Ghost Ship (1952)

This low budget British made movie is an interesting ghost story. Instead of being set in a spooky old house it is on a luxury yacht. We meet a young couple, Guy and Margaret, played by real life man and wife Dermot Walsh and Hazel Court. They have returned to England after Guy’s company transferred him home. They are looking for a place to live and have decided that a boat will meet their needs. They arrive at a shipyard only to find the harbor master trying to steer them away from what appears to be a perfectly fine ship. It seems that the ship, The Cyclops, has a bit of a nasty history. Her previous owner, his wife, and their friend disappeared during a voyage. Since then there has been a series of owners who all sell the ship not long after buying it.

The only constant from owner to owner is a local named Mansel who is hired on by Guy as his engineer after the others quit due to seeing a ghost. He claims to have never seen nor heard anything strange on the ship, but himself seems a bit odd. There are some twists and turns, the reason for the haunting is revealed (though not onscreen as that would have been a bit too gruesome for the fifties) and we understand why Mansel hasn’t seen any ghosts. I’ll not spoil any of it here because I’m going to recommend Ghost Ship. Though I suppose that itself is a bit of a spoiler. Read more to find out why.

The movie clocks in at a reasonably tight seventy-two minutes. It does take a while for the spooky stuff to start as we don’t even get a hint of a ghost for the first half hour. But there is a decently entertaining getting the Cyclops seaworthy montage that was fun. This is helped by the obvious chemistry that married couple Walsh and Court have on screen. There performances carry the movie along nicely. This earlier part of the story also leans more into the comedy than it does any ghost related stuff. I’m also a huge fan of Court who most of us know from her work with Roger Corman. Here she is not only as beautiful as ever but is excellent in her role. All in all, I’d say that this early portion of the movie is pleasant and entertaining.

When the characters finally relent and admit that something spooky is happening, they call in an investigator to see if the ship is haunted. He brings in a medium which leads to an extended flashback to the final voyage that explains the who and why of the haunting. This portion of the movie is tonally much different and gets rather melodramatic before becoming gruesome. They also do a decent job with a final twist that gives Ghost Ship a decent final act.

I wanted to point out and applaud the movie for being as creepy as it manages to be. This story takes place almost entirely during the day so pulling off a haunting in the broad daylight not only bucks the usual setting for a proper haunting. But it does work very well. It was also interesting that the setting of the yacht was used because the director/writer owned it. This is a prime example of using what you have when setting and shooting a movie on a budget. He had the boat and set the story there.

If you are looking for a movie with a ton of jump scares or that is set in a creaky old mansion during a thunderstorm (which always seems to be blowing) then Ghost Ship is not for you. On the other hand, if you have grown a bit weary of the same old familiar tale and are looking for something a bit different then this one is for you. I liked it quite a bit and recommend giving the movie a chance. It is easy to find online to watch.

 

© Copyright 2023 John Shatzer

Ju jin yuki otoko (1955)

A Japanese Abominable Snowman movie… Hell yeah I was going to watch this. Before I go any further though I do need to point out that for this review I watched the movie under it’s original title and cut. There is a butchered version for the American market under the title Half Human. Basically, it got the Godzilla treatment with much of the original film cut out and inserts with American actors cut in to make it “relatable” to the market. Don’t watch that version, it is terrible, but check out the original instead if you are interested after my review.

Things kick off with some folks waiting for a train as a storm blows outside. A man walks in and starts to interview them. They are apparently survivors of an expedition and have a story to tell. Then it jumps back in time to some friends skiing and having fun on Mount Fuji. They never say this but that is where the movie was shot. A pair split off to check out a cabin while the others head down the mountain. A huge snowstorm blows in and they are all trapped. Later a search party finds one of the men’s bodies, but the other is missing.

It jumps back to the survivors at the train station before continuing in another flashback. This time it is the next summer as the sister and friend of the missing man have joined an expedition. It is looking for both the missing man as well as a legendary creature who lives in the mountains. This group is followed by another lead by a local carnival owner who wants to capture the creature. Shenanigans ensue as the creature seems to stalk them. Later they all meet up with a local mountain tribe that worships the snowman as their protector/god. The monster does somethings and the humans do some even worse things. It all leads to a finale that had me a bit bummed. See the creature wasn’t so bad. Yeah, this is another of those movies where we have a misunderstood creature that is less a threat and more of a victim of the humans around it.

I wanted to like this one. The creature effects work are good with the suit and the performer under it doing a fantastic job. That shouldn’t be a surprise since this is from the director, Ishiro Honda, and the studio that brought Godzilla out the year before. Instead of a monkey suit being repurposed it is clear some thought went into the making of the snowman. While vaguely apelike it does come off as something different. I also think that the fact we don’t have lots of cardboard buildings getting smashed and that the performer interacts with the cast in many scenes also makes it a bit more fun. Don’t get me wrong I dig Kaiju movies, but this shows the quality of their work much more. I suppose I’m a sucker for a rubber suit in a monster flick.

But there is one huge and glaring issue with Ju jin yuki otoko and that is the pacing. Clocking in at ninety four minutes there is way too much padding. There are long stretches of characters walking, talking, storms blowing, and them admiring the scenery. Don’t get me wrong the movie is beautifully shot. The black and white photography of the natural surroundings borders on art. But as much as I appreciated how it looked it was at times painful to sit thru. There is a cool story here and we do have some fun action as the story ramps up to the finale but it takes far too long to get there. Toss in the fact that the story jumps around in a nonlinear fashion and the added complication of subtitles (again I watched the Japanese version) and this is a movie you must pay attention to and that can be a chore.

I didn’t hate Ju jin yuki otoko and am glad to have checked it out. For me, the creature design was worth a watch by itself, and I consider myself a fan of Honda. But I fear that the casual viewer might find this one too much of a slog to sit thru. That said this is still a far better flick than Half Human.

 

© Copyright 2023 John Shatzer

Curucu, Beast of the Amazon (1956)

We see a woman collecting water from a river, which we later find out is the Amazon. She hears a strange noise and is then attacked by a strange looking feathered creature with claws. Later we see a plane land and a man is taken to her body. He owns the plantation where the killing happened and is there to see why all his workers have left. Seems that the natives are scared and have returned to their villages upriver to avoid the monster. This is important later. His name is Rock Dean because I suppose it is a cool name.

Rock then goes to see his father at a club where we are treated to a dance number. Then we get back to the business at hand when Rock tells them he is going into the jungle farther than a white man has gone before to retrieve his workers. We also meet a lady doctor, Andrea Romar, who wants to go with him because the headhunters have a medicine that will cure cancer. Um… going looking for headhunters seems like a bad idea but okay. After some arguing she forces the issue by hiring his guide and making him take her along. The guide’s name is Tupanico, which is also important later.

There is then a lot of footage of animals as well as some stock footage because there is more than one that isn’t native to the Amazon Jungle. Oh yeah, I totally forgot to mention that this was shot on location in Brazil. That is surprising since this sort of movie was normally shot on studio backlots. But that also means they seemingly fall in love with the various shots of the characters walking thru the beautiful scenery. Because not much else happens. Eventually we find out that there is no monster but instead Tupanico was dressed in a costume to scare his people, he is a headhunter in disguise, back home and away from the plantations. See I told you that was important.

Most of the movie is walking and canoeing.

I’ve been “bait and switched” by a movie poster! I thought I was getting into a monster movie but instead I got something much different. Curucu is nothing more than a lame adventure travelogue that is mostly characters walking or canoeing along with some animal footage tossed in to show us the amazing sites they are seeing. Damn it movie you sold me on some monsters and I got nothing! If the movie had at least been a decent adventure flick I suppose it would have been fine, but nothing happens. There is little to no actual story here beyond them walking.

I could complain about the creature being a lame costume, but it is supposed to be a lame costume. It has a very Scooby Doo vibe to it except not as much fun. The cast is headlined by John Bromfield who looks to have been mostly a “B” Western actor. I’d never heard of him before and based on this movie I can sort of see why. What did catch my attention and made me want to watch this was our female lead. Dr. Romar is played by the lovely Beverly Garland who most fans will recognize from flicks like It Conquered the World, The Neanderthal Man, and The Alligator People. Trust me those are much better flicks than this one though that bar is very low. Here she is given nothing to do other than stare at things and scream when a native sticks their face out of the bushes.

This was such a disappointment. I hadn’t even mentioned yet that it was written and directed by Curt Siodmak who was responsible for flicks like Donovan’s Brain, Earth vs. the Flying Saucers, as well as some of the classic Universal stuff like The Wolf Man and The Invisible Man Returns. Not sure what happened here but it wasn’t good. I can’t recommend spending your valuable time on this movie which is a bummer.

© Copyright 2023 John Shatzer

The Disembodied (1957)

Time for yet another bit of fun from the fifties. This one kicks off with a lady putting a noose around the neck of a voodoo doll and giving it a good squeeze. In the room next door a man starts to choke and struggle. Luckily for him she is interrupted and he immediately feels better. The woman is Tonda and the man is her husband Dr. Metz. Being that he is a doctor it isn’t much of a surprise when some men show up with an injured friend. Having been mauled by a lion he isn’t given much of a chance but Metz tries nonetheless. The two uninjured men bed down in a nearby outbuilding.

The rest of the movie is Tonda, who is a voodoo queen, trying to seduce and convince Tom, one of the men, to kill her husband. Why? Because she is evil and has tired of him. When they try to leave she sabotages their Jeep and kills their porter. When that doesn’t stop them she shows her true colors and stabs her husband threatening Tom and the other man with being blamed for the murder. Though he isn’t dead yet it isn’t looking good. There is also a subplot where Tonda kills a local native because he caught her making out with Tom. This is important because in the end that man’s wife gets some revenge and prevents Tonda from getting away with yet another murder to cover her tracks.

This is a decent bit of fifties fun. The story is fast paced and the movie is a speedy sixty-six minutes long so there isn’t much of a commitment here. Unlike many other movies from the decade of nuclear spawned monsters the horror here comes from voodoo. We get dolls, a couple of ceremonies, and men possessed to do Tonda’s bidding. If you are looking for a rubber monster suit this isn’t the movie for you. Honestly the lack of creature probably does hurt this one a bit, but Tonda is a decent villain and is played well by actress Allison Hayes.

The lovely Allison Hayes!

Hayes is best known for her roles in Zombies of Mora Tau, The Undead, and Attack of the 50 ft. Woman. I get a kick out of all these movies and she is excellent in them as well. Here she does a wonderful job playing a manipulative and murderous character. Without her performance I don’t think the movie works at all. Sadly, she retired due to health issues and passed away far too young otherwise I’m sure she would be a bigger name. The rest of the cast is filled with “B” actors and do a decent job in their roles.

While researching this review I found out that The Disembodied was released as the lower half of a double bill with From Hell it Came as the top half. This is one of those times when I think they nailed it. The movies have a similar type of location, has a few natives, and lots of drums beating away in the background. Of course, From Hell it Came does have the big rubber monster, in this case a tree demon, so that makes it slightly more fun. I think I’m going to have to recreate this double feature at some point on my own.

While not a perfect movie The Disembodied was fun. I recommend fans of fifties genre flicks give it a chance. Maybe in the double feature that I mentioned above. Now I’m off to watch another bit of cinematic nonsense.

 

© Copyright 2023 John Shatzer

Road Trip – Monster Bash at the Canton Palace August 2023

It has been a while since I’ve been to a proper event/screening. Sort of got out of the habit with COVID but I decided it was time to get back in the theater watching movies. Now as many of you may know most new movies just don’t do it for me or at least motivate me to hit a brick and mortar theater. Sure, I’ll go to the drive-in, but the setting is what gets me there and the movies are just icing on the cake. But when I realized I’d have the chance to check out a couple favorites on the big screen for the first time I had to check it out!

Before I start I thought I’d fill you guys in on where and what I was doing. First up the event was held at the Canton Palace Theater. If you have read some of my earlier Road Trip articles you will notice that this is a theater that I frequently (or at least in the past) have visited. This restored movie palace, and it really is, comes complete with a gentlemen’s lounge, the original pipe organ, and a classic atmosphere that adds to the experience of going to the movies that much cooler. The Palace Theater was built when going to the movies was an event and they manage to capture that magic even today.

Monster Bash is a cool convention held in Pittsburgh. Not only does their show kick ass but they have all sorts of neat merchandise for sale at their tables. You may see them as they frequently setup at other shows. The folks involved have a real love for the classics from the Universal flicks, the cheesy giant bug movies of the fifties, to the in your face fun of Hammer if you dig old school horror/sci-fi these guys have something for you. That is why the line up of movies for the Friday/Saturday show was so killer. While I didn’t go to the Friday screenings, I wasn’t going to miss Saturday. Now that I’m done rambling lets get to the day.

The Pipe Organ played between screenings

I met my brother-in-law Richard for some lunch. The usual suspects bailed on me, so he was going to be my wingman for part of the show. If it matters, and it really doesn’t but folks like to blog about food, I had a nice double cheeseburger and some tomato basil soup. Then we hit a local department store on the way and I found a nice Mego Hammer Frankenstein. It seemed on theme for the day’s events, so I thought I’d mention it. I collect all the Mego monsters and get a real kick out of them. As a child of the seventies I always felt bad that I missed out on them when they were new so that wasn’t going to happen to me again.

We finally arrived at the Palace before the first screening. Had a few minutes to wander around talking to the dealers. There weren’t a lot of vendors setup, mostly I think due to the lack of space. They only have the upper and lower lobbies for tables. But I did meet some nice people and scoped somethings out for later purchase. Then it was time for the first movie.

Target Earth (1954) is a fun little science fiction flick with some familiar names attached. I’ve always liked this one and have already reviewed it for the site, review link here. I was wondering how the admittedly goofy looking robot monsters were going to play for the audience and I wasn’t disappointed. There was some laughing, but not in a bad way. People were enjoying the movie I think… at least I hope so. I don’t feel the need to go much farther into this one as I’ve reviewed it and you can check that out at the link I’ve already mentioned.

Now this is a proper robot!

After the movie it was time to buy some stuff. I picked up some odds and ends like a cool button and patch. I like to deck my convention gear (jacket, bag) with some spooky themed accessories. I also finally upgraded my old snap case DVD of The Thing from Another World to a nice Blu-ray. If you don’t know what a snap case is it was one of the original cardboard cases for DVDs before they went to the current packaging we are used to now. Sort of a transition from the old cardboard sleeves on VHS and the later hard plastic cases for DVDs with it being a bit of each. Being one of my favorite fifties flicks it was time for this to happen.

There was also a boardgame that is billed as playing out like a movie. They have versions that lean into Aliens (Area 51) and Zombies (Pittsburgh ’68). It looks like a good time and I can’t wait to break them out and get a few sessions in. One other thing I grabbed was a t-shirt inspired by some of the animation in the credits for Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein. I love that movie and you hardly ever find anything related to it. But then if anyone was going to have something it would be Monster Bash.

Richard called it a day before the second movie started so I was flying solo. The Thing from Another World (1951) is another favorite of mine. This was a big deal for me since it is the first time that I ever had the chance to watch it on the big screen in a proper theater. This is another movie that I’ve already covered for the site, which you can check out here. The short of it is an alien attacks an isolated research facility at the North Pole and it is up to Kenneth Tobey and friends to save the Earth! It was a blast and the crowd was a lot less silly with this movie. It still has the ability to be creepy and engaging to a modern audience used to explicit gore and violence.

Between this and the next screening I wandered around the vendors area again. Talked to some more attendees about nerdy movie stuff. That is a must for me since I don’t have people in my regular life that are into these like I am. It is always good to be amongst “my people”. I also found another t-shirt, this time a cool Bowery Boys themed Monster Bash shirt. I love those movies and do plan on covering all fifty plus of them someday for the site. Then it was time for the next movie to start.

Invasion of the Saucer Men (1957) is a movie that I have always loved. I remember distinctly catching it the first time on Superhost which was a local Saturday afternoon movie show here in Northeast Ohio. As a kid I loved the aliens, which even if you haven’t seen the movie (and many folks haven’t) are iconic enough that people recognize them even if they don’t know what movie they came from.

I realized as of the writing of this I’ve not covered the movie for the site. I need to do that sooner rather than later as again it is one of my favorites. Because of that I’ll go into a bit more detail with this movie. Here we have adults ignoring the teenagers, the army being incompetent, creepy little aliens, and a bull that loves to drink beer! Bullets don’t hurt them but headlights do and they will kill you by injecting you with alcohol… which mostly just makes people drunk. The movie plays out like a parody of the creature flicks of the era with a healthy bit of satire of authority figures. That last bit is very different from what I’d expect of a movie like this. The army and adults in general are incompetent and not to be trusted. As an adult I dig the subtlety of it though the younger me just liked the monsters.

There was another movie to be shown yet but I’ve already seen The Blob (1958) before in a theater. Hell, it was at the Canton Palace Theater (link to my write up here). It had been a long day and I’m not as young as I used to be so I decided to call it after Saucer Men ended. I consider this to be another successful day of nerding out and can’t wait for next year when I get to do it all again.

With that in mind I highly recommend you check out Monster Bash’s website. The show is shaping up to be a good time and I never need that much of an excuse to visit Pittsburgh! If you happen to be in the Canton Ohio area you should check out The Canton Palace Theater. They have some fun screenings coming up with Pee Wee’s Big Adventure and Animal House. They haven’t put anything up for October yet, but they also normally have at least a Rocky Horror showing around the 31^st. Oh and I must recommend their Three Stooges night that normally takes place in April. Check out their website here for more information and to see what they announce.

 

© Copyright 2023 John Shatzer

The Unknown Terror (1957)

The movie kicks off with a man exploring a cave. We see a pool of water bubbling and then he sees something horrific as he screams. Roll the credits. After that we learn that his wife and her husband are planning an expedition to find him. He was looking for the cave of death, which doesn’t bode well considering what we just saw. After a musical number… not joking… which is supposed to be a clue to the whereabouts of the cave they head to South America. Along the way we also meet the local native who will guide them, Raoul, as well as another man named Pete. Seems that Pete has a history with Gina (the missing man’s sister) and her husband Dan. One that explains both his crippled leg as well as how he is able to guilt them into being part of the expedition. 

The eventually reach the village and find the cave. Along the way they meet another American, Dr. Ramsey, who is there doing research on the local fungi. Seems he has made some breakthroughs in his research thanks to the local flora and fauna. It is about at this time when the first monster covered in fungus shows up. Yeah, the good doctor is up to no good. The rest of the movie is some spelunking (cave exploration), monster fighting, dynamite explosions, and scuba diving. Then the sun comes up and the credits roll. 

This is another fifties science fiction flick that I haven’t seen before. While it was nice to check it off the list I wasn’t thrilled with what I got. The pacing is very slow with our main characters spending most of the first forty minutes talking about their history with each other. Pete was injured saving Dan you see. Also, Gina was Pete’s girl until after the accident so that is also a bit of a kick in the butt for him. After forty minutes the monsters start to show up and the last half hour is decent, but it takes way too long to get there. Unlike Flight to Mars, we do get a monster in fact a few of them, so I dug that. 

I also feel like there is something missing. Not sure if they rewrote the script along the way or if things were cut for runtime and/or budget. There is a native girl married to Dr. Ramsey that Pete seems sweet on. She reciprocates his feelings, and we get an odd line about how she was also crippled but not anymore. I was sure that something about the experiments healed her and that she would help Pete the same way, but after setting it up they ignore it. The girl also never appears after a point, and it is hinted that Pete and Gina are back together. I found this to be distracting. 

The creatures are decent. We get several infected humans who are covered in fungus and look decent. While the movie never gives us a single line of dialogue to explain what is going on I suppose they look cool so who cares. That said the big monster that infects them is just a bit of foam. Not foam rubber mind you but bubbles and foam like you might see on top of your sink as you do the dishes. This was disappointing and one doesn’t seem to connect to the other. They could have just stuck with the fungus monsters and it would have been fine. 

The Unknown Terror isn’t a horrible movie. It is flawed though, and I’ve seen this kind of story told much better elsewhere. I would say that this one is for completists only and even then it will be a watch once and move on sort of flick. If you want to watch a similar flick, I’d recommend Caltiki, the Immortal Monster. That one is much more fun.

© Copyright 2023 John Shatzer

Flight to Mars (1951)

It has been a while since I’ve done some old school fifties sci-fi reviews, so it was about time that I returned to it. I had never seen Flight to Mars, which should be concerning since I’ve been watching this stuff for over forty years. Is this a hidden gem that escaped me or is there a reason that it never played on my local stations? Might as well jump in to find out.

The movie opens with some astronomers looking at Mars thru a telescope and talking about the mission that is just about to leave. Apparently it was kept a secret up until the last minute, even from Congress! Guess that is where the money from those five hundred dollar toilet seats went… Okay that was very much an eighties thing to say. If you don’t get it this was the joke about where all the money for various secret slush funds came from. Now back to our plot synopsis.

We finally meet the crew which includes some scientists. One of them is a lady scientist who is in love with the mission leader. Also along for the flight is a reporter by the name of Steve. He is played by the only real familiar face in the cast, Cameron Mitchell. They eventually take off, talk about space stuff that happened (rather than show us), dodge a meteor storm, and crash on Mars because the storm damaged their landing gear. Immediately after crash landing they meet the locals who welcome them with open arms. They help them repair the ship but have ulterior motives. Mars is dying and despite having technology far superior to Earth they never have managed to sort out the whole rocket ship thing. So they want to steal and copy the repaired ship so they can invade Earth. That always seems to happen in these flicks.

Martian space babe!

Some other stuff happens including a Mars space babe falling in love with the mission leader which causes the lady scientist to get mad. Though she eventually gets over it and falls for Steve, who has been hitting on her since the start. They make their escape with a couple of Martians who hope to negotiate a peace and save their people’s lives without starting a war. The end.

There are some things about Flight to Mars that I did like. The old school miniature work with the ship flying is fun. Not great mind you, but it has that fifties charm that I sometimes crave. We see it takeoff, dodge meteors, and crash land. It is clearly a model running along a string in a miniature landscape, but I dig that sort of thing. The sets for both the spaceship as well as the Martian city are also decent. Though the fact that they hop into what are clearly army cots for takeoff was sort of funny. Oh and when they arrive on the planet their spacesuits are nothing more than repurposed bomber jackets and masks from World War II. Don’t get me started on how the Martian space babes are dressed. But again, this sort of silly stuff is right up my alley and what I expect to see when watching a movie like Flight to Mars.

Not kidding about the jackets

You may be expecting a big but here and rightfully so. As much as I got a kick out of a lot of the movie it is also painfully slow. We get extended debates about the mission and whether it is worth the cost and effort, which is why it was kept secret. The characters are also introduced by Steve interviewing them, which is not only tedious, but we don’t anything that establishes the characters, so it is also quite pointless. While flying to Mars they spend time talking about what they saw, some romance drama between Steve and the lady scientist, arguments about it being a one way mission, and other exciting tidbits. After they land there is a bit of intrigue with the locals, but mostly in the fact that the Martian space babe falls in love with the mission leader.

You heard that right. No monsters, very little action, but lots of romance and talk about people’s place in the universe. That isn’t at all what I signed up for when I sat down to check this one out. If I want some romance with my sci-fi rocket ships, I’d much rather be watching It! Terror from Beyond Space or Forbidden Planet. At least those movies had monsters in them! Flight to Mars is just a boring old mess that feels much too long for it’s seventy two minute long runtime. Heck they don’t even resolve the main story line before rolling the credits. I can’t recommend this one at all.

 

© Copyright 2023 John Shatzer

Lust of the Vampire (1957)

The movie kicks off with a body being fished out of a river, supposedly in Paris. We see from a medical examiner that it has been drained of blood… like the others! Then we meet a police inspector, Chantal, and a reporter, Pierre, who are investigating the crimes. Pierre is also pursued by the most beautiful woman in town, Giselle. Got all that straight? I hope so because now is when it gets complicated!

Pierre starts to unravel things and figures out, and I’m honestly not sure how, that the killings are related to a powerful family, the Du Grands. Giselle is a member of the family, and we find out that she is desperate to make with the romance when it comes to Pierre. We also get to see a girl get abducted and meet the mad doctor, his assistant, and the junkie that they use to grab their victims. Initially it also doesn’t appear to be a monster movie as the victims all had the same blood type and the blood was removed with a needle/syringe. But in the end, we find out that Giselle is really old and only remains young by having the doctor drain the blood from other ladies and transfusing it into her. How does this happen? Science I suppose.

I wanted to like this movie. Hell, I only watched Lust of the Vampire because I read that Mario Bava stepped in and finished it. He wrote part of the script and directed a couple of days’ worth of scenes uncredited. But the plot is a mess. I mean the bones of the story is there, but the characters seem to drop in and out as well as making crazy leaps of logic without explanation. Why does Pierre suddenly know that the Du Grands are up to something bad? Other than him not liking their castle and how Giselle pursues him there isn’t any reason. This and other odd logic loopholes had me scratching my head in confusion rather than getting into the story and characters. I also wasn’t a fan of them showing us the identity of the kidnapper in the first five minutes. I thought this was supposed to be a mystery. I guess not.

The pacing is also glacial. I know that some folks online talk about how great this movie is, but I don’t get it. There are long stretches of dialogue that go nowhere. Like I’ve already mentioned they never explain the actions of the characters and you would think a few lines of dialogue would be dedicated to fleshing out the story. Also how did the doctor come upon his youth restoring process? And why did Giselle become his first patient? I know they are related but she seems to have some hold over him and that is never explained. Again, it is really confusing.

For this review I watched the original dubbed version under the Lust of the Vampire title. I know that there is an American cut with some extra scenes with Grandpa Al Lewis… how the hell did that work? That release is titled The Devil’s Commandment. It might be better, but I can’t imagine taking the chance after having already killed an hour and a half on this version. Clearly I’m not recommending it.

 

© Copyright 2023 John Shatzer

The Living Idol (1957)

The movie opens with some men climbing up a set of narrow stairs in an Incan pyramid. When they reach the top they discover a statue of a jaguar, which freaks Juanita out. She is a lovely young lady that was with the men. One of the men, Terry, races after her. Turns out that and she are sweet on each other. When Juanita’s father dies in an accident at the dig the other man, Doctor Stoner, adopts here. Following so far?

Months later Juanita is living with Stoner in Mexico City where he is working on his theories regarding superstition. This is important because he thinks that Juanita is cursed or something like that. She has never been right since being scared by the jaguar statue. When Terry returns from Korea, he is a photographer, he picks back up with her. But soon it becomes obvious that things aren’t right. There is a big fight between the jaguar god, in the form of an animal that Stoner releases from the zoo and Terry. Some people die and the rest live happily ever after. 

I really wanted to like this one. Sadly, the story spends far too much time on the romance between Juanita and Terry. There are several dance numbers, some romance, and much drama. That shouldn’t be a big surprise since this was co-produced by a large Hollywood studio, Allied Artists and that was par for the course. Sure, there is an occasional “what the Hell” moment to let you know there is something supernatural afoot, but these are spread out too much for the movie to create any momentum. Forty minutes in and we have yet to see much of anything in the way of old school horror. That brings me to the other big issue. At forty minutes in we still have another hour to go! This movie is far too long for what it is, and they could have taken a cue from the independent horror productions of the fifties and trimmed it down. 

The cast is decent with the most familiar face being Steve Forrest, who I recognized from his television work in the seventies. The Living Idol was co-directed by Rene Cardona, who I know from several Santo movies. I also have to say that the fact this was shot in color, a novelty reserved for bigger budgeted movies in the fifties, as well as it being shot on location was nice. The movie is beautiful and takes advantage of the exotic locations available to the filmmakers. We also get some nifty carnival sequences that are highlights of the first half. I just wished they had a tighter grip and focus on the story they were trying to tell. 

I noticed that many folks compare this to Cat People. While the subject is similar and they both share a sequence where the lead actress is traumatized by a trip to the zoo, that is a far superior movie. There is some mystery and tension to that movie that we just don’t get with The Living Idol. Again, I wanted to like this one but simply can’t recommend it. 

© Copyright 2022 John Shatzer

Fiend without a Face (1958)

A man is found dead after lurking around an airbase. The military wants to investigate what killed him, but the locals refuse to let them. They even stop any attempts at an autopsy. They just assume that he died because of the nuclear reactor in the nearby base. They also blame the issues with their dairy cows on this as well. They are rather angry at the military. This is only made worse when more bodies are found. Eventually the doctor’s figure out that the brain and spinal cord of each victim is gone!

Is this an alien invasion? I mean it is a creepy fifties science fiction movie so that would make sense. But in a clever twist it turns out that it isn’t the military but instead a retired professor who has been using their nuclear powered radar to fuel his own experiments. The result is a bunch of creepy looking invisible monsters that he has lost control over! The best part is when the reactor gets out of control and the monsters become visible though. Then it gets good… really good.

This is one of those fifties movies that people don’t talk about, but the creatures show up everywhere. Trust me if you have seen a documentary or special about science fiction movies then the brain monsters from Fiend without a Face have been shown. I know that normally I talk about the plot and characters first but I’m making an exception here since the creatures are the reason to watch. Initially you don’t see them only hear something moving around the scene with some occasional hay or grass sliding out of the way. The kills are sold by the actor grabbing at their neck and falling to the ground.

But when the power is amped up from the nuclear plant running out of control, they get so supercharged that we get to see them in all their glory. A brain with eyestalks that movie around by pushing themselves on spinal cords. See where all the spare parts from the victims went? This is brought to the screen with some well executed stop motion work as well as latex puppets that get wrapped around the cast when there is an attack. The best part is when they are shot, they sort of pop and spit out what I suppose is blood or maybe monster ooze. Pretty gruesome for a fifties flick and I love it.

The cast is okay with the only highlight being Marshall Thompson as Major Cummings. He is the army officer trying to sort out the killings and is who we follow as the story unfolds. It was interesting to see him here as in the same year he also appeared in It! The Terror from Beyond Space, which is another favorite of mine. He had a good year. His love interest is played by an actress who had a rather short career. Kim Parker is Barbara and does a rather risqué bit, at least for the time, involving her in the shower. I think that she retired to have a family. What was interesting about her though is that she was a refugee who survived a Concentration Camp. After the war she traveled to and settled in England (where this movie was made). Nothing to do with her acting, she is pretty good, but that sort of real life horror put this silliness in the proper perspective.

This is an excellent flick that I highly recommend to everyone. It gets right to the good stuff and never stops being creepy and fun for a second. I’m not sure where it is currently available but for this review I watched the Criterion release.

 

© Copyright 2022 John Shatzer

It Came from Beneath the Sea (1955)

This movie finds us watching the crew of an American nuclear submarine on maneuvers in the Pacific. The sonarman lets them know that something is shadowing them and then accelerates to intercept the sub. They are grabbed and stuck fast no matter how much they push the engines. Rocking back and forth they finally get free but when they look, they notice something odd stuck to the hull. Something biological!

One of our three main characters is the sub commander Pete. When he goes to see what the scientists think we meet the other two. Dr. Carter and the lovely professor Lesley Joyce. Hint… she is the love interest! The three of them get swept up in trying to convince the military that a huge octopus is out there wrecking ships and killing folks. Then after it has become obvious it is up to them to sort out how to stop it before it wrecks San Francisco. Yeah, this is the movie where the giant octopus destroys the Golden Gate Bridge. Who wins and who dies? Let’s just say there is a special on calamari for the foreseeable future.

This is one of those monster movies that I grew up watching as a kid. It was on heavy rotation with our local horror hosted programs, and I always dug it. The story is very simple but delivers the goods with enough creature mayhem to keep me occupied. The cast is filled with decent actors, and I have to say that the beautiful Faith Domergue, playing Lesley, was certainly interesting to an adolescent me as well. Kenneth Tobey as the sub commander Pete was also the first time that I noticed an actor in more than one role. He also starred in one of my favorites, The Thing from Another World.

The highlight of It Came from Beneath the Sea then and now is the monster. This is brought to the screen with a combination of rear projection and stop motion animation. These old school special effects always make me smile, especially when they are done well. Considering that the legendary Ray Harryhausen was responsible for the monster and the models it crushed it is no wonder that I loved this one so much. If you are looking for a fun creature feature, you could do a lot worse than this.

So far I’ve mostly talked about what I loved about the movie as a kid growing up. While I still dig it, I must be honest and admit that this time around I noticed how much stock footage was used. We get lots of jets, navy ships, and various ordinance expended in pursuit of the creature thanks to grainy footage of the real thing. Most of this is narrated which only goes to make it even more obvious. I was surprised to hear that It Came from Beneath the Sea was a lower budget movie, but that does explain a lot. Rumor is that the octopus in this movie only had six tentacles to save money. It didn’t ruin things, but it also bumps it down a bit from the other classic Harryhausen flicks that are out there.

This movie is well worth checking out. If for nothing else than the iconic attack on the Golden Gate bridge. Whenever you see a documentary discussing the fifties and sci-fi movies that is always in the mix. Might as well check out where it came from.

 

© Copyright 2022 John Shatzer

Teenage Monster (1957)

I’ve spent most of my life tracking down and watching every fifties monster movie available. Somehow, I keep finding new to me flicks which is what keeps me excited about this hobby and always on the lookout for new to me stuff. Teenage Monster is one of those that I recently stumbled over.

It is eighteen eighty and we meet a family struggling to get their gold mine to pay off. There is Ma, Pa, and their young son Charley. After a brief introduction we see a meteor hit the mine killing Pa and mutating Charley. He has a terrible scar on his face which is how we realize thru a helpful onscreen prompt that seven years have passed he is now the large hairy bigfoot looking creature. If his incredible strength and childlike mind aren’t dangerous enough, he also has an anger issue and overreacts to stress. The rest of the movie is him killing random folks until he grabs a girl named Kathy. She seems nice but manipulates him into doing some killing for her. But Charley isn’t stupid just naive and eventually he figures things out. The only way his Ma can be happy and free is for him to go. Since she is blackmailing Ma, he takes Kathy with him!

Not only is this a new to me fifties monster movie but it is also a western! I was a little disappointed that we didn’t get as much cowboy action as Charley sneaks around and stays in the shadows. But then they also establish that while he is very strong, he isn’t immune to a Winchester rifle. So, I guess that it would have been a much shorter movie. Though it does only clock in at a little over an hour which makes for a briskly paced bit of cheesy fun. The story wastes little time before getting the ball rolling. The bodies start to drop rather quickly as Charley smashes anyone he finds… well most everyone. When he meets Kathy, he kidnaps her and brings her home to have a friend. I also think he gets a bit of a crush on her. This leads up to a neat bit of messing with our expectations when Kathy turns out to be not so innocent and immediately becomes a villain. I didn’t see that coming and appreciated it.

The cast is solid and filled with working character actors and “B” list faces that you will have seen before. The highlight for me was seeing Gloria Castillo as Kathy. She is one of my favorites from the fifties for her performance in Invasion of the Saucermen. Anne Gwynne is Ma and appeared in House of Frankenstein as well as Murder in the Blue Room which I need to cover during my next mystery marathon. Like I said there is some talent here and they give it their all.

The thing that most surprised me about Teenage Monster was how well they did with the creature design. It basically looks like bigfoot in clothes, but it works. They use some forced perspective and platform boots to make the monster look larger than he is which I love. Old school Hollywood tricks are still the best in my book. The killings aren’t explicit, but then this is a fifties flick so you wouldn’t expect them to be. Basically, he strangles or pounds his victims until they die.

This was a fun way to kill an hour. You get a sympathetic monster, a scheming villain, some comeuppance in the end, and sort of a happy ending as Ma, while sad, is finally free to continue her life. They put a lot of effort into what many would have considered a throwaway “B” picture. I appreciate that and recommend everyone check out Teenage Monster.

 

© Copyright 2022 John Shatzer

Cat Girl (1957)

Lenora Johnson is returning to her family home to inherit some money and the estate. She brings her friends and new husband with her, so she doesn’t have to be alone. She has bad memories about the house which are proven to be correct when she is told by her uncle that it is time for the family curse to be passed to her. He is killed by a large leopard that then becomes the “other” part of her. She is of two minds, one human and the other animal. At first it isn’t clear what this curse means. But when she sees her husband cheating with her friend the anger boils over and the leopard kills him.

An old love of hers, Brian, is there to treat her as he is a psychiatrist. Eventually she is locked up in an asylum for treatment but gets “better”. In reality it is a ploy to be released so that she can win him back now that she is single. The big issue with that is Brian is already happily married so of course his wife has to go. This leads to the big finale where the leopard is stalking the alleys of the bad side of town as Brian races to save his wife. What happens? Lets just say that we find out what the consequences to the woman and leopard when their link is permanently severed!

I honestly expected a creature feature like Wasp Woman or The Fly with a person turning into a hybrid monster that terrorizes the rest of the cast. What I got was this melodramatic movie that leans more into the atmosphere then it does the horror. The story revolves around Lenora and her mental issues. For part of the movie, we aren’t even sure if this is a legit curse or if it is just a coincidence that people are dying around her. I mean there are only two deaths, that of her uncle and husband, both on an estate where a dangerous animal is running amok. It really doesn’t become clear until the action moves to the city, and she is clearly changed by her new dual personality/nature. We don’t even get a rubber suited critter but instead have footage of an actual leopard moving around the sets and when needed a stuffed version for the cast to interact with.

This is the second time in recent memory where I’ve run into a movie that was inspired by the Val Lewton classic Cat People. The other was the odd made for television flick The Cat Creature. I thought that was a cheesy fun flick but here it is different. This is a well-made movie that embraces what made Lewton’s movie so great. The sets are very gothic which is enhanced by some beautiful camerawork and lighting. This is a very pretty movie and shows an attention to detail that I hadn’t expected when I thought it was going to be a monster movie. The music adds to the atmosphere and the acting is solid. The pacing can be a bit slow if you were expecting a lot of creature action, but once I realized what we were getting I was able to switch gears and enjoy the overall creepy vibe that Cat Girl provides.

By no means should anyone think that this is as good as Cat People. But there is a lot of good things going for this one, as I stated above. I just wanted to make some connections so that you knew what you are getting yourself into. For this review I watched the British print which is slightly longer. I don’t know what might have been cut for U.S. release and if that would make any difference. I highly recommend checking out Cat Girl.

 

© Copyright 2022 John Shatzer

The Invisible Man in Mexico (1958)

I do love these Mexican made horror movies. This one isn’t exactly a remake of Universal’s Invisible Man, but it is sort of close. A man named Charles is framed for murder. He is convicted and sentenced to prison. But his scientist brother has invented an invisibility formula that allows him to escape with the help of his fiancé. Initially he wants to prove his innocence but then eventually just decides to leave. His brother is looking for the cure to the invisibility formula so Charles can join the visible again. Yeah he used the experimental drug on him before knowing if he could reverse it! That seems bad. 

Much like the more famous movie one of the side effects of the formula is that Charles is slowly going insane. So much so that instead of leaving town or allowing himself to be made visible again he says that the “creator” has told him to kill everyone in the city! He tries to do this by contaminating the water supply. Luckily the police are able to stop him and his invisibility is reversed so that everyone can live happily ever after… except for the dead people. Hey man its just a movie, right?

Let me begin with I know that this isn’t a good movie. After a very quick start the action slows down to a crawl. The last hour is a chore to get thru as we mostly hear Charles ranting and raving about the world as he slowly goes batty. There is also a lack of action as for long stretches nothing happens to move the story along. We also have some odd narrative choices like the police figuring out that Charles is invisible! That seems like an odd leap of logic. Then again this is also a world where people keep handy bullwhips in their living rooms, so I guess that is plausible. Yeah, you know not so much. Slow and filled with plot holes the script leaves a lot to be desired. 

SCIENCE!!!

I did like the old school effects they used to bring the invisible man to the screen. Doors rigged to open by themselves, some of the cast pantomiming their interactions with an actor that wasn’t there, and items rigged with wires lifting them in the air. It might seem cheesy, but this is done very well, and I liked it. The dubbing is silly and doesn’t match well but as a fan of that sort of thing it put a smile on my face. On some level I was enjoying The Invisible Man in Mexico.

Can I recommend the movie? That is a complicated question. While I enjoyed some of the goofier stuff, I can see that the pacing is going to be a deal breaker for many, and rightfully so. This can be at best recommended as an oddity for those who enjoy either the Mexican sub-genre of horror or just want to see all the fifties horror and sci-fi there is. I’m afraid that anyone else might be bored by it. 

© Copyright 2022 John Shatzer