JOURNEY TO THE SEVENTH PLANET (1962) Lobby Cards and Poster Art

 

DESTINATION MOON (1950) Lobby Cards and Poster Art

 

IT! THE TERROR FROM OUTER SPACE (1958) Poster Art and Lobby Cards

 

IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE (1953) Poster Art and Lobby Cards

FORBIDDEN PLANET (1956) Lobby Cards and Poster Art

The Bloody Pit #197 - A BOY AND HIS DOG (1975)

Writer Randy Fox returns to discuss a classic science fiction film from the 1970’s. A BOY AND HIS DOG (1975) was a box office flop initially but became a beloved cult movie pretty quickly. It is one of the very few adaptations of a Harlan Ellison story that got the author’s 95% approval and we dig into the reasons for that in our discussion.

Hugely influential, the film stands as a still relevant template for post-apocalyptic cinema all the way up to the recent TV series FALLOUT. Made for less than half a million dollars it is the rare low budget science fiction film that doesn’t show its financial constraints and manages to turn some detriments into positives. Featuring a fine central performance from Don Johnson and excellent supporting work from his canine companion (voiced by actor/musician Tim McIntire) the movie brings the original story to life brilliantly. We discuss the differences from the novella and the reasons for them as well as the few smart improvements the script weaves into the tale. Randy and I share our histories with the film and our own encounters with the legendary Ellison over the years. We dig into the charges of misogyny and misanthropy that are often leveled at the movie pulling apart the details to search for defenses. We find a few. We are, of course, amused that the film takes place in 2024.    

If you have any comments about A BOY AND HIS DOG or other 1970’s science fiction films thebloodypit@gmail.com is the place to send them. Thank you for listening! 

What I Watched in May 2024

I feared that the trailers for ABIGAIL (2024) had given away the big surprise of the film and that knowing that it was a vampire picture might stunt its effectiveness. Happily, I was wrong. Structured much like FROM DUSK TIL DAWN (1996) the film starts as a lean mean crime story as we follow a crew kidnapping the ballerina child of a wealthy family. They hole up in an abandoned mansion to wait for the father to fork over a ransom that they will split and then be on their way. But the imprisoned little girl turns out to be a vicious monster much worse than the criminals and quickly the situation reverses itself with the humans under threat and the pint-sized vamp gleefully working her way through fresh victims. The film becomes an entertaining stalk and bite affair with the criminal victims being interesting if not exactly sympathetic rats in a cage. There is some good dialog, a little wit, some very good actors and a few surprises in the final third that make the entire story particularly satisfying. And I’d love to know how many gallons of blood were used to make this film! Things get pretty red and sticky as the corpses flop around. There have been some nice horror surprises this year so far and ABIGAIL is on the plus side.  

The List 

NINE GUESTS FOR A CRIME (1977) – 7 (giallo version of And Then There Were None)

ABIGAIL (2024) – 8 (crime film becomes vampire film and I love it!)

SPACE AMOEBA (1970) – 8 (rewatch)

3 FANTASTIC SUPERMEN (1967) – 6

RINGS OF FEAR (1978) – 6 (least of this loose trilogy of gialli)

ENCOUNTERS OF THE SPOOKY KIND (1980) – 8 (Sammo Hung horror/comedy is gold)

ANGELS FROM HELL (1968) – 4 (meandering biker film)

CHATTERBOX (1977) – 6 (slight, sloppy, silly comedy about a talking vagina)

HELLZAPOPPIN’ (1941) – 7 (actually fun Olsen & Johnson collection of stuff)

DEATH KISS (2018) – 3 (miserable right-wing screed masquerading as a vigilante film)

MAYA (1989) – 5 (flat Euro-horror)

THE TERROR (1963)- 6 (rewatch on Blu)

KINGDOM OF THE PLANET OF THE APES (2024) – 8

MUTE WITNESS (1995) – 6

WHITE SAVAGE (1943) – 6 (Maria Montez and Jon Hall in the South Seas)

THE GHOST WALKS (1934) – 5 (not bad old dark house tale)

THE JAGUAR (1963) – 6 (Franco’s Shakespearian western tragedy set in 1860’s Venezuela)  

DORELLIK (1967) – 6 (Italian spoof of the Diabolik fumetti)

SONS OF STEEL (1988) – 4 (pretty bad but I enjoyed the music)

MARK OF THE GORILLA (1950) – 5 (typical Jungle Jim adventure)

THEY HAVE CHANGED THEIR FACES (1971) – 7 (excellent modern vampire tale with a perfect bloodsucker metaphor at its heart)

THE LIFT (1983) – 4

THE FALL GUY (2024) – 7 (funny but the leads’ charm papers over the need for stakes)

PYGMY ISLAND (1950) – 5 (Jungle Jim adventure)

A BOY AND HIS DOG (1975) – 8 (rewatch on Blu)

FURY OF THE CONGO (1951) – 5 (Jungle Jim tale)

THE RETURN OF PETER GRIM (1935) – 6 (play adaptation with Barrymore)