Author Archives: Frank Moraes

Frank Moraes is a freelance writer and editor online and in print. He is educated as a scientist with a PhD in Atmospheric Physics. He has worked in climate science, remote sensing, throughout the computer industry, and as a college physics instructor. Find out more at About Frank Moraes.

Anniversary Post: Price, Cushing, and Lee

House Of The Long Shadows (1983)

Yesterday, 26 May, was Peter Cushing’s birthday. He was born in 1913.

And today, 27 May, is the birthday of Vincent Price (1911) and Christopher Lee (1922).

Three titans of horror. Three excellent actors. Three tall men. All born around the same date.

I guess they were also all friends, although it’s very hard to tell when it comes to actors who are always playing a part when a camera is rolling.

Collaborations

Everyone knows that Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing starred in a lot of films together. Watching a collection of Hammer films is a lot like watching “The Cushing and Lee Show. “

I know of only two films that featured Price and Cushing. The first was Dr Phibes Rises Again although Cushing is barely in it and probably wasn’t even on set at the same time as Price. Much better is Madhouse where they work together closely and brilliantly. It’s a great part for Cushing!

And there’s only one film I know of with just Price and Lee: The Oblong Box. It’s a great film but the two men don’t work that much with each other.

All Three Men

There are two films that feature all three men. The first was 1970’s Scream and Scream Again. It’s a good film that has you confused until the very end. The problem with it is that Peter Cushing is hardly in it all.

If you want to celebrate this occasion, you should watch House of the Long Shadows. It’s an ensemble film but the three men are all primary. And as a special extra it also features John Carradine!

And I just happened to have found a wonderful copy of the film on YouTube. So here’s to Peter Cushing, Vincent Price, and Christopher Lee!

Image from House Of The Long Shadows via Amazon under Fair Use.

Monster from the Ocean Floor (1954)

The Shark in Monster From the Ocean Floor

Filmfax Issue 102

I’ve stated before that the most interesting thing in Monster From the Ocean Floor is the scene where the lead character fights off a shark. Well, I got more information on this.

You can see a bit of this sequence in the trailer at the link above. But it’s much more impressive than that. What’s in the trailer looks impressive because they are using a long lens, which compresses distance and so makes it looks like the shark is right on top of her when it isn’t.

Luckily, the actor, Anne Kimbell, talked about this in an interview with Michael Barnum for Filmfax 102 (2004), “Monster (from the Ocean Floor) Hunter.”

I got this off the DVD for the film. In it, Tom Weaver quotes from the article:

On the last day, Roger said, “Now about the scene where you fight the shark…” I said, “Roger, “I’m not fighting a shark.” And he said, “Oh no, Anne. It is a very old shark. So again I said, “Roger, I am not fighting a shark!” He said, “We’re going to put a net around it, Anne. It can’t hurt you. It practically doesn’t have any teeth. Besides, the thing we really have to be careful about is that this is a valuable shark…”

There are things that don’t make sense. There is no net apparent in the film. I suspect what he meant was that there would be a net around the whole area so that the valuable shark didn’t escape.

And old or not, toothless or not, a six-foot (blue?) shark is still dangerous. Just running into her could have caused damage.

Here is the scene cued up:

It Ain’t Anne Kimbell

But this is the most remarkable part of the interview:

So when you watch the movie, the lady fighting the shark is not me. It is the wife of photographer Al Hanson who lived and worked on Catalina Island. His wife, who was also a deep-sea diver, fought the shark.

That’s Al Hanson who did some underwater cinematography (and probably a lot more than he got credit for).

I’ve watched that sequence over and over. They do a good job of not allowing us to see the diver’s face in the shark scenes. But I’ve spent a lot of time trying to notice body differences and I just don’t see them. It all looks like Anne Kimbell. It is definitely not like that great scene in I’m Gonna Git You Sucka.

Also: Roger Corman Was Kind of a Dick

I admire Corman. I think people obsess about him too much. But being a low-budget film producer is hard. And he did it well. But it was all about the money. And he stepped on a lot of toes.

Monster From the Ocean Floor was Corman’s first film as producer. And he already had it down. He got everyone to work for little or nothing in exchange for a cut of the film. Anne Kimbell:

Roger showed the movie briefly in the theaters then he cut it and sold it to TV and made a lot of money to start is own picture career. Unfortunately, those of us that had started on commission never got much money because our commission was going to be on theatrical release, not the television part.

And I’m sure that was a mistake. I’ve gotten used to this. Most of the low-budget producers of the past did so on the backs of the idealism of those around them. And in the end, they get the money and all the credit.

Meanwhile, we don’t even know the name of the woman who did the scenes with the shark.

Filmfax 102 via Amazon under Fair Use.

Anniversary Post: For a Few Dollars More

For a Few Dollars More

On this day, 10 May, in 1966, For a Few Dollars More was released in the US.

It was the follow-up to A Fistful of Dollars. At one time, I liked it better but I eventually realized that was only because I enjoyed seeing Lee Van Cleef as a good guy.

But in the long run, I don’t like it all that much. The flashback scenes of Indio and Mortimer’s sister are prime examples of Sergio Leone at his worst.

Also, the plot is a mess with Indo being both unbelievably smart and stupid.

But if you haven’t seen the film, you definitely should. It’s nice just to hang out with Van Cleef and Clint Eastwood for a couple of hours. And there are a number of comedic elements like the old man who refused to sell his property to the railroad and the hat-shooting scene.

Mothra

On this day in 1962, Mothra was released in the US.

Okay, so it isn’t a serious film like Godzilla. But it’s much more fanciful — like a Ray Harryhausen film.

Dead Man

On this day in 1996, Jim Jarmusch’s Dead Man was put into general release. When I first saw it, I didn’t enjoy it that much. I was expecting a traditional narrative. Over time, my love of the film has only increased.

It’s both deep and deeply twisted. I never lose my appreciation for Lance Henriksen’s eating Michael Wincott’s hand. That should be enough to get you to watch it.

Thunder Road

On this day in 1958, Thunder Road was released. It’s hard not to like Robert Mitchum. And here he is as a bootleg transporter so we get lots of car chases and bravado.

The formula has been copied many times but this zippy little feature is a must-see for psychotronic fans.

For a Few Dollars More poster via Wikipedia under Fair use.

The Evil (1978)

Anniversary Post: The Evil

The Evil (1978)

On this day, 5 May, in 1978, the film The Evil was released to the world.

I only just watched it. It’s part of a string of Gothic horror films I’ve been watching. Well, you might not consider it Gothic. But it’s set in this beautiful old house and it just seems Gothic to me.

Notable Moments

The film is especially notable for its three full-body burns. Stunt legend Buddy Joe Hooker did all of them and scarred his face badly during one.

I have an odd relationship with full-body burns. I am terrified of burning so I have great respect for the people who do them. But they are hard for me to fully enjoy because they are rarely necessary. In general, I hate digital effects. But for safety’s sake, I’d prefer to see them.

Other than the burns, all the effects in The Evil are quite simple. And many of them are dazzling. The best is probably when the title “character” drags Lynne Moody around the room tearing her cloths off her.

Great Ending

What really makes this film stand-out is the denouement featuring Victor Buono. It has such a different tone from the rest of the film. Yet it isn’t wrong. It’s the spark that pushes this film from well-made standard horror into the realm of greatness.

Here is the trailer. If you have the time, the thing is worth watching.

The Evil poster via Wikipedia under Fair Use.

Recent Additions: April 2020

Psychotronic Review

I’ve now done over a month’s worth of Anniversary Posts. The idea was that with the stay-at-home orders, I should keep busy. The problem is that this is the way my life normally is. I don’t have any extra time!

But the good aspect of this is that all the activity has raised our traffic. It’s now more than double what it was just a month ago. But it is a lot of work to do these every day. In fact, I’m taking a break today and posting this instead.

It’s often hard to find anything really interesting to write about. It’s even harder to find anything psychotronic to write about. So I may transition into making this a now-and-then thing. I’m feeling kind of gloomy about it right now because I’m exhausted.

The following list does not include at least 8 films I’ve recently watched but haven’t had time to post.

  • Bad Moon (1996): a pretty good werewolf film with great practical effects. Other than that, it’s interesting in that it looks at what a man would do if he found out he was a werewolf.
  • Bandits (2001): this big-budget crime comedy failed at the box office and I have no idea why. It’s a lot of fun.
  • Bigfoot vs DB Cooper (2014): I was so excited when I saw this title. How could you go wrong? The script almost writes itself. But this film really isn’t about DB Cooper or Bigfoot. It’s about a group of beautiful boys hanging out shirtless in a forest. That’s fine but a total waste of the best movie title I’ve heard in years.
  • Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954): this film seemed to always be playing on TV when I was a kid. And I can see why I didn’t care for it. It’s a bit adult. What a fine picture!
  • Day of the Dead 2: Contagium (2005): don’t listen to what the haters say. This is a solid zombie picture. Just because it has nothing to do with George Romero doesn’t make it bad!
  • Django (1966): this is one of the best Spaghetti Westerns. It’s over the top with a hero who’s far too good with a gun and a villain so evil he shoots poor Mexicans for sport as their children watch.
  • eXistenZ (1999): it’s amazing how long I take to add some of my favorite films. This is one of two or three of David Cronenberg’s best.
  • The Ghouls (2003): super low-budget video with an unusual gritty charm. Timothy Muskatell is superb as the sleaziest paparazzi ever who happens upon ghouls feeding on the homeless population of LA.
  • Harper (1966): Paul Newman stars as a PI whose life is falling apart but still cracks the case. It’s a good one to show your parents. And it features a great cast.
  • The Jackals (1967): What a bizarre one this is! Vincent Price plays on old prospector in South Africa who must deal with some bandits. It doesn’t play out as you’d expect. And Price isn’t in it as much as I’d like. But when he is it is a thing of beauty.
  • Legacy of Blood (1973): The children of a dead man start dying as they stay in his house as required by the will. The bad guy is exactly who you think it is. Except it isn’t!
  • The Ninth Gate (1999): Something seems off in this Roman Polanski film and yet it works. But I can see why people were disappointed.
  • Panman (2011): What a supremely bizarre film this is. It’s a wonderful parody of a slasher film. But it’s so much more. Sadly, I seem to be one of the few people who thing so.
  • Repligator (1998): This is about a military weapon that makes women become sex-pots. But when they get sexually aroused, they turn into alligators. Do you need to know more?!

Sorry for the short list this month. Like I said, I’m behind. I’ll get caught up soon though.

Anniversary Post: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

When I first got into low-budget movies, I figured that despite all their other faults, they would at least have strong screenplays because that’s one thing you could get right without cost. Boy was I naive! Also: on this day, 29 April, in 2005, the big-budget cinematic version of Douglas Adams’ book was released, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

It seems that what it takes to sit in your room for months crafting a screenplay is not what it takes to get a film made. That means that a lot of films go into production with poor scripts. And thank God for that! I’d rather have the films than see young would-be filmmakers die alone in their rooms for lack of Vitamin D.

Why Hitchhiker Is Just Fine

And that brings me to The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. The screenplay isn’t bad. And the film was fine. It worked well enough. And that seems to be what everyone else thought. No one demanded their money or time back. Most two-hour periods are worse than the two hours I spent with it.

But given all the talent and creativity that went into the film, why was it just fine? I think the answer to this is simple: the source material wasn’t that great.

I’ll admit: I came to The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy late — a couple of years after all my nerdy friends were raving about it. And I did not get it. I could see that it was meant to be funny. But it was filled with the kinds of jokes that people with poor senses of humor find hysterical.

My theory is that no one ever found the books funny. Instead, they thought them “clever” and thought they would like to be the kind of people who they suspected would find such things funny.

So 15 years ago today we got this film. And it’s fine. It really is. I wouldn’t mind watching it again.

But you know what I can’t take? Good Omens. I got about five minutes into it and I realized they were doing that same kind of comedy and I stopped. And that seems to be the ultimate legacy of Douglas Adams: that kind of comedy where just in case the jokes don’t work the teller is going to do it really intensely.

But the movie? Fine.

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy poster via Wikipedia under Fair Use.

Anniversary Post: Carolyn Jones

Carolun Jones and John Astin

On this day, 28 April, back in 1930, the actor Carolyn Jones was born. She will always be remembered as Morticia in the television series The Addams Family.

When I was a kid, I much preferred The Munsters. But as I got older, I turned away from it and toward The Addams Family. The comedy is much more arch.

What seems weird now is that I remember these shows being huge. But they both ended after two seasons. Even in their first seasons, they both were roughly the twentieth most popular shows — good but not astounding. And in their second seasons, The Munsters was destroyed by Batman and The Addams Family by Hogan’s Heroes.

Still, the shows are great. I watched the entire first season a couple of months ago and it holds up really well.

Carolyn Jones had a good career outside The Addams Family. She had notable parts in classics like William Castle’s The Saracen Blade, Don Siegel’s Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and Tobe Hooper’s Eaten Alive.

Sadly, Jones developed colon cancer and died at the age of 53.

Also Today

A few notable films were released on this date. The Horror Show came out in 1989. The documentary Crumb came out in 1995, the experimental Timecode in 2000, and the surprisingly good comedy The TV Set in 2006.

Carolyn Jones and John Astin by ABC Television via Wikipedia. It is in the Public Domain.

Anniversary Post: Perfect Date

Miss Congeniality

In 2000, Miss Congeniality was released. It is mostly a love letter to beauty pageants even if it also lampoons them. But it was not, however, released on this date. It was released on 22 December.

But you see, I had a problem. I’ve complained about it before. It’s really hard to do these anniversary posts. And today, I had no films released and the only person who was even close to being worth focusing on was Paul Mazursky (Down and Out in Beverly Hills).

In the film Miss Congeniality, Miss Rhode Island is asked to describe her perfect date. She then says, “That’s a tough one. I’d have to say April 25th because it’s not too hot and not too cold. All you need is a light jacket.”

Sympathy for the Contestant

These kinds of screw-ups are not that uncommon. In fact, this one probably really happened. But I feel sorry for the contestants. It’s all so fake and the questions are out of context. Given that the pageants are all about sex but pretend that it is nothing about sex, it isn’t surprising that a contestant would misinterpret the question.

And it’s not like asking someone their favorite day of the year is any more ridiculous than the rest of the questions they have to answer.

But the line is very funny. And it sets up a great joke later when Rhode Island tells the other contestants what she would have said, “My idea of a perfect date would be a man who takes me to a romantic dinner, and then we walk along the beach barefoot discussing books and music and movies.”

To this, New York says, “No wonder you’re still a virgin.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cx5jt0zrJ9E

Miss Congeniality poster via Wikipedia under Fair use.

William Castle

Anniversary Post: William Castle

William Castle

On this day, 24 April, in 1914, one of the icons of psychotronic film, William Castle, was born.

He was a prolific director in the studio system — directing dozens of films for Universal and later Columbia. Although he doesn’t have the reputation, he was a lot like Roger Corman: a man who could create competent films on a small budget.

He’s remembered for his later films, after he’d left Columbia and started his own production company. At first, he used Allied Artists to distribute his films — which he had worked for early in his career. But after his initial successes, Columbia took over that job for most of his films.

The Gimmicks

He’s best known for his marketing gimmicks (something he had done since his theater days in the early 1940s). In Macabre, he hired a hearse to park outside the theater, had “nurses” on duty, and gave out $1,000 life insurance policies.

Most famously, he allowed the audience to vote on how Mr Sardonicus ended. According to him there were two versions of the film, but I certainly don’t believe him. The mechanics of projection are complicated. It’s simply not possible to switch reels without a long delay. Anyway, I prefer to think of William Castle as a bit of a conman.

But it’s unfortunate that people remember him because of the gimmicks. It’s not at all true that his success was based on this. I’ve heard anecdotally that audiences at the time found most of them to be silly. But they liked the films!

Castle acquired the rights to Rosemary’s Baby and was planning to direct it. In the end, he produced it with Roman Polanski directing. I love the film but I think it is wrong when people suggest the film wouldn’t have been as good with Castle directing. I think it might have been incredible. One thing Castle was really good at was setting a mood. And that is all the film is.

I’ll put Castle up against just about any filmmaker. Given the resources he had, it’s amazing he made so many entertaining films.

Image cropped from William Castle by Crowell-Collier Publishing Company. Photograph by Ralph Crane. Self scan from The American Magazine for May 1946 (page 135). In the Public Domain.

Anniversary Post: Don Siegel

Don Siegel

These anniversary posts are hard. At least they are now. And today, I’m really reaching. You see, on this day, 20 April, in 1991, the director Don Siegel died. Not that I need an excuse to gush about him.

Invasion of the Body Snatchers

For the psychotronic fan, Don Siegel is mostly known as the director of Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956). Of course, we all hate that tacked on “happy” ending. But if you’re quick with a remote control, you can start it at 2:55 and kill it right before the dissolve when Bennell (Kevin McCarthy) is on the highway shouting, “They’re here already! You’re next!” (That’s at 1:18:10, according to my copy.)

The 1978 remake is excellent, but the only way that it really improved the original is in demonstrating the original ending of Bennell losing his mind on a crowded road was the optimistic ending. Screenwriter WD Richter and director Philip Kaufman left no doubt: we are screwed!

Charley Varrick and Others

Don Siegel directed a lot of other great films. He’s probably most remembered for his films with Clint Eastwood: Coogan’s Bluff, Two Mules for Sister Sara, The Beguiled, Dirty Harry, and Escape from Alcatraz.

But my favorite Siegel film is Charley Varrick. That has as much to do with Howard A Rodman’s and Dean Riesner’s screenplay as anything else. But given that Siegel also produced the film (as he often did), he should get part of the credit. And as a director, he makes it all work and never gets in the way of the story.

I think of Siegel as I do George Roy Hill: a really successful director who worked widely with some of the biggest stars of the time but before the job had the kind of cachet that turned film directors into the modern equivalent of novelists. There’s nothing flashy about Siegel. There is no “Siegel style.” He just created some of the best films ever made.

Image cropped from Don Siegel via IMDb under Fair Use.