The Endest, Man

 

 (imdb)

GHOST OF DRAGSTRIP HALLOW-1959-After the great ghost credits opening, a news reporter (Russ Bender) does a story on a teenage hot red club where a band shoots off guns while playing “Geronimo”. Lois Cavendish (Jody Fair; THE BRAIN EATERS (1958)) is a car crazy chick. The club's kind of leader is Stan (Martin Braddock) who informs everyone they are going to be evicted from their clubhouse. Lois has an eccentric aunt (Dorothy Neumann) who plays the flute and has a pet parrot. Rival hot rodder Tony (Jack Ging) makes trouble before they all go to the aunt's old haunted house. Weird things happen and the shadow of a familiar monster hangs around. It's a male version of the She-Creature! The gang have a costume party and a guy named Jimmie Maddin sings a song called “Tongue Tied”. A guy named Dave shows off his talking car. It turns out the monster is real life SFX creator Paul Blaisdell (in the last film he ever worked on) who's mad because he wasn't in THE HORRORS OF THE BLACK MUSEUM! 

But the rock and roll music drives out a real ghost. 

Sometimes known as the film that ushered out the '50's teenage horror/rock and roll boom, it was directed by William Hole (THE DEVIL'S PARTNER (1961) and written by AIP veteran Lou Rusoff. The uncredited singer Maddin was more well known as a nightclub owner than for the few singles he released in the late 1950's.

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Mr. BIG is 100!

 It was director Bert I. Gordon's 100 birthday a couple of days ago. Let's celebrate!

EARTH VS. THE SPIDER-1958-A small town has a spider problem. Two teenagers Mike (Gene Persson) & Carol (June Kenny) searching for the girl's father (Merritt Stone) stumble into a cave where a giant spider is nesting. They escape and warn the sheriff (Gene Roth) who scoffs. A school professor Art Kingman (Ed Kemmer) convinces the sheriff the threat might be real. A whole group goes out to the cave. They find Carol's dad's corpse and the giant spider. They think they kill it with DDT and Kingman convinces the sheriff to bring it back to the school to be studied. It's locked away in the gym but Hugo the janitor (Hank Patterson) allows bass playing Sam's (Skip Young) rocking combo to rehearse there and their swinging rock & roll brings the creature back to life! It wrecks the town endangering everyone including Kingman's wife (Sally Fraser) and their kid. Stupidly Mike and Carol go back to the cave to look for her lost bracelet. Unfortunately the spider heads back there. They get lost and the town plans to dynamite the cave. 

Mike's dad Mr. Simpson (Hal Torey) owns a movie theater that's showing THE AMAZING COLOSSAL MAN & ATTACK OF THE PUPPET PEOPLE both directed by SPIDER's director Mr. BIG himself Bert I. Gordon. There's also a scene of a teenager reading “Famous Monsters Of Filmland” number 1! 

The strange part of this story (forgetting that there's a normal sized spider blown up to look gigantic on the screen) is that Kemmer's character of Kingman is really responsible for all the the destruction and death. Co-screenwriter Lazlo Gorog also penned THE MOLE PEOPLE. George Worthington Yates, the other screenwriter scripted several other Mr. BIG movies and THEM!

Thnaks for reading and thanks to Mr. BIG. Hope you had a nice day!

Rock It, Cat

ROCK, ROCK, ROCK-1956-Teenager Dory (13 year old Tuesday Weld in her movie debut) gets into some trouble trying to make money so she can buy a new dress for her prom. A bitch named Gloria (Jacqueline Kerr) tricks Dory into lending her some money then blackmails Dory's boyfriend Tommy (Teddy Randazzo who of course also sings) into taking her to the prom instead of Dory. Later Dory turns the tables on Gloria and gets her dress, her date and Alan Freed (also featured in ROCK AROUND THE CLOCK the same year) hosts the prom which features music by Connie Francis (who also dubbed Dory's singing), Chuck Berry, Frankie Lymon, Dion and The Belmonts, LaVerne Baker, The Moonglows and Johnny Burnette. 

This harmless black and white nonsense with great music was the production collaboration of Englishman Milton Subotsky (who wrote the screenplay) and American Max Rosenberg before they formed Amicus Productions in England making some great horror anthologies giving the then dominant Hammer studio a run for it's money. 

Director Will Price, a former husband of Maureen O'Hara, didn't do anything after ROCK as his career was hampered by alcohol abuse. He died in 1962 at the age of 48....

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Arch Halls

THE CHOPPERS-1961-A group of juvenile delinquents strip cars for kicks in this seldom seen low budget teenage crime drama. The leader of the group is spoiled rich kid Cruiser (Arch Hall Jr. in his film debut), assisted by Torch (future director Robert Paget), Snooper (Larry Buchanan regular Burr Middleton), Ben (Chuck Barnes; later OJ Simpson's agent) and Flip (Rex Holman from MA BARKER'S KILLER BROOD). Parts of it are narrated by a reporter named Jim Bradford (producer/writer Arch Hall Sr. in an un-billed role) concerned because  "our greatest national resource is in danger".The gang uses a truck full of chickens and a guitar case full of tools to disguise their operation.

They do business with junk man Moose (Bruno VeSota who had a cameo role in NIGHT TIDE the same year) and harmonica playing Cowboy (Britt Wood who also sings a song). Insurance investigator Tom Hart (Tom Brown) tracks them down with the help of his blonde secretary Liz (Marianne Gaba; also in MISSILE TO THE MOON) and police Lt. Fleming (William Shaw). Cruiser uses a two way radio (while lounging in his cool hot rod) to warn his gang when "the bandits" are closing in.

Arch performs "Monkey In My Headband" and another of his compositions "Konga  Joe" plays on the radio. No matter what anyone says, these songs are cooool! Eventually their car stripping leads to a massive shootout in a junk yard where, after two cops are killed  Cruiser wants to give up but Torch refuses. The cops resort to using a bulldozer to get the gang. After his arrest Cruiser  dejectedly says: "We had a ball. A real ball".

There's a lot of jive talk and it's fairly violent for the time. It was the last movie directed by Leigh Jason who's career started in the late '20's. By the time of THE CHOPPERS he'd been working mostly in TV.

Next up for the father and son Hall team would be EEGAH!

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Overage Teenagers

UNTAMED YOUTH-1957-Two hitch-hiking sisters Jane (Mamie Van Doren) and Penny (Lori Nelson; THE DAY THE WORLD ENDED) are arrested for skinny dipping by a local sheriff (Robert Foulk). A corrupted judge (Lurene Tuttle; MA BARKER'S KILLER BROOD) sends them to an "agricultural" work farm to pick cotton. It's just a front to provide cheap labor for the mean owner Mr. Tropp (TV actor John Russell). Almost immediately upon arriving Penny breaks into song when in her under-wear! Then Jane gets into a cat fight with the owner's former mistress (Jeanne Carmen; THE MONSTER OF PIEDRAS BLANCAS). The judge's son Bob (Don Burnett) goes to work there and early rock and roll legend Eddie Cochran leads the male prisoners and sings "Cotton Picker". There's a wild dance number where Jane sings and the old cook calls their dancing "African antics"!  

Tropp gives Penny an "audition" at his house but when he puts the moves on her Bob helps her escape. He sics his dogs on her but once again Bob saves her. When Bob complains to his mom about a female prisoner dying and the conditions at the farm, mom reveals her secret: she and Tropp are secretly married. "Man oh man, this is wild ain't it?". To complecate things Bob and Penny fall in love. In the end Penny gets to do a Calypso number on TV!

Rock and Roll, illegal immigration, corruption and teenage (?) rebellion are combined in this far fetched but entertaining musical drama or drama with music maybe??

Director Howard W. Koch had already made BOP GIRL GOES CALYPSO the same year as UNTAMED YOUTH, and would also directed Van Doren again in THE GIRL IN BLACK STOCKINGS. The next year he'd directed Karloff in FRANKENSTEIN 1970.

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Rock and Religion

THE WORLD’S GREATEST SINNER-1962-Rock god or sinner? 

Bored insurance salesman Clarence Hilliard (Timothy Carey) quits his job to write a book. That doesn’t work out so after seeing a rock band perform (the musician looks like he’s 12 years old) he decides to start his own group and throw some bible thumping in besides. He stands on street corners with his faithful friend Alonzo (Gil Barreto) and gets some followers (one of them is Titus Moede, later in some Ray Dennis Steckler movies).

He forms a kind of cabal with a bunch of nitwits to devise a plan (“Let’s be different. Let’s not hate anybody”). He seduces an old lady for money then dons a phony goatee and plays some numbers with his band (it’s very noisy) and shakes and yells like he’s having a fit. He preaches a loony kind of Nietzsche like philosophy that man is the only god and his followers run riot in the town. After his followers start calling him “God” the devil (who also narrates) visits him and convinces him to enter politics (“Just get rid of your guitar, Clarence”). He starts “The Eternal Man’s Party” and a montage of scenes depict how he’s corrupted by sex and power while campaigning as “God” Hilliard. After he loses the election it all goes down the drain and he cracks up, loses his family and blasphemes God. In the finale the devil as a snake is super-imposed around his body and the screen turns red negative!

For years I read all sorts of stuff about this movie. Michael Wheldon of “Psychotronic Video” fame gushed over it many times. It is entertaining. If more people get to see it (TCM showed one night at 2 AM) it could become the "PLAN 9" of the21^st Century!

Star Carey (a familiar and weird character actor who had scenes in the bigger budgeted films HOUSE OF NUMBERS and CONVICTS 4 the same year) wrote, produced and directed. It’s badly edited and some of the acting is quite funny. In his scenes before he becomes “God” Carey seems like he’s drunk. Paul Frees is the voice of Satan.

Frank Zappa wrote and performed the theme song and some incidental music is also obviously his (some of it sounds like his “Holiday In Berlin”, a theme he used many times over).

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Everything's Archie!

WILD GUITAR-1962-Arch Hall Jr. stars as Bud Eagle, a Rock-A-Billy yokel who comes to LA and is exploited by agent Mike McCauley (William Watters AKA Arch Hall Sr.). Director Ray Dennis Steckler plays Steak, McCauley’s strong-arm thug. He meets (former amateur ice skater) Nancy Czar and performs on a TV show and becomes a big star. After being cajoled and blackmail (and unsuccessfully seduced by a hooker) Bud and his brother sent things straight. 

WILD GUITAR is a pretty wacky little movie made in the pre-Beatles era of teenage rock and roll. The music is ok but Arch’s hair is really out of control. This was the first feature directed by co-star Steckler. EEGAH! was made the same year by the father and son team. Arch Jr. would star in the eerie THE SADIST the next year.



THE SADIST-1963-If you’ve only seen Arch Hall Jr. in EEGAH! or WILD GUITAR you owe it to yourself to see him in this movie as a deranged psycho! As he proclaims before the credits roll: “I have been hurt by others. And I will hurt them. I will make them suffer like I have suffered”.

Three schoolteachers on their way to a baseball game have car trouble. They pull into a dilapidated gas station for help. Ed (Richard Alden) and Doris (Helen Hovey) are the two youngish sweethearts to be types. Carl (Don Russell) is the older guy. Their quick stop for a new water hose becomes a nightmare when they are confronted by loony thug Charlie Tibbs (Hall Jr.) and his imbecile girlfriend Judy (Marilyn Manning also in EEGAH!). He’s a mass murderer on the run and wants the teach-mobile fixed so he and his moll can make a quick getaway. Fortunately Ed takes practically the whole film to fix the damn thing. However Charlie manages to taunt the trio every chance he gets. He pistol whips Carl and then shoots him in cold blood after drinking a coke. There’s a good deal of suspense and a few interesting plot twists. Hall is really slimy in the lead and quite surprising after the goody teenage roles he had been playing.

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Late Night Quickies

DEAD SPACE: DOWNFALL-2008-This is an American made ALIEN inspired horror animation that tries very hard to be like a Japanese anime. It kind of succeeds but it’s not for everyone. I think it’s based on a video game.

A space ship from Earth picks up a supposedly religious relic but it unleashes ALIEN/THE THING like creatures that drink blood and kills. Bruce Boxleitner, Kelly Hu and Keith Szarabajka provide the lead voices. Director Chuck Patton had previously done work on GI JOE, DINOSAUCERS and SPAWN.

SHUTTER-2008- A newlywed couple (Joshua Jackson from TV’s FRINGE and TRANSFORMER's Rachael Taylor) arrive in Japan where the husband works as a photographer. While enjoying a short honeymoon they seem to run down a (RING look) girl while driving. No victim is found but later on mysterious images begin to appear in all the husband’s photographic work. While highly derivative in spots (part of the story is reminiscent of the ‘80’s film GHOST STORY) director Masayuki Ochiai makes some good spooky scenes and a great final scene!

LET’S ROCK-1958-“To rock or not to rock”. In his only real movie appearance singer Julius LaRosa plays Tommy Adane, singer of ballads who’s finding it hard to have a hit because Rock and Roll is more popular and he refuses to have anything to do with it. Danny and The Juniors (who do “At The Hop”), Roy Hamilton, The Royal Teens, Paul Anka and Della Reese all perform. Even future TV game show host Wink Martindale does the rocking “All Love Broke Loose”. Conrad Janis is Adane’s manager who wants him to record a rock tune.

I’M CYBORG BUT THAT’S OK-2006-In this Korea lensed comedy-drama a young woman (Su-jeong Lim) thinks she’s a cyborg, When she almost kills herself at work she’s put in a mental hospital with other eccentric crazy people. Eventually a male patient (Rain) tries to help her eat. This was too long and weird for me to enjoy (and has an all too typical confused ending) but it probably has the makings of a cult film courtesy of director Chan wook-Park (OLD BOY).

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Rock and Roll Will Never Die!

GO JOHNNY GO!-1959-Mr. Rock and Roll Alan Freed returns in his last musical movie (this time produced by Hal Roach). It kind of signals the end of the first era of Rock & Roll. Freed was named in a payola scandal a few months after this was released.

The plot involves the search for a new singing sensation who when found will be called “Johnny Melody”. Freed gets help from Chuck Berry (also playing himself) who does two numbers (“Memphis” and “Little Queenie”). Veteran character (and frequent TV Superman villain) Herb Vigran is Freed’s press agent. Jimmy Clanton plays “Johnny No Name”, an orphan teen who gets thrown out of a church choir for “rocking” and eventually becomes Johnny Melody. Sandy Stewart plays Johnny’s girlfriend and does two songs herself.

Jimmy Clanton and his band had a hit with "Just A Dream" in 1958. He had a few other minor hits but his career was curtailed by military service. He also starred in THE TEENAGE MILLIONAIRE in 1961.

GO JOHNNY GO! features some interesting and entertaining musical numbers notably Ritchie Valens’ only filmed performance (he was killed with Buddy Holly and The Big Bopper right before the film opened) doing “Ooh My Head”. Eddie Cochran (who died the following year) does “Teenage Heaven”. The Cadillacs do two songs (“Jay Walker” and “Please Mr. Johnson”). Jackie Wilson, Jo Ann Campbell and Harvey (going solo from The Moonglows) also perform.

Supposedly Eddie Cochran suggested having The Crickets make an appearance too but Norman Petty nixed it.

Frank Wilcox, William Fawcett and Joe Flynn round out the non-singing portion of the cast.

Director Paul Landres worked mostly in TV (THE RIFLEMAN, 77 SUNSET STRIP, DANIEL BOONE to name a few) but he did find time to direct a few other movies including THE FLAME BARRIER and the horror stories THE VAMPIRE and THE RETURN OF DRACULA.

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The Gila Monster Strikes!

THE GIANT GILA MONSTER-1959-Whoa! They don’t make ‘em like this anymore! Suped up hot rods, rock and roll and a real lizard traipsing through matchbox cars and train sets all figure in this unintentionally funny 50’s teen horror flick!

Don Sullivan (from MONSTER OF PIEDRAS BLANCAS and TEENAGE ZOMBIES) stars as Chase Winstead, a singing-hot rodding-mechanic/tow truck driver. He also manages to take a college correspondence course while supporting his mom and semi-crippled little sister. He has a French girlfriend (Lisa Simone, also in MISSILE TO THE MOON) whose accent makes most of her dialogue incomprehensible (yeah, like her dialogue really matters!). He’s buddy-buddy with the local sheriff (character actor and stuntman Fred Graham who had many un-credited film roles) and it’s a good thing! If it weren’t for Chase and his jive talking gang the scaly star of this epic would still be stalking the woods! A grumpy old mine owner (who looks like a tall skinny Lionel Barrymore) thinks Chase is responsible for the disappear-ance of his son but of course the title reptile is really munching locals.



Don sings a couple of songs including the very bad “Laugh Children Laugh”. It’s so bad he sings it twice! A local DJ named Steamroller (real Texas DJ Ken Knox) records him and plays the track at a town sock hop just before old Gila Gills busts in. A hot rod filled with Nitro spells the end for our hero, I mean the monster after it destroys a train and parts of a toy town. There’s also a comic relief town drunk (Shug Fisher) that you should keep an eye on. In a scene of him driving his pick up truck you can glimpse the hand of the director or some other hapless crewmember in the reflection of the windshield!

GGM is no classic even in a bad movie sense but it’s still fun. It was produced in Texas by Western actor (and future TV GUNSMOKE co-star) Ken Curtis who in the same year would also serve in the same capacity on THE KILLER SHREWS which GILA’s director Ray Kellogg would also helm. Curtis would even take a role in that one! Kellogg usually a second unit director and SFX cameraman (and sometimes actor) would later co-direct John Wayne’s reverse magna opus THE GREEN BERETS! Screenplay writer Jay Simms later wrote PANIC IN THE YEAR ZERO and CREATION OF THE HUMANOIDS and many TV shows (including THRILLER and THE MAN FROM UNCLE).



I wonder what happened to Sullivan? His last film credit was in 1962 ‘s PARADISE ALLEY. Did he ever make records? The guy was in a Jerry Warren movie; he must have a nice story to tell. Don if you’re out there the public wants your story. Hey! Even Arch Hall Jr. has re-surfaced!

Anyway, like The Giant Gila Monster, I’m gone daddio!

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The Wrath of Cahn!

JET ATTACK-AIP-1958 -So in my continuing effort to drum up support for the under appreciated director Edward L. Cahn I present this obscure Korean War melodrama. It was his second war drama for the year (see SUICIDE BATTALION).

John Agar stars as Capt. Tom Arnett. He and his partner (Gregory Walcott who starred in PLAN 9 around this time ) and comic relief guy (James Dobson) drop behind enemy lines to rescue an army scientist who may still be alive. They are helped by local guerrillas led by Victor Sen Yung (also in SHE DEMONS the same year and soon to be cook Hop Sing on TV’s Bonanza). Audrey Totter plays a Russian doctor who helps the Communist hating Americans. She also provides Agar with a love interest.

As in SUICIDE BATTALION (and ROCKETSHIP X-M) everybody but Agar and the guy he came to rescue die. Leonard Strong leads the North Korean force of bad guys....

JA isn’t anything special.. In fact it’s a pretty standard “Communism must be crushed” war drama but director Cahn also made IT! THE TERROR FROM BEYOND SPACE and CURSE OF THE FACELESS MAN (both written by sci-fi author Jerome Bixby) the very same year!

Screenwriter Orville Hampton penned tons of movies including RIOT ON SUNSET STRIP (1967) and FRIDAY FOSTER (1975) and worked with Cahn again. Most notably on the next year’s incredible THE FOUR SKULLS OF JONATHAN DRAKE. His last work was for The Scooby Doo/Dynomutt Hour in 1976. He died in 1997.

The story credit goes to Mark Hanna who wrote ATTACK OF THE 5O FT. WOMAN the same year.

Star John Agar was never the world’s worst actor as he was often portrayed and gave some of his best performances in low budget craziness (see THE BRAIN FROM PLANET AROUS!). Here he is the likable but tough All American soldier fighting to keep the world free. His other horror movie in 1958 was Bert I. Gordon’s ATTACK OF THE PUPPET PEOPLE.

Writing some of the best low budget scores Ronald Stein’s soundtrack here is quite loud and governmental. It almost gives the movie a kind of documentary feel. When not helping out his friend Ed Wood on various productions producer Alex Gordon managed to produce some great stuff for AIP (including THE DAY THE WORLD ENDED). He produced THE ATOMIC SUBMARINE the next year. Co-AIP head James H. Nicholson was the executive producer.

SHAKE, RATTLE AND ROCK-AIP-1956-Dig this early peon to rock and roll, cats. It’s like crazy. The great low budget master of the ‘50’s Edward L. Cahn shows he’s no square and not only is rock and roll here to stay but it can reform kids and make them productive!

Mike “Touch” Connors stars as a local deejay who believes this new, primitive music is not only an art form but it can set teens on the path to the straight and narrow. He’s assisted by jive taking Axe (Sterling Holloway in a real gone performance, dad). They get Fats Domino and Joe Turner to perform at a party so the reforming wayward youths can raise $12,000 to start their own “Teen Town”. Unfortunately they run into opposition by group of local oldsters led by Douglas Dumbrille and Margaret Dumont who’s niece (Lisa Gaye) Touch is in love with. Another old timer Raymond Hatton appears as Dumont’s husband. Hatton (who really hams it up) played the doomed prospector in Corman’s DAY THE WORLD ENDED in which Connors played the villain. Another DTWE vet Paul Dubov (the radiation victim who always wants to eat raw meat) plays a gangster who tries to break up the teen club. The always recognizable Percy Helton plays a comic undertaker/reformer. It ends in a televised court room where Connors and Dumbrille have their showdown and subtitles are used to translate Axe’s hip talk!

Domino and Turner do two songs a piece and some guy named Tommy Charles (“The one you’ve all been waiting for”) does a song that doesn’t fit in at all. This is a fun time capsule of “the way it wasn’t but it’s nice to think it might have been”. It was written by AIP vet Lou Rusoff (see CAT GIRL entry). James Nicolson and Alex Gordon were the producers. Original music by Alexander Courage!

"Sacred cows make the best hamburger"-Mark Twain

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