watch more old science fiction movies

I have stopped doing this, but as my last entry hit 113 and I have seen at least three more since then, I’m calling this one done. Mostly because I have-literally-run out of the films that are available to watch. Netflix is out, my local video store is out, Blockbuster is out. I’ll still watch any more that come my way though.

Well worth it. I feel like I know more about SF and 1950’s America now. Also—they are fun to watch.

A mutated form of this goal may come back at some point, I’d like to systematically watch a lot of them again and actually write the reviews I know I should be writing. :-)

Update:

1. Flying Saucer Mystery (1950) Short (10 minutes) vague documentary on UFOs mixed with other footage.
2. Cat-Women of the Moon (1953) Cat women on the moon hypnotize a chick on a spaceship, the guys on board get screwed (not in a good way!) and the usual happens. Actually this movie looked a lot like another we saw. Just can’t recall which one.
3. The Mysterians (1959) Japan invaded from space by alien who want our women!
4. The Eye Creatures (1965) This movie should have been called “Frame up from space” as the aliens replaced one of their own, who had been hit by a car, with a human dude they killed. They even bent the radiator of the car to make it look like the car hit the guy! The driver was even arrested…for a while.
5. Creature of Destruction (1967) Hypnotism, sea creatures, women, murder, etc.

Rejects for the usual reasons:

1. Zontar: Thing from Venus (1966) Repeat. It is already on the list!
2. UFO Target Earth (1974) An electronics expert searching for evidence of aliens picks up signals from a UFO. And the aliens seem to live under a local lake!
3. The War in Space (1977) Too late to count, otherwise fits right in.

First the ones that count. (I.) Some 50’s/60’s horror junk that fits the profile:

1. Screaming Skull (1958) – Woman haunted by image of her mother dying is almost killed by her evil husband.
2. I Eat Your Skin (1964) – Radioactive snake venom is good for what ails ya.
3. The Embalmer (1965) – Creepy guy living under Venice likes to kill and stuff pretty girls.

And (II.) just one SF film:

1. They Saved Hitler’s Brain (1963) – Oh fecking come on! They saved Hitler’s brain! Saved it! In a bottle! A bottle!

Some more that is close but no cigar, all not counting for the usual technical reasons:

1. Kiss Me Deadly (1955)
2. The Giant Spider Invasion (1975) – Space spiders, revivalist preachers, infidelity, pot, diamonds, inbreeding, The Skipper(!), a middle aged babe with an awesome butt, and vodka vodka vodka!
3. The Wicksboro Incident (2001) – Interesting film, but slow and has a lot of problems. The Blair Witch Project it ain’t.

So here they are:

1. Queen of Outer Space (1958) Zsa Zsa Gabor! Zsa Zsa Gabor! What more do you need?
2. The Yesterday Machine (1963)
3. The Reptile (1966)
4. Snake People (1968) Some standard Boris Karloff.

Not included on the list for various technical reasons are Panic in Year Zero (1962), Looker (1981), Timerider (1982), Videodrome (1983), and Repo Man (1984).

My Netflix list is getting pretty esoteric lately. After Repo Man and Timerider (both produced by Mike Nesmith and the former directed by Alex Cox), I obtained Cox’s Death and the Compass (1996). This is an amazing film, it has a weird look that almost comes across as amateur, but Cox has made the bizarre choices consciously. He is an articulate and brilliant commentator on film, both his own and the work of others. You owe it to yourself to listen when he talks about film. Nesmith, who also appears on the Repo Man commentary track has a knack for picking out and emphasizing the most obscure details. He also gets the vision in shot selection…also worth a listen!

Upcoming: Kiss Me Deadly (1955) which I have seen it before, but it is time to see it again; Delirium (1972), mostly for the scene in it that is references in the episode from Black Books Series Two; and the films Todo El Poder and La Ley de Herodes (both from 1999), two Mexican black comedies that bear some relationship to Alex Cox.

The Slime People (1962). This is number 100. My wife does not want me to take this goal off of my list, but at some point I just have to do that. Not today, but sometime.

Recent:

1. Bride of the Monster (1956) Directed by Ed Wood.
2. Matango: Attack of the Mushroom People (1963) Japanese film about a ship’s crew and passengers trapped on an island with nothing to eat except for mushrooms that transform people into monsters.
3. The Earth Dies Screaming (1965) Too short. Seemed like half of a film. Robots turn people into zombies. They are thwarted by blowing up the radio transmitter they hijacked.
4. The Plague of the Zombies (1966) A Hammer film.

Total of four more making a grand total of 99!

Del Tenney double feature!

1. The Horror of Party Beach (1964) – Radioactive monster from the sea needs blood for duplication. Googly eyes!
2. The Curse of the Living Corpse (1964) – Man is not dead or is he? Maybe it is his son killing everyone. Early Roy Scheider!

1. Zardoz (1974)
2. Creation of the Humanoids (1962)
3. War Between the Planets [AKA Il Pianeta errante] (1966)

Here is a review of all that I have seen so far. I have revised my standards for what I am willing to count and what can’t be counted. I have also fixed some errors and double counts. Here goes:

Before 1950

1. The Testament of Dr. Mabuse (1933)
2. The Man Who Changed His Mind (1936)
3. Revolt of the Zombies (1936)
4. White Pongo (1945)

1950’s

1. The Thing From Another World (1951)
2. Unknown World (1951)
3. Four Sided Triangle (1953)
4. It Came from Outer Space (1953)
5. Mesa of Lost Women [AKA: Lost Women of Zarpa] (1953)
6. Phantom from Space (1953)
7. Planet Outlaws (1953)
8. The Robot Monster (1953)
9. Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954)
10. Devil Girl from Mars (1954)
11. Killers from Space (1954)
12. Stranger from Venus (1954)
13. Target Earth (1954)
14. Them! (1954)
15. The Brain Machine (1955)
16. It Came from Beneath the Sea (1955)
17. Earth vs. The Flying Saucers (1956)
18. Rodan (1956)
19. Warning from Space [AKA: Mysterious Satellite or 宇宙人東京に現わる] (1956)
20. X the Unknown (1956)
21. Attack of the Crab Monsters (1957)
22. Beginning of the End (1957)
23. The Black Scorpion (1957)
24. Curse of the Demon (1957/1958)
25. Kronos (1957)
26. Night of the Demon (1957)
27. Teenage Monster (1957)
28. The Abominable Snowman (1957)
29. The Astounding She Monster (1958)
30. The Blob (1958)
31. The Brain from Planet Arous (1958)
32. The Crawling Eye [AKA The Trollenberg Terror] (1958)
33. Earth versus the Spider (1958)
34. Fiend Without a Face (1958)
35. Giant from the Unknown (1958)
36. I Married a Monster from Outer Space (1958)
37. War of the Colossal Beast (1958?)
38. 4D Man (1959)
39. Atomic Submarine (1959)
40. The Cosmic Man (1959)
41. The Head (1959) [AKA Die Nackte und der Satan]
42. The Hideous Sun Demon (1959)
43. Horrors of Spider Island [AKA: Ein Toter hing im Netz and at least 6 other titles!] (1959/1960/1962/etc.)
44. Missile to the Moon (1959)
45. Project Moonbase (1959)
46. Teenagers from Outer Space [AKA: Invasion of the Gargon, Killers from Outer Space, etc.] (1959)

1960’s

1. Atom Age Vampire [AKA: Seddok, l’erede di Satana] (1960)
2. First Spaceship on Venus [AKA: Der Schweigende Stern or Silent Star] (1960)
3. Nude on the Moon (1960)
4. Village of the Damned (1960)
5. The Wasp Woman (1960)
6. Assignment Outer Space (1961)
7. Battle of the Worlds [AKA: Il Pianeta degli uomini spenti] (1961/1964)
8. Creature from the Haunted Sea (1961)
9. Night Tide (1961)
10. The Phantom Planet (1961)
11. The Brain that Wouldn’t Die (1962)
12. Carnival of Souls (1962)
13. Eegah (1962)
14. La Jetée (1962/1966)
15. The Manster (1962) [AKA Kyofu]
16. The Brain that Wouldn’t Die (1963)
17. Children of the Damned (1963)
18. The Crawling Hand (1963)
19. The Day of the Triffids (1963)
20. The Terror (1963)
21. The Wicker Man (1963)
22. The Atomic Brain [AKA: Monstrosity] (1964)
23. Dr. Sex (1964)
24. Santa Clause Conquers the Martians (1964)
25. Spider Baby (1964)
26. Alphaville (1965)
27. Dogora (1965)
28. Frankenstein Meets the Space Monster (1965)
29. Nightmare Castle [AKA: Amanti d’oltretomba] (1965)
30. Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet (1965)
31. Gammera the Invincible (1966)
32. Night Caller from Outer Space (1966)
33. Zontar, the Thing from Mars [AKA: Zontar the Thing from Venus] (1966)
34. Journey to the Center of Time (1967)
35. Mars Needs Women (1967)
36. They Came from Beyond Space (1967)
37. Destroy All Planets (1968)
38. Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women (1968)
39. Attack of the Monsters [AKA: Gamera vs. Guiron] (1969)
40. Zeta One (1969)

Under my new system of studying “old” sci-fi movies, I have decided to reject all of the following movies:

1. Kiss Me Quick (1964)
2. Wanda the Sadistic Hypnotist (1969)
3. The Astral Factor [AKA: L’Étrangleur invisible] (1976)
4. Cosmos: War of the Planets [AKA: Cosmo 2000 – Battaglie Negli Spazi Stellari] (1976/1977)
5. War of the Robots [AKA: Reactor or Stratostars] (1978)
6. Star Odyssey [AKA: Space Odyssey or Sette uomini d’oro nello spazio] (1979)
7. Blood Tide (1982)
8. The Galaxy Invader (1985)

Most of these are dumped for being too new, the others for being nudie-cuties that are not sci-fi enough. I feel bad about Blood Tide (with James Earl Jones) which is very “old” in spirit and The Galaxy Invader which is just plain crappy enough to count, too.

Did three more this Saturday and Sunday, though one was a repeat so it doesn’t count.

1. The Brain that Wouldn’t Die (1962)
2. The Manster (1962) [AKA Kyofu]
3. The Head (1959) [AKA Die Nackte und der Satan]

(I have 100 on the shelf…)