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!

Mr Big Is Back!

  (photo: IMDB) 

TORMENTED-1960-On a coastal island in an abandoned lighthouse, Jazz pianist Tom Stewart (Richard Carlson) let's his former lover Vi (Juli Reding) fall to her death when she threatens to blackmail him with some incriminating love letters which would spoil his upcoming marriage to rich girlfriend Meg Hubbard (Lugene Sanders). 

Almost immediately he starts to feel guilty. He sees VI's corpse floating in the ocean but when he swims out to retrieve it, he finds it's just a pile of seaweed. Then he sees strange footprints in the sand. Meanwhile Meg's very young sister Sandy (Susan Gordon, the director's daughter) performs a magic trick. He has a weird dream where he's menaced by Vi's ghost. Then he sees a disembodied hand wearing Meg's wedding ring. Then Meg's wedding dress is wrapped in seaweed. His blind housekeeper Mrs. Ellis (Lillian Adams) suspects a ghost. A boat operator (Joe Turkel) who brought Vi to the island tries to blackmail Tom. 

Later he has a conversation with VI's disembodied head. At Vi's urging Tom kills the blackmailer. Unfortunately Sandy witnesses the whole thing! The wedding doesn't turn out as they planned either. All the flowers die. Later when Tom goes to the lighthouse and tells Vi she's won but Sandy follows him and tells him she knows he's a killer. Tom plans on pushing Sandy off the lighthouse but Vi's ghost causes him to fall off and die. Tom and Vi are united in un-dead matrimony. Gene Roth and Merrit Stone have small roles. 

Not a bad little low budget ghost story from Mr. BIG himself Bert I. Gordon (Still alive at the time of this writing!).

Thanks for reading!

William Whitney

 

THE CAT BURGLAR-1961-Jack Coley (Jack Hogan, later in the TV series “Combat!”) is a cat burglar who steals a suitcase with valuable papers from Nan Baker (June Kenney from EARTH VS. THE SPIDER). She gets help from a wino (Bruno VeSota) and a pawnbroker (Gene Roth) to get it back but an important notebook is missing. Since Jack threw away the plans he tries to forge a new copy. The guys who want the papers Reed (Gregg Palmer) and Leo (Will White) beat Jack up. Nan's boyfriend Alan (John Baer; NIGHT OF THE BLOOD BEAST) is mixed up in a spy ring. Everyone but Nan dies in the final shootout. 

A seldom seen little crime drama directed by veteran William Whitney who was doing lots of TV at this time but also made MASTER OF THE WORLD the same year. Actor Leo Gordon wrote it.

Thanks for reading!

It's Like Beat, Man

THE REBEL SET-1959-Mr. Tucker (Ed Platt), the too sure of himself phony hip owner of a beat club hires 3 losers to help him and his partner Sidney (Ned Glass) rob an armored car. Down on his luck actor Johnny (Gregg Palmer; ZOMBIES OF MORA TAU), law breaking spoiled rich kid George Leland (Don Sullivan) who's mother is a movie star and deadbeat writer Ray Miller (John Lupton; a busy TV actor at the time). His plan involves the fact that there is a 4 hour layover in Chicago while taking the train from LA to NY. They all agree and board a train. Johnny has no choice but to bring his wife Jeanne (Kathleen Crowley; in CURSE OF THE UNDEAD the same year) which doesn't go over well with the others. The robbery goes as planned and the trio re-board the train with Tucker now dressed as a priest. First Leland goes a little nuts and wants to keep the 5 mil to himself. Johnny knocks him out. Later Leland winds up shot in the head. Then Tucker kills Ray and throws his body off the train. Guilt ridden Johnny confesses to Jeanne that he helped in the robbery and plans to give himself up. He tells the police chief in charge (Robert Shayne) about the money but Tucker has already absconded with it. Johnny escapes the police and gives chase. He and Tucker have several fights and chases until Tucker is electrocuted leading to the macabre ironic ending featuring Leland’s mom. Gene Roth is also featured as the train conductor and I. Stanford Jolley is a beat poet. 

This is a moody kind of film norish little drama with a beatnik backdrop by director Gene Fowler Jr. a year after he made I MARRIED A MONSTER FROM OUTER SPACE. It was a big year for co-star Sullivan who was also in two ultra cool low budget horror classics :THE GIANT GILA MONSTER and THE MONSTER OF PIEDRAS BLANCAS. Oh yeah..and the not so cool TEENAGE ZOMBIES. You dig?

Thanks for reading!

What A Bunch of Characters!

When i watch a lot of old movies I love spotting certain actors. When I see them I usually yell out their names even if I'm alone. Here's a few of my favorites:



BYRON FOULGER-He is without a doubt my favorite chacter actor! He most often pops up as a neighbor lingering around after a murder has been committed. He might have some comment like "How shocking. She was such a quiet girl", usually giving the impression that he had something to hide that had nothing to do with the plot! He also played clerks, pharmacists, train conductors and was the mad scientist "Dr. Bluzak" in an episode of "The Abbott & Costello Show". In the '60's he showed up in a lot of sit-coms. To read his bio and see his picture go here: http://www.dougmacaulay.com/kingspu...or_last=Foulger



GENE ROTH-If you like AIP productions from the '50's you've probably seen this guy in a dozen of them. He was the cynical but tough sheriff in EARTH VS, THE SPIDER and was the second in command Nazi in SHE DEMONS (oops, sorry..that's not AIP!). He had un-billed roles in many films (a cook, a cab driver) was even in some late period 3 Stooges shorts including OUTER SPACE JITTERS (the one with Dan Blocker as the monster). Here's a picture of him:

TRIS COFFIN-Great name! This guy showed up in many movies billed and un-billed, sometimes as a bad guy or red herring crooked banker. He also played army officers and doomed business associates. He was the star of the Republic serial THE LOST PLANET AIRMEN. Some times billed as Tristram Coffin which is cooler.

Here he is:



Recognize him?



MORRIS ANKRUM-This actor was all over the map in the fifties. He usually played a father or army captain or some kind of scientist. He also was the judge on many episodes of TV's PERRY MASON. Here's his picture:




JOHN ELDREDGE-This actor made many un-billed movie appearances too. He also had a kind of recognizable voice. He played a villain on THE ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN several times. As movies coincidences would have it, he and George Reeves co-starred in a silly Rosemary Lane romantic comedy in 1940 called ALWAYS A BRIDE!

Hope you recognize some of these gentlemen!