Werewolf vs. Frankenstein

 

 (imdb)

HOW TO MAKE A MONSTER-1958-On the movie set of "Werewolf Meets Frankenstein", make-up man Pete Drumond (Robert H. Harris) is regarded as a legend. He's made up Larry the werewolf (Gary Clarke) and Tony the monster (Gary Conway) for director Martin Brace (Thomas B Henry). However the "new regime" doesn't like monsters and they fire Pete and his assistant Rivero (Paul Brinegar). To get revenge Pete uses a special compound in his make-up to make the actors do his bidding. The monster actors kill the two executives. Pete himself even puts on some scary make-up to kill a nosy studio guard. John Ashley (as himself) shows up to croon a number. Robert Shayne has one scene as Larry's angry agent. Police Captain Hancock (Morris Ankrum) investigates. Malcolm Atterbury is a security guard. After the picture is finished and Pete is ready to leave, he invites the boys to his house to meet "his children", props and masks he made for his movies (including real AIP monsters from IT CONQUERED THE WORLD, INVASION OF THE SAUCER MEN and THE SHE CREATURE). Pete really loses it at the end. It seems he wants the actual heads of the young actors! A fire starts and destroys his collection ("I must save my children") The finale is in color. 

Herman Cohen (he also wrote the screenplay and has a cameo as a projectionist) produced this through AIP with Samuel Arkoff and Jack Nicholsen as the executive producers. The same year director Herbert L. Strock worked on “The Veil” series starring Boris Karloff.

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The Beat

 

MURDER IS MY BEAT-1955-Cop Ray Patrick (Paul Langton; later in IT! THE TERROR FROM BEYOND SPACE) searches for nightclub singer Eden Lane (Barbara Payton), a suspect in the murder of Frank Dean. He tracks her to a snowbound cabin. He arrests her and after she's convicted he accompanies her to the state pen and she convinces Ray she saw Dean alive on a platform. He helps her escape and investigates but all his leads go cold. He also falls in love with her. Later Eden disappears. This part is actually a flashback told by Ray to his boss (Robert Shayne). Ray convinces his boss to help him. 

There's an interesting conclusion in this little film noir masterpiece by the one and only Edgar Ulmer. 

The film also features un-billed roles by Harry Harvey, William Fawcett and Hank Patterson. 

MURDER was written and produced by Aubrey Wisberg who also did the screenplays for THE NEANDERTHAL MAN (with Robert Shayne) and THE MAN FROM PLANET X. This was the last feature role for the notorious Barbara Payton who was once involved in a violent relationship with actor Tom Neal who ten years earlier had starred in Ulmer's classic DETOUR. A public fight between Neal and actor Franchot Tone in which Payton received a black eye helped sink her sagging career. She drank herself to death and died at age 39 in 1967.

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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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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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“Rotten Stinking Mouthpiece”

 

THE INDESTRUCTIBLE MAN-1956-A police officer Dick Chasen (Casey Adams aka Max Showalter) relates the story of Butcher Benton (Lon Chaney Jr.), a criminal double crossed by his partners and sentenced to death. He's also the only one who knows where the 6 hundred thousand dollar haul is. His lawyer Paul Lowe (Ross Elliot) is behind the whole thing. After vowing revenge, Benton is executed but two scientists (Robert Shayne and Joe Flynn) accidentally bring him back to life. Unable to talk anymore he becomes a mute revenge seeking monster impervious to bullets. He goes after Lowe and his pals Squeamy Ellis (Marvin Press) and Joe Marcellia (Ken Terrell) but first stops off to see his Burlesque dancer girlfriend Eva (Marion Carr). After getting even with most of them Benton meets his demise in a sewer where he's burned to death. 

This fast moving low budget horror crime drama also features intense close ups of Chaney's eyes. Director Jack Pollexfen produced and wrote many low budget features including THE NEANDERTHAL MAN, DAUGHTER OF DR. JEKYLL and THE ATOMIC BRAIN.

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Short Western

 

OKLAHOMA OUTLAWS-1943-The Kincaids battle corruption led by bad guy Whip McCord (Warner Anderson) and his gang of thugs (including Charles Middleton). When Pop Kincaid (Erville Alderson) is framed for murder, son Nate (Robert Shayne) finds evidence that proves his innocence but while he's off finding the judge (Addison Richards) McCord leads a lynch mob that hangs dad. He and McCord have a furious fist fight and McCord is killed. Nate becomes sheriff and marries the judge's daughter Jean (Juanita Stark). 

First in a Warner Brothers series called "Santa Fe Trails", most starring Shayne but playing different characters. This 20 minute short was directed by B. Reeves Easton who made many westerns and short subjects and the serial UNDERSEA KINGDOM (1936) starring Crash Corrigan.

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He Still Knows....

BEHIND THE MASK-1946-A conniving newspaper columnist Jeff Mann (James Cardwell) is killed by The Shadow in his office on the eve of the wedding of Lamont Cranston (Kane Richmond) and Margo Lane (Barbara Read). Of course someone is actually pretending to be the crime fighter. Mann was blackmailing a mobster (Robert Shayne) and a female bookie May Bishop (Marjorie Hoshelle). There's way too much comedy in this with Shevvie, the chauffeur now played by familiar character actor George Chandler. 

Director Phil Karlson made the Charlie Chan mystery DARK ALIBI the same year.

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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?

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Cheap Cave Man

THE NEANDERTHAL MAN-1953-In the Sierra mountains a nutty anthropologist Prof. Graves (Robert Shayne) turns his cat into a saber tooth tiger that escapes into the woods and scares a hunter (Frank Gerstle). No one believes him but the game warden George Oakes (Robert Long) convinces vacationing Dr. Ross Harkness (Richard Crane) to help investigate. They go to see Graves but he's off presenting his theory about brains to a group of eggheads who wind up ridiculing him. He gets mad and insults them (“small men, small minds”). Meanwhile Graves' daughter Jan (Joyce/Joy Terry) invites Harkness to stay the night. He also meets Ruth (Doris Merrick) who's somehow engaged to the moody eccentric professor. Oakes and Ross kill a saber-toothed tiger but when they bring Graves to look at the body it has disappeared. Now it's Graves' turn to laugh (he uses the phrase “vacuum of ego”). After he jilts Ruth, he injects himself with a formula that turns him into a simian like caveman and he kills a hunter and his dog. The local sheriff puts together a posse. No sooner does Graves return to his natural human form when he suddenly becomes a caveman again!

While snooping around the lab Ross develops some photos that show Graves' mute maid (Tandra Quinn; later in THE MESA OF LOST WOMEN) becoming a monster. Later professor caveman kills another local and ravages his date (Beverly Garland). The posse chases him down but Neander-Graves kidnaps his ex-fiancée and holds up in a cave. Ross saves her but the prehistoric man is mauled by another saber tooth which Ross created accidentally. Graves dies in bed and transforms back to his homosapien self.

THE NEANDERTHAL MAN was directed by EA Dupont, once a well-respected director in his homeland of Germany (VARIETY, ATLANDTIK). Unfortunately, his Hollywood career never took off and after spending several years as an agent was reduced to making low budget nonsense like this. His direction isn't anything special but Robert Shayne's intense but almost comical mad scientist perform-ance holds it together despite the bad caveman make-up. The close-ups seem to be a time elapsed make-up job ala THE WOLFMAN but when he's running around terrorizing the countryside Shayne seems to be wearing a mask.

The writing team of Aubrey Wisberg and Jack Pollenfex also wrote THE SON OF DR. JEKYLL and THE MAN FROM PLANET X.

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Mongram

THE FACE OF MARBLE-1946-Two doctors perform an experiment that revives a dead man but a storm blows out their equipment and he dies again. Charles Randolph (John Carradine) is an eminent brain specialist. His wife Elaine (Claudia Drake) is a former patient who's life he saved. Their Maria Ouspenskaya like maid Maria (Rosa Rey) uses voodoo to try and make the younger doctor, David (Robert Shayne) fall in love with Elaine. Randolph kills Elaine's great dane Brutus and brings it back to life but now he's more vicious and transparent! When David's girlfriend Linda (Maris Wrixton from THE APE) arrives Elaine gets jealous. Transparent Brutus scares Linda then goes out and drinks the blood of other animals. When Maria accidentally kills Elaine (she was trying to kill Linda) the duo bring her back to life despite Randolph's doubts. Somehow Maria gains control of Elaine and has her kill Randolph. David is charged with his murder. Later Maria sics Elaine on Linda but David arrives in time to break it up. Maria commits suicide and Elaine and Brutus walk into the ocean (?).

William Beaudine directed this Monogram horror story which has a few twists and good acting to take a notch above the studio's usual routine low budget.

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Spook Chasers

SPOOK CHASERS-1957-By this time the Bowery Boys series was nearing it's end (this was the 45th of 48 movies made in the series) and it shows. 

Top billed Huntz Hall is moronic Sach and Stanley Clements is Duke (acting more Slip Mahoney-ish this time out). The rest of "the boys" are David Gorcey as Chuck, Jimmy Murphy as Myron, and Eddie LeRoy as Blinky. This time instead of having a landlady to harass or save they hang out in "Clancy's Diner" owned by Louie Dumbrowsky substitute Mike (Percy Helton). When a doctor tells the overworked Mike he needs a rest in the country two crooked real estate agents (William Henry & Darlene Fields) sell him a dilapidated haunted house. However, instead of finding the usual trouble, they find money. It turns out to be the hidden loot of a gangster (Peter Mamakos) who  later shows up (one of his henchman is Ben Welden) to collect. 

It's mostly tired bits of haunted house humor from other comedies (like HOLD THAT GHOST) and Robert Shayne shows up at the end as a detective. Ellwood Ullman scripted it once again and George Blair directed. Blair was also doing episodes of the SUPERMAN TV series at the time.

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