Dear Friends,
This is really a commentary on the sci-fi genre in movies, dating back decades...One of the few from the 1950s which I did enjoy, was the Day the Earth Stood Still (1951,) although it stood out from the majority, in offering a peaceful solution from space. Yet in that decade, there was so much anti-ET propaganda in most movies and obviously a state of affairs intended by the establishment, which sensationalized the subject for box office hits and film industry profits...
I suppose that many of us loath the majority of those old sci-fi movies from the 1950s and 60s, about hostile alien invasions of earth...?? Most of them simply reflected the general paranoia of the times, during the cold war.
Of course, there was a uniquely and merry British exception to the typical mould, offered by the movie; The Night Caller (1965,) which presented an ET in a more cultured and sophisticated light, albeit, also a seedy dim light, skulking about in the shadows in night-time London's west end, visiting a porno shop in Soho, a Ripperesque murder, interviewing girls for modelling jobs, using glamour mag adverts for aspiring models...With the secret intent of luring those attractive young ladies into deep space, to live on one of the Jupiter moons and breed children for a dieing civillisation, located there.... ;-) LOL Hehe.....!!
If you have not seen this movie I could amusingly recommend it....It does stand out from the rest, with it's swinging 60's music theme, during those cold war paranoia decades. It also adds a great deal of humour to the sci-fi invasions genre, using an assortment of "serious" actors, as well as comedians, in the cast line up....;-)
At the conclusion of this innocently enjoyable movie, the ET wins the battle of wits, which is most refreshing I found, upon viewing it...
Regards, Drekx
"Bikini Girls and the Space Alien - Back in 1965 London, a strange sphere from outer space has landed in the countryside outside London. Doctor Jack Costain . . . Doctor Who? . . . No, Doctor Jack Costain, played by John Saxon, and his assistant Ann Barlow, played by Patricia Haines, have locked the sphere in a storage room next to their laboratory, and they soon discover that the men from outer space can use the sphere to trans-mutate a creature from Ganymede, the third moon of Jupiter into the room with the sphere. Medra, the man from outer space, able to disappear and move from place to place without being seen steals a car from the research facility and heads for Soho, with all of Scotland Yard and the military on the search for him. Soon young women begin vanishing from the streets of London, and it seems that all of the missing ladies have been reading copies of Bikini Girl magazine. Medra, the man from the planet Ganymede, is luring young women and after giving them an incredible photograph that seems to be made of some type of plastic and seems to be 3 dimensional, both the girl and the photograph vanish, never to be seen again. Ann Barlow, the scientist's assistant volunteers to answer the ad in Bikini Girl magazine from Medra, and although the Yard has the meeting place surrounded, she is killed by Medra and Medra escapes before the cops surrounding the little book shop have any idea that anyone is inside. With creepy 1965 organ music and eerie 1965 outer space sound effects we are on the chase for the creature that is kidnapping young women of London . . . and you know what? The ending is very 1965 . . . and not at all like the 'code' endings from the years when the Hays Office dictated how stories should end . . . Even though this story was filmed in Britain outside the reach of the American censors, most of their movies also followed the guidelines of how good guys and bad guys should wind up at the end - Indeed, with outer space aliens invading motion picture plots we started re-defining who acutally was a bad guy. "
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:-) Cheer up ACC friends. Have fun with 60s sci-fi silliness in movies.....stop worrying about doom & gloom.
Well yes I know what you mean, as I cannot spare the time now to sit down and seriously watch old Universal Pictures movies and if I did, I would get bored fairly rapidly....These old black and white flicks are really more appealing to kids, in spite of that never being the intention of their creators....
As a 10-year old boy, such movies were great fun, but truly loose their lustre, when viewed in later years...Maintaining simply a sentimental position of interest, only....The production history has more of an interest for me, than the scripts...
Universal pictures horror movie plots have more holes in than Swiss cheese and the dialogue can be inane, at times....They still retain a likeable, if silly, appeal....Yet, there is no way I could watch such movies now, from start to finish....
However, having said that, I have noted a big difference in the plots of such movies; the more rushed 1940s (war time factory production lines,) in comparison to those more thoughful and inventive movies, made by the same studios, in the 1930s.....
If I were asked to select a favourite Universal horror movie from a child's perspective, it would be "House of Frankenstein" (1944,) BUT, from my current adult tastes I would plump for the Raven (1935,) which I watched a couple of years ago, on DVD, and was deeply impressed by Bela Lugosi's acting and the general scripting and production...But, that one was based on an adaption of the Edgar Allen Poe novel.....so not surprised I liked it so, at the time...
That actor you describe was made famous because of his father, Lon Chaney, noted for his silent horror movies of the 1920s...His name was Creighton Chaney and he adopted the Jnr, because of pressure from Universal studios....And of course, all this is way before my time, yet I am a student of history, nevertheless...
Growing up in the 1970s, several Lon Chaney Jnr movies were aired on TV, ranging from his debut as the >"Wolf Man" of 1940, through to several horrow movies playing the same tragic character of "Larry Talbot," who was bitten by Bela Lugosi, in Wales (of all places) and became a werewolf, thereafter....LOL ;-)
When I was a kid, my favourite Lon Chaney Jnr movie was "House of Frankenstein," which also featured the renowned actor, Boris Karloff.....Black and white, these movies were...also somewhat silly, for modern audiences, but likeable fiction, nevertheless...
In the Lon Chaney Jnr debut movie, for his character, Larry Talbot, it was rather hilarious the way that writer Kurt Sydomark gave the impression that in Wales, everybody knew about werewolves.....and could recite this werewolf poem, off by heart...LOL ;-)
Hi Drekx,
Welcome back friend. Sent you a private message. Know you are busy these days. Sheldan's last message was great btw. ;) Exciting times indeed.
Thanks friend....!! ;-)
Mars Attacks! by Tim Burton was also a great fun to watch. The movie from the year '96 was made like old classic sci-fi movies but with a lot of stars in front of the camera.
Yes, that movie was a type of spoof commentary on the old sci-fi hollywood classics style of movies....Plenty of bug-eyed monsters with big heads, like "This Island Earth" (1955.) ;-) Which was also lampooned in the "Mystery Science Theatre 3000."
rewind back a few years,and my memory reflects on the radio,and movie of the Martian Movie"War Of The Worlds,even though it was fiction,the Vinyl LP Record Set was quite popular,so when they were released back then i purchased the 2 record set,the graphic drawings inside the cover are in themselves quite artistic,i still have the original Vinyl set to this day,and thought it would be good to mention the movie in this post,i serached for a image of the record set,and after much searching found this image,copies of the Record Set seem hard to find these days.
Yes I recall that these were narrated by Richard Burton and based upon the original H.G. Wells book...The art was indeed high quality...
That was called "The War of the Worlds" and if you were old enough and had listened to the preceding part of the show it was explained but many if not most tuned in late and only heard the story part not that it was a story that they were listening to so they many thought it to be real I'm not quite old enough to have been part but I know the story of how it went down. It put many into a fit of hysteria he was one of the master story tellers IMHO there were plenty of good radio shows to listen to in the 50' and 60's I was little in the 60's and remember listening to many most were from our BBC affiliate in Detroit as I grew up in Trenton Michigan. We got alot of good radio from Canada.
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