With Volume 1 of their ‘Cult Camp Classics’ box set line, Warner Brothers has focused on ‘Sci-Fi Thrillers,’ a fun collection that includes the monster movie ‘The Giant Behemoth,’ and two genuine camp classics ‘Attack of the 50 Ft. Woman’ and ‘Queen of Outer Space.’
Needless to say, she doesn’t wreak havoc on such a place but instead we have to do with what appears to be a one-horse town in this schlock-fest directed by the man of many names, Nathan Juran, who called himself Nathan Hertz for this pic and ‘The Brain from Planet Arous’ (as in so bad it ‘Hertz’). Juran was quite the prolific director of such B-pics also churning out legitimately good sci-fi pics such as the Harryhausen collaborations ’20 Million Miles to Earth,’ ‘The 7th Voyage of Sinbad’ and the less successful ‘First Men in the Moon’ along with ‘Jack the Giant Killer’ and ‘The Praying Mantis.’
This crazed story from a renowned alcoholic gives Harry and Honey a dastardly plan to kill her off. When Harry and Nancy run into the spaceship again and this time, we get to see a bald giant in a medieval-like tunic, Harry takes off leaving Nancy to be, um, manhandled by the giant. Taken back to her place, the doctor can’t quite figure out her growth problem so he promptly chains her up. Growing to her full size of 50 feet where she finds that wicked bikini clothing (a revival tent that she sews up using a giant sewing machine?), she heads to town to look for that snake of a husband.
Meanwhile, after leaving Nancy in the desert, he takes right back to the diner to enjoy a little drinking and dancing with Honey! Little do they know that in the near future they will have to contend with one really pathetic giant rubber hand. The “effects” are appropriately embarrassing with our giants being the result of sad superimpositions and mattes and when the destructive climax does happen, we’re basically dealing with the one said hand and the roof of the diner being ripped off.
The film still remains quite enjoyable though, regardless of what was promised on the poster, with the dialogue being intentionally cheesy and the pace always on the move due to a spry 66-minute running time. And I think the film has always proven a favorite with men because of the unlimited possibilities of even the idea of such a woman…
Presented in a very clean widescreen transfer and enhanced for widescreen televisions. Special features include the films theatrical trailer and an audio commentary with historian Tom Weaver and actress Yvette Vickers.
Next is the ‘The Giant Behemoth’, basically an English co-production remake of director Eugene Lourie’s previous ‘The Beast from 20,000 fathoms’. Not billed as such, and there are differences, yet there are still whole scenes, situations and characters that were just carried over with the big change having The Thames stand in for Coney Island. Even the climax borrows the same radioactive projectile f/x for the death sequence.
The plot has scientists from England’s Atomic Energy Commission investigating the reports of dead fish washing up on the Cornwall coast. Finding that the fish are radioactive and some of the locals also having radiation burns, they realize that their dealing with a radioactive monster…dum, dum, dum! Now, can they bring this beast down before it reaches London?
Former art director Eugene Lourie made his debut with 53’s ‘The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms’, went onto this semi-remake and ‘The Colossus of New York’ in 58 and then directed the similar Gorgo in 61. ‘The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms’ was notable for being the first atomic monster flick predating ‘Gojira’ (aka Godzilla) by a year. After these four films, Lourie went back to art direction where he went on to work with Sam Fuller and Clint Eastwood.
Shooting on location in London, Lourie captures a decent vibe of tension with the radioactive burn sequences providing the slightest hint of actual creepiness leading up the monster/destruction climax. The characters are even more one-dimensional than usual, even compared to ‘Beast from…”, with the stiff upper-lip British types consuming most of the roles and outside of the obvious scenes dealing directly with the monster and radiation, little of interest happens. One notable exception would be the now requisite dissection scene (maybe the first in sci-fi in this manner?) where the scientists find out about radiation in an interesting revelation.
The f/x are a combination of methods on a limited budget. Most prominent is the fact that this project would be famed Willis O’Brien’s (‘King Kong’, ‘The Black Scorpion’) penultimate project. Too old to get in the trenches at the time, he was 72, he more directed others, mostly Pete Peterson, to what he wanted. These few minutes of stop motion are always fun for fans, even if this is the least of his work. Also present are an unconvincing hand puppet and optical radioactive effects that were already used in ‘Kronos’.
Presented in a widescreen transfer and enhanced for widescreen televisions. Special Features include a trailer and an audio commentary from special effects masters Dennis Muren and Phil Tippet. A surprisingly dour commentary where one would expect full-fledged enthusiasm – besides the few animations scenes, this plays out more like a Mystery Science Theater audio track but not funny. They needlessly talk down about quite a few of the film’s elements, which quite, frankly don’t deserve it. There are a few fun moments but I gotta wonder what drove them into the special f/x business if this was their attitude towards the films?
And last but not least (well from a good laugh standpoint anyway) is ‘Queen of Outer Space’, a film that truly deserves the ‘cult camp classic’ title headlined by the Paris Hilton of her day, Zsa Zsa Gabor. A little subgenre of films that had men discover a planet full of glamazon lovelies with ‘Cat Women of the Moon,’ ‘Missle to the Moon’ and ‘Abbott and Costello Go To Mars’ among them, ‘Queen of Outer Space’ doesn’t disappoint with a tone that approaches spoof but, of course, isn’t aware of it…which makes the best camp.
Based on a, no doubt, dusty story treatment from renowned scriptwriter Ben Hecht which helped secure financing (and the primary financing it seems was to pay for the transport of recycled costumes and props), the narrative could be summed up by one line: bachelor astronauts crash-land on Venus where they are met by a race of long-legged, mini-skirt adorned Venusian hotties who mostly despise men except for one sect of the population, led by Zsa Zsa Gabor, who deems that men are a decidedly good thing and save the Men from certain destrection where they team up to stop the mask-wearing, man-hating Queen Yllana from destroying the Earth. Well, okay, it was a long sentence…but still.
Pretty silly stuff with very nice-figured ladies stomping around in high-heeled boots and costumes from ‘Forbidden Planet’ while belting out alien jabberwocky lines such as “Botchino!” (they can speak English because they intercepted television signals…uh-huh). Zsa Zsa Gabor has never done much for me and here she prances around in the noticeably better dresses (she was 41 years old at the time and became very perturbed by all the attention her fellow sometimes 20-year younger Venusian actressess were getting from the crew, hence the classier costumes) and whispering her lines with her nose up in that always annoying air of sexual superiority.
The dialogue is ridiculous but a rare hilarious exchange makes its way through every so often (hiding out in a cave, a senior astronaut suggests a lower officer go search for wood for the fire, as this officer is stuck in a kissing embrace with his Venusian chick, she offers the line: “We don’t need any more wood”…hmm) From director Edward Bernds who was also responsible for ‘World without End’ (1956) which this film borrowed sets from and Space Master X-7 (1958), I’m surprised the film didn’t have more intentional laughter considering Bernds was also one of the more frequent ‘Three Stooges’ and ‘Bowery Boys’ short helmers but the unintentional laughter more than makes up for it.
The film is presented in widescreen and is enhanced for widescreen televisions. Special Features inclue a theatrical trailer and an audio commentary by film historian Tom Weaver and actress Laurie Mitchell. A pretty lively track with Laurie Mitchell (who played Queen Yllana) obviously straining to remember various facts and anecdotes as Tom Weaver patiently coaxes memories from her.
Overall, Warner has grouped together a nice selection of films that live up the ‘Cult Camp Classics’ title. ‘The Giant Behemoth’ will prove of interest to stop-motion special f/x fans who adore all of Willis O’Brien and Harryhausen’s work even if it doesn’t quite live up to the best of this genre. ‘Queen of Outer Space’ and ‘Attack of the 50-Foot Woman’ are both of the so bad their good genre that are best viewed in large jeering groups supplied with plenty of liquor. Audio Commentaries for all three titles is also a very nice touch and makes this box set an easy recommend for sci-fi and/or camp fans.
Cult Camp Classics 1 - Sci-Fi Thrillers is now available at Amazon . As of yet, there is not a release date for the UK. Visit the DVD database for more information.
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