The Silver Screen Oasis

The Drive-In Double Features theme on Thursdays in June on TCM may seem like a good time to put the old brain pan out for an airing.
Below is a rundown of all the movies being featured tonight starting at 8pm EDT on TCM. Any favorites or comments?

8:00 PM

Godzilla, King of the Monsters! (1956)
Nuclear tests awaken a prehistoric monster.
Dir: Ishiro Honda Cast: Raymond Burr, Takashi Shimura, Momoko Kochi.
BW-80 mins, TV-PG, CC,

9:30 PM
Challenge Of Champions (1966)
A featurette giving a behind the cameras look at the filming of "Grand Prix" (1966) at the actual Grand Prix in Monaco.
C-13 mins,

9:45 PM
Rodan (1957)
Miners uncover the nest of a giant pterodactyl.
Dir: Inoshiro Honda Cast: Kenji Sawara, Yumi Shirakawa, Akihiko Hirata.
BW-72 mins, TV-PG, CC,

11:15 PM
Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster- (1965)
Mothra, Godzilla and Rodan join forces to take on a space invasion.
C-86 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

1:00 AM
Monster Zero (1970)
Aliens try to use Godzilla, Mothra and Rodan to take over the planet.
Dir: Inoshiro Honda Cast: Nick Adams, Akira Takarada, Kumi Mizuno.
C-93 mins, CC, Letterbox Format

2:45 AM
Dinosaurus! (1960)
Caribbean engineers accidentally revive a frozen caveman and two dinosaurs.
Dir: Irvin S. Yeaworth Jr. Cast: Ward Ramsey, Paul Lukather, Kristina Hanson.
C-83 mins, TV-PG,

4:15 AM
Valley of Gwangi, The (1969)
Cowboys discover a lost world populated by dinosaurs.
Dir: Jim O'Connolly Cast: James Franciscus, Gila Golan, Richard Carlson.
C-95 mins, TV-PG, Letterbox Format


Watching Godzilla, King of the Monsters (1956) with half an eye this evening reminds me all too well of Japan's ongoing tragedy in the Fukushima district where the tsunami recently caused wholesale destruction and nuclear power once again seems a dubious choice for an energy-starved world--especially after the experiences in Japan in the last 65 years. On the up side, it's great to see a pre-Perry Mason Raymond Burr as a good guy--though he sure must have needed the money before he became an attorney on the tube.

I just finished watching Godzilla King of the Monsters ... its one of my personal favorites &
planning on watching them until Godzilla vs Monster Zero is concluded. It's has great line-up of Horror Flicks until the end of June. Many of them are Classics.

I grew up watching re-runs of these classic movies on late night television here in the Emerald City on Channel 11 on Saturday Nights on an infrequent basis.

Aw, gee, Moira, I think it sounds like fun. Right now, I'm cable-less, but I would be watching as time permits if I had the station. (It's probably good that I haven't, seeing as how I'm in summer school.)

I just wish they'd booked more of the higher-end cheesy flicks, such as The Leech Woman with Colleen Gray and The Mole People with John Agar. Those managed to be pretty fun yet also touched on some serious themes.

They won't have "THE LEECH WOMAN" but will you take 'THE WASP WOMAN"? That'll be on later this month.

kingrat wrote:The topic reminds me of some Ripley's Believe It or Not actual double features. A drive-in in my hometown showed Antonioni's Blow-Up with Elvis Presley in Double Trouble.

And in Manhattan, I saw Ingmar Bergman's Shame on the lower half of a double bill with Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell. Mamma mia!

Some film programmer with a sense of humor...or just a programmer with no sense?

I got caught up in the last 40 minutes of GODZILLA and was reminded, yet again,
that this is a very serious and seriously well-made film. The scenes of devastation in the
wake of Godzilla's fire-belching wrath are breathtaking in their scope and, as Moira
pointed out, that much more poignant and disturbing due to the recent tragic events in
Japan. Even the tacked-on scenes with Raymond Burr fail to detract from the message
of this beautiful, anti-nuclear film.
Lots of other terrific films in TCM's on-going Thursday night series this month: June 9
features one of the all-time greats (discussed in depth elsewhere at the Oasis), THEM!
co-starring the recently departed James Arness along with a killer horde of
radioactively mutated ants!
THEM!
[youtube][/youtube]
Also on the 9th are Jack Arnold's desert classic TARANTULA starring a bemused
Leo G. Carroll as a doomed scientist and Roger Corman's deliriously weird THE WASP WOMAN.
On June 30, the line-up features (among others) THE MAGNETIC MONSTER,
a fairly somber and intelligent 1953 film from Curt Siodmak (Robert's brother)
THE MAGNETIC MONSTER
[youtube][/youtube]
and Howard Hawks' great classic THE THING (also with James Arness, this time in the title role!)
THE THING
[youtube][/youtube]

Also on the 9th are Jack Arnold's desert classic TARANTULA starring a bemused Leo G. Carroll as a doomed scientist and Roger Corman's deliriously weird THE WASP WOMAN.

THEM and THE THING may be the certifiable classics, but the 9th is the night. Any movie directed by Jack Arnold is always worth viewing. And THE WASP WOMAN is one of my favorite sci-fi movies and my favorite of Roger Corman's -- "hysterical" may be a fitting description in more ways than one.

And we know who's billed as the "Night Watchman" in THE WASP WOMAN.

Yessiree!! THE WASP WOMAN!! One of the 50s great, erotic classics! Really.
[youtube][/youtube]

seriously?

Yes'm.

Somewhat less erotic, but no less unusual, is Jack Arnold's TARANTULA
which is part of that great June 9 line-up. I missed this clip the last
time out...
TARANTULA
[youtube][/youtube]

Tarantula is one my favorites too ... Its quite suspenseful and bone chilling as well. This definitely a keeper. I can't wait to watch it ... its been 15-20 years since I last watched it.

Holy Medicine Bow, Batman!

It's been years since I've seen Tarantula and I had completely forgotten that Mr. Waverly (Leo G. Carroll, The Man From U.N.C.L.E.) and Mark Abbott (Ross Elliot, the sheriff on The Virginian) were in this film.

Absolutely love the giant spider, especially trying to start a landslide of rocks on the happy couple of John Agar and Mara Corday.

At first, I thought the non-Universal backlot scenes were filmed at the Old Iverson Ranch in Chatsworth or maybe even (I thought it was a long-shot) Lone Pine but instead it turned out to be Lucerne Valley out near Apple Valley which is off Interstate 15 on the way to Las Vegas. It's been years since I went through Apple Valley to get to Vegas (I try to avoid the traffic through the Cajon Pass) and the rock formations didn't look familiar for that neck of the woods.

Learn something new every day.

Members, I made it an Evening of SCI-FI Entertainment
I watched six movies in a row ... got to be a record for me on Turner Classic Movies

1) THEM! 1954
I would give this movie an A for fine acting, humor, horror, notation about scientific aspects of ants, and a nicely way the movie progressed.
2) The Cosmic Monsters 1958
This is the first time I seen this movie ... and the last. Big Fat F
3) Tarantula 1958
My personal favorite, great direction, special effects, and bone chilling excitement, a bonus seeing Young Clint Eastwood in an uncredited role as a Jet Pilot who sent out to destroy the big mean Tarantula ... Grade A
4) The Black Scorpion 1957
Just a good as Tarantula, but one letter grade below it ... Great Special Effects ... Solid B
5) The Giant Claw 1957
See Cosmic Monster for its grade. F Again ... The most moronic movie SCI-FI ever!
6) The Wasp Woman 1959
This got to be the strangest SCI-FI movie that I ever seen in my life, its not that bad, but very weird indeed and I wished it was better paced ... but, I would give it a Solid C Plus for its Concept.

For what TCM gave me last night they gave me 4 good movies and 2 awful, really bad movies. So, I would give them an Solid B Plus for entertaining me. I watched six movies in a row. Kinda Crazy ... but, I love these types of films because they entertain me in way like no other movies does.