Tag Archives: Harvey B. Dunn

I Killed Wild Bill Hickok (1956, directed by Richard Talmadge)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

Not that Wild Bill Hickok!

This low-budget western programmer tries to draw viewers in by using the name of an icon of the old west but it doesn’t take place in Deadwood, there’s no poker game, no dead man’s hand, and Wild Bill (Tom Brown) is presented as being a corrupt sheriff who works for evil businessman Jim Bailey (Denver Pyle).  Denver Pyle, we all know him best as Uncle Jesse on the Dukes of Hazzard.  He’s a bad guy here, the film’s Boss Hogg.

Our hero and the man who kills Wild Bill Hickok is a horse trader Johnny Rebel, who tells his story in flashback and who is often called “Mr. Rebel.”  Johnny Rebel is played by Johnny Carpenter, no relation to the director.  This Johnny Carpenter was a stunt man who took control of his career and wrote and played lead in a series of forgettable B-westerns, like this one.  Carpenter probably could have been quite the hero in the Poverty Row days, when fast-paced westerns were being released on a weekly basis and directors and actors knew exactly what a matinee audience wanted.  By the time I Killed Wild Bill Hickok came out, westerns had started to grow up.

There’s the usual amount of stock footage.  Director Richard Talmadge was himself a former stunt man so he does get a few good stunts into the last 15 minutes of the movie.  Before the final gun battle, this movie about Wild Bill Hickok is nowhere near wild enough.

 

The TSL Horror Grindhouse: The Sinister Urge (dir by Edward D. Wood, Jr.)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

1960’s The Sinister Urge opens with a shot of a blonde woman running down a highway while clad only her underwear.

As I watched this scene unfold, I was reminded of a chapter in Hollywood Rat Race, a non-fiction book about the sordidness of the film industry that was written by Edward D. Wood, Jr.  The chapter takes the form of a letter to aspiring young actresses who come to Hollywood, convinced that they’ll become stars.  In the chapter, Wood asks what the innocent young ingenue will do if a director tries to force her to film a scene in just her underwear.  Will you give in, Wood asks, or will you stick true to your values?  Wood seems to suggest that the actress should say no, no matter how much pressure the director puts on her.  Of course, Wood himself was a director, as well as a writer.  In fact, he directed The Sinister Urge.

The Sinister Urge is about the dark side of the film industry.  Police Lt. Matt Carson (Kenne Duncan) and Sgt. Randy Stone (Duke Moore) are investigating a series of murders.  The victims have all been women and they’ve all been killed in the same park.  Carson and Stone suspect that the murders might be connected.  Gee, guys, ya think so?

The murders are being committed by Dirk Williams (Dino Fantini), a knife-wielding teenager who works for the local pornographic filmmakers, Johnny (Carl Anthony) and Gloria (Jean Fontaine).  Dirk has become addicted to viewing pornography and it’s driven him crazy.  Johnny, who laments that he was once a serious filmmaker before he found himself reduced to directing and distributing “smut” to make money, is full of guilt and self-loathing.  Gloria doesn’t care about anything other than making money through selling smutty pictures and movies.  She doesn’t care that she’s helping to produce a product that is inspiring the sinister urge that drives Dirk to kill.

Can Dirk be stopped before he attacks innocent Mary Smith (Jeanne Willardson), who has fallen into the clutches of Gloria’s smut syndicate?  (That’s a great band name, by the way.)  And how will Dirk react when he learns that both Johnny and Gloria are thinking about sacrificing him for the greater good of their evil organization?

The Sinister Urge is an over-the-top melodrama that is clearly an Ed Wood production.  (Posters for Plan 9 From Outer Space and Bride of the Monster appear in Johnny’s office.)  Some of the actors deliver their lines stiffly.  Some of them delvier their lines with just a little bit too much emotion.  The hard-boiled dialogue is full of cliches.  The action sometimes comes to a complete stop so that the cops can discuss the threat of adult films.  The film may be sordid but it’s all presented with such an earnest DIY style that it becomes rather fascinating to watch.  At one point, Wood spliced in footage from a totally different film because why not?  Wood had the footage.  The Sinister Urge was running short.  Why not pad out the length with something totally unrelated?  That never surrender spirit is why Ed Wood remains a beloved figure 100 years after he was born in Poughkeepsie.

Sadly enough, this was Wood’s final “mainstream” film.  After this film, he could only find work writing adult novels and writing and directing the same type of movies that are criticized in The Sinister Urge.  (One has to wonder if The Sinister Urge was Wood’s attempt to satirize the moral panic of the time.)  Sadly, Wood sank into alcoholism and died 17 years after this film was released.  He was 54 years old.  His films, however, live on.

Horror on the Lens: Night of the Ghouls (dir by Edward D. Wood, Jr.)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

GhoulsdvdToday we celebrate Ed Wood’s 100th birthday with his sequel to Bride of the Monsters.  In Night of the Ghouls, con man Dr. Alcula (Kenne Duncan) moves into Bela Lugosi’s old mansion and pretends to talk to the dead.  What Alcula doesn’t realize is that the house is actually haunted (by Tor Johnson’s Lobo, among others) and real ghosts don’t appreciate pretend ghosts.

What can you say about a film like of Night of the Ghouls?  It’s an Ed Wood film, with all that suggests.  However, how can you resist a film that starts with Criswell sitting up in his coffin and providing commentary?

The role of Dr. Alcula was originally written for Bela Lugosi.  After Lugosi’s death, veteran actor and longtime Wood friend Kenne Duncan got the role instead.  Also of note, Wood appears twice in this film.  Not only does his picture appear on a wanted poster in the police station but Wood also plays one of the ghouls.

Horror on the Lens: Bride of the Monster (dir by Edward D. Wood, Jr.)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Bride of The Monster (1955, dir by Ed Wood)

Since tomorrow will be the great man’s birthday, it seems appropriate that today’s horror film on the lens is Edward D. Wood’s 1955 epic, Bride of the Monster.

(Much like Plan 9 From Outer Space, around here, it is a tradition to watch Bride of the Monster in October.)

The film itself doesn’t feature a bride but it does feature a monster, a giant octopus who guards the mansion of the mysterious Dr. Vornoff (Bela Lugosi).  Vornoff and his hulking henchman Lobo (Tor Johnson) have been kidnapping men and using nuclear power to try to create a race of super soldiers.  Or something like that.  The plot has a make-it-up-as-you-go-along feel to it.  That’s actually a huge part of the film’s appeal.

Bride of the Monster is regularly described as being one of the worst films ever made but I think that’s rather unfair.   Appearing in his last speaking role, Lugosi actually gives a pretty good performance, bringing a wounded dignity to the role of Vornoff.  If judged solely against other movies directed by Ed Wood, this is actually one of the best films ever made.

(For a longer review, click here!)

The TSL’s Horror Grindhouse: Teenagers From Outer Space (dir by Tom Graeff)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

The aliens have landed in California!

And they’re teenagers!

That may sound like the set up of a 1960s beach movie but actually, Teenagers From Outer Space is an oddly somber little movie from 1959.  Now, just to be clear, somber does not necessarily equal good.  There’s a lot of humor to be found in Teenagers From Outer Space but next to none of it’s intentional.  Instead, this attempts to be a serious-minded movie that happens to be about intergalactic teens.

The teenagers are named Thor (Bryan Grant) and Derek (David Love).  They’ve been sent down to Earth so that they can raise Gargons, which are these lobster creatures that are considered to be a gourmet delicacy on their own world.  Thor is the arrogant and insensitive alien who thinks that he’s too good for Earth and reacts to nearly every social situation by pulling out his ray gun and firing.  (Whenever Thor vaporizes anyone, a perfectly white skeleton — the type that you’d expect to see hanging in a classroom — is left behind.)  Derek is sensitive and moody.  He’s got the soul of a poet.  He doesn’t want to vaporize people.  Instead, he wants to explore Earth and maybe hang out in a coffee house while reading Kerouac.  Though Derek may never actually say it, it’s obvious what’s going through his mind whenever he looks at the other teenagers from outer space.  “The scene is totally squaresville, man,” Derek thinks, “Real melvin.  Exploring planets with peaceful intentions is where it’s at!”

Anyway, Derek decides to run away and explore Earth on his own.  He ends up renting a room in a boarding house owned by Grandpa (Harvey B. Dunn) and his daughter, Betty (Dawn Bender).  Betty is immediately attracted to Derek, despite the fact that she already has a boyfriend (who is played by the film’s director, Tom Graeff).  She’s not particularly surprised when Derek tells her that he’s from outer space.  Nor is she upset when he reveals that, shortly after arriving on Earth, Thor vaporized her dog.  (Judging from her nonplussed reactions to everything, I’m assuming that Betty was an avid reader of both Sartre and Camus.)

As for Grandpa, he spends most of his time hanging out on the front porch and talking to strangers.  For instance, when Thor comes by and demands to know where Derek is, Grandpa cheerfully tells him.  This, of course, leads to a lot of innocent people being vaporized but Grandpa never seems to feel particularly bad about it.  Certainly, no one in the movie ever takes the time to point out how much trouble could have been avoided if Grandpa wasn’t so talkative.

Derek really just wants to stay on Earth but Thor knows that Derek is secretly the son of their planet’s leader and therefore, cannot be allowed to run away.  Why doesn’t Derek know this?  I have no idea.  It’s possible the movie explained this turn of events while I was busy wondering why no one seemed to be upset about all the skeletons that were turning up around town.

Anyway, as I said, there aren’t many intentional laughs to be found in Teenagers From Outer Space but there’s plenty of unintentional ones.  Between Betty’s calm acceptance of everything that Derek tells her and David Love’s continually confused stare and blank line readings, it’s impossible not to smile while watching this movie.

Teenagers From Outer Space was written, directed, and produced by Tom Graeff. Shortly after this film came out, Graeff took out an ad in the Los Angeles Times and proclaimed himself to be the second coming of Christ.  Hey, why not?  After you make a movie like Teenagers From Outer Space, I suppose it seems like anything could be possible.  Unfortunately, Graef committed suicide in 1970 and he didn’t get to see his misbegotten little film find a second life as a cult favorite.

Teenagers From Outer Space.  It’s not very good but it certainly is watchable.

Horror on the Lens: Teenagers From Outer Space (dir by Tom Graeff)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Can Earth survive an invason of teenagers?

Watch today’s Horror on the Lens and find out! From 1959, it’s Teenagers From Outer Space! In this film, a bunch of teenage-looking aliens come to Earth so that they can raise lobsters. Things don’t really go as planned, of course. The teens have ray-guns that can transform anyone intto a perfectly preserved skeleton. It’s sad to think that they could come up with the technology to power their ray-guns and to pilot their spaceshiip but not to raise lobsters on their own planet.

It’s a damn shame.

Anyway, I hope you’re ready to cry because it’s time for …. TEENAGERS FROM OUTER SPACE!