Terrornauts, The (1967)

... aka: Rapto espacial (Space Rapture)

Directed by:
Montgomery Tully

Based on Murray Leinster's novel The Wailing Asteroid (adapted by John Brunner), this isn't one of the better British sci-fi flicks of the 60s but it's not completely horrible either. Four years after receiving a grant to start “Project Star Talk” to  try to discover possible extraterrestrial activity using a high-powered telescope, “radio astronomist” Dr. Joe Burke (Simon Oates) has come up empty-handed. Fed up with the lack of results and wanting to put the money to use on another project, his boss, Dr. Henry Shore (Max Adrian), threatens to pull the plug on his financing if he doesn't show results within three months. For reasons personal, Joe cannot have that happen as he explains in a flashback. As a child, his archaeologist uncle (Frank Forsyth) found a strange little black box while excavating in the south of France and gave it to him. Inside the box were thousands of blue, luminous crystals which caused him to have a dream that he was on an alien world. Joe painted the world he saw, keeping the framed painting on the wall of his office to this day, and felt this dream was too close to reality not to have been a sign of something.

Joe, his colleague / long distance communication's expert Ben Keller (Stanley Meadows) and secretary Sandy Lund (Zena Marshall), all hear a strange, repetitive “unidentified signal” coming from space. It was the same signal, a potential cry for help, that Joe heard in the dream alien world as a kid. They record the sounds and trace them to an asteroid. Naturally, Dr. Shore, the snarky asshole that he is, doesn't believe the asteroid is capable of hosting life and doubts their story since it conveniently coincides with the project potentially getting sacked. Nonetheless, Joe decides to use the remaining balance of his grant to buy equipment to do further research. Because of the sudden increase in expenditures, goofy accountant Joshua Yellowlees (Charles Hawtrey), is sent there from the Holmes Foundation to keep an eye on the project and audit their books.

Just minutes after Joe and company transmit a code of algebraic signals that take 18 minutes to reach their destination, a spaceship swings by Earth and sucks up the lab and everyone in it, including Joshua and the spider-hating comic relief lunch lady Mrs. Jones (Patricia Hayes); blowing all of the observatories fuses in the process. Shielded by some kind of force field that gives the normal air, temperatures and gravity, they're whisked away to the asteroid to await their fate. Upon exiting the lab, they're in an alien “fort” (space station), where a clunky robot leads them into another room. There, they must pass a basic intelligence test using a magnet as a key to unlock a box full of food and drink. In another room, a “vibrator” causes “ultra-sonic hallucinations” so they see a mutant monster. The simple nature of the sets and the challenges contained in different rooms that must be overcome in order to progress reminded me a lot of the later cult hit Cube (1997).

Joe seems to think these various tests are to figure out if they have the brains and bravery to somehow help the alien race with something, but perhaps it's the alien race that want to help us humans...  Once the challenges are overcome, our heroes get a prize, including a laser gun and a black box identical to the one Joe had as a boy.  The gang also accidentally stumble upon a “matter transposer” (portal) that can take one to other worlds, as Joe and Sandy find out when they enter and end up on some rocky planet filled with spear-chucking, green-painted men in green-painted swimming caps who attempt to sacrifice Sandy on an altar. It's the same world from Joe's childhood dream. More little black boxes show up in the space station, which can be hooked up to headsets and convey the aliens' message and reasoning for transporting the humans there.

Cool title. Very cool poster. So-so movie. No doubt about it, this is ultra low budget stuff with cheap-looking sets, unconvincing matte backdrops, toy special effects and the usual visible wires aplenty during the conclusion featuring missiles taking down alien spacecraft. The cast is OK but somewhat bland and even some flubbed dialogue has been allowed to make it into the finished product, including Joe accidentally calling Marshall's character by her real name instead of Sandy. They try to make up for all that by being as colorful as humanly possible, giving this the feel of some Saturday morning kid's show. Also helping keep this at least watchable is the fact there's a very interesting central concept at play here. Sure, it's a middling-to-poor handling of that concept, but the good ideas are still present. Though I typically frown upon remakes, this is one instance where I wouldn't mind someone tackling this same exact idea with a budget.

Terrornauts was released theatrically on a double bill with They Came from Beyond Space (1967), another Amicus production. Both were budgeted together but, according to Beyond Space's director Freddie Francis, this film actually received most of the money. Hard to believe once you watch it! Director / writer Tully made dozens of low budget crime dramas (usually to play as second features), as well as The Electronic Monster (1958), The House in Marsh Road (1960; U.S. title = Invisible Creature) and Battle Beneath the Earth (1967). This was his final film and was also the final film appearance for Dr. No co-star Marshall. There was a U.S. VHS release on the Charter label as well as a Region 2 DVD release through Network Distributing.

★★

Dr. Terror's House of Horrors (1965)

... aka: Blood Suckers, The
... aka: Die Todeskarten des Dr. Schreck
... aka: Le train des épouvantes (Train of Terrors)

Directed by:
"Freddy" (Freddie) Francis

Neither the best nor the worst anthology from either Amicus or director Francis. The film is generally well-made, the cast is good and it's entertaining, but it also suffers from trying to cram too many stories (five of 'em, plus a lengthy framework) into just an hour and a half. This results in three of the five tales being sadly underdeveloped. Late one evening, five different well-groomed men board the same compartment on a train for presumably an all-night trip. Mysterious occult / metaphysics expert Dr. Schreck (Peter Cushing, with fake caterpillar eyebrows and a German accent) becomes the sixth. A few of the men help Scheck pick up his belongings after he drops his bag and notice he's in possession of a deck of tarot cards. Franklyn Marsh (Christopher Lee) labels it "nonsense" and accuses Schreck of being a charlatan, but the other men are interested in having their fortunes told. All they have to do is tap the cards three times, then they're shuffled and dealt. The first four cards foretell destiny and the fifth gives him the knowledge to change it if he so chooses. Well, unless it's already too late.

After selling his ancestral house, located on a foggy island, architect Jim Dawson (Neil McCallum) gets the opportunity to go back to help its new owner - wealthy and attractive widow Deirdre Biddolph (Ursula Howells) - with some alterations. She wants to tear down a wall to create a large room to showcase her deceased archeologist husband's collection of artifacts. Also living there are a groundskeeper Caleb (Peter Madden) and his granddaughter Valda (Katy Wild), who both lurk around acting mighty suspicious. Jim gets to work on the renovation, but discovers a coffin behind a newly built wall in the cellar. The coffin - decorated with an ornate wolf head - supposedly belongs to one Cosmo Waldemar, who was rumored to be a werewolf and has a grudge to pick with the Dawson family for a wrongdoing centuries earlier. Cosmo's body disappears from the coffin, wolf tracks are found on the dirt floor, howling is heard at night and Valda turns up dead after trying to warn Jim of something. He makes silver bullets out of a heirloom cross and waits by the coffin... Cramming all of this into just over 10 minutes turns out to be a mistake, since it's poorly paced and underbaked. The 'werewolf,' by the way, is just a dog.

Upon returning from holiday, Bill (Alan Freeman) and his wife Ann (Ann Bell) notice a strange vine growing alongside their home. The plant seems to cry out in pain when hit with a hoe and even knocks a pair of shears out of Bill's hand when he tries to snip it! The family seeks the aid of a few scientists (including Bernard Lee), who draw the conclusion that this is the new evolution in plant which may take over the planet if not stopped. It's superintelligent (enough so to cut the phone line!), kills the pet dog when it digs at the roots, strangles one of scientists and eventually surrounds the entire home, trapping the family inside. But like most other living beings, it's scared of fire. Potentially interesting segment but again it's too short and could have used some fleshing out. The open ending won't sit well with some viewers.

In our next story, jazz trumpeter and all-around goofball Biff Bailey (Roy Castle) gets a gig at the Flamingo Club on an island in the West Indies. Though he's warned against it, Biff sneaks out at night to attend a voodoo ceremony, where he copies down the catchy music of the "Great God Damballah." Natives warn him not to use, but when he returns to London he does anyway, which leads to wind destroying his club and an evil presence following him home. Much better than the first two segments, this seems paced about right, is amusing, has several great musical numbers and a surprisingly non-horrific or mean-spirited finale. By the way, the misleading title for the film comes from this segment: the lead characters passes by a mock "Dr. Terror's House of Horrors" poster on a wall stating its stars are "Franklyn Marsh," "Sandor Shreck" and "Biff Bailey!"

Back on the train, Dr. Schreck finally convinces Mr. Marsh / Lee to have his fortune told. Marsh is a snooty, uptight art critic who gets his jollies humiliating artists with bad write-ups in the local paper. During a showing of work from painter Eric Landor (Michael Gough), the tables are turned when it's Marsh who gets humiliated by praising a painting done by a chimpanzee. Landor continues to harass Marsh by constantly referencing the incident to destroy his credibility. Fed up, Marsh runs him over with his car, severing his hand in the incident. Unable to paint, Landor gets depressed and commits suicide. But Marsh gets his just desserts in the form of a living, disembodied hand that never seems to go away regardless of what Marsh does to it. This segment is the most memorable of the bunch, has one of the more enjoyable Lee performances and the special effects on the crawling hand are surprisingly effective.

Finally, things wrap up with a rather ordinary vampire tale. Doctor Bob Carroll (Donald Sutherland) has just taken a new bride - the sexy Nicole (Jennifer Jayne). Nicole disappears late at night every night; turning into a bat and going out to do her bloodsucking thing. Meanwhile, a young boy shows up at Bob's clinic with a bad case of anemia and puncture wounds on his neck. Strangely, this segment completely ignores the vampires cannot go out in the daytime mythology but sticks to the rest (turning into bats, being afraid of crucifixes, being killed with a stake through the heart, etc.). There's a cheeky end twist involving Bob's boss, Dr. Blake (Max Adrian), which is the only thing to breath any life into this tired tale. We return to the train for the final twist involving Dr. Schreck and the passengers, which is rather predictable itself.

What would have greatly improved this would have been to cut out one of the lesser segments, preferrable the werewolf one since it's the weakest, least interesting and boasts the lamest twist of the bunch, and then used that saved time to expand upon the other two weaker tales. The "Voodoo" and "Disembodied Hand" stories work just fine as they are, as does the framework itself thanks to the wonderfully sinister Cushing. It's worth watching for these... just expect some lulls along the way.

Francis also made the Amicus anthologies TORTURE GARDEN (1967) and TALES FROM THE CRYPT (1971) as well as the non-Amicus TALES THAT WITNESS MADNESS (1973). The widescreen German DVD from Koch Entertainment is the one I viewed (their title translates to something like "Death Cards of Dr. Schreck"). It was distributed by Anchor Bay in the UK and might finally be getting a DVD release in America later this year through Olive Films (though I wouldn't hold my breath waiting).

★★1/2

I, Monster (1970)

...aka: Monster, The

...aka: Monster of London, The

...aka: True Story of Doctor Jekyll, The

Directed by:

Stephen Weeks

Most of the names have been changed, but the story remains the same in yet another version of Robert Louis Stevenson's classic 1886 horror tale Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. The novella had previously been filmed in 1908, 1910, 1912, 1913 (twice), 1915, 1920 (three times; including one with John Barrymore and one with Conrad Veidt), 1931 (which is often considered the definitive version and boasts an Oscar-winning performance by Fredric March), 1932, 1941 (a lavish MGM production starring Spencer Tracy, Ingrid Bergman and Lana Turner), 1950 (made for BBC TV), 1951 (an Argentinian production re-titled THE MAN AND THE BEAST), 1953 (the horror-comedy ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE, starring Boris Karloff), 1959 (the well-regarded French version THE TESTAMENT OF DOCTOR CORDELIER), 1960 (the Hammer production THE TWO FACES OF DR. JEKYLL, with Paul Massie in the title role), 1964 (an Italian TV movie), 1968 (a Canadian TV movie starring Jack Palance) and likely others.

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In addition to the film versions listed above, the story made its way into several cartoon shorts (featuring Mighty Mouse, Bugs Bunny, Tom & Jerry and others), was a featured episode on a handful of television shows (Suspense, Climax!, Matinee Theatre, etc.), spawned a two-part ITV series starring Dennis Price and was a long-running and very popular stage production (which began production shortly after the original story was published). It was so frequently filmed that I, MONSTER wasn't even the only Jekyll/Hyde release of its year. Hammer did a second spin-off themselves (DR. JEKYLL & SISTER HYDE starring Ralph Bates and the sulty Martine Beswick as his evil - and murderous - alter ego) and there was the more obscure American soft porn THE JEKYLL AND HYDE PORTFOLIO. So how does this version (an Amicus production) stand up amongst the other versions? Not too well, I fear.

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In turn of the century London (1906 to be precise), scientist and Freudian psychologist Dr. Charles Marlowe (Christopher Lee, who had already played a supporting role in Hammer's 1960 version) concocts a serum he believes will help "break down the barriers of the subconscious." He first tests it on a common housecat, which instantly goes berserk and must be killed. After a few alterations and concocting a back-up antidote in case things get out of control, Marlowe decides to test it on a few of his patients... without their knowledge, naturally. Prim, proper and repressed Diane (Susan Jameson) ends up stripping off her clothes and tries to seduce the doctor, while a loud brute named Mr. Deane (Kenneth J. Warren) turns into a wimpering child. Since Marlowe's antidote seems to work on both, he decides to start testing the serum on himself. It isn't long until his evil (and murderous) alternate personality, Edward Blake, is hanging out in the pubs, alleyways and cobblestone streets late into the night.

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One major problem is that Lee looks exactly the same before and after his big "transformation." It's asking far too much of the viewer to accept that several of Marlowe's close friends see 'Edward Blake' and automatically think it's a completely different person. Lee does what he can with his face and body language but is given an impossible task here. As Blake he gets to wear a tophat and cape, has messy hair with the hat off, possibly a whiter complexion and is asked to try to maintain a ridiculous-looking and forced toothy grin. He's supposed to get progressively uglier with each injection, though the make-up is so minimal that he's never quite the monstrous being he should be. Lee is also given nothing interesting to do as either Charles or Edward. Aside from getting in a razor/scalpel fight with a punk in an alleyway and beating a tart (Marjie Lawrence) who embarrasses him to death with a cane, there's no action, no surprises and no real sense of terror. The film also lacks tension and there's no dramatic push to move the scenes along. The film almost seems D.O.A. right out of the gate.

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Second-billed Peter Cushing has a minor co-starring role as Frederick Utterson, a colleague of Marlowe's, who questions both his friend's ethics and his association with Blake. Cushing doesn't have much screen time here and mostly hangs out at a gentleman's club talking with a couple of other very dull doctors, played by Mike Raven and Richard Hurndall. In a faint echo of the finale of HORROR OF DRACULA, Cushing does get a hand in the demise of Marlowe/Blake/Lee, but it's about as exciting to watch as the rest of the film. Meaning, not at all. Production values, sets and costumes are all OK, and if scenes of Lee thrusting a bunson burner or carrying a mouse directly toward the camera seem odd, it's because this was originally planned as a 3D release; a plan that was abandoned midway through production. Michael Des Barres and Ian McCulloch (from Lucio Fulci's cult hit ZOMBIE) have small roles. Milton Subotsky (who also scripted) and Max Rosenberg were the producers. Director Weeks also made MADHOUSE MANSION (1974) with Marianne Faithful.

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First distributed by Sinister Cinema on VHS, the R1 DVD (which isn't in the best of condition. so beware) is from Retromedia. Supposedly the British DVD release (from Optimum) is of much better quality.

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★★