One of the presents I got Steven for his recent birthday was a DVD set of 50 Horror Classics. The years run from 1922 to 1963 and the quality from classic (Nosferatu) to cheesey (keep reading), so I thought, what’s not to like? Last weekend we watched a couple of the movies, so not having a better topic (I’m still suffering from a bad cold), I thought I’d do another monster movie post.
First we watched The Giant Gila Monster (1959). This sparked a short debate on how Gila is pronounced. We agreed the “i” sounds like “ee” (as in EEEeeee!), but is the g a “g” or an “h”? The movie did not settle the question, thought, because I don’t recall any characters actually saying the word “gila.”
I’m not saying nobody said the word; I’m saying I didn’t hear it. In other words, this was not a movie that gripped my attention. It started out fast enough, with a couple in a car (love the classic cars in these movies) overcome by an unseen horror (this sort of scene was a precursor, I’m convinced, to those doomed copulating couples in the slasher flicks from the ’70s and ’80s). After that, though, the movie slowed down. It even paused not once but twice so the main guy could sing this touching song about laughter. I don’t know if they were trying to get that guy a singing career, create suspense or just fill in time. Guess which one they accomplished (I knew you’d guess).
Our second feature was The Beast of Yucca Flats(1961) featuring Tor Johnson, who got his start as an actor courtesy of Ed Wood. That is according to the Tim Burton movie Ed Wood. We’ve seen Tor Johnson in the Wood-directed opus, Plan 9 From Outer Space. Incidentally, Plan 9 is widely credited as the Worse Movie Ever Made. I think a better award would be Best Bad Movie. I can sit through Plan 9 From Outer Space and be reasonable entertained. Other bad movies, not so much. This bad movie committed the unforgivable movie sin of being dull.
Both movies earned my favorite pan for a dull movie, “It needed robot heads.” This, of course, is a reference to Mystery Science Theatre 3000 (if you didn’t get the reference, I don’t know if we can still be friends) (just kidding; I need all the friends I can get, but seriously, try to catch MST3000). Why isn’t that show somewhere on digital cable?
Just in case anyone’s forgotten (unlikely) or never knew (a sad state), in MST 3000, this guy and two robots watched cheesey movies and made silly comments. I know, this is something many of us have been doing for years in our own living rooms, but these guys were inspired.
I’m thinking the DVD set has many other entries in need of robot heads. I’ll watch them all and feel free to post on them when nothing better is available.
Mohawk Valley Girl 