How Could I Forget This One!

THE BOWERY BOYS MEET THE MONSTERS-1954-The (over-aged) Boys (in their 34^th outing!) want to get a nice place for local kids to play baseball. Slip (Leo Gorcey) and Sach (Huntz Hall) contact a Dr. Gravesend (John Dehner) who owns the lot. Of course Gravesend is actually a mad scientist with a sister Amelia (Ellen Corby) who keeps a man eating plant, a wacky scientist brother Anton (Lloyd Corrigan) and a niece Francine (Laura mason) who's a vampire. Their butler Grissom (Paul Wexler; later the scary Indian head hunter in THE FOUR SKULLS OF JONATHAN DRAKE) sometimes becomes a hairy fanged monster. Gravesend wants Sach's pea brain for his gorilla and the brother wants Slip's brain for his robot. After terrorizing Sach, the robot has a fight with the gorilla and Sach turns into a rather scary monster who almost kills Slip.

It's pretty dumb but it's probably the one entry in this series that stands out the most because of the horror setting (at least it did when I was kid!). Yet somehow I forgot to review it when I did a whole bunch of Bowery Boys movies a few years ago!The other regular “boys” Chuck (David Gorcey) and Butch (Bennie Barlett) are there as well as Bernard Gorcey as Louie. Director Edward Bernds (who made JUNGLE GENTS with the team the same year) co-wrote it with usual BB scribe Elwood Ullman.

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No Dragons Though

VALLEY OF THE DRAGONS-1961-In 1881, 2 guys are going to have a duel. Hector Sevadac (Cesare Danova), Frenchman  and Michael Denning (Sean McClory), from Ireland are starting their paces when a comet seems to sweep across Earth. At first they think civilization has been destroyed and they are the last survivors. They battle comical looking cavemen and a large phony spider. They also encounter the overused footage of the Earth cracking open and little lizards made up to look like dinosaurs from ONE MILLION BC. When night finally falls and they look up in the sky and see the planet Earth they realize the truth. They have in fact been swept up on the passing comet! 

The duo save each others life and forget their duel and become friends. After much exploring they come upon a tribe of human inhabitants but the group runs away. Eventually Hector is found by Deena (Joan Staley), a blonde haired female of a local tribe. He tries to teach her English (shouldn't he had tried to teach her French?) and of course winds up kissing her.  Meanwhile Michael falls in with another tribe and has his own female problems in the form of cave brunette Nateeta (Danielle De Metz) and Anoka (Mike Lane), her cave guy. He causes trouble but Michael uses a sling-shot to keep him in line.

Later after Hector and Deena frolic (too long) in an underwater love scene they wander into a cave and are attacked by creatures that look suspiciously like The Morlocks (George Pal's version of THE TIME MACHINE was made the year before). Deena escapes the Morlock wannabes but is captured by another tribe. Fortunately it's the tribe Michael has been hanging with.  Just when it seems as if the two tribes are going to fight the nearby volcano erupts more stock footage. When the smoke clears everyone gets together to help rescue some survivors trapped in a cave. Hector creates gunpowder and makes a bomb to destroy the giant lizard guarding the cave! Everyone lives happily ever after on the prehistoric comet. 

VALLEY is a very low budget production with lots of stock footage, super-imposed monsters and jungle and cave scenes obviously filmed in a studio. The biggest surprise though is a cameo appearance by Japan's Rhodan! Yes, a flying creature shown quickly several times is none other than Godzilla's old pal!

Perhaps it shouldn't  be that much of a surprise as one of VALLEY's producers was Al Zimbalist, the man behind ROBOT MONSTER!

Director Edward Bernds made this between THE RETURN OF THE FLY and THE THREE STOOGES MEET HERCULES. Bernds worked a lot with The Stooges and The Bowery Boys as well. He died in 2000 at the age of 94.  

VALLEY is based on the Jules Verne story "Career Of a Comet".

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Looking For Danger

LOOKING FOR DANGER-1957-In this weird Bowery Boys outing Duke (Stanley Clements) recalls in a flashback how he and Sach (Huntz Hall) fought against the Nazis in WW2! They also get involved with a Middle Eastern sultan and his harem. It's easy to see the series was on it's last legs as the gags are really bad and Sach is goofier than ever. 


Dick Elliot is now featured as Mike Clancy (after Percy Helton), the owner of the cafe where the boys (along with David Gorcey, Jimmie Murpshy and Eddie LeRoy who are also seen briefly in flashback) hang out. Lili Kardell and John Harmon are also featured. 


Screenplay by old BB stalwarts Ed Bernds and Ellwood Ullman. Director Austin Jewell also made HOLD THAT HYPNOTIST. It's the only other feature he directed!


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Private Eyes

PRIVATE EYES-1953-In another typical Bowery Boys outing Sach (Huntz Hall) gets punched in the nose and obtains the ability to read minds. Slip (Leo Gorcey) buys a detective agency and "the boys" (along with David Gorcey as Chuck and Bennie Bartlett as Butch) get involved with a stolen furs gang. 

It's the usual BB inanity with Sach doing his dumbest using a shotgun and homemade bomb to try and open a safe (he put the combination in it so he wouldn't lose it...). Later after a little kid is kidnapped and held for ransom Slip once again disguises himself as a German doctor and Sach dresses in drag as his female patient! 

Joyce Holden (TERROR IN THE YEAR 5000 AD) is the woman who's part of the gang but has a change of heart and helps out. Myron Healy is a dumb hospital attendant and Emil Sitka has a bigger role than usual. Also with Chick Chandler, Tim Ryan, Bill Phillips and Peter Mamkos. 

PE is like an overlong episode of The Abbott and Costello TV show combined with a lot of 3 Stooges gags. This figures since it was made by writer Ellwood Ullman and director Edward Bernds.

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It Would Have Been Better If They'd Met Abbott & Costello!

QUEEN OF OUTER SPACE-1958-It's said that this notorious campy space nonsense started out as a serious science fiction story (the story was by Ben Hecht and the script was written by Charles Beaumont who wrote many classic TWILIGHT ZONE episodes) but I guess when they hired Ben Schwab who produced many of the later BOWERY BOYS entries to produce it and Edward Bernds who directed 3 Stooges shorts to helm it, things got out of control.

Three nutty astronauts (straight laced Eric Fleming, womanizer Patrick Waltz and comic relief Dave Willock) go on a "milk run" to deliver a famous scientist Prof. Konrad (NOT OF THIS EARTH's Paul Birch) to his space satellite. Before they can get here however a mysterious beam destroys the base and sends the ship crash landing on Venus (with Earth gravity and oxygen). It turns out Venus is inhabited by nothing but women lead by the evil masked Queen Ilyana (Laurie Mitchell) who's scarred face makes her hate all men. She also wants to destroy the Earth.

Top billed Zsa Zsa Gabor (some Venusians it seems have Hungarian accents) is Talleah, a scientist and head of a movement to over throw Ilyana ("I hate zat queen!"). The dumb men need women love story seems to be intentional but I think it got out of hand. For an Allied Artists movie it does have Technicolor and Cinemascope which kind of hide the cheesy effects.

Marilyn Buferd (from THE UNEARTHLY) has a small role as a traitor who is vaporized. Joi Lansing and Ralph Gamble have un-credited roles too. Fleming was starring on TV in RAWHIDE at the time. Gabor (still alive at the time of this writing) had a small role in Orson Welles' TOUCH OF EVIL the same year.

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Western Stooges!

GOLD RAIDERS-1951-In this B-western former silent screen star George O'Brien plays a former US marshal turned insurance salesman named George O'Brien who comes to the town of Red Mesa to protect gold shipments from unscrupulous saloon owner Lyle Talbott. And he is assisted by The Three Stooges! Yes, Moe, Larry & Shemp co-star in this comedy drama which features lots of shoot-outs and face slapping. A sub-plot involves O'Brien's secretary (Sheila Ryan) and her drunken former doctor grandfather (Clem Bevans).

The Stooges are very funny but when they aren't around it's just another low budget western. The saloon shootout at the end is kind of ridiculous and Talbott's stand-in during the final fist fight is very bad. This is the only Stooges full length movie appearance until their first comeback film (HAVE ROCKET WILL TRAVEL) in 1959. It sort of reminded me of Ed Woods' CROSSROAD AVENGER made two years later and featuring Talbott as the villain.

Harry Thomas did the make-up. Fuzzy Knight has a small role as the do nothing sheriff and Monte Blue is also in it. Stooge vet Edward Bernds directed. Thanks to my friend Tony for giving me this!

Larry: Firecrackers?

Moe: That's shooting you, ignoramus. The men out here are rough and tough and love battles.

Larry: Well, I'm weak and soft and I love the Bronx!

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Fungus Among Us!

SPACE MASTER-X-7-1958-A scientist with marital problems (Paul Frees, better know for this vocal narrations than his on screen acting) gets some “space fungus” off a US probe (The Space Master) and brings it home to experiment on. Unfortunately while he’s doing this he keeps getting interrupted by his ex-wife (Lyn Thomas) who wants custody of their child. Eventually the fungus kills him and escapes but the government seems to contain it until they learn the wife had been in the house too. Bill Williams (who was in a TV series DATE WITH THE ANGELS at the time) is in charge of finding her.

Along the way he meets Moe Howard playing a helpful cab driver (“Ya know she had eyebrows like you pull out with pliers”) and Thomas B. Henry is a professor.

It's like a low budget science fiction version of Elia Kazan's PANIC IN THE STREETS in a way because once the fungus is contained it's really just a hunt for the infected woman. I thought the story could have been better since the screenwriters were George Worthington Yates (EARTH VS. THE FLYING SAUCERS, THEM!) and Daniel Mainwaring (INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS).

Director Edward Bernds made many 3 Stooges shorts (and later acouple of the "new" Stooges movies), the underrated Sci-Fi WORLD WITHOUT END and Bowery Boys comedies. He died in 2000 at 94!

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