The Time Travelers

Ib Melchior, who brought us Angry Red Planet ('60), Journey to the Seventh Planet ('62) and helped adapt Defoe's novel to give us Robinson Crusoe on Mars ('64) was both writer and director of another imaginative film: The Time Travelers (TTT). It repackaged some familiar tropes and traditional themes but gave them a mid-60s flavor. A team of scientists accidentally travel to earth's future to find it post-apocalyptic ruin.

Quick Plot Synopsis
Dr. Erik von Steiner, Steve and Carol are working on a time camera in a university lab. They want to get images from the past and future. Technician Danny watches. The time camera keeps not quite working, so Steve cranks up the juice. Sparks and smoke fly. The image is a rocky wasteland 107 years in the future. Danny discovers that it's actually a time portal. They all go through and are quickly chased by a band of tall mutant men. They flee into a canyon, then a cave. There, they are saved by advanced people with androids. Earth had a nuclear war that wiped out everything. Only bands of mutants remain. Supplies are limited in the caves, so Dr. Varno's people have built a rocket to take them to New Earth (Alpha Centauri 4). Several scenes depict the wonders of technology. The four time travelers cannot come, for lack of supplies and room. They build another time portal machine as best they can remember. Just before the rocket is to blast off, the mutants attack en mass. Despite crowded fights in the tunnels, the mutants are winning. The rocket catches fire, falls and explodes. Holed up in the time portal room, Steve fires up their new portal. They see the university campus on screen. The mutants break into the portal room. Another pitched battle rages. Many people flee through the portal, then close it behind them. On the campus, they find they're in a frozen moment of time just before the original portal machine sparked. The screen is black and dial set for 100,000 years in the future. They all climb through. The scene brightens. Our 13 time-refugees stroll in a peaceful looking sun lit field and trees. Meanwhile, back in the university lab, the story resumes as it began. A video montage of clips quickly retells the story, then repeats faster and faster until the images blur together and dissolve over a photo of a galaxy. The End.

Why is this movie fun?
Time travel movies are inherently more thought-provoking. TTT is no exception. The acting is respectable and action plentiful enough to keep interest up. The special effects are pretty good for a limited budget, sometimes taking on the feel of stage magic.

Cold War Angle
TTT contains a blatant and familiar Cold War message: Nuclear war will ruin the earth. To explain the earth of 2071, Dr. Varno plays some stock footage of 1950s nuclear tests and destruction. His somewhat florid homily is the film's cautionary message. "Earth is now just a burnt out sterile slag in space. The last generation mutated -- once humans --, the offspring of the radiation saturated survivors, roam the desolate surface, possessed by the insanity of crippling deformities of mind and body. When they are gone, earth will be lifeless, and incapable of sustaining life, as the barren moon itself."

Notes
BunkerVision -- It had become received canon that a post-nuclear world would have a remnant of normal people survive underground. Those on the surface would become mutants. World Without End ('56) was about some people from the mid-20th-century who travel to an earth in the future. That post-apocalyptic future has the "normal" people surviving underground and the surface roamed by brutal mutants. This trope appeared early on in 1000 Years From Now (or "Captive Women") ('52) in which the normals lived underground the the mutants on the surface. This was also a feature in Beyond the Time Barrier ('60) -- normals below, mutants above.

Freeze Frame -- A notable feature in TTT was time could be different for people in the same space. Our intrepid survivors get back to the university, only to find everyone frozen in a moment, or at least moving very very slowly. This asynchronisity makes the new people invisible to the frozen people. Also of interest was that the "fast" people could not affect matter in the slow time. Objects were frozen and immovable to them. Ib Melchior wrote this trope into another time-warp screenplay for the series Outer Limits. The episode The Premonition (January 1965) featured a test pilot and his wife who became frozen in a 10 second bit of time. They could move no objects there, but fashioned a way to save their daughter from being struck by a runaway truck, by using the seatbelts from her car (which was apparently taken into the time warp with them). The interesting thought in all this, is that someone can visit the past, but would be asynchronous with it, so could not change it anyhow. Erik, Steve and Carol could not prevent the nuclear war.

Fertile Seeds -- The concept of a re-creatable time portal had enough legs to spawn repeats. Journey to the Center of Time ('67) would come from co-writer of TTT, David Hewlitt. It will be a repeat of the trope. The 1966 TV series Time Tunnel would serialize the historical adventures possible with such a portal. Even such later TV shows as Stargate SG-1 would revisit the handy notion of a time portal. It's just too handy of a trope to not re-use.

Android Fascination -- Much run-time is devoted to a fascination with building the androids. The gee-whiz nature of the androids almost competes for the role of the purpose of the story. Even the fight scenes devote special attention to damaged androids fighting on or one long segment in which an android burns to a charred frame.

The Future is Groovy -- the future envisioned in sci-fi was becoming more 60s flavored. Note the segment in which Reena (in short floofy skirt and tall white boots), gyrates as she plays electro-techno music on the multi-colored Lumichord. Of course it helps that Delores Wells was Playmate of the Month, June 1960. The imagined future was taking on more of a mood of sensual abandon. Very 60s, Very groovy.

Bottom line? TTT is a cut above the usual B-grade sci-fi. It is one of American International Pictures' better efforts. It is not well known, but for fans of the genre, is well worth the effort to find and watch.

The Creeping Terror

Sometimes nominated as one of the worst films ever, The Creeping Terror (TCT) is, nonetheless, fascinating in its badness. It has developed a cult following over the years, with much written about it. Many rumors and several urban legends surround this movie and its producer/director: Arthur Nelson. TCT exhibits many of the foibles of films produced, directed and starred in, by the same man (under the stage name of Vic Savage). Other low-budget features, such as local/amateur actors and production "economies" all leave their mark too. Perhaps because of this "perfect storm" of shortcomings, TCT has a sizable fan base. Ostensibly, the tale of a couple of alien monsters who slowly rampage around eating people. A lone scientist thinks he has some answers. A newlywed deputy sheriff must stop the beasts.

Quick Plot Synopsis
Deputy sherif Martin and his wife Brett are returning from their honeymoon. They don't see the rocket land in the woods, nor the first monster emerge. Sheriff Ben, Martin and Brett investigate the reported plane crash. Ben goes inside and gets eaten by a second monster still strapped inside. A Colonel Caldwell's crack unit of six soldiers are dispatched. A Dr. Bradford, expert on "space emissions," is also dispatched. The monster eats a young woman. Martin and his deputy buddy Barney discuss the pros and cons of being single vs. being married. The monster moves on to eat a housewife as she hangs up laundry. The monster then eats a young boy and his fat grandfather. Unsated, the monster attacks a picnic hootenanny, eating everyone. Martin and Barney investigate all the missing person reports. Dr. Bradford conducts tests on the rocket, but learns little. The monster attacks the Community Dance Hall, interrupting extended dancing sequences. Everyone obligingly bunches up in one corner, so the monster can eat them all. Despite the abundant meals, the mosnter moves on to Lover's Lane. It eats some. Some escape. Finally, Caldwell's men arrive to battle the beast. It's bullet proof and eats all but two of the soldiers. Outraged, the Colonel attacks the monster with a grenade. This kills the monster. Bradford finds some electronics in a hunk of the flesh. Based on an unstated epiphany, he rushes back to the spaceship. Martin follows in the sheriff's car. Bradford rushes into the ship, but it explodes inside. This mortally wounds Bradford, but also frees the second monster. This second monster almost eats Bradford before Martin rams it with his car, killing it. Bradford says the creatures were data collectors. With both creatures dead, transmission would begin. Martin tries to disable the ship's transmitter by beating on the equipment, but this fails. Bradford says it might not be so bad. Maybe the aliens were dead. He then dies. The End.

Why is this movie fun?
TCT is just too bizarre to not find fascinating, in a sort of forensic sort of way. Everyone in TCT is so earnest that it lends an amateur charm.

Cold War Angle
It is doubtful that there is any serious analogies in use. Instead, TCT is a sort of reflection of more earnest works. They had monsters as metaphors for Soviet invasions. TCT has monsters because they did. Nothing deeper.

Notes
Art or Scam? -- Rumors claim that Arthur Nelson was a scam artist always working an angle. It's not like unscrupulous men were rare in the movie business. Scam or not, we have at least the film he convinced his investors to make. Nelson wasn't a good actor, nor a good director. He did, however, appear to have some talent as a producer/promoter. His one-man-show production is reminiscent of Mikel Conrad's The Flying Saucer (1950) and Russ Marker's The Yesterday Machine ('63) as a home-grown product acted by locals. In TCT, several people do get their brief (and glorious) moment on the big screen: Betty with her laundry gets several minutes; the brunette who gets to say,"My God, What is it?"; the sergeant who did not get eaten -- scam or not, they all got to be in a movie.

A Tale of Two Monsters -- Observant viewers will note that there are two different monster costumes used for the same monster -- collectively called the "carpet monster" for its resemblance to being made up of carpet remnants. Fans have labeled the first carpet monster "clamhead", the other, "shovelhead," for differences in how the "head" was shaped. They vary from scene to scene. A plausible explanation is that Jon Lackey, the man who created the first (clamhead) costume left the production over a dispute (not getting paid for his work) and took clamhead with him. Undaunted, Nelson had a second costume made. Though similar, Shovelhead was less well-crafted. The alternating appearances are due to scenes being shot out of sequence. (a common practice in movie making). Clamhead's scenes (mostly outdoor stuff) were apparently shot early on, while Lackey was still waiting for his check. Post-Lackey footage was shot with Shovelhead and intercut.

Cheap Sound -- A popular urban legend surrounding TCT is that the audio track was somehow lost or destroyed, thereby requiring dubbed sound and a heavy reliance of narration. The supposedly lost audio may well have never existed. It was not that unusual in low low budget productions to not bother with as-shot audio. This saved a whole load of expenses for sound equipment and a sound crew on the site. It was cheaper to dub in audio in post-production. We just saw this rather well done in The Flesh Eaters ('64) and not so well in Horror at Party Beach ('64). A classic example of this -- including heavy reliance on narration -- is Beast of Yucca Flats ('61). Nelson may well have planned post-production audio in the first place.

Mixed Messages -- As a director, Nelson had an eclectic set of messages worked into his project. Part of him was (apparently) a staunch social conservative. There was the extended treatise on the virtues of marriage and how it changes men. There was the somewhat traditional subliminal message that bad things happen to kids who slip away from adult supervision to make out. The dance hall scene and subsequent massacre seems like retelling of the old modern-decadence-begets-doom trope. Yet, amid these conservative staples, are mixed exploitation bits, like the first victims making out in swimwear, and the ample shake-n-jiggle in the dance hall. Less conservative, and more bizarre, is Nelson's fixation on seeing women's butts and bare legs sticking out of the carpet monster's mouth. Viewers get quite a few repeats of this, yielding a lot of screen time. The monster does eat men too (equal opportunity) but they are off-camera and assumed.

Germ of an Idea -- Lost in all the cheap production, was a somewhat intriguing idea by the writer, Robert Silliphant. Knowing the biological make-up of earth beings, they could engineer a bio-weapon to either clear the planet turn us into willing slaves. This would save on all that expensive blasting famous landmarks. Dr. Bradford's reassuring last words -- that earth will be okay because the aliens probably live far far away (so might be dead by now) -- seem like small hope. Whose to say the rest of them aren't halfway to earth in the mother ships, or even in orbit already?

Bottom line? TCT is definitely not a movie for people offended by cheap production values and weak acting. For fans of low-budget sci-fi, or just fans of bad movies, TCT has tons to love.

The Flesh Eaters

Jack Curtis and Arnold Drake were two guys at the edges of the film industry mainstream, who got together to make their own movie. The Flesh Eaters (TFE) is one of those horror/sci-fi hybrids (mostly horror, very little sci). Working outside of mainstream Hollywood, Curtis and Drake pushed the envelope for on-screen gore and exploitation gimmicks. The cast are mostly third-tier actors who played bit parts ("man" or "woman" or "saloon girl") in TV episodes. Shot in black and white in 1962, (but not released until '64), the overall mood of TFE is very 50s. Even the monsters have a decidedly 50s B look.

Quick Plot Synopsis
A young couple, swimming off their yacht near Long Island, disappear amid ominous music. A NYC taxi pulls up at a wharf. Jan, the assistant for Laura, a post-prime alcoholic stage star, charters Grants seaplane to take them Provincetown for some rehearsals. His plane develops engine trouble en route. They set down beside a "deserted island". There, they bump into Professor Peter Bartell, there to study marine life. They discover a human skeleton on the beach (from the opening couple) and lots of fish skeletons. Peter tries to assert himself on Laura, but she bites his wrist and runs away. After the storm, the plane is gone. Grant figures out that the shimmery bits in the water are microbes that eat flesh. A non-sequetur beatnik named Omar drifts up to the island on a stereotypic raft. Peter shows the others how high voltage "kills" them. Says if they put a big shock in the surf, it will kill be critters and they can get away on Omar's raft. He has a huge solar battery to do this. In private, Peter gives Omar a drink with critters in it. They eat the middle out of Omar. Peter lies that Omar left on his raft. The others hear the recorded screams and figure Omar died trying to escape. Laura sees that the shocked bits aren't dead. Instead, one of them is growing into a monster. Figuring that Peter will get rich selling monsters, she dolls up and tries to come on to him. Peter stabs her (revenge for the bite) in the belly and buries her in the sand. At gunpoint, he forces Grant to finish the surf-shock work while monologuing the backstory of Nazi scientists developing the shimmery bits as a super weapon. Peter plans to sell it to the highest bidder. They deliver the mega shock to the ocean. Meanwhile, the bits in the tent have grown into a cycloptic warty blob with two pointy crab arms. It comes after the three suvivors. Grant, Peter and Jan run up a dune to escape it. Laura (not quite dead after all) appears with the knife and attacks Peter. He shoots her. She tumbles down the dune, the bloody knife still in her hand, stabbing into the monster's white eye. Her blood drips into the eye. The monster throbs and explodes. Blood, hemoglobin, kills the monster. They collect some of their own blood into a McGyveresque mega-hypodermic. On the beach, Peter pulls his gun again. He and Grant fight. Peter is tossed into waves and gets shimmery bits on him. In agony, he kills shoots himself. A really big crab-wart monster rises from the sea. Grant grabs one pincher to ride up onto monster's back. He stabs the eye with McGyver-hypo. Screen goes red and magenta. He jumps off. The monster blows up. Grant takes his wet suit top off, embraces Jan and the two walk off all happy. The End.

Why is this movie fun?
TFE is too odd of a movie not to love, especially for fans of 50s monster-sci-fi. The pacing is brisk. The camera work and directing add visual appeal. Martin Kosleck plays the evil villain with entertaining zeal.

Cold War Angle?
Other than suggestions of selling the shimmery bits to the Russians as a super-weapon, there is no connection. At its heart, TFE is more of the usual cautionary tale about man messing with nature. Oh, and that the Nazis are evil.

Notes
Montauk Monster 1.0 -- Long before there were the infamous Montauk Monsters, there was TFE. Much of it was filmed on the beach of Montauk, New York, (out at the tip of the south fork of Long Island. Direction and editing help the illusion that a single stretch of beach and dunes was a small desert island. The notion that there was some 'uncharted' desert islands off the New England coast is charmingly absurd.

Gates of Gore -- While tame by today's baseline, TFE was a very gory movie for its day. When Omar's belly is being eaten by the critters, there is much gooshing blood through his hands. Much blood spurts from Laura's abdominal stab wound. The sailor on the supply boat becomes a grisly skeleton. Perhaps the goriest, is when Peter, being consumed on the beach by the critters reaches his hand (little but bloody bones) for the pistol, then shoots himself in the head (off camera). Blood pours from a moulded head. Of course, this is all muted by being shot in black and white, and the scenes are on the screen for only a second.

Speak To Me -- Perhaps for budget reasons, all of the audio track was added post-production. The voice dubs are pretty good. You can only spot a few times that lips don't quite match the words. The sounds (water splash, wind, footsteps, etc.) are all obviously studio sounds.

Comic Book Style -- Blake was a writer for DC comics. His experience is evident in the direction. Note the deep depth-of-field shots with one person's profile close to the camera on one side, and others as tiny distant figures on the other side. Note too, the fairly frequent use of extreme close-up (more the lenses could handle), and classic visuals -- such as Laura's not-dead hand clawing up out of her sandy grave. These visuals give TFE a distinctive visual style.

Simple, if Illogical, Solutions -- Sci-fi likes irony. Monsters cannot be killed by things we think are powerful. Instead, a simple (even ubiquitous) items becomes mankind's savior. Nukes couldn't stop the martians in War of the Worlds. It was the humble germ that did. Simple salt water stopped the triffids and monolith monsters. This trope would still be alive many decades later, when plain water hurts the aliens in Signs. In TFE, the trope is paradoxical. The critters eat flesh, yet blood kills them? Consuming flesh yields torrents of blood. Plot hole? Perhaps not. Blood kills the giant crab-blobs. Nothing was said that blood killed the shimmery bits. In fact, at the film's end, the shimmery bits were still out there.

Good Girl / Bad Girl -- TFE reuses the old trope of two women: one good, one bad. Laura, the aging actress, is an alcoholic, arrogant and domineering. While not without some physical charms (movie bad-girls usually have some), she is a schemer. She rejects Peter's "advances" until she thinks he's got power or future wealth, then she schmoozes. Jan, her long-suffering secretary, is the stereotypic good-girl. Pretty, blonde, and well-built, she's the helpful one, the compassionate one. As per the usual of the trope, the bad girl gets her just deserts, while the good girl gets the square-jawed hero.

Not Without Humor -- The writers did manage some amusing lines. One joke, delivered around the campfire, has Omar telling Laura that she's cranky because she has a sour liver. "You've had too much coffee, sugar, white bread, alcohol, onions and sex." Laura responds, "Well now, I could get by without all those things, doctor, but you canot expect me to give up...onions." :-)

Plane Crazy -- The little float plane which Grant flies (and gets them marooned), is a Republic RC-3 SeaBee. Republic, like many WWII aircraft makers, figured to transition to peace-time production with planes for private aviation. The expected boom in civil aviation never quite materialized. Republic launched the RC-3 in 1946. By 1947, they halted production after making only 1060 units. the military market rebounded (Cold War), and Republic was making their F-84 fighter jet. As a trivia note: Grant's plane, N6047K, production number 222, was still around in 2002. Records show it being sold in 2002 to an individual in Islip Terrace, NY.

Bottom line? As a sci-fi movie, TFE has little to offer. It is mostly a gore / monster flick. Yet it has an indie charm with evil scientists, ruthless nazis, lab skeletons and giant crab monsters -- everything for a quaint 50s drive-in second feature. The acting isn't that bad for this grade of movie. If you want to see passion, watch Laura's knife attack on Peter in slow motion.

Robinson Crusoe on Mars

This was one of the two big sci-fi films of 1964. The other one, First Men on the Moon was a big-budget production of an old classic. Robinson Crusoe on Mars (RCoM) was an A-grade modern story. Actually, RCoM was a modernized retelling of Daniel Defoe's 18th century novel. John Higgins and Ib Melchior (the screenwriter of Angry Red Planet and Journey to the Seventh Planet, among others). Director Bryon Haskins was no stranger to sci-fi either. He directed War of the Worlds ('53) and Conquest of Space ('55) among others. The talent of the team ensure that the story rises above budgetary limitations.

Quick Plot Synopsis
Mars Gravity Probe One, manned by Colonel McReady and Commander Kit Draper, use too much fuel dodging the ubiquitous meteor. They each eject in little Mercury-like escape pods, to land on Mars. Kit survives and looks for McReady. He finds Mac's pod, but he's dead. The monkey Mona, survived. Kit sets up camp in a cave. He finds rocks that burn, later discovering that they give off oxygen. Mona discovers pools of water in a cave. The cave pools also have edible plants. The isolation takes its toll, nonetheless. Kit sees a saucer land. Alien swan-ships (ala War of the Worlds) blast the surface so slave laborers can mine minerals. One slave escapes. He and Kit flee to the cave. The aliens leave. Kit names the slave Friday, teaching him english and sharing the chores. A meteor hits, causing a 'rain' of black ash. Friday saves Kit from being smothered. When the aliens return, (looking for Friday?) Kit and Friday flee deeper into the caves. These become vast linear caverns. Lacking water, they trudge towards the polar ice cap. Exhausted and parched, they make it. They press on (inexplicably) to the snowy ice cap where they make an igloo shelter under a rocky overhang. Another meteor hits, the fireball of which melts their igloo. Kit picks up a radar blip, but it's not the returning aliens, it is an earth rescue mission. Happy Ending.

Why is this movie fun?
The whole survival on a harsh planet story is fascinating and well told. The rescue and flight from alien oppressors

Cold War Angle
The usual Cold War themes are missing in RCoM.

Notes
Defoe's Enduring Act 2 -- Daniel Defoe's original novel had more subplots than just one man's resourcefulness to survive on a deserted island, and adopting a native nicknamed "Friday." The first part saw Crusoe taken captive by pirates and escaping, then becoming a plantation owner. The last part sees Crusoe return to Europe. His inheritance is gone, but sells his Brazilian plantation and retires wealthy. It is Defoe's 2nd Act, with Xtream DIY, that has captured imaginations for almost 300 years. Johann Wysse adapted the idea for his Swiss Family Robinson in 1812. Jules Verne adapted the idea in 1900. In the 60s, two famous TV series picked up the trope. Lost in Space ('65) set the story in space. Gilligan's Island ('64) parodied the trope. More recently, there was Castaway in which Tom Hanks plays a 1990s Crusoe. Kit Draper as the space-age's Crusoe has had a lasting appeal. His quest for oxygen, then shelter, water and food, still have a realistic enough feel to intrigue 21st century audiences.

Twilight of the God (Mars) -- RCoM was the last sci-fi movie about the Red Planet from its Age of Ignorance (innocence). From Aleta ('24) to Rocketship XM ('50) and Flight to Mars ('51), through Angry Red Planet ('60), there was always the assumption that Mars was habitable, even if harsh. Space probes, such as Mariner 9, (November '64) would dispel the old romantic notions that Mars was an almost-habitable place for humans.

God Takes a Bow -- While mention of God or quoting a scripture verse now and then was not unusual in the 50s, it was rare in 60s sci-fi. So, it stood out more, when Mantee reads (as voice-over) the whole 23rd Pslam ("the Lord is my shepherd...") Then there is the theological discussion between Kit and Friday at the water hole. Kit tries to explain God to Friday in pidgin english. "Supreme being. Father of the universe. BIG father." Friday knows this Big Father already, but by another name. While this segment might seem like a non-sequetur, it does follow Defoe's novel. Crusoe comes to believe in God while he's marooned. He shares the gospel with Friday. Interestingly, Higgins and Melchior kept this element.

Swan Sightings -- Of some interest to 50s sci-fi fans is the reappearance of the graceful droop-winged ships that starred in George Pal's 1953 War of the Worlds. Those ships are sometimes referred to as the "swan ships". In RCoM, they lack the long-necked heat rays. The ray sound effect is the same, though. Reusing the WotW models might have been an economy move, but it added to the fun to see them in action (and much zippier) on Mars.

Techno-canundrum -- What kind of advanced alien civilization, smart enough to build interplanetary ships, still needs old-fashioned manual slave labor to mine their rocks?

Annoying Monkey? -- Mona, "The Wooly Monkey" did serve a wider purpose than being a Disney-esque add-on to keep the younger kids amused. She gave Paul Mantee someone/something to talk to. This script device helped avoid the dreaded voice-over narration, or Mantee's character talking to himself way too much.

Holy Meteors, Batman -- For anyone who was a kid watching TV in the late 60s, the voice of Adam West (as Colonel McReady) is still that of Batman -- even though the TV series was yet 2 years away for West.

Bottom line? RCoM is a great movie that has held up well despite its age. One need not be a sci-fi fan to enjoy the story.

The Horror of Party Beach

Only nominally a sci-fi movie, Horror at Party Beach (HPB) is a curious hybrid of the "Beach Movie" genre, horror (killing & gore) and sci-fi (radiation spawned monsters). The two stars, John Scott and Alice Lyon are very long-in-the-tooth as teens (both rookie actors in their mid-30s). They lead the fight against murderous "zombie" humanoid monsters from the sea. The shallow features of the beach movie (girls in bikini's shakin' their stuff) and old-style rock and roll are present. There are rubber suit monsters aplenty. Yet, science holds the key to stopping them. HPB's "sister" production was Curse of the Living Corpse (same writer, director, crew, etc.) with which it often double-billed.

Quick Plot Synopsis
Hank and Tina arrive at a beach where the Del-Aires are providing dance music. Meanwhile, a ship dumps drums of radioactive waste offsore. The cap pops off one. Dark liquid oozes over a skeleton in a shipwreck. It morphs into a somewhat exaggerated creature (from the black lagoon) Back on the beach,Hank & Tina's relationship is deteriorating. He wants to grow up. She wants to party. She swims out to breakwater. The gillman attacks and kills her. Tina's body washes up on the beach, interrupting the dance party. Later, two monsters attack a slumber party and kill 20 teen girls. A monster kills a pair of comic-relief drunks. Another monster almost gets two store clerk girls on their way home. That monster, frustrated at its failure, attacks some store manikins. Its arm is severed by the sharp glass. Dr. Gavin studies the arm and quickly deduces that atomic waste caused sea-creature cells to take on a humanoid shape around the skeletons of the fishermen. With no means to feed, they seek human blood as food. Noting that the arm is also lightly radioactive, they deduce that they can use Geiger counters to find them. Gavin's comic-relief black maid, Eulabelle, spills some liquid (solution?) sodium on the arm, which causes it to burst into flames. Now they have a weapon. Hank is charged with finding lots of sodium. He has to drive to New York City to get it. Meanwhile, Elaine is testing the water of a dark spooky quarry near the murder scenes. The monsters rise up. She flees, but gets her leg stuck in a rocky crevice. Dr. Gavin saves her but must fight a monster hand to hand. Hank arrives with his bucket of sodium. He and the police lieutenant toss the baggies. Each monster goes up in sparky flames. Later, Hank visits Elaine in her bedroom (?!) and pledges his love for her. The Del-Aires play another rockin' beach dance song under the final credits. The End.

Why is this movie fun?
As schlock as it is, HPB, gets right down to the action with little time wasted. The mixture of Beach, Horror and Sci-fi, is odd enough to be interesting. A few other points of interest are below.

Cold War Angle
HPB is mildly a nuclear cautionary tale. Atomic-stuff still has its cache as mysterious black magic which can create zombies. Message: radioactive materials mean trouble for mankind.

Notes
A Tale of Two Moralities -- HPB is noteworthy for having a foot in two moralities. One foot is in the innocent, chaste, orderly world of the 1950s. The other foot is in the debauched, life-is-cheap 1960s. A scene which typifies this dual nature is the monsters' raid on the slumber party. The girls, dressed in flannel night gowns, sing folk songs, giggle and have pillow fights. The monsters attack, killing all the young women with much "blood" and gore (for 1964). Gore, for its own sake, would become big in the 60s and beyond. Thus dawns that peculiar age in which audiences delight at seeing pretty innocent women slaughtered -- in droves. 50s Civility was crumbling. 60s Savagery -- the era of Helter Skelter and Chainsaw Massacre -- was rising.

They're After Our Women -- HPB gives the old Abduction trope a dark twist. At the end of the slumber party scene, two gillmen each carry off a young woman per the classic Abduction theme. The fact that they would be killed, not just "had", seems to touch on deep and ancient feeling that women taken by the "other" tribe were ruined -- as good as dead.

Good Girl - Bad Girl -- HPB is blatant in its repeating of the polarized archetypes of women: the virtuous woman and the harlot. Tina, the "bad girl," drinks too much (right from the bottle!), flirts with bikers, and dances provocatively (with hints of strip-tease). In the old-style morality, her fate is somehow "just deserts" for her loose lifestyle. Elaine, conversely, is chaste, temperate, modest and sensible -- in the June Cleaver idiom. When confronted by monsters, she, a crowd of men rush to protect her. Elaine's "just deserts" is the heart of the hunky hero. Let that be a lesson to ya, ladies.

Elaine 2.0 -- Note whenever actress Alice Lyon (who plays Elaine) has a speaking part. She appears to have been dubbed throughout. This is most painfully obvious when she and Dr. Gavin are conversing in the garage. Was Alice just too soft spoken? Did she have too-thick of an accent? How did she get the job with such problems? Could be it's not really Alice's voice we hear. This was her only movie.

Alleged Humor -- The mainstream Beach Party movies were light comedies. Not so much for HPB, though the writer Richard Hillard tried to inject a little humor. In the fight scene between Hank and the biker leader, Mike, there one sequence intentionally reminiscent of the comic Eric von Zipper (a regular in the Beach Party movies) and his bumbling Ratz and Mice motorcycle gang. Aside from that, "cute" (bad) jokes are inserted as token efforts.
Girl: "Do you think kissing is unhealthy"
Boy: "I don't know. I've never..."
Girl: "You've never been kissed?"
Boy: "No. I've never been sick." yuk yuk.
---
Girl: "Do you like bathing beauties?" (she strikes a pin-up pose)
Boy: "I don't know. I've never bathed one." yuk yuk yuk.

Naked Rock -- Of some amusement to modern eyes is the bare-bones performances of the Del-Aires. After the big-hair and heavy-metal eras, rock band performances became standardized as dark affairs replete with pyrotechnics, smoke machines and sweeping spotlights. How almost-naked were the Del-Aires. Just four guys in matching striped shirts, crooning their quaint rock-a-billy tunes in broad daylight. No smoke. No pyro. No gimmicks.

Bottom line? HPB is a mixture of genres popular with the drive-in crowd in the early 60s. The overall effect will be quite hokey for viewers who expect sophistication. People with a soft spot for low low budget 50s-style monster movies will find lots of cheese to love.

The Human Vapor

Brenco Pictures purchased the rights to Toho's 1960 movie, Gasu Ningen Dai Ichigo (The First Gas Person), as they had Toho's other sci-fi epic, Gorath. Brenco re-edited the film and dubbed it into english in 1962. The new version was not released, apparently, until 1964. The dub was fairly faithful to the original, but the story is rearranged. More on the differences below in "Notes". The story is a variation on The Invisible Man and The 4D Man with a dash of Phantom of the Opera, and then all set in Japan. The Human Vapor is sometimes called the third movie in Toho's "mutant" trilogy, following The H-Man and The Telegian, though none of these are related stories.

Quick Plot Synopsis
Young and handsome Mizuno is interviewed by three newspapermen. He is confessing to being the Human Vapor whom the police are chasing. He tells via flashback about how a mysterious Dr. Sano promised to rescue him from his mundane life as librarian to become an astronaut. The 10-day treatment turns Mizuno's body into mist, yet he is able to reform into a human at will. Mizuno is furious over this and the knowledge that Sano had killed others before him. Mizuno suffocates Sano with his misty self. Mizuno eventually realizes his vapor power is useful. He robs banks in order to finance the dancing career comeback of the young aristocratic woman he loves: Fujichiyo. She is unaware of the source of the new money, the spending of which attracts police attention. They arrest her. Mizuno tries to let her escape, but she refuses. The police want her to help them catch Mizuno. She goes ahead with her comeback recital plans. The police plan to fill the theater with explosive gas and blow up the Human Vapor. Fujichiyo gives her recital. She refuses to leave the theater at the end. The police throw the switch, but the wires were cut. While Fujichiyo and Mizuno embrace, she flicks a cigarette lighter, igniting the explosion. She is killed, but the Human Vapor could not be killed. He is now alone for eternity. The End.

Why is this movie fun?
THV is an interesting human drama with several layers. The special effects hold up reasonably well for their age.

Cold War Angle
There is a hint of the older moral: science-is-dangerous, and mankind's ethical weakness, but little of the usual Cold War motifs.

Notes
Flipped Flashback -- The original movie is told as more of a crime mystery. Halfway through, Mizuno goes through a bit of flashback during his interview to explain how he became the "gas man". The story then resumes real-time. Brenco opted to remove the mystery angle. They started with the interview, flashback with Dr. Sano, and then narrates the first half of the movie's actions as an extended flashback. Both movies resume real-time after the interview is raided.

Theme Medley -- THV is a mix of familiar themes: Phantom of the Opera, with Mizuno's unrequited love for the dancer Fujichiyo being similar to the Phantom's love of Christine. The Invisible Man, in that Mizuno's misty morphing is like the invisibility in the Wells story -- it affects his mind, incubating mankind's darker, despotic, criminal nature. This theme also played in The 4D Man in which the lead character was able to alter his "state" and pass through solid walls. The same megalomania surfaces. There is a bit of Frankenstein, in that Dr. Sano, in the usual hubris, creates a monster that rampages around and kills him. Though here, we get more of the monster's POV (especially in the Brenco edit) and his ambition to use his monster powers. The doctor role is almost trivial.

Cultural Contrasts -- Writer Kimura and director Honda set up contrasting worlds within THV. Fujichiyo is a vestige of traditional, formal, old Japan, almost swallowed up in the bustling, crass, modernized new-Japan. We are told she is from an old and wealthy family, but she (and her faithful servant Jiya) are the only one we see. She always wears the kimono and sandals. Everyone else is in western dress and often shabby. Fujichiyo lives in a spartan traditional wooden country home. The rest are in a crowded and cluttered city. She exhibits a dignified stoicism. The rest are loud, pushy, grasping and selfish. The most dramatic example of this is when Mizuno opens the jail cell to free Fujichiyo, all the other inmates scramble like fleshy animals for their freedom. Fujichiyo sits stoically in the corner of her cell, refusing to escape. She must be "released" properly by the authorities who put her there. Honor. The death of Fujichiyo (and Jiya) at the end, seems like a poignant commentary on the disappearance of old Japan, being swallowed up by the new.

Automotive Contrasts -- of some interest to car buffs is the contrast between the many small Japanese cars on the streets of Tokyo -- the Toyopets, the Crowns, etc. and the big black Chrysler Imperial that becomes Fujichiyo's limousine. Sweeping tail fins and tiny econoboxes make for their own commentary.

Tragic Anti-Hero -- The Mizuno character is an interesting blend of tragic hero and villain. He is, at one level, a victim. His honorable career as a fighter pilot is ruined by traces of cancer in his lungs. Hoping for a return to an honorable contribution, he submits to Dr. Sano's ruthless experiments. For this, he gets turned him into "the gas man." Yet, like the Invisible Man, be becomes less pitiable in his growing callousness and arrogance. But then, he is using his powers to aid the career of a woman he loves. Even in this, there is intrinsic doom, as she is of noble birth and he was either a lowly nothing, or worse, a criminal. He could never have the love he wanted. Mizuno is also portrayed as well dressed, well mannered and confident -- more of the hero mix than the usual villain features.

Customary Sacrifice -- In THV, it is Fujichiyo who makes the customary sacrifice in the story. Realizing that Mizuno has become mentally unstable and will kill many others, she tries to blow him up (along with herself). In the Brenco version, the cut wiring is credited to Mizuno, but in the original Toho version, it is suggested that Fujichiyo did it, so that she, herself, might take him out and atone for her being the cause of his crimes. Mixed in too, is a hint of foreboding about her life (old style aristocratic japan) is doomed, from the taint of Mizuno's crimes. Her final tear seems to be more mourning for Old Japan than Mizuno.

In The Noh -- A subtle layer of messaging within THV which is certainly lost on almost all American viewers, is the traditional dancing that Fujichiyo is doing. Noh is an old and highly formalized art form dating back to the 1400s. It is a very ritualized pantomime style of play following strict rules. (definitely no improv) This writer is not sufficiently In-the-Noh to identify just which play is used for the recital. However, the visuals suggest a noble woman either dying, going mad, or committing suicide, and becoming an avenging spirit (the blue "devil" mask). Fujichiyo's embrace of Mizuno at the end, causing a fiery death, seems like an allusion to the Dojoji play in which the unrequited lover becomes a demon-spirit and burns up the lover she cannot have. Someone with a good knowledge of Noh needs to fill in this facet. Any Noh fans out there?

Bottom line? THV is thoughtful and dark tale. It has more dramatic "meat" which makes it entertaining. Despite being a Toho/Honda film, there is no rubber monster or model city getting destroyed. The original japanese version (with subtitles) is the better cut for the story, (sound track too) though the english version will suffice if you can overlook the usual awkwardness of dubbed films.

Gorath

This is the third of a loose "space trilogy" by Toho Studios and director Ishiro Honda. First came The Mysterians ('57), then its semi-sequel Battle In Outer Space ('60). Gorath ('62 in Japan) was not another step in the same story, but a new story with new characters. The plot is a variation of When Worlds Collide ('51), but with a less catastrophic ending. The english version suffered the usual pains of dubbing, which cast an unfortunate pal of cheapness.

Quick Plot Synopsis
Rocket ship JX-1 blasts off for a mission to study Saturn. En route, they get orders to check out something odd. They find a dense red dwarf star moving into the solar system. It's path will take it near earth, so they go study it. Unfortunately for the JX-1, they find out that the star -- named Gorath -- has massive gravity. They cannot escape but transmit data before they crash. Scenes of a happy, lively life and human-interest begin to give way to grave concerns. Dr. Tazawa tells a U.N. assembly that earth's only hope is to build giant rocket engines at the south pole and move earth out of Gorath's way. A second ship, the JX-2 is eventually sent to gather more data on Gorath. Meanwhile, construction begins on Operation South Pole. This massive project meets some setbacks, but presses on. A mini-rocket is dispatched from the JX-2 to study Gorath. Meteors damage an engine, but it gets back. The pilot suffers amnesia. The Antarctic engines are completed and fired up. The heat awakens (or frees) a giant (non-sequitur) walrus who attacks the base. He is eventually killed by lasers from a jet plane. On earth, people evacuate coastal areas. A sense of doom pervades. Tidal waves flood Tokyo. Clocks count down until Gorath passes. It does. Many congratulations all around. The flood waters begin to recede. People talk of rebuilding and a new world mood of cooperation. The End.

Why is this movie fun?
The underlaying optimism of Gorath is an interesting departure from the sense of doom that surrounds many 50s sci-fi disaster movies. The model work, while understated, is nonetheless, impressive in its scope. The rockets, and especially the shuttle landing bay on the JX-2, has a "modern" 60s look to it.

Cold War Angle
A subtle parallel to When Worlds Collide has the menacing planet (or star) as metaphor for total nuclear war. It's coming, and it will destroy the earth. Here, the nations of Earth set aside their differences and work together to avert destruction.

Notes
Random Kaiju? -- The American release, dubbed into english, had the giant walrus attack scene edited out. The story really did not need a giant rubber-suit monster. The Japanese producers insisted that a monster be inserted into the script because they thought that was what audiences expected from a Toho/Honda film. The walrus is a total non-sequitur, adding nothing to the story. Kaiji fans must have been disappointed to get only a few minutes of rubber monster action.

Wiser Nukes -- With some innuendos about the west's misuse, or potential misuse of nuclear power (weapons), Japanese scientists show they are the wiser heads who can use the power for real good. They harness even greater power to create atomic rocket engines. These, set deep into the Antarctic earth at the South Pole, push the earth up and out of the way of deadly Gorath. Once successful, the scientists do talk of needing to reverse the process and return earth to its original orbit.

WWC 2.0 -- Where the rouge star (Bellus) actually hits the earth in When Worlds Collide ('51), the Japanese adaptation shows an optimistic spin by having the earth escape and be okay when the rogue star passes.

Stoic Heroic -- A common feature of Japanese sci-fi, is the heroic (and often stoic) sacrifice of someone for the greater good of earth. Often, that sacrifice comes near the end. In Gorath, it comes near the beginning. The crew of the JX-1, having flown too close to Gorath to escape its gravity, bravely, stoically, continue to transmit vital data on Gorath while they are drawn to their fiery doom.

Space, the Next Generation -- A strikingly "modern" feature of the model work in Gorath is the smaller "shuttle" rocket aboard the JX-2. It's kept in a hanger bay, launched and retrieved. This pattern would get a lot of use in the coming decades. Star Trek and many other space drama films would make much of the shuttle and bay feature. Gorath had it in 1962.

Bottom line? Gorath is a fair story on its own, aside from the fairly evident borrowings. The giant walrus adds nothing, unless one is a rampant kaiju fan. Still, worth watching for the models alone.