Tiny Planet

 

THE PHANTOM PLANET-1961-After an Earth rocket ship that look off from the moon is destroyed by some kind of asteroid, Commander Frank Chapman (Dean Fredericks) and his philosophical co-pilot Makonnen (Richard Weber) investigate. When Makonnen is killed saving Chapman, the ship is drawn to an asteroid and is forced to land. When Chapman steps onto the planet he passes out. 80's⁹Later he wakens and encounters some tiny inhabitants. He passes out again and shrinks to their size. They seize him and bring him to a court overseen by Sessom (Francis X. Bushman). It seems he's on the planet Rheton and can never go back to Earth. Sessom wants Chapman to be a productive citizen even offering the astronaut his choice of a wife, his daughter Liara or the mute Zetha (Dolores Faith). 

Sessom's second in command Aron (Anthony Dexter) is the troublemaker who gets jealous when Liara takes a liking to the alien Chapman. Meantime, a search party is sent out to find the missing astro. He seems to prefer Zita but green eyes Aron challenges Chapman to "the duel". When Chapman bests his rival he refuses to kill Aron and let's him live. Then Aron wants to help Chapman leave so he can have Liara all to himself although Chapman already told her to bug off. Before the escape plan can be implemented, their dreaded enemies The Solarites attack. They destroy the attackers but a captured Solarite (Richard Kiel in his film debut) escapes and attacks Sessom. Chapman is eventually rescued but thinks it all might have been a dream except he has a stone Zita gave him. 

There's some minor narration at the beginning by Marvin Miller. Director William Marshall (not to be confused with the actor who played Blacula) also produced and co-wrote this unusual space opera. 

Richard Kiel and Dolores Faith were reunited a few years later in THE HUMAN DUPLICATORS (1965).

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Corman Produced

NIGHT OF THE BLOOD BEAST-1958-John Corcoran (Michael Emmet; later in AT-TACK OF THE GIANT LEECHES), the first man to orbit the Earth in a satellite, crash lands coming back and is killed. This up-sets his fiancee Dr. Julie Benson (Angela Greene). Dave Randal (Ed Nelson; in CRY BABY KILLER the same year), female photog Donna (Georgianna Carter), the analytic Dr. Wyman (Tyler McVey) and Steve (John Baer) take John's body (which has not decomposed at all) back to their lab where they discover a strange con-tusion on his arm. Also their radio doesn't work. After Dave has an encounter with an unknown creature and they lose electric power and their car and truck won't work, it's obvious something is keeping them there. They also discover a magnetic barrier surrounds their com-pound. 

At night Dr. Wyman’s bloody headless body is found hanging in their lab and John has come back to life. He’s very confused and says “It didn't come here to destroy!”. It turns out to be a weird looking alien that's using John's body as a breeding ground for new aliens (they look like sea horses). The monster kind of looks like it's covered in dried mud. It attacks but they drive it off. The next day, Dave, Steve and Donna are searching for the monster which briefly captures Donna. Eventually John realizes the alien doesn't want to help Earth, It just wants to replace humans with its race. John kills himself and Dave and Steve burn up the monster. 

Director Bernard Kowalski made his directing debut earlier in the year with HOT ROD GIRL (which Nelson and McVey appear in) and later made ATTACK OF THE CRAB MONSTERS. He does a good job keeping everything eerie and claustro-phobic and though obviously inspired by THE THING the US-Russian space race figured into it too. The monster is strange looking but doesn't look like it would come from outer space. 

This AIP production was produced by Roger and Gene Corman. 

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Teens vs. Aliens

INVASION OF THE SAUCER MEN-1957-Aliens have invaded lovers point in the sleepy town of Hicksville USA. Johnny Carter (Steve Terrell) and his girlfriend Joan (Gloria Castillo) hit one of the mini spacemen with their car. They call for help but the police don't believe them. There's also two bored con men, Joe (Frank Gorshin) and Artie (Lyn Osbourne). Artie seems to be the narrator at the beginning. Joe finds Johnny's car with the saucer man pinned under it. When he tries to move it he’s killed by some other saucer men who have some kind of metal rods in their fingers (like Wolverine). Old man Larkin (Raymond Hatton) calls the cops but when they come of course the alien corpse is gone and they think Johnny's been drinking. One saucer guy has a run in with Larkin's bull and kills it. Meanwhile Johnny and Joan enlist Artie to help them after being terrorized by a severed alien hand. Adults won't help so it's up to the lovebirds and their gang to stop the invaders. There's also a government cover up conducted by the army that accidentally destroys the spaceship. The aliens inject alcohol into their victims. Russ Bender is a doctor. Jason Johnson and Ed Nelson are in it too. Angelo Rossitto, Paul Blaisdell (who created the eerie aliens) and Bob Burns are the saucer-men. This whacky teenagers meet aliens movie was directed by Edward L. Cahn and much like his THE SHE CREATURE features memorable monsters but not that good of a story.

Aliens & Vikings

OUTLANDER-2008-An alien named Kainan (Jim Caviezel; Jesus in Mel Gibson's THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST) crash lands on Earth during the time of The Vikings, who are lead by the old Hrothgar (John Hurt, acting a little John Carradine-ish at times). He thinks Kainan is a spy. Unfortunately for the violent unkempt barbarians Kainan has brought along a little extra company in the form of something called a Moorwen, sort of an ALIEN inspired monster that likes to eat people and animals. The Moorwen was a stowaway on Kainan's space ship when it crashed landed. Even though The Vikings believe in Norse gods, frost giants, Valhalla and such they have a problem with Kainan's story even after they are attacked and several warriors are killed. Later a search party kills a giant bear and they all think the trouble is over and Kainen becomes "one of them".

Zack Huston plays Wulfric, the rival to Kainan for the affections of Freya (Sophia Myles who was in the first two UNDERWORLD movies). Ron Perlman is Gunnar the leader of an enemy tribe who winds up teaming up with them to stop the still living Moorwen. Together they devise a trap to kill the creature but it doesn't exactly work.

Although this derivative nonsense was inspired by PATHFINDER and THE LORD OF THE RINGS it also owes props to Roger Corman's ATTACK OF THE GIANT LEECHES! Director Howard McCain wrote the sequel UNDERWORLD: RISE OF THE LYCANS.

Thanks again to Tony and to anyone reading this!

Band Junk

TERRORVISION-1986-This is a stupid sci-fi/horror/comedy from the now defunct Empire Pictures who’s owner Charles Band flooded the video shelves with his direct to video projects.

An idiotic television obsessed family’s satellite dish is invaded by alien space junk. A blob like monster (that seems to have one eye attached to it’s penis) crushes heads and vaporizes its victims. They can also reanimate them so no one suspects expect the young son (Chad Allen). The victims include disco clad swinger parents (Gerrit Graham and Mary Woronov), their annoying grandfather (Bert Remsen) and two other “swingers” (Alejandro Rey and Randi Brooks). Their daughter (Diane Franklin) and her metal head boyfriend (Jonathan Gries) try teach the monster about Earth (“This is music. It’s almost as important as food”).

Director Ted Nicolaou made the SUBSPECIES series and other stuff for Band who’s brother Richard wrote the music. TV clips include scenes for ROBOT MONSTER and EARTH VS. THE FLYING SAUCERS.

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Zontar Strikes!

ZONTAR, THE THING FROM VENUS-1966-As most bad movie lovers know between 1965 and 1969 director Larry Buchanan made seven movies for AIP that the company released directly to TV. 5 of them were remakes of their ’50s horror/Sci-Fi movies. ZONTAR is an un-credited remake of Roger Corman’s IT CONQUERED THE WORLD. It’s pretty bad but kind of fun.

John Agar (in the Peter Graves role) is the scientist in charge of a recently launched satellite. Antony Houston has the Lee Van Cleef  part, another scientist who is in contact with a visitor from Venus hold up in a cave. Weird flying insects roam around turning victims into zombies. The acting is mostly atrocious but Agar is pretty good at delivering a lot of serious lines! I don’t know if this is on DVD (don’t buy it if it is!) but the print I saw was washed out and very choppy.

Agar was also in Buchanan’s CURSE OF THE SWAMP CREATURE the same year. Bill Thurman, a Buchanan regular, has a role as well as many other actors and crew.

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