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Posts Tagged ‘Not on DVD’

The Night the World Exploded

March 17th, 2010 | article by Kevin Pyrtle | 1 Comment »
Tags: Awesome Titles, Columbia, Disaster, Kathryn Grant, Not on DVD, Sam Katzman, Science Fiction, William Leslie

rating:
company: Columbia Pictures
and Clover Productions
year: 1957
runtime: 64′
country: United States
director: Fred F. Sears
cast: Kathryn Grant, William Leslie,
Tristram Coffin, Raymond Greenleaf,
Charles Evans, Frank J. Scannell,
Marshall Reed, Fred Coby
writers: Jack Nutteford
and Luci Ward
cinematography: Benjamin H. Kline
music: Ross DiMaggio (musical director)
not on home video in the USA

Plot: A newly discovered mineral element that expands and explodes when it is exposed to nitrogen in the Earth’s atmosphere threatenes to destroy the world.

Prolific producer Sam Katzman’s excursion into the science fiction genre was limited, encompassing only a handful of the nearly 250 pictures he financed between 1933 and 1973. His assembly-line approach to film production produced a few genre gems – the early Ray Harryhausen / Charles H. Schneer collaborations It Came From Beneath the Sea and Earth vs. The Flying Saucers and the underrated sci-fi horror The Werewolf. Most, however, were little more than lean programmers that relied more on memorable titles and fanciful ad art than content to draw in the necessary business.

1957′s The Night the World Exploded, half of a Columbia double bill featuring the Wtf-Film creature favorite The Giant Claw (another product of Katzman’s Clover Productions directed by Night‘s own Fred F. Sears), will never be remembered as a classic. But with no video release and only the rarest of representation on modern television, Night is probably lucky to be remembered at all. Those who grew up on the television late shows of the 60s and 70s (perhaps even more recently, though I never chanced upon it as a kid myself) will recall Night as the picture in which Earth is threatened by exploding rocks pulled from Carlsbad Caverns.

The Night the World Exploded runs along standard contemporary genre lines: Young scientist David Conway (William Leslie, Hellcats of the Navy) invents a new magical device (a quartz tube “pressurometer” in this case) just in time to predict a major earthquake in Los Angeles. While the city pieces itself together Conway comes to a startling revelation – immense pressure is building in the Earth’s crust, and the first earthquake is only a warning of more severe disasters to come. The cause of the pressure reveals itself to be the new Element 112, an explosive mineral that earthquakes worldwide are threatening to expose with cataclysmic results. From the moment Element 112 is discovered the race is on to find a means of averting a seemingly inevitable apocalypse.

The story may be prototypical sci-fi hokum, but The Night the World Exploded at least manages to toss an interesting idea into its recipe for worldwide carnage. Like Kronos the same year, Night makes something of an argument for the conservation of natural resources. The incendiary Element 112 is an entirely natural phenomena, benign in its usual environment. It’s the pesky meddling of mankind, gung-ho in their coal mining and oil drilling, that have weakened sections of the Earth’s crust enough to allow the Element to expose itself. The film is careful to point out that it’s not all our fault (natural erosion at the Carlsbad Caverns has exposed the Element as well, for instance), but the message is clear all the same. ”It’s almost as though the Earth were striking back at us for the way we’ve robbed her of her natural resources,” Laura ‘Hutch’ Hutchinson (Kathryn Grant, The 7th Voyage of Sinbad) says early on. Erosion be damned, Mother Nature is pissed and all of her stock footage wrath is upon us. It’s a sentiment that places Night among the very earliest of the ecological disaster films and, in that single sense, well ahead of its time.

Predictably, a solution to the Element 112 crisis is reached before the situation becomes too catastrophic. Conway discovers that the Element is reverted to a harmless inert state when submerged in water, leading to a poverty row public works project in which library footage from World War II works to flood the areas where the mineral menace has been exposed. The special effects are of the usual Katzman quality, and new shots are commissioned only when vast libraries of stock shots or earlier bits from old serials were deemed insufficient. The most impressive moment occurs rather early, when the opening title explodes off the screen – there must have been a few dollars of the budget to spare come time for the titles to be printed.

Dramatically The Night the World Exploded fluctuates between being boringly typical and unintentionally hilarious. Romantic triangles are normal for pictures of all genres, but I’ve never seen one handled in quite the way it is here. Scientists Conway and Hutchinson are obviously fond of each other, but Hutchinson intends to marry another man as Conway is too involved in his work. Night leaves little doubt of which man will get the girl, as Hutch’s intended husband never appears in the film! We learn his name (Bryant) and of Hutch’s involvement with him, but the character himself never once materializes. By the time the sun rises over a newly-salvaged world he has been forgotten all together. Otherwise things are pretty standard issue, with lots of meetings between scientific types and government officials to pad the brief running time.

At just under 64 minutes in length, The Night the World Exploded doesn’t overstay its welcome, and underrated director Fred F. Sears keeps things moving at a reasonable clip while providing narration as well. Writers Jack Natteford and Luci Ward were seasoned professionals approaching the end of their lengthy careers, just the kind of people Katzman was fond of hiring. Their work is never as lively as that of the blacklisted Bernard Gordon (who worked for Katzman credited by the name Raymond T. Marcus), but it gets the job done. Cinematographer Benjamin H. Kline (Before I Hang) keeps everything nicely framed, not that the open matte video masters floating around show it, while music director Ross DiMaggio fills the soundtrack with familiar library cues.

No one will ever mistake The Night the World Exploded for good film making, but there’s a comfort food appeal to it for those of us who grew up on old Columbia programmers. I certainly enjoyed it. The studio got more than their money’s worth out of these Katzman productions, re-issuing them in double and triple bill weekend matinees well into the 60s. It’s a pity more aren’t readily available on DVD, though Sony’s recent collections of deep catalog titles are promising to say the least. For now Night is a rarity, though it is out there (even without resorting to bootleggers). I say see it.

Lady Stay Dead

December 11th, 2009 | article by Denis Klotz | No Comments »
Tags: Australia, Chad Hayward, Not on DVD, Terry Bourke, Thriller

company: Ryntare Productions
year: 1981
runtime: 92′
country: Australia
director: Terry Bourke
cast: Chard Hayward, Louise Howitt,
Deborah Coulls, Roger Ward
writer: Terry Bourke
cinematographer: Ray Henman
music: Bob Young
not on home video in the USA

Gordon Mason (Chard Hayward) is your typical celebrity stalker: beardy, rather unpleasant and having a hell of a time with a blow-up doll made up like his favourite starlet Marie Coleby (Deborah Coulls).

Unlike other celebrity stalkers, he can get comparably close to his chosen victim/love of his life, close enough to masturbate while watching Marie doing aerobic at the beach. Those are the perks if one works as a gardener for one’s stalking victim.

Less pleasant is the way Marie acts around him. Although she knows nothing about his disturbing proclivities, she treats him (like she seems to treat everyone else where she can get away with it) like dirt. After she has gotten shouty one time to many for Mason’s not exactly sane temper, he rapes her and then – when she doesn’t react as if she had the time of her life and is now madly in love with him – drowns Marie in her own aquarium.

Poor Marie is not the last murder Mason is going to commit that day – a neighbour who has seen too much and a little later said neighbour’s dog have to die, too. Afterwards, Mason puts the neighbour back in his bungalow and hides Marie’s corpse. When he’s just about ready to go, the singer/model’s sister Jenny Nolan (Louise Howitt) arrives to house-sit for Marie who is supposed to be away for a photoshoot.

Unfortunately, Jenny is a lot brighter than people in films like this usually are and soon discovers some things that make her very suspicious of that friendly gardener. That night, she finds the neighbor’s body and can just get out a short call to the police before her mandatory cat and mouse game with Mason begins.

Even when the police in form of officers Dunbar (James Elliott) and Collings (Roger Ward) arrive, the night isn’t over for Jenny.

Most of the things I read about Australian Terry Bourke’s Lady Stay Dead lead me to the assumption it was going to be another film in the slasher mold. As it is with assumptions, I was quite wrong. The film has more in common with the Giallo than with the simpler slasher formula. For one, no teenagers appear in the movie, and the killer is more or less human – if rather durable.

The sleazy parts (which just stop after about half of the film is over) are quite unpleasant and a lot more frank when it comes to the sexual motivations of its killer than most slashers are, having a brutal directness more common in the Giallo or the rougher US horror films of the 70s, while the film shows only a mild interest in gory violence, very unlike any slasher I’ve ever seen. I’ll probably just leave it at calling it a thriller inspired by the Giallo and be done with it.

The film’s director Terry Bourke has unfortunately produced only a small body of work, starting with the excellent made-for-TV-but-you-wouldn’t-believe-it Night of Fear and is probably best known in cult movie circles now for his much lesser Inn of the Damned (which annoyed me so much that I didn’t find it in me to even mention it on my blog). What the even smaller handful of films I have seen out of his small oevre shows is a director very carefully shaping the technical aspects of his films to maximize their emotional impact, much more so than typical in a low-budget film world where time and money are really the same thing.

Bourke shows the often conjured painterly eye in framing his scenes, but where that description often not only suggests beauty, but also a certain stiffness, Bourke has an excellent sense for movement and the way it builds the rhythm of a film.

In Lady Stay Dead, there’s also a wonderful use of natural light on display. The first hour of the film takes place mostly by day, but is still able to conveigh a feeling of oppression you typically don’t get from scenes filmed in the sun.

I’m less enamoured of the way Bourke directs the dialogue scenes. As soon as anyone opens his or her mouth a soap-operatic feeling of false melodrama that is at odds with the the cleverness on display everywhere else in the film overwhelms the scene. I’d blame it on the actors, but their body language whenever they don’t have to talk (especially Hayward gives a great physical performance) and my knowledge of the weakness of dialogue scenes in other Bourke films put the responsibility here squarely on the director’s shoulders.

Lady Stay Dead gets around this problem relatively easily thanks to the sparseness of dialogue in it. It is not a film built on deep characterization and clever repartee, but rather on an escalation of violence and suspense, and so keeps the talking to a minimum. I have the feeling Bourke realized his own weaknesses as a director quite well, seeing how Night of Fear avoided dialogue completely. In the earlier film, I initially took the lack of dialogue to be just a gimmick, but I am not so sure about that anymore.

The thing of note about Lady Stay Dead really is the sense of escalation, though. There is something slightly sardonic about the way the film goes about this main job. It starts out sleazy, gets nastier and drops the sleaziness altogether, slows down and then accelerates again and again, raising the stakes without feeling the need to show anyone’s guts other than figuratively.

To some it might be problematic how little else there is to the film. It is a thrilling ride, but that is all it is. While it at first seems as if Bourke is trying to make points about class and the sexualization of the female image, that potential subtext disappears completely once Marie is dead, leaving only bare-bones characterization and a well done thrill-ride behind.

However, since the film never pretends to be anything else but a thriller, I’m judging it by how well it manages to keep me at the edge of my seat. That, it does very well indeed.

For more bizarre movie goodness, be sure
to visit Denis’ excellent review blog The Horror!?

The Flame Barrier

November 7th, 2009 | article by Kevin Pyrtle | No Comments »
Tags: Adventure, Arthur Franz, Blobs, Not on DVD, Science Fiction, Space

a.k.a. Beyond the Flame Barrier
company: Gramercy Pictures
year: 1958
runtime: 70′
country: United States
director: Paul Landers
cast: Arthur Franz, Kathleen Crowley,
Robert Brown, Vicente Padula
not on home video

Plot: A scientist goes missing while hunting for a downed satellite in the South American jungle. His wife, with the help of two surveyors, follows the route of the scientist’s party and discovers that a mysterious force is killing animals and people in the area. They eventually find the satellite, and the deadly space life brought to Earth with it . . .

This is an odd little amalgamation of exploitation genres – a standard skid-row jungle adventure with an unusual science fiction twist. The first two thirds of the film are dominated by our three main characters either driving around the California countryside (no real attempt is made to make it look particularly foreign) or wandering through cramped sets filled with jungle foliage. The traditional issues present themselves – the jeep gets stuck in the mud and the party members are menaced by local wildlife (including a very real snake whose head is manipulated by a rather obvious string).

The men are expectantly rugged know-it-alls who take every opportunity to remind the wife who’s hired them of how difficult and dangerous the trip is going to be. The wife fights back by being the typical genre woman – wearing a dress to traipse through the jungle, recoiling in terror at the site of anything at all living (iguanas, snakes, tarantulas, etc.), and generally bogging down the pace of the expedition with her sexual inferiority. While she’s not the worst drawn of 50′s genre women, she’s not much of an improvement over those seen in the likes of FROM HELL IT CAME.

Minimal interest is injected into the human drama thanks to the inclusion of a ramshackle love subplot. Questions of the wife’s motivations for starting the trip (does she really love her husband or is she just after a hefty inheritance?) go mostly unanswered, though she’s locked in the welcoming arms of Arthur Franz within minutes of discovering her husband is dead. The love story, if it can be called that, is par for the genre – a weak woman and a bossy man discover they’re meant for each other in the face of some terrible crisis.

It’s the terrible crisis of the picture that really provides the only reason for seeing it. THE FLAME BARRIER plays on Cold War tensions and the escalating space race, revolving around the failed launch of a satellite (a dead ringer for Sputnik, though larger) and its return to Earth with an ambiguous alien threat in tow. The menace in this case is of the same enigmatic variety seen in the contemporary Quatermass films and Hammer’s knock-off, X: THE UNKNOWN, though budgetary necessity restrains its threatening blobiness to a cave for the duration.

The build-up to the revelation of the would-be invader is memorable. Strange sounds echo through the jungle as the party discovers disconcerting clues: a native chieftan left to die as sacrifice to the gods and skeletons that appear burned. Eventually live people present with symptoms. A native shows up covered in strange burns only to erupt in flame moments later, his body reduced to a smoldering skeleton in seconds. The film is at its most effective while its threat is unknown, and manages some memorable if not terribly shocking images.

The revelation of the alien organism, a static blob of organic matter surrounding the satellite and with the dead scientist stuck inside of it, is a real letdown in comparison. The nature of its danger to humanity is poorly conceived at best. Early victims show what appear to be acid burns that cause death quickly, but not immediately, while the deadly electrical field said to surround the blob is shown to disintigrate those who come into contact with it more or less isntantaneously. Any unease resulting from the revelation that the electrical field is growing at an exponential rate is quickly laid to rest, as our two surveyor heroes discover the solution to the problem a scant few minutes later. Indeed, the only real danger posed by the blob seems to be to those stupid enough to wander into the cave and touch it, like a test chimpanzee that somehow survived the crash landing of the satellite and, in a asinine display of self sacrifice, one of the surveyors.

THE FLAME BARRIER is typical of the underfunded genre programmers that filled double bills towards the end of the ’50s. The script, by Pat Fielder [THE MONSTER THAT CHALLENGED THE WORLD] and George Worthing Yates, recalls the latter’s work on the Bert I. Gordon vehicle WAR OF THE COLOSSAL BEAST from the same year but is nowhere near as accomplished. The science fiction aspect never really gels with the paltry jungle adventure that dominates the first two acts, and the drama is too inept to be of any real interest. Technically adept but visually bland direction from Paul Landers [THE VAMPIRE] does nothing to elevate it beyond merely passable.

This is one of a mountain of cheapie titles distributed by United Artists currently cluttering up the vast MGM library. While many of these have made it to DVD via the seemingly abandoned Midnight Movies line, THE FLAME BARRIER has had no such luck and doesn’t seem to have ever had an official home video release. It seems doubtful, especially with classics like THE QUATERMASS XPERIMENT patiently waiting in the wings, that this little clunker will be appearing on store shelves anytime soon.

While I generally lament the lack of a proper video release for just about anything, genre fanatics can rest assured that they’re not really missing much here. THE FLAME BARRIER is another in a long line of budget-minded programmers that never takes off and leaves prescious little to recommend. For completists only.

Disgusting Spaceworms Eat Everyone!!

August 13th, 2009 | article by Kevin Pyrtle | 1 Comment »
Tags: Awesome Titles, Comedy, Horror, Insects, Noir, Not on DVD, Romance, Science Fiction, Shot On Video, Worms

T-N-H Productions [1989] 73′
country: United States
director: George Keller
cast: Bill Brady, Lisa Everett Hillman,
Michael Sonye, Tequila Mockingbird

I have to admit, this isn’t something that immediately struck me as being my kind of movie. Shot on video at the end of the 80′s for what couldn’t have been more than a scant few thousand dollars in the same vein as the Troma Studios efforts of the day and with the same tongue-in-cheek comedic intention that has doomed so many independent efforts to mediocrity [the recent DEAD AND BREAKFAST comes to mind], DISGUSTING SPACEWORMS EAT EVERYONE!! sounded like just the sort of obscure garbage I tend to despise on sight.

How many ways can I say I was wrong?

DISGUSTING SPACEWORMS EAT EVERYONE!! begins in space – on a ship full of worms to be precise. So the wriggling mealworms dabbled about every corner of the ship aren’t necessarily disgusting, but they more than make up for that in their enthusiasm. While it was impossible to tell what was being said by the worms [yes, they talk] due to the overbearing sound effects and background music and the overall crappiness of my review copy, I gathered that they intended to destroy mankind, who have stumbled upon the secret to the destruction of their race. The scene is hysterical, with the master worm speaking passionately from a cardboard cup pulpit to his pile of devoted and cheering followers.

Their plan devised, the spaceworms warp their ship to Earth, choosing Los Angeles gangster Ziegler [Michael Sonye, here under his pseudonym Dukey Flyswatter] as their first conquest. After yelling at someone on the phone about killing someone else the gangster heads out to his patio for a cocaine snack. But wait – what’s this? The worms have teleported themselves into Ziegler’s bag of cocaine! The gangster lines up his rows and snorts, only to find himself covered in wiggly worms and spewing blood from just about everywhere. A horrible death to be sure . . .

Somewhere else in L.A., hitman Ray [Bill Brady] is reading the funny pages when he is interupted by a phone call. He’s obviously in no mood for a job, and throws the phone dramatically into a nearby swimming pool before heading out on an extended drive. Ray literally runs into the young and assless-jeans-donning Lisa [Lisa Everett Hillman], who proves very protective of a crumpled brown paper bag in her possession [she says it holds her recently deceased cat]. The two drive around for a while but don’t get along terribly well. Soon Lisa evacuates Ray’s car and wanders off, leaving him with nothing to do but meet up with his contact and get his assignment.

Some secret envelope and money exchanging later, Ray has his job – unfortunately the person he’s supposed to hit is no other than Lisa. Fortunately for her Ray is the sensetive type, or at the very least tired of working for his slimeball gangster boss. He opts to kill off all of Ziegler’s minions and get in on whatever action has put Lisa in the spotlight instead. Meanwhile, that pesky ship full of spaceworms is still floating about L.A., teleporting instant rubbery death into the homes of countless unsuspecting victims. A family of television obsessed drunkards here, a bathtub beauty there . . . All fall before the might of the worms, who are working hard to fulfill the titular promise of eating everyone.

Ray becomes understandably distressed by the situation unfolding around him, making him all the happier when he finds Lisa once again. But what’s this? The zombified worm-powered Ziegler has found the two as well, and is waiting to pounce from the backseat of Ray’s car. Through him our heroes learn that the worms are after mankind because of its tampering with “zarmon crystals” – the one thing that can possibly destroy them. What are zarmon crystals, you ask? Cocaine of course [never mind that it's the same stuff the worms teleported into earlier without issue]! Luckily for Ray, Lisa has a load of the stuff stashed in her paper bag and she isn’t afraid to use it. Having heard the alien plot, she decides that it’s time for Ziegler to go for good and chucks a handful of cocaine in his direction. Blood spurts and steam bubbles and soon he is little more than a smoldering mushy puddle in the backseat.

The spaceworms’ motives and means of destruction revealed, Ray and Lisa go on a quest to destroy the invaders. Can they possibly throw enough cocaine at the right worms at the right time to put an end to their savage conquest? I’ll never tell!

Against all odds I came to love DISGUSTING SPACEWORMS EAT EVERYONE!! and its peculiar brand of no-budget antics. What little is on display in terms of technical fortitude [VHS looks to have been the master format] is more than made up for by the shear ridiculousness and liveliness of the proceedings. The screenplay credited to Keller / Mulliron / Sellers is actually quite good and takes 40′s noir crime films, of all things, as its jumping off point – Ray even narrates his own misadventure at times. It’s abundantly clear than none of it is intended to be serious in any way, which is a definite upside when skyscraper-sized cans of Raid figure prominently in a film’s conclusion.

Scimpy as the production may be, SPACEWORMS packs a few neat little punches. The soundtrack is loaded with songs from local Los Angeles talent of the time that, while it may be irritating to those not into the late 80′s punk-pop scene, sounds absolutely awesome to these ears. Editing is another strong point. Wisely avoided are the lengthy stretches of static dialogue shots that dominate most indies. Keller constantly cuts from camera to camera to camera and keeps the pace going fast and hard. The body of SPACEWORMS passes by in nary an hour, with the final ten minutes or so dedicated to some colorful end credits that come complete with a few bits of behind-the-sceens goofiness. It looks like everyone involved had a blast, and it shows in the final product.

Now, complaints against SPACEWORMS could certainly be made. The special effects, particularly the vintage video animation and terrible blue screen that dominates the latter third of the picture, are almost universally bad and the performances by the no-name cast [Sonye/Flyswatter is the only reckognizable name, and his resume features such classics cinema as SURF NAZIS MUST DIE and TERRORS FROM THE CLIT] vary considerably in quality. There are also far too many scenes devoted to driving. But these are all minor quibbles at best in the context of the feature in question, with at least two of the three helping to elevate its hefty potential to entertain.

If there are video releases of this oddity, legitimate or otherwise, I’ve not seen them – I snatched my review copy from my favorite cult film torrent tracker [linked to the right]. If anyone involved with this flick knows of an official way to purchase this gem be sure to let me know so I can promote the hell out of it.

This one obviously isn’t for everyone and those without the patience for shot-on-video fare should proceed with caution. Still, I loved it and have no problem giving it a recommendation. I suggest seeing it with friends and making a party of it – with a title like DISGUSTING SPACEWORMS EAT EVERYONE!!, how could it go wrong?

Sea God and Ghosts

July 6th, 2009 | article by Kevin Pyrtle | No Comments »
Tags: Comedy, Cult, Fantasy, Giant monsters, Kaiju, Kung Fu, Not on DVD, Taiwan

a.k.a LONG WANG SAN TAI ZI
?? [1977] 87′
drector: Sing Yan Gam / Fu-wen Chung
cast: Chia Ling, Hsing Hsi,
cast: Chang Chi-ping, Hsi Wei Chen

Here’s something you don’t see every day – a Taiwanese martial arts and giant monster fantasy from the late 70′s, made in much the same vein as Poon Lui’s earlier and super-obscure YOUNG FLYING HERO and DEVIL FIGHTER. The Hong Kong Movie Database suggests that the monster footage is recycled from the earlier fantasy effort TSU HONG WU from 1971, a fact I have no reason to dispute, and much of that same footage appears to have been culled for the later [and somewhat less obscure] FAIRY AND THE DEVIL as well.

Centipede Horror

July 3rd, 2009 | article by Kevin Pyrtle | No Comments »
Tags: Black Magic, Centipedes, Ghosts, Hong Kong, Horror, Keith Li, Not on DVD, Supernatural, Vomit

a.k.a. Wu Gong Zhou / Centipede Curse
company: Nikko International
year: 1984
runtime: 93′
country: Hong Kong
director: Keith Li
cast: Hussein Abu Hassan, Chu-kwong Chan,
F.C. Chan, Lai Fun Chan, Suet Ming Chan
writer: Amy Chan Suet-Ming
cinematographers: Lee Yip
and Ma Gam-Cheung
not on home video in the USA

This film is, in a word, infamous. To understand why one need only take a gander at the extensive list of plot keywords available for it over at the IMDB, where things like “vomit”, “cattle mutilation”, “gang rape”, and “genocide” are some of the more mundane of the lot. The reviews there are a confounding mess, and tend to focus on how disturbed the viewers were by seeing the film rather than on the film itself – and those that buck the trend often sound like they’re describing entirely different movies. Making things more difficult for those looking to make heads or tails of the production [like me, for example] is its almost complete absence from the annals of film criticism, online or otherwise.

My hunt for information on this title was frustrating at best, leaving me with more questions than I had answers – like just how it became so infamous to begin with, when it’s so obscure and lacking in critical coverage. Of course, the only way for me to really answer any of the questions raised [and figure out just what the hell the fuss at IMDB is about] was by watching the film. With a little patience and the help of my favorite cult film torrent site, I set out to do just that.

Hand of Death

June 27th, 2009 | article by Kevin Pyrtle | No Comments »
Tags: Cult, Horror, John Agar, Nerve Gas, Not on DVD, Paula Raymond, Science Fiction

Associated Producers [1962] 60′
country: United States
director: GENE NELSON
cast: JOHN AGAR, PAULA RAYMOND,
cast: STEVE DUNNE, ROY GORDON

This is one film who’s reputation definitely precedes it. Unfortunately [for some at least], that reputation was built over several decades in which those interested in the film, lost to red tape and poor preservation, were limited to advertising materials and stills that had circulated in magazines like Famous Monsters. Distributor 20th Century Fox unearthed the only known surviving print [a cropped 16mm television copy] just prior to star John Agar’s death in 2002, hastily transferred it to video, and began airing it during the late night hours on their Fox Movie Channel. Bootleggers were swift to pick up the new cult property and, given Fox’s seeming reluctance to release it to home video proper, undoubtedly made a pretty penny for their troubles.

Any hopes that Fox might have a lost genre classic on their hands were quickly laid to rest when the TV print was put back in circulation. HAND OF DEATH was revealed to be little more than an ultra-cheap ultra-short par-for-the-course shock programmer – the sort of film that should have been floating around as a bargain-bin release for years, but that was precluded from such by the long ago death of its production company and the blight of legal entanglement. Unremarkable as it is, I was happy to see HAND OF DEATH finally get its nano-second in the limelight.

Yeti – Giant of the 20th Century

June 27th, 2009 | article by Kevin Pyrtle | No Comments »
Tags: Abominable Snowman, Antonella Interlenghi, Cult, Gianfranco Parolini, Giant monsters, Mimmo Craig, Not on DVD, Rip-off

a.k.a. Yeti – il Gigante del 20 Secolo
Stefano Film [1977] 118′ / 96′
country: Italy
director: GIANFRANCO PAROLINI [as Frank Kramer]
cast: ANTONELLA INTERLENGHI, MIMMO CRAIG,
cast: JIM SULLIVAN, TONY KENDALL, EDOARDO FAIETA

Oh Dino de Laurentiis, what hath ye wrought? Throughout 1976, the world was bombarded with pre-release advertising for his multi-million dollar remake of KING KONG – so much so that exploitation entrepreneurs couldn’t help but try and take advantage of it. The results were mostly boring and terrible affairs, as exemplified by the U.S / Korean co-production A*P*E [which beat the de Laurentiis production to theaters by nearly three months, and in 3-D no less]. Not to be upstaged, a small consortium of Italian producers / screenwriters concocted this bizarre yarn, which is the only true giant monster film ever to have been produced in the country as far as I am aware.

YETI begins with several shots of ice exploding, a glimpse of a boat in the Arctic, and a fly-over of Toronto, all while a musical derivation on the John Barry theme to KING KONG and [more oddly] Carl Orf’s “O Fortuna” blurps in the background. This can only mean one thing – that an absolutely gigantic yeti has been discovered by a greedy corporate head in the icy north of Canada. That greedy corporate head is Hunnicut [Faieta], and he tasks his ‘paleonthonologist’ [gotta love those English dubs!] buddy Wassermann with waking the beast up for reasons unknown. Wasserman, with the aid of a helicopter, a huge gas chamber, and an armory’s worth of flamethrowers, does just that while Hunnicut’s grandchildren – the mute Herbie [Sullivan] and hottie Jane [Interlenghi] – look on.

Baron Prasil

June 26th, 2009 | article by Kevin Pyrtle | 2 Comments »
Tags: Animation, Baron Munchausen, Fantasy, Karel Zeman, Not on DVD

a.k.a. THE FABULOUS BARON MUNCHAUSEN
Ceskoslovensky Statni Film [1961] 83′
country: Czech Republic
director: KAREL ZEMAN
cast: MILOS KOPECKY, RUDOLF JELINEK,
cast: JANA BREJCHOVA, KAREL HOGER

There are a number of big names and big films that people tend to think of when the fantasy genre comes to mind – Disney’s 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA, Korda’s THE THIEF OF BAGDAD, Harryhausen’s SEVENTH VOYAGE OF SINBAD, and so on. One of the greatest names in fantastic cinema has been all but forgotten here in the west, with his work largely out of print and the level of critical interest at practically zero – but over the course of his four decade career he crafted what remain some of the most original and aesthetically impressive efforts in the genre.

With the illustrations of Gustav Dore as his guide and a collection of works by Jules Verne and others his inspiration, Karel Zeman set out to create what can only be described as storybooks on film. The results, for the most part, were nothing short of astounding. While less renowned than his earlier JOURNEY TO THE BEGINNING OF TIME or THE FABULOUS WORLD OF JULES VERNE, 1961′s BARON PRASIL, which relates the incredulous journeys of Baron Munchausen, stands as one of his very greatest achievements.

Ju Jin Yuki Otoko

June 16th, 2009 | article by Kevin Pyrtle | 2 Comments »
Tags: Abominable Snowman, Adventure, Akira Takarada, Eiji Tsuburaya, Horror, Ishiro Honda, Monsters, Not on DVD, Revenge, Toho, Tokusatsu

a.k.a. HALF HUMAN: THE STORY OF THE ABOMINABLE SNOWMAN
Toho Co. ltd. [1955/1958] 94′ / 63′
country: Japan
director: ISHIRO HONDA [American segments - Kenneth Crane]
cast: AKIRA TAKARADA, MOMOKO KOCHI, AKEMI NEGISHI,
cast: NOBUO NAKAMURA, SACHIO SAKAI, KOKUTEN KODO,
cast: JOHN CARRADINE, MORRIS ANKRUM, RUSSEL THORSON

Odds are that those of you who are Toho fantasy aficionados have heard of this film, though the likelihood of any of you having seen it is considerably more slim. This early monster picture from the company has become something of a cult legend over the years, thanks in large part to its status in Japan. Like the much later produced PROPHECIES OF NOSTRADAMUS, ABOMINABLE SNOWMAN has been pulled from all distribution due to a lingering studio-imposed ban. Made around the same time as GODZILLA RAIDS AGAIN, ABOMINABLE SNOWMAN was the first of Toho’s human-sized monster efforts, a trend that would continue with the admittedly obscure but entirely available THE HUMAN VAPOR and THE H-MAN, amongst others.

The film concerns a missing Alpine Club member, who disappears during a blizzard in the Japan Alps – only a tuft of animal hair and a gigantic not-quite-human footprint [as well as the lifeless body of the young man's friend] are left behind as evidence. The man’s sister Machiko [Kochi] and fellow club member Iijima [Takarada] embark on an expedition led by Professor Tanaka [Nakamura] to locate him and, hopefully, the creature responsible for his disappearance. Catching wind of the expedition is animal exhibitor Oba, who forms a considerably less noble party to track down, capture, and sell the beast Tanaka hopes to study.

The Lost Missile

June 16th, 2009 | article by Kevin Pyrtle | 1 Comment »
Tags: Alien Invasion, Atomic Bomb, Communism, Cult, John McNamara, Not on DVD, Robert Loggia, Science Fiction, Thriller

William Berke Productions Inc. [1958] 70′
country: United States
director: WILLIAM BERKE [as Lester Wm. Berke]
cast: ROBERT LOGGIA, ELLEN PARKER,
cast: PHILLIP PINE, LARRY KERR

The poster for this film should be familiar to anyone who frequents this site [seeing as it serves as the framework for the most recent layout] and is one of the very best in fifties b-moviedom. A demonic hand guides a huge rocket, turned down towards an Earth covered with fleeing millions and toppling cities, while a singular gigantic eye looks on. It’s an example of exploitation advertising at its finest.

It’s a pity then that the film itself bares almost no resemblance to the poster, save that there is a rocket and it does destroy cities. The last film to be made by writer / producer / director William Berke is a real doozy all the same, a barely lucid Cold War pontification on the importance of scientific research, military might, and civil defense.

The Video Dead

June 2nd, 2009 | article by Kevin Pyrtle | 1 Comment »
Tags: Bizarre, Gore, Horror, Not on DVD, Robert Scott, Television, Zombies

Interstate 5 Productions [1987] 90′
country: United States
director: ROBERT SCOTT
cast: ROXANA AUGESEN, ROCKY DUVALL,
cast: VICKIE BASTEL, SAM DAVID McCLELLAND
Order this film from AMAZON.COM

It was around nine years ago when I first heard of this film – I was running one of my early review sites at the time [either Flesheater or Tales From The Contaminated City, though which escapes me at present]. A reader, who said they had directed the picture, sent me an email letting me know that no horror film site was complete without coverage of it. Whether or not the sender was in fact director Robert Scott is quite beyond me, and the original message has long since been lost in the overstuffed inbox of an abandoned email address.

Whoever it was, be it Scott himself or some rabid fan masquerading as such, this review is for them.

The Last Shark

May 27th, 2009 | article by Kevin Pyrtle | No Comments »
Tags: Action, Adventure, Crap, Enzoo Castellari, Horror, James Franciscus, Not on DVD, Rip-off, Sharks, Vic Morrow

a.k.a. L’ULTIMO SQUALO / GREAT WHITE
Film Ventures [1981] 88′
country: Italy
director: ENZO G. CASTELLARI
cast: JAMES FRANCISCUS, VIC MORROW,
cast: MICHAELA PIGNATELLI, JOSHUA SINCLAIR

I find it doubtful that any single film in history has been emulated quite so routinely as Steven Spielberg’s smash success JAWS. The young Spielberg couldn’t possibly have foreseen the incalculable impact his picture would have on the film industry as a whole, that it would be the first production ever to receive a wide release and the first summer blockbuster. Its pitch perfect blend of high seas adventure and high concept horror translated to big bucks at the 1975 box office and cold feet for whole generations of beach goers. Needless to say, Universal Pictures was pleased.

But JAWS caught more than just the attention of the multitudes of film goers – exploitation producers around the world were impressed as well, and hungry for a piece of the profits. By the time JAWS 2 rolled around in 1978, the minions of the exploitation industry were already hard at work. While a few of the movies produced in its image were quite good – PIRANHA in 1978, most notably – the majority ranged anywhere from ‘so-so’ on down. Most trend riders were smart enough to change either the monster [TENTACLES], the setting, or both [JAWS OF SATAN, GRIZZLY]. Others were not so much. It’s safe to assume that the makers of THE LAST SHARK belonged squarely with the latter.

Caltiki – The Immortal Monster

May 6th, 2009 | article by Kevin Pyrtle | No Comments »
Tags: Blobs, Giant monsters, Gore, Horror, Mario Bava, Not on DVD, Science Fiction

a.k.a. Caltiki – il Mostro Immortale
company: Climax Pictures
year: 1959
runtime: 76′
country: Italy
directors: Ricardo Freda
and Mario Bava
cast: John Merivale, Didi Perago,
Gerard Herter, Daniela Rocca
not on home video in the USA

It’s Cinco de Mayo here at Wtf-Film [and, presumably, elsewhere], and I’m celebrating the only way I know how – by honoring the cinema fantastico. Now CALTIKI may be set in Mexico, but it’s really 100% pure cinema fantascienza – produced in Italy by a man who, though he received no on-screen credit, would go on to become the most recognized name in Italian horror.

CALTIKI follows a group of archaeologists – led by Dr. Fielding [Merivale] and his associate Max [Herter] – as they investigate the Mayan ruins at Tikal. When two men descend into the ruins and only one returns – and out of his mind, to boot – the research team switches gears in an effort to find out why. Max and Fielding descend into the cave where the archaeologist disappeared and discover that a massive previously undiscovered chamber has been uncovered. Once inside they find a large pool and, more interesting to some of the team than what happened to their friends, a wealth of treasure that once served as sacrifice to the Mayan goddess Caltiki.

Unfortunately for the would-be treasure hunters, Caltiki turns out to be much more real than they imagined. After killing one party member as he dives for treasure, Caltiki – an amorphous and all-consuming mass of amoebic glop – rises from the pool to threaten the rest of the team. The greedy Max tries to salvage some of the treasure, but wanders too closely to the monster with disastrous results. Only the quick thinking of Dr. Fielding, who hacks off a piece of Caltiki and frees Max, saves him. With the monster dispatched by a conveniently placed gasoline-loaded truck and Max in serious condition, the team returns to Mexico City.

Once there, surgeons remove the festering bit of Caltiki from Max’s arm and leave him to recover while Dr. Fielding investigates the nature of the monster. Carbon dating reveals that Caltiki, found to be a massive unicellular organism, is no fewer than 20 million years old – confirming the Mayan legend about the agelessness of the god. But the legend also mentions the rebirth of Caltiki at a time when her mate appears in the sky. Dr. Fielding puts two and two together when a comet on a 1300 year cycle, which last appeared at the time the Mayan’s disappeared, appears in the sky once more. The Caltiki specimens begin to grow . . . and grow . . .

To make matters worse, a poisonous compound released by Caltiki when it attacked Max has effectively driven the man insane. His obsessive desire to have Dr. Fielding’s wife as his own leads him to the Doctor’s home, where Fielding’s personal Caltiki specimen is itching to escape, and to feed . . .

CALTIKI was obviously intended to capitalize on the surge in blob-oriented horrors towards the end of the fifties. While most would readily cite THE BLOB as inspiration, CALTIKI has far more in common with the first two Quatermass films and the Hammer spin-off X: THE UNKNOWN than with that Irvin Yeaworth production, which may or may not have even seen release in Italy by the time CALTIKI was in production. Filippo Sanjust’s competent screenwriting references THE QUATERMASS XPERIMENT explicitly at times, such as when the maddened and deformed Max is wandering the countryside or when the fate of the lost archaeologist is related through ‘found footage’. The first major shock scene, in which a diver’s face is shown to have been stripped clean by Caltiki, is very reminiscent of the image of a doctor’s melting face seen in X: THE UNKOWN.

Though it takes cues from any number of past efforts, Sanjust’s scripting manages some moments of inspired originality, namely its combination of the supernatural and the scientific. Having the Caltiki mythology not only confirmed but rendered newly relevant by the appearance of a comet is a brilliant twist that reminds of Nigel Kneale at his best. The dramatic aspects, revolving around Dr. Fielding’s marital strife and Max’s attempts to capitalize on it, are relatively flat and uninspired, but tie in very well with the more lurid and horrific elements – its only a pity that there is no Brian Donlevey or Dean Jagger to arise and take charge of the situation once CALTIKI comes to a head.

Thanks to credited director Riccardo Freda’s faith in brilliant cinematographer Mario Bava, we will never have to sit back and wonder at what CALTIKI might have become in less capable hands. As it stands, Bava’s involvement is enough to render a few gross lapses in logic [the all too conveniently parked gasoline truck, Dr. Fielding being allowed to keep a pet Caltiki at home] moot – overridden by the shock payoffs they allow for. Bava not only directed the majority of the picture and handled the cinematography, but also designed the effects – including a wonderful on-set volcano that eliminated the need for expensive process shots. It is only with the frequent miniatures that Bava begins to show his lack of funds. While many are effective enough, several are not – a huge statue of Caltiki glimpsed several times in the caves is obviously only a foot or so tall and the scale model tanks that do battle with the Godzilla-sized Caltiki at the conclusion look just like the toys they are.

Still, there are more than enough riveting effects moments to be had in CALTIKI’s brief running time to keep its lesser moments from spoiling things. Indeed, in Bava’s capable hands even a few of those are well utilized – a blurry light that fades in and out of a star-scape is what passes for a comet, but seen in conjunction with the pulsing, growing, and multiplying Caltikis, the image achieves a sort of surreal efficacy. Bava would make a name for himself on his own terms the following year with the production of the Gothic horror masterpiece BLACK SUNDAY [LA MASCHERA DEL DEMONIO], but CALTIKI remains an important step in his evolution from talented cinematographer and effects man to director.

CALTIKI looks to have been at least a moderate success both at home and abroad, and moments of it seem to have inspired much more modern productions – it’s hard not to think of the revelation of Aaron Eckhart’s extensive facial injuries in THE DARK KNIGHT when Dr. Fielding visits Max in the hospital, and DEEP IMPACT owes one of its more important plot devices to an astronomer’s fiery demise here. I can’t help but be a little surprised that, especially with all the hub-bub propagating around a Mayan-inspired 2012 apocalypse, no one seems to have realized CALTIKI’s remake potential. Perhaps that is all for the best.

It’s a pity that, as of this writing, no official Region 1 DVD release of CALTIKI has been made – the images that accompany this review are sourced from an awful bootleg VHS I snatched from eBay years ago. NoShame released it to Region 2 in Italy with a fine anamorphic transfer and both the original Italian and dubbed English audio available, but offered no subtitles on either the feature or supplements. A recent French disc is less satisfying, with no English audio option or subtitles and a vertically stretched image. Bootlegs are still abundant, but Wtf-Film really wishes some enterprising company would give CALTIKI the English-friendly release it deserves.

I find myself respecting CALTIKI more and more as the years go by, and realizing what a fine suspense experience it must have been when it first saw theatrical release. Its brand of fantascienza shocks and scares is certainly not for all tastes, but fans of monster cinema and Mario Bava are definitely encouraged to indulge. Wtf-Film recommends.

Thunder of Gigantic Serpent

May 1st, 2008 | article by Kevin Pyrtle | No Comments »
Tags: Action, Annoying kids, Giant monsters, Godfrey Ho, Kaiju, Not on DVD, Science Fiction, Snakes

IDF Films & Arts Ltd [1988] 86′
country: Hong Kong
director: GODFREY HO
cast: PIERRE KIRBY, EDOWAN BERSMEA,
cast: DANNY RAISEBECK, DEWEY BOSWORTH

THUNDER OF GIGANTIC SERPENT (the IMDB lists the original title as DAAI SE WONG) is something I’ve known about for some time. I first stumbled upon an image of it while sifting around an old and now-defunct video trading page and wondered why I’d never heard of it before – more information was gleaned from MONSTRULA’s [monstrula.de] file on it under the German release title of TERROR SERPENT. Since then the film has become more or less readily available on the bootleg video market, with VHS and DVD dupes from a Greek VHS source cropping up on many lists online.

Other than those few sources, there’s not much to go on with this one other than intuition. The IMDB only recently added a page for the film, which is no wonder since precious little reliable information on the title or how it came to be is available.