Phil Tucker Returns!

CAPE CANAVERAL MONSTERS-1960-After a car wreck kills a man and woman, balls of light enter each body and they are reanimated as the male Hauron (TV actor Jason Johnson) and the female Nadja (Katherine Victor from Jerry Warren movies), aliens who set up base in cave and destroy rockets the U.S. is launching into space. The bodies they occupy are worst for wear. Nadja's face is scarred and Hauron is missing an arm. Nadja finds the severed limb (“I'll sew it back on when we get to the base”). Later while Hauron is prowling around the test site guard dogs rip his arm off again! (Ever have one of those days?) At Cape Canaveral a grumpy German scientist wonders what's gone wrong and berates his scientist/niece Sally (Linda Connell) and her scientist/boyfriend Tom (Scott Peters; later in THEY SAVED HITLER'S BRAIN) for suggesting aliens are to blame. While the young duo is out with another couple Tom picks up static on his portable radio which is caused by a generator used by the aliens. He tells his colleagues back at the lab but they couldn't care less. 

Meanwhile the alien duo shoot down a few more rockets. Later Sally and Tom go on picnic with their two friends. They decide to follow the static again and their friends are soon kidnapped and drugged. Hauron gets a new arm and chin from his captive. Later Sally and Tom are captured but Tom gets away (leaving Sally behind). He gets help from 2 local police detectives who organize a small posse of scientists (including the German) to invade the cave and save Sally. Somehow they are all captured and the aliens head for their planet via some kind of transport machine. After legit science babble the group causes an explosion that frees them and destroys the invaders….or does it? 

This cheap science fiction junk was written and directed by Phil Tucker, the man behind the “classic” ROBOT MONSTER! Though the real Cape Canaveral is in Florida this was shot in California. Some scenes were filmed at the famous Bronson Canyon where years before Tucker had shot RM! There is some debate on whether it ever played theatrically.

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Space and The World

RIDERS TO THE STARS-1954-Scientist Herbert Marshall needs a meteor from outer space. He and a group of scientists set out to find three men to fly rocket ships (with wings) into space a get one. William Lunigan (a busy TV actor at the time) is the scientist most qualified. He’s also Marshall’s son. He falls in love with Martha Hyer while being trained. Richard Carlson (who was in THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON the same year) co-stars and directs as well. I’ve read “film doctor” Herbert Strock directed some scenes un-credited. It’s an early serious science fiction tale (based on a story by Ivan Tors) and it’s in color! Curt Siodmak wrote the screenplay.

BETWEEN TWO WORLDS-1944-Excellent but overlooked fantasy from Warner Brothers.

A group of people is killed during an air raid attack in London. They wind up on a mysterious ship along with a couple (Paul Henreid and Eleanor Parker) that committed suicide. The ship’s steward (Edmund Gwenn) eventually informs them they are dead and on their way to meet The Examiner (Henreid’s CASABLANCA co-star Sydney Greenstreet) who will decide if they will go to heaven or hell (but it’s actually the same place). As The Examiner states “You see my son, you make your own heaven and hell for yourselves on Earth, you only bring it with you here”.

John Garfield headlines as a cynical reporter. George Coulouris is an industrialist who realizes too late money can’t buy everything. Faye Emerson is a fame hungry actress. George Tobias, Isobel Elsom, Dennis King and Sara Allgood are the others. The second half when the groups’ lives are “examined” is the best part. It’s based on the play OUTWARD BOUND first produced on Broadway in 1924 and revived in 1932. Director Edward A. Blatt was usually a dialogue director and directed only three films.

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