Sunday Night Movie:Tarantula (1955)

It is kind of surprising, to me at least, that I have never seen this particular giant bug movie. I think I have seen nearly all the others, but somehow this one kept slipping past me. With this screening I can now call my science-fiction double feature viewing complete. That is I have seen ever film referenced in the song Science-Fiction Double Feature at least once. (Of course I have seen some of them many times.)

Tarantula naturally is about a giant spider ravaging the desert countryside killing cattle, ranchers, and hobos, before turning toward the small defenseless town full of ever so tasty civilians.

The film was directed by Jack Arnold who, just a  year earlier, had directed the classic film Creature From The Black Lagoon, (one of my favorite monster movies.) Tarantula is not up to Creature standards in budget, special effects, (Though these are credible) or scripting.  However the film does have some charm to it particularly in the fact that most of the film is not about the giant spider. Mostly the movies focuses on Dr Deemer and why the townspeople who had accept this stranger man now suspects he is up to no good. It doesn’t help that Deemer associate turns up dead in the desert of a deformity  that takes years to develop when he seemed quite healthy and normal just weeks earlier.

Dr. Deemer has been working with radio nucleotides in an attempt to make an artificial food to feed the coming billions in the world population. In other scripts he would have at this point become obsessed with his formula and injected his partner, forcibly, to prove it worked, but no in this movie. The partner and a lab assistance injected themselves without consulting Dr. Deemer certainly that they had liked the problem. Since they both end up dead and deformed clearly they had not, but the assistant, driven mad by his deformity over powers Dr. Deemer and injects him, but in the fight the lab is trashed and a Tarantula, already nearly the size of a man, escapes and continues to grow.

This was a fun little film, but not one I can heartily recommend. (Though if you watch and listen closely you can spot Clint Eastwood in an early role.)

 

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Feeling good though I am sick

I must have gotten a bit fo the con crud last weekend at World Fantasy 2011 because this week has been coughs and sore throats. However that is not going to get me down because one of the literary agents I would most like have represent my work responded Friday with a  request for a partial. (What that means is after I sent him a letter explaining/pitching the novel Love and Loyalty he requested to see a sample of the novel.) Hopefully he likes the sample well enough to request a full. (The complete manuscript)

I mailed the partial off to him this morning.

 

here’s to crossed fingers and sincere prayers.

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Sunday Night Movie: Invasion Of The Body Snatchers

This is the SF/Horror film that Hollywood will not leave alone. This film made in 1956 has become a classic of dark paranoia. The phrase ‘Pod person’ meaning someone who is not themselves, acting out of character comes from the plot of this movie. Holly will not leave it alone as this film was remade in 1978 staring Donald Sutherland and Leonard Nimoy, then again in 1993 as Body Snatchers, and yet again in 2004 as The Invasion.

While the 1978 film is  decent film and in some way is more consistent with the original vision of the movie, none of the remakes are as good as the original. This essay will have spoilers so if you have not seen the movie, stop and go see it now. Really you should and given that is less than 90 minutes long even you should be able to fit it into your schedule.

Continue reading →

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Headache Log

10/26/11

Started getting a headache that possibly from Caffine withdrawl. Took 1 dose of treximet as there was no possibility of caffine within the next hour.

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Just a few tidbits

So I started a new work schedule at my day-job this week. Instead of working 8-5 I will now be working 7-4. Getting home earlier is nice, but my body hasn’t yet adjusted to getting up a little earlier. As such I’m a little fogged of mind and will not likely be doing any writing this week. (Also there is a convention, World Fantasy here in San Diego, starting on Thursday.)

It’s a shame about the writing as I just cracked a plotting problem for my SF noir idea. (Currently titled in my head “The Long Night.”) I did not want my lead character to be a cop or P.I., but rather someone not normally seen in the role of unraveling a mystery. I’ll make sme notes but not much more tonight.

Here are my latest movies on blu-ray.

A first rate superhero film and an excellent lead into next years The Avengers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For the price I couldn’t turn down a blu-ray set of all three films with bonus material. (My set does not have the swag, it’s just the three discs. I dislike unusual packaging as it never fits well in my cases.)

 

 

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Sunday Night at the Theater: The Rocky Horror Show

So last night I went to the Old Globe theater in Balboa Park to watch their production of The Rocky Horror Show. Now from earlier posts you may know that I was into Rocky when I was younger and I still have many fond memories of those days and nights. (Mostly nights, mostly.) This however was the first time I have gotten to see a stage production of the play.

The photograph to your left was taken from my seat and as you can surmise it was not a particularly good seat. (I got quite spoiled when I went saw The Tempest earlier in the summer and I was front row center.) The ticket I bought by way of Groupon and while I save more than have the cost, just look at that view. LUckily not all the seats in the balcony were sold and tan Usherette named Sue was kind enough to let me switch to some better seating.

This was certainly a fun night out for myself. (MY sweetie-wife declined going as the published reviews indicated a lot of audience participation and that was an aspect she did not care for.)

The play started with a video projected on the scrim you see in the picture, a montage of shots from various low budget SF films while two characters (Usher and Usherette) sang the opening song, Science-Fiction Double Feature. Not one shot was from any of the film mentioned in the song, something I chalked up to rights issues.

The play moved along quickly, though there was little of the feared audience participation. I suspect that near the start of the run the die-hard Rocky fans were there and did their thang, but now with the run ending November 6th less enthusiastic crowds were seeing the production. There was one bit from the audience  that was rather fun.

During the play Brad Majors by way of a video screen spies his fiance Janet Weiss having sex with Rocky the creation. In this production this was accomplished by a projected video in full silhouette  of the indiscretion mentioned above. Very racy yet without showing a thing in terms of flesh. (which neatly sums up the whole production style.) Anyway, Brad, angry and hurt, switches off the video and a voice rang out from the Audience “Hey! I wast watching that!” The actor playing Brad, his back to the audience  stays that way, gripping the prop console quite firmly. It was clear he was fighting the urge to laugh. After several moments he turned around, in character but it was a good moment of humor.

There were many moments when the ‘4th wall’ was breached, usually by an ad-lib from the actor playing Frank-N-Furter.

All in all a lively and fun production.

 

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