It Came From Hollywood

Well, it is summer, so here’s a double bill to splash your world: Teenage Rebellion and It’s a Bikini World. America has always been an unruly mess of generational issues, but the 1960s were as turbulent as today’s social and political morass. However, the 1960s got it right, we just didn’t listen: make love, not war. Seems we just love to make war these days. So imagine it’s a warm summer’s evening at your local, nicely air-conditioned theater. It’s the late 1960s all over again, and the double bill is something your date wanted to see, but you could take it or leave it. You really rather see Frankenstein Created Women, but at least It’s a Bikini World has Sig Haig in it, so there’s that. It also was the last gasp, pretty much, for the beach picture genre of sand, songs, and humor. That teenage rebellion had something to do with that. Now, at this point, you’re thinking why pair both movies? Easy answer: Teenage Rebellion spent much of its camera time on girls and bikini’s on girls. Get the picture? And yes, It Came From Hollywood!

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Teenage Rebellion and
It’s a Bikini World (1967) PressbookRead More »

Courtesy of It Came From Hollywood, and through the peregrinations of one Granny Creech, come these hot radio spots for movies from a time when women were eye-candy and men were drooling idiots oggling and dreaming about them as they appeared in various states of distress and undress on the silver screen (story, what story?) We’ve come a long way, baby, as Loretta Lynn sang in her song (which was based on an advertising slogan to entice women to smoke Virginia Slims and get cancer like the men: equal rights for all!) Now you can enjoy these racy radio spots in the privacy of your own computer space. Lucky you.

And now a word from Granny…

I was cleaning up the kitchen the other day after an all-nighter of cooking up some of my famous brew when I heard an awful noise coming from the front of my house.  It sounded like something was being dragged, creating a loud screeching sound. I hurried to the front door and opened it, and my eyes fell upon a creepy sight. Coming up my sidewalk were two ghastly figures, both wearing worn black suits with top hats, and dragging what appeared to be a large coffin-shaped wooden box. I approached them and asked what in the world they were doing.

“Are you Granny Creech?” the one on the left asked in a creaky old voice.

“I am. What are you two doing here?”

“My name is Paul McShroud. This is my business associate Robert O’Graves. We have something for you.”

I went and looked at the large wooden box, the top fastened to the bottom with a large rusty lock.

“What is this? What’s in it?”, I asked.

“This is a collection of a lifetime,” Mr. O’Graves said. “We need to pass all of this along and we knew it would be safe and cared for in your hands.” he added. (ZC Note: I found out later the stuff was HOT! They had to ditch it fast and Granny is such a pushover.)

Mr. McShroud reached in his pocket and pulled out an old key. He unlocked the rusty old lock and together he and Mr. O’Graves opened it. I peered in and couldn’t believe my eyes. It was full of musty old radio spots and all sorts of promotional audio material. I stood there with my mouth wide open and glanced at the two cadaverous persons in front of me. …

It Came From Hollywood Radio Spots!
It’s All About the Girls!Read More »

Directed by Edgar G. Ulmer (The Black Cat 1934, The Man From Planet X), this, little less than an hour, AIP movie may not get much love, but it is kind of fun to kill some time. IMDb listed the budget at 100 grand. It Came From Hollywood sent these pressbook scans along to help you make up your mind. Ulmer started as a set designer, and worked as an assistant director on influential German Expressionist films like F.W. Murnau’s The Last Laugh and Faust in the 1920s (cited from Britannica). He ran afoul of the studios after having an affair with the wife of someone with enough clout to get him blackballed. That moved him into B and lower-budgeted movies, which actually worked out pretty well for sci fi and noir fans. Jack Lewis, the writer, wrote screenplays for Johnny Mack Brown and other Western cowboy actors.

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The Amazing Transparent Man (1960)
PressbookRead More »

It Came From Hollywood says: “A full decade before martial arts pictures became a “thing.” I’m claiming that not only is Karate, The Hand of Death the first martial arts picture, but it also created the cinematic trope of the American guy, who is fluent in the Japanese language and culture along with being a master of martial arts, forced to clear his name of a wrong-doing he is accused of while also kicking some ass! Cannon Pictures didn’t invent this sub-genre; Joseph Brenner did, and Allied Artists released it!”

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Karate, The Hand of Death (1961) PressbookRead More »

It Came From Hollywood scours the old, crumbling, well-thumbed trade ads and showmanship pieces to bring us this wowzer for The Invisible Man with Claude Rains.