ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

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Three less-than-worthy features from Bargain Basement Productions, whose motto is, "We make the best movies that pocket change can buy!"

~ Track of the Moonbeast borrows its poor excuse for a premise from an earlier film — who probably never bothered to ask for it back.

~ Trog (1970 England) was the swan song for the celebrated actress, Joan Crawford. She undoubtedly went out and celebrated when she finished making this movie. And I'll add my congratulations to everyone who never bothered to watch it. (Good move, folks.)

~ The Twilight People (1972) actually looks good when compared to the two above, and I saw it 1972 with my first wife at a drive-in — a young and attractive 20-year-old. We actually enjoyed it.

Okay, I know what you're thinking. "Of course you enjoyed it, Bud! You were making out the whole time!"

Actually, no. We watched the movie — then we went home and made out.
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Track of the Moon Beast (1976)

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Low-budget, rehash of the premise behind 1957's "Meteor Monster"; a small meteorite fragment is embedded in a young man and turns him into a reptilian monster. Some sources credit Rick Baker with the monster's design.

Directed by Richard Ashe. Starring Chase Cordell, Donna Leigh Drake, Gregorio Sala, and Patrick Wright.
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Trog (1970 England)

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Joan Crawford's last film wasn't Joan Crawford's best. She plays an anthropologist who discovers a living troglodyte (Joe Cornelius) and brings him back to the city. Classic music soothes the savage beast, but rock 'n roll angers him.

The villain is land developer Michael Goughe ("They Came from Beyond Space"), who lets the large, ape-faced Trog loose so that Crawford will be discredited by the damage and injuries Trog causes. The caveman makeup is poorly done, looking entirely too much like a Halloween monkey mask.

All in all, not a very well-crafted film, but it does feature several scenes from the "lost" Ray Harryhausen film, "The Animal World" (1958), which are offered as Trog's memories (?). Also starring Kim Braden, David Griffin, John Hamill. Directed by Freddie Francis.
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The Twilight People (1972 Philippines)



This low-budget version of the "Island of Dr. Moreau" concept made the rounds as a drive-in second feature in 1972.

On a Philippine island, a scientist is turning animals into animal-people. The Philippine locations aren't used to very good advantage, the monster makeup isn't particularly impressive, and some of the scenes are unpleasantly gory, but if you accept the film's limitations it's not hard to enjoy.

Directed by Eddie Romero, who tried the same basic idea back in 1959 in "Terror is a Man". Starring John Ashley, Pat Woodell, Charles Macaulay, and Pam Grier.

* The film's credits and IMDB both lists this as "The Twilight People", unlike the poster.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)