Most Terrifying Scene In "I WAS A TEENAGE FRANKENSTEIN" (1957)(video)

 

Dr. Frankenstein (Whit Bissell) conceals his cold, sadistic intentions...

...when offering to allow his fiancee Margaret (Phyllis Coates) to be his new assistant.

In reality, he's setting her up to be brutally murdered...

...by his crazed and horrifically hideous teenage monster.


I neither own nor claim any rights to this material.  Just having some fun with it. Thanks for watching!

Most Terrifying Scene In "I WAS A TEENAGE FRANKENSTEIN" (1957)(video)

THE TRIP -- DVD Review by Porfle

 

Originally posted on 3/12/16

 

Sometime in the heady days of the late psychedelic 60s, the already legendary independent filmmaker Roger Corman decided--not for the first time--to do something just a little different. 

The result, which would tickle the fancy of counterculture audiences while raising the hackles of the straight crowd, was THE TRIP (1967), the story of a man's chemically-fueled journey into his own head.  (A fitting tagline for the film would've been "It's all in his head.")

The man in question is a young Peter Fonda as a television commercial director who's in the process of getting divorced by his wife. Peter can't seem to find meaning in his life, so he decides to take the new drug LSD which is supposed to open up the mind and lead one into a whole new universe of awareness.



With his trusted friend Bruce Dern to act as both a guide and a sort of comforting guru, Peter takes the drug and is swept into a sometimes dazzling, sometimes frightening mental odyssey which takes up the entire rest of the picture.

Much of it consists of the kind of psychedelic op-art visuals which were meant in those days to give us the impression of what an LSD trip was like, accompanied by some vintage acid rock by a group called The American Music Band (aka The Electric Flag). 

There are occasional bits with that jumbled, thrown-together look of the Monkees' celluloid oddity HEAD (which scripter Jack Nicholson also co-wrote) with a little "H.R. Pufnstuf" thrown in.  One or two scenes even appear as though Fonda has landed in one of Corman's own atmospheric Poe movies.



The early scenes in Dern's apartment tend to lag, with Fonda lying around being dazzled by all the kaleidoscope colors and dream images that assail both him and the viewer while the bearded, soft-spoken Dern, who is at his calmest and least villainous here than I've ever seen him, diligently keeps his pal from panicking or tumbling off the balcony. 

Only after Fonda escapes from the safety of Dern's pad does THE TRIP really become eventful, and even then there isn't much of a plot to speak of as he wanders into a sleeping family's house to watch their TV, causes a ruckus at a go-go club managed by Corman regular Dick Miller, and runs from what he imagines is an ever-closing police dragnet, all of which is littered with random imagery and scattershot editing.

There's a lot of stream-of-consciousness stuff dotted with encounters, both real and imagined, between Peter and people such as his soon-to-be-divorced wife Sally (Susan Strasberg), with whom he has psychedelic sex, or a pretty blonde hippie girl (Salli Sachse of the "Beach Party" movies) who strikes his fancy in a big way.

In one of the film's more interesting scenes, a haggard housewife (Barboura Morris of WASP WOMAN and BUCKET OF BLOOD) is doing a load of clothes in a laundrymat when Peter bursts in and freaks out about how amazing the spin cycle is.  Another long, surreal fantasy scene finds the troubled Fonda agonizing over the pros and cons of his life thus far with future EASY RIDER collaborator Dennis Hopper, who's all done up in mod garb. 

To their credit, so to speak, stars Fonda and Hopper as well as Corman himself actually took LSD beforehand in order to understand what they were attempting to depict, as did screenwriter Nicholson, whose script gives us an interesting look inside the head of the superstar-to-be.  

In addition to Hopper, Strasberg, Miller, Morris, and Dern, the cast is dotted with several familiar faces and members of Corman's stock company including Michael Nader ("Dynasty"), Beach Dickerson (CREATURE FROM THE HAUNTED SEA), Michael Blodgett (BEYOND THE VALLEY OF THE DOLLS), Angelo Rossitto (FREAKS), and the wonderful Luana Anders (EASY RIDER, THE LAST DETAIL, DEMENTIA 13).

An interesting aspect of Dennis Hopper's involvement is seeing little ways in which Roger Corman's directing style would show up in Hopper's own work on EASY RIDER, notably in the sometimes rapid-fire editing and the composition of the drug sequences.  One particular shot, a 360-degree pan of some people passing a joint around a circular table, is virtually duplicated by Hopper in EASY RIDER with some hippie commune dwellers sitting around the dinner table.

And speaking of EASY RIDER, Peter Fonda gets to emote much more here than he would as the disaffected Wyatt in the later film.  I've never thought much of his early acting before, but I'll have to reconsider that now.  He's fun to watch in this role and helps give the disjointed, unconventional narrative much of its otherwise limited appeal.

The DVD from Olive Films is in widescreen with Dolby 2.0 sound.  No subtitles.  A trailer for the film is the sole extra.  This version of THE TRIP does not include the studio-imposed introductory warning about the dangers of LSD nor a final shot in which a cracked image of Peter Fonda implies his character's shattered psyche.

Whether or not Fonda's truth-seeking everyman derives any valuable insights or revelations from his LSD experience still seems to be pretty much up in the air at the end of THE TRIP.  But for us, this interesting, often fun, and inherently fascinating cinematic odyssey (oddity?) is a trip well worth taking.

THE TRIP -- DVD Review by Porfle

Jack Nicholson Is Moved To Tears While Talking About Roger Corman (video)

 

 

 From the 2011 Documentary "Corman's World: Exploits of a Hollywood Rebel"  For our review of the documentary, click here.

 

Video by Porfle Popnecker. I neither own nor claim any rights to this material. Just having some fun with it. Thanks for watching!

Jack Nicholson Is Moved To Tears While Talking About Roger Corman (video)

THUNDER ALLEY (1967) -- Movie Review by Porfle

 

Originally posted on 5/26/21

 

Currently watching: the 1967 follow-up to FIREBALL 500 and the last gasp of American-International's Frankie and/or Annette teen pictures, THUNDER ALLEY.

By now, Frankie Avalon has split to do his own thing, so Annette Funicello is left to carry this one with new leading man, teen idol Fabian (who played Frankie's rival in the previous film).

That's not all that has changed. This time, nearly all of the comedy has been scrapped along with any hint of farce, surrealism, cartoony characters, etc. in order to give us a straight-forward racing saga in which people have sex, get wildly drunk at parties where dancing girls strip their clothes off, and try to kill each other on the track, sometimes successfully.

 

As a change of pace, THUNDER ALLEY is actually pretty successful itself. Fabian is just the right choice to play famous driver Tommy Callahan, who has odd flashbacks during a race because of a childhood trauma and accidentally causes another driver's death. This makes him a pariah who is shunned by his peers and thrown out of professional racing.

Annette returns as Francie, a stunt driver working for her small-time entrepreneur dad Pete (Jan Murray) in his "Hell Drivers"-type auto show. When a desperate Tommy comes to Pete for work, he's forced to assume the name "Killer Callahan" to draw curious crowds.

Meanwhile, Tommy's girlfriend Annie (Diane McBain) doesn't like the relationship forming between Tommy and Francie, and neither does Francie's fellow stunt driver Eddie (Warren Berlinger in one of his better roles), who digs her.

 

But while all that romantic stuff is going on, we get to see plenty of real-life stock car racing action and fiery, metal-crunching carnage filmed at actual raceways and worked into the plot as Tommy fights to regain his former glory with the reckless Eddie as a dogged competitor.

To make things even more hairy,  a whole gang of bad guy racers led by hothead Leroy (Michael Bell) are out for his blood.  It all comes down to the big final race, which provides more than enough to delight fans of this kind of action.

Familiar faces dot the supporting cast, including Stanley Adams (Cyrano Jones in "Star Trek: The Trouble With Tribbles"), gorgeous and funny Maureen Arthur (HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS WITHOUT REALLY TRYING, THE LOVE GOD?), Kip King ("The Rifleman: The Dead-Eye Kid"), and some stalwart holdovers from the beach pictures (Sally Sachse, Mary Hughes). 

 

Replacing previous director and scripter William Asher ("Bewitched") are prolific TV writer Sy Salkowitz and director Richard Rush (HELLS ANGELS ON WHEELS), who would go on to direct such high-profile films as FREEBIE AND THE BEAN, THE STUNT MAN, and COLOR OF NIGHT.

Music is by Mike Curb, with just a couple of racing-related songs on the soundtrack and a single number by Annette (one of her better ones). Fabian, thank goodness, spares us his sub-par crooning but is more than adequate in the lead role. 

 

The borderline sleazy ad campaign for the film includes the tagline "Their god is speed! Their pleasure an 'anytime girl'!" so there's definitely a different audience being targeted this time. Or maybe the same audience, but a little older and looking for some stronger stuff.

Thinking that this late entry in the American-International teen genre would be a weak fizzle, I was surprised to find THUNDER ALLEY even more absorbing than its crash-em-up predecessor. It's by far the better film, thanks largely to director Richard Rush, and one of the most enjoyable films of its kind.

One of director Quentin Tarantino's many visual callbacks: his alternate title for DEATH PROOF (2007), which we see only for a split-second before being replaced by a crude "Death Proof" insert, is obviously inspired by the main title for THUNDER ALLEY.

THUNDER ALLEY (1967) -- Movie Review by Porfle

FIREBALL 500 (1966) -- Movie Review by Porfle

 

Originally posted on 5/24/21

 

Currently rewatching: FIREBALL 500 (1966). I hadn't seen this one since a primetime TV showing back in the 60s and didn't remember much about it except that it had the same kind of production values, music, and other elements, along with stars Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello, as the "beach party" movies from which it had evolved.

But despite an opening featuring stop-motion animated cavemen inventing the wheel (courtesy of Art "Gumby" Clokey) and a jokey introduction to Frankie's character as he outruns a pitchfork-wielding farmer defending his amorous daughter, any misconceptions I had about this being a lighthearted comedy farce were soon dispelled.

What "Beach Party" director William Asher and co-writer Leo Townsend have concocted here is about as serious and gritty as this kind of candy-coated thriller can be, with Frankie (now "Dave Owens") a California daredevil descending upon the American South for some of that stock car racing action. He's met with resistance by local racing hero Leander (fellow teen idol Fabian), an arrogant chick magnet who moonlights as a moonshiner.

 

 
Annette's back as the niece of race track owner Chill Wills, but this time her "Jane" character is all in for bad-boy Leander while Frankie has a yen for the more mature Martha (Julie Parrish, THE NUTTY PROFESSOR, "Star Trek: The Menagerie") who wants him both as a lover and a high-speed driver for her illicit booze business, which is overseen by none other than Harvey "Eric Von Zipper" Lembeck in menacing redneck mode as cigar-chomping Charlie Bigg.

The rivalry heats up between the two alpha males both on and off the track, a highlight being their figure-8 "chicken race." When other moonshine drivers start getting run off the road (one is rather grimly killed), Frankie suspects Fabian of playing chicken with them on those dark mountain roads in order to advance his own illegal alcohol business.

Obviously, this high-octane adrenaline rush of a teen flick goes way beyond simply replacing surfboards with race cars, especially when we see Frankie actually having off-screen sex with Julie, in addition to that young driver plummetting to his death off a steep cliff.  None of the adults are played for "old fogey" laughs either--this time, everyone in the cast is a bonafide member of the adult world.

 

Frankie finally gets to play a cool badass here, standing up to IRS agents who want him to go undercover for them and taking on Fabian in a doozy of a fist-fight after getting knocked off the track during a big race. He doesn't even really try to win Annette, preferring Julie's more worldly charms instead.

The former beach bums each get to sing, with Annette luring customers into her uncle's hootchie-kootchie show and Frankie seranading the patrons of a local nightclub. (Fortunately, we're spared Fabian's tone-deaf warbling.) Many familiar faces from the previous films are carried over here either as Leander's groupies or race drivers.

 

 

Once the vehicular manslaughter mystery is cleared up, the film ends with a final championship race that offers car lovers roughly ten minutes of exciting actual footage (filmed, according to IMDb, "at the Ascot and Saugus Raceways near Los Angeles with local color shot in Charlotte, North Carolina") with added rear-projection inserts of Frankie and Fabian going at each other amidst the fiery, fender-bending action.

Thinking this to be simply a dead-end attempt to keep beach-party viewers interested, I was surprised at how much I enjoyed FIREBALL 500 on its own terms as a more serious and at times hardball action flick. Of course, the production values are just as flimsy and TV-movie-level as ever, and the dialogue just as corny, but somehow it all manages to deliver an hour and a half of pulpy fun. 

FIREBALL 500 (1966) -- Movie Review by Porfle

THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS -- Movie Review by Porfle

Originally posted on 11/22/09

(Caution: lotsa spoilers)

I saw the 2001 Vin Diesel remake of this when it first hit home video, and now I can't remember a friggin' thing about it. Except it had some hinky CGI car-driving shots in it. They gotta use CGI just to show people driving cars now? They can't get actual stunt drivers to do actual cool car stunts? Anyway, I do remember one single zoopy-doopy CGI shot of Vin Diesel driving a car. Real memorable flick there.

 

Of course, it wasn't really a remake--it just used the same cool title. The original THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS (1955) was the historic first film released by American International Pictures, the undisputed kings of the low-budget exploitation flick during the 50s and 60s, and one of the first films produced (and co-written) by the legendary Roger Corman. 

 

It was co-directed by Edwards Sampson (MONSTER FROM THE OCEAN FLOOR) and the film's star, John Ireland (RED RIVER), and probably didn't cost very much to make, since most of the running time consists of people driving around, walking around, having picnics, and reacting to some ragged stock footage of auto races. 

 

Ireland plays Frank Webster, an independent trucker falsely accused of running another trucker off the road and killing him, when this was actually the other trucker's intention--(hmm, "other trucker" sounds kinda dirty somehow)--since lone wolf Frank was cutting in on a big trucking company's business. Well, Frank breaks out of jail and takes it on the lam with half the cops in the state hot on his trail. 

 

 

 

When he meets free-spirited racing enthusiast Connie Adair (Dorothy Malone) on her way to participate in a big race, he kidnaps her and heads for the border in her souped-up Jaguar with her as his beard. It turns out that the cross-country race will end in Mexico, so he enters it. Along the way, he and Connie fall in love (awwww) when she realizes he's really a nice guy who only acts mean and tough when he's kidnapping people and threatening to kill them.

 

Bruno VeSota, who played living-doll Yvette Vickers' cuckolded husband in ATTACK OF THE GIANT LEECHES and popped up in about half a million other things later on, turns up in an early diner scene in which innocent fugitive Frank practically puts him into a coma. Another familiar face, Iris Adrian (BLUE HAWAII, THAT DARN CAT!), plays Wilma the gabby waitress. And during Frank and Connie's picnic interlude, who should turn up as the park caretaker but silent-film star Snub Pollard, whose movie career began in 1915. Pretty interesting cast, if you're warped like me.

 

The first half of the movie consists of Frank and Connie driving around and arguing a lot while evading the police, often while sitting in front of a screen with highway footage projected on it. The best thing about this is getting to look at the gorgeous Dorothy Malone. Holy schnikes, was she ever hot. You may remember her as Bob Cummings' girlfriend in the original beach party movie, BEACH PARTY. Or not. Anyway, she was definitely easy on the eyes, and she gives a lively performance as Connie, constantly griping about being hungry and tired, and throwing the keys out of the moving car and trying to get away every time Frank turns around, and generally getting on his nerves as much as possible. Which he deserves, since he's pretty much of a horse's ass, actually. 

 

 

When they get to the place where the big race is being held, Connie runs into an old acquaintance, Faber (Bruce Carlisle, who was only ever in one other movie, FEMALE JUNGLE, thank god), who has the hots for her and starts trying to squeeze ol' Frank out of the driver's seat. Faber is a huge, irritating turdhead who is so creepy that he even makes Frank look like a barrel of laughs in comparison. When the race starts, Faber and Frank go at each other like characters out of the old "Wacky Races" cartoon all the way to Mexico. 

 

And just as you're thinking "Die, Faber, die!" he crashes, setting up the startling ending that is dripping with irony. Well, maybe not dripping. More like a faint irony condensation around the rim. So when this happened I checked the running time to see how much time was left for the wrap-up, and it said forty seconds. Forty seconds? Yikes--when this movie decides to end, it doesn't let the screen door bang its sprockety ass on the way out. 

 

One more thing I feel compelled to mention: right before the race, Frank decides to lock Connie in a secluded shack so she can't call the police and turn him in for his own good (she's convinced he'll get a square deal since he's really innocent, ha ha). So what's the first thing she does? She sets it on fire. I don't know about you, but setting the old wooden shack that I'm locked up in on fire wouldn't be my first idea. It would be around #11 or #12 on the list, tops. 

 

Fortunately, a passing motorist sees the smoke and gets her out, and he's played by none other than an unbilled Jonathan Haze of LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS. Heck, Roger Corman himself even turns up early on as a state trooper. But, please--if you ever find yourself locked in a wooden shack, don't set it on fire right off the bat just because Dorothy Malone does it in this movie, because chances are that in real life, the guy who played Seymour Krelboin isn't going to toodle by and let you out.

 

So, while THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS isn't exactly an edge-of-your-seat nailbiter, it's fun to watch if you're into low-budget exploitation flicks from the 50s, and especially if you're a Roger Corman fan. And it actually has real people driving real cars. You even get to see Dorothy Malone tearing ass down the highway in one scene, which is cool in some weird sexual way that I can't even begin to explain. Plus, it was made twelve years before Vin Diesel was even born, so there's absolutely no danger of him being in it.

 

 

THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS -- Movie Review by Porfle

All The Vampire Girl Scenes From "BLOOD OF DRACULA" (1957)(video)

 

Sandra Harrison plays the new girl at a secluded boarding school...

...who falls prey to a demented teacher who turns her into a bloodthirsty vampire girl!

The result is one of the coolest makeups in any low-budget 1950s monster movie...

...in this companion film to I WAS A TEENAGE WEREWOLF and I WAS A TEENAGE FRANKENSTEIN.



I neither own nor claim any rights to this material.  Just having some fun with it. Thanks for watching!

All The Vampire Girl Scenes From "BLOOD OF DRACULA" (1957)(video)

All The Teenage Werewolf Scenes In "I Was A Teenage Werewolf" (Michael Landon, 1957) (video)

Troubled teen Tony (Michael Landon) has an anger management problem...

...made worse when his own doctor uses him as a guinea pig in a regression experiment.

Tony becomes a half-human, half-wolf monster with an urge to kill.

Aware of the beast he now becomes, Tony returns to the doctor (Whit Bissell)…

...but one last experiment leads to horror.


I neither own nor claim any rights to this material.  Just having some fun with it.  Thanks for watching!

All The Teenage Werewolf Scenes In "I Was A Teenage Werewolf" (Michael Landon, 1957) (video)

THE GHOST IN THE INVISIBLE BIKINI (1966) -- Movie Review by Porfle

 

Originally posted on 6/11/21

 

Currently watching: THE GHOST IN THE INVISIBLE BIKINI (1966), the last American-International teen flick to bear even the slightest resemblance to the studio's original "Beach Party" series that began in 1963 and lasted until original stars Frankie and Annette had moved on to other things and only a few hardy supporting players and extras still remained.

For the first time, there's no reference whatsoever to the beach or surfing. In a repeat of the earlier PAJAMA PARTY, the action takes place in a large mansion (this time, it's the haunted hideaway of recently-deceased Hiram Stokely, played by a very aged Boris Karloff) and its swimming pool, giving the cast an excuse to cavort in bikinis and swim trunks and flail around to the music of a bland rock 'n' roll band, the Bobby Fuller Four.

Basil Rathbone (SON OF FRANKENSTEIN, "Sherlock Holmes" series) plays Hiram's crooked attorney, Reginald Ripper, who plans to eliminate the old man's heirs after they assemble for the reading of his will. They include beach-movie veterans Tommy Kirk and Deborah Walley, along with venerable comic actress Patsy Kelly as "Myrtle Forbush." 

 

Aiding in Ripper's deadly scheme is his cohort J. Sinister Hulk (Jesse "Maytag Repairman" White), along with series regular Bobbi Shaw and Benny Rubin as Princess Yolanda and Chief Chicken Feather. All three characters are holdovers from PAJAMA PARTY, although Rubin replaces an ailing Buster Keaton who originated the role.

Of course, Harvey Lembeck is on hand as motorcycle gang leader Eric Von Zipper, with his usual motley mob of sycophantic cycle stupes. This time, he falls in love with Princess Yolanda, thus giving the writers an excuse to have Von Zipper and crew scurrying around the mansion along with everyone else once the plot, as it is, finally goes into high gear.

When Myrtle's nephew Bobby (Aron Kincaid, whom I think of as "the male Joy Harmon") shows up with a double decker bus full of swinging teens who turn the mansion into party central, the search for Hiram's hidden fortune quickly becomes a frenetic free-for-all as the rightful heirs clash with Ripper's dastardly baddies and a gaggle of spooks and monsters have the freaked-out teens going ape.

 

This will lead to an extravagantly silly finale that's like a deluxe live-action episode of "Scooby-Doo", only dumber and less coherent as everyone runs screaming hither and yon throughout the mansion (finally ending up in old Hiram's ghastly torture chamber) while some of the hoariest gags and haunted house tropes imaginable are recycled by former Three Stooges writer Elwood Ullman, who co-wrote the script with beach-party regular Louis M. Heyward.

Amidst all this, the simple romantic subplot between Tommy Kirk and Deborah Walley is barely given a chance to develop. Meanwhile, Ripper's gorgeous but evil daughter Sinistra (Quinn O'Hara) directs all her considerable seductive powers toward eliminating Myrtle's nephew Bobby (I forgot why), a goal that's repeatedly thwarted by her extreme nearsightedness.

Also appearing in the film are Nancy Sinatra (who sings the wince-inducing "Geronimo"), a young Danny Thomas discovery named Piccola Pupa (who's cute but not much of a singer), famed gorilla suit actor George Burrows as "Monstro", and former silent film star Francis X. Bushman (BEN HUR), who joins the rest of the cast's rather impressive group of vintage stars having some late-career fun (we hope) in this bit of nonsense.

 

Not the least of these is the great Boris Karloff, whose scenes with gorgeous Susan Hart were added, according to Wikipedia, after AIP producers James H. Nicholson and Samuel Z. Arkoff were unhappy with the film and thought it needed improvement. In their framing scenes, Karloff, as Hiram Stokely, is awakened from death's slumber by the ghost of his dead wife Cecily (Hart) and told that they will be reunited in the afterlife if he performs one final good deed.

The result is Hart's character, clad in an "invisible bikini", being awkwardly inserted into already filmed scenes as a mischievous but helpful ghost, with cutaways to Karloff observing the action in his crystal ball and making various comments being fed to him from off-camera.

One of the film's best assets is its use of lavish sets that are obviously left over from other AIP productions. That, along with the interesting cast and an occasionally infectious sense of fun, are just about the only reasons to recommend THE GHOST IN THE INVISIBLE BIKINI to all but the most diehard beach movie fans and lovers of bad movies in general.  As part of the latter group, I enjoyed it, but others may find it just shy of unwatchable.

THE GHOST IN THE INVISIBLE BIKINI (1966) -- Movie Review by Porfle

TEENAGE CAVE MAN (1958) -- Movie Review by Porfle

 

Originally posted on 7/19/21

 

Currently watching: Roger Corman's TEENAGE CAVE MAN (1958), starring a young Robert Vaughn as a rebellious teenager in an animal hide mini-skirt who chafes at the tribal law forbidding him to cross the river to the lush and fertile land beyond.

Naturally, this is all in the vein of the then-current craze for teen rebel flicks such as American-International's other genre films I WAS A TEENAGE WEREWOLF, I WAS A TEENAGE FRANKENSTEIN, and BLOOD OF DRACULA, and of course the grandaddy of them all, REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE with James Dean.

For Corman, of course, it's a matter of spending as little money as possible (approx. $70,000 according to IMDb) to mold the semblance of a movie out of such meager elements as a barren mountainside location (with cave) and a bunch of people garbed in mangy animal skins.

 

This is augmented by generous stock footage, mainly the familiar iguana-saurus stuff from the much-earlier ONE MILLION B.C. and various other clips to help set the prehistoric mood.  

Vaughn himself sports a stylish caveman ensemble and is both clean-shaven and coiffed in the same modern hairstyle he'd later retain as TV's "Man From U.N.C.L.E."  Older members of his hillside clan are a bit more hirsute, with beards befitting their status as the keepers of "The Word"--which the young caveman is dead set on violating by venturing into the forbidden zone and perhaps even encountering the dreaded creature whose very touch is said to cause death.

Joseph Hamilton (CAT BALLOU, ATTACK OF THE GIANT LEECHES) and Michael Shayne (THE NEANDERTHAL MAN, "The Adventures of Superman") are two of the older actors struggling to hide their embarrassment as tribal elders. Frank De Kova gets to gnaw on the rocky scenery as a hothead who keeps calling for Vaughn to die for his blasphemous actions against tribal law.

 

Some of the younger castmembers include Ed Nelson (A BUCKET OF BLOOD), Jonathan Haze (LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS), Barboura Morris (THE TRIP), and Corman regular Beach Dickerson (CREATURE FROM THE HAUNTED SEA), who plays multiple roles including a boy who gets sucked into some quicksand. The very statuesque Darah Marshall ("Lock Up", "Bachelor Father") plays Vaughn's girlfriend, "The Blonde Maiden", in her only film role.

The dialogue is a bit stage-pretentious here and there, complete with the occasional "Aye." Acting is okay, considering these players couldn't have had much to go on in developing their characters.

Vaughn, for the most part, is likably competent but resembles a frat kid hanging around in the wilderness as a pledge challenge. He does, at one point, get to invent the bow and arrow, although it looks like the dime store variety. 

 

Production values are meager to say the least, except for a very good bear costume that's convincingly worn by Dickerson. Other animal props are not so well done.  A big plus is a characteristically bombastic score by the great Albert Glasser, who was famous for wielding the studio orchestra like a blunt instrument.

How much you enjoy TEENAGE CAVE MAN will depend mostly on whether or not you're in the mood to put aside all expectations and lightly indulge in something pleasantly goofy for about 65 minutes. The fact that there's a nifty twist ending left me feeling surprisingly good about the whole thing.

 

TEENAGE CAVE MAN (1958) -- Movie Review by Porfle

Floating Rocks in "The Terror" (1963) w/Jack Nicholson & Boris Karloff (video)

In 1963 Roger Corman directed Karloff and Nicholson in this low-budget quickie...

...on sets left over from other films.

Nicholson's then-wife Sandra Knight costars.

As the film nears its end, Karloff, Knight, and Dick Miller wrestle in the raging flood waters.
Nicholson hurries to the scene.

Suddenly a stone wall gives way and the water is filled with...

...FLOATING ROCKS!


I neither own nor claim any rights to this material.  Just having some fun with it.  Thanks for watching!

Floating Rocks in "The Terror" (1963) w/Jack Nicholson & Boris Karloff (video)

Luana Anders' Underwear Blooper in "Dementia 13" (Francis Ford Coppola, 1963) (video)

"Dementia 13" was Francis Ford Coppola's first movie (not counting a nudie flick or two).

It's a terrifying tale starring the sublime Luana Anders (Easy Rider, The Last Detail).

The scariest scene...

(besides the one with the obvious boom-mic shadow)

...is Luana's midnight swim in a dark, murky pond.

So scary, in fact, that we almost don't notice...

...that her underwear changes color when she goes underwater.

Read our review of DEMENTIA 13


I neither own nor claim any rights to this material.  Just having some fun with it.  Thanks for watching!

Luana Anders' Underwear Blooper in "Dementia 13" (Francis Ford Coppola, 1963) (video)

All The Wasp Woman Scenes From "THE WASP WOMAN" (1959) (video)

Susan Cabot plays beauty products tycoon Janice Starlin...

...whose dangerous experiments to achieve eternal youth...

...turn her into a hideous, bloodsucking wasp woman!

(SPOILERS!)


I neither own nor claim any rights to this material.  Just having some fun with it. Thanks for watching!

All The Wasp Woman Scenes From "THE WASP WOMAN" (1959) (video)

WILD IN THE STREETS -- DVD Review by Porfle

 

Originally posted on 8/16/16

 

What would happen if a rock-singing hippie in his early 20s could run for President?  And 14-year-olds could vote for him?  And Shelley Winters was his mom? 

These and hundreds of other questions are answered in goofy and sometimes scary psychedelic splashes of cinematic wonderfulness in the 1968 American-International classic WILD IN THE STREETS (Olive Films, Blu-ray and DVD). 

The film vividly depicts a Hollywoodized view of the 60s counter-culture era with its constant clashes between the younger and older generations--represented by bellbottoms, long hair, groovy lingo, and drug use on one side, and either straitlaced moral rigidity or sad attempts to remain "relevant" to the younger set, despite encroaching age, on the other--and is packed to the gills with knowing satire that skewers them both to the very core at every delightfully hokey turn.

If it seems dumb, it's deliberately so, almost in the same way that the "Batman" TV series with Adam West risked looking stupid to deliver its payload of delicious deadpan humor.  (Minus, that is, the more farcical elements of that show and plus a stern voiceover by Paul Frees.)

And yet, it's this quality that allows the story at times to sneak up on the unsuspecting viewer with a powerful emotional wallop which, especially during the film's downbeat climax, turns the improbable fantasy into a too-close-for-comfort Orwellian nightmare. 

The film's nominal "hero", Max Frost (James Dean lookalike Christopher Jones), who mass-produces LSD in the basement of his family home, rebels against his conservative father (Bert Freed) and dippy, clinging mother (Shelley Winters at her overpowering, self-deprecating best), leaving them to become a millionaire rock star with a loyal entourage that includes Richard Pryor, Larry Bishop (HELL RIDE, KILL BILL VOL. 2), and Diane Varsi as sexy acid-head "Sally LeRoy."

Ambitious senatorial candidate John Fergus (Hal Holbrook) makes the mistake of enlisting Max and his band to help him court the youth vote, but Max uses it as an opportunity to rouse his frenzied followers into a movement to lower the voting age to fourteen. 

When this (improbably) occurs, Max then rides his superstardom all the way to the presidency itself, whereupon he declares thirty to be the new mandatory retirement age.  At thirty-five, all citizens are to be interned in concentration camps where they'll be fed LSD to keep them docile and out of the younger generation's way.

Along the way, we're treated to some really great scenes that run the gamut from the ridiculous to the sublime.  Winters is hilarious in her bull-in-a-china-closet efforts--doomed from the start--to ingratiate herself with her newly-moneyed son and appear young and hip.  She's really amazing to watch.

Max's rise to power, taunting disrespect for the establishment, and easy manipulation of the masses are potent fantasy, while seasoned actors such as Hal Holbrook and Ed Begley, Sr. lend needed dramatic weight to their scenes.  (Seeing Begley and the rest of Congress tripping out on LSD after Max and his "troops" have spiked Washington, D.C.'s water supply is a trip in itself.)

The songs aren't half bad, either, including the haunting "The Shape of Things to Come" which follows a Kent State-style shooting during a massive protest rally. 

Director Barry Shear worked mainly in television and gives WILD IN THE STREETS the look of a gilt-edged TV movie with welcome bursts of color and style.  Scripter Robert Thom adds another winner to a body of work that also includes DEATH RACE 2000, BLOODY MAMA, THE LEGEND OF LYLAH CLARE, and ALL THE FINE YOUNG CANNIBALS. Importantly, his "generation gap" screenplay doesn't choose sides--it's a wickedly satirical putdown of both. Composer Les Baxter contributes his usual lively musical score. 

 

In addition to the rest of the standout cast, a major part of the film's appeal is its star, Christopher Jones, whose uncanny resemblance to James Dean (in looks if not acting skill) is of constant visual interest.  He carries the picture as its charismatic focal point and makes us feel a dramatic involvement in scenes that might otherwise seem insubstantial while deftly revealing to us his "Angel of Light" character's inner corruptness. 

The DVD from Olive Films is in 1.85:1 widescreen with 2.0 mono sound and English subtitles.  A trailer is the sole extra.

My older sister used to take me to grown-up movies all the time back in the pre-ratings-system days when such films, as does this one, carried a "suggested for mature audiences" disclaimer.  (It has since been rated "R" mainly for its depiction of drug use.)  I vividly remember watching WILD IN THE STREETS with her in our local movie theater then, and now, 48 years later, I still find it just as disturbing, just as crazy, and just as wildly whacked-out--but a whole lot funnier. 

WILD IN THE STREETS -- DVD Review by Porfle

BIKINI BEACH (1964) -- Movie Review by Porfle

 

 Originally posted on 5/16/21

 

Currently re-watching: The third film in the "Beach Party" series, 1964's BIKINI BEACH. This one begins as they usually do, with our fun-loving teens on another school break and hitting the beach and the girls sequestering themselves in separate sleeping quarters that the boys would love to move into themselves.

Naturally, good girl Annette Funicello serves as unofficial chaperone, making it even more difficult for horn-dogging hot-dogger Frankie Avalon to score with her. Both sides are caught up in constant ogling and lusting after each other, and must spend all that pent-up energy by frantic dancing and loads of surfing.

This time, however, a new wrinkle presents itself when new British singing sensation The Potato Bug sets up a lavish tent compound on the beach and gives the girls something to really scream and dream about.  

Since this is 1964, and the movie was written by out-of-it old fogies (including director William Asher, who would go on to helm TV's "Bewitched"), the Potato Bug is used to ridicule current sensations The Beatles although the character looks and acts like a cross between Terry-Thomas and Jerry Lewis' "Nutty Professor."

Of course, Annette is on the outs with Frankie again (the guy just doesn't want to get married yet) and uses Potato Bug to make him jealous. This opens up a whole new angle on the "beach movie" premise when they end up challenging each other to a drag race presided over by local club owner/abstract painter/drag strip manager Big Drag, played by the great Don Rickles.

An additional subplot involves fuddy-duddy newspaper publisher Keenan Wynn, who wants to discredit the kids as dangerous delinquents in his papers while sympathetic teacher Martha Hyer runs interference for them. 

Keenan's assistant is a chimp named "Clyde" (Janos Prohaska, the Horta in the Star Trek episode "Devil in the Dark"), who proves how dumb the kids are by surfing, drag racing, and abstract-painting just as well or better than they do.

Motorcycle moron Eric Von Zipper (Harvey Lembeck) and his "army of stupids" return to cause their usual trouble, helping Keenan in his efforts to thwart their mutual foes, the surfers.

Having learned how to administer "the finger" (a paralyzing move applied to the temple) from Bob Cummings in the first film, Von Zipper proceeds to accidentally use it on himself numerous times and must be carried away by his gang to sleep it off.

 

The film's fervent desire to entertain us results in a big chase scene through town involving dragsters, motorcycles, and go-carts, a combination brawl and pie fight at Big Drag's place, and much semi-hilarity involving the zany Potato Bug, who is in fact played by heavily made-up Frankie Avalon himself (although a stand-in is used in several shots) in a surprisingly comedic performance.

Perky singer Donna Loren returns to the series, and we also see the return of regulars Deadhead (Jody McCrea), hyper-kinetic go-go dancer Candy (Candy Johnson), and pretty boy John Ashley. Future "Petticoat Junction" co-star Meredith MacRae replaces Valora Noland as "Animal", and Timothy Carey is menacing as Von Zipper cohort "South Dakota Slim." As the previous films ended with cameos by horror stars Vincent Price and Peter Lorre, this one is graced by none other than the venerable Boris Karloff. 

 

Rock and roll songs are provided by some bands you probably never heard of, including one group who cocks a snoot at those wacky mop-tops from Liverpool by taking the stage at Big Drag's club in shaggy Beatle wigs and then yanking them off to reveal shaved heads.

Frankie and Annette get their own crooning in amongst the other cacophony, of course (including one number Frankie sings as "Potato Bug"), while none other than Little Stevie Wonder (as he was known then) sings us into the marathon closing credits during which world-class shaker Candy Johnson and one of the ladies from the local old folks' home have a frenzied dance-off.

Having already established the basic premise of the series and many of its recurring tropes in the first film, BIKINI BEACH wastes no time diving into all of this colorful cinematic chaos with utter abandon and a total disregard for how incredibly dumb and groan-worthy it all is. But this serves not as a drawback but as a license to pile as much dumb fun into the whole thing as possible.

BIKINI BEACH (1964) -- Movie Review by Porfle

SKI PARTY (1965) -- Movie Review by Porfle

 

Originally posted on 5/22/21

 

Currently rewatching: SKI PARTY (1965). By this time, American-International were starting to see the writing in the sand, and, even though they still had a couple of "beach party" movies left in them, started trying to branch out into other areas of interest for ticket-buying teens.

Hence, this weird hybrid of beach-pic elements but with sand and surfing replaced by snow and skiing. This time we start off with our fun-loving teens still in college, on the verge of winter break and just roiling with hormones looking for somewhere to go and something to do.

Frankie Avalon is no longer make-out king "Frankie", but instead plays strike-out king "Todd", who, along with equally inept Craig ("Dobie Gillis" star Dwayne Hickman), spends every waking hour frantically trying to get to first base with the most romance-averse girls in the universe, Linda (Deborah Walley) and Barbara (a pre-Batgirl Yvonne Craig).

 

 
I mean, these girls are pathologically repelled by anything even slightly resembling hugging and kissing, to such a degree that they make Annette Funicello's "Dee-Dee" look like a raving nymphomaniac. (Which, in her brief cameo as a teacher, she sorta is, since we find her smooching away with a student at the drive-in.)

In one scene, the girls get together in their room for cocoa, pillow-fighting, and other girl-type stuff while enjoying a spirited discussion of all the things they've done to boys who tried to get next to them (one guy ended up with one arm, and another with a parole officer). And through it all, Linda and Barbara remain in a constant state of fuming indignance toward the guys for no apparent reason whatsoever.

Lucky for them, Todd and Craig are so irrationally devoted to winning these resolutely platonic party poopers as steady girlfriends that they follow them on a ski club field trip to the snowy slopes, despite not being able to ski.

This results in the usual sight gags about flying out-of-control down steep mountains on skis or sleds, screaming for their lives, as we cringe at the memory of various real-life celebrities who have done the same thing but with fatal results.

But that's nothing compared to some of the film's more cartoony gags, such as Todd attempting to win a ski jump contest by donning a scuba suit under his clothes and filling it with bottled helium until he's bloated like a weather balloon and drifting helplessly over the stunned crowd.  Helpful pal Craig shoots him down with a starter pistol and Todd goes spewing all over the place as the helium escapes.

I won't even try to explain why, but a major plotline involves the boys disguising themselves as girls, "Some Like It Hot" style, and pretending to be Jane and Nora from England while looking about as much like actual females as Aldo Ray in drag.

As anyone who's seen "Some Like It Hot" can guess, the school's #1 makeout king, blonde pretty-boy Freddie (Aron Kincaid, who could pass for Joy Harmon's twin brother) falls madly in love with Nora, with the usual comic complications. I almost expected a reprise of the old "Nobody's perfect" gag at the end.

Certain surefire elements from the beach movies are served up again to help things along, including bikinis (thanks to the ski lodge's big heated pool), a comical old fogie (Robert Q. Lewis as a psychologically maladjusted activity director slash chaperone), and the voluptuous Bobbi Shaw, this time given actual dialogue as a Swedish ski instructor who has Todd's heart (and other parts of his body) all a-flutter. 

 

 
Also served up are the usual bland songs, which Frankie and Deborah (and the ever-bland Hondells) try their best to croon some life into. Thankfully, however, we're treated to a couple of bonafide Top 40 legends, with Lesley Gore singing "Sunshine, Lollipops, and Rainbows" on the bus to the lodge and James Brown (back in his pompadour days) and the Famous Flames performing the classic "I Feel Good" in front of the fireplace.

The film manages yet another cartoony chase sequence and ends up, strangely enough, right back on the beach for a happy fadeout. (Did you expect any other kind?) SKI PARTY is just as dumb as it sounds, but if you watch it in the right frame of mind, it's the kind of harmless fun that goes down easy.

(Note: At the end of the closing credits we're told to be on the lookout for a follow-up entitled "Cruise Party." Since I don't believe such a film exists, it seems American-International may have intended to continue their teen-movie series with variations on the "Party" theme, but the plan didn't work out.)

SKI PARTY (1965) -- Movie Review by Porfle