Trailers From Hell - HORRORS OF THE BLACK MUSEUM (1959)

This is one of my favorite 'inventive deaths' movies! I think it might be a little too cruel at times, but watching Michael Gough chew the scenery like a hungry demon keeps me smiling the whole way through. Time to break out the Blu-Ray again! 

Re-Viewing ATTACK OF THE PUPPET PEOPLE (1958)

The other night I settled down to watch the ATTACK OF THE PUPPET PEOPLE (1958) for the second time in my life. The only reason I watched this in 2019 is because Shout Factory has been nice enough to put it out on a gorgeous looking Blu-ray. I've owned the old DVD for years but after my initial viewing easily slotted this film into the ‘why bother again’ category and placed it on the shelf. After the second viewing I'm thinking it might be time to get rid of both copies of this film as I can never imagine watching this thing again. There are a number of Bert I Gordon films that I enjoy but this one just does not have nearly enough in it to keep me consistently interested for its admittedly short running time. In fact, I find it to be a pretty good cure for insomnia even for someone as in love with films of this type as I am. It feels like a 45-minute long idea stretched to feature-length and is extraordinarily boring for long stretches. Not even the presence of the stalwart 50’s B-movie icon John Agar or his amiable female co-star June Kenney can keep this from being a pretty turgid affair.

The new Blu-ray does have a commentary by the great Tom Weaver and after the first 15 minutes I'll have to admit he's keeping me interested enough to finish listening to what he has to say. He's begun making a decent defense for the movie and a couple of his points so far have amused me, but I really doubt even the entire track is going to change my mind on the qualities of this Bert I Gordon effort. We’ll see though.

EARTH VS THE SPIDER (1958)

The other night I popped in my DVD of Bert I. Gordon's giant arachnid epic EARTH VS. THE SPIDER (1958) to revisit something I knew I would enjoy. I was coming off a run of pretty crappy first time horror film viewings so I just wanted to see something fun that I could count on to entertain me. It had been several years since my last watch (why does that sound confessional?) so I was surprised to note that the film is only 72 minutes long. Cool, I thought. Fun, fast and over before you know it! Woo boy, was I wrong.

Don't misunderstand me - I still really enjoyed watching EARTH VS. THE SPIDER but this time I noticed things I had ignored in the past. For instance - the sheriff of the small mountain town is very dubious about the teenager's claims of a giant spider but still immediately calls for a tanker truck of DDT to deal with the situation. That's an odd plotting shortcut as I would have expected him to first be confronted with proof of this outrageous claim before calling in such extraordinary (and expensive) resources. I suspect this was done to keep the film short but it stands out as a strange move for such a skeptical authority figure.

Next I was amused to note just how long the hose from the DDT truck had to be to reach the spider's lair. The film makes it clear with all the footage of Carlsbad Caverns that the brave group of spider hunters are venturing very deeply into the cave. The workers just keep unspooling hose the entire time with nary a peep about the distance. That is one very long hose!

Third, and most distressing to me, is that even at this short length the film has stretches of dullness that could have been easily shortened. The second time we watch characters descend a hillside to examine a wrecked truck or walk a long distance into a cave I kept thinking that the editor had fallen asleep or stepped out for a smoke. Of course, I know that this footage is in the film to push the movie to feature length but it makes the whole thing feel overlong even with this brief running time.

While I enjoyed watching the film it was strange to notice these problems this time around. My memory was of an engaging if low budget giant monster vs. teenagers tale but what I got was a fairly average AIP effort that shows its weaknesses all too clearly. It's still a fun film for me and I assume for fans of genre cinema of the 1950's, but I think Mr. BIG did better work. Or did he? It might be time for a career retrospective.  

AIP Poster Art