It's Halloween week, which means it's time for an especially cheesy program this week.
First up, let's have a couple of cartoons. The first is a 1944 parody of Sherlock Holmes (with "Hairlock Combs" and his assistant "Gotsome") as our hero goes searching for missing dinosaur bones. It was directed by Howard Swift and written by John McLeish; McLeish also provided the voice for "Combs":
http://www.archive.org/details/TheCaseOfTheScreamingBishop
The second cartoon seems to be a 2006 tribute to Casper the Friendly Ghost. Does anyone have any more information on it?
http://www.archive.org/details/The_Story_of_the_Ghost
Before the main program, here's a trailer from the 1953 classic of badness (and I mean that not in a good way), Robot Monster. Directed by Phil Tucker, with costumes by Ihavenobudgetbutifyousquintyoureyesrealgooditstilllookslaughable, this movie represents the nadir of star George Nader:
http://www.archive.org/details/RobotMonster-Trailer
Our first feature is from 1943 and was recently seen on TCM and stars the great George Zucco in a dual role, abetted by the also-great-but-not-as-good-as-he-was-when-he-played-Renfield-a-dozen-years-earlier-in-Dracula Dwight Frye. Frye here plays a character named Zolarr; if the name sounds familiar, that's because it's one letter short from the astrologer.
http://www.archive.org/details/DeadMenWalk
Our second feature is one of the worst pictures ever made. Written and directed by Tom Graeff, the movie starred his boyfriend, David Love. Love's love interest was played by Dawn Bender, although she went by Dawn Anderson in this film. That's right, this is a Love Bender movie. For a fairly obvious reason, the romantic spark just isn't there. On the other hand, romantic sparks weren't really de rigeur in 1959 schlock teen horror flicks.
http://www.archive.org/details/teenagers_from_outerspace
I know you've suffered a lot if you've watched this far. So to make up for it, here's a fairly effective chiller from director Alex Nicol and writer John Nheuburt. It features journeymen actors John hudson, Peggy Webber, and Russ Conway; all three were familiar faces of the time (1958) -- probably the most familiar face was that of Conway who had recurring roles in Richard Diamond and Men in Space and played Fenton Hardy in The Hardy Boys Mysteries.
http://www.archive.org/details/TheScreamingSkull
Have a delightfully wonderful Halloween! And don't forget to check out more Overlooked Films at Todd Mason's blog Sweet Freedom.
I've heard of TEENAGERS FROM OUTER SPACE, but I just might not've watched it at any time...it has some distance to go to catch up with Phil Tucker's masterpieces (ROBOT MONSTER, CAPE CANAVERAL MONSTERS...) which easily outbad Ed Wood, but I'll trust you. THE SCREAMING SKULL almost certainly does look competent by comparison! And Zucco and to a lesser extent Frye had to save many a Z-picture (Zucco appropriately named for the task). Happy Hallowe'en to you, as well!
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