YouTube - THE SPIDER WOMAN STRIKES BACK (1946)

I should have included the YouTube link for this film in my previous post! Maybe if it gets enough attention Universal will release it. Or let Scream Factory do so! Yeah - that's what we need! A tricked-out Blu-Ray! 

THE SPIDER WOMAN STRIKES BACK (1946)

I recently caught up with this rare Universal chiller from the mid-forties. I've been curious about THE SPIDER WOMAN STRIKES BACK (1946) for years and not simply because of its exploitative title. In fact, the best reason to see this difficult to find movie is lead actress Gale Sondergaard. She's an amazing cinematic presence both beautiful and alluring with a voice like creamy, melted butter. She can be both soothing and scary, often in the same scene or the same line of dialog! Although she is mostly forgotten today her talent was well acknowledged by Hollywood during her career. The same year she made this film she was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for her role in ANNA AND THE KING OF SIAM (1946) but her career was crippled during the period of the Red Scare when she was lumped in with her Black Listed husband Herbert Bieberman. She returned to the screen in the late 1960’s but she was relegated mostly to television work.  

This film has been very difficult to see for years but eventually my podcasting partner Troy and I will have to cover this as a part of our series of shows on the 1940’s Universal horror output. At the pace we’re going through those film it will years before we get to THE SPIDER WOMAN STRIKES BACK but I wanted to go ahead and check it out as soon as I could. The only way I could find see this difficult to see film was a rather dodgy print on YouTube. This is far from the best way to see the movie as it seems to have been taken from a battered 16 mm print and to be at least one or two generations removed from that source material as well. If there is a better option for watching this one I’d be happy to know.

Everyone should know that, regardless of the title, this is movie is not a sequel to the earlier Universal Sherlock Holmes film THE SPIDER WOMAN (1943). I have to say that I really enjoyed the film but it was clearly trimmed down to its short running time from a longer length. I suspect the movie was meant to be closer to 70 minutes than to the 60-minute mark that it barely squeaks under. One of the telltales of this is that the narrative leaps forward rather awkwardly at least twice as the story unfolds. The most obvious of these being the incredibly awkward moment were suddenly all cards are on the table between the antagonistic characters in the movie with no previous discussion as to what was happening. 

Also, I think that the print available to see on YouTube might be a little short of even the 59-minute official running time! It clocks in at around 57 minutes and 50 seconds. Some of this shortening is most certainly from the loss of a few feet of footage here in there from some rather obvious spices and print damage. Coupled with the editing down of the film from its initial supposed length it makes for a less then smooth viewing experience at times. That's not to say that I didn't like the movie (because I did) but it was clearly compromised on its initial release and that is a shame.

There's so much to like in this creepy little film and I'm going to encourage people to seek it out. Of course, I would love for Universal to make it easier to see this movie as I don't think it has even been released on VHS much less any digital format. This is a film that I think would benefit very much from the restoration and shine necessary for a high-definition release.

Trailers From Hell - THE MAN FROM PLANET X (1951)

Joe Dante talks about one of my favorite science fiction films of the 1950's. If you've never seen this one I highly recommend it. For such a low budget affair it is very effective. 

ABBOT & COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN (1948) Poster Art

Science Fiction Short Audiobook - Mr. Walling's Treats by Frank J. Oreto

Proving once again that I know a lot of very talented people I present this! Frank Oreto is an old friend of mine from college. He is one of the funniest and most generous men I've ever known. Beside riding herd on three kids and earning a living in the real world he somehow finds time to craft some of the sharpest and most clever short stories currently being published. His storytelling skill is in top form with this tale which you can simply listen to on YouTube! 

Hopefully one day soon he'll publish a print collection of his work so I can act like the fanboy I am and get his autograph! 

The Bloody Pit #87 - ALIEN FROM THE DEEP (1989)

John Hudson returns to continue our look at the films of Antonio Margheriti. This time we examine one of his last completed pictures ALIEN FROM THE DEEP (1989) which nakedly steals elements from several 80’s Hollywood hits. In fact, the movie can become a bit of a ‘spot the reference’ game as it goes along copping half a dozen ideas or sequences from other, more well-known works. But does this movie have enough creativity and energy to make an entertaining new thing out of all these recycled pieces? Joy is often in the eye of the beholder….

What this film certainly does have is the epic onscreen presence of Charles Napier and Margheriti regular Alan Collins a.k.a. Luciano Pigozzi. These two men shoulder the acting weight of a script that often seems to have been missing a few important pages. Filmed in the Philippines with the usual explosive miniatures to enhance the scope of the action this is one part sweaty jungle adventure, one part evil corporation tale and one part deadly alien attack. Oh! I forgot to mention the alien until now! But the film doesn’t get around to the big murderous creature until more than half the running time is over either so I don’t feel too bad. And any similarities between this film’s alien and the monsters from a certain big budget series of hit movies is completely coincidental, I’m sure.

Mr. Hudson and I dig into this one and are happily surprised by the lack of onscreen animal deaths even if someone really was throwing snakes at actors for one scene. We get excited at certain points in the discussion as we make note of the script’s problems and the variability of the character’s personalities. And, if you pay attention, you’ll hear me call Charles Napier ALAN Napier and that is a very silly mistake to make. Of course, the idea of Charles Napier as the 1966 TV Batman’s butler is pretty damned cool!

The show can be reached at thebloodypit@gmail.com for any comments or suggestions. The Bloody Pit also has a FaceBook page where messages can be left for any of the contributors to the podcast. Thank you for downloading and listening to the show!

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NaschyCast Mini-Episode Interview with Mike Tutino

It’s not often we get the opportunity to meet some of the friends we’ve made over the course of making the Naschycast. When we do (and I have enough lead-time) I try to record these fellow fans’ thoughts on our favorite Spanish Horror star. Such is the case with this mini-episode interview with longtime fan of the show and major fan of Paul Naschy – Mike Tutino! Mike has been a generous contributor to the podcast over the years with several letters of comment and observation as we’ve gone along. It was a joy to finally meet him at this summer’s Monster Bash in Pittsburgh and he is more than willing to give us a list of his favorite Naschy movies. There are a few surprises in our discussion with some affection lavished on films that Troy and I have possibly given less attention than we should. Food for further thought……..

Also, we mention the details of the upcoming releases of the new Naschy Blu-Rays coming out this year but – when talking about the exciting release of THE MUMMY’S REVENGE on Blu-Ray we neglected to tell listeners to go to the Ronin Flix website to purchase that disc. That is the only place you’ll be able to buy the film before it starts turning up on secondary sites for outrageous inflated prices. Don’t miss out!

If you have any comments or suggestions or if you want to let us know what your favorite lesser talked about Naschy film might be the email address is naschycast@gmail.com where we’ll be thrilled to hear from you. We’ll be back next month with a new, regular episode covering a really rare Naschy film from 1975. Thanks for listening!

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