The Silver Screen Oasis

Mike, about Roger Corman. He's an interesting filmmaker to me because he understood - even embraced - the profitability of the cookie-cutter, low-quality drive-in B film. He talked about making several of those and padding his bank account so he could TRY to make the occasional good one. And his 'caring' for those lesser films seemed to extend mostly to the film title and poster-work. The fact that he was able to finance more and more of those is my tip o' the hat to his knowledge of the biz. But he made so many stinkers. LAST WOMAN ON EARTH is my oft-cited one that breaks the camel's back for tolerance. But even in there, it's fun to see how far I'm willing to suspend belief. This is a film that fits the Winston Churchill school of PR: "Never has so little gone so far for so few..."

But for Fun Quotient, he might have achieved the highest cumulative Fun Points for every dollar he spent. His car-crash films - he had to hire a lot of mechanics who got to soup up and destroy lotsa cars, set up a lot of stuntmen in on-going jobs to do the work, and probably helped low-cost technology (radio controlled devices for car crashes) get to those cheaper price-points. And I know he and his crews had a lot of fun doing it, and drive-ins were full of people that never worried about filling out their Academy voting pages.

He made so many stinkers and I should be ashamed we have a good many on our shelves. They make terrific backdrops to parties.

moira, I'm fascinated by the alien at the toy store window. He's wistfully looking at a doll, because its obviously reminding him that his race is probably doomed to extinction.

Who would ever think one would need Kleenex to watch a movie called I MARRIED A MONSTER FROM OUTER SPACE??

Hi, Klondike!

Would you believe I've never seen that one?

And weren't Jeff and Geena married when they made it?

Hey back atcha, BG!
Word I heard was that they got engaged, then conceived (n.p.i) the whole Earth Girls movie scheme, practically overnight, as a quick, flashy way to finance their honeymoon.
And apparently, the whole plan worked.
Which, as I recall, is more than one can say for their marriage!
Next up for GD was Finnish writer-director Rennie Harlun, whom she whirlwinded into matrimony in between getting showcased in his Cutthroat Island, & The Long Kiss Goodnight.
I guess I'd poke some fun at long, tall, cheery Geena, but the gal has actually qualified as an Olympic-contending archer, off & on, for going on 20 years now, and as I'm a longbowman myself, that puts her tops in my book.

Bronxgirl48 wrote:moira, I'm fascinated by the alien at the toy store window. He's wistfully looking at a doll, because its obviously reminding him that his race is probably doomed to extinction.

Who would ever think one would need Kleenex to watch a movie called I MARRIED A MONSTER FROM OUTER SPACE??

Hey BG,
I think I was too busy chortling at all the amusing sexual stereotypes being flung around in I Married... to notice anything as nuanced as wistfulness, but you know, you have a point. It is one of the few times in the movie's brief ride through clichéville when the town bimbo, who looks a bit lonely, in truth and is probably worried about paying her rent, approached the guy in the hoodie looking at the doll. That silent but deadly alien at the toy store window might just have been contemplating his doomed race.

Btw, did we forget to mention that one of the all time great bit playing actors,
John Eldredge, who co-starred with Bette Davis' makeup prize academy award winning role for Dangerous (1935) as her unhinged but ever-lovin' hubby, also appeared in this sci-fi epic as the police chief? Of course, Mr. E. started life doing Chekov, and working with the likes of Eva La Gallienne & Alla Nazimova on stage. But then...Hollywood called, and after apparently signing on the dotted line at Warners, poor John then went on to ignominy for the next 25 years in a thousand turns as bank managers who cooked the books, doctors with secret vices, motel clerks with something to hide, and various military officers with very closed minds. The man gave Morris Ankrum a run for his money as a shaky authority figure.
If you'd like, you can read more about John Eldridge here at his own little tribute page.

Hey, I just found this site, Badmovies.org, complete with wav. files of the aliens asking "What is it? Be kind to humans week?" Maybe it will make you smile too.

All I can say, klondike, is I'm glad Geena got rid of Rennie.

ahahahaha, moira, schlumpy John Eldredge.

Love the bad movie link! (is the sky blue??)

I want to know the name of the actor who did such a magnificent job of conveying to me the simmering yet poignant emotional complexities of the toy store alien. To parapharse Richard Dreyfuss in THE GOODBYE GIRL, this unheralded thespian explores areas that even Brando had not investigated.

I think it's the John Eldredge's of Hollywood that make rewatching films so entertaining. They can drop their almost standard character into films, buoy it up as much as necessary, and I always hoped they found a peace and happiness in contributing to so many great classics.

Kill me! Kill me! Kill me if you love me!

Gloria Talbott shrieked those words as I traveled down a road marked DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE, turned onto THE WOLFMAN highway, drove by DRACULA lane, took a DETOUR into film noir, got back to Horror, and had glimpses of hypnotism, medical malpractice, lesbianism, voyeurism and cheesecake (yes, Moira, Ms. Talbott got to wear a confining, restrictive torpedo corset) on a journey to THE DAUGHTER OF DR. JEKYLL (1957). It was directed with engaging style, as always, by Edgar G. Ulmer, who unquestionably gets more out of less than any other director. The male lead is that other B-Horror favorite, John Agar.

Poor Gloria. Hubby problems in I MARRIED A MONSTER FROM OUTER SPACE and fiance troubles in THE CYCLOPS (1956) and here it's Daddy issues that create a fear of intimacy. But her fiance stays strong. And, once again, we learn not to trust the kindly doctor.

And the horror may continue (according to the voice-over narration).

ChiO, your journey to "The Duaghter of Dr. Jekyll" was very hilariously clever.