Lost In Space- sorta

When this cartoon pilot first aired in 1973 or so, I was excited.  I have always enjoyed Lost In Space, and thought a cartoon version would be pretty cool.  Well, it was not exactly a continuation of the live action series, and it's not Space Family Robinson either, but it was a pretty fun mini-movie.  Having Jonathan Harris be there as Dr. Smith certainly helps.  He was a bit toned down from his 60s counterpart, but that guy would never fly in a kiddie cartoon.  The robot, or Robon as it was called, also looked very familiar.  This allows Smith to use his famous insults and names for the robot.

Sven- Devil Doll (1964)

 

This movie sure seemed to go on and on and on.  It is kind of scattered as well, something Sven pointed out during his airing of the movie.  It has an interesting premise, the Great Vorelli has a way to animate his dummy, Hugo, who goes about killing people.  No one can figure out just how this is happening, until Mark English starts investigating Vorelli.  Turns out the ventriloquist was also a scientist who dabbled in black magic.  He transferred the life essence of the person Hugo into the dummy, who then does what Vorelli wants it to do.  Hugo is not pleased and is able to break free and imprison Vorelli into the dummy.

The Incredibly Mental Misadventures of Ed Grimley DVD set

 

I am a big fan of this character, and generally like the work of Martin Short all around.  This incredibly decent cartoon was on in 1988 or so, and ran a whopping 13 episodes.  It is full of physical comedy for the kids and has some subtle stuff for grown ups.  Count Floyd is very funny, but also very decent.  Give me a break, this should have run for five years.  Ed has a fine supporting case, including the lovely Miss Tina Malone and her precocious but nice enough brother, his rat Sheldon and his deadly goldfish Moby.  

DEVIL DOLL - (1964) Trailer

                                

I have never seen this movie, and as dolls like this are creepy to start with, I have no real desire to see it.  Perhaps it will work well.  I was gonna put a performance of "Devil Doll" by X, but there was no good video for it.  So here you go.

Avengers/JLA

 I have not yet commented about George Perez and his diagnosis.  It makes me too sad.  I can, however, comment about this special reprint of the Justice League/Avengers crossover.  It is limited to 7.000 copies, which is fine and good, but damn, it's a mess overall.  The proceeds are going to George, but already people want to buy all 7,000 copies.  Then sell them for $300 on eBay.  George won't see a dime of that money.  Apparently most stores are only getting one or two copies of the thing.  It is priced at $30, which is pretty good, but even that won't net much monies for George.  It is all very annoying that Marvel and DC didn't get their baktag together earlier and make it a much larger run.  I would love a copy of this.

MOTW- Gavadon

 

Several small vandals desecrate a work yard with their graffiti.  A strange cosmic ray brings a drawing of a monster to life, which is pretty cute.  The vandals "improve" their drawing, and Gavadon wakes up, then goes back to sleep.  The older morons attack the monster, which does absolutely nothing to it.  It even ignores Ultraman.  Finally, our hero takes pity on the beast and takes him, and the rays of "terror" back to space where they can do no harm.

Sven- Attack of the Puppet People (1958)

 

This is actually a pretty good Bert I. Gordon movie, all things considered.  It is kind of a dark movie, with a lonely, misguided scientist who is in desperate need of psychological help.  He shrinks people so they won't leave him.  His wife did, and that obviously took a toll on his fragile psyche.  The man is obviously a genius, since he figured out how to use white star material AND proper suspended animation.  Eventually his misdeeds are found out and he plans to kill his puppet people and himself.  The two heroes figure out how to return to normal height, and then leave the others and the crazed man.  We never do find out what happens.

Attack Of The Puppet People (1958) Sven

Here's an interesting if kinda boring movie.  It's a low budget version of Dr. Cyclops, with rockin' tunes and hip lingo. 

Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) Theatrical Trailer

                                                Damn what a great movie this is.  I don't actually remember seeing this trailer, but I must have, it was everywhere.

MOTW- Gamakujira

 Gamakujira (literally "toad whale") eats pearls.  That and its gigantic size are the only thing wrong about it.  It is pretty harmless otherwise.  It has some kind of corrosive mist or spray it can use as a defense.  The humans, needing pearls for some reason, have to stop the beast, though of course their efforts prove fruitless.  The Science Patrol even shoots a rocket into the poor creature before it meets its untimely end.

Dinosaur V Day

 

Valentine's Day, or Single Awareness Day as some of us know it, is rather a dreadful made up holiday.  Aside from telling people they need a significant other to be complete, it also makes people think they have to spend loads of money on this one day of the year.  OK, it's just ONE of the made up holidays that puts pressure on people to overspend.  Ugh.  But I did see card this year, and it's pretty awesome.  I don't care much for these kinds of chocolates these days, especially the scream filled ones.

Sven- Revenge of the Creature

 

This is a fun movie.  I give the studio props for not doing exactly the same thing they did in the first movie.  It is a logical move, bringing the Creature to civilization, somewhere in Florida.  Naturally the beast breaks free and causes havoc before it's untimely second death.  It also is able to go from breathing freshwater to breathing seawater in a matter of seconds.  While rare, some fish are able to do this, but I don't know if it can happen that quickly.  The suit still looks great, though it had been altered a bit.  The leads are fun, and it's nice that Nestor got to return from the first movie.

Granny meets Joe Young

 

Yep, that's Granny in her early days.  She's an unnamed patron of the bar, and that's her boyfriend "Nicky" who calls her a sweet young thing.  Even  15 years before she starred on The Beverly Hillbillies she looked older than she really was.  I am enjoying this movie far more this time than the last time I watched it.  It's been so long since I have seen it, it is nearly a new movie.  It might have moved up a notch above Son of Kong now.  I didn't remember it being only 93 minutes long.  That was the perfect running time for this movie.

Revenge of the Creature - 1955 - Official Trailer

                         Sven is showing this classic tomorrow night.  While growing up, someone at Channel 2 KWGN loved these Universal movies.  I bet not a month passed that one of the Creature movies aired.  The last one was the least popular, but I saw these movies a lot.  This should be fun!

Sweet Dinosaur Of Mine

Barnes and Barnes were a very unusual musical group.  They are most well known for Fishheads, Doctor Demento used to play "something's in the bag" which is still rather disturbing.  I knew they made many albums, but who knew they did songs like this?

MOTW- Pestar

I wonder if this episode makes more sense in the original language and subtitles.  It is probably the most boring episode with the most ridiculous creature in the first Ultraman series.  Nothing would be so outrageous until probably Ultraman Taro.  Pestar is a starfish monster than likes to eat or drink oil to live.  This seems to give it fiery breath on occasion, which is rather dangerous when it comes ashore at an oil refinery.  It takes both the Science Patrol and Ultraman to stop it.  I would feel more sorry for it, but it's so damn lame it's really hard to not be glad it's gone.

The Clash - Clampdown (Live at the Lewisham Odeon)

Somehow I never knew that 2-7 was International Clash Day.  So here is one of my favorite songs to celebrate a day late.  There are a lot of covers of Clash songs these days, some are better than others.  While I don't believe they are "the only band that matters" I really appreciate that subtitle.

Zorro (1975) Trailer HD

YouTube says that I have watched this trailer, but I sure don't remember it.  I really do love this movie ever so much.  Come on, Shout! Factory, gimme that delux Blu Ray!

Sven- It! The Terror From Beyond Space (1958)

 

What an enjoyable movie.  I think I saw some of this as a kid, but I am not sure now.  A second rocket ship is sent to Mars to investigate a mystery- only one crew member returned alive from the first spaceship on Mars.  The powers that be want to know what happened and if Major Carruthers is guilty for what happened.  All this takes place in the far off year of 1973.  Unfortunately for the crew, some idiot left the emergency hatch open and a large Martian enters the ship.  It is hungry, and likes to have blood for dinner.  It kills a few of the men before Carruthers figures out how to kill the creature.

Zorro 75 poster

 I am thinking about using this poster as a cover for the next issue.  It's pretty cool, and one can see they were counting on the fun of 1973's The Three Musketeers as well.  It's a simple design, and one that is rarely seen.  I like it a lot.  It is my goal to get the issue out sometime this month, I hope.  It is chock full of fun swashbuckling stuff, and I managed to get Godzilla in there as well!  How?  Well, you will have to wait to see! 

It! The Terror from Beyond Space (trailer)

Tomorrow on Sven- an alien creature hides aboard a spaceship and starts killing the crew.  I really enjoy this movie a lot.

Dr Johnny Fever's Best Medicine

Howard Hesseman passed on to his rock and roll heaven,  This is a bunch of his best.  He was great and had a slight influence on my thoughts about music.  RIP to Dr. Fever.

MOTW- Dodongo

 

After the Mummy Man returns to it's eternal sleep, Dodongo breaks forth from the mountainside.  This is the first creature animated by two actors inside, and it works pretty well.  It even manages to re-injure Ultraman.  Hayata had been injured previously, and when Ultraman chopped the beast he reacted to it as well.  That always made me wonder if Ultraman could be hurt while he was Hayata.  Their merge was not as thorough as say Hideki Go and Ultraman Jack, but you would think that if the host body was hurt Ultraman might be as well.  

The Lost Films Fanzine #7

John LeMay is a workhorse.  He publishes all these great fanziness and writes amazing books at the same time.  These issues are so much fun, and have some much interesting facts in them you can read them at least twice and learn something new.  This issue has some great stuff about a Tarzan movie that was never made- The Jewels of Opar.  This could have been an interesting movie, but was quashed legally before shooting completed.  There is an informative article about one of the many sequels to The Big Boss that has been semi-lost to the hands of time.  I loved the article about the Stooges.  They boys were already in syndication via their shorts, so a television show would have been a natural.  However, Father Time was catching up with them which made it more problematic.