Horror Express (1973) - ATrain Full Of Weird

Ok, so you start with Hammer Horror stars Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing and throw 'em onto a Trans-Siberian express train with about 60 other people including a Russian Count and Countess, a mad monk who proves as willing to be a zealot for Satan as he is for Christ and a police inspector who is investigating an apparent murder that occurred at the depot just before the train departed. Then, once everyone is safely ensconced on the train which is barreling down the tracks, you unleash an alien entity which can not only jump from body to body, but can kill with a glance while at the same time absorbing the knowledge and memories of its victims. Oh, and for good measure, about two-thirds of the way through, let's let the train stop just long enough for Telly Savalas (yes, really) to march on board as the whip-wielding commander of a group of cossack soldiers with a penchant for simple "if it comes through that door shoot it" type solutions. Mix all of that, along with plenty of deep-red-blood dripping eyeballs, an early-established "anyone can die" atmosphere shoot it in Madrid and then overdub everyone later, and what do you get? Today's film, 1973's Horror Express.

Horrors of Spider Island (1960) - She's Got Legs!

Gary Webster: "Hmm.. Legs?"
Meg: "Pardon me?"
Georgia: "Mr. Webster would like to look at your legs."
Meg: "Oh, sure."
[Meg pulls up her skirt]
[Mr. Webster crosses his own legs at the ankles.]
Georgia: "Thank you, you're hired."

Poor Gary! Shipwrecked after a plane crash on a deserted island with a bevy of beautiful dancers who, despite having just barely survived for days and days on a small life raft and then, upon finally finding land, coming upon a cabin with a dead body hung in a spider web, are really mostly interested in seeing how quickly they can strip down to their undies and either go skinny dipping or start cat-fighting (though there is no actual nudity in the film, just lots of underwear and bikinis). Yeah, Gary's got it rough.

King of the Zombies (1941) - Undead Race Relations

In 1968, George Romero changed the zombie film forever. In Night of the Living Dead and its sequels, the zombie became viral, a disease that spread like wildfire throughout the population, an onrushing tide of shambling flesh-eaters from which there was seemingly, ultimately, no escape. He also is hailed for, whether intentionally or not, turning the zombie film into something of an allegory or commentary on the times with his (admittedly bold) choice of Duane Jones as the lead in his film.

Prior to Romero's film, however, cinematic zombies were completely different creatures. Rather than being the result of some kind of scientific or military experiment gone wrong (the usual explanation for their creation in more recent films, only hinted at in Night, but made more explicit in films such as 28 Days Later), they were usually tied in with voodoo rites, some type of mind-altering drug, or even mere hypnotism. Nor were these zombies generally the type to rip apart bodies and eat their flesh or to spread their infection through a bite. Instead, usually there were only a few of them and they were used as slaves for some nefarious purpose.

These are the type of zombie that we find in today's flick, King of the Zombies.

Tuesday Terrors - Carnival of Souls (1962)

Sometimes a horror flick will depend upon things like jump-scares in order to try to shock its audience. You know the kind of thing I mean: the lights have gone out in the heroine's house, she's trying to find a candle, opens up a closet door, and out jumps a screeching cat that has apparently not before made a sound in protest of being trapped in there. Others rely on special effects to show us all kinds of creepy crawly aliens or ghosts that appear and disappear and attack both the viewer and the protagonist. For an especially egregious example of this, see the 1999 remake of The Haunting which turns one of the great psychological thrillers of the 60's into a showcase for bad and ill-considered cgi effects. Then there are the movies which rely on creating an atmosphere in order to provide their chills and thrills, movies which set the hero or heroine in a situation that seems just slightly off-kilter and then slowly turn up the oddness until there is no denying that something strange is going on and they must eventually confront whatever is causing it. Today's film, Carnival of Souls, fits squarely into the latter category.

Conceived when director-producer Herk Harvey was vacationing in Salt Lake City and became enamored of the abandoned Saltair Pavilion on the banks of the Great Salt Lake, Carnival of Souls tells the story of Mary Henry, a young organist who is abbout to take a job at a church in a new town. Before leaving for her new position, however, Mary is out with some friends, and they are challenged to a drag race by a car full of boys. Pulling onto a bridge, the girls' car is bumped by the other and goes careening over the edge. Police and rescue workers show, and depite their best efforts they cannot find the car or any survivors in the depths of the river. Suddenly, however, Mary appears crawling onto the bank, and it's deemed a miracle that she survived.

She may have survived the wreck, but something has changed about Mary. Moving to her new job she declares that she is never coming back to her old town, and when she gets to the new one she seems cold and distant from people, having trouble fitting in. She has also begun to have visions of a pale old man, at first just taking over her reflection, but eventually appearing before her in physical form. She is having other visions too. On her way to the town she noticed an old abandoned amusement park, and not only does she feel strangely drawn to it, but she seems to be having waking dreams of ghouls dancing and cavorting through the park. Most disturbing of all, however, is the change in Mary's music. Once described by the minister who has become her boss as music to move the soul, he is soon denouncing it as profane and blasphemous. Soon, Mary has no coice but to investigate the old carnival and see what significance it has in what has happened to her.

Filmed on a reported budget of $33,000, in and around Salt Lake City and Lawrence, Kansas, using mostly local actors and actresses, Carnival of Souls is surprisingly effective with its otherworldly atmospherics and mounting sense of dread. It's one of those films that gives you that creeping sense of "something's not quite right here, but I'm not sure exactly what it is".

Here's a trailer:


And the Skinny:
Title: Carnival of Souls
Release Date: 1962
Running Time: 82min
Black and White
Starring: Candace Hilligoss
Directed by: Herk Harvey
Produced by: Herk Harvey
Released by: Herts-Lion International corp.

Carnival of Souls is available to watch or download for free here.
It's available to purchase on DVD from Amazon: Carnival of Souls - Criterion Collection.

Netflix also has the DVD available for rental or to watch instantly: Carnival of Souls.

Until next time, Happy Treasure Hunting,
-Professor Damian

Tuesday Terrors - The Incredible 2 Headed Transplant (1971)

Y'know, in baseball, a double is a good thing. Depending on which side you're on, a double play can also be a very good thing. Best of all, though, especially for the fans, is a double-header. Unfotunately, I don't think anyone in today's flick is going to be trying out for the majors anytime soon. Which means in this case a double header is simply double trouble.

In The Incredible 2 Headed Transplant, Bruce Dern (yes, really, that Bruce Dern) plays a doctor who is obsessed with the concept of transplanting heads. Why? Well, from what yer Ol' Professor can tell it's because Dern's Dr. Girard just swallowed a whole bottle of why-the-hell-not pills. He's already been kicked out of the hospital he worked at, and has set up a lab in the basement of his house where he's continuing his experiments with his assistant Igor... umm, I mean Max. This, of course, thrills the doctor's wife Linda (Pat Priest, who really shouldn't be so freaked out by all of this after all those years living with the Munsters) to no end, since it explains the stench wafting upstairs that has not only killed all the roaches in the house but also made the bacon smell funny. (Ok, there's really nothing about cockroaches or bacon in the movie, but really it makes as much sense as anything you will find there.)

Meanwhile, we also meet Dr. Girard's caretaker, Andrew Norton and his son Danny. Now Danny is not a small boy, but unfortunately he does have a very small brain. According to his father he was trapped by a mine cave-in when he was a child and his brain was starved for oxygen long enough to leave him in a very retarded state. From the looks of him, nowadays Danny could probably have just pushed the boulders aside, but then...

Anyway, also meanwhile, we meet serial rapist-murderer Manuel "Mama" Cass, who escapes from the mental institution to which he had been confined. Stealing a car, Cass winds up ending his freedom joyride at Dr. Girard's house. Unfortunately, the doctor is out (well, actually he's physically down in his lab, but trust me, he's pretty far out) as is Max, which leaves Linda to confront the madman alone. Finally both the doctor and the caretaker hear her screams and rush to her aid, but Cass kills Andrew and leaves the doctor tied up, making his escape with Linda. When Danny finally comes in, he freaks out at the sight of his dead father, neglecting to release the doctor. Finally Max returns and frees Dr. Girard and they go hunting for the killer and his hostage. Catching up with them, Girard shoots Cass in the back, but doesn't quite kill him.

Hmm... ok, so now we've got a nearly dead serial killer, a practically brain dead hulk of a man-boy, and a doctor who is working on building creatures with two heads. Anyone want to guess where we're gonna go next?

How about to the trailer:


And now, the Skinny:
Title: The Incredible 2 Headed Transplant
Release Date: 1971
Running Time: 87min
Color
Starring: Bruce Dern, Pat Priest
Directed by: Anthony M. Lanza
Produced by: John Lawrence, Volodymyr Kowal, Nicholas Wowchuk, Alvin L. Fast, Arthur N. Gilbert
Distributed by: American International Pictures

The Incredible 2 Headed Transplant can be watched or downloaded for free here.
Amazon has it available for purchase on DVD aas part of a Midnight Movies double feature:The Incredible Two-Headed Transplant/The Thing With Two Heads.
Netflix has the same double feature disc available for rental: The Incredible Two Headed Transplant / The Thing with Two Heads.

Until next time, Happy Treasure Hunting,
-Professor Damian

Tuesday Terrors - The Brain That Wouldn't Die (1962) starring Jason Evers

Whatever you do, DON'T open the closet. I mean it. Forget the head over there on the table. Ignore its babbling. Forget the beakers and other instruments that are there to engage in experiments meant to prolong life or give it back to the dead. The dead bodies upstairs? Don't worry about them. Just don't open that closet door!

Ok, reminiscing time again. A few years back, yer ol' Professor was spending Thanksgiving evening with his two then-younger-teen children, watching some retro-TV. Apparently one of the local stations had given up on trying to compete with the parades and football and decided to run a day of programming from the 50's and 60's that would have been seen on the channel. Surprisingly, to close out the day, they pulled out what is apparently one of the very few existing clips of local horror host Dr. Lucifer who presented shock Theater from 1958 to 1967. (For more info on Dr. Lucifer please see this site.)

Y'know, there's just something different about watching a film like this late at night, with the lights off, having been invited into the film by the sometimes sonorous, sometimes dissonant (depending on the temperament and character of the particular host) tones of a local host who would often give you some background on the film, who would sometimes give you some critique of the actors and the movie itself, who would sometimes simply ridicule the advertisers. There was a connection that would be made, and even though quite often everyone, from the host to the people behind the cameras to the viewing audience knew that the show wasn't really that good, we were still drawn in, co-conspirators with the host, and we would watch until the bitter end, if only to see how he (or she) would wrap up the evening's proceedings. There was many a Saturday night when I was a child that simply couldn't end until I was bid by MY host, Sir Cecil Creape, "Goodnight. Sleep Tight. And don't let the beddy-bugs bite".

Anyway, there was a little bit of that same magic in the air that particular thanksgiving night. Starting about 10:30, the dulcet tones of Dr. Lucifer emanated from the television as he invited us to share with him a film called The Brain that Wouldn't Die! With a title like that, how could we be for anything but an hour and a half of cheesy fun?

And cheesy fun is exactly what we got from this flick. It wasn't long at all before my son and I were completely wrapped up in the plight of Jason Evers' Dr Bill Cortner. Dr. Bill, you see, is frustrated, because he knows that he has developed new techniques and serums that can save and extend lives. But he's being held down by the medical establishment, represented specifically by his father, also a surgeon, who thinks that Dr. Bill is irresponsible and too far ahead of his time. Soon, however, he is going to have a chance to prove just how well his techniques work.

On their way to the remote cabin in the woods where Dr. Bill does his research, he and his fiancee, Jan Compton, are caught in a fiery car accident. Dr. Bill walks away mostly unscathed, but Jan is nowhere near so lucky. Snatching up her disembodied head from the fiery wreck, Dr. Bill carries it to his lab where he injects it with various fluids, hooks it up to electrodes, and sets it upright in a pan full of chemicals on his workbench that somehow restore life and thought to the bodiless head.

Now all Dr. Bill has to do is find a body to reattach the head to. Of course, not any body will do. Janet was quite the looker when she had something more than a pair of eyes and a smile to look at, and Dr. Bill decides that only the perfect body will do. This is where the movie truly begins to show its seamy exploitation roots, as the good doctor decides the best place to find a suitable candidate is a "dance" club. Apparently he is quite a charmer, for he soon finds himself backstage, where instead of kicking him out, the dancers are soon catfighting over him. When that doesn't work out, he decides to go visit a former patient of his who is now working as a nude photography model. Of course, this being the early sixties, these scenes are handled with a kind of edgy discreteness, more tease than true titillation.

From there the film just seems to slide more and more into a kind of delirious insanity. I haven't even discussed Jan's seeming new psychic abilities. Nor Dr. Bill's vengeful deformed assistant. Nor the thing in the closet. Ah, yes, now we come back to the thing in the closet. You see, Jan is not the first person upon whom Dr. Bill has tried his new techniques, and locked in a closet in the laboratory basement, fed only scraps and aching to kill, is a creature that is apparently an amalgam of all of those failed experiments. And once Jan starts using her newly expanded mind powers to convince the creature to escape, well, you know it can't be a good thing.

Ok, enough of me talking, let's take a look at the trailer, shall we?


And here's the skinny:
Title: The Brain That Wouldn't Die
Release Date: 1962
Running Time: 82 min
Black and White
Starring: Jason Evers, Virginia Leath
Directed by: Joseph Green
Produced by: Rex Carlton, Mort Landberg
Distribution Company: American International Pictures

The Brain That Wouldn't Die is available for free to watch or download here.
For DVD lovers, it's available from Amazon: The Brain That Wouldn't Die, and the MST3K treatment is also available: Mystery Science Theater 3000 - The Brain That Wouldn't Die.
Right now, it appears Netflix only has the regular version available to "Save" until they get more copies: The Brain That Wouldn't Die, but they do have the MST3K version available for rental now: Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Brain That Wouldn't Die


Until next time, Happy Treasure Hunting,
-Professor Damian

Mixed Genre Tuesday - The Gorilla (1939) - starring Bela Lugosi and The Ritz Brothers

Take a cold, dark night, add Bela Lugosi (doing judo!), Lionel Atwill, a guy in a gorilla suit, and a threat of death, then toss in the Ritz Brothers as three bumbling, slapstick detectives from the ACME detective agency, and what have you got? Well, obviously, kiddies, it's the next feature in this week's look at cross-genre mashups. Today we mix the old dark house mystery thriller with Three Stooges-style slapstick (minus the eye-gouging, thankfully) and come up with 1939's The Gorilla.

Largely forgotten today and definitely in the shadow of both the Stooges and the Marx Brothers, the Ritz's (Jimmy, Harry and Al) were once extremely popular, not only as comedians but also as a song and dance trio. They began performing in 1925, and were headliners by the early 30's. In 1934, they made their first movie, a short subject entitled Hotel Anchovy. Pleased with the Brothers' performance, Twentieth century Fox signed them to a contract to perform in feature length musicals and comedy features.

The Ritz's developed a very strong following, though unlike Both the Marx's and the Stooges, they really didn't develop the type of individual on-screen personalities that would not only allow them to flourish, but also for their fans to distinguish between them. Nor did they ever really leave their vaudeville roots behind, as even in their comedies, they would often break into song and dance.

Though the Brothers seemed to be quite happy with each other and to work well together, one thing they definitely were not happy with was their studio and the increasingly (as they saw it) low quality scripts they were being given. All of this actually climaxed during the production of today's feature as the Brothers walked off the set and out of their contracts during the filming of The Gorilla. The film was finished without them, and the next year the Brothers were hired on by Universal Pictures. Still, they never quite reached the stardom that the other two teams achieved.

Despite what the Brothers themselves might have thought of the film (and honestly, this is the first of their movies that I've seen, so it definitely may have been a huge step down in comparison to their other efforts), The Gorilla is actually fairly entertaining both as a comedy and as a somewhat slight little mystery. The Brothers acquit themselves well, never completely digesting the scenery, and Lugosi (as a mysteriously-appearing and disappearing butler) and Atwill (as the threatened man who may have a secret agenda of his own) definitely lend an air of prestige to the proceedings. Also of note is Patsy Kelly, the household maid who first encounters the gorilla when he reaches into her bedroom window only to pin a note to her shoulder. Never quite reaching Una O'Connor levels of hysteria, she nonetheless provides even more comic relief and has some of the sharpest lines in the film.

Instead of a trailer today, I'm simply going to embed this short clip which will not only give you a pretty good taste of the humor in the movie, but features one of the highlights I mentioned in today's opening paragraph:



Ok, kids, what time is it? That's right, time for the skinny:

Title: The Gorilla
Release Date: 1939
Running Time: 66 min
Black and White
Starring: Bela Lugosi, Lionel Atwill, The Ritz Brothers
Directed by: Allan Dwan
Produced by: Harry Joe Brown
Distributed by: Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation

The Gorilla is available to watch or download for free here.
If your preference is DVD, it's available in that format from Amazon: The Gorilla
Or, if ya just want to rent it, it's also available from Netflix: The Gorilla



And if you've seen the flick (or any other Ritz Brothers movies and have recommendations), whether you agree or disagree with my take, be sure to let me know by clicking on the "comments" link below. Feedback (about the film or any other aspect of the site) is not only welcomed but encouraged.

Until next time, Happy Treasure Hunting,
-Professor Damian

Mixed Genre Monday: Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter (1966) - starring John Lupton and Nardna Onyx

Hiya, Kiddies! So, your ol' Professor has decided to do something a little different this week. Instead of the usual western on Monday, horror/scifi on Tuesday, etc., this week we're going to take a look at movies that cross the boundaries of genre. Today, for instance we're going to take a look at a movie that is a cross between a western and a horror flick, 1966's Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter.

The film opens in the small town of SomewhereintheSouthwest. The town has been suffering from unexplained death and disease ever since the new tenants moved into the castle at the top of the hill that overlooks the town. It seems that (despite what the title says) Baron Frankenstein's Grandson (Steven Geray) and Granddaughter (Narda Onyx) have moved in and are carrying on their grandfather's experiments on the townspeople. They have come to America because of the extreme number of electrical storms which they need to power their experiments. Posing as doctors, they have been kidnapping the local children, but so far they have had no luck in their attemps to bring the dead back to life. And as more and more children have turned up missing or dead, the townspeople have simply been moving away from what they see as a cursed town until only the Lopez family is left. Family daughter Juanita (Estelita Rodriguez) has visited the castle because her brother went up there and never returned, only to be told that he, too, has been taken ill.

Just an aside: the accents are played so thick and heavy in this film that it actually took me a moment to realixw that the Lopez family was blaming the town's misfortunes on "God's Will", and not on a "Cod's Wheel". Whatever that might be.

Anyway, after about 15 minutes of the baroness and her brother it's time to get to the western part of the movie. Now if you had just joined in at this point, you might have no idea that nothing odd was going on, as this part is played just as straight as any oater of the time. We first meet Jesse (John Lupton) and his travelling buddy Hank (Cal Bolder) as they are trying to raise some money by betting on a fist fight between Hank and a man named Stacey. After they win, we cut to the hideout of the remaining members of the Wild Bunch (the film obviously couldn't afford an entire bunch, so we are left with leader Butch Curry, his brother Lonny, and their partner Pete Ketchum) who are eagerly awaiting the arrival of Jesse and Hank. When the pair finally arrive at the hideout, Butch lays out his plan to steal $100,000 from a coach that will be transporting the money from the town bank to a nearby fort. Lonny, unfortunately wants nothing to do with having to split his take with Jesse and Hank, so he arranges with the town's sheriff (played by Jim Davis, immediately recognizable to Dallas fans as patriarch Jock Ewing) to betray his partners for the reward money and being named a deputy.

Obviously, these two strands are eventually going to intersect, and when Hank is wounded in the resulting ambush, Jesse takes him to the village and the pair find respite at the Lopez house. Juanita then takes them to the castle so that the doctors can patch up Hank's wounds. Upon seeing the strongman, Maria Frankenstein realizes that he is just the specimen that she has been looking for. After a bit of surgery, Hank is rechristened Igor and becomes Maria's undead slave. Will he now follow her orders and kill his former partner? Or will Jesse be able to overcome the newly-made monster?

Ok, let's be honest. We're not talking about a great work of art here. We're not even talking about a stunning piece of filmmaking. What we are talking about is an interesting cross-section of genres that actually plays out pretty well, definitely an entertaining enough way to pass an hour and a half or so.

Alright, so how about a trailer?



And, as an extra bonus, here's another trailer for the movie along with its equally genre-bending co-feature (but that's a film for another day, once i'm certain that it, too, has passed into the public domain.):



Ok, time for the skinny:

Title: Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter
Release Date: 1966
Running Time: 83 min
Color
Starring: John Lupton and Nardna Onyx
Director: William Beaudine
Producer: Carol Case
Distributed by: Sam Manners

The movie is available to watch or download for free here.
It's also available on DVD from Amazon, with commentary and an introduction by your Professor's favorite film critic: Joe Bob Briggs Presents: Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter.
Or it's available for rental from Netflix: Joe Bob Briggs Presents: Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter

Until next time, Happy Treasure Hunting,
-Professor Damian

Tuesday Terrors - House on Haunted Hill (1959) - starring Vincent Price

"The ghosts are moving tonight. Restless. Hungry."

Doors that open and close themselves! Guests arriving in a funeral procession lead by a hearse! A falling Chandelier! Blood dripping from the ceiling! A witch that appears and disappears! 7 people already murdered! Detached Heads! Party favors that turn out to be loaded guns delivered in coffins! An organ that plays itself! The floating head of Elisha Cook Jr.! Ghosts! Dead bodies that disappear and reappear! Thunderstorms! Secret passages! Ropes that wrap themselves around the damsel's feet! A wine vat filled with acid! A floating skeleton! And an elegant host (played by the ever-charming Vincent Price) who may be trying to kill his wife (who may, in turn, be trying to kill him)! It's obvious that producer and director William Castle was trying to throw everything into the pot on this one.

In 1959, William Castle had made a number of b-grade pictures for various studios, but he was just beginninng to emerge as the king of the gimmick picture. His legacy today is as the man who, while he may not have invented the style, certainly perfected it and used it to bring amazing attention to his pictures. Some of Castle's gimmicks included insuring movie goers in case they died of fright during a showing of Macabre; "Percepto", in which audience members watching The Tingler, already encouraged to scream because the titular monster had gotten loose in the theater, recieved mild electric jolts from wires attatched to their seats; Illusion-o, which gave brave audience members a chance to see 13 Ghosts while those who were too fearful didn't have to; and the "Fright Break" in Homicidal which gave audience members a chance to leave the theater and get a full refund before the climax if they were willing to sign a certificate of cowardicee In the midst of this came House on Haunted Hill which, through the magic of "Emergo" had a skeleton come out of the movie and float over the heads of the audience. (Don't ruin the surprise by telling your friends, but it was actually an inflatable glow-in-the-dark skeleton that was pulled through the theater on a set of wires.)

In the film, Vincent Price plays Fredrick Loren, a millionaire who is hosting a party for his fourth wife. Instead of inviting their friends, however, he has invited five guests who represent different layers of society. He has offered each of them $10,000 if they will spend the whole night in the House on Haunted hill, a house with a history of killings and hauntings. However, soon after they arrive, spooky things begin happening including all of the events listed above. Adding to the intrigue is the relationship between Loren and his wife, neither of whom like the other very much and they both have good reasons for wanting the other dead. The guests soon find that they are completely locked in the house, and there is no way out until the caretakers return in the morning. The haunted house may soon become their tomb and by morning may well have seven new ghostly residents!

Yes, the film is cheesy and some of the efffects are obviously lacking, but for a good low budget scare that is definitely highlighted by the presence of Mr. Price, you can definitely find worse ways to pass an hour and fifteen minutes. And it's certainly more fun than the perhaps technically more proficient but heartless 1999 remake.

Preview time! Here's the Trailer:



And here's the skinny:

Title: House on Haunted Hill
Release Date: 1959
Running Time: 75 min
Black and White
Starring: Vincent Price
Director: William Castle
Producers: William Castle, Robb White
Distributed by: Allied Artists

House on Haunted Hill is available for viewing or download here.
It's available on DVD at Amazon in many different packages, but this version contains both a nicely restored B/W version and a pretty well accepted colorized version: House on Haunted Hill (Color + B&W).
It's also available for rental from Netflix: House on Haunted Hill

Until next time, Happy Treasure Hunting,
-Professor Damian

Tuesday Terrors - The Last Man on Earth (1964) starring Vincent Price

Hello?! Is there anyone out there? Oh, thank goodness. For a moment I was afraid that there was no one left but me and Richard Morgan. (Morgan! Morgan! Come out Morgan!) Who's Richard Morgan, you ask? Why he's the character played by Vincent Price in today's feature. He's The Last Man on Earth.

In 1964, Italian director Ubaldo Ragona and American Sidney Salkow set out to adapt Richard Matheson's 1954 novel I Am Legend
 to the big screen. Hiring Matheson himself to write the screenplay (though he eventually decided he was disappointed with the outcome and had the credit changed to "Logan Swanson") and Vincent Price to star, the duo felt they had a sure-fire hit on their hands. Unfortunately, the film was hampered by an obviously low budget and some of the Italian actors were very badly dubbed, and it wasn't until later years that the film came to be seen as anything more than a minor Price effort. Now, however, it has a 73% positive rating at Rotten Tomatoes, and is considered by many to be the best of the three major adaptations of the novel. The other two being the 1971 Charleton Heston starring The Omega Man, and 2007's Will Smith actioner I Am Legend .

Set in the then-near-future time of 1968, Price stars as Dr. Richard Morgan, the last survivor of a plague that has turned most of humanity into near-zombie like vampires. Since the plague hit, Morgan now finds himself spending each day making wooden stakes, hunting the vampires, and burning them in a communal pit. Each night is a torment to be endured as he tries to keep the continually persistent vampires from breaking into his home, which has become his last refuge.

Morgan, as played by Price, becomes a very sympathetic figure as we learn that he has not only lost his daughter to the plague, but he has had to put a stake through the heart of his wife who returned as one of the vampires after he could not bear to throw into the fire pits when she, too, succumbed to the disease.

When he finally encounters another living human, a woman, who seems to also be immune to the disease, Morgan is at first elated, but his joy soon turns to suspicion and then fear as he learns that she is hiding a dark secret. Will she be the key to helping him resurrect humanity, or will she be the final nail in the coffin of the last true man?

As you can perhaps tell from the above, this is a movie that i like a great deal. Yes, the budget was minimal, but it simply forced all involved to come up with more creative solutions to the presentation. Plus, Price injects a great amount of humanity into a role that would in lesser hands be very flat. We not only hear the increasing desperation of the character in the voice-over narration that guides us through the film, but we see it on his face to an extent that becomes almost palpable.

So, again we have to ask, how did a movie from 1964 starring one of terror-dom's greats come into the public domain. Again, the answer is simple. Before the law was changed so that everything that is produced is automatically copyrighted, a notice of copyright had to be filed, and that was never done. Therefore, automatic Public Domain.

And here's the trailer:



Ok, the skinny:
Title: The Last Man on Earth
Release Date: 1964
Running Time: 86 min.
Stars: Vincent Price
Directors: Ubaldo Ragona, Sidney Salkow
Producers: Robert L. Lippert, Samuel Z. Arkoff, Harold E. Knox
Distributed by: American International Pictures

You can watch the entire movie for free by clicking here.
Or, you can purchase this movie (along with another fun post-apocalyptic thriller) from Amazon by clicking here: Panic in Year Zero/The Last Man on Earth.
The DVD is also available from Netflix:Panic in Year Zero / The Last Man on Earth

Until next time, Happy Treasure Hunting
-Professor Damian