B-Movies
Tue, 2005-02-01 19:24
#1
B-Movies
I've finally got my DVD player, which I purchased from amazon yonks ago, working.
This has been brilliant because I went out and bought a load of B movies and I'm slowly working my way through them. To date I have watched and enjoyed:
The Lost World - Silent film version of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's book. Dinosaur attacks tower bridge. Everyone wears a hat.
The Last Man On Earth - Vincent Price is the last man in a world of vampires. He is also tall and unwieldy. Bad dubbing but great existential vampire angst. 1960.
Santa Claus Conquers The Martians - Does what it says on the tin. Very, very bad with the most laughable robot ever except for -
Robot Monster - Ro-man from 'Robot Monster' is the original diving helmet/gorilla costume robot monster, terrorising the last humans on earth from his cave armed only with a bubble machine. Ro-man is the model for the outfit in 'Gorilla suits and latex-The rise and fall of El Mucho' by Hamish which can be read on site here:
http://www.abctales.com/Members/Hamish/abcset.2005-01-31.0128091197/docu...
The Last Woman On Earth - Roger Corman quicky, which I should have watched as a double bill with The Last Man On Earth. Great existential post apocalypse story which is over in one hour and twenty minutes.
Carnival Of Souls - Cheap, cheap, cheap but excellent spooky story with zombie ballroom dancing and overtones of German expressionist cinema.
They Came From Outer Space - English Amicus production. Like Quatermass but more rubbish. Scientists possessed by meteorites. Hero has a plate in his head which conveniently makes him immune. At one point makes his fellows wear collanders on their head to fight the aliens.
Killers From Space - Peter Graves from Mission Impossible is abducted by aliens with ping pong balls for eyes and nearly sabotages the American atomic tests.
I love a cheap film that is good despite itself, rather than a film that is well made but boring.
Can anyone suggest to me some rubbish films that I also might like to enjoy? Please explain to me why they are bad and why this also makes them good or interesting.
Hox
Them!
1950's sci fi about giant ants produced by nuclear testing. A cast full of cliche's including the brilliant but dotty professor, his brilliant but vulnerable daughter, the hard nosed cop with a heart of gold.............. actually I wanted the ants to kick the shit out of them.
[%sig%]
Drew
X The Man With X Ray Eyes, is one of my favourites.
emily yaffle
I particularly love a Dolph Lundgren film where he is a homicide cop and keeps investigating murders where people have been killed by a super-vibrating Compact disc weapon - turns out the killers are alien-drug-dealers who get high on the fear in human's brains at the point of death. It really is exceedingly awful; up there with the Porkys meets Dracula film starring Grace Jones as a vampire hooker.
I still love Hammer's Dr Terror's House of Horrror, which features one story of Roy Castle playing in a jazz club full of zombies and another with Christopher Lee with a transplanted murderers hand - the lowest special effects horror of all time, he just walks round with his left hand trying to choke him. Brilliant.
ely whitley
they don't have to be sci-fi horrors
I remember "The Shout" starring Alan Bates (I think) about a bloke who hides a dark secret.... he can shout so loud that it kills everything for miles. He escapes to the Welsh countryside and trys to avoid getting angry. Only shouts once, right at the end!
"Equus" starring the bloke who went on to become Dr. Who I think and, more importantly Jenny Aggutter, about a guy who worships horses. Watched it because i happened across it one night as a kid and saw it was choc full of nudity, especially from Miss Aggutter. The slow-mo sequences of the guy riding naked and the shots where he takes a horse's eye out with a syckle are a bit much though.
Then there's the brit thriller about the blind girl who is being stalked by a nutter and all we see of him is his cowboy boots so we never get to find out who he is until the end. very scary but can't remember the title.
favourite has to be "Patrick" with susan George in about a guy in a coma in hospital who can control things telepathically, she plays his nurse. Again sexy and scary and British.
flash
Emma
The Fall of the House of Usher - the black and white version of the Edgar Allan Poe - wonderfully overdone and wonderful bbc English etc, can't remember the actors.
Similar reasons - 'The Innocents' - the original 1960s black and white version of 'The Turn of The Screw' (Henry James) - was a cult thing when it first came out.
Both have fabulous spookiness.
I'm very eloquent when talking about films aren't I?
fish
black narcissus
fantastic
martin_t
freaks
not actually rubbush - made in the 40s, banned for 50 years iirc, made with y'er actual circus freaks....
Emma
Well, at least I'm not competing with any other erudite film buffs,..obviously!
fish - sure I've seen that - what's it about?
mississippi
'They Came From Outer Space' was a 1990 American TV series surely.
'It Came From Outer Space' was a 1953 movie based on a Ray Bradbury story.
The 1950's was a great time for sci-fi/horror movies. They were so common they would put them on as double features. Most of them would be considered crap by Spielberg/Lucas standards but nevertheless they had a curious charm all their own.
If you want some 'bad' ones to see try,
This Island Earth
The Day The Earth Stood Still
The Creature From The Black Lagoon
and Steve McQueens first movie
The Blob
radiodenver
Motel Hell with Rory Calhoun.
mississippi
You're older than I thought, Denver!
radiodenver
You know that movie?
Best comedy horror movie ever made.
flash
black narcissus
Was that a B-movie? Powell and Pressburger production.
I think it starred Jean simmons,Deborah Kerr, Flora Robson and David Farrar. About a nun's Christian Mission in India?
One of the Nuns goes quietly insane, because of the solitude.
All the films i've seen by Powell and Pressburger have been brilliant though, i wouldn't call them B-movies.
mississippi
Well, I only know it because Wolfman Jack was in it. He was a DJ in Mexico and is quite well-known to rock'n'roll afficianados. I never saw the movie.
It wasn't actually THAT old, 1980 to be precise, but that's still a quarter of a century ago!
iceman
It Came From Outer Space - marvellous
radiodenver
Everybody knows who Wolfman Jack is. Is he still alive?
mississippi
Nope, he died 10 years back.
radiodenver
Hey old-timer (that's you George)...
Ever hear of Firesign Theatre?
(lets see if your memory has faded)
Emma
Sounds like the Muppets version of the kkk.
martin_t
another powell and pressburger movie
"a matter of life and death"
david niven goes before the celestial court of appeal to plead for his right to live - he should have died but his heavenly escort missed him...i've got it on video, but haven't got a video player at the mo....
mississippi
I've heard of them, they were a comedy group, four guys, David Ossman was one of them and a guy called Bergman another. Never heard or seen any of their stuff though.
radiodenver
Just old hippie comedy....I'd like to find their old albums on CD. I heard they did a movie too, that would be a good movie...
1legspider
'The Ghoul'
A Brit 'gothic' movie circa 1975 when they were just going out of fashion... I saw it one late night in the early 80's on tv and thought it quite scary then...
Its got Peter Cushing in it... and the story is about a big, overgrown green man wearing nappies, who lives up the stairs... he had succumbed to some horrible disease abroad and now only feasts on flesh... and a clueless bunch of young toffs that happen to come by...
Mark Brown
Martin, my then girlfriend bought me 'Freaks' for my eighteenth birthday. Best bit is the 'freaks getting their revenge in the mud and rain right at the climax of the film. Either that or the no-armed man lighting a fag.
It Came From Outer Space is indeed brilliant, but not what I watched. That involved big buckminster fuller geodesic dome space ship, quiet body snatching and if you are lucky, 3-D. What I watched involved a farm, some driving about, a phone box, some shooting and some collanders.
This Island Earth is top too, big foreheads, plans for computer, space ships, perpetual war, metaluna mutant with boggly eyes getting crashed by space pressure.
The Day The Earth Stood Still - Klaatu Barada Necktie! Watched this as a kid and loved it, especially big Gort and the wonderful theremin music
The Creature From The Black Lagoon - Never seen oddly enough
The Blob is cracking too, with its cut-price 'Rebel Without A Cause; teens and what looks like a very young Harry Dean Stanton in Steve's crew. The theme tune, which I've got somewhere is by Burt Bacharach, if I remember correctly and is a top toe tapper.
Black Narcissus I saw on a Sunday afternoon some years ago and remember it as a fairly sumptuous affair, way out of the B-movie stakes. 'A Matter of Life and Death' is the one with esculators to heaven and a quick change to colour, isn't it?
I'm looking for trashier, more obscure, more daft, more inept films, more downright odd or ill conceived films.
Any more ideas?
flash
The Thing (the original)
Mysterious planet.
radiodenver
Plan 9 from Outer Space.
Bella Legosi's (sp) last film. voted the worst movie ever made.
Mark Brown
Radio, I don't mind Ed Wood Jr. He's not boring, just rubbish but in a way that leaves an indelible mark on the viewer, a bit like dropping cheap mayonaise on a silk shirt. It's Bela Lugosi's Undead as Bahaus so croakily sang.
The Thing From Another World is one of my favourite films ever. there's loads of lovely little scenes and exchanges, a top title sequence, some genuine suspense, and some trademark overlapping dialogue from Howard Hawks. A profoundly wonderful film.
Mysterious Planet doesn't ring any bells flash. Any clues?
Radio, the worst movie ever made has got to be Armageddon with Bruce Willis. If you do an average of dollars spent versus entertainment for me, Ed Wood wins hands down against Armageddon which was like having Bruce Willis inside your head as you suffered a twho and a half hour migraine.
martin_t
the no armed guy lighting the fag was pretty impressive, plus he rolled the cigarette too, the chase near the end is pretty scary, and the ending itself...sqwark!!!!
flash
Actually this wasn't the one i'm thinking of, the one i was thinking of had a robot similar to the one from 'Lost in space,' in it, and was from the fifties.
Is it just me but is this thread is getting just a tad nerdy?
Mark Brown
Gooba Gabba Gooba Gabba We Accept You One Of Us!
It's interesting this. I never really get a chance to talk about these kinds of films, the films that don't usually come up in polite conversation. It's probably a lot more acceptable to say that you quite like a bit of porn than it is to say you like iffy crap horror/scifi/odd movies that no-one else has ever heard of.
I'm genuinely open to suggestions. I'm thinking of tracking down a copy of 'Theatre Of Blood' with Vincent Price which has a disgruntled actor bumping off thatre critics in the manner of deaths in Shakespeare. It has the most wonderful shot sof seventies London architecture, fashion, interior design etc.
Therein lies the appeal of the B-movie for me. The less money is thrown at a film, the more likely it is that the person producing the film can completely control everything that goes before the camera. This means that you are more likely to have odd details creeping in, strange stuff, stuff that betrays the time and conditions the film was made in etc... Cutting corners often makes things a l;ot more interesting than not.
Any more?
Mark Brown
"The less money is thrown at a film, the more likely it is that the person producing the film can completely control everything that goes before the camera."
Replace can with can't.
Damn these nerdy fingers.
flash
I've seen great bundles of these films, and other types at various dvd outlets on the net. Good value as well.
radiodenver
Mark,
Another really good terror flick for you.
Target
circa 1967 I think
It was one of Boris Karlof's last films. Very good psychological killer/thriller.
It was about this guy in Los Angeles that decided to become a sniper and climbed inside a drive-in movie theatre screen and shot at people in their cars with a high powered rifle. He hardly ever missed.
Really good movie.
(sorry, I'm a horror fanatic duh!)
justyn_thyme
I saw The Blob when it first came out. It gave me nightmares for days.
Then there was: The Mysterions. The special effects looked like something a 12 yo would create in his dad's workshop. Tanks melting like the plastic they were, for example.
'It Came From Hell' This is about a walking tree that kills people by sucking their blood out using its roots. The tree looked like a prop leftover from an old Bob Hope comedy Western. The review in the newspaper was: Send it back.
The H Man. This is about a monster created by the testing of a hydrogen A Bomb. In the 50s there were lots of movies based upon the idea that underground testing of atomic bombs created monsters, as in THEM, about giant ants.
martin_t
dive into the world of john carpenter....
they live
the thing
escape from new york - (the sequel LA ain't much cop)
christine
assault on precinct 13
Emma
The Blob!
Yeah! I remember watching that in the mid-seventies. Later on that evening I made my mother scream the place down by sticking my tongue through the crack between the door and its hinges!
Dan
Man I've seen almost all of these, I am slowly building a collection of special edition John Carpenter dvds because he is so entertaining on the commentaries, bought The Fog last week but havent watched it yet.
The Brain from Planet Arous: floating alien brain hypnotises people.
Them!: The classic giant any movie.
The Most Dangerous Game: Filmed on the King Kong set before they tore it down.
Earth Versus The Flying Saucers: Flying hubcap genius from Ray Harrihausen
Matinee: Joe Dante film set in the 50s. Sweet coming of age story but worth seeing just for the film within a film, Mant!
Terror from the Year 5000: Scary future woman in search of a mate.
And of course this:
mississippi
Seems like most of the 'bad' B movies are 50's sci-fi then. I've seen all those mentioned, mostly when they were first released at the cinema. There are however some crap ones that aren't sci-fi. One is an early Frank Sinatra film called 'Suddenly', about an attempt on the life of the President. There are many early John Wayne efforts too, mostly 40's things. He was so young and characterless and the movies were ALL crap, they turn up in 'Booksales' and 'The Works' in sets of 3 or 5 for a fiver. They've over-priced at that.
mississippi
Denver, a quick search on Kazaa throws up several Firesign Theater tracks :-)
zo
Can someone tell me the name of the movie where a group of people are stranded on an island. The water is acid...or contains nuclear waste...They can't leave because a monster created from a nuclear bomb kills them..Its black and white and not really sure of anything else..does anyone rememberthe name..Its an oldie but a something from my childhood...
Bee
it's called abctales