Getting their Freeky Creek On! by Bobbie Culbertson

It was a cold and windy night dampened by misty rain as we drove out to Fairmount, Illinois, a cozy rural community just south of Oakwood and a few scant miles east of the 'Paign.  Only one reason was good enough to take us from our toasty home...the 5th Annual Freeky Creek Short Film Festival.  The festival, held at Sleepy Creek Vineyards (8254 E 1425 North Rd., Fairmount, Il. 61841) is the brainchild of Sleepy Creek owners, Joe and Dawn Taylor who annually choose short video submissions from over 600 entrants from around the world to show in their comfortable and tastefully decorated wine tasting rooms.  While this first evening wasn't sold out as the next two nights are, almost every seat in the place was filled with costumed Fest-attendees.

Master of Ceremony was Bill Kephart, dressed as an irreverent, cigar-chomping Easter Bunny, who throughout the three intermissions, would attempt to free his friend Naughty-Kitty who had been arrested and taken to the Humane Shelter for neutering.  Aided in these attempts by his friend, Jean Claude Van Damme, a warrior-like door greeter at Wal-Mart. (Don't ask!  You had to be there!)  Anyway ... on with the show(s).

The submitted short films ran from less than a minute to over 16 minutes in length.  And most, if not all, had the same things going for them—excellent production values and above par acting!  Some had frightening CGI effects at would rival top studios (6 Shooter with its "Alien" internal attackers springs to mind).  Animation proved to be an audience favorite (my vote would go to Office Kingdom with its resigned but dedicated clerk).  Gore checked in with Vasle a Pancienne (The Waltz) and showed itself to be stomach turning.

Comedy made a good showing with, in my opinion, If I Only... winning hands down (or, in this case, hands applauding wildly!).  Dead Hearts, the longest of this evening's fare at 16 minutes, proved true love never truly dies!  That said, all were entertaining, fascinating and professionally rendered.  At the evening's end, the audience was invited to cast their ballots for the best films in several categories:

Freekin' Creepy Award (best horror)

Freekin' Artsy Award (best animation)

Freekin' Pretty Award (best looking)

Freekin' Thespian Award (best acting)

Freekin' Funny Award (best comedy)

Freekin' Fake Award (best fake commercial or doc)

Freekin' Best of the Freekin' Fest Award!  (overall most votes)

The Festival ended Nov 1 and the winners have been announced on the Freeky Creek Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/FCSFF

Joe and Dawn Taylor have thoughtfully uploaded Youtube links to the various winner of this year's Freeky Creek Short Film Festival!  So, head on over to their Facebook page for a frighteningly good time!  And should you, dear readers, find yourselves in East-Central Illinois on or near Halloween, please check out the Freeky Creek Short film Festival at Sleepy Creek vineyards.  You won't be sorry!

Complete list of submissions (*= premier)

Act 1

On Broken Wings by Walter Arnold (US, 4:00 min)

The Man From Arctica by Nils J. Nesse (Norway, 1:00 min)

The Devil You Know IBC by Brian Osborne (Local, 0:48 min)

Armor* by Jennifer Bechtel (Local, 2:00 min)

Office Kingdom by Salvatore Centoducati (Italy, 7:00 min)

Under Age by Joonas Makkonen (Finland, 4:45 min)

ZHS Trailer* by Dan Drake (Local, 1:00 min)

Castcom Cable* by Thomas Nicol (Local, 5:27 min)

Christopher Columbo* by Jiani Bach Nygard (Local, 2:00 min)

Volunteer by Javier Marco (Spain, 3:52 min)

Clowns Are Not Scary* by Mike Trippiedi (Local, 2:36 min)

Ruins by Daniel Ueno (Brazil, 4:05 min)

The Headless Nun by Nuno Sa Pessoa (Portugal, 6:43 min)

Act 2

Heavy Metal Reflections by Shawn Wickens (USA, 2:59 min)

Valse a Pancienne (The Waltz) by Bourreau Francois-Xavier (France, 2:46 min)

If I Only...* by Mike Trippiedi (Local, 2:08 min)

The Contest by Mike Osborne (USA, 0:45 min)

Awkward by Toni Lopez Bautista (Spain, 7:20 min)

6 Shooter by Lauren Parker (UK, 3:30 min)

NO, IT'S NOT THAT by Aitor Arenas (Spain, 3:30 min)

Wacky Robot by Chris Deir (USA), 4:48 min)

Like His Father by Toni Lopez Bautista (Spain, 5:00 min)

Grandma (Lola) by Joey Agbayani (Philippines, 7:00 min)

The Low Road, Baby by Mark Roeder (USA, 4:00 min)

Act 3

Death Of the First Born Egyptians* by Nina Paley (Local, 7:06 min)

Little Baby's Ice Cream by Doug Garth Williams (USA, 0:50 min)

Sister And Brother In the Cemetery* by Mike Trippiedi (Local, 2:54 min)

Piscis by Juan Carlos Camardella (Argentina, 3:15 min)

Tuck Me In by Ignacio F. Rodo (Spain, 1:00 min

Invocation by Robert Morgan (UK, 3:10 min)

Dead Hearts by Stephen Martin (Canada, 16:00 min)

Bobbie

LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS, or how a Little Plant named Audrey II took over the World!

THE LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS (1960) began when director Roger Corman was given temporary access to a set left standing from shooting A BUCKET OF BLOOD the year before.  Re-fitting the sets, Roger Corman shot the principle photography of LITTLE SHOP in two days and one night from a script penned by Charles B. Griffith who had also written A BUCKET OF BLOOD.  Originally planned as a spy thriller by Corman, Griffith wanted to do another horror comedy.  It was only after a night of heavy drinking that Griffith persuaded Corman to shoot Griffith’s screenplay about a man-eating plant titled The Passionate People Eater.  The film was cast primarily from Corman’s stable of stock players.  Dick Miller, who had played the protagonist in A BUCKET OF BLOOD was offered the lead role of Seymour Krelboyne but turned it down, opting for the smaller role of the flower-eating customer Burson Fouch, so Jonathan Haze was hired to play Seymour.  Charles B. Griffith played several smaller roles, with his father appearing as a dental patient and his grandmother as Seymour’s hypochondriac mother.

Seymour Krelboyne is a nebbish who works at a skid-row florist shop run by boss Gravis Mushnick (Mel Welles).  Seymour has a crush on co-worker Audrey Fulquard (Jackie Joseph), a sweet but naive girl with no idea of Seymour’s affections.  One day, after flubbing a flower order, Mushnick fires Seymour but Seymour persuades Mushnick to give him another chance by showing him a strange and unusual plant that Seymour has named the Audrey 2, much to the original Audrey’s delight.  Audrey explains to Mushnick that placing such an unusual plant in the run-down shop’s window might draw more ... or even some ... customers into the shop, Seymour is given the task of improving the drooping plant’s health.  Later that night, Seymour finds out the plant need human blood to sustain itself and, fearing the loss of his job and the added loss of Audrey, he feeds it drops of his own blood.  The plant thrives on this diet, which of course creates a difficult situation for Seymour.  Curious customers are lured to the shop to see this wondrous plant and for the first time, Mushnick’s making money!  The now-anemic Seymour learns from the plant (voiced by writer Charles B. Griffith) that it needs to be fed human flesh and, as a confused Seymour wanders beside some train tracks, in frustration he throws a rock which accidentally kills a man.  Guilt-ridden but resourceful, Seymour takes the body back to the shop and feeds the parts to Audrey 2.  This terrible act is seem by Mushnick who intends to turn Seymour over to the police but, in his greed, procrastinates.

Seymour develops a toothache and goes to sadistic dentist Dr. Farb (John Shaner), who forcefully tries to remove several of Seymour’s teeth.  Grabbing a sharp instrument, Seymour fights back and accidentally stabs to death the dentist then feeds the body parts to Audrey 2.  Enter two homicide detectives, Sgt. Joe Fink (Wally Campo) and his assistant Frank Stoolie (Jack Warford) who questions the visibly nervous Mushnick about the recent disappearances but they decide Mushnick knows nothing and depart.  By now, Audrey 2 has grown several feet taller and is beginning to bud as does Seymour and Audrey’s romance.  One night as Mushnick is staying with the plant while Seymour and Audrey go on a date, a robber (played by Charles B. Griffith) breaks into the shop and demands money.  Mushnick tells him the money is kept in the plant and, when the robber goes to look, he falls into the plant’s mouth and is eaten.  Seymour, depressed that his plant has been the cause of so many deaths, goes for a midnight stroll and is perused by a rather relentless streetwalker, whom he kills in desperation and feeds to Audrey 2.

Still lacking clues to the mysterious disappearances, Fink and Stoolie plan to attend a special sunset celebration at the shop during which Seymour will receive a trophy from a horticulturist society and Audrey 2’s buds are expected to open.  But when they do open, each has the face of one of the victims.  Terrified, Seymour runs from the shop with Fink and Stoolie in hot pursuit.  Seymour loses them in a junkyard and later returns to the shop where he grabs a knife and, leaping into the plant’s mouth, kills it.  When Audrey, Mushnick and the cops return to the shop, they see the plant begin to wither.  It’s one final bud opens and within is Seymour’s face which pitifully declares, “I didn’t mean it” before drooping over.  The End.

LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS 1960 trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amlXKaqk2jg

LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS was released August 5, 1960 as the second half of a double-feature with Mario Bava’s BLACK SUNDAY and re-released a year later in a double-feature with THE LAST WOMAN ON EARTH.  The estimated budget listed in The Internet Data Base is $27,000 but Corman remembers it as $30,000 and other sources place it’s budget as low as $22,000 to a high of $100,000.  No box office records exist for LITTLE SHOP but in his book How I Made A Hundred Movies In Hollywood And Never Lost A Dime, Roger Corman states ““It was a let-down to make back the $30,000 negative cost with just a modest profit” and he didn’t copyright the movie, which has now gone into public domain.

The film’s popularity grew during the 1960-70’s with local horror hosts featuring it on their television programs.  Interest in the movie rekindled and it 1982, it became a hit off-Broadway horror rock musical called Little Shop of Horrors.  That later became a hit movie of the same title in 1986, directed by Frank Oz and starring Rick Moranis, Ellen Greene, Steve Martin, Vincent Gardenia, James Belushi, John Candy, Bill Murray, Christopher Guest with Levi Stubbs, one of the original Four Tops singing group, voicing Audrey 2.  Packed with snappy musical numbers, written by Academy Award-winning song-smith Miles Goodman, and featuring energetic chorography by Jerry Zaks and Vince Pesce, the film became a moderate hit, garnering a box office of $38 million on a budget of $25 million but became a smash hit when released on home video.

LITTLE SHOP was nominated for two Academy Awards and one Golden Globe Award.  LITTLE SHOP also became the first DVD to be recalled due to content.  In 1998, Warner Brothers released a DVD that contained the approximately 23-minute original ending but it was in black and white without sound.  This angered distributor Geffen and the DVDs were pulled from store shelves within days and replaced with a second edition.  The discs that contain the original black and white footage are considered collector’s items, selling for as much as $150.00 on EBay.  But, the saga of LITTLE SHOP does not end there!  In 1991, it became the plot of a short-lived animated television show titled LITTLE SHOP in which a nebbish junior-high student named Seymour owns a man-eating plant named Audrey Jr.

LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS 1986 trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUC1nnZy3E8

LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS which began as a little movie whose director has so little faith in its survival that he didn’t even copyright it has become big business.  It was announced in April 2009 that Declan O’Brien (“Sharktopus,” “Wrong Turn: Bloody Beginnings”) would helm yet another remake of LITTLE SHOP.  However, in an interview with Bloody Disgusting.com, Declan declared his version “won’t be a musical ... it’s will be dark.”  As of this writing, Declan’s version is still on the back burner.  On May 4, 2012, Warner-Brothers announced it’s in the planning stages of a remake of LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS and has hired “Glee” co-producer Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa (“Spider Man: Turn Off the Dark” and MGM/ Screen Gems remake of “Carrie”) to write the script.  Mark Platt (“Drive”) will co-produce.  In addition, Variety reports that THE DARK KNIGHT RISES star Joseph Gordon-Levitt is circling the lead role of nerdy Seymour Krelboyne.  With the producer of Fox’s hit TV series “Glee” helming, it’s a safe bet that this version will be a restyling of the 1986 Frank Oz musical version.  No date has been set yet for the principle shooting schedule and no actors have yet been cast.

Five decades have passed since Roger Corman decided to use some old standing sets to film a quickie movie, and what a phenomenon that quirky, dark comedy THE LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS has become!  Lauded by film critics ... Rotten Tomatoes gives it a 91% freshness rating ... and laughed at by millions of viewers, it’s been released with a commentary track by Mystery Science Theater 3000’s Michael J. Nelson and in 2009 was released by Rifftrax with Nelson and fellow MST3K cast members Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett.  Legend’s colorized version is also available from Amazon Video on Demand.  Apparently, there is no stopping the phenomenon that is THE LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS.

MSTjunkie

Bobbie's Essays: Murder Most Fowl

Ahhh ... Spring!  A time when flowers awaken from their chilly slumber, butterflies dance in the warm breezes, when one’s heart turns lightly to dreams of love and when the swallows return to Capistrano.  And here at Bobbie’s Moldy-Oldies, it’s time for the chickens to come home to roost!

Our first taste in this Kentucky-fried film festival is ZOMBEAK!  (2006).  Melissa (Melissa K. Gilbert), a terrible waitress in a run-down diner, is about to get it on with her boyfriend, Bobby Ray (Jason Von Stein), when she’s suddenly abducted by Satanists named Vascara (Tracy Yarkoni), Levianthan (Daryl Wilcher) and Gideon (Adam Morris).  She’s taken by hearse to the Satanist’s hideout in order to be impregnated with Satan’s child on the one night he’s allowed to walk the Earth.  Bobby Ray, who’s not the brightest bulb in the marquee, along with the diner’s owner Max (JimmyLee Smith), who doesn’t particularly like Melissa but would love to kick some Satan butt, and Bobby Ray’s sadistic cop brother Fasmagger (Nathan Standridge), are in hot pursuit.  Bursting into the sacrificial room, they interrupt the ritual, giving Satan no other choice than to inhabit a sacrificial chicken.  You heard that right.  A chicken.  What ensues next is 70 minutes of pure cinematic joy, with the evil chicken turning this one night into Hell on Earth for both our bumbling heroes and the confused Satanists!

With a zero-budget look and feel, ZOMBEAK delivers the goods.  How?  Because you can feel the real love the actors and it’s director, Sam Drog, had for the story and their parts in it.  Despite it’s bad special effects and cheap, low quality 80’s CGI and it’s video camera look, it’s surprisingly entertaining.  With the exception of Daryl Wilcher in the one scene where he has a coming-to-Jesus moment while facing his imminent demise at the hands of the Satan-obsessed chicken, the acting is below-par, with our heroine Melissa emoting in one of the most annoying fingernails-on-the-blackboard voices ever preserved on video tape.  However, the script is filled with brilliant one-liners like “Take that, you Kentucky-fried piece of shit,” and “It’s our God-damned Christian duty!”  The Internet Movie Database (IMDB) has no listing for ZOMBEAK’s budget or box office but I’m guessing it’s not much.  After all, what can you expect from a zero-budget movie about a Satan-possessed chicken who wants to turn everyone into zombies!  And one that, to my knowledge, wasn’t even released in America!  (I had to buy my copy from Amazon.com.UK.)  However, if you love bad movies, I recommend seeing ZOMBEAK.  Official trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8edC6E-7yKQ

Next up is BIRDEMIC: SHOCK AND TERROR (2010).  Now, don’t get your feathers ruffled and cluck, “but she already reviewed that back in April of 2011!”  No article about murderous fowl would be complete without re-examining James Nguyen’s contribution to the genre.  And, at the same time, comparing it to the above movie.  Let’s begin with the stars of both ... the birds.  Nguyen’s low-resolution, badly animated GIF attacking birds were without a doubt the worst I’d even seen ... until ZOMBEAK’s blood-spattered feathered-covered sock-puppet came into existence.  So, while Nguyen’s vicious birds were non-existent, ZOMBEAK’s gore-covered bird was an actual prop.  Well, sort of.

Next, let’s look at the human actors.  Both movies were on an even keel with one another and would do justice to any middle school play!  With few exceptions, each was the only screen credit to date for most of their casts.  The biggest difference is that in ZOMBEAK, the actors seemed to be having a great time, while the actors in BIRDEMIC seemed uncomfortable and awkward.  Now, on to the scripts.  ZOMBEAK wins this category claw’s-down!  While ZOMBEAK’s script was just as nonsensical as BIRDEMIC, at least we didn’t have to listen to Nguyen’s broken-English scripted lines.  I know I’ll never forget such BIRDEMIC-pearls as “I like you and because you’re so pretty to me.”  ZOMBEAK had a script fairly brimming over with intended and unintended humor!  The production values in BIRDEMIC were better, but Nguyen took three years to get his work in the can.  ZOMBEAK did it in 30 days.  So, they are birds of a feather.  BIRDEMIC: SHOCK AND TERROR trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jE5dJDgZ644

BIRDEMIC 2: THE RESURRECTION coming soon!  (Or maybe not.)

Lastly, let’s examine POULTRYGEIST: NIGHT OF THE CHICKEN DEAD (2006).  Arbie (Jason Yachanin) and this girlfriend Wendy (Kate Graham) are getting it on in an ancient Indian burial graveyard.  On the night before she’s leaving for college.  Promising to be faithful to one another, they part.  One year later, Arbie returns to the scene of his first (and only) sexual encounter only to be startled by the sight of an American Chicken Bunker restaurant that has been built there.  Meanwhile, Wendy has become a “left-wing lipstick wearing lesbian.”  Disillusioned, Arbie take a slave-wage job at the restaurant.  Among his fellow workers are a gay Hispanic named Paco Bell (Khalid Rivera, who literally is turned into a Sloppy Jose!), an animal-loving redneck Carl Jr. (Caleb Emerson), and a burqa-wearing, bumbling Muslim (Rose Ghavami).  Unknown to all is that the long-dead Indian spirits lie uneasy and have begun to bring back dead chickens as zombie fowl!  Add to the mix copious gore, nudity, gratuitous sex, lesbians, fat people, slime, car crashes, political incorrectness and men’s hairy butts.  Toss in some musical tunes with such titles as “Green Eggs and Pam” and “S-U-I-C-I-D-E” and with lyrics like “my meat in your buns makes a special sauce” and you have the first Troma film to get a theatrical release in the past 25 years!

Gross, perverted, disgusting, crude and outrageous do not even begin to describe this latest product from the perpetually 8-year-old mind of Lloyd Kaufman.  POULTRYGEIST has something to offend anyone...and everyone!  But, that’s what Lloyd does best, a fact made clear by the at least 15 minutes of bragging, boasting and product selling Lloyd does before the movie even starts!  Touted by audiences to be the “best since Toxic Avenger,” it met with the highest acclaim of any film in Troma’s thirty-five year history.  However, that didn’t translate into box office receipts.  POULTRYGEIST had an estimated budget of $450,000 but only grossed $22,623 in ticket receipts and ranks a low #85 in the horror comedy genre.  In other words, it bombed.  Why?  Probably for the very same reasons it’s beloved by its fans.  Filled with “disgusting low-ball humor” and described by IMDB user reviews as “perverse and childish,” they still consider this to be, “a gross-out comedy/ musical/ horror film that is so much fun, it’s hard not to love.”  That said, when the roosters come home to roost, they will not have to fight for space in my Video Vault because POULTRYGEIST was sent winging its way back to Netflix.  IMHO, Troma laid an egg with POULTRYGEIST: NIGHT OF THE CHICKEN DEAD.  Trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzEA5R0XHOQ

No article about fowl-based death would be complete without a shout-out to that granddad of feathered mayhem that is BLOOD FREAK (1972).  Billed as “the World’s only turkey-monster anti-drug pro-Jesus-Gore-Film” it stars Steve Hawkes, at one-time playing Tarzan in some Spanish movies until an accidental fire on a set left his right arm and cheek badly scarred, as Herschell, a biker who gives a lift to an ultra-religious young woman named Angel (Heather Hughes).  She takes Herschell back home where he meets her sister, Ann (Dana Cullivan), who’s a druggie.  Falling under Ann’s spell, Herschell allows himself to be talked into smoking pot and getting hot with Ann.  Then, while at work on a turkey farm, he’s given the task of eating an entire cooked turkey.  Unbeknownst by him, the turkey is laced with a powerful drug that turns Herschell into...A WERE-TURKEY!  Seeking blood, he kills several young women.  Then, he cuts a man’s leg off in a sawmill.  Finally, he goes back home, hanging his turkey waddle in shame where he has sex with Ann, who ponders throughout the act about what their children will look like.  Will God take pity on Herschell?  Will Herschell’s new appearance get him promoted at the turkey farm?  Will the narrator of this movie make it through all 86 minutes before hacking up a lung?

BLOOD FREAK was directed and narrated by Brad F. Grinter, a skinny chain-smoking cracker of a man with a hacking cough and a bad Elvis haircut.  His primary job in this movie, aside from smoking up all of the tobacco industry’s yearly crop, is to make rambling and nonsensical philosophical insights about the movie and God in general.  This movie typifies zero-budget films.  Bad acting, bouncy camera work, laughable script, indifferent directing, bizarre plot and possibly the only film to use the previously unknown “female Wilhelm Scream,” it has everything required to leave generations of audiences scratching their heads in wonder.  But, wait!  The Something Weird Video disc of BLOOD FREAK comes with bonus material titled “Brad Grinter, Nudist”!  Yep!  That walking, talking nicotine patch is a nudist!  And he lets it all hang out in this short.  And that, dear friends, is the scariest part of BLOOD FREAK!  Trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VoU4TT8-frU

Well, it’s time for this old bird to fly the coop.  I’d like to thank all of you for enduring this four-piece chicken-McNugget movie marathon with me.  And, I hope that, if you should decide to watch some (or all) of the above-mentioned movies, you have more Yuks than cluck’s!  Gobble-gobble!

MSTjunkie

SANTA CLAUS Vs. SANTA CLAUS CONQUERS THE MARTIANS---the legacy of K. Gordon Murray

At this festive time of year with Christmas hard upon us and with office parties helping those visions of sugarplums dance in our heads, this is a good time to discuss two of entrepreneur K. Gordon Murray's Holiday film greats.  One is the perennial seasonal favorite, SANTA CLAUS (imported by Murray and released in 1960), and the other is that timeless classic, SANTA CLAUS CONQUERS THE MARTIANS (1964).

SANTA CLAUS lives high above us on a cloud where, using a telescope and a listening device made up of an oscillating fan and a disembodied ear, he keeps his sites on the children below.  Aiding in this is Merlin the Magician and a large group of children from around the World.  When his surveillance system made up of two big red lips tells him that Pitch is trying to ruin Christmas, Santa, unable to leave the North Pole until Christmas Eve, watches helplessly from above.  Down below, a poor child named Lupita longs for a dolly for Christmas.  However, her unemployed parents are so poor they can't even afford furniture!  Pitch tells Lupita to steal a dolly and she almost does.

Meanwhile, on the other side of town, Billy, the neglected son of wealthy socialite parents, longs for their loving presence.  However, they prefer to drink at a local establishment rather than spend time with their sad and lonely son on Christmas Eve.  Three local boys plan to break into Billy's home and steal his presents.  They also hatch a plan to kidnap Santa and force him to hand over the presents intended for children Worldwide!  Finally, it's Christmas Eve and Santa can leave his outer-space cloud and venture forth to the aid of these children, armed with a magical flower and some sleeping powder given to him by Merlin.  Will Santa dispel Pitch and his evil plans to stop Christmas from coming!?!  Will Lupita get her dolly?  Will Billy's parents learn the evils of their ways?  Will the three bad boys foil Santa's intended yearly trip to Mexico City!?!

From it's opening scene of Santa rocking it on his pipe organ as little children (angels?) sing along to Lupita's hallucinogenic dreams of over-sized taunting dolls to Billy's sleeping parents being delivered back to him in coffin-like boxes, this is without a doubt one of the strangest and most disturbing children's Holiday movies ever made!  In one scene deleted for American import, it shows a long line of hooded and chained lost souls being lead into Hell, their voices filling the air with sorrowful wails.  As of October 2011, it was voted by IMDB users as #54 on its bottom 100 worst movies list.  No box office is available probably because it never had a general theatrical release.  Instead, K. Gordon Murray booked the film for children's matinees where it would be shown once or twice before moving on to the next theater.  It was featured on December 24, 1993 during the fifth season of Mystery Science Theater 3000 as experiment # 521.

Unlike the above film, SANTA CLAUS CONQUERS THE MARTIANS is not one of K. Gordon Murray's imports.  In fact, there is nothing to suggest he had anything to do with this movie.  However, like SANTA CLAUS, it does take place in space.  The people of Mars, namely Momar and Kimar, are worried because their children Girmar (played by 8-year old Pia Zadora) and Bomar are watching too much Earth TV featuring Santa Claus.  Consulting an old Martian sage named Chochem, he tells Momar and Kimar that the children are becoming distracted and depressed because they have no Santa on Mars.  Therefore, Kimar sends Voldar, Stobo and Shim to Earth to kidnap Santa.  Upon arrival on Earth, they can't decide which one is the real Santa, and which are the store Santas so they kidnap two Earth children, Billy and Betty, to help find the real one.  However, once the Martians have the real Santa, Voldar takes a dislike to him and tries to kill him.  Once on Mars Santa, along with Billy and Betty, begins to build toys.  Another Martian named Dropo takes a shine to Santa and tries to emulate him by dressing up as Santa.  However, Voldar reprograms the toy-building machine and it begins to make unworkable toys.  In addition to that, Voldar kidnaps Dropo (who's disguised as Santa) and takes him to a cave.  However, when Voldar goes back to the toy factory and sees the real Santa, he realizes the gig is up and is arrested along with Stobo and Shim.  Dropo is named Mars' first Santa and the real Santa, Billy and Betty are returned to Earth.

SANTA CLAUS CONQUERS THE MARTIANS certainly has better production values than SANTA CLAUS.  In addition, because it was American made at an abandoned aircraft hanger on Long Island, New York, it didn't have to be dubbed.  Moreover, it's not as dark and disturbing as SANTA CLAUS.  True that SANTA CLAUS CONQUERS THE MARTIANS is listed among the 100 Most Amusingly Bad Movies Ever Made in the Golden Raspberry Awards book The Official Razzie Movie Guide and is one of the films included in Harry Medved's book The Fifty Worst Films of All Time.  Mystery Science Theater 3000 used it as experiment #321 during the third season (see S. J. Martiene's excellent review of that experiment in this month's Crypt!) and again in the MST3K spin-off Cinematic Titanic in November 2008.  It has been rumored since 2000 that it will be remade with David Zucker producing and with Jim Carrey attached to play Dropo but that is believed to be languishing in development hell.

So which, in my opinion, should be chosen as The Worst Christmas Movie Ever Made and why?  SANTA CLAUS CONQUERS THE MARTIANS!  And why?  In one word, Dropo!  The sight of that giggling, mincing, little man-boy rolling around on the floor makes me mad!  Mean mad!  Had not actor Bill McCutcheon, who played Dropo, died is 2002 I'd hunt him down and punch him in the throat!  *A-hem*

Now, let's have a brief look at the man behind the silliness that is SANTA CLAUS, K. Gordon Murray was born Kenneth "Kagey" Gordon Murray in 1922 in Bloomington, IL.  A carny at heart, the smooth-talking K. Gordon used his circus connections to hire the midgets for the 1939 MGM movie THE WIZARD OF OZ.  After marrying his lifelong sweetheart, the couple tried their hand in Hollywood but it was ultimately in Miami that K. Gordon made his most important movie connection in showman Kroger Babb!

Together, they imported a little known Mexican movie titled SANTA CLAUS that, once dubbed into English, made so much money it was the only film in U.S. history to be released profitably for three decades!  And with it, K. Gordon became "King of the Kiddie Matinee" importing and releasing such films as LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD AND THE MONSTERS (1962), SANTA CLAUS AND HIS HELPERS (1964), THE MAGIC LAND OF MOTHER GOOSE (1965) and SANTA'S MAGIC KINGDOM (1966).  But, there was also a more adult side of K. Gordon.  While he would continue importing children's movies, he also tried his hand successfully at more adult fare such as SWAMP OF THE LOST MONSTERS (1965), WRESTLING WOMEN Vs. THE AZTEC MUMMY (1965), as writer of the surprisingly nasty exploitation movie SHANTY TRAMP (1967) and THE WITCH'S MIRROR (1960/ 1969).

In total, K. Gordon would release 60 movies during a 15-year period.  But, troubles began with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) who confiscated his prints.  Before he could make it to Court to reclaim his prints, K. Gordon Murray died of a heart attack on December 30, 1979.  He was 57—ironically, this was at the same age and on the same date that Murray's father died.

By the time of his death however, the days of the "Kiddie Matinee" were almost over.  The big studios and major exhibitors came up with a contractual clause stating if an exhibitor won a bid on a picture, they had to play it on weeknights and weekends.  This move killed the Kiddie Matinee in one swoop.  However, Murray's fairy tales will live on in the hearts and minds of anyone who's seen them.

Merry Christmas...if that's OK!

MSTjunkie

Bobbie's Essays: Whatever Happened to Horror-hag Movies?

According to Wikipedia, Psycho-biddie movies, or as I prefer to call them Hagsploitation, is defined as “a dangerous, insane or mentally unstable woman of advanced years ... Often (but not always), there are two older women pitted against one another in a life-or-death struggle, usually the result of bitter hatreds, jealousies, or rivalries that have percolated over the course of not years, but decades ... The psychotic character is often brought to life in an over-the-top, grotesque fashion, emphasizing the unglamorous process of aging and eventual death. Characters are often seen pining for lost youth and glory, trapped by their idealized memories of their childhood, or youth, and the traumas that haunt their past.”

It all began in 1962 when an aging and forgotten ex-child-actress, Jane (Bette Davis), goes all whack-a-doo on her reclusive and wheelchair-bound ex-ingénue actress sister, Blanche (Joan Crawford), screaming “Ya are, Blanche!  Ya are in that chair!”  With that declarative statement, WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE slammed open the doors to the golden age of horror-Hagsploitation!  Youth-obsessed Tinseltown sat up and took notice as one drunken and slattern former Hollywood leading lady tried to force-feed another aging ex-screen star her own cooked parakeet while the invalid ex-star sister tries in vain to get someone’s—anyone’s—attention to her dire and ultimately deadly plight!  (Personally, I would have force-fed Blanche that damned buzzer she was always pushing!)  Made for a paltry $980,000, it took home $4,050,000 and was nominated for five Academy Awards, winning for Best Costume Design.  

Suddenly, all that was old was new again and Warner Bros./ Seven Arts, eager to continue milking that cash cow, quickly signed both actresses to another movie, HUSH, HUSH SWEET CHARLOTTE (working title: WHATEVER HAPPENED TO COUSIN CHARLOTTE).  But, what the Studio didn’t count on was the contemptuous relationship between the two stars.

Joan Crawford, desperate not to play opposite the conniving Bette again, took to her sick-bed long enough to force director Robert Aldrich to sign another aging actress, Olivia de Havilland, as a replacement.  This time, instead of playing dueling sisters, the two acted as sparring cousins, one a slightly off-her-rocker Southern Belle (Bette) who was believed to have killed her married ex-lover with an axe years before and one sweet-seeming but scheming cousin (Olivia) sent to settle affairs at the old mansion.  In actuality, her purpose is to drive her cousin insane and steal her fortune.  HUSH, HUSH also pulled out of the mothballs two other aging stars of yesteryear, Joseph Cotton who plays the lawyer boyfriend of Olivia and Mary Astor who was the long-ago slain ex-lover’s then wife, now widow.  While HUSH, HUSH didn’t do the box office that BABY JANE did, it still pulled in $7 million.

Meanwhile, Joan Crawford hit the horror hag circuit hard and signed to act in schlock-meister William Castle’s STRAIT-JACKET (1964).  In this film, Joan plays Lucy Harbin, a trampy young wife who finds her husband in the sack with another woman and chops both of their heads off.  Twenty years later, a subdued Lucy is released from the mental hospital where she was sent after the double homicide and reunites with her now-grown daughter Carol (Diane Baker) and the murders begin again.  For this movie, Joan, now age 60, plays both the 29 year-old younger Lucy and the 49 year-old older Lucy and she does so with somewhat believability.  You can see the wardrobe/ make-up tests here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1EMbnZUgLSk

While Joan was busy hacking up half the County, Bette starred in DEAD RINGER (1964) in a duel-role as twin-sisters, one who kills the other, then assumes the dead twin’s identity and husband (Paul Henreid).  But, what she doesn’t know is that her now-dead sister had a younger lover in the form of Peter Lawford.  (UGH!)  DEAD RINGER also features perpetually ancient Estelle Winwood (who played Sybil in Bert I. Gordon’s THE MAGIC SWORD) who was 80 when she made this movie!

Not to be out-done, Joan next starred in another Castle shocker I SAW WHAT YOU DID (And I Know Who You Are) in 1965.  Well, starred in is stretching the truth somewhat as Joan was only hired for four days work but Castle, recognizing the star power of her name, gave her first billing.  Here she acted for the final time opposite John Ireland, whom she’d first worked with in 1955’s QUEEN BEE.  This was also her last American acting job and she only appeared to two more foreign films before quitting the silver screen for good.  In I SAW WHAT YOU DID, Joan plays the part of the cheating husband’s demanding girlfriend whom he kills.  Just then, the phone rings and two young girl prank callers chant “We saw what you did!”  Terrified of being found out, John tracks down the young prank callers with more murders on his mind.

Bette next crossed the Big Pond to act in THE NANNY (1965) where she played the title role with a noticeably un-Mary Poppins-flair.  Harboring a deep dark secret, Nanny goes about her duties with a clinical detachment.  Here she gives a terrifying performance as the overly-protective mother-figure to long-suffering wife, Virgie, while a little boy, Joey, harbors the belief that it was Nanny who drowned his little sister in the bath!  Joan also took her show on the road to the UK and filmed BERSERK (1967) in which she’s a circus owner whose performing troops at set upon by a psychopathic killer.  Actor Ty Hardin, 25 years her junior, plays her tightrope-walking love interest.  Joan, always conscious of how she’d look on camera, ordered Desmond Dickinson, the director of photography, to only use medium-long shots and, should the camera come closer, to artfully film the dark bars of shadows that crossed her neck.  The film was short on plot so it was padded extensively with shots of various circus acts, including Diana Dors, England’s answer to Marilyn Monroe, being sawed in half during a magician’s trick gone awry.

While Bette went on to play the one-eyed domineering mother in Hammer’s THE ANNIVERSARY in 1968, Joan was reduced to starring in her last film, the laughably bad TROG (1970).  Here Joan plays an anthropologist opposite a man wearing a left-over monkey outfit from Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY.  While Bette spent the next two decades appearing in many fine horror movies such as SCREAM, PRETTY PEGGY (1973/ TV), BURNT OFFERINGS (1976) and THE DARK SECRET OF HARVEST HOME (1968/ TV), none were of the horror-hag variety.

Other aging and largely forgotten actresses followed in the footsteps of Joan and Bette.  Olivia de Havilland went on to play in LADY IN A CAGE (1964) as an invalid woman trapped in her own private elevator and terrorized by a gang of thuggish brutes lead by James Caan (in his first credited movie role).  This surprisingly nasty film also stars another aging former beauty, Ann Sothern (who would later meet up with Bette in THE WHALES OF AUGUST (1987).  Another star hitting the horror circuit was Tallulah Bankhead in DIE!  DIE!  MY DARLING (1965), opposite Stephanie Powers.  It is reported that when Tallulah saw herself in this movie, she apologized for “looking older than God’s wet-nurse” and never acted in another film.  Roman Polanski pulled silent-screen actress, Ruth Gordon, out of moth-balls, casting her as Rosemary’s pushy and nosey neighbor in 1968’s ROSEMARY’S BABY, a role that landed her an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress.  Geraldine Page put in her best effort in WHATEVER HAPPENED TO AUNT ALICE (1969) as the murdering wealthy employer of hapless companions, including Ruth Gordon.  In this movie, we get to see the greatest physical fight between two old biddies ever filmed!  Unfortunately, Gordon only shows up for her paycheck in the awful 1978 made-for-TV movie LOOK WHAT’S HAPPENED TO ROSEMARY’S BABY with ex-child star Patty Duke playing the Rosemary Woodhouse role.

Next to dip her toe into the genre was former glamour-girl Shelley Winters in WHAT’S THE MATTER WITH HELEN?  and WHOEVER SLEW AUNTIE ROO?, both made in 1971.  In WHAT’S THE MATTER WITH HELEN, Winters plays opposite another fading screen star Debbie Reynolds, as a pair of older women who decide to movie to Hollywood to escape the shame of their two son’s murder spree.

Penned by Henry Farrell, the man who started the whole genre with WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE, HELEN is filled with pot-holes and wasted opportunities.  In WHOEVER SLEW AUNTIE ROO, Winters plays a wealthy if daffy woman who keeps the mummified corpse of her long-dead daughter in a secret room of her mansion, where she sings it lullabies at night and holds séances to communicate with the dead daughter’s soul.  On Christmas Eve, Winters throws the annual Christmas party for local orphans and spots a young girl who bears a striking resemblance to her dead daughter.  However, not even with her Oscar-nominated role as Mrs. Rosen in THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE in 1972 did Winters manage to grab Hollywood’s fickle eye again and Winters once again hit the horror hag trail, acting as the drunken and slovenly ex-star Bertha in the white trash flick, POOR PRETTY EDDIE (1975).

Sadly by the end of the 1970’s, horror hag movies had gone out of style and not even TV movie producers would take a flyer on them.  However, the genre had one last surprise up its ragged sleeve and that surprise was CARRIE (1976) starring Sissy Spacek as the shy girl with enormous powers and Piper Laurie as her demented and domineering mother, it shot it’s author Stephen King into instant pulp horror fiction stardom.  The title character, Carrie, is a high school student tormented by fellow female students.  Her mother, Margaret, is a religious nut case who believes her daughter will burn in Hell if she attends the school prom when one of Carrie’s tormenters has her boyfriend ask Carrie to the dance.  The mother’s right.  All Hell does break loose but not in the way the mother envisioned!  Audiences ate it up and it grossed almost $34 million for MGM Studios.

Some loyal readers might argue it didn’t end there and mention MOMMIE DEAREST (1981) and MISERY (1990) as examples.  However, I contend that MOMMIE DEAREST was a bio-pic and, therefore, doesn’t count.  And with MISERY, Kathy Bates was only 48 when she starred in that movie...too young to be any kind of a “hag”...and could never be thought of as a classic Tinseltown beauty.  No ... I believe the genre died a much-deserved death because the audiences that first saw the actresses perform saw them at an earlier time of beauty and grace, the gentler years of slim bodies well-dressed in Dior gowns, smiling for the cameras.  And now, like neck-cranners at the scene of an accident, the audiences wanted to see them at their worst, chewing up the scenery and looking every bit the hag the audiences paid good money to see.  But whatever the time-line and for whatever reason, horror hag movies as a genre ended.  We shall never see their likes again.  And more’s the pity.  So, here’s to Bette and Joan, Olivia and Tallulah, to Shelley and Debbie and Piper.  Thanks for the frights, ladies!

MSTjunkie

Bobbie's Essays: Tribute to Tura Satana, 1938-2011

Tura Satana, best known for her appearance in Russ Meyer's cult classic FASTER, PUSSYCAT! KILL! KILL! has died at the age of 72.  Born Tura Luna Pascual Yamaguchi on July 10, 1938 in Japan, to a Japanese silent film actor father and an American Indian-Irish circus performer mother, the family immigrated to America after World War 2.  After a stint in the Manzanar interment camp, the family moved to the Westside of Chicago, IL.  Developing early, she claimed to have been gang raped at the age of nine.  According to Tura, her attackers were never caught but this attack prompted her to learn martial arts and karate where she obtained a gold belt.  This talent also served her well against her physically abusive father.

Sent to reform school as a teenager, she became the leader of a girl-gang.  At 13, she was briefly married to a 17-year-old boy in an arrangement made by her parents.  However, married life wasn't for Tura and, leaving her husband behind, she moved to Los Angeles and, fake ID in hand, tried her hand at blues singing, became a bathing suit model, and at age 16 posed nude for silent screen comic Harold Lloyd, who was unaware that she was under-age, in a photo titled Black Widow.  It was Harold Lloyd, impressed with her photogenic and exotic looks, who convinced Tura to try her hand at acting.  However, tiring of Los Angeles, she returned to Chicago to live with her parents and performed as an exotic dancer, touring with Tempest Storm and Rose La Rose.  At age 19, Tura became pregnant but continued dancing until in her eight month for a salary of $1500 a week.  Her career as an exotic dancer took off and soon she was traveling around the country with her act, meeting various other traveling acts such as a young Elvis (who she dated for some time, eventually turning down a marriage proposal, though she kept the ring) and Wayne Newton.  It was during this time that Tura married briefly for a second time.

Returning to Los Angeles in her early 20's, Tura appeared in two movies, IRMA LA DOUCE (1963) with Shirley MacLaine and Jack Lemmon and WHO’S BEEN SLEEPING IN MY BED with Dean Martin (1963).  She also had bit roles in several TV programs such as Burke's Law and The Man From UNCLE.  In 1965, Tura met the man who would change her life and her status from an uncredited bit actress to a cult icon...  Russ Meyer!

Meyer, a veteran war photographer, came home to a job of photographing early Playboy centerfolds.  Meyer had always had an interest in film and had directed EVE AND THE HANDYMAN and THE IMMORAL MR. TEAS, two early nudie-cuties.  It's at this time that Tura and Meyer's path's crossed.  Meyer, taken with Tura's exotic good looks and athletic abilities, asked her to star in his up-coming movie FASTER, PUSSYCAT! KILL! KILL!

Tura played Varla, the lead of a gang of three strippers, out for a day's racing in the California desert.  There, they meet a young dating couple and, after Varla dispatches the boyfriend with some kicks to the head, they take as hostage the young woman, Billie.  Having heard of an old man who reputedly has a lot of money, they decide to rob him.  Once at the old man's house, they seduce his sons and search for the cash, not knowing the old man, who refers to Varla as being, “more stallion than mare,” has sinister plans of his own.  In this movie, Tura's martial arts training becomes obvious as she kicks and stomps her way through both the movie and most of the cast!  Oddly, for a Russ Meyer movie, this has no nudity.  Director John Waters says this is beyond a doubt the best movie ever made.  Filmed on a budget of only $45,000, it's made millions.

After FASTER PUSSYCAT, Tura made five more movies, all for director Ted V. Mikels.  The first as Satanna in ASTRO-ZOMBIES, the second was DOLL SQUAD, which is believed to have inspired TV producer Aaron Spelling to create Charlie's Angels, a TV program that ran for five years and the first to feature an all-female lead cast.  The final two were MARK OF THE ASTRO-ZOMBIES and ASTRO-ZOMBIES: M3-CLONED both of which went straight to video.

But tumultuous times continued for Tura.  After DOLL SQUAD, Tura was shot in the stomach by a boyfriend and spent some time in the hospital, ending her career as an exotic dancer.  She worked in a hospital, managed a doctor's office and worked as a radio dispatcher for the LA police department.  A car accident in 1981 broke her back, left her unable to walk for some months, and required several operations.  Marrying for a third time, this time to a retired policeman (who passed away in 2000), she was in talks with Russ Meyer to do a sequel to FASTER PUSSYCAT but those plans ended with Russ Meyer’s death in 2004.  Still, had Tura not done any movies other than FASTER PUSSYCAT, she'd still be remembered today for her trashy, tough-talking, butt-kicking woman of sexual abandonment in the greatest sexploitation movie in history.

Tura Satana died Feb. 4, 2011.  She leaves behind two daughters, three grandchildren and thousands of mourning fans—and a legacy as one of the strongest, most assertive women in the world of Exploitation Film.

Senior Correspondent Bobbie Culbertson

Bobbie's Essays: “Somewhere in Time and Space”: The Mystery Science Theater 3000 Experiment Continues on

Mention MST3K in a room full of people and at least half of them will begin long, convoluted and sometimes heated discussions, as the other half either listens with rapt attention or flees the room.  Why?  Because anyone who is a MST-ie—as fans of the show call themselves—is obsessively seeking to enlighten those uninitiated to this comedy/fantasy world.

It all began in 1988 at a tiny Minneapolis UHF Station KTMA-TV when Jim Mallon approached the station manager with the idea of a new live-hosted show he'd dreamed up with comedian friend, Joel Hodgson and jack-of-all-trades, Kevin Murphy.  Because the station had a two-hour opening on Saturday mornings (but was short on funds), the station manager was intrigued.

Cobbling together a makeshift spacecraft set (dubbed the Satellite of Love or SOL for short) and roping in actor/ puppeteer Trace Beaulieu and a young music composer, Josh Weinstein, they came up with a concept.  Beaulieu and Weinstein would play two evil scientists called the Mads who shot a man into space and forced him to watch bad movies while they, living in Deep 13, would monitor the results.  In order to assuage his loneliness, Joel built two robots, Crow T. Robot (voiced by Beaulieu) and Beeper (later the name changed to Tom Servo and voiced by Weinstein).  They, along with Joel, would watch the movies and make quips (called riffing by fans) about them.  Clips from THE GREEN SLIME and a comedy skit by Joel were shot and shown to the station's owner, who approved it.  Mystery Science Theater 3000 was born!

Thanksgiving Day, 1988, saw the first show, INVADERS FROM THE DEEP, air.  Unsure of the audience's response, a phone number was flashed across the bottom of the screen and viewers were encouraged to call.  The next day, the entire phone answering machine tape was filled with calls!  Some callers castigated Joel for talking over the movie but most callers were excited, with one demanding "More!  More!  More!”  Happy to have a hit, the station's owner decided to make it a weekly show and for the next 13 Saturdays, Joel and the Bots (as fans call the robots) entertained fans with such titles as GAMERA vs. BARUGON, TIME OF THE APES and SST DEATH FLIGHT.  Because the running time of these and other movies was so short, the experiments were padded using ’shorts’, which, in these early days, were usually old serials like Commander Cody.  Fans ate it up!  The demand was so great, the show's run was expanded from the original 13 episodes to 21.

As the KTMA days came to a close, MST3K's creators approached Comedy Central, a fledgling cable channel, with a 'best-of' tape of the show and it was picked up.  The concept, along with the sets, changed.  No longer ad-libbed, head-writer Mike Nelson was added and Weinstein was replaced by Frank Conniff (as TV's Frank).  Murphy took over as Tom Servo's voice and puppeteer.  The show's popularity grew along with it's fan base and 11 more episodes were added to the original 13 ordered.  MST3K became Comedy Central’s signature show for the next seven seasons.  In 1993, MST3K won the prestigious Peabody Award for "producing an ingenious eclectic series.”  Between seasons 6 and 7, MST3K also filmed a theater-released movie titled THIS ISLAND EARTH, which was not well received by the show's fans.

However, storm clouds were forming on the show's horizon.  Trace Beaulieu, who's played the Mad Dr. Forrester and voiced Crow, left at the end season 6.  He was replaced by writer Mary Jo Pehl, who played Dr. Forrester's mother, Pearl Forrester.  Then, in the middle of season 5, Joel left the show.  Various reasons were given from his dislike of being on-camera to disagreements with producer Jim Mallon.  His exit was written into the show and, after watching a Joe Don Baker movie titled MITCHELL, Joel escapes the SOL, headed for Earth.  The Mads then send a dim-witted janitor named Mike (played by head-writer Mike Nelson) as a replacement subject.  Thus began what has become known as the Joel vs. Mike wars that flamed on for years on the Internet fan-based groups.  When Comedy Central announced the cancellation of the show, the Internet fan-based groups started a successful write-in campaign and in 1996, the show was picked up by the Sci-Fi channel.

Again, changes to the format were made.  Pearl became the head-Mad and, along with her idiotic sidekicks BoBo (a talking ape played by Murphy) and Observer (Bill Corbett as an alien who carries his brain in a dish), she torments Mike and the Bots by chasing after the SOL in a rocket-powered VW bus!  In addition, Corbett took over as Crow's voice and puppeteer.  Sci-Fi, true to it's name, demanded that MST3K focused on science fiction movies.  This also marked the beginning of the end for the 'shorts, the last being ROBOT RUMPUS with Gumby.

Thus began a four-year ride through outer space with Pearl, BoBo and Brain-Guy chasing along after the SOL and forcing them to watch terrible movies and under-go strange experiments.  However, as all good things must come to an end, the show was finally cancelled in 1999.  But, this wasn't the end for our MST crew!  Joel went on to produce and star in a HBO special titled TV WHEEL and continued to perform stand-up comedy.  Mike joined with Kevin and Bill to release four more bad films under the cover of THE FILM CREW, wrote several well-received humor books and released commentary tracks to horror cult classics such as PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE and NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD.  Mary Jo went back to doing stand-up and was featured on The Women of Comedy DVD.  July 2008 saw Mike Nelson create Rifftrax, an on-line movie voice-over of riffs.  Joel, along with Mary Jo, Trace Beaulieu, Frank Conniff and Josh Weinstein started a countrywide theater act called Cinematic Titanic, in which they riff bad movies to enthusiastic live audience members.

But—I told you that to tell you this!  A decade after the show's cancellation, MST3K fans still abound.  Their Internet-based groups still hum with spirited discussions about the show and in-person meet-ups are well attended.  Show traders still keep 'circulating the tapes' and, now, the DVDs. Best Brains and now SHOUT keep releasing the shows on DVD.  How did this cow-town puppet show with zero budget grow to become such a phenomenon!?!  It certainly had nothing to do with the movies they showed!  Take for example a little gem titled MANOS: HANDS OF FATE.  Badly acted with an implausible plot and script, why in the hands of one actor with two puppets does it become a hit still discussed to this day!?!  MITCHELL, which was bad enough to drive Joel to abandon ship, would be recognized by any fan hearing the words "Any movie with 'wok-a-chicka wok-a-chicka' in it is okay by me.”  From bad creature flicks like GAMERA and GIANT GILA MONSTER to bad sci-fi movies such as TEENAGERS FROM OUTER SPACE and SPACE MUTINY to gritty little crime dramas TORMENTED and KITTEN WITH A WHIP to Shakespeare's HAMLET, all were fair fodder to this wise-cracking threesome.  Their secret?  Treating these horrible movies with respect and humor.  And, treating their loyal audiences as one of themselves.  We were included in their little game.  Comfortable in the knowledge that 'the right ones will get it'.  And that we were them!  Fans felt as though they were part of a larger cause.  Some even went so far as to emulate the show with fan-created on-line shows of their own.

I will not get into a 'best of' and 'worst of' lists because what's one man's meat is another man's poison.  While TEENAGE STRANGLER may cause one fan to beat his head against a wall, another fan will argue it as comic genius.  Mention MST3K's last experiment DIABOLIC and some will defend its choice while other's will argue that the logical choice would have been THE CRAWLING EYE, Comedy Central’s debut MST3K, thereby creating a closed circle.  Ask any fan which was the first show they saw and they will tell you.  Often, it had such an impact on them that they can, and will, recite riffs from it.  Do I have my favorites?  Of course!  We all do!  So, to the crew of the Satellite Of Love and Deep 13, thank you for ten years of laughs, of Turkey Day marathons and MST Hour shows.  Thank you for continuing on with your live performance and your commentaries, your tours and your gentle good humor.  And, to borrow from that enthusiastic fan of decades ago, we fans say "More!  More!  More!"

MSTjunkie

Tribute to Dennis Hopper (1936-2010)

Tribute to Dennis Hopper (1936-2010)

Dennis Hopper was the epitome of the 1960's rebel with a cause. During a decade of an unpopular war in Vietnam and the hey-day of the hippies and the drug culture, he brought to life the angst of living outside the box. When moviegoers think of the bad boy of the 60's free-style thinking, his name easily pops to mind.

Dennis Lee Hopper was born in Dodge City, Kansas, and at the age of 13, moved with his family to San Diego, CA where he discovered an interest in acting while in high school. He studied at the Old Globe Theater in San Diego and the Actors Studio in New York City. While in New York, he struck up a friendship with actor Vincent Price whose passion for the art greatly influenced Hopper.

Hopper made his film debut in James Dean's film, REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE (1955) and also appeared with Dean in the actor’s last movie, GIANT (1956). Hopper claims Dean was the finest actor he had ever worked with and Dean's 1955 death in an auto accident deeply moved Hopper. During shooting for FROM HELL TO TEXAS, he fought with veteran director Henry Hathaway with Hopper refusing shooting directions for the next several days, gaining the reputation of being a difficult actor with whom to work. Studios shied away from hiring him and he found himself playing mostly one-shot TV shows for the next several years.

Moved by Hopper's claim to be Margaret Sullivan's son-in-law, John Wayne helped Hopper get hired for the role of Dave Hastings in 1965 SONS OF KATIE ELDER. In a 1994 interview on the Charlie Rose Show, Hopper credits John Wayne with saving his career and acknowledges that his insolent behavior made it difficult for him to find work for several years. However, Hopper was mostly confined to westerns usually playing the villain.

Hopper's next big break came in 1967 when he was cast with Peter Fonda and Susan Strasberg as the LSD-pushing Max in THE TRIP (1967). Contrary to the roles Fonda and Hopper would play in EASY RIDER (1969), it's Fonda who plays the role up-tight while Hopper is calm and under self-control. This would be Hopper's introduction to American International Pictures (AIP) and director Roger Corman. The film was to be one of America's first peeks at the hippie counter-culture of body painting, black lights and premarital and extra-marital sex. The film was wildly profitable and, made on a budget of $450,000, has made $10 million (Jan. 1970) at the box office and $5 million on rentals to date. The phenomenal success of EASY RIDER caused studios to jump on the counter-culture bandwagon with movies about hippies, drugs, draft dodgers and motorcycle gangs.

COOL HAND LUKE (1967) was next on Hopper's agenda, playing egg-eating contest bet-taker Babalugats. However, it would be later that year that Hopper would make the movie that made him an American icon... EASY RIDER. Hopper again teamed up with Peter Fonda and with Terry Southern and Jack Nicholson. With EASY RIDER, Hopper won critical acclaim for his directorial debut. However, Hopper's behavior alienated co-stars Fonda and Nicholson and Hopper's increasing drug use, his refusal to leave the writer's desk and his divorce from Brooke Hayward caused delay after delay in the shooting schedule. Hopper began experimenting heavily with drugs and alcohol both on an off the set. The final Hopper-edited version of EASY RIDER ran nearly three hours. The film was nominated for two Academy Awards. (A bit of trivia—Rip Torn was originally chosen for Jack Nicholson's role of George Hanson. However, before shooting began, Hopper pulled a knife on Torn. Hopper later claimed Torn pulled the knife on him. Rip Torn later sued for defamation and won.)

His bad-boy reputation preceding him, Hopper found it more and more difficult to find work. Limping from one small role in mostly European films to the next, his drug and alcohol problems increased and began to affect the quality of his work. He also married and divorced four times during this period, including an eight-day marriage to Mamas and Papas singer, Michelle Phillips. After staging a 'suicide attempt' in a coffin with 17 sticks of dynamite, Hopper disappeared into the Mexican desert. However, after several extravagant drug and alcohol benders, his career in tatters, he checked into a rehab center in 1983.

The Eighties saw a resurgence of interest in Hopper who by then had exorcized his demons of alcohol and drug abuse. His talent once again able to shine, he returned to the thought-provoking roles and stellar performances for which he was once known. He turned in a memorable performance as the pot-smoking photographer in Coppola's APOCALYPSE NOW (1979) and was superb in RUMBLE FISH (1983).

Hopper returned to directing with the controversial gang film COLORS (1988). However, acting was his first love and he once again returned to the front of the camera in SUPER MARIO BROTHERS (1993), SPEED (1994) and WATERWORLD (1995). In the new century, Hopper also returned to the small screen with on-going roles in FLATLAND, 24, E-RING and, at the time of his death from prostate cancer at age 74, was starring in CRASH.

During his career, he was a life-long fixture in Hollywood and his resume included some of the best and well-remembered roles of the five decades. He is recognized as one of the true enfant terribles of Hollywood. He fought with, and overcame, his own personal demons both in private and in public. With his death drawing nearer, Hollywood honored him on May 26, 2010 with a Walk of Fame star. His old friends Peter Fonda and Jack Nicholson were at his side to honor him. Three days later, Dennis Hopper was dead. Rest in peace, Easy Rider. You earned it.

Bobbie