THE WIZARD OF MARS (Horrors Of The Red Planet) - Frank Coe - "Toot Toot" (1965)

Okay, you know, we're generally very reverent about the films we write about here, but there's at least one movie that really gets under our skin. What we're talkin' about here is "Horrors Of The Red Planet," aka "The Wizard Of Mars." Honestly, on multiple levels this could seriously be the worst sci-fi or horror film ever made, and that's coming from people who really like bad stuff! This movie just offends us! Number one, Duh!, NOTHING Happens!!! Normally that would be enough, but besides that, nothing else happens!! Of all the films or cartoons based on "The Wizard Of Oz," this one is by far the worst. What's really scary is, believe it or don't "The Wiz" is a better movie!!! 

 

Right! Sure! This is Dorothy!! 

 

You'll just have to guess which one is the Tin Man and which one is the Scarecrow. 

 

These Leaf Fin Martian Eel Critters were almost scary for about two seconds! 

 

Highlights of this film are, the disembodied John Carradine, rambling on forever about a bunch of foolish nonsense, the crew walking through a cave for about 20 minutes talking about absolutely nothing, and another 20 minutes walking in the sand dunes, I mean Mars, talking about more nothing! 

 Okay, Okay, this creepy little dude was kind of interesting. Seems like we saw one of his relatives in the "Ripley's Believe It Or Not Museum." 

 

The big solar pendulum thing is just stupid! Forrest J. Ackerman got credit for technical advisor! They probably only asked him one question, so they could use his name! I'm almost positive his technical advice was to ditch the whole project without delay!! So don't blame Forry and don't blame composer Frank Coe either. He did his part with a decent orchestrated and theremin score. Frank also worked on other freaky psychotronic films like "Monsters And The Pajama Party" and "Lemon Grove Kids Meet The Monsters", but Frank couldn't even save this movie. To be fair, if they did replace the actors, the director, the cinematographer, and the script, this film might be watchable!! I said might! "Life Itself Is Meaningless Again" Do yourself a favor and first rent this movie, then rent or buy any Jerry Warren, Al Adamson, or Larry Buchanan movie to see what really good "Bad" is!!

MISS MUERTE (The Diabolical Dr. Z) - Daniel J. White - "Cacophony" (1966)

Just like seeing fire shoot out of your headphones, this music is dissident, jarring and discordant! That's not easy to do and still be listenable. Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, Sun-Ra, and all the free jazz cats blowing in lofts at 3 o'clock in the morning have nothing on this short piece that rumbles along like some kind of freight train from Hell shot off like a rocket into outer space in about 47 seconds! Whew! Try and imagine the whole Miles Davis Quintet falling down a flight of stairs together, then at the bottom they just dust themselves off and go on like nothing ever happened. That's what Daniel J. White came up with for this hunt and capture scene. It's short, it's nuts! It's chaos!! It's beautiful!!! 

 

"Attacophony"

MAROONED - "Title Credits" (1969)

Never did consider the 1969 Oscar winning film "Marooned" to be a 'Monster Movie' by any means, but it is in space, okay, that's good, but it's not scary, and there's no monsters!! Still, there's a fascinating little story here. More science than science fiction, they chose to use electronic sounds instead of big orchestrated music as background. So, there is no score for this movie, I guess the sound guys, Les Fresholtz and Arthur Piantadosi get the credit since it's more sounds than music. They did get an Oscar nod for 'Best Sound' but they didn't win. Neat stuff, quite unique, and the only thing boring about it, is the feeling that a drill is boring into your cranium!! Good job guys!! By the way, Netflix is streaming this movie, so you can watch it whenever you want! Decent quality too!! 

 

"Marooned"

GASU NINGEN DAI ICHIGO (The Human Vapor) - Kunio Miyauchi - "Modern Bar-Traditional Dance" (1960)

Kunio Miyauchi composed music for Ultraman and Godzilla exclusively except for this title from 1960, "The Human Vapor." Right up there with "The H-Man" as far as gaseous people and cool music is concerned, this is another one of those films you should go out of your way to try and find a copy somehow. 

 

Beware! Do not screw around with the librarian!! 

 

He's starting to glow! 

 

Now he's glowing and constricting around your neck. 

 

There are two great bar scenes where glib Detective Okamoto and his girlfriend, nosey Reporter Kyoko are discussing the case with a very witty dialogue exchange, and some swingin' with-it music In The Background. 

 

He's so full of it, and she has got that dirty look down pat! 

 

Later on in the film, they're going at it again! 

 

And once again, he deserves and gets that icy stare. Ow!! 

 

Then, towards the end of the film, the librarian, aka the human vapor is trying to take in a beautiful show of traditional Japanese music. Of course the crowd gets in, gets ants in their pants real fast, and after one unruly guy yells out, "Bring on the strippers!" you know some body's going to pay! They really shouldn't push the librarian like that! 

 

Fujichiyo Kasuga as the dancer. Kishiro Katada was the supervisor for the.....Traditional Music

THE DEVIL'S MESSENGER - Alfred Gwynn - "Don Freaks Out" (1961)

After that break, seemed like a good time to do something simple, unfortunately for me this is no simple tale. In the movie "The Devil's Messenger," you have a small series of vignettes hosted by Satan himself in the guise of Lon Chaney Jr. This piece starts off with the title music composed by Alfred Gwynn. The sound quality in Hell is not that great! 

 

Lon looks pretty happy in this role as Satan! 

 

Here you have the character of Don Powell contemplating strange happenings. 

 

Cinematography by Artie Shotz! 

 

This is the only film that composer Alfred Gwynn ever worked on, but the two guys in this scene have an unbelievable history! Ralph Brown (with the glasses) as Charlie, started his career playing himself as a tap dancer in a 1946 film called "Jivin' In Be-Bop", starring, for all you jazz buffs, none other than Mr. Dizzy Gillespie, with James Moody, Milt Jackson, Ray Brown, Helen Humes, and Benny Carter. John Crawford (not to get mixed up with The Rifleman's son Johnny Crawford) had a TV and movie history they should make a movie about! His way amazing career started off in 1933, in a small film called "King Kong," as a 'native dancer'. The rest of his career is like opening up a TV Guide from the 60's to the 80's. It will leave you breathless. Probably in the 70's, if this guy showed up at your house for dinner, you'd think he was part of your family because his face would be more familiar than a lot of your cousins! Hey John, Cheers!! 

 

Man, I love this scene, Don & his best friend for 15 years, Charlie, are having a discussion about Don's mental behavior. Don asks for Charlie's help, and when Charlie offers to help him, Don punches him in the face! What a pal!  

Don and Charlie

 We hope you enjoy your stay!!

ZOMBIES ( I Eat Your Skin) - Lon E. Norman - "Voodoo Love Etc" (1964)

The daily routine of this blog is a lot of work. It's starting to wear me down and I think they're going to come and take me away, ha,ha, to the looney bin here real soon unless I take a break. I do believe I hear The Islands calling my name, so let's all go back to the joyous festivities and fun of Del Tenney's "I Eat Your Skin." Okay, so this film was actually shot in Florida, but that's just going to have to do! This film is mandatory viewing for any of you tribal/zombie/mad doctor/voodoo/islands fans out there, and it's pretty easy to get your hands on a copy. Mahalo ya'll!! 

 

"Oh, how she dances, I've never seen such movement in my life!" Hey, what kind of luau is this??

 Big Fun Dance Party

 The music for this love scene is the ultimate something, I can't quite put my finger on it, maybe bizarrely grandiose would describe it about right. She says "I need you" to Tom, the dude with one of the coolest widow's peaks ever, and the next thing you know the music sounds like a herd of elephants is trampling a village, and then the music gets all noodley and just fizzles out in the end with a bongo drum solo. Huh? 

 

Tribal Love

 That was relaxing, but the time sure went by fast, it's already time to go Back to Work!!

FIRST MAN INTO SPACE - Buxton Orr - "Theme & Truck Death" (1959)

Scottish Doctor, Teacher, Composer Buxton Orr was responsible for the music on a fair share of cool movies including some titles like "The Haunted Strangler", "Fiend Without A Face", "Dr. Blood's Coffin", and "The Snake Woman." 

 

It's not often you get to see the word 'Amalgamated' on the big screen, or actually almost any place, so bask in it's glory! 

 

Radar Love personified! What a job sitting on this thing all night long! 

 

The soundtrack for "First Man Into Space" is highly orchestrated, but there is this one little scene where the truck driver, portrayed by Roland Brand is saying goodbye to his gal, and there's music coming from his radio. It's 1959, and the sound is swinging. They smooch and part, only for him to uh, let's just say he has an accident!  

Truck Death

 She really loves Roland, too bad their relationship is about to be over! 

 

This monster doesn't want anything to do with that woman, he only wants the truck!!