Teenage Hormones in Hyperdrive

This is my entry in the Spooky Classic Movie Blogathon hosted by K N Winiarski Writes

"Holy crap, Little Joe!  Get  a grip!"

"My God!  Pa! What are you doing with that girl?"

"Jonathan, I think we need to talk...

(NOT quoted from Bonanza, Little House on the Prairie and Highway to Heaven...)

Whether you were a fan of Bonanza, Little House on the Prairie or Highway to Heaven it's a sure bet you never saw Michael Landon get more than just a little out of sorts.  The crystal clean image we have today, for those of us who remember him, is that Michael was an inspirational character in his three notable television series.  One of his nicknames according to IMDb was "the Jesus of Malibu".  Let's face it, when those of us of a certain age think of family values as presented in Hollywood, most of us likely to picture Michael Landon.

So it probably will come as a shocking surprise that Landon got his big break in Hollywood as an angst ridden teenager in a low budget horror flick called I Was a Teenage Werewolf.   Or maybe it won't be a surprise... after all he was born on Halloween...  (I bet I caught you off guard there...  That's right.  If he were still with us, Michael would be celebrating his 84th birthday today.  OK, I didn't know it either until just now...)  But his start in Hollywood got kicked off in high gear when he was cast as the lead in that movie.

So many people got their start in the most unlikely of places (just check out some of the big names of today who had to start their careers in low budget soft core porn...)  Landon got his playing in what, in retrospect, may seem to be an odd character choice.  Certainly it would if he had played him after we had gotten used to the type of characters he played in later years.

 

 

 

 

So happy birthday to Michael in the hereafter.  This wasn't intended to be a birthday tribute, but it is now.

I Was A Teenage Werewolf (1957):

Tony (Michael Landon) is a typical young lad.  Well typical except he seems to get into a lot of fights.  And he has a hair-trigger temper.  Pop a balloon behind him and you'll likely get your block knocked off for the effort.  But besides that he is a good kid at heart.

At least he is until the grownups decide he needs to do something about his temper.  And what do most of them suggest?  Therapy.  Good old Dr. Brandon (Whit Bissell) over at the local aircraft plant supposedly can do miracles with hypnotism (hypnotherapy).

But Tony is wary of hypnosis.  After all, when you are hypnotized, they can make you do things that you really don't want to do.  You know, like jump around like a bunny rabbit, or make a fool of yourself in front of others, or even, ye gods! like, buckle down and become a good student.

But shortly after wailing on  good friend for an innocent prank at a party, Tony decides to go and see the good doctor.  Except the "good" doctor is not so good as he seems.  He gets the idea to use Tony s a guinea pig for his new theory in trying to get man to regress to his more primitive instincts.

Using a secret serum, Dr. Brandon gives Tony some gentle subconscious suggestions that ultimately turns him into a werewolf.  Talk about baser primitive instincts!  And one of the things that really sets him off (aside of his temper) is seeing a girl work out in her gymnastics outfit.   That's a pretty base primitive instinct.

When Tony realizes what is happening to him, he goes back to Dr. Brandon to try to work things out, but Brandon dismisses his fears and puts him through the therapy session again.  By now the whole town is on the lookout for Tony.  Because they recognize the outfit the werewolf wears is the same as the one Tony wears.  (I guess no one else has ever seen anyone but Tony dressed in a letterman's  jacket and jeans...)

The man hunt is on for Tony after he kills a couple of people and the story is bound to not arrive at a happy ending.  But it does leave us with one lesson learned: man shouldn't interfere with the realm of God.  (Not to mention don't trust a psychiatrist who has his own personal laboratory in the back room). 

 

That's it from the back seat.  Drive home safely folks.

 

Quiggy

 

 

The 5th Anniversary of "The Midnite Drive-In"

Dateline:  Oct. 24, 2015.  The Midnite Drive-In, a somewhat part-time blog with no sense of purpose had been idle for 6 years.  Then in 2015 I discovered the inspiration that triggered a now 5 year journey to recreate the blog.  What was the inspiration?  Blogathons!  If you have been a regular reader over those 5 years you will have noticed that many of the entries were inspired by blogathons.  I am much better at writing when shoe-horned into a concept rather than just winging it.

You won't find those earlier entries in the first iteration of The Midnite Drive-In.  I erased them all.  They were pretty bad.  My initial attempt was to mimic my movie review idol, Joe Bob Briggs.  I even copied his style of injecting a fictional bunch of malcontents to hang out with.  But I lost interest, probably because I really didn't think the homage was any good.  It's best to leave those entries in the internet grave.

Joe Bob was better at it anyway.  The writer, whose real name was John Bloom, worked for years as a drive-in movie critic for The Dallas Times Herald, and his work has been collected in two books, Joe Bob Briggs Goes to the Drive-In and Joe Bob Briggs Goes Back to the Drive-In.  If you are interested in what originally inspired me to try this gig, check them out.  I have both, but since they seem to be OOP, you may have to haunt used book stores to find them.  (And, no, you can't borrow mine...:-D)

I retained some of the humor that I had tried to inject in the original entries, but I opted for some more real, personal  background to the experiences I've had watching these movies rather than with some fictional friends.  As a result, I am still interested in doing this blog, and 5 years is a milestone.  (The original Midnite Drive-In only lasted about a year, if I recall...)

So here's the deal.  I had to find movies that meant a lot to me to celebrate this anniversary.  I've been doing a lot of standard fare over the years, but the original intent, highlighting the drive-in experience, has been shoved to the side way too often.  So for this 5th anniversary I selected two movies which, although I didn't actually get to see them on a drive-in screen, exhibit much of the same themes that made the drive-in experience so great in it's heyday.  To wit:  two films about aliens, nuclear disasters and giant monsters.  Both of these movies may never have been paired at a drive-in theater, but man, what I wouldn't give to experience both as a double feature in that atmosphere... preferably with a date by my side.  (Note:  According to wikipedia, the original screenings had The Amazing Colossal Man paired with Cat Girl, and Attack of the 50 Ft. Woman  was released with War of the Satellites.  But that doesn't mean it has never been shown as a double feature in later years.  I would do it if my dream of opening a classic drive-in were to come to fruition.)

The Amazing Colossal Man (1957):

Col. Glenn Manning (Glenn Langan) and a group of soldiers are preparing for an exercise to advance into the nuclear zone after the aftershocks of the detonation of a plutonium bomb.  (In those prehistorical days right after the development of bombs, this was a standard exercise.  For more interesting looks at attitudes towards atomic bombs in those days, I highly recommend a documentary called The Atomic Cafe, which is just a collection of newsreels and educational films from the era.  It gives you some insight into the ignorance (or chutzpah) of the government's attitudes towards nuclear power.)

Anyway, Manning and crew are waiting, but something goes wrong.  The bomb does not detonate on time.  Meanwhile an unidentified and unauthorized airplane enters the forbidden zone and crashes.  Manning, against orders, tries to go to the rescue of the pilot, but while out of his bunker, the bomb does go off, and Manning is hit with full force of the blast of plutonium.  (Quite a bit more plutonium than it would take to send a modified DeLorean into the past, to be sure).

Amazingly, Manning survives the blast.  But the result of it is that he grows, day by day to astounding proportions.  And the result also affects his mind as he becomes rapidly resentful of what nature has inflicted upon him.

As Manning continues to grow, the doctors behind the scenes look for a way to return him to his normal state.  One of them succeeds in developing a serum which, when used on an elephant and a camel, reduce their size so that they fit in a cage on the tabletop of the laboratory.  So it seems that maybe they might just be able to help manning return to his normal size.

 

But time may be running out for the doctors.  As Manning's mind continues to deteriorate he escapes the confines of his place on the base and goes on a rampage, tearing through the desert and winding up in Las Vegas, where he proceeds to destroy Sin City.  (The casinos must've denied him credit.  After all, where would a 100 ft. giant get a viable way to earn money?)

 

 

 Attack of the 50 Ft. Woman (1958):

A rich heiress, Nancy Archer (Allison Hayes), is married to a rather emotional vacuous man, Harry (William Hudson).  Nancy is portrayed as having alcoholic tendencies and has spent some time in an institution prior to the start of this movie.  But she is out right now and travelling down a desert highway when she runs into a round satellite.

From the sitellite emerges a giant hand (that's all we see at this point) and she runs screaming back in to town to tell the news.  Of course, no one believes her, since of course everyone knows she is an alcoholic and a former mental patient.  Harry, more concerned with making time with a local chippie Honey (Yvette Vickers) is oblivious to her rantings.  The sheriff and his deputies are equally unsympathetic.

Nancy is in a love/hate relationship with Harry.  Although she despises his philandering ways she still wants him to love her.  And manages to convince him to go looking for the satellite.  But when they finally find it and a giant alien  (Michael Ross, who also was cast as Tony the bartender) emerges from it, Harry empties his gun at it and runs off, abandoning Nancy to the alien.

The authorities, as well as Nancy's butler, Jess (Ken Terrell) suspect foul play.  It doesn't help that everyone in town knows that Harry has been fooling around.  But the sheriff and his deputy run across the satellite and it's inhabitant, also discovering that the alien has commandeered Nancy's diamond necklace.  (It is suggested that the alien needs the diamond to somehow power his ship, but it isn't explained how that's possible).

As a result of contact with the alien, Nancy grows to tremendous size (eventually.  It takes almost the entire movie for this to happen).  She breaks free from her restraints and goes on her own rampage like Col. Manning from the previous entry.  But she has a goal in mind.  She's seeking out her philandering husband.

The quality of the graphics in both movies is pretty shoddy.  Because the trick of making the people look like they are of monstrous size, apparently the trick was to superimpose the image of a normal sized person against a backdrop of a significantly reduced town.  This has the effect of making the giants look somewhat transparent.  (You can sometimes see trough the giant to the background behind them.)  I understand this was in the primitive days of special effects, but it still looks a bit ridiculous sometimes.  But the story is interesting enough to hold interest.

Drive safely foks.  And keep an eye out for 50 ft people.  They may be more dangerous than they look.

Quiggy

Romance in the Ranchos

 

 

 

 

This is my entry in the Jean Arthur Blogathon hosted by  The Wonderful World of Cinema

 

 

 

 A Lady Takes a Chance (1943):

So the movie begins with a rather fairy-tale-ish opening crawl:

 

Once upon a time.

It was so long ago that people drove sixty miles an hour {horrors!} And skidded their tires {I imagine so...} And ate big gobs of butter (no wonder they drove so fast and skidded tires!} And drank three cups of coffee all at once {ditto} And there were more fellows around than there were girls { yeesh!}  And everybody was having a good time without knowing it (well, maybe the girls...} That's when our story happened.  Away back then in 1938. And here's hoping that "once upon a time" goes on again some quick tomorrow (that last was an added reference to the then ongoing WWII.  This being a 1943 movie}

 First a comment.  The movie starts out with our heroine Molly (Jean Arthur) beginning a vacation on a 14 day trip across the United States on a tour bus.  I don't know if you've ever had the "pleasure" of riding a bus cross country but at least in the late '80's it was no "tour".  I once rode from south Texas to Washington D.C.  It was the worst time of my life (even though the destination was pleasurable).  It took 64 hours, including the interminable exchanges and I bet I got all of 2 hours sleep.  And here she is taking a 14 day round trip.  And apparently they were expected to sleep on the bus!

Anyway, apparently Molly is a popular girl.  She has three, count 'em three beaus show up to see her off.  All of them are anxious to have her return and maybe break down and finally be a wife.  Malcolm (Grady Sutton), Bob (Grant Withers) and Gregg (Hans Conreid) all try to one-up the other with going away presents and goodbye kisses, much to the astonishment of her ailse mate Flossie (Mary Field) who wonders why she is going away in the first place with such exhibits of manliness waiting.

The first few days are filled with the excitement of picture taking as well as the obviously uncomfortable rigors of trying to find comfortable sleeping positions on a bus.  But when she gets to the west all things go the way these romantic comedies go.  While at a rodeo she has rodeo star Duke (John Wayne) fall head over heels for her (literally, he flies off his bucking horse and lands on top of her).  With such mild first encounters blossoms love.  At least it does for Molly.  Duke, on the other hand, is just being courteous by showing her a good time, unaware of the effect he is having on her.

Eventually Duke makes the wrong move on Molly and she becomes disgusted with him.  Especially after she finds out his watch is broken and she has missed catching up with her tour bus.  Stranded she has to stay the night, but when Duke tries to take a few liberties she is offended and dismisses him.  Unfortunately she also dismisses her opportunity to tag along to the next rodeo where the tour bus will be making a stop after it starts on its return journey to New York.

Molly's on and off again infatuation with Duke causes several problems along the way, including her causing poor Duke's prized horse to become sick.  Of course it all works out in the end for the horse (it is a romantic comedy, after all) but will things work out between Molly and Duke?  Ah, there's the real question.

I have to admit this is not one of the better John Wayne movies.  He;s a bumbling fool, nothing like the he-man idol that attracted me to his movies.  I have never seen Jean Arthur before (at least not that I can recall).  But she comports herself well in the role of the lovesick female.  I guess it all depends on what your opinion of this type of movie is.  Myself I've never really been a fan of romantic comedies.

But all in all, I guess its not really all that bad.  The comedy relief supplied by Charles Winninger as Duke's sidekick Waco, as well as a brief appearance by Phil Silvers as a tour bus emcee are pretty good.  And other than the bad memories sparked by those scenes on the tour bus, I enjoyed myself.

Well folks I'm headed back to the old homestead (fortunately in my car..)  Drive safely.

Quiggy