THE SHAPE OF THINGS TO COME / CFI Investments, SOTTC Film Productions Ltd. - 1979

Here's a fairly forgotten flick, stars Jack Palance, Carol Lynley, Barry Morse and John Ireland. Good cast, but, suffers from being produced in that copycat crap time.

I was lucky, I don't have to try and explain the storyline to you. Thank you, lord!

I have a sound clip for your approval, sooooo, you can push the big red 'GO' button located there by our atomic trash compactor, NOW, Rufus The Gnat!.. Here's... THE SHAPE OF THINGS TO COME!

Here's the gang working away on the Moon base, very artistic junk...

Jack play bad guy, Omus, he has an army of death robots to back him up against the Moonies.

Here's a different group of good guys, on Earth I guess. Their job is to...

Fight off the mean old robots in a dark cavern somewhere.

Some of the Moonies go to Earth to see what they can see... And, maybe help somehow.

Well, there are some weird looking fungus things and really ugly little kids on Earth now!

Dude shifts into 4th gear to get the F outta der!..

Take that, you dirty old damn robot piece o' shit!

Omus shows up as a giant rotating head, giving orders, much like John Carradine as Dr. Frankenstein did in the Jerry Warren monstrosity, FRANKENSTEIN ISLAND.

Omus puts on his protective plastic helmet, then cranks up the sonic sound device. But, why?

Well, so that he can turn Barry's brain into mush, what else? Bibbida, Bibbida...

The death robots turn on Omus and give him a double dose of the old nut cracker!!

Omus and his empire are about to eat a ton of dust... Hooray for the good guys!

The Earth explodes and the Moonies head off into the void of space, see you later... Probably not!.. Eegah!! has something fun for tomorrow, be there or be attacked by a death robot!

BUNNY LAKE IS MISSING - The Zombies - "A Conspiracy Of Madness" (1965)

"Bunny Lake Is Missing" is a great little film made in 1965 from a big man in film making, Otto Preminger! Otto will of course be known throughout cinema history as the man responsible for such real classics as "Anatomy Of A Murder," "Exodus," "The Man With The Golden Arm" and more!

So what's going on here? A woman and her brother have just moved to jolly olde England from America and the film begins with her dropping her daughter Bunny off at the pre-school, BUT, you never actually see the kid! After her first day at work, she returns to pick up her child, and nobody seems to know anything about her or much of anything else either!

The panic begins! Carol Lynley is Bunny's Mother, Ann Lake! Carol always exudes that cuteness in a woman that you just want to cuddle with, the kind of a girl you want to take to the Fair, or on a picnic! In 1959 Carol starred in "Blue Denim," a movie that always bothered me, followed by "Hound-Dog Man" starring Fabian! She's been in quite a few strange films like "Shock Treatment," "The Shuttered Room," and "Beware! The Blob!" It's been a few years now since she's done any more acting, but Carol is still around and doing well, we hope!

Keir Dullea has the role of Steven Lake, Ann's brother, and the Bunny's uncle! What do I need to say about Keir Dullea except "2001: A Space Odyssey?" Keir has remained very active over the years and continues to work, and was in at least two movies this year! I also just wanted to show this street sign that says "Frogmore End!!" That's right up there with a place we have around here called "Brown Material Road!"

Considered by many to be the first Brit pop star, the multi-talented Noël Coward is magnificent in the role of Ann Lake's landlord, the über creepy Wilson!

Just in case by some remote possibility you don't know who Noël Coward is, here's a cut from a various artists tribute album by Marianne Faithfull doing one of his most popular songs, "Mad About The Boy!"

I love these scenes of mass confusion! This is when the Mothers come to pick all their kids up at the school, but there's no Bunny in sight!

The school officials are no help at all. The teacher for the class that Bunny was in left immediately at the end of the day because she had a toothache, and nobody else seems to have even seen the little girl, and they can't even find a record of her being checked in!

Ann Lake pays a visit to the retired founder of the school Ada Ford as played by Martita (Brides Of Dracula) Hunt, but that doesn't help things out any at all either!

Asking the children if any of them have seen Bunny doesn't yield any results!

At least Ann has her loving brother Steven to comfort her in her real time of need!

Now has come the time to report this whole mess to the proper authorities! Sir Laurence Olivier is Superintendent Newhouse, the man who will be in charge of the whole investigation!

The movie keeps getting darker and darker, as everyone questions Ann Lake's mental state, which doesn't exactly make her feel any better! It doesn't help matters to know that as a little girl, Ann Lake had an imaginary friend named Bunny too!

And that brings us to this point in the film where Superintendent Newhouse offers to meet Ann Lake at a local pub to further discuss the problem and any possible solutions!  Predominately featured on the poster, I was wondering how the very popular band of the time The Zombies was going to fit into this whole equation! It didn't seem like Ann Lake was going to be heading to a club any time soon to celebrate the loss of her daughter, but as it turns out, at the pub where she is meeting the Superintendent, the TV is on, and guess who is on the screen?

The Zombies had just had two of their biggest hit songs released a year earlier in 1964, "She's Not There" which went to number two in the U.S. and "Tell Her No" which topped out at number six on the charts! Here's just a small taste of their performance from the pub scene!  The Zombies popularity waned a bit  for a few years after this, but in 1968 they roared back with the number three smash hit "Time Of The Season" that has persevered for decades!

Even more mass confusion!

For just sheer creepiness, there's hardly anything that can outdo disembodied doll heads!

Personally, I had one Helluva time tracking down a copy of this movie, and once again as it has happened so many times before, just as I'm writing one of these things, I find the super rare movie I'm writing about streaming somewhere on the internet, and that is indeed the case with "Bunny Lake Is Mssing," so if you want to find out what happened to or whether even if there was a Bunny Lake, this awesome film can be found streaming on Amazon!

BEWARE! THE BLOB - Mort Garson/Randy Stonehill - "Son Of The Blob" (1972)

It's not often you get a chance to do back to back blobs, but tonight just happens to be one of those times, now the only thing is I wish they were good blobs, but oh, well, you can't have your blob and eat it too! So, for a couple of days, this is the "Official Blob Blog," unless of course Deb over at the WFMU Ichiban blog gets the same notion, so without further adieu, and as The Routers would say, "Let's Go" with "Beware! The Blob!"

So just what the Hell do we got going on here anyway? Godfrey Cambridge as Chester Hargis has just returned from the frozen wastelands and brought home with him a sealed container he found, and his stupid wife has taken it out of the freezer and set it on the kitchen counter. Guess what? The Blob's inside! That's it, might as well, go to The End, because that's the story..........

.......But there are a few details I neglected to mention! Chester's cat and his wife and himself have all paid the ultimate price for stupidity, and without a doubt, the Price ain't Right! They've also unleashed The Blob again! The beginning is really cool, with Chester watching TV, and Ed McMahon doing his "Daughter Of Horror"("Dementia") narration from the film that was on the movie screen during the theatre scene in the original "Blob," before he gets it himself! Executive producer and co-writer Jack Harris was also the producer of the original 1958 classic "The Blob!" I think it's kind of an homage to himself, in a blatant attempt to create another cult classic! It should come as no surprise that Jack Harris had bought the rights to "Dementia" also!

This couple are the main two characters that the story revolves around, Robert Walker as Bobby Hartford, and Gwynne Gilford as Lisa Clark! Robert Walker was "Ensign Pulver" in the 1964 movie "Ensign Pulver," he was in "Easy Rider," and in 1974 he had the role of Edgar Allen Poe in the "The Spectre Of Edgar Allen Poe!" Gwynne was in "Fade To Black" and "Masters Of The Universe!" They both also did a ton of TV shows over the years!

The abundance of talent in "Beware! The Blob" is beyond amazing, and a veritable Who's Who of 70's Pop Culture but, for all right wing nuts and porpoises, es macht nichts! Where else to start than with Tiger Joe Marsh? Tiger Joe was the World Heavyweight Wrasslin' Champ in 1937, and was the model for the iconic Mr. Clean! Shall I stop there, do you want to submit already?

Too bad, no quitters allowed! That's Dick(108 episodes of "Eight Is Enough")Patten there as the scoutmaster holding the toilet paper roll! Do you really need to know why? Dick's still working today!

This is the amazing comedian and actor Shelley Berman as the annoying hair stylist! Shelley was also the stoned hep cat leaning up against the wall in "Dementia!" Is it all starting to make sense now? Shelley is also still working today!

Even Bono is here in his first ever performance, no, actually it's Del Close as the one-eyed bum! Del Close was one of the original Merry Pranksters, and a big proponent of improvisation, which brings me to another subject, improv! There are many scenes in "Beware! The Blob" where it is pretty obvious the director just said roll camera, and the actors did what people do, just ad lib! Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, that's just the nature of that nasty little beast!

And when you've got actors like Burgess Meredith on board, why bother wasting a script on them? If for nothing else, Burgess Meredith will always be held in adoration for his 21 episodes of "Batman" as The Penguin!

I'm bound to leave out somebody, but it won't be Carol ("Blue Denim"-"Hound Dog Man"-"Pleasure Seekers") Lynley or Larry (The Father of Christian Rock Music) Norman! Carol is still around today, but Larry isn't!

The guy in the ape suit was Gerrit Graham in only his third role! Gerrit was also Beef in "Phantom Of The Paradise," Freddie in "Tunnel Vision," and Stanley Putterman in "Terrorvision" just to name a few!

I'll stop here with none other than Cindy ("Laverne and Shirley") Williams and Randy Stonehill, another Christian Rocker, who can be heard performing "Captain Coke" as Cindy tokes away! They're in a drainage tunnel because the acoustics sound groovy in there! Everything in this movie is bassackwards, the stoners are all straightedge, no wonder it's not right!

The cops end up getting it!

The kids almost get it, but miraculously escape!!

The smart-ass guy in the monkey suit gets it!!

And even the manager of the bowling alley gets it before it's over!

The main theme for "Beware! The Blob" was written by Mort Garson, who in 1963 penned the #1 hit for Ruby and the Romantics, "Our Day Will Come!" As you will hear, Mort was also a moog synthesizer freak and released one of the strangest LP's of 1967 entitled "The Zodiac: Cosmic Sounds-Celestial Counterpoint with Words and Music." I'm pretty sure I still have a copy somewhere!

Many of The Blob scenes are shot from the POV of The Blob itself, and The Blob doesn't even have any eyes, so how is that supposed to work?

Last but not least, the Sheriff was played by Richard Webb! Richard knows a lot about authority, because he was Captain Midnight in 39 Episodes of "Captain Midnight," and he was also Deputy Chief Don Jagger in 29 episodes of "Border Patrol!"

"Beware! The Blob" was directed by that oh so famous "Dallas" maverick, none other that J.R. himself, Larry Hagman! If it looks like TV, and it smells like TV, maybe it should have been a TV sit-com, then it might have made more sense! Never a quitter, Jack Harris would indeed bring back "The Blob" in 1988!!!