Doctor Cyclops Goes To Riverdale!

Dr. Cyclops is an intriguingly titled move from the 1940's. I'd long wanted to see it when I found it included with some Universal monster flicks from the 1950's which I dearly adore such as The Monolith Monsters and The Tarantula. The flicker features a mad scientist isolated in the Amazon jungle who is experimenting with making things small and considers the arrival of a party of strangers a good fortune for his research. Albert Dekker comes across as properly mad in this one. 

Here's a surprising and also delightful 1960's sci-fi cover by John Giunta for the seventh and final issue of Archie's Tales Calculated to Drive You Bats. It offers up a slightly more serious run-in between a trio of explorers and a calculating and cruel three-eyed scientist. Below is the splash page.

And here's a link to read the compete story with art by Archie mainstay Dan DeCarlo.

The story is clearly an unofficial adaptation of sorts of the classic sci-fi movie Doctor Cyclops which also pits a gang of explorers against a mad scientist who wants to shrink them down for his own purposes. His name is the result of his giant status as well as his exceedingly limited eyesight which makes his domination of his tiny victims all the more difficult.

This story, clearly inspired by Homer's The Odyssey was written by Henry Kuttner for inclusion in a 40's issue of Thrilling Wonder Stories. Kuttner adapted the story from the film script. The movie was directed by Ernest B. Shoedsack, who had in years previous directed King Kong. The movie has the distinction of being the first American horror film produced in full Technicolor. All in all, a nice diversion. 

That story proved popular enough to end up eventually in this 60's paperback anthology, which thought enough of the story to headline it, but not feature it in the cover art. A strange choice, I think. 

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Big Book Of Monsters!

The Baen's Big Book of Monsters is an absolute hoot. I snatched it off the racks when I first clapped eyes on it. It's full of vintage stories of giant monsters with new material sandwiched between. The new stuff I can take or leave, but the old stories, many from Weird Tales are some I've long wanted to read.

Highest on that list was "Ooze" by Anthony Rud, which appeared in the very first issue of Weird Tales. This yarn which slowly reveals its menace is well crafted though any monster fan will see it coming a mile off.

Many of the stories in this collection seem to have been written to order because of an evocative cover. That's certainly the case with Curt Siodmak's "The Eggs from Lake Tanganyika".

That seems to be the case with Murray Leinster's "Planet of Doom" also.

Henry Kuttner's "Beauty and the Beast" works hard to create a story which will justify this cover of a dinosaur crashing into the Captiol. What I didn't realize is that this story almost certainly inspired Ray Harryhausen's 20 Million Miles to Earth, though there is no mention made of that here.

Lovecraft's "The Dunwich Horror" is included and I'm always ready for another go at this seminal and potent monster story. Likewise "The Valley of the Worm" by Robert E. Howard which is on hand.

Also included are "The Shining Ones" by Arthur C. Clarke, "The Island of the Ud" by William Hope Hodgson, "The Monster God of Mammurth" by Edmond Hamilton (his first published tale), and "Greenface" by James Schmitz.

Highly recommended.

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Doctor Triclops!

Here's a surprising and also delightful sci-fi cover by John Giunta for the seventh and final issue of Archie's Tales Calculated to Drive You Bats. It offers up a slightly more serious run-in between a trio of explorers and a calculating and cruel three-eyed scientist. Below is the splash page.

And here's a link to read the compete story with art by Archie mainstay Dan DeCarlo.

The story is clearly an unofficial adaptation of sorts of the classic sci-fi movie Doctor Cyclops which also pits a gang of explorers against a mad scientist who wants to shrink them down for his own purposes. His name is the result of his giant status as well as  his exceedingly limited eyesight.

This story, clearly inspired by Homer's The Odyssey was adapted by Henry Kuttner for inclusion in a 40's issue of Thrilling Wonder Stories. Kuttner adpated the story from the film script.

That story proved popular enough to end up eventually in this 60's paperback collection, which thought enough of the story to headl line it, but not feature it in the cover art. Strange.

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Tales Of Frankenstein!

Having finished up the space opera on the Sci-Fi TV collection, I shifted my attention to the other series and one-shots contained on the disks. I was intrigued by Tales of Frankenstein, a 1958 pilot episode that quick research informed me was not picked up and existed as a single offbeat jewel from the time when I was a mere one year old.

The show starts up pretty dang effectively with a dark stormy night and Frankenstein in the middle of creating his infamous creature. The monster comes to awareness but having the brain of a murderer immediately wants to kill Frankenstein and only a surge of electricity downing the behemoth saves the Baron.

We then cut to the town and a couple who show up. The man, a sculptor is mortally ill and he and his wife have come to seek Frankenstein's help. They knock on his door, but after some polite chatter he rejects their plea, but it seems he might have alternate plans for them. The man dies a few days later, and Frankenstein pays the gravedigger to leave the grave open. Frankenstein wastes little time rummaging around in the grave getting the non-criminal brain he requires.


The wife though discovers the crime and confronts the drunken gravedigger who sends her to Frankenstein. She arrives just in time to meet her husband in his new body, a fact that drives him to a rampage which ultimately takes him to his grave site. She keeps him from killing Frankenstein, but then he casts himself into the grave. Frankenstein begins to cover it over when the cops arrive. But Frankenstein is undeterred and suggests his work is not over.

But it was, as I've said this pilot was not picked up.

The show is only a half-hour, but its brisk and effective for what it was. The acting is pretty good, especially strong is the wife. The only break down in the story was the very end when for reasons that didn't make sense for me, she rejects her husband's new form, apparently realizing that they wished for something they shouldn't have. It should make sense, but I don't buy it somehow given how strong her devotion to him had been and how frank and honest she'd been in the story. She didn't strike me as the kind who would let questions of vanity rule the day so. But I guess the story had to end.

What really blew me away though were the credits. Curt Siodmak was the director of this mini-epic. And the script was by Henry Kuttner and her wife C.L.Moore, all three of these folks science fiction heavyweights. It's to noted also that this was the last year of Kuttner's life and so Tales of Frankenstein must've been among his final projects. With the imprint of Hammer Films on the production, the pedigree of this show is pretty impressive.

The first episode is well worth seeing. And you can do just that by checking out the Youtube embeds below. Enjoy!








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