| Welcome to In The Balcony. We hope you enjoy your visit. You're currently viewing our forum as a guest. This means you are limited to certain areas of the board and there are some features you can't use. If you join our community, you'll be able to access member-only sections, and use many member-only features such as customizing your profile, sending personal messages, and voting in polls. Registration is simple, fast, and completely free. Plus, you'll be eligible for the monthly $1 million prize. (Not really.) Join our community! If you're already a member please log in to your account to access all of our features: |
| Beginning of the End / The Unearthly; June 1957 | |
|---|---|
| Tweet Topic Started: Dec 3 2016, 03:25 PM (350 Views) | |
| Laughing Gravy | Dec 3 2016, 03:25 PM Post #1 |
|
Look for In The Balcony on Facebook!
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
![]() The Beginning of the End (1957) Dir. Bert I. Gordon The Unearthly (1957) Dir. Brooke L. Peters ITB Strange Science Cinema #096-097 Shock Theatre #187 Back again the fabled Balcony Time Machine goes, to that magical summer of 1957, before everything got all screwed up in the world, unless of course you were Black or gay or anything. Still, you could forget your troubles at the majestic, air-cooled Capitol Theatre, could you not, with a pair of spiffy new science-fiction pictures distributed by Republic Pictures (so we were a little disappointed we didn't get a chapter of Radar Men from the Moon or Mounties vs. Atomic Invaders). First up, John Carradine is an incredibly mad mad scientist - one of the maddest - who is operating on his patients in hopes of inventing a "new gland" that will prolong human life eternally. What he actually ends up creating, though, are a bunch of scarred women and mutant ape men (plus one dead guy and one Tor Johnson). Allison Hayes is his next intended victim; Myron Healy (ewww) is her love interest and an escaped con who can't get away from John and Tor. The only compliment anyone ever paid this movie (to me, anyway) is "Well, at least it's better than The Black Sleep," which is true, but it's actually a fun little monster movie and not half bad in its own cheapie way. Miss Hayes is always worth watching (and rates at least a hubba-hubba, if not a third or fourth hubba, in every movie she's in), and Sally Todd (as a victim) and Marilyn Buferd (a former Miss America who's in love with Dr. Carradine, ha ha) are ferociously lovely eye candy. As for Tor Johnson, well... Million-dollar Dialog: Dr. Carradine, on Tor: "He's got the strength of a giant!" Myron, ditto: "And the brain of a chicken." Tor: "Time for go to bed." Dr. Carradine, identifying the escaped killer: "Last night, the paper carried your story on the front page. Leather jacket, about six feet tall..." Myron: "Okay, so I wear a leather jacket and I'm not a midget. So what?" A cheap, not-so-good movie but a fun throwback to the Monogram monster movies of 15 years earlier so what th' heck. Yeah, we laughed a lot and we're not exactly s'posed to do that in horror films, but you know how WE are. This one's delightful. Next up were some snack bar ads, a Casper cartoon called Good Scream Fun that featured Casper's pal Ozzie, a randy ostrich, and a trailer for next week's extravaganza, Rodan (WOW!). By this time we were gettin' tired: bring on the grasshoppers! Yes, it's the legendary film with grasshoppers climbing up pictures of the sides of buildings, The Beginning of the End. A whole Illinois town's been destroyed and all the people gone missing; pretty reporter Peggy Castle, scientist Peter Graves, and Army grump Morris Ankrum investigate and discover a plague of locusts that must've escaped from Mt. Olympus, 'cause the darn things are simply HUGE. Graves has a half-assed idea to use sound waves to drown the locusts, but General Ankrum thinks it'd be much simpler to "save" Chicago by dropping nukes on it. A terrible movie that's haplessly wonderful to enjoy; nothing about this stinker works, so how could you not love it? Graves breaks down all words of more than two syllables and helpfully defines them as he explains "science" to the reporter and the General; in best Bert I. Gordon tradition, you can see through the giant monsters; and the resemblance to THEM! is so palpable that it's embarrassing; you'd expect the film to open with a special credit, "Warner Bros., please don't sue us." Million-dollar Dialog: Dr. Graves, on his assistant: "He's a deaf mute. Radioactivity can be dangerous." Gen. Ankrum, advised by the scientist to increase his firepower: "Where would I get off calling the regularly army to handle some oversized grasshoppers?!?!?" This is actually a very, very fun pair of 1957 monster films and highly enjoyable, although neither of 'em could be called good movies, folks. In the far, far future, they were both lampooned on Mystery Science Theatre, released in widescreen DVDs by Image Entertainment in the early 21st century, and will no doubt be on Blu-ray some day, with expert commentary by Vice President Mike Pence. Edited by Laughing Gravy, Jan 23 2017, 07:53 PM.
|
| "I'm glad that this question came up, because there are so many ways to answer it that one of them is bound to be right." - Robert Benchley | |
![]() |
|
| Chandu | Dec 3 2016, 07:38 PM Post #2 |
|
Champeen of Justice and Seeker of Knowledge, but rascal at heart!
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
These movies were where I first began to appreciate John Carradine as a teenager. Even though the movies weren't first rate the characters he played always were. |
| Not plane, nor bird, nor even frog. It's just little ol' me... | |
![]() |
|
| The Batman | Dec 5 2016, 08:09 AM Post #3 |
![]()
Charter Member
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
I hope a Blu-Ray release comes about, the OOP Image discs are mighty expensive on the back market. |
| Always be yourself! Unless you can be Batman...then always be Batman! | |
![]() |
|
| Laughing Gravy | Dec 7 2016, 08:21 PM Post #4 |
|
Look for In The Balcony on Facebook!
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
Well, you can find Beginning of the End on the MST3K version - the uncut, un-riffed-on version (albeit in fullscreen) is included as a bonus. The Unearthly I'd owned since 2002 and never opened. One o' those things. |
| "I'm glad that this question came up, because there are so many ways to answer it that one of them is bound to be right." - Robert Benchley | |
![]() |
|
| The Batman | Dec 8 2016, 10:36 AM Post #5 |
![]()
Charter Member
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
Thanks, but if full screen isn't the OAR, I'll wait for another release. Plenty to watch while I wait. I have several of those "owned since (insert date here) and never opened". I suspect there are a few of us like that around here. |
| Always be yourself! Unless you can be Batman...then always be Batman! | |
![]() |
|
| « Previous Topic · 100 Years in the Balcony · Next Topic » |





![]](http://z2.ifrm.com/static/1/pip_r.png)






6:32 AM Jul 11