Blu-Ray News #372: Sci-Fi Chillers Collection (1957-1966).

Kino Lorber have announced a terrific Blu-Ray set of science fiction films called, appropriately enough, Sci-Fi Chillers Collection. 

The Unknown Terror (1957)
Directed by Charles Marquis Warren
Starring John Howard, Mala Powers, Paul Richards, May Wynn

The Unknown Terror is a solid horror picture made on the typically-tight Regalscope (B&W ‘Scope) budget and schedule. Three American explorers (one of them is the lovely Mala Powers) travel to the Caribbean in search of a friend who went down there to find the Cave Of The Dead — and never came back. This leads to an American scientist and a gaggle of fungus-infested mutants. This played in a twin bill with Back From The Dead (1957), another Regalscope picture from Charles Marquis Warren — and also coming to Blu-Ray from Kino Lorber.

I wrote about this one a while back.

The Colossus Of New York (1958)
Directed by Eugène Lourié
Starring John Baragrey, Mala Powers, Otto Kruger, Robert Hutton, Ross Martin

Mala Powers is back in The Colossus Of New York. Brilliant surgeon Otto Kruger puts the brain of his dead son (and Mala Powers’ husband) into a robot — with the kind of results we expect (and long for) from movies like this. The piano score by Van Cleave is very cool. The Colossus Of New York was available from Olive Films back in the day, and it’s nice to see it coming back around.

Destination Inner Space (1966)
Directed by Francis D. Lyon
Starring Scott Brady, Gary Merrill, Sheree North, Wende Wagner, Roy Barcroft

A monster “hatches” inside an underwater research lab — the first in what looks like an invasion. It’s up to the Navy (represented by Scott Brady) and a team of scientists (lead by Gary Merrill) to save mankind.

An underwater facility, a monster (clearly patterned after the Creature From The Black Lagoon) and Sheree North (not to mention Roy Barcroft). I’m in!

Can’t wait to get ahold of this thing! Let’s hope this becomes a series like Kino Lorber’s wonderful noir sets. Highly, highly recommended.

Blu-Ray News #356: It! – The Terror From Beyond Space (1958).

Directed by Edward L. Cahn
Starring Marshall Thompson, Shawn Smith, Kim Spalding, Ray “Crash” Corrigan

Alien (1979) is a better movie than the picture that inspired it, It! – The Terror From Beyond Space (1958). But I don’t like it half as much. 

This is one of my favorite 50s sci-fi movies. So I’m overjoyed that Kino Lorber has a 65th Anniversary Blu-Ray on the way, with a new 2K master, three commentaries and a bunch of other stuff. (There was once a pretty bare-bones Blu-Ray from Olive Films.) Coming in October!

RIP, Bert I. Gordon.

Bert Ira Gordon
(September 24, 1922 – March 8, 2023)

Bert I. Gordon, a director/writer/effects guy who made a string of 50s atomic mishap monster movies, has passed away at 100. While the movies were small, the subject matter was the opposite — they were almost all about a bug, a man, a duck or whatever made enormous. And they were almost always a huge amount of fun.

A few of his biggest hits:
The Cyclops (1957)
The Amazing Colossal Man (1957) 
Beginning Of The End (1957) 
Earth Vs. The Spider (1958)
War Of The Colossal Beast (1958)
Village Of The Giants (1965)

Here’s a look at how the giant grasshoppers in The Beginning Of The End were done. Click it, it gets bigger.

Here’s hoping Mr. Gordon finds big things in heaven.

Blu-Ray Review: Attack Of The 50 Foot Woman (1958).

Directed by Nathan Hertz
Produced by Bernard Woolner
Written by Mark Hanna
Director Of Photography: Jacques R. Marquette
Film Editor: Edward Mann
Music by Ronald Stein

Cast: Allison Hayes (Nancy Fowler Archer), William Hudson (Harry Archer), Yvette Vickers (Honey Parker), Roy Gordon (Dr. Isaac Cushing), George Douglas (Sheriff Dubbitt), Ken Terrell (Jess), Otto Waldis (Dr. Heinrich Von Loeb), Eileen Stevens (Nurse), Frank Chase (Deputy Charlie)

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First saw Attack Of The 50 Foot Woman (1958) when I was 12. I was already pretty entrenched in horror and sci-fi movies from the 30s to the 60s, and while this one wasn’t much to write home about, I loved it. Still do, and there’s even more to love with the new Blu-Ray from Warner Archive.

The lovely Nancy Fowler Archer (Allison Hayes) seems to have pretty much everything. $50 million bucks (in 1958 money). The famous Star Of India diamond. A swank second home in the desert. A loyal butler (Ken Turrell). And a gorgeous 1958 Imperial Crown convertible.

She also has some mental health issues, a drinking problem, and a real dirtbag of a cheating husband (William Hudson). Those three things come to a head one night when she comes across a huge, glowing orb from outer space — and the bald giant (with an effeminate, but insanely hairy arm) who lives inside it.

No one believes Nancy, naturally, but her husband decides to use it for all its worth — a way to send her away forever while assuring his access to all that money. This pleases his boozy, floozy girlfriend, Yvette Vickers.

Eventually, Allison Hayes, the orb and the giant come together again — and she’s soon 50 feet tool and sleeping on top of the pool house. As doctors (played by Roy Gordon and Otto Waldis) discuss her predicament, all we see is a very large, very unconvincing fake hand — probably the same hand we saw as the giant, now de-haired. Some effects are not special.

The actual “attack of the 50 toot woman” is limited to the last 10 minutes, with regular-sized people pointing upward and telling is what Miss Hayes is doing, as she heads toward the bar to find William Hudson and Yvette Vickers.

It’d be really easy to laugh off Attack Of The 50 Foot Woman as a ludicrous piece of junk if it wasn’t for the pros that put it together. Director Nathan Juran (using the Nathan Hertz pseudonym he reserved for really cheap movies) and editor Edward Mann keep things quick and snappy. There’s a tongue-in-cheek approach to the whole thing that really works in its favor. And it doesn’t play at all like a normal 50s sci-fi film — the scheming, philandering husband features almost as much as the mysteriously growing wife.

Some may feel the movie could be better (I love it just as it is), but we’ll probably all agree this Blu-Ray can’t be improved. The transfer is up to Warner Archive’s typical exacting standard — framed and dialed-in perfectly. We get the wonderfully overstated trailer that promises far, far more than the film delivers. And it picks up the commentary from Tom Weaver and Yvette Vickers (RIP) that graced the original DVD release. Plus, they let Reynold Brown’s original poster art shine on the cover.

I grew up on movies movies like this. And thanks to Warner Archive, I’ll grow old seeing this one look absolutely splendid. Highly, highly recommended.

Blu-Ray News #316: It! The Terror From Beyond Space (1958).

Directed by Edward L. Cahn
Starring Marshall Thompson, Shawn Smith, Kim Spalding, Dabbs Greer, Ray Corrigan

It! The Terror From Beyond Space (1958) provided a clear, if somewhat cheesy, inspiration for Alien (1979). It’s a cool little monster movie, not just an interesting footnote in the history of a blockbuster. It’s also quite effective, making much of what is decides not to show us. Ray “Crash” Corrigan, the B Western star and owner of Corriganville, plays the monster. United Artists sent it to theaters with Curse Of The Faceless Man, also directed by Edward L. Cahn.

Kino Lorber is bringing It! The Terror From Beyond Space to Blu-Ray, where its widescreen (vs. full-frame) framing will make some of that aforementioned cheesiness fall away. Highly recommended.

A Night At The Movies, Halloween ’64.

One more of these before I start saving ’em for next year. The D&R Theater in Aberdeen, Washington, went all Universal International. Brides Of Dracula (a Hammer import) and The Leech Woman (both 1960) had been paired by U-I when they were originally released.

RIP, Jerry Lee Lewis.

Jerry Lee Lewis
September 29, 1935 – October 28, 2022

As far as I’m concerned, one of the greatest single strips of motion picture film in existance is Jerry Lee Lewis banging out the title song to High School Confidential! (1958) — in CinemaScope!

Mr. Lewis has passed away at 87. He was the last of those Sun Records artists who built the prototype for Rock N Roll — Elvis, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash and Roy Orbison have already left this earth.

Jerry Lee’s Sun singles are indeed classics, but I love the country records he made for Smash in the late 60s every bit as much. Guess today I’ll be spinning In Loving Memories, his gospel album from 1971.

You will certainly be missed, Mr. Lewis.

Blu-Ray News #314: Attack Of The 50 Ft. Woman (1958).

Directed by Nathan H. Juran (as Nathan Hertz)
Starring Allison Hayes, William Hudson, Yvette Vickers

Warner Archive has announced Nathan Juran’s Attack Of The 50 Ft. Woman (1958) as one of their December releases. I’m sure there are some folks out there asking, “Why?” If you don’t get it, I don’t think I could ever explain.

No one has ever accused this of being a good movie. The director Nathan Juran even decided to use a pseudonym, Nathan Hertz, the same name he used for Brain From Planet Arous. And like Arous, 50 Ft. Woman is a hoot, its entertainment value is in no way related to its budget (just $88,000, they say) or its quality as a film. Me, I’ll watch anything with Allison Hayes in it, from Chicago Syndicate (1955) and Gunslinger (1956) to Zombies Of Mora Tau (1957) and The High Powered Rifle (1960). Oh, and Tickle Me (1965) with Elvis.

Attack Of The 50 Ft. Woman was originally released as half of an Allied Artists twin bill with Roger Corman’s War Of The Satellites (1958) starring Dick Miller. Must’ve been a fun afternoon at the movies. By the way, this was remade in 1993, starring Darryl Hannah.

Haven’t seen any specs for the Blu-Ray, but I’m sure it’ll be widescreen and will look terrific. Hope they keep the commentary by Yvette Vickers and Tom Weaver that was on the old DVD. It was cool to listen to Ms. Vickers.

A Night At The Movies, Halloween 1961.

Folks in the Kansas City area really had it going on around Halloween of 1961. Blood And Roses (1960), Circus Of Horrors (1960), Hammer’s The Mummy (1959) — and depending on which theater you chose, either Blood Of The Vampire (1958), Jack Arnold’s Monster On The Campus (1958) or The Thing That Couldn’t Die (1958).

Tough decision, but I think I would’ve chosen Blood Of The Vampire (for Barbara Shelley) at the Dickinson Theater. What would’ve been your pick?

Blu-Ray News #372: The Brain Eaters (1958).

Directed by Bruno VeSota
Starring Edwin Nelson, Joanna Lee, Alan Frost, Cornelius Keefe, Leonard Nimoy

As a kid, I spent more time studying TV Guide than my stuff for school. I was looking for was stuff like The Brain Eaters (1958), and when something turned up (often on WRAL’s Sunrise Theater), it was like I’d won a contest or something. While I love great movies like The Searchers (1956) or Citizen Kane (1941), it’s junk like The Brain Eaters than turned me into the movie nut I am today. Bet it worked that way for a lot of y’all out there, too.

So, it’s with a lot of nostalgia and glee that I report that Scream Factory is bringing The Brain Eaters to Blu-Ray later this month — in a limited edition of just 1,500 copies.

The story goes that actor Bruno VeSota wanted to direct, so he turned to Roger Corman. With Corman’s help, The Brain Eaters was made for less than $30,000. They got a distribution deal with AIP who paired it with Bert I. Gordon’s The Spider (1958) — and cooked up a great ad campaign for ’em (see the poster up top from Benson, North Carolina’s Benton Card Company). By the way, Scream Factory has already done a Blu-Ray of The Spider.

A big metal spiral-shaped thing turns up in rural Illinois, then people end up dead with weird parasites attached to the back of their necks. It’s got a bit of an Invasion Of The Body Snatchers (1956) thing going on — and was eventually wrapped up in a plagiarism suit from Robert A. Heinlein, who claimed The Brain Eaters ripped off his 1951 novel The Puppet Masters. And Leonard Nimoy’s name is misspelled in the credits, but he didn’t sue.

You don’t really recommend a movie like The Brain Eaters. You already know if this is your kind of thing. You can bet Scream Factory will have it looking as good as it’s ever gonna look, so grab one before they’re gone!