The Title Is A Bit Over The Top

 

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THE EARTH DIES SCREAMING-1964-After a plane crash, a car crash, a train crash and people dying and then credits, American Jeff Nolan (NY born low-budget western star Williard Parker) drives through an English village and finds everyone dead. He sets up in a hotel and tries using a TV and shortwave radio. He meets Quint (Dennis Price) and Peggy (Virginia Field), a couple pretending to be married. Then meets Edgar (Thorley Waters) and Violet (Vanda Godsell). No sooner do they all get together when Violet is killed by some weird looking robots, who disappear as suddenly as they appeared. Another couple, Mel (David Spenser) and Nona (Anna Palk) (who's pregnant) show up. 

Later on, Violet turns up, obviously reanimated with white round eyes. Quint kills her and they all decide to leave. When Quint forces Peggy to leave with him, she's menaced by some zombies and Quint is killed. Jeff saves her but then Nora decides to have her baby. While Jeff and Mel search for the transmitter that controls the robots, dead Quint and the robots terrorize Peggy, Nona and her baby Fortunately, they destroy the transmitter. A drunken Edgar comes to his senses and kills Quint. The survivors leave by plane to find others. A full explanation to the invasion isn't given. 

This mysteriously dark, black and white science fiction film was directed by Terence Fisher the same year he made THE GORGON (with Lee & Cushing) and THE HORROR OF IT ALL (with Pat Boone and Dennis Price). It was written by Harry Spaulding who also penned WITCHCRAFT the same year. Robert Lippert was one of the producers.

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Preying Mantis?

 

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THE DEADLY MANTIS-1957-After a lot about radar and the creation of the Dew line, Col. Parkman (Craig Stevens) arrives at the North Pole just in time to hear about an isolated outpost being wrecked. When a plane is destroyed, a large claw is found. A panel of experts led by General Ford (Donald Randolph) is stunned. They call in Dr. Jackson (William Hopper) who's a fossil expert from the Museum of Natural History. He seems to think it is a giant insect on the loose. An old professor (Florenz Ames) thinks this theory is crazy but a giant praying mantis is alive and killing Greenland Eskimos. Jackson goes off to the North Pole but is kind of forced to take the female editor of the museum magazine, Margaret Blaine (Alix Talton) with him. All the men at the pole go ga-ga over seeing her. Parkman in particular. After the men dance with Marge (and each other) the mantis attacks the base. Jackson and Parkman address the situation on TV and the mantis tries to make its way to warmer climates. The Air Force engages it but fail to kill it. Later the mantis invades DC and climbs the Washington monument. It goes to NY and crawls into the Manhattan tunnel (Holland tunnel?). Parkman leads a group into the tunnel and they succeed in killing the now wounded mantis but Marge is almost killed. Parkman saves her (terrible final effect). Also with Pat Conway and Bing Russell.

THE DEADLY MANTIS was produced and co-written by William Alland who had previously produced all 3 “Creature From The Black Lagoon” movies. He got his start in Orson Welles' “Mercury Theater” and played the reporter trying to uncover the meaning of “rosebud” in CITIZEN KANE (1941). Director Nathan Juran (sometimes Hertz), who in 1941 won an Academy Award for art direction, also made 20 MILLION MILES TO EARTH and THE BRAIN FROM PLANET AROUS the same year. In 1958, he'd direct ATTACK OF THE 50-FOOT WOMAN!

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Snake Woman

 

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THE SNAKE WOMAN-1961-Dr. Horace Adderson (John Cazabon) is experimenting with snakes and gives his pregnant wife injections of snake venom to cure her insanity. She gives birth to a strange baby girl. Aggie (Elsie Wagstaff), the mid-wife, also the town witch, says it's a demon and tries to kill it. Adderson and Dr. Murton (Arnold Marle) prevent her. The doc takes the baby to a farmer to hide it for the night. However, before Adderson can pick up his kid, the villagers, led by Aggie, destroy his lab and set it on fire. Dad gets snake bit and dies.

20 years later the village lives under the curse of the snake demon with various villagers dying every so often from snake bites. A young Scotland Yard investigator Charles Prentice (John McCarthy) goes to the village to help a former army colonel (Geoffrey Denton). Prentice meets the grown-up baby (Susan Travers) and kind of falls for her but he kills her while she's in snake form and she turns back into a human. Prentice returns to London and his boss burns his report.

Talky mumbo-jumbo directed by Sidney J. Furie (DR. BLOOD'S COFFIN the same year). This British production was written by American Orville Hampton (THE FOUR SKULLS OF JONATHAN DRAKE (1960).

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Alucard

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SON OF DRACULA-1943-In Louisiana, Dr. Brewster (Frank Craven) and Frank Stanley (Robert Paige) go to meet Count Alucard at the train station but he doesn't show. Meanwhile, Kay Caldwell (Louise Allbritton) waits for the Count (who she met in Budapest) with her sister, Claire (Evelyn Ankers). Kay seems to have some physic rapport with the missing Count. She visits Queen Zimbo (Adeline DeWalt Reynolds) who warns Kay about the Count and says “I see you marrying a corpse”. Then she dies when a bat flies into her hut. Kay's dad, the Colonel (George Irving) throws a party for Alucard (Lon Chaney Jr.), who now watches from outside. He turns into a bat and kills the Colonel. Kay's fiancé, Frank wants to take her away but she seems obsessed with Alucard. Almost from the beginning Dr. Brewster suspects Alucard to be Dracula and gets in touch with Dr. Lazlo (J. Edward Bromberg) who warns Brewster to be careful. After some hubbub over a will with a lawyer, Brewster and Claire discover some things about Alucard spelled backwards. Kay runs off into the swamp where Dracula's coffin rises from the swamp and he appears from a misty fog. They get married and just when Dracula wants to put the bite on Kay, Frank barges in and the Count knocks him down. For some reason, Frank pulls out a gun and shoots the Count but the bullet goes through him and kills Kay. 

Frank wanders the swamp and almost becomes vampire fodder but is saved by a cemetery cross. Frank goes to Brewster and confesses everything. Meanwhile, Alucard/Dracula prepares a coffin for Kay. When Brewster investigates, he finds Kay alive. After Frank confesses again, the sheriff (Pat Moriarty), a judge (Samuel Hinds) and Brewster find Kay dead in her coffin. Lazlo arrives to help. Alucard/Dracula visits them and talks insanely. Lazlo's cross saves them. Later Kay visits Frank in his jail cell and admits she doesn't love Alucard/Dracula. She only used him to gain immorality and now she wants to share it with Frank. With Kay's help, Franks discovers the King of Vampires' hiding place and burns his coffin. The vampire king becomes a skeleton when the sun rises. Frank hightails it to the morgue and promptly sets fire to Kay's coffin (with her in it..). 

Sometimes maligned, this stand alone Universal vampire tale is still a nice entry into their horror catalogue with interesting cobweb opening credits. Some sfx are very good. Not a great title though. Bit roles by George Meeker, Walter Sande, Sam McDaniel & Cyril Delevanti. Director Robert Siodmak (THE SPIRAL STAIRCASE (1946)) does a good job keeping things moving and eerie. Screenwriter Eric Taylor was fairly prolific around this time and among other films, wrote the color remake of THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA starring Claude Rains. 

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No End

 

WORLD WITHOUT END-1956-4 astronauts on a spaceship probing Mars have trouble getting home. John Borden (Hugh Marlowe) is the kind of leader. There's also Dr. Galbraithe (Nelson Leigh), Ellis (Rod Taylor) and Jaffe (Christopher Dark). They crash land on an unknown planet that has gravity, oxygen and snow. After they encounter two giant spiders, they bed down for the evening and are attacked by disfigured caveman. Of course, they are actually on the future Earth (after an apocalypse). They retreat to a cave and meet the underground survivors of mankind. A bunch of male fuddy duddies and beautiful short-skirted women all led by Timmak (Everett Glass). The men wear bathing caps. The jealous Mories (Booth Colman) plots to destroy the astros when Borden falls in love with Garnet (Nancy Gates), the leader's daughter. Later they build a bazooka and fight the mutants. Borden then has to fight the mutants' one-eyed leader. Borden wins the fight and mutants and humans live together in harmony. 

This science fiction post-apocalyptic adventure is pretty funny with the astronauts conveniently landing on Earth (no spacesuits), travelling in regular hiking clothes with knapsacks and the weapons being guns and an axe. Still the premise is fairly interesting. 

Paul Brineger, Strother Martin, Mickey Thompson and Herb Vigran have uncredited roles. Sam Peckinpah was the dialogue director. Director/writer Edward Bernds was working on the “Bowery Boys” series around this time and later worked a lot with The Three Stooges.

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Big Monster On Campus

 

MONSTER ON THE CAMPUS-1958-Prof. Donald Blake (Arthur Franz), a college paleontologist receives a dead fish (coelacanth). A student Jimmy (Troy Donohue) doesn't see when his dog drinks some water the fish is in and grows fangs and goes mad. A cut on the doctor's hand and some of the fish water turns him into an ugly caveman killer who promptly kills Nurse Riordan (Helen Wescott) who tries to help him. When the dead nurse is found hanging from a tree and Donald can't remember anything he becomes the number 1 suspect of the investigating police Lt. (Judson Pratt) but eventually he's cleared. 

Later a dragon fly nibbles on the fish and turns into a prehistoric fly. Don kills it but some of its blood drips into his pipe which he smokes and turns prehistoric again, killing a police guard (Ross Elliot). Once again Donald awakens, barefooted with no memory of what happened. Prof. Howard (Alexander Lockwood) and Dr. Cole (Whit Bissell) think he's overworked. Don comes to realize that he might be the killer so he takes a leave of absence in the mountains. Jimmy and his girlfriend spill the beans about the giant dragonfly. Don's girlfriend Madeline (Joanna Moore) decides to visit him while Don is setting up an experiment to prove to himself that he is/isn't the monster. He has a camera and tape recorder set up to document his transformation, which happens. He gets a hold of an ax just in time to terrorize Madeline, who crashes her car. He carries her through the forest but she escapes. 

Don transforms back to human and meets Madeline at his cabin. They check out a picture that was taken and there's the monster wearing Don's loud lumberjack like shirt to which Madeline can only say “Donald, he's wearing your clothes...”! In the finale, Don turns himself back into the killer cave monster so the authorities can shoot him down. They do and of course he turns back into his human form in a long transformation scene. 

Eddie Parker played the actual monster. He played Mr. Hyde earlier in ABBOTT & COSTELLO MEET DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE (1953). If the Hyde mask in that film looks similar to the caveman monster in this film, it's because Bud Westmore and Jack Kevan created both!

This low-budget wonder with some unintentionally funny scenes is kind of saved by the direction of the great Jack Arnold who'd already made several classic science fiction and horror films: IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE (1953), THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON (1954) and its sequel, THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN (1957) to name a few.

Screenwriter David Duncan wrote several other low-budget horror films (THE MONSTER THAT CHALLENGED THE WORLD, THE LEECH WOMAN and others).

Other Abbott & Costello related notes: Arthur Franz and Helen Weston both co-starred in A & C MEET THE INVISIBLE MAN. Eddie Parker played the mummy in A & C MEET THE MUMMY.

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Westward Ho

 

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RIDE BEYOND VENGEANCE-1966-In Texas, a bartender (William Bryant) tells a census taker (James MacArthur) the tale of buffalo hunter Jonas Trapp (Chuck Connors) who returns after 11 years hunting in Kansas. Unfortunately, he's mistaken for a cattle rustler by rancher Brooks Durham (Michael Rennie) and his two nutty henchmen, Johnsy (Bill Bixby) and Elwood (Claude Akins). They beat him up, brand him and steal his $17,000. While unconscious he dreams about meeting his future wife Jessie (Kathryn Hays) and arguing with his adopted father (Gary Merrill). 

He's rescued by Hanley (Paul Fix). He finds Jessie but she doesn't recognize him and she rejects him, saying Jonas is dead. She's ready to marry Durham. He gets help from a local Mexican (Jamie Farr) to get revenge on Johnsy who's planning to run away with an unhappy wife (Gloria Grahame). After killing Johnsy with a branding iron, he visits his father. Then Frank Gorshin as a ranch hand Tod Wisdom has a standout scene explaining how Johnsy died. Jessie isn't happy with Jonas being around and blames him for the death of her aunt (Ruth Warwick). Then he beats up Buddy Baer! Joan Blondellbernard is Mrs. Lavender, a madame. 

The meandering story line is made up of weird cameos, some related to Connors TV shows. Fix was a regular on “The Rifleman”. Bryant was Gen. Grant on episodes of “Branded” on which Rennie and Akins (who also was in at least one episode of “The Rifleman”) both appeared. Also with Harry Harvey. It's narrated by Arthur O'Connell. Director Bernard McEveety later made THE BROTHERHOOD OF SATAN (1971) and a few other movies but worked mostly in TV. 

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