Saturday, April 5, 2008

SPACE MONSTER - Marlin Skiles - "Dreams and Doctors" (1965)

The 1965 made for TV movie,"Space Monster" was written, directed, and produced by Leonard Katzman, who would go on to produce many episodes of "Wild Wild West", "Hawaii Five-O", "Gunsmoke", "Dallas" and more, before passing away in 1996! A lot of people don't like this movie, but it's really a gem, and it's got some music that is out of this world, and that is because it has the extremely talented composer Marlin Skiles at the helm. Martin was making music for movies as far back as 1934, and gets the credit for stock music in films like "20 Million Miles To Earth" and "The Giant Claw!" 
 
First, we have the scene where Dr. John Andros, played by Baynes Barron, is daydreaming about a beach in a tropical paradise, and we get a way too short treat of some extra funky sax surf music. You didn't hear many bass lines like that in 1965! 
 
Kinda figures, since the last time we saw him, he was known as Chief Maranka on another island in "From Hell It Came!" 
 
The best line is right here, as class act, James Brown, as Colonel Hank Stevens says..."I'll bet you have!" as he responds to John Andros saying, "I've seen a lot worse than our lady doctor!" 
 
Then, after some enlightening guy talk, we switch over to the lab where the good doctor is trying his best to get next to Dr. Lisa Wayne, who has all the answers, and none of them include him! Minnesota girl Francine York as the good doctor was very busy acting up til just a couple of years ago!! The music is swingin' in the background! 
 
This film is incredibly lame and stupid, but you gotta love it!! Here they re-used the dumb little wrinkled head guy from "Wizard Of Mars." I used to have a little rubber head guy like that you could stick your hand in and morph his face all around with your fingers! Seems like I won it as a prize at The Pike in Long Beach! We got fan mail from some flounder, and as an extra bonus, he sent along this wallpaper for you, of his interpretation of the ultimate 1950's Monster Boy! Remember, You seen it here first!! Happy New Year!! 
 

2 comments:

Greg Goodsell said...

According to some sources, the incredibly lame monster guy was an exhibit at a carnival! I used his visage on a flier extolling Midnight Records in Oildale a million years ago ....

Anonymous said...

I knew a guy who worked at Don Post Studios in the '70s, and he mentioned he had a copy of that mask (minus the plastic bubble-dome and tongue), so he dug it out one day, and sure enough...! I seem to recall that the mask came from some unproduced film project from before WIZARD OF MARS, but who knows...

Monster Music

Monster Music
AAARRGGHHH!!!! Ya'll Come On Back Now, Y'Hear??