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 #371: Back From The Dead (1957).

Directed by Charles Marquis Warren
Starring Peggie Castle, Arthur Franz, Marsha Hunt, Don Haggerty

You don’t hear many folks saying they’re going to miss 2023. But not many seem all that hopeful about 2024, either. So any kind of good news is a real blessing. For old movie nuts like me (and surely most of you), we can see plenty of coolness in Kino Lorber’s announcement of Back From The Dead (q957), one of the best of the Regalscope pictures, coming to Blu-Ray.

RegalScope is black and white CinemaScope, nothing more. Robert Lippert’s Regal Films made around 50 RegalScope features between 1956 and 1959 — all of them cheap, most of them Westerns or horror movies. I absolutely love the RegalScope pictures. 

Charles Marquis Warren directed, not long after leaving Gunsmoke. It’s a tale of the occult and possession with the great Peggie Castle possessed by the first wife of her husband Arthur Franz and causing all kinds of havoc.

It’s got a great cast, some nice coastal California location stuff and that supercool B&W ‘Scope aesthetic.

In some cities, rather than playing backup to a color-‘Scope 20th Century Fox film, Back From The Dead played with another Reglascope horror movie, The Unknown Terror (1957) starring Mala Powers — also directed by Charles Marquis Warren. Warren did a few RegalScope Westerns, too.

It’s great to know Kino Lorber has access to some of the Regalscope films. Hope this one is followed by more. Highly recommended!

Blu-Ray News #343: Silver Screams Cinema Collection (1945 – 1957).

Imprint has announced their upcoming Silver Screams Cinema Collection, six pictures (complete with extras) on three Blu-Ray discs. You might dismiss this as a bit of a random, grab bag assortment of old horror movies. But that downplays all the cool stuff that’s in here — some Republic stuff, one of Bela Lugosi’s Monogram Nine and a couple of Regalscope pictures. You get:

The Phantom Speaks (1945)
Directed by John English
Starring Richard Arlen, Stanley Ridges, Lynne Roberts, Tom Powers

The Vampire’s Ghost (1945)
Directed by Lesley Selander
Starring John Abbott, Charles Gordon, Peggy Stewart, Grant Withers, Emmett Vogan, Adele Mara

Valley Of The Zombies (1946)
Directed by Philip Ford
Starring Robert Livingston, Lorna Gray, Ian Keith, Thomas E. Jackson

Return Of The Ape Man (1946)
Directed by Philip Rosen
Starring Bela Lugosi, John Carradine, George Zucco, Frank Moran, Judith Gibson

She Devil (1957)
Directed by Kurt Neumann
Starring Mari Blanchard, Jack Kelly, Albert Dekker

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

To me, the real jewel here is the last film, Unknown Terror, a pretty solid Regalscope picture. You won’t find this one in widescreen anywhere else, and having it in high definition is an added treat. It’s a pretty good example of the ultra-cheap Regal films. It concerns mutants and rampant fungus — and has a good part for the lovely Mala Powers.

Imprint always does really nice work, so you can count on this set being top-notch. Recommended.

The Unknown Terror (1957).

Directed by Charles Marquis Warren
Produced by Robert Stabler
Written by Kenneth Higgins
Music by Raoul Kraushaar
Cinematography: Joseph F. Biroc
Film Editor: Michael Luciano

Cast: John Howard (Dan Matthews), Mala Powers (Gina Matthews), Paul Richards (Peter Morgan), May Wynn (Concha Ramsey), Gerald Milton (Dr. Ramsey), Charles H. Gray (Jim Wheatley) Gerald Gilden (Raoul Koom)

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By the mid-50s, CinemaScope had done what it was supposed to do — help bring back the audiences lost to television. With TV still black and white and mono, 20^th Century-Fox decreed that all their CinemaScope pictures would be in color. B producer Robert Lippert approached Fox with the idea of having his Regal Films, Inc. produce a series of second features for the studio — two black and white CinemaScope pictures a month. Lippert wanted to combine the economy of B&W with the draw of CinemaScope. To get around Fox’s no-color, no-‘Scope policy, and to work around Fox’s fear that these low-budget films would damage the prestige of their CinemaScope process, a new name was cooked up: RegalScope.

RegalScope is black and white CinemaScope, nothing more. Lippert made around 50 RegalScope features between 1956 and 1959 — all of them cheap, many of them Westerns or horror movies.

I absolutely love the RegalScope pictures. But it’s almost impossible to watch them today, since most of what we see, when we can find them at all, are terrible pan-and-scan (or just the middle of the wide image, no panning or scanning) transfers often taken from battered 16mm TV prints. No movie should be seen that way.

The other day, I received a fairly watchable copy of The Unknown Terror (1957), taken from an adapted ‘Scope print. “Adapted ‘Scope” is what we later called letterboxed. These prints don’t give you the entire 2.35 image, but they’re certainly an improvement over the 1.33 versions.

The Unknown Terror follows the typical RegalScope business model. It runs 77 minutes, with minimal sets, a small cast (with character actors getting rare lead roles), long takes and more dialogue than action. When these movies work, it’s usually because someone cleverly wrote around these constraints to tell a solid story — the Western The Quiet Gun (1956) is a terrific example.

In The Unknown Terror, three American explorers (John Howard, Mala Powers and Paul Richards) 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 them to an American scientist (Gerald Milton) doing fungus research, a gaggle of fungus-infested mutants and lots of fake rocks (AKA the Cave Of The Dead). Eventually, the fast-growing fungus goes completely nuts and covers up pretty much everything — which means the last few minutes feature lots of shots of something like soap suds running down the fake rocks, all set to loud gurgling noises. I loved it.

Mala Powers and Paul Richards discover the secret of the fungus and the Cave Of The Dead — and set out to put an end to the whole icky, gooey, deadly mess. They’re terrific at carrying this nonsense through to its conclusion, playing it all completely straight, something 50s character actors became quite adept at. It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, but who said that was a requirement for a movie like this?

Cinematographer Joseph Biroc handled the B&W ‘Scope, filling the wide frame and doing a good job of concealing how set-bound it is — and how tiny those sets are. I’m sure the last reel was a real drag to shoot, with gallons upon gallons of the “fungus” being poured on everything and everyone — and probably smelling terrible in the heat of Biroc’s lights.

Charles Marquis Warren directed, not long after leaving Gunsmoke. He made another RegalScope horror picture, Back From The Dead starring Peggie Castle that went out with The Unknown Terror as a double bill. Warren did a few RegalScope Westerns, too. Copper Sky (1957) is quite good.

Olive Films released a handful of RegalScope films on DVD and Blu-Ray a few years ago — and they look terrific. The Unknown Terror was not one of them, which is a shame. I’m sure there are plenty of classic horror fans who’d find this one a lot of fun.