MAN BEAST - Jerry Warren - "Take Me Away Steve" (1956)

Jerry, Jerry, Jerry, where did you go wrong? What the Hell was Jerry Warren thinking at any given time has got to be a matter of discourse for centuries to come! When you leave behind a mess of films like Jerry produced, what will the aliens from outer space possible think 100 years from now? Even today, 53 years later, I'm like speechless when trying to describe all the multiple nuances and idiosyncrasies contained in "MAN BEAST"! Indeed, it was Jerry's first film and also the ultimate JW WTF!!!

In an interview with Tom Weaver, Jerry said they climbed a fence to be able to use this set of a Mongolian village from another movie!

This is more like the set that Jerry really had money for!!

Filmed in the beautiful Himalayas of Bishop, California and combined with some stock mountain climbing footage Jerry got at Woolworth's, you end up with dynamic shots like this of the guys taking a smoke break after hiking up to 20,000 feet!!!

Sheesh, everyone knows that Rock Madison had top billing in "Man Beast," and what was his role? The Monster, of course, because all his other parts got cut out!!!! Classic Jerry!

Yeah!! Sure!! AAaaahhh!!!!!

Seems more than just Rock had to take their turn in the Yeti outfit, Brianne Murphy, Jerry Warren's wife at the time, and quite the cinematographer, spent some time in the Yeti suit herself! It's a Jerry Warren film, everyone does whatever is needed!!

Eat Lead you stinkin' Yeti!!!! Probably the last of it's species in the world, but Oh Well!!!

No real credits for the music which I'm sure was stock, but pieced together by music director Josef Zimanich .... We're offering a reward for anyone who can tell us what instrument Jerry Warren played in his early band days!!

ASSIGNMENT TERROR / Spain - 1970 / Music by Rafael Ferrer-Fitó & Franco Salina

Ho boy! Tabonga gots LOS MONSTRUOS DEL TERROR from Spain, 1970... Right, Tabonga know he color outside lines, but who going to tell Tabonga no?

Star Michael Rennie and writer/wild man Paul Naschy. What else, Paul play tragic werewolf! And, what else, Michael play dude from outer space!!

Very hip music for 1970, gots that sound! Look like music guy Rafael Ferrer-Fitó & Franco Salina only work on one monster flick, but not this one!

Just kidding! Here is tonight sound clip from the Dungeon... ASSIGNMENT TERROR or THE MAN FROM UMMO!

Flick start with poor misunderstood Paul who turn into werewolf and kill gurl.

Then, Michael drop in from planet Ummo and go to swingin' nightclub!

Michael fix Paul to work for him.

Michael wake up mummy to join team of monstruos!!

Hard to make out action here, but, Paul turn into werewolf and fight wif' mummy! Photo show mummy caught up in big wood wheel that Paul throw him in and then start spinning real fast. Then, he throw lit torch in with mummy!! You need to see this flick!.. No kidding, Tabonga never seen nothin' like it!! Have to rent to believe.

Paul now fight wif' Frankie, he big trouble maker!

Frankie get smoked by Paul!

Paul gurlfiend have to shoot him because he refuse to be nice doggie!

Michael and hot assistant check out cursed lovers.

Big eyeball from Ummo on monitor and rest of gang get all blown up at end!

Goo'night everbloody!

FORBIDDEN PLANET - Louis and Bebe Barron - "Krell Shuttle Ride" (1956)

It's time for a slight time change diversion, so strap on your safety belt and turn it up loud while we take a little side trip on the "Krell Shuttle Ride", the one ride that never made it to Disneyland!! We'll see you when you get back!!!!

X the UNKNOWN / Hammer - 1956 / Music by James Bernard

Tonight we have one of my favorite sci-fi movies from the fifties... Hammer also used blobs and melting people in THE QUATERMASS XPERIMENT and QUATERMASS 2, aka THE CREEPING UNKNOWN and ENEMY FROM SPACE. In this wild atomic nightmare, Dean Jagger plays the scientist Dr. Adam Royston. He's in charge of figuring out how to 'kill mud!'

And, who did the music for those two Quatermass movies?.. James Bernard, who else?! His strains are very identifiable. Its music that can send shivers up or down your spine!!

Eegah!! put together a nice sound piece, so, we might as well get on with the show!.. Clik a mouse to find out... HOW DO YOU KILL MUD?! As Dean works away in the lab, the radio plays classical music...

I'm really glad I missed this one at the theater as a kid even though the story was penned by my favourite writer, Jimmy Sangster. A few other gems he scripted are THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN, HORROR OF DRACULA, THE CRAWLING EYE, JACK THE RIPPER, THE MUMMY... You get the picture!

In keeping with our 'Sadistic Bastard' week, I'm placing Jimmy squarely into that catagory! Here's why...

Remember, this is 1956!.. I was 8!! So, what's the first thing he does?!.. Right, he kills off a young boy who had a creepy encounter with X in the woods at night, and then became deathly ill!

Now, here's why Sangster's a sadistic bastard in this movie... Walking away are the parents of the boy, who has just died from radiation poisoning. The mother's grief is so genuine that the viewer is left stunned from the heart-felt performance. And, Roysten still has no answers.

Then, cut to this guy making a call to a nurse in another department in the hospital, to invite her over to his lab during her break for a little sexual rendezvous.

To remind you that a young child has just die a horrific death, the gurney is wheeled down the hall in front of the camera, actually nudging lover boy out of the way!

Nursie pays a visit and they get right down to business. Naturally, the viewer is immediately drawn in. Now, you're thinking about sex!!

Hey! What the?!!..

So, the flesh melts off the guy's face and nursie will end up in a mental hospital forever and a day!! That's a pretty damn sadistic series of events within 2 minutes!! But, again, that's one reason why Jimmy's my favourite writer!

Also, as a 2nd unit director, he must have directed some of those 'melting' or effects scenes.

Say goodbye to Spider and Haggis! Anthony Newley plays Spider!!

An awesome part of the film is where Edward Chapman goes down inside the giant hole where X dwells. Truly scary and disgusting!

The military drops a bomb into the cavern, then covers it over with concrete, that'll probably solve the problem!!

But, it doesn't, and, the guard at the power plant is barely able to sound the alarm before he melts.

Roysten and the guys watch as X devours it's atomic meal.

On the way back to it's lair, it causes severe damage to the countryside. X has to be stopped!!

They employ Roysten's equipment, so, Edward coaxes X out of it's hole with an after dinner mint!

Roysten's idea works, but, then, there's an another unexpected explosion, leaving the viewer with an uneasy, instead of satisfied feeling at the end. Jimmy wins again!!