Crown International Pictures is an independent film studio and distribution company formed in 1959 by Newton P. Jacobs

Jacobs was a former branch head of RKO Pictures until 1947 when he formed his own company “Favorite Films”; a film releasing organisation. Jacobs became one of the first franchises for showing American International Pictures (AIP). Like AIP, Crown International Pictures is primarily known for low budget flicks, grindhouse cinema, biker films, exploitation films, and B-movie drive in fare. The company was later headed by Jacobs’s original vice-president Mark Tenser who became President in 1973 with Jacobs moving up to become Chairman of the Board.

Crown International began releasing both low budget films by American producers such as Bloodlust! and The Seventh Commandment and cheaply acquired overseas films such as First Spaceship on Venus and Varan the Unbelievable released as a double feature in 1962. In 1963 Crown began producing their own films starting with The Skydivers.

CIP began by releasing six films a year in 1961 with the number rising to 12 films ten years later. Jacobs felt that CIP survived by having carefully planned growth and not over extending their product. Jacobs said that CIP did not want to be regarded as a mini major studio but as the top of the independents to give the company more freedom in selecting and exploiting their film product.

Well over 50 per cent of CIP’s product market were drive-in theatres with the number decreasing to 30 per cent in 1981.

official company website

‘Crowned and Renowned: A Look Back at Crown International Pictures’ - Article by Richard Harland Smith at MovieMorlocks.com

Notable movies include:

The Beast of Yucca Flats (1961)

Bloodlust! (1961)

The Devil’s Hand (1962)

Madmen of Mandoras/They Saved Hitler’s Brain (1963)

Terrified (1963)

The Creeping Terror (1964)

Orgy of the Dead (1965)

Mondo Balordo (1967) a Mondo film narrated by Boris Karloff

Blood of Dracula’s Castle (1969)

Nightmare in Wax (1969)

Blood Mania (1970)

Point of Terror (1971)

Stanley (1972)

Horror High (1974)

Soul Vengeance/Welcome Home Brother Charles (1975)

Land of the Minotaur/The Devil’s Men (1976)

Satan’s Slave (1976) [US distributor]

The Crater Lake Monster (1977)

Zoltan, Hound of Dracula/Dracula’s Dog (1977)

Terror (1978)

Don’t Answer the Phone! (1980)

Galaxina (1980)

The Hearse (1980)

Prime Evil (1988)

My Mom’s a Werewolf (1989)

Brain Twisters (1991)

Housewife from Hell (1993)

The Beast of Yucca Flats whole film online:

The Creeping Terror whole film online:

Mondo Balordo trailer:

Blood of Dracula’s Castle whole film online:

Nightmare in Wax whole film in parts:

Point of Terror TV spot:

trailer for Stanley:

trailer for Horror High:

trailer for The Hearse:

‘Deadlier than Dracula! Wilder than the werewolf! More frightening than Frankenstein!’

The She Beast  - Italian title: La Sorella di Satana; British cinema release title: Revenge of the Blood Beast - is a 1966 British-Italian horror film. It was directed and co-scripted by Michael Reeves (as “Michael Byron”) who later made The Sorcerers and  Witchfinder General. American writer Charles B. Griffith (The Little Shop of Horrors), a frequent collaborator with Roger Corman, was 2nd unit director and provided some comedy scenes that were mostly deleted from the final edit.

This low budget film stars Barbara Steele, John Karlsen, Reeves’ school chum Ian Ogilvy (also in The Sorcerers and Witchfinder General), Jay Riley, Richard Watson, Ed Randolph, Peter Grippe, and Lucrezia Love (The Sexorcist). American actor and director Mel Welles (Maneater of Hydra) has a cameo role as Vladisvar Groper, a voyeuristic landlord.

In Britain, this twenty-one day quickie-shot horror homage was distributed as Revenge of the Blood Beast by Miracle Films, specialists at circulating European-lensed horror and sexploitation titles, but for US cinema release it went the rounds with Venice-set Italian mystery-thriller The Embalmer as The She Beast.

Although largely unseen for many years, renewed interest in Reeves’ short directorial career in the 1990s ensured that battered 16mm prints began to be circulated as VHS copies. These apparently public domain versions still pop up on the internet but their quality makes them painfully unwatchable. A restored widescreen version of the film was finally released on DVD in 2009 by Dark Sky Films with an audio commentary by producer Paul Maslansky (Race with the Devil) and stars Ogilvy and Steele.

A couple on their honeymoon in Transylvania crash their car into a lake. Her body is then possessed by the spirit of an 18th-century witch who was killed by local villagers, and is bent on avenging herself on them. The witch takes over the wife’s body and it’s up to her husband and a descendent of Van Helsing to save her.

Wikipedia | IMDb

Watch grubby print online if you can persevere:

Buy The She Beast on Dark Sky Films DVD with commentary and extras from Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com

Offline reading:

Michael Reeves (British Film Directors) by Benjamin Halligan, Manchester University Press, 2003

Post by Adrian J. Smith

Wolf Blood, also known as Wolfblood: A Tale of the Forest, is a silent 1925 werewolf movie starring George Chesebro, who also directed it.

Dick Bannister is the new field boss of the Ford Logging Company, a Canadian logging-crew during a time when conflicts with the powerful Consolidated Lumber Company, a bitter rival company, have turned bloody, like a private war. His boss, Miss Edith Ford, comes to inspect the lumberjack camp, bringing her doctor fiancé with her. Dick is attacked by his rivals and left for dead. His loss of blood is so great that he needs a transfusion, but no human will volunteer, so the surgeon uses a wolf as a source of the blood. Afterwards, Dick begins having dreams where he runs with a pack of phantom wolves, and the rival loggers get killed by wolves. Soon, these facts have spread through the camp and most of the lumberjacks decide that Dick is a werewolf.

The film has been referenced in a number of books as being the first werewolf movie ever made. There is no official music score primarily because the film was made during the silent era of movie making. This motion picture is available commercially as part of DVD along with F.W. Murnau’s The Haunted Castle (1921 film). It has been shown at film festivals such as Chiller Theatre and Mid-Atlantic Nostalgia Convention. The copyright for this motion picture expired in 1954 and it is now available freely on assorted video websites.

Watch the whole film:

Wikipedia | IMDb

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“His whole face has gone!”

Scream of the Wolf  is a 1974 television movie directed and produced by Dan Curtis (Dark Shadows, Trilogy of Terror) from a story by David Chase and a screenplay by Richard Matheson. The film stars Peter Graves (Mission: Impossible), Clint Walker and Jo Ann Pflug.

The film originally aired by the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) on January 16, 1974. It is available on DVD via several public domain companies.

Adventure writer John Weatherby (Peter Graves) is called in by local police to give his opinion on a series of brutal murders that has them confused. The clues are not obvious and leave no clear trail. The tracks left at the murder site appear to be that of a wolf, or a man, or both. Lost in his search for answers, Weatherby contacts his old friend Byron (Clint Walker), a mysterious hunter and a recluse, to help him track this unknown killer. His friend is not much help but may know more than what he’s willing to say…

Wikipedia | IMDb

“Not only is it roughly photographed (complete with random zooms), but it generally feels a little trashy, what with a werewolf supposedly roaming around gnawing people’s faces off. Only you never see it, of course, as the attacks are always interrupted by a well-timed commercial break, and all of the chewed up corpses manage to stay off screen due to TV restrictions. Curtis attempts to compensate for this by shrouding some landscapes in fog and having a wolf howl in the distance, something I’m an easy mark for. If you have that in a movie, I will at least note that as a good thing, so it’s got that.” Oh, the Horror!

“The main problem with the ending is that it takes away most of the horror movie elements and leaves things with more of a thriller conclusion. Not terrible for a TV movie but not something I’d recommend unless you’re a big fan of 70′s style kitschiness.”
Video Dead

Buy Moon of the Wolf + Scream of the Wolf + Snow Beast + Wolf Man on DVD from Amazon.com

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How Awful About Allan is a 1970 television film thriller, directed by Curtis Harrington, his second collaboration with writer Henry Farrell, and starring Anthony Perkins, Julie Harris, Joan Hackett and Kent Smith (Cat People, 1942). It premiered on the ABC Movie of the Week on September 22nd, 1970, and was produced by prolific television producer Aaron Spelling.

Allan (Perkins) is suffering from hysterical blindness following a fire that killed his university professor father and scarred his sister Katherine (Harris). Returning home after months in a hospital, Allan begins to hear his name being whispered and partially sees a dark figure coming to get him. Is he crazy or is someone really out to get him?

Wikipedia | IMDb

Download for free at Internet Archive [public domain]

“Things unfortunately fall apart a bit at the end, but the cat-and-mouse-through-a-frosted-windshield act is really delicious for a while. I wish that Allan had been a little nicer of a guy to start out with, but when you’ve got hot scenes of a blind man driving off in his ex-girlfriend’s car in a panic and causing mass chaos in the streets, you kind of overlook his bad attitude. The ending is definitely of the WTF? variety, but for the most part it feels similar in tone to other parlor movies of the time (like The House that Would Not Die). Not the best, maybe, but still a lot of fun — and Perkins and Harris make it easy to get through.” Camp Blood

“How Awful About Allan is technically quite well-made— especially for a TV movie— and both Anthony Perkins and Julie Harris give highly effective performances, but none of that can prevent the film from feeling like it’s misplaced its point somewhere.” 1000 Misspent Hours and Counting

“The script, meanwhile, is really a perfect mash-up of everything else Henry Farrell wrote; it’s got crazy siblings, dark old houses, unnerving flashbacks, and LOTS of name whispering (by the end of the movie, the name “Allan” will sound a lot like nails raking down a chalkboard).” Tower Farm Reviews

Buy Curtis Harrington’s Nice Guys Don’t Work in Hollywood memoirs from Amazon.com

Image courtesy of VHSCollector.com

The Sealed Room is an eleven minute film released in 1909. Directed by D.W. Griffith, the film’s cast included Arthur V. Johnson, Marion Leonard, Henry B. Walthall, Mary Pickford, and Mack Sennett. The film was also known as The Sealed Door. It is based on the combined writing talents of Edgar Allen Poe, Honoré de Balzac and the American screenwriter Frank E. Woods.

One of the first films made with a distinctly ghoulish theme, The Sealed Room is also one of the first films by the renowned director D.W. Griffith, best known for his controversial The Birth of a Nation and Intolerance. Sticking to a template largely nicked from Poe’s tale The Cask of Amontillado (as well as de Balzac’s La Grande Bretèche),  find a 16th Century castle in which a rather foppish King (he could possibly be a Count but either way he’s played by Arthur V. Johnson, wearing a wig and eye make-up that suggest he failed the auditions to join Kiss) and his court gathered to the unveiling of a dovecote he has made for he and his beloved to spend private moments…doing private things. The lady in question (played by Marion Leonard), unbeknown to the King , has a wandering eye, and has the hots for court minstrel (Henry B. Walthall, later to appear in the lost classic London After Midnight), who is happy to reciprocate.

With the king’s back turned, the dodgy duo take no time at all to get cosy in the love nest, sadly making too much noise (probably the guitar playing) to remain undetected. The maddened king quickly decides that such a wicked deed requires an appropriate punishment  and instructs his men to seal the lovers in the room, undetected. When the canoodling ends, the pair soon learn they are trapped and after a quick round of ‘this is all your fault!’ die through lack of oxygen, whilst the king laughs on the other side of the wall.

With a static camera for the scenes showing the various members of the castle’s staff residents, it’s fun to see twenty people frantically trying to squeeze themselves into shot. Those afraid of overly melodramatic acting should take medication well in advance of watching, there is more hanky-waving and flouncing here to fell a hippo. Beyond the make-up and outfits, there really aren’t any laughs here, the ending being rather alarmingly down-beat, though you can’t argue that the masons did a terrific job sealing the room in such a short time, you can’t buy workmanship like that nowadays. Johnson steals the show, by turns hilarious and sinister. Also along for the ride as background characters are Mary Pickford who enjoyed a terrifically long career as an actress and was one of the biggest stars of the silent era. She later went on to form production company United Artists, along with Griffith, Charlie Chaplin and Douglas Fairbanks.

Daz Lawrence

The Thirsty Dead (also released on VHS as Blood Hunt) is a 1974 US/Filipino horror film co-produced (uncredited) and directed by TV actor Terry Becker from a story he concocted with Lou Whitehill (Wonder Women). It stars Jennifer Billingsley,  John Considine, Judith McConnell (The Brotherhood of Satan), Tani Guthrie (Daughters of Satan), Fredricka Meyers and ubiquitous Filipino horror actor Vic Diaz (Beast of the Yellow Night). In the US, the film was PG-rated and double-billed with The House of Seven Corpses. It is available as part of many public domain DVD packages.

In the space of a month, seven young women are kidnapped in Manila by members of a  death cult that needs their blood to remain immortal. The women are being transported to a remote idyll, in order to be sacrificed for their blood so that the cult members can maintain their eternal youth. Once there, they bicker amongst themselves, debate their fate and try to escape…

IMDb

‘The lack of gore and nudity doesn’t really matter, as all the women are likeable and interesting and the film, even when nothing is happening, is quite fun and enjoyable to watch, reminiscent of a kitschy color version of an old Republic serial. The makeup job on the aging Baru is very good, I loved the insane old women running amuck, and somehow the film kept me interested during the entire running time, which is hard for such tame horror outings of the 70s to do. But the film keeps its toes firmly planted in the bizarre enough to make it a captivating watch. A firm thumbs up!’ Casey Scott, DVD Drive-In

‘And that’s the whole problem with the movie: there’s no tension or danger. Our four kidnapped heroines never really seem upset with their predicament (one almost seems to welcome it), and the cult doesn’t “make an example” and kill one of them early on in order to raise the stakes.’ Horror Movie a Day

‘The people are all garbed in simple, pastel-coloured dresses and smocks – though Baru also has a pale blue cloak with a huge stand-up collar – and with the extensive use of hopelessly unrealistic cave sets, the whole film consequently looks alarmingly like a 1960s Star Trek episode.’ M. J. Simpson

The Driller Killer is a 1979 American horror film directed by and starring Abel Ferrara. The film was lumped together with other “video nasties” released at the time and a vociferous campaign was launched by the British press to ban them all. It was added to the list of banned UK films on 4 July 1983.  According to Mike Bor, the Principal Examiner at the British Board of Film Classification, “The Driller Killer was almost single-handedly responsible for the Video Recordings Act 1984“. According to Brad Stevens, author of a biography on Abel Ferrara, the banning of the film was “almost entirely due to the cover of the video.” The film is now in the public domain.

A young artist, Reno Miller (Abel Ferrara) and his girlfriend Carol enter a Catholic church. Reno approaches an elderly bearded man kneeling at the pulpit. Although Reno seems to recognize the man as his long-lost father, he is merely a derelict. After the man seizes Reno’s hand, Reno grabs Carol and runs from the church. Later, in the Union Square (New York City) apartment he shares with Carol and her lover Pamela, Reno receives a large phone bill and cannot pay his rent. He hates his crime-infested, derelict-filled neighborhood.

Reno visits Dalton, a gallery owner, and tells him that he is currently painting a masterpiece. Reno asks for a week’s extension and a loan of $500 to cover the rent. Dalton refuses, saying that he already lent money enough to Reno. However, if he finishes a satisfactory painting in one week, Dalton will buy it for the necessary amount. The following day, the Roosters, a No Wave band, begin practicing their music in a nearby apartment. The loud music makes Reno more unnerved and frustrated. That night, Reno, Carol, and Pamela watch a TV advertisement for a Porto-Pak, a battery pack which allows portable use of corded electrical appliances.

At 2:00 a.m., while painting, Reno becomes more agitated from the Rooster’s music. After seeing his own image saturated in blood, Reno walks in the dark. He sees an elderly derelict sleeping in a garbage-strewn alley. It seems that Reno plans to accost the man, but instead, he takes him down an alley where they see gang members chasing another bum. Reno drops the bum and vows that he will not end up like him or his derelict father.

The next day, Reno complains about the Roosters to their landlord. However, the landlord refuses to act because the music does not bother him. He gives Reno a skinned rabbit for dinner, but demands the rent money. Reno takes the rabbit home and repeatedly stabs it while preparing it. Later, Reno buys the Porto-Pak. During a brief reprieve from the music, Reno hears voices calling his name and sees an image of an eyeless Carol. That night, Reno goes out with the Porto-Pak and his drill attached to it. He sees another bum sleeping inside an abandoned diner and kills him by drilling into his chest…

Wikipedia | IMDb | Rotten Tomatoes

“Ferrara uses overwhelmingly mundane everyday things to drive his character to the edge. Like Chinese water torture; the repetitive riffing of the band and the nagging ‘New Yawk’ nasal drawl of one of the women, constantly changing her mind where she wants a hole drilled, mirrors the grating, incessant whine of the portable drill Reno uses on his victims. The effect is much the same as the unsettling way Marilyn Burn’s screams constantly throughout the end of TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE (1974)- un-nerving the viewer. Unable, or unwilling, to deal with the grind of daily life and his apparent alienation from those closest to him. He slaughters the homeless drunks that litter the sidewalks, possibly because of his unbalanced revulsion that he will become like them if his life continues to slide. A repressed sexuality or perhaps impotence is hinted at.” Hysteria Lives

“The acting of the film’s mealy cast is amateurish across board, a cast that includes Abel Ferrara as the painter/boring enthusiast. To the director’s credit, I did find his pizza eating to be disgusting and his drilling to be superb. At any rate, this apparent inexperience only manages to elevate the seedy realism of the piece. The wide array of homeless people who get drilled all had a genuinely disheveled aura about them (they were probably indigent in real life) and the rock crowds during the clubs scenes seemed authentic.” House of Self Indulgence

Horror (aka The Blancheville Monster) is a 1963 Italian/Spanish horror film directed by Alberto De Martino from a screenplay by Bruno and Sergio Corbucci, Giovanni Grimaldi based upon an (uncredited) story by Edgar Allan Poe. The cast includes: Helga Liné (Horror Express, The Dracula Saga, The Lorely’s Grasp), Gérard Tichy (Pieces), Leo Anchóriz and Ombretta Colli. On November 19th 2013 it was released in the US by Retromedia as a 50th Anniversary DVD in 1:66:1 widescreen and in high definition.

Brittany in France, 1884: Emily De Blancheville returns to her ancestral home from finishing school to find that her brother has sacked the entire staff and all the new servants act suspiciously. Her father – whom she had believed to be killed in a fire – is discovered to be alive but ‘horribly disfigured’ and having been driven insane. The family keep him locked up in the tower. It transpires that there is a curse on the De Blancheville line, and their father believes that the curse can only be broken if Emily is killed before her 21st birthday…

“Fun aspects here include: Roderick’s great harpsichord playing; some fantastic sets including the old manor house and the ruined abbey nearby; a great spookshow sequence with Lady Blancheville’s friend wandering through the darkened manor and finding her way to the tower with some genuinely creepy moments; and the Scooby-doo mystery of the scar-faced man, which wasn’t too hard to figure out but still fun … And for the b-movie perv in all of us, some extended moonlight sleepwalks by Lady Blancheville with the backlit-gossamer gown shot in full effect. Rowr!” Mad Mad Mad Mad Movies

“The Blancheville Monster is quite atmospheric and it benefits a lot from the amazing, spooky castle and the fetching ladies. A few scenes are really good. But as a whole, well, this is nothing special.” Pidde Andersson, Xomba.com

” …solid midnight viewing thanks to its dank theatrics and comforting adherence to genre conventions. Best scene: the Blancheville family and friends bury poor Emily… unfortunately, they don’t realize she’s still alive.” The Terror Trap

Belgian poster image courtesy of Poster Perversion. We recommend their great site.

The Gorilla is a 1939 Twentieth Century-Fox  American comedy horror film directed by the prolific Allan Dwan from a screenplay by Rian James and Sid Silvers. It stars the Ritz Brothers, Anita Louise, Lionel Atwill, Bela Lugosi, Patsy Kelly, Joseph Calleia and Wally Vernon. It was based on a play of the same name by Ralph Spence - which had already been made into films in 1927 and in 1930 – and is now in the public domain.

When a wealthy man (Lionel Atwill) is threatened by a killer known as The Gorilla, he hires the Ritz Brothers to investigate. A real escaped gorilla shows up at the mansion just as the investigators arrive. Patsy Kelly portrays a newly hired maid who wants to quit because the butler, played by Bela Lugosi, scares her.

“It’s all supposed to be either really funny or shockingly thrilling, depending on how you look at it. We couldn’t see it either way.” The New York Times (May, 1939)

“It’s a damn good thing The Gorilla is just barely more than an hour long. Even ten minutes of the Ritz Brothers is a long, grueling slog, and at full feature length, this movie would be simply unendurable. Indeed, I suspect that even you sick bastards who find the Three Stooges amusing will have a hard time with this one, in that the Ritz Brothers are further hampered by their close mutual resemblance and the much lower level of distinction between their onscreen personas as compared to the Stooges … The other faint lights in the darkness are Lionel Atwill and (surprisingly) Bela Lugosi, both of whom put in tasteful, proportionately understated performances that the rest of The Gorilla comes nowhere close to deserving.” 1000 Misspent Hours… and Counting

“Even though “The Gorilla” is categorized as a comedy/horror,  the horror elements are few and scattered.  The storyline itself is a jumble, and pretty much a thin excuse for one piece of disconnected silliness after another. I will say though, that I did enjoy the musical scoring- which is actually something I seldom pay any attention too. In the final analysis, this isn’t one of those films that I’d watch more than once… even as a Bela Lugosi fan.” HorrorMovies.ca

“There are plenty of strange goings on as the Ritz Brothers bumble around trying to solve the mystery. Hairy gorilla arms reach out from behind hidden panels in the walls, people disappear without trace, contorted faces peer in through windows and bodies fall out of cupboards. I personally found the Ritz Brothers’ fast firing humour to be very lame, but this may have had something to do with it being the last film in their contract with the studio.” Giles Clark, Psychotic Cinema

Wikipedia | IMDb

Track of the Moon Beast is a 1972 American horror film, directed by Richard Ashe and written by Bill Finger (co-creator of Batman in 1939) and Charles Sinclair (Finger and Sinclair also scripted The Green Slime). It remained unreleased until 1976 and is now in the public domain. The film stars Chase Cordell, Leigh Drake, Gregorio Sala, Patrick Wright, Francine Kessler, Timothy Wayne Brown, Crawford MacCallum and Jeanne Swain. Makeup artist Joe Blasco (Shivers) played the titular Moon Beast. It is one of the few horror movies filmed in New Mexico.

Mineralogist Paul Carlson (Chase Cordell) is struck by a lunar meteorite while observing a meteor shower. Lodged in his brain, the meteorite causes him to transform into a strong and vicious lizard demon whenever the moon comes out. In his lizard form, Paul loses all traces of his human self and goes about killing people at random. While human, Paul is subject to spells of dizziness and nausea, causing his girlfriend Kathy Nolan (Donna Leigh Drake) and friend and former teacher Johnny Longbow (Gregorio Sala) to become concerned.

Eventually it is shown that Paul is the monster, and deduced that the meteorite fragment in his brain is the cause of his transformations. Plans are made to remove it from his skull, but the NASA brain surgeons realize, after another X-ray and Johnny remembering some Native American legends documenting similar phenomena, that the meteorite has disintegrated and will eventually cause Paul to self-combust…

“The acting is universally wooden, the dialogue atrociously written, and the camerawork and other production values are barely competent. In some cases they aren’t even that, such as during the painfully bad time-lapse photography sequence of Paul transforming into the Moon Beast. Or maybe when one changes from a human to a giant, humanoid reptile, an extra set of eyes and a nose appear and disappear as part of the process.” Steve Miller, 150 Movies You Should Die Before You See

Buy 150 Movies You Should Die Before You See from Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

“Incredibly, having your hero be a geologist wasn’t boring enough… they had to add a few supporting radiologists to move the story further along. Approximately 15 minutes or so of Track of the Moon Beast’s runtime is spent in an X-ray exam room… Approximately 2 minutes into that scene, you’re already saying to yourself “Why in the hell are they still in the X-ray Exam room?!?”.  But don’t worry. If you are able to make it through those parts, you’ll be rewarded with terrific action sequences such as digging up ancient pottery…. and engaging dialouge like “His name is Ty. Which is short for Tyrannosaurus.”…. and spectacular scenery such as Albuquerque, N.M.” Cinema Bandits

“Folks, there are horrible guy-in-a-rubber-suit films from the 1970s, and then there’s Track of the Moon Beast (1972). Like its contemporaries Octaman, The Milpitas Monster, and Slithis, the New Mexico-lensed Track rehashes monster movie tropes from the 1950s against a backdrop of the eco-conscious but fashion-challenged 1970s. Only, unlike its contemporaries, Track of the Moon Beast sports an excellent musical interlude and a really long scene about making soup.” Brian Albright, The Dead Next Door

Buy Regional Horror Films, 1958 – 1990 from Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

Wikipedia | IMDb | Interview with Charles Sinclair

Yongary: Monster from the Deep , original title: Yonggary or Yongary (Hangul: 대괴수 용가리; RR: Taekoesu Yongary; lit. Great Monster Yongary) is a 1967 South Korean Kaiju monster film directed by prominent genre-film director Kim Ki-duk. It stars Oh Yeong-il and Nam Jeong-im. It was released in 1969 in the USA by American International Pictures (AIP). The film is now considered to be in the public domain.

In 1999, a reimagining of the film was produced, released in Korea simply as Yonggary and released in the United States as Reptilian.

In the Middle East, a bomb is set off that creates massive earthquakes. Meanwhile in South Korea, a young couple is about to get married and the tension builds when South Korea sends a manned space capsule to investigate the bomb site. The earthquake makes its way to South Korea, caused by a giant monster named Yongary (inspired by a mythical creature in Korean lore). Yongary attacks Seoul and makes his way to the oil refineries where he consumes the oil…

‘What’s surprising about Yongary is how much effort seems to have gone into it, at least technically speaking. The budget was obviously agonizingly low, and the movie features some of the worst matte shots of all time, but there’s an enormous amount of miniature scenery getting smashed, and the monster suit itself is at least as good as what Toho was serving up in the late 1960’s. Such a shame, then, that the people responsible for this film didn’t feel the need to put commensurate effort into the acting, direction, or screenplay.’ 1000 Misspent Hours and Counting

‘Unfortunately, the effects as a whole were one of the weaker points of the movie. Yonggary’s fire breath was produced by a blow torch within one of the heads used for the monster’s effect, and the nozzle could clearly be seen during some of the scenes when he’s blasting fire. The sets were decent and looked realistic enough when it came to Yonggary destroying them, but when it came to actors interacting with the rubble, it wasn’t hard to tell that they were pieces of styrofoam or (in the case of bricks) cardboard boxes.’ Kaiju Classics

‘Yongary was obviously meant as a replay (some MIGHT say “rip-off”) of the Godzilla films. This is most notable in the destruction scenes where Yongary walks through a building VERY similar to Japan’s Diet Building which Godzilla walked though in the 1954 original and which King Kong climbed atop of in King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962). The special effects in Yongary are passable, but are not up to the standard set by Toho’s effects wizard, Eiji Tsuburaya. In particular, the scenes of the monster shooting fire features an obvious metal pipe protruding from the costume’s mouth. Actually, a Japanese cameraman was recruited by the Koreans to help make this film look as much like the Japanese monster films as possible.’ Joe Cascio, DVD Drive-In

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Invasion of the Bee Girls is a 1973 science fiction erotic horror film. The first film venture for writer Nicholas Meyer (Time After Time), it was directed by Denis Sanders and stars William Smith (Grave of the Vampire, Moon in Scorpio), Victoria Vetri (Rosemary’s Baby, When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth), Anitra Ford, Cliff Osmond, Wright King, Ben Hammer, Anna Aries (The Ωmega Man), Beverly Powers (The Comedy of Terrors, Brides of Blood, Jaws), Cliff Emmich (Halloween II). Porn actress Rene Bond (Necromania: A Tale of Weird Love) plays one of the Bee Girls.

Gary Graver handled the cinematography and Charles Bernstein (Daddy’s Deadly Darling, The Entity, A Nightmare on Elm Street), provided the groovy 70s score, except for the ends credits which are accompanied by Johan Strauss’ ‘ classical piece Also Sprach Zarathustra’ (made famous in 2001: A Space Odyssey). In the US, it was misleadingly re-released as Graveyard Tramps. The film is considered to be in the public domain so free to watch online.

Plot:

Dr. Susan Harris, a mad scientist (Anitra Ford), has created an army of female beauties who seduce men to death. One by one the male victims are killed before the local police catch on to the plans of the infested females.

Neil Agar (Smith), a security agent with the State Department, is dispatched to Peckham, California to investigate the death of John Grubowsky, a bacteriologist working at government-sponsored Brandt Research. Quickly making the acquaintance of the laboratory’s head librarian, Julie Zorn, he begins interviewing the firm’s leading scientists, many of whom have reputations as sexual players. His investigation is soon complicated by a growing number of deaths, all men who died of congestive heart failure caused by sexual exhaustion.

Faced with a rapidly escalating body count, the local sheriff, Captain Peters, holds a town meeting at which the laboratory’s leading sex researcher, Henry Murger, urges the town populace to practice sexual abstinence – an idea greeted with derision by the locals. Neil and Julie arrange a meeting with Murger afterwards to discuss his theories as to the cause of his deaths, only to see him chased down and run over by a car with an unseen driver. While investigating Murger’s home in search of clues, Neil discovers a secret room concealing sexual paraphernalia and Murger’s gay lover, Joe, who informs Neil that he saw Murger driving off with an unknown woman prior to his death.

Despite a curfew and the establishment of a military quarantine, the scientists continue playing their sex games. One of them, Herb Kline, is approached by Susan Harris, a beautiful entomologist working on bees. Though described by the men as an “iceberg,” she flirts with Kline and invites him over for dinner. That night, as they engage in sex, Kline suffers a fatal thrombosis and Harris reveals black compound eyes suggesting that she is more than she appears…

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Quote: ‘We balled. And we balled. And we balled, until he dropped dead’

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The Mad Doctor is a Mickey Mouse cartoon released in 1933. The short’s horror overtones made it unusual for a Mickey Mouse cartoon. Some theaters refused to show it, believing it to be too scary for kids. At one time, for this reason, it was banned entirely in England.

The short’s title character later had a cameo in the Roger Rabbit short, “Tummy Trouble”, in which he was seen on a picture. The Mad Doctor was also the basis for, and title of the second level in the game, Mickey Mania: The Timeless Adventures of Mickey Mouse (for Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis, Sega CD and PlayStation (as Mickey’s Wild Adventure); a depiction of the Mad Doctor level is used as the cover art for the game.

This cartoon is in the public domain, and can be found on many low budget VHS tapes and DVDs

Plot:

A mad scientist, Dr. XXX, has captured Mickey’s dog, Pluto. Mickey tries to rescue him before the doctor can perform his grotesque experiment: attaching Pluto’s head to the body of a chicken in order to see if a puppy will hatch from an egg (that is if the end result will “bark or crow or cackle”). Mickey battles his way through booby traps and animated skeletons before eventually getting caught and strapped onto a table to get cut open by a buzzsaw, forcing Mickey to suck in his belly, trembling. The scene then fades to Mickey asleep in bed and suddenly woken up by a fly, whose buzzing resembles the whirring of the spinning blade. Not yet realizing the events were only a nightmare, Mickey shouts for Pluto, who eagerly jumps onto Mickey’s bed with his doghouse and chain still attached to collar.

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Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a 1920 horror silent film, produced by Famous Players-Lasky and released through Paramount/Artcraft. The film is based upon Robert Louis Stevenson’s novella The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and starring actor John Barrymore. It was directed by John S. Robertson and co-starred Nita Naldi. The scenario was by Clara Beranger and the film is now in the public domain.

Plot teaser:

Henry Jekyll (John Barrymore) is a doctor of medicine, but he is also an “idealist, philanthropist.” When he is not treating the poor in his free clinic, he is in his laboratory experimenting. Sir George Carew (Brandon Hurst), the father of his fiancée, Millicent (Martha Mansfield), is “piqued” by Dr. Jekyll. “No man could be as good as he looks,” he observes.

Following dinner one night, Carew taunts Dr. Jekyll in front of their friends, Edward Enfield (Cecil Clovelly), Dr. Lanyon (Charles Lane) and Utterson (J. Malcolm Dunn) proclaiming “In devoting yourself to others, Jekyll, aren’t you neglecting the development of your own life?” “Isn’t it by serving others that one develops oneself,” Jekyll replies. “Which self? Man has two – as he has two hands. Because I use my right hand, should I never use my left? Your really strong man fears nothing. It is the weak one who is afraid of experience. A man cannot destroy the savage in him by denying its impulses. The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. With your youth, you should live – as I have lived. I have memories. What will you have at my age?”

And thus the seed is sown, and Jekyll begins his experiments: “Wouldn’t it be marvellous if the two natures in man could be separated – housed in different bodies? Think what it would mean to yield to every evil impulse, yet leave the soul untouched!” Finally, Jekyll develops a potion that turns him into a hideously evil creature that he calls Edward Hyde…

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Reviews:

“In addition to the disturbing transformation scene and appearance of Mr. Hyde, this one was considered almost scandalous for its day.  Mr. Hyde gallivants with whores and beats women regularly. Naturally none of these activities made it to the silver screen in the 1920s – a time when showing one’s shoulders was considered lewd and lascivious.  Yet they are inferred through more subdued actions.” Best Horror Movies

“Hyde is genuinely alarming-looking: leering, hollow-eyed, malevolent. Barrymore’s full-body work is just incredible as he shifts from Jekyll’s regal carriage to Hyde’s spidery hunchback walk. Every gesture is deliberate – it’s like watching a ballet.” Anne Elisabeth Dillon, Los Angeles Times

“Players-Lasky’s adaptation was put together in their Long Island studios with a scenario expanded to six reels and production values increased to match. The good-girl / bad-girl female leads invented by Sullivan for his stage play (named Millicent and Gina this time around) were allowed more screen time than before, offering insight into Jekyll’s motivations and adding a lecherous tone to Hyde’s formerly one-dimensional villainy. This sexual subtext is underlined by frequent borrowings from Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray.” The Devil’s Manor

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Dementia 13 – aka The Haunted and the Hunted - is a 1963 horror-thriller released by American International Pictures, starring William Campbell, Patrick Magee, and Luana Anders. The film was written and directed by Francis Ford Coppola and produced by Roger Corman. Although Coppola had been involved in at least two nudie films previously, Dementia 13 served as his first mainstream, “legitimate,” directorial effort. The film was released in the fall of 1963 as the supporting feature of a double bill with Corman’s X.

Corman offered Coppola the chance to direct a low-budget horror film in Ireland with funds left over from Corman’s recently completed The Young Racers, on which Coppola had worked as a sound technician. The producer wanted a cheap Psycho copy, complete with gothic atmosphere and brutal killings, and Coppola quickly wrote a screenplay in accordance with Corman’s requirements.

Although he was given total directorial freedom during production, Coppola found himself fighting with Corman after the film was completed. The producer declared the movie unreleasable and demanded several changes be made. Corman eventually brought in another director, Jack Hill, to film additional sequences.

Gary Kurtz, one of Corman’s assistants at the time, recalled, “So we shot this stupid prologue that had nothing to do with the rest of the film. It was some guy who was supposed to be a psychiatrist, sitting in his office and giving the audience a test to see if they were mentally fit to see the picture. The film was actually released with that prologue.” The prologue was directed by Monte Hellman. This William Castle-style gimmick also included a “D-13 Test” handout given to theatre patrons that was ostensibly devised by a “medical expert” to weed out psychologically unfit people from viewing the film. The test consisted of such questions as “The most effective way of settling a dispute is with one quick stroke of an axe to your adversary’s head?” and “Have you ever been hospitalized in a locked mental ward, sanitarium, rest home or other facility for the treatment of mental illness?”, with Yes or No as the only possible answers.

The Roan Group released a laserdisc and DVD of the film, both of which included an audio commentary by Campbell. The DVD also featured the written version of the “D-13 Test” in digital form as an extra. However, the filmed five-minute prologue featuring the test has not been included on any of the numerous available home video versions of the title. On April 26, 2011 the film was released on Blu-ray.

Plot teaser:

One night, while out boating in the middle of a lake, John Haloran and his young wife Louise argue about his rich mother’s will. Louise is upset that everything is currently designated to go to charity in the name of “a mysterious Kathleen.” John tells Louise that if he dies before his mother does, she will be entitled to none of the inheritance. He then promptly drops dead from a massive heart attack. Thinking quickly, the scheming Louise throws the fresh corpse over the side of the boat, where he comes to rest at the bottom of the lake. Her plan is to pretend that he is still alive, in order to ingratiate her way back into the will. She types up a letter to Lady Haloran, inviting herself to the family’s Irish castle while her husband is “away on business”.

Upon arrival, she immediately notices that things are a little strange in the castle. She observes John’s two brothers, Billy and Richard taking part in a bizarre ceremony with their mother as part of a yearly ritualistic tribute to their youngest sister, Kathleen, who died many years before in a freak drowning accident. Lady Haloran still mourns for her, and during this year’s ceremony, she faints dead away. As Louise helps her into the house, her mother-in-law tells her that she fainted because one of the flowers she had thrown had died as it touched Kathleen’s grave…

Reviews:

“Under the stolid direction of Francis Coppola, who also wrote the script, the picture stresses gore rather than atmosphere, and all but buries a fairly workable plot.” The New York Times

“The location (an Irish castle) is used imaginatively, the Gothic atmosphere is suitably potent, and there’s a wonderfully sharp cameo from Patrick Magee…” Tom Raynes, Time Out

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“a remarkably confident and proficient thriller. Several of its components hint at the creativity that was still to come from Coppola, and the finished product is a testament to his ingenuity…” John Charles, Video Watchdog

“Coppola… works fast and creative in Dementia 13, making memorable, shocking little sequences out of the killings and the implied haunting, using his locations well and highlighting unexpected eeriness like a transistor radio burbling distorted pop music as it sinks into a lake along with a just-murdered corpse.” Kim Newman

Cast:

• William Campbell as Richard Haloran
• Luana Anders as Louise Haloran
• Patrick Magee as Dr. Justin Caleb
• Bart Patton as Billy Haloran
• Mary Mitchell as Kane
• Eithne Dunne as Lady Haloran
• Peter Read as John Haloran
• Karl Schnazer as Simon, the poacher
• Ron Perry as Arthur
• Derry O’Donovan as Lillian, the maid
• Barbara Dowling as Kathleen Haloran

Locations:

Howth Castle, Dublin

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‘The name written in blood!’

Eegah is a 1962 American sci-fi fantasy horror film written by Bob Wehling. It stars Arch Hall, Jr. (The Sadist), Arch Hall, Sr. (who directed as Nicholas Merriwether, co-produced The Thrill Killers; and wrote The Corpse Grinders), Marilyn Manning and Richard Kiel in the titular role, the same year he was in the classic Twilight Zone episode ‘To Serve Man’. 7 foot two inch tall Kiel would go on to appear in House of the Damned (1963) twice play Jaws, a James Bond villain, star in Italian sci-fi film The Humanoid (1979) and play ghost Captain Howdy in horror spoof Hysterical (1982).

Assistant cameraman Ray Dennis Steckler appears in the picture as Mr. Fischer, the man at the hotel who is thrown at the pool near the end. Steckler made his directing debut the next year in the Arch Hall Jr. vehicle, Wild Guitar. Steckler’s first independent feature, The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies was later distributed by Fairway-International, owned by Arch Hall, Sr.

Eegah is often cited as being one of the worst films of all time but there are many worse.

Plot teaser:

One night after shopping, Roxy Miller (Marilyn Manning) is driving to a party through the California desert when she nearly runs her car into Eegah (Richard Kiel), a giant cave man. She tells her boyfriend Tom Nelson (Arch Hall, Jr.), and her father Robert Miller (Arch Hall, Sr.) about the giant. Her father, a writer of adventure books, decides to go into the desert to look for the creature and possibly take a photograph of it.

When his helicopter ride fails to show up at his designated pickup time, Tom and Roxy go looking for him but the latter is soon kidnapped by Eegah and taken back to his cave…

Reviews:

“Eegah! is considered by many to be the worst movie ever made. We think we’ve seen worse, but there’s no denying that Arch Hall Sr’s caveman epic is among the most poorly made motion pictures of all time. Hall cast himself, his son, and his secretary in the lead roles, and all three of them are low on talent. The only person involved with this film that has any scrap of talent whatsoever is Richard Kiel…” Shameface.com

” … bad movie fans have a special place in their hearts for the efforts of the Halls, and for Eegah especially, perhaps because of the deeply emotional reverberations it leaves in the minds of all who see it. Or maybe because it’s a good laugh.” The Spinning Image

“Terrible in all the right ways, Eegah is about as bottom of the barrel as they come but no less enjoyable for it if you’re in the right frame of mind. It’s not often a movie combines dune buggies, rock n roll, cavemen and helicopters in on ninety minute mainline hit of celluloid weirdness, but here it is. Hall’s typically clunky direction is on display and the film’s miniscule budget shows throughout (Eegah lives in a cave that appears to be made out of a dirty drop cloth!). Kiel is actually well cast as the grunting caveman and not entirely unsympathetic in his part, while Arch Jr. is as dopey and as goofy as they come, singing his way through the movie with nary a care in the world.” Ian Jane, DVD Talk

Cast:

• Arch Hall Jr. as Tom Nelson
• Marilyn Manning as Roxy Miller
• Richard Kiel as Eegah
• Arch Hall Sr. as Robert Miller
• Clay Stearns as Band Member
• Bob Davis as George
• Deke Richards as Band Member
• Ron Shane as Detective
• Addalyn Pollitt as George’s Wife
• Lloyd Williams as Kruger
• Ray Dennis Steckler as Mr. Fishman
• Bill Rice as Chef
• Carolyn Brandt as Fishman’s Girl

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‘His whole face has gone!’

Scream of the Wolf  is a 1974 American horror television movie directed and produced by Dan Curtis (Burnt Offerings; Dark Shadows; The Norliss Tapes; Trilogy of Terror) from a story by David Chase and a screenplay by Richard Matheson.

The film stars Peter Graves (Beginning of the End; Killers from Space), Clint Walker (Snowbeast; Killdozer) and Jo Ann Pflug.

The film originally aired by the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) on January 16, 1974. It is available on DVD via several public domain companies.

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Plot:

Adventure writer John Weatherby (Peter Graves) is called in by local police to give his opinion on a series of brutal murders that has them confused. The clues are not obvious and leave no clear trail. The tracks left at the murder site appear to be that of a wolf, or a man, or both.

Lost in his search for answers, Weatherby contacts his old friend Byron (Clint Walker), a mysterious hunter and a recluse, to help him track this unknown killer. His friend is not much help but may know more than what he’s willing to say…

Reviews:

“Not only is it roughly photographed (complete with random zooms), but it generally feels a little trashy, what with a werewolf supposedly roaming around gnawing people’s faces off. Only you never see it, of course, as the attacks are always interrupted by a well-timed commercial break, and all of the chewed up corpses manage to stay off screen due to TV restrictions.” Oh, the Horror!

“The main problem with the ending is that it takes away most of the horror movie elements and leaves things with more of a thriller conclusion. Not terrible for a TV movie but not something I’d recommend unless you’re a big fan of 70’s style kitschiness.”
Video Dead

” … only a tepid (because not much gore or violence could be shown) version of a werewolf tale coupled with a Most Dangerous Game plot.” Michael Karol, The ABC Movie of the Week Companion

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‘Mascot’s mirthful mystery’

One Frightened Night is a 1935 American comedy mystery thriller film directed by Christy Cabanne (The Mummy’s Hand; Scared to Death) from a screenplay by Wellyn Totman, based on a story by Stuart Palmer (The Smiling Ghost).

The film is in the public domain.

Plot:

Faced with an upcoming inheritance tax, multimillionaire Jasper Whyte summons a group of people to his mansion to announce that he is leaving each of them one million dollars.

The situation soon changes when he discovers a long lost granddaughter Doris Waverly has come to his mansion; Jasper decides to leave his total fortune to her. However, another Doris Waverly arrives at the mansion and a murder is committed…

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Reviews:

“This films stands out from other stories of rainy nights and jealous inheritance mostly because if its dialog which is as quick as a 1930s film needed to be. Since cinematographers hadn’t quite grasped the concept of emulating candlelight and since film quality left much to be desired, writers had to be sharp enough to keep audiences riveted. This film is no different. It’s billed as a comedy and mystery, and it lives up to both.” Scott Beggs, Film School Rejects

“So if you like natural lighting and interchangeable blondes, then One Frightened Night is your cup of poisoned tea. Drink up!” The Umbrellahead Review

“Low budget thriller that sometimes seems like a spoof of The Cat and the Canary.” Leslie Halliwell, Halliwell’s Film Guide

Choice dialogue:

Joe Luvalle: “Pardon me madam, are you made up for Lady MacBeth?”

Deputy Abner: “It wasn’t human! It wasn’t like any face like you’ve seen before.”

Cast and characters:

• Charley Grapewin as Jasper Whyte
• Lucien Littlefield as Dr. Denham
• Mary Carlisle as The Second Doris Waverly
• Regis Toomey as Tom Dean
• Arthur Hohl as Arthur Proctor
• Fred Kelsey as Sheriff Jenks
• Evalyn Knapp as The Fake Doris Waverly
• Clarence Wilson as Mr. Felix
• Wallace Ford as Joe Luvalle
• Adrian Morris as Deputy Abner
• Hedda Hopper as Laura Proctor
• Rafaela Ottiano as Elvira, the Maid

Whole film:

Wikipedia | IMDb

The Vampire Bat is a 1933 American horror film directed by Frank R. Strayer (Condemned to Live; The Monster Walks) from a screenplay by Edward T. Lowe (House of Dracula; House of Frankenstein).

The film stars Lionel Atwill, Fay Wray (King Kong), Melvyn Douglas (Ghost Story; The Tenant; The Old Dark House), and Dwight Frye.

Fay Wray and Lionel Atwill had been in the successful film Doctor X the previous year and had already wrapped shooting on Mystery of the Wax Museum for Warner Bros. This was quite a large-scale release and would have a lengthy post-production process. Seeing a chance to exploit all the advance press, poverty row studio Majestic Pictures Inc. contracted Wray and Atwill for their own “quickie” horror film, rushing The Vampire Bat into production and releasing it in January 1933.

The film was shot on the Eastern European village set from Universal’s Frankenstein (1931) and the cave scene was film was in Bronson Canyon, while some interiors were from The Old Dark House (1932).

Plot:

When the villagers of Kleinschloss start dying of blood loss, the town fathers suspect a resurgence of vampirism.

While police inspector Karl Brettschneider (Douglas) remains skeptical, scientist Dr. von Niemann (Atwill) cares for the vampire’s victims one by one, and suspicion falls on simple-minded Herman Gleib because of his fondness for bats. A bloodthirsty angry mob hounds Gleib to his death, however the vampire attacks continue…

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Reviews:

” …The Vampire Bat is far better than you’re entitled to expect. It remains moody and atmospheric, and tries hard, if unsuccessfully, to give the plot a rational underpinning – plus it gives me an excuse to stare at Fay Wray for an hour or so, which can’t be a bad thing.” Nigel Honeybone, HorrorNews.net

“The Vampire Bat is a fun trip, getting by on looking okay and playing with enough conventions to still seem sprightly, even with wooden direction and some lame comic relief. It serves as a fascinating mix of every genre trope that had emerged in both the silent era and the early sound years.” Danny, Pre-Code.com

“Like most of the early horror talkies, The Vampire Bat is exceedingly, well, talky, but Strayer does a good job of minimizing the damage caused thereby. He has a great eye for frame composition, he makes deft use of some unconventional transitional techniques between scenes, and most importantly, he keeps the camera moving, panning and zooming and winding busily around the set.”

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“Quirky, odd, and different, The Vampire Bat is a horror film about vampires that take the concept to a whole different direction.” J. Luis Rivera, W-Cinema

“It offers numerous surprising or creepy sequences and images: the close-up of the dog, the chase through the torch-lit cave, the blood transfusion, the caped killer at the window. The defects include a lack of atmosphere and consistency…” David Elroy Goldweber, Claws & Saucers

“One of the best independent films churned out to meet the new vogue for horror (most of which were more darkish thrillers than pure horror).” The Aurum Film Encyclopedia: Horror

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“Atwill and Dwight Frye act as though they believed everything in a cheap quickie that starts as a vampire movie and turns into yet another variation on the standard mad scientist plot.” Alan Frank, The Horror Film Handbook

“Edward T. Lowe’s script and Frank R. Strayer’s direction are outdated but this is worth seeing for the cast…” John Stanley, Creature Features

“Dated low-budget horror comic with a few well-dash handled moments amongst the talk.” Howard Maxford, The A-Z of Horror Films

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Choice dialogue:

Burgomeister: “Vampires are at large, I tell you. Vampires!”

Dr. Otto von Niemann: “Mad! Is one who has solved the secret of life to be considered mad? Life! Created in a laboratory! … Living, growing tissue. Life! That moves, pulsates, and demands food for its continued growth! Ha!”

Cast and characters:

• Lionel Atwill as Dr. Otto von Niemann
• Fay Wray as Ruth Bertin
• Melvyn Douglas as Karl Breettschneider
• Maude Eburne as Gussie Schnappmann
• George E. Stone as Kringen
• Dwight Frye as Herman Gleib
• Robert Frazer as Emil Borst
• Rita Carlisle as Martha Mueller
• Lionel Belmore as Bürgermeister Gustave Schoen
• William V. Mong as Sauer
• Stella Adams as Georgiana
• Paul Weigel as Dr. Holdstadt
• Harrison Greene as Weingarten
• William Humphrey as Dr. Haupt
• Carl Stockdale as Schmidt
• Paul Panzer as Townsman

Wikipedia | IMDb