WEBVTT - Weirdhouse Cinema: Zaat 0:00:03.040 --> 0:00:10.080 Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:13.080 --> 0:00:16.560 Hey, welcome to Weird House Cinema. This is Rob Lamb. 0:00:16.640 --> 0:00:19.360 And I'm Jill McCormick, and I regret to inform you 0:00:19.440 --> 0:00:21.599 right at the start here that the Weird House Cinema 0:00:21.640 --> 0:00:24.360 tour bus has broken down in Florida, so we are 0:00:24.480 --> 0:00:27.160 still stuck in the Sunshine State. 0:00:27.640 --> 0:00:30.760 That's right. We're continuing our look at Florida movies from 0:00:30.800 --> 0:00:34.920 the nineteen seventies, movies filmed in Florida, and certainly in 0:00:34.920 --> 0:00:38.600 the case of today's film, and also nineteen seventy two's Frogs, 0:00:38.640 --> 0:00:42.519 which we covered previously set in Florida as well. They 0:00:42.560 --> 0:00:47.440 capture a certain Florida nis, both real and imagined. And 0:00:47.520 --> 0:00:50.160 this week we're going to look at the Florida movie 0:00:50.200 --> 0:00:54.720 par excellence, nineteen seventy one's zat You might know it 0:00:54.760 --> 0:00:57.760 as the Blood Waters of Doctor Z. Some of you 0:00:57.880 --> 0:01:00.680 might even know it as Hydra Sickly, as we'll get 0:01:00.680 --> 0:01:03.240 into it had a number of various releases over the 0:01:03.280 --> 0:01:06.800 years under different titles, but for the most part, the 0:01:06.800 --> 0:01:09.640 one that's stuck is zat Z a a. 0:01:09.840 --> 0:01:14.280 T This movie has some thematic overlap with other movies 0:01:14.319 --> 0:01:17.520 that we've looked at, including sort of like Nature strikes 0:01:17.560 --> 0:01:20.160 Back movies, though this is not exactly Nature strikes Back. 0:01:20.240 --> 0:01:23.120 This is more of a This is more of a 0:01:23.200 --> 0:01:27.480 sort of cheap body horror, mad science movie with some 0:01:27.640 --> 0:01:32.319 ecological themes to it, rather than just like animals attacking 0:01:32.840 --> 0:01:34.320 for revenge on humankind. 0:01:34.920 --> 0:01:37.360 Yeah, it's I guess at heart, it's a creature feature, 0:01:37.880 --> 0:01:40.560 but like like a lot of films that you encounter 0:01:40.720 --> 0:01:45.000 like this certain like like the first big independent efforts 0:01:45.040 --> 0:01:46.720 from from the filmmakers. 0:01:47.560 --> 0:01:47.960 It. 0:01:47.960 --> 0:01:49.720 It tries to do a lot of things, so it's 0:01:49.840 --> 0:01:52.600 it's it's a creature feature, but it's also like a 0:01:52.960 --> 0:01:58.000 science team adventure. It's also you know, it also tries 0:01:58.040 --> 0:02:00.960 to be in the heat of the night a little bit. 0:02:01.120 --> 0:02:05.160 It also has this Nature strikes Back element to it. 0:02:05.160 --> 0:02:08.959 It's also a kind of a hippie folk musical, so 0:02:09.000 --> 0:02:13.920 it kind of bats itself around a lot, and depending 0:02:13.919 --> 0:02:16.079 on where you are in the film, you might get 0:02:16.120 --> 0:02:20.440 something that is tonally different from another portion of the film. 0:02:20.720 --> 0:02:23.760 It also has a little bit of overlap with Boggy 0:02:23.840 --> 0:02:26.600 Creek two and the legend continues. We can talk about 0:02:26.600 --> 0:02:29.560 some of the similarities as we go on, but I 0:02:29.600 --> 0:02:34.560 appreciated the similar pompous voiceover narration, though in this case 0:02:34.600 --> 0:02:38.960 it is the voiceover of a of a crazed, spurned 0:02:39.040 --> 0:02:41.880 scientist who wants revenge on the world, whereas in Boggie 0:02:41.919 --> 0:02:45.200 Creek two it's just a kind of I don't know, 0:02:45.480 --> 0:02:48.280 like the town smart guy who wants to show off 0:02:48.280 --> 0:02:49.639 all his knowledge about the river. 0:02:50.639 --> 0:02:51.960 Yeah. Yeah. 0:02:52.440 --> 0:02:56.440 The voiceover narration in this is is sardonic to the max. 0:02:56.840 --> 0:02:59.880 Like if you took Vincent Price's voice and you were 0:03:00.120 --> 0:03:02.959 douced it overheat for a little bit until it was 0:03:03.360 --> 0:03:07.280 it was just extra icky and gooky. That's what you'd 0:03:07.280 --> 0:03:09.120 have in The Blood Waters of Doctor Z. 0:03:09.520 --> 0:03:12.000 The voiceover narration whar's joker makeup? 0:03:12.360 --> 0:03:14.040 Yeah? 0:03:14.160 --> 0:03:18.040 Now, if you mentioned Boggy Creeker earlier. And I think 0:03:18.040 --> 0:03:20.240 this is a good point to mention that this film 0:03:20.400 --> 0:03:24.320 was riffed in a nineteen ninety nine episode of Mystery 0:03:24.360 --> 0:03:27.280 Science Theater three thousand under the title the Bloodwaters of 0:03:27.320 --> 0:03:29.720 Doctor Z. And if you're like me, that might be 0:03:29.800 --> 0:03:35.080 where you discovered the film. And that's a great MST episode. 0:03:35.120 --> 0:03:38.800 Don't want to take anything away from that, but as 0:03:38.840 --> 0:03:41.440 I would watch and rewatch that episode, I found that, 0:03:42.160 --> 0:03:44.720 like a lot of MST episodes that really called me, 0:03:44.760 --> 0:03:47.640 there was something in the underlying film. There was an 0:03:47.720 --> 0:03:50.760 awkwardness to it, a kind of loneliness to it, and 0:03:50.800 --> 0:03:54.040 I've also grown to really appreciate the flora theness of 0:03:54.080 --> 0:03:57.880 it as well. So for this episode of Weird House Cinema, 0:03:57.880 --> 0:04:01.120 this was the first time I watched an unriffed version 0:04:01.640 --> 0:04:06.680 of ZA, which rented from Atlanta's Videodrome Video rental store. 0:04:07.040 --> 0:04:09.560 And you know, ultimately I encourage fans of the MST 0:04:09.720 --> 0:04:11.920 episode to do the same because, like a lot of 0:04:12.080 --> 0:04:15.080 MST films, it was really edited, really cut down for time, 0:04:15.800 --> 0:04:18.040 and so there's there's a lot of stuff that you're 0:04:18.080 --> 0:04:21.960 missing out on, some really wonky and at times grotesque 0:04:22.200 --> 0:04:26.400 details and sometimes just ludicrous additions to the film. 0:04:26.800 --> 0:04:29.240 This is not of the attack of the Crab Monster's 0:04:29.279 --> 0:04:32.479 School of Creature feature run time. You know, it's not 0:04:32.600 --> 0:04:35.240 your sixty three minute abs. This one, I think is 0:04:35.640 --> 0:04:38.440 oh god, it's actually getting close to two full hours, 0:04:38.480 --> 0:04:38.840 isn't it. 0:04:39.000 --> 0:04:41.440 Yeah, I think it's the it's one hundred minutes long, 0:04:41.760 --> 0:04:46.400 it's a it's it's plus sized, this one. So you can. 0:04:47.000 --> 0:04:48.520 You have to set us out a little bit of 0:04:48.560 --> 0:04:51.400 time for it. And again, the pacing is is at 0:04:51.400 --> 0:04:56.720 times kind of weird but also hypnotic quelutic at times. 0:04:57.040 --> 0:04:57.880 Uh huh. 0:04:57.960 --> 0:05:00.560 Now we mentioned the MST episode. I think a lot 0:05:00.600 --> 0:05:03.479 of people did discover it through that, but the film 0:05:03.520 --> 0:05:06.719 has had a cult following outside of MST as well, 0:05:07.000 --> 0:05:11.560 despite only having a limited release in Jacksonville, Florida and 0:05:11.640 --> 0:05:14.479 New York's forty second Street back in nineteen seventy two. 0:05:16.920 --> 0:05:19.159 You had the version we watched. It begins with a 0:05:19.200 --> 0:05:22.040 statement from the director where he's like people were coming 0:05:22.120 --> 0:05:24.600 up to be in saying don don You've got to 0:05:24.640 --> 0:05:25.839 release this movie. 0:05:26.080 --> 0:05:31.279 Yes, so yeah, I think people really wanted some sort 0:05:31.279 --> 0:05:34.080 of a release for a long time, and luckily in 0:05:34.160 --> 0:05:39.039 recent years it has been available. But yeah, this film, 0:05:39.080 --> 0:05:43.680 like The Scorpion Fish and the Sargassum Fish, is it's 0:05:43.720 --> 0:05:46.280 been patient. It knew that it would one day conquer 0:05:46.320 --> 0:05:50.520 the universe. And it has its super fans, one of 0:05:50.560 --> 0:05:54.919 which is the Atlanta artist and Jacksonville native our Land, 0:05:55.120 --> 0:05:57.800 who I know we're both fans of. Have you seen 0:05:57.800 --> 0:06:00.680 any of our Lands zat pieces, Joe, Oh. 0:06:00.560 --> 0:06:02.599 I don't know I've seen a lot of his stuff 0:06:02.640 --> 0:06:04.960 around town, a lot of you know, restaurants and coffee 0:06:04.960 --> 0:06:07.320 shops and stuff. We'll have our land pieces up on 0:06:07.360 --> 0:06:09.480 the walls. I think some of his work also, though 0:06:09.520 --> 0:06:11.839 I don't quite recall how, was featured in some adult 0:06:11.880 --> 0:06:14.320 swim shows. I could be wrong about that, but no, 0:06:14.480 --> 0:06:17.279 I don't know which the z That ones are. I know 0:06:17.360 --> 0:06:20.159 his piece that's like the divers with the spear guns. 0:06:20.279 --> 0:06:21.360 Is that z related? 0:06:22.200 --> 0:06:24.480 That one might not be. I mean, he's he works 0:06:24.520 --> 0:06:27.239 Florida into a lot of his pieces, but he did. 0:06:28.240 --> 0:06:30.560 He did create a number of art pieces that actually 0:06:30.600 --> 0:06:34.320 feature Zat. He did a show as part of a 0:06:34.360 --> 0:06:36.320 two thousand and nine screening of the film at the 0:06:36.320 --> 0:06:39.080 Plaza here in Atlanta, and at least some of the 0:06:39.120 --> 0:06:42.240 pieces I assume from that show were they used to 0:06:42.320 --> 0:06:45.960 hang out over at Joe's Coffee in East Atlanta, and 0:06:45.960 --> 0:06:47.880 I would go there and bring my laptop and work, 0:06:48.240 --> 0:06:50.400 and I don't know, there may still be some pieces there. 0:06:50.400 --> 0:06:52.640 I haven't been there in a spell, but there, you know, 0:06:53.120 --> 0:06:57.600 images of Zad and he had some spin offs over 0:06:57.640 --> 0:06:59.120 the years as well, like there was one that was 0:06:59.160 --> 0:07:02.960 like a real estate that says Za did it again, 0:07:03.279 --> 0:07:06.680 and then he recently did one at least online. That 0:07:06.839 --> 0:07:08.920 was a satur Day thing. 0:07:09.040 --> 0:07:11.480 It was pretty amusing, very nice. 0:07:11.560 --> 0:07:14.800 But yeah, he's apparently a Zat megafan, and you know 0:07:14.840 --> 0:07:17.080 a lot of people like him out there, you know 0:07:17.120 --> 0:07:19.720 where you see this maybe when you were younger, and 0:07:19.800 --> 0:07:23.080 something about about it sticks into your brain and you 0:07:23.120 --> 0:07:24.640 can't quite get it out. 0:07:24.800 --> 0:07:26.200 All right, what's the elevator pitch? 0:07:26.240 --> 0:07:30.160 On this film, a lonely mad scientist in Florida hatches 0:07:30.160 --> 0:07:33.640 a plan to raise an army of giant walking catfish 0:07:33.680 --> 0:07:37.760 and avenge himself over his colleagues, and also conquer the planet, 0:07:37.920 --> 0:07:42.800 perhaps the universe, and we're left to follow him and 0:07:42.880 --> 0:07:43.920 see how it works out. 0:07:44.240 --> 0:07:45.440 Let's hear that trailer. 0:07:45.120 --> 0:07:54.360 Audio and now coming to this theater. One of the 0:07:54.360 --> 0:08:03.760 most incredible stories of modern time, Zat Invasion of the 0:08:03.800 --> 0:08:11.760 Walking Catfish. A crazed scientist, doctor Leopald is convinced he 0:08:11.800 --> 0:08:18.600 can turn humans into fish. He proves it by transforming 0:08:18.680 --> 0:08:31.040 himself into a horrible, revengeful killer fish. Za tells it all. 0:08:33.320 --> 0:08:41.359 You won't want to miss Zat Positively no one admitted 0:08:41.880 --> 0:08:45.120 during the last fifteen minutes. 0:08:52.360 --> 0:08:54.920 Okay, now, you would not have expected a movie like 0:08:54.960 --> 0:08:58.400 this to have major folk music themes. And I don't 0:08:58.440 --> 0:09:00.800 know if the trailer audio we just had the folk 0:09:00.920 --> 0:09:04.160 music in it. If not, maybe we should insert a 0:09:04.160 --> 0:09:06.280 clip right here, just because like you've got to have 0:09:06.360 --> 0:09:08.959 this in your head to understand everything that comes after. 0:09:09.280 --> 0:09:10.880 Oh yeah, I mean, we can go straight to the 0:09:10.960 --> 0:09:15.200 music here if you like this. What we're about to 0:09:15.320 --> 0:09:20.080 hear is is a bit from a song titled World 0:09:20.120 --> 0:09:23.800 War two Boy, which is a very strange, strange title. 0:09:24.480 --> 0:09:29.280 But this is from Barry Hodgen and Jamie Defrates. They 0:09:29.280 --> 0:09:32.320 were the composers, and this is Jamie Defrates performing the 0:09:32.360 --> 0:09:45.360 song give Us all Right. That's just a clip, but 0:09:45.480 --> 0:09:48.560 this song is performed in its entirety at the top 0:09:48.600 --> 0:09:52.480 of the film and it's and I actually love it. 0:09:52.559 --> 0:09:55.440 I listened to this song quite a bit, especially in 0:09:55.440 --> 0:09:57.520 the last couple of weeks leading up to this episode, 0:09:57.880 --> 0:10:00.040 because you can you can find this on Spotify and 0:10:00.080 --> 0:10:03.120 various other streaming places. If you just look up Zat 0:10:03.160 --> 0:10:07.280 Songs or Jamie Defrats, you will find it. There's a 0:10:07.320 --> 0:10:09.160 B side, and we'll get to the B side track 0:10:09.240 --> 0:10:12.040 in a bit. But these tracks are featured in the 0:10:12.080 --> 0:10:14.120 film in full no cuts. 0:10:14.440 --> 0:10:17.360 Yeah, so it's almost it's almost a rock opera. I 0:10:17.440 --> 0:10:20.040 mean not quite, only a couple of songs in the movie, 0:10:20.080 --> 0:10:21.720 but like it has musical numbers. 0:10:22.280 --> 0:10:25.280 Yeah, And I have to say, I mean we'll get 0:10:25.280 --> 0:10:26.720 into this a little bit when we start rolling through 0:10:26.720 --> 0:10:30.520 the plot. But yeah, the music. Music always elevates the film. 0:10:30.520 --> 0:10:34.559 If you have quality music, it can really create dimensions 0:10:35.000 --> 0:10:38.600 that would not be there otherwise. And I legitimately think 0:10:38.640 --> 0:10:41.240 that the music and Za, both the folk music and 0:10:41.280 --> 0:10:43.160 some of the other music will get to does a 0:10:43.200 --> 0:10:46.880 great job of that. Like it takes this this sort 0:10:46.920 --> 0:10:53.280 of awkward, fumbling creature feature and elevates it to this 0:10:53.400 --> 0:10:56.800 level where it does legitimately get caught up in your brain. 0:10:57.000 --> 0:10:59.040 Do you ever hear that story? It was by somebody 0:10:59.040 --> 0:11:02.360 who worked on Halloween with John Carpenter. It might have 0:11:02.400 --> 0:11:04.640 been Donald Pleasance who told the story about going to 0:11:04.720 --> 0:11:08.240 see a preview screening of the movie where the music 0:11:08.320 --> 0:11:11.480 had not been added in yet and thinking like, oh no, 0:11:11.760 --> 0:11:15.920 what a disaster, like I'm so embarrassed, and then seeing 0:11:15.920 --> 0:11:19.040 another cut later when the music had been finished and 0:11:19.080 --> 0:11:23.080 added in, and suddenly everybody thinks this is a horror masterpiece. 0:11:23.520 --> 0:11:28.360 Yeah, yeah, I mean it really does. It can really 0:11:28.440 --> 0:11:32.040 elevate things to new levels. Though shocking that Donald Pleasance 0:11:32.040 --> 0:11:35.000 would find embarrassment in a film at that stage of 0:11:35.040 --> 0:11:36.840 his career, because it's not like this would have been 0:11:36.920 --> 0:11:40.319 the first the first bad movie he was in. 0:11:40.720 --> 0:11:43.040 This come before or after Puma Man. 0:11:43.440 --> 0:11:45.600 Oh, I don't recall. 0:11:45.720 --> 0:11:49.560 Oh, but either way, there were definitely some Puma Man's 0:11:49.600 --> 0:11:52.800 in there before Halloween. All right, Well, we'll come back 0:11:52.800 --> 0:11:55.600 to more about the music in a bit, but let's 0:11:55.640 --> 0:11:58.480 start with the screenwriter, or one of the screenwriters and 0:11:58.520 --> 0:12:02.680 the director, Don bart who lived nineteen thirty through twenty thirteen, 0:12:03.320 --> 0:12:07.319 so he was very much alive to see the renaissance 0:12:07.360 --> 0:12:11.400 of ZA, the resurgence of ZA, and in fact, the 0:12:11.480 --> 0:12:16.400 disc that we watched featured introductory commentary by Don Barton 0:12:16.520 --> 0:12:19.040 thanking everyone for their support of the creature. 0:12:19.080 --> 0:12:19.280 Here. 0:12:19.760 --> 0:12:21.640 Yeah, yeah, he shows up right at the top of 0:12:21.679 --> 0:12:23.520 the film. And I should point out this disc it 0:12:23.640 --> 0:12:25.440 like it's one of those that doesn't even have a 0:12:25.520 --> 0:12:28.200 menu in it. You just put it in and it 0:12:28.320 --> 0:12:31.960 just plays. The only option is play. But it starts 0:12:32.000 --> 0:12:36.520 with him talking and Don Barton says in nineteen seventy one, 0:12:36.679 --> 0:12:40.320 my film production company in Jacksonville, Florida, decided that the 0:12:40.400 --> 0:12:43.560 time was right to make a feature film, meaning this 0:12:43.720 --> 0:12:46.200 was his first feature film. He'd only done one other 0:12:46.280 --> 0:12:48.200 movie before this, which we'll talk about in the second 0:12:48.200 --> 0:12:51.040 which was a short film. But he says he sat 0:12:51.080 --> 0:12:54.560 down with his staff to discuss ideas quote, and we 0:12:54.640 --> 0:12:57.920 decided that our first motion picture should be a creature feature. 0:12:58.920 --> 0:13:01.520 So this turned in to an idea I think talking 0:13:01.520 --> 0:13:04.800 with some writers and associates of his about a man 0:13:04.960 --> 0:13:09.360 catfish creature that terrorizes a small town in his quest 0:13:09.400 --> 0:13:13.040 for revenge. And then Don Barton says that the initial 0:13:13.120 --> 0:13:17.080 theatrical release was very promising. He doesn't elaborate on what 0:13:17.200 --> 0:13:22.000 exactly that means, but he says that due to unspecified mishaps, 0:13:22.360 --> 0:13:25.560 the film had been unavailable for like thirty years at 0:13:25.600 --> 0:13:28.040 the time that it was re released. Though I wonder, 0:13:28.080 --> 0:13:29.760 I mean, there must have been some way people got it, 0:13:29.760 --> 0:13:32.480 because they must have gotten a tape of it for 0:13:32.640 --> 0:13:34.480 Mystery science theater. I'm not sure what. 0:13:35.080 --> 0:13:37.440 Yeah, though I think even that there were some issues 0:13:37.800 --> 0:13:40.240 if I am to understand correctly, like there was there 0:13:40.280 --> 0:13:42.959 was a situation where a Sci Fi Channel I think 0:13:42.960 --> 0:13:46.000 at the time aired it, and then Barton's people got 0:13:46.000 --> 0:13:47.720 in touch with them and there was some back and 0:13:47.760 --> 0:13:50.440 forth about like the rights, but it eventually got worked out. 0:13:50.679 --> 0:13:54.120 Okay, that makes sense. But man, when I was watching 0:13:54.160 --> 0:13:57.440 this preamble by Don Barton at the beginning of the movie, 0:13:57.800 --> 0:14:01.000 I kept thinking, who does this guy remind me of 0:14:01.040 --> 0:14:03.720 his Something about his voice and the way he talks, 0:14:04.240 --> 0:14:07.400 And then I realized, he reminds me of the TV 0:14:07.640 --> 0:14:10.720 news host Bill Moyers, who used to do like I 0:14:10.720 --> 0:14:14.480 think he worked for uh, he did his specials for PBS, 0:14:14.520 --> 0:14:16.720 and then I think he worked for CBS for a while. 0:14:17.760 --> 0:14:20.200 But so like I got that feeling like, oh no, 0:14:20.400 --> 0:14:23.640 this is like Bill Moyer's introducing a PBS special on 0:14:23.840 --> 0:14:26.960 ZA that's going to feature interviews with Joseph Campbell. 0:14:29.640 --> 0:14:31.080 Yeah, it does have that kind of vibe. 0:14:31.440 --> 0:14:35.000 Now, Yeah, we mentioned Jacksonville already and we will mention 0:14:35.120 --> 0:14:38.440 Jacksonville some more. Bart Barton was Jacksonville based. He was 0:14:38.440 --> 0:14:42.240 a producer and director. This was his second and last 0:14:42.880 --> 0:14:46.400 directorial credit, following nineteen sixty nine's They're Out to Get You. 0:14:46.760 --> 0:14:48.720 But he was apparently involved throughout his life in the 0:14:48.760 --> 0:14:52.640 Florida film industry, having co founded the Florida Motion Picture 0:14:52.640 --> 0:14:57.720 and Television Production Association, and he also produced documentaries, training films, 0:14:57.960 --> 0:14:59.440 TV commercials, et cetera. 0:15:00.080 --> 0:15:02.920 And this is actually more the genre that They're out 0:15:02.920 --> 0:15:04.760 to Get You was, so they're out to get you. 0:15:04.800 --> 0:15:07.000 I was really looking for an online copy of it 0:15:07.040 --> 0:15:10.040 and I couldn't find anything. But if somebody out there 0:15:10.080 --> 0:15:14.160 has better sleuthing capabilities, please send this our way. This 0:15:14.200 --> 0:15:16.520 is not an entertainment film. They're out to Get You 0:15:16.560 --> 0:15:20.640 from nineteen sixty nine is an educational short that I 0:15:20.640 --> 0:15:24.560 think was supposed to be shown to retail employees. So 0:15:24.600 --> 0:15:28.400 it's like one of those harassment or ethics training video 0:15:28.520 --> 0:15:30.920 workplace videos they show you on the first day at 0:15:30.960 --> 0:15:35.280 a new job, except it is about shoplifting, and the 0:15:35.360 --> 0:15:38.520 plot of it is that there's this young criminal, or 0:15:38.520 --> 0:15:40.440 at least this is the alleged plot. I had to 0:15:40.440 --> 0:15:43.840 find a summary. Somebody wrote online there's a young criminal 0:15:43.960 --> 0:15:48.040 named Tony Alto who steals cars for a living, and 0:15:48.120 --> 0:15:50.960 he gets caught and sent to prison, and in prison, 0:15:51.240 --> 0:15:54.280 his cellmate turns out to be this I don't know, 0:15:54.520 --> 0:15:57.120 this smooth guy who's going to tell him no no, 0:15:57.120 --> 0:15:59.560 no stealing cars. You're doing it all wrong. Here's what's 0:15:59.640 --> 0:16:03.640 up shoplifting, and he explains to him why shoplifting is 0:16:03.680 --> 0:16:07.120 a much better way to make a living by stealing. 0:16:07.440 --> 0:16:09.200 And so as you go through the narrative, I think 0:16:09.400 --> 0:16:12.440 it shows the tricks that shoplifters could be using in 0:16:12.560 --> 0:16:16.320 your store, or your store or yours. 0:16:18.480 --> 0:16:20.440 So it also sounds like it's just in general, a 0:16:20.520 --> 0:16:24.440 shoplifting training video. Yes, for either side of the equation. 0:16:24.840 --> 0:16:27.440 Well, it's kind of like how Dare was supposed to 0:16:27.440 --> 0:16:29.840 scare kids away from doing drugs, but instead it was 0:16:29.920 --> 0:16:31.360 just kind of like, here are all the different kinds 0:16:31.400 --> 0:16:32.280 of drugs you could do. 0:16:34.320 --> 0:16:37.520 All right, Well, let's talk very briefly about the additional 0:16:37.520 --> 0:16:42.360 story credits ron Kivitt and Arnold Stevens and also Lee 0:16:42.680 --> 0:16:48.000 O LaRue. Not much to report here, though. Ron Kivitt 0:16:48.000 --> 0:16:51.560 was apparently an investigator on History Channels ancient aliens at 0:16:51.560 --> 0:16:55.720 one point. So what was he investigating aliens? I guess 0:16:55.800 --> 0:17:00.840 or pyramids? You know, one of the two. Probably that's 0:17:01.240 --> 0:17:03.560 the main creative force behind the picture that we're going 0:17:03.600 --> 0:17:05.480 to discuss here. At the top, it's time to get 0:17:05.480 --> 0:17:11.199 into the cast and the film is initially concerned with 0:17:11.320 --> 0:17:14.720 only one human being and devotes a good twenty something 0:17:14.840 --> 0:17:19.680 minutes to just him, and that is our signature character, 0:17:19.800 --> 0:17:25.040 our main character, doctor Kurt Leopold, played by Marshall Grower. 0:17:25.600 --> 0:17:28.200 Now this is his one and only film role, and 0:17:28.240 --> 0:17:31.159 for a long time I assumed that he only did 0:17:31.200 --> 0:17:34.159 the physical performance that we're seeing. Marshall Grower and somebody 0:17:34.160 --> 0:17:38.159 else is providing that just overly sardonic voiceover that we 0:17:38.200 --> 0:17:41.080 were talking about that again is just like Vincent Price 0:17:41.160 --> 0:17:47.080 turned up to eleven Vincent Price without any humanity left 0:17:47.080 --> 0:17:49.280 in it at all, you know, the voice of just 0:17:49.359 --> 0:17:55.920 an overacting demon. But he apparently did the narration as well. 0:17:56.920 --> 0:18:02.040 Leopold the character, the human character never speaks camera, not 0:18:02.320 --> 0:18:06.160 a single time, but we have just this voiceover at 0:18:06.280 --> 0:18:10.040 length describing what he's planning to do, what he's doing, 0:18:10.920 --> 0:18:14.480 what you know, his ultimate aspirations are. It's a lot 0:18:14.520 --> 0:18:18.600 of fun. But I would say Marshall Grower is just 0:18:18.680 --> 0:18:23.360 delightful in this film because the voiceover is just so rich, 0:18:23.400 --> 0:18:26.920 it's just so overdone. And then physically he has this 0:18:27.840 --> 0:18:33.199 weird combo of sinister awkwardness and this kind of outsider sadness, 0:18:34.000 --> 0:18:36.480 which when you throw in the sort of film quality 0:18:36.480 --> 0:18:39.680 of Zat, it feels like you're watching a window into 0:18:39.720 --> 0:18:41.040 someone's personal hell. 0:18:41.400 --> 0:18:45.560 You know, doctor Leopold is a human with the personality 0:18:45.680 --> 0:18:51.080 of a car that's having maintenance problems. He's having trouble accelerating, 0:18:51.240 --> 0:18:54.560 he's releasing dark, foul smelling exhaust like he needs to 0:18:54.600 --> 0:18:58.680 get his catalytic converter replaced. But also the thing that 0:18:59.240 --> 0:19:01.679 I realized about him, there's a scene early in the 0:19:01.720 --> 0:19:05.959 film where he's walking along a beach, but he's not 0:19:06.080 --> 0:19:08.560 dressed for the beach. He's wearing long slacks and a 0:19:08.640 --> 0:19:11.679 shirt tucked in, and his head's hanging down in this 0:19:11.760 --> 0:19:15.440 kind of like sad like puppy dog way, except he's 0:19:15.480 --> 0:19:18.320 he's a little he's more drab than a puppy dog. 0:19:19.000 --> 0:19:22.360 And you know, there's this acoustic guitar strumming in the background, 0:19:22.800 --> 0:19:26.320 and he's just this beacon of shabbiness. In some shots 0:19:26.359 --> 0:19:29.760 he's giving off strong Harry Dean Stanton fumes. 0:19:30.600 --> 0:19:33.960 Yeah, yeah, I think that's a good comparison that kind 0:19:34.000 --> 0:19:37.080 of drawn Haggard appearance. 0:19:37.200 --> 0:19:40.200 Yeah, but on the other hand, he has a haircut 0:19:40.280 --> 0:19:42.760 that doesn't quite match because I don't know how to 0:19:42.800 --> 0:19:46.399 describe as his haircut. It's very strange. It's kind of 0:19:47.240 --> 0:19:51.000 messy and moppy in the front, but also to make 0:19:51.040 --> 0:19:53.080 it weirder. So it's a haircut that I think I've 0:19:53.119 --> 0:19:56.600 basically only seen on women before. It's a cut style 0:19:56.760 --> 0:19:59.920 that kind of puffy up in the back and raises 0:20:00.160 --> 0:20:02.040 up toward the back or the crown of the head, 0:20:02.320 --> 0:20:06.320 and then goes flat down toward the front. Do you 0:20:06.600 --> 0:20:07.760 know what I'm talking about. 0:20:08.960 --> 0:20:11.400 I'm having a hard time picturing his hair in my head. 0:20:12.000 --> 0:20:16.240 All I picture is that face and then later that bod. 0:20:17.080 --> 0:20:18.000 Which we'll get too. 0:20:19.920 --> 0:20:23.040 Well. Anyway, he's a profound screen presence. 0:20:24.080 --> 0:20:27.359 IMDb does not list birth and death dates for Grower, 0:20:27.440 --> 0:20:31.119 but I was looking around and I think I found 0:20:31.200 --> 0:20:35.440 him as being listed. Is buried in a cemetery in Jacksonville, 0:20:35.480 --> 0:20:38.040 and he lived nineteen twenty two through nineteen ninety one. 0:20:38.560 --> 0:20:40.439 And if I have the right guy here, and I'm 0:20:40.440 --> 0:20:43.000 I'm pretty sure I do, he was pretty active in 0:20:43.040 --> 0:20:46.320 the Jacksonville theater so and I would not be surprised 0:20:46.359 --> 0:20:49.080 if that's where Ultimately a number of these actors come from. 0:20:49.119 --> 0:20:52.080 Actors that in many cases have no other movie credits 0:20:52.520 --> 0:20:53.200 listed to them. 0:20:53.480 --> 0:20:57.520 Thinking about this guy being active in Jacksonville theater got 0:20:57.560 --> 0:20:59.440 me off on a tangent that I actually think about 0:20:59.440 --> 0:21:03.600 a good when we're watching these B movies, especially locally 0:21:03.840 --> 0:21:08.000 produced B movies, movies that are, you know, not a 0:21:08.000 --> 0:21:10.560 product of la but you know, come out of Florida 0:21:10.680 --> 0:21:13.040 or somewhere else in the country. And it got me 0:21:13.119 --> 0:21:17.199 thinking about how acting talent translates across from stage to 0:21:17.320 --> 0:21:21.800 screen and the disconnect that can occur when somebody spans 0:21:21.840 --> 0:21:24.600 these two worlds. Because I was thinking about a story 0:21:24.600 --> 0:21:27.639 where a longtime close friend of mine, he used to 0:21:27.720 --> 0:21:31.560 do some local theater directing in Tennessee, and he was 0:21:32.000 --> 0:21:34.399 at one point directing. This was years ago, but at 0:21:34.440 --> 0:21:36.960 one point he was directing an adaptation of a Tennessee 0:21:36.960 --> 0:21:39.840 Williams play, I think, and he ended up working with 0:21:39.920 --> 0:21:43.840 this actor, who, according to him, was just magical on stage, 0:21:43.840 --> 0:21:45.800 you know, one of the best actors he had ever 0:21:45.880 --> 0:21:50.159 worked with, and was spellbinding. But we found out this 0:21:50.200 --> 0:21:52.560 guy had also been in a few movies and I 0:21:52.600 --> 0:21:54.760 don't recall the exact titles, but they were just like 0:21:55.000 --> 0:21:59.000 Z grade horror movies, you know, Chupacabra Rampage nine or 0:21:59.000 --> 0:22:03.480 something like that, And so we watched these and this 0:22:03.640 --> 0:22:07.800 amazing local theater actor was, you know, just not especially 0:22:07.840 --> 0:22:11.919 impressive in a direct video horror context. And I remember 0:22:12.000 --> 0:22:14.560 having a kind of revelation at that point that like, oh, 0:22:14.600 --> 0:22:18.399 you know, stage talent and screen talent are not always interchangeable, 0:22:18.480 --> 0:22:22.080 and context really matters. Like somebody who can be a 0:22:22.200 --> 0:22:25.200 very good actor when they've got good material to work with, 0:22:25.240 --> 0:22:27.080 Like a lot of the people who do these Z 0:22:27.240 --> 0:22:29.480 grade horror movies are probably a lot of times doing 0:22:29.760 --> 0:22:33.000 Shakespeare or something, you know, in local theater, or they're 0:22:33.119 --> 0:22:35.960 or they're they're doing Tennessee Williams plays or something like that. 0:22:36.160 --> 0:22:38.920 But then when you put them in in a catfish 0:22:39.000 --> 0:22:44.000 monster movie, the whatever talents they've developed for those other 0:22:44.760 --> 0:22:49.600 acting contexts just don't really translate. But there's a good 0:22:49.680 --> 0:22:52.880 chance in any given B movie that there are plenty 0:22:52.920 --> 0:22:55.280 of members of the cast who are no names in 0:22:55.320 --> 0:22:57.919 the film world, but they're like the best actor in 0:22:58.000 --> 0:23:00.960 their local theater group and their use to doing Shakespeare 0:23:01.040 --> 0:23:01.520