WEBVTT - Weirdhouse Cinema Rewind: Dr. Cyclops 0:00:04.680 --> 0:00:07.840 Hey, welcome to Weird House Cinema. Rewind. This is Rob Lamb. 0:00:07.840 --> 0:00:09.800 We have another older episode of the show for you 0:00:09.880 --> 0:00:11.600 here today. This is going to be one that published 0:00:11.600 --> 0:00:15.920 three twelve, twenty twenty one. It is the nineteen forty 0:00:16.880 --> 0:00:22.800 special effects showcase Doctor Cyclops, from the director of King Kong. 0:00:23.440 --> 0:00:25.280 This is a lot of fun. It is a miniaturized 0:00:25.280 --> 0:00:27.280 people film. Let's jump right in. 0:00:31.080 --> 0:00:36.839 Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:41.000 --> 0:00:44.600 Hey, welcome to Weird How Cinema. This is Rob Lamb. 0:00:44.479 --> 0:00:46.960 And I'm Joe McCormack, and today we're going to be 0:00:47.000 --> 0:00:53.199 talking about the nineteen forty size related thriller Doctor Cyclops. 0:00:53.240 --> 0:00:56.320 You know that line, that classic Hollywood line about how 0:00:56.400 --> 0:00:59.920 I stayed big it's the pictures that got small. Well, 0:01:00.560 --> 0:01:02.920 you can't say that about this movie, because this movie 0:01:03.040 --> 0:01:05.400 is really truly about actors getting small. 0:01:05.760 --> 0:01:09.319 That's right. This is our first nineteen forties film. I 0:01:09.319 --> 0:01:13.240 mean barely since it's a nineteen forty release. But yeah, 0:01:13.280 --> 0:01:15.440 this is one I was not familiar with. I've never 0:01:15.480 --> 0:01:18.560 heard of it, despite the fact that it has a 0:01:18.560 --> 0:01:21.320 pretty famous director who we'll get into more about in 0:01:21.360 --> 0:01:25.280 a second. But it's Ernest B. Showedsack, who if that 0:01:25.400 --> 0:01:27.920 name doesn't ring a bell, I think his most famous 0:01:27.920 --> 0:01:30.520 film will for you. It was, of course King Kong. 0:01:30.920 --> 0:01:35.720 Yeah, this movie I thought was a real firecracker, Like 0:01:36.040 --> 0:01:40.880 it looks great, it has amazing special effects. The story 0:01:40.959 --> 0:01:44.000 isn't as complex as you might hope. But then again, 0:01:44.040 --> 0:01:46.040 I mean this was a I don't know, a horror 0:01:46.040 --> 0:01:49.720 thriller of the nineteen thirties and forties, of the Hayes 0:01:49.760 --> 0:01:53.720 Code era, so you can only expect so much moral 0:01:53.760 --> 0:01:57.880 and intellectual complexity. But just as a big special effects thriller, 0:01:57.960 --> 0:02:02.440 the kind of Transformers or Independence Day of nineteen forty, 0:02:03.080 --> 0:02:05.160 it's it's fantastic. 0:02:04.760 --> 0:02:06.280 Yeah, And I think that's also only the way you 0:02:06.280 --> 0:02:08.079 have to approach it. It is a it is a 0:02:08.200 --> 0:02:13.680 nineteen forty special effects fiasco, and the special effects very 0:02:13.760 --> 0:02:17.320 much come first. And you know, by today's standards they 0:02:17.360 --> 0:02:20.680 might not look as you know, as amazing. But if 0:02:20.720 --> 0:02:24.120 you but that's again only if you're looking at it 0:02:24.160 --> 0:02:26.200 as a modern viewer and not thinking about the history 0:02:26.240 --> 0:02:28.200 of filmmaking. Because I think if you, if you sit 0:02:28.240 --> 0:02:30.799 there and watch the film in its entirety and keep 0:02:30.800 --> 0:02:33.600 reminding yourself like this is nineteen forty you know, this 0:02:33.639 --> 0:02:36.600 is what had been done before with similar effects, and 0:02:37.320 --> 0:02:38.160 it will impress you. 0:02:38.440 --> 0:02:40.600 Oh, I think the special effects in this movie do 0:02:40.639 --> 0:02:44.000 look fantastic. I mean, I think they look so much 0:02:44.040 --> 0:02:48.160 better than the quote realistic CGI that floods the films 0:02:48.200 --> 0:02:48.640 of today. 0:02:48.840 --> 0:02:51.840 Well that's true, Yeah, I mean it. You know, it's 0:02:51.960 --> 0:02:54.239 it's very polished, you know, using the tools of the day. 0:02:54.360 --> 0:02:57.520 It creates I think, some high quality visuals. 0:02:58.520 --> 0:03:01.760 So this is We've talked about a number of mad 0:03:01.840 --> 0:03:04.040 scientist movies, and I'm sure we will talk about many 0:03:04.080 --> 0:03:07.480 more mad scientist movies in the future. Mad Scientists are 0:03:07.560 --> 0:03:11.320 kind of the hub of the wheel of weird house cinema, 0:03:11.760 --> 0:03:15.519 and this particular mad scientist is a mad scientist who 0:03:15.600 --> 0:03:17.720 likes to shrink people with radiation. 0:03:18.440 --> 0:03:22.920 Yes, the villainous doctor Thorkle. And yeah, he's pretty great 0:03:22.919 --> 0:03:27.040 because he's you know, I guess his real defining characteristic 0:03:27.120 --> 0:03:30.840 is he's a complete megalomaniac. You know, he already feels 0:03:30.919 --> 0:03:35.200 himself to be a giant among tiny people, and his 0:03:35.360 --> 0:03:39.000 super science just enables him to make that, you know, 0:03:39.080 --> 0:03:40.800 an objective reality. 0:03:41.040 --> 0:03:44.200 Now, I think doctor Thorkel would probably shrink you to 0:03:44.240 --> 0:03:46.360 death for the way he pronounced his name. Because of 0:03:46.400 --> 0:03:48.440 the one of the funny things in this movie. So 0:03:48.520 --> 0:03:52.160 his name is spelled t h o r k e L. 0:03:52.200 --> 0:03:54.760 So I read that in like any other normal American 0:03:54.760 --> 0:03:56.400 English speaker, I would think Thorkele. 0:03:56.600 --> 0:03:58.240 Yeah. If I had to go to an appointment with 0:03:58.280 --> 0:04:00.440 doctor Thorkell, I would call and be like, yeah, I'm 0:04:00.440 --> 0:04:01.760 a patient of doctor Thorkle's. 0:04:02.200 --> 0:04:05.320 But the characters in this movie make a really special 0:04:05.400 --> 0:04:10.480 effort to always emphasize the second letter. So it's like 0:04:10.760 --> 0:04:14.280 sar Dough, no, mister, accent on the doe. Here we 0:04:14.360 --> 0:04:18.839 get thor Kel. No mister, it's doctor accent on the kel. 0:04:19.400 --> 0:04:22.560 Doctor thor Kel. Yeah. And in this picture, you can, 0:04:22.720 --> 0:04:25.919 I mean you can basically, well, here's the Elevator Pitch, 0:04:26.279 --> 0:04:29.400 a mad scientist working in the South American jungle, miniaturizes 0:04:29.440 --> 0:04:32.880 his colleagues when he feels his megalomania is threatened. So 0:04:32.920 --> 0:04:37.000 it's basically it's apocalypse now, but with doctor thor Kel 0:04:37.160 --> 0:04:41.520 instead of Colonel Kurtz. Science instead of war, and miniaturization 0:04:41.680 --> 0:04:42.880 instead of the horror. 0:04:43.440 --> 0:04:46.599 I'd say that's about accurate. Yeah, and well, and instead 0:04:46.640 --> 0:04:49.960 of Martin Sheen. It's a ragtag team of the world's 0:04:49.960 --> 0:04:51.960 greatest scientists and a mule guy. 0:04:52.279 --> 0:04:54.839 Yeah. And instead of spending like a large portion of 0:04:54.839 --> 0:04:57.640 the film about the journey, that journey is really quick 0:04:57.640 --> 0:04:59.880 in this movie. They just skippy right through it. 0:05:00.400 --> 0:05:01.640 Should we hit that trailer audio? 0:05:01.720 --> 0:05:02.440 Yeah, let's hear it. 0:05:05.800 --> 0:05:09.680 Then a crocodile becomes as huge as a prehistoric monster, 0:05:10.520 --> 0:05:12.800 a rifle as unwieldy. 0:05:12.279 --> 0:05:13.279 As a siege gun. 0:05:13.960 --> 0:05:18.440 A terrifying black cat whose jaws me death. A dog 0:05:18.560 --> 0:05:22.520 looms larger than an elephant, dead in the hands of 0:05:22.560 --> 0:05:23.600 a ruthless monster. 0:05:29.760 --> 0:05:33.120 All right, So let's talk about the people involved here. Really, 0:05:33.160 --> 0:05:35.440 the one we're going to spend the most time on is, 0:05:35.480 --> 0:05:37.520 of course, the director Ernest B. Shudsack. 0:05:37.920 --> 0:05:40.720 I know almost nothing about the life of shod Sack 0:05:40.920 --> 0:05:44.279 except that he is involved with one of the great 0:05:44.360 --> 0:05:47.840 early special effects and I don't know what you might 0:05:47.880 --> 0:05:51.880 call it science fiction horror films of the big studio era, 0:05:51.960 --> 0:05:52.919 which is King Kong. 0:05:53.480 --> 0:05:57.560 Yeah, I mean really, King Kong. Despite being very much 0:05:57.600 --> 0:06:01.040 a genre film, it transcends genre like it is it is. 0:06:01.360 --> 0:06:05.120 That film is an icon of cinematic history itself. You know, 0:06:05.200 --> 0:06:07.880 it's kind of it's kind of difficult to overstate its 0:06:07.880 --> 0:06:11.839 importance in the history of film. But he and certainly 0:06:12.080 --> 0:06:13.920 I think you, mister you Science Theater three thousand fans 0:06:13.920 --> 0:06:17.799 would agree it is a great eight movie. But Shodzak 0:06:17.880 --> 0:06:20.520 also directed another great Epe movie, and that would be 0:06:20.680 --> 0:06:23.480 Mighty Joe Young. So if you're not familiar with King 0:06:23.560 --> 0:06:27.440 Kong for reasons unimaginable, then perhaps you've heard of Mighty 0:06:27.520 --> 0:06:27.960 Joe Young. 0:06:28.400 --> 0:06:32.320 Did that get some kind of remake in the nineteen nineties. 0:06:32.240 --> 0:06:34.719 Yes, it did. Goodness, I forget who was in it, 0:06:34.760 --> 0:06:37.960 but they had. Mighty Joe Young is a and is 0:06:38.000 --> 0:06:40.799 an enlarged ape as well, but not nearly as enlarged 0:06:40.800 --> 0:06:41.480 as King Kong. 0:06:41.920 --> 0:06:43.679 It's a medium enlarged ape. 0:06:43.800 --> 0:06:48.520 Yeah, and I think I've seen some account some comparisons. 0:06:48.560 --> 0:06:51.760 Just in the same way that Godzilla gets keeps getting 0:06:51.760 --> 0:06:55.880 bigger and bigger in films, King Kong also inevitably just 0:06:55.880 --> 0:06:58.640 gets bigger and bigger. But Mighty Joe Young was always 0:06:58.760 --> 0:06:59.960 a smaller giant ape. 0:07:00.520 --> 0:07:03.800 So some of this guy's big movies seem all focused 0:07:03.800 --> 0:07:07.960 on changes in size perspective, either really big creatures or 0:07:08.000 --> 0:07:11.600 really little creatures. Smaller than they're supposed to be. And 0:07:11.920 --> 0:07:15.640 this is funny because I think there were This is 0:07:15.640 --> 0:07:18.680 sort of the A list version of that kind of director, 0:07:18.920 --> 0:07:21.360 but there were also B list versions of that kind 0:07:21.360 --> 0:07:24.280 of director, because you get people like bert I Gordon, 0:07:24.360 --> 0:07:28.080 who made B movies, almost all of which are about 0:07:28.200 --> 0:07:31.880 creatures of unusual size, either like a person or a 0:07:32.120 --> 0:07:34.960 creature that gets shrunken down or creatures that get blown 0:07:35.000 --> 0:07:35.679 up real big. 0:07:36.040 --> 0:07:39.239 Yeah, and you know, I think ultimately bird Eye Gordon 0:07:39.480 --> 0:07:43.920 was able to make some really interesting films, but they're 0:07:43.960 --> 0:07:46.200 generally not put on the same pedestal as King Kong. 0:07:46.920 --> 0:07:50.320 None of them look as beautiful as Doctor Cyclops does. 0:07:50.320 --> 0:07:52.920 Another thing that Doctor Cyclops really has going for it 0:07:52.920 --> 0:07:55.320 with the modern release, especially or at least the blu 0:07:55.440 --> 0:07:58.840 ray of it that we watched, it has three color 0:07:58.880 --> 0:08:02.960 Technicolor and the tech color is gorgeous. The colors are 0:08:03.000 --> 0:08:04.560 just dripping off the screen. 0:08:04.960 --> 0:08:08.360 Yeah, in a similar way to Doctor X, though that 0:08:08.400 --> 0:08:11.120 was not technicolor. That was what two tone technicolor. 0:08:10.760 --> 0:08:13.040 Two color technicolor. Yeah, this is three colors. So this 0:08:13.160 --> 0:08:16.040 is like the color you know, color films that would 0:08:16.040 --> 0:08:16.480 come later. 0:08:16.600 --> 0:08:20.400 Yeah, So there's a certain unreality to it. But it's 0:08:20.440 --> 0:08:24.120 beautiful and it certainly I mean, I find it more 0:08:24.120 --> 0:08:26.360 engaging than a lot of black and light films of 0:08:26.440 --> 0:08:29.120 the period. Just you know, I guess it depends, like 0:08:29.120 --> 0:08:31.440 you wouldn't want to see mad Love and color. Mad 0:08:31.480 --> 0:08:33.640 Love belongs in black and white, like that is the 0:08:33.679 --> 0:08:36.680 world of that film, but this one really benefits from the. 0:08:36.679 --> 0:08:39.160 Color well and taking place in the jungle. I feel 0:08:39.160 --> 0:08:41.480 like there are a lot of shots in it that 0:08:41.559 --> 0:08:45.360 I wonder if they were only included to take advantage 0:08:45.400 --> 0:08:48.600 of that beautiful three color technicolor, Like like there are 0:08:48.640 --> 0:08:51.040 parts where it will just cut away to some kind 0:08:51.120 --> 0:08:54.120 of tropical bird that is squawking in a tree, and 0:08:54.559 --> 0:08:56.400 you know, we see all of its beautiful feathers. 0:08:56.760 --> 0:08:56.960 Yeah. 0:08:57.040 --> 0:08:59.839 Yeah, so you know before three D there was there 0:08:59.880 --> 0:09:00.599 was technicolor. 0:09:00.800 --> 0:09:01.160 Yeah. 0:09:01.400 --> 0:09:03.520 Again, it's quite quite a beautiful looking film. So let's 0:09:03.880 --> 0:09:07.280 let's talk about the director behind it again. Ernest b. 0:09:07.400 --> 0:09:11.239 Showed Zach who lived eighteen ninety three through nineteen seventy nine. 0:09:12.520 --> 0:09:14.160 We're not going to really be able to touch on 0:09:14.200 --> 0:09:16.959 his entire biography here, but if you want a good one, 0:09:17.280 --> 0:09:18.760 you know, you can go to the usual places. I 0:09:18.760 --> 0:09:22.360 found Britannica had a nice one online. But here's some 0:09:22.400 --> 0:09:25.200 of the interesting points, sort of the bullet points of 0:09:25.200 --> 0:09:28.040 his life that I think are with driving home here. So, 0:09:28.200 --> 0:09:29.960 first of all, he ran away from home as a 0:09:30.000 --> 0:09:33.920 teenager and worked as a surveyor in San Francisco. He 0:09:33.960 --> 0:09:36.160 got a job as a cameraman from help with help 0:09:36.200 --> 0:09:39.760 from his brother in nineteen fourteen, and then during the 0:09:39.800 --> 0:09:42.400 First World War he served as a cameraman in the 0:09:42.440 --> 0:09:46.160 Signal Corps in France. He stayed in Europe after that 0:09:46.200 --> 0:09:48.880 he got involved in adventure filmmaking. So this is this 0:09:48.920 --> 0:09:52.880 is interesting because it makes sense given the nature of 0:09:52.880 --> 0:09:55.480 films like King Kong. But it also, you know, it 0:09:55.559 --> 0:09:58.280 seems to run, you know, against the grain if you 0:09:58.320 --> 0:10:01.800 think about his success in fiction, because earlier on it's 0:10:02.080 --> 0:10:05.160 less purely fictional. There's a certain documentary aspect to it, 0:10:05.240 --> 0:10:08.360 like fictionalized documentary work. So he served with the Red 0:10:08.440 --> 0:10:13.120 Cross in nineteen nineteen, helped refugees from the Russo Polish War, 0:10:13.679 --> 0:10:17.120 and he also filmed this conflict as well as the 0:10:17.120 --> 0:10:20.000 Greco Turkish War of nineteen twenty one through twenty two, 0:10:20.480 --> 0:10:22.560 and in this he essentially wound up working as a 0:10:22.559 --> 0:10:25.880 conflict journalist and was then sponsored by the New York 0:10:25.920 --> 0:10:30.160 Times as a cameraman on an around the world expedition. Wow, 0:10:31.160 --> 0:10:33.480 so he worked on this. He worked with a pilot 0:10:33.520 --> 0:10:35.839 by the name of Marion C. Cooper, and then began 0:10:35.880 --> 0:10:38.880 producing what they called natural dramas, which were a kind 0:10:38.920 --> 0:10:44.679 of combination of travelog and drama. This is super fascinating 0:10:44.960 --> 0:10:47.280 given what we've covered. Stuff to blow your mind before. 0:10:47.280 --> 0:10:50.760 In nineteen twenty five, he joined William Beebe's expedition to 0:10:50.800 --> 0:10:53.640 the Galapagos Islands as a cameraman. Ah. 0:10:53.800 --> 0:10:57.080 Now William Biebe was if you'll called the was he 0:10:57.120 --> 0:11:00.839 a marine biologist. He was a researcher who who got 0:11:00.880 --> 0:11:06.400 down into a basically a gigantic metal ball that just 0:11:06.559 --> 0:11:09.160 was dangled down deep into the ocean to see what 0:11:09.240 --> 0:11:11.800 kind of life could be observed through a tiny window 0:11:11.920 --> 0:11:15.319 in this ball at depths that had never before been 0:11:15.360 --> 0:11:20.800 documented firsthand. Yeah, the bathosphere horrifying because this ball had 0:11:20.880 --> 0:11:24.040 no means of self propulsion. It was not a submersible, 0:11:24.040 --> 0:11:26.160 It was not a submarine. It was just a hollow 0:11:26.320 --> 0:11:30.240 metal sphere and dangling by a chain. So if the 0:11:30.320 --> 0:11:32.880 chain breaks, you just sink to the bottom. Of the Ocean. 0:11:33.280 --> 0:11:36.439 Yes, but he was as we discussed in past episodes 0:11:36.480 --> 0:11:38.400 of Stuff to Blow Your Mind. He was also notable 0:11:38.440 --> 0:11:42.880 because he tended to surround himself not only with technicians 0:11:43.080 --> 0:11:46.120 on these expeditions, but also artists like people who could 0:11:46.120 --> 0:11:49.839 write about it, people who could illustrate what was going on. 0:11:50.720 --> 0:11:54.240 And it turns out Showed Sac was one of the 0:11:54.320 --> 0:11:57.240 creatives that he brought a board to document the work 0:11:57.559 --> 0:11:59.000 at least on one of the expeditions. 0:11:59.240 --> 0:12:01.280 Now, I think the bath fear of observations were not 0:12:01.320 --> 0:12:03.520 in the Galapago, so that was somewhere in the Atlantic 0:12:03.559 --> 0:12:06.199 of itself, what Bermuda, or somewhere in the Bahamas. 0:12:06.360 --> 0:12:07.839 Yeah, I believe, So this would have been a yeah, 0:12:07.840 --> 0:12:10.319 this would have been a different journey. But still it's 0:12:10.320 --> 0:12:12.600 wonderful how these two came together. I wasn't expecting him 0:12:12.600 --> 0:12:16.000 to come up in this so anyway, from here Showed 0:12:16.080 --> 0:12:19.560 Sac and Cooper, they go on to produce a natural 0:12:19.640 --> 0:12:22.400 drama titled Chang, a Drama of the Wilderness from twenty 0:12:22.440 --> 0:12:24.720 set in nineteen twenty seven. This earned a nomination for 0:12:24.800 --> 0:12:29.080 Best Picture at the very first Academy Awards. He then 0:12:29.120 --> 0:12:31.880 directed The Four Feathers in nineteen twenty nine, based on 0:12:31.920 --> 0:12:34.920 the nineteen oh two novel, shot in California and the Sudan. 0:12:35.720 --> 0:12:38.640 And then he shot Rango in Sumatra, which was a 0:12:38.679 --> 0:12:44.240 film about and this just sounds like super ambitious for 0:12:44.320 --> 0:12:47.040 any filmmaker because it's about a boy and a rangutang 0:12:47.080 --> 0:12:50.280 and a tiger, filmed in thirty one. Again, then he 0:12:50.400 --> 0:12:52.520 shot The Most Dangerous Game in thirty two. 0:12:52.960 --> 0:12:55.760 Oh okay, wait, didn't we just talk about No, we 0:12:55.800 --> 0:13:00.199 talked about Ernest Dickerson's Survivor Is it Surviving the Game? 0:13:00.400 --> 0:13:01.439 Surviving the Game? Yep? 0:13:01.559 --> 0:13:04.920 The Iced Tea movie, which which is sort of a 0:13:05.000 --> 0:13:08.640 based on the similar concept the novella or novel The 0:13:08.679 --> 0:13:11.520 Most Dangerous Game, which is about a human who hunts men. 0:13:11.920 --> 0:13:14.400 Yes, and so it's been popular for a while. It's 0:13:14.400 --> 0:13:16.280 one of those those stories that's going to keep getting 0:13:16.320 --> 0:13:18.840 adapted in one form or the other. Now. From here, 0:13:18.880 --> 0:13:20.760 Showtech and Cooper moved on to what would be the 0:13:21.200 --> 0:13:23.760 most famous motion picture that they worked on, and that 0:13:23.880 --> 0:13:26.719 was King Kong of nineteen thirty three, and then they 0:13:26.760 --> 0:13:30.040 followed this up with the Sun of Kong, which also 0:13:30.080 --> 0:13:34.400 came out in nineteen thirty three, and then they did. 0:13:34.600 --> 0:13:37.800 They also did a movie titled Blind Adventure, which also 0:13:37.880 --> 0:13:40.120 came out in nineteen thirty three. So it was quite 0:13:40.559 --> 0:13:41.079 for these. 0:13:40.880 --> 0:13:43.679 Two regular Roger Corman over here. This is like Roger 0:13:43.720 --> 0:13:46.240 Corman's in nineteen fifty seven or whatever your year it 0:13:46.360 --> 0:13:47.960 was that he made like fourteen movies. 0:13:48.120 --> 0:13:52.280 Yeah, yeah, so yeah, an impressive year. They were really 0:13:52.360 --> 0:13:55.720 just firing on all cylinders. Now, in nineteen thirty five 0:13:55.840 --> 0:13:58.640 they made a film titled The Last Days of POMPEII, 0:13:58.800 --> 0:14:01.400 and this was an ultimately, at least commercially, a failed 0:14:01.400 --> 0:14:05.240 attempt at an historical epic. So after this, you know, 0:14:05.440 --> 0:14:06.920 they were kind of, I guess in some version of 0:14:06.960 --> 0:14:11.080 director's jail. He ended up doing smaller pictures. But then 0:14:11.080 --> 0:14:13.680 he got another shot at a big genre film, a 0:14:13.679 --> 0:14:18.079 special effects feature, and that is nineteen forty's Doctor Cyclops. 0:14:18.400 --> 0:14:22.000 And Cooper was an uncredited producer on this film. Now, 0:14:22.240 --> 0:14:24.800 of course we'll get back to selector Cyclops in depth here. 0:14:25.080 --> 0:14:29.240 But World War II broke out and should Zach was 0:14:29.680 --> 0:14:31.760 like a lot of people sucked into the war machine. 0:14:31.800 --> 0:14:35.720 A knew, and while testing photographic equipment at high altitude 0:14:35.760 --> 0:14:38.840 for the US Army Air Corps, he suffered a severe 0:14:39.000 --> 0:14:42.280 eye injury. I was trying to get like a firm 0:14:42.320 --> 0:14:45.440 account of it. If there's a good biography about showed Zach. 0:14:45.480 --> 0:14:47.280 I wasn't able to find one, like a you know, 0:14:47.720 --> 0:14:51.040 like a book length biography. I believe what happened is 0:14:51.040 --> 0:14:54.840 he accidentally dropped his face mask. I'm and I'm a 0:14:54.880 --> 0:14:57.840 little foggy on the exact nature of what the injury was, 0:14:57.920 --> 0:15:00.800 if we're talking about like some sort of a light 0:15:00.840 --> 0:15:04.560 blast based injury or of its pressure based, but the 0:15:04.640 --> 0:15:07.800 end result was severely damaged his eyesight. And he only 0:15:07.840 --> 0:15:12.640 directed a couple of additional films, really only one notable 0:15:12.640 --> 0:15:14.600 film after that, and this was Mighty Joe Young in 0:15:14.680 --> 0:15:18.280 nineteen forty nine, which featured Oscar winning special effects by 0:15:18.280 --> 0:15:21.840 O'Brien and Ray Harry Housen. Oh god, yeah, yeah, so 0:15:21.920 --> 0:15:25.560 another big name. And then he finally directed a portion 0:15:25.760 --> 0:15:29.280 of This Is Cinerama in nineteen fifty two, uncredited to 0:15:29.320 --> 0:15:33.760 promote the Cinerama widescreen projection process. But that was pretty 0:15:33.840 --> 0:15:36.560 much yet, like after this eye injury, you know, he 0:15:36.640 --> 0:15:40.160 just wasn't able and or you know, or didn't want 0:15:40.200 --> 0:15:41.560 to direct. I think it was, you know, more about 0:15:41.600 --> 0:15:45.600 ability and then he died in nineteen seventy nine. Cooper 0:15:45.640 --> 0:15:48.520 died in nineteen seventy three. He did a bit more 0:15:48.520 --> 0:15:52.160 work after Mighty Joe Young came out, including serving as 0:15:52.200 --> 0:15:56.240 executive producer on nineteen fifty six as The Searchers, directed 0:15:56.240 --> 0:15:58.760 by John Ford and starring, of course John Wayne. 0:15:59.560 --> 0:16:03.840 This is a fantastic coincidence how this story about his 0:16:03.960 --> 0:16:07.320 damaged eyesight connects to the plot of Doctor Cyclops. It 0:16:07.360 --> 0:16:09.520 almost makes me wonder, do you know what exactly the 0:16:09.640 --> 0:16:12.880 time of his injury was. Could it have been before 0:16:13.080 --> 0:16:14.680 Doctor Cyclops or was it after? 0:16:15.240 --> 0:16:18.480 I believe that's that's the weird thing about this. I've 0:16:18.560 --> 0:16:20.680 not been able to find like a firm date for 0:16:20.920 --> 0:16:23.440 this injury, you know, like a statement, you know, in 0:16:23.520 --> 0:16:25.960 this year or in this month this is when showed 0:16:26.000 --> 0:16:29.840 Sack suffered the eye injury. But it's it's my understanding 0:16:29.960 --> 0:16:34.400 that that the the eye injury occurred after Doctor Cyclops. Wow. 0:16:34.680 --> 0:16:37.040 Because so we'll get into this a little bit more 0:16:37.080 --> 0:16:39.000 when we discuss the plot. But one of the main 0:16:39.880 --> 0:16:44.240 uh situation points of Doctor Cyclops is that the the 0:16:44.280 --> 0:16:48.720 titular doctor uh doctor Thorkel is a is a brilliant 0:16:48.760 --> 0:16:51.840 scientist but he's limited by damage to his eyes. He 0:16:52.040 --> 0:16:54.680 has got poor eyesight already and relies on these really 0:16:54.720 --> 0:16:55.560 thick glasses. 0:16:56.040 --> 0:16:58.920 Yeah, so this is this is just mysterious to me, 0:16:59.000 --> 0:17:02.800 Like it's either an amazing coincidence or I have it 0:17:02.840 --> 0:17:06.520 wrong and there is more connective tissue here, like you know, 0:17:06.560 --> 0:17:09.439 maybe he had you know, previously damaged his eyes in 0:17:09.480 --> 0:17:11.879 some fashion, or his eyesight was already fading. I'm not 0:17:11.920 --> 0:17:15.119 sure you know what the answer is here. But as 0:17:15.200 --> 0:17:18.720 it turns out, like his actual biography and in some 0:17:18.800 --> 0:17:21.880 of the plot elements in Doctor Cyclops do line up. 0:17:22.840 --> 0:17:26.840 Now. He did not write Doctor Cyclops though correct right. 0:17:26.920 --> 0:17:30.240 Doctor Cyclops was written by a writer by the name 0:17:30.240 --> 0:17:34.000 of Tom Kilpatrick who lived eighteen ninety eight through nineteen 0:17:34.080 --> 0:17:36.800 sixty two, and you can look him up on IMDb. 0:17:36.920 --> 0:17:40.240 But basically he wrote various crime in Western screenplays and teleplays, 0:17:40.520 --> 0:17:42.560 but nothing that really jumped out to me personally. 0:17:43.119 --> 0:17:46.480 I mean, the script here is not really anything to 0:17:46.520 --> 0:17:49.280 write home about, except in the skillful way that it 0:17:49.440 --> 0:17:54.120 string that it efficiently strings together excellent special effects set pieces. 0:17:54.160 --> 0:17:57.320 But you're not going to like run into interesting character 0:17:57.440 --> 0:18:00.200 development or like super witty dialogue in this movie. This 0:18:00.720 --> 0:18:04.639 is very much a sets and special effects driven film, 0:18:04.720 --> 0:18:07.840 but I will give the script credit for connecting each 0:18:07.880 --> 0:18:09.880 one of those things to the next in a very 0:18:09.960 --> 0:18:12.200 fast paced and enjoyable way. 0:18:12.520 --> 0:18:17.040 Yeah. All right, well let's talk about doctor Thorkel. In 0:18:17.080 --> 0:18:19.440 this film, he is played by an actor by the 0:18:19.520 --> 0:18:21.920 name of Albert Decker who lived nineteen oh five through 0:18:22.000 --> 0:18:26.119 nineteen sixty eight. He was a Broadway star turn film actor, 0:18:26.520 --> 0:18:28.600 and later in his life he served on the California 0:18:28.600 --> 0:18:32.840 State Legislature and largely transitioned back to stage. In his 0:18:32.920 --> 0:18:37.280 later career. He often played aggressive characters, and this is 0:18:37.320 --> 0:18:40.600 probably due to his great size. So he was six two, 0:18:40.640 --> 0:18:44.280 which granted isn't like super tall, but it's I mean, 0:18:44.320 --> 0:18:46.840 it's reasonably tall. I'm six two or so, and I 0:18:46.960 --> 0:18:48.359 bought my head way too often. 0:18:49.000 --> 0:18:50.280 It's big in this movie. 0:18:50.480 --> 0:18:52.199 Yeah, And I think part of that too, is that 0:18:52.320 --> 0:18:55.359 not only is he six two, but he's he's got 0:18:55.440 --> 0:18:58.800 kind of a thick physique, like not you know, not 0:18:58.920 --> 0:19:01.840 obese or anything, but he has this kind of he 0:19:01.920 --> 0:19:04.879 looks kind of beefy, especially for a mad scientist in 0:19:04.920 --> 0:19:09.560 a movie. Usually they're a bit scrawnier and like doctor 0:19:09.640 --> 0:19:11.880 Thorkel looks like he could really throw down. 0:19:12.280 --> 0:19:15.240 You would not want to tangle with Thorkel, right. 0:19:16.920 --> 0:19:20.000 So, yeah, this guy Albert Decker played him. Notable roles 0:19:20.200 --> 0:19:23.200 for him include roles in Kiss Me Deadly and East 0:19:23.200 --> 0:19:26.440 of Eden, which was fifty five I believe, as well 0:19:26.480 --> 0:19:29.080 as his last film role, which was in nineteen sixty 0:19:29.200 --> 0:19:30.600 nine's The Wild Bunch. 0:19:30.760 --> 0:19:30.920 Ah. 0:19:31.000 --> 0:19:34.280 Yeah, the hyper violent Sam Peckinpah movie in which I 0:19:34.320 --> 0:19:37.399 think he plays. He plays some kind of like railroad 0:19:37.440 --> 0:19:42.600 policeman or like a railway detective. He's hunting the outlaws 0:19:42.640 --> 0:19:45.399 in the movie. If I recall, Ah, that's one that 0:19:45.440 --> 0:19:45.679 I have. 0:19:46.320 --> 0:19:49.240 Somehow I managed to get through my twenties and thirties 0:19:49.280 --> 0:19:50.800 without seeing The Wild Bunch. 0:19:51.119 --> 0:19:55.080 It is a dusty, dirty, nasty, violent movie. It makes 0:19:55.119 --> 0:19:57.560 you need a bath. In fact, I would say the 0:19:57.960 --> 0:20:01.240 full vibe of that movie is some up. In one exchange, 0:20:01.400 --> 0:20:05.080 the outlaws arrive at the at the compound of this 0:20:05.200 --> 0:20:08.600 powerful guy, and the guy says to them like, you're filthy, 0:20:08.680 --> 0:20:11.159 you need baths. And one of the outlaws says, we 0:20:11.200 --> 0:20:13.040 don't want baths, we want women. 0:20:16.119 --> 0:20:17.200 It sounds delightful. 0:20:17.760 --> 0:20:20.200 One sentence that communicates a lot. 0:20:21.880 --> 0:20:25.440 All right, Well in this film, yeah, like like we've said, 0:20:25.440 --> 0:20:29.240 he's he's delightful. He's got this wonderful, imposing physical presence. 0:20:29.320 --> 0:20:31.800 He's got these you know, these scheming eyes that are 0:20:31.800 --> 0:20:38.240 accentuated by his his his glasses, bald head in evil mustache. 0:20:38.880 --> 0:20:41.320 And I have to say he was reminding me of 0:20:41.320 --> 0:20:43.479 somebody as I was watching this, and I figured out 0:20:43.520 --> 0:20:47.440 who it is. It's British actor Julian Barrett, who mighty 0:20:47.440 --> 0:20:49.919 boosche fans out there. You might recognize him as the 0:20:50.000 --> 0:20:53.320 actor who played Howard Moon, but he also showed up 0:20:53.320 --> 0:20:57.800 on Dark Place with Darth Morangi as a priest, okay, 0:20:58.080 --> 0:21:00.520 and he also was in something recently he was. He 0:21:00.640 --> 0:21:04.440 was the titular character in Mindhorn, which I've heard good 0:21:04.440 --> 0:21:05.040 things about. 0:21:05.320 --> 0:21:07.680 I never caught him in Dark Place, but I should 0:21:07.720 --> 0:21:10.760 go back and watch that whole series again in one sitting. 0:21:11.000 --> 0:21:15.080 It's ironically it is the ape heavy episode I believe. 0:21:15.480 --> 0:21:16.400