From Zombos' Closet

Home Depot Halloween 2020

Once again, Home Depot brings out the BIG Halloween novelties; the ones meant for your lawn but, damn, you wouldn't mind putting them up all year round in your home (if you had the room and a like-minded significant other, that is). Between Michaels, Home Depot, and a BIG wallet, you'd be in Halloween heaven (but possibly not your neighbors and house guests) for Halloween cheer all the year. And this year, more than previous ones, we need all the Halloween cheer we can muster.

Here are my favorite ghoulies and ghosties. I'm sure they'll be yours, too. The only people I know who would hate them are my lawn maintenance people. (Last year they mowed over a brand new haunted tree and ghosts blow-up. Let's see what mischief they can get into this year.)  The head-nodders and the singing raven are pretty nifty; just saying. And that alien is out of this world.

Michaels Halloween 2020

Michaels, once again, packs the shelves with enough spooky goodies to satisfy just about every taste. Year after year, they focus on helping you decorate the inside of your home, with Day of the Dead, vintage-styled, gothic-styled, and lots of skeleton-styled artifacts. If Indiana Jones went looking for Halloween, he'd find it here. Very crafty of them. Here are some highlights to savor as we wait for the ghouls and ghosties this challenging season.

Code of the West Pressbook (1947)

First filmed in 1925, Zane Grey's novel, Code of the West, was again filmed in 1947. Here's the two-fisted pressbook.  

ComicRack version: Download Code of the West Pressbook

Lowe's Halloween 2020

The Home Depot by me still doesn't have the Halloween decorations out, but Lowe's did. And boy, some cool looking animated goodies this year. My favorite is the spooky radio.

Cat-Women of the Moon (1953) Pressbook

The 1950s produced some very thrilling science fiction and some awful oddities. Here's one oddity: Cat-Women of the Moon. The pressbook is equally budget-conscious, but the limited color does make the beatnik-styled ladies a little more vampy. Judging by the lobby card shown below, it's a shame it wasn't shot in color. Green skin always puts the vamp in vampy, I always say. We all remember the dancing Orion slave girl in The Cage, the Star Trek pilot. Well, at least I remember it, anyway. Probably its only dubious importance, Cat-Women managed to usher in other let's-travel-to-another-planet-to-find-weird-women movies, as if there was a real audience-need for them. 

eComic reader version (I use ComicRack): Download Cat-Women of the Moon Pressbook

Halloween 2020: Michaels

Okay. Maybe I'm rushing the Halloween season along a bit too fast, but can you blame me? With the pandemic, I'll take whatever little bit of Halloween Heaven I can find as quickly as possible. I think a lot of Halloweeners are feeling the same way: both adults and kids. Will it happen, won't it happen? Boy, the Halloween Tylenol and razor in apple scares of the 1970s and 1980s was a cakewalk compared to this virus. 

Home Depot, disappointingly, didn't have anything out yet, but I swung by Michaels and...they didn't have much of anything out yet either, just the so-cute it's safe Fall decorations; you know, the scarecrows, colorful autumn leaves, and blank-faced foam pumpkins just filling store shelves while die-hards wait for the REAL deal to start with the spooky stuff. But...

Michaels did have Lemax Spooky Town starting to take shape! So here's a look at some of the newer creations for 2020. And there were Halloween trees! I don't recall seeing these before, but for the true fan of Halloween like me--if my wife would let me, but she wouldn't--there are spooky trees you can put up and decorate rather gloomily and doomsily and ghostly. If your wife or significant other would let you, of course.

Doc Savage (1975) Pressbook and Herald

It's a shame that George Pal's last movie had to be Doc Savage with Ron Ely. Ely was a good casting choice, but the movie was a misfire from script to execution. How one can take the precursor to Superman and not run with it boggles the mind. Chuck Connors was in consideration to play Doc back in 1966 and that would have been very interesting to see. Unfortunately the window of opportunity for that one passed and we have the 1975 camp abomination with the ear-slapping theme song and attrocious acting. Doc's Fabulous Five are more Shabby Handful than their portrayals in the pulps. Poor production values also pounded more nails into its cinematic coffin, a far cry from when I, along with others, enthusiastically watched the trailor at one of Phil Seuling's Comic Cons before the movie hit theaters.

Here's the pressbook and herald. I'll note the printing on this pressbook is fairly cheap, too. Both Arnold Schwarzenegger and The Rock were associated with a Doc Savage movie at some point, though nothing's come of it. Hopefully Netflix or another streaming channel will develop a series, which is the best approach, for Doc Savage, and even The Shadow: they both have a lot of stories to tell.

Comic book reader version: Download Doc Savage Pressbook

Mysterious Island (1961) Pressbook

Thanks to Terry Michitsch for again reaching into his collection and providing these wonderful scans of the American pressbook for Mysterious Island. With a rousing score by Bernard Herrmann, Herbert Lom providing the gravitas, and Ray Harryhausen's exciting stop-motion creations, this is a lively and colorful adventure.

Comic book reader version:  Download Mysterious Island Pressbook

Haunted Hollywood Series Hosted by David Del Valle

David Del Valle hosts 20 cult classic horror movies on Full Moon Streaming starting July 31st.

Up first are Horror Express, Bride of the Monster, and The Flesh Eaters. David introduces each movie, and if you know David or follow his posts on Facebook, you already know the wealth of anecdotes and personal experiences he carries with him regarding the stars who made these movies memorable for horror fans. Sometimes amusing, sometimes sad or wistful, his commentary is always fascinating and revelatory.

You can follow David Del Valle on Facebook here.

Check out Full Moon Features here.

The Invisible Boy (1957) U.S. Pressbook

Thanks to Terry Michitsch for providing these wonderful scans of the American pressbook for The Invisible Boy. You can see the UK one here.

Bill Warren gives it the respect it deserves in his Keep Watching the Skies! American Science Fiction Movies of the Fifties. Somewhat a sequel to Forbidden Planet (well, if you do a lot of stretching in regards to Robby the Robot's presence, that is), the story is geared for young boys of the 1950s (who wouldn't want a powerful robot guardian, boy or girl?). Toss in an evil-thinking super computer that wants world domination and you have a boy just wanting to have fun, but he has to save the world too, which can be such a bother. His parents are eggheads, making it a bit difficult for him (he's just an average kid), and Robby, of course, must choose to become more than the sum of his diodes too. Definitely worth a watch if you haven't seen it yet.

Read the comics reader version: Download Invisible Boy Pressbook.

The Invisible Boy (1957) Theater Herald

Here's the colorful movie herald for The Invisible Boy and an ad copy insert sheet.  They wanted to recoup some of Robby the Robot's construction costs, so they tossed him in this one, with a boy and a maniacal computer looking to dominate the world (shades of the 1970s Forbin: The Colossus Project). These wonderful scans are courtesy of Terry Michitsch.

 

 

 

King of the Wild (1931) Pressbook

Here's a pressbook for the pre-code serial, King of the Wild (for a re-release in 1945) with Boris Karloff.  I added some lobby cards too.

Comic book reader version: Download King of the Wild 1931 Pressbook

See more pressbooks from Zombos' Closet.