Sign The Book

 

 (imdb)

THE UNDEAD-1957-After a sinister intro by The Devil (Richard Devon), a weird guy named Quintas Ratcliff (Val Dufour) returns from Tibet to confront his former teacher with his regression experiments. Quintas regresses hooker Diana (Pamela Duncan) to a past life in some medieval time when persecution of witches was trending. She finds herself a condemned witch named Elaine, locked in a dungeon awaiting execution. She escapes but is accidentally locked in a coffin (with a corpse played by Paul Blaisdell) by feeble gravedigger Smolen (Mel Welles). Meanwhile Pendragon (Richard Garland) searches for proof of Elaine's innocence. A woman named Livia (Allison Hayes) pretends to care but is really a witch with imp companion (Bobby Barty) who's after Pendragon's heart. 

(Metaphorically speaking…).

 After Smolen frees Elaine from the coffin she meets Maud (Dorothy Neumann), a kind of witch who hides Elaine and tells Pendragon. Maud then challenges Livia. Bruno VeSota plays a pub owner who's decapitated. When Quintas realizes he's changed the past he goes back to try and fix things up. Livia convinces Pendragon the only way to help Elaine is to make a pact with the devil but Qunitas now a knight who somehow the devil knows dissuades Pendragon from signing. But if Elaine doesn't die by dawn all her future lives will cease to be. Will she submit to the executioner's axe? And what of Quintas? Will he make it back to the present? Dick Miller appears in one scene as a leper. 

This is a great low budget AIP production directed of course by Roger Corman with a lot of flair and imagination. There's some nice SFX and spooky settings. Screenwriters Charles Griffin and Mark Hanna also collaborated on Corman's best sci-fi/horror film NOT OF THIS EARTH the same year. Corman also made ATTACK OF THE CRAB MONSTERS in '57, written by Griffin and and starring Garland and Duncan.

Thanks for reading!

The Magic of Mr. BIG

THE MAGIC SWORD-1962-A sorceress named Sibyl (Estelle Parsons) lives with a chimp and her two headed servant in an underground cave. Also there is her adopted son George (Gary Lockwood) who falls in love with princess Helene (Anne Helms) who's image he sees in a magic pond. When he sees her menaced by a spirit with green eyes he wants to help her. She's then kidnapped by evil sorcerer Lodac (Basil Rathbone) who plans to feed her to his dragon as revenge on her father, the king (Merrit Stone). George insists on helping her but Sibyl says he's too young to take on such a powerful foe. Foolishly, she shows him some gifts he will receive when he's 21: a magic horse, a suit of armor and a sword and 6 knights from different nations. Wickedly, he traps her in the cellar and takes the items. He and the six knights travel to the king and announce they will save the princess despite having to face Lodac's “seven curses” on the way. The king's man Brandon (Liam Sullivan) goes with them and it's clear from the start he is up to no good (of course he's in league with Lodac). 

The curses include a giant ogre (not a good effect), a deadly lake, a French pleasant woman who becomes a vampire like hag (Maila Nurmi aka Vampira), extreme heat and creepy green ghost heads. All the knights are killed and George has to enter Lodac's castle by himself encountering mean dwarfs and weird bald servants who eat little people. Thanks to Sybil's meddling, George loses all his magic power and is imprisoned. While the princess is readied for dragon food, the little people escape their cages and free George who gets his magic back and slays the two headed fire breathing dragon (that looks like Gorgo). Brandon's head winds up on a trophy wall and Sibyl turns into a panther and kills Lodac. Somehow all the deceased knights show up alive at George's wedding to the princess.

THE MAGIC SWORD was directed by Mr. BIG himself Burt I. Gordon who after overseeing such low budget but entertaining 50's drive-in “classics” like THE AMAZING COLOSSAL MAN (and it's sequel) and ATTACK OF THE PUPPET PEOPLE seems to have taken one giant leap with this technicolor sword and sorcery adventure tale. While the imaginative SFX (created by BIG and his wife Flora) aren't the greatest the inclusion of Rathbone, Lockwood, Winwood, Sullivan and Vampira make this seem like an all star cast! I think I saw Angelo Rossitto in one scene.

Thanks for reading!