METEOR - "There's No Place On Earth To Hide" (1979)

Tonight's Woeful Wednesday feature is a 1979 Sci-Fi Disaster movie called "Meteor."

I was not really familiar with this film, but I found it streaming on Amazon Prime for $3.99.

If you choose "no rush" shipping when you buy something, Amazon will give you one dollar credit, so I saved up my credits because I wanted to see a movie with Natalie Wood in it, and honestly, she has not been in a lot of movies that we discuss around here, so I really wanted to see this one, and if you don't use your credits in a certain amount of time, they expire! A couple of other one word Natalie Wood titles I'm saving up for are "Peeper," and her last film made in 1983 titled "Brainstorm."

Since Natalie Wood had such a very short life, it's a good thing she got started very young. She was only four years old when she had her first role as Carrie in the 1943 war film, "The Moon Is Down."

In "Meteor," she plays a Russian translator named Tatiana Donskaya. That might seem like an odd role for Natalie, but she was actually of Russian descent, was born Natalia Nikolaevna Zakharenko, and spoke Russian.

"Meteor" is jam packed with talent, besides Natalie Wood, it starred Sean (James Bond) Connery, and Brian (Family Affair) Keith. Believe it or not, Brian Keith was also fluent in Russian!

More amazing talent was provided by Jane and Peter's Dad Henry (The Grapes Of  Wrath, The Boston Strangler) Fonda as The President, and Karl (Phantom Of The Rue Morgue, Streets Of San Francisco) Malden as Harry Sherwood.

 

Martin (Mission Impossible) Landau is also in there as the generally pissed off General Adlon.

 

Forty-one years later, and I think everybody who lives in Russia or the U.S.A. should watch this movie. Maybe it would convince us all that we're in this together.

 

The basic story is that a meteor of epic proportions is heading towards earth at a rapid speed, and is set to collide, and most likely destroy the world within a week. The U.S. and the Russian governments both have 'top secret' satellites flying around armed with nuclear weapons aimed at the other country, so what they need to do is cooperate, open up and  tell the truth, and both turn their fire power towards the meteor if there's any hope for civilization as we know it! In the meantime smaller pieces of the meteor are splintering off and causing all kinds of destruction just to give us a taste of what is yet to come!

The meteor splinters hit a ski resort in Switzerland hard!

In the story, 12,000 skiers are killed by a massive avalanche while competing in this marathon!

In Hong Kong, the splinters cause a massive tsunami that also kills thousands!

In each location, the movie cuts to one family or group of people conducting their daily affairs when the disaster strikes, and what happens to them.

"Meteor" turned out to be a real 'Disaster' movie, costing over $20 million to make, but was a huge flop at the box office.

The United States' satellite is called Hercules, and this one here, the Russian one is, called Peter The Great!

"Dig Those Crazy Sperms!"

Why is it that they just don't make people like Natalie Wood and Sean Connery any more?

I liked this scene in the cafeteria, where they go and sit down in front of two space themed pinball machines.

The meteor looks like a giant monster about ready to gobble up the Earth!

Then Sean Connery gets the word.......and it goes something like this, "A large splinter is headed towards the Easter Seaboard"

And he asks..."And when is it scheduled to hit?"

"Right about now!!"

 

After that splinter hits, the adventure really starts as the cast is stuck in subway tunnels and gets covered with mud! I don't know how much they got paid, but I don't think it was enough!

According to the IMDB, this four minute scene was shot in a swimming pool at MGM Studios, and cost a half a million dollars. Shooting was delayed for two days after Sean Connery got some kind of respiratory illness, Karl Malden got buried in the mud twice, and Natalie Wood almost got sucked into a pump before it was over.

Talk about disaster, they also claim that the financial failure of "Meteor" is considered to be a large factor in the downfall of American International Pictures.

The "Meteor" was five miles wide. The speed it was heading towards Earth was thirty thousand miles per hour. It was a sad day! Glad it didn't happen!

PROPHECY / Out There Is A Mindless, Merciless Creature Of Destruction. She Will Find You. - 1979

In today's depressing horror flick, a primal beast has grown to a monstrous size and is driven mad by toxic wastes from a logging company that are poisoning the waters, bringing terror and death to the Maine countryside.

This one stars Talia (THE DUNWICH HORROR) Shire, Robert (THE ASTRAL FACTOR) Foxworth, Armand (JUDGE DREDD) Assante, Richard (THE THING) Dysart, Victoria (ERNEST GOES TO CAMP) Racimo and George (NIGHTWING) Clutesi.

One of the lights in the title card is this guy here, out climbing in the mountains in the middle of the night with his buddies. Wouldn't you know it, they run into a very pissed off critter that deep sixes them all in the dark...

Love this shot, an environmental rally going on somewhere in Maine.

Here are Rob and Maggie, they are on vacation and meeting up with some friends. Dude has a chain saw and threatens an environmental activist because he won't bow to the Orange King!

Rob and Maggie want to test the water for contamination and have a big argument with Isely, head of the logging company. They finally get permission and go out to make their tests.

These friends of Rob are camping out and have turned in for the night. Then, out of nowhere, a big mass of nasty old flesh and teeth shows its ugly puss!

Okay, get ready for this... The young boy is sleeping in his zipped up bag, when, the thing eyeballs him laying there. It grabs him and whips him super hard into something solid there, shooting feathers everywhere... Yow! Monster 1 / Kid 0.

In case the creature attacks, the locals have an underground hideout that it cannot get to. At this point, it's determined that mercury poisoning was causing the deformities and madness.

This is the head village honcho who loves the land. The fire image in his sunglasses looks pretty damn cool, wouldn't you say?

Everything's going to Hell in a hand basket, Isely gets separated and the thing chases him down. Just as the guy is halfway under the gate, it grabs his legs and turns him to ground sausage!

The damn thing easily knocks their vehicle off the road!

In this beautiful scene, we see the old honcho dude getting thrashed to Be-Jesus and back!

There's still a pile of trouble to be caused by the critter. Rob only has a puny rifle to protect himself while the hulk just knocks the crap out of the cabin around him!!

Arrows definitely don't slow it down. Anyway, Rob ends up chopping it to pieces... What a ride! We're back on Wednesday with more yuletide greetings, here, at The Dungeon!!..

FLIP THE FROG In "The Cuckoo Murder Case" - 1930

So, we're nearing the end of our Halloween Countdown this year. Today we have another Flip The Frog cartoon from 1930, a year after the introduction of sound. This time our little hero has an adventure in a creepy old house, always an entertaining time for us viewers for sure!

Something caught my eye on the title card... It's agreed that one of the greatest scores for Warner Bros. in the early days was signing Carl Stalling on as their cartoon musical director!

Looks like something weird is going on here!..

Whoa, what the Hell, someone's got a gun, and the hammer's cocked and ready.

Of all things, the bird in the Cuckoo clock is the target! After dodging a few bullets, the last one turns around and puts a hole through the birdie, killing it...

So, the clock calls Flip, who's a detective in this one. It tells him that the poor little bird has been shot and he needs to get out to the house and investigate the crime scene.

It's a long trip as Flip forges ahead through the storm in his goofy little car.

Well, I guess the clock called the coppers too... Love that meowing cat siren!

Gung-ho Flip arrives ahead of the cops, but, as he approaches the house, an evil face appears when the lights come on! He tries to go back to his car but the wind blows him inside.

While Flip explores the place, a weight on the clock comes up and whacks him on the rear. He ends up kicking the suit of armor which then falls in pieces back on his head, it's a cartoon!

After the cops make their entrance, they shoot some foot prints that were dancing around! This part was pretty damn weird.

Then, Flip sees some strange shadows on the wall from the next room!..

So, curious Flip enters the room and finds a cloaked figure sitting there, sickle at hand. He's looking through his book of victims, it was him what shot the bird. The dark figure turns the page and there's freakin' Flip's picture! The thing rolls its sleeve up and is ready to add another victim to his list, when...

Flip runs like Hell, he has to run through a hallway full of obstacles to get to the door. He finally opens the door and dives away into the darkness, after he disappears, the cartoon ends!! Much like this post... Eegah!! is here tomorrow with another Halloween Countdown treat for the troops!