by Joseph H. Lewis
Horror movie fans come in two varieties, obsessive and dangerously obsessive. Back...
- 3/28/2017
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
March 21st is a big day for cult film fans, not to mention all you RoboCop enthusiasts out there, as Tuesday has a variety of horror and sci-fi offerings that you’ll undoubtedly want to add to your home entertainment collections. Scream Factory is releasing a pair of amazing Collector's Edition Blu-rays for RoboCop 2 and RoboCop 3, and Kino Lorber is keeping busy with a trio of HD releases, too: Chamber of Horrors, Invisible Ghost, and A Game of Death.
Other notable titles making their way home on March 21st include Wolf Creek: Season One, Eloise, John Waters’ Multiple Maniacs, and Frankenstein Created Bikers.
Chamber of Horrors (Kino Lorber, Blu-ray & DVD)
Newly Mastered in HD! Chamber of Horrors was based on the classic novel, The Door with Seven Locks by Edgar Wallace (King Kong, The Terror) - it was the second Wallace adaptation brought to the States by Monogram Pictures.
Other notable titles making their way home on March 21st include Wolf Creek: Season One, Eloise, John Waters’ Multiple Maniacs, and Frankenstein Created Bikers.
Chamber of Horrors (Kino Lorber, Blu-ray & DVD)
Newly Mastered in HD! Chamber of Horrors was based on the classic novel, The Door with Seven Locks by Edgar Wallace (King Kong, The Terror) - it was the second Wallace adaptation brought to the States by Monogram Pictures.
- 3/21/2017
- by Heather Wixson
- DailyDead
Ivan Tors and Curt Siodmak 'borrow' nine minutes of dynamite special effects from an obscure-because-suppressed German sci-fi picture, write a new script, and come up with an eccentric thriller where atom scientists behave like G-Men crossed with Albert Einstein. The challenge? How to make a faceless unstable atomic isotope into a worthy science fiction 'monster.' The Magnetic Monster Blu-ray Kl Studio Classics 1953 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 76 min. / Street Date June 14, 2016 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95 Starring Richard Carlson, King Donovan, Jean Byron, Leonard Mudie, Byron Foulger, Michael Fox, Frank Gerstle, Charles Williams, Kathleen Freeman, Strother Martin, Jarma Lewis. Cinematography Charles Van Enger Supervising Film Editor Herbert L. Strock Original Music Blaine Sanford Written by Curt Siodmak, Ivan Tors Produced by Ivan Tors Directed by Curt Siodmak
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
How did we ever survive without an "Office of Scientific Investigation?" In the early 1950s, producer Ivan Tors launched himself with a trio of science fiction movies based on that non-existent government entity, sort of an FBI for strange scientific phenomena. As of this writing, Kino has released a terrific 3-D Blu-ray of the third entry, 1954's Gog. The second Tors Osi mini-epic is the interesting, if scientifically scrambled Riders to the Stars, which shows up from time to time on TCM but has yet to find its way to home video in any format. The first of the series, 1953's The Magnetic Monster is considered the most scientifically interesting, although it mainly promotes its own laundry list of goofy notions about physics and chemistry. As it pretends that it is based on scientific ideas instead of rubber-suited monsters, Tors' abstract threat is more than just another 'thing' trying to abduct the leading lady. Exploiting the common fear of radiation, a force little understood by the general public, The Magnetic Monster invents a whole new secret government bureau dedicated to solving 'dangerous scientific problems' -- the inference being, of course, that there's always something threatening about science. Actually, producer Tors was probably inspired by his partner Curt Siodmak to take advantage of a fantastic special effects opportunity that a small show like Magnetic could normally never afford. More on that later. The script plays like an episode of Dragnet, substituting scientific detectives for L.A.P.D. gumshoes. Top-kick nuclear troubleshooter Dr. Jeff Stewart (Richard Carlson) can't afford to buy a tract home for his pregnant wife Connie (beautiful Jean Byron, later of The Patty Duke Show). He is one of just a few dauntless Osi operatives standing between us and scientific disaster. When local cops route a weird distress call to the Osi office, Jeff and his Phd. sidekick Dan Forbes (King Donovan) discover that someone has been tampering with an unstable isotope in a room above a housewares store on Lincoln Blvd.: every metallic object in the store has become magnetized. The agents trace the explosive element to one Dr. Serny (Michael Fox), whose "lone wolf" experiments have created a new monster element, a Unipolar watchamacallit sometimes referred to as Serranium. If not 'fed' huge amounts of energy this new element will implode, expand, and explode again on a predictable timetable. Local efforts to neutralize the element fail, and an entire lab building is destroyed. Dan and Jeff rush the now-larger isotope to a fantastic Canadian "Deltatron" constructed in a super-scientific complex deep under the ocean off Nova Scotia. The plan is to bombard the stuff with so much energy that it will disintegrate harmlessly. But does the Deltatron have enough juice to do the job? Its Canadian supervisor tries to halt the procedure just as the time limit to the next implosion is coming due! Sincere, likeable and quaint, The Magnetic Monster is nevertheless a prime candidate for chuckles, thanks to a screenplay with a high clunk factor. Big cheese scientist Jeff Stewart interrupts his experimental bombardment of metals in his atom smasher to go out on blind neighborhood calls, dispensing atom know-how like a pizza deliveryman. He takes time out to make fat jokes at the expense of the lab's switchboard operator, the charming Kathleen Freeman. The Osi's super-computer provides instant answers to various mysteries. Its name in this show is the acronym M.A.N.I.A.C.. Was naming differential analyzers some kind of a fetish with early computer men? Quick, which '50s Sci-fi gem has a computer named S.U.S.I.E.? The strange isotope harnesses a vague amalgam of nuclear and magnetic forces. It might seem logical to small kids just learning about the invisible wonder of magnetism -- and that understand none of it. All the silverware at the store sticks together. It is odd, but not enough to cause the sexy blonde saleswoman (Elizabeth Root) to scream and jump as if goosed by Our Friend the Atom. When a call comes in that a taxi's engine has become magnetized, our agents are slow to catch on. Gee, could that crazy event be related to our mystery element? When the culprit scientist is finally tracked down, and pulled off an airliner, he's already near death from overexposure to his own creation. We admire Dr. Serny, who after all managed to create a new element on his own, without benefit of a billion dollar physics lab. He also must be a prize dope for not realizing that the resulting radiation would kill him. The Osi troubleshooters deliver a stern lesson that all of us need to remember: "In nuclear research there is no place for lone wolves." If you think about it, the agency's function is to protect us from science itself, with blame leveled at individual, free-thinking, 'rogue' brainiacs. (Sarcasm alert.) The danger in nuclear research comes not from mad militarists trying to make bigger and more awful bombs; the villains are those crackpots cooking up end-of-the-world scenarios in their home workshops. Dr. Serny probably didn't even have a security clearance! The Magnetic Monster has a delightful gaffe in every scene. When a dangerous isotope is said to be 'on the loose,' a police radio order is broadcast to Shoot To Kill ... Shoot what exactly, they don't say. This line could very well have been invented in the film's audio mix, if producer Tors thought the scene needed an extra jolt. Despite the fact that writer-director Curt Siodmak cooked up the brilliant concept of Donovan's Brain and personally invented a bona fide classic monster mythology, his '50s sci-fi efforts strain credibility in all directions. As I explain in the Gold review, Siodmak may have been the one to come up with the idea of repurposing the climax of the old film. He was a refugee from Hitler's Germany, and had written a film with director Karl Hartl. Reading accounts in books by Tom Weaver and Bill Warren, we learn that the writer Siodmak had difficulty functioning as a director and that credited editor Herbert Strock stepped in to direct. Strock later claimed that the noted writer was indecisive on the set. The truly remarkable aspect of The Magnetic Monster comes in the last reel, when Jeff and Dan take an elevator ride way, way down to Canada's subterranean, sub-Atlantic Deltatron atom-smasher. They're suddenly wearing styles not worn in the early 'fifties -- big blocky coats and wide-brimmed hats. The answer comes when they step out into a wild mad-lab construction worthy of the visuals in Metropolis. A giant power station is outfitted with oversized white porcelain insulators -- even a set of stairs looks like an insulator. Atop the control booth is an array of (giant, what else) glass tubes with glowing neon lights inside. Cables and wires go every which-way. A crew of workers in wrinkled shop suits stands about like extras from The Three-Penny Opera. For quite some time, only readers of old issues of Famous Monsters of Filmland knew the secret of this bizarre footage, which is actually from the 1934 German sci-fi thriller Gold, directed by Karl Hartl and starring Hans Albers and Brigitte Helm. Tors and Siodmak do their best to integrate Richard Carlson and King Donovan into this spectacular twenty-year-old stock footage, even though the extravagant production values and the expressionist patina of the Ufa visuals are a gross mismatch for The Magnetic Monster's '50s semi-docu look. Jeff's wide hat and David Byrne coat are there to make him look more like Hans Albers in the 1934 film, which doesn't work because Albers must be four inches taller and forty pounds beefier than Richard Carlson. Jeff climbs around the Deltatron, enters a control booth and argues with the Canadian scientist/turnkey, who is a much better match for the villain of Gold. Jeff changes into a different costume, with a different cap -- so he can match Albers in the different scene in Gold. The exciting climax repurposes the extravagant special effects of Otto Hunte and Günther Rittau, changing the original film's attempted atomic alchemy into a desperate attempt to neutralize the nasty new element before it can explode again. The matching works rather well for Jeff's desperate struggle to close an enormous pair of bulkhead doors that have been sabotaged. And a matched cut on a whip pan from center stage to a high control room is very nicely integrated into the old footage. The bizarre scene doesn't quite come off... even kids must have known that older footage was being used. In the long shots, Richard Carlson doesn't look anything like Hans Albers. A fuel-rod plunger in the control room displays a German-style cross, even though the corresponding instrument in the original show wasn't so decorated. Some impressive close-up views of a blob of metal being bombarded by atomic particles are from the old movie, and others are new effects. Metallurgy is scary, man. The "Serranium" threat establishes a pattern touched upon by later Sci-fi movies with organic or abstract forces that grow from relative insignificance to world-threatening proportions. The Monolith Monsters proposes giant crystals that grow to the size of skyscrapers, threatening to cover the earth with a giant quartz-pile. The Sam Katzman quickie The Day the World Exploded makes The Magnetic Monster look like an expensive production. It invents a new mineral that explodes when exposed to air. The supporting cast of The Magnetic Monster gives us some pleasant, familiar faces. In addition to the beloved Kathleen Freeman is Strother Martin as a concerned airline pilot. Fussy Byron Foulger owns the housewares store and granite-jawed Frank Gerstle (Gristle?) is a gruff general. The gorgeous Jarma Lewis has a quick bit as a stewardess. The Kl Studio Classics Blu-ray of The Magnetic Monster is a fine transfer of this B&W gem from United Artists. Once hard to see, it was part of an expensive MGM-Image laserdisc set twenty years ago and then an Mod DVD in 2011. The disc comes with a socko original trailer that explains why it did reasonably well at the box office. Every exciting moment is edited into a coming attraction that really hypes the jeopardy factor. At that time, just the sight of a hero in a radiation suit promised something unusual. Nowadays, Hazardous Waste workers use suits like that to clean up common chemical spills. The commentary for The Magnetic Monster is by Fangoria writer Derek Botelho, whose name is misspelled as Botello on the disc package. I've heard Derek on a couple of David del Valle tracks for Vincent Price movies, where he functioned mainly as an Ed McMahon-like fan sidekick. His talk tends to drift into loosely related sidebar observations. Instead of discussing how the movie was made by cannibalizing another, he recounts for us the comedy stock footage discovery scene from Tim Burton's Ed Wood. Several pages recited from memoirs by Curt Siodmak and Herbert Strock do provide useful information on the film. Botelho appreciates actress Kathleen Freeman. You can't go wrong doing that. Viewers that obtain Kino's concurrent Blu-ray release of the original 1934 German thriller Gold will note that the repurposed scenes from that film look much better here, although they still bear some scratches. On a scale of Excellent, Good, Fair, and Poor, The Magnetic Monster Blu-ray rates: Movie: Good + Video: Very Good Sound: Excellent Supplements: Commentary with Derek Botelho, Theatrical trailer Deaf and Hearing Impaired Friendly? N0; Subtitles: None Packaging: Keep case Reviewed: June 8, 2016 (5138magn)
Visit DVD Savant's Main Column Page Glenn Erickson answers most reader mail: [email protected]
Text © Copyright 2016 Glenn Erickson...
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
How did we ever survive without an "Office of Scientific Investigation?" In the early 1950s, producer Ivan Tors launched himself with a trio of science fiction movies based on that non-existent government entity, sort of an FBI for strange scientific phenomena. As of this writing, Kino has released a terrific 3-D Blu-ray of the third entry, 1954's Gog. The second Tors Osi mini-epic is the interesting, if scientifically scrambled Riders to the Stars, which shows up from time to time on TCM but has yet to find its way to home video in any format. The first of the series, 1953's The Magnetic Monster is considered the most scientifically interesting, although it mainly promotes its own laundry list of goofy notions about physics and chemistry. As it pretends that it is based on scientific ideas instead of rubber-suited monsters, Tors' abstract threat is more than just another 'thing' trying to abduct the leading lady. Exploiting the common fear of radiation, a force little understood by the general public, The Magnetic Monster invents a whole new secret government bureau dedicated to solving 'dangerous scientific problems' -- the inference being, of course, that there's always something threatening about science. Actually, producer Tors was probably inspired by his partner Curt Siodmak to take advantage of a fantastic special effects opportunity that a small show like Magnetic could normally never afford. More on that later. The script plays like an episode of Dragnet, substituting scientific detectives for L.A.P.D. gumshoes. Top-kick nuclear troubleshooter Dr. Jeff Stewart (Richard Carlson) can't afford to buy a tract home for his pregnant wife Connie (beautiful Jean Byron, later of The Patty Duke Show). He is one of just a few dauntless Osi operatives standing between us and scientific disaster. When local cops route a weird distress call to the Osi office, Jeff and his Phd. sidekick Dan Forbes (King Donovan) discover that someone has been tampering with an unstable isotope in a room above a housewares store on Lincoln Blvd.: every metallic object in the store has become magnetized. The agents trace the explosive element to one Dr. Serny (Michael Fox), whose "lone wolf" experiments have created a new monster element, a Unipolar watchamacallit sometimes referred to as Serranium. If not 'fed' huge amounts of energy this new element will implode, expand, and explode again on a predictable timetable. Local efforts to neutralize the element fail, and an entire lab building is destroyed. Dan and Jeff rush the now-larger isotope to a fantastic Canadian "Deltatron" constructed in a super-scientific complex deep under the ocean off Nova Scotia. The plan is to bombard the stuff with so much energy that it will disintegrate harmlessly. But does the Deltatron have enough juice to do the job? Its Canadian supervisor tries to halt the procedure just as the time limit to the next implosion is coming due! Sincere, likeable and quaint, The Magnetic Monster is nevertheless a prime candidate for chuckles, thanks to a screenplay with a high clunk factor. Big cheese scientist Jeff Stewart interrupts his experimental bombardment of metals in his atom smasher to go out on blind neighborhood calls, dispensing atom know-how like a pizza deliveryman. He takes time out to make fat jokes at the expense of the lab's switchboard operator, the charming Kathleen Freeman. The Osi's super-computer provides instant answers to various mysteries. Its name in this show is the acronym M.A.N.I.A.C.. Was naming differential analyzers some kind of a fetish with early computer men? Quick, which '50s Sci-fi gem has a computer named S.U.S.I.E.? The strange isotope harnesses a vague amalgam of nuclear and magnetic forces. It might seem logical to small kids just learning about the invisible wonder of magnetism -- and that understand none of it. All the silverware at the store sticks together. It is odd, but not enough to cause the sexy blonde saleswoman (Elizabeth Root) to scream and jump as if goosed by Our Friend the Atom. When a call comes in that a taxi's engine has become magnetized, our agents are slow to catch on. Gee, could that crazy event be related to our mystery element? When the culprit scientist is finally tracked down, and pulled off an airliner, he's already near death from overexposure to his own creation. We admire Dr. Serny, who after all managed to create a new element on his own, without benefit of a billion dollar physics lab. He also must be a prize dope for not realizing that the resulting radiation would kill him. The Osi troubleshooters deliver a stern lesson that all of us need to remember: "In nuclear research there is no place for lone wolves." If you think about it, the agency's function is to protect us from science itself, with blame leveled at individual, free-thinking, 'rogue' brainiacs. (Sarcasm alert.) The danger in nuclear research comes not from mad militarists trying to make bigger and more awful bombs; the villains are those crackpots cooking up end-of-the-world scenarios in their home workshops. Dr. Serny probably didn't even have a security clearance! The Magnetic Monster has a delightful gaffe in every scene. When a dangerous isotope is said to be 'on the loose,' a police radio order is broadcast to Shoot To Kill ... Shoot what exactly, they don't say. This line could very well have been invented in the film's audio mix, if producer Tors thought the scene needed an extra jolt. Despite the fact that writer-director Curt Siodmak cooked up the brilliant concept of Donovan's Brain and personally invented a bona fide classic monster mythology, his '50s sci-fi efforts strain credibility in all directions. As I explain in the Gold review, Siodmak may have been the one to come up with the idea of repurposing the climax of the old film. He was a refugee from Hitler's Germany, and had written a film with director Karl Hartl. Reading accounts in books by Tom Weaver and Bill Warren, we learn that the writer Siodmak had difficulty functioning as a director and that credited editor Herbert Strock stepped in to direct. Strock later claimed that the noted writer was indecisive on the set. The truly remarkable aspect of The Magnetic Monster comes in the last reel, when Jeff and Dan take an elevator ride way, way down to Canada's subterranean, sub-Atlantic Deltatron atom-smasher. They're suddenly wearing styles not worn in the early 'fifties -- big blocky coats and wide-brimmed hats. The answer comes when they step out into a wild mad-lab construction worthy of the visuals in Metropolis. A giant power station is outfitted with oversized white porcelain insulators -- even a set of stairs looks like an insulator. Atop the control booth is an array of (giant, what else) glass tubes with glowing neon lights inside. Cables and wires go every which-way. A crew of workers in wrinkled shop suits stands about like extras from The Three-Penny Opera. For quite some time, only readers of old issues of Famous Monsters of Filmland knew the secret of this bizarre footage, which is actually from the 1934 German sci-fi thriller Gold, directed by Karl Hartl and starring Hans Albers and Brigitte Helm. Tors and Siodmak do their best to integrate Richard Carlson and King Donovan into this spectacular twenty-year-old stock footage, even though the extravagant production values and the expressionist patina of the Ufa visuals are a gross mismatch for The Magnetic Monster's '50s semi-docu look. Jeff's wide hat and David Byrne coat are there to make him look more like Hans Albers in the 1934 film, which doesn't work because Albers must be four inches taller and forty pounds beefier than Richard Carlson. Jeff climbs around the Deltatron, enters a control booth and argues with the Canadian scientist/turnkey, who is a much better match for the villain of Gold. Jeff changes into a different costume, with a different cap -- so he can match Albers in the different scene in Gold. The exciting climax repurposes the extravagant special effects of Otto Hunte and Günther Rittau, changing the original film's attempted atomic alchemy into a desperate attempt to neutralize the nasty new element before it can explode again. The matching works rather well for Jeff's desperate struggle to close an enormous pair of bulkhead doors that have been sabotaged. And a matched cut on a whip pan from center stage to a high control room is very nicely integrated into the old footage. The bizarre scene doesn't quite come off... even kids must have known that older footage was being used. In the long shots, Richard Carlson doesn't look anything like Hans Albers. A fuel-rod plunger in the control room displays a German-style cross, even though the corresponding instrument in the original show wasn't so decorated. Some impressive close-up views of a blob of metal being bombarded by atomic particles are from the old movie, and others are new effects. Metallurgy is scary, man. The "Serranium" threat establishes a pattern touched upon by later Sci-fi movies with organic or abstract forces that grow from relative insignificance to world-threatening proportions. The Monolith Monsters proposes giant crystals that grow to the size of skyscrapers, threatening to cover the earth with a giant quartz-pile. The Sam Katzman quickie The Day the World Exploded makes The Magnetic Monster look like an expensive production. It invents a new mineral that explodes when exposed to air. The supporting cast of The Magnetic Monster gives us some pleasant, familiar faces. In addition to the beloved Kathleen Freeman is Strother Martin as a concerned airline pilot. Fussy Byron Foulger owns the housewares store and granite-jawed Frank Gerstle (Gristle?) is a gruff general. The gorgeous Jarma Lewis has a quick bit as a stewardess. The Kl Studio Classics Blu-ray of The Magnetic Monster is a fine transfer of this B&W gem from United Artists. Once hard to see, it was part of an expensive MGM-Image laserdisc set twenty years ago and then an Mod DVD in 2011. The disc comes with a socko original trailer that explains why it did reasonably well at the box office. Every exciting moment is edited into a coming attraction that really hypes the jeopardy factor. At that time, just the sight of a hero in a radiation suit promised something unusual. Nowadays, Hazardous Waste workers use suits like that to clean up common chemical spills. The commentary for The Magnetic Monster is by Fangoria writer Derek Botelho, whose name is misspelled as Botello on the disc package. I've heard Derek on a couple of David del Valle tracks for Vincent Price movies, where he functioned mainly as an Ed McMahon-like fan sidekick. His talk tends to drift into loosely related sidebar observations. Instead of discussing how the movie was made by cannibalizing another, he recounts for us the comedy stock footage discovery scene from Tim Burton's Ed Wood. Several pages recited from memoirs by Curt Siodmak and Herbert Strock do provide useful information on the film. Botelho appreciates actress Kathleen Freeman. You can't go wrong doing that. Viewers that obtain Kino's concurrent Blu-ray release of the original 1934 German thriller Gold will note that the repurposed scenes from that film look much better here, although they still bear some scratches. On a scale of Excellent, Good, Fair, and Poor, The Magnetic Monster Blu-ray rates: Movie: Good + Video: Very Good Sound: Excellent Supplements: Commentary with Derek Botelho, Theatrical trailer Deaf and Hearing Impaired Friendly? N0; Subtitles: None Packaging: Keep case Reviewed: June 8, 2016 (5138magn)
Visit DVD Savant's Main Column Page Glenn Erickson answers most reader mail: [email protected]
Text © Copyright 2016 Glenn Erickson...
- 6/14/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
A generation of baby boomers were forever enchanted by a passel of fabulous monsters in this now-classic fantasy hit. After years of working on Sam Katzman B pictures, FX genius Ray Harryhausen and his producer Charles Schneer moved up the ladder with a comparatively larger budget but still economical Arabian Nights adventure whose sleeper success spawned another two decades of Harryhausen magic. An enthusiastic Art Gilmore hawks the spectacle in this pre-release promo reel, almost a short subject in itself. Oddly, when this was reissued in 1975, Dynamation became Dynarama!
- 4/8/2016
- by TFH Team
- Trailers from Hell
Germany's Explosive Media company has a serious itch for American westerns, and they have a trio of new releases. One is a minor Hollywood classic with major graces, from the late 1950s. A second sees an American producer based in England filming in Italy with a rising international star, and for the third an established American star goes European to stay in the game. The best thing for Yankee buyers? The discs are Region-free.
Gunman's Walk, Land Raiders, A Man Called Sledge Three Westerns from Explosive Media Blu-ray Separate Releases 1958-1970 / Color Starring Van Heflin, Tab Hunter; George Maharis, Telly Savalas; James Garner
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
The majority of American studios now choose not to market their libraries for digital disc, and license them out instead. Collectors unwilling to settle for whatever's on Netflix or concerned about the permanence of Cloud Cinema, find themselves increasingly tempted by discs from Europe,...
Gunman's Walk, Land Raiders, A Man Called Sledge Three Westerns from Explosive Media Blu-ray Separate Releases 1958-1970 / Color Starring Van Heflin, Tab Hunter; George Maharis, Telly Savalas; James Garner
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
The majority of American studios now choose not to market their libraries for digital disc, and license them out instead. Collectors unwilling to settle for whatever's on Netflix or concerned about the permanence of Cloud Cinema, find themselves increasingly tempted by discs from Europe,...
- 12/30/2015
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Here’s another installment featuring Joe Dante’s reviews from his stint as a critic for Film Bulletin circa 1969-1974. Our thanks to Video Watchdog and Tim Lucas for his editorial embellishments!
Zombies menace islanders in dull, inept black-and-white mini-budgeter. Properly duelled, it will get by in lower class ballyhoo markets and drive-ins. Rating: Gp.
It’s hard to tell the zombies without a scorecard in I Eat Your Skin, a black-and-white voodoo horror cheapie out of the bottom of the formula programmer barrel. Between endless bouts of tribal dancing, some crusty-looking native monsters stalk around the Florida locations looking believably dead, but the humans in the cast are so wooden there’s not much contrast. None of the gore promised in the title ever materializes, and no skin gets eaten, either. Where doubled with I Drink Your Blood, this vapid Cinemation Industries release should perform satisfactorily in lower class...
Zombies menace islanders in dull, inept black-and-white mini-budgeter. Properly duelled, it will get by in lower class ballyhoo markets and drive-ins. Rating: Gp.
It’s hard to tell the zombies without a scorecard in I Eat Your Skin, a black-and-white voodoo horror cheapie out of the bottom of the formula programmer barrel. Between endless bouts of tribal dancing, some crusty-looking native monsters stalk around the Florida locations looking believably dead, but the humans in the cast are so wooden there’s not much contrast. None of the gore promised in the title ever materializes, and no skin gets eaten, either. Where doubled with I Drink Your Blood, this vapid Cinemation Industries release should perform satisfactorily in lower class...
- 3/11/2014
- by Joe Dante
- Trailers from Hell
The Ape Man returns in another rendition of Stills We Love.
As an aside, I still don’t think anyone has identified the hippo from last week’s installment.
This week, we return to the poor realm of ape men. I mean, just look at these three gentlemen undoubtedly slumming it:
Click to return The Ape Man to full size.
This is a rare shot of proper Englishman George Zucco as a neanderthal man who has just been unfrozen from a block of Arctic ice by scientists Lugosi and Carradine. Monogram studios provided low ebbs in all their careers, but the poverty row movies they made there still had a certain entertainment value. The trio went on to appear in the wacky Voodoo Man, but although Zucco receives third billing in this one, he’s only in one brief shot at the end. Apparently even Sam Katzman noticed how miscast he was in this part,...
As an aside, I still don’t think anyone has identified the hippo from last week’s installment.
This week, we return to the poor realm of ape men. I mean, just look at these three gentlemen undoubtedly slumming it:
Click to return The Ape Man to full size.
This is a rare shot of proper Englishman George Zucco as a neanderthal man who has just been unfrozen from a block of Arctic ice by scientists Lugosi and Carradine. Monogram studios provided low ebbs in all their careers, but the poverty row movies they made there still had a certain entertainment value. The trio went on to appear in the wacky Voodoo Man, but although Zucco receives third billing in this one, he’s only in one brief shot at the end. Apparently even Sam Katzman noticed how miscast he was in this part,...
- 6/21/2011
- by Danny
- Trailers from Hell
Get prepped for the second week of TCM’s series of Monster Movie double-features, with Joe Dante!
Our favorite TV channel is back with the second date in its month-long string of Thursday double-features, running some of the very best in monsterous sci-fi and horror films. Here’s what’s up this Thursday:
Thursday, June 9:
Them! – The template for the atomic mutant monster genre, another surprise hit despite studio jitters. Joe Dante covers it here:
Nine years after Hiroshima the atomic chicken has come home to roost in the shape of giant ants, soon to be followed by jumbo mutant radioactive lizards, locusts, scorpions, etc. The near-biblical template for the dozens of nuclear monster movies that followed it, this is one of the most influential movies ever.
The Cosmic Monsters – While in England making The Crawling Eye, Forrest Tucker starred inwhat would become its Us co-feature, shot under the...
Our favorite TV channel is back with the second date in its month-long string of Thursday double-features, running some of the very best in monsterous sci-fi and horror films. Here’s what’s up this Thursday:
Thursday, June 9:
Them! – The template for the atomic mutant monster genre, another surprise hit despite studio jitters. Joe Dante covers it here:
Nine years after Hiroshima the atomic chicken has come home to roost in the shape of giant ants, soon to be followed by jumbo mutant radioactive lizards, locusts, scorpions, etc. The near-biblical template for the dozens of nuclear monster movies that followed it, this is one of the most influential movies ever.
The Cosmic Monsters – While in England making The Crawling Eye, Forrest Tucker starred inwhat would become its Us co-feature, shot under the...
- 6/6/2011
- by Danny
- Trailers from Hell
By Lee Pfeiffer
Having grown up in the wilds of New Jersey, my playground was generally Times Square, so I've never developed a full appreciation of country music. The numerous attempts to launch country stations on New York radio generally ended in financial disaster. Thus, I acknowledge I'm not very well versed in the lives and careers of legendary country singers, including the man who is considered by many to be the greatest of them all, Hank Williams. When a review copy of Warner Archives' new release of the Williams' biopic Your Cheatin' Heart arrived, I felt as though the world it was set in would be as foreign to me as a distant planet. The 1964 MGM release, directed by Gene Nelson, is notable in several ways. It is perhaps the last musical to be filmed in black-and-white and it represents a rare mainstream release for producer Sam Katzman,...
Having grown up in the wilds of New Jersey, my playground was generally Times Square, so I've never developed a full appreciation of country music. The numerous attempts to launch country stations on New York radio generally ended in financial disaster. Thus, I acknowledge I'm not very well versed in the lives and careers of legendary country singers, including the man who is considered by many to be the greatest of them all, Hank Williams. When a review copy of Warner Archives' new release of the Williams' biopic Your Cheatin' Heart arrived, I felt as though the world it was set in would be as foreign to me as a distant planet. The 1964 MGM release, directed by Gene Nelson, is notable in several ways. It is perhaps the last musical to be filmed in black-and-white and it represents a rare mainstream release for producer Sam Katzman,...
- 12/19/2010
- by [email protected] (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
A generation of baby boomers were forever enchanted by a passel of fabulous monsters in this now-classic fantasy hit. After years of working on Sam Katzman B pictures, FX genius Ray Harryhausen and his producer Charles Schneer moved up the ladder with a comparatively larger budget but still economical Arabian Nights adventure whose sleeper success spawned another two decades of Harryhausen magic. An enthusiastic Art Gilmore hawks the spectacle in this pre-release promo reel, almost a short subject in itself. Oddly, when this was reissued in 1975, Dynamation became Dynarama!
- 12/9/2010
- Trailers from Hell
In 1964 the widespread teenage lament was, "what?! the Beatles movie is in black & white?!" But this was no fly-by-night Sam Katzman musical quickie, -- this was a bona fide cultural event. Richard Lester brings his new-wave Goon Show stylistics to the greatest rock&roll vehicle of all time and helps drag the fab fifties kicking and screaming into the swinging sixties .
- 3/4/2010
- Trailers from Hell
Charles Schneer, a producer who collaborated with special-effects wizard Ray Harryhausen to make such film fantasy classics as "The 7th Voyage of Sinbad" and "Jason and the Argonauts," died Jan. 21 at a hospice in Boca Raton, Fla. He was 88.
Also among Schneer's 25 films as producer was "Hellcats of the Navy" (1957), in which former President Ronald Reagan and former first lady Nancy Reagan made their only screen appearance together.
Schneer and Harryhausen also teamed on "The 3 Worlds of Gulliver" (1960), two other films about the mythical nautical adventurer Sinbad, "It Came from Beneath the Sea" (1955) and their last film together, "Clash of the Titans" (1981).
On his own, Schneer produced "Half a Sixpence," the 1967 film version of the London and Broadway musical starring Tommy Steele. He also was responsible for the 1960 biographical film on the life of German rocket scientist Wernher von Braun, "I Aim at the Stars," and several World War II action dramas,...
Also among Schneer's 25 films as producer was "Hellcats of the Navy" (1957), in which former President Ronald Reagan and former first lady Nancy Reagan made their only screen appearance together.
Schneer and Harryhausen also teamed on "The 3 Worlds of Gulliver" (1960), two other films about the mythical nautical adventurer Sinbad, "It Came from Beneath the Sea" (1955) and their last film together, "Clash of the Titans" (1981).
On his own, Schneer produced "Half a Sixpence," the 1967 film version of the London and Broadway musical starring Tommy Steele. He also was responsible for the 1960 biographical film on the life of German rocket scientist Wernher von Braun, "I Aim at the Stars," and several World War II action dramas,...
- 1/23/2009
- by By Mike Barnes
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has been doing good by us horror fans with its "Icons of Horror" series, which has so far covered some of the best films from Boris Karloff (review) and Sam Katzman (review). So what collection is next?
If you didn't already look to your right, then let me break it to you: Hammer Horror! The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb, Scream of Fear, The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll and The Gorgon will be available in one set on October 14th with the following features:
Digitally remastered video and audio Original uncut UK versions of each film Original trailers Get a jump start on this year's Halloween shopping and pre-order this collection from the Evilshop.
- Syxx
Get Yourself Something Cool From Evilshop!
Got news? Click here to submit it!
Discuss this article in the Dread Central Forums!
If you didn't already look to your right, then let me break it to you: Hammer Horror! The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb, Scream of Fear, The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll and The Gorgon will be available in one set on October 14th with the following features:
Digitally remastered video and audio Original uncut UK versions of each film Original trailers Get a jump start on this year's Halloween shopping and pre-order this collection from the Evilshop.
- Syxx
Get Yourself Something Cool From Evilshop!
Got news? Click here to submit it!
Discuss this article in the Dread Central Forums!
- 8/26/2008
- by Kryten Syxx
- DreadCentral.com
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