The New Space Saucer Game!

The Frisbee was one of those near perfect toys when I was a kid. It was relatively cheap, it was relatively easy to use (if you had a sibling or buddy to play with) and being made from space-age plastic it didn't hurt if by chance it konked you on the noggin. The Frisbee is such a simple toy that marketing it can be a hardship I suppose. And that brings us to the "Pluto Platter". 

It began with any kind of lid that might serve the purpose, but then pie pans seemed a better option. Later the new technology of injected plastic molding gave birth to the "Flyin' Saucer" or "Pluto Platter". This clearly was intended to take advantage of the UFO flying saucer craze in the late 50's when these things were just getting off the ground. Some folks called them "Frisbees" after a famous pie tin maker and eventually the toy company Wham-O adopted that name as well. 

Since that time, the flying disc has been a mainstay entertainment on college campuses and other places young folks seek distractions. As we've seen many times, even lower orders of animals such as dogs can be trained to play. I'm not sure what the aliens think of their famous interstellar designs being co-opted and exploited by the kings of capitalism, but that's the risk they took when they came here. 

For much, much more on this important toy check out this link to the Flying Disc Museum. 

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This Island Earth!

This 1955 epic is a real entertainer. The colors are bright and inviting, the characters are vivid and lively, and the plot is slick and moves at a pretty neat clip. The story is as hare brained as it's possible to be, but the momentum keeps you from questioning too much what's going on.


The story begins nicely with the introduction of Cal Meacham, a handsome scientist and fancy jet pilot played by the booming-voiced Rex Reason. His jet is saved by a mysterious green ray and almost immediately he and his scientist buddy find themselves confronted with the mystery of Unit 16, a secret bunch of tech suppliers who seem to have unworldly stuff. Meacham builds an "Interositer", an all purpose communication device which puts him in contact with the big-brained Exeter played by Jeff Morrow. Next thing we know he's on a mysterious auto-piloted plane and landing in Georgia in a big house full of scientist big brains and Faith Domergue who plays Dr.Ruth Adams. They end up discovering they are working on atomic power secrets for aliens who then tear up stakes and destroy the lot of them save for Meacham and Adams who get hauled through space to Metaluna, a planet under constant attack. There things get screwier and screwier as Metalunans and Mutants alike try to make their lives even more miserable.


The story clearly wants to be taken seriously, but can't really in the end. The aliens seem to want to invade Earth. If that's the case then what they're doing with the scientists seems pointless. They seem to be just doing things to justify a movement in the plot and that hurts the ability of the viewer to invest. It just never makes sense in that kind of way.

Exeter is an alien who seems sympathetic to humans but it's unclear why that is. Most Metalunans seem to be cold and so what happens to them doesn't matter much, at least emotionally. The humans too seem somehow distant and it limits the ability of the audience to invest and really care. Even the obligatory monster, the Metalunan Mutant is introduced in the final reel and seems a meager threat to everyone involved.


This is a great movie to have fun with, but as thought-provoking sci-fi it falls a bit short. It's a dandy romp though and very much recommended.

 NOTE: This is a Dojo Revised Classic Post. 

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Invaders From Mars!

I watched both the 1953 original and the 1986 remake of Invaders From Mars.  I've long owned outdated VHS copies of both, but I don't think I've ever watched them both back-to-back. My VHS copy of the classic movie by Cameron Menzies was pretty grainy and not really all that much fun to stumble through. I long ago replaced it with a DVD version several months ago, and also I picked up the Tobe Hooper version as part of a Midnite Movies double feature. To be frank, I don't really have much affection for the remake. I saw it in the theater, but don't really have any strong memory of it. Getting it on VHS many years ago was simple completism. I've watched it once I think. 

But I have to say watching them back-to-back really opens up both movies a bit for me. For one thing my DVD copy comes with two versions, a British cut and a longer American cut. When I got the DVD I watched the British cut and the picture quality seemed not unlike my VHS copy. I was pretty disappointed. But this time I watched the American cut, and this is the cleanest version of the movie I've ever seen. It's really a feast of images. Tobe Hooper made his version out of an affection for the original, but sadly the pacing of the 1986 movie is too slow. Stuff happens but the editing of scenes is relaxed and there are things we don't need to spend so much time on that make the story almost stop in places. The stuff at the school for one just gets on my nerves. They needed to stay focused on David's home and his parents more. But that would've meant getting rid of much of Louise Fletcher's stuff and she's one of the most entertaining things in this movie, her over-the-top villainy is fun to watch. 

There is a weird dreamlike logic to the original, supported by the high-art style they used. The movie has a steady beat to it as the story gets a bit more peculiar all the way through right up to the rumble through the Martian tunnels. The fact they had to make do with men-in-suits and other limited effects put the premium on the story and the pacing. Sadly, Hooper is able to use more elaborate physical effects and that seems to slow things down too. You build a wonderful set, and you want to show it off, I get that, but it's to the detriment of the story. I will say it's always refreshing to see any movie that relies so heavily on physical effects for its monsters though, as I'm about tired of the endless CG critters we get nowadays. 

I really found the story of young David compelling in the original this time, more than ever and the themes of the story, ripe with paranoia really shine through. The death of the little girl was shocking and gave the story a weight it would otherwise lack. The deaths in the Hooper version were less involving, more played for humor even in spots. None of that in the original. It was creepy. I like that Jimmy Hunt, the actor who played the original little boy "David" in 1953 showed up as an adult policeman in the 1986 movie. That kind of insider stuff is cute and doesn't hurt the story if it's done quietly. It's not like Stan Lee showing up and taking you out of the movie, just a hidden gem for folks in on the secret. So I find I like the original a lot more than I ever imagined I would. The remake is still unremarkable.

 NOTE: This is a Dojo Revised Classic Post. 

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Not Of This Earth!

Not Of This Earth is a horror movie pretending to be a science fiction movie, and those are movies I usually like quite a bit. I like this one too, but being a Roger Corman low-budget affair, it has its weaknesses of course.

Not among those weaknesses is the vivacious Beverly Garland, an actress I first encountered on TV's My Three Sons and was startled a bit to discover had such a racy past in small-budget films. She plays a nurse in this one dispatched to tend to a weirdo in sunglasses who spends a few minutes most days stealing blood, sometimes from living people. Garland when she's on the screen though is the show and has a particularly erotic stockings scene just about in the middle of the movie.

Alongside Garland is Paul Birch who plays the part of the alien vampire. He's come to Earth through a dimensional doorway to find a place for his dying people to live as their home world though this is a bit confused. He knocks you out with his wicked eyes then sucks out your blood with a hand machine he carries in a metal briefcase. He's a demanding S.O.B. and has Garland and some gangster punk working for him while he wanders around killing people.

Often in these movies the authorities are inefficient or ineffective and that proves to be the case here. While there is a lot of furious rumbling across the streets and parkland grass on motorcycles, the cops despite having inside information (one cop's girl friend is Garland) they seem unable to understand the nature of the threat or to be able to locate it until the very end. Particularly memorable is the debut appearance of Dick Miller in a Corman flick, who plays an unlucky vacuum cleaner salesman.

Aside from some terrifically painful looking eye lenses that Birch has to wear at times, there are few special effects in this one. Paul Blaisdell though did supply a transportation booth which has some spinning knobs (which apparently, they forgot to turn on all the time) and a little flying beastie which looks like a cross between a beach ball and a swimming cap. But this show ain't about special effects, if you buy the story, it's because of the acting and for a movie of this stripe the acting is well above average in most instances.

NOTE: This is a Dojo Revised Classic Post. 

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Attack Of The 50 Foot Woman!

Attack of the Fifty Foot Woman is a fun old-fashioned B-movie, maybe the quintessential B-movie. Starring Allison Hayes and the vivacious Yvette Vickers, this movie a true sci-fi soap opera. It's also, as it turns out, a movie about spaceships and alien intervention. 

The story begins when a rich woman (Hayes) (she owns a very large diamond) suspects her derelict husband (William Hudson) of philandering. Her suspicions are true, and further the woman has a pretty severe drinking problem. So one night while looking for her wandering spouse she sees a glowing globe from which emerges a space giant who terrifies her when he reaches for her throat. (He wants the diamond which can apparently power his ship.)

No one believes her since she is such a lush. But she and her hubby go looking again and find the giant, the hubby then abandons his wife to the giant's mercies. He runs back to his floosie girlfriend (Vickers) and the two decide to skip town. Meanwhile the woman shows up back at home unconscious and in the process of becoming a giant. Doctors attempt to treat her and the sheriff investigates and finds the space ship. But all this comes to naught when the woman goes on a rampage looking for her philandering husband and seeks revenge on her female rival.

The movie is surprisingly well acted, and a strong cast can save even the most ludicrous premise. Any yarn, no matter how outlandish can be made credible if the people delivering the story sell it. And these folks do, in spades. That's what makes this one rise above the limited special effects and the low budget. It's a story that resonates, it's weird but it resonates.

I happened to watch the movie this time with a pretty decent commentary by Tom Weaver and Yvette Vickers. The latter offered up some great stories and was exceedingly pleasant throughout. Actors are usually awful on these things, but Vickers was great. 

Highly recommended.

NOTE: This is a Dojo Revised Classic Post. 

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The Shaver Mystery Book Six!

It's a good thing that this sixth volume of The Shaver Mystery was not the first I read, or likely I'd have not been so fascinated with the concept. This is easily the most lackluster of the entire series to date. 

"The Dream Makers" by Richard S. Shaver appears in a 1958 issue of Fantastic. This is some years past the height of the Shaver Mystery heyday, but still very much in the living memory of readers of that time. Sadly this novel isn't likely to rekindle the flame. The hero of our story is "Richard Shaver" and we spend at least the first half of the story following him around in the days of his callow youth when he was hearing voices sometimes but paying relatively little attention. It's a rather dreary story of getting by and so I'm inclined to think much of it is based on some truth. In the latter parts of the story suddenly Shaver is transformed via his dreams into a Nordic hero battling the Midgard Serpent and a bunch of shadowy villains who want to destroy the people of the caves yet again. He gets the girl as always but she's a rather poorly described dame at best. Not Shaver's best stuff by any means. 

(Richard S. Shaver and Raymond Palmer)

"A Defense" by Shaver was commissioned by the editor of Fantastic and he plods through his notions which he asserts are facts about the underground civilizations which thrive beneath us and who regularly used ancient tech to fire rays of all kinds into our heads to make us act out, often in violent ways. It's no more believable in this essay than before, but Shaver adopts a tone of little caring at this point of convincing anyone. 

"The Facts Behind The Mystery" by Raymond A. Palmer is a very good essay detailing just how he came into possession of Shaver's manuscripts and how those were first translated into wild but fascinating yarns for Amazing Stories. The immediate sales success of the Shaver Mystery tales is what made the stuff last long enough to cause a sensation. 

"The Land of Kui" is a unusually short Shaver story which tells how the legendary land of Kui was ultimately destroyed because of the insane behavior of a mad despot. The story is told with an aura of myth and is not bad, but has little in the way of real involvement for the reader. I oo like the cover art, though I'm not sure what it has to do with the story. 

The volume closes out with yet another look at "Mantong", the peculiar alphabet which presumably allows the reader to divine meaning in a host of languages and points to an earlier progenitor. It's a cool conceit, but not very exciting. 

All in all the dullest volume in the series to date. Whatever one might thing of Shaver's work, I wouldn't have thought to label it "dull" until now. We'll see if thing pick up in the next tome. 

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The First Kingdom - Destiny!

The First Kingdom Volume Five - Destiny is not like the ones which have come before. "Destiny" is not a reprint, but like "The Space Explorers Club" rather new material produced by Jack Katz in this century. I had hoped this material which might shed light on the epic Katz produced between 1974 and 1986, but I think I'm disappointed. Like the previous volume of new material I again miss the visceral tits-out energy of the original stuff. Katz is much more restrained here, with a lighter style that does its job of telling a somewhat mundane story, at least compared to the sagas which have come before. 

The story is a pretty simple one this time. A family man comes into the knowledge that he is not who he thought he was. He is in fact the last descendant of a special family which possesses the capacity to decipher the meaning of the universe and the meaning of life itself from an ancient artifact which has tumbled down through the centuries to finally arrive into his hands. A story we learn at length. He becomes obsessed with this new mission and is torn about his obligations to his family. He is not helped in that several sects of people seek to capture the artifact and him and so learn the secrets for themselves. They seek him throughout the story and he spends much of it hidden away attempting to reach enlightenment. There is betrayal and steadfast loyalty on display in the story which ramble along.

I was much disappointed in this story which is a chore to read actually. The actual meaning of life is not that different from what The Matrix movies had to say and just as in those flickers reams of gobbledygook is used to say it. This story seems to have no direct connection to story from decades ago. Frankly, after reading the entire saga now, I'd have to recommend that most folks will be quite satisfied by the first four volumes which present the original The First Kingdom saga told between 1974 and 1986. The final two Titan volumes add little to the mix as far as I can tell. And in fact take away from the total reading experience of the saga. It's a pity, because I admire that Katz wanted to add to his tale. I just which what he'd added actually enhanced the experience. It doesn't. 

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