The Monstrous Dr. Crimen blends Phantom of the Opera, Frankenstein, etc

Review by Steve D. Stones

This Mexican film, The Monstrous Dr. Crimen, set in the Balkans in the 1950s, is an interesting combination of the original 1925 Phantom of The Opera with Lon Chaney, Frankenstein (1931) with Boris Karloff and House of Wax (1953) with Vincent Price. The film was made the same year as House of Wax in 1953 but not released until 1955. The film is also known as other titles of The Revived Monster, Monster and The Resurrected Monster.

Nora, played by Miroslava Stern, is a bored newspaper journalist looking for an exciting story to publish. She feels her newspaper has become too routine and passe for readers. She tells her editor, Mr. Gherasimos (Fernando Wagner) in a local cafe that her life has become boring and stupid. She wants some excitement in her life.

Gherasimos suggests to Nora that she respond to a lonely hearts classified advertisement in the newspaper of a wealthy man looking to meet a young woman. He feels this might be the opportunity she needs to write an exciting story. Nora accepts the editor's suggestion and meets a man dressed in a dark cape at a boat loading dock at 9 pm that evening. The man's face is covered in sunglasses and a black scarf as he approaches Nora. A white rose that Nora wears on her coat is quite the contrast to the man's dark appearance as she approaches him.

After establishing a trust in the dark dressed man, Nora agrees to return to his home to be put to a test. The couple drive to a cemetery. Nora becomes frightened at the dark and foggy cemetery. The dark man assures her that his house is just past the cemetery. He tells Nora that his house is where dead people live. The couple walk slowly through the cemetery.

Nora observes many life size wax figures of female models in the house, which further adds to her nervousness. All the mirrors in the house are covered. The dark dressed man reveals his name to be Herrmann Ling (Jose Maria Linares-Rivas) – a plastic surgeon who not only sculpts wax figures but also conducts experiments in his basement laboratory. Ling plays the piano for Nora as a skull sits on top of the piano. Ling's assistant Mischa (Alberto Mariscal) tells Nora that Herrmann Ling creates wax figures for nothing more than a hobby.

Nora becomes anxious to see Ling's face, but he fears her rejection. Ling claims he hides behind his disguise because of the hatred and rejection of mankind towards him. He removes the sunglasses and scarf from his face as Nora faints. His face is elongated and distorted with deep scars. Nora insists that she is not frightened by his appearance, and kisses Ling. This causes Ling to be so happy with joy that he removes all the coverings of the mirrors in the mansion.

The next day, Nora reports to Gerasimos in the cafe about her meeting with Herrmann Ling. Ling is hiding nearby behind a partition in the cafe and listening to their conversation. He feels betrayed by Nora reporting their meeting to Gerasimos. This causes Ling to be angry with rage, so he revives a corpse of a handsome young man in his laboratory to meet with Nora so that he can have her murdered.

The cemetery sequences in this film are every bit as creepy and atmospheric as any seen in classic Universal Studios monster movies from the 1930s and 40s. The Monstrous Dr. Crimen is often said to be the film that laid the foundation for many other south-of-the border Mexican horror films that followed in the 1950s. The mask unveiling scene does not pack the same punch as the unmasking scene of Lon Chaney in The Phantom of The Opera (1925), but it still sends chills up the viewer's spine. Ling's grotesque face repels the viewer with fright.

Sinister Cinema in Medford, Oregon sells The Monstrous Dr. Crimen on their Drive-In Double Feature #156 with Daughter of Horror (1955 – AKA Dementia). The Drive-In Double Feature DVD contains trailers and classic drive-in movie intermission clips between the two films. This drive-in double feature is a great treasure to have for any fan of rare, obscure horror films. Happy Viewing.

Sinister Cinema – Drive-In Double Feature #92 – A Ray Dennis Steckler Double Feature

By Steve D. Stones

Sinister Cinema is a small mom and pop movie distribution business in Medford, Oregon, that sells many obscure and long forgotten science-fiction, cult, sword & sandal, horror, exploitation and juvenile delinquent films from a forgotten era of cinema. I am greatly indebted to Sinister Cinema for many of the obscure films in my personal film library. Many of the titles they sell cannot be found anywhere else, which is one of many reasons why I always purchase films from them. One of their most interesting offerings is their “drive-in double feature” series of two films with trailers and intermission clips inserted between films on DVD format.

A particular drive-in double feature favorite of mine from Sinister Cinema that I have in my collection is Drive-In Double Feature #92, which is a Ray Dennis Steckler double feature of The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living & Became Mixed Up Zombies (1963) and The Thrill Killers (1965). Director Steckler directs and acts in both films, and goes by the screen name of Cash Flagg.

If Steckler continues to be discussed for decades to come, it is likely that The Incredibly Strange Creatures who Stopped Living & Became Mixed Up Zombies will be the film that he is most known for. The title of the film is a spoof-parody of Stanley Kubrick's film – Dr. Strangelove (How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb). In this film, Steckler plays an unemployed romantic named Jerry who takes his girlfriend Angela to a carnival on a double date with friends. Jerry becomes obsessed and falls in love with a gypsy dancer named Carmelita at the carnival and is later hypnotized into becoming a crazed killer by a fortune teller. In one scene, he murders an alcoholic dancer, played by his beautiful wife at the time – Carolyn Brandt. Cinematographers Laszlo Kovacs and Vilmos Zsigmond, who went on to become Oscar winners for other films, worked on this film. The film is also known as The Teenage Psycho Meets Bloody Mary, and its condensed title of – The Incredibly Strange Creatures. The film is regarded as the first “Monster Musical.

Next up on this great DVD double feature, we have Steckler's third film from1964 – The Thrill Killers. Here Steckler plays a thrill killer named Mort “Mad Dog” Click, who kills a man in his car with a gun while hitchhiking. Click is meeting with his brother Herbie (Herb Robins) and two escaped psychos from a local insane asylum. Meanwhile, struggling actor Joe Saxon (Brick Bardo) continues to promise his sexy wife Liz, played by Liz Renay, that he'll make it as an actor someday. Liz is tired of his promises, so she leaves him to go to her sister's diner nearby. Liz and her sister are held up and terrorized at the diner by Herbie and the two escaped psychos. The psychos have just come from killing a young couple – played by Steckler's wife Carolyn Brandt and Ron Burr. The closing fight sequences and chase sequence of Steckler being chased on a horse down a rough road by Titus Moede on a sheriff's motorcycle are amazing and well done for a low-budget film. Actor Herb Robins went on to direct his own cult film in 1977 – The Worm Eaters. Be on the lookout for actor Arch Hall Sr. in The Thrill Killers, who directed the caveman epic - Eegah in 1962 – starring his son – Arch Hall Jr.

If you're a collector of old, obscure and forgotten films like me – you don't want to miss the drive-in double features offered for sale by Sinister Cinema. Some of the other drive-in double-feature DVDs offered by Sinister Cinema are – Drive-In Double Feature #4: Attack of The Giant Leeches and A Bucket of Blood, Drive-In Double Feature #140: I Eat Your Skin and Beach Girls And The Monster, Drive-In Double Feature #163: The Split (aka The Manster) and Screaming Skull, along with many other double feature titles for sale. Many of these double features are paired up together as they originally played at drive-in theaters. Happy viewing!

The Embalmer features, sans irony, a murdering madman

By Steve D. Stones

The Embalmer originally played on a double-bill in drive-ins in 1966 with the Barbara Steele film The She Beast. It was later put on a triple bill in the early 1970s with the Ted V. Mikels classic The Corpse Grinders and The Undertaker and  His Pals. The Sinister Cinema DVD print of The Embalmer contains an interesting trailer for the triple bill encouraging movie patrons to sign a certificate of assurance guaranteeing to be of healthy and sound mind, and to not hold the theatre management liable for any heart conditions suffered while viewing The Embalmer. This was a clever gimmick to draw patrons into the theatre. A nurse was also on attendance to take the blood pressure of movie patrons.

A maniac dressed in a hooded monk’s robe and skull mask (similar to the mask used by The Crimson Ghost in the 1947 serial) is kidnapping young beautiful girls, draining their blood and injecting them with a serum to preserve their beauty forever. He puts their bodies on display in glass cases in his underground hideout in the catacombs under the city of Venice in Italy.

A young newspaper reporter is determined to solve the case of the missing girls. He helps a tour group find their hotel, and later guides them around the city. He falls in love with the leader of the tour group named Maureen.

Meanwhile, The Embalmer is busy kidnapping and drowning young girls by pulling them into a canal above the catacombs. He seems to have a taste for brunettes. An archaeologist discovers the Embalmer’s hideout. The Embalmer kills him and places his body in a coffin used as a stage prop for a local music club. Patrons at the music club are horrified when they witness the corpse of the archaeologist fall out of the upright coffin during a performance.

One of the girls from the tour group becomes the Embalmer’s next victim. Maureen is determined to find the girl. She enters the apartment of the hotel manager and discovers a secret passage to the catacombs through the fireplace. She discovers the Embalmer’s hideout in the catacombs. He chases after her as the young reporter hears her screams and comes to her rescue. The Embalmer and the reporter struggle in a fight. The reporter is able to remove the skull mask of the Embalmer to discover he is the hotel manager.

What I find so clever about this film is that the mask and identity of the Embalmer is not shown to the audience until the end of the film when Maureen discovers his hideout. Up until this point in the film, we only see the backside of the Embalmer as he hovers over his victims to inject them with a serum. Many clever point of view shots are shown of the Embalmers legs as he is walking to sneak up on his victims. This helps to build up tension and suspense.

Since The Embalmer is an Italian horror film, it is dubbed in English for American audiences. However, this does not distract from the film in any way. Both Alpha Video (oldies.com) and Sinister Cinema sell The Embalmer on DVD. Both prints seem to be of equal quality, and likely come from the same source material. I recommend that you view The Embalmer together with another Italian horror classic, such as Castle of Blood or Terror Creatures From The Grave. Enjoy!

Queen of Blood a decent B sci-fi film of the '60s

By Doug Gibson

Not many know it, but the 1960s was a fertile field for low-budget science fiction space operas. Like 1970s slasher films, the sci-fi genre had not been co-opted by A studios yet. There was a wide variety of low budget scifi, running the gamut from Edgar Ulmer to Hugo Grimaldi to David Hewitt and even Mario Bava.

I'd say among the best of the lot was Bava's Planet of the Vampires, the worst including Space Probe Taurus and Hewitt's Wizard of Mars, although that kitschy film is still a lot of fun. Other mediocre offerings of low-budget scifi include The Human Duplicators, and also that silly film with Richard Kiel as an oafish monster that miniaturized spaceman overpower, when they're not making out with teeny alien women (can't recall the title). Hewitt's Journey To the Center of Time isn't too bad, though, despite its five and dime budget.

Somewhere in the middle, with a definite tilt toward the positive, is the 1966 scifi "Queen of Blood," which you can watch on Amazon Prime or buy as "Planet of Blood" from Sinister Cinema. As you can see above from the green alien woman, it has one creepy monster alien. I use the term "alien" because I think, not unreasonably, that this film played some inspiration for the eventual film "Alien." Our title monster is on a space ship with several astronauts, including an earth woman, and victims get picked off in solitary fashion.

So, the plot: Earth has discovered communications with aliens. The head of all this is a slumming Basil Rathbone, who chews the scenery well as a scientist/administrator who regards gathering and storing information on aliens as more important that the personal welfare of human astronauts, or frankly the earth's future. Speaking of astronauts, a couple of them are played by star John Saxon and future bigger star Dennis Hopper. The obligatory love interest female astronaut, and these films usually had 'em, was played by Judi Meredith.

Once earth learns that the aliens are in distress, earth sends some assistance. Eventually, our human astronauts discover a mysterious colorful (in the hue sense) alien woman (Florence Marley) who is as mentioned, creepy to the max. She doesn't talk, has a smile that would suit Medusa and shies away from any contact. While the astronauts are separated, she preys one the unlucky one, hypnotizing them and sucking out all their blood. The others discover their colleagues dead and the Queen of Blood asleep, with blood trickling from her mouth. She's satiated, until she wakes up again to feed.

Although on my first watch of the film I wished we could learn more about the alien, maybe have her speak, on second viewing I realized that keeping her silently mysterious, even after she's revealed as a killer adds to the sinister themes. Why is she doing this? Is she even aware of its evil, or is it normal behavior among her planet?

I won't give away any more of the plot except to point out that the film does extend beyond the action and horror to illustrate the callousness of scientific obsessives who care far more about keeping the blood-sucking aliens alive than the astronauts in their care. Rathbone is the chief example of this sentiment in the film.

Queen of Blood is a fun, at times shocking 1960s' offering. It was released through a larger studio, MGM, and made a lot of money, although the film has the look of a lower-budget offering. Saxon is good as the chief astronaut and Hopper exudes the charm that more audiences would discover.

Watch the trailer below and check this out if you haven't seen it.

The People Who Own The Dark - A Post-Apocalyptic Nightmare

By Steve D. Stones

A group of rich capitalists and military men meet in the cellar of an old European castle to take part in a strange cult ritual conducted by a beautiful woman who lives in the castle. The men sit at a table in masks and are instructed to drink a potion mixed with wine while surrounded by young half dressed girls chained in shackles. As they drink their wine, an earthquake shakes the room tremendously.

After the quake, the group discovers that a nuclear holocaust has occurred outside the castle. Citizens wander aimlessly through town in sunglasses from blindness. The group forages the town for food and supplies.  Some of the innocent blind are murdered by the group.

Eventually the town's blind citizens raid the castle to force the occupants out, much like the zombies in Night of The Living Dead (1968) attacking a farmhouse with survivors inside.

It's not very convincing that a nuclear holocaust has occurred as the film progresses. Buildings are never shown destroyed, and cars in the streets look as if they could have been driven right off the showroom floor of an auto dealer. Streets are not littered with debris or destruction.

Plus, the title of the film is also confusing. Who are "the people who own the dark?" Is it the occupants of the castle who took part in the cult ritual? Is it the town's blind citizens wandering around disoriented? No scenes are shown during the night time, which further confuses the viewer in wondering who "the people who own the dark" are.

Actor Paul Naschy is the only well-known actor in the film. Naschy starred in a number of 70s European horror films. He also directed a number of horror films during his career.

Sinister Cinema in Medford, Oregon sells a good print of this film, both as an individual title or as part of their Drive-In Double Feature series with another 1970s film - The House With Laughing Windows. Happy viewing.

Ismail and Abdel Meet Frankenstein AKA Have Mercy

By Doug Gibson

A while back on Plan9Crunch, we reviewed a very obscure, but out there for sale, likely illegal 1962 Mexican remake of Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein. We now bring you an even more obscure Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein likely illegal remake, from Egypt in 1954, called "Abdel and Ismail Meet Frankenstein," (although it was titled "Have Mercy" in Egypt). I actually think this film is a little superior to the Mexican ripoff, but that's not really a compliment. This film is sold via Sinister Cinema.

The film is really cheap, mostly unfunny and has a musical score that makes the score for Ed Wood's "Jail Bait" seem like Beethoven. But, to its threadbare credit, it sticks stubbornly close to the plot of Bud, Lou and Bela's film; even to the point of re-creating, with its character, the most shocking scene of the Universal classic, where Glenn Strange's monster picks up beautiful mad scientist Sandra and throws her through a window to her death. Of course, everything's cheap in this version, the window looks phony, and so on, but I was impressed they included that scene.

Anyway, Egyptian comics, and apparently stars, Ismail Yasseen and Abdel Fatah al Kasri play silly clerks in an antique store. The "Lou" type, Ismail, is romanced by a woman, Samya, who is in cahoots with a mad scientist. (Guess what, Samya wants Ismail's brain!) One night, our boys receive a delivery of a big coffin that contains a mummy that looks just like a dime store traditional Frankenstein monster. Ismail keeps seeing it, Abdel never does and eventually the mad scientist, who looks just like a dime store version of the traditional Dracula, steals the Frankenstein-like mummy.

I digress to mention that Dracula and Frankenstein monster are never mentioned, perhaps to avoid any copyright legalities? There is a wolfman, but he is the assistant to the mad scientist, and he romances the mad scientist's niece; hence the Bud and Lou film characters of Dracula's unknowing assistant, the insurance investigator, and Lon Chaney Jr,'s wolfman are covered in two characters.

To get the boys in a situation where the mad scientist and Samya can get Ismail's brain into the "mummy," the comic pair are engaged as help at a party for the mad scientist's niece. Eventually, everything moves to the same climax scenario that was so funny in Bud and Lou's version. It isn't nearly as funny in this version, and arguably not funny at all 90 percent of the time, but it's fascinating to watch this virtually nil-budget production try so hard to mimic the experts.

At the end, the mummy survives and loses his curse, so he and the niece can live happily ever after. Ismail and Abdel do their version of the Invisible Man blackout that Bud and Lou did so well. There's no lake or boat, and their last-minute visitor is the "angel of death," which sends them running wildly away as the credits start.

This is a fascinating oddity for genre fans, just as the Mexican version is, but don't watch them both in one night; no one needs the torture ... but one can survive 90 minutes of bizarre kitsch.

The Mummy and the Curse of the Jackals = cinema stinky

By Doug Gibson

Sinister Cinema has released "The Mummy and the Curse of the Jackals," a truly terrible film that was almost completed in 1969 by the Vega International, a Las Vegas-based film company. Never released to theaters, it was eventually grabbed for video by Academy Home Entertainment in 1986 -- the peak of the video era when fly-by-night video firms were grabbing cheapo 60s and 70s thrillers and packaging them as if they were more modern horros.

The film stars Anthony Eisley as a scientist, David Barrie, obsessed with a the perfectly preserved mummified corpse of the Princess Akana (Marliza Pons). He believes he can bring her back to life and does, but it comes with a couple of twists. The first is that Eisley -- in scenes so badly produced that they defy description -- turns into a jackal/werewolf and kills a few unluckies. Also, Ankara's revival prompts the revival of the mummy of one of her past admirers. They monsters eventually traipse through parts of Las Vegas where the most fun is watching passers-by try hard, and often unsuccessfully, not to giggle.

John Carradine is the "name" attached to the project. He shares a couple of scenes as a mentor to Eisley's scientist. Both Eisley and Carradine are solid professional who provide good acting performances. The rest of the cast varies from adequate to mediocre. The music is canned stuff that fails to provide any lift or emotion to the scenes. The whole mess ends in a confusing manner, with the werewolf and the mummy fighting in a lake and the Princess Ankara decomposing, with very poor FX.

As is the case with these type of films, the stoy behind the film is more interesting. As bad as The Mummy and the Curse of the Jackals is, it is faithful in plot to the old Universal mummy films, particularly the Kharis films of the 1940s. Indeed, the director, Oliver Drake, an old director of low-budget westerns, wrote the screenplay for the 1943 Universal Kharis film, "The Mummy's Curse." According to film historian Tom Weaver's exhaustive book, "John Carradine: The Films," Lon Chaney Jr. was originally tabbed to be the werewolf but dropped out. The next choice was another low-budget actor, Scott Brady. After he dropped out, Eisley took over. For Carradine, it was another of those walk-on roles where he would stay a day or two (at $1,000 a day), read his lines and leave, never seeing the completed script or film, and forgetting that he had ever been in it when queried years later. Perhaps Carradine's most humorous line is when he tells a copy, "We can't just stand by and let a 4,000-year-old mummy and  a jackal man take over the city!"

Enjoy a scene from this wretched film below. It really captures how bad this film is:

'The Creeping Terror' or 'Invasion of the People Eaters?' -- an iconic bad film gets another title

By STEVE D. STONES

I recently received a DVD in the mail from Sinister Cinema entitled – Invasion of The People Eaters. I bought the DVD fully knowing that this title is the alternative title for what is regarded as one of the worst movies of all time – The Creeping Terror. When I bought the DVD, I assumed that perhaps this print may have scenes missing or later added to The Creeping Terror. Be aware if you purchase this film from Sinister Cinema because this is not the case. Only the title sequence has changed.

The Creeping Terror is notorious for the monster of the film looking like giant carpet shag that lethargically crawls around locations as his victims literally shove themselves into the opening at his feet. That is how bad and unconvincing this monster is. The viewer cannot help but laugh hysterically at the victims as they make no effort to escape the giant carpet shag, but instead push themselves into his large orifice.

One teenage girl is consumed by the monster at a dance hall as the monster makes his way across the dance room floor. Her sexy nylon covered legs are shown as she pushes her way into the monster. A sun bathing beauty in a bikini is also consumed by the monster in another scene. Even a young mother is attacked while hanging her laundry out to dry in her backyard. Instead of running from the monster, she stares dumbfounded at him until he eats her for lunch.

The Creeping Terror is also notorious for the sound man accidentally dumping the recorded sound for the film in Lake Tahoe, which is the location where the film was made. Most of the film is dubbed in boring voice over narration typical of industrial short films children watched in elementary school. The Invasion of The People Eaters print sold by Sinister Cinema has large portions of the film where the sound is not dubbed in sync with the movement of the actor’s mouths, making it difficult to view (as if the movie isn’t already tough enough to sit through).

The Creeping Terror may have been made in an attempt to cash in on some of the success of a film made six years earlier – The Blob (1958) starring Steve McQueen. The opening sequence shows spiraling lines encompassing the title and credits, similar to The Blob, although they are not animated as they are in The Blob. Happy Viewing!!!

She Demons – Crusty Faced, Curvy Cuties Experimented On By Mad Nazi Scientist

By Steve D. Stones 

This 1957 low-budget film was produced by Astor Pictures and directed by Richard Cunha, the man who gave use such drive-in schlock as Frankenstein’s Daughter, Missile To The Moon and Giant From The Unknown.

The one thing going for She Demons is that it stars beautiful Irish McCalla, who was a nude model for men’s magazines and later the star of the 1950s TV series – Sheena, Queen of The Jungle. A ship carrying three men and a woman is wrecked after a violent storm. The four manage to row to shore on an uncharted island off the coast of Florida. Does any of this sound clichéd yet?

When they reach shore, they find the dead body of a beautiful young woman with a crusty face and bulging eyes, thus the name – She Demons. A number of these She Demons are kept in cages on the island. One of the men of the ship wreck is killed by a spear early on in the film when the other three survivors leave their camp to explore the shores of the island.

The three survivors go exploring the island when they encounter a dozen women in skimpy outfits in a tribal, voodoo dance. The women are caged in cells and used as experiment subjects by a crazed Nazi scientist. Does this also sound clichéd?

 Soon, the three survivors of the ship wreck are captured by Nazi soldiers. The crazed Nazi scientist is infatuated by Irish McCalla, the only woman survivor of the ship wreck, and wants her to be his new bride. His current wife is badly scarred by experiments to restore her youth and beauty. McCalla refuses as he threatens her with her life.

The two surviving men are tortured by Nazi soldiers. McCalla and the two men eventually escape the clutches of the Nazi soldiers and the scientist when a bombing raid helps a volcano erupt on the island, conveniently destroying everyone and everything but McCalla and the two men.

If this film is a complete bore to any viewer, the eye candy of Irish McCalla certainly helps it. Never mind her unconvincing acting and the clichéd blonde airhead she plays who is eager to be saved and is constantly high maintenance for the men who surround her. That type of acting is better suited for her Sheena – Queen of The Jungle role she played on TV in the mid-1950s. The role of Sheena required simple, sparse dialogue.

Sinister Cinema in Medford, Oregon sells She Demons on a double-feature drive-in combo with another Richard Cunha film – Giant From The Unknown (Drive-In Double Feature #28). The two films are a fun combo to enjoy on a Friday night. Happy viewing!!! Below is a picture of McCalla.

The Mummy and the Curse of the Jackal -- one bad flick!

By Doug Gibson

Sinister Cinema has released "The Mummy and the Curse of the Jackals," a truly terrible film that was almost completed in 1969 by the Vega International, a Las Vegas-based film company. Never released to theaters, it was eventually grabbed for video by Academy Home Entertainment in 1986 -- the peak of the video era when fly-by-night video firms were grabbing cheapo 60s and 70s thrillers and packaging them as if they were more modern horros.

The film stars Anthony Eisley as a scientist, David Barrie, obsessed with a the perfectly preserved mummified corpse of the Princess Akana (Marliza Pons). He believes he can bring her back to life and does, but it comes with a couple of twists. The first is that Eisley -- in scenes so badly produced that they defy description -- turns into a jackal/werewolf and kills a few unluckies. Also, Ankara's revival prompts the revival of the mummy of one of her past admirers. They monsters eventually traipse through parts of Las Vegas where the most fun is watching passers-by try hard, and often unsuccessfully, not to giggle.

John Carradine is the "name" attached to the project. He shares a couple of scenes as a mentor to Eisley's scientist. Both Eisley and Carradine are solid professional who provide good acting performances. The rest of the cast varies from adequate to mediocre. The music is canned stuff that fails to provide any lift or emotion to the scenes. The whole mess ends in a confusing manner, with the werewolf and the mummy fighting in a lake and the Princess Ankara decomposing, with very poor FX.

As is the case with these type of films, the stoy behind the film is more interesting. As bad as The Mummy and the Curse of the Jackals is, it is faithful in plot to the old Universal mummy films, particularly the Kharis films of the 1940s. Indeed, the director, Oliver Drake, an old director of low-budget westerns, wrote the screenplay for the 1943 Universal Kharis film, "The Mummy's Curse." According to film historian Tom Weaver's exhaustive book, "John Carradine: The Films," Lon Chaney Jr. was originally tabbed to be the werewolf but dropped out. The next choice was another low-budget actor, Scott Brady. After he dropped out, Eisley took over. For Carradine, it was another of those walk-on roles where he would stay a day or two (at $1,000 a day), read his lines and leave, never seeing the completed script or film, and forgetting that he had ever been in it when queried years later. Perhaps Carradine's most humorous line is when he tells a copy, "We can't just stand by and let a 4,000-year-old mummy and  a jackal man take over the city!"

Enjoy a scene from this wretched film below. It really captures how bad this film is:

Invasion of The People Eaters - Giant Carpet Shag Consumes Teenage Lovers

I recently received a DVD in the mail from Sinister Cinema entitled – Invasion of The People Eaters. I bought the DVD fully knowing that this title is the alternative title for what is regarded as one of the worst movies of all time – The Creeping Terror. When I bought the DVD, I assumed that perhaps this print may have scenes missing or later added to The Creeping Terror. Be aware if you purchase this film from Sinister Cinema because this is not the case. Only the title sequence has changed.

The Creeping Terror is notorious for the monster of the film looking like giant carpet shag that lethargically crawls around locations as his victims literally shove themselves into the opening at his feet. That is how bad and unconvincing this monster is. The viewer cannot help but laugh hysterically at the victims as they make no effort to escape the giant carpet shag, but instead push themselves into his large orifice.

One teenage girl is consumed by the monster at a dance hall as the monster makes his way across the dance room floor. Her sexy nylon covered legs are shown as she pushes her way into the monster. A sun bathing beauty in a bikini is also consumed by the monster in another scene. Even a young mother is attacked while hanging her laundry out to dry in her backyard. Instead of running from the monster, she stares dumbfounded at him until he eats her for lunch.

The Creeping Terror is also notorious for the sound man accidentally dumping the recorded sound for the film in Lake Tahoe, which is the location where the film was made. Most of the film is dubbed in boring voice over narration typical of industrial short films children watched in elementary school. The Invasion of The People Eaters print sold by Sinister Cinema has large portions of the film where the sound is not dubbed in sync with the movement of the actor’s mouths, making it difficult to view (as if the movie isn’t already tough enough to sit through).

The Creeping Terror may have been made in an attempt to cash in on some of the success of a film made six years earlier – The Blob (1958) starring Steve McQueen. The opening sequence shows spiraling lines encompassing the title and credits, similar to The Blob, although they are not animated as they are in The Blob. Happy Viewing!!!

-- Steve D. Stones

50s Sci-Fi: Recalling Fire Maidens in Outer Space

FIRE MAIDENS IN OUTER SPACE

This is another one of those “middle aged men meets curvy cuties in tight outfits on the moon” film that was typical of 1950s entertainment. Other films in this science fiction sub-genre of the 50s include: Cat Women of The Moon, Missile To The Moon and Queen of Outer Space with Zsa Zsa Gabor. While Queen of Outer Space is the most well produced and well known of these films, I find this film to be the most interesting of the group.

After landing on a moon near the planet Jupiter, a group of space travelers, known as Expedition 13, encounter a beautiful screaming woman. She leads them to a stone dwelling and to a room with a painting of a woman floating on a seashell. The painting looks much like Sandro Botticelli’s painting of “The Birth of Venus.” In fact, the man waiting to greet the expedition, known as Prosis, refers to the women of Jupiter as “the last descendants of Aphrodite,” an Ancient Greek goddess. The room is decorated with Ancient Greek art, and the women even wear dresses that display the meandor pattern found on Ancient Greek terra cotta vases. The women dance to the music of Borodin’s “Polovetsin Dances.” The title of the film suggests they are fire maidens because they perform sacrifices around a burning altar.

The most interesting aspect of this film is the dopey looking alien monster that secretly watches the second group of Expedition 13 behind a group of trees. Later, the alien attacks the maidens as they perform a sacrifice. The alien wears black tights and a mask that looks like a rejected design for the Planet of The Apes films, minus the facial hair and lots of pimples. Both Missile To The Moon and Queen of Outer Space have scenes using a ridiculous looking giant rubber spider, but I find myself more interested in the dopey looking creature used in this film. He growls like a lion at the zoo.

If you purchase this film for your collection, I would strongly recommend that you purchase it from Sinister Cinema in Medford, Oregon. The print they sell is in very good condition. Avoid at all costs the print sold by Crypt Flicks. It is out of focus and in very poor condition. Many of the films I have bought from Crypt Flicks, such as The Lost Missile and Fire Maidens In Outer Space, have been very poor in quality. It is not worth the $15 they charge you for each film. Plus, they never respond to e-mail complaints if you send them an e-mail.

Steve D. Stones