Joe

 

 (imdb)

MIGHTY JOE YOUNG-1949-Entrepreneur Max O'Hara (Robert Armstrong) goes to Africa to get wild animals for his new night club. What he finds is Joe, a giant gorilla raised by Jill (Terry Moore). Despite the protestations of big lug cowboy Gregg Johnson (Ben Johnson), O'Hara convinces Jill to bring Joe to America to be exhibited at his club. They're a big hit until 3 drunks (Douglas Fowley & Nestor Paiva are two of them) make him mad and he escapes and destroys the club. The poor ape is sentenced to be shot. A plot is hatched to save Joe leading to a climatic scene at a burning orphanage (tinted red) where Joe saves the lives of two children. 

This is a wonderful little fantasy with meticulous and brilliant stop motion SFX by (among others) Willis O'Brien, Marcel Delgado and Ray Harryhausen. It was directed by Ernest Schoedsack from a story by Merian C. Cooper (the screenplay is by Ruth Rose who also wrote the screenplay for KING KONG which was co-directed by Cooper and Schoedsack without credit!). Many familiar character actors have brief scenes in MIGHTY JOE YOUNG: Regis Toomey, James Flavin (also in KING KONG), Iris Adrian, Bobby Barber, Joe Devlin, Richard Farnsworth (also a stuntman on the film), Dwayne Hickman, Charles Lane, Franks J. Scannell, William Schallert and more. Wrestlers Henry Kulky, Sam Menacker, The Swedish Angel, Man Mountain Dean and Primo Canera also appear,

Thanks for reading!

Scorpions

 

 (YouTube)

THE BLACK SCORPION-1957-Hank (Richard Denning) and Doc Ramos (Carlos Rivas) investigate a volcano eruption in Mexico. They find a wrecked home, a smashed up police car, a dead police Sgt and a baby. After delivering the baby to a church, the priest tells them of some mysterious deaths and the legend of "the demon bull" that ranchers say kill their cattle. They meet rancher Theresa Alvarez (Mara Corday) after she falls off her horse. They become her guests and try to help out after a giant scorpion attacks. Juanito (Mario Navvaro), a little kid, hangs around acting cute. Dr. Valesco (Carlos Muzquiz) comes to evacuate the city and identifies the creature as a prehistoric scorpion. He says "I beg of you all not to lose your heads...in any sense of the word". Ramos & Hank go down into a huge underground cavern and besides scorpions encounter a giant worm and spider. PITA Juanito hides out with them and almost gets them killed. Dynamite seems to kill prehistoric scorpions but….

Despite it's low budget this movie is saved by the great stop motion SFX by Willis O'Brien and Pete Peterson. Some of it finished, they say, in Peterson's garage due to budget constrictions. The scorpion puppet was created by Wah Chang. Nice climax though I never liked that they killed a character needlessly to make Hank the hero.

 If Warner Brothers had spend some more money on this they would have had a real classic! Director Edward Ludwig began his career making silent short films, went into feature films when sound arrived (WAKE OF THE RED WITCH) and by the time of THE BLACK SCORPION was doing a lot TV. 

Thanks for reading!

Song of Kong

  (TCM.com)

SON OF KONG-1933-In the aftermath of King Kong's rampage, Carl Denham (Rboert Armstrong) is hiding out in a boarding house trying to avoid process servers. After he meets up again with Capt. Engelhorn (Frank Reicher), they leave NYC and wind up in the Dutch Indies. There they see a show of performing monkeys run by a young woman Hila (Helen Mack) and her father. At night the old man is drinking with a former ship captain Hellstrom (John Marston). The two have a fight and the old man is killed and their place burns down. 

Hellstrom it turns out sold the original map of Skull Island to Denham. He tells the two about another map that leads to a treasure on the island. They set sail and unknown to them Hilda has stowed aboard. Later due to Hellstrom's meddling the crew mutinies. Denham, Engelhorn, Hida and Charlie the cook (Victor Wong) are cast adrift. Hellstrom is thrown over too. They make it to the island but the chief of the natives (returning Noble Johnson) forces them to flee. On another part of the island they find a white haired mini-Kong who's much cuter, friendlier and more helpful than dad. Baby Kong (as he's referred to) fights a dinosaur and a giant bear. The group find a treasure but an earthquake strikes. Hellstrom is eaten by a sea serpent. The island sinks. Poor Kong Jr. drowns saving Denham's life. A ship picks up the survivors and they split the treasure Denham managed to save. 

Released just 9 months after KING KONG this sequel was produced by Ernest Schoedsack (who also directed) and Merian C. Cooper who presented the original. It features more amazing stop motion effects by Willis O'Brien and Harry Redmond Jr (both not credited). The story is more lighthearted than KK but the ending in some ways is much sadder.

Thanks for reading!

Harryhausen!

 

IT CAME FROM BENEATH THE SEA-1955-Commander Pete Mathews (Kenneth Tobey) and professor Leslie Joyce (Faith Domergue; in THIS ISLAND EARTH the same year) are friendemies investigating a strange occurrence at sea. Brilliant scientist John Carter (Donald Curtis) joins them. They figure out it's a giant octopus which attacks and sinks a ship. While checking out the incident the trio come face to face with the monster and it kills a local deputy (Harry Lauter). Later it attacks the Golden Gate Bridge. Pete and John head a submarine to blow up the creature after it terrorizes San Francisco. It traps their sub and Pete has to go out and plant explosives. 

Despite a low budget this features some great Ray Harryhausen sfx. Too bad director Robert Gordon (THE JOE LOUIS STORY; a former actor) went into TV soon after this.

Thanks for reading!

Stop Motion Monster Cheapie

 

THE CRATER LAKE MONSTER-1977-At Crater Lake in Northern California, archaeologist Dan Turner (Richard Garrison) and his girlfriend Sue (Kacey Cobb) show a professor some cave drawings they discovered. There's a cave-in but they escape just as a meteor falls into the lake. The trio along with Sheriff Steve Hanson (co-screenwriter Richard Carella) go to investigate. They find the meteor but it's too hot. 

Later a giant (stop motion) dinosaur emerges from the lake and kills a hiker and eats a rancher's cattle. Someone calls to report seeing a monster but the sheriff doesn't believe it. When two hillbillies have a fight in the lake they discover the severed head of a guy they rented a boat to. A side story involving a robber who kills two people just seems to be filler. Somehow Steve kills the monster using a bulldozer. The monster and the stop motion (by Dave Allen) isn't bad but the acting is terrible and the music seems out of place. Co-screenwriter/director William R. Stromberg never made another movie.

Thanks for reading!

Equinox

EQUINOX-1970-After an explosion, a man runs through the forest (after finding a dead woman). He makes it to the highway but is hit by a car that has no driver. A couple in another car stop to help him. A year later, the man, named David (Edward Connell), is in a mental institution ranting about good and evil and obsessed with a cross he has. A reporter named Sloan tries to interview him (“nutty stuff”). When Sloan shows David a picture of the missing Dr. Waterman (fantasy/horror writer Fritz Lieber), it triggers a flashback and he attacks Sloan. Through a tape recording he made earlier David relates how he and three friends (Susan, Vicki & Tim) go to visit Waterman in his secluded cabin. They find the cabin a wreck. They also meets a weird acting sheriff named Asmodeus (co-director Jack Woods)! Later they discover a castle in the distance and decide to check it out. After hearing eerie laughter and finding non-human tracks, they make torches and enter a dark cave. They meet a crazy old man who gives them an ancient book. They leave the cave and Dr. Waterman suddenly shows up and steals the book. Giving chase, David tackles him and he dies but his body disappears. Meanwhile, Susan (Barbara Hewitt), left alone is terrorized by Asmodeus who puts on a strange ring, turns rather evil looking, slobbers on her and tries to molest her but her cross drives him away. When David reads the professor's notes he learns that Waterman used the ancient book (“a bible of evil”) to open up a demon portal (very weird flashbacks accompany the narration). The castle disappears, the guys go to investigate and Asmodeus sends a (stop motion clay) monster to kill the old man from the cave. Somehow David kills the monster using only a sharpened tree branch. Susan becomes possessed and attacks Vicki (Robin Christopher). Later Asmodeus tries to convince Jim (Frank Boers) to give him the book, then sets a giant green caveman on the group. David goes after Jim when he enters another dimension where Asmodeus kills Jim and impersonates him. They have a fight and Asmodeus-Jim turns into a winged demon and kills Vicki. David and Susan run (with the book in tow). The winged demon is destroyed by a cross on a grave but Susan also dies. A mysteriously shrouded creature tells David in a year and one day he will be dead. The scene of David being hit by the driver-less car is shown and the tape ends. It happens to be a year and a day later and David is strapped into a straitjacket yelling for his cross he lost in his tussle with Sloan. On his way out the reporter eyes a pretty woman as he leaves: Susan, now obviously a demonic assassin.....

EQUINOX was originally filmed in 1967 by Dennis Muren on a budget said to be around 6000 dollars! The interesting stop animation was done by Jim Danforth (who'd created similar creatures for the X-rated FLESH GORDON) and Dave Allen (he later animated “The Pillsbury Doughboy”). Producer Jack H. Harris picked it up and had sound editor Jack Woods direct new scenes (leading to several continuity lapses). Despite those errors, the small budget and some bad acting E is a lot of fun (and a little frightening at times) and obviously inspired Sam Raimi's THE EVIL DEAD.  

Thanks for reading!

The Gate Opens

THE GATE-1987-Some stupid parents leave their teenage daughter in charge of their house and her younger brother Glen (Stephen Dorff) for three days. Glen and his nerdy friend (Louis Tripp) find a rock buried in the ground. The death of Glen’s dog and a heavy metal album played backwards somehow open up a gate that releases stop motion mini-monsters to terrorize the trio.

 The effects are pretty good in this low budget but entertaining movie. Director Tibor Takacs later made I, MADMAN and GATE 2: THE TRESPASSERS.

Thanks for reading!