Gort

Voigtländer Classic Heliar 50mm f1.5. Gort ion beam added with Lens Effects.

The Thing from Another World (Running Times)

Various prints of The Thing from Another World (1951) run at different lengths. The 1954 re-issue was allegedly trimmed and served as the basis of many early TV prints. I’m pretty certain the early VidAmerica Laserdisc, which runs at 86 minutes was taken from a 16mm print. It’s grainy, but is advertised as the original uncut version. However it’s still missing some minor footage including an abrupt splice of a sled-dog scene right before the saucer is found in the ice.

The Turner Collector’s Edition laserdisc runs 87 minutes as does the original DVD release. I can’t find my Blu-ray disc.

Some have claimed the original ‘51 release included scenes with scientists hanging upside down in the greenhouse, but at least one actor (Robert Cornthwaite) from the film claimed those shots we never filmed.

Martian War Machine

No one would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth century that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man’s and yet as mortal as his own; that as men busied themselves about their various concerns they were scrutinised and studied, perhaps almost as narrowly as a man with a microscope might scrutinise the transient creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water.
—H.G. Wells, 1897

Craiyon render of a Martian War Machine. Terms by Monsterminions.

Craiyon Images inspired by “Who Goes There?”

RIP Yvette Mimieux

The Curse of the Fly (1965)

I’m reviewing this film as packaged in the new 5-film The Fly Collection blu-ray box set. This is the third film sequel and the second re-working of George Langelaan’s short story The Fly. The film gets a bad rap, but I enjoyed it and thought it to be an improvement over the inept, but entertaining Return of the Fly (1959), and a notch or two below the original Vincent Price-David Hedison vehicle. Curse of the Fly (1965) holds its own in having nothing to do with a human-fly hybrid —or Langelaan’s story for that matter, and being a character study of three doomed people: Henri Delambré (Brian Donlevy), Martin Delambré (George Baker), and Patricia Stanley (Carol Gray). Here, the Delambré curse is passed on to Martin in the form of a cancerous autoimmune disorder requiring periodic serum injections by father Henri. Sound familiar? Yeah, some of that storyline was heisted for the Cronenberg remake (1986). Patricia is along for the ride as the love interest, but she also has a story to tell. The film is well-acted by several familiar faces —and voices. Thunderbirds and Jerry Andersen fans will immediately recognize Inspector Ronet (Jeremy Wilkins) as Virgil Stacey and disguised as Cary Grant as Captain Scarlet. Burt Kwouk is also present in a minor lab tech role.

The black and white cinematography by Basil Emmott is striking. Thematically the film looks like a Val Lewton picture, but contains several notable grotesqueries that make this worthwhile for monster fans. Some of the imagery is really weird and surreal. Check out how many body contortion sculptures and paintings are present in the Delambré trappings.

The film was well-helmed by Tasmanian-born director Don Sharp, that genre fans probably know best for Kiss of the Vampire (1963), Rasputin: The Mad Monk (1966), and various 1960’s Fu Manchu films.

This is a well-crafted horror film with gothic elements. I don’t know of too many films quite like it in terms of horror-pathos —the ending is quite startling and I decided to run the whole thing back and rewatched it with an informative audio commentary.

This box-set is loaded with features and the prints look sublime.

RIP Syd Mead

Visionary artist and industrial designer has passed.

Memory: The Origins of Alien (2019)

This new documentary by director Alexandre O. Philippe is about as good as it gets for a synopsis on the making of Alien (1979). Only aspects on the mechanical designs by Italian prop wizard Carlo Rambaldi and the man-in-suit performance by Nigerian Bolaji Badejo, and perhaps a segment on the scoring (Jerry Goldsmith) are lacking from the otherwise nearly complete documentary. I found the comparisons to films of Robert Altman absolutely fascinating. This film includes anecdotes from several cast members. The focus is on the origin and genesis of the story, by Dan O’Bannon, and his collaboration with surrealist H.R. Giger.

There’s also a segment referring to the inspiration of the chest-burster being paintings by Francis Bacon (1909-1992), especially Three Studies of Figures at the Base of a Cruxifixion (1944).

This was a top-notch documentary that fans of Alien will absolutely devour.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8974964/

RIP Stan Friedman

Early pioneer in UFO research Stanton Friedman has died.

RIP Peter Mayhew

Obit