Today we take a look at the four movies Richard E. Cunha directed in 1958, and wow, it's a pile of low budget gold for all of us kiddies out there!! Richard and his friend Arthur A. Jacobs plunged into shoestring exploitation productions in the fifties by forming Screencraft Enterprises and cranking out a few classic horror and sci-fi flicks themselves! I couldn't live without some of this great junk!
First up is SHE DEMONS, it stars Irish McCalla, Tod Griffin, Victor Sen Yung, Rudolph Anders and Gene Roth in a story about a small group of shipwreck survivors who wash up on an uncharted tropical island. They're captured by an ex-Nazi Colonel and his henchmen who also have imprisoned a bevy of beauty contest winners!! The Colonel has been extracting a glandular substance from the girls to inject into his wife, who suffered gruesome facial disfigurement, in efforts to restore her beauty!
The schlocky but effective (for 1958) monsters were created by makeup artist, Carlie Taylor.
Then we have GIANT FROM THE UNKNOWN, starring Ed Kemmer, Sally Fraser, Bob Steele, Morris Ankrum and Buddy Baer. This horror story's about a very large, scary, smelly, degenerate, Spanish conqueror that's freed from suspended animation during a lightning storm, then goes on a killing spree in a small mountain town.
Buddy was a perfect choice for the monster man! Jack Pierce does the excellent makeup job.
Jeez, what can I say about MISSILE TO THE MOON other than... I love it! This wild 'n' weird movie stars Richard Travis, Cathy Downs, K.T. Stevens, Tommy Cook, Gary Clarke, Nina Bara, Michael Whalen, Laurie Mitchell and my dream girl, Sanita Pelkey!! The story's about two escaped convicts that are caught hiding in a rocket and forced to help pilot the ship to the Moon! The scientist is secretly a moon being and wants to return to his home. His partner and his fiancé stowaway on the ship by accident and become part of the adventure!
The great Harry Thomas does the makeup, but, no telling who created the Rock Creatures. The Giant Spider was modified and reused from CAT-WOMEN OF THE MOON.
Okay, this is my favorite one of the four! Freakin' FRANKENSTEIN'S DAUGHTER takes the cake for me, man, it gots everything to satisfy that fifties craving!! Stars John Ashley, Sandra Knight, Donald Murphy, Sally (woo woo) Todd, Harold Lloyd Jr. and Robert Dix in a story about Dr. Frankenstein's insane grandson, who attempts to create horrible monsters in modern day L.A. Famous Monsters also came out in 1958, this is the kind of movie that made kids want to get made up like monsters and run around the neighborhood trying to scare people, like me and Eegah!! You have to realize that it was a real craze at the time!
Harry Thomas was responsible for the two monsters, like in KILLERS FROM SPACE, he used ping pong ball eyeballs for those fright eyes on Sandra! He also was misled on the Frankenstein Monster makeup and Sally Todd Looks like a dude!!
Phew!.. So, hope you enjoyed this magic year for Mr. Richard E. Cunha, I did. Get ready for anything when Eegah!! invades The Dungeon on Wednesday! Later, dudeskis...
Really like GIANT FROM THE UNKNOWN...saw it back in the day on Chiller Theater with "Chilly Billy" on old WIIC Channel 11 in Pittsburgh, PA.
ReplyDeleteThe "conquistador" guy was fairly creepy, a pretty imaginative, unique little film among '50s b-movie monster-chillers. Enjoyed it a lot, but that optical shot over the dam toward the end took me right out of the movie just as I was really into it. But whatcha gonna do for 25 cents?