The Title Is A Bit Over The Top

 

 (imdb)

THE EARTH DIES SCREAMING-1964-After a plane crash, a car crash, a train crash and people dying and then credits, American Jeff Nolan (NY born low-budget western star Williard Parker) drives through an English village and finds everyone dead. He sets up in a hotel and tries using a TV and shortwave radio. He meets Quint (Dennis Price) and Peggy (Virginia Field), a couple pretending to be married. Then meets Edgar (Thorley Waters) and Violet (Vanda Godsell). No sooner do they all get together when Violet is killed by some weird looking robots, who disappear as suddenly as they appeared. Another couple, Mel (David Spenser) and Nona (Anna Palk) (who's pregnant) show up. 

Later on, Violet turns up, obviously reanimated with white round eyes. Quint kills her and they all decide to leave. When Quint forces Peggy to leave with him, she's menaced by some zombies and Quint is killed. Jeff saves her but then Nora decides to have her baby. While Jeff and Mel search for the transmitter that controls the robots, dead Quint and the robots terrorize Peggy, Nona and her baby Fortunately, they destroy the transmitter. A drunken Edgar comes to his senses and kills Quint. The survivors leave by plane to find others. A full explanation to the invasion isn't given. 

This mysteriously dark, black and white science fiction film was directed by Terence Fisher the same year he made THE GORGON (with Lee & Cushing) and THE HORROR OF IT ALL (with Pat Boone and Dennis Price). It was written by Harry Spaulding who also penned WITCHCRAFT the same year. Robert Lippert was one of the producers.

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Beach Follow Up

 

 (imdb)

WILD ON THE BEACH-1965-Adam (Frankie Randall) and Lee (Sherry Jackson) both rent the same beach house. Oodles of funny things happen in this pretty unfunny rip-off of AIP's Beach movies. Sonny & Cher, The Astronauts and Sandy Nelson provide the music and Russ Bender as a college professor/record producer even croons a tune! Booth Colman is a college dean and Justin Smith is his bumbling assistant.

This was Maury Dexter's follow up to SURF PARTY and it was co-written by his usual screenwriter Harry Spauding. Lead Frankie Randall hosted a summer replacement show for Dean Martin and his cover of The Who's “I Can See For Miles” is featured on “Golden Throats: The Great American Sing Off” from Rhino records.

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Hit The Beach

 

 (imdb)

SURF PARTY-1964-3 women Terry (Patricia Morrow; TV's 'Peyton Place”), Junior (singer Jackie DeShannon; she was in INTIMACY in 1966) and Sylvia (Lory Patrick) take their trailer from Arizona go to the California beach to meet Terry's brother Skeet (TV actor/stuntman Jerry Summers). A police officer (Richard Crane from THE ALLIGATOR PEOPLE) isn't happy to learn that Skeet is Terry's brother. They take surfing lessons from Len Marshall (Bobby Vinton; his song “Blue Velvet” was a hit the year before). Skeet is a big man on the beach but everyone blames him for a surf accident a guy named Milo (Kenny Miller (I WAS A TEENAGE WEREWOLF) who sings “Pearly Shells”) has. Len who is sweet on Terry, thinks Skeet is a bad influence. 

There's music by The Astronauts and The Routers (with Scott Walker) but the women sing too. Things just seem to get started when Skeet's sugar mama (Martha Stewart) returns and throws him out. The girls leave, still single. 

This little teenage musical was made by the team of Harry Spauding, writer and Maury Dexter, director to cash in on the popular Beach Party movies of AIP. The duo had already made THE DAY MARS INVADED EARTH, HOUSE OF THE DAMNED and HARBOR LIGHTS. They must have thought this was good because the next year they made a similar “beach movie”.

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