For those not familiar with this weird little story, it goes like this... A scientific expedition in Mexico discovers several unusual baby octopus specimens that seem to have been spawned by toxic waste in the water. Octopus in a river? Whatever. Anywho, when several of the little critters are captured, their half-man/half-octopus parent gets involved.
The music is by... Who The Hell Knows!Lettuce then bring in our little Friday Night Dungeon helper and button pusher, what else... Rufus The Gnat!.. Rufus is here to start our Eariffic Soundclip, so... Push the big red 'GO' button there in front of your nose, now, Rufus! Here's... OCTAMAN!
If you can understand these numbers and what they mean, then, good for you! I assumed they were just arbitrary numbers made up by the prop department because they were making a movie. Filmed at the old same place, Bronson Canyon and Griffith Park.
Let's honk and let them know we're here!
It stars Dungeon favorite, Kerwin Mathews, he plays Dr. Rick Torres. Kerwin got his start as Major Caldwell on TV's SPACE PATROL in 1954 in the episode called 'The Escape Of Dr. Proteus.'
Dr. Rick is shown a little mutant octopus found in the water. Then, you get to see what the baby's seeing... Ain't that cute?
Uh oh!!.. This classic puss was designed by George Barr, built by Rick Baker and Doug Beswick and worn by Read Morgan.
Jeff Morrow gets a starring credit for 5 minutes of screen time! Here, he sports a mustache as Dr. Willard, head of the IEI. 
Looks a lot like Hedorah! 
Dr. Rick learns a bunch of junk from Dr. Willard, then, goes out into the countryside to talk with residents about anything strange they may have recently noticed. 
He's shown a page of a weird looking creatures made by a local. Which, I'm pretty sure, are some prelims by Barr. 
Number 3, gimme a profile! 
This dude's searchin' for worms, when, he looks up and gets Octaman's tentacles raked across his face! 
This reminds me of the scene where Tabonga throws the Chief down the hill in FROM HELL IT CAME. 
Winnebagos were new and quite a big deal back then! 
What a motley crew, that's top billed Pier Angeli there, leading the pack. This would be her last film (filmed in 1971), because, disillusioned with her career, was found dead of a barbiturate overdose in her Beverly Hills home. She was 39 years old. 
Looks like they built the costume right onto a pair of cowboy boots! 
All I can say is, dude!.. Watch out for them freakin' tentacles!! 
TRICK OR TREAT, YOU SON OF A BITCH!! 
Here are 3 pics for all the gurlz, 4 hot studs from the seventies!! 
This is what it takes to humiliate and then capture an Octaman! 
It escapes and they follow it through the forest to this cave. There's no forest near the mouth of any cave at Bronson Canyon, you can see that the branches they cut and brought to the set were all dried up by the time they shot this part! 
DRAW!!!.. Oh, right, you don't have a gun... Sorry!
They fill it full of lead, so, it decides to head back into the water... 
And, take your cheap, piece-o-crap trinkets with you!
2 comments:
Octaman! Awk! In 1973 & '74, I wrote the Fright Night with Seymour TV show in Los Angeles (and syndicated to some other markets.), and Octaman was the next-to-last movie we ever aired. As I wrote the show to go around it, I had to sit alone in a small screening room and watch it alone, taking copious notes. Bad, bad movie.
Larry Vincent, the actor who played "Seymour" on our show, was dying of cancer (which is why we went off the air.) and he was too ill to come out of the hospital and shoot the Octaman script, so it was never shot, and a show was cobbled together from clips of old shows.
My Fright Night Octaman script languished unused for anything for 37 years, but earlier this year, Jim Fetters published a book titled Creatures of the Night That We Loved So well: The Horror Hosts of Southern California, covering the LA & San Diego horror hosts from Vampira to Elvira. I wrote the forward, and a 20-page essay on Seymour for the chapter on Seymour. Also included in the book is my entire, never-filmed script for the Octaman airing, reaching an audience finally after more than 3 and a half decades. Anyone wanting to read my Octaman script, which ruthlessly mocks this insanely terrible movie, or who is just interested in the great old-time horror hosts, can buy this book from Amazon. (I make no money from the sale of this book.)
Doug! That's great to hear! Seymour was my hero as a child and I remember seeing him at Magic Mountain!
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