Posted on 06/08/2009 10:56:33 PM PDT by Osnome
I like the b-movies of the 1950's and 1960's the best.
Little or no foul language, not too much violence, and the wacky cheesy monsters they created. Today it is all femminazi superbimbos in charge, tons of CGI effects, and they are all produced in Canada :-Z
Last night I watched a sci-fi flick from 1962 called: Journey To The Seventh Planet, that had some really hokey monsters- one of which was a one-eyed dinosaur creature with rat-like features and big three fingered claws. This film was created by the same team that made ANGREY RED PLANET of 1959. Ib Melchior wrote that flick and this one and many others. Ever see 'Planet Of The Vampires' 1965 by Mario Bava? That film was inspiration for ALIEN.
My fave (also, IMO, the scariest) was Dracula has Risen from the Grave. I slept with the light on for almost a year after seeing that one. Christopher Lee was just awesome.
Other cherished faves are:
The Abominable Doctor Phibes and Doctor Phibes Rises Again, both starring Vincent Price;
Mask of the Red Death (also starring Vincent Price);
Scream and Scream Again (A Brit film comprised of various vignettes).
I dunno. The old British film makers had a great knack for creating awesome psychological and visual thrillers. Love them.
Your image/picture did not download.
>>Some really cool B movies were the Jason and the Argonauts Ray Harryhausen movies.
<<
I do not think he has made anything since CLASH OF THE TITANS, which is being remade~ ~ to which I ask: why?
CALTIKI The Immortal Enemy, from 1959, a movie whic I think forms much of the story and charcter basis of Dean R. Koontz’s novel: PHANTOMS.
Also bearing mention is the original "The Fly".
And already mentioned "The Thing". Another one I still enjoy.
Actually that was Lee's least favorite of his Dracula films from the 1960’s.
I liked it especially because of that busty barmaid with the red hair and the luscious cleavage.
I was so unhappy when she got killed in that horrible way!
That actress did not star in any other of these movies as far as I know.
The Crawling Hand...The Blob... so many.
Yes that was one of the very first, but I think RED PLANET MARS came out sooner.
Different story~ no alien take-over-your-body possessions,
but it had obvious Cold War motifs- actually it was more like blatant propaganda.
Cronenberg has recently helped to create a stage play based on the 1950’s version.
The set designer of that Howard Hughes movie builds the laboratory set for the stage.
He mesches 40’s 50’s and early 60’s tech to create the retrotech look.
The Crawling Hand ?
Could you please refresh my memory.
Not to be confused with that 1981 horror flick with Michael Caine?
Cronenberg is one strange fellow, could be interesting.
Make it short, no spoiler, they never actually go to Mars, and it has a twist ending.
>>>some guy named Seymore
Not just some guy. That was Larry Vincent, who before getting into horror hosting recorded various novelty records. Amongst his better tunes were The Wong Song ( Wong has the largest tong in China) and The Freckle Song ( She has freckles on her - but - she is nice ).
A quite extraordinary artist.
>>>until Rhonda Shear and Up All Night!
Despised her, USA Network took away my Night Flight to make room for that show. Television hasn’t been the same since.
The Cast:
Hank - Russell Johnson! In addition to being the only useful member of the group he hates crabs on general principle. Electrocutes himself and the last crab, thus saving mankind.
Martha and Dale - Biologists in love, though Martha was just about ready to give Hank a test drive. Her boyfriend is a putz.
Karl Weigand - Nuclear physicist, first to suspect the existence of mutated monsters, the last to get eaten.
Jules Deveroux - French botanist who has one hand cut off by falling rocks. He does not even have time to contemplate how that will affect his sex life before a crab eats him.
James Carson - Geologist and light snack.
Two Navy Guys - Trained in demolition, though they must have been swabbing the deck when safety was taught. Crab chow.
The Crab Monsters - Giant mutated land crabs with human eyes, not only are they nearly impossible to kill, the creatures absorb their victim’s intellect by consuming the brain and can project voices through metal objects. (At one point an ashtray is speaking in Jules’ voice.) Hank kills both of them.
The Plot:
After a group of scientists studying the effects of nuclear radiation disappears there is only one thing to do, send another group armed with grenades and rifles to replace them. Unfortunately the floatplane, which transported the team, explodes on takeoff and leaves them marooned and their radio rendered temporarily useless by severe weather.
The Researchers begin conducting experiments on the rapidly shrinking atoll, never guessing what horrors await. Perhaps you are wondering why it’s shrinking. Well, the mutated crabs are doing it to make killing the humans easier, despite have no problem killing the previous party on a full sized island. I guess they don’t like having to chase down their prey. It is even worse than we imagined! In addition to being huge, mutated, man-eating, and nearly indestructible the monsters are fat and lazy to boot! Obviously people and atolls are fattening. Over the period of a few days the crabs destroy several square miles of rock. It is pretty darn impressive, but why did the scientists get worried when the clawed landscapers stole two cases of dynamite? Oh no! They might blow up a large boulder or two! The monsters ate half the atoll already, without the explosives, using dynamite would probably slow them down.
We are informed these were land crabs, and I’m hardly an expert, but all the crustaceans would appear to possibly be Dungeness Crabs. Considering the movie was probably shot along the California coast you have to agree it is a plausible hypothesis. Plus the monsters are always accompanied by strange clacking sounds which I suppose is their limbs and joints. Personally it reminds me of an evening at Red Lobster, listening to a fat guy two tables over attack his dinner with cracker and mallet. You sir, are a truly disgusting human being.
With the island reduced to a small rock outcropping and the last crab monster closing in all seems lost, until Hank climbs the antenna and brings it down on the advancing horror in a shower of sparks. Where the device was still drawing power from is beyond me, but my brain clicked over to “standby” during the opening credits anyway.
Thank you for your megadose of information you feel compelled to deluge us with, but I already saw the picture on DVD from NetFlix.
Enough already!
Okay, but I do not have an IPod nor do I have anything other than dial-up.
>>>>>until Rhonda Shear and Up All Night!
Despised her, USA Network took away my Night Flight to make room for that show. Television hasn’t been the same since.
<<
Yeah, Rhonda Shear was/is a slut.
Seymore was on channel 9(in the 1970s) as I dimly recall, he was followed by Grimsley then Elvira
Is the movie “War Eagles” the story of Auburn football?
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