Eegah ~ 1962 -colour

QUICKIE: Eh Gads! It's Eegah!

PLOT: A teenage girl driving through the desert is confronted by a huge Neanderthal-like man and she returns to the city to share her story with her father, an explorer, and her boyfriend. When her father doesn't return from searching for the creature, the girl and her boyfriend head out to the desert to find him and the girl is taken hostage along with her father. It's up to the efforts of the boyfriend to rescue the father and daughter before the caveman can make the girl his mate.

SUMMARY: I said to my mom that I watched this movie about a caveman that somehow survived until 1950 & lived outside LA and met a girl on the highway and fell in love with her. She said let me guess the plot: he kidnaps the girl and takes her back to his cave. Although he's a caveman she learns he's not such a brute, he's just "misunderstood" because he's different. Either her ex, or current boyfriend gathers a mob and comes to save her. She pleads for Eegah not to be killed and then everybody lives happily ever after. (I should shorten that to HEA.) I was amazed at how close she came to nailing the plot. Yes, it's predictable, but it's still kind of charming in a mildly entertaining way.

Just add in the Dad, who wants to write a book about Eegah, but gets captured by him instead, the boyfriend continually breaking out his guitar and boring us with some rotten music, and that the cops kill Eegah in the end (for crashing a pool party in LA) and there ya go! In almost every scene with Arch Hall Jr., all I can do is stare at his hair. WHAT is going on there?!!??? The top part sticks straight out, totally unruly. I don't know if it's intentional, but it looks dumb. Point, stare, laugh. Anyway, this is the same doorknob who was in Wild Guitar. A really boring film about Arch becoming a rock star.

This film has Arch's Dad, Arch Hall Sr. in it. At least Dad can act better than Jr.. But every film that is a family affair is inevitably bad. Marilyn Manning is the girl Eegah falls for. Richard Kiel (Jaws from James Bond's Moonraker) plays Eegah the misunderstood caveman. He actually manages to be rather funny in playing up to his dead relatives who are seated in his cave. The scene where he gets a shave is also amusing. It's a fun movie to watch with a friend and crack jokes through it. You can't get mad at a film that fails on so many levels. It's a charming little mindless distraction. "Great film" it is not.

available on Google video

The Crooked Circle ~ 1932 -BW

QUICKIE: "Olive Oyl" is stuck in a Haunted House with murderers!

PLOT: The Sphinx Club is a group of amateur detectives who are the bitter rivals of The Crooked Circle, a collection of hooded villains. After The Sphinx Club aids the authorities in catching and imprisoning a member of The Crooked Circle, the evil gang swears revenge by targeting Colonel Walters, a well-known member of The Sphinx Club. Will the Sphinx Club be able to protect Colonel Walters or will The Crooked Circle succeed in their quest to kill him?

SUMMARY: If you've never experienced the thing that is Zasu Pitts, here is a Zasu zinger! In 1933 Mae Questel caricatured Pitt's voice for the character Olive Oyl for the Fleischer Studios animated cartoon version of the comic strip Popeye. Zasu (pronounced Zay-Sue) does her best "Olive Oyl" impersonation walking around whining and ringing her hands or attaching herself to the policeman's laynard. I kept waiting for her to say "ohhh myyyy", but instead it's "something always happens to somebody."

The first time I saw this film I loved Zasu and found her character really funny. I've since seen her in other films where she does this same whining, uptight, fragile-flower routine. So, upon watching this film again I started getting a little annoyed with the constant whining and near hysteria over a piece of dust. But, there are some funny comedy bits here, and it's also a mystery movie as well. It's an interesting mix of mystery and comedy that actually works. The mystery plot holds together well through the camp of Zasu Pitts and James Gleason who plays Arthur Crimmer the policeman. The haunted House is fun with many a secret passage and even a skeleton in the attic!

Horror Collection: Disc 45 - Side A

Watch for free here:
http://www.archive.org/details/crooked_circle

Manfish ~ 1956 -BW

QUICKIE: We gots a map, so let's search for sunken treasure maties!

PLOT: Captain Brannigan (John Bromfield) and niave first mate Swede (Lon Chaney Jr.) run the Manfish, a boat in the Caribbean. During their turtle hunting expedition, the men locate a skeleton who holds a treasure map and gold ring. The Captain recognizes the ring as a twin to one the Professor (Victor Jory) wears, who just happens to have the other half of the treasure map. The Professor also has Alita (Tessa Prendergast), a greedy beautiful native girl that he mistreats and Captain Brannigan takes a liking to. The foursome go find the treasure and tensions, hatred and greed runs high and it all ends up in murder.

SUMMARY: Manfish is an adventure film, released by United Artists in 1956. Filmed in Jamaica, it was released in Great Britain as "Calypso". It was based on the stories "The Gold-Bug" and "The Tell-Tale Heart" by Edgar Allan Poe. The film was released into the public domain after the breakup of United Artists in 1992.

This is a good, engrossing film from start to finish. Two very independent sailors get brought together by their greed of finding the hidden treasure. Each has half the map. The Professor has the brains to decipher the map while the Captain Brannigan has the boat to get the men there. Lon Chaney plays a very different, non-monster role as the sweet and stupid first mate and previous owner of the Manfish (the boat). There's lots of hatred floating around and it's just a matter of time until there's murder. The story is good, the scenery is gorgeous, and the ending of this film is really good. There are slower, more drawn out moments of reality towards the end which I thought we don't usually see that much of in most movies. Like his panic over hiding the body contrasted with the quiet moments of waiting with the bell clanging, just waiting hysterically.

Horror Collection: Disc 44 - Side A

The Bowery at Midnight ~ 1942 -BW

QUICKIE: Bela is a sweet, kind hearted professor who helps the homeless.... psych! He's the same old villain that we love so much.

PLOT: A kindly university professor (Bela Lugosi) operates a soup kitchen with his daughter Judy (Wanda McKay) down in the Bowery, helping those less fortunate than most. This persona is a cover for the professor's true activities, heading a criminal operation out of the basement of the soup kitchen with his gang (Tom Neal, Vince Barnett, Dave O'Brien) who commit a series of daring robberies. When things get out of hand, Lugosi kills his henchmen, who wind up as zombies in the cellar of the soup kitchen. When one of the professor's students (John Archer) accidentally uncovers the truth, he is targeted for death to protect the Professor's secrets.

SUMMARY: Well, I'll give him this, the Professor has the perfect set up going. A college professor by day, he also runs a soup kitchen where a steady stream of criminals come through his mission door and he "hires them" on the spot. The gang does "a job" together and the recent recruit is killed off during the crime. Well, that's the smartest way to keep your nefarious dealings a secret and take a bigger cut at the same time. There's no one left to squeal on you. Of course the police are stumped about who is committing all these crimes. That is until one of the Professor's high society students goes under cover as a homeless person so he can gain some insight into "how the other half lives" as research for his term paper. Of course he too must be killed because he uncovers the Professor's secret identity.

The Professor has an assistant who manages to bring the dead back to life and he keeps the resurrected gang members in a hidden room in the cellar. This part of the movie is never fleshed out and it left me more confused than adding anything to the film. The movie ends with Richard (the student made zombie, yet who is now perfectly normal) making wedding plans with Judy. Yes I KNOW, every film made before 1960 ends with people getting married, but how has Richard become un-zombified? How did he become a zombie to begin with? It's like they took a plot from another zombie making movie and tried to stick it in here. Best not to think too hard about the plot in these films.

Also keep an eye out for the stereotypical "evil black cat" who likes to hang out with the dead . He adds a particularly scary element with his 6 month old baby meows. awwwww. Then Bela retorts: "How often have I told you to keep that cat from desecrating my graves!"

Horror Collection: Disc 36- side A

Watch for free online: http://www.archive.org/details/Bowery_at_Midnight

Part One at Youtube.com: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSOUjY-R5Bw

The Atomic Brain ~ 1964 -BW

QUICKIE: The crazy Dr. successfully transplants brains!

PLOT: A rich, old woman subsidizes a Dr. who uses atomic power to transplant brains. Two sexy (and one homely) foreign housekeepers are hired with the idea of transplanting the old woman's' brain into a young sexy woman's head.

SUMMARY: I knew if I watched enough of these hokey old films eventually the mad scientist/Dr. would succeed at transplanting brains, or mix and matching body parts to create a successful mesh of a human instead of a killer monster. This is that movie! The Dr. transplants the brain of a dog into a man, a cat's brain into a woman, and then a woman's brain into the cat. (Just ignore the size difference there.) The story becomes about the maids discovering what is really going on in the household and trying to escape before they are killed and used as lab rats. The story itself was really interesting and the characters completely believable without the usual over the top trying to be scary stuff. I was surprised at how good this one was and what a great sense of satisfaction I had at the end of the film.

Horror Collection - Disc #32-B

The Devil Bat ~ 1940 -BW

QUICKIE: Bela Lugosi stars in a (kinda vampirish) bat movie! Can you believe it?!!!

PLOT: (from IMDB): Dr. Carruthers (Bela Lugosi) feels bitter at being betrayed by his employers, Heath and Morton, when they became rich as a result of a product he devised. He gains revenge by electrically enlarging bats and sending them out to kill his employers' family members by instilling in the bats a hatred for a particular perfume he has discovered, which he gets his victims to apply before going outdoors. Johnny Layton (Dave O'Brien), a reporter, finally figures out Carruthers is the killer and, after putting the perfume on himself, douses it on Carruthers in the hopes it will get him to give himself away. One of the two is attacked as the giant bat makes one of its screaming, swooping power dives.

SUMMARY: Wow! Bela Lugosi plays a mad scientist/Dr. (again!) who is doing secret experiments (again!) on bats to make them grow gigantically big. He also trains his monster bats to be killers (again!) when they smell a certain scent. He tricks certain members of the Heath family into wearing the new cologne which has the scent that attracts the killer bat.

Even though the story is so similar to so many other mad scientist plots, this is still a good film and worth a watch. Bela movies are always enjoyable, he's a good actor and really plays it up. I love the scenes where he throws the switch and the electricity makes the bat grow. It's like a tribute to Frakenstein, and it made me laugh and cackle "It's A-live!". Of course, it never made a fried bat.

There's also the boy/girl love story, the rich uncle/father, the newspaper man and the dumb police. This movie has it all folks! But because the plot is such a repeater the movie is just good and not great. Still enjoyable though, Bela movies always are.

Suzanne Kaaren plays Mary Heath the niece/love interest, and Donald Kerr provides most of the comedic relief playing 'One-Shot' McGuire, the newspapers' photographer. Who trys to get a picture of the devil bat while also romancing the Heaths' French maid (Yolande Donlan). Did I forget to mention the French maid?

Devil Monster ~ 1946 -BW

QUICKIE: Part documentary, part fishing trip footage, part Hollywood movie.

PLOT: A schooner disappears at sea without a trace. Years later, evidence of possible survivors prompts the mother of the schooner's mate Jose to hire a tuna boat to investigate. They discover the lad living happily on a South Seas island, and, when he refuses to leave with them, they abduct him. However, Jose gets revenge by leading the ship into the lair of a mysterious giant manta ray.

SUMMARY: This film couldn't quite make up it's mind what kind of a movie it wanted to be. It starts as a film where mom and the girl want Jose brought home. Our hero with point and gawk severely over plucked eyebrows decides to go on his first voyage to find Jose. The film then turns into a documentary of the Galapogos Islands, showing us the islands and various sea life and then tries to get back to the reason for the movie: Jose. Yes, they find him happy as a clam on an island, enjoying fame as the big fisherman. Jose has no interest in leaving, so he is kidnapped and brought home. The skipper lets Jose drive, and he goes into the "devil's cove", where the devil monster lives. This thing is some giant manta-ray with a claw, and Jose battles it to it's death, losing an arm in the process. They also catch a giant haul of tuna and head home. Jose returns to the glee of the two ladies. It's really a rather boring fishing film.

The Brain That Wouldn't Die ~ 1962 -BW

QUICKIE: The decapitated head knows allllllllllllll...... & she'll get you, you psycho Dr., you! and your ugly monster in the closet too!

PLOT: After a car crash, a man keeps his wife's head alive in his laboratory. As if this weren't enough, an evil beast pounds and screams from a locked room adjacent to the lab.

SUMMARY: Darling I love you and I just can't let you go! This psycho Dr. has serious co-dependency issues. His girl is killed in a car crash, but he manages to keep her head alive in his creepy laboratory/basement while he's out looking for a body to attach the head to. Unbeknownst to him, the serum is giving his girl super mental powers so she can communicate telepathically with the monster in the closet. Funny how she plots and schemes the DR.'s demise, seeing as she's just a head. Amusing to watch the Dr. scouting bodies for his girl. Just as he finds the perfect body, the monster in the closet ends up killing the assistant, and then the psycho Dr.. The film ends with another fire destroying the laboratory.

Creature Double Feature: You should really follow this film up with (The) Head -1959 -bw which is a somewhat similar story, but the head is successfully attached to a body and the girl freaks out.

View this movie on Google Video: HERE

The Head ~ 1959 -BW

QUICKIE: The psycho Dr. builds a Miss Frankenstein monster, then gets mad that she's not all: "Oh, you put my head on a whore's body, Yay! kissey kissey"

PLOT: (A dubbed German film.) A scientist invents a serum that keeps a dog's head alive after its body dies. When the scientist dies of a heart attack, his crazed assistant cuts off his head and, using the serum, keeps the doctor's head alive and forces it to help him on an experiment to give his hunchbacked nurse assistant a new body.

SUMMARY: HAHA! The psycho Dr is at it again! Chopping up people parts and reassembling them to make monsters "in the name of science!" I love these kinds of movies, even if they are so ridiculous. Here, the psycho Dr. who originally did the successful head/body transplant on a dog is soon going to die from heart failure. He assembles a team of top notch psycho Dr.s and instructs them to transplant a heart from a stolen corpse into him. The surgery goes badly and all that is left to do is keep the DRs decapitated head alive instead. Just like he did to the dog.

At this point the main psycho DR. begins killing various people. He also does a "test run" head transplant on the hunchbacked nurse, turning her into a sexy bombshell. So the Dr. rapes the sex bomb (I think-you can't tell with some of these movies), and since her head was previously a nun, you can imagine the spiritual crisis she's going through. She also gets involved the body's old boyfriend who she reveals the whole horrid story of the surgery to. The jealous Dr. trys to kill the new guy who then brings the police into the whole matter. It ends with a big dramatic shoot-out in the burning building. A very good film.

Creature Double Feature: Watch The Brain That Wouldn't Die ~1962 -BW first! It's a similar story to this movie, only the head is kept in a pan through the whole film and not attached to a body.

House on Haunted Hill ~ 1959 -BW

QUICKIE: He's trying to kill her, she's trying to kill him, they're trying to kill him, he's trying to kill them, she's dead, no she's not, he's dead, no he's not, they're dead, I think.

PLOT: Millionaire playboy Fredrick Loren (Vincent Price), hosts a party for his 4th wife Annabelle (Carol Ohmart) at the "House On Haunted Hill," a house that has seen seven murders, Fredrick invites 5 guests: Lance Schroeder, (Richard Long) a pilot, Ruth Bridges (Julie Mitchum), a journalist, Watson Prichard (Elisha Cook Jr.), the owner of The House On Haunted Hill, Nora Manning (Carolyn Craig), a worker for one of Fredrick Loren's companies, and David Trent (Alan Marshal), a psychiatrist. Fredrick will offer each of them $10,000 to spend a night in The House On Haunted Hill. They all want the money. Mr. Loren's fourth wife, Annabelle, warns the guests that her husband is insane and plans something that night. That's when everyone begins to suspect something's going on with Mr. Loren. At midnight the doors are locked and there's no way to get out. Then when a game of murder begins and no one knows who's doing what, there's no way to call for help because there's no electricity, phones, and no way to get out.

SUMMARY: This is a brilliantly fun movie. We have the typical "spend the night in the haunted house" game with murders, intricate character relationships and lots of mystery as to who did what. There's an annoying guest who supposedly spent a night in the house before and was found in the morning to be near dead and half insane. He regales us with tales of previous murders in the house and how their ghosts now haunt the house. It's a good, creepy fun movie that isn't too scary with the guts and gore. Just inferred scares. Vincent Price is always wonderful to watch.

The Amazing Mr. X ~ 1948 -BW

QUICKIE: A woman is haunted by the ghost of her (supposedly) dead ex-husband.
But wait! This time it's a REALLY GOOD movie!

PLOT: On the beach one night, Christine Faber (Lynn Bari), two years a widow, thinks she hears her late husband Paul calling out of the surf. She then meets a tall dark man, Alexis (Turhan Bey), who seems to know all about her life. After more ghostly manifestations, Christine and younger sister Janet (Cathy O'Donnell) become clients of the psychic Alexis; but he in turn finds himself manipulated into deeper deception than he had in mind when Christine's ex-husband shows up to blackmail Alexis. Only Christine's new fiance, Martin Abbott (Richard Carlson) has his wits about him enough to see the fraud and deception going on and through his help, everything comes to a climactic, dramatic ending.

SUMMARY: This is a fabulous movie! This was the 2nd time I've watched it and I'm sure I'll watch it another handful of times. It's so very well done and beautifully shot too. High contrast dramatic lighting always thrills me. The story is very well put together and there are many levels here: the naive wealthy, the evil wealthy, the logical wealthy, and the deceptive crooks. I never expected her husband to still be alive, that was a great twist, even if it's been done before. I got lost in the movie and really enjoyed it. I think what makes good filming is the variety in shots. From long views over the sea, to close ups of Christine's desperation, to the indoor expanse of their gorgeous estate. It's visually engrossing as well as intellectually and emotionally. That always puts a film into the top ranks for me: it's got to be pretty! And this movie is stunning.

The Gorilla ~ 1939 -BW

QUICKIE: Hard to figure out who the real gorilla is: the detectives, the butler, the father, or the monkey. They all act beastly. heehee


PLOT: When a wealthy man (Atwill) is threatened by a killer known as The Gorilla, he hires the bumbling Acme detectives (the Ritz Brothers) to investigate. A real escaped gorilla shows up at the mansion just as the investigators arrive.
Patsy Kelly is fantastic as the maid with attitude, and Bela Lugosi has everyone suspecting he's the killer because he's the creepy butler.

SUMMARY: Hardly a Horror film, more of a comedy. A good film with the Ritz Brothers playing stupid slapstick detectives. It's your typical wealthy manor with secret passages and the wealthy father whose life is in danger, the beautiful daughter love interest who gets kidnapped, the hero fiance, and the secret G-man detective hanging around. The story is the same old, same old, "wealthy mans' life is threatened", but it's funny with the slapstick of the Ritz bros, the frenzy of the maid, and the over-the-top creepiness that Bela Lugosi really has fun with. An entertaining film.

Monster from a Prehistoric Planet ~ 1967 -colour

QUICKIE: The Japanese are Gappa baby kidnappers. "Oh no! There goes Tokyo! Go-go-Gappa!" (Sung to "Godzilla" by BOC, dudes)

PLOT: A team of Japanese researches heads off to a remote island to bring back new life to promote the opening of the island as "Playmate Land". They find a giant egg which hatches a strange lizard that they bring back immediately. The native peoples are furious, saying the Japanese have angered Gappa and they will be killed for it. Right on cue, there's an earthquake and the island volcano explodes again. The baby Gappa is jailed in a zoo with some funky headgear on, and mama and dada Gappa come looking for their kidnapped baby and destroy the town until their baby is released back to them.

SUMMARY: I love the line that the pitch man says: "And over here a pond of wild alligators". Yea, that's what every playboy bunny ranch needs: hungry crocs.
This movie was an absolute blast from start to finish! If you like low budget dubbed Japanese sci-fi movies, you'll like this. It's a direct Godzilla rip off, but so what? It's still fun to watch the sensless destruction and explosions of everything in town as mommy and daddy Gappa search for their baby. Missles don't stop them, rockets don't stop them, whatever will they do? Luckily, the female researcher has a brain and suggests giving the baby Gappa back to its' parents so they'll stop looking for it and leave town. And what do you know? It works! There's always the happy ending because the baby is returned to its' parents and the female researcher wins her love interest. Awwww.

The Monster Walks ~ 1932 -BW

QUICKIE: That crazy ape is trying to kill me and steal my inheritance so it can buy bananas!

PLOT: After her fathers' death, Ruth (Vera Reynolds) and her fiance Dr. Ted Clayton (Rex Lease) return to her home for the reading of the will. The long suffering staff is angered by their meager bequethment, yet "Tanty" (Martha Mattox) still tenderly cares for the grieving Ruth. A strange monkey arm slips through Ruth's headboard while she's asleep and tries to choke her. She is completely unnerved by the attempt on her life by her fathers' monkey who is caged in the basement and hates her, so her "Tanty" sleeps in her bed to console her. While Ruth is reading by the fire and dozing off, the gorrila arm reaches through the headboard again and successfully strangles the woman in the bed this time. Chaos ensues when Tantys' son Hanns discovers that he has accidently murdered his mother and he tries to kill the dead mans' brother and then kidnaps Ruth and ties her to a post outside the monkeys' cage hoping the monkey will finish her off. But, as he is whipping the monkey into a frenzy, the ape grabs the whip and pulls Hanns to the cage and strangles him. Proving PDMRB rule #15: youre killed the same way you murder others.

SUMMARY: I've never seen a thunderstorm like this one! Ho boy! It's non-stop fireworks out there! I guess the Director just wanted to make sure that you got the point: it was a dark and stormy night.... it upsets the ape tremendously. And supposedly just the presence of Ruth also drives the Ape into a rage and he has tried to kill Ruth before. Well no wonder she wants out of the house. I love that she keeps saying "Oh Ted, take me away!" Reminds me of the Calgon bath salt commercials: "Calgon take me away!" But, they don't leave because then we'd have no movie. I'll admit when this movie ended I actually said "that was bad". Now these public domain films are generally not oscar winners, but even when they're bad, they're good. But really, not here. The story is rehashed, the acting is bad, and the characters shallow. Sorry, but this one was just a bad, bad.

Swamp Women ~ 1955 -color

QUICKIE: Hot hoochie-mama ex cons on the lam searching for hidden diamonds in the swamps of "Nawlens".

PLOT: An undercover policewoman helps three female convicts escape from prison so that they can lead her to a stash of stolen diamonds hidden in a swamp. Complications arise when the women abduct Connors and begin fighting each other.

SUMMARY: ok, the best parts are when the girls rip their pants into some skin bearing hot pants, and those cat-fights in the swamp scenes. RAWR! A PDMR classic movie rule is: a group of 3 or more girls will always have a cat-fight, and this movie obliges us in a swamp! The movie moves slowly, and the story is predictable.

There's a guy taken hostage, which of course creates a love interest to fight over, in addition to the diamonds. In any crime "spoils" movie, the gang will betray each other so they can gain more of the spoils for themselves. Same thing here, it's just done with hot chicks in the Bayou. Some cool Mardi-Gras footage from the 1970s is in the beginning of the film. A good fun, film even if it is predictable. It's in the Horror collection, but there's nothing really horrorific here, I think it belongs in the Mystery set instead, as there's the typical plot points of murder and the criminals searching for the loot story. So I've listed in both categories.

Tormented ~ 1960 -BW

QUICKIE: A man is tormented by the heavily perfumed, seaweed ghost of the ex he murdered.

PLOT: On an island community off of California, Tom Stewart is preparing to marry the woman he loves. His plans are threatened by his old girlfriend, Vi, who shows up secretly. During a confrontation at the top of the island's lighthouse, the railing breaks and Vi falls. Tom has a chance to save her but doesn't. Tom's relief at Vi's accident soon fades when her vengeful spirit begins showing up wherever he goes...

SUMMARY: "What is that smell?" is frequently said when the ghost of Vi comes around. I guess she's a self conscious ghost who's embarassed by her stink of seaweed, so she covers it up with loads of perfume. This is the only courteous thing about the ghost of Vi who is out to make sure that no one will have Tom but her. Problem is, Tom is gonna marry another girl. So, hauntings and seaweed droppings ensue, with only the blind little old lady figuring out Tom killed a girl who's now a slimy seaweed ghost. ("Just like that little boy who drowned ten years ago"...) The younger sibling Sandy gets all mixed up in the danger when she witnesses Tom kill a man who tried to blackmail him with his knowledge of the disappearance of Vi. Things come to a very scary, hauntingly fitting end.

Fire Monsters Against the Son of Hercules ~ 1962 -colour

QUICKIE: hmmmmm, look at his golden muscles. Huh? movie, what movie.

PLOT: A boring story of waring cave-men tribes. Really cool scenes with muscle man Reg Lewis fighting the hilariously fake monster and schmoozing the ladies.

SUMMARY: You must watch this movie if for no other reason than to learn the theme song! Ok, ok, because it's so great, I'll share it with you here from a different movie:




Isn't that just fabulous?!!! The movie is everything great about Saturday afternoon movies. Scantily clad girls in furs, he-men fighting, giant fake monsters and your standard he-man plot of good versus bad clans. Reg Lewis who plays our Hercules is wonderful to look at too.

The Indestructable Man ~ 1956 -BW

QUICKIE: Let's put a gangster into a vengefull frenzy, kill him, make his body indestructable, resurrect him and then watch the fun! Whee!

PLOT: A violent criminal called The Butcher is brought back to life by a scientist using electricity. The Butcher becomes an invulnerable mute, and seeks vengeance upon those who caused his execution.

SUMMARY: It's A-live!!!!!! Another DR creates a monster who goes beserk & kills folks. Lon Chaney is our monster this time, and there's hoochie mamas who work at the burlesque show to keep us from getting too bored with the vengfull killing spree. I fell asleep anyway.

Maniac ~ 1934 -BW

QUICKIE: The psycho "Dr." is killing people AGAIN!!!!

PLOT: (from IMDB): In a somewhat nonsensical and cobbled together plot, Don Maxwell (William Woods) is a vaudevillian actor known for his impersonations, who is running from the police and has taken a job assisting a certain Dr. Meirschultz (Horace B. Carpenter). Meirschultz believes he knows the way to resurrect the dead with a special formula he has created, and when he cannot find a corpse to experiment on, he orders Maxwell to kill himself so that he might test the serum on him instead. Rather than go through with it, Maxwell turns his gun on Meirschultz, killing him; and so that he won't arouse suspicion, Maxwell then disguises himself as the doctor and attempts to fill his role. He proceeds to meet a couple of murderously-minded women, drive one man to insanity, and eat a cat's eyeball as the plot grows increasingly more incoherent, finally resorting to blatant plagiarizing from Edgar Allen Poe's story "The Black Cat." Sporadically placed title cards relating the symptoms of various mental illnesses help give the movie its title.

SUMMARY: The psycho "Dr." is killing people AGAIN!!!! I never tire of this plot, I think it's funny. If there's a Doc in town, you just know he's gonna be a psycho murderer. He's usually killing people to fuel his experiments to develop a cure/vaccine or else create new life by killing old life, ala Frankenstein.

The difference here is we're educated along the way with on screen text about various forms of psychosis. The main character Maxwell (William Woods) becomes increasingly cucoo and even eats a cats' eyeball at one point. That was so disgusting, even if it was fake. He seals up his murdered Dr. in the basement behind a brick wall and the black cat "Satan" just happens to jump in unseen at the last minute. Eventually the police end up in the basement with two crazy ladies who are trying to kill each other and the meowing cat prompts the police to unbrick the dead Dr.. This leads to the demise of our maniacal psycho-killer.

The Monster Maker ~ 1944 -BW

QUICKIE: Our hero gets injected with acromegaly by the mad Dr.

PLOT: A mad scientist-Dr. Igor Markoff (J. Carrol Naish) injects a concert pianist, Anthony Lawrence (Ralph Morgan) with a disease that only he has the antidote for, which he trys to blackmail the pianist's daughter, Patricia (Wanda McKay) into marriage for.

SUMMARY: J. Carrol Naish is seriously creepy and evil as the demented "Dr." who injects our hero with acromegaly. Our heroine is rightly nervous and suspicous of him. After degrading into grotesqueness, Mr. Lawrence has no choice but to submit to the evil Dr.'s demands in order to get a cure. But of course, the mad Dr. is killed and all hope is lost for a cure, or rather not, as the Dr.'s assistant Maxine (Tala Birell) saves the day by curing him. Always the happy ending as the movie closes with Lawrence giving a concert again.

Love this condescending dialogue:

Mr. Lawrence: (tapping Pat's nose) You've been listening to too many horror radio programs lately. What you need is a good workout on a badminton court. Come on, run along.

Right. We all know nothing will break a sweat like a good game of badminton, and his daughter is 20 something, not six.

There's a good sub-plot of the long-suffering assistant who is in love with the kooky Dr. and her slow realisation that the Dr. is mad and will never love her, but trys to kill her instead by having a giant ape attack her. So, why in these movies do the girls always confront the lunatic with "I'm going to reveal you to the authorities" threats? Don't they know that you never confront a mad Dr., but gently reassure his ego while looking for an opportunity to quietly slip away, turn him in and join a witness protection program?