While It Came From Hollywood, this pressbook for Tennessee Jamboree geographically would be more easterly. I never could watch Hee-Haw, but I do enjoy some country music (the old stuff mostly, some new stuff) and rockabilly, and toss in a strong fiddlin’ session and I’m aces.
Santo and the Royal Eagle (Santo y el Aguila Real) is a beautiful card with its illustration and title text and coloration overall, which uses the poster art for the movie. Irma Serrano (La Tigressa) had quite a career in Mexican cinema and politics, and started her film career with Samson vs. the Zombies with El Santo (cited from her Wikipedia article).
Notice that in AIP’s Warriors Five pressbook (hey, of course It Came From Hollywood) Giovanna Ralli takes the high ground in the poster art while the GIs blow up things and shoot off guns. A lot. Blame it on the male gaze and those legs selling seats in theaters for this war movie’s commercial focus. She, of course, plays the “lovely Italian hooker.” All hookers in Hollywood movies are lovely. The publicity plays her up with “Americans first look-see at sex-sational new star.” Yeah, try pushing that for a movie promotion today. Aside from Ralli, Jack Palance provides the leading man beefcake (with help from his international male cast). This production was a joint Italian, Yugoslavian, French(ian), and American endeavor. In the UK it was paired with a re-issue of Island of Desire with Tab Hunter and Linda Darnell, another war-centric movie about two people who wind up stranded on a deserted island (nope, no Gilligan or professor either). I always got Linda Darnell mixed up with Nanni Darnell, who was my first crush. I was six and she co-starred in 1960s television’s The Magic Land of Allakazam with Mark Wilson. I definitely would never confuse her with Anna Ralli. (One thing to note. I think the interior pages of this pressbook were pinkish in color, to balance with the cover. I changed the images to show a white page color to enhance readability.)
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Columbia’s Jack Holt was a popular actor for the studio, who played under his own name. After an argument with Harry Cohn, the studio head, he was relegated to doing a serial: it turned out to be one of Columbia’s top money-makers and with the same film crew, also was a solid actioner that played as well for adults as it did the kids. Columbia had a habit of mistreating their top grossers: The Three Stooges, a case in point. While they were paid peanuts, Columbia went to the bank smiling off of their short comedies. Unfortunately for Cohn, Holt left Columbia with a smile after the serial was completed so there wasn’t a sequel. In Gripping Chapters, The Sound Movie Serial, author Ron Backer gives the record for cliffovers (the end of a serial chapter where our hero takes a sudden precipitous descent) to Holt of the Secret Service. “…who went over a waterfall in an open canoe, rolled off a high cliff in a fight and appeared to go over a cliff in a car, not to mention two falls in a ship and one fall climbing a ladder on a high building.”
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In My Favorite Brunette (El Gran Detective), Bob Hope plays a baby-photographer who dreams of being like Alan Ladd, who happens to be the detective next door. Hope gets his wish and mayhem ensues, with Peter Lorre and Lon Chaney Jr. added for menacing atmosphere. Bosley Crowther, the New York Times executioner–er, critic–actually liked this one. And hell wasn’t frozen over either. The last time I caught this movie was on a black and white tv. It’s a lot of fun and filled with typical Bob Hope tics and antics. This simple Mexican lobby card plays up the draw for this movie: Bob Hope and Dorothy Lamour.
Not to be confused with 1950’s Una Hora de Vida, this Mexican lobby card is for Tokyo Joe with Humphrey Bogart. His shirt is unbuttoned and his gun is ready for action in this small but intriguing movie entry. Bogart could play the super tough guy like Sam Spade or the everyman–or average Joe–depending on the script. This movie was the first to be filmed in post-war Japan (ah, those wonderful TCM notes), and the second unit director, Arthur Black, had quite a time of it on location. Between a week’s rain delaying shooting and the army supplying a different “Bogart” every day, he had to make due as best he could. Sessue Hayakawa’s return to the screen had him as the menacing villain.
It Came From Hollywood sends along this six page AIP pressbook for the science fiction movie, Unearthly Stranger. Scientist marries a woman who may (okay, she is, but the characters don’t know it yet) be an alien from outer space to stop his research. From that simple premise, the movie works well within its budget and with solid acting and dialog, you can’t go wrong. While the Publicity page in the pressbook is on the skimpy side, you will notice, like in other pressbooks of this period, the actress is shown in something skimpy too. In fact, many pressbooks going back decades would always highlight the female leads within the contexts of beauty, glamour, and fashion. The guys, of course, maybe got a watch, shirt or luggage tie-in.
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If you liked the original Star Trek episode The Galileo Seven, you can thank Five Came Back as the source (as noted in https://reactormag.com/star-trek-the-original-series-rewatch-the-galileo-seven/). This B movie presaged the disaster movies to follow as a group of airplane passengers are forced down into the Amazon Jungle. And what a group: Lucille Ball, Chester Morris, John Carradine, Aubrey Smith, Patric Knowles, Allen Jenkins, Wendy Barrie, and more. This pressbook belies the B movie status, as did the box office as the movie was a 1939 success. There is an inset herald (meaning it’s glued into the pressbook), Little Life Stories of the players, and lots of promotional ideas and articles. TCM’s article on the movie notes that Lucille Ball had a rough time of it during shooting. Between clashes with the director, Chester Morris’s unwanted advances, and two black spiders crawling onto her hair from one of the imported trees on set, she, at least, had the last laugh: critics singled out her performance. Even the New York Times liked the movie! What really grabbed me while watching it was the dialog and good use of a cheap budget. Click each image to enlarge, but due to WordPress’s automatic and asinine scaling of my images, I’ve included a download with larger images. Five Came Back Pressbook
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I vaguely remember watching this two-episodes (1966) Tarzan story on television when it originally aired. This pressbook is for the movie that was made combining the two episodes (sans all those commercials of course). It was released in the U.S., then UK, Italy, Greece, Yugoslavia, Brazil, Denmark, France, and Finland, to give you an idea how just two episodes from a television series can generate more residual money, though I don’t think Ron Ely saw much of it. He was a perfect fit in Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze, but that film was near unwatchable due to a bizarre and failed attempt at camp humor, a too-low budget, and poorly directed acting; dealing the pulp superhero, who preceded Superman, a bum deal. Ironically, with a finer touch and adult but smart script, Pal would have neatly presaged Raiders of the Lost Ark. Numerous attempts to reignite a Doc Savage movie have occurred over the years, with names like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Dwayne ‘the Rock’ Johnson associated with playing the lead. (Pressbook courtesy of It Came From Hollywood.)
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Do to an issue with Google still showing my older posts after I removed my typepad blog, I will be reposting some posts through wordpress to kick the search engine in the ass a bit.
Zombos Says: Very Good
“More hot chocolate please,” I said to Chef Machiavelli.
He put down the large and very sharp looking knife he was using to fillet the eel for his incredible eel livornese and refilled my cup. His hot chocolate is exquisite; filled with little lumps of white vanilla, a little anisette, and lots of dark, sweet
chocolate. It’s the perfect warmer-upper. I was sitting in the kitchen waiting for the plumber to find the problem with our recalcitrant boiler. He was sure taking his time.
“I will take a cup, too,” said Zombos joining us to bask in the warmth coming from the brick oven. “I wonder what’s taking the plumber so long.”
“You did give him the map?” I asked.
“Yes, of course. I do not want to lose another plumber down there. They are skittish as it is. Lucky for us this fellow is new.” He sipped his hot chocolate.
It was so hard trying to get plumbers to come out to the mansion; even harder keeping them once they saw our basement. The labyrinthine passages and rooms below us would give even Erik, the poor suffering Phantom of the Paris Opera, a run for his money.
While we waited, I looked at the long, gleaming knife Chef Machiavelli was using. I found it fascinating that a sharp implement can slice through atoms and molecules, severing their tenuous connections so easily—and the whole concept of self-sharpening was beyond me.
“How is the time doing?” asked Zombos.
We looked at our watches.
“Merda!” cursed Chef Machiavelli. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his eel-skin wallet. He handed Zombos five dollars.
“I’m still good,” I said as Zombos tucked the fiver into his shirt pocket with a grin.
“We will see about that,” he said.
We had placed bets on when the plumber would be done and Chef Machiavelli’s chosen time had passed. I was still on target, though. I crossed my fingers. I really hate losing a bet to Zombos: he was rich enough.
“This wagering reminds me of that horror movie, Castle of Blood, where the journalist bets he can stay in a haunted castle for the night,” I said.
“I remember that movie.” Zombos sipped his hot chocolate. “Barbara Steele is in it.”
“Yes, and gamboling fog as the journalist enters the Poor Devil Inn—how apropos,” I continued. “When he comes upon the table where Edgar Allan Poe (Silvano Tranquilli) and the owner of the haunted castle are discussing the reality of the supernatural, he can’t help but listen and take the wager of staying overnight in that place where no one has survived the stay. Soon they’re off to the castle and the journalist’s misadventure with the undead begins.”
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On a recent visit to Professor Kinema‘s archives, I pulled out a folder labelled ‘Harry Thomas’. We tend to love the monsters makeup and special effects artists make, but forget to show the love for the artists just as much. So here’s the Prof’s photos and an interview excerpt (the first three pages) from Filmfax magazine (issue 21) with Harry Thomas. Any monsterkid will recognize the movies that Thomas worked on, which include Superman vs the Mole Men, Cat-Women of the Moon, Killers from Space, The Little Shop of Horrors, and the list goes on. Head over to the Movie Monster Museum ( https://moviemonstermuseum.com/harry_thomas_web_page.htm) to learn more about him.
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Another AIP pressbook courtesy of It Came From Hollywood, The Mind Benders was released on a double-bill with Operation Bikini. The movie fit the 1960s zeitgeist with elements of the Soviet Union, brainwashing, sensory deprivation, and spy secrets. TV Guide‘s review, dated 2014 (cited in Wikipedia’s article) noted: “a strange movie that leaves a deeper impression than one might expect due to the originality of the plot and the tense direction. It is the direct predecessor of Altered States.” On the seat-selling slants page they recommend suspending a mannequin from the theater marquee, dressed in a scuba diver’s outfit. Ah, the fun creative days of movie promotion without memes and social machines.
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