Today's Saturday Special is a nice little UK/Spain effort from 1972 that has a great cast of characters and one freakin' weird mind-stealing blood thirsty monster from outer space!!The story goes like this... "An English anthropologist has discovered a frozen monster in the frozen wastes of Manchuria which he believes may be the Missing Link." An alternate title is PANIC IN THE TRANS-SIBERIAN TRAIN! To Tabonga, feels like THE THING!
This is South Dakota native John Cacavas' very first music composing assignment, other titles he went on to write the music for are THE SATANIC RITES OF DRACULA, BLADE, AIRPORT 1975, HANGAR 18, GANGSTER WARS, MORTUARY, and he also worked on many TV programs including KOJAK!Lil' Piff the Gnat ist auf das dungeon and ready to go! So, here's today's 'eariffic earclip' coming to an ear near you!!.. The HORROR EXPRESS!!
A frozen ape is found in China by an anthropologist played by Chris Lee. They dig it out and transport it back to civilization...
On the way to Russia, curiousity gets the best of this idiot, so he sneaks a peek at the contents of the mysterious ice box.
And, that's where they find him later, in the ice box. But, where's the damn dirty ape?
Who the hell's there??!!.. HELLO!!!
At dinner, they notice a disturbing sight... Looks like an eye without a ball!! Now, where have we seen that before? Oh, yeah!! I think I just lost my appetite!!!
Peter plays Dr. Wells, he and the others decide to go exploring for clues. Yeah, inside the guy's skull!!
In the meantime, mucho schlecht!..
While checking out some blood samples, they discover nano dinosaurs and other strange things in it!
Great effective make up! Best viewed, just at that certain 'creepy' angle!
Here's everbloody else!
Throughout the movie, Father Pujardov is always nearby!
Telly plays Captain Kazan, a leader whose masculinity's not threatened by his feminine side!
The thing keeps jumping from host to host! See, now it's in Gomez Addams!!
The thing gets inside Telly, and the train has to be derailed to end the horror!
This is the last shot, the narrator poses interesting questions about possible alien invasions from space...Oh, and thanks #400!!
this one always creeped me out and of course Cushing & Lee are great in it, as is Telly Savalas. very innovative story, with an update it could have been a Quatermass film...
ReplyDeleteOne of my all-time favourite films. It helps that it has a lot in common with The Thing story-wise. Cushing and Lee; the mystery alien killer that can be any one; a confined space where escape is impossible; Telly Savalas doing his typical "I'm playing myself, screw the script" thing, that pretty much always worked -- you can't really lose. A perfect example of a great cast and a good idea elevating the whole thing beyond what would probably have been a laughable mess otherwise.
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