The Bloody Pit #219 - NYOKA AND THE TIGERMAN (1942)

Chris Herzog returns to the show to discuss one of the best of Republic Pictures’ serials. NYOKA AND THE TIGERMEN (1942) is a fantastic example of the chapterplay form but gets forgotten when people talk about the best the studio produced. Revisiting this action-packed adventure proves that it deserves to be mentioned as one of the finest serials ever made. Where is the Blu-Ray?

We discuss the cast in some detail and relate a few behind the scenes anecdotes. Since this is one of only eight serials lead by a female character, we spend some time on how Nyoka both conforms to and breaks from the usual conventions of the format. It’s nice to have an action hero woman mixing it up in the fights and killing bad guys rather than finding new ways to be knocked unconscious! The lead villain is a woman as well giving us a driven Queen Vultura bent on destroying all who stand in her way. Dangerous females indeed! We also get the future Lone Ranger as one of the good guys ably assisted by the excellent stunt team that Republic always used. They will make you believe in leaping over tables and from great heights. And I can’t stop myself from pointing out how many members of the cast show up in various Poverty Row horror films with Bela Lugosi. Sorry about my fixations but you really should see the trainwreck that is BLACK DRAGONS (1942). And did we mention the gorilla named Satan?

If you have any comments or suggestions about the show thebloodypit@gmail.com is the place to send them. We love hearing from you and hope you enjoy the podcast. 

Beyond Naschy #36 - ORLOFF AND THE INVISIBLE MAN (1970)

We return to the Beyond Naschy series with guest Bob Sargent making the choice of film this time out.

ORLOFF AND THE INVISIBLE MAN (1970) is not a movie that is often called out as a favorite of even the most hardened Euro-Cult horror fanatics. In the past it has been mistaken as a Jess Franco effort with the director’s name, Pierre Chevalier, suspected of being another of the prolific filmmaker’s many pseudonyms. This appears to not be factual but anyone stumbling across this movie unaware couldn’t be blamed for making that assumption. It shares many of the standard tropes and oddities of one of Franco’s color gothics from the period which makes it a good companion piece of Franco’s EROTIC RITES OF FRANKENSTEIN (1973) and DRACULA, PRISONER OF FRANKENSTEIN (1972). It even sports Franco’s original Orloff actor Howard Vernon as ‘Professor’ Orloff who has somehow created an invisible man for the usual mad scientist reasons. The film’s story is a mish-mash of prematurely buried daughters, accidental murders and greedy servants who are not above a bit of graverobbing. Add to that one of the strangest rape sequences in cinema history and some obviously missing story pieces and you have an entertaining if often confusing 76 minutes.

We talk about the cast and crew, including their various Naschy connections. We discuss the missing scenes that can be glimpsed in the French trailer for the film and in the extras included on the old Image DVD. We find some moments of real beauty in the cinematography and some unintentionally funny scenes that just don’t work. The English dialog causes quite a few laughs as we quote some standout circular conversations. Part of our discussion centers on the term ‘guilty pleasure’ and how each of the three of us feel about applying that overused phrase to our love of Euro-Cult cinema. As you might expect, there are more than a few verbal trips down barely connected cinema paths with the final forty-five minute mailbag section becoming a memory lane remembrance of our late friend Craig Ledbetter.

If you’d like to add you voice to the show naschycast@gmail.com is the place to send your thoughts and questions. Troy and I are very happy that Bob has joined us again and with a little luck we will have around for the rest of this year’s shows! Thanks for listening. 

The Bloody Pit #148 - CAPTIVE WILD WOMAN (1943)

We enter into one of the odder areas of the 1940’s Universal Horrors with CAPTIVE WILD WOMAN (1943)! The few jungle girl movies made by the studio in the 40's can be seen as a slightly faltering bridge between the occasional jungle themed serials of the 1930’s, the Weissmuller Tarzan series and the rapid growth of such film and television tales in the 1950’s. By the time the Jungle Jim and Bomba films were Saturday matinee staples while Sheena and Ramar were also enticing young viewers at home it seemed that you couldn't swing a dead panther without hitting a jungle hero. These tales of wild animals, poachers and evil treasure hunters were perfect adventure fodder for young minds and if the star was a leopard skin clad Jungle Girl then you might even find a few adults tuning in for the action.

CAPTIVE WILD WOMAN is an interesting attempt to build a mad scientist horror film out of a lot of exciting circus footage. It is more effective than you might expect but the ratio of horror stuff to circus stuff is probably weighted in the wrong direction. Troy and I chew our popcorn while watching the spectacle! Deciding which parts work and which ones are very strange occupy most of our time but we discuss the cast and director with some detail too.  The film only gives us a short period of time with Acquanetta’s silent wild woman/gorilla character but the 1932 animal act footage is skillfully integrated into the film almost making you forget this is supposed to be a horror tale. Luckily, John Carradine is one of the smoothest mad scientists of all time so it’s a joy to watch him slither across the screen.

The show can be reached at thebloodypit@gmail.com if you have any questions or comments. We would love to hear from you and we do wonder who you would name as best Jungle Girl or most impressive Mad Scientist. Thank you for listening! 

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