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Phantom carefully "unpacks" two movies from the 1950s and one from the late 1940s, complete with a gallery of fine images.

A few interesting replies would be much appreciated.
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4D Man (1959)



I saw this in '59 and was really impressed by the idea of someone walking through solid objects.

Robert Lansing, one of my favorite "cold" actors holds the movie together. He is a major presence and a genuinely tragic figure, alternating between a determination for self-preservation and his tortured grief over the deaths he has caused.

Lansing was scheduled to appear at a showing of the movie in NYC in the eighties but was a no show. I wanted to tell him how much I appreciated his performance in the tv produced Life on the Mississippi, but I never got the chance.

The Patty Duke segment was particularly memorable, especially because her demise was off screen and all the more disturbing. Duke was already in rehearsals for the Broadway opening of The Miracle Worker, a mere two weeks after the opening of The 4D Man.

The jazz score, perhaps the most despised in sci-fi history, doesn't annoy me as much as it does everyone else. If it was an attempt to appeal to a younger, more hip generation, it failed miserably.

I'm not big on remakes, but this is one movie that could use another go around, especially after the evolutionary progress of fx in the digital age.

There is (if it hasn't been removed) a decent copy on YouTube, better than the awful vhs and dvd edition that was available for years.
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I Was a Teenage Werewolf (1957)



An evil doctor uses a troubled teenager in an experiment in regression that turns him into a ferocious beast.

I Was a Teenage Werewolf is the most famous of the lured titles of the 1950’s b-features. The idea came about when producer Herman Cohen, looking for an angle, realized that none of the Hollywood studios were paying attention to the vast untapped teenage audience. Not even American International Pictures, which was making a ton of money with the Roger Corman science fiction/horror movies, saw what the most lucrative market of them all could be.

Teenage movies had been around from the beginning before the term became common. Although the word was coined in a book, “Teenager,” by Jon Savage in 1922, people between the ages of 13 and 19 were generally known as “youths.” Often, they were simply misguided as in the Andy Hardy films of the 1940’s. Sometimes they were wayward runaways and orphans (Wild Boys of the Road, 1933) and most vividly as juvenile delinquents (Blackboard Jungle 1954) and (Dead End, 1939).



By the 1950’s, a schism had developed between kids of teen age and their parents. Some sources blamed it on the home front situation during WWII when their fathers were drafted into military service, thereby depriving their sons and daughters of the discipline inherent in the traditional nuclear family.

The rise of the rebellious outcast in films like The Wild One (1953) and the introduction of Rock and Roll further distanced the generations.

Coming up with the provocative title was Cohen’s first inspiration and it led to a string of likewise titles that tried to capitalize on its success. I Was a Teenage Frankenstein, Teenage Zombies and Teenagers from Outer Space all cashed in as a result of Cohen’s picture, none of which, however, were as good or as clever and most of which were downright terrible.

Cohen’s second choice was in hiring a more than competent cast, including Whit Bissell as the evil scientist (a role in which he excelled).

Veteran like Barney Phillips as Detective Donovan, Vladimir Sokoloff as a janitor emigre from Eastern Europe (with the unlikely name Pepe) and Adam West (Batman, tv) lift the acting above what one might expect from such a venture.



Michael Landon as Tony the troubled teenage werewolf shows genuine star power and carries the weight of the film.

The road to stardom via science fiction/horror pictures of the 1950’s was paved with mud. Actors who got stuck in the mire were never heard from again. I can think of only three who actually reached the heights of superstardom, Steve McQueen (The Blob), Jack Nicholson (The Little Shop of Horrors) and Landon.



This was his first important starring role after he began appearing on television in 1955. From this point on, it was a steady climb in ever better films and eventually Bonanza, the show that put his name firmly in the cinema history books.



Cohen’s third inspiration was in hiring Gene Fowler, Jr. to direct.

Fowler had an eye for good scene composition and atmospheric lighting and was able to keep the film going through long scenes of exposition and character development before he got to the werewolf, which came well into the story.

Sets like these convey a far more realistic lifestyle than the usual Hollywood image. This is a room that looks like someone actually lives in it, as opposed to the scrubbed and sterile environments depicted in many films of the period.



Daily implements familiar to the characters are used to fill the frame and add atmosphere to a scene. The doctor and Tony’s father are both surrounded with the necessities of their lives and the audience is supplied with a detailed sense of place.





Tony’s alienation from society, his widower father and even his own peers resonated with teenagers. Girlfriend, Arlene (Yvonne Lime) is baffled by his unexpected rages yet remains loyal in their rocky relationship. Lime was dating Elvis Presley during the making of this picture.



The teens in the movie, with the exception of Tony, are neither provocative nor threatening. Their world is somewhere between the drag racing miscreants in The Blob, and the innocent youths of the Rooney-Garland comedies of the 1940’s.



Blackboard Jungle (1954) was the first dramatic movie to include a rock and roll score under the opening credits. According to reports, it had teenagers dancing in the aisles. I Was a Teenage Werewolf was the first horror movie to introduce a rock and roll number into the mix, “Eeny, Meeny, Miney, Mo,” a terrible song that is almost as cringe worthy as “Puppy Love” (not to be confused with the Paul Anka hit) in Blood of Dracula, a loose retread of I Was a Teenage Werewolf.



Despite their familiarity with Tony’s flashpoint temper, they are shocked when he decks one of the gang who pulls a surprise stunt at a Halloween dance. The event convinces him to take the advice of Detective Donovan and seek psychiatric help.



Unfortunately, Tony’s doctor is a lunatic who finds the impulsive teenager the perfect subject for his experiment in the regression of a human being to his primitive state in order to benefit mankind (you’ll have to see the movie to figure out that one). Director Fowler and cinematographer Joseph La Shelle turn the doctor’s office into a den of shadows, a metaphor for the scientist’s dark secrets and disordered mind.



At the 48-minute mark in a movie that runs only 1:15, Tony is startled by a school bell and transforms into full wolf mode. No one seems to have ever questioned why the boy, in regressing to his primitive state, should become a wolf rather than a representation of Cheeta. Hey! Darwin! Up yours!



Fowler pulls a neat trick on the audience. The first good look we have of the werewolf is upside down, the point of view of a gymnast working out on the parallel bars.





Makeup artist Phillip Scheer and hair stylist Fae M. Smith have created a werewolf as iconic to the 1950’s as Lon Chaney was to the 1940’s. In films like Wolfen (1981) and Wolf (1994), they were fully transformed into four-footed wolves, which may have been more in keeping with the legend, but lost the physical combination of traits that make the traditional movie style more compelling. This shot makes the long wait for the werewolf worthwhile, although the teeth may be a bite too much.



Landon makes horror film history as the first foam-at-the- mouth werewolf.





The teenage horror movies of the 1950’s were derided for decades as cheap exploitation for the fast buck, and there is much truth in that. However, with the passage of time, the era has taken on a nostalgic sheen and many that were hammered with such disdain are being reassessed and mined for values overlooked by film critics of the day.

No one is ever going to confuse the merits of I Was a Teenage Werewolf with The Wolfman (1941), but on its own level it still holds up as a well-crafted and entertaining b-film of mid-century Hollywood.
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Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948)

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Probably the most well-considered and frequently-watched A & C comedy of them all.

The true beauty of this wild and funny predecessor to 1987's "The Monster Squad" is that it treats its cast of horror legends with great respect — instead of simply exploiting the characters in an effort to squeeze a few shallow laughs out of the concept. The result is a film that puts Bud and Lou into a full-fledged Universal horror movie, instead of putting Dracula, the Wolf Man, and the Frankenstein monster into a slapstick A & C comedy.

If "Abbot & Costello Go to Mars" had adopted the same reverent attitude towards science fiction, it would have been a far better film.

Bela Lugosi, Lon Chaney, Jr., and Glenn Strange give fine portrayals of the characters they made famous in previous films. Lugosi's transformation scenes (changing from Dracula-to-bat and vice-to-versa) are terrific. Even though Lugosi played several vampire characters after his famous Dracula role in 1931, this was the first time Lugosi actually played Dracula in 17 years!



The climactic battle in "A & C Meet Frankenstein" pits Dracula against the Wolf Man, going at it tooth and nail (a literal reference in this case). Meanwhile, Bud and Lou try to escape from an unstoppable Frankenstein monster who chases them all over Lugosi's mansion. Horror alumnus Vincent Price ("Return of the Invisible Man") makes a brief appearance (figuratively speaking, since he doesn't actually "appear") as the Invisible Man.

A & C Meet Frankenstein is a four-star winner in every way, with great music by Frank Skinner, and fine direction by Charles Barton.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)