Heinlein Sues!

 

 (imdb)

THE BRAIN EATERS-1958-In the town of Riverdale, IL., a huge cone shaped object is discovered. Hick senator Powers (Cornelius Keefe) takes charge of the investigation and meets the mayor's son Glen Cameron (Alan Frost aka Alan J. Factor) who informs Powers there have been 3 murders since the discovery of the cone and his dad is missing. Dr. Kettering (co-producer Ed Nelson), Dr. Wyler (David Hughes) and Alice Summers (Joanna Lee) are studying the cone. After Kettering goes into the cone and finds nothing, the mayor (Orville Sherman) shows up, goes crazy and is shot to death. He seemed to have some kind of parasite on his neck that destroyed his nervous system. And there are more! While one guy roams around recruiting victims, Kettering tries to come up with a solution. He hardly has time to mourn when Alice is taken over and just as suddenly a missing scientist emerges from the cone. Later Kettering and Cameron go into the cone and meet another missing scientist (Leonard Nimoy). 

This is a nice low budget sci-fi film with some unusual camera angles by Bruno VeSota. Co-star Joanna Lee was in Ed Woods' PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE the next year. Author Robert Heinlein sued the film company saying the script was based on his novel “The Puppet Masters”. Uncredited executive producer Roger Corman settled out of court with Heinlein.

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Friend of the Devil?

 

 (imdb)

THE DEVIL'S PARTNER-1960-An old man is killed when sacrificing a goat in a supernatural ritual. Then Nick Richards (Ed Nelson) comes to a small town looking for his uncle Pete. He's informed by the sheriff (Spencer Carlisle) that his uncle is dead and it could be murder. Local girl Nell (Jean Allison) befriends him. Her boyfriend David (Richard Crane) owns a gas station and her father (Edgar Buchanan) is the town doctor. Later Frank, another local drinks goat's milk and dies. Nick seems nice but he obviously has a sinister ulterior motive. At night Nick, using a pentagram his uncle made, makes David's dog turn on him. He survives by killing the dog and hires Nick to run the station while he recovers. Later Nick kills the plastic surgeon who's coming to check out David's scars by making his car crash. For some reason Nick pays the town drunk Papers (Byron Foulger) to help him in another ritual where Nick transforms into his uncle Pete! Papers runs away and is trampled by a mysterious black horse. Later Nick turns into a snake and tries to kill David but is shot. He turns into the black horse but is shot and killed by the Sheriff. The horse turns into Nick who turns into Uncle Pete. 

There seems to be a few holes in this story or the version I saw was edited. This is only one of two feature length films made by busy TV director Charles Rondeau and both in 1960 (the other was the dreary THE GIRL IN LOVER'S LANE). The screenplay was co-written by ex-Bowery Boys actor Stanley Clements.

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Corman Produced

NIGHT OF THE BLOOD BEAST-1958-John Corcoran (Michael Emmet; later in AT-TACK OF THE GIANT LEECHES), the first man to orbit the Earth in a satellite, crash lands coming back and is killed. This up-sets his fiancee Dr. Julie Benson (Angela Greene). Dave Randal (Ed Nelson; in CRY BABY KILLER the same year), female photog Donna (Georgianna Carter), the analytic Dr. Wyman (Tyler McVey) and Steve (John Baer) take John's body (which has not decomposed at all) back to their lab where they discover a strange con-tusion on his arm. Also their radio doesn't work. After Dave has an encounter with an unknown creature and they lose electric power and their car and truck won't work, it's obvious something is keeping them there. They also discover a magnetic barrier surrounds their com-pound. 

At night Dr. Wyman’s bloody headless body is found hanging in their lab and John has come back to life. He’s very confused and says “It didn't come here to destroy!”. It turns out to be a weird looking alien that's using John's body as a breeding ground for new aliens (they look like sea horses). The monster kind of looks like it's covered in dried mud. It attacks but they drive it off. The next day, Dave, Steve and Donna are searching for the monster which briefly captures Donna. Eventually John realizes the alien doesn't want to help Earth, It just wants to replace humans with its race. John kills himself and Dave and Steve burn up the monster. 

Director Bernard Kowalski made his directing debut earlier in the year with HOT ROD GIRL (which Nelson and McVey appear in) and later made ATTACK OF THE CRAB MONSTERS. He does a good job keeping everything eerie and claustro-phobic and though obviously inspired by THE THING the US-Russian space race figured into it too. The monster is strange looking but doesn't look like it would come from outer space. 

This AIP production was produced by Roger and Gene Corman. 

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Miller and Corman

A BUCKET OF BLOOD-1959-Nebbish busboy Walter Paisley (Dick Miler) works in a beatnik club and  wants to be a sculptor but everyone just puts him down. Only Carla (Barboura Morris) is nice to him. One night frustrated by his lack of inspiration, he accidentally kills his landlady's cat. A voice tells him what to do. He encases the dead feline in clay and passes it off as his newest creation called "dead cat".  All the Beats go wild over it especially Maxwell Brock (Julian Burton) a pompous poet who says lines like "I will talk to you about art because there's nothing else to talk about" while Paul Horn plays the sax behind him. Later Walter accidentally kills an undercover cop (future game show host Burt Convy) who tries to arrest him for heroin possession (a waitress gave it to him). He then covers the corpse with clay and presents "murdered man" as his latest work of art. Meanwhile Walter's boss Mr. de Santis (Anthony Carbone) discovers his secret and is aghast but when an art collector (Bruno VeSota) offers him 600 dollars for the cat he relents turning Walter in (he also tries to dissuade Walter from sculpting).

Later Walter dons a beret, ascot and cigarette holder but while being praised by Brock, a stuck up model (Judy Bamber) pisses him off and later he strangles her and makes her his latest sculpture. Brock throws a party for Walter where he becomes very drunk and despondent ("I've gotta do something before they forget") so he decapitates a guy working with a buzz saw. The next day he shows de Santis his newest creation: a severed head. Eventually his guilt ridden boss has an exhibition for Walter who proposes to Carla but she rejects him. When she discovers a real finger under under some of the clay Walter decides to make her "immortal" like the rest of his victims. After a dark chase scene Walter (who hears the voices of his victims) goes back to his apartment and hangs himself. This causes Brock to remark "I suppose he would have called it "hanging man". His greatest work.". Ed Nelson (who died on August 9th at age 85) plays an undercover cop.

A BUCKET OF BLOOD  was Roger Corman's first (intentional) comedy. It's a dark satire on the beatnik hip but  nihilistic  viewpoint, very in vogue at the time. It's obviously done on the usual money saving Corman schedule (sources say 5 days on $50,000 budget) but he holds it together fairly well. The one glaring point for me is that it seems at the end Walter wants to encase himself in clay before committing suicide but that doesn't really happen. There's lots of funny dialogue and Dick Miller is great in the lead. He'd have a co-starring role in 1960 in Corman's next horror comedy THE LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS (which BUCKET screenplay writer Charles Griffith would write).

Barboura Morris had already been in several Corman productions (SORORITY GIRL, TEENAGE CAVEMAN) and would appear in a few more (THE WASP WOMAN, X:THE MAN WITH THE X-RAY EYES). Unfortunately she died in 1975 at the age of 43. Anthony Carbone would be in a few more for Corman (including THE BEAST FROM THE HAUNTED SEA) and then go into TV.

A BUCKET OF BLOOD  is cheap quick entertaining and a good companion piece for THE LITTLE SHOP OF HORROS (although not nearly as well known...).

English folk singer Ewan MacColl (father of singer Kristy MacColl) appears un-credited and sings two songs.

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