It's... Oh My God! Blogger seems to have fixed their shit and the black and white pictures finally look normal when uploaded Monday with Tabonga, here at The Dungeon!.. We gots one of the first atomic 'end of the world' flicks from the mind of Arch Oboler, who went on to produce THE TWONKY in 1953. Arch was 5' 1½" tall.
Eegah!! sent over a little soundclip of the theme and more,
sooooo, you can push the big red
'GO' button there by the A-Bomb Crater,
NOW, Ralphie The Tarantula! Here's our audio offering for not just THREE or FOUR, but...
FIVE!
When I worked at a special effects studio in Canoga Park in the early nineties, one of the artist's name was Carter, and, earned the nick-name, "Crater."
The story goes like this... The world is destroyed in a nuclear holocaust and only five Americans survive, including a pregnant woman, a black man, a bank clerk and a neo-Nazi who goes on to create Fox News. They all wind up at a Frank Lloyd Wright-designed house on a California mountaintop.
Roseanne is pregnant and was separated from her husband in the attack, she wanders aimlessly through the countryside and finally comes upon the house occupied by another survivor, Michael.
Two others show up, Charles and Mr. Barnstaple, so, they all take a trip to the beach. So far, Roseanne hasn't smiled once! The elder Mr. Barnstaple dies later that day.
Then, neo-Nazi Eric shows up, he creates problems immediately, he will do no work and wants Roseanne to leave with him and relocate in the city. Roseanne has her baby as the men fight it out and a thunderstorm blows in. Not a good omen!
Eric convinces Roseanne (she wants to try and find her husband) to leave with him, and, they take Michael's Jeep after Eric kills Charles in a scuffle.
It's a grim sight in the city, creeping out Roseanne big time!
Roseanne, carrying her baby, locates her husband in his office, now a skeleton, as Eric breaks into jewelry stores and grabs a big pile of diamonds!
Then, Eric discovers that he has radiation poisoning, freaks out, and, runs away in a panic!
Roseanne doesn't drive, so, she takes the baby and heads back towards Michael's place. On the way there, sadly, the baby dies, leaving Roseanne completely devastated. Miraculously, Michael finds her while wandering around.
It's now up to Michael and Roseanne to bring more children into the world...
Tune in Wednesday when Eegah!! will have something cool for us to check out!
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7 comments:
While Arch Oboler was a good writer and producer, responsible for some of the best of old time radio, he was not much of a film maker. Like Tobonga, he was a little two ham-fisted for this type of film.
It was one of the first of a long line of "Only survivor" movies of the 50s, 60s and 70s.
If you want a good film about the end of the world, try "World the Flesh & the Devil." Same themes but much better done.
They should have called it "5 1 1/2"
Yes, Oboler was rather "Arch," wasn't he? My fave film by him is THE BUBBLE, in 3-D.
I agree completely about THE WORLD, THE FLESH AND THE DEVIL being great. Even if it weren't very good in general (which it is), Harry Belafonte's performance in it is reason enough to see it.
Definitely. Miguel Ferrerer as well.
For what it's worth (a plugged nickel) I'm a fan of Oboler's FIVE as well as THE BUBBLE (even the bizarrely funny THE TWONKY), but my favorite end-of-the-world film is Roger Corman's LAST WOMAN ON EARTH, mostly due to the lovely Betsy Jones-Moreland, the amazing locations, and Ronald Stein's great music score.
If you get to see a print of the semi-restored theatrical version of it (only 64 minutes long, in widescreen and bright, vivid color) the photography of Puerto Rico is something to behold. A very early script by Robert Towne (also acting as co-lead), 15 years before he wrote CHINATOWN!
PANIC IN YEAR ZERO is another terrific flick, very macho and up-tight due to Ray Milland's performance as both the dad and the director -- both very conservative -- along with a cool jazz music score by Les Baxter.
I have a handful of movie posters of which five are hanging in this room I'm in. One of them is "Panic In Year Zero." Great soundtrack by Les for sure.
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