The Deadly Mantis (1957) directed by Nathan Juran

I kept seeing this film while switching channels for the 2 weeks and I finally decided to just watch it from start to finish. I have seen it before, more than once but it is much better than I remembered. At its heart it is a remake of sorts of "Beast from 20 000 Fathoms". The big bug is released from its Arctic suspended animation because of a volcano, not an atomic bomb, but the plot follows pretty closely to the classic Harryhausen movie. 

Will this movie change your life? No. Is it fun and pretty well done for a low budget 50s creature feature? Yes. The mantis is well done and the puppetry of the model sells it as a giant creature.  They made a 200-foot papier-mâché version and used a real praying mantis in others and they all matched up pretty well.  The praying manits is a very creeping looking bug and makes for a good giant monster. The scene with it in the Manhattan tunnel is a classic image.  

I will say the film drags at the start and takes too long to see the monster, unlike Beast from 20 000 fathoms where we see it right away. It still was a good watch and liked the creature enough to draw a poster for my monsters poster project. (see above)

50 ft. Woman's Rival Found Mummied

Yyvette Vickers found dead. Daily Mail tarts it up pretty good for us, so go there. Ya just KNEW she'd come to no good after 52 years of being a hot starlet (well maybe not so hot in the end....)
Who's up for some bare 1959 heinie?

Suggested viewing for Winter 2010: Point of Order (1964)

Emile De Antonio's surgically edited recap of the 1950's McCarthy hearings. Strange ideas for strange times. Seems pertinent....

Dance Hall Racket (1953)

Written by and co-starring Lenny Bruce, this is one for the off-center archives. Lenny's wife, Honey, appears as one of the floozies. It's about a dance hall run by our hero, Umberto Scalli, the sleazy sub-mob gangster character previously established in the female wrestler pic, Racket Girls (both films were produced by George Weiss of Glen or Glenda fame). Lenny plays the sociopathic henchman, Vincent.

It all starts with a federal agent telling the story in flashback. The club follows the standard tradition. The gents buy a ticket and get a dance with a lady. If they're a real big spender they buy the "Trip to Hawaii" which consists of a little private time behind a potted plant provided by the bartender. Scalli pulls his money in tickets, and in shady fence deals. Vincent is his main fist, a not-so-convincing knife-wielding maniac (Lenny was much more effective as a comedian). There's lots of footage from the dancers' changing room. Sometimes it's an audition for a new dancer, sometimes just a friendly exchange between the gals, mostly while they help each other "dress." Once the racket is exposed it's curtains for Scalli and his accomplice, Vincent.

There is a somewhat touching, albeit sleazy, scene where the bartender asks one patron why he buys so many tickets but never trades them in for a dance. The man explains that he wants to horde a thousand of them, then take the club for himself for a night. All the ladies' eyes on him. Lots of trips to Hawaii.

Horrible print and sound, and one of the worst transfers I've ever seen, but I love Lenny Bruce and this is a little piece of history.

Find more videos like this on video.filestube.com.

Don't Get Mad

Get animated - with "Mr. Finley's Feelings." Can you blame the poor guy?

If link doesn't work, click here.

Racket Girls (1951)

George Weiss (Glen or Glenda) presents Racket Girls, AKA Blonde Pickup, AKA Pin Down Girls AKA Wrestling Racket Girls! Leave it to Mr. Weiss to push this sleazy story into Alabama Drive-ins in the early '50s and reap enough coin to produce his next project.

There really isn't much to it. Tim Farrell plays Umberto Scalli, an oily looking manager for professional female wrestlers. He has his own training gym for the ladies, operating his side businesses out of the back with the help of his flunky, Joe the Jockey. Joe is a five-foot, mustachioed Mediterranean stereotype that is mostly there for comic relief, his height lending itself to his penchant for ogling the wrassle' gals chests.



Newcomer and real-life pro wrestler, Peaches Page, is troubled by the rumors of Scalli's other business ventures which include prostitution, bookmaking and drug-running. With the help of the other pro gals, Clara Mortensen and Rita Martinez, she is determined to get to the bottom of it. It turns out that Scalli is into gangster kingpin, Mr. Big, for a debt of $35,000 and his henchmen intend to collect in any way they please. The story is shuffled in between locker room conversations, massage table chats and all out female wrestling violence ad nauseam. Thank you, George Weiss!

Too Moorevelous for Words!

Happy Birthday to Sassy Sag, Julianne Moore! What a gorgeous goddess and she's my favorite contemporary actress! I loved her as Cathy Whitaker in Todd Haynes' "Far From Heaven"--a Douglas Sirk-ian technicolor stew of repressed desire:




And who can forget our lady as Amber Waves, tragic porn diva, in "Boogie Nights"?


I think Cathy and Amber have a lot in common...but then the 1950s sure weren't the 1970s! Some days I could be either of them-sigh!

Julianne remains an inspiration: beauty and brains! Bellissima!