Cameron, Cuba, Cahn

 

 (imdb)

PIER 5 HAVANA-1959-Steve Daggert (Cameron Mitchell; in FACE OF FIRE the same year) goes to Cuba (but this was filmed in LA) soon after Castro takes over, looking for his alcoholic friend Miller (Logan Field; a TV actor). Right away the chief of police (Michael Granger) has him picked up and they meet Mrs. Miller (Allison Hayes; ATTACK OF THE 50 FOOT WOMAN the year before) who separated from Miller before he disappeared. She's a singer in a club and has a rich boyfriend Fernando (Eduardo Noriega). Later a guy named Schluss (Otto Waldis) wants to get rid of Daggert. It seems Miller's disappearance may be tied to a plan by Schluss and his boss Lopez (Nestor Paiva) to put Battista back in power. Miller is presumed dead but shows up later to warn Daggett that Battista's supporters plan to bomb Havana! 

Ok political espionage with good acting from the leads in a low budget production by director Edward L. Cahn who made INVISIBLE INVADERS and THE FOUR SKULLS OF JONATHAN DRAKE the same year. Co-producer/co-scripter Robert Kent worked on most of Cahn's '50's output.

 Mitchel, Granger, Hayes, Paiva and Waldis had all worked with Cahn before.

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Crime On a Budget

 

 (imdb)

THE WALKING TARGET-1960-Nick (Ron Foster; later in HOUSE OF THE DAMNED) gets out of jail after serving 5 years. The warden warns him he's a walking target because he knows where some hold up money is stashed. He meets girlfriend Suzy (Merry Anders; in THE HYPNOTIC EYE the same year) and friend Davy (Robert Christopher; in several Jerry Warren movies) but is still bitter over his jail time. A police Lt. (Harp McGuire) plans on arresting Nick when he goes for the loot.

 Of course, Suzy and Davy are lovers in cahoots to get all of the illicit dough. Meanwhile gangster businessman Arnie Huffman (familiar character actor Berry Kroeger) is also after the stolen loot. A flashback reveals how Nick convinced his honest hard working now dead friend Sammy (Norman Alden) to throw in with him despite the objections of his life Gail (Joan Evans; real life goddaughter of Joan Crawford). The swag is hidden in Gail's car and thanks to a homeless guy named Packy (William Fawcett) Nick learns Gail is in Arizona running a diner. After finding out about Davy & Suzy and upsetting Huffman's plan, Nick visits Gail. She is understandable angry at him even when he tells her she can have all the cash but she relents and lets him stay at her home. Later, he gets the money. Gail convinces him to give it back and go away with her. There's a shootout and a couple of people are killed. 

Screenwriter Stephen Kandel later became a TV producer/writer on “Mannix” and “MacGyver” and a few others. Director Edward L. Cahn directed this low budget thriller a year after making his last horror movie THE FOUR SKULLS OF JONATHAN DRAKE.

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Slammer Girls

 

 (imdb)

GIRLS IN PRISON-1956-Prison pastor Rev. Fulton (Richard Denning) tries to help Ann Carson (Joan Taylor; EARTH VS. THE FLYING SAUCERS the same year)), in the slammer for a crime she didn't commit. She's in a cell with no nonsense Jenny (Adele Jurgens, in one of her last movie roles), nutty Dorothy (Phyllis Coates) and lesbian Melanee (Helen Gilbert). The matron (Jane Darwell; Ma Joad in THE GRAPES OF WRATH (1940)) seems pretty ineffectual but Fulton still wants to help. Old time actress Mae Marsh plays Grandma Edwards. Meanwhile, a bank robber (Lance Fuller) threatens Ann's con man father (Raymond Hatton) trying to find some still missing money everyone thinks Ann has. 

Typical 50's moral drama directed by Edward L. Cahn who also made THE SHE CREATURE (also with the acting challenged Fuller) and SHAKE, RATTLE AND ROCK! the same year, both penned by GIRLS screenwriter Lou Rusoff who also wrote IT CONQUERED THE WORLD for Roger Corman in '56. Denning, Jurgens and Hatton had all been in Corman's THE DAY THE WORLD ENDED the year before. Alex Gordon was one of the producers along with Samuel Z. Arkoff and James Nicholsen. Music by Roland Stein.

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Crime Drama

 

 (imdb)

CAGE OF EVIL-1960-Inspector Melrose (John Maxwell) narrates the story of police detective Scott Harper (Ron Foster), a hot-headed jerk, disgruntled at being passed over as he investigates a robbery of diamonds that involves murder. (Robert Shayne plays the owner) His partner Murray Kerns (Harp McGuire) is a little better. Harper winds up falling in love with Holly (Patricia Blair from THE BLACK SLEEP (1956)), the girlfriend of Romack (Howard McLeod), the gangster who staged the robbery. Harper and Holly plot to kill him and keep the diamonds and Harper winds up killing his partner. It ends in Mexico where he finds out once again crime doesn't pay. 

Another crime drama that seems like an overlong TV show by the Robert Kent-Edward L. Cahn-Orville Hampton team after they stopped making horror movies. Several actors appear un-billed small roles: Ted Knight, Greg Martell, Henry Darrow and Eve Brent.

Star Foster was in THE WALKING TARGET (directed by Edward L. Cahn) the same year. He made appearances in many TV shows and was later in THE HOUSE OF THE DAMNED (1965).

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There's A Riot Going On!

 

 (wikipedia)

RIOT IN JUVENILE PRISON-1959-After juvenile delinquent Eddie Bassett (Scott Marlowe) leads an unsuccessful breakout from a juvenile prison where two boys are killed, the governor orders Dr. Furman (Jerome Thor) to use drastic experiments to help straighten out the youths despite the protests of the fascist warden Col. Walton (John Hoyt). His first order of business is to make the place co-ed and brings in a busload of juvvie females. They are overseen by Bess (Ann Doran) & Grace (Marcia Henderson). Almost immediately two women Babe (Dorothy Provine) and Kitty (Virginia Aldridge) have a cat fight over Eddie. Another J.D. Killion (Dick Tyler) starts trouble when he attacks Kitty. The governor dismisses Furman and the warden gets control. After Eddie is beaten up by a sadistic guard (Richard Reeves) he leads a riot. 

RIOT is a typical kind of “teens behind bars” '50's drama that was petering out by 1959. It was directed by the great Edward L. Cahn who made INVISIBLE INVADERS and THE FOUR SKULLS OF JONATHAN DRAKE the same year. Screenwriter Orville Hampton also penned JONATHAN DRAKE and THE ALLIGATOR PEOPLE in '59.

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Post-Horror Western

 

GUN FIGHT-1961-This low budget western has former Calvary soldier Wayne Santley (James Brown from TV's "Rin Tin Tin") joining his brother Brad (Gregg Palmer) in the cattle business. Unfortunately Brad lied. He's actually outlaw leader of "The Night Hawks". They even robbed the stagecoach Wayne came to town in. Brad wants bro to join his gang but Wayne will have none of it. Nora (Joan Staley), a saloon singer, her missing brooch and a money hungry gambler named Cole (Charles Cooper) all spell trouble in this quickie produced by Robert Kent and directed by Edward L. Cahn after they stopped making horror films.

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Noose Hangs In Between

 

NOOSE FOR A GUNMAN-1960-Routine western with gunslinger Case Britton (Jim Davis) returning to a town where he killed 2 men, to meet Della Haines (Lyn Thomas), his bride to be. He also warns the Marshall (Walter Sande) that outlaw Jack Cantrell (Ted DeCorsia) and his gang are heading for the money in their bank. Town big shot Avery (Barton McLane) and his hired gun Link (Leo Gordon) are in cahoots with the gang. Harry Carey Jr is also in it and Victor (father of Al) Adamson has a bit role. The year before NOOSE director Edward L. Cahn and screenwriter Robert Kent also teamed to make the far superior THE FOUR SKULLS OF JONATHAN DRAKE.

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Alcatraz!

EXPERIMENT ALCATRAZ-1950-Four inmates on “The Rock” are promised freedom if they agree to allow an experimental drug be injected into them. One of the bunch Barry Morgan (Robert Shayne) kills his friend Eddie (Sam Scar) after procuring a pair of scissors. Chief doctor Lt. McKenna (Joan Dixon) is kicked out and Dr. Williams (John Howard), head of the project sees it closed down against his will. Later Williams investigates Morgan and his auction house which is really a front for illegal gambling. After he gets beat up Williams and McKenna learn more about the relationship of Morgan and Eddie (they were suppose to be good friends but actually Morgan wanted him out of the way). Along the way they meet Max Henry (Frank Cady) a convict who collects postcards, Byron Foulger as a relator and Myron Healy as a reporter. Unfortunately Williams doggedly refuses to drop his investigation and Morgan kills him. It's up to Williams' friend Dr. Finley (Walter Kingsford) to set a trap to catch Morgan and avenge his friend's death. Kenneth MacDonald has a small role. 

This is another documentary style crime drama for the much maligned Edward L. Cahn who a few years later made some memorable low budget horror movies. Shayne, a familiar character actor was two years away from playing His most famous role as Inspector Henderson on TV's THE ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN. 

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Keep Your Eyes On Quintillas

 

CURSE OF THE FACELESS MAN-1958-At a dig in Pompei, a worker discovers a box of jewels and a 2000 year old kind of mummified man. While being transported in the back of a truck it shows signs of life. Carlo Fiorillo (Luis Van Rooten), head of the Pompei museum calls in Dr. Paul Mallon (Richard Anderson) to examine the body. He's assisted by former lover Maria (Adele Mara), Fiorillo's daughter and her fiancee Enrico (Gar Moore). 

Meanwhile the body comes to life and kills the truck driver. The truck crashes but the body is found intact and un-moving. Another egghead Dr. Emmanuel (Felix Locher) translates a medallion found on the body. It seems there's a curse that caused Mt. Vesuvius to erupt. They also learn the body's name is Quintillas (Bob Bryant). Paul's fiancee Tina (Elaine Edwards), an artist, paints a picture that looks like the body after seeing it in a dream. After viewing the body Tina becomes obsessed-hypnotized by it and visits the museum at night to make a sketch (apparently no locks are employed; she walks right in through the front door). While she's drawing, the body gets up and she faints. A guard's bullets fail to stop it. The body puts the medallion on Tina and becomes immobile again. Paul, Carlo and Maria put the brooch near the prone body of Q and he gets up and clobbers Paul who tried to stop him with an ax. Quintillas goes after Tina and chases her before collapsing again. When Emmanuel regresses Tina they learn she is the reincarnation of Q's lost love. After killing En-rico, Q grabs Tina and heads for the sea. The confused monster thinks he's saving his love from Vesuvius' destruction. The water dissolves Quintillas and Paul rescues Tina. 

Slight Mummy inspired movie has a few nice touches by the great Edward L. Cahn and like many of Cahn's pictures a narrator gives the whole thing a kind of documentary type feel. In this case the narrator is the uncredited Morris Ankrum. The screenplay is by Jerome Bixby (who also penned IT! THE TERROR FROM BEYOND SPACE for Cahn a few years later).

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Teens vs. Aliens

INVASION OF THE SAUCER MEN-1957-Aliens have invaded lovers point in the sleepy town of Hicksville USA. Johnny Carter (Steve Terrell) and his girlfriend Joan (Gloria Castillo) hit one of the mini spacemen with their car. They call for help but the police don't believe them. There's also two bored con men, Joe (Frank Gorshin) and Artie (Lyn Osbourne). Artie seems to be the narrator at the beginning. Joe finds Johnny's car with the saucer man pinned under it. When he tries to move it he’s killed by some other saucer men who have some kind of metal rods in their fingers (like Wolverine). Old man Larkin (Raymond Hatton) calls the cops but when they come of course the alien corpse is gone and they think Johnny's been drinking. One saucer guy has a run in with Larkin's bull and kills it. Meanwhile Johnny and Joan enlist Artie to help them after being terrorized by a severed alien hand. Adults won't help so it's up to the lovebirds and their gang to stop the invaders. There's also a government cover up conducted by the army that accidentally destroys the spaceship. The aliens inject alcohol into their victims. Russ Bender is a doctor. Jason Johnson and Ed Nelson are in it too. Angelo Rossitto, Paul Blaisdell (who created the eerie aliens) and Bob Burns are the saucer-men. This whacky teenagers meet aliens movie was directed by Edward L. Cahn and much like his THE SHE CREATURE features memorable monsters but not that good of a story.

Stanley Before The Bowery

DESTINATION MURDER-1950-Stanley Clements (6 years before replacing Leo Gorcey in The Bowery Boys series) is Jackie Wales, a telegram delivery boy who kills a man for club owner Mr. Armitage (Albert Dekker) who likes to talk in the third person. The dead man's daughter Laura (Joyce MacKenzie) suspects Jackie and begins dating him. Later she gets a job as a cigarette girl in the club where manager Stretch Norton (Hurd Hatfield) puts the moves on her. Armitage's mistress (Myrna Dell) gets Jackie involved in blackmail and eventually his own murder. It turns out Norton is actually the brains of the operation. 

After Jackie's killed (it's not shown; his character seems to have just been written out) it turns into a revenge love story focusing on Laura and her relationship with Norton. 

 Star Joyce MacKenzie played Jane to Lex Barker's Tarzan in TARZAN AND THE SHE DEVIL. James Flavin is a police lieutenant and John Dehner is another suspect. Future star of THE WEREWOLF Steve Ritch has a bit role. 

A great vocal band Steve Gibson's Red Caps plays in the club. You can read about them here: http://home.earthlink.net/~jaymar41/redcaps.html

There's actually a lot of strange twists in this little murder mystery directed by Edward L. Cahn a few years before he made some of the greatest low budget horror and Sci-Fi movies of all time.

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The She Creature

THE SHE-CREATURE-1956-This AIP movie features one of the most recognizable monsters in ‘50’s horror history, thanks in part to Forrest J. Ackerman’s publishing many stills of it in FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND. The monster (created and played by Paul Blaisdell) is cool.

Unfortunately that can’t be said of the movie itself.

Sideshow hypnotist The Great Lombardi (Chester Morris in his last film role for many years) can regress his assistant (Marla English) to the 1600’s where she talks with an English accent. Through her he can also summon a giant clawed “prehistoric” monster to do his bidding. A psychologist (Lance Fuller who gives a very weird performance) tries to break the spell. Tom Conway (“The Falcon” and “The Saint” in better days) is the promoter who makes Lombardi a sensation. El Brendel (one of the stars of the strange ’30’s Sci-Fi flick JUST IMAGINE) is the comic relief Swedish butler. AIP regular Cathy Downs is Fuller’s fiancé and Mark Hudson (Harry in ATTACK OF THE 50 FOOT WOMAN) is a drunk. Kenneth McDonald (from late period 3 Stooges shorts) plays a doctor in one scene.

Despite being directed by the great and underrated Edward L. Cahn THE SHE CREATURE is big disappointment. In between sporadic monster appearances it’s all talk! There’s lots of scientific mumbo jumbo about love, hypnotism and past life regression (which was in the news at the time) and Fuller seems to be under some kind of spell himself. What a bad actor!

Screenwriter Lou Rusoff (brother in law of AIP co-founder Samuel Z. Arkoff) wrote many of their productions including THE DAY THE WORLD ENDED and the England based CAT GIRL. Morris was a Oscar nominated actor best known for playing the title role in the Boston Blackie series. Although active in TV he would not make another feature film until 1970’s THE GREAT WHITE HOPE. Unfortunately he died soon after completing his role.

English, Conway, Fuller and the monster (with a different head) all appeared a year later in VOODOO WOMAN. Fuller was also in Cahn’s WOMEN IN PRISON the same year. Also with Ron Randall, Frank Jenks, Frieda Inescort and Paul Dubov.

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I'm pretty scary though!
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Skulls R Us

Before we leave the low budget realm of 1950's film making (it will be back! ) and the career of Edward L. Cahn let's take a look at the last HORROR film he ever made (this of course includes his last film, a version of Beauty and The Beast which is really a fantasy...). It's called The Four Skulls of Jonathan Drake and it's a winner!


The Drake Family is under the curse of an ancient Ecuadorian tribe. In the 1800's Capt. Drake had a certain native village slaughtered. Since then every male in the Drake Family has died mysteriously on his 60th birthday and had his head cut off and stolen! Jonathan (Eduard Franz, later in Cahn's BEAUTY AND THE BEAST) is the last of the line. After it's revealed at a funeral that his recently deceased brother has no head, a police lieutenent (Grant Richards, who usually played villians in director Cahn's films) investigates. He gets some help from Drake's daughter, Alison (Valerie French, who was in many TV shows in the '60's including The Prisoner episode "Living In Harmony") but soon we learn it is all the evil plot of Dr. Emil Zurich (Henry Daniell, former Dr. Moriarty to Basil Rathbone's Sherlock Holmes in the '40's), a specialist in shrunken heads. And he ought to know about heads. He's actually a tribal Indian with a white man's head sewn on his body!

But the real nightmare fuel here is Zurich's servant Zutai (Paul Wexler) a menacing long haired native who's mouth is sewn shut! He kind of looks like Frank Zappa combined with Todd Rundgren!

That's frightening!!

Oddly enough actor Wexler had a played a comic butler role in "The Bowery Boys Meet The Monsters" a few years before......

Anyway it's Zutai who does all the dirty work. He paralayzes his victims with a long poison needle then severs the head with a bamboo knife! Naturally this ritual is kept off screen and mostly just talked about but Cahn really builds up the atmosphere with the weird scenario of chopped off heads, skulls and voodoo dolls. Rather gruesome even in 1960. It moves at a nice clip and is never boring!

Got to love the shunken head!

"Four Skulls" was written by Orville Hampton who wrote many of the films Cahn directed, plus westerns, crazy stuff like "Riot On The Sunset Strip" and TV shows like "Perry Mason" and "Hawaii 5-0". Even "The Scooby Doo/Dynomutt Hour" (Hey! A guy has to eat, ya know!). His last work was on "Fantasy Island" in 1983 although he lived till 1997.

Of course Alfred Hitchcock made a fairly gruesome and eerie black and white film that very same year called PSYCHO!

Don't overlook this little masterpiece. See it with someone you love (or someone who loves good low budget horror movies!!!).

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RIP Claude Chabrol....

Part 4-Invisible Zombies....

So time was running out! The fifties were almost over. Ed Cahn had proven himself as a master of the low budget genre yet he would save the best for last! He made 7 (!!) movies in 1959 but none more entertaining or influencial than INVISIBLE INVADERS!!! If this didn't influence George Romero than nothing did!

Somehow a scientist, Dr. Noymann (John Carradine) gets blown up after experimenting with atoms. Another doctor named Penner (Phillip Tonge, who died later in the year) gives the eulogy. A little later on he's visited by the reanimated corpse of the previous declared dead Dr. Noymann who's dead shell is in fact being inhabited by a race of aliens "far beyond our galaxy". They want the people of earth to surrender to them or else everybody and everything will be destroyed. They kill "thousands" with their acts of sabotage. But most frightening of all, the aliens inhabit the bodies of the dead and make them rise from their graves to reek havoc among the living (at this point actual newsreel footage is shown!). The government decides to do something about it. They send various groups to underground bunkers to work on a solution....

Our story focuses on one such group: Dr. Penner, his daughter Phyllis (future mom to TV's Patty Duke Jean Byron), her kind of boyfriend Dr. Lamont (Robert Hutton, who had already solitified his B-movie career with THE MAN WITHOUT A BODY and THE COLOSSUS OF NEW YORK) and tough as nails Air Force Major Jay (John Agar in his third movie for Cahn and in one of his best roles). When the dead get up and start walking you can't help but see how this had an impact on Romero and NIGHT OF THE LVING DEAD especially with a small group in an isolated area terrorized by the resurrected dead. They even have a closed circuit TV to watch what's going on (scenes from Cahn's aforementioned CREATURE WITH THE ATOM BRAIN are shown here). Dr.Lamont seems like a coward even though apparently he wants to help but eventually Phyllis falls for the Major. Like many of Ed Cahn's films a narrator fills us in on what's going on, giving the whole a thing a documentary like feel, much like the TV scenes in NOTLD!

INVISIBLE INVADERS is a low budget classic full of great dialogue and scary scenes. It might best be viewed with friends after a couple of beers but it's influence on NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD can not be ignored.

Sadly this would be Ed Cahn's last venture into the realm of science fiction. In 1960, he would release one more horror movie (more on that in the future..) but for the next 2 years, until his death his output would consist mainly of crime dramas and westerns although his last film would be a modest, well done, color version of "The Beauty And The Beast". Cahn, originally from NYC, died in 1963.

I seem to have gone off stray with my original topic. I think my real reason for writing this was to shed light on the somewhat forgotten legacy of director Edward L. Cahn, a forerunner who has yet to get his due!

RIP-Kevin McCarthy...

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Part-3-Zombies Underwater...

Hey! It's been brought to my attention by my friend Tony that I over looked a movie that may have had a significant influence on George Romero. That would be THE LAST MAN ON EARTH, the first version of Richard Matheson's novel "I Am Legend" which was recently remade. I'll get around to that a little later. Right now here's part 3 of Ed Cahn!

Ok so Edward L. Cahn was only getting started! From 1955-59 he'd helm some of the best remembered low budget horror/sci-fi movies of the decade outside of Roger Corman like THE SHE-CREATURE, IT! THE TERROR FROM BEYOND SPACE (ripped off by "Alien" 20 years later...but that's another story...), INVASION OF THE SAUCER MEN, VOODOO WOMAN(which featured the costume of The She Creature with a new head!) and CURSE OF THE FACELESS MAN. He even found time to make other films on topics involving crime (two with Mamie Van Doren) juvenile delinquency and World War 2!!!



In 1957 Cahn unleashed THE ZOMBIES OF MORA TAU usually considered a very minor effort even by schlok movie fans, yet any movie that features a villain named George Harrison who's wife is played by B movie icon Allison Hayes can't be all bad...and it isn't!!

Somehere in Africa (?) an old woman (Marjorie Eaton, later in "Monstrosity") lives in a mansion near an underwater wreck where a crew of zombies (including her husband) guard a cache of diamonds. Treasure hunting Harrison (Joel Ashley) and his trashy wife (the ever buxom Miss Hayes) want the stash. They are accompanied by their ship's captain (nominal hero Gregg Palmer who also fought a killer tree in "From Hell It Came" the same year) and a doctor (ever present character vet Morris Ankrum). Thrown into the mix is the old lady's granddaughter (played by pretty Autumn Summer, who either never made another movie or changed her name!) wherein providing the usual love triangle of terror.

A scene in a masoleum like chamber and the underwater zombie attack scenes are rather effective despite the minuscle budget. I suppose this really didn't have much influence on Romero but it does have zombies and I just wanted to tell people about it!

As a side note: 1957 was a busy year for Allison Hayes too. She was in The Undead, The Disembodied and The Unearthly and in 1958 she would portray the lead in "The Attack of The Fifty Foot Women" and be propelled to B-movie cult-dom!!

But Edward Cahn wasn't done yet either! Although he would soon be winding down his "horror movie cycle" by 1959 he would make two doozys including the incredible:

INVISIBLE INVADERS

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Part 2-Ed Cahn and Romero Influenced Zombies

Edward L. Cahn was an editor at Universal during the Slient Era. He worked on films like "The Man Who Laughs" and "Jazz Mad". In 1926 he became chief editor. Five years later he directed his first film, the seldom seen and therefore underrated western LAW AND ORDER starring Walter Huston and Harry Carey.

My original review is here: http://http://moviemeltdown.blogspot.com/2008/06/westward-ho.html


The story concerns 4 violent and uncompromising lawmen who decide to settle down in a small town only to run up against a corrupt sheriff and some dishonest brothers. The movie got some good reviews but not much else. However Cahn kept plugging away, making movies like "The Gas House Kids In Hollywood" (1947) and "I Cheated The Law" (1949). He showed a little of "things to come" in 1950 when he made "Experiemnt Alcatraz" starring Robert Shayne (soon to be Inspector Henderson on TV's Superman) as a hardened crimminal who uses a rehabilitation experiment on "The Rock" as an excuse to kill a rival.

Then in 1955 Cahn unleashed the first of three movies that I believe had a big influence on George Romero and NOTLD, a little opus called THE CREATURE WITH THE ATOM BRAIN!!

The story concerns an evil gangster's revenge on the people who crossed him. But instead of the usual revenge technics like machine guns and time bombs this guy (portrayed by Michael Granger who would work for Cahn in future films) uses reanimated dead men to do his dirty work! They have pasty white faces and stitches (ala FRANKENSTEIN) around their foreheads where the gangster's mad scientist/war crimminal/creator has planted the title device! The gangster has a TV like screen that him enables him to see exactly what his undead army is doing. He even has a microphone and can project his voice through their bodies!

And he and the scientist do everything including the operations that transform the dead into zombies! Richard Denning (who would also star in Roger Corman's classic THE DAY THE WORLD ENDED) plays the police-scientist who figures out the whole thing when he notices the zombies leave radiation traces whenever they strike. This leads to an all out confrontation between the undead gang and a small group of soldiers and policemen. Close-ups in these scenes really remind you of NOTLD, especially it's well done TV parts. And shades of Al Adamson! Some of these scenes are used earlier in the film to depict the first creature attack!!!

My original review for it is here:
http://http://moviemeltdown.blogspot.com/2010/01/atom-brains.html
But this was only the first.......

Cahn Is The Man!-Part 1

I'm back with a long entry. Actually, I won't have time to write the whole thing in one entry. It's your lucky day!

As most moviegoers are aware Dawn Of The Dead was the number one movie a few years ago. Of course it's a remake of George Romero's ground breaking film from 1978. I didn't like the remake but since the original one of my favorite color horror movie of all time I really don't think I can give an objective review!

Anyway, since the original Dawn started a whole series of Euro-Cannibal Blood and Gore movies like Lucio Fulci's "Zombie" which was called "Zombie 2" in Italy because DOD was called "Zombie" there and Umberto Lenzi's all out gross-fest "Make Them Die Slowly" I thought I'd mention some movies that probably influenced Dawn.

Well, surprise! There really ain't any with the possible exception of Romero's own film directorial debut, the now and forever 1968 classic NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD!!! So what influenced Romero??

Well, you could make an arguement that Herk Harvey's eerie CARNIVAL OF SOULS (1962) was one. It's very low budget, it has undead "things" menacing a living human (kind of) and like Romero, it was director Harvey's first foray into the motion picture biz after making industrial films and shorts (unlike Romero however, "Carnival" would be Harvey's only full length film!). But you really have to go back farther than that. 

In fact all the way back to the 1950's and an underrated director by the name of Edward L. Cahn.....

(to be continued)

Atom Brains

CREATURE WITH THE ATOM BRAIN-Columbia-1955- I’m really a fan of the ‘50’s low budget filmmaker Edward L. Cahn. He made lots of fun classic stuff in the decade of McCarthyism, drive-ins, TV dinners, the first wave of Rock & Roll and racial unrest. He started as an editor at Universal and became head of the department in 1926.

Five years later he directed his first movie, LAW AND ORDER, a western starring Walter Huston. He kept making movies like THE GAS HOUSE KIDS IN HOLLYWOOD (1947) and I CHEATED THE LAW (1949).

He showed a little of “things to come” in 1950 when he directed EXPERIMENT ALCATRAZ featuring soon to be Inspector Henderson Robert Shayne as a hardened criminal who uses a rehabilitation experiment on “The Rock” as an excuse to kill a rival.

Then in 1955 Cahn unleashed this little opus concerning an exiled gangster’s revenge on the people who crossed him. Simple, right?

Wrong! This gangster (Michael Granger) uses reanimated dead men to do his dirty work! They have pasty white faces and stitches (ala Frankenstein) around their foreheads where the gangster’s German scientist/creator/war criminal/pal (Gregory Gaye/Gay) has planted the title device. All the gangster has to do is talk into a microphone. Through a special TV screen he can see everything his undead henchmen are doing. He can project his voice through them too. And he and the scientist do everything. They even perform the operations that turn the corpses into zombies!


Richard Denning stars as Dr. Chet Walker, a police-scientist who figures out the plot (I guess he read the script) and notices that the dead guys leave radiation trances whenever they strike. This leads to an all out confrontation between the undead gang and a small group of soldiers and policemen. Close-ups in these scenes look as if they could have influenced George Romero on NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD! Actually many of these scenes are used earlier in the film to depict the first all out creature attack! Flash forwards?! Shades of Al Adamson!

In the end, Denning’s police-man/ friend (S. John Launer, now a “creature”) kills the gangster and allows our hero to destroy the atomic machine which in turn causes the creatures to drop like flies (there’s only about eight of them anyway). All’s well that end’s well as a newspaper headline exclaims: “ Creatures With The Atom Brains Destroyed”.

The titanic story and screenplay are provided by the legendary Curt Siodmak who is best known, I guess for having written “ Donovan’s Brain”. He also worked on many of the classic Universal horror movies of the ‘40’s after leaving the Germany film industry in the early ‘30’s. He scripted Karloff’s “comeback” film, THE CLIMAX.

The executive producer was none other than the infamous Sam Katzman whose credits are too numerous to name here! For some reason, “Churn ‘Em Out” Sam is uncredited. Maybe he was too busy and forgot. He produced 10 other features in 1955.

Another note is that cinematographer Fred Jackson shot the amazing EARTH VS. THE FLYING SAUCERS the next year (which Katzman produced). Mischa Bakaleinikoff did music for tons of low budget movies. This score for CWTAB isn’t very memorable. In fact, I don’t remember much music at all except during the eerie opening credits when a resurrected victim comes closer and closer to the screen. The poster (available from The Nostalgia Factory) says “Based On Scientific Facts” And in actuality some of the dialogue (especially between Walker and an egghead scientist) is based on scientific fact and theory. So in an exploitation kind of way this tag line is true!

Interestingly enough, the actress who plays Denning’s screen wife, Angela Stevens was in several low budget features but had un-credited roles in two major movies: FROM HERE TO ENTERNITY (1953) and THE WILD ONE (1954). Little Jill Bennett who plays The Walkers’ young daughter Penny wound up in FULL IMPACT (1997), a direct to video action drama starring Gary Daniels. Rounding out the cast is Tristram Coffin, a familiar character actor in tons of films and movies (he’s in “The Duke Of Gluton” episode of The Abbott & Costello Show) as a DA and one of the first victims.

Which brings us to the star of our show Richard Denning, best known to TV audiences in the re-occurring role as the governor on HAWAII 5-0. He started out in the early thirties and eventually played in some classic low budget films like TARGET EARTH and THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON (both 1954). He was later in Corman’s DAY THE WORLD ENDED (1956) and THE BLACK SCORPION (1957), which featured some wild Willis O’Brien stop motion animation. The same year as CWTAB Cahn also helmed BETRAYED WOMEN, a girls behind bars flick.

CREATURE is a fast, enjoyable little romp which while quite serious in tone never becomes too serious to be un-entertaining. And hey, Eddie C. wouldn’t rest on his laurels with this neglected opus. Hell, he still had THE SHE CREATURE, INVASION OF THE SAUCER MEN, ZOMBIES OF MORA TAU, IT! THE TERROR FROM OUTER SPACE, INVISIBLE INVADERS and THE FOUR SKULLS OF JONATHAN DRAKE yet to come! Plus a batch of JD and crime dramas (two with Mamie Van Doren)! This guy Cahn rules!

Side note: Punk rocker Roky Erickson did a song based on this movie. Here's a link to a You Tube tribute:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVcK2BRvCgU

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War! What Is It Good For?

SUICIDE BATTALION-AIP-1958 -B-movie genius Edward L. Cahn stikes again with this strange comedy drama set in the Pacific during WW2.

Hardnose Mike Conners leads the title squad which includes John Ashley and Russ Bender. Much of the film concerns the exploits of the troop while partying at a local watering hole (including Ashley courting a native girl). War is fun!!

Stock footage (of both US and Japanese armies, some of it quite graphic) abounds. When the mission finally gets underway the squad has a woman reporter (Jewell Lain) with them too! A lot of the usual soul searching ensues before they must destroy a captured base and retrieve some secret files. Connors (who starred in his first TV show TIGHTROPE the next year) even has time to fight a rival Lieutenant (Bing “Father Of Kurt” Russell) for the reporter’s affections. It’s fairly violent for the time and of course nearly everyone (except the leads) dies.

A narrator tells of a “cunning and savage enemy” and “the power crazed Japanese”, so obviously by ’58, the wounds of WW 2 still hadn’t closed.

SB was written by AIP vet Lou Rusoff (see CAT GIRL entry) and produced by Samuel Z. Arkoff. Music by Ronald Stein. Also starring Scott Peters, Walter Maslow, John McNamara and Sammee Tong.
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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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