WEBVTT - Weirdhouse Cinema Rewind: It! The Terror from Beyond Space 0:00:04.640 --> 0:00:07.720 Hey, welcome to Weird House Cinema. Rewind. This is Rob 0:00:07.800 --> 0:00:10.879 Lamb and today we have a fun episode for you. 0:00:10.960 --> 0:00:14.840 This is our episode from seven, nineteen twenty twenty four 0:00:15.240 --> 0:00:18.279 about the nineteen fifty eight space horror film it The 0:00:18.400 --> 0:00:21.279 Terror from Beyond Space. This one's a lot of fun. 0:00:21.320 --> 0:00:25.000 It's considered one of the key influences on the nineteen 0:00:25.440 --> 0:00:28.840 seventy nine classic alien Let's jump right in. 0:00:32.640 --> 0:00:38.400 Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:42.640 --> 0:00:44.720 Hey, welcome to Weird House Cinema. 0:00:44.800 --> 0:00:47.440 This is Rob Lamb and I am Joe McCormick. 0:00:47.640 --> 0:00:50.239 And this week on Weird House Cinema, we're continuing some 0:00:50.320 --> 0:00:53.600 of our alien related explorations with a film that is 0:00:53.960 --> 0:00:57.440 frequently cited as one of the b movie influences on 0:00:57.560 --> 0:01:01.360 alienscribe Dan O'Bannon, along with the likes of Mario Bob 0:01:01.400 --> 0:01:04.440 as Planet the Vampires, which we've discussed in the show before, 0:01:04.760 --> 0:01:07.920 but this week we're talking about it The Terror from 0:01:07.959 --> 0:01:08.960 Beyond Space. 0:01:09.600 --> 0:01:11.440 If you couldn't tell from the way Rob said it, 0:01:11.440 --> 0:01:14.160 there is an exclamation point in the middle of the title. 0:01:15.880 --> 0:01:19.240 I love midline punctuation other than a colon in a 0:01:19.319 --> 0:01:21.680 title like it's this is two sentences. 0:01:22.160 --> 0:01:25.560 Yes, I think we could have fit a question mark 0:01:25.560 --> 0:01:27.800 in there as well, though, like it the Terror from 0:01:27.840 --> 0:01:29.479 beyond Space? We don't know. 0:01:29.840 --> 0:01:32.360 I really liked this movie, but I feel like the 0:01:32.400 --> 0:01:36.479 title is misleading. In what way is the Terror from 0:01:36.760 --> 0:01:40.039 beyond space? It's just like a thing somewhere out there 0:01:40.080 --> 0:01:42.400 in space. It's from another planet, a known planet. 0:01:42.440 --> 0:01:45.080 Actually, well, I guess you know, at this point, maybe 0:01:45.400 --> 0:01:47.520 people had seen enough movies where the terror is from 0:01:47.520 --> 0:01:49.840 space and they're like, well, can we get beyond that? 0:01:49.920 --> 0:01:51.240 What's the next logical step? 0:01:51.840 --> 0:01:55.040 It suggests some kind of like interdimensional love crafty and 0:01:55.160 --> 0:01:57.920 sort of origin. It's not there. This is the Terror 0:01:57.960 --> 0:01:58.640 is from Mars. 0:01:59.000 --> 0:02:02.600 Yes. I really like some of the posters for this 0:02:02.640 --> 0:02:05.840 particular movie. One of them that I pulled up and 0:02:05.880 --> 0:02:08.840 included in our notes here is the nice horizontal poster 0:02:09.440 --> 0:02:12.560 we see some version of the monster holding a woman. 0:02:12.600 --> 0:02:17.920 Of course, one of the classic staples of the old 0:02:17.960 --> 0:02:21.120 Monster movie is one that I love, and I love 0:02:21.160 --> 0:02:24.520 some of the promises on this particular poster. It says 0:02:24.560 --> 0:02:28.320 it reaches through space, it scoops up men and women, 0:02:28.680 --> 0:02:30.280 it gorges on blood. 0:02:31.360 --> 0:02:34.760 Now, is there any way to reach other than through space. 0:02:34.919 --> 0:02:37.919 I guess one could reach through time, possibly with one's 0:02:38.000 --> 0:02:39.000 mind or something. 0:02:39.400 --> 0:02:41.360 Yeah, yeah, I guess I'll reached through space. Is it's 0:02:41.480 --> 0:02:43.040 reached through time, I'm not sure. 0:02:43.320 --> 0:02:46.440 But it scoops up men and women, It scoops them. 0:02:46.919 --> 0:02:49.160 Here's the thing. It definitely scoops up men. Does it 0:02:49.200 --> 0:02:50.240 ever scoop up a woman? 0:02:50.720 --> 0:02:54.560 I don't recall it scoop It's gonna get men multiple times. 0:02:54.720 --> 0:02:57.519 Yeah, another case where the monster holding a woman is 0:02:57.520 --> 0:02:59.400 a complete lie on the poster. 0:03:00.400 --> 0:03:02.600 I was trying to think, what's the name of the 0:03:02.639 --> 0:03:04.480 wrestling move that it does with the guy where it 0:03:04.560 --> 0:03:07.919 just like fully like you know, presses a guy above 0:03:08.600 --> 0:03:09.320 above its head. 0:03:09.680 --> 0:03:12.639 That is fitting least, I believe, sometimes called a gorilla press, 0:03:13.520 --> 0:03:16.880 which is fitting because, as we'll discuss, we have a 0:03:17.000 --> 0:03:19.800 veteran gorilla suit actor playing our monster. 0:03:20.360 --> 0:03:23.680 It the Terror from Beyond Space aka Mars, has a 0:03:23.760 --> 0:03:27.240 sort of a gorilla esque silhouette, especially in some shots. 0:03:27.600 --> 0:03:30.560 Absolutely, and the silhouettes work really well. This is a 0:03:30.600 --> 0:03:33.080 movie that has a, I think, especially for the time, 0:03:33.360 --> 0:03:36.680 a pretty great monster costume. There's some flaws, as we'll discuss, 0:03:37.120 --> 0:03:40.880 that weren't necessarily within the control of the monster suit maker, 0:03:42.360 --> 0:03:46.080 but more importantly one of I mean, the most important 0:03:46.080 --> 0:03:47.920 thing about a monster suit is you've got to you 0:03:48.000 --> 0:03:49.960 got to shoot it right, you gotta light it correctly, 0:03:50.280 --> 0:03:52.280 you gotta know what to show and what not to show. 0:03:52.360 --> 0:03:55.360 And they don't do that perfectly in this film either, 0:03:55.400 --> 0:03:57.520 but there are moments where it works really well. 0:03:57.800 --> 0:04:00.760 I agree. The movie has a pretty good understanding of 0:04:00.800 --> 0:04:04.080 how to use how to use shadows, and how to 0:04:04.120 --> 0:04:07.080 obscure the monster so as to heighten the suspense, and 0:04:07.360 --> 0:04:11.040 to use what looks good about the monster performance and 0:04:11.120 --> 0:04:13.800 try to avoid what doesn't look so good about it. 0:04:14.080 --> 0:04:16.520 And in fact, you may recall the director of this movie, 0:04:16.680 --> 0:04:19.840 Edward el Kahn, also directed another movie we did on 0:04:19.880 --> 0:04:23.960 Weird House, the Creature with the Adam Brain, and that 0:04:24.760 --> 0:04:26.800 was a hoot. Of course, that one I think was 0:04:26.880 --> 0:04:30.599 much funnier than this movie. This one, I think overall 0:04:31.440 --> 0:04:34.640 works better on its own terms when taken more seriously, 0:04:35.320 --> 0:04:38.279 But in both cases the director was good at using 0:04:38.360 --> 0:04:42.240 like shadows of the creature instead of a direct shot 0:04:42.279 --> 0:04:42.880 of the creature. 0:04:43.320 --> 0:04:45.719 Yeah, yeah, it's you know, it's obviously a lower budget 0:04:45.800 --> 0:04:49.320 late fifties affair. But still it's a fun and an 0:04:49.320 --> 0:04:53.800 effective ride. Like not everything is great, but everything comes 0:04:53.839 --> 0:04:56.640 together enough that it has this kind of structural integrity, 0:04:56.680 --> 0:05:01.080 the structural completeness that is very enjoyable, especially when you 0:05:01.120 --> 0:05:04.600 consider that this film was shot in well as many 0:05:04.640 --> 0:05:07.040 as two weeks. I've seen two weeks sighted, but I've 0:05:07.040 --> 0:05:11.640 also seen six days sided as the shooting period for 0:05:11.680 --> 0:05:12.200 this picture. 0:05:12.480 --> 0:05:14.520 I think. Isn't that what John Carpenter said about it 0:05:14.560 --> 0:05:16.000 in the interview. 0:05:15.560 --> 0:05:18.839 We watched, Yeah, Carpenter in Let's see what was this? 0:05:18.960 --> 0:05:22.400 A twenty fifteen appearance on Turner Classic Movies, he says 0:05:22.440 --> 0:05:24.960 it was shot in six days, which does not seem 0:05:25.080 --> 0:05:28.799 unreasonable given what we know about the director and productions 0:05:28.800 --> 0:05:29.600 of this time period. 0:05:30.080 --> 0:05:32.360 It's a fun interview Carpenter does about the movie because 0:05:32.360 --> 0:05:35.680 he clearly has great affection for it. This is something 0:05:35.800 --> 0:05:39.080 he saw as a child and it stuck with him, 0:05:39.120 --> 0:05:42.680 Like you know, you can tell he's still even as 0:05:42.680 --> 0:05:45.160 an adult going back and watching it, sees it with 0:05:45.240 --> 0:05:49.159 a little kid brain and appreciates it in that way. 0:05:49.200 --> 0:05:52.160 And you know, that's something I always enjoy when I'm 0:05:52.200 --> 0:05:54.080 able to do it, when I'm able to like turn 0:05:54.120 --> 0:05:57.479 off adult brain and become a child again watching a 0:05:57.560 --> 0:06:01.840 movie maybe on the sillier end of the spectrum. And yeah, 0:06:02.320 --> 0:06:05.800 but he says another thing about the movie, which is that, Okay, 0:06:05.839 --> 0:06:10.240 it does have some pretty large technical flaws, and we 0:06:10.279 --> 0:06:12.080 can talk about some of those as we go on, 0:06:12.640 --> 0:06:16.920 but considering how small the budget was, how fast it 0:06:17.000 --> 0:06:21.799 was made, it's actually a pretty impressively effective picture. He says. 0:06:21.880 --> 0:06:23.919 A quote about it is something like it has a 0:06:23.960 --> 0:06:26.640 great little engine that runs it or something like that, 0:06:27.120 --> 0:06:32.680 and I totally agree. There is a strong sort of 0:06:33.400 --> 0:06:36.800 mechanical tactle feeling to the plot and a lot of 0:06:36.800 --> 0:06:38.720 the scenes, and it works really well. It just kind 0:06:38.720 --> 0:06:39.679 of pushes you through. 0:06:40.200 --> 0:06:41.800 Yeah, Yeah, it's kind of I guess it's like thinking 0:06:41.839 --> 0:06:43.440 about what is a car supposed to do? Is supposed 0:06:43.440 --> 0:06:45.279 to drive you from point A to point B. What's 0:06:45.279 --> 0:06:47.680 a movie supposed to do? Well, answer is a little 0:06:47.680 --> 0:06:50.599 more complicated, but essentially entertain us and tell us a 0:06:50.640 --> 0:06:53.280 story and allow us to be immersed in that story. 0:06:53.560 --> 0:06:55.839 And this film does all of those things. Even if 0:06:55.880 --> 0:06:57.600 you were to be picky about it, you could be like, well, 0:06:57.600 --> 0:06:59.919 look at that hubcap, look at that tail light, you know, 0:07:01.080 --> 0:07:03.080 but hey, it all comes together and you make it 0:07:03.120 --> 0:07:03.919 to your destination. 0:07:04.240 --> 0:07:06.640 Look at that whatever chin or something poking out of 0:07:06.640 --> 0:07:07.560 the monster's mouth. 0:07:08.120 --> 0:07:11.360 Yeah, and in the end too. You know, it's like, 0:07:11.400 --> 0:07:14.920 we have some some pretty pretty solid performances in here. 0:07:15.360 --> 0:07:19.640 We have some effective scenes, some that are I think 0:07:19.680 --> 0:07:21.840 actually quite scary, that still hold up and have a 0:07:21.840 --> 0:07:25.120 certain amount of tension and terror to them. Michael Weldon 0:07:25.160 --> 0:07:27.720 and the Psychotronic Film Guide praised it as a quote 0:07:27.880 --> 0:07:31.239 pretty scary space horror, and uh, you know, I think 0:07:31.560 --> 0:07:34.360 it depends what you compare it to. You know, obviously 0:07:34.600 --> 0:07:37.880 it it's a very interesting exercise to compare this to Alien, 0:07:38.840 --> 0:07:41.240 but it's also a little unfair to hold it to that, 0:07:42.480 --> 0:07:45.440 to that level, you know. But on its own terms, 0:07:45.560 --> 0:07:49.280 it has some some scares, some jump scares, some some 0:07:49.320 --> 0:07:51.680 creepy atmospheric moments. I really liked it. 0:07:51.880 --> 0:07:54.160 I agree, And I also agree that as far as 0:07:54.200 --> 0:07:57.080 the sort of set pieces, the horror set pieces go, 0:07:57.880 --> 0:08:02.200 I think O'Bannon correctly selected the best elements to lift. 0:08:02.440 --> 0:08:04.560 Like some of the best stuff in the movie is 0:08:04.640 --> 0:08:08.600 the stuff that gets copied over into the alien plot. Yeah. 0:08:08.680 --> 0:08:10.200 So we'll have more to say about all of this 0:08:10.240 --> 0:08:14.000 as we proceed, but elevator picture of this film, I 0:08:14.040 --> 0:08:16.400 think all you have to say is alien stow away. 0:08:17.000 --> 0:08:19.920 I'd add another element. I'd say there's like two parallel 0:08:20.240 --> 0:08:23.480 elevator pitches. One is Alien stow Away, the other is 0:08:23.640 --> 0:08:24.720 murder on Mars. 0:08:24.840 --> 0:08:28.560 Question monk, that's true, I would say that's the bet 0:08:28.600 --> 0:08:33.280 plot that sadly kind of gets shuffled aside. But it's 0:08:33.280 --> 0:08:36.079 a nice what if, Like what if they had really 0:08:36.080 --> 0:08:39.200 been able to deliver both in equal volumes, or if 0:08:39.200 --> 0:08:40.560 someone were to re explore. 0:08:40.200 --> 0:08:42.160 It today intriguing idea. 0:08:42.559 --> 0:08:45.320 Yeah, well, if you want to watch it the Terror 0:08:45.360 --> 0:08:47.959 from Beyond Space before proceeding here. This one is pretty 0:08:47.960 --> 0:08:52.360 widely available in digital and physical formats, including a twenty 0:08:52.440 --> 0:08:55.719 twenty three KL Studio Classics Blu ray release that has 0:08:55.720 --> 0:08:59.120 a new HD master, a FEATURETTE, and I think three 0:08:59.200 --> 0:09:01.920 different commentary tracks. I ended up not being able to 0:09:01.920 --> 0:09:03.560 pick this one up. I think they do have it 0:09:03.559 --> 0:09:06.680 at Video Drone, but I ended up watching a quality 0:09:06.720 --> 0:09:09.040 stream of that I think must be the HD master, 0:09:09.960 --> 0:09:11.640 and it looks pretty darn good. 0:09:12.120 --> 0:09:14.520 The stream I watched also looked pretty sharp. 0:09:14.920 --> 0:09:17.439 All right, let's get into the people here. So we 0:09:17.760 --> 0:09:20.400 mentioned the director already. And again we have talked about 0:09:20.400 --> 0:09:24.000 this director before because it is the One Week Wonder. 0:09:24.040 --> 0:09:26.960 It is Edward L. Cohn who lived eighteen ninety nine 0:09:27.120 --> 0:09:30.440 through nineteen sixty three, who also directed the Creature with 0:09:30.480 --> 0:09:33.080 the Adam Brain that was released in fifty five. 0:09:33.800 --> 0:09:36.200 So I've really enjoyed both of the movies of his 0:09:36.440 --> 0:09:39.520 we watched, but I recall Creature with the Adam Brain 0:09:40.280 --> 0:09:47.400 being more silly, being more very fun, but a more ludicrous, goofy, 0:09:48.000 --> 0:09:51.760 low budget monster movie, and this one being surprisingly tight 0:09:51.880 --> 0:09:52.640 by comparison. 0:09:53.120 --> 0:09:55.320 Yeah. Yeah, Creature with the Adam Brain had kind of 0:09:55.320 --> 0:09:59.400 a serial energy to it, like old old action serial 0:09:59.480 --> 0:10:02.280 kind of vibe, and this one is, you know, it's 0:10:02.400 --> 0:10:06.160 very identifiable as as space horror proto space horror in 0:10:06.160 --> 0:10:08.040 many ways, and you can you can see why it 0:10:08.080 --> 0:10:08.920 was such an influence. 0:10:09.240 --> 0:10:12.199 Creature with the Adam Brain was the movie that had 0:10:12.240 --> 0:10:14.720 the news broadcasts by Dick Cutting. 0:10:15.040 --> 0:10:16.720 Yes, Oh, good old Dick Cutting. 0:10:16.800 --> 0:10:17.400 Yes. 0:10:18.200 --> 0:10:21.720 So con was a highly prolific low budget director for 0:10:21.760 --> 0:10:25.720 three decades, directing one hundred and twenty eight films. Many 0:10:25.720 --> 0:10:27.760 of you may be familiar with some of his nineteen 0:10:27.760 --> 0:10:30.480 fifties horror in sci fi films such as fifty seven's 0:10:30.480 --> 0:10:33.240 Invasion of the Saucermen and The Zombies of Mara Tau. 0:10:33.720 --> 0:10:36.800 Nineteen fifty six is The She Creature, nineteen fifty nine 0:10:36.840 --> 0:10:39.920 is Invisible Invaders, and The Four Skulls of Jonathan Drake. 0:10:40.200 --> 0:10:43.600 He also did a lot of westerns action films, biker films, 0:10:43.920 --> 0:10:47.480 and various social exploitation films of the thirties, forties, fifties 0:10:47.520 --> 0:10:51.160 and early sixties. So it just to give you an 0:10:51.200 --> 0:10:53.800 idea of like how fast he was pumping these out, 0:10:53.880 --> 0:10:56.199 how fast the one week wonder was getting these done? It. 0:10:56.520 --> 0:10:59.280 The Terror from Beyond Space is one of five con 0:10:59.320 --> 0:11:01.640 films released in the year nineteen fifty eight. 0:11:02.080 --> 0:11:05.160 Even Roger Corman only did five movies in nineteen fifty eight, 0:11:05.320 --> 0:11:08.640 Oh wow, but he did do eight in nineteen fifty seven. 0:11:09.280 --> 0:11:12.080 I mean there are some years where Corman was pumping 0:11:12.120 --> 0:11:15.439 him out in such quantity that he's unequaled. 0:11:15.920 --> 0:11:18.200 Yeah, whenever you're feeling a little too proud of yourself, 0:11:18.200 --> 0:11:20.840 you think, have I made eight movies this year, three 0:11:20.880 --> 0:11:23.320 of which are about atomic radiation and two of which 0:11:23.360 --> 0:11:24.840 have the word naked in the title. 0:11:26.960 --> 0:11:30.680 Now getting to the screenplay, the screenplay is by Jerome Bixby, 0:11:31.040 --> 0:11:34.240 who lived nineteen twenty three through nineteen ninety eight American 0:11:34.280 --> 0:11:37.800 writer and composer, a graduate of the Juilliard School of Music, 0:11:38.400 --> 0:11:41.880 who also wrote various short stories and two novels, Call 0:11:42.000 --> 0:11:44.880 for an Exorcist and Space by the Tale, both published 0:11:44.880 --> 0:11:47.920 in sixty four. His nineteen fifty three story It's a 0:11:47.920 --> 0:11:50.560 Good Life was adapted as an episode of the Twilight 0:11:50.640 --> 0:11:53.840 Zone in nineteen sixty one, and also revisited in Twilight 0:11:53.920 --> 0:11:55.839 Zone the movie. This is the one about the six 0:11:55.880 --> 0:11:59.280 year old boy with godlike powers that can wish you 0:11:59.280 --> 0:12:02.040 into the corn field and so yeah, yeah, now it 0:12:02.160 --> 0:12:05.480 the tearform. Beyond Space was only his second produced screenplay, 0:12:05.760 --> 0:12:08.840 following CON's Curse of the Faceless Man from the same year. 0:12:09.400 --> 0:12:12.120 He also has a story credit on nineteen sixty six 0:12:12.240 --> 0:12:15.800 Is Fantastic Voyage. We often think about Isaac Asimov in 0:12:15.840 --> 0:12:17.920 relation to that picture, but we have to remember he 0:12:18.000 --> 0:12:21.200 only wrote the novelization, he was not involved in the screenplay, 0:12:22.240 --> 0:12:25.080 and also Bixby wrote four episodes of the original Star 0:12:25.160 --> 0:12:25.800 Trek series. 0:12:26.320 --> 0:12:28.400 I'd say the screenplay, like some of the other things 0:12:28.440 --> 0:12:31.359 we've been talking about, you could look at from multiple angles. 0:12:31.480 --> 0:12:32.280 Is it high art? 0:12:32.559 --> 0:12:33.199 No? Is it? 0:12:33.480 --> 0:12:34.720 Is it super smart? 0:12:35.520 --> 0:12:35.559 No? 0:12:35.760 --> 0:12:38.000 I mean it's it's got some kind of gaps and 0:12:38.040 --> 0:12:42.920 flaws in it and some failed characterization, but it's for 0:12:42.960 --> 0:12:45.640 what it is, and for the level of movie this is. 0:12:45.840 --> 0:12:47.480 I feel like it's a pretty tight plot. 0:12:48.080 --> 0:12:51.640 Yeah, yeah, it's it's it's efficient, it's economic, there's not 0:12:51.679 --> 0:12:53.640 really a dull moment, and it's got some nice little 0:12:53.640 --> 0:12:55.600 splashes of dialogue here and there, which of course are 0:12:55.640 --> 0:12:59.600 helped along by a really solid cast of character actors 0:12:59.600 --> 0:13:02.800 and some leading act Yes, I agree. And speaking of 0:13:03.040 --> 0:13:06.480 starting at the top, we have Marshall Thompson playing the 0:13:06.760 --> 0:13:11.920 character Colonel Edward Carruthers. Thompson lived nineteen twenty five through 0:13:12.000 --> 0:13:15.440 nineteen ninety two, All American actor, who we've talked about 0:13:15.480 --> 0:13:18.600 on the show before because he was in a little 0:13:18.640 --> 0:13:21.560 film from nineteen fifty eight titled Fiend Without a Face. 0:13:22.160 --> 0:13:24.840 Ah. This is the Brain Attack movie, the one that 0:13:24.920 --> 0:13:27.720 takes place at I think it's a research installation up 0:13:27.760 --> 0:13:30.480 in Canada or in Alaska at some more sort of 0:13:30.640 --> 0:13:35.040 arctic location. And the idea is that a remote military 0:13:35.040 --> 0:13:38.720 base that's doing experimental I don't know whether something or 0:13:38.720 --> 0:13:42.760 other gets attacked by invisible brains and spinal columns. 0:13:43.280 --> 0:13:47.840 Yeah, a film that's mostly notable for really incredible stop 0:13:47.920 --> 0:13:51.440 motion brain monsters and some very squishy sound effects to 0:13:51.440 --> 0:13:54.600 go along with them, generally not notable for the acting. 0:13:54.640 --> 0:13:56.760 In fact, I remember us just kind of commenting that 0:13:56.840 --> 0:14:00.200 Marshall Thompson was kind of like a square job, you know, 0:14:00.280 --> 0:14:02.560 kind of boring actor. Like there's just you know, very 0:14:02.679 --> 0:14:03.880 lukewarm performance. 0:14:04.200 --> 0:14:05.960 That is what I thought of him in that movie. 0:14:06.000 --> 0:14:08.679 I'd say he's a good bit better in this actually. 0:14:08.800 --> 0:14:11.079 Yeah, this film gives him a lot more to work with. 0:14:11.120 --> 0:14:13.760 He has a more complex character. So on one level, 0:14:13.880 --> 0:14:17.160 he is the square jot chick magnet hero per usual, 0:14:17.920 --> 0:14:20.240 but especially early on in the picture, he's also the 0:14:20.280 --> 0:14:24.200 lone survivor of a terrifying encounter on an alien world 0:14:24.680 --> 0:14:30.480 who has subsequently been condemned to the firing squad you know, 0:14:30.880 --> 0:14:34.880 all but officially for the murder of his crew. And 0:14:34.960 --> 0:14:38.400 so he is able to work with that, and you 0:14:38.440 --> 0:14:40.200 do see that in his performance. He has like kind 0:14:40.200 --> 0:14:44.120 of a nice haunted look, especially throughout the first you know, 0:14:44.280 --> 0:14:45.080 third of the picture. 0:14:45.520 --> 0:14:48.680 Framed for homicide by a star beast. Yeah, Yeah, it's 0:14:48.680 --> 0:14:51.440 an unusual type of character, but it's it's good. 0:14:51.640 --> 0:14:53.400 Yeah. So I set out to be kind of again 0:14:53.800 --> 0:14:56.960 bored by his performance, as one often is, I think 0:14:57.040 --> 0:14:59.520 with leading man performances from genre pictures of this time 0:14:59.560 --> 0:15:02.760 period for various reasons we've discussed in the show before, 0:15:02.800 --> 0:15:05.320 but I ended up enjoying his performance. 0:15:04.880 --> 0:15:07.320 Somewhat totally agree better than average. Yeah. 0:15:07.360 --> 0:15:09.200 Yeah, I'm not gonna go through everything we said about 0:15:09.280 --> 0:15:11.240 him last time, but basically he's a guy who kind 0:15:11.240 --> 0:15:17.000 of has like two prongs to his filmography. They are 0:15:17.000 --> 0:15:20.200 the cult films and then there is like the good 0:15:20.320 --> 0:15:22.840 natured animal films. So he did like a horse movie 0:15:22.880 --> 0:15:26.480 called Gallant Bess in forty six, and then sixty five's 0:15:26.520 --> 0:15:30.840 Clarence the Cross Eyed Line, and so forth. His final 0:15:30.920 --> 0:15:34.120 film role was a supporting role in nineteen ninety one's 0:15:34.200 --> 0:15:39.240 mc bain, an action movie starring Christopher Walken, Michael Ironside 0:15:39.280 --> 0:15:43.520 and also featuring Louise Gouzman in a supporting role. But 0:15:44.000 --> 0:15:46.680 I don't think I was familiar with mc bain outside 0:15:46.760 --> 0:15:49.960 of the yelling McBain on the Simpsons and having the 0:15:49.960 --> 0:15:53.720 fictional action hero McBain, which when I looked into it 0:15:53.720 --> 0:15:57.040 a little bit more. Apparently this movie, the ninety one 0:15:57.080 --> 0:16:00.600 movie McBain, came out after the Simpsons jokes, and because 0:16:00.640 --> 0:16:03.720 of it, the Simpsons had to stop making McMain jokes. 0:16:04.120 --> 0:16:05.880 I don't know if that's completely true, but that's the 0:16:06.320 --> 0:16:07.040 argument ever heard. 0:16:07.360 --> 0:16:10.080 I don't think they stopped doing McBain jokes. I remember 0:16:10.160 --> 0:16:14.360 McBain jokes going well into the last seasons I saw 0:16:14.440 --> 0:16:15.920 at least like season seven and eight. 0:16:16.600 --> 0:16:18.720 Maybe they came back after a while and they had 0:16:18.720 --> 0:16:20.960 to like just hush it for a bit. I don't know. 0:16:21.160 --> 0:16:22.920 But then again, I thought I was familiar with Christopher 0:16:22.920 --> 0:16:26.680 Walken's filmography, and McBain feels like one that just came 0:16:26.720 --> 0:16:30.240 out of nowhere that did not previously exist, And just 0:16:30.280 --> 0:16:32.160 suddenly I jumped onto a different timeline. 0:16:32.480 --> 0:16:36.160 Which episode is it where McBain is delivering a palette 0:16:36.160 --> 0:16:38.840 of UNICEF pennies out of an airplane and then he 0:16:38.880 --> 0:16:41.680 gets attacked by COMMI Nazi fighter jets. 0:16:42.720 --> 0:16:43.760 I don't remember that one. 0:16:43.960 --> 0:16:46.680 He has to jump down and punch through the cockpit. 0:16:48.080 --> 0:16:50.800 Anyway, if anyone out there has seen mc bain from 0:16:50.880 --> 0:16:54.360 nineteen ninety one, well right in and we would like 0:16:54.400 --> 0:17:04.639 to hear from you, all right, continuing on with the 0:17:04.920 --> 0:17:06.639 rest of the cast here, We're not going to do 0:17:06.640 --> 0:17:08.360 the whole cast because this is still one of those 0:17:08.359 --> 0:17:10.960 films where they are just a lot of, at least 0:17:11.760 --> 0:17:14.359 on the surface, interchangeable guys. 0:17:15.000 --> 0:17:18.800 But I really lost track of the guys multiple times 0:17:18.800 --> 0:17:19.080 in this. 0:17:19.320 --> 0:17:22.040 Yeah, though I did find it easier to keep track 0:17:22.080 --> 0:17:24.159 of them on the whole compared to a lot of movies, 0:17:24.280 --> 0:17:27.920 because on the whole, the cast is pretty good, and 0:17:28.080 --> 0:17:30.040 you know, we got some nice character actors in there, 0:17:30.160 --> 0:17:32.840 and the screenplay also seems to be doing a little 0:17:32.880 --> 0:17:34.880 extra work to keep us from getting too confused. 0:17:35.200 --> 0:17:37.679 Well, yeah, but I am going to ding it for 0:17:37.800 --> 0:17:40.560 one thing, which is that they do a role call 0:17:40.720 --> 0:17:44.280 of the cast early on, where you're like, oh great, Fortunately, 0:17:44.359 --> 0:17:47.439 like all the cast members sound off, they call in 0:17:47.480 --> 0:17:49.639 on the radio, they say their name and it shows 0:17:49.680 --> 0:17:51.640 you their face. I'm like, this is a good way 0:17:51.720 --> 0:17:54.840 to just familiarize you quickly with all the characters and 0:17:54.880 --> 0:17:57.359 what their names are. But there are characters who don't 0:17:57.359 --> 0:18:00.960 participate in the role call. Later you think you know 0:18:01.040 --> 0:18:02.840 them all, and then just random other people are in 0:18:02.880 --> 0:18:04.880 the mix. It's like, wait, I don't remember that guy. 0:18:05.119 --> 0:18:07.440 Yeah, some sort of cast system in play here did 0:18:07.480 --> 0:18:10.840 not say present. All right, So Marshall Thompson is playing 0:18:10.880 --> 0:18:14.480 our doomed guy, or seemingly doomed guy who needs to 0:18:14.480 --> 0:18:17.159 be picked up from Mars because his mission to Mars 0:18:17.640 --> 0:18:20.600 ended in terror and death. Yeah, we have this rescue 0:18:20.640 --> 0:18:22.480 crew coming in to pick him up, and that's where 0:18:22.480 --> 0:18:24.960 we get into the rest of the cast. And this 0:18:25.080 --> 0:18:29.440 mission is headed up by Colonel van Heusen, played by 0:18:29.560 --> 0:18:33.080 Kim Spalding, who lived nineteen fifteen through the year two thousand. 0:18:33.400 --> 0:18:36.400 American stage, screen and TV actor the forties, fifties, and sixties, 0:18:36.840 --> 0:18:39.399 I think best known for this film. He worked in 0:18:39.480 --> 0:18:42.880 various westerns. I think, sometimes played a villain, sometimes played 0:18:42.880 --> 0:18:45.760 a hero. He has that kind of gaunt, stern look 0:18:46.080 --> 0:18:48.000 that I think allowed him to jump back and forth 0:18:48.040 --> 0:18:48.760 between the two. 0:18:49.280 --> 0:18:51.600 Yeah, he played. The character he plays in this movie 0:18:51.640 --> 0:18:55.280 is relatively stoic. You can imagine he has used well 0:18:55.320 --> 0:18:59.880 as kind of like a moderately threatening man with dark moods. 0:19:00.600 --> 0:19:04.840 Yeah. Yeah, I was reading on a classic film board 0:19:04.880 --> 0:19:08.680 about some of his roles, and apparently he played Doc 0:19:08.760 --> 0:19:12.120 Holiday in a nineteen fifty four TV western series called 0:19:12.200 --> 0:19:16.560 Stories of the Century, and apparently he played a villainous 0:19:16.600 --> 0:19:19.280 Doc Holiday in this. So Doc Holliday is like using 0:19:19.359 --> 0:19:24.240 his dentistry to torture people or something. Whoa. So that's 0:19:24.240 --> 0:19:26.119 the kind of range he had here. But in this 0:19:26.240 --> 0:19:31.320 he's essentially one of the heroes. But there's some misunderstandings 0:19:31.320 --> 0:19:35.080 that involved as well. All Right, we also have the 0:19:35.200 --> 0:19:39.359 character Anne Anderson, one of the scientists aboard the vessel, 0:19:39.760 --> 0:19:42.879 played by Shirley Patterson. I believe she's credited on this 0:19:42.920 --> 0:19:45.879 as Sean Smith. This is She lived nineteen twenty two 0:19:45.920 --> 0:19:49.000 through nineteen ninety five, Canadian actress of the forties and fifties, 0:19:49.240 --> 0:19:51.560 best known for her roles in fifty six is World 0:19:51.600 --> 0:19:55.639 Without End, fifty seven's The Land Unknown, and the nineteen 0:19:55.720 --> 0:19:59.080 forty three Batman serial, which I've seen parts of. It's 0:19:59.320 --> 0:20:02.720 very hard to wat because it's just it's boring. But 0:20:03.640 --> 0:20:06.320 in this, yeah, she's a scientist, I think a geologist, 0:20:06.560 --> 0:20:08.360 but she's also the captain's girlfriend. 0:20:08.359 --> 0:20:11.480 Apparently this movie's approach to gender is not one of 0:20:11.520 --> 0:20:16.080 its most sort of future anticipating moves. So like, there 0:20:16.080 --> 0:20:18.840 are two women aboard the ship as members of the 0:20:18.920 --> 0:20:22.040 crew and they are both scientists, but they are also 0:20:22.160 --> 0:20:26.159 the significant others of other crew members, and they have 0:20:26.200 --> 0:20:28.440 to do all the cooking and the serving of coffee. 0:20:28.520 --> 0:20:32.000 So yeah, yeah, multiple reviewers have pointed that out. And 0:20:32.080 --> 0:20:33.919 it's not the only movie of the time like that, 0:20:34.000 --> 0:20:36.160 by the way, where there's like, oh, you know, there's 0:20:36.200 --> 0:20:39.359 one woman on this crew. She is a scientist. We 0:20:39.400 --> 0:20:42.160