I have recently come to the conclusion that
THE best worst movies of the 60's musically speaking, and sometimes otherwise, by and large, came out of, not L.A., and damn sure not N.Y, but fer sure, maybe Nawlins', or just possibly the one place where they still know what to do with a possum, Texas!! "The Giant Gila Monster," "Manos: The Hand Of Fate," "Ghosts Of Hanley House," "Beyond The Time Barrier," "The Killer Shrews," and anything with Scotty McKay in it, or made by Larry Buchanan, that's what I'm talkin' about!! With all these goldurn freakin' amazing titles, one thing stands out the most, and that is, no matter what you want for nothing, Texas has got a whole lot of it! So, now it's time for tonight's special feature, straight out of the Lone Star state, and the perfect alternate title for this blog,
"The Yesterday Machine!"
I read a review somewhere where a guy wrote something like "why would you expect anything good out of a movie that begins with a girl twirling a baton!" I beg to differ, because for my money, it's the direct opposite, any movie that starts with a cute Texan gal twirling a baton and dancing to some funky music makes me wonder how it could get any better..........
.........that is, of course, in this case, until she opens her mouth! This is Miss Linda Jenkins as wild child Margie De Mar, and it's almost impossible to believe, but Linda was only ever in one other film, the well regarded student film "Loose Ends" in 1976!
"Lostville!"
Margie and her boyfriend Jay Ramsey as Howie Ellison are in a lot of trouble, and unbeknownst to them, they have discovered the entrance to a time warp! Howie gets shot by some Confederate soldiers, and Margie disappears!!
Cut to the club where Margie's sister Sandy De Mar is performing nightly!
The joint is jumpin' to the killer sounds of the Nick Nicholas Band, that included members Bobby Thomas, Jack Pierce, and Richard Hill! Don Zimmers gets the credits for the musical score!
"And now ladies and gentlemen, it is my privilege to present our heavenly little headliner, a collector of two gold records, the girl with the orchid voice, Miss Sandra De Mar!"
Sandy De Mar is played by Miss Ann Pellegrino in her sole outing, and she performs "Leave Me Alone," a song written by the Producer and Director of this movie, Russ Marker. The arrangement was by Jerry Hunt!
The guy in the middle here is a Police Detective played by Larry Buchanan regular Bill Thurman in his first recorded role, and the guy on the left, also in his first ever role, Charles Young as Detective Lasky!
Here's a good shot of yet another Dungeon Legend, Tim Holt as Police Lt. Partane, doing a fine job of looking like everybody's favorite Bob of the Sub-Genius variety! Why is Tim Holt a legend? Because we love old cowboy movies too, and Tim was in a bunch of them with great titles like "Thundering Hoofs," "Guns Of Hate," "Masked Raiders," and "Pistol Harvest." Tim was such a popular cowboy character, that at one point, he played the character of Tim Holt in 10 movies! Tim was also in "The Treasure Of The Sierra Madre," and "The Monster That Challenged The World!"
James Britton has the role of Sandy De Mar's boyfriend, Jim Crandall!
While Sandy and Jim try and find out how Margie disappeared, they too stumble upon the time warp door!
Hey, WTF, how come everything looks so different?!
Jim and Sandy are then transported to the mad lab of the smarter than Einstein, Professor Ernest Von Hauser!!
At this point it's time for Jack Herman as the Nazi mad scientist Professor Ernest Von Hauser to give Jim and Sandy, and us, about a 20 minute ranting and raving diatribe on the virtues of superspectronic relativity and the minus ray, and other glorious stuff!
Professor Hauser is friendly until somebody disagrees with him, and then you see his true side! He's a Nazi!!
Sandy is lead off to visit her imprisoned sister by a Nazi guard and a woman captured from the past by the mad professor, Olga Powell as Didiyama!
Margie is tired from the whole ordeal, and after a brief reunion between the two sisters, she is taken away by the Nazi guard, because the professor needs her for another experiment!!
It turns out that Didiyama is not that happy living in a Texas future, and she turns on one of the guards and stabs him in the back, which gives Sandy just enough time to escape!!
C'Mon, this is as close as you're going to get to seeing a pre-code comic on film! Time Machines, Nazis, Majorettes and more, and "The Yesterday Machine" has got it all!
And what's one of the best things about living in 2011, you can watch or download
"The Yesterday Machine" for free at the Internet Archive! Life
IS Good! Enjoy yerself!!!
I have recently come to the conclusion that THE best worst movies of the 60's musically speaking, and sometimes otherwise, by and large, came out of, not L.A., and damn sure not N.Y, but fer sure, maybe Nawlins', or just possibly the one place where they still know what to do with a possum, Texas!! "The Giant Gila Monster," "Manos: The Hand Of Fate," "Ghosts Of Hanley House," "Beyond The Time Barrier," "The Killer Shrews," and anything with Scotty McKay in it, or made by Larry Buchanan, that's what I'm talkin' about!! With all these goldurn freakin' amazing titles, one thing stands out the most, and that is, no matter what you want for nothing, Texas has got a whole lot of it! So, now it's time for tonight's special feature, straight out of the Lone Star state, and the perfect alternate title for this blog, "The Yesterday Machine!"
I read a review somewhere where a guy wrote something like "why would you expect anything good out of a movie that begins with a girl twirling a baton!" I beg to differ, because for my money, it's the direct opposite, any movie that starts with a cute Texan gal twirling a baton and dancing to some funky music makes me wonder how it could get any better.......... 
.........that is, of course, in this case, until she opens her mouth! This is Miss Linda Jenkins as wild child Margie De Mar, and it's almost impossible to believe, but Linda was only ever in one other film, the well regarded student film "Loose Ends" in 1976! 
"Lostville!"
Margie and her boyfriend Jay Ramsey as Howie Ellison are in a lot of trouble, and unbeknownst to them, they have discovered the entrance to a time warp! Howie gets shot by some Confederate soldiers, and Margie disappears!!
Cut to the club where Margie's sister Sandy De Mar is performing nightly!
The joint is jumpin' to the killer sounds of the Nick Nicholas Band, that included members Bobby Thomas, Jack Pierce, and Richard Hill! Don Zimmers gets the credits for the musical score!
"And now ladies and gentlemen, it is my privilege to present our heavenly little headliner, a collector of two gold records, the girl with the orchid voice, Miss Sandra De Mar!"
Sandy De Mar is played by Miss Ann Pellegrino in her sole outing, and she performs "Leave Me Alone," a song written by the Producer and Director of this movie, Russ Marker. The arrangement was by Jerry Hunt! 
The guy in the middle here is a Police Detective played by Larry Buchanan regular Bill Thurman in his first recorded role, and the guy on the left, also in his first ever role, Charles Young as Detective Lasky!
Here's a good shot of yet another Dungeon Legend, Tim Holt as Police Lt. Partane, doing a fine job of looking like everybody's favorite Bob of the Sub-Genius variety! Why is Tim Holt a legend? Because we love old cowboy movies too, and Tim was in a bunch of them with great titles like "Thundering Hoofs," "Guns Of Hate," "Masked Raiders," and "Pistol Harvest." Tim was such a popular cowboy character, that at one point, he played the character of Tim Holt in 10 movies! Tim was also in "The Treasure Of The Sierra Madre," and "The Monster That Challenged The World!"
James Britton has the role of Sandy De Mar's boyfriend, Jim Crandall!
While Sandy and Jim try and find out how Margie disappeared, they too stumble upon the time warp door!
Hey, WTF, how come everything looks so different?!
Jim and Sandy are then transported to the mad lab of the smarter than Einstein, Professor Ernest Von Hauser!!
At this point it's time for Jack Herman as the Nazi mad scientist Professor Ernest Von Hauser to give Jim and Sandy, and us, about a 20 minute ranting and raving diatribe on the virtues of superspectronic relativity and the minus ray, and other glorious stuff!
Professor Hauser is friendly until somebody disagrees with him, and then you see his true side! He's a Nazi!!
Sandy is lead off to visit her imprisoned sister by a Nazi guard and a woman captured from the past by the mad professor, Olga Powell as Didiyama!
Margie is tired from the whole ordeal, and after a brief reunion between the two sisters, she is taken away by the Nazi guard, because the professor needs her for another experiment!!
It turns out that Didiyama is not that happy living in a Texas future, and she turns on one of the guards and stabs him in the back, which gives Sandy just enough time to escape!!
C'Mon, this is as close as you're going to get to seeing a pre-code comic on film! Time Machines, Nazis, Majorettes and more, and "The Yesterday Machine" has got it all!
And what's one of the best things about living in 2011, you can watch or download "The Yesterday Machine" for free at the Internet Archive! Life IS Good! Enjoy yerself!!!
14 comments:
oh boy..a home growner I haven't seen..
Chris,
You gotta be kidding me? Honestly, I have to admit I hadn't seen it before either, and the amazing part is that it's just out there for free!
I am downloading this as I write. Thanks for introducing me to this undiscovered treasure trove.
It's a Pleasure!!
another product of my home state, awesome! and i was just watching Tim Holt in Monster That Challenged earlier this evening!
FYI, actor James Britton was the brother of screenwriter Russ Marker.
Another thing about Russ Marker, he only wrote this film and one other, "Fright Night," his real gig was as an actor! Russ also just passed away last year on the 15th of this month!
Some movies are just bad/bad, and there's no help for it. That's all you can say for them. But some of them are bad/good. That is they have a certain indefinable and indescribable charm, that transcends the bad writing, bad acting, bad pacing, cheesy sets, and nondescript locations. They're campy, but they transcend just being campy. They're bad, but they transcend just being bad. This is one of them. The Giant Gila Monster is another. Both make you like them even though there's no reason to like them.
You got it John! So bad they're good, and when they're made in Texas, the badder can be even better!
A classic movie now on dvd
http://www.classicmoviesandtvcom.com/product/the-yesterday-machine-dvd-james-britton-jack-herman-1963
First time I saw this flick was thanks to a 1980s VHS rental by a (now-late) pal from a funky little mom and pop video shop in San Jose. We looked at each other blankly, then looked back at the box on the shelf, wondering to one another WTF this thing on VHS tape might be.
So we went back to his place, popped some old popcorn, sprinkled lots of Accent on the greasy stuff (MSG...mmmmm!), and dug in. To be honest, I don't think either one of us had ever experienced such a level of incredulous laughter as much, before or since! My buddy kept choking on the popcorn and spitting soda out his nose every time old Jack Herman (the perfesser) appeared on the screen! But OH, that cheerleader and the cool vertical columns with the neon rings, and the doodly-doop, doodly-doop sound effects, saved this film for me!
Two words describe this one: duh WHA!? (The MSG helped a lot, though.)
I love it! Unfortunately for me, I didn't see it until I was in my 60's, but I still had about the same reaction, except I try and avoid MSG!!!!
The reason for the use of copious MSG was because this friend's dad worked at the Accent plant, little more than a stone's throw from his house. Since then I discovered how nasty Accent is, but I still miss what it did for oil-popped popcorn! I'm in my 60s now, so I know better than to put MSG on everything!
I used to avoid MSG like the Plague. I swore it made me sick, but I don't really care much anymore, and I swear if you don't use it, it's impossible to make Ranch dressing that tastes proper! I used to always get sick after a big Chinese lunch until one day the waitress told me to eat the white rice instead of the fried rice, because that's where they really piled on the MSG. And I don't think it could be as bad as what they use to flavor microwave popcorn today, 'beaver anal glands' taste like butter, who the Hell was the weirdo that figured that one out? I guess that's one way to put the 'butt' in butter!!
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