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| Attack of the 50 Foot Woman / War of the Satellites; March, 1958 | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Apr 22 2017, 05:13 PM (372 Views) | |
| Laughing Gravy | Apr 22 2017, 05:13 PM Post #1 |
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![]() Attack of the 50 Ft. Woman (1958, dir. Nathan Hurtz) A Woolner Production distributed by Allied Artists 66 min. / B&W / 1.66:1 DVD: Warner Bros. and Warner Archive War of the Satellites (1958, dir. Roger Corman) Allied Artists 65 min. / B&W / 1.66:1 DVD: Shout! Factory (part of Roger Corman Cult Classics: Sci-Fi Classics) ITB Strange Science Cinema #119-120 Sure, sure, call me low brow or say I have plebeian tastes or simply walk up and give me a good cuff on the ears, I don't care: truth is, in my movie-appreciation world, I'd just as soon watch double features like this one as anything else. Mo'on pitchurs simply don't come much more entertaining than this unforgettable twin bill from the spring of '58. First, rich lady Allison Hayes is drinking herself into an early grave courtesy of faithless hubby William Hudson's shenanigans, most of which concern ultra-sexy Balcony fave Yvette Vickers. When a space giant in a metal bowling ball kidnaps Miss Hayes and returns her as a 50 ft. behemoth (one wonders what sort of anal probing HE was doing), she stomps downtown to, shall we say, discuss the separation agreement. Not a frame of this film is less than wonderful, hilarious, astonishing, and stupid, but nobody who watches it should care. The special effects make Bert I. Gordon's see-through giants practically opaque; the colossal woman is generally portrayed by an enormous, rubbery right hand (the same hand plays the space giant, only there are hairy patches glued to his knuckles), the dialog is a scream, and the indelible vision of a a sheet bedecked Allison Hayes screaming "HARRY! HARRY!" as she tears apart plywood buildings cannot be dismissed amongst the pantheon of most memorable movie sequences of all time (even if it's memorable for all the wrong reasons). Million-dollar Dialog: Police Chief, spotting a giant footprint in the lawn: "Whatever it is, it wasn't made by a Japanese gardener!" Doctor, seeing the Chief with an elephant gun: "You're not going to use THAT on her?!?" Chief: "What do you want me to do, put SALT on her tail?" Another doctor, explaining the 50 Ft. Woman's rage: "When women reach the age of maturity, mother nature sometimes overworks their frustration to the point of irrationalism." Million-dollar DVD Case Text I Wish I'd Written: "Big girls don't cry, they get even." Wonderful DVD from Warners, originally released with The Giant Behemoth and Queen of Outer Space in a sci-fi set and now available separately through the Archive. Includes commentary by Miss Vickers and Tom Weaver. Claims to have the trailer but it doesn't. Well, after all of THAT big fun we enjoyed some snack bar ads, a fairly good Modern Madcap cartoon called Funderful Suburbia (1962), that linked early pioneers with the current group of middle-class white families moving to the suburbs, and a trailer for next week's stunningly shocking feature presentation, The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra. Wow!!! And so it was on to our co-feature, War of the Satellites, a Roger Corman picture, which if you were going pee-pee and missed the opening credits you'd still know by the first shot of the film: a tiny NASA-like facility populated by Richard Devon, Dick Miller, Susan Cabot, and Bruno VeSota (plus Robert Shayne and Michael Fox for luck). The United Nations is trying to launch a spaceship to drop li'l satellites into orbit the way a hen lays eggs, but every time the ship gets up there the darned thing blows the heck up. Commander Richard Devon is intent on an eleventh test, which he'll lead himself; VeSota and Fox argue it's a waste of money, but Cabot and Miller (and Beach Dickerson - see, TOLD you this was a Corman film) are all in as volunteers. Devon is winning the argument in front of the U.N., so one night he's hit with a beam from outer space and killed, replaced by an exact duplicate who is much less prone to argue for space travel. Turns out some extra-terrestrial forces want the galaxy to themselves; Devon leads his team into space and tries to kill them one by one, but Dick Miller is not in favor of that plan, all things considered. The cheezy (ultra-cheezy, actually) sets included the typical spaceship room consisting of two unsecured chairs and a couple of dials and levers on the wall. His bios tell us that Corman contacted Allied Artists right after the Sputnik announcement and said, "I can get you a satellite movie in a few weeks." It was hastily planned, written, and shot (in 8 days) and was out while satellites were still in the news. Roger even stepped in and played one of the NASA-type dispatchers, and gives himself a line, too. Overall, this is no 50 Ft. Woman but it's a gem of its kind anyways. Million-dollar Dialog: Girl making out with her boyfriend as a satellite crashes near them: "Did you hear that?" Boyfriend (continuing to smooch her): "My elastic just snapped." Boyfriend a couple of minutes later, examining the satellite remains: "It can't be Sputnik. It's not listed in the TV Guide!" Dying spaceman's admonition to the alien Devon: "I was born a human and I'll die one before I'll join a race that kills innocent people for abstract ideas!" (Oh, good luck finding a race that doesn't do THAT, buddy.) A nice print of the film but not a pristine one, and it's in 4:3 on the DVD so you'll have to fix that on your set. The disc includes more than two dozen Roger Corman trailers, all in beautiful condition. All in all, a great couple of hours at the movies. |
| "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 | |
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| Frank Hale | Apr 23 2017, 01:16 PM Post #2 |
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Balcony Gang, Foist Class
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50-Foot Woman is definitely in a class by itself. Whenever I see the name Yvette, I think of Archie of Duffy's Tavern, who always pronounced it "Why-Vette". Seems appropriate in Miss Vickers' case. I am definitely going to run down that commentary. And apparently I will also have to run down War of the Satellites, because it appears to be yet another I've seen but can't remember at all. This is getting monotonous, and somewhat disconcerting. |
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| Laughing Gravy | Apr 23 2017, 04:32 PM Post #3 |
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War of the Satellites seems to have been partially inspired by The Purple Monster Strikes, if that means anything to anybody. |
| "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 | |
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| Frank Hale | Apr 26 2017, 12:51 PM Post #4 |
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Balcony Gang, Foist Class
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The interview with Why-Vette was not one of the best I've heard, but I enjoyed it, since I basically knew nothing about her, and she seemed quite pleasant. A couple of tit-bits offered were that the goofy deputy was played by the son of screenwriter Borden Chase, and that the old prospector at the end was Mort-favorite Thomas E. Jackson. Regrettably she died in 2010, under unfortunate circumstances (at least according to IMDb). I only listen to these commentaries while doing other chores, but I hadn't seen the DVD since acquiring a big-screen plasma, and while spooling it up, I was newly struck by how great the print was. I was briefly tempted to watch it again, but fortunately the mood quickly passed. Just for the record, the aspect ratio appears to be 1.85 rather than 1.66, per the AFI, IMDb, and my own lying eyes. On to "War of the Satellites"! |
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