TODAY’S SHOCKING FEATURE:

BLOODY PIT OF HORROR

SEE BLOODY PIT OF HORROR, WITH MICKEY HARGITAY, HERE >>

TRAILERS TO THE GHOST AND MR. CHICKEN & THE REULCTANT ASTRONAUT HERE >>

She Demons

1958/Director: Richard E. Cunha/Writers: Richard E. Cunha, H.E. Barrie

Cast: Irish McCalla, Tod Griffin, Victor Sen Yung, Rudolph Anders, Gene Roth, Leni Tana, Charles Opunui

In some ways 1958’s She Demons is like one of those exploitation styled stories that would appear in the sweaty men’s action magazines of the sixties where overly viral white guys rescued, or tried to anyway, captive white girls from the clutches of Nazis, Imperial Japanese soldiers, commies, pirates or wild animals of various sorts. The story is one of the most outlandish ideas ever and so it lands a place here at the Uranium Café. The plot is the tried and true group pf travelers stranded on a desert island one with some sort of menace lurking in the jungles. This story line, along with the car breaking down in the countryside with a dark mansion or castle nearby, is simply one that will never disappear from the hack script writer’s box of two or three tricks. The story involves a small group of boaters who was washed ashore after their small boat is destroyed in a hurricane, in the Caribbean I am assuming, and they find themselves pitted against a group of well dressed and well supplied Nazis some thirteen years after the war has ended. I reviewed The Flesh Eaters here and that film also had a similar story, of a group of travelers who land off a small island in the Atlantic and find there a brilliant but mad Nazi who is continuing experiments from the war period in hopes of selling the results to the highest bidder. However the mad Nazi in that film did not walk around the island in starched, black Nazi regalia nor was he supposedly still being supplied by the defunct fascist Nazi regime, by secret submarines yet, as the goose stompers in this flick are. Well before we explore this unbelievable film in detail lets have a look at some of the people involved in its creation and production.

The film is directed by the man who brought to us, in the same year of 1958, what is considered to be his greatest contribution to the world of cheese cinema Frankenstein’s Daughter (a review on that wonder will be here at the Café eventually, do not fear) Richard E. Cunha. He was born in Hawaii and served in the Army where he learned his trade by making training films and newsreels related to WWII. He would later work as cinematographer for various TV shows (Branded and Death Valley Days among them) and direct some strange low budget cult horror and sci-f- classics, mostly from the late fifties and early sixties. He seems to speak with pride about how his films averaged $65,000 and no more than six days to make. His other films include Missile to the Moon and Giant from the Unknown.

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TROG

1970 /Director: Freddie Francis/Writers: Peter Bryan, John Gilling

Cast: Joan Crawford,  Michael Gough, Bernard Kay, Kim Braden, David Griffin

Now here is a film that is really beaten nearly to death in reviews over the net and while it deserves some degree of flagellation it is not the total waste of time most people make it out to be. There is some degree, albeit often half hearted, of talent involved with the project and while the movie suffers from an over serious attitude too often found in British low budget films it is nonetheless worth a watch. At least if you are the type who can watch and enjoy other films that producer Herman Cohen produced while he still lived and worked the US such as I was a Teenage Werewolf and I was a Teenage Frankenstein. In fact 1970’s Trog was originally slated to be called I was a Teenage Caveman. Appearing in the film is a regular of Cohen’s other British horror films (Horrors of the Black Museum, Konga, Berserk and The Black Zoo) the manically over the top and hammy Michael Gough. Leading the cast in her swan song film role is Oscar winner Joan Crawford who had all but slipped into 60’s style B movie oblivion after 1962’s Whatever Happened to Baby Jane. While a lot of her films during this time are derided I thought a couple, like Straight Jacket and Cohen’s Berserk, were pretty good “psychotronic” fare. On the set the mercurial Joan was not only downing copious amounts of vodka but more than her fare share of Pepsi as well. In fact, everyone on the set was drinking Pepsi since Joan had become a member of Pepsi’s board of directors and I managed to find a couple amusing shots of Joan sharing a cold bottle of the soft drink with Trog himself. The last piece of talent involved is none other than seasoned Hammer cinematographer and director Freddie Francis (Dracula Has Risen From the Grave, The Evil of Frankentstein, Paranoiac). While Trog will surely not be remembered as the nadir of any of these people’s careers  I found it to be a fair watch. I may be slightly biased here as Trog holds some sentimental value for me. I saw the film a couple times back when it was first released in San Antonio Texas (Joan Crawford’s city of birth) at the Lackland Air Force base Chaparral matinee for all of .35 cents. Some young friends and I had a good time reinacting some of the scenes later.

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PLACER SANGRIENTO

1967/Director: Emilio Vieyra/ Writers: Jack Curtis (English-language dialogue), Antonio Rosso

Cast: Alberto Candeau, Ricardo Bauleo, Mauricio De Ferraris, Susana Beltrán, Gloria Prat, Emilio Vieyra

AKA:
FEAST OF FLESH
THE DEADLY ORGAN

Argentinean director of B-Sleaze and horror Emilio Vieyra is probably best remembered for his 1971 exploitation classic The Curious Case of Dr. Humpp (La venganza del sexo), which starred dark haired and dark eyed Gloria Prat. Prat had previously worked with Vieyra (aka Raúl Zorrilla) in his sort of sexy but not really sexy enough  vampire thriller Blood of the Virgins (Sangre de vírgenes) and in an even lesser known film than the practically all but unknown Dr. Humpp called Placer Sangriento (Feast of Flesh or The Deadly Organ) which is the subject of this Uranium Café post. I would like to see a little more of Vierya’s work (I actually found a DVD copy of Blood of the Virgins in a small DVD shop in Jilin City in Northeast China while I worked in that area one very bleak and freezing winter… long story) as well as more of Gloria Prat’s work but this type of stuff is really hard to find. I should quickly add that these films star the lovely Susana Beltran as well and both gals appear to be regulars in Vieya’s films. To be honest in these films I sometimes get confused as to who is who and what the hell is actually going on most of the time. This is made harder in this case since there are no end credits on the film version I have to confirm who is who. If it adds anything Prat is also executive producer of this film.

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THE SLIME PEOPLE

1963/Director: Robert Hutton/Writers: Blair Robertson, Vance Skarstedt

Cast: Robert Hutton, Les Tremayne, Robert Burton, Susan Hart, William Boyce, Judee Morton, John Close

Bad acting. terrible dialog, inane plot. These are the qualities that make 1963’s The Slime People the type of film that either gives the viewer a fun and rollicking evening of cheesy pleasure or causes him to lose what little faith he still clung to in the human race as a species worthy of dominating the planet. I, for better or worse, fall into the former category and have to admit I have been looking for a good copy of this online for a couple years now after having rented it on VHS ages ago and still recall how unbelievable the viewing experience was. First of all I should offer some defense of this movie to the rest of society before trying to pander it to the more selective and discerning Uranium Café film crowd. The movie was shot on a very low budget and the actors – with the exceptions of lead man and director Robert Hutton and B-Movie staples Les Tramanye and Robert Burton – were all basically unknowns, and thankfully remained unknowns afterwards except for tertiary supporting roles. It was Hutton’s only directing attempt in a long and essentially tormented acting career that in the end saw him shunned because of his extremely conservative political views and finally crippled from a broken back. The actors don’t seem to be taking anything too seriously here and that adds to the film’s enjoyment rather than diminishes it. Lastly the monster are not really too bad for your standard man in a suit fare. I have seen much worse and the modern man-in-a-suit monsters in John Gulager’s Feast trilogy don’t look much better. Like a lot of films from the period where budgets were limited the film relies heavily on dialog and scientific explanations to fill in time. Luckily the dialog here is not of the so bad it is unlistenable variety but rather of the so bad it is amusing and entertaining type.

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