HORROR MOVIE MUSIC IPOD PLAYLIST

I'm going to start off this post by telling you something that the snobby "timeless love song/Great American Songbook" crowd doesn't want you to know. One of their favorite "standard" songs, that was a favorite of our grandparents and parents, was introduced in a HORROR FILM.

The song, "Stella By Starlight," first appeared in the 1944 film The Uninvited, about a woman named Stella, who is possessed by a ghost. In the movie, Ray Milland plays a composer, who tries to woo Stella by composing the song for her on a piano, while she stands by an open window.  The song has been recorded by many artist since it was first introduced, but most of those familiar with the song would probably never guess it was from a horror film. The Uninvited was also groundbreaking in that it portray ghost and the paranormal as serious, instead of a criminal gimmick or for comedy purposes.

I brought up ghost and comedy, because one of the biggest songs of the 80s, was from a comedy about ghost and demons. Of course, that was Ghostbusters. That song dominated radio in the summer of 1984, but some would say Ghostbusters is a comedy not a horror film.

That is why this is a Ipod playlist, because 1)) doing a really educational "countdown-of-the-greatest-ever" post would lead to hairsplitting and Internet bickering about what I should consider a "real" horror film or horror comedy or a mystery thriller or science fiction movie or an original composition for a horror film or using a previously recorded song. So, I'll just give a playlist with the movie the song was featured in and you can decide for yourself what category it belongs in, 2) I haven't done one in a while, and 3) it's quick and easy.

I have left out orchestral scores, in favor of pop & rock songs, featured in the film. Some were hits before the film came out or "oldies" used to memorable effect in the film. I tried to give the name of the original version or version in the film, if I use a substitute, I'll mention why.

Stella By Starlight - Andre Previn (This is a piano instrumental, as in the movie) - The Uninvited - 1944
The Blob - The Five Blobs - The Blob 1958
The Web - Abie Baker - The Brain That Wouldn't Die 1959
Bird Is the Word - The Rivingtons - The Crawling Hand 1963
Look For a Star - Gary Miles - Circus of Horror 1960
Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte - Al Martino - Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte 1964
My Son, The Vampire - Alan Sherman - Vampire Over London 1952/My Son The Vampire 1964
That's The Way It's Got To Be - The Poets - Frankenstein Meets the Space Monster 1966
That's All That I Need You For - The Birds - The Deadly Bees 1966
Shadows - The Electric Prunes - The Name of the Game Is Kill 1968
Green Slime - The Green Slime - The Green Slime 1968 (The title of the song, movie and the band are all Green Slime)
The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face - Roberta Flack - Play Misty For Me 1971
Season of the Witch - Donovan - Season of the Witch 1972/Dark Shadows 2012
Ben - Michael Jackson - Ben 1972
Tubular Bells  - Mike Oldfield - The Exorcist 1973
Popcorn - Hot Butter - Shriek of the Mutilated 1974
Daybreak - Harry Nilsson - Son of Dracula 1974
Science Fiction/Double Feature - Richard O'Brien - Rocky Horror Picture Show - 1975
Time Warp - Richard O'Brien, Patricia Quinn & Cast - Rocky Horror Picture Show - 1975
Sweet Transvestite - Tim Curry - Rocky Horror Picture Show - 1975
Don't Fear The Reaper - Blue Oyster Cult - Halloween 1978
I Love The Nightlife - Alicia Bridges - Love At First Bite - 1979
Bad Moon Rising - Creedence Clearwater Revival - American Werewolf in London -1981
Moondance - Van Morrison - American Werewolf in London - 1981
Blue Moon - The Marcels - American Werewolf in London - 1981
Cat People (Putting Out the Fire) - David Bowie - Cat People - 1982
Bela Lugosi's Dead - Bauhaus - The Hunger - 1983
Ghostbusters - Ray Parker Junior - Ghostbusters - 1984
Weird Science - Oingo Boingo - Weird Science - 1985
Wanted Man - Ratt - Weird Science - 1985
Tesla Girls - Orchestral Maneuvers in the Dark - Weird Science - 1985
Pretty Woman - Van Halen - Weird Science - 1985
Blue Kiss - Jane Wiedlin - Night of the Creeps - 1986
The Stroll - The Diamonds - Night of the Creeps - 1986
Teen Beat - Sandy Nelson - Night of the Creeps - 1986
Good Times - Inxs with Jimmy Barnes - Lost Boys - 1987
People Are Strange - Echo & The Bunnymen - Lost Boys - 1987
Who Made Who - AC/DC - Maximum Overdrive -1986
For Those About To Rock - AC/DC - Maximum Overdrive - 1986
Dream Warriors - Dokken - Nightmare On Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors - 1987
Into the Fire - Dokken - Nightmare On Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors - 1987
Youth of America - Birdbrain - Scream - 1996
Red Right Hand - Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds - Scream - 1996
Who's Gonna Mow Your Grass? - Buck Owens - House of 1000 Corpses - 2003
Turn Around, Look At Me - The Lettermen - Final Destination 3 - 2006
Nights In White Satin - Moody Blues - Dark Shadows - 2012
I'm Sick of You - Iggy & the Stooges - Dark Shadows - 2012
Ballad of Dwight Frye - Alice Cooper - Dark Shadows - 2012

R. I. P MIKE CONNERS

One of my earliest memories of watching TV as a child was the show Mannix. The jazzy opening theme song, with the blue, red and yellow tiles (based on the Armenian flag and a tribute to Conners' Armenian heritage) and multiple tiny screens of Joe Mannix in action, including one of him dancing with a blonde girl, who spins around giving us TV's first upskirt shot. Also, Joe had his faithful African-American secretary Peggy Fair.

Mannix was a cool show, but as with many shows that stay around awhile, people picked up on things that could be parodied. Bob & Ray created a parody they called Blimmix. MST3K frequently made jokes about Joe Mannix's habit of jumping off of something on top of a crook, as well as, using Mannix jokes during any Roger Corman film from the 50s staring "Touch" Conners. When TV Land ran reruns of the show, a promo pointed out that with all the gunfire on the show, nobody was ever hit.

I've mentioned before that one of my favorite books as a child was The World Encyclopedia of Comics by Maurice Horn. In that book was a listing for a German comic strip called Mike Macke. The character was based on Mike Conners and a parody of Joe Mannix. All I could find on the Internet about the character was a scan of the same page from that book.

Here is those great opening credits. Watch for that girl.




  

SCARY RANDOM HORROR TRIVIA

Stuntman Alex Stevens was the werewolf (top photo) on Dark Shadows. He also was the clumsy baker (bottom photo) at the end of the counting sequences on Sesame Street. On Dark Shadows, they used a sound effects for the growl (sometimes badly slip cued). On Sesame Street, they overdubbed the voice of Jim Henson, announcing the number of fancy pastries he was going to drop on the way down the stairs.

Speaking of baking, Vincent Price's grandfather invented baking powder.

At the time he was making Night of the Living Dead, George Romero and his Image Ten production company was also making the "Picture Picture" sequences for Mister Rogers Neighborhood.

The mid-60s British horror film The Deadly Bees, features an uncredited appearance by the British band The Birds (referred to on MST3K as "The Skinnys") which featured guitarist Ron Wood, later of the Jeff Beck Group, The Faces and the Rolling Stones.

Actor/director Paul Naschy wrote several paperback Western's under the name Jack Mills.

Donnie Dunagan, who played Basil Rathbone's son in Son of Frankenstein, was also the voice of Bambi.

At the time she made The Brain That Wouldn't Die, actress Virginia Leith (above), who played "Jan in the Pan," was married to actor Donald Harron, best known as KORN newscaster Charlie Farquharson on Hee Haw.

Actor David Hess, who played Krugg in the original Last House On the Left, wrote Pat Boone's hit song, "Speedy Gonzales."

Lon Chaney Sr. made more than 150 movies in his lifetime, but only 40 of them survive intact. One of the lost films is London After Midnight, which was remade as Mark of the Vampire.

The 70s Ghost Busters

The 70s Monster Squad

Besides being cult horror comedies of the 80s, Ghost Busters and The Monster Squad both share their names with live action Saturday morning TV shows of the 70s.

Wes Craven named Freddy Kruger after a kid that used to beat him up in school.

The term "horror" as a movie genre was not used until 1934.

To make his face appear sunken, Boris Karloff took out his bridge work, while playing the Frankenstein monster.

Valarie Hobson, who was in Werewolf of London and Bride of Frankenstein, was later married to British politician John Profumo, who was involved in the sex scandal that was the subject of the 1989 film Scandal.

Mexican actor German Robles was the first movie vampire to have fangs. This was in the 1957 film The Vampire. The second was Christopher Lee in 1958's Horror of Dracula.

Fredric March was the first actor to win an Oscar for a horror movie for the 1931 version of Dr. Jeckyll & Mr. Hyde.

Speaking of Fredric March: A play by Alberto Casella, "La Morte in vacanza," was filmed twice. First as Death Takes a Holiday (1934) with Fredric March and Meet Joe Black (1998) with Brad Pitt. Brad Pitt also lived in a mansion March had built while he was making Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde.

The 1932 film The Mummy was not based on a fictional work but an original idea from Universal Pictures. Much of the film was parallel to the 1931 movie Dracula. The ankh was used a substitute for the crucifix. Edward Van Sloan's character, Dr. Muller, is similar to Dr. Van Helsing, which he also played in Dracula. Both use Swan Lake as their opening theme song.

The original design of the Creature from the Black Lagoon was based on the Oscar statue. The final design was created by a woman named Millicent Patrick (above), who was also an artist for Disney. She was not given credit for the design.

In an interview, actress Lenore Aubert (left) said making Abbott & Costello Meets Frankenstein was stressful because she was suffering from stomach flu and most of her wardrobe for the film consisted of white dresses.

The human characters from Scooby Doo were originally designed for a cartoon based on the TV series The Many Loves of Dobbie Gillis, to cash in on the success of the Archie cartoon series.

Bette Davis was unavailable to overdub some of her dialog in the made for TV horror film, The Dark Secret of Harvest Home. She asked for it to be overdubbed by actor/comedian Michael Greer, who stared in the horror film The Messiah of Evil. She had seen his imitation of her on the Tonight Show.

Artist Gene Colan based the look of the Marvel Comics Dracula on actor Jack Palance. One year later, in 1973, Palance played Dracula in a made for TV movie. 







 
  

DESDINOVA'S HALLOWEEN PODCAST 3 (Pitney Bowes worst nightmare)

Another podcast and I still have more than enough music for another podcast before Halloween. This one such great Halloween jams as:

• "Black Juju" - Alice Cooper
• "She's My Witch" - Kip Tyler
• "Vampire Rock" - Fabulous Poodles
• "I'm In Love With Dracula's Daughter" - Screaming Lord Sutch
• "Igor's Party" - Tony's Monstrosities
• "Frankenstein" - New York Dolls
• "Plan 9, Channel 7" - The Damned

Along with appearances from Torgo, the Monty Pythons, Criswell, Colin Clive, Bela Lugosi, and a hot babe that was married to Frankie Lane. Also I'll continue to make fun of that STL Cardinal fan, who chewed me out at work over a commercial that had a screaming woman in it. Oh yeah, Elmo & Patsy get theirs.

R. I. P JAMES BEST

Most people are remembering James Best for his role on The Dukes of Hazard. He gave an interview a few years ago and said he hated that show. He also said that he and Sorrel Brooke (Boss Hogg) were once fired for criticizing how bad the show was. BTW, MST3K pointed out that Best's character refers to his gun as his "Roscoe."

IS MR. SPOCK THE GREATEST TV CHARACTER EVER?

What was it about Mr. Spock that captured the hearts and imagination of millions around the world? I'm not sure you would call him cool. He wasn't the streetwise kind of cool like the Fonz or Vinnie Barbarino, nor was he that slick, charming kind of cool like Napoleon Solo, but he was cool in a way that was different. He was smart and philosophical than everyone else on the Enterprise, so you might say that made him a nerd or a nerd's ideal. Let's face it, there were a lot of other things that made Mr. Spock popular. Even though he exist in an idealized future, his life, like ours, isn't perfect.

Yes, he was smart, had superhuman strength (which he rarely used), mind reading abilities, a self-defense technique that renders people unconscious, and didn't have emotions to weigh him down, but he wasn't good looking with those bangs, greenish complexion,  the windshield-wiper eyebrows and, of course, the pointed ears. He was the hero for those who weren't good looking. Mr. Spock was the epitome of the person who stood out in a crowd.

You might say, Mr. Spock didn't fit in with his other crew mates. He was in the shadow of the dashing, heroic and good looking Captain Kirk, who you might say was sort of the jock to Mr. Spock's nerd. If Spock was a nerd, you can continue using junior high and middle school archetypes by pointing out that McCoy was the redneck who was always picking on people. He constantly harassed Spock about his green blood.

Add to this another thing about the Mr. Spock character he was multiracial. We found out during the course of the show that Mr. Spock was the child of a Vulcan father and an Earthling mother. Since he wasn't full blooded of either kind, he also didn't fit in with other children on the planet Vulcan, as was shown in the animated series.

This week in 1967, NBC aired one of the first episodes to give us an insight into Mr. Spock, "This Side of Paradise." Granted, they were tidbits thrown out through dialog in a story in which Spock is reunited with a beautiful female colleague named Leila (played by Jill Ireland, who looks like my old flame, Eunice Moneymaker), who had a major crush on him. Spock, of course, paid no attention to her because love is "a human emotion."

The landing party is supposed to evacuate the people on this communal planet, due to a radiation contamination, however, they don't want to go because they are "happy" and "healthy." It turns they are under the influence of strange plants that spray spores causing a euphoria. When Mr. Spock is sprayed with by one of the plants (which looks like a plant called caster beans that my Grandpa Jones planted around his garden to keep moles out), he not only notices how beautiful Leila is, but also notices clouds and rainbows. "Before today, I could tell you how they form in the sky, but until now I never noticed how beautiful they look." He is very close to singing "Both Sides Now."  Mr. Spock also begins defying Captain Kirk's orders and climbing trees.

Besides seeing that Mr. Spock is awkward at love, we find out in this episode about his parents, and he has super strength. Captain Kirk finds that the spores are counteracted by anger. He brings Mr. Spock back to normal by angering him to the point of violence with some rather vicious insults about his looks (Mystery Science Theater 3000 opened one show with a parody of this episode). This and "Amok Time" are the quintessential Spock episodes.

Almost as soon as Star Trek debuted, Mr. Spock became a fascination with people. 93 KHJ Boss radio in Los Angeles ran a Star Trek contest, where the winner got to meet Leonard Nimoy on the set of Star Trek (See the above KHJ Boss 30 Countdown flyer). Cheer Laundry Detergent altered a future man character (played by Robert Rodan, who played Adam on Dark Shadows) to look like Mr. Spock.

 


I noticed on many comments on retro blogs, social and news media websites after the death of Leonard Nimoy that many people said they had a Mr. Spock toy, t-shirt, pajamas, or Halloween costume. Matter of fact, when I was six years old, I was Mr. Spock for Halloween. I made the costume, although none of the stores in Lebanon or Springfield sold the pointed ears, so I had to make due with some "giant" plastic ears. I also had a pair of tube socks with Mr. Spock's picture on them.

I even had this Star Trek coloring book with Mr. Spock wearing a red shirt on the cover. Don't worry, he survived the coloring book.

I think kids gravitated toward Mr. Spock over the other characters because he was the different one. They could be a Captain Kirk or a Dr. McCoy, but Mr. Spock was something they couldn't be...a highly intelligent being from another planet, who was one of the good guys.

Mr. Spock is probably the most complex characters ever created for TV. While he prides himself on being emotionless, he is far from being one-dimensional and boring. Bravo ranked him 21st on their list of 100 Greatest TV characters ever and TV Guide ranked him sixth on their list of 50 greatest TV characters. Personally, Mr. Spock is the greatest TV character ever. Live long and prosper.   


 

Richard Kiel, who played Bond villain Jaws, dead at 74

Richard Kiel, who played Bond villain Jaws, dead at 74

Some other Richard Kiel credits not mentioned in the article linked above includes, Dr. Loveless' bodyguard, Voltaire, on The Wild Wild West, the Kanamit in "To Serve Man" on The Twilight Zone, The Longest Yard ("I think I broke his f#@kin neck!") and, of course, the MST3K favorite Eegah!.

Actor Ed Nelson, 85, of 'Peyton Place' fame, dies

Actor Ed Nelson, 85, of 'Peyton Place' fame, dies in Greensboro - News-Record.com: Local News

Check out Ed Nelson's IMDB page. He was in several episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents and Thriller. He was also in the "Nightmare" episode Outer Limits with James Shigeta, who died last month. He also played President Truman in Brenda Starr.

Actress Jane "Poni" Adams Dies

HOUSE OF DRACULA Actress Jane Adams Dies - Nuke The Fridge

She was the first actress to play Batman's love interest, Vicki Vale. You may also recognize her as the hunchback nurse in House of Dracula and the blind piano player in Brute Man.

TEN GOOD CREEPY, SCARY MOMENTS IN NOT-SO-GREAT MOVIES

Anyone who knows me or has read this blog and the old blog knows that I love horror films. I don't care whether they are great or bad, I enjoy them all. I really enjoy when horror films try so hard to be good and winds up laughable. Mainly because I know if I tried to make a horror film, it would end up being as bad or worse. However, there are moments in many of the most famous bad or campy horror films that makes us step back and say "Wow! That was creepy!" or "YIPE! That was scary!" Never mind the ridiculous concept, incoherent storyline, bad acting, bad special effects, for one brief moment in these films something worked. Sadly, these are the things that are rarely mentioned or get posted on You Tube. People focus on Bunny Brekenridge reading from his script, Linda Day George screaming "Bastard!" over and over, Hal Sherwood as the pedophile/incestuous priest, dogs with large plastic fangs and that nerdy guy screaming "OOOOOHHHHHH MMMYYYYY GGGAAAAAAWWWDDDDD!!!" Let's focus on things that the directors and producers got right. 

1. Liz's decapitated head in the roaster pot in The Ghastly Ones. Steven King once said that The Ghastly Ones was the work of morons with cameras. Actually, it was just one person: Andy Milligan. After seeing rubber mannequin arms, hard boiled eggs as eyes, a green-skinned lawyer with long grey nose hair and a priest, that is a dead ringer for Andy Dick's character in Old School, wearing curtains, we are not expecting such frightening image. Milligan used the "head-on-the-plate" gag in other films, but this one works because of the expression on actress Carol Vogel's face and angle her head is lying in the pot. The "head" actors in the other films looked bored and their heads are straight up, so you can tell they merely had their head stuck through a whole in the table. Vogel looks like she might have been the victim of a violent attack. What also makes this disturbing is Milligan using chocolate syrup for blood. Chocolate syrup was used in black and white films for blood. However, in color it looks like something else. It gives you the impression that either Liz or her killer suffered from explosive diarrhea. 

2. The floating old lady from The House on Haunted Hill. William Castle was known for bringing the audience into the film. The House on Haunted Hill was made to incorporate special tricks in the movie theater, such as skeletons dangling over the audience. That is why parts of this movie do not work to today. Except for the old lady above that comes screaming out of nowhere like a bat out of Hell. Of course, it turns out it was a dummy on roller skates that Vincent Price was using to scare people. It is one of the few of his scare tactics in the film that still works on the home video audience, without the benefit of a skeleton on a pulley. 

3. Corpse-puzzle-woman falls out of a hidden compartment behind a bookcase in Pieces. This 80s slasher film starts off in the 1940's with a little boy being punished by his hysterical mother for putting together an obviously 1970s puzzle of a naked woman. She overreacts and tells him to get a trash bag, so she can burn everything he owns. The boy overreacts and brings an axe to put in his mothers head. Years later, detectives Christopher George and Linda Day-George (real life man and wife) are investigating the dismemberment of college co-eds by someone with a chainsaw. One girl's head is lopped off in broad daylight, one is killed on an elevator (the killer hid his chainsaw under his coat), one is killed the waterbed in the girl's exercise room (???) and a girl wets her pants in the ladies room before being sliced in half. We find out not only who the killer is, but that he is also the little boy all grown up. Before it can get any more Scooby Doo-ish, a detective accidental opens a hidden compartment in the wall and out fall a "puzzle" made from the missing "pieces" of the dead girls. Now, there is one more good scare at the end of the film, but why spoil for everyone. I'll just say guys hate the end of this film.  

4. Tor Johnson rises from the grave in Plan 9 From Outer Space. Lets face it, the many problems with Plan 9 are well known by the world today. However, the scene where Tor Johnson rises from his grave is one of the great creepy moments on film. The spooky lighting, fog and the way Johnson rises up worked.

5. Zombie pops up outside the open window in The Mad Doctor of Blood Island. Filipino director Eddie Romero made several half Filipino, half American horror films in the mid 60s to early 80s. Most are filled with gore, bad acting and bad dubbing. The Mad Doctor of Blood Island features a boring villain, a convoluted plot and an annoying camera zooming effect when a zombie is about to attack. The one scene that gives the viewer a legitimate shock is when Angelique Pettyjohn is awaken by what sounds like an injured person outside her window. She walks over and opens the window. A zombie (above) jumps up out of the bushes. This scene works because there is a quiet build up. Just the soft whimpering and rustle of bushes. 

6. The Killer Shrews chew through the wall. Yes, the giant shrews are dogs and sometimes puppets. They may be puppets here but this scene is effective. Many people who saw this on late night TV as a kid say that the shrews chewing through the wall caused them to have nightmares.

7. The Beast From the Haunted Cave sucks the life out of a victim. Many low budget horror films start off as one thing and end up as horror films. This film started off as a gold heist/crime movie and had the horror aspect added later. The monster looks like a cross between pillow stuffing and silly string. However, when you see the beast suck the life from Natalie leaving her darkened eyes, wide open, and staring at the audience, you'll be sleeping with the light on for the next week.  

8. The mutant escapes from the closet in The Brain That Wouldn't Die. From an illogical premise to a skirt chasing, sleaze factor, accompanied by the sleaziest sounding jazz instrumental ever recorded, this movie was a classic even before MST3K got a hold of it. All through the movie, we are told that there is an "experiment gone wrong" in the closet. Near the end, Jan (Virginia Leith) begins communicating with the "thing" with telepathy. She has it attack the lab assistant and rip his arm off. At the end, Jan commands the monster to break down the door and give her former boyfriend and his creator (Jason Evers) his comeuppance. The monster is both goofy and scary at the same time but his emergence is a shock.

9. The second head appears in The Manster. A cocky American reporter begins splitting into two people while in Japan fooling with geisha girls. First, he gets a hairy hand (You figure it out) and then grows an eye on his shoulder. He starts committing murders. A policeman follows him to his hotel and sees him sprout a head in the dark.

10. Joshua's backseat nightmare from Troll 2. Vegetarian goblins turn people into green plants and eat them. Joshua and his family encounter them on vacation. In one scene, Joshua has a nightmare while riding in the backseat of the car. He dreams his family is under the control of the goblins and are turning him into a plant. Probably, the most effective scene in this whole movie.

There is an old song we sang in church about "looking for the silver lining in the clouds." Some films are so bad that they don't have one. I found one in each of these turkeys, there may be more out there.

THE CREATURE WITH THE ATOM BRAIN - Movie Review

The Creature With The Atom Brain is one of those movies that was once a staple of late movies on local TV and became a monster kid favorite. Like The Rats Are Coming, The Werewolves Are Here, the title just screams bad horror film. Some reviews and film history books try to make this 1955 thriller a statement on Cold War hysteria like The Thing, Invaders from Mars and Invasion of the Body Snatchers. I don't think the script of the movie was well thought out enough and if there is a political subtext it certainly doesn't make itself known.

The plot of the movie revolves around a gangster named Frank Buchanan (Michael Granger), who with the air of a Nazi scientist (Gregory Gaye), is using dead men, brought back to life with atomic power, to kill people responsible for having him deported. The atomic power makes the dead men impervious to bullets and gives them super-strength.

Forensic scientist Dr. Chet Walker (Richard Denning) and his partner, Capt. Dave Harris (S. John Launer), work to find who is controlling the dead men. Walker makes the connection between two victims and the killer's words, recorded on a victim's Dictaphone. "I said I would see you die and I will!" It turns out Buchanan told the jury that convicted him "I will see you die!"  When they start getting close, Dave is kidnapped and turned into an atomic killer. Luckily, he only succeeds in dismembering Dr. Walker's eight year old daughter's doll.

Besides being a classic Late Late Show fixture, this movie inspired the 1980 Roky Erickson song by the same name. Erickson incorporated re-enactments of the movie's dialogue including the first creature murdering mobster Hennesey and his goons shooting at the creature, as well as the news report of D.A. McGraws murder into the song. The lyrics focus on the discovery that Capt. Harris has become one the creatures ("Threw the doll right down, Ripped its guts out and threw it on the ground")

"Do you think he is one of them?"

Even though the script was by Curtis Siodmak, it seems like this could have been put together in a meeting of the marketing department at Columbia Pictures."Let's see what do people like in movies...I know, we will make a movie with gangsters, Nazis, atomic power, walking dead, soldiers and police shooting people. Okay, Siodmak, knock out a script on that."

While I don't believe this is an allegory about the Cold War, it is certainly a product of the Cold War and the 50s. You could almost do MST3K style riffs on the film, while satirizing the idiotic right-wing rhetoric found in memes on Facebook.

• Remember the good old days when the paper boy delivered the newspaper to your door?
• Remember the good old days when men slapped their wife's butt on the front porch in front of the neighbors?
• Remember the good old days when women were too feminine and delicate to drink martinis?
• Remember the good old days when our military would use all of their resources to find radioactivity in cities?
• Remember the good old days when eight year old girls talked like four year old girls and they played with giant dolls instead of twerking in clubs all night?
• Remember the good old days when zombies wore nice suits and had saddle stitching on their foreheads?

The Creature With the Atom Brain is a fun movie, because it can't be taken too seriously.

Actor Dennis Burkley Dies at 67

King of the Hill Actor Dennis Burkley Dies at 67

MST3K fans may remember Burkley from Lazerblast. He was the deputy that Mike and the Bots thought looked like Hank Williams Jr.

Jess Franco: Cult Horror Spanish Filmmaker Dead at 82

Jesús Franco aka Jess Franco: Cult Sex and Horror Spanish Filmmaker Dead at 82

CHRISTMAS MOVIE CONNECTIONS

This is a kind of free form, stream of consciousness post that may lead to a sequel, but I've tried to think of as many of these as possible. I began noticing that several things in the popular Christmas films were connected. Sometimes on purpose and sometimes on accident. If anyone thinks of one I left off, post a comment and I'll check it out.

Lionel Barrymore was originally to play Ebeneezer Scrooge in the movie version of A Christmas Carol, but suffered an injury. He played the role on radio every year. Because he was so good at playing Scrooge, Frank Capra chose him to play Old Man Potter in It's a Wonderful Life.




In this scene from Santa Claus Conquers The Martians, the kids defeat the bad guy, Voldar, using toys (provided by Ideal Toys). MST3K and others have pointed out the violent and dangerous nature of some of the toys used. The film was made in 1964. A year after that film came out a movement by parents to have toy company stop selling war oriented toys. It was around this time that New York radio personality Jean Shepard, talked to a "concerned woman" in a coffee shop about the "Ban War Toys" movement. It brought back a memory from his childhood of wanting a Red Ryder BB gun and being told by several adults "You'll shoot your eye out." That story was included in his book, In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash. It became the basis for the movie A Christmas Story.

A Christmas Story was directed by Bob Clark, who also directed a horror film called Black Christmas in 1974 (Above). Peter Billingsley, who played Ralphie in A Christmas Story, plays an elf named Ming-Ming in Elf.

Obviously, Holiday Inn and White Christmas have both Bing Crosby and "White Christmas" in common, but what does White Christmas and It's a Wonderful Life have in common? If you said Alfalfa, you're right. Former Our Gang/Little Rascals star Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer played Mary's date at the dance in It's a Wonderful Life (His big moment is opening the gym floor to plunge George and Mary into the swimming pool in an act of jealousy). In White Christmas, he is only shown in a photo (below) as Vera-Ellen's brother "Freckle Face" Benny Haynes.

Also the gag involving the photo is similar to the one in another Christmas film, Home Alone. Kevin finds a photo of his bully, big brother Butch's girlfriend (above), which cause Kevin to say, "WOOF!" (below) It is actually a photo of a boy in drag. Director John Hughes felt that using a photo of a "real girl" would be cruel.

The 1934 film version of Victor Herbert's Babes In Toyland, starring Laurel and Hardy, there are several joking references to Walt Disney, including a Mickey Mouse clone (Below) and Three Little Pigs (accompanied by "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?" in the background).

 In the 1961 Disney version of Babes in Toyland, Barnaby's henchmen are Laurel and Hardy clones (Above).

Character actor Dick Elliot plays the Judge in Christmas in Connecticut. In It's a Wonderful Life, he is the neighbor, who yells at George Bailey, "WHY DON'T YA KISS HER?" when he is escorting Mary home. 

  
 

BOO! Short Film by Universal about Early Horror Movies.

WARNING!!! THIS IS EXTREMELY CORNY!!! BWT: Every movie studio put out these silly shorts. TCM shows these often.Some of this reminds me of MST3K's parody of Jay Leno.

KILLER SHREWS - LATE NIGHT TV HORROR CLASSIC

This is one of those small independent productions made for exhibition at regional drive-ins, but became more famous thanks to late night television.
This film and another horror film, the Giant Gilla Monster, were co-produced by Texas media mogul Gordon McClendon. McClendon was a radio pioneer. Along with the Storz brothers, he help create Top 40 radio in the 50s. Later he created one of the first easy listening formats. After the assassination of JFK in Dallas, he created the first 24 hour all news format, which was the first radio station to feature traffic reports. Ted Turner is said to have used McClendon's news format as a model for CNN. McClendon also owned drive-in in Texas. He decided in the 50s to make some horror films to attract younger audiences. First was the Giant Gilla Monster. The second was Killer Shrews.
When you get down to it, Killer Shrews is not bad little horror film. Many reviews and historians have pointed out that the plot and theme of claustrophobic entrapment is similar to Night of the Living Dead.

The film also benefits from two good actors, James Best (Sheriff Roscoe P. Coltrane on the Dukes of Hazard) and Ken Curtis (Festus on Gunsmoke).
The reason the movie has a reputation as a bad horror film comes from the title creatures. In the days before CGI or other great effects, you had dress up a man as a monster or an animal as a monster. In this film, the mouse-like shrews grow into (what appears to be) German Shepherds with big plastic fangs, plastic bulging eyeballs and furry bath rugs. That was the films legacy in the pre-MST3K era. If you see It Came From Hollywood, the late Gilda Radner, narrating in her Judy Miller character voice, says that one of shrews (Pictured above) looks like her dog Sparky.
When MST3K got a hold of this, they pointed out a few other things to poke fun at. While the characters are trapped in this house together, they spend most of the time smoking and drinking. There is also the slight un-PC portrayal of  Capt. Thorne Sherman's African-American first mate and the Mexican manservant of the scientist. When Sherman mentions that many modern boats have automatic piloting systems, the first mate says that an automatic pilot "Can't play no Dixie land jazz." Both the first mate and servant die violently at the mouths of the killer shrews.
Another thing that is only funny after James Best years on the Dukes of Hazard, he refers to his pistol as "Roscoe," which was his character's name on that show. Now this tough-guy dialogue becomes an unintentional sexual reference.

Sherman and Jerry or Roscoe and Festus

It is also great to see both Best and Curtis play character so different than the TV characters that made them famous. Best's Capt Sherman is a tough, cock-sure adventure, who takes action at the drop of a hat. Curtis plays Jerry, who is the ultimate weasel in a movie about shrews. Now that is saying something. At one point, he tries to kill Sherman and leave him for shrew munchies.
Gordon McClendon also acts in the film a Prof. Radford Baines. The only disappointment in McClendon is that fact that he was in radio and the sound on this movies is horrible.
Killer Shrews is a film which holds your attention enough, even though it is not a masterpiece. It is not really a bad movie, just flawed. Those flaws are what makes it great.

BTW: There is now a sequel staring James Best, John Schneider, Rich Hurst, and Bruce Davidson. 

"The Killer Shrews" Teaser 1959

This influential radio broadcaster Gordon McClendon, in his acting debut, promoting a film he co-produced called The Killer Shrews.

'Big Valley' star Peter Breck dead at age 82 - KansasCity.com

'Big Valley' star Peter Breck dead at age 82 - KansasCity.com

MST3K fans will remember Peter Breck for The Beatniks and the Crawling Hand.

K Gordon Murray Presents SANTA CLAUS in EASTMAN COLORSCOPE

I remember Aunt Norma on Children's Hour promoting that you could take a canned food item to the Tower Theater, here in Springfield, to see this movie for free. It is more fun to watch it with the MST3K gang.