Lepus

Post Reply
User avatar
mrsl
Posts: 4200
Joined: April 14th, 2007, 5:20 pm
Location: Chicago SW suburbs

Lepus

Post by mrsl »

I'm not sure if I should put this here in the Sci-fi and Horror or under the Comedy topic. I remember it was going to be on TV one night, and my two daughters, Mr. L and I were all gathered around to watch. I'm not sure if I have ever laughed so hard before or after seeing that movie. In the first place, I was the only one who knew what a Lepus was and they were all expecting some kind of really big monster. Well, when the bunnies started hopping around, it sounded like we had all been poisoned from the sounds of the groans. BUNNIES!!!! WHAT!!!!!???? I swear to you, one line from the movie is "Attention! Attention! Ladies and gentlemen, attention! There is a herd of killer rabbits headed this way and we desperately need your help!." The poor guy has to say that over the radio but I have to admit, he sounded really upset.

Thinking about it, tonight isn't such a bad night to show it being so close to Easter and all. Handsome, urbane, tough guy Stu Whitman does his best to make an honest movie out of this, but talk about impossible missions!!! This will probably be the first and only time I ever watch TCM Underground, but I have to see if I still get at least a chuckle out of it, if not the movie, then the memory of my first viewing of it.

Please let me hear some comments, after its over.

Anne
Anne


***********************************************************************
* * * * * * * * What is past is prologue. * * * * * * * *

]***********************************************************************
User avatar
MissGoddess
Posts: 5072
Joined: April 17th, 2007, 10:01 am
Contact:

Post by MissGoddess »

I haven't seen this movie, Anne, since I was a little kid so it will be almost like the first time again if I manage to stay awake. I had pet rabbits at the time, so I don't know but that I was mighty disturbed by it! :lol:
klondike

Post by klondike »

Maybe Stu Whitman was still traumatized by his suicidal showdown with those killer baboons from Sands of the Kalihari, and wanted a rematch with a less ferocious genus of fauna!
:roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll:
raftfan
Posts: 65
Joined: January 2nd, 2008, 12:05 pm
Location: Winnipeg

Post by raftfan »

Watching "Night of the Lepus" last night transported me back to those glorious days of the 1970s when I obtained my driver's license and our drive-in theaters were inundated with "schlock" monsters. The more classy horror offerings of Vincent Price and Hammer were disappearing rapidly from our outdoor screens, and in their place we were treated to the most venomous parade of movie monsters since the 1950s: mutated giant spiders (well, actually a disguised VW bug), mutated men-into-catfish, piranhas, barracudas, earthworms, cockroaches, bog creatures, even babies. Throw in a couple of killer grizzlies, a melting man, something called a "Slithis" and some "Jaws", "Carrie" and "Exorcist" ripoffs, and you were guaranteed never to have a dull weekend during the summer months.

Then - at the end of October, the manager of the Starlite Drive-In would letter his marquee with more imagination than that displayed in any of the films he featured: "Closed for the Season. Reason? Freezin'."

I wax nostalgic . . .
User avatar
moira finnie
Administrator
Posts: 8024
Joined: April 9th, 2007, 6:34 pm
Location: Earth
Contact:

Post by moira finnie »

Awakened by something last night at 2am, (was that a 12 foot high rabbit outside looking in my window?) I watched this movie with a continuous smile. What was there to smile about?

Well, when DeForest Kelley described a "young couple" working on newer, better ways to stamp out pests to Rory Calhoun. That "young couple" turns out in the next scene...to be Stuart Whitman & Janet Leigh. Uh, they both looked fine, but com'n, they were way past the age of graduate students.

What kind of parents take their kid to a bat cave or let her hang out at their lab where they're doing alleged controlled experiments. Hello. Child Services? Get over to the Science Lab. There's an urgent need for an intervention.

It's about that poor shmuck of a truck driver who pulls over in the middle of the night when he hears "something funny"...um, could his body parts lying by the side of the road have been more humorously arranged? Honest, he looked like a disassembled mannequin in the store room with ketchup all over him. (Btw, I have NO desire for more realistic depictions of this stuff).

Did it occur to anyone to leave some purina rabbit chow and a head of lettuce out to catch these things? You know, they may be big, but they're not bright!!

Those Lepii moved more slowly than the zombies in The Last Man on Earth (1964). I could've gotten away from them easy.

Great movie.
Wish that TCM would show Sands of the Kalahari(1965) or City Beneath the Sea (1971) two other Stu Whitman epics that have a high cheese content and that I have a low threshold for.

Raftfan,
I love your waxing nostalgic about the drive-in, complete with rhyming couplet.
Avatar: Frank McHugh (1898-1981)

The Skeins
TCM Movie Morlocks
User avatar
mrsl
Posts: 4200
Joined: April 14th, 2007, 5:20 pm
Location: Chicago SW suburbs

Post by mrsl »

Moira:

Thus my query as to whether I should have posted in Sci-fi and Horror or Comedy!!!

Anne
Anne


***********************************************************************
* * * * * * * * What is past is prologue. * * * * * * * *

]***********************************************************************
Mr. Arkadin
Posts: 2645
Joined: April 14th, 2007, 3:00 pm

Post by Mr. Arkadin »

I had hoped to see this, but fell asleep. Hopefully TCM will reschedule it soon--I look forward to bunny nighmares! 8)
User avatar
MissGoddess
Posts: 5072
Joined: April 17th, 2007, 10:01 am
Contact:

Post by MissGoddess »

Leapin' Lepii! I fell asleep and missed it, too. :(
User avatar
metsfan
Posts: 70
Joined: April 21st, 2007, 2:06 pm

Post by metsfan »

It was my first time watching it and I thought it was hilarious! If it were up to me I'd let out a few reticulated pythons to control the population and collect the snakes again. The film sequences were strategic in taking closeups of the teeth and bloody faces to make these fur balls look menacing. Never let a child play in the lab.
Ollie
Posts: 908
Joined: January 18th, 2008, 3:56 pm

Post by Ollie »

In all of these comments, I note the total lack of effects-criticism - while today's films spend tens of millions on effects, these films remind me that the banditos were right.

"Badge effects? We don' have badge effects. We don' haf ta show you no steenkin' badge effects!"

Just suck us into the story, and we'll take whatever filmmakers give us. Bad effects are fine if that's what the story calls for - being 'perfect' or 'realistic' isn't very important, I believe. "Just keep the story going - we're here for the ride."
Post Reply