Curse of the Undead.

Review #2593: Curse of the Undead.

Cast: 

Eric Fleming (Preacher Dan), Michael Pate (Drake Robey), Kathleen Crowley (Dolores Carter), John Hoyt (Dr Carter), Bruce Gordon (Buffer), Edward Binns (Sheriff), Jimmy Murphy (Tim Carter), Helen Kleeb (Dora), and Jay Adler (Bartender) Directed by Edward Dein.

Review: 

Now you might wonder: a vampire Western? Well, if you could combine cowboys with big monsters for The Beast of Hollow Mountain (1956), why not go with something that apparently started out as a gag idea thought up by the Deins? Edward Dein had written a handful of screenplays since the 1940s, which ranged from Baby Face Morgan (1942) to co-writing My Gal Loves Music (1944). There were six scripts that he wrote and directed that were done in collaboration with his wife Mildred, with this being the last of the bunch. Dein directed one more film by himself with The Leech Woman (1960) before mostly doing numerous episodes for television, most notably with Hawaiian Eye (there is a credit listed to him as co-director of "Una vergine per un bastardo"). Released by Universal-International (apparently often on a double-bill with The Mummy [1959]), I can't really find that much info about the movie being a hit or flop, but it was a low budget B-movie, so who knows? 

I suppose when compared to stuff like Billy the Kid versus Dracula or Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter, this might seem like a curious gimmick to actually check out, since who wouldn't want a little bit of variety in their Western? Honestly though, even with a runtime of just 79 minutes, it does begin to wear a bit thin before it actually circles to the inevitable gunfight climax. It probably would make a curious double-header with, say, The Vampire (1957) with how it handles the vampire with its own attempt at a distinct killer not beholden to the usual expectations of seeing said creature on screen (which, well, means no death by sunlight or having problems with garlic but still having trouble with crosses). It deals with a vampire established as one of the former people who lived on the land that apparently killed themselves after killing his brother that apparently led to him becoming cursed (Drago Robles going into Drake Robey, get it?). The vampire here dresses in black and only is noted for the fact that he seems to be impervious to bullets (well, except one) and just sleeps during the day. The same year that Fleming appeared in this film saw him star in the show that defined him with Rawhide (famously being one of the co-stars with Clint Eastwood for the first seven seasons), and it feels like there is meant to be something really compelling about a preacher who turns to a gun. But he mainly comes of as just terse and not particularly exciting in the actual scope of things. It almost livens things to see Pate try to play a vampire gunfighter that basically is cursed to feed in perpetuity (as one does when not really controlling many people). All of that description and all of that blarney I said probably goes further than the actual movie, since it barely shows any type of vampire action in the first place, as if it was "obligation" that made it a western-horror rather than a real mix of the two. It isn't even worth mentioning Crowley or the under-utilized Gordon (who disappears for a time because heaven forbid). You'll never believe it: a guy has his bullet include a crucifix/thorn carving in order to take down the vampire. In general, the movie is curious even in its unwieldy experiment of finding horrors within gunfighters of the Old West. Whether you find it to be a gimmick or something different for the season of dirt and blood, it's relatively easy to find, which I suppose is a lasting victory for something that really did just start out as an oddball premise.

Overall, I give it 6 out of 10 stars.

Song of the day!

Attack of the Puppet People.

Review #2453: Attack of the Puppet People.

Cast: 

John Agar (Bob Westley), John Hoyt (Mr. Franz), June Kenney (Sally Reynolds), Michael Mark (Emil), Jack Kosslyn (Sergeant Paterson), Marlene Willis (Laurie), Ken Miller (Stan), Laurie Mitchell (Georgia Lane), Scott Peters (Mac), and Susan Gordon (Agnes) Produced and Directed by Bert I. Gordon (#929 - Tormented and #2297 - Earth vs. the Spider)

Review: 

Okay, bring out the effects-laden movie by Bert I. Gordon for the holiday season. This was the eighth feature film directed by Gordon, and he had a hand with the writing in the story department, which he had done with a few of his other movies; George Worthing Yates, a semi-regular writer of the first couple of Gordon movies, wrote the screenplay. As you might expect, the movie was done in the wake of The Incredible Shrinking Man, which had come out in 1957. American International Pictures obviously knew where to go with trying to make a movie about small people, although apparently Gordon wanted to call the movie "The Fantastic Puppet People" (the teenagers they wanted to see the movie probably didn't think about the fact the shrunken down people don't really attack anything, to say nothing of that poster of them with a knife). What better way to remind people of one of your films than to have it play: a drive-in sequence early on shows the characters watching The Amazing Colossal Man (1957). Funny self-promotion I guess. Apparently, the movie was paired in certain drive-ins with Gordon's War of the Colossal Beast (1958).

So, you get a sci-fi youth movie about shrinking people. At least Dr. Cyclops (also a movie that does a cutaway from the shrinking moment around 30 minutes into the runtime, coincidentally) had a scientist trying to shrink stuff down with some idea based in science, this is a movie that has the owner of a doll manufacturing company shrinking people down because (you're never going to believe this): he's lonely and therefore puts them in and out of suspended animation when he has the feeling for it (notice how there are several people besides the main group that are shrunk but aren't restored at any point); I guess hookers or beer just wasn't ideal to float around in the 1950s (remember: don't try that at home). This would be an interesting quandary if it wasn't for the fact that it just doesn't lead to much beyond him and his interests in the little things. Hoyt is fine in that regard, I guess. The people aren't really given agency beyond one of them doing a song and bland platitudes. Agar and Kenney have the energy of being stuck at a bus station with no working TV. You don't get a sense of tension, and the effects don't really help all that much because it just looks a bit flimsy in the first place. The sequence near the climax of our lead subjecting these people to a puppet show of Jekyll and Hyde is almost too silly for words in making it, well, really easy to see how things will go when they outnumber him.  The ending isn't exactly much better, mainly because it just ends right at the part when you think it might be interesting: a guy about to be cornered for shrinking people. It just...ends, with him alone. I almost expected him to light the place up or do anything other than just sit there (or hell, throw in his dopey machine being used on him just to reverse him, the dude used it on a cat). Since it really isn't a role that evokes much pity, you really do need to show him get some sort of comeuppance. As a whole, Puppet People just isn't as impressive as it could've been in the look upon loneliness and general adventure in small-ness, managing to instead just toil in bland surroundings that make Dr. Cyclops from nearly two decades prior look better in comparison.

Overall, I give it 5 out of 10 stars.

*Strangely, the movie played a small part of history years later. Apparently, when the Watergate burglary was playing out, the lookout Alfred C. Baldwin III was watching...Attack of the Puppet People on TV and got too distracted to see a cop pulling up right to them.

X: The Man with the X-ray Eyes.

Review #1147: X: The Man with the X-ray Eyes.

Cast: 
Ray Milland (Dr. James Xavier), Diana Van der Vlis (Dr. Diane Fairfax), Harold J. Stone (Dr. Sam Brant), John Hoyt (Dr. Willard Benson), and Don Rickles (Crane) Directed by Roger Corman (#368 - The Little Shop of Horrors, #684 - It Conquered the World, #852 - The Terror, #931 - Not of This Earth, #1007 - Attack of the Crab Monsters, #1039 - Five Guns West, #1042 - War of the Satellites, and #1136 - Gas-s-s-s)

Review: 
Who else could make a movie about a scientist who invents eye-drops to increase the range of human vision to see things such as ultraviolet and x-ray wavelengths and uses it on himself than Roger Corman? X: The Man with the X-ray Eyes was made on a budget of under $300,000 in three weeks, with the vision effects (billed as "Spectarama") being done by John Howard. They were a combination of superimpositions, lens effects, and coloration, and they certainly leave an impact on the viewer upon first glance. For a movie that is just 79 minutes long, there is certainly an interesting film to behold in how weird and disturbing it can get within it's science fiction and horror roots, with a screenplay from Robert Dillon and Ray Russell (noted writer of material such as Mr. Sardonicus). Sure, it isn't a film with much of a body count or any big science fiction spectacles, but it makes up for it by having a compelling performance from Milland alongside a few standout moments from the small cast. He sticks out among the rest of the others in part because of how he slowly makes the main thread get more and more foreboding. Van der Vlis is decent in her moments on screen, having a fleeting but manageable presence on screen. Stone and Hoyt are decent counterparts for their fleeting moments on screen. Rickles, in a part not typical of his usual comedic forays on screen, does a pretty fine job with being unsettling with his avarice towards the situation presented to him. The movie is at its best when showcasing its crude but fairly effective X-ray shots, which only get more interesting as the film keeps going, with clever bits such as him using his powers to deal with a few hecklers of the carnival audience, played by Corman mainstays Jonathan Haze and Dick Miller. The climax has a few tense moments to it, especially when Milland shows his eyes, and the car chase is fairly riveting to build-up its resolution. While I do like where it ultimately ends up, I do find it to be a bit abrupt that doesn't give too much closure. Noted horror writer Stephen King claimed that there were rumors of a longer ending, involving out Milland crying out after the action he has done to himself and saying a few choice words, although Corman (who thought it was a better ending than the actual one) has denied that the ending was ever filmed. At any rate, X: The Man with the X-ray Eyes is a nimble and effective film that befits everything that make Corman's films interesting to encounter and watch.

Overall, I give it 7 out of 10 stars.