Los Straitjackets Play the Theme From HALLOWEEN (1978)

Shot from the club's audience floor but it makes me wish October was already here! 

STAR WARS Day 2019

I'm pretty sure I was ten when I saw STAR WARS (1977) for the first time and that is probably the right age to have it enter your life. I was a young lad living in rural Tennessee and getting to a movie theater was difficult to the point of frustration. I think the film had been out for months if not a year by the time I finally was taken to see it, but by then I was already familiar with the story. In 1977 I had bought a paperback copy of the novelization and devoured this tale of science fantasy adventure in much the same way I devoured Edgar Rice Burroughs John Carter novels or Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser stories. The experience of seeing the film was life changing but not the way so many people seem to have had their sense of self altered by Star Wars. I loved it but I had so many other similar tales in my awareness that it was just another fun one. That this one got splashed across the big screen in the real world made it special but the screen in my head had so much more variety that competition was sharp for my love.

For a brief few years after the second film I thought that the series might become one of the greatest adventure stories of all time. The high quality of the script of Empire opened up the world giving the characters nuance and detail beyond the broad hero/villain outlines of the first movie. But then the third film came along with it's rehash of the first movie and made-for-toy-shelf characters and my enthusiasm was tempered again. Since then I've occasionally read some Star Wars fiction or comics that recapture the original feeling of wonder from when I was ten or twelve years old but it's still those first two movies that continue to do the trick.

Even after the horrible prequels and the weakly realized Disney follow up trilogy films I still enjoy those movies. I end up being able to enjoy new Star Wars films and tales only in that they find a way to rekindle the feeling of wide-eyed discovery I felt reading that novelization or seeing the first film. It's become something, for me, that causes nostalgia more than anything else. I guess that may have been the inevitable fate of a story originally conceived out of nostalgia for a man's childhood love of science fiction adventure stories. But it's a shame that there have been so few of the films since 1977 that have been able to make Star Wars more than what it's detractors said it was from the beginning - big budgeted children's scribbling. It's better than that but now it has become much more difficult to argue for the tale's higher qualities because you must start each defense with caveats about the obviously bad things attached to it. 

HORROR ISLAND (1941) on YouTube!

This is the rarely seen and not often discussed Universal Horror film that Troy and I will be talking about in the next episode of The Bloody Pit.  This is the easiest way I know to catch the movie even if the DVD set it's included in is pretty darned cheap. Plus the DVD set has the next film we'll cover after this one too! 

BLACK DRAGONS (1942)

It's hard to explain exactly why I am so fascinated by the Poverty Row horror film BLACK DRAGONS (1942). I first encountered it in an article I read in FilmFax magazine years before I was able to finally see it. FilmFax issue #30 featured an image of Bela Lugosi in a fedora on the cover mugging like he was in pain.

Inside was a feature article on this insane film that captured my imagination. Reading and rereading this piece made me so hungry to see the movie that it became a mildly unhealthy obsession. The article was very clear about the film's failings and even poked fun at some of the more embarrassing bits of dialogue. It pointed out that the plotting was clunky and made it clear just how inept it was. In fact, it made sure to detail the bizarre ways in which nearly everything in the damn thing makes no sense.

At barely an hour long it has such a confused story that it's almost impossible to accurately recount what happens. I suspect that there could be a fun parlor game of only allowing new viewers to see the first 20-minute segment (or actually any random 20 minutes section) and then ask them what they think the film will ultimately be about. I seriously doubt that anyone would be able to guess where things end up and I think we might have more party game fun just imagining the crazy films that people would imagine. They would probably be more entertaining then BLACK DRAGONS ends up being. Not that it's not an entertaining little mess!

Let me be clear -  I find this film completely fascinating in the same way that I find almost all of Bela Lugosi's poverty row horror films fascinating. It's illogical; it's silly as can be and because it's so short and features Lugosi it's kind of absorbing in the same way as a slow motion car crash can be attention-grabbing. I know almost no one other than me is mesmerized by this film but if you've never seen it and you want to see something completely nuts - something that I guarantee will confuse and amuse - check out BLACK DRAGONS.

Trailers From Hell - TWITCH OF THE DEATH NERVE (1972)

Edgar Wright talks about his love for this amazing film and it's many titles. I've always preferred BAY OF BLOOD. 

THE BRAIN FROM PLANET AROUS (1957)

In BRAIN FROM PLANET AROUS John Agar plays Steve March, a geologist working with his partner Dan (Robert Fuller) in the desert southwest. They’ve been getting odd fluctuating gamma radiation readings (!?) centered miles out in the desert and Steve insists they check it out. Once there they track the readings to a newly formed cave and are attacked by Gor-the titular brain from another world.

This evil alien kills Dan and possesses the body of Steve with the intention of using his incredible destructive mind powers to take over Earth, launch an invasion of his home planet and molest Steve’s fiancé Sally (Joyce Meadows)- not necessarily in that order. Steve constantly tries to fight off Gor’s control to little effect but Sally and her father become very concerned about the spasms of pain that accompany his attempts. They ridiculously decide to travel to the desert cave and there discover Vol, another brain from Arous sent to recapture the fugitive Gor. Vol explains how to kill the mad brain and just before he’s able to take over the world Sally gets this information to Agar who takes an ax to the criminal cerebellum.

Almost too fun to be believed this is a classic so-bad-its-good movie. The story is incredible with characters doing hysterically illogical things simply to advance the plot. I’m still trying to figure out why a geologist would be given clearance to attend a major nuclear test or how (or why) geologists were monitoring ‘gamma radiation readings‘. But honestly the rest of the movie could be totally boring and would still be worth seeing for the insane final scene. The sight of John Agar ax-whacking an oversized brain dangling from clearly visible wires is one of the most hilarious things this side of PLAN NINE FROM OUTER SPACE. The film had to be fun for Agar as well since he gets to play two roles- good guy and bad brain. He does a good job as both but it’s the evil moments that really shine. Rarely is he more entertaining than in the sequences in which he convinces assembled world representatives of his power and issues his mad orders complete with diabolical laughter. Brilliant! Highly recommended for these who like their popcorn movies spiced with cheese.

ALIEN (1979) Poster Art

This month marks the 40th Anniversary of the release of the original film.