Director Jack Arnold is one of the all-time best, period!! His titles speak for themselves!! Besides,
SOUNDCLIP NO LONGER AVAILABLE he is also responsible for "It Came From Outer Space", "Creature From The Black Lagoon", and "Tarantula" just as a couple of examples, not to mention another 30 years of directing prime time TV shows!
But, since we are here to talk mostly about the music, I gotta tell you that they missed a very golden opportunity here. Somebody was real smart and used trumpet player Ray Anthony as a soloist during the theme music, and it is quite beautiful, rich and you're really going to dig it! Here's my problem, why only during the theme? There are very long parts of this movie with no dialogue when teeny tiny Robert Scott Carey is trapped in the basement, and has the adventure of his life, and all the music is totally orchestrated, and loses all it's character! Supposedly stellar names like Irving Gertz, Elliot Lawrence, Hans J. Salter, and Herman Stein are responsible, but as you can see on the credits, it's only music supervision by Joseph Gershenson.
A fantastic duo, Grant Williams as Scott Carey, and the enchanting Randy Stuart as Mrs. Louise Carey! Life is perfect!! But then........
Here it comes, whatever it is! This story was written by another Sci-Fi master, Richard Matheson, and combined with a great cast, you've got yourself one real classic monster movie!! Another great film where there is no need to explain anything, weird stuff just happens and you deal with it!!
Right here's where the good music and the good times stop! Reality for Scott and Lou is a thing of the past, and it's all down hill from here!!! The movie just got started and you've already got the moral of the story! Get your own beer!!
You know what's causing the shrinking, but you will never know why! So what the heck was in that fog anyway? Pixie dust? Space Debris? No, just regular shrinkin' stuff!!!
They throw a real midget, the ultra famous face of Billy Curtis, into the act, for a quick bit just to legitimize things! See Mildred, I told you they was midgets!!
Maybe after they built all those killer sets, they didn't have enough money to pay Ray Anthony to blow throughout the whole film! Don't get me wrong, it's a great movie, it just could have been
that much better!!!
This film doesn't exactly have a happy ending, here Louise gets ready to drive off in a very nice Chrysler with Scott's brother, never to return!
This movie never ends, it just keeps getting smaller!!
Director Jack Arnold is one of the all-time best, period!! His titles speak for themselves!! Besides, SOUNDCLIP NO LONGER AVAILABLE he is also responsible for "It Came From Outer Space", "Creature From The Black Lagoon", and "Tarantula" just as a couple of examples, not to mention another 30 years of directing prime time TV shows!
But, since we are here to talk mostly about the music, I gotta tell you that they missed a very golden opportunity here. Somebody was real smart and used trumpet player Ray Anthony as a soloist during the theme music, and it is quite beautiful, rich and you're really going to dig it! Here's my problem, why only during the theme? There are very long parts of this movie with no dialogue when teeny tiny Robert Scott Carey is trapped in the basement, and has the adventure of his life, and all the music is totally orchestrated, and loses all it's character! Supposedly stellar names like Irving Gertz, Elliot Lawrence, Hans J. Salter, and Herman Stein are responsible, but as you can see on the credits, it's only music supervision by Joseph Gershenson. 
A fantastic duo, Grant Williams as Scott Carey, and the enchanting Randy Stuart as Mrs. Louise Carey! Life is perfect!! But then........
Here it comes, whatever it is! This story was written by another Sci-Fi master, Richard Matheson, and combined with a great cast, you've got yourself one real classic monster movie!! Another great film where there is no need to explain anything, weird stuff just happens and you deal with it!!
Right here's where the good music and the good times stop! Reality for Scott and Lou is a thing of the past, and it's all down hill from here!!! The movie just got started and you've already got the moral of the story! Get your own beer!!
You know what's causing the shrinking, but you will never know why! So what the heck was in that fog anyway? Pixie dust? Space Debris? No, just regular shrinkin' stuff!!!
They throw a real midget, the ultra famous face of Billy Curtis, into the act, for a quick bit just to legitimize things! See Mildred, I told you they was midgets!!
Maybe after they built all those killer sets, they didn't have enough money to pay Ray Anthony to blow throughout the whole film! Don't get me wrong, it's a great movie, it just could have been that much better!!!
This film doesn't exactly have a happy ending, here Louise gets ready to drive off in a very nice Chrysler with Scott's brother, never to return!
This movie never ends, it just keeps getting smaller!!
i hope this site never ends, it just keeps getting funnier!
ReplyDeleteThe best bit is the part where the wife says, "You'll be my husband as long as you wear my wedding ring," and then the ring falls off and hits the floor of the car. If anyone really needs to know, this is a 1950s take on IMPOTENCE! HA!
ReplyDeleteOne thing never sat right with me in this film. The Cat! Okay first of all. If you have someone living in your house that's less than 10 inches tall. You get rid of the house cat. Assuming it was there cat, but fine whatever.
ReplyDeleteThe next thing is, Scott's brother and wife assume that Scott was eaten by the cat. The first thing that should have been done is have that cat put to sleep and perform an autopsy on the cat, to see if Scott Carey's mangled predigested body was in its stomach. But NO, it's all about going on assumption. Aw well. Cat ate him. Let's leave.
Lastly, they could have had scott under better protection and maybe have a microphone setup near him so his wife could hear him. Hopefully the remake will be more realistic.
The best sci-fi film ever, and that was because of Grant Williams. What a magnificent actor he was, and so gorgeous. Died way too young.
ReplyDeleteAs always, it's great to see some one digging through the archives! Thanx!
ReplyDeleteSimply put, this is one of the greatest, best thought-of sci-fi movies ever: It keeps you wondering what it is going to happen next and there is always this dreadful, eerie feeling things might not be okay ever again. Specially if you watch it with the late 50's, early space race mindset, you understand how it played with the audience's fears and worries that this or a similarly bleak destiny might as well just await for all of us in the not-so far "future".
ReplyDelete