ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

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I’ll say one thing for the movies they made in the 30s and 40s, they certainly had imaginative titles. Today’s Featured Threads are good examples.

The first one must have inspired the song “The One-Eyed, One-Horned Flying Purple People Eater”.

The other two titles are for movies about a doctor with a creepy name and an ape man who wears animals skins and plays classic music on a piano. Seriously!

Watch the movie at the link below.

____________ RETURN OF THE APE MAN (1944)


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The Purple Monster Strikes (1945)



[Also released as: "D-Day on Mars"]

Mota the Martian (Roy Barcroft) arrives on Earth with the aid of his female Martian assistant (Mary Moore).

Mota's plan for world conquest includes taking over the body of an astronomer (Cyrus Layton) and using bottled Martian air to make himself and his assistant invisible. He also possesses an "electro-annihilator" (a death ray) and a "distance eliminator" (a TV).

This is a condensed version of a Republic serial of the same name. Linda Sterling is the fetching heroine. Directed by Spencer Bennet and Fred Bannon.
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The Return of Dr. X (1939)



Despite the title, this is not a sequel to "Dr. X" (1932). In this one we get to see Humphrey Bogart as a vampire!

A doctor (John Litel) uses a new procedure to revive the infamous Dr. Xavier (Bogart), executed for murdering a child. To stay alive, Dr. Xavier requires fresh blood, which he goes after with fiendish determination.

Bogart was compelled to accept the role by contract obligations. Reportedly he hated it, but it's still worth seeing for curiosity sake if nothing else. Directed by Vincent Sherman. Co-starring Rosemany Lane, Dennis Morgan, John Litel, Huntz Hall, and Wayne Morris.

The poster for this film doesn't look overly impressive until you zoom in on a hi-def version of it and notice that the portrait of Bogart is actually quite good.

The pale dots in the dark areas are actually the high spots of the canvas weave catching the light.



This shows us that the artist didn't just paint over a photo of Bogart to make it look like a work of art -- he actually painted this portrait on canvas!

By the way, this is the jpeg I started with. It needed some serious color adjustment and restoration.


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Return of the Ape Man (1944)

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A film that misleads the public in several ways.

First of all, this is not a sequel to Bela Lugosi's "The Ape Man", released the previous year, despite the fact that they both star Lugosi. Second, George Zucco's name appears in the title credits, but Mr. Zucco does not appear in the movie. He was originally cast as the title monster, but ex-boxer Frank Moran played him instead.

The characters in the story also do some identity switching; after scientist Lugosi and assistant John Carradine find a frozen Missing Link and thaw him out, Lugosi boosts the ape man's intelligence by replacing his brain with Carradine's!

Afterwards, the Missing Link can play classical music on the piano -- even though he still prefers to wear his animal skins (?).

If you're a fan of the sci-fi films from the 1940s you'll find some enjoyment in this one (after all, it's only sixty minutes long), but frankly "Iceman" (1984) is a much more intelligent treatment of the same concept. Directed by Philip Rosen.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)