Here's a list of Jerry Warren horror and sci-fi flicks. Photos of Jerry are very rare, above, we see him in a cameo sitting behind John Carradine in a plane in THE INCREDIBLE PETRIFIED WORLD. Also, get this, he can be seen as 'Jitterbug' in GHOST CHASERS from 1944, so, check that one out if you're curious like us!
We start with MAN BEAST from 1956, an okay movie. I still have this poster in my collection, but, It's a Canadian censored version and has dark blue poster paint covering the woman's crotch!! Ah, the good old days...
Then we have THE INCREDIBLE PETRIFIED WORLD from 1959, besides John Carradine and Robert Clarke, this weird flick also stars Phyllis (ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN) Coates and Sheila (BEAST FROM HAUNTED CAVE) Noonan!
I don't know how many times I have to say this, but, TEENAGE ZOMBIES from 1959 is my favorite Warren flick, he even reuses music from KRONOS!! Love this one...
Here's the double bill poster from INVASION OF THE ANIMAL PEOPLE and TERROR OF THE BLOODHUNTERS, both from 1962. He manages to mangle TERROR IN THE MIDNIGHT SUN by adding his new footage and Bloodhunters is one of the weakest movies I've ever seen!
In 1964, Jerry adds his new footage to the Mexican LA CASA DEL TERROR to create FACE OF THE SCREAMING WEREWOLF and makes it confusing as Hell! Lon Chaney stars as the Wolfman...
Also in 1964, Jerry works his magic with ATTACK OF THE MAYAN MUMMY, using footage from the Mexican MAYAN MUMMY series. I was looking at this poster and realized that the images are from THE PHARAOH'S CURSE!!
in 1965, Jerry reworks two Chilean titles, the first adapted from Poe's "The Suicide Club," the second, a tale of young siblings dominated by their evil elder brother, and comes up with the title, CURSE OF THE STONE HAND. I swear, this is one of the most confusing films, nearly (or, fully) unwatchable,
YOW!!
Also in 1965 Jerry mangles another Mexican title with CREATURE OF THE WALKING DEAD. One interesting thing is that he uses the term... Walking Dead!!
Again in 1965, he films HOUSE OF THE BLACK DEATH, starring John Carradine, Lon Chaney, Tom (THE CYCLOPS) Drake and Dolores (PHANTOM PLANET) Faith. Doesn't even come close to saving this dingy tale!
I guess Jerry was smoking pot when he came up with THE WILD WORLD OF BAT WOMAN starring Katherine Victor in 1966, because, this is one insane flick, MST tears it a new ass hole to boot!
Jerry finishes his career with FRANKENSTEIN ISLAND in 1981. Man, I don't even know where to start with this one!! Embarrassing roles for John Carradine, Robert Clarke, Katherine Victor, Steve Brodie and Cameron Mitchell. Just the worst, way too long at 97 minutes!! Okay then, tune in Wednesday for more weird junk from the Dungeon Gang!
I made a short film in 1989 with the late Katherine Victor (1923-2004), and she was just as sweet as could be. A wonderful and elegant lady, but humble and somewhat shy.
ReplyDeleteI spoke with her about some of her old genre films, mostly Phil Tucker's CAPE CANAVERAL MONSTERS, which I love to pieces and she also seemed to consider one of her better B-Movies (or Z-Movies)! Interestingly enough, Phil Tucker had another script completed in which he wanted Katherine to act, and it was a non-genre film.
Katherine spoke of working with Jerry Warren, and though he was a friend, she almost dreaded each call from him, asking her to be in yet another one of his drab little films. She told me that he ranted and ranted on, always making big promises that the next film would be the *BIG* one, eventually that was THE WILD WORLD OF BATWOMAN. Warren promised that she'd have her own Bat Boat, a great costume, sets, and it would be filmed in color. Of course when time came to shoot the film, nothing of the kind materialized. Just another cheap Jerry opus, black and white, yelling on, and shooting everything in distant master shots. Oh well, once more into the breach...
She did mention with great fondness working with her late friend Bruno VeSota, and she recalled sitting on the ground in Griffith Park together with Bruno, eating lunch and trying to memorize the horrible lines they would deliver! Or something like that.
Aside from the "cameo role" I shot in her home in 1989, for a short film in which she appeared as an alien sorceress (for which she dressed beautifully, in her usual generosity, kindness and elegance), we decided to make a feature film together soon - one of which she could be proud, made with more enthusiasm than the usual Jerry Warren film. (For what it's worth, she considered my short film with her to be directed a hell of a lot better than any of Jerry Warren's films, which was meant to complement me...but how difficult could it be to best Jerry?) So I worked my tail off for two years, while she told me not to worry about financing, that it would come when we were ready. (My feeling was that she suggested getting help in financing from her.)
I was put in touch with the terrific horror star Angus Scrimm through a friend who knew him very well, and Angus not only agreed to co-star in my film (it must have been a dry spell between PHANTASM films for him), but he asked me to write a dual role for him, one with and one without facial hair, so he could play good and bad scientists. I agreed, if it meant he'd co-star in our film!
Things were coming along well, as I also got an agreement from three creative, competent and professional makeup FX artists, as well as a terrific genre film director who would helm the film for a smaller-than-usual paycheck. And around this time...things collapsed...
We had two deaths in my immediate family, just as I learned that the financing was not coming in for the film...it just wasn't there after all! I had a near-breakdown, and had to walk away from the project for a couple of months to cope with our family issues. And in the meantime, it had all fallen apart, and so that was the end of that.
So I came close to making a small-scale sci-fi flick with Katherine Victor and Angus Scrimm (and we were in talks with a few other "name" genre film actors and their agents), yet despite it all, Katherine remained a friend of my wife and I, until the lovely Ms. Victor sadly passed away in 2004.
Anon, that's a pile of great stories, we always enjoy 'reel world' content in comments the most!
ReplyDeleteAnd, something Eegah!! and I both know about filmmaking... THINGS COLLAPSE!! Man, we could tell some wild stories from our unfinished movies, VOODOO CLUB and VIRUS MAN!
I only really know her from BATWOMAN, but Katherine Victor always strikes me the same way that Anonymous describes. Even though I don't hate the movie to begin with, she always seems to be giving her part in it such a dignified quality.
ReplyDeleteI'm working on another feature-length film now, but with a MUCH smaller budget and no "big name" actors, and it's my last hurrah! If this thing doesn't get made, I quit! But being as it's a "used car budget" kind of deal, it is too cheap 'n' easy to shoot so it *will* be completed by Spring 2018! I'll keep you posted, you can be sure of that! It's just too bad we're not geographically closer, or we could collaborate on this one. That 1990s film with Katherine and Angus and company was budgeted at $265,000 and would have been shot on Super 16mm film, with some CGI FX sequences. The one I'm doing now is more of a personal film, a *fun* project where the only cost so far has been a couple grand for new equipment (like I said, a "used car" budget), and a few hundred more for meals, expenses, and such for the small cast. In the spirit of all the old b-movie filmmakers we know and love, the show must go on!!! I'll come up for air around the holidays and give a little progress report. Many thanks for your fun site (a film nut can get lost for weeks here! and that's a GOOD thing!!!), and cheers! :D
ReplyDeleteThanks, TABONGA! and Grant. We were even talking to Jeffrey Combs' agent at the time our project collapsed--he would have been the young male lead scientist. As I mentioned, we were assured that the money was "coming soon" and that I and my team here should just keep preparing for principal photography and the sets, costumes, and special effects makeup. We had a futuristic lab set designed by an architect, and oh man, it was going to be great. I was getting ready to buy a computer graphics guy a ton of equipment to create some "morphing" sequences, when it all collapsed. It was a long, verbosely detailed script (by me), and that and some production art is all that's left.
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