Monday, June 21, 2021

Darlings, I Am So, SO Sorry!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


                                               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:

  1. Mamie Baldwin?!
    “The Recipe”??

    ReplyDelete

  2. Victoria,
    Yes, Mamie Baldwin!
    As for "The Recipe," what was in it?
    There are times I could use some!

    ReplyDelete