Brief Thoughts - FIRST MAN INTO SPACE (1959)

The other night I pulled out my DVD of FIRST MAN INTO SPACE(1959) because I couldn't remember if I had watched it yet. When I first purchased the four movie Criterion set it is a part of I know I watched the two Karloff films and I vaguely remember THE ATOMIC SUBMARINE (1959)  but FMIS was not bringing back any images linked to the title. Now that I have watched (rewatched ?) it I can say that the reason it might not have stuck with me is that it is pretty much a remake of Hammer's THE QUATERMASS XPERIMENT (1955). The plot of both films are almost identical with only a few character's relationships slightly changed to differentiate things. I wonder if Hammer or Nigel Kneale ever thought about taking legal action. Adding to my amusement in comparing the two films is that both were made in Britain but FIRST MAN INTO SPACE tries (and fails) to maintain the idea that it takes place in New Mexico. Sorry, but New Mexico is just not that cold in the middle of the day, folks. Seeing Marshall Thompson bundled up in a parka and everyone's breath steaming around was quite funny.

Of the two THE QUATERMASS XPERIMENT is much better but it's unofficial remake isn't terrible. 

Beyond Naschy #18 - SANTO VS DOCTOR DEATH (1973)

This episode of Beyond Naschy has us coloring outside the lines in a couple of different ways. We are covering a Mexican wrestling film starring the magnificent El Santo which puts us well outside of our usual area of expertise. So, to add some well needed context and background, we called up our buddy Juan from the Creepy Swamps to help us understand the world of Santo and his amazing career. If you have ever listened to the excellent B-Moviecast show you will be aware of Juan and his deep knowledge of cinema. His lifelong fascination with horror and science fiction movies has made him a great resource for information on classic (and not so classic) b-flicks and we are thrilled he agreed to join us for this discussion. We talk about SANTO VS DOCTOR DEATH as well as El Santo comic books and I even get him to list his favorite movies from the great masked wrestler's career.

Then, of course, Troy and I put the film under the microscope and marvel at its high quality. Filmed mostly in Spain it stars several Spanish actors familiar to fans of Paul Naschy. In fact, this movie feels a lot more like a Euro-Spy film than a typical Santo adventure but it fits comfortably in both worlds. We talk about the great secret life Santo has as a freelance Interpol agent, the joys of Mexican style wrestling, the ability to fly on commercial aircraft wearing a mask, what accommodations you can expect when you buy a castle and just how far some people will go to own art. Both of us were impressed with the well choreographed fight scenes throughout the film and any movie that ends with a combination boat/helicopter chase is obviously a classic! Be aware that we spoil the entire film so if that is something you wish to avoid you might want to stop the show at about the two hour mark. Sadly, that means you will miss the mailbag section which is packed with some great information regarding our last three shows.

And if you have any information for us the email address is naschycast@gmail.com or you can find us over on the Facebook page. If you subscribe through iTunes please consider rating and reviewing the show over there. Thanks for downloading and listening!

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Santo & Friends 

HOUSE OF THE LIVING DEAD (1973)

Part the second! 

The South African made 1973 film House of the Living Dead is on this Blu-ray more as an extra than a full blooded second feature. The story takes place in the late 1800's in the Cape Colony of South Africa where an aristocratic English family own and run a large plantation farm. The family matriarch Lady Brattling (Margaret Inglis) is unhappy to learn that her son Michael’s lovely fiancée Mary (Shirley Anne Field) is about to arrive with her chaperone Dr. Collinson (David Oxley). Lady Brattling has advised against bringing outsiders to the plantation because of the unfortunate presence of her other son Breck (Mark Burns, playing both brothers) who seems to be deformed although we can't really tell since he covers his face in public. Breck hides away in his laboratory room conducting strange experiments based on a theory about capturing living souls through blood transfusion - paging Dr. Moreau! We see his tortuous experiments on a baboon he has captured in the jungle and it's clear his work is pretty unhinged.

Lady Brattling tries to stop the young girl from arriving believing that her family has a history of inescapable madness and that any outsiders will be in mortal danger. Of course, soon after Mary settles in to the big house Breck starts taking in unwilling humans for his experiments and things escalate out of control even as some of the deaths are attributed to voodoo curses which just adds to the confusion. The movie has a nice twist at the end but by the time you get there it is more of a curious moment than a surprise that makes the story resonate.

Shot in 1973, House of the Living Dead didn’t play in the states until years later and then only on the drive-in circuit so chances are good that this movie has been under the radar of most genre fans until now. I know I had never heard of it until I explored this release and after enjoying Hannah I was hoping for another little gem. Sadly, although the film’s production values are pretty high and the cast does a solid job overall  the film is fairly dull. The film starts well leading with plantation mystery and the ending is lively enough but the middle is a dead weight. This section of the movie just plods along with little energy often seeming to meander around to the point where I began to forget what was going on earlier.

If I had to guess I suspect that the producers were trying to give this the look of the Hammer Studio gothics of the 1960's. I will admit that I enjoyed watching the beautiful Shirley Anne Field work her way through the mystery hidden in the large house but she was really just required to scream a lot and then look pensive before screaming some more. If the film weren't so plodding it might be worth seeking out but that slow middle hour is deadly. This one is, at best, a one time watch for the Gothically curious but bring some caffeine for the ride.

Vinegar Syndrome's Blu presents the film sourced from a slightly scuffed up 35mm print and in the original 1.85:1 aspect ratio - it looks pretty muddy in the darker scenes. Colors are soft with little detail except in bright sequences and a sometimes distracting amount of grain throughout. The soundtrack is fine with more detail in the design of the creaks of the old house than I expected. Vinegar Syndrome has included a DVD of both films in the package using the same masters found on the Blu-ray and they even put Crypt of the Living Dead extras (trailer; alternate title sequence) on it as well. 

HANNAH, QUEEN OF THE VAMPIRES (1973) a.k.a. CRYPT OF THE LIVING DEAD

Vinegar Syndrome comes through again with a Blu-Ray double feature release that combines a 1970's Euro-Trash vampire movie and a really obscure 1970's British-made stab at a creepy plantation gothic. I wish more video companies would follow this template for films of this type and vintage giving a new audience a chance to see these often overlooked bits of genre history. Sometimes you find a hidden gem. Sometimes.

Hiding behind the title Crypt of the Living Dead is the public domain video standard Hannah, Queen of the Vampires. Until now I had managed to never see this feature because every time I tried the print available was nearly unwatchable. Luckily VS seems to have improved wonderfully on past transfers! Mechanical engineer Chris Bolton (genre regular Andrew Prine) travels to a Turkish locale know to its inhabitants as "Vampire Island" in response to his archaeologist father's death. When he arrives to take care of his father's remains he is taken to the body which is still lying crushed under the heavy stone coffin that supposedly killed him in an - accident! Of course, we know his death was no accident because the film showed us in a prologue that it was actually Mark Damon's character Peter that strangled the man and then deliberately crushed his body to hide the crime. It appears that Peter has completely bought into the island legend and mythical history about the tomb being that of Hannah, the wife of the 13th-century French King Louis VII. The tale insists that the tomb that 'fell' onto the archeologist actually belongs to this Queen and that she was a vampire!

The legend states that Louis was too captivated by the vampire monster's beauty to have her killed so he had her sealed alive in a stone tomb - possibly this one. Chris dismisses this silly superstition and sets about building a contraption to raise the coffin off of his dead father. Peter helps the grief stricken man in his efforts enlisting some locals for muscle but these islanders baulk when it becomes clear that this thing might be the legendary tomb of the vampire queen. Things get worse when they remove the lid to make the task easier and discover a perfectly preserved woman inside! Oh, my. Of course, this is Hannah played by the lovely Spanish actress Teresa Gimpera, and she soon wakes from her several hundred years long snooze to wreak havoc on the islander with the help of a hideous, beastly 'wild man' servant (Ihshan Gedik) who gets his kicks playing around with decapitated heads. This section of the film is done with some nice style and a good handle on how to use a low budget wisely. We see Hannah transforming into a green mist, floating out of her coffin and changing into a wolf as part of her horrific attacks. 

Adding to the complications Chris gets romantically involved with Peter's sister Mary (the wonderful Patty Shepard) who teaches school on the island. By this time Peter is completely under Hannah's influence, helping her in her activities and Chris wants to get his lady love off the island and away from her increasingly crazed brother. The story then becomes a contest between the engineer and Peter for the life of Mary leading to a dark finale.

Hannah, Queen of the Vampires is often derided as a cut-rate vampire film but now that I've finally seen it I have to slightly disagree. No, it is not a great genre film but it has several points in its favor as a better than 'bad' effort. First, it's island locations (shot in Turkey) are very nice, adding immeasurable to the atmosphere and creepy factor. Also, the actors take the proceedings seriously giving the often sub-par dialog more gravitas than it should have. Another good point is that the film's score is unexpectedly quite good adding a lot to the dark proceedings and never feeling out of place. Also, the vampiric sequences are well done and memorable making the supernatural horror elements feel more effective than I expected them to be with Hannah herself posing a striking figure as the silent vampire Queen preying on poor islanders. The film has some missteps with the most serious being that Peter's evil nature should not have been revealed at the beginning of the movie so that more suspense could be generated as things ramp up.

Vinegar Syndrome's Blu presents the U.S. theatrical version of the film restored in 2k from a newly-discovered 35mm negative and it looks very good for such a neglected title. The film looks its age but the colors are vivid with good detail even in darker scenes. The soundtrack is the mono English version fans are familiar with but probably sounding much better than past releases. I doubt this film has ever looked or sounded better on video and this is the best way to evaluate it or reevaluate it if your impressions of it were colored by bad transfers from the past. 

Part two of this double feature up next! 

Videos of the Star Trek MEGO Toys

Yesterday the video below floated across my Facebook feed and I found it utterly charming. My family had Super 8 cameras but I was never in charge of what was filmed with them or I suspect that I would have documented the hideous destruction of my own MEGO figures as well. Check this video out. It's a window into the 1970's when kids using their imagination in their backyards rarely got recorded in this way. The fact that these Super 8 films survived is really cool and now we can see what being a creative/destructive Star Trek fan in the 1970's looked like. 

If you are curious about the MEGO Star Trek toys here's a collection of the various TV commercials that drove kids into a frenzy of desire to own them. 

Savage Sword of Conan covers

This was the first issue of Marvel's black & White Conan magazine that I owned as a kid. That means it must have been the first one I ever saw because when this one was published I was a major Conan fan and was reading every book or comic with his name attached that I could find. After this issue my collection was spotty so I can only guess that the magazine was not very well distributed in my small town corner of the South. Now I can finally (and cheaply) get most of the entire 235 issue run in convenient bound reprints. The only thing they lack are the color covers so here are a few to delight me when I need to reminisce.

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The Bloody Pit #41 - The James Bond Files

I had such a simple idea for this podcast. I would get together with artist Mark Maddox and we would talk about James Bond films for a while. I'd intercut clips from the relevant films, spice things up with some cool Bond theme songs and boom - cool podcast. That is not what happened.

I had spoken to Mark about trying to focus in on a couple of specific Bond movies that were of significance to him but I expected our conversation to range all over the fifty plus year history of the series. What I did not expect was that we would go so far off topic for so long that the editing process became pure Hell! By the time we were done I knew we were going to have at least two separate shows if I wanted either of them to have any focus. So, after much cutting and pasting I have left only the discussion of various Bond movies with a few slight tangents into related movies that touch on the subject at hand. Mostly.

We start off talking about THUNDERBALL (1965) and YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE (1967) because the former was Mark's first Bond film and the latter is one that I, until recently, disliked. We delve into the age when we were first exposed to the James Bond character and what that might mean for how we see the movies as adults. I think Mark's tale of trying to figure out who the hero of THUNDERBALL actually was is hysterical and his young boy view of the character is eye opening. We talk about our favorites and least favorites of the series and this leads to much yelling and threats of bodily harm. Rest assured that no matter how terrible it sounds no one was physically abused during the recording of this podcast. I did mentally abuse Mark but he's used to that by now and all those scars are internal so he should just suck it up and deal!

Of course, we had a great time doing this and I think you'll be able to hear how much fun we're having. Mark is an amazing guy and I always love talking with him. He and I really have to do this kind of thing more often. And if you haven't seen his artwork do yourself a favor and visit his website. He's a very talented man and his stuff continues to stun me with each new painting.

You can reach the podcast at thebloodypit@gmail.com and we'll be glad to hear from you. Send us any comments or suggestions about the James Bond movies or anything else we ramble on about. If you listen to the show through iTunes rating and reviewing the show would help out a lot- that's how a lot of folks learn about podcasts. Thanks for downloading and listening!

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