31 Days of Halloween - It Conquered The World (1956) - With Venus Vegetable Spoilers

American International Pictures put out some great movies, like Masque of the Red Death. They also put out films that were complete dreck. And then, there are films like It Conquered the World. It's not very good, but it is entertaining. And some times, that's all you need, right?

Synopsis

Paul (Peter Graves) is the director of a US satellite program. Tom (Lee Van Cleef) is a fringe scientist who has been trying to get the US to shut down its space program. The two men are friends, although there relationship is a bit strained due to Tom's cold and aloof personality. It turns out that Tom, a genius who has grown disillusioned with the violent nature of humanity, has made contact with a group of super-intelligent beings on Venus. Using a radio set in his living room, he offers to facilitate their conquest of the Earth. In exchange, they will usher in an era of peace and emotion-free logic.

Beverly Garland and Lee Van Cleef share one of many tense moments.

One of the aliens hitches a ride on one of Paul's satellites. Once on Earth, the alien is able to shut down all power and communications. It then uses mind-control devices delivered by bat-like creatures to take control of key figures in the area of the space center. This includes Paul's wife Joan (Sally Fraser); when she tries to convert Paul, he kills her. Tom's wife Claire (Beverly Garland) takes matters into her own hands and sets out to kill the alien in a the remote cave he is hiding in.

She is killed by the creature, but Tom (who hears her death screams over the radio), Paul and a group of soldiers in the nearby woods, converge on the cave. The creature emerges. Tom kills it with a blow torch, although he is mortally wounded in the process. Paul gives a speech about how men have to find salvation within themselves. The end.

Analysis

Although the movie is obviously low-budget, it is not without its charms. Director Roger Corman keeps things moving briskly. Although there is a lot of dialogue, it never drags down the movie's pace. The cinematography by Fred West is workmanlike; nothing spectacular, but all the action is clear and there aren't any significant visual problems. The acting is actually pretty good. Peter Graves and Beverly Garland are the highlights; both are invested enough in their characters that they take the sometimes clunky dialogue and make it believable. Sally Fraser is also spunky enough, although she doesn't have a lot of screen time. I found Lee Van Cleef's performance to be a bit stiff. While he is supposed to be portraying someone who is basically a misanthrope who is also a borderline sociopath, some of his lines needed a more emotional delivery. This hurts the finale, because his last minute conversion to hero makes little sense.

It would be easy to attack the special effect, but effects technician Paul Blaisdell had to work with limited time, money and material. The bat-creatures that the alien invader uses actually look pretty menacing. Of course, as can be seen from the image to the right, the alien itself looks pretty silly. Blaisdell had an actual reason for the design - based on what was believed about Venus at the time, he assumed the creature was an intelligent fungus that grew in a hot, dark environment and was almost immobile. The problems with the design, however, are two-fold. First, the face looks goofy and not just to a modern viewer. Apparently, even the actors had a hard time keeping a straight face around it. The other problem was that Blaisdell assumed the creature would be mostly keep in the shadows and would be stationary. So, he designed it with these considerations in mind. For the finale, Corman insisted on an exterior scene in broad daylight. There are different explanations given for this, but they boil down to either a) showmanship or b) technical. The former explanation is that Corman thought the audience would want to see the alien and have it fight people at the end. The latter explanation is that the equipment needed to properly light the cave was inadvertently left in the studio on the day of the shoot and Corman had no time to reschedule. Either way, the final scenes are ludicrous.

Notes

Best Line: Peter Graves to Lee Van Cleef. "Your hands are human, but your mind is enemy." Uh, what?

Anyone interested in the story of Paul Blaisdell should check out Paul Blaisdell, Monster Maker: A Biography of the B Movie Makeup and Special Effects Artist by Randy Palmer. The book is well written and Blaisdell's story is fascinating.

Verdict

For what it is - a low-buget, quickly made movie - It Conquered the World is pretty entertaining. Yes, some of the effects are laughable, there are obvious continuity errors and some of the dialogue is poorly written. But the leads are all at least watchable and the film is fun in a "Late Show B-Movie" way. Check it out.

In fact, you can watch the full movie right here. Enjoy.

Masque Of The Red Death (1964) - With Color-Coded Spoilers

Synopsis

An old women wanders a stage-bound hillside, collecting firewood. She encounters a man dressed in a red hooded robe who gives her a rose and tells her to return home, proclaiming that the "day of...deliverance is at hand."

So begins Roger Corman's Masque of the Red Death. Part of the American International Pictures series of films based on Edgar Allen Poe's works, Masque stars Vincent Prince as Prince Prospero, a man of calculating evil who rules over a Medieval wasteland. While tormenting a village of his peasants, Prospero discovers that the old woman's "deliverance" is the Red Death, a disease that causes one to bleed from the pores, dying in agony.

As the plague spreads across the countryside, Prospero gathers the local nobility into the safety of his castle. Of course, how safe can you be with a man who worships the devil, likes to spout off about the true nature of terror and occasionally murders people? As it turns out, not very safe.

The local 1% engages in the usual debauchery, while Price tries to convince local villager Francesca (the beautiful, but a little bland, Jane Asher) to embrace evil. The gathering soon devolves into death and madness. Prospero's consort, Juliana (Hazel Court, who oozes smoldering sensuality) pledges herself to Satan as his bride and, after a experiencing a drug-induced hallucination of Hell that leaves her wanting more, is killed by a raven. Alfredo (the great Patrick Magee as a sadistic, sexually deviant noble, a base version of Prospero) is incinerated while wearing an ape costume during the climatic masquerade ball. Gino (David Weston) and Ludovico (Nigel Green) - Francesca's lover and father, respectively - are forced to play a game involving a poisoned dagger that ends with one of them dead. Fun and games in 14th Century Europe.

As the masquerade ball nears its climax and Francesca is apparently ready to give herself over to Prospero, the "Man in Red" makes an appearance and gives Vincent Price a final, fatal insight into how the world really works.

Analysis

If there is a central theme, it is the victory of entropy over everything else. Prospero thinks that by declaring God to be dead and creating an Id-driven, solipsistic universe, he has achieved insight into mankind's place in the world, as a passion driven animal. Francesca clings to a fuzzy notion of a God of Love, although, as she admits when Prospero tries to engage her in a philosophical discussion, "I have no learning." Her's is the faith of the innocent...or, as Prospero obviously believes, the common herd. Gino and Ludovico, focus on a more relationship driven world, one in which the bonds of friendship and love will win out over the immoral world of the lonely Prince Prospero. Juliana is has made Prospero's attention the center of her universe, doing anything, even risking her soul, to gain his approval. Prospero's various sycophants are followers, doing whatever degrading acts he commands, whether for safety, wealth or, in the case of Alfredo, the license to indulge one's animal instincts.

Hazel Court and Jane Asher make for a delicious duo.

The Red Death wipes all of these attempts to define existence away. Although ostensibly a personification of Death, it is more accurate to see it as the force of universal entropy. It not only brings an end to life; it crushes belief and reveals the universe to be a blank slate, one that we all imprint meaning on; but all meaning is ultimately pointless. In the end, the Red Death - the force of entropy - is the only truth

It is the sophistication of theme and presentation that makes Masque such an impressive film. Sumptuously filmed, with vibrant colors, a suitably disturbing soundtrack, impressive sets for a film of this budget (recycled from the film Beckett) and an effective cast, without this thematic sophistication, it would be intellectually empty. Instead, it is a brooding meditation on the meaning of all things, one that rewards the careful viewer with a provocative examination wrapped in the trappings of a moderately budgeted period horror movie

Film Highlights

• Just about any of Vincent Price's soliloquies on the meaning of life and the manifest failings of humanity. From such an accomplished and charismatic actor, what could seem to be amoral justifications for atrocities, come across as well-reasoned lessons on human nature. It is easy to see how someone like Francesca could, in the end, come at least part of the way towards Prospero's world-view.
• When the village is being torched by Prospero's men, a peasant runs out of burning hut, clutching a baby. Another peasant picks up the kid and leaves the burning man lying on the ground, unaided. It succinctly sums up the tension between human mercy and the brutality of existence that will be repeated throughout the film.
• The use of obvious sets for outdoor scenes contributes to the feeling that our reality is just a facade, something laid over a truth that will be revealed over the course of the film.
• Hazel Court and Jane Asher are a pair of truly fetching redheads...wait, redheads...in a movie...about the Red Death...it's all connected.

Verdict

This is a great movie, a true classic. It should be considered mandatory viewing for anyone who considers themselves a cineaste.

Short Attention Span Review - Attack Of The 50 foot Cheerleader (2012)

I first heard of this movie at the 2012 San Diego Comic Con. It was at a panel with Bill Shatner and Roger Corman and, among all the other awesomeness, Corman was pimping this film (he is the producer). It sounded…well, it sounded like a movie about a 50 foot tall cheerleader.

I was browsing through Netflix the other day, saw that they had the film and decided, “why not; how bad can it be?”

Cassie (Jena Sims) is a brainy college student who takes an experimental drug designed to enhance beauty. She does this in order to join the college cheer squad, to be accepted at a sorority and to fulfill her mother's (Sean Young) expectations. At first, the drug works and she becomes increasingly popular (as well as increasingly busty). However, the drug causes her to grow to enormous size (50 feet).Her rival - screechy Britney (Olivia Alexander) - is also injected with drug, grows rapidly and confronts Cassie during a football game, where the two titanic babes wrestle for a while. Eventually, everyone is returned to normal(ish) size. The end.

Sasha Jackson setting a high bar for hotness.

This is a pretty innocuous movie. There’s some nice nudity, a few moments of humor, more moments of attempt-and-fail humor, and serviceable low-budget effects. It does have a gratuitous shower scene, which always goes into the plus column. The acting is pretty bad, although Sasha Jasckson as Jett, Cassie's spunky, oversexed alt-girl roommate is okay, as is Ryan Merriman as Kyle, Cassie's research partner. Treat Williams (remember him?) is moderately amusing, chewing scenery as the head of the corporation that sponsored the development of the drug who wants to experiment on Cassie. The pacing is slow at points, as we watch Cassie going through the motions of rushing a sorority. And Jena Sims is way too hot, even in "plain girl" guise (basically, glasses and some latex zits). I guess that's why it's called suspension of disbelief.

I wouldn't watch it again; but, if you are in the mood for a throwback to exploitation/drive-in fare of the 60s and 70s, Cheerleader isn't bad. You can check it out below on YouTube.

Short Attention Span Review - Night Call Nurses (1972) - With Candy Striped Spoilers

How can a movie titled Night Call Nurses be bad? On the hand, how can it be good? Maybe it is neitehr; it just is.

Synopsis

Three hot nurses - brunette babe Barbara (Patty Byrne), blonde bombshell Janis (Alana Hamilton) and black chick Sandra (Mittie Lawrence) - are working in the psychiatric ward of a Los Angeles hospital. They have to deal with suicides, drug abuse, flashers and a variety of other nutjobs. Off duty, they party, Barbara goes skydiving, Janice likes to water-ski, have sex, including with patients (Janice hooks up with drug-using trucker Kyle (Richard Young)) and Sandra gets involved with a Black Power revolutionary group; in other words, normal nurse stuff. Barbara is stalked by someone at the hospital and sleeps with her creepy therapist, who is also trying to drive her crazy as part of some ill-defined experiment. Sandra agrees to help Black Power leader Sampson (Stack Pierce) escape from the hospital with the help of Janice and some of his friends in the underground, including Jude (a great Felton Perry) who also hooks up with Sandra. The film ends with a shoot-out, a car chase, truck driving under the influence of every drug known to man and Barbara having it out with her therapist, while at the same time finding out who her stalker is. The final scenes are of our trio happy and reunited. THe last image is of Sandra giving the Black Power salute. The end.

Analysis

For a short movie - 74 minutes - a lot happens. In addition to the events in the synopsis, we also see a couple of drug-induced hallucinations, an epic mental break-down by Barbara, casual racism from cops, a guy pull a bundle of dynamite out of his coat (in a sequence in which there is no reason he'd have that or be able to fit it in his coat)...and a ton of nudity. I think every female actor under the age of 30 takes her top off in the film.

Watching it, the film reminded me of a season's worth of plot devices for Grey's Anatomycondensed into one film with the inclusion of nudity. So, basically, what shows like Grey's should be doing.

The acting is okay - although some of the more "comedic" bits do not work, due to both the writing and the lack of comedic timing on the part of the cast. The film has some nice visual touches. The hallucination sequences are more amusing than psychedelic - Kyle sees his hand turning into mirrors - but are pretty neat in a low-budget way. A suicide that kicks off the film is well done, showing the destruction of a baby doll as a stand-in for what is happening to a young woman who jumps off the hospital roof. While the film is hampered by the budget and time constraints (the film was made in 15 days for $75,000) it doesn't look particularly bad or cheap.

Although there is nudity and the film could be seen as an excuse to show tits, there is more going on. While the story is disjointed and has wild tonal shifts (farcical humor is juxtaposed with graphic violence) it all kind of makes sense by the time the credits roll. While character motivation is lacking for a lot of things that happen, it is no worse than the medical melodramas you find on TV.

The movie lightly pushes boundaries in terms of sexuality. With loosing restrictions on what you could show on screen, films like this - one's that showed female nudity, on-screen sex and reflected loosened sexual mores - became mainstream. Of course, at the same time, there was a growth in pornography - and, briefly, of porno chic - that showed far more than a soft softcore film like Nurses. As an artifact of an era in which what was allowable on the screen was expanding, Nurses is valuable as an example of what filmmakers were putting on-screen. This is particularly true when you consider that even a few years earlier female nudity in a movie would lead to controversy and, often, censorship.

It's also interesting to see just what the filmmakers thought was "hip" and important to audiences in the early Seventies. Drug use, racial tensions, contempt for authorities, casual sex, the rise of the therapy culture, criticism of healthcare costs, and the empowerment of women (mostly being empowered to have lots of sex) are all themes that run through the film.

Verdict

Night Call Nurses is surprisingly fun. While the acting isn't great and the story has a very episodic quality to it that detracts from coherency, overall it is a competently made, entertaining movie. I don't want to oversell it; this is no masterpiece of cinematic storytelling. But, it is worth checking out. Plus, the female leads are all pretty hot and not afraid to show off their boobs. So, there's that too.

Awesome trailer. Simply awesome.

Poster Of The Day - Deathsport (1978)

Deathsport was churned out in the late-Seventies by Roger Corman's New World Pictures. It had a pretty good trailer (see below) and I vaguely remember some TV spots for it that seemed neat. Of course, I was an 8-year-old when this came out, so the idea of laser-armed motorcycles was totally "boss," to use the slang of the time. I'm like a living fossil suddenly.

For a movie full motor cycles, laser blasts and explosions, it is surprisingly sluggish, even boring. It does have the smoking hot Claudia Jennings in it and she does drop her knickers. We also get David Carradine in a leather loincloth (eww).

In keeping with many Corman films, the poster is pretty bad ass. Ok, we do get barbarian guy-butt in a Speedo, which is not cool...although it is an ass...hahahaha. Ah, some days I kill me.

The poster does promise action (which there is, even if it's not well done), high-powered motor cycle death machines (eh, dirt bikes with plastic thingies stuck to them) and a glimpse at a depressing future, where the only entertainment on the floating city are gladiatorial games (quite true...except for the floating city part). Seeing that poster with the eyes of a kid again, one who hasn't seen the movie, I know why it appealed. The action is front and center. I want to see who the biker barbarian is shooting at. The motorcycle appealed to my kiddie brain, recently basted in 35 viewings of Star Wars. Plus, I was in a Robert E. Howard phase, so anything with barbarians seemed cool, even if they are barbarians of the future. The poster does have some problems. The title obscures the action and would probably be better either over or under the central image. Also, the perspective seems a little weird, but the image is pretty kinetic, so that isn't a big drawback.

Claudia Jennings, hottest future barbarian ever.

So, would adult me go see this movie? Well, I own it, so, yeah, I guess so. It's a strange film. It has all the elements to be a fun B-movie - decent actors, hot lead willing to get naked, lots of action - but it never really comes together in an entertaining whole. Still, love the poster.

MegaMonsterMonth #5 - The Attack of the Crab Monsters (1957). With Spoilers From The Bottom Of The Sea.

"Attack of the Crab Monsters was the most successful of all the early AIP horror movies. I have to admit the title had a lot to do with the picture's success, but the plotline was the real secret. You always had the feeling when watching this movie that something, anything was about to happen. I think this construction, plus the fact that the creature was big and ugly, won over the audience." - Roger Corman

Synopsis

On a remote island in the South Pacific a joint military-scientific team is investigating the effects of H-bomb testing on nearby Bikini Atoll on local wildlife. They are the second team to be sent to the island, the first one having disappeared without a trace. It turns out that the radiation has caused local crabs to mutate, growing to enormous size. They also absorb the minds of those they kill, making the extremely intelligent. They are slowly destroying the island, as a prelude to, in the words of one of the crabs, attacking "the world of men." As our heroes are killed off, they come up with a plan to kill the crabs before their insidious evil can spread.

Analysis

Let's get the one worst part of this movie out of the way; the crab monster (only one was created even though there are multiple crabs in the films). It looks silly, like a big, mostly immobile paper-mache mockup on a dolly cart. The worst design decision was to give it a face. While this was supposed to make the crabs look vaguely (very vaguely) human, it really looks like it is half asleep, with droopy eye-lids.

Other than that, this is a solid B-movie. The cast does a nice job, particularly a pre-Gilligan's Island Russel Johnson as the no-nonsense hero and Pamela Duncan as a token lady scientist. The script has some nice touches, particularly the idea that the entire atomic structure of the crab monsters (and other mutants mentioned, but not seen) has changed, creating a new sort of matter. It really is just techno-babble, but it adds to the sense that in the Atomic Age, the things were are creating (even if inadvertently) are growing beyond our ability to control or even understand them.

Having an intelligent monster was a great idea, one that sets the movie apart from its contemporaries. In addition to creating a threat with a motivation beyond "crush city, eat people, repeat" it also leads to some inspired weirdness, such as having the crabs able to speak in the voices of those they have eaten.

Within the limitations of the budget, the movie manages to provide some suspenseful moments. With only five locations (a house, the beach, a cave system, an aquarium used for underwater scenes and a generic outdoors area) Corman does his best to keep moving between them and to avoid using too many static shots. The film is also pretty gruesome with a rather graphic decapitation and a hand being torn off during a cave-in.

Some of the dialogue is stilted and there is a half-hearted love triangle between Johnson, Duncan and Richard Garland. There are some significant plot holes. And, of course, the titular monster looks like an iconic representation of every cheesy special effect in every low-budget movie. But overall, it's a fun, fast-paced film that tells a decent story and does so in a way that makes the most of limited resources.

Notes

Legendary low-budget effects artists and monster maker Paul Blaisdal turned down Corman's offer to make the giant crab due to inadequate effects funds. Given that most of the films he worked on seemed to be made for spare change, this is saying something.

Verdict

What makes one B-movie worth seeing and another not? That's hard to say. In many cases, on a purely objective level, there is little to distinguish them from one another. Most have casts of c-list actors or former stars heading into obscurity. Effects are often rudimentary, hampered by a lack of time, money and expertise. Cinematography is often limited to master shots and production time is short, with little time for retakes. But some have that special something that others don't.

In the case of Attack of the Crab Monsters that something is its pace, the story, which, while not perfect, is engaging, and the overall quality (taking into account how little time and money Corman had). And, let's not forget that it has a charming goofiness about it. The monsters may look dumb, the actors may be stilted, the plot holes may be big and numerous, but as a whole, the movie is entertaining and a good example of how to make a successful, low-budget film. Definitely check it out.

Movie Review - Masque of the Red Death

Vincent Price and Roger Corman do it up big time, with a moderate budget horror movie that turns into an examination of life, death, the meaning of existence, faith...you know, all the stuff you normally find in B horror movies. Check out my review here.