The Silver Screen Oasis

RedRiver wrote:As Svengoolie pointed out, Frank Albertson played Sam Wainwright (Hee-Haw!) in the Capra film. Harry Bailey was played by Todd Karns.

D'uh! And thank you for the correction. It seems that I wrote that bit after sipping my flaming hot toddy at Martini's (I was kind of rattled after Clarence got tossed out for asking for that mulled wine, heavy on the cinnamon).

Apparently, Nick forgot to tell you, "This is a place for hard drinking people who want to get drunk fast!"

Island of Terror (1966) with Christopher Lee investigating boneless bodies on an island is up to bat on Svengooliee tonight. I blame the hippies.

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As I recall, this is not bad. Memory is a little foggy. Like the island!

Before watching this movie I thought this was Night of the Big Heat (1967)--another Brit sci-fi about science going awry on an isle near the UK. Both were pretty good, though the idea of things getting hotter is more terrifying for me than monsters who move slowly and look like canister vacuum cleaners with a skin condition (see below).



My POV is probably affected by the 90 degree heat we had yesterday! In any case, Hammer veterans director Terence Fisher and the great Peter Cushing make everything seem credible (and entertaining). It was amazing how leading lady Carole Gray's eyeliner never smudged nor did her hair ever move! It was also good to see Edward Judd and the ubiquitous Niall MacGinnis in supporting roles.

The entire Island of Terror (1966) can be seen here:
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One of my fave films from the 60s, Moira. Though I must admit I had a difficult time enjoying chicken noodle soup for a while . . .

Western Guy wrote:One of my fave films from the 60s, Moira. Though I must admit I had a difficult time enjoying chicken noodle soup for a while . . .

OOoh, yuk. That moment and the scene when Cushing had an unfortunate decoupling with a creature were OTT, but the movie's use of gore was fairly restrained. It was better at conveying dread and claustrophobia, I think.

And that first look at the boneless corpse was pretty gross, too - especially back in the day when I was a young'un and firrt saw it on the big screen.

But overall, like you say: Effective if restrained. Which most modern day horror films could take a lesson from. I'm still disturbed by WOLF CREEK and I'm a diehard horror fan.

Island of Terror is a really creepy horror flick and I admit it's does has it's moments and I was surprised how well it's holds up in all these years. It's quite underrated and I admit this is a good Peter Cushing movie that made in the mid 60's.

I enjoyed it - and this is the 1st time that I seen it.

Next Saturday - Revenge of the Creature


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Looking forward seeing this movie and I haven't seen this in eons! ... Made in 1955.

The Creature films are good! This one is my favorite.

THE REVENGE OF THE CREATURE - Was very good movie to watch on SVENGOOLIE tonight and I've thoroughly enjoyed it tonight. I was surprised to see the boat in the opening sequence was named RITA II



Picture from Creature - Black Lagoon.

Great Overall Movie. I find this movie quite suspenseful at time and some of the great thrills were done at the right time. John Agar and Lori Nelson did their job admirably.

John Agar was my first favorite sci-fi hero when I was a young'un watching his movies REVENGE OF THE CREATURE, TARANTULA and THE MOLE PEOPLE. I was fortunate both to interview and get to know John later in his life (we never personally met but talked often by phone and through his fan club journal). He told me that while life was too short to hold regrets, one mistake he probably made was not re-signing the contract with U-I after THE MOLE PEOPLE. He said he asked for a guarantee that he wouldn't be featured exclusively in sci-fi films and wanted the same opportunities given other contract players, like Rock Hudson, Tony Curtis and Jeff Chandler. But VP Jim Pratt told John he could not promise him that, so John said no hard feelings but left the studio. (Actually John did make one non-genre film at Universal-International: the Western STAR IN THE DUST). The irony is the first film he made away from U-I was DAUGHTER OF DR. JEKYLL, then came the "classics" ATTACK OF THE PUPPET PEOPLE, THE BRAIN FROM PLANET AROUS, etc. Pretty much downward from there.

It's interesting to speculate on other sci-fi films John might have starred in had he stayed at the studio: THE DEADLY MANTIS, THE LAND UNKNOWN, MONSTER ON THE CAMPUS - perhaps the preacher in CURSE OF THE UNDEAD. I can easily see him in each of these movies.

On a personal note, it was John Agar who inspired me to write my first Western novel. I honored him by writing a character based on him. Great guy!

THE LAND UNKNOWN is up this Saturday and it was on SVENGOOLIE a year ago and I'm passing this movie up because I seen it twice already.

Western Guy wrote:One of my fave films from the 60s, Moira. Though I must admit I had a difficult time enjoying chicken noodle soup for a while . . .

LOL I was actually going to make Asian miso soup with Chinese noodles but decided against it, that's how sick I was after watching the movie and Sven's recaps.