Posts Tagged ‘Peter Graves’


R.I.P. Peter Graves, 1926-2010

March 15th, 2010 | article by | No Comments »
Tags: ,

There’s really not much to say here – another long-time Wtf-Film favorite and Minneapolis, MN native has passed away.  Actor Peter Graves (younger brother of James Arness), famous for his turn as the pilot in Airplane!, has ascended to that all-day peplum matinee in the sky at the age of 83.  He was found dead of natural causes in his home Sunday afternoon.

Best known around these parts as a regular in the down-and-dirty no-budget world of 50s science fiction, Graves starred in such classic cheapie programmers as Killers From Space, It Conquered The World, Beginning of the End, and Red Planet Mars. Needless to say, he will be missed.


Beginning of the End

June 2nd, 2009 | article by | No Comments »
Tags: , , , , , , ,

company: AB-PT Pictures Corp.
year: 1957
runtime: 76′
country: United States
director: Bert I. Gordon
cast: Peter Graves, Peggie Castle,
Morris Ankrum, Than Wyenn,
Thomas Browne Henry, Richard Benedict,
James Seay, John Close
writers: Fred Freiberger
and Lester Gorn
cinematographer: Jack A. Marta
music: Albert Glasser
special effects: Bert I. Gordon
and Flora M. Gordon
Order this film from Amazon.com

Critics online and otherwise tend to relish pounding the films of Bert I. Gordon into the ground – I’m happy to say that I’m not among them. That’s not to say that there isn’t considerable ammunition of Gordon’s own making just waiting to be catapulted in his direction. His productions were universally cheap [only a handful utilized anything approaching a B-budget], featured generally awful special effects [dominated by Gordon's own cost effective realism-be-damned travelling matte process], and the scripting – well, you get the idea.

Whatever the quality of his productions may be, I like Gordon, who made quite a career for himself in re-imagining H. G. Wells’ socio-political science fiction novel The Food of the Gods and How It Came to Earth into a handful of exploitation films [most notably his 1976 eco-horror effort THE FOOD OF THE GODS]. Gordon seemed forever thinner of wallet than of scope, but that didn’t stop him from trying time and time again. I find it doubtful that anyone else in the business, then or now, could have taken a few thousand dollars, two hundred grasshoppers, and some still photographs of Chicago and made a film as reasonable or as entertaining as BEGINNING OF THE END.

Continue Reading »


Red Planet Mars

March 19th, 2009 | article by | No Comments »
Tags: , , , , ,

Melaby Pictures Corp. [1952] 87′
country: United States
directors: HARRY HORNER
cast: PETER GRAVES, ANDREA KING,
cast: HERBERT BERGHOF, WALTER SANDE

The planet Mars was no stranger to cinema screens in the beginning of the fifties. Flash Gordon had fought Ming the Merciless on the red planet as early as 1938, but it wasn’t until 1950′s DESTINATION MOON cash-inn ROCKETSHIP X-M made an unscheduled stop there en route to the moon that Mars began making appearances in the more serious science fiction efforts of the day. While the George Pal epic THE WAR OF THE WORLDS remains the most oft remembered of these, there were a host of others – one of the most obscure of these is the one covered here today, which seems to have slipped under the radar of most B-movie aficionados in spite of its being relatively available.

RED PLANET MARS begins with a startling astronomical discovery – Mars’ polar ice caps have, over the course of a week, all but disappeared, with the planet’s canals [an absurd idea popular for a brief time at the dawn of the 20th century that had been losing steam since around 1910] filling with the resulting melt water. The discovery gives much-needed inspiration to scientist Chris Cronyn [Graves], who is running the ultimate ham radio experiment – using his advanced transmitter, built from a design by genius ex-Nazi scientist Franz Calder [Berghof], to broadcast radio messages to Mars. Up until now he’s only received his own messages back in return – that all changes when Chris’ son give him the idea of sending the first few numbers of Pi without rounding the last digit. Once their original message – 3.1415 – is replied to with 3.1415926, everything changes.

Continue Reading »


It Conquered the World

December 19th, 2008 | article by | No Comments »
Tags: , , , , , ,

American International Pictures [1956] 71′
country: United States
director: ROGER CORMAN
cast: PETER GRAVES, LEE VAN CLEEF,
cast: BEVERLY GARLAND, SALLY FRASER

Roger Corman is nothing if not prolific – having produced 385 films [just over 7 a year since 1954] and directed a comparatively slim 55, the producer/director/writer and sometimes actor has become a household name. At least he has in those corners where they prefer their cinema hard, fast, and cheap.

IT CONQUERED THE WORLD is a picture from a time when Corman productions were not quite so fast – he would direct only three films in 1956, a number disparagingly trumped by the 9 he was to helm the following year. He was quick in recognizing the market potential of low budget creature features after the success of his meagerly produced MONSTER FROM THE OCEAN FLOOR and THE DAY THE WORLD ENDED [made for just over $100,000 combined] and, thusly, this 1956 effort was born with all the trademarks of a Corman creature feature intact.

Continue Reading »