Hey, you know that stack of Severin Films DVD’s* I have here to give to some cinematically deprived soul out there? Yup, they’re still here, all boxed up and ready to go get shipped out anywhere in the US. Instead of picking a subscriber from a list, we’re changing that to whoever (and yes, you still have to live in the US!) replies to this post and is willing to let me be that not so Secret Santa who might have had a few too many Egg Nogs. Anyway, I have to go out for a few hours and will return later this afternoon, so you know what to do (I hope!)
*Note: there’s at least one Blu-Ray in the stack, Maybe Santa will slip up and add another? Who knows?
Alrighty, I haven’t done a giveaway in a LONG while, but I was going through a huge pile of movies here and found a stack of sealed duplicates that I picked up from a Severin Films sale last year when they were clearing out their DVD section, so I ended up with a dozen or so extras. Anyway, I like surprising people at random, so yep, I’m going to gift ONE lucky reader with these discs and that person has to do nothing but wait for the box to arrive. Of course, there’s a catch or two:
One, you have to be a subscriber to the blog. Two, you need to be a US resident. Sorry about that last part, but it’s far easier and a lot less expensive to just ship a box of movies almost anywhere in the US than to deal with customs forms and the package being delayed, opened and inspected by overzealous types out there.
No, YOU’RE throwing your back out dancing around the room to this!
SO, what IS inside the box, you ask? Well, let’s just say it’s a mix of genres and leave it at that. I think there’s one kid friendly film on the mix, a few horror films, a trailer collection and other strange stuff. Everything seems to be out of production from the distributor or rights have changed hands, so jump into the pool, if you’re able to. I’ll randomly pick someone off my subscriber list and shoot an email out to that person asking if they want the movies (say yes, please) and I’ll ship out your box around the end of the week. OR, you can reply in the comments without giving out personal info and if you’re chosen, we can work out the details via email. NO, I won’t sell your info to some shady company or send you those Sea Monkeys you ordered back when you were a kid. I guess it’s just me trying to be more human than “social” or something. An experiment, if you will. Humor me and be rewarded in the process. Good luck!
When a little film called Star Wars was released back in 1977, I was one of a seeming minority who didn’t go rush out to see it. Not that I didn’t want to, mind you. There were assorted issues and I was out of the loop for a bit in my movie viewing. It wasn’t until summer 1978 when a friend of the family popped by to ask if I was interested in going to see the film, which of course, I agreed to. We arrived to the theater late, walking in on the scene where Luke and his Uncle Ben are buying C-3PO and R2-D2, so that was disappointing. But we agreed to watch the film a second time and sat through the second part of the double feature, a rather unusual science fiction film from 10 years earlier called The Terrornauts. I’m guessing that whomever picked this as a good film to show with Star Wars had never seen either movie or just thought “well, it’s also a space flick sooooo…” (or something like that). Seeing movies in Times Square was very often bizarre like that, from what I understand and recall from a few odd occasions.
It followed me home- can I keep it?
Anyway, the plot: a small team of scientists working for Star Talk, a UK-based organization dedicated to tracking signals from outer space in order to find life on distant planets, get a lot more than they bargained for when not only do they get that signal, aliens decide to yank their entire facility off the Earth and deliver it to their planet where there’s an interplanetary war about to take place. Guess who gets to stop that war with more war in the lowest budget manner (we’re talking Woolworth shower caps as a costuming option, folks). Yes, we sat through this flick just to see the other one and yes, when I told friends at school, they all laughed at me for seeing Star Wars over a year late.
The more amusing thing was around a year later, The Terrornauts started popping up semi-frequently on local TV, so I was able to introduce it to some new friends and yes, we hated it, but found plenty of amusement at the visual effects and general cheesiness of the film. At least they got in a shot that’s replicated almost exactly on the film’s poster art. On the other hand this wasn’t an interstellar epic like Star Wars or even a This Island Earth on a less than shoestring budget.There are plenty of good intentions here, it’s just that the execution is somewhat off the mark.
Ouch! (almost)
While the film is far from Amicus Productions better known films, it has it’s share of fans out there who grew up watching this on television, so nostalgia wins here. However, it’s pretty much forgotten these days, as it isn’t legally available on disc and the digital version isn’t 100 percent flawless when you can find it online. I also had the luxury back in the day to read the book the film is based on, Murray Leinster’s 1960 novel The Wailing Asteroid, which is a “hard” science fiction tale much more suited to a film with a much more robust budget. The goofy bit here is Murray Leinster is the name of the ship at the beginning of the 1978 film Starcrash, which I saw shortly after it’s release (on Times Square, of course). Yes, I’ll have to get to that film again one day in review form, but not for a while, as it’s so mind numbing and silly in a like-ably weird manner.
Anyway, this post is part of The Hammer-Amicus Blogathon IV, hosted by Barry over at Cinematic Catharsis and Gill from Realweegiemidget Reviews. I’m posting a few days early due to a few previous commitments, but make sure to pop on over to get a peek at the other posts. As for me? Well, I’ll be back sooner that later- it says so on my contract!
So, my post for the blogathon below is all done and scheduled, but WordPress weirdness mucked up the header I wanted to use and you all just have to wait until the end of the week so I can yell at the sky and attempt to re-edit the piece. (Some of you know how this goes, I hope.)- I’m taking a few days off to sort out some health issues, but I’ll pop in and throw a few sentences together just to liven the place up a bit. Have a great week or just a good one, for that matter.
Yes, I’m still here, folks. Just a bit too occupied with real life these days. Now, where were we? So, The really funny thing is, I actually found some folks to give my most awful candy to and it was quite by accident. Previously, what you got was a total surprise and I’m sure kids got what they wanted more often than not while most of the adults who picked out their own treats seemed pleased, although on a few occasions, some parental units actually asked for the “worst” candy I had because they had a kid that had misbehaved in some way and they wanted to prove that The Great Pumpkin was cut from the same fictional cloth as Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny or whomever. I had previously made a separate bucket for the oddball candy and usually had enough to hand out later in the evening, but one year, an elderly gentlemen popped up beside me and asked if I had any Circus Peanuts(oog) because he and his brother loved them back in the day, but his strict parents despised Halloween and wouldn’t let them go celebrate the holiday for whatever reason.
“Sometimes, you feel like a nut…”
Sometimes, a little sugar therapy goes a long way and when I told the old man that not only did I have a bunch of sealed bags of Circus Peanuts, he was welcome to as many as he wanted, he surprised me by rooting carefully through the buckets and grabbing all of the pesky peanuts, stopping every few seconds to ask me if it was OK that he was taking them. “Sure!” was my response, as I knew I’d have issues getting rid of all those so-called “peanuts” when trick or treaters would come around later in the evening. Yes, I did mention to him to go easy with all that candy, and while he cheerfully munched on a handful, he smiled and said “It’s a good thing these last forever!” and “You know, these aren’t bad STALE!” which made me gag a little, I’ll admit. The next year. I remembered to deliberately by two of three bags just for him and he was too happy that I remembered and even the Security guards didn’t mind if there was a Halloween or two with bad weather and I left a few bags in the security booth for him to pick up later. One year, I recall telling him I had a few sealed bags of candy corn left and he laughed and said “What am I supposed to do with that?” My personal (and yes, snarky) recommendation was to make some sort of “fancy” holiday candy “salad” and share it with friends, but I already have enough trouble with friends who actually follow my often bad advice, let alone nice strangers who I’ve recently met.
I’ve only been egged once while handing out treats, and it was thanks to some Catholic school punks (it’s always the “good” kids, right?), but I was more annoyed at having to rush home, take a quick shower and change than getting overly upset at some teens having a bit of stupid fun. That said, the perks of this gifty gig have outweighed the few bad spots. On a few occasions, people have surprised me with their generosity. I still recall all those free cups of coffee from the diner across the street from the park and the server from the diner who’d show up in costume and joke around with us before or after her shift. One year she was dressed as Flo from the old TV show Alice, one year she was a somewhat spectacular Bride of Frankenstein (her daughter did a great job on her hair and makeup) and she really got into the spirit of the season with her other costumes. As most of her customers were older residents, she’d sometimes take requests and dress as characters from old films or TV shows, sometimes with costume changes mid-shift. One chilly Halloween, she popped over to drop off a few orders of pumpkin pancakes with bacon (they were awesome).
You never know who you might meet…
This may be the last year I’ll be able to do this, given the current world situation (Where’s that damn asteroid? It’s a bit late, you know?). But I’ll be my normally sunny self until that day comes or I decide it’s a good year to go on an actual vacation. My doctor made me laugh a few weeks ago when he said his own kids noted he’s in his YOLO phase about a few things. Yeah, me too (sound of bones creaking and other old coot stuff)… Happy Halloween!
No, this isn’t written from the great beyond (note the date, please). I’ve just been a bit (way, no, really, WAAAAAAAAAY) too occupied, is all. I’m sure you all know the drill these days. Life, being the completely unlicensed steamroller driver it is, runs you over, then backs it up, flashing lights and all, to finish the job. Which it then repeats, no matter which street you’ve decided to cross the next day. I’ve learned to mentally carry a few hastily scribbled cartoon sound effects around for such emergencies, but it seems if if every day. SOMETHING is happening to SOMEONE and it’s less likely to be good (or even good-adjacent) news.
To add to that, all that extra baggage can (and will, trust me) lead one to be all that more under-prepared for those times when the mental load needs a required respite from the other 23.9 hours of lousy news one receives when using “social” media these days. “Socially diseased” is more like it (zing!). On one hand, all one supposes is that all one needs to do is constantly “think positively” and/or just be around to angelically post endless inspirational/motivational platitudes to combat all that negativity. Which more than likely on the other hand, just won’t work realistically with most people living online in their separate, but still shared with too many who desire you stay as miserable as they are individuals and groups. Cue segue, please? (taps fast forward button).
You KNOW you’ve had those moments…
I remember quite a long while back, my mother rolling out some sage commentary that went as follows: “Just because something is popular, doesn’t mean it’s good”. Now, if I recall, she was talking about one of my favorite TV shows at the time and I was feeling a little bit personally insulted by this at the time, as you can imagine. But I soon realized this was a healthy discourse and the internet wasn’t around to convince me otherwise. No moral here, other than wisely take a little break from things before they get too far out of hand and outside of your control. No one will miss you (much) and you get to return when you like and feel somewhat more refreshed. OK. maybe some rinsing and repeating in involved, but as they say, a mind is a terrible thing to waste. Back later with more but less moralizing on this end- I almost forgot I even had a blog for a minute until the renewal notice popped up via my inbox!
I’m still waiting for the Slow Company movie, but I’m patient…
I think it was around 1983 or so and I’d seen four or five films by David Cronenberg when I found out he’d made the 1979 drag racing centered “B” movie Fast Company. At the time I had to search around for a video store that carried it because in the US, it wasn’t readily available as far as I was seeing. A friend of a friend got a copy of the film from one of his sources not too long afterward because he was just as curious as I was and its funny how that sort of thing works out, isn’t it? I recall liking the car stuff, but not liking the plot much, but overall it was a decent popcorn flick provided you didn’t take the story at all seriously.
Watching it again more recently reveals it’s still a pretty pedestrian (ha-ha) movie with a some great car action, a touch of sex and nudity not uncommon to the era and if you didn’t know it was directed by Cronenberg, you’d think you’ve gotten a pretty good made for cable flick from a time capsule. It’s not a badly made film at all, though. In fact, some of the drag race scenes and a later car reconstruction scene benefit from Cronenberg’s attention to detail and his real-life obsession with the sport. Hey, everyone needs a hobby, right? You could say “All body horror and no play make Jack a dull boy”, but that’s not true if you stop and think about it. Still, variety is indeed, the spice of life, so this one’s special like that.
By 1981, I’d seen The Brain That Wouldn’t Die on TV maybe a half dozen times and had started going to sci-fi conventions the previous year, my first being the old Creation Conventions here in NYC. I bring this up because it was at one in 1981 where I met a rather quirky gentleman named Jack Tiger(J.G. to his friends) and ended up working with him on a project that could have been popular at the time, but wasn’t able to get fully off the ground.
Now, I should be reviewing either one of his two low-budget films here or at the very least the film that gained me some temporary employment with the man, Frankenstein’s Bloody Terror, a film that had neither a Frankenstein and thanks to the censors here, nor much Bloody Terror in it. Now, I’ll admit that I haven’t seen it in decades and really need to do so again, but in its original uncut Spanish version. Also, I’ve only ever seen one of Jack’s films by very happy accident a few years back on TCM when I came home very early in the morning from a lousy party I stayed too long at, and it was on TV unexpectedly. So, Brain it is because it’s a fun flick and there’s also a small personal connection there you’ll read on and find out about. So, read on, please.
Jan thought the Doc was kidding when he said she could lose about 100 pounds in a crash diet…
“You’re gonna stay in this picture and LIKE it, Mister!”
From looking at this list in comparison with these much longer ones, it seems to me that in the 1960’s, science fiction flicks exclusively made in the US were in a bit of a rut. You can also see from those longer lists that horror films have fared far better and you can probably name quite a few memorable fright films from the era off the top of your head from Carnival of Souls, Night of the Living Dead, A few Herschel Gordon Lewis flicks, Rosemary’s Baby and many (many) more. Let’s just say that truncated list in the last sentence was about 20 or so films before common sense made me edit it down.
The reason I’m focusing on US-made films is simple. As other countries were just more prolific and innovative in their sci-fi films and during this time, the US seemed not to know what to do well despite kicking off and ending the decade with some pretty solid films (1960’s The Time Machine and 1968’s 2001: A Space Odyssey). Which brings us to one of the less stellar efforts of the decade, 1966’s The Navy vs The Night Monsters. The film looks and feels as if it was made a decade earlier and interestingly enough, the best thing about it is the actress playing the requisite eye candy, Mamie Van Doren. “Best” meaning she plays her role as straight as can be does it without chewing the scenery or mugging it up for zero laughs like some of the guys here do. Stripped of its silly jokes, it might have been a decent “B” flick, but hey – some things just won’t die a natural death.
It’s too hot for meatballs, but it’s going to get hotter, Tor.
I first saw this really awful and brilliantly bad sci-fi flick very late at night some years ago and again recently after overhearing someone in a diner hilariously recast the Avengers movies as period pieces set in the early 60’s. Yes, Tor Johnson was The Hulk in that person’s version. While you roll that around in your noggin, be warned that The Beast of Yucca Flats is a pretty horrible movie with only three redeeming factors:
1. It’s only 54 minutes or so long. Okay, it’s a long 54 minutes, so there’s that.
2. If you’re in a foul mood, you very likely won’t be in 54 minutes or so*.
3. It almost makes Plan 9 from Outer Space or Robot Monster look like Star Wars movies (which ones are up to you).
I think it was around 1983 or so and I’d seen four or five films by David Cronenberg when I found out he’d made the 1979 drag racing centered “B” movie 
By 1981, I’d seen 
From looking at 
I first saw this really awful and brilliantly bad sci-fi flick very late at night some years ago and again recently after overhearing someone in a diner hilariously recast the Avengers movies as period pieces set in the early 60’s. Yes, Tor Johnson was The Hulk in that person’s version. While you roll that around in your noggin, be warned that The Beast of Yucca Flats is a pretty horrible movie with only three redeeming factors:
"DESTROY ALL FANBOYS!" 