The Town That Dreaded Sundown!

1977's The Town That Dreaded Sundown is a prototype slasher movie which pre-dates Halloween and also lays claim to be based on true events. As it turns out (no surprise) that claim is somewhat suspect, but who really believes that palaver anyway in post-Kardashian America. This movie is another directorial effort by the guy who brought us The Legend of Boggy Creek a few years earlier.

The story is in fact based on a real crime spree during the late winter and early spring of 1946 dubbed the "Texarcana Moonlight Murders". Couples were attacked and in many instances sadistically killed while spooning in sundry lovers lanes around the area and later an attack is made on a local home. The killer was dubbed "The Phantom Killer" and he was never captured nor identified.

The movie sets up a similar scenario, but is limited early on and later with the casting of amateurs in not only bit parts but key roles. Andrew Prine plays a deputy sheriff who comes close to capturing the killer early on, but he appears in some scenes to be the only professional on set. Later he is joined by Ben Johnson who plays a version of real-life Texas Ranger M.T. "Lone Wolf" Gonzaullas. The pair move the flick along briskly when they are together, but again whole affair is shackled by amateurism in key sequences. Later Dawn Wells appears as one of the victims, but that's about it for name talent for this movie.

The Phantom Killer is though reasonably scary and made more so because the movie smartly doesn't allow much if any speculation about his identity and we are left with an enigmatic sadist who seems to derive weird excitement from stabbing, shooting, and gnawing his victims. We always wears a gunny sack over his head evoking a dreaded reminder of the Klan and also making it seem bizarre as his quickened breathing makes the sack quiver. The actor (Bud Davis) and the director get an amazing amount of expression from a guy with a bag on his head, to their credit.

One thing about this low-budget affair produced and directed by Charles B. Pierce, is that Pierce himself plays the character A.C. "Sparkplug" Benson, a hapless cop who adds amazingly inappropriate comedy relief to a movie which desperately does not require it. The decision to add lighter scenes baffles me, as any tension built up in very detailed murder sequences which do have a sense of dread to them is demolished by this character who does inane things accompanied by a soundtrack which diddle along with him.

In the final analysis The Town That Dreaded Sundown is not nearly as compelling as it ought to be, but memorable it truly is.

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The Legend Of Boggy Creek!

The Legend of Boggy Creek is a fondly remember favorite. I saw it in the theater many many moons ago as a boy and it left a big impression. Certain scenes linger in my memory and of course have loomed larger there than they existed in reality. That is only enhanced by the weirdly graceful image of the creature rendered by Ralph McQuarrie for the classic poster. (The creature never looks that good in the movie, in fact he hardly looks like anything since the creators smartly keep him in the shadows and out of sight almost all the time.)

It didn't take but a few minutes of watching the 1972 movie again as an adult to realize of course that my boyhood impressions were more poignant than the reality of the film. The movie purports to be a documentary of sorts detailing the existence of the Fouke Monster, a bigfootish creature who lived in the dank creeks and woods around the Arkansas town of Fouke.

Shot on the exceedingly cheap by Charles B. Pierce, this is actually a silent movie with dialogue doped in later (and with little subtlety). The first hour or so of the show details the earliest sightings of the creature, mostly a series of largely harmless sightings in the early 50's and throughout the 60's. Salted in with these musings are many images of the natural world around Fouke. Actually the first five minutes or so of the movie are fascinating as the camera lingers and lingers on scenes of the natural world, evoking a resolute peace and quiet which ultimately is broken by a strange cry in the distance. Wonderful way to bring the viewer into the flick.

But the movie's fame rests largely I'd suspect on the last half hour which details one series of weirdly creepy encounters between the Fouke Monster and the Ford families in 1971. It is these encounters which have lingered in my memory for so many decades.

The creature slinks around an isolated home occupied by two mothers and their children (the menfolk are at work) and attempts to enter the home but fails to do so. The women flee but return and some nights later when two male relatives are visiting the creature returns and becomes much more aggressive, even at one point thrusting a furry arm into a window. (This is the moment I remember with so much gusto after all this time.) The husbands return and a cruel game of cat and mouse ensues. Eventually the police are called and there is even something akin to a battle when the creature attacks and injures one of the men.

The show ends as you'd suspect with the open question of the creature's continued existence. Like all of these movies, this one proves nothing but merely offers up some seemingly legit testimony and raises some questions.

The low-key nature of the narration really adds to the flavor of The Legend of Boggy Creek. The narrator is Vern Steirman and his calm and warm voice delivering the words of scripter Earl E. Smith give the proceedings a matter-of-fact  and marginally nostalgic quality which succeeds in making it all sound so reasonable. And the performances, most by amateurs add some indescribable nuance to the documentary nature of the movie. Also for reasons no one really fully understands there are several little songs sprinkled throughout the movie. Check this out for a sample.

The version I picked up was produced by the Cheezy Flicks folks and I've found their productions to be full of fun and flavor, loaded with nifty extras which try (in this case at least) to evoke some of the character of the vintage drive-in experience.

Loved seeing this one again after all these many years. Look forward to watching it again soon.

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Mainlining Three - Foxhole!

Perhaps the Mainline comic with the most verve and energy was Foxhole, a war comic produced by men who had real experience in the military. While Joe Simon had enlisted in the Coast Guard and spent all of the war stateside, Jack Kirby was overseas as an Army scout in Europe following on some weeks after the D-Day invasion. Here's an interview of sorts about his time in the war.

There's no doubt that Jack Kirby's World War II experiences shaped the rest of his life and career and it finds some early expression here in the highly emotional images which grace these covers.

Once again Simon and Kirby produced four issues for their struggling Mainline company before the title and the balance of the material was sold off to Charlton Comics in 1955.

Charlton produced three more issues of the comic erratically through 1956.

Then the title was changed to Never Again for one single issue in the summer of 1956.

That winter the title was changed again with the very next stand alone issue to Soldier and Marine Comics.

Finally the title was changed again in 1957 to Jerry Drummer and the focus was shifted from modern warfare to the history of the American Revolution.

Jerry Drummer lasted three issues until being cancelled with the eleventh issue in late 1957 bringing the original Foxhole run to an end.

But in 1963 and 1964 the pirate comics operation I.W.Publishing / Super Comics came out with three irregularly numbered issues of Foxhole.

The original Foxhole comic by Simon and Kirby was intended to have significant edge, bringing a energy and depth to the depiction of the horrors of war. As can be seen by this rejected cover for the fourth and final Mainline issue, Simon and Kirby were striving to communicated the violence of war to a broad audience. Despite the rejection of the art, I'm still struck by the amazing portraits Kirby created for the fourth issue, one of my all-time favorite comic book covers.

Next time a look at Mainline's most famous offering and some talk about why the company fell by the wayside.

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Let Them Eat Carrots!

Night of the Lepus is one of those movies you have to see to believe. Chock full of stars such as Rory Calhoun, Stuart Whitman, Deforest Kelly, and Janet Leigh this one has a gloss of seriousness which misleads the viewer.

This is one of those classic so-bad-it's-good movies, which tries with little success in trying to transform rabbits into a menacing pack of giant killers. There are a lot reasons this one falls short, but the premise is so weak its tough to recover.

Based on the satirical novel The Year of the Angry Rabbit by Russell Bradon, this movie directed by longtime Western veteran William Claxton goes out of its way to drop most of the trappings of the book save for the killer rabbits.

Structurally the movie makes a giant blunder (pun intended) when it introduces the tiger-sized rabbits less than a third of the way into the flick, leaving way too much time for the meager special effects to fill and much too long for the hapless heroes to find a way to stop the menace.

The Lepus Lounging

Just take a look at these ferocious killers as they wait out the day in a cafe. It's difficult to get too scared of a pack of bunnies who clearly seem just shy of catching a nap.

Janet Leigh, Deforest Kelly, Stuart Whitman, and Rory Calhoun

And the heroes are lame. The obligatory scientist (and his bratty daughter) played Whitman is singularly responsible for the menace which does cost dozens of lives, but gets no recrimination or blame that I can detect and in fact seems to have a pretty clear hand to order all sorts of folks (cops included) around in the finale.

Janet Leigh as the scientist's wife has to literally go out of her way to get menaced by the killer rabbits and her rescue seems wildly improbable, almost literally deus ex machina.

Of all the cast Rory Calhoun's steadfastness seems most suited to the material though he does things himself which make you scratch your head. He nonetheless keeps trucking or walking or whatever is needed.

Let me be clear, Night of the Lepus is a terrible movie -- clunky, edited with small attention to continuity, and full of absurdities. That said it does have a near compelling train-wreck aspect to it, as it's hard to take your eyes off it as it hops down the tracks.

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Miraculous!

What a great book the Mister Miracle Artist's Edition is! I've been lusting to get my Kirby-lovin' mitts on this volume for nearly a half a year, ever since I saw it advertised late last summer! It was supposed to drop in December, but it didn't. Then January went by, and then February and frankly I got the sense it had been forgotten. No news.

But suddenly it was on the list of new arrivals yesterday and I had to wait all day until I got off work to get to the local store and snatch up a copy. The over-sized volume along with its companion New Gods Artist's Edition from last summer give a "Fourth Worlder" like me utterly fresh insights into the comic epic of our time. Scott Free has never been freer, Big Barda has never been bigger, and Oberon has never been shorter.

Here are the issues contained in this tome.

I only wish we had the debut issue and the fourth issue, the last half the battle with Doctor Bedlam, but that's a minor complaint indeed. In many ways considering the offhand way original comic book art was treated back in the day, to have what we have is amazing. This book is expensive, but for me it was worth it.

Now we need The Forever People.

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The Case Of The Curious Gorilla!

Gorilla At Large is an outstanding title for a movie. Alas this 1954 (originally 3-D) effort falls short of the stellar title.

The set up is pretty basic. A small circus features a somewhat weird headline act which combines a beautiful trapeze artist Laverne (Anne Bancroft) and a seemingly vicious gorilla called "Goliath" for a thrill spectacle to go along with the usual rides and whatnot. The place is owned and run by Cyrus Miller (Raymond Burr - not yet Perry Mason and doesn't even rate a mention on the posters somehow) who also it seems is married to  Laverne and there is history galore as the circus it seems is bristling with ambitions and dashed dreams.

Into this mix come two innocents, a pair of lovebirds named Joey (Cameron Mitchell) and Audrey  (Charlotte Austin) who are just using the circus to scare up enough money to get hitched and for Joey (a Marine vet) to go to college and get his law degree. But Laverne seems to have eyes for Joey's muscles much to the chagrin of her hubby who it seems might've once upon a time had the Joey role himself, as Laverne's former husband Kovacs (Peter Whitney) still works for the circus as Goliath's trainer.
 

Throw in a few more oddball characters including weirdly Lee Marvin in a comedy relief role, and you have a  brew which bubbles along while the movie tries over and over to attack your sense with some meager 3-D gimmicks (which by definition fall flat in my dvd versions...sigh). A few murders happen and Lee J. Cobb shows up to do his turn as a small town cop trying to find out what dark secrets lie beneath the big top, and after a while he starts taking direction from the erstwhile Joey. Why Cobb doesn't smack the smart alec kid is anyone's guess, but he doesn't and I guess we're supposed to root for Joey, but I find him mostly a doofus.

Goliath is played by George Barrows, a veteran ape actor who is not terribly convincing as an ape, but certainly puts on a pretty decent character.

Barrows had played "Ro-Man", the peculiar helmet-headed alien invader in the aptly named Robot Monster from 1953,

Gorilla at Large is harmless movie with a rather impressive cast but a seriously stupid mystery which makes less sense the more you think on it.

I watched Gorilla as Large on a Midnite Movies Double Feature. The other flick was a tiresome 1981's yawner titled Mystery on Monster Island which is not worthy of an individual review (at least by me). Aside from some brief scenes by veteran Peter Cushing the movie is a large waste of time. To be fair though it does contain some of the most laughable forced perspective giant monsters I've ever seen in a professional movie.

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Judoka!

Judoka is a late 60's comic and later the name of a Brazilian hero inspired by Frank McLaughlin's Judomaster produced for Charlton Comics and now owned by DC. As you can see by the cover art below the first six issues of Judoka were reprints of Charlton's Judomaster series.

It must've been a hit, because with the seventh issue they began original adventures with a new hero named "Judoka" who had a similar skill set to the "Scarlet Smasher".

While they are written in Portuguese you might still like to sample these pages which successfully evoke the style McLaughlin had developed for his Judomaster run. To read (or at least look at) some issues try here.

Oh and by the way, Happy Birthday to Frank McLaughlin!

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