Celebrating World UFO Day

 

 Well, folks, today is World UFO Day! It's a day when aficionados get together and "keep watching the skies" for those mostly elusive visitors from alien worlds. World UFO Day is actually celebrated on two different days, depending on the individual (and probably there are some that celebrate it BOTH days...)

June 24 is recognized by some because that was the day, in 1947, that the first modern sighting of a UFO was recorded, when Kenneth Arnold saw flying saucers on a routine flight near Mt. Rainier in the state of Washington. But the official date, July 2 of that same year, is the one that was latched onto to be designated as the official World UFO Day, because that is supposedly when the famed UFO crash occurred near Roswell, N.M. 

Surprisingly (at least it's surprising to me),  World UFO Day didn't become an officially recognized day until 2001. World UFO Day has it's goals (as stated in the link above) "to raise awareness of the undoubted existence of UFOs, and to encourage governments to declassify their files on UFO sightings". Despite official government insistence that pretty much ALL UFO sightings can be explained by naturally occurring events on planet Earth (like "swamp gas", with or without the presence of an actual swamp...), there are a certain segment of people who are convinced the government is hiding the truth.

(BTW: "UFO" stands for "Unidentified Flying Object", the key word being unidentified. So in true definition of the term, a UFO is not necessarily a craft from some other world piloted by aliens. So: a reminiscence from your blogger: In 1997, I had walked down to the local convenience store to get some stuff and on the trip back I observed something in the sky.  It looked to me like three flat balloons bunched together. This thing moved across the sky in a straight line, not bobbing like you would expect if they were actually balloons. It was in broad daylight, not at night. I never found out what it actually was. So in true definition, at least as far as I am concerned, that was an unidentified flying object. Was it piloted by aliens? I doubt it, but since I still don't know what the hell I saw, I can still say I once saw a UFO.)

 

 

 

The Astounding She-Monster (1958): 

In the realm of movies which The Midnite Drive-In has presented to you, the reader, we have had a few big budget features, ones in which the special effects sometimes overwhelm the plot, but are exceedingly well manufactured and entertaining.  There have also been quite a few low budget films, some of which the special effects help to, just barely, keep the movie afloat.

It is a rarity that we get what I would call a no-budget film.  And even rarer that the film in question has, not only, virtually no special effects, but is also saddled with a plot that is so riddled with holes that it virtually indistinguishable from a hunk of Swiss cheese.  This is one of them.  I used to think that no movie could possibly be as bad as Teenage Zombies.

I was wrong.

(OK, so it took 9 years for me to find a movie as bad as Teenage Zombies... Some of you who have been following along this blog since the start may have a different opinion...) 

This movie is part film noir, which I normally like, coupled with an attempt at horror, with a bit of science fiction to add to the mix.  And none it of gels into anything remotely intelligent. 

The movie starts off on a bad footing, with a narration straight out of an Ed Wood movie. And, surprisingly enough, not only was Ed Wood an unofficial consultant, but the director, Ronnie Ashcroft, was an assistant director on one of Woods' films (that being Night of the Ghouls). The narrator starts out by trying to attract the audience into the plot with a series of statements that are undoubtedly the most obvious points he could make. I wouldn't have been surprised if I found out that this was his only credit, but as it turns out, Scott Douglas, the narrator, did have 28 films to his credit...

The basic beginning is the kidnapping of a wealthy socialite, Margaret (Marilyn Harvey), who is kidnapped by a gang of inept would be kidnappers. This crew of bozos are Nat (Kenne Duncan) and Brad (Ewing Brown), along with an alcoholic gun moll, Esther (Jeanne Tatum). The four race along the road, not knowing that nearby an object has crash landed.  

 

A geologist, Dick (Robert Clarke), witnesses the object crash, although he initially thinks it's a meteor. (Clarke is the only saving grace in this film.  Although he admittedly is not much better than the rest, he had some better roles in his career, including several AIP films that I have watched over the years. Beyond the Time Barrier is the only one that has appeared on The Midnite Drive-In, but there are a few others worth checking out.)  

 

Brad, who is driving the car, sees a figure, the alien that came out of the crashed object, on the side of the road and ends up wrecking the car. When asked what his problem is by Nat, Brad claims he saw a naked woman on the side of the road. (She's not naked, BTW, but the glow she gives off might be distracting enough...)

 

The alien, our titular She-Monster (Shirley Kilpatrick), disappears into the woods before the others can see her.  The four end up on foot where, lo and behold, they come across the cabin where Dick is doing his research. They decide to try to hijack Dick's Jeep, but unfortunately for them, the headlights aren't working. And since the daylight filming location outside is actually posing as night, it is revealed it would be dangerous to try to navigate the mountain road in the dark. 

(One of my nitpicks in these kinds of movies is when the budget is so low that they have to use pretty substandard filming techniques to convince you it is night time, when it is obviously being filmed in the day time.  It's obvious many times in this film.  Witness the light shadows on some of the characters faces when they are outside, supposedly in the dark...)

Brad tries to fix the broken headlight and sees the alien creature again, so Nat, who is obviously the brains of the outfit (which is stretching the term "brains"...), sends Brad out to look for it.  He encounters the alien again and tries to shoot it, but the bullets have no effect.  Then the she-monster touches him and he dies. Meanwhile, back at the cabin, things are getting a little out of hand.  Nat eventually goes out to look for Brad leaving the alcoholic gun moll with a gun to watch over the hostages. (Not exactly the most intelligent thing, given her predilection for the bottle...)

 

Nat finds Brad, and also finds the alien. Nat, too, tries to shoot her to no effect, but manages to escape.

At this point there is not much really exciting going on in this film so I will fast forward a bit.  Nat eventually runs into the she-monster again, and maneuvers enough to send her flying off a cliff (in one of the least realistic falls I ever saw in a movie...)  Supposedly, the alien is dead, but guess what?  She's not.

Eventually the she-monster kills both Nat and Esther, leaving our two hostages free, but the she-monster is still looking to be on a rampage.  Dick figures out if he makes a concoction of chemicals he conveniently has on hand in his cabin he can kill it. Which he does.

 

But the final denouement is yet to be revealed.  It seems that the alien was an emissary from a federation of planets to try to get Earth to become a peaceful planet and join said federation.  (Apparently the only reason she killed the others was because they started it, by trying to kill HER...)

As much as I like AIP movies in general, this is definitely one to avoid. Even if the alien girl had actually really been naked, it couldn't have improved this movie enough for me to recommend it.  Outside of Robert Clarke and Kenne Duncan, the cast of the film had very limited success in the film industry and it is readily apparent why. Although it is probably unfair to disparage Shirley Kilpatrick for her role, since she has no lines and only exists to be the killing monster in the film. But on that note, she only had 3 movie credits and the other two were listed as "uncredited", so maybe Hollywood knows something I don't... But cheer up.  The second feature tonight is substantially better than this one.  Read on.  

 

 

Invasion of the Saucer Men (1957):

Sometimes you get something that just blows you away. When I was 7 or 8 years old, I would be, like, "I wanna be a policeman when I grow up".  A few days later I might be, like, "I wanna be a fireman when I grow up". Not too long after that I might wanna be anything from a doctor to a lawyer to a garbage can man.

This movie seems to have no idea what it wants to be when it grows up.  It starts out kind of like a happy family fantasy movie, because the credits feature a book with pages turning presenting the credits and a somewhat upbeat happy tune.  I was reminded of nothing so much as a kind of a slightly spookier version of the opening music to It's a Wonderful Life. The film itself opens with the narrator (also appearing on screen as Artie) describing some events that happened to him recently in a town called, get this, Hicksburg. (Really! So from the beginning, you think, is this going to be a comedy?)

It seems that way starting out anyway.  A brief beginning introduces us to kindly gentleman named Farmer Larkin (Raymnd Hatton).  "Kindly" meaning a crotchety old geezer who mumbles and grumbles about those "consarn kids" who keep coming on his property to use a secluded spot as a Lover's Lane. Not to mention getting his prized bulls and cows drunk on their beer. (Apparently in Hicksburg even underage high school  kids can get their hands on beer...)

 

Segue to a diner where our narrator, Artie (Lyn Osborn) and his pal Joe (Frank Gorshin) are contemplating on what to do for fun. Artie and Joe are apparently hucksters who are in town just to make a few bucks. (Why in a backwoods town like Hicksburg probably says more about their intelligence than I probably could...) 

 

Artie is all for going back to the room where they are staying but Joe wants to keep up the quest for fun. And Joe is apparently not drunk enough to call it a night. (I should mention that Joe constantly pull drags off a bottle he keeps in his pocket, but Artie is laying off the sauce. Remember that, because it's important.)  Joe, while out driving, sees a flying saucer land in a nearby field.  (So now it's a sci-fi movie...) Ever looking for the play that will rake in the bucks, he heads back to wake up Artie.  But Artie thinks Joe has had a little too much to drink and thinks Joe is just seeing things. So Joe goes back out to get more proof for his friend.

Meanwhile, our heroes, the kids, Johnny (Stephen Terrell) and Joan (Gloria Castillo) have made their way to Lover's Lane and are making out like the rest of the town's libidinous teenagers.  But Farmer Larkin's bull comes along and ruins the mood. And what with Johnny having seen the lights from the saucer and deciding to leave with Joan, they travel down the back roads (without headlights) and run over one of the aliens who just landed.  

 

The alien is killed, or at least most of it...  It's hand separates from the dead body and manages to puncture Johnny's tire, leaving the kids on foot.  They go to Farmer Larkin's house, but since Larkin isn't home, they just walk in and use his phone to call the police.  But the police think it's a joke and hang up on them. 

 

Meanwhile, Joe arrives and finds the dead alien, but while he is investigating, the alien's pals show up and inject him with some poison from their claws. (Which turns out to be pure everyday alcohol, BTW). They take their alien pal's body and leave Joe's body in front of Johnny's car to make it seem like the kids actually ran over Joe instead of an alien. (This story was originally inspired by a short story called "The Cosmic Frame" {as in "frame-up"} so the aliens are basically trying to frame Johnny for the death of Joe.) 

 

Meanwhile, the bumbling excuse for the local army has heard of the rumor of a landing flying saucer and they head out to investigate.  They find the saucer, of course, but it is apparently unoccupied. (BTW, we only see four of these aliens, and all of them are out on the prowl, but even the small size of those aliens makes this saucer look like it is not quite proportionate enough to have transported them.) 

 

The bumbling army guys try everything to get some response from the ship, including firing guns at it, but the bullets just bounce off.  So these mental giants think the next best solution is to use an acetylene torch. Which blows the damn ship up.

 

Meanwhile the kids have (finally) convinced the cops to show, but they don't find a dead alien only a dead Joe, and haul Johnny and Joan in for involuntary manslaughter. But the cops are just as bumbling as the army guys because they leave the kids alone. And of course, the kids escape, because after all, they just HAVE to prove their alien story is not just a bunch of hooey.  We finally see these aliens in the bushes and boy are they creepy.. (So now it's a horror movie...) The severed hand from the first alien ends up in the car with the two teens.

 

The kids round up Artie and convince him to come help them find the aliens. And every time Artie gets involved in this movie, it gets a little comical. (so now it's a comedy, again...). The kids and Artie eventually find out that the aliens are destroyed by bright lights. (Is there no sun on this alien planet...?) So they round up the rest of the gang at Lover's Lane (all this happens in one night...) and take them to the place where the aliens are and surround them.  And turn on their headlights. And poof! no more aliens.  (It was a great plan by the aliens, and it would have worked, if it hadn't been for those meddling kids...)

 

And we eventually learn that the aliens have pure 200% pure ethyl alcohol in those claws. So the police determine that Joe died of acute alcohol blood poisoning, and was dead before Johnny even hit him with the car.  (Which, of course, we know he didn't actually hit him in the first place, but remember, only the kids have actually seen any aliens, not counting the flying saucer the Keystone Kops Army people blew up....)  

So just exactly why are the aliens here in the first place? Surely they aren't the vanguard of an alien invasion force (despite the title of the movie...) Personally I think they are just on a joy ride and decided to check out this out of the way planet to find out what mischief they can get into. Other than setting Johnny up for the frame job, they don't seem too intent on an invasion.

As always, I point out that these movies aren't exactly Oscar material (did you expect that, with a title like Invasion of the Saucer Men...?) I kind of liked this movie over all, mostly because of the (unintentionally) comedic parts. The actual intentional comedic parts are pretty cheesy, especially Artie and the unfortunate Joe. But there are so many parts of this film that are unintentionally funny that they probably sailed right past the original viewing audience. 

I would be remiss if I didn't mention that renowned special effects man from the 50's, Paul Blaisdell, was responsible for creating the monsters from this movie. He also created the monsters from many of the classic drive-in monster movies of the era, including It Conquered the World, The Beast with a Million Eyes, The She Creature and It! Terror from Beyond Space. Although his resume was fairly small, the movies he did create monsters for are memorable for the monsters, even if nothing else.  

So it is definitely worth at least one watch.  It's up to you if you decide to watch it a second time. At least one podcaster I watched likes this movie so much he turned it into a focal movie to review on his podcast and admits to really liking it. Me? I watched it twice. Once for this actual blog posting, but the second just to see if it was really as ridiculous as it was the first time.  (It is...) But, damn, it was fun to watch.  

Well, time to see if I can get the old Plymouth back home.  Don't think I'll be going down any back roads, just in case, though...

 

Quiggy

 

 

A Bizarre Love Triangle

 

This is my entry in the Luso World Blogathon hosted by Crítica Retrô and Spellbound with Beth Ann

As Joe Bob Briggs writes in his enormously entertaining tome Profoundly Disturbing: "Unlike Frankenstein and Dracula,  Creature from the Black Lagoon had no literary pedigree." The  previous two were, of course, based on previously published (literary) novels: "Frankenstein" was based on a novel by Mary Shelley, written in 1818 and "Dracula" was a based on a novel published in 1897 by Bram Stoker.

The "Universal Monsters", as they have come to be known, were all influential in the early days of horror cinema. The Invisible Man also came from a literary background, having been based on H. G. Wells' classic novel. The Phantom of the Opera had been based on a novel by Gaston Leroux. While the other films were based on legends (The Mummy and The Wolf Man), Creature from the Black Lagoon had it's origins based on "a conversation at a cocktail party"  (again, from the Briggs entry).

Side note: Creature from the Black Lagoon, without the definite article "the" preceding it is actually the correct title. For years, before I actually acquired a DVD of the film, I thought it's title was The Creature from the Black Lagoon...) 

Remote unexplored areas of the Earth often had such legends.  And Hollywood often made use of such local stories to turn into shock films. You can find this kind of thing going on from the early days to modern times.  One of the first such "legends translated to film" movies was a silent film from 1915, The Golem, which told of an animated creature made from clay, a Jewish folklore tale. 

Creature has it's legend come to us from the stories told by natives of the Amazon jungle, about a half-man half-fish creature that came out of the remote jungle to claim a female once a year. (Kind of like the natives in King Kong, who ritually sacrificed one of their virgin females to the giant ape to appease it.) 

Creature takes place in, of course, the Amazonian jungle of Brazil, although it wasn't actually filmed there.  Production costs pretty much made it prohibitive, so parts of California and Florida do the substitution thing, and for someone who has never been in the jungle, I guess they didn't do too bad a job of it.   The film was directed by Jack Arnold, the same man who brought us It Came from Outer Space, The Incredible Shrinking Man, Tarantula! and The Space Children.

Besides the Brazilian location of the story, the Portuguese connection also extended to one of the stars of the movie, Nestor Paiva. Paiva has also been featured in other movies reviewed here, including Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter and The Madmen of Mandoras. He has over 400 films to his credit, although quite a few of them fall into the category of what I call "blink and you'll miss him". Here he plays the captain of the ship and has a significant presence in the film.

The most interesting thing I found in my research was that there was apparently something of a feud between the actors that played the Creature. Yes, there were two. Ben Chapman was in the suit whenever the creature was on land, and swimming star Ricou Browning did the swimming scenes.  Apparently Browning had been going around signing autographs on pictures of the creature taken when on land.  Chapman got a little irked about it since Browning was actually autographing pictures that were actually him instead.

One of the things that the aforementioned author Joe Bob Briggs points out is how popular this movie was with prepubescent boys, indicating that probably the primary infatuation was not for a pretty cool looking monster, but a pretty hot looking female co-star, and that swimsuit had a lot to do with it.  No wonder she attracted the creature's attention.

   

Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954):

The narrator (voiced by Art Gilmore) begins the movie with a mélange of Biblical and evolutionary theory of the creation of the Earth. 

"In the beginning, God created the heaven and the Earth, and the earth was without form and void. This is the planet Earth, newly born and cooling rapidly, from a temperature of  6000 degrees to a few hundred in less than five billion years. The heat rises, meets the atmosphere, clouds form and rain pours down upon the hardening surface for countless centuries. The restless seas rise, find boundaries, are contained. Now, in their warm depths, the miracle of life begins. In infinite variety, living things appear, and change, leaving a record of their coming, of their struggle to survive, and of their eventual end. The record of life is written on the land, where fifteen million years later, in the upper reaches of the Amazon, man is still trying to read it."

I understand the need to appease the Catholic Church and other religious factions that, at least in the 50's, had a strong influence on what was presented in the movies, so that first line coming directly from Biblical scripture was probably somewhat necessary.  But since no such creature appears in Biblical scripture as the Creature, I don't really see the point.

The actual beginning of the movie finds an archaeological dig discovering an odd looking hand embedded in the rock.  

 

The scientist in charge, Dr, Maia (Antonio Moreno),  takes the fossil back to civilization to try to study it, leaving two of his native helpers, Luis (Rodd Redwing) and Tomas (Perry Lopez), in charge. (BTW, neither Lopez nor Redwing are actually Brazilian.)  Dr. Maia  heads back to civilization, but neither he nor the two natives are aware that a live creature lurks in the nearby lagoon.

Dr,. Maia meets up with Dr. David Reed (Richard Carlson) and his colleague, Kay (Julia Adams).  Kay is also David's girlfriend, although he seems to be reluctant to make it an official relationship (as in, marriage). Dr. Maia shows Dr. Reed and his associates the fossil and wangles to get funding to dig deeper for the rest of the skeleton.

Meanwhile, back at the encampment, the live creature attacks and kills Luis and Tomas.  Guess it doesn't like the intrusion in his home. 

As the crew, along with the captain (Nestor Paiva) of the boat, called the "Rita", sail up the river, they discuss for what they are searching. Dr. Williams (Richard Denning) proves himself to be all about success as opposed to scientific inquiry.  (Dr. Williams, as opposed to the creature, seems to be more in line with being considered the villain at this point, if not just an extremely unlikable character... (and hey may prove to be more unlikable as time goes on.)

When they arrive at the camp, the crew finds the bodies of Luis and Tomas.  The captain suggests it may have been a jaguar that attacked them. But that doesn't dissuade them from their objective. They jump right away into trying to dig out the rest of the skeleton. But they don't have any success.  Dr. Reed suggests they sail up river to an area known to the locals as the "Black Lagoon", because he theorizes that the rest of the remains may have been taken that way by forces  of nature.

They sail up to the Black Lagoon where they do some investigating, all under the watchful eye of the creature, who is probably wondering what he did to deserve having a sudden wave of interlopers in his humble abode. After they find some interesting rocks they go back to the boat, but Kay wants to go for a swim.  And the creature, seeing Kay in her swimsuit, has decided he doesn't dislike ALL these interlopers after all...

When Kay gets back aboard , something gets caught in their net, and, boy,  is it a STRONG thing.  It almost threatens to capsize the boat.  When they finally get the net up above water, it has been totally demolished, leaving them to wonder just what kind of fish could no that! (Hint, fellas... that's no fish... Not even Jaws, which was still years down the road and miles away...)

The guys decide to go back down to look for this elusive creature (which considering how it demolished that net, seems a bit over-confident...).  And Williams is proving more and more to be at odds with the rest of the scientists.  He wants to kill the creature, rather than just take it hostage for study.  While underwater they finally spot the creature and Williams fires his spear gun at it.  But apparently it just pissed off the creature rather than kill it.

Back on the ship, the creature tries to take the new found love of his life, but she isn't so hot for him and resists.  Eventually the scientists chase him down and trap him. Williams is all for packing up and going home with their prize, but Reed says they HAVE to investigate the creature's home a bit more.  Williams, entirely out of character for being one to concede, actually lets Reed have his way.  They go, leaving the creature under the care of the other scientist who has accompanied them.  (I never hear them call him by name, but the credits list him as Dr. Thompson. He is played by Whit Bissell, who many of you will recognize as a prolific secondary character from TV and movies).

The creature escapes it's cage and attacks Thompson who, despite serious injury manages to drive off the creature.  As a result, Reed decides that they must leave, despite Williams insistence that they stay, because after all, the creature means more to him than lives of any bystanders. You get the idea that the creature is missing a bet on who the most threatening of these interlopers is when it is attacking...

They try to leave, but the creature isn't quite through with them yet.  It sets up a blockade to keep them from leaving. (A last ditch effort to make a final play for Kay to change her mind and set up house with him?) Ultimately the creature makes that last ditch effort, but even this is fruitless.

Creature from the Black Lagoon sparked two sequels,  Revenge of the Creature and The Creature Walks Among Us, both featuring Ricou Browning as the swimming creature, but with two different actors filling the suit on land.  Some of the scenes may look a little odd on screen, angles featuring the creature advancing to the camera and some of the underwater scenes.  This is because the film was originally released in 3-D. It wouldn't be much longer before the 50's fad of 3-D faded.  In fact, the aforementioned sequel, Revenge of the Creature is credited as the final gasp (no pun intended). I would love to see some of these in the original 3-D. 

Both sequels finally moved the creature to Florida, where it still struggled to find a suitable companion, but being butt ugly, he had no success in Florida either. The creature pops up now and again in films.  One of the better appearances was the 80's movie The Monster Squad (a movie that was promoted as a kid's movie, but I suggest you watch it with older kids, as it may be just a bit spooky for pre-teens...)

Another movie well worth checking out is the recent Oscar darling The Shape of Water which was inspired by the older movie.

Well, folks, the old Plymouth is not ready for an underwater trip, so I hope the roads aren't flooding on the way home.  But just in case, I'm packing a couple of cans of Flit.

Drive safely.

Quiggy

It Ain't Over 'Til It's Over

 

 

The Warner Brothers iconic Looney Tunes characters are some that are timeless.  Mainly because the studio keeps reinventing them now and again to stay in the hearts and minds not only of those of a nostalgic bent who remember them as kids, but also keeping them current enough that they can find new devotees.

Originally the studio would just release essentially compilation movies, an assembly of classic cartoons put into a major motion picture.  But beginning in 1993 they started incorporating classic characters into original features.  The first, I believe, was Space Jam, which featured the classic characters combating  an evil alien force in a basketball game and featuring Michael Jordan and a few other then popular real basketball players.

The Looney Tunes characters crop up now and then, even in feature films.  One of the best was not an official Looney Tunes movie, however.  That was Who Framed Roger Rabbit? and featured not only Warner Bros. cartoon characters, but many from other classic cartoons, like Disney. But a new Looney Tunes movie is always a treat, mostly because those are the ones I enjoyed more as a kid. (See my posts on the classic cartoons here and here.)

So anyway, my sister and I watched this one last night and, though I usually don't delve into current or even recent releases, this one just seemed to beg for a spot at the Drive-In. 

 

 

 

The Day the Earth Blew UP: A Looney Tunes Movie: (2024): 

The movie begins with a scientist (voiced by Fred Tatasciore) witnessing an asteroid heading towards Earth, along with a UFO that seems to be chasing it.  The UFO crashes on Earth and the scientist goes to investigate.  He finds some weird goo and collects samples. On it's way to the it's crash sit it clips the roof of a house.

 

 

The background of our heroes, Porky Pig and Daffy Duck (both voiced by Eric Bauza) begins when Farmer Jim (also voiced by Tatasciore) discovers the two as babies and raises them.  Over the course of their young days they get into a lot of trouble, usually as the result of Daffy doing something stupid, but with Porky being a sometimes unwilling accomplice. One day Farmer Jim leaves (dies?), telling the two they will always be a success as long as they stick together.

 

 

Flash forward to present day.  Daffy and Porky are awaiting the arrival of Mrs. Grecht (voiced by Larraine Newman), who,  after inspecting the house, points out the gaping hole in the roof (from the UFO), and tells them the house will be condemned unless they repair it. 

 

 

Of course, the two have no money, so they end up having to get (gah!)... jobs.  But they can't hold down real jobs because Daffy keeps trying to cut corners with wild ideas to speed up the job they are hired to do. Until they get a job packaging gum for a candy company, which they seem to be able to do, They meet Petunia Pig (voiced by Candi Milo), who is always trying to invent a new perfect flavor of gum.

 

 

Daffy catches the scientist, who has become a zombie from the goo at the crash site, pouring a load of the goo into the vat of gum.  Even Daffy knows this is not right and tries to raise an alarm.  But of course no one believes him. The contaminated gum goes out on the market, despite Daffy's efforts to try to derail it. 

It turns out that the contaminated gum is a plan instituted by an alien, The Invader (voiced by Peter MacNicol), and everyone who chews some of the gum becomes a zombie, like the scientist.

 

 

The gang try their best to stop this, but the gum becomes a sensation, and everyone (I mean EVERYONE) finds the gum irresistible and chews some, so that all of them become zombies.  The gang finds out that if they spray a fume, something like a rotten egg smell, causes the zombies to puke up the gum and become normal.  And it seems like they may just thwart the plan of The Invader. 

 

But The Invader is nothing if not resourceful. When Daffy ends up demolishing the weapon that Porky and Petunia are using to reverse the zombie-fication of the humans, The Invader employs the next stage of his operation.  All of the zombies blow Bubblegum bubbles, which combine to encase the Earth with a giant bubble.

But the gang don't give up hope yet.  The manage to burst the giant bubble. But after their success they find out that The Invader didn't have some evil nefarious plan... he was trying to create a bubble to deflect the asteroid (remember the asteroid) which was on a collision course with the Earth.  He didn't want to destroy the Earth. He wanted to save it.

So now the gang has to work in conjunction with The Invader to some how blow up the asteroid. They figure out that if they plant a huge pile of the gum in the center of the asteroid and have some toy chattering teeth chew it up, it will cause an explosion that will destroy the asteroid before it hits.  

At this point I'm not going to reveal any more of this film.  Suffice to say that things work out in the end (it is ostensibly a kid's cartoon movie, after all..) This is one movie that turns the standard cartoon movie on it;s ear, however,. It is TOTALLY insane, from beginning to end. (Why couldn't they have this kind of cartoon when I was growing up???) 

Just a final note.  This being a cartoon, the voice actors are never seen. But I saw the name "Peter MacNicol" and was waiting to see if I could figure out which character or characters he voiced. I didn't find out until the end. But if you watch the kind of stuff I like to watch, you would recognize him, if you do.  He played the hero in his first ever film role, Dragonslayer, and he was Janosz Poha in Ghostbusters II. He was also Gary in Addams Family Values, Renfield in Dracula: Dead and Loving It, and a regular in the TV series Numb3rs, as Dr. Fleinhardt. 

Also Wayne Knight, who many will remember as Newman on Seinfeld, or possibly as the slimy saboteur, Nedry, in the first Jurassic Park. Here he voices the Mayor of the town.

 

This is a fun movie and, as opposed to a lot of movies on The Midnite Drive-In, one that can be watched with the kids in the room. I must admit there are some (possibly) negative issues in it, if you are a real stickler for that kind of thing.  Common Sense Media, a Christian(?) watchdog review outlet,  states in it's review that there are some issues which didn't bother me in the least, but then I never had kids.  You can check their review out beforehand if you are hardcore in your child's film watching, but I personally think it's mostly harmless and typical of stuff that I saw growing up with The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Show on Saturday mornings as a kid.

That's it from the back seat of the Plymouth this time. And by the way, if you are planning to stop off for a treat on the way home, opt for ice cream and leave the gum on the shelf.  Drive safely, folks.

Quiggy

 

  

Hey! I Know That Guy! Episode #6

Hey! I know that guy!

It's time for another episode of Hey! I Know That Guy!

Once again, the theme of this series is one in which I pick a classic The Twilight Zone TV episode and highlight one of the actors in the episode and then delve into one of his or her major appearances in a Hollywood movie (Usually post TZ, but I'm leaving myself open in case a primo role occurred sometime before their appearance in the series.)

In the last installment I discussed the career of John Astin, an actor more well-known for his contributions in the realm of comedy.  This time I am going with a guy who was a great dramatic actor. Martin Landau had a fairly prolific career. He was a 3 time nominee for the coveted Oscar (one of which he actually won, that for playing the role of Bela Lugosi in the Tim Burton biopic of director Ed Wood.)

But that wasn't all.  He also received recognition as a cast member of the classic TV series Mission: Impossible. And among other TV roles he was the star of the highly underrated 70's TV series Space:1999, a British TV series that managed to make it's way across the pond to the States. (And was one of those way too often favorites of my childhood that didn't have enough staying power to continue past a second season...)

Up until about 1970 Landau was mostly a guest star on TV series episodes. Prior to his casting as Rollin Hand, the disguise master on Mission: Impossible, his credits numbered about 50 TV roles to only about 10 roles in film. His breakout role in film, in my opinion was as the co-star (and murder suspect) in the sequel to In the Heat of the Night, They Call Me Mr. Tibbs! 

From there he went on to roles in a variety of genres, but two that stuck out for me (being a person that likes those kinds of movies) are Alone in the Dark and The Being. Alone in the Dark stands out because in that one he plays a truly psychotic evangelist who loves fire (an arsonist preacher).  

Landau, in the Twilight Zone universe, had two memorable roles. In the season 5 episode. The Jeopardy Room, Landau played the lead character, a Major Kuchenko from, ostensibly, Russia, who is attempting to defect. He is the victim of an insidious Commissar Valenko, who has trapped him in a hotel room and is egging him on with threats of various kinds.

But Landau first appeared in The Twilight Zone, an episode that was the third one of the first season, was one called "Mr. Denton on Doomsday".

In "Mr. Denton on Doomsday" Dan Duryea is a former gunfighter who has fallen on hard times.  He used to be a big guy, fastest draw in the west, and all that. Everybody who thought of himself as a big shot gunfighter would seek him out, and all failed to defeat him.  But when he killed a young fighter his conscience got the better of him and he took to drink.

He became the town drunk instead of the town gunfighter and thus the source of ridicule, especially with one unrelenting bully, Hotaling (Martin Landau). Hotaling taunts Denton into embarrassing himself with a rendition of "How Dry I Am"  in order to get his next drink.

But since this takes place in the Twilight Zone, on the scene comes Henry Fate (Malcolm Atterbury), who gives Denton some new life. Denton manages to humiliate Hotaling, but the downside is, now he will become a target once again for every wannabe big shot gunslinger.

The ultimate end of this story is that Denton indeed does end up having to go gun to gun with the next wannabe hot shot (played by Doug McClure, who just barely escaped being this episode's Hey! I Know That Guy!). Fate gives Denton a potion that is supposed to give him 5 seconds of super speed and super accuracy in shooting.  But it turns out that Fate has been playing both sides of the coin and gave the newcomer the same potion.

Landau, playing one of the less likeable characters here, always seemed to me to have that face that made him perfect, in my opinion, for playing bad guys.  And of course, over the course of his career, he did have his share.  But he also had some sympathetic characters. 

He won an Oscar for playing such a sympathetic character.  Your heart will break to see how far Bela Lugosi fell from earlier stardom to the drug addict that Ed Wood found (and probably took too much advantage of) in the biopic Ed Wood. Landau got Best Supporting Actor from the Academy for that role.

Hey, I loved that portrayal.  Mainly because I have always liked Lugosi movies (and, ok, I'm a huge fan of the real Ed Wood and his low budget schlock.) But I have to admit when he was a bad guy Landau  could exude deviousness like no one else.  But there was one movie where he played a guy who could seem good on the exterior but harbored some bad characteristics that would surprise you. That movie was They Call me Mr. Tibbs!, and the character he played was someone whom, at the outset, might come off as sympathetic.

In They Call Me Mr. Tibbs! Landau plays Logan Sharpe, a firebrand preacher and political firebrand as well. He is a prime suspect in the murder of a hooker.  In the beginning he is approached by Lt. Virgil Tibbs (Sidney Poitier), who is a friend and apparently the pastor of the church Tibbs and his family attend.

 

 

 

(Side note: This movie was a sequel to In the Heat of the Night.)

In an early scene in the movie Sharpe admits he had more than a preacher relationship with the victim. But since Sharpe is supposed to be a man of God, he doesn't want that to come out (obviously).  The investigation delves into the potential suspects, because, after all, Tibbs can't quite accept the fact that his pastor might be doing some rather un-pastor-like things. (I mean besides having a sexual relations with a hooker.  But if Jimmy Swaggart could get away with it, why couldn't Sharpe?

Ultimately the trail keeps leading back to the same people, one of whom is the landlord of the apartment of the hooker, played by Anthony Zerbe. (And there's another guy who plays slimy characters real well.) It turns out that the landlord has some drug dealing outside of the prostitution ring he is running in his apartment building, but he is not guilty of the murder.  He ends up dead, just the same, but not before Tibbs uncovers enough evidence to point to the real culprit.

You guessed it.  Sharpe. Even when he is found out it's still hard to really dislike Landau's character.  He puts enough  pathos into the portrayal that you might almost hope he gets away with it.  But Tibbs, if nothing else, is a dedicated fighter of crime, even when a good friend is the culprit. They Call Me Mr. Tibbs! is nowhere near on the same level as In the Heat of the Night, and without Landau's presence, it might be forgettable. Even Poitier seems to be just going through the motions.

Hope you are enjoying this series. Drive safely.

Quiggy