WHY DID THE CAVE MAN HAVE TO DIE?

 

 (Amazon)

DINOSAURUS!-1960-In the South Pacific an American construction company is mining the waters to build a harbor. Most of the citizens seem ok with it but local criminal Hacker (Fred Engelberg) causes trouble. Bart Thompson (Ward Ramsey) is the head of the project and he has girlfriend named Betty (Krisyina Hanson). An explosion unearths some frozen dinosaurs. Lightening brings them back to life along with a Neanderthal man (Gregg Martell). Hacker's abused charge Julio (Alan Roberts) wanders around and the caveman is put to comic effect. He tries to eat a book and has encounters with a mirror and a toilet. While everyone is running for shelter, Julio makes friends with the prehistoric man who helps Julio escape from Hacker. Later Julio and the caveman wind up riding on the brontosaurus. Caveman saves Betty from a T-Rex and takes her to an old mine shaft where she has to ward off his prehistoric advances. Eventually the Bronto and Rex fight falling into quicksand. The caveman dies saving Bart, Betty and Julio from a cave-in. 

This kind of juvenile tale with terrible SFX is a big disappointment as it was produced by Jack H. Harris and directed by Irvin S. Yeaworth Jr., who a few years earlier had presented THE BLOB! 

DINOSAURUS was star Ward Ramsey's film debut. He later had roles in FLOWER DRUM SONG, CAPE FEAR and TV (sometimes uncredited). Kristina Hanson quit showbiz later and became a teacher. Kid star Alan Roberts did a few other movies and TV but as an adult became a truck driver. Director Yeaworth made only one more feature length movie after this but producer Harris went on to produce EQUINOX (1970) as well as John Landis' first movie SCHLOK (1973) and John Carpenter's debut DARK STAR (1974).

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Harryhausen Beast

 

THE BEAST FROM 20,000 FATHOMS-1953-In the Arctic, Prof. Tom Nesbitt (Paul Hubschmid aka Paul Christian) & Colonel John Evans (Kenneth Tobey) await the arrival of a plane as part of "Operation Experiment", an atomic explosion. While checking for radiation Nesbitt and his pal Prof. Ritchie (Ross Elliot) run into a giant dinosaur which causes an avalanche. Nesbitt is rescued. 

Of course Evans and his doctor (Frank Ferguson) and a psychiatrist (King Donovan) don't believe him. After the monster sinks a ship and Nesbitt reads about it he hightails it to NYC to convince Prof. Elson (Cecil Kellaway) to organize an expedition. His assistant Lee (Paula Raymond) tries to be helpful but to no avail. Eventually Nesbitt convinces Elson the monster exists and asks Evans to help. He in turn asks his Coast Guard friend (Donald Woods) for assistance and finds out the monster wrecked a lighthouse in Maine. When Edson goes down in a diving bell he encounters the monster confirming its existence. Unfortunately he's killed and the monster attacks Manhattan. 

People flee in terror, buildings are wrecked, cars are crushed and in the movie's most famous scene a cop is lifted by his head and eaten. It's also discovered that the beast is carrying deadly germs. Nesbitt says shooting it with a radioactive isotope is the only way to kill it. He and an army sharpshooter (Lee Van Cleef) wind up on a roller coaster in a Coney Island like setting to destroy the beast. 

BEAST was one of the biggest money making films for 1953. Eugene Lourie does a fine job directing and there's lots of familiar characters throughout but of course what really makes this film is the excellent stop motion animated giant monster created by the one and only Ray Harryhausen. His painstaking effects are incredible! Based in part on a short story by Ray Bradbury.

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The Claw

 

THE GIANT CLAW-1957-Test pilot Mitch Macafee (Jeff Morrow; THE ISLAND EARTH) sees a UFO but no radar picks it up. Major Bergen(Clark Howatt) accuses him of a practical joke but when a commercial airliner goes missing the major has to eat his words. When Mitch and mathematician Sally Caldwell (Mara Corday; TARANTULA) are on their way back to NY when the sighting of another UFO causes Pete the pilot (Frank Griffin) to crash his plane. Mitch and Sally are ok and are rescued by Pierre (Louis Merrill), a woodsman who later says the “UFO” is Carcagne, a mythological Canadian monster. They all manage not to see a giant claw print. 

It's later revealed the “UFO” is a giant prehistoric bird (a bad marionette) which shows up on some weather balloon film. General Buskirk (Robert Shayne) takes Mitch and Sally to Washington DC to meet General Considine (Morris Ankrum). After a missile attack fails, a Dr. Noymann (Edgar Barrier) figures out that the bird is made up of anti-matter from outer space. Sally proposes that the bird is here to nest and lay eggs. And she's right! 

This Sam Katzman production features one of the most comical giant monsters of all time and it was one of the last movies directed by the indefatigable Fred Sears who unfortunately died in 1957 of a heart attack at age 45.

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Godzilla Follow Up

RODAN-1956-After a “cheery” intro about the H-bomb, a narrator named Shigeru Kawamura (Kenji Sahara) tells us what's happening in the mines of Kyushu. After his future brother in law Goro (Rinsaku Ogata) has a fight, he talks about the uneasiness of the miners on that day and how mine #8 was deeper than any of the others. After a flood in the tunnel, they find one miner “hacked to pieces”. Goro is the other missing miner who's found and blamed for the death. A police officer and two miners investigate and are killed. Goro's sister (and Shigeru's main squeeze) Kiyo (Yumi Shirakawa) doesn't have it easy as everyone thinks her brother is a murderer. A giant insect invades a village. Rodan shows up with his mate and although they destroy several cities and kill many people their deaths are quite poignant. 

Keye Luke provides the dubbed voice of Shigeru and other well known voices are provided by Paul Frees, Art Gilmore and George Takei. Following up his success with GODZILLA, director Ishiro Honda shot this in color with most of the “Big G's” personal behind him.

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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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Korean Giant Monster

REPTILIAN-1999-An archaeological expedition led by the pompously deranged Dr. Campbell (Richard Livingston)) is looking for Yonggary, a legendary dinosaur 50 times the size of T-Rex. Just when he and his assistant Holly (Donna Philipson) are on the verge of discovery the long thought to be dead Dr. Hughes (Harrison Young) shows up to say  they have to call off the dig. Campbell convinces Holly that Hughes is crazy but later on she quits the expedition and goes to a bar. She encounters Hughes again and he semi-convinces her he might be right. 

The two go back to the dig just in time to see Campbell unveil the skeleton of the ancient Yonggary. It's promptly revitalized by some aliens in a spaceship (it's of alien origin to begin with) and stomps Campbell to death. Then proceeds to wreck the town. When missiles and bombs fail, a group of soldiers with jet packs and laser guns fight it. They discover that the aliens use a diamond embedded in the monster's head to control it. Once the diamond is destroyed Yonggary becomes a good guy so the aliens (who look like metallic Ridley Scott aliens and talk like Darth Vader) send another prehistoric monster to fight the new hero. An all out monster battle ensues! 

The goofy dialogue sounds just like it would have been used to dub an Asian movie even though it's not dubbed! Despite this there is some funny intentional humor. The SFX could have been better but it's still more enjoyable than any shit on The SyFy channel. Despite being filmed in English and starring American actors this was produced in Korea by director Hyung-rae Shim. It was inspired by the 1967  Godzilla inspired Korean Kaiju/giant monster film YONGGARY. 

An "updated" version with new scenes was released in 2001.

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50's Horror

MONSTER ON THE CAMPUS-1958-A college professor Donald Blake (Arthur Franz) cuts his hand on the tooth of a 1000 year old fish treated with gamma rays. He becomes a rubbery faced caveman-monster and kills a nurse (Helen Wescott ) and a cop (Ross Elliot). Since the cops find unusual hand and foot prints at the scenes of the crimes Blake is not a suspect but he begins to suspect himself! His work in proving the fish is somehow responsible makes everyone think he's crazy. His future father in law (Alexander Lockwood) and doctor (Whit Bissell) suggest he go to a mountain retreat to relax. He tries to experiment on himself and turns into the monster just as Madeline, his fiance' arrives at the cabin. She wrecks her car and he carries her off, then chases her through the woods. Blake manages to get a picture of himself  as the monster but Madeline can't understand why the monster is wearing Blake's clothes! At the end Blake injects himself with some of the fish's blood and becomes a monster getting shot to death by a police lieutenant (Judson Pratt) in the process.

MOTC also features a German shepherd with fangs, a giant dragonfly and Troy Donahue (later on the TV shows SURFSIDE 6 and HAWAIIAN EYE) and Nancy Walters (later acted with Elvis in BLUE HAWAII) as some students who try to help. Perennial '50's character Hank Patterson (later Arnold the Pig's "father" on TV's GREEN ACRES) also appears.

CAMPUS is an ok low budget horror film but considering Jack Arnold directed it I thought it could have been better. Of course it was one of four movies he directed in 1958 so maybe he had to rush it a little! Screenwriter David Duncan wrote several other low budget horror films (THE MONSTER THAT CHALLENGED THE WORLD, THE LEECH WOMAN, and others).

Though Franz is shown in two transformation scenes stuntman Eddie Parker played the monster. Parker had played the Mr. Hyde role in the earlier ABBOTT & COSTELLO MEET DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE (which also featured Wescott). And if the Mr. Hyde monster in that movie reminds of the cave-monster in CAMPUS well, Bud Westmore and Jack Kevan did the make-up on both! Other Abbott & Costello related notes: Franz starred with "the boys" in A & C MEET THE INVISIBLE MAN and Parker played the mummy in A & C MEET THE MUMMY!

Lead actress Joanna Moore (mother of Tatum O'Neal) had a role in Orson Welles' TOUCH OF EVIL the same year.

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The Creature From The Black Lagoon

THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON-1954-This “creature classic” from Universal-International (originally filmed in 3-D) takes place in the Upper Amazon (after a brief intro on how the world began) where the fossilized remains of an over sized claw are found. Two researchers, David Reed (Richard Carlson) a serious level headed science guy and Mark Williams (Richard Denning), a crabby hard nose who's more concerned with financial success, head an expedition to check out the find. They bring along Reed's fiancee Kay (Julie Adams) too. Nestor Paiva is Lucas, the guy who steers their “barge”.Whit Bissell is Dr. Thompson, another victim, I mean researcher. Little do they suspect that the creature who's remains they are looking for is still alive and has killed two local native helpers. 

Their first dig doesn't turn out so good so Reed has a plan to visit the uncharted “Black Lagoon”. After only seeing a scaly claw for a few scenes, The Creature finally emerges when Reed and Williams go scuba diving. When Kay goes for a swim, the creature checks her out. On another scuba dive, the duo have a closer encounter with “the gill man” where Williams spears him. Later, after it's obvious his intentions lay with Kay, they use a native drug to capture him and put him in a bamboo cage. That doesn't last long and he breaks out and does some plastic surgery on Thompson. When they try to leave the creature blocks their path. In their efforts to clear a path Williams is killed. Just when it looks like they'll escape the creature grabs Kay and takes her back to his pad, I mean cave. Before he can do in Reed the Gill Man dies in a hail of bullets...or does he? 

TCFTBL is one of the great monster movies of the '50's. The creature itself deserves to be right up there with all the other “famous monsters” like Frankenstein & Dracula. The year before this director Jack Arnold made another movie in 3-D the Sci-Fi themed IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE (also starring Carlson). Producer William Alland was a former member of Orson Welles' Mercury Theater. He played the reporter trying to find out the meaning of “rosebud” in CITIZEN KANE. He'd also produced IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE and produced later Arnold efforts including the sequel THE REVENGE OF THE CREATURE, TARANTULA and THE SPACE CHILDREN. Co-screenwriter Harry Essex had penned IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE and later worked a lot in TV. In 1971 he made his own version of an undersea creature, the whacked out OCTO-MAN. Ricou Browning portrayed the creature underwater, while Ben Chapman was the creature on land. The same year as CREATURE star Carlson directed his own Sci-Fi movie RIDER TO THE STARS. There's a also a memorable musical score by the un-credited trio of Hans Salter, Herman Stein and Henry Mancini.

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Calling Prof. Quatermass!

QUATERMASS AND THE PIT-1958-This is the third Professor Quatermass serial produced by the BBC. Despite a lot of talk and non-action it's very well done. In a London district, an archeological dig led by Prof. Roney (Cec Linder; Felix Leiter in GOLDFINGER) find evidence of a new hominid and later discover a huge metallic object. 

Roney brings in his friend Prof. Quatermass (Andre Morell) to investigate. Quatermass' war department nemesis the pompous Colonel Breen (Joseph Bushell who later directed TERROR OF THE TONGS for Hammer) gets involved as well. 

When an air tight compartment in the object is finally opened a bunch of dead insect like creatures are found. This leads Quatermass to the theory that the creatures are from Mars and 5 million year ago they came to Earth and experimented on early man! Of course the government will have none of it. A haunted house, telekinesis, ancient myths and a weird machine that can record “visual impressions inside the brain” all figure into this ambitious ahead of it's time story which if it sounds familiar was later re-made by Hammer as the full length film 20 MILLION YEARS TO EARTH. The final speech by Quatermass really rings true!

Also with Christine Finn (the voice of “Tin-Tin” on THE THUNDERBIRDS) & John Stratton. Michael Ripper portrays a army sergeant in the first five segments. Morrell was in THE GIANT BEHEMOTH around this time and played Dr. Watson to Peter Cushing's Sherlock Holmes in Hammer's THE HOUND OF THE BASERVILLES in 1959. 

 

Screenwriter Nigel Kneale had written the feature length film ENEMY FROM SPACE (where American actor Brian Donlevy was the professor) in 1957 and later did screenplays for movies like LOOK BACK IN ANGER, THE ENTERTAINER and FIRST MEN IN THE MOON. Director Rudolph Cartier had a long career in BBC TV.

 

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Before Larry Cohen's Killer Babies

IT’S ALIVE-1969-This infamous horror film was made by director Larry Buchanan right after completing a batch of direct to TV remakes of AIP '50's horror films.

Two tourists, Norman (Corveth Ousterhouse) and Leila (Shirley Bonne) from the city get lost on a back road somewhere in Texas. They wind up being held prisoner by a loony farmer (Buchanan regular Bill Thurman) who has a prehistoric monster living in a smoky cave under his house. A helpful paleontologist named Wayne (Tommy Kirk) tries to help but gets captured too. The monster (Thurman doing double duty) is goofy and rubbery with fangs and ping pong ball eyes! Thurman’s over the top acting is the real highlight of this awful film (“Perhaps you know of my creature? It’s great and powerful! My greatest discovery!”) but it also features Ann McAdams (later in DON’T LOOK IN THE BASEMENT) as Thurman’s abused servant who narrates a long flashback.(with no dialogue; just her narration and some incidental music) which explains how she became the farmer’s servant.

In one scene she tries to escape by throwing some liquid in Thurman's face but right before that happens you can see his face is already wet! The scene they used must have been take 2!

Former Disney teen star Tommy Kirk was at the nadir of his career having already starred in Buchanan’s MARS NEEDS WOMEN in 1967. A few years later he’d star in Al Adamson’s BLOOD OF GHASTLY HORROR. I’ve read the plot seems to be based on a short story by Richard Matheson.

Buchanan (who provides some un-credited narration during the credits) made the Bergman influenced (?) STRAWBERRIES NEED RAIN next.

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