Curt Jeffreys

So, Anyway... By John Cleese

2015-07-20T21:40:00.003-06:00

If you are looking for a history of Monty Python this is not the book for you. If you are looking for a peek inside the lifelong journey of one of the great minds of comedy, British or otherwise, this book is required reading.

In So, Anyway John Cleese lets us in on a secret -- he is not an actor, he's a writer-performer, a very important distinction in his mind. In fact, as he points out in the final chapter, this was the secret to the astounding success of Monty Python's Flying Circus: Not one of the troupe was an "Actor." No inflated egos demanding screen time, no prima donnas screaming for top billing, just a group of writers dreaming up brilliant sketches and zany non sequiturs punctuated with off-the-wall animations. According to Cleese the gang would write their sketches first, revise them to perfection, then decide who should perform them. The focus was on making the bit, from The Cheese Shop to the Fish Slapping Dance, as funny as possible, end of story.

As Cleese says throughout the book, comedy is hard work, requiring thought, effort and, yes, self doubt and second guessing. Is this sketch funny? Can it be funnier? Will people laugh? Will they laugh at the right time? So many things to worry about, so many things that can go wrong. Comedy is like launching a rocket -- ten thousand things can go wrong, only one can go right.

Thankfully John, Graham, Michael, Eric, Terry, and Terry were all willing to put in the time, to do the work, to sweat the blood necessary to bring their unique comedic twist to the world.

Thanks for choosing comedy over law, John. The world has enough lawyers but not nearly enough funny men.

Trigger Warning by Neil Gaiman

2015-07-15T21:22:00.001-06:00

Trigger Warning - Short Fictions and Disturbances

By Neil Gaiman

What can I possibly say about Neil Gaiman that you haven't heard a gazillion-and-a-half times before? That he is the great storyteller of our time? That his creativity and imagination seemingly know no bounds? That he has mastered such disparate aspects of literature from comic books to short stories to novels to poetry? It would not be too great a stretch to say Mr. Gaiman is one of the truly great writers of our day. Exaggeration? Hyperbole? I don't think so and I offer up Trigger Warning as the latest piece of evidence to back this claim.

A few of my favorites -

The Thing About Cassandra - a haunting tale of young love revisited

The Truth is a Cave in the Black Mountains - a story of patience and long awaited revenge

The Sleeper and the Spindle - a new take on two very familiar fairy tales

The Case of Death and Honey - A Japanese bee keeper, Sherlock Holmes, and the fountain of youth

Nothing O'clock - Our favorite Time Lord and his trusty Scots companion Amy Pond take on a time-travelling nemesis bent on - what else? - world domination

Black Dog - Fresh from his adventures in Northern Scotland, Baldur "Shadow" Moon encounters the legendary ghost dog Black Shuck, the Gateway to Hell, and, of course, a ghost

Trigger Warning is sure to please fans of everything from fairy tales to dark fantasy. Highly recommended.

2015-07-13T21:58:00.001-06:00

Get Walking the Edge free until July 31st.

Available from Smashwords.

Use promo code SW100 at checkout.

A world exists between the known and the unknown, a dark space between what is real and unreal. There are times and places when the fine line that separates reality from unreality blurs beyond distinction.

Explore these boundaries in this collection of dark fantasies from author Curt Jeffreys.

Home by the Sea – Haunted by the loss of his own daughter, Kyle Jennings must face a nameless horror from the dawn of time to save a little girl with sea green eyes.

Eustace – When Eddie Wilkes' father died he left his son more than just a rambling old house.

Beggars Can't be Choosers – When you're the last man on earth the dating pool is limited.

Disconnected – It's bad enough to lose your only brother but it is more than Chris Jensen can handle when he discovers the truth behind Kevin's death.

A Simple Task – Reverend Peters thought he had seen the worst humanity had to offer in the trenches of war-torn France – he was wrong.

Exit Left – Power, position and wealth don't add up to a hill of beans when you find yourself trapped in the parking garage from Hell.

Signal to Noise – As Rebecca Lundrgren descends in to madness she finds it harder and harder to filter out the signal from the noise.

Dark Legacy – Gil wanted to give his wife a pleasant distraction, a few hours to escape her pain, but their day trip to the mountains goes terribly wrong as they each uncover their own dark legacy.

Gut Feeling – No one believed Greg's pain was real, not even his wife. If he was to find relief he would have to take things into his own hands.

Crawlspace – The excitement of buying and renovating their first home quickly turns to pure horror for Jeff Rodgers and his new bride once he enters the crawlspace.

Terms and Conditions – Even the Devil himself doesn't stand a chance against a woman in love.

Review of Insane City by Dave Barry

2015-05-04T16:25:00.000-06:00

I admit it - the only thing I ever read by Dave Barry was an occasional humor column or two in the paper, mostly at the insistance of my wife. Based on that and that alone I had no idea what to expect from this book. Guess what? I liked it. Quite a bit, actually. The plot was a twisting convoluted mess that somehow stayed coherent enough to work. The characters were outrageouse yet believable and the setting, Miami, incredibly insane but again, believeable. I will definitely read Dave Barry again. A fun bit of fluff, highly recommended.

Review: Robert Heinlein's Expanded Universe

2015-04-30T15:35:00.001-06:00

Robert Heilnlein must've been a curmudgeonly old fart from the day he was born. A grandmaster of SF and a founding father of the genre, Heinlein loved to hear himself pontificate on the state of the country and the ills of society. His views on voting ( voting is not a right but a privelege that should be earned ) are particularly worrisome. As Isaac Asimov said, any system where a voter must prove himself worthy is problematic - just who decides whether you are worthy enough to enter the booth? But all this is beside the point. Heinlein earned his place in the pantheon of great SF writers and this collection offers one more glimpse into the stories that raised him to that high estate. Definitely worth the read for those interested in the early years of science fiction.

Review: Isaac Asimov Presents The Greatest SF Stories Volume 2 -1940

2015-04-30T15:04:00.002-06:00

Since childhood I've believed I was born too late. I missed out on all the major innovations like the invention of radio, first flight, the digital computer, the Golden Age of Science Fiction. This little book is a prime example of the latter. To have been present during the formative years of SF, to have known young Asimov, Fritz Lieber, Lester del Ray, etc., would have been incredible to say the least. I found this little book only a few days ago at my favorite used book store and inhaled it with great relish. I searched out and have ordered two more in the series - 1939 and 1941. I will continue searching until I complete the collection. Highly recommended for lovers of vintage SF, for the stories themselves as well as Asimovs' commentary on each.

Book Review - JD Robb's Delusion in Death

2014-12-30T14:15:00.001-07:00

Delusion in Death by J.D. Robb
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I like to research what works and what doesn't in publishing so when I saw this on the B&N bargain table I grabbed it. I'd seen the name JD Robb but had no clue she was actually Nora Roberts. I don't think I would ever read Roberts even for research since she writes for a market I have no interest in. However her writing as Robb is interesting to me. She has created a believable near-future world and populated it with interesting characters coping with interesting problems. Not hard SF in any way, her stories are more character driven than tech and that's fine by me. That's the way I tend to write.

I knew when I started reading that I was jumping into the middle of a series but that didn't bother me; most authors will drop enough hints and tidbits of back story to let you catch up. I assumed the same for Robb but was disappointed - while she did refer to previous events she did so assuming everyone would know the story. I didn't so I was lost. Big problem.

I also found her attributions confusing at times. I read along assuming I knew who was talking only to discover several sentences later I was wrong. I had to go back then and re-read the dialog so it would make sense. Not something you want or need when immersed in a story.

The story itself was well told, the plot believable, the characters engaging. Perhaps someday I will go back and read the previous books and pick up what I missed.

If you like soft SF thrillers I recommend Delusion in Death.

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Movie Review - Flight to Mars 1951

2014-10-13T21:23:00.002-06:00

A bunch of scientists and a newspaper reporter (yes, newspaper reporter) make the first manned flight to the red planet to discover Martians that look exactly like us.

Filmed in 11 days using sets, sound effects, and space suits from the more successful Destination Moon, this little film is, in my opinion at least, highly underrated. Sure the story is predictable, sure the acting is far from brilliant, sure the special effects are sad - but check out Marguerite Chapman! She alone is worth the price of admission.

Classic 50s Sci-fi Movie Babe Marguerite Chapman

Virginia Huston, girl scientist, and Cameron Mitchel,
intrepid reporter

Cameron Mitchell stars as the jaded war reporter chosen from thousands of applicants to accompany the first Mars expedition. Along for the ride is Carol Stafford, girl scientist (her words, not mine), played by Virginia Huston. Carol has a majorly huge crush on her boss, the leader of the expedition and who, inevitably, falls for the beautiful Alita (Chapman), daughter of the leader of the pro-Earth party. This of course leaves things wide open for the intrepid reporter to swoop in and pick up the shattered pieces of the girl scientist's heart.

Workman-like and plodding as it sounds this mess is the true plot of the movie. Oh, and the fact that the anti-Earth faction of Mars' leaders want to seize the Earth ship, reverse engineer it and use the technology to build a fleet of ships to invade Earth. But this at times seems more of a sub-plot, really.

Despite its many short comings I love this movie. Science fiction movies from the early fifties seem so innocent looking back on them from our 21st century vantage point. America's fear of the insidious commie and the constant threat of global annihilation at any moment seem silly to us. But people living through that era did not have the luxury of knowing every was going to work out in the end and the Soviet Union would die an ignoble death without a single nuke hitting Moscow. Those were scary times and little bits of fluff like Flight to Mars offered an overwhelmed public a few minutes of gee whiz escapism. No harm in that, eh?

Spaceship cockpit, 1950s style

Color space suits borrowed from Destination Moon

The Martian surface, including mysterious
Martian megaliths

If you love classic 50s sci-fi you'll love this Flight to Mars. Recommended.

Sweet Free Books October 10, 2014

2014-10-10T14:09:00.004-06:00

Walking the Edge is a featured book in today's SweetFreeBooks!

Review - The Year's Best Dark Fantasy & Horror, 2013

2014-09-28T22:09:00.000-06:00

The Year's Best Dark Fantasy & Horror, 2013 Edition by Paula Guran
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The stories in this collection run the gamut from Neal Gaiman's The Man Who Forgot Ray Bradbury to Jim Butcher's hilarious Big Foot on Campus, touching on points in between. I won't even attempt to review every story here so I'll focus on what I consider to be the true gems in this collection.

The Man Who Forgot Ray Bradbury is a horror tale for our times. The narrator opens his tale with the line I am forgetting things, which scares me. With this simple sentence Gaiman takes us by the hand and leads us through the thoughts and fears of someone going through Alzheimer's or dementia, or maybe something else -- we are never really told -- but that's far from the point. Having your past wiped from your brain, memory by memory, is perhaps the scariest thing a person can face. Our past defines us, our memories make us who we are. If we lose those things where does that leave us? This story is no fantasy - what it describes is all too real, all too common, and that is what scares the crap out of me.

Big Foot On Campus - I don't want to give anything away here, so just let me say Harry Dresden is back and in fine form as his usual smart-alecky self.

Perhaps one of the creepiest tales in this collection is Robert Shearman's Bedtime Stories for Yasmin. There is nothing more innocuous than a story told to a child as she's being tucked into bed for the night, right? Not in this story. Enough said. You'll have to read it for yourself.

The Year's Best Dark Fantasy and Horror, 2013 lives up to it's title. Recommended.

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Walking the Edge on eBook Discovery

2014-09-23T16:04:00.003-06:00

Walking the Edge
Eleven short horror and dark fantasy stories

Walking the Edge has been selected to appear in eBook Discovery's Action-Packed email this Friday, September 26th at 3:00 PM. Please feel free to subscribe here so you can see your favorite ebook shine!

Book Review - The Manhattan Project

2014-09-09T21:50:00.000-06:00

The Manhattan Project: The Birth of the Atomic Bomb in the Words of Its Creators, Eyewitnesses and Historians. by Cynthia C. Kelly
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Told through letters, reports, documents, and oral histories, this book takes us from the first sustained nuclear reaction under a squash court in Chicago all the way to the destruction of two cities and thousands of human beings. The story of the Manhattan Project is simultaneously exciting, riveting and heart wrenching. The people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were not the only victims of the bomb; thousands of lives were consumed by this project, many were shattered, including perhaps the biggest hero of the story, J. Robert Oppenheimer.

Whatever your feelings about the bomb or nuclear energy The Manhattan Project is a fascinating read.

Recommended.

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Review: Eniac: The Triumphs and Tragedies of the World's First Computer

2014-08-13T21:20:00.000-06:00

Eniac: The Triumphs and Tragedies of the World's First Computer by Scott McCartney
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The story of Eniac, the world's first truly programmable electronic computer, is both inspiring and heart breaking. J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly were true visionaries, ahead of their time in many ways, yet exactly in the right place at the right time in more ways. Their story is one of technological innovation and political in-fighting. Unfortunately for them victory, fame, and most of the money went to those who could play the game, leaving the creators of this world-changing machine under appreciated and, in Mauchly's case, broke.

Scott McCartney has written an engaging and well researched tale of creativity, invention, and betrayal.

Highly recommended.

View all my reviews

Starcrash

2014-07-15T22:11:00.002-06:00

Starcrash

1978

Caroline Munro, Marjoe Gortner, David Hasselhoff, Christopher Plummer

Oh my goodness, where to start?

First off, I love B movies. I love low budget films cobbled together by creative types with tiny budgets and nothing more than cardboard cut outs and blinking lights for special effects. Look at This Island Earth, It Came From Outer Space, The Beginning of the End. No big budgets here, but each of these films is packed with creativity and originality, concepts the makers of Starcrash were seemingly unfamiliar with. This is not a B movie, it's an F movie, and as much as I wanted to like it (Caroline Munro! What more does a movie need?) I found myself wanting to rip the director's arm off and beat him over the head with the bloody stump, shouting "Bad boy! No!"


Caroline Munro, trying her best to save this movie

Munro stars as Stella Star (no kidding); Marjoe Gortner as her psychic and seemingly immortal navigator, Akton; Christopher Plummer as the Emperor of the Universe; and David Hasselhoff (yeah, that David Hassellhof) as his son, Prince Simon. Munro is gorgeous but that's not nearly enough to save this mess. The real mystery is what the heck Christopher Plummer is doing here. Plummer seems embarrassed by the whole thing and it shows. Gortner, a former child evangelist turned bad actor, is so awful I couldn't look directly at him. Then there's the robot with the southern drawl. I won't get in that -- you'll just have to see it yourself.

Poor Christopher, we can see right through you

Gortner battling the vicious stop-action robots

Did you know?

The truly awful Marjoe Gortner and his robot pal

Stracrash was released in a hurry to cash in on the success of Star Wars.

Christopher Plummer shot all of his scenes in one day. Like pulling a Band Aid off really fast, I guess.

The Star Wars rip off went so far as having Gortner swinging a light a pathetic toy light saber.

All the major actors dubbed their own voices back for the English version except for Munro. The producers didn't want to spend the money to have her fly in to do the work so Candy Clark did the work. Clark was married to Gortner at the time.

Gorgeous Caroline Munro is the daughter of the equally gorgeous Janet Munro (The Day the Earth Caught Fire, The Crawling Eye aka The Trollenberg Terror).

Marjoe Gortner, at four years old, was proclaimed "The world's youngest ordained minister."

The Hoff as Prince Simon

Starcrash is on the You Tube. You can see it here. Please don't buy it, watch it for free if you really feel you must. But be warned, this movie will change you, and not in a good way.

The Long Dark Tea Time of the Soul

2014-06-22T20:49:00.000-06:00

Douglas Adams

Enter the slightly off kilter world of Douglas Adams' London, where Norse gods run amok in the streets while Dirk Gently, a holistic detective who believes in the quantum interconnectedness of all things, tries to unravel the murder of a successful record producer, beheaded by a green demon from Valhalla.

Sound confusing? Welcome to the creative genius of Douglas Adams. Everyone knows Douglas for his brilliant Hitchhiker's trilogy (all four of them) but the Dirk Gently books are just as wildly imaginative.

If you haven't had the pleasure of Mr. Gently's acquaintance go to your local book store right now and get them all. Go on! What are you waiting for?

Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency

2014-06-10T22:08:00.001-06:00

Douglas Adams was a bit daft; I like that in an author.

It's been years since I first read Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency and I must say it's a pleasure to reacquaint myself with Mr. Gently. In honor of World Towel Day I had decided to re-read all six volumes of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy trilogy but then I saw this volume on my shelf and decided to start my Adams adventure with Holistic Detective Agency followed by The Long Dark Tea Time of the Soul. Whether this is Great Literature is irrelevant -- it's a fun read and an insightful glimpse into the brilliantly creative mind of Douglas Adams.

If you only know Douglas from Hitchhiker's then you certainly owe it to yourself to read Dirk.

Out of five stars I'd give this book a twenty.

Blood From the Mummy's Tomb

2014-06-06T19:54:00.003-06:00

Blood from the Mummy's Tomb
Hammer, 1971

Starring Andrew Keir and the voluptuous Valerie Leon. Based on the Bram Stoker novel, Jewel of the Seven Stars.

In my estimation this is one of Hammer's finest. It is both moody and atmospheric with a wonderfully manic performance by Leon.

A British expedition in Egypt uncovers the ancient tomb of the evil Queen Tera. When one of the archaeologists takes the ring from the queen's severed hand and gives it to his daughter for her birthday he unwittingly unleashes an ancient curse. Is the girl truly the reincarnation of Tera or is she simply a tool to be used by the unscrupulous Corbeck (played with relish by James Villiers)?

Production on Blood was plagued by the death of director Seth Holt of a heart attack five weeks into production. Holt actually died on set in the arms of cast member Aubrey Morris, who played Doctor Putnam. Michael Carreras finished directing the final week of filming, though his work is not credited. Peter Cushing was slated to play Professor Julian Fuchs but pulled out after only one day on the set when his wife was diagnosed with emphysema. Andrew Keir filled in admirably, though to be honest I would have preferred Cushing. Keir does a fine job, mind you, it's just I'm a huge Cushing fan.

Did you know...?

Andrew Keir played Dr. Bernard Quatermass in the absolutely wonderful Quatermass and the Pit (aka Five Billion Years to Earth).

Aubrey Morris (Doctor Putnam) appeared in the classics A Clockwork Orange (1971), The Wicker Man (1973), and the wonderful Lifeforce (1985). He was also the captain of the Golgafrincham Arkship B in the British TV series of The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1981).

Valerie Leon appeared in two James Bond adventures with bit parts in the awful James Bond fiasco Never Say Never Again as well as The Spy who Loved Me.

While she had no trouble appearing in skimpy outfits, Leon, like the gorgeous Caroline Munro, refused to do full nudity. A body double was used in the one very brief nude scene in Blood.

Available from Amazon
IMDB

Home by the Sea

2014-06-04T22:12:00.004-06:00

Kyle slipped through the unlit house with practiced precision, taking his accustomed place alone in the family room, the eternal Pacific below his only company. A storm was coming, Kyle could feel it.
The wind raced in from the sea carrying cold steel rain and sleet. But even in a storm the ocean calmed him as no drug ever did, brought him a relief no therapy could offer. He let the sound of the surf wash over him, cleansing his soul, carrying away sins real and imagined, carrying his nightmare far out to
sea to sink into the eternal abyss, never to bother him again. It was a pleasant thought, more of a mantra, really, repeated night after night all these years.

Home by the Sea, from Walking the Edge by Curt Jeffreys

Available on Amazon

2014-05-14T21:23:00.001-06:00

Disconnected

Suddenly deflated, he drooped against the counter. Dead. His little brother was dead. It hadn't really struck him till now. He'd been too distracted with all the details, all the arrangements, to really let it soak in. But now, standing in this gloomy apartment staring into Kevin's fridge, everything snapped into sharp, painful focus. He was gone, really gone, not on vacation in some exotic locale, soon to return with a camera full of pictures and a head full of wild stories about the things he'd seen, the things he'd done. Life is full of surprises, Kevin used to say. You take what comes at you and make the best of it. Heck of a surprise this was.

Disconnected, from Walking the Edge by Curt Jeffreys. Available on Amazon, B & N, iTunes and more

2014-03-27T13:33:00.002-06:00

Good News Everyone!

My collection of short horror stories is available on Smashwords.
Walking the Edge is a collection of eleven short horror/dark fantasy stories. All for only a buck ninety nine. What a deal!

Available from
Amazon Kindle
Smashwords
Barnes and Noble Nook
Apple iTunes

John Agar - B Movie Actor Extraordinaire

2010-11-26T14:03:00.000-07:00

John Agar
Born January 31, 1921
Died April 7, 2002

Marrying America's Sweetheart is a sure way to get your Hollywood career off to a great start and that's exactly what John Agar did when he married Shirley Temple. Agar was twenty-four, Temple just sweet sixteen when they got hitched on September 19, 1945 -- nothing weird about that, I suppose.

Anyway, the six foot three former Army Air Corp Sargeant was on his way to the big time, being groomed by non other than David O. Selznik himself. During his brief period in the sun he appeared with John Wayne in 'Fort Apache'. He was also in 'The Sands of Iwo Jima'.

Things would have worked out well for our leading man, had Ms. Temple not filed for divorce in '49. You just don't do America's Sweetheart wrong and not suffer the consequences, as Agar soon found out: His career took a nose-dive and he found himself relegated to the Bs.

At the time Universal International had a heavy production schedule, cranking out Bs as fast as they could. U-I may not have been MGM, but with its good-looking roster of stars -- Tony Curtis, Rock Hudson, Julie Adams, to name a few -- Agar jumped on board with both feet and was soon rolling out B movies from 1955 to 1957. These were the films that would secure his name for all time.

With his work at U-I and later AIP, Agar's career was defined by classics like 'Tarantula', 'Revenge of the Creature', 'The Mole People', 'Attack of the Puppet People' and 'The Brain from Planet Arous'. Not an Academy award winner among them, but classics none the less. What made Agar great was that no matter how menial the roles he always strived -- and somehow managed to succeed -- to present a fully developed, three dimensional character.

In 1981 Agar received the Life Career Award by the Academy of Science Fiction Fantasy And Horror Films USA.

"I don't resent being identified with B science fiction movies at all. Why should I? Even though they were not considered top of the line, for those people that like sci-fi, I guess they were fun. My whole feeling about working as an actor is, if I give anybody any enjoyment, I'm doing my job, and that's what counts." - John Agar

The Brain that Wouldn't Die - 1962

2010-09-16T22:05:00.000-06:00

I've always maintained that just because you can do something doesn't mean you should. That could very well be the theme of this movie.

This time the mad scientist reanimates the head of his dead girlfriend, keeping her alive in a shallow tray of goo - requisite wires and tubes included. How she can talk with no lungs I don't quite get, but that's the least of our worries with this one.

Our hero - not happy with his fiance's bodiless state - sets off on a quest to obtain the perfect body to stick her head on. So where does a serious scientist go to find a body? A strip club, of course. Why not? He is a man, after all, and men have certain needs. True, he loves her for her brain but a hot body would be nice. He chooses a lousy strip club, though - these ladies wear more clothes than most teenage girls wear to school these days.

Meanwhile, back at the lab, the head is seriously pissed off, moaning over and over "Let me die! Let me die!" and honing her psychic control over the monster in the closet. Yes, that's right, there's a monster in the closet! Apparently it's a failed experiment Doc keeps around for some unknown reason. Add to the mix a shrivel-armed lab assistant, a kidnapped figure model with perfect body and a scarred face and you've got yourself some fine drama here.

Directed by Joseph Green for Rex Carlton productions.

Starring Herb Evers as the good doctor, Virginia Leith as his long suffering fiance, Adele Lamont as the model/body donor.

Original Story by Rex Carlton and Joseph Green, ripped off from Curt Siodmak's classic "Donovan's Brain."

Tag Line: Alive... without a body... fed by an unspeakable horror from hell!

Memorable quote: Kurt (the lab assistant) - "The paths of experimentation twist and turn through mountains of miscalculations and often lose themselves in error and darkness!"

Things to look for: The completely and utterly gratuitous cat fight between two strippers. Good stuff!

The Day the Earth Caught Fire - 1961

2010-07-31T21:30:00.000-06:00

It's a shame to call this one a B-movie, it's so well done. But as typical with most early SF, this film had little or no budget and little or no hope of being taken seriously by the critics.

Directed, produced and co-written by Val Guest ("The Quatermass Experiment", aka "The Creeping Unknown"), this is a truly marvelous film with a heightened sense of realism that should be envied by modern film makers.

This is a fine examples of a cold war film, using a semi-documentary style to highlight the folly of the nuclear arms race, the uncontrolled race to oblivion that was a constant background to life in the 1950s and 60s.

When the Russians and the Americans simultaneously detonate two nuclear bombs - one at the north pole, one at the south - the Earth is tilted off its axis, causing storms, floods and earthquakes. But wait! It gets better. Soon after it becomes obvious to everyone that something has gone horribly wrong when a solar eclipse occurs two weeks early. There's a priceless scene where a British government lackey tries unsuccessfully to explain to the public that astronomy is not an exact science and really, isn't it just amazing we're able to predict anything at all about the movement of the planets?

Our hero (Edward Judd), a hard hitting, hard drinking, washed out wreck of a newspaper reporter isn't buying what the government is selling. With the help of Jeannie Craig (Janet Munro), an attractive young lady from the secretarial pool at the Ministry, he busts the story wide open, falls in love (of course), dries up and becomes the ace reporter he used to be.

In the end it is decided that the only way to put things right is to explode four more nuclear bombs simultaneously in the hopes that this will shove the Earth back in to position! Ironic, don't you think?

Most of the central drama takes place in the newsroom of the Daily Express newspaper and it is from a news reporter's vantage point that we watch all of London descend into madness. Special effects man Les Bowie did a bang up job considering the minuscule budget he had to work with. The scene where the Thames dries up is very effective in particular.

The newspaper's editor is played by the real life former editor of the real Daily Express, Arthur Christiansen. Christiansen also served as a technical adviser on the film, giving the scenes shot at the paper added realism.

At the end of the movie we are shown two possible front pages for the next day's edition hanging from the presses. One with the banner headline "World Saved," the other "World Doomed." We are never told which one is used as our hero walks out into the deserted streets of London to report on what will be either his greatest or his last story.

Things to look for:

A very young Michael Caine plays a policeman directing traffic.

The protest scene against the atom bomb was not filmed for the movie - it was an actual, live demonstration. Guest placed his actors and his cameras down in the thick of things and shot it as it was happening, again adding to the overall sense of realism that makes this movie so great.

Janet Munro starred as Ann Pilgrim in "The Crawling Eye" (aka "The Trollenberg Terror") and was in "The Swiss Family Robinson" (a fond childhood memory) and "Darby O'Gill and the Little People". But to my mind her greatest accomplishment was giving birth to the stunning Caroline Munro who was in dozens of films including "Star Crash", "James Bond: The Spy Who Loved Me", "The Golden Voyage of Sinbad", "Captain Kronos - Vampire Hunter" as well as an appearance in Adam Ant's "Goody Two Shoes" video. Yep, quite the versatile thespian, Miss Caroline.

For those of you too young and too lucky to have lived through it, the cold war was a very frightening time. I remember "Duck and Cover" drills at school, where we were told if we only dropped to the ground and covered ourselves with newspapers when we saw the "Flash" we would be fine. Of course, no one ever explained that if you actually saw the flash of a nuclear bomb you'd be instantly blinded. Well, at least that way you couldn't see what was coming next, like total vaporization. I suppose these drills were meant to placate a concerned population. Nowadays, of course, we're all too sophisticated to believe everything the government tells us. Kind of sad when you think about it.

Flight to Mars - 1951

2010-06-21T22:00:00.000-06:00

In a nutshell, five astronauts fly to Mars where they discover advanced and seemingly friendly inhabitants. Unbeknownst to our heroes their hosts plan to use their spaceship's technology to help them invade Earth. As expected, the clever Earth people outwit the Martians and return safely to Earth.

Inspired by the successes of "Destination Moon" and "Rocketship X-M" the year before, Monogram pictures slapped together this poorly written bit of fluff in five days and it shows. Lots of stock footage, space suits from "Destination Moon" and a rocketship interior borrowed from "Rocketship X-M" are good indications of a pretty low budget.

Now don't get me wrong, I love this picture. In fact, I bet I've seen it twenty times. The acting is a bit wooden, the direction by Lesley Selander is plodding and methodical and the writing is bad but it has one thing going for it -- A hot Martian woman in a micro-mini-skirt. If you love long legged former models turned actresses ( and who doesn't? ) then you'll absolutely fall in love with Marguerite Chapman ( also in "The Amazing Transparent Man"). She's an absolute knock out. While Miss Chapman had no aspirations of becoming a model or an actress she went on to make more than thirty pictures and even has a star on Hollywood Boulevard.

Cameron Mitchell is the jaded newspaper reporter who tags along to record the trip for posterity. Mitchell is probably best known for playing Buck Cannon on the TV western "The High Chaparral." (Any one else out there old enough to remember that one? Any one? Any one?)

Also starring Arthur Franz ("Invaders from Mars", 1953 and "The Atomic Submarine", 1959), Virginia Huston, John Litel and Morris Ankrum ("Earth versus the Flying Saucers", 1956, "Invaders from Mars", 1953) as Ikron, the friendly Martian scientist.

Favorite quote: Steve Aboott (Mitchell) -- "Dr. Lane, I once heard of a man who climbed a higher mountain than anyone else alive, but he was never able to get down again. What's left of him is still up there."
Dr. Lane -- "The point is, Steve, he made it."

Earth versus the Flying Saucers - 1956

2010-05-04T22:07:00.000-06:00

Man, I love this movie! SF movies from the pre-Soyuz era have a certain innocence about them that I love and this is one of my favorites. We've all become a little jaded by regular launchings of the space shuttle. We see it take off and land on the ten o'clock news and think, "Ho-hum, another trip to space. Big deal." But remember, back in the fifties it was a big deal. We hadn't done it yet, we hadn't been up there. "Earth vs the Flying Saucers" is just one of many imaginings of what rocketry could look like. Clips of V-2s (very popular in fifties SF) are interspersed to add realism.

In "Earth vs the Flying Saucers" we have a couple of young rocket scientists who just happen to be newly-weds, played by Hugh Marlowe and Joan Taylor. I want you to notice something here: one of the scientists is a woman. True, her role is still more or less secondary to that of the husband, but she's portrayed as intelligent and capable, possessing a keen scientific mind, and this is 1956, mind you.

Special effects are supplied by Ray Harryhausen, grand old man of stop motion photography. Any flick with Harryhausen doing effects is worth watching.

Once again, intrepid young scientists are faced with overwhelming odds. An invading force of flying saucers launch an all-out attack on Earth. Impervious to bullets, bazookas, mortars, cannons, they seem unstoppable. All seems lost until the hero figures out they are susceptible to one thing - high frequency sound. Armed with their new weapon they defeat the invaders, sending disabled saucers crashing into more than one famous Washington, DC landmark.

Hokey? Sure. Contrived? A bit. But you definitely need to add this one to your must watch list.