February 21, 2010

The other film that knocked my mouth open then, was Corman's "Not of This Earth" (1957) with Paul Birch, stolid and grim visaged, but plenty convincing as the blood craving alien, agent from the planet Davanna. He mostly wore wraparound sunglasses, until his attacks.














I still have not seen this film again in going on forty years. Tho' one of the last issues of the old Castle of Frankenstein did a thorough recap of the story. Gotta get me a DVD someday soon...

The real edge it had over, say, "House on Haunted Hill', was that not only did he arrive in the seedy town that could well have been your own, his craving was treated as an addiction, dependent on nurse Beverly Garland's assistance. Include a fridge of blood bottles, contaminated dog's blood, scenes of 'Johnson' fixing, enough fellow aliens, and an 'it's not over' conclusion and you have quite a potent mix of fears for a six year old psyche.

February 20, 2010

From William Castle's "House on Haunted Hill" (1958), one of two movies on TV after school, (first grade) that blew me away. The first grabber was the worried countenance and soppy babble of Elisha Cook, Jr., thence forever seared into my mind...



One of the film's many creepy moment's, below, the little head in the suitcase, which for me was relocated in my mind to the bathroom cabinet...



You don't see the head for long---there's the overused plot gimmick of having other/s called in, when of course it is gone. A lame move even to a six year old kid.

February 19, 2010

When I was four, my aunt gave me an inflatable dino like this. I left it in the sunlight from a window and it deflated.




It was like it had died. One of a limited number of things I didn't manage to hang on to for years.
What does one do with limp polyvinyl?


This next dude here I never saw before today. Too bad people had to write all over 'im.


Rapid City, South Dakota 1945 photo by Hans Wild


He's with the Sinclair dinosaurs, on the Google images, but I doubt he was one. Not a bronto.

February 18, 2010

This is the first day I've used this place. It badly needs some redecorating...



MILTON the MONSTER and Professor Weirdo
(Hal Seeger production, 1965).