Tag Archives: Forgotten Films

Forgotten Films: The Leopard Man (1943)

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Val Lewton's The Leopard Man is all about the noir scares.

By Scott A. Cupp

This is the 136th my series of Forgotten, Obscure or Neglected Films

The other day Sanford Allen, the owner of this blog, and I were talking about last week’s film The Robot Vs. the Aztec Mummy. Sanford is fond of the Aztec Mummy films, particularly Wrestling Women Vs. the Aztec Mummy. The conversation turned to other films and we got talking about Val Lewton and his time in Hollywood. Sanford had just re-watched I Walked with a Zombie. I told him that I thought I had reviewed once before. I just checked and I have not, so beware.

One of my favorites from Lewton was one he produced and oversaw. The Leopard Man was directed by Jacques Tourneur, who lensed several films with Lewton producing.

And this one is amazing.

This is your early noir film on steroids. It is based on Black Alibi, a novel by one my favorites, Cornell Woolrich. Short, moody, black, white, shadows and weird sounds. The movie is set in a sleepy New Mexico town that faces terror when Jerry Manning (Dennis O’Keefe) obtains a black leopard for his client/girlfriend Kiki (Jean Brooks) to use in her nightclub singing act to upstage her club rival Clo-Clo (a Latin dancer played by the singular-named Margo). The leopard escapes when Clo-Clo frightens it with her castanets.

The escape makes the news and people are slightly worried. None more so than Theresa Delgado (Margaret Landry), a young teenage girl sent out on an errand at night by her mother. In one of the most chilling scenes ever put in black and white, Teresa tries to escape the leopard while her mother disbelieves her and refuses to open the door. When the screams turn very real and the leopard growls, Mama finds the door is tough to open. Before she gets it open, the sounds have stopped and blood begins to seep under the door. Little is seen, but the mind fills in all the blanks most vividly. Everybody who sees this film remembers that scene.

Soon other young women are killed – Consuela waiting for her boyfriend in a cemetery that has been locked. (Old joke: You know why they lock cemeteries? People are dying to get in.) There are others too.

The owner of the leopard, Charlie How-Come (actor and later director Abner Biberman), wants his cat back or for Jerry to pay him money. Jerry feels responsible for everything, as does Kiki. A Posse is organized to try to find the leopard, but they have no success.

But Jerry keeps thinking about the deaths. Something doesn’t seem right. A local expert, Dr. Galbraith (James Bell), proves to be a good sounding board. The leopard seems to be hunting, rather than hiding, as Charlie says a normal cat would be doing. Perhaps this isn’t a leopard at all, but rather a man intent on killing young women.

The trailer and poster straight up tell you there’s a man involved. He is a serial killer, though that term had not even been conceived in 1943.

The film is somewhat straightforward. There are no major twists, but the direction and the actors make it wonderful. One of my favorites is the delightful fortune teller, Maria (Isabel Jewell), who tells Clo-Clo’s fortune. Clo-Clo keeps cutting the cards and the ace of spades continues to turn up. Not a good card in fortune telling, apparently. Maria keeps saying that she’s making mistakes.

Isabel Jewell reminded me a lot of Gloria Grahame in both looks and attitude. Although Gloria didn’t make her Hollywood debut until the following year. Jewell had a long career in Hollywood including parts in some great films, like Gone with the Wind, Lost Horizon and High Sierra. She ended up being typecast into smaller roles as gang molls, prostitutes and dumb blondes. Eventually she ran afoul of the law with bad checks and drunk driving.

The music for the film was by the great Roy Webb who had done Cat People for Lewton and would soon do Out of the Past and The Body Snatcher. His work alone was worth the price of admission.

This film is part of the Val Lewton box set which includes Cat People, Return of the Cat People and I Walked with a Zombie, among others. It is well worth searching out, either as a full set or for the individual film. Scott says Check this out, but stay out of the shadows.

Series organizer Todd Mason hosts more Tuesday Forgotten Film reviews at his own blog and posts a complete list of participating blogs.

 

Forgotten Films: The Robot Versus the Aztec Mummy (1958)

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It's got a mummy, it's got a robot; what else ya need?

By Scott A. Cupp

This is the 135th my series of Forgotten, Obscure or Neglected Films

Some three and a half years ago or so, I reviewed The Aztec Mummy as the 16th Forgotten Film in my series of reviews. TCM recently broadcast the third in the series so I decided, “What the heck? Let’s do the third one this time. Nobody will know the difference, particularly since the second one ignored a lot of the continuity anyway.”

The film begins with a lengthy recap of the first film where Dr. Eduardo Almada (Ramon Gay) and his wife Flor (Rosa Arenas) reprise their roles as a scientist who hypnotically regresses his wife to relive her life as an Aztec priestess Xochitl who defied the gods with her lover Popoca (Angel Di Stefani) in defiance of the gods. Popoca is turned into a living mummy who guards the tomb of Xochitl and her golden breastplate and bracelet, which tell people how to find an ancient Aztec treasure.

In the original film, the evil Bat, a murderous pseudonym used by Dr. Krupp (Luis Aceves Castañeda) tries to steal the treasure but is defeated by the mummy. Well, here he is back again, having escaped certain death just as if he was in a ’30s serial. Here he hypnotizes Flor and has her lead him to the mummy because she can mentally “hear” him. She runs around in a nightgown while leading Dr. Krupp, of course.

The Bat is intent on building a human robot (Adolfo Rojas) with intelligence to fight the Mummy and handle the theft of the breastplate and bracelet because he knows he cannot beat the mummy by himself. The robot looks like a large silver box and some pipes thrown together with a human head inside. Or, as one reviewer said, something a couple of grips threw together on their lunch break.

When you're hankering for something truly bad...

They find the mummy in a mausoleum and bring about the fight promised in the tile when the breastplate and bracelet are removed. The fight is somewhat short since the mummy doesn’t talk and the robot doesn’t either.  The robot doesn’t stand a chance against Aztec magic and Flor gives the goods back to the mummy and tells him to guard them well and go back to his sleep.

Thankfully, the film is short, clocking in at 65 minutes. Short but not too sweet. It was the perfect thing to watch after seeing my beloved Texas Longhorns lose another game in the final minute to a special team’s kicking error.

While the film was made in Mexico and in Spanish, it was brought to the U.S. by entrepreneur K. Gordon Murray, where it was dubbed (badly) in English. The dubbing apparently had little to do with the original story. The dubbing led to this story being presented by the Mystery Science Theater 3000 crew in 1989 as their second offering in their first season on the Comedy Channel.

I love movie soundtracks but this one is intrusive and annoying so you can skip this.

So, if you’re in the mood for a bad movie, this is one. It’s got all the cheesy parts of the first film as well as a robot and extended flashbacks. The films are pretty readily available either individually or as a collection. The set of three are under $20.

Try them. You may like them. If you do, please consult your mental health professionals.

Series organizer Todd Mason hosts more Tuesday Forgotten Film reviews at his own blog and posts a complete list of participating blogs.

 

Forgotten Films: The Invisible Woman (1940)

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The Invisible Woman: It's a fun flick if you also expect the logic to be invisible.

By Scott A. Cupp

This is the 134th my series of Forgotten, Obscure or Neglected Films

This summer, as every summer, TCM did their Summer Under the Stars festival and featured a star for every day. One of the days was devoted to Virginia Bruce (1910 – 1982), a star I was not very familiar with. She made a lot of films, one or two of which I had seen, but she was just not a name or face that I knew.

When browsing the TCM schedule I saw a listing for The Invisible Woman for the day with John Barrymore, Virginia Bruce and John Howard and a description of a vaguely sf-ish film, so I made the DVR work. A month has passed and it has been sitting on the DVR, and while I was searching for a film to review, this was the one that spoke to me.

This is a charming little film, no great work, not a movie of big thinks or anything special, but it has its moments. Richard Russell is a rich man with a fondness for women and scandal. He is supporting Professor Gibbs (John Barrymore) at his home that spends a great deal of money on crackpot ideas.

When Russell finds out he is broke, he cuts off the money to Gibbs just when Gibbs has a potential gold mine. So Gibbs has to amend a personal ad for a volunteer for an experiment to be turned invisible. The previous listing of $3,000 remuneration has to be changed to no remuneration just as the ad is set to run. This elicits lots of snarky mail but only one response which is positive, from a K. Carroll. Gibbs sends a note for Mr. Carroll to be there at his lab the following day, unaware that K. Carroll is actually Kitty Carroll (Virginia Bruce).

Kitty works as a model for a dress shop run by Mr. Growley (Charles Lane), who is a mean spirited manager, docking Kitty an hour for clocking in two minutes late and firing another girl for having a cold. Jobs are hard to come by and he can get away with this. Kitty is willing to become invisible so she can give him what for.

Gibbs is, of course, surprised when K. Carroll turns out to be female and upset when she disappears from the lab as soon as she is invisible. This causes Russell to doubt the Professor’s veracity, much to the delight of his butler, George (Charles Ruggles) who dislikes the Professor intently. Russell heads out to his cabin to get away from everything including the Professor.

Kitty has to take off her clothes to be invisible, but she gets her revenge on Growley, pretending to be his conscience. She kicks him, destroys some dresses, and rips the time clock off the wall. When she returns to the Professor’s lab, he is being menaced by some thugs led by Foghorn (the wonderful Donald McBride) and his men, including Frankie (Shemp Howard, in an unexpected role). Foghorn works for criminal Blackie (Oskar Homolka) who is hiding out in Mexico unable to return and homesick.

Kitty spooks the thugs and they exit. Gibbs and Kitty go to the cabin, where they get caught in the rain. Kitty tries to warm herself up with some brandy and it increases the invisibility. Eventually Russell begins to believe that the gizmo works while Kitty has to sleep off her booze.

When they return to the lab, they find that Foghorn and his men have stolen all of the equipment (but not the injected serum) which helps control the process.

In Mexico, Foghorn is volunteered to try the process for Blackie and, without the injection, finds that it makes his voice higher and his height lower. Enter Kitty and the Professor to try and reclaim the equipment, while Russell, who is falling in love with Kitty, follows.

True love triumphs and the film closes with Russell and Kitty examining their baby boy some distinct time in the future. The child promptly fades away.

As I said, not a major film, but I had fun with it. Common sense does not bother to intrude into the film plot. But I enjoyed it. In addition to Shemp, another surprise guest was Margaret Hamilton, just a year after the Wizard of Oz as Gibbs’ housekeeper. Also Maria Montez appears briefly as one of Kitty’s co-workers modeling dresses.

Don’t rush out to find it, but if the opportunity presents itself, it’s worth a watching.

Series organizer Todd Mason hosts more Tuesday Forgotten Film reviews at his own blog and posts a complete list of participating blogs.

 

Forgotten Films: They Came From Beyond Space (1967)

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They Came From Beyond Space: Cool ray guns, cool goggles and a not-so-cool ending.

By Scott A. Cupp

This is the 133rd in my series of Forgotten, Obscure or Neglected Films

This week we have an odd film. I thought I was recording It Came From Outer Space, the 1953 3D film based on a Ray Bradbury script. Instead I got a British film based on Joseph Millard’s novel The Gods Hate Kansas. So, I watched this one instead.

The story begins with a meteorite landing in Cornwall. Nine meteorites land in a field in a perfect V. The British Ministry of Science wants Dr. Curtis Temple (Robert Hutton) and his crew to join a group of various scientists in reviewing the landing. Temple is an expert in extraterrestrial life and is interested but he is suffering from a recent car crash which resulted in a silver plate being placed in his head. His doctor refuses to let him go. Instead, his assistant/girlfriend Lee Mason (Jennifer Jayne) goes. When they attempt to take a sample of the meteorite, Mason finds herself possessed by an alien intelligence. The other scientists are also possessed. Being the first possessee, Mason is in charge and sets up a giant operation, which includes taking and possessing locals.

The DVD art for They Came From Beyond Space

Temple is in love with Mason and worries when he does not get the reports and daily phone calls he has been promised. Mr. Arden, the Ministry official who first visited him, comes by and tells him the doctor has cleared it so Temple and his other assistant, Allan Mullane (Geoffrey Wallace) can go to the site. Instead, Arden tries to possess the two men. Temple sees that Mullane is affected but is not affected himself, which results in him being summarily thrown from the car and told to go away.

Temple attempts to visit the site and is turned away by armed guards. He insists on speaking with Mason and when he does he is not pleased with her treatment of him. She orders him shot if her returns. He manages to sneak in, and he finds a spaceship being built.

What we have here is a British mashup of Invasion of the Body Snatchers and Heinlein’s The Puppet Masters, but without a lot of the good payoff. The paranoia does not run deep. Temple just barrels into things and eventually figures out that his silver plate may be what is saving him from possession. He enlists another scientist Farge (Zia Mohyeddin) to help him build a silver hat to keep the intelligences from taking over others and they develop a ray that can force them out of bodies. And there is a plague that kills within minutes of contact. Maybe. And a four hour roundtrip to the moon. And Michael Gough (Konga, Batman, millions of other films) is the Master of the Moon and leader of the alien intelligences who are looking for bodies to inhabit to do work. They have progressed beyond that eons ago but they still need manual labor.

IMDB shows this with 4.5 rating out of 10. Sounds about right. Some of the sets are pretty good. Story is a little weak. The ending is really weak. And definitely this is a product of the mid 1960’s. Some of the costume color choices are pretty laughable. When you realize that Nigel Kneale was producing Quatermass and the Pit (Five Million Years to Earth) at the same time, this becomes a little sorrier. Not a bad film, just not a good or great one.

And, as always, my taste is totally in my mouth and your mileage might vary.

Series organizer Todd Mason hosts more Tuesday Forgotten Film reviews at his own blog and posts a complete list of participating blogs.

 

Forgotten Films: Seven Footprints to Satan (1929)

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The cast of Seven Footprints to Satan: They don't make flicks this weird anymore.

Review by Scott A. Cupp

There is not a new Forgotten Film this week because I started a new job and had to run out immediately to Las Vegas for the National Finals of the Trivia network that I play in. At this point I don’t know how we are going to do, but I have high hopes (as the song says). So enjoy this classic goodie from 2011.

This is a rerun of the 2nd in my series of Forgotten Obscure or Neglected Films.

The poster for Seven Footprints to Satan. Also plenty weird.

This week’s film has a history. In 1997, I attended the World Science Fiction convention here in San Antonio. My partner Willie Siros and I had a booth in the dealer’s room as Adventures in Crime and Space, which was the name of our bookstore in Austin. As usual, we shopped around the room looking for things to buy and re-sell or things for our own personal collections. Someone — I believe it was Greg Ketter of Dreamhaven Books — showed me a VHS copy of a film I was unfamiliar with.

SEVEN FOOTPRINTS TO SATAN was a lost silent film which had recently been rediscovered in Italy. The only known copy had Italian titlecards and this was a copy of it. I had read the source novel of the same title probably 30 years earlier and did not remember much of it, except that it was by A. Merritt (author of THE SHIP OF ISHTAR, reviewed in my Forgotten Books column a few weeks ago) and that I had enjoyed it. I was also informed that one of my favorite writers, Cornel Woolrich, had worked on the screenplay for the film. I had to have it, so I bought it as well as other films at the time.  I attempted to watch SEVEN FOOTPRINTS TO SATAN, but with no idea what the title cards were saying, I was lost and just shelved the title as a good try.

Fast forward 13 years, and I acquired a new VHS player, the old one having died. I remembered the film and wondered if anyone had ever bothered to translate the titlecards so I could understand the proceedings. They had, and I printed  out the translation. This week, I was feeling poorly and I knew I wanted to watch and review this film, so I dug out the tape, fired up the player and traveled to Silent Film Land.

The basic story deals with Jim (Creighton Hale), a successful and very rich chemist who wants to go o Africa and explore lost civilizations. His uncle Joe (DeWitt Jennings)  is trying to talk him out of it but fails. His fiancée, Eve (the always delightful Thelma Todd), shows up with a strange request. She knows he is getting ready to leave but her father is having a party where he plans to show a fabulous emerald, and she is suspicious of one guest, a professor that Jim knows. Jim agrees to go to the party and validate or repudiate the guest.

They arrive at the party, and while the professor looks the part, he does not respond accurately to Jim’s question and the police are summoned. Suddenly, mayhem breaks out, guns are brandished, shots are fired and people flee. Jim and Eve flee to a limousine owned by his uncle and ask to be taken away. Things are quite for a while, when the pair realize they are being taken somewhere other than where they desire.

They find themselves at the house of “Satan,” who may or may not be a criminal mastermind a supernatural fiend, the devil himself, or some combination of the above. Here they encounter many unusual characters including an imp, a dwarf, an ape-like man, a gorilla, Satan’s Mistress and “the Spider.” They are led through odd rooms, questioned, imprisoned, helped to escape, disguised, trapped and finally tested with the title Seven Footprints, which could lead to fabulous wealth and freedom or servitude to Satan — or even Death.

The film also features a brief, unbilled cameo of a 16-year-old Loretta Young.

It’s not a long film. I think my copy clocked in at 77 minutes, and mine contains scenes not covered by the translation where I just had to sort of guess what was happening. The copy is not pristine, but when only one exists, you take what you could get.

I was a little disappointed in the criminal aspects of the story, particularly with Woolrich involved. His PHANTOM LADY and THE BRIDE WORE BLACK are two great novels that made excellent films. But then I checked the date – 1929.  At this point, Woolrich had not turned exclusively to mystery. He was still writing novels of the Jazz Age like Fitzgerald, and on the basis of them, had secured a job in Hollywood, so this made more sense since Jim and Eve are certainly privileged members of the Jazz Age society. He was still ten years from producing his first mystery novels, though the short stories would come soon enough. Apparently, the director Benjamin Christensen is well thought of, though most of his films are now lost or sorely incomplete. I was not aware of his work before this.

One on-line site mentioned that A. Merritt cried when he saw what was done to his fabulous story. I can understand that. Gone is much of the fantasy that made him who he was, and apparently this chops off much of the last third of the novel.

I was glad to get to see this film but I cannot recommend it to everyone.  If this sounds like your cup of tea, take a look at the absolutely brilliant analysis and extended information over at AND YOU CALL YOURSELF A SCIENTIST!.

Series organizer Todd Mason hosts more Tuesday Forgotten Film reviews at his own blog and posts a complete list of participating blogs.


 

Forgotten Films: Zombeavers (2014)

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Zombeavers: Best viewed with a sick sense of humor.

This is the 131st in my series of Forgotten, Obscure or Neglected Films

I first heard about this film about a month ago and my initial thought was “No way! Such a wonderful play on words. It’s probably not any good.  But, is it bad enough to be good?” So, I checked Netflix and it was there, so, one afternoon, I waited for the wife to leave since I pretty well knew what her reaction would be.

This is got the makings of your basic R rated sex/horror film.  Three college sorority sisters (Mary, Jenn, and Zoe played by Rachel Melvin, Lexi Atkins and Cortney Palm, respectively) are off for a weekend away from their boyfriends, cell phones and civilization at a lake cabin owned by Mary’s cousin. Unbeknownst to them, two slacker idiots (Bill Burr and rocker John Mayer) who were texting and driving have managed to hit a deer. The resulting crash sends a barrel of toxic waste into the river that feeds the lake by the cabin.

The girls are trying to help Jenn who has caught a Facebook photo of her boyfriend Sam with a mysterious woman who is not her. So, no boys allowed – until they show up, in a plot hatched by Zoe.  Guys and girls get naked and sex happens. Except between Jenn and the cheating Sam.

Things are interrupted by the appearance of scraggly looking zombie beaver who does not know how to die. Everyone decides he is a fluke and goes back to the evening’s adventures. The next day, they all decide to go swimming in the lake except Jenn who is eventually coaxed into the edge of the water. Here she feels something brush up against her and everyone makes fun of her until the zombeaver attacks Zoe’s boyfriend Buck and it bites his foot off. Suddenly a full scale beaver apocalypse is going on and the zany kinds are out on a raft in the lake. They need a distraction and Zoe’s pissy little dog provides both a distraction and lunch for the beavers.

From here, the film becomes your basic Spam in a cabin with everyone trying to stay alive and the zombeavers trying hard to prevent that from happening. People die in the course of the film as well as a bear. Phone lines have been chewed, roads have been blocked, and Buck is not doing well.

Sandi came back home and watched the end of the film with me.  Her basic comment was “Ya’ll are all sick” which is why I was watching it alone. It’s a fun little film, lots of gratuitous nudity and swearing. It’s trying to be Evil Dead II good, but not quite there. There are some interesting scenes and effects. The beavers are cheesy but, hey, it is a low budget film, very low budget.

It will never replace Citizen Kane but I had fun. If the description sounds like something you might like, give it a try. If not, I’m sure there’s an Ivory Merchant film on cable (or in your library). And, as with all bad movies, your mileage and humor may vary from mine so keep that in mind.

And watch out for beavers – zombie or otherwise. Oh, and there is quick scene at the end after all the credits, for your amusement. Almost like a Marvel film.

Series organizer Todd Mason hosts more Tuesday Forgotten Film reviews at his own blog and posts a complete list of participating blogs.

 

Forgotten Films: The Day Mars Invaded Earth (1963)

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Mars' chief export in this 1963 film is dastardly energy creatures.

Review by Scott A. Cupp

This is the 130th in my series of Forgotten, Obscure or Neglected Films

So, away we go, all the way back to 1963 and a gathering of veteran actors for an odd film. FOX FM showed this the other day and it caught my eyes. Dr. Keith Fielding (Kent Taylor) is a NASA scientist working on the first probe to Mars. He has been working hard on the project and his family life has suffered for it. When the Mars probe doesn’t find any signs of life or activity, the probe experiences an energy surge and is destroyed. Fielding feels odd when this happens and decides to take some time out for his family in southern California.

His kids Rocky and Judi (Gregg Shank and Betty Beall) are happy to have their dad home but it is obvious that his wife Claire does not want him to return to NASA and that things are basically over. But something weird is going on at the home. There is a weird energy version of Fielding that confronts him. Martians, it seems, do exist but are composed of pure energy. They destroyed the probe and have plans to destroy the NASA program. The family is menaced as energy duplicates of each member show up. Judi’s boyfriend is killed trying to avoid a collision with “Judi.” A duplicate Rocky confronts his mother is a creepy moment. The use of Greystone Mansion in Beverly Hills heightens some of the suspense. The mansion has been features in many films, TV episodes, and music videos and is very distinctive.

Fielding has a confrontation with his double who explains that the Martians plan to infiltrate certain government and scientific personnel. They plan to take over all of Fielding’s family since the duplicate could not possible fool the family as a whole.

NASA has noted Fielding’s weird behavior and has sent him co-worker/friend, Dr. Web Spencer (William Mims) to help convince him to return. Fielding explains to Web what the situation is and Web agrees to help them try to escape. The aliens may be energy but they have other plans for the family.

This is not a great film, but it is not bad either. It has some great paranoia and the duplicated members are creepy. I had never heard of it before encountering it on FOX-FM.  I’m glad I saw it but was disappointed because the description of the film on the program guide contains a major plot spoiler.

If you have a chance, give it a try.

Series organizer Todd Mason hosts more Tuesday Forgotten Film reviews at his own blog and posts a complete list of participating blogs.

 

Forgotten Films: The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec (2010)

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Adele promises a pterodactyl and Ramses II. How can you go wrong?

Review by Scott A. Cupp

This is the 129th in my series of Forgotten, Obscure or Neglected Films

This is my recommendation of the week. If you like the sort of films I review here, you should go out and find this film right now. Don’t even bother to read this review. Just go see the film. You will thank me later. I’ve watched this one twice in the last two months and purchased the DVD. That should give you some idea of my love of this movie.

Those who have already seen this film know what I am talking about. Such a fun film. Our title character (and she is a character) is a journalist working in France in 1912. Her exploits are read by ardent admirers. She is smart, sassy, daring and unafraid of the consequences of her actions.

I don’t want to really summarize the film. That might detract from your enjoyment. Let me just mention a few of the things you will encounter – a pterodactyl, an Egyptian tomb, animated mummies, a beautiful young girl in a hatpin induced coma, betrayal, explosions, Ramses II, attempted prison breaks, drunks, stupid big game hunters, over-worked and underfed policemen, a firing squad, a guillotine beheading, the Louvre, the President of France, people wrapped alive in mummy trappings and canoeing inside a sarcophagus. And there are some apes at the end, but only briefly.

I know I had most of you at pterodactyl or mummies.

The DVD case compares the film to “Amelie meets Indiana Jones.” That is not an unfair comparison but still not very adequate. Director Luc Besson (The Fifth Element, La Femme Nikita) takes several graphic novels of Jacques Tardi about Adele and makes a fine adaptation. Actress Louise Bourgoin does a fine job as Adele. I would watch other films with her in the lead.

The downside of Adele is that it is foreign and all the dialogue is French, so you have to read the film. That’s never a problem with me, as too many years of loud rock and roll has deprived me of some hearing and I frequently have subtitles on when watching films and TV, particularly if there is a British production involved. Some accents do not translate well with my ears, unless accompanied by screaming guitars.

Seriously, go watch this film. The ending certainly sets up the premise for a sequel but, to date, none has arrived.

Series organizer Todd Mason hosts more Tuesday Forgotten Film reviews at his own blog and posts a complete list of participating blogs.

 

Forgotten Films: Zombies on Broadway (1945)

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Review by Scott A. Cupp

This is the 128th in my series of Forgotten, Obscure or Neglected Films

Welcome back, my friends, these shows never end. Or never seem to. This week we have a comedy from 1945 starring Wally Brown as Jerry Miles and Alan Carney as Mike Strager as a couple of press agents working for Ace Miller (Sheldon Leonard), a semi-retired gangster who is opening a new night club called The Zombie Hut in New York. Jerry and Mike have promoted the club as having a “real, authentic zombie” for opening night and local radio personality Douglas Walker (Louis Jean Heydt), who has it in for Ace, is calling the bluff and threatening fraud.

Jerry and Mike find themselves in a pickle and on a boat to San Sebastian to find Professor Renault (Bela Lugosi) who has been working with zombies. If they fail to produce a genuine zombie, they will commit “suicide” with the help of Ace and his men.

In San Sebastian they meet up with Jean La Dance (Anne Jeffries) who is a nightclub singer and knife thrower who wants to get off the island with their help. As they look for a zombie and the professor, they encounter voodoo ceremonies and run afoul of the participants. Anne is captured by a zombie commanded by Renault who is trying to create zombies via a scientific method with no success. When Jerry and Mike arrive on the scene, Renault hopes to use them for his experiments. Mike proves susceptible to the serum Renault has created.

Brown and Carney are a second rate Abbott and Costello and their routines seem tired and tiring.  Anne Jeffries and Bela Lugosi are the class of the film and are pretty well wasted here. The most saving grace of the film is that it is short. The small monkey that appears about 2/3 of the way in steals much of the last half of the film.

IMDB and Wikipedia indicate that several of the sets and actors appear to be from I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE, the 1943 Jacques Tourneur film. I have not seen that film in a while so I can’t vouch for that.

The film was profitable and led to GENIUS AT WORK, one more Brown and Carney film with Jeffries and Lugosi in 1946. Overall Brown and Carney made nine or so films together. They were never Abbott and Costello.

Series organizer Todd Mason hosts more Tuesday Forgotten Film reviews at his own blog and posts a complete list of participating blogs.

 

Forgotten Films: Invisible Invaders (1959)

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Who wouldn't want to witness a war-to-the-death of all civilization?

Review by Scott A. Cupp

This is the 127th in my series of Forgotten, Obscure or Neglected Films

Between 2011 and 2014 I produced a regular (mostly) weekly column of Forgotten, Obscure or Neglected Films as part of the Missions Unknown blog and as a part of a loose gathering of writers and fans coordinated by Todd Mason (there should be a link at the end of the review).

But the Missions Unknown blog got hit with some form of ebola or other disease and has not been revived for more than a year. I loved doing these reviews and inflicting my weird thoughts on folks so when Sanford Allen asked me to continue them, I was ready to continue. So check here each week for cinematic wonders and horrors alike.

That said, let’s go a film I saw as a child and had fond memories of – INVISIBLE INVADERS. The film starts with an annoying voiceover about nuclear experimentation and a quick explosion which kills Dr. Karol Noymann (John Carradine). His friend, Dr. Adam Penner (Phillip Tonge) decides to renounce the nuclear experiments. After giving Noymann’s eulogy, he is visited by the animated corpse of Noymann, possessed by invisible aliens from the moon. They have hidden bases on the moon and have decided Mankind is a pestilence and gives the Earth 24 hours to surrender or be destroyed. They plan a mass invasion to annihilate all Earth life. They have bases on the moon hidden by invisibility.

Earth, being what it is, decides not to surrender on the basis of one man’s word, no matter how renowned. When no surrender comes, the invaders animate corpses and attack the living. Their blank stares and zombie walk would make Tor Johnson proud. When the destruction starts, the Army assigns Major Jay Bruce (John Agar) to assist Penner, his daughter Phyllis (Jean Byron), and co-worker Dr. John Lamont (Robert Hutton). John Agar is his usual semi-wooden self as the military man out to help scientists solve the invasion problem,

It’s not an awful movie. It’s just not good. Script and acting are weak. Special effect rival early Dr. Who for crudity. Many shots just use stock footage. The music overpowers several scenes with terrible results. And that annoying voice over keeps on coming, telling us the story rather than having the script and actors show us the story.

But it appears that it might have had an effect on George Romero as several Night of the Living Dead shots seem to echo scenes from this film. Could be coincidence, but I wonder.

Some of the logic of the film seems to belong to current political debates, with as much logic. The invaders are portrayed with drag marks through sand. Overall, it’s just a mess. Fortunately, at 67 minutes, it’s not an interminable mess. It just seems that way. Watch at your own risk.

Series organizer Todd Mason hosts more Tuesday Forgotten Film reviews at his own blog and posts a complete list of participating blogs.