For Thanksgiving Week, we present a drive-in double bill feature, The Brain That Wouldn't Die ( 1962) and The Head (1959).
In Brain, beautiful Jan Compton (soon to be Jan in a Pan), played by Virginia Leith, loses her head when she is decapitated in an automobile accident, Luckily (?) Jan is engaged to brilliant surgeon Bill Cortner (Jason Evers, here as Herb Evers) who has been illegally experimenting with transplanting heads on human subjects. (Nice guy.) Bill manages to 'rescue" Jan's head and keeps it alive until he can find a suitable body for it. Of course, a suitable body has to belong to a beautiful model. How unfortunate for Doris (Adele Lamont), who happened to have a disfigured face but a wowser of a body. There's strippers, a cat fight, and a monster in the closet. An Elvira and MST3K classic!
Although Virginia Leith's films include Violent Saturday and A Kiss Before Dying, her career's high point was this cult classic role. Jason Evers had a busy career in television, including features roles as Picairn in Wrangler, Joseph Howe in Channing, and James Sonnett in The Guns of Will Sonnett, but like Virginia Leith, he is probably best known for The Brain That Wouldn't Die. Adele Lamont's film career was short; she appeared in one television episode in 1959 and one in 1960 and in this movie. Since The Brain That Couldn't Die was filmed in 1959, although released in 1963, her career was actually very short.
The Brain That Wouldn't Die was directed by Joseph Green, who ran the very small film distribution Joseph Green Company. (When I say small I mean that Green also answered the phone.) This was the first of two movies he would direct. He also wrote the screenplay for this (his only one) and is credited with the original story (with Rex Carlton).
The Head is a thematic companion piece to The Brain That Wouldn't Die. In this badly dubbed German film, Professor Abel (Michel Simon) has been transplanting dog heads because...because why not? When his heart gives out, scientist Dr. Ood (Horst Frank) perfects a serum to keep Abel's head alive. Need I mention that Ood is mad? There's also a murderess (who is also a stripper) whose perfect body would be a good swap for a woman with a damaged spine. Head Abel has no success in trying to reason with Mad Ood. Good girl Irene and her new stripper body tries to escape Ood's clutches. And any sexy shots have been deleted from the film, if they ever existed in the first place.
Michel Simon was a big star in France but some tainted makeup had temporarily partially paralyzed his face and body. Desperate for work, he agreed to do this flick, knowing that they would basically use only his face and assuming that the (very) low budget film would sink without a trace. But assumptions are notoriously untrustworthy and the film was a hit all over Europe. Quel domage.
Top heighten your drive-in experience there are previews, and intermission, ads for the snack bar, requests not to honk during the show and to also keep your headlights off until you exit the theater.
Oh.
And there's a cartoon. And that's why I'm featuring this on Thanksgiving week. It's a Thanksgiving carton by Tex Avery.
Enjoy.
And enjoy your turkey (and these two turkeys)!
https://archive.org/details/ShockerInternetDriveInWeek9-horrorHeadDoubleFeature
Small House of Everything
Tuesday, November 22, 2016
Monday, November 21, 2016
INCOMING
- Edward S. Aarons, Don't Cry, Beloved. Cold War espionage thriller. Phil Royce is the security chief for a classified military project in the New Mexico desert. A boring job, sure, but it led to his meeting Sarah. But their affair was "an invitation to death and dishonor.' Aaron, best known for the long-running Sam Durell, also penned over thirty standalone thrillers and mysteries, many of them paperback originals.
- "John Benteen" (Ben Haas), Sundance: The Bronco Trail. The sixth book in the adult western series about a "Man of Violence." "The Tucson Ring, a group of greedy business men,. were getting fat on keeping the Indian Wars alive in Arizona Territory. One of their plans was to keep Geronimo on the loose by supplying him with whiskey and ammo. General Crook had a plan to stop them, and Jim Sundance was part of his plan. He said to Jim,'I want you to go to Arizona. I want you to find out who's selling whiskey and guns to Geronimo. I want you to bring Geromino in for good.' The fate of the whole Apache nation hung on the answer Sundance was to give General Crook." Gee, I wonder what the answer was.
- Michael Bishop, editor, Nebula Awards 24. SF anthology. The Nebula Awards are sponsored by The Science Fiction Writers of America for the best science fiction (and fantasy) published in a given year. This edition covers 1988. Here are winners from Connie Willis, George Alec Effinger, and James Morrow, as well as stories from several runners-up, poetry from the Rhysling Award winners of the year, appreciations for 1988's Grand Master Ray Bradbury, along with an original poem by Bradbury, and a number of essays -- including one each memorializing Clifford D. Simak and Robert A. Heinlein. A meaty collection.
- Merle Constiner, Outrage at Bearskin Forks/Short-trigger Man. An "Ace Tall Ten Western," repackaged from two earlier Ace editions.In the first book, Charles Wheeler, a cattle dealer, returned home from a trip to find his young son dead in his table, and both gold and horses missing. Tracks from the scene led to the notorious Simmons Gang. wheeler follows the tracks, bent on revenge. In the second, Watts Denning had hung up his guns six years before to follow the life of a roving bartender. Hired to go Folshee, Montana, to tend bar and to watch over the owner's son, Denning finds a much different -- and deadlier -- situation waiting for him.
- Margaret & John Harris, The Medicine Whip. Western. "Like Primrose, other men had underestimated Bradon's strength without his 20-foot whip. Steve Chard, a ruthless army major, claimed Bradon was a coward without it. When Chard and Bradon made the long hazardous trip to save Fort Gillam from disaster, Chard was out to prove to the world that Bradon was less than a man. And for Chard and Bradon, there was still another prize to battle for -- the lovely Tracy Brown, a girl so spirited that she made the terrifying trip to Fort Gillam with the two men who loved her, and there faced the deadly vengeance of 2,000 savage Indians!"
- Harry Harrison & Malcolm Edwards, Spacecraft in Fact and Fiction. Coffee table book chock full of art and photographs detailing spacecraft as portrayed in proto-science fiction, pulp science fiction, motion pictures, historical photographs, space race photos, and planned, proposed, and imagined space vehicles. The text is pretty good, too.
- Marvin Kaye, The Stein and Day Handbook of Magic. How to be a professional magician in 19
easychapters. (Well, not how I could be a magician, because I am all fumble fingers.) Kaye is perhaps best known as an anthologist and editor, although he has also published some interesting SF and mystery novels. - Barry Malzberg, Phase IV. Movie tie-in novel. "Is there a creature who could challenge man's supremacy on earth?" (Well, yeah.) "The answer came one hot day when a horde of ants turned a thriving city into a ghost town. Then it was only a matter of time until the final confrontation. The terrible battle pitted the human race against a formidable insect civilization that far surpassed Man's paltry brain and weapons!" A fairly trite premise that made a fairly trite film. I suspect this early Malzberg is not top-notch.
- Robert J. Randisi, Lancaster's Orphans. Western. "It certainly wasn't what Lancaster had expected. When he rode into Council Bluffs, he thought he thought he would just stop at the bar for a beer. How could he know he'd ride right into the middle of a lynching? Lancaster couldn't let an innocent man be hanged, but when the smoke cleared and the lynching was stopped, a bystander lay dying on the ground, caught in the crossfire. With his last breath he asked Lancaster to take care of the people who had been depending on him -- a wagon train filled with women and children on their way to California!" Randisi can always be counted on for a crisp, entertaining story.
Sunday, November 20, 2016
TED TALK: SCIENCE VS. WONDER
The more we learn about our world, our universe, and ourselves, the more we stand in awe. Here's Robin Ince, host of The Infinite Monkey Cage.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9sa2ZAqHl0
Saturday, November 19, 2016
SECRETS OF YOUNG BRIDES #6 (NOVEMBER 1957)
Question: Why does a romance comic aimed at young girls have a full-page ad on the inside front cover for male bodybuilding courses?
Answer: Dunno.
Once you get past that ad, there a little note with the Comics Code Authority seal that ensures you that this comic book meets "the high standards of morality and good taste required by the code." Good to know as we enter the first story, "My Sister's Beau."
So Clint Foley started seeing Carol's older sister five years ago when the was working on a federal dam project; Carol was fourteen and her sister was twenty and Carol had a big crush on Clint. When the job was over, Clint moved off but kept writing Carol's sister. She, however, had little interest in Clint and married someone else. Carol began writing to Clint, pretending to be her sister. Carol is now nineteen and Clint is finally coming back to see her...er, her sister. When Clint comes back he immediately goes into a passionate clinch with Carol. Carol confesses who she really is and Clint confesses her knew all along and they go into another passionate clinch. The moral of this story, I guess, is that a five-relationship build on deceit from both parties is a solid foundation for a happy future. Also, if Clint knew that it was Carol who was writing him beginning when she was fourteen, doesn't that raise a few warning flags about Clint. Shouldn't he be on a sex offender list, or something?
Helen, the main character in the next story, "Rich Man's Bride," has been groomed since birth for marriage to wealth. Doesn't matter who the guy is, as long as he has money, everything's jake. When rich boy and all around cad tries to put the moves on Helen, the neighborhood beat cop, Frank, comes to the rescue. Soon, Helen is head over heels with Frank ("He's kind to children. He's brave. He's my idea of a man."), but Helen's mother doesn't approve. Then she does. Why? Dunno. Doesn't make sense to me. The end.
In "The Fragile Heart," young Betty was jilted at the altar by Alan (that cad!). Betty mopes around for two months, then old friend Dutch Joe comes home after a high steel construction job and persuades Betty to go with him on the town. As friends, of course. Betty kisses dutch Joe goodnight and -- KAPOW! WHAM! ZOWIE! -- sparks fly and Betty realizes she's macking for Dutch Joe big time. Embarrassed, she runs into the house and doesn't come out until Dutch Joe has gone off to another construction job. Remember Alan (that cad!)? Turns out he was really a cad. He realized that Betty was in love with somebody else without knowing it. So Alan is not a cad, just a weak-kneed coward. Betty realizes that she does love Dutch Joe and goes off to get him, never wondering what kind of man would have 'Dutch Joe" for a nickname.
Next, we meet Hedi, "The Forgotten Fiance." She's engaged to Jon but they have to keep it a secret for four months because (according to Jon) of his Dad's will. Jon's Uncle Walter controls the estate until Jon turns 25. Uncle Walter shows up with Betty, a beautiful redhead, in tow and begins fixing her up with Jon. Hedi gets jealous. Jon kisses Betty or, did Betty kiss Jon? Hedi has enough and calls the engagement off. Jon admits he's a spineless coward but he loves Hedi, so he tells Uncle Walter where to get off with the money. Walter chuckles, hehehe, and says it was all a test. Jon gets Hedi and the estate money. Geez. This one makes even less sense than the previous stories.
Josh Bailey is hired as a salesman for Kate Leeds' father's firm in "You're Fired, Darling." You can guess what happened in this one. They fall in love, but Josh is a terrible sales man. He is, however, a damned good writer. Kate fires Josh and avoids him for months. Over that time, she has convinced several people to back Josh's play. It's a hit. Hollywood is nibbling. Josh finds out what Kate has done for him ("You framed me, Kate! You fired me right to the top of the heap! I've had a Hollywood offer already! I'm a success!") Following this deluge of exclamation points, they kiss and Kate accepts his offer of marriage.. My mind has been officially boggled.
Nobody in these stories was actually a bride, young or otherwise.
The comic book ends with a full-page ad for the Slim-A-Waist girdle, although the word girdle or corset is never mentioned, but it does have "seven brand new exclusive features takes inches off your waistline. Provide vital back support!" And the inside back cover has a full-page ad for another body-building outfit; this time it's Charles Atlas. **sigh**
Anyway, here's your chance to get in touch with the romantic in you. Enjoy.
http://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=66009
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