Gino Jr. came up with some pretty cool atmospheric sounds to go along with the wild imagery of this Italian film that had various English titles such as: Demon Planet, Planet of Blood, Space Mutants, Terror In Space, The Haunted Planet, The Haunted World, The Outlawed Planet, The Planet Of Terror, & The Planet Of The Damned, before they settled on "Planet Of The Vampires"
"Premature Burial" is an interesting Edgar Allen Poe interpretation that has the traditional Irish anthem, "Molly Malone" whistled & in various incarnations throughout the movie, being as it is the song that haunts Ray Milland literally to death. This version is the wackiest, as it gets all crazy & twisted until Ray is face to face with gravdigger Mole, played by none other than our hero, Dick Miller. By the way, just in case you didn't know, it goes something like this: "In Dublin's fair city, where the girls are so pretty, I first set my eyes on sweet Molly Malone"
Molly Malone
Sick cop scene leads into short jazzy intro, and if that makes no sense, then you obviously need to go out & buy or rent "The Night Caller From Outer Space" ASAP! This music is only a minute long, so put your mp3 player on repeat until you can't take perfection anymore!
City @ Nite
So, is everybody having a good time?? It's kinda hard to tell sometimes & it gets a little weird around here, if you can imagine that! Like now, I'm seeing skeleton hands on the keyboard & thinking about "4-D Man" & the brilliant soundtrack you're about to listen to. Here you go, kids, you ordered a cheeseburger and fries & you get 7 minutes & 4 seconds of one of the greatest soundtracks ever created, and it is going to knock those livin' argyles offa yer feet, guaranteed!! Dig in! 4D Man!!!!
"No one understands it, but it's the scientific achievement of the century!" No one, that is, except the one man band, Larry Buchanan, and I'm sorry, but Larry's not around anymore. Just like Jerry Warren, Larry wrote, directed & produced all his own films, and if Jerry & Larry had ever combined forces, they would have been THE guaranteed winners of the best worst films ever. Hands down, no doubt, It would be a lock!! And we would have loved it! But alas, that's just a dream, & the reality is "Zontar." Not a whole lot going on here, just a little domestic dispute, but what a cool pad!!
The music is supposedly by an uncredited Ron Stein.
Zontar
1966! What a year!! Right about here is where the genres start splitting off like some viral micro-organisms observed under a microscope. "Village Of The Giants" probably started it in 1965, "The Ghost In The Invisible Bikini," in 1966 & "Hillbillys In A Haunted House" in 1967 all basically used a bastardization of the monster movie concept to their advantage to hype the new teen or country musical acts they were trying to promote. Generally it makes for a fun watch, you didn't have to think real hard & the colors were bright! Throw in Basil Rathbone & Boris Karloff, and play a lot of music, try for some cheap laughs & don't worry about much else. Fluff is a good reference point, but, really good fluff. Down here we love these flicks, you can even fall asleep watching them, wake up later & you still know exactly what's going on. That's How Great these kind of films are!! Try THAT with "Citizen Kane" or "Larry Of Arabia," why don't you? Nancy Sinatra was always Hot, & her appearance here is no exception, even if the song ain't that great. Bobby Fuller's in there too, but that's another story, this one's about Nancy!
June Cunningham as Joan Berkley in "Horrors Of The Black Museum" is a Very striking gal, and she's had some great parts in the movies over the years, besides Joan(who actually had a last name) she portrayed Rita, Joy, Alice, Rosie, Evie & Jean, and let's not forget Marlene & Annette, & I'm sure she was grand in each and every role. The basic Hollywood 3-B rule from 1959 was this, Buxom, Beautiful or Blonde, and if you could do 2 out of 3, you were in. June succeeded immensely! Here's a snappy little tune by Gerard Schurmann, who, also composed the music for "Konga" & "The Headless Ghost." This very cool tune is most likely a cha-cha or mambo, a random song off the jukebox. A large bonus of some jukebox scenes in the movies, is women dancing, and June/Joan is really showing off in this scene for the guys in the bar! 1959, Blonde, Red Dress, Yeah! This is another classic film well worth renting for that upcoming Halloween party, but watch out for those ice tongs! Ouch!!! Not to forget, kudos to Michael Gough, one of the evilest nice guys to ever grace the planet! Cheers Michael and June!
