Pirkle

 

 (imdb)

IF FOOTMEN TIRE, WHAT WILL HORSES DO? -1971-Laughable commentary by a guy who looks like Floyd the barber on how communism is going to invade America and make everyone work 7 days a week. They'll kill children too and leave their bloody bodies lying in the street as a warning. Those they don't kill they will brainwash into hating Jesus. They ride horses and wear armbands. Their leader makes kids pray to Fidel Castro and they get the candy Jesus wouldn't give them. When they hear the word of God being preached one little guy has a bamboo stick shoved in his ear. One kid is decapitated. Church goers are shot en mass after attending a service. Lots of red paint. 

When a woman named Judy accepts Jesus after her mom dies, some weird looking women (one plays a zither) sing while Rev. Estus W. Pirkle implores the viewer to accept Jesus. 

This cheap badly acted Christian propaganda film was written and directed by Ron Ormond and based on Pirkle's book. They teamed up for other outings too.

Thanks for reading!

Mars

 

RED PLANET MARS-1952-Prof. Chris Cronyn (Peter Graves) and his wife Lynn (Andrea King; THE BEAST WITH FIVE FINGERS) visit a giant telescope site where scientists there have just taken pictures of Mars which they believe show signs of life. This doesn't surprise Cronyn much as he claims to be getting radio signals from it. Meanwhile somewhere in the Andes a communist scientist Franz Calder (Herbert Berghof), a Nazi war criminal who once experimented on humans, tries to contact Mars for his superiors (led by Marvin Miller). Since he is the person who actually invented the device that Cronyn is using, he's rather bitter. Calder is not successful but can monitor Cronin's progress. Using Pi Cronin gets his Martian response. However this doesn't bode well with the US and it's economy starts to crumble. Everybody wants a piece of Cronyn but a Naval commander (Walter Sande) is sympathetic to him. The secretary of state (Morris Ankrum) wants the lab closed down and he and a General (Tom Keene) want the president (Willis Bouchey) to declare war on Russia. Just when all hope seems lost it's discovered God is on Mars! 

Communist Russia is destroyed by a religious uprising! However later when world peace has been established Calder shows up and drops a bombshell on Cronyn. He was the one sending the message replies, not Mars! Calder plans to tell the world of his charade but then a message really does come from Mars. Calder destroys the machine killing himself and The Cronyns but they die heroes. Vince Barnett, Henry Kulky and Gene Roth among others have small roles. 

This wild cold war propaganda movie was the debut film for director Harry Horner, also a production designer who who later made THE WILD PARTY. RED PLANET MARS is based on a play by John Balderston (who co-wrote the screenplay) author of the screenplays for FRANKENSTEIN (1931) and BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1935).

Thanks for reading!

More Invisibility

INVISIBLE AGENT-1942-Nazis want the indivisibility formula created by Frank Griffin, the original “Invisible Man” in this kind of sequel to THE INVISIBLE MAN RETURNS. Two enemy agents (Sir Cedric Hardwick and Peter Lorre) visit Griffin's grandson Frank (Jon Hall) whose working as a printer under an assumed name. They try to get the formula from him but he escapes and goes to the US for help. The government wants the formula too but he refuses until he learns of the attack on Pearl Harbor. He agrees to help but only if he is allowed to become the “invisible agent”. While parachuting into Berlin he becomes invisible and contacts German double agent Maria (Ilona Massey) who dines with the head of the secret police (J. Edward Bromberg) and there's lots of invisible comedy. For a while Frank puts on cold cream, sunglasses and a robe to become almost visible. Later he's kidnapped by Lorre (who's suppose to be Japanese; his outings as Mr. Moto got him in the mood). Once again Frank escapes their clutches and Lorre kills Hardwicke then commits hari-kari. Fortunately Maria can fly a plane and she and Frank stop bombers headed to destroy NYC! Keye Luke appears as a doctor in one scene. 

Released right after Pearl Harbor bombings this is one of the many propaganda like science fiction films released at the time. The SFX are good (they were nominated for an Academy Award) and director Edwin L. Marin doesn't go overboard with the comedy bits. Screenwriter Curt Siodmak (who also penned THE INVISIBLE MAN RETURNS) had fled Germany (first to England) in 1937. His depiction of the Nazis are evil but incompetent. 

Director Marin had previously made A CHRISTMAS CAROL and A STUDY IN SCARLET (both with Reginald Owen) and later many westerns. Lead actor Jon Hall returned to invisibility two years later in THE INVISIBLE MAN'S REVENGE, though playing a different character.

Thanks for reading!

Propaganda

THE HOAXTERS-1952-In this post-WW2 cold war propaganda short film Adolf Hitler, Tojo and Mussolini are compared to snake oil salesmen. It uses footage of war torn Germany, Italy and Japan and blames everything on Karl Marx, the “fourth pitchman of the apocalypse” and says communism is the new snake oil. Stalin (a WW2 ally) is shown watching troops march in Red Square. FDR, Truman, Adlai Stevenson and Dwight David Eisenhower all agree that Communism is the new Nazism. Howard Keel, George Murphy, Walter Pigeon, Robert Taylor, Barry Sullivan and James Whitmore are credited as narrators and Sid Tomack appears as a salesman. No director is credited for this MGM production but the screenwriter Herman Hoffman later directed TV shows and soap operas so it might be him.

DECEMBER 7TH-1943-This film commissioned by the US Navy was directed by John Ford and Greg Toland. Uncle Sam (Walter Huston) explains what's going on in Hawaii (before Pearl Harbor). It kind of ignores how the US came to the islands but talks about all the Japanese who worked and settled there (many of them American citizens). It tries to say that most of the Japanese who live there were loyal to America except those that were part of the Shinto religion (actor Philip Ahn, of Korean descent plays a Shinto priest). Yet then it implies that most of the Japanese were spies who helped bring about the bombings and collaborated with The Nazis. After Sam has a debate with Mr. C (Harry Davenport) he falls asleep. Everyone then goes about their business on that fateful Sunday morning. Many actual and detailed and tragic scenes are shown. It then goes on to show how the attacks negatively affected the Japanese-Hawaiians. Dana Andrews appears as the spirit of a dead sailor while Ralph Byrd and Robert Lowery have un-billed roles as does the narrator Irving Pichel.

 It won a 1943 Academy Award for best documentary short subject.

Thanks for reading!

Life In The Atomic Age

ATOMIC AGE CLASSICS-Vol. 3-A-Bombs, Fallout & Nuclear War-

Someone gave me this DVD years ago. All these shorts are now available to see on places like You Tube but since I wasted time watching it (when I could have been  watching..say..a movie by TV Mikels...) I decided to review them here anyway...

Living With The Atom (1957)-Produced by The Moody Institute of Science and hosted by it's founder Irwin Moon who explains what an atom is and how it relates to atomic energy. He talks about cyclotrons and the first A-bomb test on Bikini Island. It seems Moon was an evangelist who gave “Sermons of Science” and in demonstrations he would let one million electrical volts surge through his body! This color short was one in a series he made over a period of years. It's fairly straightforward but his point seems to be although Einstein developed E=MC2, God created the whole thing and it's part of “his” plan.

Radioactive Fallout and Shelter (1965)-Produced by the U.S. Office of Civil Defense this short advises you how to deal with “pesky fallout” should you or your food be exposed. The on screen narrator demonstrates how to handle bread and potatoes after these items have been exposed. He says things like “place them on an uncontaminated area”, yet if you were eating exposed food I don't think there'd be much of that around. He also talks about how to shield yourself from fallout. If you cover yourself with earth or concrete and wait 2 weeks you have a good chance of surviving. Sometimes it just seems like they are trying get people to spend money on home made bomb shelters and Geiger counters. No idea who the narrator is.

The Atom Strikes (1945)-The Army Signal Corp.-This short was released soon after the US dropped the bombs on Japan and attempts to explain why the A-bomb was used and what devastation it's use wrought. It starts with footage of the testing in Los Alamos, N.M. Then to the Enola Gay and the actual mission. There's extensive footage of the devastating results in Hiroshima. At certain points army officers are shown pointing out certain aspects but it's not made clear when all this was shot. Footage is horrific of course but the matter of fact narration is more concerned with structural damage than any lives that were lost. One person interviewed is a German born Jesuit priest who survived the bombing who (while reading a prepared script) seems to say that Japan and Germany condoned the bombings. Near the end, the bombing of Nagasaki is mentioned and it was targeted because of it's many munitions plants. (but again no mention of human life)

Fallout: When and How To Protect Yourself (1959)-This is a cute cartoon animation from the US Office of Civil Defense. A narrator (who keeps empathizing the the word “fallout”) once again describes the effects and prevention of fallout. It's darker than the one made in '65 and probably scared most audiences despite the animated man who tries to protect his family by building his own bomb shelter and stocking it with can goods and such.

The Atom Goes To Sea (1954)-This is the earliest and shortest entry. It was written and directed by True Boardman for General Electric. It shows how atomic energy powers nuclear reactors to power atomic submarines. It's very detailed but uses mostly animated diagrams. Director Boardman wrote several classic Abbott & Costello films in the '40's and later scripted episodes of THE FAMOUS ADVENTURES OF MR. MAGOO!

I think the real reason I posted this is just so I could throw out that line about True Boardman....

Thanks for reading!