FIFTY YEARS AGO TODAY

Fifty Years Ago Today was October 21, 1973 … The Oakland A's defeated the New York Mets, 5–2 in Game 7 to win the World Series, 4 games to 3… Piloted by Heino Brditschka, the first flight of an all-electric airplane took place as the Militky MB-E1 took off under its own power from Linz in Austria and flew for nine minutes and 5 seconds….Fred Dryer of the Los Angeles Rams became the first player in NFL history to score two safeties in the same game. The 24-7 win for the Rams over the Green Bay Packers came on consecutive safeties in the fourth quarter from sacks in the end zone by Dryer of Green Bay quarterbacks Scott Hunter and Jim Del Gaizo…

Top of the pops this week:  ANGIE by The Rolling Stones

The Rolling Stones - Angie - OFFICIAL PROMO (Version 1)

My childhood theater was The Le Rose, where I spent a million and one Saturday matinees soaking up monster movies. Because The Le Rose so often drew on the cheap rentals from the back catalog, I got to see lots of ‘50s faves: THE THING, THE BLOB, THE ALLIGATOR PEOPLE, ATTACK OF THE 50 FOOT WOMAN, many more. It was great. But when those days passed and I started catching all the others on TV, I so regretted that I wasn’t able to see them all in that crumbling cinema palace. And every now and then, I’d see one which I really, REALLY wished I’d seen there. Top of the list of these regrets are, probably, CREATURE WITH THE ATOM BRAIN and this one… 

FIEND WITHOUT A FACE

It’s just such fun, I can only imagine what a brain-searing treat it would have been to a ten-year-old on the big screen. But at least I saw it, even if only on commercial TV. I have such fond feelings toward this one. Let’s see if another showing provokes similar warmth.

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Our first victim was killed “at three in the morning”, but it looks more like three p.m. To be honest, the day-for-night scenes throughout the movie are almost all of the Ed Wood variety…

There’s a little stock footage, but not enough for a ‘50s s-f epic. Not enough for me anyway…

For years I confused Marshall Thompson with Arthur Franz (still do occasionally), but when you’re into a movie, mixin’ it up with ‘em, it’s just so much more pleasant to spend 80 minutes with Marshall than with the uber-crabby Art…

Marshall is awfully cavalier about pushing the nuclear reactor into the “Danger” zone. But, hey, his radar keeps “fading out!” Heat that atomic pile up, man! We got radar to run!...

This British film does a pretty good job of faking North American-ness. The actors, almost to a man, either have North American accents or do a good job of faking it…

I actually kept count for a while. I tallied 13 actors nicely passing as Canadian, and five failing the test…

This is notably smarter and better made than the average ‘50s s-f meller. Which makes me wonder-- what would be the average of the breed?  Something like REVENGE OF THE CREATURE, maybe? Or NOT OF THIS EARTH? AMAZING COLOSSAL MAN? Shoot, now I’m all a-wonderin’ about this…

But…smarter though this may be, it’s still dumb enough to have Marshall Thompson make a couple of titanic, indefensible, out-of-nowhere deductive leaps…

The title page of “The Principles of Thought Control” show that Prof. Walgate is as interested in calligraphy as in science…

In the brief fight scene between Marshall and Kim Parker’s hot-headed suitor, there are some epically missed punches still managing to make loud POW noises…

By the way, though the suitor is clearly at fault, Kim gets mad at Marshall and runs him off. Next time she sees him she’s still furious at him. Next time, she immediately smiles a “meet-me-in-the-hayloft” smile at him. Fickleness, thy name is woman…

There’s lots of good stuff in the monster scenes, but the monster sounds are not among them. This “CRUNCH”-ing noise sounds like amplified peanut-chewing mixed with the thump of the marching boots of the 5th Army…

We get a much deeper, more detailed “scientific” explanation of how we came to this pass and it almost--ALMOST--seems to make sense…

“There’s some lumber in my laboratory..” why of course there is…

The ultimate stop-motion invasion of the now-visible brains is one of the small wonders of ‘50s s-f. And it’s also almost certainly the goriest sequence of the entire decade…

How on earth do they stop this madness?! Marshall has an idea--he’ll get some dynamite and go blow up the control room at the nuclear reactor! Great idea! What could possibly go wrong??...

And here’s what I always really wondered about: Why was Kim Parker’s shower scene so much more titillating than all the other bathing, swimming, showering scenes in those movies? No more flesh is exposed. It’s not shot in any more woo-woo fashion. She’s not prettier than those other ladies. So what is it? Now I think I know…

It’s a couple of things. For one, that frosted shower door. Nothing can be seen, but it almost seems as if something should be visible. And, second, when she gets out with the towel wrapped around her, there’s a momentary slip when it seems as if exposure might occur. It doesn’t, of course, but in rescuing the towel and pressing it against her chest, Kim gives us an instant of clear “bobble” of the breast flesh. And, in the ‘50s, that’s all it took… 

Despite all the problems listed above (and a couple I omitted), FIEND WITHOUT A FACE is still a major winner. And I still so so regret not having seen it at The Le Rose.