ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

6

If you're not a member of All Sci-Fi, registration is easy. Just use the registration password, which is —

gort



Attention members! If you've forgotten your password, just email me at Brucecook1@yahoo.com.
____________________________________________________________________

None of the movies below are favorites of mine, but they might be favorites of yours — or at least a bit more interesting to you.

Tell us what we need to know about one or more of these movies to better appreciate them.

____________________________________________________________________

The Vulture (1966 British-Canadian)

____________
__________

This comes across as a horror film, but the creation of the titular monster is via "nuclear transmutation," a theory forwarded by the newly-arrived hero-scientist (Robert Hutton), who deduces all this with basically no evidence.

But, he's right — some local mad scientist has indeed grafted himself with a dead vulture by means of highly radical, advanced scientific wizardry and is terrorizing the local rural area. He has only three actual targets — the descendants of the family which buried the villain's ancestor alive.

I guess he really knows how to carry a grudge. The whole premise and the plot are quite absurd, but it's somehow compelling, especially for kids, who may find it very creepy — including the prototypical eerie music score.



Some of this reminded me of Island of Terror (66) — it has the same theme of science going way out of control with horrifying results, and a similar setting. It's not as good, has quite a few slow spots, and lacks a superior cast (though Akim Tamiroff is pretty good).

Broderick Crawford sort of walks his way through this.

The climax is a bit baffling. The hero is unable to convince any of the authorities of what is really going on — no surprise there — but he takes it upon himself to dispose of all the evidence after the threat is over, probably because the truth is too terrifying to make public. This assures that the coppers will never know the facts — why this supposed "hero" makes this judgment call may be a critique of all modern scientists.

BoG's Score: 6.5 out of 10


_______________ The vulture 1967 Full movie


__________


BoG
Galaxy Overlord Galactus
____________________________________________________________________

The Lost Continent (1968 England)

____________
_

________________ The Lost Continent Trailer


__________
_________________________



I didn't really understand the structure of the story in this first half of the film - the lifeboat soon makes its way back to the same ship and it's as if the story was going nowhere for about 15 minutes, or at least in circles. The seaweed continues to be a problem, there are other creatures, and then there's another memorable image - a woman (Dana Gillespie) walking on the sea of seaweed (she wears special shoes and air balloons). Finally, the stranded people encounter Spanish soldiers who behave as if they're from an earlier century. Passengers are played by Hildegard Knef, Suzanna Leigh, Tony Beckley and Nigel Stock. Much of the film is on the slow side, but there are some eye-opening scenes, including a very grotesque creature to which various victims are tossed to on the orders of a sadistic child ruler.

BoG's Score: 6.5 out of 10

______________ THE LOST CONTINENT - 1968


__________


BoG
Galaxy Overlord Galactus
____________________________________________________________________

The Monitors (1969)

____________
________________

_________________________ The Monitors


__________

This was one of several satiric stabs at cinematic sci-fi in the late sixties through 1970 (such as Wild in the Streets and Gas-s-s), offering a warped gaze at our often absurd society through the prism of some alternate reality.

In such stories, our society has been replaced or altered, but it's just a chance to take a gander at ourselves via a funhouse mirror.

In this case, Earth has been taken over in benign fashion by aliens known as The Monitors, who are usually seen as nondescript men dressed in dark clothes and bowler hats. How this takeover happened is not shown or even explained. The aliens use small spray cans of knockout gas when they really need to, but it all seems like some sort of non-violent takeover occurred.

Of course, the point is that most of humanity is malleable through such measures as propaganda, subliminal messaging and other non-violent methods. The Monitors' aim is to handle all our problems and relieve us of the burden of war, crime, and other assorted negative stuff.



The main character (played by Guy Stockwell) is a freelance pilot who is one of the few who resists this alien control and dislikes the Monitors. He ends up teaming with a flighty actress (Susan Oliver), his own brother (Avery Schreiber), and a trainee (Sherry Jackson) of the aliens in joining a para-military rebellion outfit (led by Keenan Wynn and Larry Storch).

But the rebellion is a bit too rightwing & violent for their tastes.

It's all a bit nonsensical and hysterical, and much of the humor falls flat, but it offers a few ideas which are absent from most films of the later century. Its main drawback is that it doesn't take full advantage of the relationship between humans and Monitors, who regard the human race as violent children, to be 'taken care of' in that fashion.

Ed Begley appears late in the film as the President, waiting for something in his cobwebbed office. It all ends on an anti-climactic if expected note.

BoG's Score: 6 out of 10

____________________ The Monitors (1969)


__________

Monitored Trivia: cameos in the film by Alan Arkin and other notable. Also, an early role in one scene for Peter Boyle, who became a star a year later in the film Joe (1970). Boyle was a member of The Second City comedy troupe in the sixties. The Second City produced this film.

Star Trek TOS actor alert: Both female leads were in Star Trek episodes. Oliver in the first pilot The Cage (and her footage was repeated in The Menagerie parts one & two), and Jackson in What Are Little Girls Made Of?


BoG
Galaxy Overlord Galactus
_________________
____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)