Until we sat down, this past Saturday night, and watched "Svengoolie," I had no idea I had written about the wrong movie. It was "Curse Of The Undead," not "Curse Of The Living Dead." I have the feeling, having seen the above, that the 1974 technicolor venture into French faux horror, may have been better than this clunker.
Universal was the Studio Of Monsters, throughout the Thirties, Forties, and Fifties, but this 1959 Vampire Western, with no discernible actors who went anywhere--except for Helen Kleeb, who played housekeeper Dora, and went on to play Miss Mamie Baldwin in "The Waltons," in the 1970's--is, quite possibly, the worst effort they ever turned out, and it should have been permanently shelved!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ronald Reagan and Donald O' Connor may have been down on their luck when they did the "Bonzo" and "Francis" movies, but, next to this, those seem like artistic masterpieces.
The only points it gets is for some shots of such visual atmosphere, I am convinced someone on the production staff had seen some advance footage of Mario Bava's "Black Sunday," and was trying to imitate that.
The idea for this film started out as a gag. Had that been stuck with, and shot like a Warner Bros. cartoon, it might have worked.
Instead, the film is all over the place, playing fast and loose with the vampire mythos. You know Drake Robie, (what a name!!) played by Michael Pate, is the vampire, right away, as he is the only one in the film, dressed in black. There is a sexually graphic nature to the shots of him draining blood from his victims that makes me wonder how they got this by the censors!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! As for the victims, they jettison quickly from young girls--makes sense!--to men involved in a land dispute? WTH?????????????????????????????
Hell could be watching this movie! Thank God, for Svengoolie and Kerwyn, to liven things up.
But, most of all, girls, forgive me! I promise never to do this again!!!!!!!!!!!!
2 comments:
Mamie Baldwin?!
“The Recipe”??
Victoria,
Yes, Mamie Baldwin!
As for "The Recipe," what was in it?
There are times I could use some!
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