Saturday, December 25, 2010

THE SATAN BUG - Jerry Goldsmith "Green Pepper Burritos and Cold Mexican Beer" (1965)

First off, We'd like to say Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays to all the readers and followers of this blog, without you, we're nothing, and just like us, we hope you've discovered some weird movies you never knew about before!

!!! Satan Santa Saturday, it's got a nice ring to it!

Now that's good old-fashioned security, double concertina wire, with powerful lights and roaming killer attack dogs! Thanx to The Tedster for braving it all and unearthing this flick for you!

Most of the works of composer Jerry Goldsmith are not as difficult to find as "The Satan Bug," and that's an understatement! Mr. Goldsmith passed away back in 2004, but the legacy of films and TV shows he wrote for is beyond compare! How about seven episodes of the original "Twilight Zone" and 18 episodes of Boris Karloff's "Thriller" just for starters, "Gunsmoke," "The Man From U.N.C.L.E," "Planet Of The Apes," "The Waltons," and "Star Trek" to round it out! Jerry has probably affected more people's lives than The Stones, the only difference is, they don't know who did it!

In this scene we're introduced to the back of the hero of the flick, George Maharis, as Lee Barrett while the music cooks in the background!

Kind of hard to imagine that this was considered super high tech communications in the not that distant past!

Cruzin' in style à la 1965!

"The Satan Bug" had a major cast as you can see, here's a good shot of Richard(Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea)Basehart and Frank(Sgt Vince Carter)Sutton as a couple of major nefarious evildoers!

These screencaps are kind of dark, but it's a pretty dark subject matter! The only thing these picture postcard shots are missing is the greeting 'Welcome to Palm Springs!'

Here's the gorgeous, and exquisite Anne Francis as Ann Williams, and also Ed Asner as Veretti the heavy henchman, along with George Maharis, in a simple, but very effective shot!

This was a most diabolical performance by Edward Asner, who is still working hard today, and out of all his almost 300 performances, is probably still most known for his role in 166 episodes of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" as Lou Grant!

Here's another great outpost card!

It's difficult to imagine Lou Grant trying to use poison gas on Mary Tyler Moore, or Sergeant Carter snuffing the life out of Gomer Pyle, that would be kind of like Maynard hitting on Thalia Menninger, and quite disturbing!

Anne Francis had an absolutely amazing career, and if you don't know what I'm talking about, I'll just say one thing, "Forbidden Planet" and that just scratches the surface! George Maharis is probably best known for his role in the hit TV series "Route 66." He started his career as a singer, and released a couple of albums later on in his career! He's spent his later years painting!

"The Satan Bug" is a extremely fast acting virus that if it gets into the wrong hands, could cause the complete extinction of all life as we know it! They stuck these guys in this out building, and if you look close, you can see that the bad guys have tossed in a vial of the stuff from one of those open upper windows!

It's a stalemate, a real Mexican standoff!!!

There's a whole big action sequence involving this cool looking helicopter!

Now if they can just decipher this madman's cryptic scribblerenders!

Here's the plan, evacuate the whole city of Los Angeles in two hours or less! Right, Boss!

Oh, man, gassed on the golf course, that just ain't right! Why do they always have to pick on the golfers, and why's that one dude look like he's got just a bathing suit on? WTF?!

Nothing has changed more in the last 40 years than communications! I'll leave you with yet another shot of 1965 high-tech intelligence, when spying on somebody, use the old tie the phone to the patio and look casual number!

"The Satan Bug" - Excedrin Headache #13!!! "And to all a good night!!!"

2 comments:

Prof. Grewbeard said...

i like "The Devil Bug" better!

Anonymous said...

I saw this movie on the old, old cinemascope silver screen, when widescreen really was widescreen 20X40 foot, not just a 12X10 foot screen at a multi-plex cinema. I tell you the color, clarity of image
and build-up of suspense was fascinating. Yet JERRY GOLDSMITH'S music (probably the first techno-thriller score) was what really got to me)
I have never heard such a strange, eerie, creepy, music - literally slither across the screen into the ears of the viewer. I watched this movie in the first run houses, second run theatres and the drive-ins. I remember its premire on July 4th, NBC Saturday Night at the Movies.
Boy, am I dating myself. I've watched it nearly 100 times now and the idea that a bio-chemical warfare agent cold be developed and then by its very nature become a rampaging agent of Frankenstein purportions, lethal, unstoppable, capable of initiating a Extinction Level Event and destroy all life on planet Earth, has had me thinking about such an accident occurring and the how and the why? It is an overlooked gem of a flick and deserves a updated remake. I wish that someone at MGM/UA-Sony Studios would search their music library and find the other 40 minutes to this score (Reel B, had all the action music cues that were recorded) or go to the Goldsmith Estate and use his private duplicate recording and make a complete soundtrack recording of this score available to the public. In one of Mr. Goldsmith's Interviews, he said that he had a duplicate recording of all his musical compositions and their studio recorded sessions locked-up in a safety deposit box in one of the Los Angeles Banks. Why hasn't someone inquired into this possibility? This could solve the problem about many of his so-called "Lost" music scores.

GREGORI HOFFMAN

Monster Music

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