THE BEAST MUST DIE

Calvin Lockhart

THE BEAST MUST DIE (1974). Director: Paul Arnett. 

A black man named Tom Newcliffe (Calvin Lockhart) is chased by what appear to be white mercenaries through a forest and is apparently shot and killed. But Newcliffe turns out to be the wealthy owner of the island, and the men have been hired to test him and his security equipment. Pavel (Anton Diffring) is the chief security officer and watches everything that happens on the island through not-so-hidden cameras.

Peter Cushing

Newcliffe has become convinced that one of his guests, all of whom have some dark secrets in their past, is a bonafide flesh-eating werewolf,  and as the full moon approaches he is determined to find out who the guilty party is. Suspects include painter Paul Foote (Tom Chadbon); pianist Jan (Michael Gambon); Jan's girlfriend Davina (Ciaran Madden); the businessman Pennington (Charles Gray); Dr. Lundgren (Peter Cushing), who is knowledgeable about the loup garou;  and even Newcliffe's beautiful wife, Caroline (Marlene Clark). As victims with torn-out throats start piling up, and the survivors are unable to leave the island, panic begins to set in and the already slightly unhinged Newcliffe becomes even more manic and possibly dangerous.

Anton Diffring and Calvin Lockhart

The Beast Must Die benefits from an excellent premise and a suspenseful and exciting screenplay by Michael Winder (taken from a story by James Blish). Paul Arnett's direction is satisfactory. It is interesting that the lead role is played by handsome Nassau-born "blaxploitation" star Lockhart [Myra Breckenridge], whose flamboyant acting style doesn't quite work with this material. A frail Peter Cushing [The Gorgon] has little to do as the doctor who dispenses wisdom about werewolves, but he does it well. Anton Diffring [The Man Who Could Cheat Death], another old pro like Cushing, plays with his customary adeptness and authority. The other actors are mostly professional and on target in their portrayals. Marlene Clark is dubbed by Annie Ross, which may be why her performance seems a bit odd at times. The film has a "werewolf break" in which the audience has thirty seconds to decide who they think the monster is. Aside from this one theatrical feature, Paul Arnett directed British television productions. From Amicus Studios. Douglas Gamley's theme music is awful and completely inappropriate. 

Verdict: Imperfect but entertaining and unusual werewolf-on-the-loose flick. ***. 

JAMES BOND: LICENSE RENEWED

LICENSE RENEWED. John Gardner. 1981.

After the debacle of Colonel Sun by Kinsley Amis -- the first 007 novel since the death of creator Ian Fleming -- James Bond was reintroduced and reinvigorated by John Gardner in this excellent thriller which began a whole new series of Bond novels by Gardner. In this adventure Bond is up against the potent combination of Anton Murik -- a nutty physicist who is outraged that the world has rejected his new ideas for nuclear plants as “unsafe” -- and Franco, one of the world's most dangerous terrorists. To gain money to build his devices and prove the scientific community wrong, Murik, with Franco's aid, comes up with a scheme to take over several nuclear power plants and cause simultaneous melt-downs unless a massive ransom is paid. Of course, he has no intention of letting Franco keep his share of the money, and hires Bond, whom he thinks is a mercenary, to assassinate the terrorist. Then there are the two women in Murik's life: his niece Lavender Peacock, who seems to be on the side of the angels; and his girlfriend Mary Anne Mashkin, who appears not only to be Murik's partner in business but in other ways as well. Murik is the Scottish Laird of Murcaldy, although he may not have the right to the title. (In On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Ernst Stavro Blofeld also pretended to be something he was not.)

The climax takes place on a giant starlifter aircraft in which Bond has a chilling fight to the death with Murik's lieutenant Caber, and there are exciting sequences at festivities in Perpignan in the French Pyrenees (including a fashion show in which Lavender is a model). Murik almost approaches the level of a classic Bond villain, although Franco is not developed nearly as well.

Verdict: Suspenseful, well-paced, and well-written, overall this is a Damned Good Show! ***1/2.

VOODOO WOMAN

Touch Connors wants none of Marla English

VOODOO WOMAN (1957). Director: Edward L. Cahn.

Deep in the jungle, a crazy scientist named Dr. Roland Gerard (Tom Conway of Bride of the Gorilla) uses a combination of his science and the witch doctor, Chaka's (Martin Wilkins) voodoo to turn a pretty native girl, Zuranda (Jean Davis) into a hideous, hulking monster. With some vague plan to get revenge on colleagues who laughed at him and probably take over the world, Gerard is dismayed to discover that the decent Zuranda will not kill at his command, even when she is in her monster form. However, he also discovers that a greedy adventuress named Marilyn Blanchard (Marla English), who had a tough early life in Pittsburgh, will be only too happy to kill whoever gets in her way. Will these two creeps form an unholy alliance?

Wedded bliss? Tom Conway and Mary Ellen Kay

Voodoo Woman just misses being a hoot, although it certainly tries hard to be a luridly entertaining melodrama. Marla English makes a game effort to get across Marilyn's sociopathology, but she hasn't quite got the real acting chops to completely pull it off. As Gerard's helpless wife, Susan, whom he keeps a prisoner, Mary Ellen Kay gets across her character's hysteria but is also limited as an actress. Conway, who looks ill, is fun as the mad doctor. Lance Fuller [This Island Earth] is Marilyn's disposable boyfriend, Rick, and Mike Connors (billed as "Touch" Connors) is the guide, Ted,  who takes the couple deep into the dangerous jungle wherein they encounter that fun couple, the Gerards. It's funny how often Ted rejects the supposedly seductive advances and icy would-be charms of the not-terribly-feminine Marilyn. This was the one and only starring role for Marla English, and the last picture she made as well. One positive thing about the movie is that at least it employed a lot of black actors instead of having natives portrayed by whites, although native stereotypes undoubtedly abound. Paul Blaisdell, who designed the barely-seen creature, plays the monster.

Verdict: Moderately compelling schlock. **.

PANTHER GIRL OF THE KONGO

Phyllis Coates vs Gorilla

PANTHER GIRL OF THE KONGO (12 chapter Republic serial/1955. Director: Franklin Adreon. 

Dr. Morgan (Arthur Space of The Crimson Key) and his cohorts Cass (John Daheim) and Rand (Mike Ragan) have discovered diamonds in an abandoned gold mine and want to scare the natives out of the territory so they can work it without interference. To that end Morgan uses a formula to enlarge crawfish to giant size, creating "Devil Monsters" that terrify the tribesmen. Wildlife photographer Jean Evans (Phyllis Coates), who is known as the Panther Girl due to her heroic actions regarding a rogue panther, and who frequently rides around on an elephant, wants to film and possibly capture one of these monsters with the assistance of Larry Sanders (Myron Healey). This is something Cass and Rand try to stop on a regular basis. 

Claw Monsters go at it

The "claw monsters" are the most interesting feature of this entertaining serial, which frequently uses stock footage from Republic's previous jungle cliffhangers. Amazingly, the natives are portrayed by actual black actors! I believe the monsters are photographed in slow motion which almost makes them seem to be products of stop-motion animation at times, although the time factor would make that unlikely. Trying to prove the existence of these creatures for the authorities with her home movies, Jean photographs them separately so that there's nothing to show their actual size in relation to everything else. In reality everyone would just assume she was taking pictures of ordinary craw fish! 

Myron Healey and Phyllis Coates

Dr. Morgan also drugs the natives to make them compliant and to work against Jean and Larry along with his two nasty hirelings. In the cliffhangers, Jean's arm is grabbed and nearly torn off by a giant claw; Larry is almost run over by a jeep rushing toward his prone form on the road; a maddened gorilla goes after Jean for heaven knows what purpose; and Larry gets caught in deadly quicksand even as the natives lob arrows at him and his would-be rescuers. The entertaining serial moves at a swift pace and boasts excellent theme music by composer R. Dale Butts. The serial was shown on television in an abbreviated form as The Claw Monsters.  

Verdict: Thrills, fistfights, gun battles, and yucky giant monsters! ***. 

THE CLOWN AT MIDNIGHT

Margot Kidder and Christopher Plummer

THE CLOWN AT MIDNIGHT (1998). Director: Jean Pellerin. 

For some reason teacher Ellen Gibby (Margot Kidder) feels that the students in her drama class should clean up an old theater now owned by the college. One of the students, Kate (Sarah Lassez), who is psychic, is freaked out by being in the theater -- originally an opera house -- because her mother, a soprano, was murdered there, supposedly by a jealous tenor,  Lorenzo Orsini (Jonathan Barrett), who was playing Canio in Pagliacci. The former owner of the theater, Caruthers (Christopher Plummer), wishes everyone well and the gang sets about cleaning up the place amidst the usual hijinks. Then a clown starts killing everyone off.

Tatyana Ali and guess who?

The Clown at Midnight is a by-the-numbers horror film. The characters are mostly stereotypes, and the cliches come fast and thick. The killings show a minimum of inventiveness. It's all professional enough, even if some of the actors are quite unseasoned, but it's no different from a thousand other similar movies, and has no real distinction of its own, not even the revelations that the heroine makes about herself, nor the not-terribly-surprising identity of the killer. I'm not certain how Kidder and Plummer wound up in this low-budget opus, but everyone needs a paycheck. Kidder is dispatched with a squishy ax to the head early on, while Plummer -- who is as good as ever -- manages to hang around until the climax, although he only has a couple of scenes. 

Sarah Lassez with Plummer

With its plot of people trapped in a theater with a mad killer on the loose, The Clown at Midnight reminds one of the much gorier -- and better -- Stage Fright, and this isn't the only film with a similar premise. At the end, with the mutilated corpses of her classmates lined up in the first row of the theater, Kate and the lone other survivor get all cute and walk out of the theater as if they've just experienced. say, a tiring day of cleaning -- you would hardly imagine that they just survived a veritable slaughter of over half a dozen people that they knew! This makes the ending almost comical. There is some suspense in the final quarter, however. 

Verdict: Even if you haven't seen it, you've seen it! **1/4. 

PHARAOH'S CURSE

Mark Dana and Ziva Rhodann

PHARAOH'S CURSE (1957). Director: Lee Sholem. 

"It was never Robert's fate that he should meet a peaceful death." 

In 1902 Egypt Captain Storm (Mark Dana) travels with a woman named Sylvia Quentin (Diane Brewster) to her husband's archaeological site in the Valley of the Kings. Native uprisings against the Crown have necessitated a bodyguard for Mrs. Quentin and Storm is elected. Along the way they encounter a mysterious female named Simira (Ziva Rhodann), whose brother, Numar (Alvaro Guillot), is working at the dig. Sylvia basically wants a divorce from her husband, Robert (George N. Neise), but bigger problems develop when they open the tomb of King Rahotep, and there is a transfer of souls from the mummy into Numar, who instantly ages and even turns into a blood-drinking vampire. 

A vampire that looks most unwell

Pharaoh's Curse has some atmosphere and isn't badly acted but it never develops into a truly memorable horror film. In his vampire form, Numar manages to drain every ounce of blood from both animals and humans, but he does it in such a record-breaking amount of time that it's almost comical -- one can imagine him slurping up a person's entire blood supply in a matter of seconds. The fact that he hardly seems animated or energetic enough to do much of anything makes it even funnier. George N. Neise seemed to make a specialty of playing immoral and weasel-like characters. This was the first film credit (after one TV appearance) of Ziva Rhodann, an Israeli actress who was first billed as Ziva Shapir in this film and others; she did mostly  television work. From those fine folk at Bel-Air Studios. 

Verdict: Mediocre vampire-mummy movie. **1/4.  

INVASION OF THE SAUCER MEN

Steven Terrell and Gloria Castillo

INVASION OF THE SAUCER MEN (1957). Director: Edward L. Cahn.

"I bet you killed one of my price heifers!" -- Farmer Larkin

Out near Lover's Lane in the town of Hicksville, two teens who plan to get married -- Johnny (Steven Terrell) and Joan (Gloria Castillo) -- run over a little green man who came out of a spaceship. Bedeviled by the creature's severed but animated claw, they contact the police, only to be accused of killing a huckster named Joe (Frank Gorshin of Hot Rod Girl) who hoped to cash in on the alien's body. As the military close in on the spaceship and ultimately destroy it, Johnny and Joan decide to find the little green man's corpse for themselves, and do the sensible thing -- by fleeing the police station and stealing a patrol car! They enlist the aid of Joe's roommate, Artie (Lyn Osborn), who doesn't seem the slightest bit concerned or even that curious about his supposed friend's demise. Since the adults won't listen to them, Johnny and Joan gather up the necking teenagers and decide to take care of the alien invaders -- if that's what they even are -- themselves. 

aliens on the loose!

Invasion of the Saucer Men is not a very good movie, but it's not an out and out parody, although it comes close at times. The aliens, who are short but have big, membranous and ugly heads, appear only briefly, although one of them has a fight with a bull, injecting the animal with alcohol (as it did Joe) via needles at the end of its fingers. As for the cast, Steven Terrell was a regular on the sitcom Life with Father, and played a lot of "teen" roles, although he was actually 28 when he appeared in Saucer Men. Gloria Castillo was 24 and also played a number of teen roles, mostly on television. 

Because they're young? Terrell and Castillo

Raymond Hatton nearly steals the movie with his blustery and amusing portrayal of Farmer Larkin, who is always afraid some one will steal or kill one of his price heifers.  Douglas Henderson, who plays Lt. Wilkins of the U.S. Air Force,  was in Bert I. Gordon's King Dinosaur and amassed quite a few credits. Frank Gorshin, who later achieved a measure of fame playing the Riddler on Batman, is fine as the ill-fated Joe and seems to be having fun. Ronald Stein contributed a quirky musical score which is still creepy when it needs to be. The constant references to how the teens just won't be believed about the aliens because they're young, and how clueless those pesky adults can be, gets "old" very quickly.

Verdict: See it once and never again. **1/4.

IT CAME FROM 1957

IT CAME FROM 1957: A Critical Guide to the Year's Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films. Rob Craig. 2013; McFarland.

1957 was a banner year for the release of films in the horror, fantasy, and science fiction genres, and this book chronologically looks at the prodigious output, including numerous double-bills and a few re-releases. In the first chapter, author Rob Craig puts the year into context, especially as it pertains to The Bomb -- its ethical implications, fear of nuclear attack, and especially of the effects of radiation on people, animals, and insects, the results of which were often shown in these movies.  

First a disclaimer. Scholarly books about film come in two categories. There are those written by people who are knowledgeable about cinematic technique and the different elements of film and analyze a movie in such terms. Then there are writers who are not so "film-aware" and focus more on psycho-sexual and sociopolitical aspects of film, examining -- frequently over-examining - real or imagined subtext, not that this is necessarily an invalid way of looking at films. It Came from 1957 could be called a combination of both types, because author Craig does seem film-aware, although he also indulges in examining non-cinematic  subtexts -- a little too much for my taste, which, for me at least, weakens the book.

The first chapter of the book, although perhaps too long (many readers will be impatient to get to the actual movies) is quite well-written, informative and often fascinating. On the other hand, Craig is given to overstatement and over-simplifying far too often, and along with the good points he makes he also spouts unsubstantiated conspiracy theories in a way that at times seems childish. But the big problem for me is the pseudo-intellectual nature of the book, particularly in the section that covers the movies. There is nothing wrong with examining the sub-text of a film (even if it this sub-text was unintended) -- and to be fair Craig occasionally intimates that the writers and directors were in most cases just making silly horror flicks with no underlying themes or motives --  but he just takes it too far: the book literally has several laugh-out-loud moments. For example: 

"Yet, as we all are, the crab monster's very existence is challenged  by the horrific inroads of phallic culture via the burgeoning military-industrial complex, and its mascot -- baleful emblem of patriarchal intimidation -- the mushroom bomb that can easily kill us all."

Well ... I think even Roger Corman, who directed Attack of the Crab Monsters, the film in question, might scratch his head at that. It's not that it's hard to get -- it's just silly! At times Craig seems positively obsessed with phallic and vaginal symbols to the point where you're thinking of Dr. Frederic Wertham's debunked tome "Seduction of the Innocent," wherein he twisted panels every which way to come up with evidence of the comic book industry's horrible influence on teenagers. 

However, despite the horribly pretentious psycho-babble, the book can still be fun to read at times (tedious to digest at others). I agree with Craig's disdain for the over-rated Star Wars, love Crab Monsters possibly even more than he does, and can't help but be impressed by his enthusiasm for his subject, no matter how misguided at times. Craig is rather inconsistent when it comes to Bert I. Gordon, and there are times I suspect he was reviewing some movies from distant memory. The book also left me confused on where he stands on LGBT rights, as he finds homosexuality (often in a negative light) in certain films that honestly have no gay characters. 

Verdict: It was a very good year if a highly imperfect if interesting book. **1/2. 

REFORM SCHOOL GIRL

Gloria Castillo

REFORM SCHOOL GIRL (1957). Director: Edward Bernds.       

Donna (Gloria Castillo) has an unfortunate home life living with her miserable Aunt Rita (Claire Carleton) and her lecherous, leering uncle (Jack Kruschen). No wonder she decides to go out for a ride with Gary (Wayne Taylor). Unfortunately the driver is Vince (Edd Byrnes of 77 Sunset Strip), and the car they're in is stolen. Throwing Gary and his own date, Josie (Luana Anders), out of the car, he takes off for a wild ride with a resisting Donna, and runs over and kills a man. Frightened of Vince's retaliation, Donna refuses to tell the cops who the driver was, and is sent to reform school, where things, are, if anything, even worse. 

Edd Byrnes and Ralph Reed

Donna finds herself in the Hastings School for Girls, run by Mrs. Trimble (Helen Wallace). There is also a teacher named David Lindsay (Ross Ford), who is doing research on the tough lovelies but who is unlikely to inspire romantic feelings in any of them. Donna earns the enmity of some of her fellow inmates, including Roxy (Yvette Vickers, who looks like crap in this). Things get worse when the devious Vince has a lady pal call the police pretending to be Donna, and she gives Josie's name to them -- Josie winds up at the Hastings School herself and with the help of the other girls, who hate snitches, decides to get even with Donna. Donna's only friends are Ruth (Jan Englund) and Jackie Dodd (Ralph Reed), a nice boy who sneaked inside the gates to go on more than one date with her. Vince forces Ralph to show him the way inside, but Ralph may have other plans. 

Yvette Vickers and Ralph Reed

Reform School Girl is a modestly entertaining flick with a good lead performance by Castillo [Invasion of the Saucer Men]. Vickers [Attack of the Fifty Foot Woman] is typically zesty, most of the other gals play with vitality, Edd Byrnes overacts a bit but is sufficiently nasty, and Ralph Reed makes an appealing "good boy" to counterbalance Byrnes' snake in the grass. Sally Kellerman has a small role as nasty, violent Marcia; she seems to literally tower over the other girls. Bernds also directed High School Hellcats. 

Verdict: "Chicks" in the hoosegow. **3/4. 

THE PURPLE MONSTER STRIKES

Linda Stirling and Dennis Moore

THE PURPLE MONSTER STRIKES (15 chapter Republic serial/1945). Directed by Spencer Gordon Bennett and Fred C. Brannon.

A man from  Mars (Ray Barcroft), the first wave of an invasion force and who calls himself the "Purple Monster," kills Dr. Layton (James Craven) and periodically takes over his body to use in his nefarious schemes. (Apparently his animating the corpse of Dr. Layton also prevents obvious decomposition.) Unaware that her uncle is actually a Martian invader, Layton's niece Sheila (Linda Stirling) and her associate, Craig (Dennis Moore), an insurance investigator, find themselves persistently in deadly conflict with the Purple Monster and a variety of earth gangsters headed by a man named Garrett (Bud Geary).

Dennis Moore about to be incinerated

The Monster first wants the rocket ship invented by Layton, then goes after a deadly "annihilator," as well as a Dimensional Magnet and a Stabilizer. Naturally Craig and Sheila do their best to keep these weapons out of the hands of the Monster and his men. At one point the Monster brings in a female Martian named Marcia (Mary Moore), who kills and takes over the body of poor Helen (Rosemonde James), a scientist's assistant who's in the wrong place at the wrong time. Sheila and the Martian witch have a "cat fight" on top of a cliff that doesn't go well for Marcia in chapter twelve. The Monster reports to the Emperor of Mars (John Davidson), who isn't certain that Barcroft is the right man for the job.

James Craven and Dennis Moore

The Purple Monster Strikes is full of lively fight scenes and a variety of cliffhangers. Sheila is almost shot into space inside a rocket in chapter one. Craig nearly falls off a ladder between two buildings when it totters and crashes into a wall in chapter two. There is a watery death trap for Sheila in chapter six and Craig is nearly squashed by a falling auto hanging on an overhead pulley in chapter eight. A moving wall pushes Craig towards bars lined with spikes in chapter ten. Dennis Moore is swell as Craig and has one of the best voices of any leading man. Stirling is decorative and reasonably adept as well. Craven and Barcroft are enthusiastic supporting players. There is no scene showing Sheila's remorse when she learns that her uncle has been dead all this time! Craven played a scientist who forms an alliance with an invading Martian in the later Flying Disc Man from Mars.

Verdict: Crazy but lots of action and fun. ***.