HORROR AND SCI-FI MOVIES I SAW AT THE THEATER IN 1957

 I thought It'd be fun to talk about the movies I saw at the show way back in 1957. a great year for horror and scj-fi, and kids like me. I've put them in alphabetical order and show the one sheet posters that were displayed at the theater. These are my memories from the time I saw them, I was a whopping 9 years old. My next door neighbors (my age) Don and Charles and I would usually hoof it to the theater a few miles away to go see a monster movie double feature on a Saturday...

I really liked this one, Ray Harryhausen's animation was amazing, the best in the business. Favorite parts were, the rocket crash, the baby Ymir coming out of its gel, and how it grew so rapidly, making for increased anxiety as the movie progressed.

This was a fun flick from Mr. Big, I still remember waiting for the bomb to go off, pretty tense. The special effects were a little hokey, like Glenn (great acting on his part) being semi-transparent a lot of the time. The giant needle scene was really awkward.

I enjoyed this Roger Corman film when I saw it, it had a lot of creepy moments with some cave claustrophobia thrown in. The giant crabs looked okay but the leg action left a lot to be desired. The decapitation scene was shocking. I still like to watch Crab Monsters.

I saw this Bert I. Gordon film, great poster, and liked it because there were atomic grasshoppers in it, but I remember that the effects were really, bad, things didn't match up very good, more transparent monsters to boot. I always liked Peter Graves, I watched FURY on TV every Saturday morning for years.

The thing I remember most about this freaky film is that Don, Charles and I sat in the middle of the first row, we were being silly of course, we loved being turned loose in the theater. When the first close up of the monster was shown, it creeped us out, and on top of that, they turned up the sound volume of the thing growling, a lot, seriously, same as on the DVDs today, and the ground was shaking! We moved back a ways after that, shocked, it was as intense as a Hammer Head carnival ride! Great movie though!

I really loved this one, it pushed all the right buttons for me, it had a floating brain from space, you have my attention! I mainly remember the fight scene at the end between John and the brain, I thought the brain looked like a balloon. Still, like to put this one on.

Oh man, what can I say about this movie except, it scared the crap out of me! Even though the Demon was a terrifying sight to behold when it appeared, the scene that really scared me was when Dana is leaving the home of the conjuror and is followed by that ball of light, and coupled with the creepy sound effects, well, it really got me!!

This one kept my attention, and I really loved the monster make up, it's pretty freaky and was my favorite part. But, Mr. Big manages to give us more weird transparent composite shots to feast our eyes on, it was okay.

To me, Universal gave us top notch horror films in the fifties, they started going downhill in 1959 with cheaper productions. Deadly Mantis delivers all the goods, an action packed film with a beautiful mantis model. I remember the many scenes in the snow and sleet, picking up the bus full of passengers, crashing into the tunnel, but mostly I remember the thing flying and buzzing the natives, and the awesome drone it made, loved the movie.

I.. Loved.. This.. Movie!!! It had everything I could ever want in a sci-fi flick. The mysterious vessels from space filled with tar-like invaders, Brian Donlevy, the Moon domes producing alien food, and my favorite, the BLOBS!! This movie is just plain great and still a fave.

I don't remember much about this one because there were already two other Hunchback movies and I was fond of science fiction. What I remember was the beautiful color, and Anthony made a decent looking Quasimodo.

Holy cow, this Universal movie was intense, especially after he was stuck in the basement pursued by the spider, The thing that stuck with me is the radio active mist that Grant encounters in his boat at the beginning. I felt depressed by this one, for real.

I had already seen FORBIDDEN PLANET a year earlier and Robby was my hero, so I was happy to see him again. I was a little bored with the story, what I remember most was the boy flying around on the kite Robby built for him, I have acrophobia and don't enjoy stuff like that. I remember the computer brain, it was pretty cool.

Oh, WOW!! Now here's one that left a lasting impression on me, I remembered a lot about this movie, stuff like the little ball of light released by the saucer that lands in the desert, when they land the helicopter on top of Kronos, when John Emery is electrocuted and that fluid drains out of the brain, and when the B-47  gets caught in the force of  Kronos and explodes an atomic bomb on it. There's so much, a real fifties classic.

Here's another great Universal movie I saw, loved the T-Rex, the composite shots with it are spectacular, the man eating plant was disturbing. I thought the scenes with the lake monster just looked like they were shot on a set. All in all, I was very satisfied after seeing it.

This one doesn't really qualify as a horror movie, but it's about Lon Chaney, so it counts. The only things I remembered about it was, it was in black and white, and, some of the scenes where James was in his monster make up.

My dad took me to this Universal flick, and it was pretty damn creepy with kids and other people turning to stone, but, when the crystals started growing during the rain, it was special effects at their finest, WOW. A great little movie for sure.

Here's another movie my dad took me to see, I swear, I didn't remember much about it at all, which could only mean one thing, the movie bored me. Nice poster.

Holy Cow! This is one of Corman's best fifties horror flicks. The vampire's eyes were totally creepy, and what I remembered most was Paul Blaisdell's floating umbrella monster, and when it got on the doctor's head!! It's still a great watch.

Another Corman flick, what I remembered most was when the sea serpent attack the women in their boat, the special effects were very well done, the serpent looks good and is the best part of the movie, didn't remember much other than that.

This one creeped me out, the weird plants were freaky, and I almost lost it when the little girl gets trapped inside one of the man-eating plants, and that's the scene where Murvyn Vye goes insane. I liked this flick, and it's still fun the watch. Well, hope you enjoyed this look back to when it was a kick for a monster kid to enjoy a double monster bill... 20 cents admission, a dime for a coke or bag of popcorn and 5 cents for a candy bar!

JOHN DOE "He's Got All The Answers Except One" (2002)

 

"John Doe" was a 2002 TV series that ran for 22 episodes before getting cancelled. I only heard about it last week, so it's new to me, and that's why it's tonight's Saturday Night Special!

This John Doe was not in the band X.

This was the pilot episode of the show. Where John Doe is, where he came from, and what he's doing are all mysteries!

The only really solid thing we know is that he's buck naked and in the middle of freakin' nowhere.

It's quite an enigma to know everything there is to know in the world except who you are, and that's what John Doe is facing. Try wrapping your brain around that one!

Dominic Purcell is John Doe.

 He has also been Mick Rory/Heat Wave in various DC projects

John Doe is rescued, and ends up in Seattle, Washington of all places, but the show was actually filmed in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

We all know the world is not just black and white, but that's the way John Doe sees it.

Because he has the mind of a computer, John Doe literally knows everything, and by knowing all the information about each horse in a horse race, he can easily figure out which horse is going to win each and every time, but there's one thing that even the biggest brain can't predict, and that is happenchance.

One factor he couldn't compute was that any given horse might lose it's rider and totally upset the odds, and he almost loses all his new found wealth, but he does manage to win it all back again.

The black and white scenes provide contrast that is quite refreshing.......

......And give the viewer a good perspective on what John is having to deal with.

Because of what he can do, John Doe gets involved with the local police to help them find a missing little girl. This simple laundromat token provides a lot of information to somebody as intelligent as John Doe.

Looking for clues............

One of the missing girl's drawings.

The Mother is aghast when she finds out the truth.

I found John Doe to be pretty entertaining, at least for this one episode, and I'm looking forward to finding a little spare time to watch some more, and that's something you might want to consider yourself if you like this sorta stuff, and you can figure that out right here!

JOHN DOE

WOODY WOODPECKER In "Wrestling Wrecks" - 1953

We have another cartoon about wrasslin' (they misspelled it on the title card!) today, this time our little pal gets caught up in the mania, as usual.

So, Woody's watching the wrasslin' matches on TV and is really into it, he just can't wait to cheer on his favorite brutes... Check out the announcer's baseball gear!

Probably the most interesting part with this cartoon is when the announcer gives the lineup of wrasslers in the upcoming bouts. Hey, I don't think that's legal!

This is pretty cool artwork, they would make a nice card set. There are actually many more characters announced than I show.

These are my favorites, actual monsters!

Anyway, Woody's Great Dane destroys the TV set when it goes for a T-bone steak shown in a commercial. Woody runs out the door, and...

He gets a ringside seat, only to have his hand stepped on! Wait, birds don't have hands!!

In the championship bout, the wrasslers go at it. Love this photo.

After playing pat a cake, the champ gets drop kicked a goodern!

Then there's this pic, the challenger gets looney-tuned. Pretty funny.

Woody gets tangled up in the action!

The champ gets sling shot out of the arena and directly into a hospital!

And this is how he ends up. Now, this pic looks like a Garbage Pail collector card! Really great artwork!

Woody goes bananas after his guy ends up in the hospital, he's ready to challenge the challenger for the championship belt.

And after Woody takes care of the challenger...

He wins the belt, which is a few sizes too big for him of course, but who cares, it just a cartoon for a Friday, hope you have a decent weekend!