150 Movies You Should Die Before You See - Miller Steve [52]
They Really Said It!
Julian Olcott: I was successful with the extract from the brain of a wolf, while I was experimenting on [a patient]. One night, she gave herself an overdose. Perhaps I made it too strong. And the police then accused me of killing her.
Betcha Didn't Know
German actor Curt Lowens made a steady career of appearing in cheap horror and sci-fi films starting in the 1950s and continuing through the late 1990s, including a number of productions from B movie mogul Charles Band.
Polish-born actress Barbara Lass was married to disgraced director and convicted child rapist Roman Polanski from 1959 to 1963.
Trivia Quiz
Maurice Marsac is best known for playing what character, again and again?
A: A French waiter or maitre d'
B: A British nobleman with a fondness for fondling wayward girls
C: A NASA scientist or administrator
D: A pirate
Answer: A. Marsac played these roles well over twenty times. His first time was in the 1944 comedy Our Hearts Were Young and Gay.
ZOMBIES OF MORA TAU
(AKA “THE DEAD THAT WALK”)
Clover Productions, 1957
PRODUCER Sam Katzman
WRITERS Raymond T. Marcus (script), George Plympton (story)
DIRECTOR Edward L. Cahn
STARS Gregg Palmer (Jeff Clark), Autumn Russell (Jan Peters), Allison Hayes (Mona Harrison), Joel Ashley (George Harrison), Marjorie Eaton (Grandma Peters), and Morris Ankrum (Dr. Jonathan Eggert)
A group of callous treasure hunters and the residents of an isolated African farm are beset by swimming zombies protecting a treasure trove of cursed diamonds.
Why It Sucks
Even with swimming zombies, it's a shaky script being performed by a cast who are devoid of any actual talent. The idea of underwater zombie attacks is cool, but it would have been cooler if they'd look believable. Or maybe underwater zombies dry immediately upon exiting the water?
Thumbs Down Rating:
The Crappies
The Worst Actress Award goes to … Allison Hayes for giving such a wooden performance that when she's zombified, you can't tell the difference.
And the Worst Director Award goes to … Edward L. Cahn for not even sprinkling water on the supposedly water-born zombies when they're on dry land. Not to mention having them sleeping in coffins on dry land during the day.
They Really Said It!
Mona: Do you believe in the walking dead, Dr. Eggert?
Dr. Eggert: All I know is what I've read.
Jeff: What does it say in the books, Doc? Are they supposed to be good swimmers?
Betcha Didn't Know
Before George Romero made Night of the Living Dead, the zombies featured in this film were the standard pop culture version, as established in the 1932 film White Zombie. Well, aside from the whole swimming thing.
Unlike many early (and even some contemporary) zombie films, the living dead are there from the beginning. One is run over by a car in the first ten minutes of the film.
Trivia Quiz
Bela Lugosi appeared both in Universal's classic Dracula and in the first-ever zombie movie White Zombie. What else do those two classic films have in common?
A: Both take place in England
B: Both take place in Haiti
C: Both were directed by Tod Browning
D: Many of the same set pieces appear in both films.
Answer: D. Low-budget director Victor Halperin shot White Zombie on many of the same sets that had been used for Dracula.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
MYSTERIES OF THE ORIENT
Popular culture is often specific to the society that creates it. That is very plain in many films from China, Japan, and Korea that have been showing up in video stores and on late-night television since the 1980s. Even if you carefully follow the subtitles, you often find yourself baffled and doubting if you really read what you think you read, or saw what you think you saw. This is often even more true if a film is dubbed. In the pages that follow are a dozen or so films that illustrate there are many things that come from Asian culture that make even less sense than feng shui.
ATTACK OF THE MONSTERS
(AKA “GAM ERA VS. GUIRON”)
Daiei Motion Picture Company, 1969
PRODUCERS Masaichi Nagata (executive producer),