Tag Archives: Gary Loggins

Halloween TV Havoc!: Lon Chaney Jr in FRANKENSTEIN (Tales of Tomorrow 1952)

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Early TV science fiction was dominated by kiddie programming like CAPTAIN VIDEO and TOM CORBETT, SPACE CADET. In 1951, a more adult oriented fantasy series called TALES OF TOMORROW made it’s debut on ABC. The live broadcast dramatized works by prominent writers like Arthur C. Clarke, Theodore Sturgeon, Jules Verne, and H.G. Wells. Big name stars such as Boris Karloff, Leslie Neilson, and Rod Steiger headlined many of the episodes. Lon Chaney Jr. starred in a half-hour adaptation of Mary Shelley’s FRANKENSTEIN, with John Newland (later host and director of ONE STEP BEYOND) as the scientist who creates a monster. It’s said Chaney was *ahem* a bit under the weather during this live performance (in other words, drunk as a skunk!).  I’ll let you be the judge. The quality of this kinescope-to-video isn’t great, but I hope you’ll enjoy watching Lon Chaney Jr. as the monster of FRANKENSTEIN!

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Halloween Havoc!: Joan Crawford in BERSERK (Columbia 1967)

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Last year I looked at Joan Crawford’s final film  TROG  during “Halloween Havoc” month, where she played an anthropologist.  This time around, Joan stars in her first movie for schlockmeister Herman Cohen, BERSERK, in which she’s in a more believable role as a circus owner/ringmaster whose big top is plagued by a series of gruesome murders.

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The film starts off with the grisly death of high wire artist Gaspar the Great, whose tightrope breaks, causing him to die from hanging. Frank Hawkins, better known as The Magnificent Hawkins, arrives soon after and replaces Gaspar with his own death-defying act, walking the tightrope while blindfolded over a row of steel spikes. Circus owner Monica Rivers loves the publicity from Gaspar’s demise, which turns off her lover/business partner Durando. Soon Monica takes up with Frank, and Durando winds up with a spike driven through his head!

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The circus acts think there’s a madman among them…

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Halloween Havoc!: Peter Cushing in CORRUPTION (Columbia 1968)

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Hammer horror icon Peter Cushing is remembered for his two signature roles with the company, the obsessed Baron Frankenstein and the vampire hunter Van Helsing. The actor made many other films as well, but none as bizarre as CORRUPTION. This sleazy slice of 60’s dementia finds Cushing once again a brilliant surgeon, this time in a contemporary setting, in a gore fest that goes off the deep end with a uniquely wild denouement that will leave viewers in  shock.

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Sir John Rowan (Cushing), eminent plastic surgeon,  is engaged to beautiful young model Lynn Nolan, popular fashion face of the day. Despite being tired, John attends a typical swinging 60’s party with her, and it’s clear he’s not comfortable in this milieu. When the host begins taking sexy pics of Lynn, John’s had enough and wants to leave. The host gets belligerent and a fight breaks out between the men, causing a flood lamp to…

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Halloween Havoc!: THE GHOST OF DRAGSTRIP HOLLOW (AIP 1959)

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Hey all you Halloween hepcats and creepy chicks! Are you ready for THE GHOST OF DRAGSTRIP HOLLOW? And by ready I mean prepared to watch a really lousy movie redeemed only by the in-joke twist ending that’s sure to please horror fans. All you’ve got to do is slog through the rest of this nonsense… so let’s slog on!

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THE GHOST OF DRAGSTRIP HOLLOW is a sequel of sorts to HOT ROD GIRL, and  starts off as your basic hot rod drive-in flick.  Pretty young Lois Cavendish is a member of the Zenith Club, a group of hot rod enthusiasts being interviewed by magazine writer Mr. Hedley. Lois gets busted drag racing against her rival Nita, and her parents (who just don’t understand) ground her. This means she’s gonna miss the big wing-ding at the club Saturday night, but not to worry… Mom suggests moving the party to their house…

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Halloween Havoc!: ATTACK OF THE 50 FOOT WOMAN (Allied Artists 1958)

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“HAAARRRY!!!”

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It’s hard not to like ATTACK OF THE 50 FOOT WOMAN. Sure the premise is ridiculous, the script’s way over-the-top, the acting’s hammy, the direction’s practically non-existent, and the special effects flat-out stink. Yet the movie has an endearing, ragged charm in its unintentionally funny way that, like PLAN NINE FROM OUTER SPACE  , sucks the viewer right into its bizzaro world. Plus, it’s got two of the 1950’s hottest sci-fi/horror babes, Allison Hayes and Yvette Vickers!

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A giant space ball lands smack in the middle of Route 66 in the California desert. Heiress Nancy Archer swerves to avoid it, and next thing you know a giant hand grabs her! Meanwhile at Tony’s Bar & Grill, her louse of a husband Harry is living it up with local floozie Honey Parker. No one believes Nancy’s wild tale, as she’s known for being a boozer and has spent time in a sanitarium. Sheriff Dubbitt and…

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Halloween Havoc!: Bela Lugosi in CHANDU THE MAGICIAN (Fox 1932)

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Thrills! Chills! Romance! Action! CHANDU THE MAGICIAN plays like a Saturday matinée serial aimed directly at the kiddie crowd. Based on a popular radio series, the film is pretty antiquated seen today, its saving graces being the special effects wizardry of co-director William Cameron Menzies and the deliciously evil Bela Lugosi as the megalomaniacal villain Roxor.

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The movie kicks off with the banging of a gong and an offscreen narrator ominously intoning “Chan-du the Magician”. A hand is used to wipe the screen credits, the first of Menzies’ many filmic tricks. We’re taken inside a temple where Frank Chandler, aka Chandu, has spent three years learning the ancient secrets of the mystic arts (move over, Dr. Strange!). He’s a yogi now, master of the hypnotic eye and astral projection, and demonstrates his prowess by performing the old Indian rope trick and walking through fire. His mentor bids him to “go…

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Halloween Havoc!: GODZILLA, KING OF THE MONSTERS (Toho/TransWorld 1956)

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“History shows again and again, how nature points out the folly of man”-

“Godzilla” by Blue Oyster Cult

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Let’s kick off this year’s “Halloween Havoc” with the Grandaddy of kaiju eiga, GODZILLA, KING OF THE MONSTERS. The Big G first hit Japanese movie screens in 1954, and made its way to American shores two years later in a reedited version with new narrative footage. I’ve only seen the Americanized interpretation, so I can’t comment on Inoshiro Honda’s original vision, but I do enjoy this film a lot more than the endless, silly sequels that ensued. I’d go as far as saying GODZILLA, KING OF THE MONSTERS is one of the best sci-fi flicks of the 50’s, one that’s influence looms like Big G’s shadow even today.

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We start with a familiar sight: Tokyo in ruins, “a smoldering memorial to the unknown”! American reporter Steve Martin (played by Raymond Burr, not the “wild and…

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Kitty Litter: SEX KITTENS GO TO COLLEGE (Allied Artists 1960)

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Let’s get it out of the way right now- SEX KITTENS GO TO COLLEGE is bad. Real bad. Like mind-numbingly bad. Despite the presence of sex kittens Mamie Van Doren and Tuesday Weld, this movie is a smelly litter box in desperate need of cleaning. It’s an Albert Zugsmith extravaganza, so you know right off the bat it’s gonna be a stinker. Zugsmith had once been a producer at Universal, overseeing prestige films like WRITTEN ON THE WIND and TOUCH OF EVIL. But when he went into independent productions, Zugsmith chose to go the low-budget exploitation route and even though he managed to attract some well-known names, his little epics usually stunk to high heaven.

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The movie revolves around the talents of Mamie Van Doren, a beautiful creature whose best assets weren’t her acting. She plays Dr. Mathilda West, a genius hired to take over the science department at Collins College. Thinko, a supercomputer/robot type thing…

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RIP Herschell Gordon Lewis: The Godfather of Gore

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Mention the name Herschell Gordon Lewis to film fans and you’ll get two responses. They either love him or hate him. I fall cleanly into the first camp, as I’ve always loved the demented cinema of Mr. Lewis, who passed away Monday at age 87. Whether watching a triple feature of terror at the old Capital Theater on a Saturday afternoon, or later rewatching his movies via the magic of VHS, Herschell Gordon Lewis’s blood soaked no-budget epics provided hours of gruesome entertainment for me, and helped warp my impressionable little mind (like it needed any help!).

Blood Feast (1963)                                                                 Blood Feast (1963)

Lewis got into the film business in the late 50’s, teaming with sexploitation king David F. Friedman to make a series of nudie-cutie flicks like BOIN-N-G! and GOLDIELOCKS AND THE THREE BARES, before creating their first masterpiece, 1963’s BLOOD FEAST. The film’s about Fuad Ramses, an Egyptian caterer who slaughters young women in order…

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Boldly Going Indeed! : PRETTY MAIDS ALL IN A ROW (MGM 1971)

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Gene Roddenberry’s post-STAR TREK career  had pretty much gone down the tubes. The sci-fi series had been a money loser, and Roddenberry wasn’t getting many offers. Not wanting to be pigeonholed in the science fiction ghetto, he produced and wrote the screenplay for PRETTY MAIDS ALL IN A ROW, a black comedy skewering the sexual revolution, with French New Wave director Roger Vadim making his first American movie. The result was an uneven yet entertaining film that would never get the green light today with its theme of horny teachers having sex with horny high school students!

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All-American hunk Rock Hudson was in the middle of a career crisis himself. After spending years as Doris Day’s paramour in a series of fluffy comedies, his box office clout was at an all-time low. Taking the role of Tiger McGrew, the guidance counselor/football coach whose dalliances with the cheerleading squad leads to murder…

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