As promised, here's more info on Mr. Arthur C. Pierce, this time we focus on writing credits for his horror and sci-fi movies from 1959-78...
We start with
THE COSMIC MAN from 1959, a story about a spherical UFO that proves to contain an alien visitor. Arthur gets credit for the original story and the screenplay. Wow, that's one of the best title cards... Ever!!
Then, he also gets the story and screenplay credits for Jerry Warren's
INVASION OF THE ANIMAL PEOPLE in 1959. In this story, Aliens release a big critter in the wilds of Lapland where it takes a woman captive and threatens a group of scientists.
Arthur also gets credit for original story and screenplay for
BEYOND THE TIME BARRIER from 1960, starring Robert Clarke. In this one, a military test pilot is caught in a time warp that propels him to year 2024 where he finds a plague has sterilized the world's population!
In
THE HUMAN DUPLICATORS from 1965 with George Nader and Richard Kiel, Arthur scores the writing credit for a story about an alien that's dispatched from a faraway galaxy to take over the Earth by "duplicating" humans and creating a race of zombies!
MUTINY IN OUTER SPACE from 1965 will always be one of my favorite movies to watch again! Arthur also gets more original story and screenplay credits here. In this one, a creeping fungus is brought to a space station by astronauts on their trip back from the Moon.
Then we have
WOMEN OF THE PREHISTORIC PLANET from 1966 with John Agar, he gets the writing credit. The story's about a spaceship that crashes on an unexplored planet, and, the rescuers sent to search for survivors discover that decades have passed due to a time dilation!
Also from 1966, Arthur gets the writing credit for
DESTINATION INNER SPACE, the story's about a group of scientists working in a deep-sea research station, they discover a strange craft of extraterrestrial origin with a monster inside.
Again in 1966, Arthur gets an 'uncredited' writing credit for
THE NAVY vs. THE NIGHT MONSTERS. In the story, Operation Deep Freeze, a scientific expedition to Antarctica, discover some unusual tree specimens. When the specimens are shipped out for further study, the trees are accidentally introduced to a south seas Navy base, soon revealing killer, acid-secreting monsters that live by night!! Another killer title card!
Damn, again in 1966, Arthur gets the writing credit for DIMENSION 5, a story about an American intelligence agent who's aided by a Chinese-American female agent, he uses a time-travel belt to thwart Chinese operatives who are attempting to import the materials to make an atomic bomb to LA.
Holy crap, he's back in 1966 to pen CYBORG 2087 starring Michael Rennie! Man, 1966 was a magic year for our busy Mr. Pierce!! In this one, Earth's civilization in the future sends a cyborg back to the 1960's to change the future. Bottom still shows the world Cyborg 2087 came from.
In 1968, Arthur gets another writing credit for THE DESTRUCTORS. This story has foreign agents who are after a substance called Laser Rubies that can power a killer laser beam. Government agents are dispatched to eliminate the foreign opponents.
Last on our list is
THE ASTRAL FACTOR from 1978 starring Robert Foxworth, Stefanie Powers and Sue Lyon. A convicted strangler, studying the paranormal in his jail cell, learns to make himself invisible. He escapes from prison to stalk and strangle the five women who testified against him at his trial...
Wow, what a great pile of work, thank you Mr. Pierce!! So, looks like we're back Wednesday with even more wild 'n' weird Dungeon Cargo, be there or be from Squaresville...
6 comments:
One of the entertaining things about THE ASTRAL FACTOR is seeing Stephanie Powers play a halfway ditzy character for a change. She's played a lot of sharp people, but this is nearly the only "ditz" I can think of.
this is a great list of enjoyable movies!
SO pleased to see the attention given to my late friend Arthur recently - here and elsewhere - and many thanks to the Dungeon Crew!!!
PS:
In the color BEYOND THE TIME BARRIER lobby card, the "green" guy behind actress Darlene Tompkins is Arthur C. Pierce himself, in his very brief cameo appearance. The only other cameo I have been able to locate was twice in THE HUMAN DUPLICATORS, where he is the radio voice of a police dispatcher.
PPS:
Arthur's first credit of record is the 10-minute puppet-animated 3D short film, THE ADVENTURES OF SAM SPACE (1953). Although he isn't listed as such, indeed he *MADE* this film and formed the company, "Volcano Productions," under the tutelage of his friend and mentor, Paul Sprunck. Once completed, SAM SPACE was shelved due to the fading early-fifties 3D film fad. But Arthur was unaware that his film was later released under the title of SPACE ATTACK, during which time he was busy working overseas, then back home in optical film editing and in special effects on other projects. This is why he had no idea the film had later been retitled and released, and he thought it lost, until it surfaced in recent years.
A further PS to his career is that he wrote three episodes of John Newland's late-1970s ONE STEP BEYOND sequel, THE NEXT STEP BEYOND. These episodes were written when he received a call asking for three 30-minute scripts as quickly as possible, and due to Arthur's reputation as a fast writer and script doctor, as well as his interest in the paranormal, he wrote three scripts in less than a week, with a studio runner picking up his finished script pages as quickly as they were completed. In the end, all three episodes were produced, and he got a very complementary and grateful letter from John Newland. Alas, the show was canceled soon after, and any promise of further script assignments for Mr. Pierce was empty.
His final professional writing effort was a ten-page treatment for the first season of STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION, and while his treatment was rejected, the story concept seemed to surface in a later produced episode.
Arthur's final script was part of a collaboration with me via phone and tape, and if I can get the various necessities together, I will attempt to make this film in 2018, after trying several times over the past 30 years.
Of course, I forgot to mention his two FANTASY ISLAND episodes, "Save Sherlock Holmes" and "The King of Burlesque," both of which were bought and produced. When the producers of FANTASY ISLAND made the latter episode without paying him, Arthur went to Writer's Guild arbitration, where he won his case and got paid, but was told that he was no longer welcome at the studio. That's when he left LA and went to live out his life on the family farmhouse in rural Texas. (he was an extra on several episodes of DALLAS (filmed in that nearby big city and its suburbs), until he was laid off because his look was too unique and he had been visible in too many episodes already. Oh, he wrote a treatment for the first season of STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION, but it was rejected. Then, his final writing was coming up with a short film story for me. Which he encouraged me to rewrite as needed. The next time I called the farmhouse, he had passed on a few days prior. That was November 17, 1987. He was 64.
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