THE SCI-FI And HORROR MOVIES Of Director HERBERT L. STROCK

It's time to pay some homage to the director who gave us some of our favorite sci-fi and horror movies from the fifties. Besides his work in movies, he also directed 19 episodes of SCIENCE FICTION THEATRE for TV and more..

Here's one they played a lot on local TV in the fifties, it always freaked me out near the end, and loved the magnetized lawnmower in the hardware store. Herb was uncredited for his work on this one as he was an up and coming director in 1953 for this Ivan Tors production.

A year later in 1954 Herb worked as assistant director ( directed by Richard Carlson ) on RIDERS TO THE STARS. This is another movie they played a lot on TV back then. What I remember most is this astronaut that gets toasted by a meteor! Really creepy part for a six year old.

Also in 1954 Herb was the director for GOG, filmed in 3-D, wow! They also played this movie a lot on local TV, soon after it's theatrical release. It had some crazy moments to be sure.

Then in 1957, Herman Cohen called on Herb to direct this all time classic horror flick, can't remember when it played on TV for the first time. Herb stated that he loved working with Whit Bissell, always on time, knew his lines and could play any character he was assigned. The amputated leg was almost considered too shocking for the kids!

The same year he worked on another Cohen movie, BLOOD OF DRACULA. This movie is one crazy murder fest featuring the song "Puppy Love" by Jerry Blaine, who also contributed the song "Eenie Meenie Miny Moe" for I WAS A TEENAGE WEREWOLF.

Cohen called on Herb once again in 1958 to direct one of my favorite movies, HOW TO MAKE A MONSTER. It starred Robert H. Harris as the bad guy, Pete, Paul Brinegar as his helper Rivero, Gary Conway as the Teenage Frankenstein and Gary Clarke as the Teenage Werewolf.

In 1962 Herb directed Lon Chaney in THE DEVIL'S MESSENGER, which has the devil using his rolodex where he has the names of all the souls assigned to Hell. This is one boring movie and comes across as some TWILIGHT ZONE episodes.

Herb even worked for Joseph F. Robertson by directing this insane little movie. Here's some awesome trivia... Burt Reynolds did two screen-tests for the role of the teen character, Paul Lawrence, but his acting was so wooden, Rod Lauren got the part!!! Wild.

In 1980, Herb was assistant director on MONSTROID, which starred James Mitchum, John Carradine, Philip Carey and Anthony Eisley. This cursed film was started in 1971 and it was up to Herb to finish it up. I think I read that Andrea Hartford, the love interest, committed suicide soon after wrapping up the production, over insecurity and being dumped by her lover, so sad!

Last on the list is this sexy horror film also from 1980, based on everyone's favorite novel "Conjure Wife" by Fritz Lieber. It stars Teri Garr, Richard Benjamin and Lana Turner. So, here's our little salute to the fifties monster movie director, Herbert L. Strock.

THE OUTER LIMITS / "The Special One" Season 1 Episode 28 - 1964

In today's classic TV episode, the parents of a child science prodigy are approached by a mysterious 'government' official called Mr. Xeno, who offers to give him special private tutoring. Unknown to them, Mr. Xeno is actually an alien from another planet who wants to use their son's talents for an evil purpose, to help them invade the Earth!

With this one, we've posted the complete first season of The Outer Limits on DWRAYGER DUNGEON, and, we have only nine more season two episodes to complete the entire series!! So, search our huge archive for all those other great adventures.

It stars Macdonald (THESE ARE THE DAMNED) Carey as the dad, Richard (PREMATURE BURIAL) Ney as the alien, Flip (PLEASE DON'T EAT THE DAISIES) Mark as the kid, Marion (HAPPY DAYS) Ross as mom and Edward (BLACK ZOO) Platt as the head of the education program. By the way, Richard Ney was married to and divorced from Greta Garbo.

After Mr. Xeno hypnotically kills off an angry dad in the teaser, he pops in here to pursue the next child in his unearthly quest...

He then arrives unannounced at the Benjamin residence where he shows them his Dept. of education credentials, he's there to tutor their super smart son, Kenny, in science.

But, Mr. Benjamin's getting a weird vibe from the man even though he's happy for his son.

Things are moving along quite well with the tutoring taking place in Kenny's room, with the door shut of course. The kid can already walk through walls!

Mr. Xeno shows Kenny (who already knows Mr. Xeno is from another world) how he breathes, being from another planet and all. He has two flaps below his neck, yuck, with tongues!

Kenny's dad is beside himself with Mr. Xeno's intrusion, something is just, WRONG!.. He goes to see Mr. Terrence, the head of the gifted student program and finds out that the school DOES NOT send out private tutors to any of their students!.. He tells Mr. Terrence that a Mr. Xeno has been coming to his house as many as three nights a week! And. he finds out that they don't have any Mr. Xeno working for them! Dad's acting a little too frantic and is kindly axed to leave.

Mr. Xeno gets aggressive after he's confronted by dad. They live in a high rise, so, what better way to get rid of the pain in the ass than by having him jump out the window!

But before that can happen, Kenny changes the air in the room into an unbreathable mixture for Xeno, using an alien machine he has built and mastered!

So cool, the alien is choking to death on his own device made to use against Earthlings!..

His gill lips or whatever just ain't working, somethin's all haywire!.. (pillow feathers)

Mr. Xeno takes a fall down the stairs and is nearly dead, when, Kenny turns the machine off... You see, Kenny figured out what Mr. Xeno was doing early on and was just playing along until things were right.

He allows Mr. Xeno to leave and go back to his planet, and, he'll turn the device over to the military for development in case they try to come back! The kid's the hero this time! Tune in again on Wednesday for more new May Pole Posts, here at The Dungeon!!..

WESTWORLD - Michael Crichton - " Where Nothing Can Go Wrong" (1973)

Tonight we've got a Saturday Night Special classic from 1973 called...

WESTWORLD! 
"Westworld" was created and directed by the brilliant Michael (Andromeda Strain) Crichton, and that has a whole lot to do with why it's so good!

I liked "Westworld" when I saw it in 1973, and I enjoyed it again when I watched it a couple of days ago! What I didn't like was that right before I started to write this, my computers, two of them, started acting just like the computers in the movie, and that would translate as totally fucked up!! There's no better way to describe it! Luckily, here at the house, nobody has got killed yet!

"The vacation of the future." Couldn't we all use one of those?

Just a couple of guys getting away for a couple of days in Fantasy Land! James (Way Way Out) Brolin and Richard Benjamin play a great pair of buddies!!

What fun it's going to be to relive the olde west for real!

The bad guys are all robots, and if they give you any crap, you just dust them. The whole thing is supposed to be safe and harmless! Guns won't fire at a warm target like a human!

And besides killing bad guys, there are other advantages to living in the olde west!

So, really, at this point, do you care if she's a whoreborg or not?

At the end of each day's events, the robots are taken back to the laboratory and patched up so they can get right back to work again, even the animals that were involved!

Behind the scenes, these guys are running the show! It's the same guys that are watching you right now!

So everything is cool and groovy in "Westworld," and then piece by piece, the whole thing comes tumbling down, like this robot rattler who suddenly bites for real!

Things over in Medieval World aren't going that swell either!

What the heck? He.....shot me!

And the chase is on...............!!!
Yul Brynner is The King of Badass for more than one reason!!

Steve Franken has a small but memorable role as a fleeing technician! Steve was not only Chatsworth Osborne Jr. in "The Many Loves Of Dobie Gillis," but he was also Cardinal Colbert in Dan Brown's "Angels and Demons," among a horde of other things!

That's a fine looking steed they got for Yul Brynner to ride!

So, like the best way to deal with guys like this and/or the mummy, is to just set their asses on fire!!

Aw, She....ittt! That didn't work either!!

I had a great little sound clip for you from the brilliant mind of the composer Fred Karlin, but the computers just didn't want it to happen, and it was a good one, so may they all burn in Computer Hell! It's filling up fast, better reserve your seat today because the future is now, the future is here!!