This week's Saturday Night Special is a movie from 1960 called "Date Bait."
"Date Bait" - Kind of like a combination of Jail Bait and Date Rape 1960's style!
What the heck, the words rhyme, so it doesn't really need to make sense.
What the heck, the words rhyme, so it doesn't really need to make sense.
Check out the license plate, it looks like it was hand drawn! I found it interesting that both the two main guys in the movie don't drive hot rod Chevy's or Fords, but drive MG's instead.
So the kids are all down at the club having a good time when psycho drug addict Brad decides to join the party!
You know when you're just groovin' and dancin' with your girl, it's always a bummer when some weirdo asshole like Brad tries to cut in. The cute couple being hassled is Gary Clarke as Logan and Marlo (Dragstrip Riot) Ryan as Sue.
Time for big brother to show up and bail out Brad one more time!
Gary Clarke should be your hero because the three movies he was in prior to "Date Bait" were "Dragstrip Riot," "How To Make A Monster," and "Missile To The Moon." He was also a regular on the TV show "The Virginian" for 63 episodes. If I did the math right, Mr. Clarke will be 87 years old this years, and believe it or not, has a short and a TV movie in production this year.
Have you ever wondered why actors change their names? Gary Clarke is a good example. He was born Clarke Frederic Lamoreaux!
Have you ever wondered why actors change their names? Gary Clarke is a good example. He was born Clarke Frederic Lamoreaux!
Years ago I won something like this at a Walther League meeting, but mine wasn't full of heroin!
Mine was a little cardboard box with a clown on the front that said "Jerk In The Box," and when you opened it, there was a mirror inside that exposed who the real jerk was!
And while we're on the subject of jerks, if you looked it up in the dictionary, there might be a picture of Brad as an example! Dick Gering had the role of Brad. With only 13 credits to his name, Dick was in some TV shows like "Mike Hammer," and "Alfred Hitchcock Presents."
1960's L.A. with a classic Studebaker parked out front!
Sue's parents are uptight social racists, as I like to call them. The proper term is 'Classism,' or people who are prejudiced against someone not because of race or color, but merely because of social position! In other words, they don't like their daughter Sue going out with Logan because he's from the wrong side of town, even though he drives an MG!
Brad's badass big shot brother has to sit at a midget table which doesn't make him look like such a big tough guy!
Life is pretty crappy these days but the air was literally this bad in Los Angeles back in the 1960's from smog!
There's still enough ime to cut a rug!!
Logan and Sue can't take it any more and decide to run off to Las Vegas to get married, even though they are both underage. This is not going to make her parents or psycho Brad very happy.
Sue emerges from the gas station bathroom all decked out and ready to tie the knot!
The happy couple gets hitched but can't find a place to stay because they lack I.D.'s
I just had to throw in this classic Mary Kaye Trio album cover!
Logan and Sue finally get a room at the "Motel Glen Capri."
Upgraded room has a radio in it, but you still have to put a quarter in if you want it to work, and no free Wi-Fi!
Sue's a little trepidatious about her first night in the sack with her new husband, but she's glowing the following morning!
All you needed was a couple of Cokes, a cigarette machine, and a juke box, and 1960 was like paradise!
Brad is such a junkie loser, but don't worry, he gets what he deserves, and I'm not talking about treatment!
Associate Producer Nicholas (Missile To The Moon, Frankenstein's Daughter, The Astro-Zombies) Carras is also responsible for the cool soundtrack, and the title song was written by John Neel and Oscar Nichols, was performed by Reggie Perkins, and released on Raynote Records.
Associate Producer Nicholas (Missile To The Moon, Frankenstein's Daughter, The Astro-Zombies) Carras is also responsible for the cool soundtrack, and the title song was written by John Neel and Oscar Nichols, was performed by Reggie Perkins, and released on Raynote Records.
Mr. Pierce had an MG like that, in fact I think it was being driven by Jeffrey Hunter, in the opening scenes of the Pierce-written movie DIMENSION 5 (1966).*
ReplyDelete* Around 1958 or so, Arthur C. Pierce was dating actress Barbara Wilson (LOST LONELY AND VICIOUS, TERROR IN THE MIDNIGHT SUN, TEENAGE DOLL, BLOOD OF DRACULA, MAN WHO TURNED TO STONE, FLESH EATERS, etc. etc.), and his friend and (uncredited) writing partner, Mark Hanna (ATTACK OF THE FIFTY-FOOT WOMAN, AMAZING COLOSSAL MAN, NOT OF THIS EARTH, etc.), was dating Allison Hayes (the famous FIFTY-FOOT WOMAN actress), and Hanna had a Thunderbird convertible, so he and Ms. Hayes would pick up Mr. Pierce and Ms. Wilson, and they'd go our on a double date!
That comment is freaking awesome!! Thank you K ~
ReplyDeleteLucky Guys!
ReplyDeleteI was in touch with the late Mark Hanna in the 1990s, and he verified a lot of this that Arthur Pierce had told me. They wrote together on scripts for Jim Nicholson, co-founder of AIP, but Arthur was unwilling to tell me the titles of all of the scripts that he co-wrote with Hanna. They (Pierce and Hanna) did write THE AMAZING NTH MAN together, which became THE AMAZING COLOSSAL MAN. They also co-wrote a movie that was covered in one of the Medved "Fifty Worst Films" or "Golden Turkey Awards" books, an AIP film called JET ATTACK. Of course, Pierce didn't get official credit on these, because he hadn't made a name for himself yet as a screenwriter. It was either THE COSMIC MAN and/or BEYOND THE TIME BARRIER that got him into the WGA (Writers Guild). Knowing Pierce and his writing as well as I do, I'm convinced that he (ACP) wrote parts of Corman's NOT OF THIS EARTH (1957). As far as I can see, Charles Griffith wrote primarily the "comic relief" stuff for Dick Miller as the vacuum cleaner salesman.
ReplyDeleteSorry for my "wall of text" comment here, as I'm exhausted and still dealing with the aftermath of my wife's passing.
You go on ax much as you want! I'm sure the readers enjoy it as much as we do! Who else is going to tell these great stories?
ReplyDeleteLots of people. I just happen to know a LOT about the life and work of Arthur C. Pierce, but most folks either dislike or *hate* his films, and ACP-the-man by extension. A couple of Pierce's films were subjects of Mystery Science Theatre skewering, which really annoys the hell out of me. He was a kindly, humble, and generous fellow, he knew that his films were "no great shakes" as low-budget 50s and 60s sci-fi movies, but in most cases, he was under the gun to create movies on ridiculously cheap and quick budgets and schedules. The man had no ego, but just wanted to make fun and hopefully interesting minor films with occasionally unique ideas. They were great little sci-fi adventures in the '60s, the kind of movies you could take a kid to see and not have to get worried about the content. You guys should have had the chance to read some of his unproduced screenplays! OMG! Great stuff to say the least...
ReplyDeleteI should add that, for anyone who knows me and/or my wife Sharon, she passed due to a massive aggressive glioblastoma cancerous brain tumor that was found too late, and a stroke, all in the span of a few weeks. I also want to say that if you have somebody you love in your life, hug them a little more today and thank your lucky stars you have them with you.
ReplyDeleteMy wife and I were together for 30 years, and she watched a lot of old movies and TV shows with me. The last TV episode we watched together (when her mind was still clear) was "My Friend Mr. Nobody", a wonderful and sweet first season episode of LOST IN SPACE, and her favorite installment of the series. We weren't "monster kids," we were "COSMIC Kids," both of us big fans of 60s sci-fi TV shows and movies. Our first connection when we met in 1990 was our common love of STAR TREK (TOS), LOST IN SPACE (first season), and TWILIGHT ZONE (TOS).