The Giant Behemoth (1959)

In a presentation, marine biologist Karnes (Gene Evans) warns that nuclear testing in the world’s oceans will eventually lead to nature striking back. He is mostly dismissed, but lucky for him nature DOES strike back in the form of … something.

Initially the monster was to be a giant blob, but producers wanted another dinosaur. Elements more consistent with a radioactive blob remain. Willis O’Brien of King Kong (1933) fame was brought in, but budgets and deadlines were tight, and it shows.

Originally titled “Behemoth, the Sea Monster” which sounds a little like a kids show, it was later renamed to The Giant Behemoth. This I presume to distinguish it from those tiny behemoths we all know and love.

Eugene Lourie, who also directed The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953), dispensed with the love interest part of the story, wanting to focus on science and monster mayhem. This decision may have contributed to the exposition heavy dialog. A young couple is introduced but disappears before the second act, despite being billed third and fourth.

The Giant Behemoth is a very by-the-numbers monster movie. Unfortunately it offers nothing new to the genre, and the stop motion effects were a half step down. The creature, unlike those created by Ray Harryhausen, lacked personality. AMRU 2.5.

The Big Combo (1955)

A police lieutenant Diamond (Cornel Wilde) is obsessed with taking down a cruel crime boss (Richard Conte), maybe because he is more than a little infatuated with his pretty girlfriend (Jean Wallace aka Mrs. Cornel Wilde).

The role of Conte’s Brown was originally given to Jack Palance, but he clashed with producers and stormed off the set. Conte gave a very Palance-like performance. Perennial heavy Lee Van Cleef, along with Earl Holliman, are Brown’s henchmen, and apparently more than just friends. The characters, not the actors.

Many familiar faces round out the cast. Helene Stanton is memorable as Detective Diamond’s sometimes girlfriend, and Brian Donlevy (The Great McGinty) is great as the henchman on his way down. Helen Walker was a rising star when she had a terrible automobile accident while carrying three hitchhiking war veterans. Everyone sustained serious injuries and one soldier died. Acquitted of charges, she nevertheless carried the stigma and better roles dried up. Her small appearance here marked her last feature film credit, and would only make sporadic television appearances over the next few years. Cancer would take her at age 47.

The Big Combo is an effective, if improbable crime drama. Diamond is relentless and consequently a little dull, but not to worry. Conte’s Brown and others more than makes up for it. Interesting story, good performances, and real consequences. AMRU 3.5.

I just learned that the last living cast member, Earl Holliman, passed away a couple days ago. He was 96.

The Cyclops (1957)

A young woman (Gloria Talbott) hires a crew to sneak her into the mountainous forbidden zone in Mexico to search for her fiance who crashed there several years ago. Soon we learn that each crew member has their own reasons for going on the trip.

Writer/Director/Producer Bert I. Gordon made a bunch of films in the second half of the 1950s usually depicting creatures of unusual size. Here our heroes discover huge creatures and later a giant deformed man. I wonder …

Lon Chaney Jr. was squarely in the “take any job” segment of his career. Five years earlier he impressed in a small role in High Noon (1952) but would never repeat that success. Pretty Gloria Talbott had a long career in low budget genre pictures, starting when she was just four years old. Years ago I saw her interviewed for the underwhelming 100 Years of Horror (1996) and it was clear time was not good to her. She passed a couple years later at the age of 69.

Considering the humble budget, the effects for Cyclops aren’t that bad. Occasionally the monster would be transparent, but otherwise effective. Mr. BIG would again explore the giant man trope later the same year with The Amazing Colossal Man, which got a sequel the following. Oddly, the only cast member in common between the three films is Duncan 'Dean' Parkin, who played today’s Cyclops and Colonel Manning from the Colossal Man sequel.

The Cyclops almost feels like a proof of concept for Gordon’s later Giant movies. It’s the shortest of the three and while not without good story elements, the conclusion feels a little rushed. But it holds your interest and doesn’t overstay its welcome. AMRU 3.

High Society (1955)

With the help of a reporter, C.K. Dexter-Haven crashes his ex-wife’s wedding in order to HEY! What are the Bowery Boys doing here?

It was my intention to record the 1956 Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Grace Kelly musical, but what I got was the 1955 low rent comedy of the same name. And I was not alone in making this mistake. This 61 minute jokeless comedy received the Academy Award nomination for best writing, motion picture story. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences actually nominated the wrong film! The writers graciously declined.

So, I watched it anyhow. A man trying to scam a boy out of his inheritance discovers a dumb guy (Huntz Hall) at a service station with a very similar name. He produces fake documents to push him as the proper heir so that he can scam him out of the fortune.

The history of The Bowery Boys is quite long and fairly complicated. They started as the Dead End Kids in a 1937 play, which led to a series of seven films. After a few iterations and imitations they eventually rebranded as The Bowery Boys, where they were featured in forty eight films over thirteen years! I’ll let that sink in. That’s more than three and a half films per year for over a decade. That sounds exhausting.

High Society is a pretty joke-free comedy. If you don’t find their gags amusing, and I didn’t, then we are looking at a laugh free zone. Other than one quick snicker at a malapropism, I just watched in silence. Skippable, forgettable, AMRU 2.5.

Attack of the 50 Foot Woman (1958)

Or, “A Woman Scorned, 1950’s edition”

Harry Archer likes to hang around bars with floozies (Yvette Vickers) and this causes his wife Nancy to fly off in a rage. You see, despite his lecherous ways, she still loves him. Problem is, he doesn’t and because she's loaded, he can’t divorce her or he won’t get a cent. A solution presents itself when she returns hysterical with talk about seeing a thirty foot man in a “satellite”. Sanitarium-bound she is. Problem is, there actually IS a thirty foot man in a “satellite”. At some point she grows very tall, maybe fifty feet, who’s to say.

Side note: this was during the Sputnik hysteria, which the media described as a satellite. Not knowing what that meant, the screenwriter assumed it referred to all spherical spacecraft. Sci-Fi as a second language. Additionally, while the height of the man in the “satellite” is mentioned, poor Nancy’s is not. When standing next to a building, thirty appears to be a better estimate.  I don’t know this but I think the film was titled after it was in the can. I suppose Attack of the 30 Foot Woman wasn’t quite as dramatic.

But talk about following through with your promises. There is a woman, of some unnatural yet undetermined height, who (spoiler alert) does attack. Valley of the Zombies, this is not. Most of the film is personal drama. Harry and Floozie plot ways to prove poor Nancy crazy and such, and the actors (with the exception of the comic-relief deputy) take the material very seriously. This raises the level of the product somewhat and makes it a much more enjoyable watch. But make no mistake. This is not a good film.

Not having the money to do adequate special effects is one thing. Not having the money to hire someone who knows how to do special effects at all is quite another. The “satellite” and giants are translucent, proportions of both are wildly wrong, and Nancy’s oversized hand just may be the single worst prop in film history. Also, when Nancy goes large, she looks completely different. This is the film’s legacy.

Not that I think the filmmakers gave any thought to message, I do wonder what the ending meant. Nancy, now a giant, blond, and wearing a bikini she picked up somewhere, saunters into town looking for Harry. (Ok, that's another problem. Vengeful giants don't 'saunter'!) One hot take I heard painted her as the villain, but I don’t buy this. Harry was never depicted as sympathetic and his fate was retribution for his sins. My question is, however, is Nancy looking for Harry for revenge or because she wants him back? A case can be made for either conclusion. Surprisingly deep for a straight to drive-in flick.

In the end, Attack of the 50 foot Woman is amusing, well paced, interesting, and appropriately brief. I have no intention on exploring all of the many goofs this film presents. Look to YouTube for that. I say give it a watch. It's fun. AMRU 3.5.

Queen of Outer Space (1958)

Four astronauts on their way to a space station find it under attack by, I’m guessing, Chuck Jones. It is destroyed, our heroes are thrown off course, and land on a frozen world. Because the gravity is about the same as Earth, they know that the atmosphere would naturally be breathable. So, they venture out into a lush tropical jungle and wonder if there is any life on the planet. Man, is the science wonky here.

Let’s set our expectations appropriately. Four astronauts land on a planet entirely peopled by hot chicks in mini-skirts. Front loading the story with The Martian-level science wasn’t going to happen. This is pure male fantasy and wish fulfillment. If there is a moral to this story, it’s that a woman’s life has no purpose unless she has a man to, I don’t know, make sandwiches for. Besides, women? Run things?

The majority of sarcastic comments come from one particular astronaut allowing the others to roll their eyes in implied superiority. See, we’re not so bad because we aren’t as bad as him. Doesn’t work, though, because they are all guilty to some degree. Besides, our chauvinist never learns a hint of a lesson. In fact, clueless seems to be the defining characteristic for them all. They are sentenced to death by a people with vastly superior technology, and never take their situation seriously.

Zsa Zsa Gabor plays a scientist who leads an insurrection to overthrow the queen, which is amazing timing for our heroes. There is a story that Zsa Zsa became very difficult on set because the crew were ogling the younger actresses instead of ogling her. I really hope that’s true.

I’m not going to camouflage the fact that I unironically enjoyed Queen of Outer Space. It wasn’t original, well acted, or clever. The sets look pretty good but they were all borrowed from World Without End, a better film I liked less because it tried to be taken seriously. The launch footage was lifted directly from NASA stock footage (and played in the wrong aspect ration), then show a completely different looking rocket once in space. Maybe I found it charming because it dared to be this dumb. It was easy to watch and afforded me some good laughs. AMRU 3. I am not ashamed.

"Twenty-six million miles from Earth, and the little dolls are just the same."

Sex Kittens Go To College (1960)

 

Thinko (Elektro) selects the perfect candidate to head the science department at Collins College, but Dr. West turns out to be a blond woman who looks like Mamie Van Doren (Mamie Van Doren). I mean, a blond woman? To run a college department? All of the men and some of the women fall over themselves in slapstick antics, while idiot gangsters try to find this Thinko character. I knew what I was getting into.

Perhaps Dr. West (Tassels Monclair to her friends) is the titular Sex Kitten but the plural ‘Kittens’ implies more than one. Maybe it’s a general statement as there are several attractive women we presume to be students: ‘The place that sex kittens go is college’. More likely they simply didn’t think very long on the title before shipping it off to drive-ins. The original title was Sex Pot (singular) goes to College. Either way, it wasn’t a terribly sexy movie. Or a funny one.

The main character other than Mamie is college administrator George, played by Martin Milner. Us old people will recognize him from Adam-12. He likes Dr. West just fine, but blond and attractive? Ya gotta admit she doesn’t look the part! Also here is a sixteen year old Tuesday Weld and her friend Brigitte Bardot’s sister. Bardot Sister is quite adorable but apparently needed to have all her lines dubbed.

John Carradine played a lecherous professor. He played a lot of low rent roles later in his career, though this was rather early for him to sink so low. Jackie Coogan plays Wildcat MacPherson, a college benefactor with a W.C. Fields impression. He was a child star in the silent era (The Kid) before personal problems put his career into the toilet. He would slowly revive his reputation earning roles in crap like this. Oh, and as Uncle Fester.

Further in the background is Conway Twitty (Conway Twitty) who was properly embarrassed by his presence here, and Maila Nurmi, better known as Vampira. I had trouble spotting her because she wasn't in character. Further still in the background is Charlie Chaplin, Jr. and Harold Lloyd, Jr. Yea, I wasn’t going to search for them.

Dr. West has, we are to believe legitimately, fourteen degrees and is fully qualified for her role. Is there a subtle message for women's rights here? To not judge people by their appearance? Not actually. This is simply a sexy fish out of water and played for as many laugh-adjacent reactions as possible. Not sure if drive-in audiences of the day would have tolerated anything smarter. But they should have held out for something funnier. The chimp was the best part. AMRU 2.

Hands of a Stranger (1962)

A great concert pianist loses his hands in an accident and has the Hands of a Stranger grafted on. Sound familiar?

This is the second remake of The Hands of Orlac I’ve reviewed. There is yet another and now I feel obligated to watch it. Can’t be worse. Here everyone monologues in an overly melodramatic way, except for a cop that monologues in an overly snarky way. The dialog is so thick and awkward it would make George Lucas cringe. And it doesn’t let up. All 84 minutes of it. Each character grandstands emotionally at another followed by an unusual number of face slaps. It feels like it was written by a teenaged girl with a thesaurus. It was exhausting.

I focus on this because we get the premise. Will he ever play the piano again? Whose hands were theses? Was he a killer? Will he become a killer? Is he going insane? These questions are addressed gracelessly. For the record, no, don't know, don't know, yes, yes.

Sally Kellerman (you know, MASH, Back to School) has a small role. She was a cutie. Some of the cast went on to appear in films and not suck at acting, while others did us the favor of retiring. Anything else to report? Well, the opening credits feel like a made for TV movie. It sat on the shelf for two years before release maybe because it was terrible, but more likely because the other Orlac remake came out at that time.

A more generous me would say the acting and dialog style was a stylistic choice that simply didn’t work, but so many other choices were terrible as well. I mean, we never find out the identity of the stranger. Spoiler alert! AMRU 2.

From Hell it Came (1957)

The film begins with a tasteful and culturally sensitive depiction of a pacific island ceremony. The actors all appear to be of Polynesian descent, that is to say, brunettes. They are selecting a new chief in the traditional manner, by killing the old chief’s son after framed him for murder. The son curses the new chief and as you know, these things are binding.

There are also Americans here. They are trying to cure the natives of a plague that has gripped the island. Also, checking out the nuclear fallout that drifted there, which isn’t a real problem and totally not their fault! Anyhow these backwards and simple natives distrust the fine, upstanding Americans, blaming them for their troubles.

The film introduces Linda Watkins in only her seventh feature film appearance. She sports an English accent that is totally spot-on. Spot-on, I tell you! It’s unclear why she’s even there. The team is led by Doctor Arnold who is in love with the pretty Terry (also a doctor, but a woman). She doesn’t want to settle down and live a traditional life, instead opting to do her silly doctor research stuff. Will she ever learn and catch a man? She should marry the elderly and alcoholic Doctor Arnold so she can wash his skid marks while he does his doctor research stuff. You know, tradition!

Anyhow, back at the grave, there is a strange tree stump. Strange because it wasn’t there the day before. Also because it has a face and a human heartbeat. Anyhow, our heroes decide to cut it free from its roots and take it back to the lab for study. It seems to be dying, maybe because it was cut from its roots. So, Terry pretends to be a doctor, because she is, and gives it an IV of her special formula X-37. That’s right. They gave a tree stump an IV. I would have top dressed it with compost, but what do I know. Anyhow, it crashes out of the lab and terrorizes the natives, who call it Tabanga, Creature of Revenge. Our heroes use the scientifically appropriate term ‘Monster’. Can the white people save the day?

This Drive-In fodder is little different from others in the sub-genre but seems more hostile than most towards the natives. Also, it’s interesting how they want to use nuclear fallout (“devil dust”) as a possible cause while tip-toeing around Americans taking the blame. In the end the actual nature of the creature is not resolved. Maybe the filmmakers wanted the viewer to decide for themselves, or maybe they didn’t care.

From Hell it Came is fun nonsense. Full of continuity errors, bad acting (sometimes horrible acting), and outdated attitudes. But at least if you become confused, the characters will drop into exposition mode to explain it all. Our heroes don't behave at all logically, the natives make Tarzan appear sophisticated, and the monster, while cool in a retro 50's way, was utterly unfrightening. And as far as this film is concerned, AMRU 2.5. Sadly, more enjoyable than anything I've seen recently.

World Without End (1956)

Four astronauts are on a mission to Mars when they lose contact with Mission Control. They’re fine, it’s just that Martian magnetic field. But on their return trip they enter a time warp and return to Earth over five hundred years in the future, after a great nuclear war.

Boy, the science here is a mess. I don’t want to get into it but I pause when our hero says things like if Mars has grass, then there’s no reason why it can’t also have life. Really, people? And our heroes act absolutely stupid sometimes. They get excited when finding a cave (because, you know, caves!) and explore it. There they find a six foot spider web, so one of the men starts plucking at it. You’d think that’d be something they would cover in astronaut training. Wow, imagine the spider that created that! Don’t imagine too long because soon they are attacked. By spiders ABOUT THE SAME SIZE AS THE WEB!

The H.G. Wells estate sued the producers because they thought the story too closely resembled The Time Machine, and to be fair it has some superficial similarities. Our heroes travel in Time in a Machine to find a post-apocalyptic Earth where the surface is dominated by brutes, or “Mutates”, and there exists a society of timid normals. Here they are hiding in a high tech underground bunker. Oddly, four years later The Time Machine was made into a movie, also starring Rod Taylor.

The men in the underground are weak, unimpressive, middle aged men, while the women are vivacious beauties in their early to mid-20’s who are anxious to get some twentieth century manly-man action. Our heroes try to convince the leaders to go on adventures to retake the surface, but they are just frightfully fearful old men and refuse to help. How can a few womanizing, gun loving manly-men convince an entire population to risk everything to impose their version of right and wrong on them? Only time will tell. 80 minutes, to be precise.

World Without End is shallow, provincial, and low budget, but not without its charm. Their adventures, silly as they can be, do keep your attention. If you overlook the 50’s attitude, you can enjoy yourself. But there are better films of the genre from the era. AMRU 2.5.

“Our women seem to have lagged behind in their evolution into reasonable creatures. They actually admire these reckless and brutal men.”

The Miracle Worker (1962)

A baby girl (Patty Duke, eventually) loses her sight and hearing to an illness and becomes more and more unmanageable. Out of desperation her parents hire an unconventional carpetbagger (Anne Bancroft) to work a miracle, maybe.

This is the story of Helen Keller, the deaf, dumb, and blind kid from those witty and original jokes of my youth. The movie did not address whether or not she could play a mean pinball. My mother knew of Keller in her youth as a motivational speaker, so I guess she wasn’t actually dumb in either sense of the word. Back to the movie.

Here are some things that struck me: Fifteen year old (and victim of 2016) Patty Duke was tiny, no bigger than a child of eight. In adulthood she topped out at five foot nothing which aided in her portrayal as a much younger child. Playing a deaf and blind child can go oh so very wrong in oh so many ways, but Duke’s experience playing the character onstage payed off. Her performance felt amazingly authentic, without even a hint of camp.

The Miracle Worker was a very low budget production. With a budget of half a million (chicken feed even by 1962 standards), it shows in the titling, score, and film grain quality. This did not hurt the story, in fact a more Hollywood polished product may have detracted. The task at hand did not need to be romanticized.

Helen’s mom was played by none other than Inga Swenson, better known to me as Ingrid Swenson from Soap and to a lesser extent Gretchen from Benson. She didn’t play a very endearing character on television and it was surprising to see her all young and hot, and with an accomplished southern belle accent.

This fascinating character study and battle of wills has only the power of the acting performances going for it, but power it has in spades. Helen’s behavior and the events ring very true, although it did look silly sometimes when she would push Anne Sullivan and she’d go flying. Still, even though it’s fifty five years old, I’d recommend it to anyone dealing with a less than compliant child. AMRU 3.5.

“Mrs. Keller, I don't think Helen's greatest handicap is deafness or blindness. I think it's your love and pity. All these years you've felt so sorry for her you've kept her like a pet. Well, even a dog you housebreak.”

It Happened on Fifth Avenue (1947)

When a rich businessman (Charles Ruggles) moves south for the winter, a bum moves into his fifth avenue mansion. He doesn’t eat much or cause harm so that the owner never suspects. A serviceman loses his apartment when a rich businessman (Charles Ruggles) decides to build a monstrous building on the same spot. He has a chance encounter with the a bum, who has moved into a rich businessman’s (Charles Ruggles) house while he’s away. When the daughter of a rich businessman (Charles Ruggles) returns home, the others think she too is homeless. Reluctantly they allow her to stay, and enthusiastically she agrees to play along.

Wow, what a cute little film! No real big names here (excepting Charles Ruggles, of course), just good performances supporting a delightful story. Hey, look! It’s a young Jonas Grumby (Alan Hale Jr)! The others were unknown to me. There was something particularly charming about Victor Moore’s portrayal of the first bum, feeling both noble and authentic.

Romantic comedies are seldom ensemble pieces. Yes, the story does revolve heavily around our prospective love birds, but there is more to the story. It Happened on Fifth Avenue is charming, heartwarming, and satisfying. It had a lot of nice moments. A good holiday find. AMRU 3.5.

“Well, it happened at the movies. Gregory Peck and this blonde were getting married. So I said to Whitey, I said, "Gee, I sure wish that was us." And Whitey said, "Uh-huh." And then I said, "Ain't marriage wonderful?" And Whitey said, "Uh-huh." And then I said, "Why don't we get married?" And Whitey said, "Uh-huh." And, oh, after all, how can you say no to a guy who coaxes you like that.”

Macabre (1958)

Townsfolk blame a doctor (William Prince) for the death of his wife. They say he was drunk. The dead wife's sister (daughters of the town's richest man) has also died young and the calls for 'oll Doc Barrett to head on out reach fever-pitch. Doc's daughter turns up missing then his secretary receives a strange call saying that she is with the dead and has five hours before she suffocates. The frantic search begins.

Everyone is a suspect. Is the motive revenge? Inheritance? Or ... no, it's one of them two, almost certain. Anyhow, details emerge and new questions are raised. The suspects include the doctor's secretary, his new fiancee, the cop (played all butch by Thurston Howell himself), the undertaker, the baker, the candlestick maker ... the list goes on.

This is William Castle's first gimmick-horror. A $1000 life insurance policy was given to every participant in case they died of a fright (and that does play into the story). I'm sure Lloyd's of London had no problems issuing such a policy as Macabre is almost entirely unscary. The story plays out as a who-done-it (or, more accurately, a who-doin'-it) and falls closer to mystery/thriller than horror, but let's not split hairs.

TMC ran a bio of he man then featured this gem. He finally got to make the kind of movie he wanted to and had to mortgage his house to do so. It was a huge hit. He would go on to make a host of cheesy money-makers that I will eventually see.

So, how does the mystery/thriller work? Well, it does keep you guessing, but in the end it'll leave true mystery fans unsatisfied. For me, I found it well worth the investment in time. AMRU 3.

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)

Miles Bennell (Kevin McCarthy) is a crazy man with a crazy story. They send in psychiatrists to check him out. Seems he is a small town doctor who discovered that some townsfolk started to believe their loved ones are not who they seem.

Seems that there are these pods showing up, and after a while, human-like creatures emerge from them with indistinct features. Slowly over time, they take on someones likeness and take their place.

I knew the story. I saw the remake when I was young. It's had the lowest of low tech special effects, but still, I was on the edge of my seat. It came as a very pleasant surprise.

McCarthy not only lived to appear in the remake 22 years later, but continued to work, even appearing a movie that came out this year. All despite dying about a year and a half ago (96 years old). I saw him recently in Matinee, a movie I had to see before Netflix took it away from me. He played a character in the movie that John Goodman's character was promoting.

His hottie girlfriend was played by Dana Wynter. Interestingly, the good doctor's grade school girlfriend was sixteen years younger than him. She passed on about a year ago. Oh, yea. And her character was married.

As much as I really enjoyed the Body Snatchers, there was one plot hole that bothered me. So, giving proper respect, SPOILER ALERT - SPOILER ALERT - SPOILER ALERT:

Pods are creating human replicas. We never find out what happens to the original person, which is fine. However, later in the movie hottie girlfriend is "transformed" when she falls asleep for just a moment. There are no replicants around to replace her and she tries to convince Miles not to be afraid. Why the second method of replacing people?

Anyhow, this classic was a pleasant surprise. Drama, good acting, excellent pacing, creepy story. It has earned it's place in the realm of great sci-fi. AMRU 4.

"They're here already! You're next! You're next, You're next...!"

Day of the Triffids (1962)

"And I really got hot when I saw Janette Scott fight a Triffid that spits poison and kills ..."

Oh, they spit poison AND kill. I get it now. Actually, o'll Janette didn't do all that much fighting. She just screamed while her alcoholic, passive-aggressive husband did all the heavy lifting. Ninth of eleven movies referenced in Science Fiction/Double Feature. Seven down, four to go.

Impressive meteor shower captivates the world. Only, two things. First, everyone one who watched it wakes up blind the following day. Secondly, plants spring up and start eating people. Oddly, it's the blindness they are most disturbed about.

A sailor (Howard Keel) with bandages on his eyes survives with sight, but wakes to a society that is all but shut down. No transportation, no communication, people panicking in the streets. He finds a sighted orphan girl (who I had to check to make sure wasn't the "hot" Janette) and brings her on his quest to find out what is going on.

A side story is of Janette and her angry husband, alone on a lighthouse doing some sort of research. They are too busy bickering to watch the light show, so they remain sighted. But some spores take root on their island paradise and Janette screams a lot. I understand that the movie was too short, so the whole lighthouse segment was added later. Janette Scott and husband Kieron Moore were "by special arrangement."

Poor video quality, slow pace, silly looking monsters, and little suspense. This movie could have been done better, but what can you expect from a bunch of Brits. Still, I'm glad I watched it. AMRU 3. One scary thought was of the people in an airplane. Everybody is blind and nobody at the tower to talk them down. Good thing only one airplane was in the air.

Indestructible Man (1956)

Look! Up in the sky! It's a bird, it's a plane. No, it's Indestructible Man!

Enough quality entertainment, time to revert to garbage! Indestructible is something of a retelling of Frankenstein as a 50's detective story. Lon Chaney Jr. is Butcher Benton, one bad dude. He gets the electric chair for his crimes but his cohorts, who turned states evidence against him, get off scot free. Here's the twist: only Benton knows where the 60 Gs are located. Butch takes that information to the grave. Well, almost.

Insert mad scientist. Well, not actually mad. He wants to do cancer research and needs the body of the recently dead, so he steals one. Butch will do. Funny thing, though. His experiments did two things. It brought butch back from the dead, and it transformed him into Indestructible Man!

Butch can no longer talk because the experiments burned out his vocal cords. That's just fine. Monsters can't talk anyhow. His anger and hatred is expressed by poorly edited closeups of his ugly face. So Butch goes about his business of finding and killing his lawyer and accomplices, plus anybody handy. Into the mix are Butch's girlfriend who works at a burlesque house, and detective Dick, hot on his trail.

More like hot on her tail. Detective Dick is clueless to what is going on and how to proceed. But he does know this hot blond should be ready to move on any moment, now.

Indestructible Man looks like a made for TV movie. TV level acting, script, and overall production. A scene would start and the actors appeared to be waiting for the cameras. Nothing too bad but nothing to distinguish it.

This was a Lon Chaney Jr. vehicle. For those who don't know, that's Creighton Chaney, the bastard son of one of the greatest silent film stars. After Lon's death (age 47, lung cancer - cigarettes are harmless, boys and girls!) he changed his name to Lon Jr to boost his career. They looked nothing alike. Jr was five inches taller than dead 'oll dad. Eventually Creighton dropped the Jr altogether hoping people would confuse him with pop.

Come the middle 1950's, Junior's career was winding down. The big man liked the bottle. He would do a lot of television and low budget crap. This is my first Lon Jr. movie, so I will hold off disparaging his career until I've seen more of it. Can't wait.

This movie had no major flaws. It simply was uninspired and unoriginal. It was narrated by Detective Dick doing a Jack Webb impersonation. I'm glad I saw a Lon Jr. movie. I'm not glad it was this one. AMRU 2.5. Watch it here.

House on Haunted Hill (1959)

Frederick Loren (Vincent Price), an eccentric millionaire, rents a spooky mansion to throw a party for his wife and five strangers. If they stay the night, they each will get $10,000, which was serious coin back in the day. The house was the scene of a brutal double murder.

The film opens with a black screen and a blood curdling scream followed by ghostly noises. We are left to our imagination. Next we see the disembodied head of Watson Pritchard (Eliza Cook, Jr.) who explains a little bit of the background. His brother was murdered in the house and since then he has owned it.

Loren's head appears next, explaining a little about the party. It was his wife's idea, but he chose the guests. With the simple turning of the phrase "She's so amusing", we have great insight into their relationship. Vincent Price was simply amazing. The guests arrive in funeral cars.

Carol Ohmart plays Annabelle Loren, Price's hot trophy wife. She's still alive.(Edit: Nope! Died in 2002!) Richard Long is hunky test pilot Lance Schroeder. Maybe you remember him from Big Valley. I did. He died of multiple heart attacks at age 47. Alan Marshal is Dr. David Trent, a psychiatrist. Perhaps you remember him from guest appearances in 77 Sunset Strip and Surfside 6. I sure don't. He died of a heart attack at age 52. Julie Mitchum plays Ruth Bridges, a newspaper columnist. Perhaps you remember her as the sister of Robert Mitchum. That's probably the most interesting thing about her. This was her last film. She lived to the ripe old age of 88, outliving her baby brother by five and a half years. Carolyn Craig is Nora Manning, a young office worker. Isn't she pretty? Perhaps you remember ... no, you don't. Trust me. She died at 36 from gunshot wounds.

Director William Castle (dead of a heart attack at age 63) loved gimmicks. When shown in theaters, a skeleton would fly across the cinema at a critical point. That aside, the film had enough gimmicks on screen. Scary hands from behind the door, pianos playing without anyone at the keys, scary people jumping out at you. Matinee (1993) was based on him.

So, what is going on? Is Loren trying to kill the Mrs, or the other way around? Are there really ghosts like Watson Pritchard keeps saying, or are the spirits haunting him the bottled kind? Is Lance Schroeder trying to find out what's going on, or is he trying to get into Nora's pants? And maybe the Mrs. Lorens too? While the movie works the second time around, the story in large part doesn't, but that's ok. The atmosphere is great and the dialog is sharp. It's a fun movie.

Here's what doesn't work. The exterior of the house is about as un-haunted house looking as possible. A Denny's looks scarier. The Frank Lloyd Wright abomination was 35 years old at the time. Even worse, there's a scene at the beginning where you see downtown Los Angeles in the background. Thank god the majority of the film is interiors.

Nora Manning, who works for Mr. Loren, was invited because she needed the money. Or so he says, but maybe was was intended to get the Mrs. jealous. Her acting was horrible. She plays the young woman who is frightened of everything. Not a tall order. To watch her struggle and do it standing next to Price was plain weird.

A little silly, yes, but watchable, interesting, and fun. I could say it's AMRU 5 because I did buy it, but that's only because it cost a buck. How did this film end up in the public domain? I love Haunted Hill, flaws and all. One of the best B horror films. AMRU 4.

The Bat (1959)

Three years ago I was given a collection of horror movies. Fifty horror "classics" on 12 DVDs. Of course, all of those movies are in the public domain, and some are not by any stretch of logic "horror" films. The Bat is one, regardless of how IMDB categorizes it.

A mystery writer (Agnes Moorehead) rents a spooky old mansion deep in the woods. Rumors of a murderer named "The Bat" scare most of the servants away. Vincent Price plays a doctor. Sounds like horror so far.

A million dollars was embezzled from the local bank and everyone thinks it might be stored in the house. The Bat sneaks into the house looking around and scares the writer and her maid. We have several suspects, including the butler, Dr. Price, and maybe even the new cook. False clues lead us all around.

Now knowing who the killer was, the movie makes less sense. We know what the killer's objective was (the loot) and what he knew, and when. His course of action simply doesn't make any sense. Many mystery stories don't stand up to that kind of analysis, but that doesn't mean I should give them a free pass.

Spooky? Not really. Suspenseful? Somewhat. Horror? Please. The killer was a thief wearing a fancy costume. No insanity, nothing supernatural, just a mystery. Not a bad mystery on the whole, but by no means horror.

Darla Hood of Our Gang fame made her last appearance in a motion picture, and a forgettable one at that. While working on a Little Rascals reunion in 1979 she had minor surgery. She contracted acute hepatitis then suddenly died.

This is a well made film all around. Vincent Price always makes a movie better. Not much of a horror movie, but judging it as a mystery, it's a fair film. AMRU 3. Watch it here.