Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind production of My
Speaker 1: Heart Radio. Hey, welcome to Weird House Cinema. This is
Speaker 1: Rob Lamb and this is Joe McCormick. And Hey, folks,
Speaker 1: if I sound a little bit different than usual today,
Speaker 1: that is because I am recording not from my usual location,
Speaker 1: but from a top secret secondary location that may or
Speaker 1: may not be uh the dungeon underneath a German monastery
Speaker 1: that's full of battle axes and and plate armor for
Speaker 1: some reason. Or it also may or may not be
Speaker 1: the basement of my parents house. Well, I mean, you
Speaker 1: sound fine online, so I imagine it's going to sound
Speaker 1: fine for the listener as well. Here. Okay, I just
Speaker 1: didn't want anybody thrown off or or thinking I've made
Speaker 1: a permanent switch to a different microphone or room or whatever.
Speaker 1: But before we got going here, we were indeed talking
Speaker 1: about the room I'm in is just covered in the
Speaker 1: posters that I thought were cool in high school, a
Speaker 1: solid majority of which have Jim Morrison on them. Well,
Speaker 1: you also have the uh the Monty Python um poster
Speaker 1: on on the wall there from the Monty Python the
Speaker 1: Holy Grail. That's still cool. I think that that still
Speaker 1: holds up and which Rob initially thought was a family portrait. Well,
Speaker 1: I couldn't see all of it. Your head was blocking
Speaker 1: part of it. So I just saw sort of half
Speaker 1: of Eric Idol's face, the big mustache, and I was like,
Speaker 1: could be as like seventies early eighties family photo. Could
Speaker 1: be an album cover I'm not recognizing. But then yeah,
Speaker 1: when you moved your head, it was clear it was
Speaker 1: Monty Python. I could see it. Yes, Eric Idle could
Speaker 1: well be my um my wild West outlaw grandpa. Well,
Speaker 1: we we have a pretty fun movie to talk about
Speaker 1: this week. We're returning once more to the exciting world
Speaker 1: of Spanish B movies, and this one's also a true
Speaker 1: monster fest or real real monster slabber knocker here, except
Speaker 1: you're not getting the universal monsters of Dracula, Frankenstein, the Wolfman,
Speaker 1: and the Mummy. No, you're getting Count Janos. You're getting
Speaker 1: the monster of Frankle. I Gains. I'm not even sure
Speaker 1: if I'm saying this right for wrong Salon. I think yes,
Speaker 1: for wrong Salon's monster you don't want You can't call
Speaker 1: him for wrong Salon. He's for Salon. You can call
Speaker 1: him for Salon. It's okay. But there's more. There's Taletet
Speaker 1: the Mummy, and then there is the Werewolf, Count Valdemar Danyinsky.
Speaker 1: What a cast this is? Now? How could you fit
Speaker 1: all of these classic monsters into a film unless it
Speaker 1: also had Abbott and Costello in it. Well, yeah, the
Speaker 1: the alchemy of this film is going to be kind
Speaker 1: of fun to discuss. But the result is Assignment Terror,
Speaker 1: which comes out in nineteen seventy also known as The
Speaker 1: Monster Years of Terror. That's the direct translation of the
Speaker 1: original Spanish title Los Monstros Still Terror. It's a Spanish, German,
Speaker 1: Italian co production. It came out under various names. I
Speaker 1: heard that the original screenplay had the title Operation Terror,
Speaker 1: and I think in Mexico was released as as the
Speaker 1: Spanish of Operation Terror. But it also had a number
Speaker 1: of other release titles, which is pretty standard of the day,
Speaker 1: including um some releases that promoted it as Dracula Versus Frankenstein. Yes,
Speaker 1: there is a an off brand Dracula. There is an
Speaker 1: off brand Frankenstein in this film, but they never fight
Speaker 1: each other. They're on the same team. Yeah, that's true.
Speaker 1: I think it was also somewhere called Frankenstein versus The
Speaker 1: blood Sucker Did I read that right? I think probably so. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and uh that that also is not accurate. But they
Speaker 1: have very different energies, but they're both bad guys. Though
Speaker 1: there is a monster on monster combat, yes, but it's
Speaker 1: just it's just not that matchup. It's ultimately were Wolf
Speaker 1: versus everybody. I think that's right. Yeah, And and I
Speaker 1: believe also didn't this film in a way give rise
Speaker 1: to a series or other sequels that were more focused
Speaker 1: on the Wolfman as a hero. Wait, we just went
Speaker 1: off Mike to look up whether what I said was correct.
Speaker 1: It was not correct. This is the third in a
Speaker 1: series of like a dozen movies that are all Paul
Speaker 1: Nashy centric, and they're of a very hairy persuasion. Yes,
Speaker 1: Paul Nashy playing this were wolf character, the doomed Count
Speaker 1: Valdemar Deninski. It's very much based on the the energy
Speaker 1: of the old universal Wolfman movies, the old Lawn Cheney
Speaker 1: Junior stuff, which Paul Nashy apparently just really idolized, looked
Speaker 1: up to to this man and looked up to these
Speaker 1: films and channel that in his performance and in his
Speaker 1: writing of these various pictures. But they're not a continuous
Speaker 1: narrative either, like you don't need to you don't need
Speaker 1: a set all in and start watching the dozen or
Speaker 1: so count Valdemar Dninsky uh films. I think you can
Speaker 1: jump in wherever you want and sort of make your
Speaker 1: choice based on how weird that particular picture is, because
Speaker 1: they seem to get pretty weird that I have not seen,
Speaker 1: uh any of the other ones yet, but they vary greatly.
Speaker 1: Some I think are more traditional sort of universal esque
Speaker 1: gothic horror films about a doomed werewolf character, but there
Speaker 1: are others where he like travels to like China, into
Speaker 1: beet and battles other monsters or encounters martial arts. The
Speaker 1: werewolf goes West. Yeah, I mean, there's plenty of places
Speaker 1: that a werewolf on the run can go to. Uh So,
Speaker 1: what would you would you say for elevator pitch? It's
Speaker 1: something like Assignment Terror is a film in which aliens
Speaker 1: from the planet Umo decided to conquer the weak, pathetic, emotional,
Speaker 1: impulsive Earthlings by resurrecting store brand versions of the universal
Speaker 1: monster movies Monsters. Yeah, pretty much. This is not Plan
Speaker 1: nine from outer Space, but I'm guessing this might be
Speaker 1: Planned ten or perhaps Plan eight. I'm not sure where
Speaker 1: this particular plan falls into place, but yeah, it seems
Speaker 1: to revolve around unslaying famous monsters, and if memory serves there,
Speaker 1: they at least make passing reference to a plan to
Speaker 1: sort of combine elements of them to make like an
Speaker 1: army of super monsters that will conquer the planet for them.
Speaker 1: But we never get to that point where you have
Speaker 1: like even a prototype for our heroes to battle, which
Speaker 1: I assume that's where they wanted to go, and maybe
Speaker 1: the budget wasn't there. This film has at least seventeen
Speaker 1: unfired Tchehov's guns. It has Chekhov's golem, which is never
Speaker 1: delivered upon the There's tons of stuff like that, just
Speaker 1: sort of an issue that's raised and then forgotten about
Speaker 1: another thing. I wonder what you think about this, Rob
Speaker 1: I detected a critique in which Assignment Terror is actually
Speaker 1: a film attacking certain types of meritocracy narratives by ironically
Speaker 1: contrasting the aliens in this movie, giving these incessant, smug
Speaker 1: monologues about their superior worthiness and intellect and compared to
Speaker 1: the humans, their relative lack of impulsiveness and emotion, and
Speaker 1: contrasting that with scenes of those same aliens getting killed
Speaker 1: by Frankenstein because oops, they had a crush on somebody. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think that's a that's a good read on what's
Speaker 1: happening in the film. It it's it is hard to
Speaker 1: hard to drill down to the core of what Paul Nashy,
Speaker 1: who not only stars in it but also wrote the screenplay,
Speaker 1: was really going for here other than you know, clearly
Speaker 1: there's a lot of love for monsters and monster movies
Speaker 1: and uh. And it has been pointed out, including pointed
Speaker 1: out by film historian Troy Howarth in the commentary track
Speaker 1: for the Blu Ray edition that I watched for this
Speaker 1: from Scorpion Releasing, Like he really points out that Paula actually,
Speaker 1: along with O Sario and Jess Franco, it was really
Speaker 1: kind of a profit of horror in Spain at the time.
Speaker 1: Like he was basically a voice, a creator and actor
Speaker 1: at the time coming into Spanish cinema granted at up
Speaker 1: at a B or lower level and saying monster movies, horror,
Speaker 1: this is what we need. These are amazing things. We
Speaker 1: need them, and uh, into a certain extent, maybe it's
Speaker 1: Spain was perhaps not ready at the time yet, but
Speaker 1: eventually they received the message and embraced it. So much
Speaker 1: like this film might not have been made under ideal conditions,
Speaker 1: I also watched it under non ideal conditions. Normally I
Speaker 1: would try to, you know, for a for a weird
Speaker 1: house movie, I try to put it on the big
Speaker 1: screen if possible. But I watched this one on an
Speaker 1: iPad on a bed at my in law's house during
Speaker 1: baby nap time. But nevertheless, I could tell that this
Speaker 1: movie is a jolly good time and should become a
Speaker 1: staple of Halloween. Goof reels the world around. Multiple times,
Speaker 1: I accidentally woke my baby up with my laughter. Well
Speaker 1: that that in and on itself is kind of terrifying,
Speaker 1: but also good good sign on the laughter side there.
Speaker 1: I mean, she got right back to sleep. It was okay,
Speaker 1: But I mean it was that kind of viewing experience. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's a it's a fun flick. It uh it it
Speaker 1: holds up pretty well. It's it is better than some
Speaker 1: reviewers would have you believe. I think. I before we
Speaker 1: actually watched it, I'd run across some reviews who maybe, um, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, heaped a little bit too much dirt on it,
Speaker 1: and we're a little too quick to dismiss it. I mean, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's a it's a lower budget picture, but there are
Speaker 1: many ways in which they seem to do a really
Speaker 1: good job with their limited resources. So it's it's it's
Speaker 1: very watchable and also, I guess kind of shocking for
Speaker 1: some for a picture from this time period and and
Speaker 1: from the sort of the B cinema horror world. It's
Speaker 1: not really graphic or anything. There's some there's some bloody
Speaker 1: scenes in there, but nothing too bad. We've we've definitely
Speaker 1: seen worse on the show. Uh Yeah, as far as
Speaker 1: the blood goes, it's very catchup level. It's it's not
Speaker 1: anything too convincing. Yeah, one more thing I wanted to
Speaker 1: say about this movie for a non alien, non monster
Speaker 1: psychatronic element to discuss, can we give a nod to
Speaker 1: the interior decor in Assignment Terror? I was so I
Speaker 1: was watching it with Rachel and she could not help
Speaker 1: but observe the pattern of interiors of people's homes with
Speaker 1: wallpaper on every surface, including the ceilings. Ceiling wallpaper with
Speaker 1: chaotic or disorganized color schemes that that don't really match
Speaker 1: one another. It was disorienting at times. Yeah, there's some
Speaker 1: wild wallpaper and in general indoor decor in this in
Speaker 1: this particular film. Yeah. Also there's a great go go
Speaker 1: club where the walls are just out of this world. Uh.
Speaker 1: And it made me think also about I mentioned this earlier,
Speaker 1: but the fact that the Aliens take up residence in
Speaker 1: what is repeatedly called a monastery. But it's just like
Speaker 1: it's like a castle. It's full of suits of armor
Speaker 1: and battle axes. Yeah, I noticed. I ended up doing
Speaker 1: this thing where on the Blu ray, the Scorpion releasing
Speaker 1: Blue Ray, which again is really great. Um, you had
Speaker 1: the choice of watching it in Spanish with English subtitles
Speaker 1: or English dubbing. Uh. And I went with the English dubbing,
Speaker 1: but I used the subtitles as well. And if the
Speaker 1: subtitles were different, because it's you know, it's it's not
Speaker 1: all interconnected there of course, And so the subtitles were
Speaker 1: saying castle and the dubbing was saying monastery. So I
Speaker 1: don't know which is is true or to the original.
Speaker 1: I see a question about your viewing experience. I wonder
Speaker 1: if there are different versions of this, uh this out
Speaker 1: there right now? On mine, I would call the editing
Speaker 1: rather choppy. There were a lot of moments where the
Speaker 1: film would cut before the sound would change, or something
Speaker 1: like a sound from our previous scene continues into the
Speaker 1: new scene, or it would or there would be a
Speaker 1: cut right in the middle of a musical theme without
Speaker 1: the melody resolving. M hmm. I don't know. I didn't
Speaker 1: notice anything that jarring in my viewing of it, but
Speaker 1: but I was also taking more notes than usual during it.
Speaker 1: So except for the final twenty minutes of the picture,
Speaker 1: in which case I set the computer aside and just
Speaker 1: settled in for the monster battle. But no, I thought
Speaker 1: they might have cleaned it up a bit on this,
Speaker 1: because this is a pretty pretty good look. It's a
Speaker 1: very colorful film. Um it's I mean, it's not a
Speaker 1: Mario Baba picture by any stretch of the imagination. But
Speaker 1: there's some fun gaels and there are some nice colors
Speaker 1: in the Mad Science labs. There's some great scenes of uh,
Speaker 1: you know, some some various towns and locations in I
Speaker 1: think mostly in Spain, but also a little bit in Germany.
Speaker 1: And uh, it's it's a pleasant picture to look at it.
Speaker 1: It doesn't it doesn't look as cheap as perhaps it might.
Speaker 1: Have been. Oh and speaking of location, yeah, the castles
Speaker 1: are also really great. Um there are a lot of these,
Speaker 1: like ruined cathedral, ruined castle, set slash locations, and in
Speaker 1: many respects they look a lot like the very same
Speaker 1: locations you see in other Spanish horror movies like two
Speaker 1: of the Blind Dead movies and um um horror Rises
Speaker 1: from the Tomb. But they look really good. And I'm
Speaker 1: not entirely clear on the science of applying fake spider
Speaker 1: webs to things, but boy did they apply some fake
Speaker 1: spider webs in this movie, and that the results look
Speaker 1: pretty darn good. They lay it on thick. Yeah. Uh.
Speaker 1: So I mentioned the commentary track by a Film and
Speaker 1: Story and Troy Howarth, and I want to point out
Speaker 1: just a few other little points that he makes. It's
Speaker 1: this is a guy who's has written, I believe, a
Speaker 1: whole book on Paul Nashy, so he's perhaps the uh
Speaker 1: the English language expert on the man. But a couple
Speaker 1: of things that he pointed out that I thought we'd
Speaker 1: rather telling with this film. So first of all, this
Speaker 1: is a film that you don't have to be a
Speaker 1: film historian or even an expert in genre to realize
Speaker 1: that it has a bit of a crisis of identity.
Speaker 1: There parts of it that feel more like a universal
Speaker 1: horror movie knockoff. There are other parts that feel more
Speaker 1: like a like a police thriller, spy movies sort of
Speaker 1: a thing. Uh, you know, kind of late sixties Bond
Speaker 1: sort of stuff. And according to Howard, part of that
Speaker 1: is because Spain wasn't really ready for horror yet. So again, Nasci,
Speaker 1: oh Sario Franco would all be three key players and
Speaker 1: bringing about the Spanish horror scene. But it's telling that
Speaker 1: so much of the film keeps switching back to non
Speaker 1: horror fare. So things get a little monstery, but then
Speaker 1: they get kind of super villainy again, or then they
Speaker 1: get You spent a lot of time with the investigators
Speaker 1: in the film that are just kind of living bondesque
Speaker 1: lifestyles as they investigate missing persons cases. Yeah, there are
Speaker 1: a lot of non monster scenes that could be from Danger,
Speaker 1: Diabolic or something. Yeah. Uh, and I thought those were
Speaker 1: pretty fun too. Earthmen describes them as sort of less
Speaker 1: exciting and maybe kind of bringing the engagement down a bit,
Speaker 1: but I have they were pretty fun. He also points
Speaker 1: out that Nashi was a huge fan of ninety three,
Speaker 1: Frankenstein meets the Wolfman, and that's heavily reflected in the film.
Speaker 1: There's a vampire side show bit that apparently is right
Speaker 1: out of House of Frankenstein. He also points out the
Speaker 1: most of its filmed in Spain, but some shots are
Speaker 1: in Germany. Again, it was a Spanish, German, Italian production,
Speaker 1: and this was really interesting. He points out that it's
Speaker 1: set in Germany and at the time it was actually
Speaker 1: forbidden for Spanish horror movies to be set in Spain.
Speaker 1: It had to be somewhere else. In Germany was often
Speaker 1: a good pick because you know, there's a certain Gothic
Speaker 1: um allure to German settings with horror stories like this,
Speaker 1: and also German money was often involved in the productions,
Speaker 1: so they're it was, you know, a shoe in to
Speaker 1: to get some maybe even get some some actual locations
Speaker 1: in Germany. But this reminds me of how films like
Speaker 1: Return of the Blind Dead, which we previously covered on
Speaker 1: Weird How Cinema. I believe that film was set in
Speaker 1: Portugal and it wasn't the lorialized grasps that in Germany. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's right. That was supposed to be a German horror
Speaker 1: story set in a German locale. So that's a funny regulation.
Speaker 1: Like it was sort of a type of censorship law.
Speaker 1: And it wasn't that you can't make horror movies. It
Speaker 1: was just like you can't set them in Spain. Yeah,
Speaker 1: like we're not saying that horror doesn't exist, but just
Speaker 1: not within the borders of Spain. Oh. You could almost
Speaker 1: take a weird nationalist interpretation on that, like horror only
Speaker 1: takes place elsewhere. Yeah, monsters only exist in other countries.
Speaker 1: Al Right. Well, on that note, let's go in and
Speaker 1: hear some of the trailer audio for Assignment Terror m
Speaker 1: whom more two or six calling Earth reply, Please contact
Speaker 1: made Kirian DNA surgeon killed in war action, Malabor Cheirstein,
Speaker 1: doctor of biochemistry killed in automobile accident. Both persons have
Speaker 1: required characteristics and have been incarnated by our envoys. They
Speaker 1: will contact you. Remember, success of mission depends on exploiting
Speaker 1: to the whole the superstitions prevalent among the Earth creatures.
Speaker 1: The first objective is blushed at fairground. M m m
Speaker 1: m m M. Now I think that had a little
Speaker 1: bit of a groovy music that will refer back to
Speaker 1: in it there. So this is again, this is a
Speaker 1: picture that is and you see it reflected in the score.
Speaker 1: At times the score is very spooky and scary and
Speaker 1: kind of gothic. But other times it cuts loose and
Speaker 1: it's a little bit groovy. It's a little you know,
Speaker 1: it's a go go dancers and and so forth. It's
Speaker 1: my happening baby, and it freaks me out. All right,
Speaker 1: let's start talking about some of the folks involved in this.
Speaker 1: At the top, we have the credited director of Tulio
Speaker 1: di Michelle, who lived nineteen fourteen through nine Argentinian born
Speaker 1: Spanish director, writer and film producer. He directed and wrote
Speaker 1: I Think a Good sixty films from nine seven and
Speaker 1: is veryently best known for his work in tango films.
Speaker 1: Um and worked with some major tango stars of the
Speaker 1: Golden Age of Argentine cinema, such as uh Tita Morello.
Speaker 1: Uh Tango of course as as a dance style, and
Speaker 1: it originated in the Rio de la Plata region on
Speaker 1: the border of Argentina and Uruguay during the late nineteenth century.
Speaker 1: And I have to admit, like tango cinema is not
Speaker 1: something that I had any familiarity with or even really
Speaker 1: knew was a thing. But it makes sense given you
Speaker 1: if you have any kind of popular craze, if it
Speaker 1: is occurring, deering or in close proximity to the age
Speaker 1: of cinema, somebody's gonna say, hey, we can do a
Speaker 1: movie about that. Sure. So a lot of the bigger
Speaker 1: films that Di michelle was involved with were either tango
Speaker 1: films or they were serious Golden Age dramas, but he
Speaker 1: seems to have dipped his toes into various genres over
Speaker 1: the years, including westerns, swashbucklers, thrillers, and comedies. But if
Speaker 1: I'm not mistaken, this may be the only film he
Speaker 1: worked on that could be described as sort of a
Speaker 1: pure horror slash science fiction property to the extent that
Speaker 1: it is, because again, it's also kind of confused and
Speaker 1: exactly what it is. Yeah. It's also worth pointing out
Speaker 1: that there are additional names that are mentioned as having
Speaker 1: some sort of hand in directing this picture, all of
Speaker 1: them uncredited on the the initial release. Argentine director Hugo
Speaker 1: freganas a, Spanish director Antonio Saucy says Mindy, and German
Speaker 1: producer er Hard Mischner Uh they all have uncredited um
Speaker 1: directing mentions on IMDb, with south as Mendy noted as
Speaker 1: having actually finished the film. There were allegedly a lot
Speaker 1: of production problems due to financial difficulties, which also impacted
Speaker 1: their ability to bring what sounds like a pretty loaded
Speaker 1: script to life. Uh. The original screenplay apparently had golems
Speaker 1: and flying saucers in it, in addition to all the
Speaker 1: other fantastic elements that are already present. I think they
Speaker 1: basically told the screenwriter, Hey, go go nuts, have a
Speaker 1: great time. We've we've got we've got all the money
Speaker 1: in the world to make this film, and just go
Speaker 1: ahead and write it. However your heart pulls you. But
Speaker 1: I feel like they didn't even go back and and
Speaker 1: correct for that in post because I mentioned the mini
Speaker 1: unfired Chekhov's guns in this One of them is the golem.
Speaker 1: We're giving a full set up with like a page
Speaker 1: in a book that displays the golem, like along with
Speaker 1: all the other pages of the monsters we're gonna meet.
Speaker 1: So we're promised to golem, and then there's just no golem.
Speaker 1: It's never never mentioned again. Yeah, And then I wonder
Speaker 1: how much of it is is that? And how much
Speaker 1: of it is is budget cuts and then how much
Speaker 1: of it is the screenwriter just bringing a lot of
Speaker 1: zeal and a lot of ideas to the table, because again,
Speaker 1: it's a movie that has like four monsters, aliens, various
Speaker 1: murders and kidnappings, and there's a lot to work with here. Well,
Speaker 1: they could have at least gone back and scrubbed that
Speaker 1: out of the scene, like cut before he turns to
Speaker 1: the golem page. I don't know, Yeah, yeah, I agree.
Speaker 1: So the screenplay writer here is also Paul Nashy. I
Speaker 1: can't remember if we've mentioned that already, but yes, Paul
Speaker 1: Nashy wrote it, uh screenplay and story, and he plays
Speaker 1: the werewolf Valdemara Denyinsky in this. Uh yeah, this is
Speaker 1: the legendary Paul Nashy lived nineteen through two thousand and nine.
Speaker 1: Paul Nashy is both a beast and a machine. You
Speaker 1: know how there's like the classic uh tales, Tales of struggle.
Speaker 1: You know, you have man versus nature and man versus
Speaker 1: the machine. Paul Nashy is all three of those things. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he is. Ah, He's a fascinating figure, a fascinating cinematic presence.
Speaker 1: This is only the second film of his that we've
Speaker 1: talked about, the other being the ninety three film Horror
Speaker 1: Rises from the Tomb, in which he plays an undying
Speaker 1: beheaded wizard, and and in that he has a lot
Speaker 1: more screen time. He has far more opportunity to really
Speaker 1: chew the scenery. In this film, he's one of several
Speaker 1: monsters he doesn't have as much screen time. Uh, and
Speaker 1: he only has a few scenes where he really gets
Speaker 1: to break out and bring all the emotion, often when
Speaker 1: changing into a werewolf. Oh and by the way, if
Speaker 1: you're trying to picture it, this is not the American
Speaker 1: werewolf in London, long snout, dog like werewolf. This is
Speaker 1: the classic universal style werewolf, the lawn Cheney junior style werewolf. Yeah. Absolutely,
Speaker 1: I mean that's where Paul Nashy's heart was, and so
Speaker 1: that's the sort of where wold if you see with
Speaker 1: Count Valdimerica Ninsky, who again pops up in a good
Speaker 1: dozen films over the years. Um, we we talked about
Speaker 1: Paul Nashi a good bit on the Horizon from the
Speaker 1: Tomb episode. I'm not gonna go through all of it again,
Speaker 1: but yeah, basically have a guy that was born into
Speaker 1: a pretty successful Furrier's family during the UH during the
Speaker 1: Spanish Civil War, and initially he was going to pursue
Speaker 1: a serious adult life of professional weightlifting and architecture, but
Speaker 1: deep down he wanted to be the Wolfman. He'd seen
Speaker 1: Um Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman at a very early age
Speaker 1: and apparently had a huge impact on him. He idolized
Speaker 1: Lon Cheney Jr. And his career as a result of
Speaker 1: of that long and I remember thinking in hor Rizes
Speaker 1: from the Tomb that he also, uh, he sort of
Speaker 1: wrote the movie as a showcase for his own coolness,
Speaker 1: like this is a movie about how Paul Nashy is awesome. Yeah. Well,
Speaker 1: he did play three characters in that movie, yes, uh
Speaker 1: yeah yeah, and several of them he gets to show
Speaker 1: off his muscles pretty good. Paul Nashy is buff. But
Speaker 1: another thing I had question about, what do you think
Speaker 1: it means that Paul Nashi spent his life wanting to
Speaker 1: be Lawn Cheney Jr. And wanting to play these werewolf
Speaker 1: characters and he came from a Furrier family. Mm hmmm.
Speaker 1: I'm I'm assuming that's something that that people like ho
Speaker 1: Earth have have explored. I mean, there's just there seems
Speaker 1: like there's some sort of connection there. Yeah. So he
Speaker 1: spends his childhood, uh you know, walking through the shop
Speaker 1: rubbing on these animal furs and either thinks I could
Speaker 1: be this further, this fur could cover me, I could
Speaker 1: be the wolfman, or thinks I could be the creature
Speaker 1: that hunts these animals in the wild. Yeah. So again
Speaker 1: in this film, he's he's not the main character, but
Speaker 1: he's still he was able to ride himself a number
Speaker 1: of cool parts. He got his stuff in for sure. Now, Uh,
Speaker 1: the top build actor and that's probably the at the time.
Speaker 1: Certainly the most famous actor in this film is Michael
Speaker 1: Renny who lived nineteen o nine through one. He plays
Speaker 1: our chief um antagonist. I guess, uh, dr Odo Vornoff.
Speaker 1: He in this movie is kind of like a cross
Speaker 1: between Grand mof Tarkin and King Charles of England. Yeah,
Speaker 1: except he's also an alien and I wasn't sure on this.
Speaker 1: Is he also an alien that's stolen a dead man's body? Yes,
Speaker 1: that's correct. Yes, The main two aliens in this film
Speaker 1: are somehow like aliens psychic projections that inhabit the resurrected
Speaker 1: corpses of Earth scientists, which is you know you're gonna
Speaker 1: I'm gonna do it. That's that's a pretty good way
Speaker 1: to do it, less paperwork that way. So like they
Speaker 1: refer to this character as Dr Vornoff, which a little
Speaker 1: side note at the second possible Edwood connection. So the
Speaker 1: plot of this film is in a way a redo
Speaker 1: of Plan nine from outer space. You know, aliens are
Speaker 1: going to resurrect the dead or monsters to it act
Speaker 1: the living, and that's part of their envisioned plan. The
Speaker 1: other thing is the main alien is named Dr Vornoff,
Speaker 1: which is Bella Legosi's character's name in Bride of the Monster,
Speaker 1: the other main Uh Edward movie from the fifties. Well
Speaker 1: that can't be a mistake, um, in part because I
Speaker 1: know that Whole Earth points out that there are a
Speaker 1: few other characters in this whose names are clear connections
Speaker 1: to Universal Monster pictures. So um, I mean, I'm not
Speaker 1: entirely sure if Paul Nash she had seen any Edward movies,
Speaker 1: but I mean clearly he was a big fan of
Speaker 1: guys like Lan Jr. And Bella Legosi, So it seems
Speaker 1: probable or they could be taking from a common source.
Speaker 1: I wonder if Edwood got the name Vornoff from some
Speaker 1: other previous monster movie. That's true, great great minds may
Speaker 1: just think alike. Yeah, so, Michael Rennie Uh, a name
Speaker 1: that I imagine a lot of you were familiar with.
Speaker 1: Either you remember him from playing klap To in the
Speaker 1: science fiction film The Day the Earth Stood Still from
Speaker 1: or if you haven't seen that, you probably know that.
Speaker 1: He has referenced in the lyrics for science fiction Double
Speaker 1: Feature from the Rocky Horror Picture Show. Other films of
Speaker 1: note include nineteen sixties The Lost World, nineteen sixty nine
Speaker 1: is the Battle of l a Lamine, and nineteen fifty
Speaker 1: two Le Miss Robs, in which he plays Jean Valjean. Uh,
Speaker 1: this is the main character, as I remember, I've it's
Speaker 1: been a while since I sped read uh this novel
Speaker 1: in school, and it's been a while since I've seen
Speaker 1: the musical. Oh yeah, well John val Jean. Yes, he
Speaker 1: is the main character. He is the uh it's all
Speaker 1: you know his it's his redemption arc. He begins as
Speaker 1: a as a as a thief who is imprisoned after
Speaker 1: stealing bread to I think feed his sister's starving child
Speaker 1: or something, and then he's in prison for many years
Speaker 1: but then he escapes prison and then he dedicates his
Speaker 1: life to goodness and he's very strong, and he's pursued
Speaker 1: all the time by the inspector Javert. Oh yeah yeah.
Speaker 1: And then he um, he meets that hun back and
Speaker 1: he has to wear that iron mask for a while
Speaker 1: and he he has his face gets scarred, and he
Speaker 1: starts living in that opera house. Yeah, there are a
Speaker 1: lot of ins and outs. I'm not gonna lie. I'm
Speaker 1: a sucker for the musical. I love him is so.
Speaker 1: Michael Renney was also a Nree is the Robe. Here's
Speaker 1: a lot of war films and thrillers over the course
Speaker 1: of his long career, fair amount of TV as well. Um.
Speaker 1: He pops up in the nineteen sixties Batman series as
Speaker 1: the villain Sandman, who I don't remember this guy, but
Speaker 1: he does not look like whatever you're thinking. If you're
Speaker 1: not familiar with us and you're imagining like a d
Speaker 1: C comic book Sandman, this is not it. He he
Speaker 1: has like a big fur coat on the I just
Speaker 1: looked him up. Okay, Well, to come back to the
Speaker 1: theme of fur coats. Yes, I don't know what else
Speaker 1: to say about him. He's very distinguished looking. Uh. He
Speaker 1: he looks like a like a man of great stature
Speaker 1: and who deserving of respect. And he's wearing a gigantic, thick,
Speaker 1: thick her coat. Yeah. So Assignment Terror was his final picture,
Speaker 1: but it isn't the only European B movie that he did.
Speaker 1: He also appeared in Antonio Margaretti's film The Young, the
Speaker 1: Evil and the Savage, which which was a Jollo film
Speaker 1: that was also released under the title Naked You Die Man.
Speaker 1: They were great with titles, weren't they. Yeah. But so
Speaker 1: before this, I mainly knew him as clot Too. He's
Speaker 1: clat too in the famous as you said, the Day
Speaker 1: the Earth Stood Still. He's great in that role in
Speaker 1: this movie. Uh, you know, Michael Renney, he's got good presence.
Speaker 1: But I'm gonna be honest, he's kind of phoning it in.
Speaker 1: I get the feeling he's sort of collecting a paycheck
Speaker 1: on this film. Yeah, but still he's Michael Renney, So
Speaker 1: you know, he's he's excelling, even if he's if for
Speaker 1: his own ability, he's just kind of keeping it at
Speaker 1: mid level. Yes. Now, a lot of the secondary actors, though,
Speaker 1: give much more impassion to performances, and I would say
Speaker 1: one of them is Karen dor Yeah. She plays Maliva
Speaker 1: or malva Um, who is a science that she's okay,
Speaker 1: she's a scient a dead scientist, right, No, yeah, yes,
Speaker 1: both of them. She's she's just like Michael Renney. She
Speaker 1: plays an alien who is like a psychic projection inhabiting
Speaker 1: the body, the resurrected body of a dead Earth scientist.
Speaker 1: I was really confused about who she played at first,
Speaker 1: because she is probably best remembered as a redheaded actor.
Speaker 1: Uh she has red hair. In nineteen seven's You Only
Speaker 1: Live Twice, the Bond film, she's she's not a Bond girl,
Speaker 1: She's a Bond girl villain, right. She's Um, an underling
Speaker 1: of one of the adversaries in that picture. She works
Speaker 1: for Donald Pleasants as blow Feld, and she there's a
Speaker 1: scene where I think she's supposed to kill James Bond,
Speaker 1: but instead she's won over by his charms and somehow
Speaker 1: he gets away, and then as punishment, Donald Pleasants drops
Speaker 1: her into his pit of piranhas and she is stripped
Speaker 1: to the bone by the by the toothy fish. Uh Man,
Speaker 1: we still need to come back and do episodes on Piranhas.
Speaker 1: But anyway, Karen Door was also in nineteen sixty seven
Speaker 1: The Torture Chamber of Doctor Sadism with it's a very
Speaker 1: tasteful sounding film. Yeah, various German films of the fifties
Speaker 1: and sixties, including nineteen sixty two is the Carpet of Horror,
Speaker 1: a title that got me really excited at first, because
Speaker 1: I was imagining some sort of a monster carpet, like
Speaker 1: hopefully some sort of shag carpet that eats people. But
Speaker 1: it doesn't seem to be about that. It seems to
Speaker 1: be about like some sort of like um gas based
Speaker 1: murders or something, some sort of thriller. What okay, then,
Speaker 1: why is it called that? I don't know, I don't know,
Speaker 1: but I'm I'm less curious now that it doesn't seem
Speaker 1: like it's a monster carpet, death carpet, the carpet that
Speaker 1: these people. Uh well, so in this one, she yeah,
Speaker 1: she plays an alien and uh she she sort of
Speaker 1: learns to love before the other alien, main alien does her.
Speaker 1: I guess maybe he never does. But she gets a
Speaker 1: lot of stern lecturing by Michael Rennie. Yeah, there's a
Speaker 1: whole lot of lecturing going on in this film about
Speaker 1: passion and about how passion is a human weakness. And
Speaker 1: even though you've taken on the form slash body of
Speaker 1: a dead human, don't you dare have human emotions, because
Speaker 1: they will, They'll mess you up, they'll derail the whole plan.
Speaker 1: And of course that's exactly what seems to happen, right,
Speaker 1: that they're what makes humanity weak and why we are
Speaker 1: the rightful inheritors of this planet. We're They're emotional and
Speaker 1: we're not. They're impulsive and we're not. Now, our hero
Speaker 1: of sorts in this film would be Inspector Toberman played
Speaker 1: by Craig Hill, who lived through Uh. We kept laughing
Speaker 1: at him. I think this detective he's supposed to he's
Speaker 1: very handsome, and he's supposed to you know, woo the
Speaker 1: lady who will get to in a minute. But he
Speaker 1: is just such a dope. Yeah yeah, Now, now Craig
Speaker 1: Hill himself playing the character American actor who had a
Speaker 1: small role in nineteen fifties All About Eve. He also
Speaker 1: appears in the Italian horror film The Bloodstained Shadow from
Speaker 1: seventy eight. Uh. He was apparently a twentieth century Fox
Speaker 1: contract player who then moved to Spain mostly to work
Speaker 1: in western so if you look him up, you'll see
Speaker 1: a lot of pictures of him in cowboy hats. He
Speaker 1: has just very expressive eyes, you know, eyes that really
Speaker 1: really look good, uh, staring out from under the brim
Speaker 1: of a cowboy hat, that kind of thing. In this
Speaker 1: he's your don't think he does ultimately does a good job,
Speaker 1: but he's playing your standard smoking and drinking detective who
Speaker 1: just might fall in love a few times rather inappropriately,
Speaker 1: um as he investigates the case. Yeah, this film has
Speaker 1: several scenes of like, oh, guess these people are kissing now, Okay, Yeah,
Speaker 1: And the main person he ends up kissing is this character,
Speaker 1: um Ilsa sternberg Elsa, played by Patty Shepherd, who lived nineteen.
Speaker 1: She was an American born actor who appeared in a
Speaker 1: whole host of notable Spanish B movies up through the
Speaker 1: late nineteen eighties. I believe her connection with Spain began
Speaker 1: as a child, as she was the daughter of the
Speaker 1: United States Air Force Brigadier General Leland C. Shepherd Jr.
Speaker 1: Uh She's um She's the sister of actor Judith Chapman,
Speaker 1: who is mostly known for her soap opera work, but
Speaker 1: also pops up in films like Night of the Running
Speaker 1: Man and is King Richard. But yeah, Patty Shepherd is
Speaker 1: a face you'll recognize if you watch a lot of
Speaker 1: Spanish films from the UH from from this time period,
Speaker 1: from the nineteen seventies especially. Her mini credits include seventy
Speaker 1: ones The Werewolf Versus the Vampire Woman. That's another Paul
Speaker 1: Nashy werewolf picture. And I believe she plays the vampire
Speaker 1: or a vampire in that. Okay, I'd watch that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: she's in seventy two, Is My Dear Killer nineteen seventy
Speaker 1: two is a House without Frontiers, which I don't think
Speaker 1: has any connection to Peter Gabriel Um nineteen seventy three,
Speaker 1: Crypt of the Living Dead nine seven's rest in Pieces,
Speaker 1: slugs in Night Edge of the Acts. Slugs. Is that
Speaker 1: a Is that a one Piquer Simone movie? It is? Yeah, Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's a It's a pretty it's pretty gross one, pretty
Speaker 1: stupid one that we may have to come back to. Um.
Speaker 1: But oh oh, but she Patty Shephard was also in
Speaker 1: a hole in a string of westerns as well. Her
Speaker 1: westerns include twenty Paces to Death from nineteen seventy, The
Speaker 1: Legend of Frenchie King from seventy one. The Man Called
Speaker 1: Noon from seventy three and nineteen seventy four is The
Speaker 1: Stranger and the Gunfighter. I cannot emphasize enough that The
Speaker 1: Stranger and the Gunfighter stars Levan Cliff opposite Hong Kong
Speaker 1: action star low Ley. It was a kung fu spaghetti
Speaker 1: western comedy film directed by Antonio Margaretti and co produced
Speaker 1: the Shaw Brothers, WHOA I've yeah, I've never heard of that.
Speaker 1: I would watch it. I will also say you included
Speaker 1: a picture of of Patti Shephard in her role in
Speaker 1: The Man Called Noon, and she looks awesome. She she
Speaker 1: does cowboy cowboy get up really well. Absolutely yeah. So,
Speaker 1: like I said, she was kind of a standard casting
Speaker 1: of the time period. Alright. So going back to the
Speaker 1: aliens that are inhabiting human form, the other main alien
Speaker 1: crony is Dr Kirian, played by um Agel del Pozo,
Speaker 1: Spanish actor who also pops up in the Star studied
Speaker 1: nine three film The Three Musketeers uh the seventy two
Speaker 1: Spanish film Horror Express. He basically did a lot of
Speaker 1: westerns and in later horror movies. We also have Manuel
Speaker 1: Didlath who plays Count Janos the meal Hoff. This is
Speaker 1: essentially our our our discount Dracula. This is where so
Speaker 1: we're getting into the monsters now. Yeah, we're getting in
Speaker 1: the monsters now. This is our Dracula character and also
Speaker 1: one of two counts. It's kind of confusing that our
Speaker 1: werewolf is account but also our vampire's account. That's true. Okay,
Speaker 1: so as we go, I'm going to rate the Monsters.
Speaker 1: I will say that, uh, this movie is Dracula. I
Speaker 1: enjoyed every time he was on screen because he had
Speaker 1: a kind of a pleasurable, amusing appearance. But also Count
Speaker 1: Yanush is just an absolute cretan, just a wretched dweeb
Speaker 1: and uh Rachel and I were getting offended by the
Speaker 1: shots where they tried to do the Bella lego see
Speaker 1: callbacks with him, like the single shaft of light falling
Speaker 1: across his eyes as he leans over you. And yeah,
Speaker 1: he he is no bella. But I did love his
Speaker 1: hilarious acrobatics and the way he walked around with it.
Speaker 1: He never closed his mouth, He's just walking around going
Speaker 1: the whole time. Yeah, Like, like the directors like we
Speaker 1: want to see those teeth of those teeth. Um, Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's it's not a great Dracula. Luckily the film seems
Speaker 1: to realize that, so they kind of like sideline him.
Speaker 1: You would think Dracula would be the ring leader, like
Speaker 1: he is in Monster Squad or something, but instead he's
Speaker 1: kind of he's kind of a second fiddle player to
Speaker 1: like for Frankenstein or excuse me for rank Salon. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he has more non sperato energy than he has Dracula
Speaker 1: energy in this um, despite clearly having the Dracula makeup Anyway,
Speaker 1: that the actor here is Spanish actor pops up in
Speaker 1: quite a few things over the years. He's but he's
Speaker 1: still active apparently, and has been active since sixty one.
Speaker 1: He was in the Armando Diosario nineteen four Blind Dead movie,
Speaker 1: The Ghost Gallion. He was in seventy four is the Dead,
Speaker 1: The Devil and the Flesh. He was in some of these.
Speaker 1: I'm just listening because the titles are great. Nineteen seventy
Speaker 1: seven's a dog called Vengeance, and then there's Slugs, which
Speaker 1: we already mentioned n The starring Paul McGann and oh
Speaker 1: Christopher Columbus. The Discovery Goya's goes from two thousand six
Speaker 1: and two is Uncharted. Just small parts in those last three,
Speaker 1: but still you know, he's still out there, still getting
Speaker 1: his face on camera. I watched Uncharted on a plane.
Speaker 1: Don't remember who this guy was. I think it was
Speaker 1: a very small part, but he's still out there. Don't
Speaker 1: don't particularly recommend that one. Now. The Monster of Froxylon
Speaker 1: is played by Fernando Morolo, Spanish actor active in film
Speaker 1: and TV through two thousand and seven. Um nothing really
Speaker 1: stood out to me all that all that much though,
Speaker 1: Um I mean, he plays a Frankenstein in this, so
Speaker 1: I'm gonna say, uh different review on the Frankenstein. So
Speaker 1: his makeup not good and makeup not good at all.
Speaker 1: He looks kind of somehow, they kind of make him
Speaker 1: look like Phil Hartman, so I kept doing you might
Speaker 1: remember me from such monster films as you know, Frankenstein
Speaker 1: still cruising or I don't remember what I said, but anyway,
Speaker 1: so he looks like Phil Hartman and kind of yellow green,
Speaker 1: almost kind of vomit colored makeup. It's not a great design,
Speaker 1: but he's a really good presence in this movie. He's
Speaker 1: sort of the main muscle for the villain. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: when they initially unslay him or resurrect him. Um the
Speaker 1: evil alien doctors like he was powered by electricity, We're
Speaker 1: gonna make him atomic, so we get essentially an atomic
Speaker 1: Frankenstein in this So we don't really see much that
Speaker 1: seems to indicate that there is truly atomic energy at
Speaker 1: play in his um anatomy and physicality. Now, but uh yeah,
Speaker 1: I agree, strong presence in the film, but also not
Speaker 1: the best Frankenstein makeup I've seen, not the worst, and
Speaker 1: also the makeup I found looks worse in photographs. When
Speaker 1: you see him in action, it looks a little better.
Speaker 1: I think part of it is that they didn't go
Speaker 1: for the smooth forehead. They seem to go ahead and
Speaker 1: incorporate the line between prosthetic four an actual forehead as
Speaker 1: kind of a scar which and depending on what angle
Speaker 1: you're looking at, it can make it look faker. Yes,
Speaker 1: I agree, you could clearly see he was wearing a cap. Okay,
Speaker 1: But then there's toot At the Mummy played by Gene
Speaker 1: rayas uh He's only only has like thirteen credits that
Speaker 1: I could find, and no birth or death dates, and
Speaker 1: he seems to have been frequently cast as indigenous Americans
Speaker 1: and Westerns, or as Asian or Egyptian characters in various
Speaker 1: genre pictures. Um Preferencetance. He has an uncredited role in
Speaker 1: Just Franco's nine The Castle of fu Manchoose, starring Christopher
Speaker 1: lee h. He plays an Egyptian character in that. Okay,
Speaker 1: that kind of thing that aside, though, what do you
Speaker 1: think of the Mommy costume? Well, the Mommy costume was
Speaker 1: pretty good. And one strange thing about the okay, I
Speaker 1: have all kinds of questions about the different monsters powers.
Speaker 1: I wonder if we should save that for when we
Speaker 1: talk about the plot. But I was not clear on
Speaker 1: what the mummies powers are, like what can the mummy do? Um? Well, like,
Speaker 1: I think this is a common trap of mummy pictures.
Speaker 1: We may have talked about this before you get a
Speaker 1: mummy on screen. The mummy is really convincing, is it's
Speaker 1: it's gonna shambling around? But then how do you do
Speaker 1: the kills? And a lot of times the best you
Speaker 1: can do is kind of a loose strangle, uh, and
Speaker 1: generally not a very convincing strangle. Um. I think I'm
Speaker 1: sure I've mentioned before that I think one of my
Speaker 1: favorite renditions of a killer Mummy is actually Entails from
Speaker 1: the Dark Side, the movie in which the Mummy uh
Speaker 1: like straightens out a coat hanger and remove somebody's brain
Speaker 1: through their nostril, which I thought was nice and uh
Speaker 1: and fitting like fits in with the whole mummification process
Speaker 1: thematically appropriate murder. Yeah, yeah, but a lot of times, Yeah,
Speaker 1: the mummies can be underwhelming. Once you actually get him
Speaker 1: on screen, you gotta you gotta figure out how to
Speaker 1: use them in a threatening manner. And in this film,
Speaker 1: we see the Mummy kill one dude who's already asleep,
Speaker 1: is not a main character, and he just kind of
Speaker 1: loosely hugs him to death in a manner of seconds. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that is just sort of a proof of concept. It's
Speaker 1: right after they make the Mummy arise and then he
Speaker 1: just attacks a random dude. I don't think the Mummy
Speaker 1: in this film ever causes harm to any of the
Speaker 1: villain's enemies. No, but there's a cool fight towards the end.
Speaker 1: We'll get to it when when when the Mummy actually
Speaker 1: has his final battle. It was a highlight of the
Speaker 1: film for me. Same here, yes, now, just a I
Speaker 1: think one final credit here on people involved in making
Speaker 1: the film. Franco Selina is credited with the music composer,
Speaker 1: who scored several films, including nine seventies Churchill's Leopards, a
Speaker 1: Spanish war film that starred Richard Harrison, Frank Barna, he's
Speaker 1: the Sam the eagle looking guy that we've we've mentioned before,
Speaker 1: Helga Lena, who has been in a couple of other
Speaker 1: Spanish films that we've watched, and also Uh, klaus Kinsky
Speaker 1: on this film. I can't speak to other films that
Speaker 1: he's worked on, but I don't know. I thought the
Speaker 1: music was pretty solid in here and this one. It's
Speaker 1: spooky in places, groovy and other places, perhaps in a
Speaker 1: jarring fashion, but whatever energy the film is into at
Speaker 1: a given moment, I feel like the music backs up
Speaker 1: the vibe pretty well. I totally agree. And speaking of groovy, Uh,
Speaker 1: the film kicks off with pretty groovy vibes, groovy music,
Speaker 1: kind of a psychedelic screen splash on there as the
Speaker 1: aliens from another galaxy or or whatever are communicating with
Speaker 1: us and or the some of the main characters. They
Speaker 1: talked to each other through TVs, much like we would
Speaker 1: see in Robot Monster or other such films. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: I guess, you know, for a film of this caliber
Speaker 1: and at this time period, kind of advanced, kind of ambitious,
Speaker 1: and for the most part, they pull it off pretty well.
Speaker 1: It's easy to take for granted today in our our
Speaker 1: screen based world. But what did you make of the
Speaker 1: fact that sometimes the aliens talk, even to people who
Speaker 1: are in the same room with them through a TV.
Speaker 1: Do you remember these scenes? Oh? Yeah, I know there's
Speaker 1: one later on where somebody's talking to somebody basically in
Speaker 1: the next room through a television. Well, I think there's
Speaker 1: a scene where the inspector or somebody busts into the
Speaker 1: room where Michael Renny is and he's standing there with
Speaker 1: his back to him and talking to him, facing him
Speaker 1: through a television screen on the opposite wall. Mm hmmm,
Speaker 1: Am I wrong? No, that that sounds likely. I think
Speaker 1: that might what happened. Maybe maybe that tangent and nowhere
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, No, No No, it's deep, deep thinking will be required,
Speaker 1: perhaps something to do with the aliens view, you know,
Speaker 1: our relation to media. I'm not sure. Well, the very
Speaker 1: first thing we see is, yeah, these TV screens that
Speaker 1: are showing a sort of tie dye lava lamp background.
Speaker 1: You know, it's it's hippie o'clock, and the Aliens are
Speaker 1: talking about their plan to take over planet Earth, which
Speaker 1: involves resurrecting the bodies of dead Earth scientists and inhabiting them.
Speaker 1: And then I think initially, now, one thing that I
Speaker 1: found confusing, Rob, I wonder if you took it the
Speaker 1: same way I understood it that the aliens initial plan
Speaker 1: was not to resurrect Dracula or store brand Dracula, Frankenstein
Speaker 1: and so forth. Instead, it was initially to uh to
Speaker 1: like psychically possessed like a bunch of beautiful Earth women
Speaker 1: and have them infiltrate the like halls of power and
Speaker 1: like influence powerful statesmen and scientists and stuff. But then
Speaker 1: in doing that they immediately get sidetracked when they accidentally
Speaker 1: resurrect to Dracula. Did you did you take it the
Speaker 1: same way? Yeah, It's established pretty early that the doctor
Speaker 1: warren Off here played by Michael Rennie, is all about
Speaker 1: resurrecting so not only scientists but some utiful scientists to
Speaker 1: go out and control the men of the world and
Speaker 1: manipulate them. But yeah, they almost immediately pivot and and
Speaker 1: use this ability not to influence, say the leader of
Speaker 1: a country, but instead to seduce the owner of a
Speaker 1: like have a carnival side showed Dracula uh um act
Speaker 1: and steal his Dracula skeleton that he's showing off, right,
Speaker 1: So I guess we're going to start off by, like,
Speaker 1: let's go to six Flags Frankfurt. Yeah, yeah, we're somewhere,
Speaker 1: You're a German fair somewhere. And there's this guy up there.
Speaker 1: And again this is a scene that's apparently right out
Speaker 1: of the House of Frankenstein. But this guy's like, like,
Speaker 1: see the skeleton of the vampire. Look, behold it as
Speaker 1: a stake through its chest. Uh. It's temporarily immobilizing the
Speaker 1: vampire and preventing it from having life. And so our aliens,
Speaker 1: who just minutes earlier, we're like, the humans of this
Speaker 1: world are so superstitious and they're so emotion enal. But
Speaker 1: then they realized whoa wait, actually monsters do exist. They
Speaker 1: weren't lying about that. Uh here's one here. Um, go
Speaker 1: seduce the guy who owns this thing so we can
Speaker 1: steal it. And that's exactly how it goes down. Malava
Speaker 1: seduces the man, steaks the vampire. Showman with his own
Speaker 1: steak right out of the body of the dead vampire bones,
Speaker 1: and they also go ahead and kidnap his blonde assistant
Speaker 1: for good measure. The blonde assistant is a character named
Speaker 1: Ilona played by Gela Geisler, who wasn't in a lot else,
Speaker 1: but she's the beautiful blonde assistant that they decide they
Speaker 1: need her as well, I guess because she's beautiful. And
Speaker 1: now it's like plan A just to have beautiful people
Speaker 1: that the aliens control. Um. But there's a great scene here.
Speaker 1: They've barely unstaked the vampire skeleton and it's already beginning
Speaker 1: to regenerate, reconstituting guts and eyeballs. First, Oh yeah, we
Speaker 1: we loved that scene, Like just playto intestines and throbbing
Speaker 1: livers and lungs and eyeballs popping in. That one was good.
Speaker 1: And it's shortly after this that we meet Craig Hill
Speaker 1: playing Inspector Toberman, who's immediately on the case. This movie
Speaker 1: keeps us abreast of the investigation every chance it gets.
Speaker 1: What is Inspector Toberman doing or not doing regarding this case? Oh,
Speaker 1: it will even take a moment to give you a
Speaker 1: scene of Inspector Toberman just reporting that he has gotten
Speaker 1: nowhere with the case, and or or he seems to
Speaker 1: have taken a few minutes to himself and gone to
Speaker 1: a bar to smoke and drink. Um. Not that he
Speaker 1: just smokes and drinks at the bar. He smokes and
Speaker 1: drinks pretty much everywhere else he goes. But uh, yeah,
Speaker 1: even if he's not doing anything, the movie is like,
Speaker 1: I wonder what Inspector Toberman is doing. Let's go see.
Speaker 1: But as much as we cut tow Toberman, we also
Speaker 1: cut away from him. So we go back to the
Speaker 1: alien castle and it's mad science time. It's a nice
Speaker 1: laboratory they have going on here, lots of cool will gadgets,
Speaker 1: some gel colors. Uh. They decided to put the blonde
Speaker 1: assistant into the neuroelectric chair they have there. I was
Speaker 1: a little foggy on exactly what they were accomplishing with
Speaker 1: any of those, but a lot of scenes of are
Speaker 1: an electric chair getting shocks. Well is it shocks? I
Speaker 1: thought they explained that it was sounds, because there is
Speaker 1: a sound. That's a horrible sound. I'm gonna say a
Speaker 1: note to aspiring filmmakers out there, if your film includes
Speaker 1: a plot element of a device that makes excruciating sounds
Speaker 1: to torture people. You don't actually have to play those
Speaker 1: sounds for the audience. You can like have it take
Speaker 1: place within headphones and we just see their reaction or whatever.
Speaker 1: This film made a really piercing, high pitched squeal that
Speaker 1: I found unbearable, and it went on for way too long. Oh,
Speaker 1: I mean it that reminds me of and Or Have
Speaker 1: you watched and Or yet? No, I haven't. I've heard
Speaker 1: it's very good. Yeah this no, no, this is a
Speaker 1: very mild spoiler. But at one point there's an interior
Speaker 1: gation scene where they explain, we have some sounds on
Speaker 1: what we're about to play for you. It's the like
Speaker 1: the extermination cries of a species that the Empire killed off. Um,
Speaker 1: and they talk it up about how awful it's going
Speaker 1: to be, but they never play the sound for you,
Speaker 1: and they don't have to because they've given this this
Speaker 1: wonderful introduction to what it's going to do to your brain. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's how you could do it. You don't actually have
Speaker 1: to have a piercing, high pitched squeal on the soundtrack
Speaker 1: of the film. We the audience will understand what's happening. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but hindsight this is this is the late sixties when
Speaker 1: they filmed us, so they play it out loud for us. Anyway,
Speaker 1: we also see that they do have a casket, an
Speaker 1: open casket here with the slumbering prints of darkness himself
Speaker 1: count janos Um and there's I think some mild another
Speaker 1: one of the many um Um ideas that are laid
Speaker 1: out and never really expanded up on. They're like, I
Speaker 1: wonder what would happen if we injected his blood into
Speaker 1: new subjects? Oh, yeah, Chekhov's gun number seven, that they've
Speaker 1: got a whole Dracula blood plan that do they do
Speaker 1: anything with that? Or if so, I don't recall now
Speaker 1: I think I think Nashy was just just went ahead
Speaker 1: and sort of made notes in screenplay for possible future projects.
Speaker 1: So Toberman, still on the case, he checks in. He's like,
Speaker 1: all right, I need to get ahold of the writings
Speaker 1: of Professor Ulric Vaughan Frankel's Frank Salon Um Frank Salem,
Speaker 1: Frank Salon, Frank Salon, Yes, Salon and uh. And so
Speaker 1: he goes to like the local library to to check
Speaker 1: it out, and they're like Hey, someone else was asking
Speaker 1: about these writings as well. I believe that means that
Speaker 1: it was Dr Voronoff that was there looking into it.
Speaker 1: But he finds a copy. It's the Anthology of Monsters.
Speaker 1: He finds it in the archive. Uh, and almost immediately
Speaker 1: blood starts dripping on it from a dead man overhead.
Speaker 1: I have many questions about this book. First of all,
Speaker 1: this was a book written by a reesely living scientist.
Speaker 1: Why does it look like an illuminated manuscript from the
Speaker 1: Middle Ages? Uh? Second, what exactly was this book? This
Speaker 1: isn't so he's the guy who created the Frankenstein Monster,
Speaker 1: the far Salon monster, but he also just wrote an
Speaker 1: encyclopedia of monsters with the illustrations by hand. I guess
Speaker 1: so it's ye, it's part travelogue of creating Francalons monster,
Speaker 1: but also chronicling other monsters created beings that exist. That's
Speaker 1: the way I was led to understand it. So we
Speaker 1: see the count to the Vampire, we see the Wolfman,
Speaker 1: we see the Mummy, and then we see the golem.
Speaker 1: So we're sure to get a golem in this film? Right? No? No,
Speaker 1: I think golem was cut for budget or time. Alright,
Speaker 1: so more stuff occurs. We get more time in the
Speaker 1: Alien lads, more electric chair stuff. Um, we go to
Speaker 1: the a nice morgue scene and it's really splendid, more
Speaker 1: environment that I feel like I've seen a more just
Speaker 1: like this in many films, so it's always a de light. Um.
Speaker 1: They start talking about this jelatine substance was found on
Speaker 1: on a victim's clothing, that it might be vampire blood.
Speaker 1: I mean, I was wondering, is this vampire blood? Is
Speaker 1: this alien blood? I'm not sure, but they'd sure to
Speaker 1: talk about it a lot. Oh yeah, I don't remember
Speaker 1: what happened with the gelatine substance. They keep checking in
Speaker 1: on it. Meanwhile, Toberman has been reading the Anthology of Monsters,
Speaker 1: which you know, deals again with created beings. He's reading
Speaker 1: more and more about what's out there. Meanwhile, Dr Warnoff
Speaker 1: and his stooges they go out to rob some graves
Speaker 1: it looks like but no, they're digging up uh Francelon's monster.
Speaker 1: And meanwhile I have to point out Earth is still
Speaker 1: somewhat populated by humans, so things are just beginning to
Speaker 1: roll along here. Yeah, they're really not not hopping to it.
Speaker 1: You would think their bosses would be like, now, what
Speaker 1: what exactly is it you're working on? I thought we
Speaker 1: had like super weapons from space. Yeah, like they clearly
Speaker 1: established earlier they want to colonize the planet, so they
Speaker 1: need to really step things up a bit. But okay,
Speaker 1: so they got for wrong salons Monster. When when are
Speaker 1: we gonna get away? Actually I need a wolfman. When
Speaker 1: do we get one? I think? I think Actually I
Speaker 1: was incorrect. They haven't got ferronc Salons Monster yet. Instead,
Speaker 1: they have found Count Valdemar Danyinsky, the werewolf Nasci's werewolf um,
Speaker 1: who seems to be I guess subdued in a casket
Speaker 1: with wolf spain or something. Oh I thought it was
Speaker 1: with a silver bullet had Yes, yes, yes, we find
Speaker 1: that out. That's right, because immediately we cut to surgery,
Speaker 1: which is a nice surgery scene, nice and bloody that
Speaker 1: I think might actually incorporate some stock footage of open
Speaker 1: heart surgeries as well. They're getting in there and they
Speaker 1: they have beautiful, colorful equipment, um, beautiful nurses standing around
Speaker 1: as the aliens remove the silver bullet from Paul Nashi's heart.
Speaker 1: Uh and he This is where we learn that the
Speaker 1: only way a werewolf can actually be killed, is to
Speaker 1: be shot in the heart with a silver bullet by
Speaker 1: not just anyone, but by a woman who loves him,
Speaker 1: truly loves him so much that she is willing to
Speaker 1: die for him. And I think the problem was he
Speaker 1: has currently been sitting in suspended animation because he was
Speaker 1: shot in the heart with a silver bullet by a woman,
Speaker 1: but maybe she didn't quite love him enough for it
Speaker 1: to fully work, so instead he's just been like an
Speaker 1: incorruptible saint's body, lying there frozen in time and waiting
Speaker 1: for the aliens to come get him. I mean, he's
Speaker 1: got to be more clear about what he wants from
Speaker 1: a relationship. Need to put that right out on the profile.
Speaker 1: I'm looking for a woman who loves me enough to
Speaker 1: shoot me with a silver bullet and made me stay dead.
Speaker 1: So in in in resurrecting him, and it's I was
Speaker 1: a little unclear to on what their their main goal
Speaker 1: with him was, because they they basically see him to
Speaker 1: bring him back, to have him serve as kind of
Speaker 1: a stooge, as another bit of hired muscle. But they're
Speaker 1: not going to take advantage of the were wolf aspect
Speaker 1: of him. As much because they're saying, well, we're going
Speaker 1: to use a serum on him that's gonna keep him
Speaker 1: in line, keep him from transforming. Clearly, were wolf Dninsky
Speaker 1: is just too much for us to control. But if
Speaker 1: we just have hunky Paul Nashi on hand, like we can,
Speaker 1: we can use that. We need somebody to swing a pickaxe.
Speaker 1: They need a Paul Nashy who's like seventy percent of
Speaker 1: the way to wear a wolf already. So that's just enough.
Speaker 1: Like he's really hunky, really beefy. He can do what
Speaker 1: needs to be done, but he's not going to get
Speaker 1: out of hand like wolf, like wolf mode of Valdemar.
Speaker 1: But he's hunky, he's attractive. Uh. Immediately the alien, the
Speaker 1: main female alien, Malava, starts falling for him. She's she's
Speaker 1: already having feelings about him. I think they all do, right,
Speaker 1: doesn't the blonde alien ified lady also fall in love
Speaker 1: with him? She does, She directly falls in love with him.
Speaker 1: And I think the Maleva, the alien she is like
Speaker 1: so inspired by their love for each other that she
Speaker 1: she gets like sympathy love feelings. I guess I don't
Speaker 1: know how to fully explain that. Yeah, and I guess
Speaker 1: what the aliens like Malva. There's this feeling that it's like, well,
Speaker 1: I'm an alien, but I'm occupying a human form. Oh.
Speaker 1: Human emotions are are welling up and I don't know
Speaker 1: what to do with them. But our blonde assistant here,
Speaker 1: she she's just human in love with this man. Right. Anyway,
Speaker 1: the plans coming together at this point, uh something about
Speaker 1: using all of these unslayed, undying monsters to create an
Speaker 1: army of monsters to conquer the earth. I think, Um,
Speaker 1: maybe I'm reading too much into it. We cut to
Speaker 1: a scene where do Nynski is chained. He's in a dungeon,
Speaker 1: and the transformation begins. Classic wolfman transformation. Seen here. You
Speaker 1: know exactly what I'm talking about. Camera cuts away, a
Speaker 1: little more hair on the hand, Camera cuts back to
Speaker 1: the face, a little more hair on the face, repeat repeat. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: of course chains are not going to hold a fully
Speaker 1: transformed werewolf. He pulls the chains out of the wall
Speaker 1: and he escapes. So I guess the serum hasn't been
Speaker 1: developed yet or hasn't been administered at this point. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I was also unclear on that. We touched in with
Speaker 1: the police briefly they're not getting much work done. We
Speaker 1: go back to do Nynsky. He's prowl in the night.
Speaker 1: Had no news from them, but d Nynsky's he's about
Speaker 1: to try and get stuff done. He's in full werewolf mode,
Speaker 1: prowl in the streets at night. There's a scene where
Speaker 1: a young lady is in a car and she's about
Speaker 1: to light up a smoke and he reached and it
Speaker 1: reaches in through the window, the open window, after her,
Speaker 1: and it's hard to tell if he's going for her
Speaker 1: or the pack of smokes in her hand. I found
Speaker 1: the scene rather funny because I was like, oh, man,
Speaker 1: he really he really needs a smoke right now. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I thought he was grabbing at the cigarette, but no,
Speaker 1: I think he's just trying to slash it people. Because
Speaker 1: later he he just slashes a random lady in the street,
Speaker 1: and I thought he was gonna eat her, because isn't
Speaker 1: that what a werewolf does, don't they eat people? But
Speaker 1: he didn't eat her. He just kind of like scratch
Speaker 1: scratch and then runs away. Yeah, he murders her and
Speaker 1: then then runs off basically, so yeah, the first lady
Speaker 1: escapes by rolling up her window really fast, which is
Speaker 1: all you need is the first lady, Patty Shepherd, I
Speaker 1: think it is. Yeah, I believe so. At the time,
Speaker 1: I was a little confused about this, but yeah, this
Speaker 1: because she's going to be a survivor. That factors into
Speaker 1: the plot. Lighter cool. But now at this point the
Speaker 1: film hasn't been groovy enough in a little bit, so
Speaker 1: we cut directly to a like a go go club,
Speaker 1: a place called the Golden Egg. Yes, I love this place,
Speaker 1: and I'm not sure much is really accomplished in this scene,
Speaker 1: but there's some groovy music playing. I think the same
Speaker 1: groovy music from earlier cool kids are dancing in a
Speaker 1: colorful club. Dr Varnoff ventures in, likely on alien business,
Speaker 1: but all this hippie nonsense seems a little bit too
Speaker 1: much for him. Toberman is there, I guess on the case.
Speaker 1: Everyone's having a drink though. Toberman orders the Scotch and
Speaker 1: water and um and then and then Dr Varnov leaves
Speaker 1: and nothing really happens. Oh, we were on the lookout
Speaker 1: for Ja and Beeve and I didn't catch any Yeah,
Speaker 1: they never. We never got to even see the drink served.
Speaker 1: It's like, come on, what was this scene about. Nobody
Speaker 1: interacted with each other, and we didn't even get to
Speaker 1: see the drink. But somehow the Aliens, I think, they
Speaker 1: recapture Voldemar, they get the werewolf back. So Paul Nashi
Speaker 1: is once again and chained. And then they're like, uh,
Speaker 1: somebody's fault that he got out. Probably it's it's probably
Speaker 1: this blonde woman's fault. Uh. So we're going to play
Speaker 1: the high pitch noise at her and at you again.
Speaker 1: H So there's a torture scene for both her and
Speaker 1: um and Doninski and uh and you know it's not
Speaker 1: gonna work. Clearly, they're they're not gonna be able to
Speaker 1: break this this love bond that is emerging between these two.
Speaker 1: But I mean, that's the aliens whole thing. Dr Varnoff
Speaker 1: is like, is always harping on the fact that that
Speaker 1: the passion is a weakness, and uh, we need to
Speaker 1: to sort of bleed the passion out of these two
Speaker 1: so they can continue to service. Oh but that's when
Speaker 1: the Alien TV chimes in with news the money of
Speaker 1: Tao Tad has been found, presumably in Egypt. Thank god,
Speaker 1: now we'll get to find out what the Mummy's powers are.
Speaker 1: So there's this some stock footage of a t w
Speaker 1: A flight going to Egypt, presumably, and and then we
Speaker 1: see um the two main alien underlings and Count Donynsky
Speaker 1: in a muscle shirt with a grave robbing pick axe
Speaker 1: going into some Egyptian ruins to rob a grave, which
Speaker 1: also makes me think these three flew together on that
Speaker 1: t w A flight to Egypt. Well, I wanted to
Speaker 1: see that scene. They got a werewolf on an airplane.
Speaker 1: You never bring a werewolf on an airplane. You might
Speaker 1: do the math wrong, cross the international date line. Suddenly
Speaker 1: it's a full moon. You didn't plan af Oh my god. Yeah.
Speaker 1: But anyway, they get their nice tombs set, even if
Speaker 1: it basically feels like a redecorated tomb set from any
Speaker 1: given Spanish horror film of this time period. But they
Speaker 1: bust through one wall with some very modern looking bricks,
Speaker 1: and they bust through another wall, and boy, the tomb
Speaker 1: is just loaded with loot um. They do it like
Speaker 1: kind of an Indiana Jones ask amult reflection deal to
Speaker 1: to put put some light on the Mummy's tomb, and
Speaker 1: immediately the mummy starts coming to life, emerging from the tomb.
Speaker 1: And that's when we get this wonderful death by hug scene,
Speaker 1: and once again I think this is the only person
Speaker 1: harmed by the Mummy and the whole film. The Mummy
Speaker 1: otherwise just kind of menaces people but never does anything until,
Speaker 1: of course, Paul Nashy destroys him, and Paul Nashy, by
Speaker 1: the way, destroys everything. Paul Nashi is smashing through walls,
Speaker 1: Paul Nashy and swinging the pickaxe. Paul Nashy is pulling
Speaker 1: chains and uh and like turning a giant wheel. Paul
Speaker 1: Nashy is just a mountain and he it'll all make
Speaker 1: sense if you see him in this performance especially or
Speaker 1: in any performance. But he's an interesting screen presence because
Speaker 1: he's not you know, he's jacked. Uh. But he's not
Speaker 1: what you might think of as you're sort of handsome
Speaker 1: leading man character. I mean, he's you know, he's he's
Speaker 1: not a bad looking guy by any stretch, but um,
Speaker 1: he doesn't have that like sort of western leading man look.
Speaker 1: And there's some sort of kind of you know, awkward
Speaker 1: elements to the to his energy. There's kind of like
Speaker 1: a reserved energy to some of his performances, especially in
Speaker 1: this film. And I would also say he's sort of
Speaker 1: classic round jacked, not like vacuum packed peanuts jacked. Right. So, anyway,
Speaker 1: they've successfully robbed the tomb, and I don't know how
Speaker 1: they fly back. Do they go? I mean, did they
Speaker 1: travel back via t w A. Do they have to
Speaker 1: get an extra seat for the Mummy's flying with them? Um?
Speaker 1: How's that going to work? I have no idea. But
Speaker 1: they make it back so almost instantly, though, it's clear
Speaker 1: that well, your alien lab has a lot of monsters
Speaker 1: in it at this point, and there are going to
Speaker 1: be some problems. The vampire is hypnotizing the ladies. Uh,
Speaker 1: but still samples are being collected, more warnings against human
Speaker 1: emotions and human weaknesses. Uh. And there's this great monologue
Speaker 1: from Michael re anywhere. He's like, look, the Mummy's heart
Speaker 1: is dead. It's empty. Be more like the Mummy. Up next,
Speaker 1: We're gonna get this uh, this Frankenstein creature. He he
Speaker 1: doesn't even have a heart. Uh. That's that's how great
Speaker 1: he is. Be like the Frankenstein. And oh, by the way,
Speaker 1: we're gonna make him atomic once we get him. Also,
Speaker 1: these aliens do not realize that the heart, as the
Speaker 1: seat of emotions is a metaphor, like the emotions in
Speaker 1: a literal sense come from the brain, and they're talking
Speaker 1: about literal anatomical features as as limiting of emotions. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but I mean it's it's all new territory for these aliens.
Speaker 1: I guess. Now the vampire, our count Pianos, he escapes,
Speaker 1: he starts running around the castle at night. Um, he's
Speaker 1: um he's he's sneaking into into the main alien minions
Speaker 1: room and trying to hypnotize her. He's being a wretched creep. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So he's chased off. Oh yeah, and then he just
Speaker 1: he just runs away when the aliens catch him doing that.
Speaker 1: He's so he's a wretched creep. But he's also not
Speaker 1: a very powerful vampire. Did you get the sense that
Speaker 1: the vampire in this movie even has like super strength
Speaker 1: or anything. I did not know. He's just he's just
Speaker 1: creepy and he just comes out at night. I guess
Speaker 1: he's really quiet. He's like a rat. Yeah. I think
Speaker 1: his only power I recall is that he can hypnotize
Speaker 1: people with his eyes. Yeah. Now this is when Frank
Speaker 1: Slan's monster is brought in and they've we don't get
Speaker 1: to see them dig him up or find him in
Speaker 1: a warehouse or stitching back together anything like that. But
Speaker 1: they're like, good news, we found him here he is,
Speaker 1: we got him at a police auction. But then we
Speaker 1: get a cool scene though, where, um, where where? Michael
Speaker 1: Renny's like, we gotta test this monster out, so he
Speaker 1: sends him into the cell to go after d Nynski.
Speaker 1: That was a tense scene. I was like, oh, no,
Speaker 1: you are not going to do this to Paul Nashy. Yeah,
Speaker 1: because he again he's on the serium. Now we've had
Speaker 1: scenes where he's been injected so he can't turn into
Speaker 1: a werewolf. In Battle of Franks Salon's Monster, so Frank's
Speaker 1: Alan's monster like pretty much almost kills him. Um hasn't
Speaker 1: has him in a death chokehold, and it's the blonde
Speaker 1: assistant who calls out and says, no, you've got to
Speaker 1: spare him, and so Michael Renny's character does, but also
Speaker 1: makes it Unleash is another monologue about the uncaring universe
Speaker 1: and the uh and and the dangers of passion. Speaking
Speaker 1: of passion, this whole time, there's a developing love story.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, this b plot with the love story
Speaker 1: with Inspector Toberman, the handsome detective, and uh and Patty
Speaker 1: Shepherd and then like her dad, who's a judge who
Speaker 1: saw a werewolf once? Yeah, and the werewolf in question,
Speaker 1: I think is uh is Paul Nashy. So it's like
Speaker 1: there's some sort of connection there and it really feels unnecessary,
Speaker 1: but they they stitch it all together. Well. I mean,
Speaker 1: I think the detective already believes in monsters. And when
Speaker 1: Patty Shepherd is like, I wanted to tell you my
Speaker 1: father knows that where wolves are real because he saw
Speaker 1: one one time, the inspectors all over it. He's like, oh, finally,
Speaker 1: you know my my theory of the case is developing.
Speaker 1: I've got to meet this judge dad. Yeah. There there's
Speaker 1: this great scene. I get. You get the impression Toberman
Speaker 1: has been reading too much about monsters, and they don't
Speaker 1: really develop this too much. But there is this fun
Speaker 1: scene where he goes to a local pub for a
Speaker 1: drink and a smoke and he sees a vampire on
Speaker 1: a date. But then he like kind of goes ruulu
Speaker 1: and looks again and oh it's just a person. Uh.
Speaker 1: So he's like, why I better drink more and has
Speaker 1: another shot. I was confused by this scene. I think
Speaker 1: it was not actually a vampire. He was just he's
Speaker 1: just got vampire is in the brain. Yeah, because there's
Speaker 1: a later scene where he comes back to his apartment.
Speaker 1: He looks in the mirror and he sees himself as
Speaker 1: a monster, and so clearly the case is getting on
Speaker 1: top of him. He's taken it too personal. Meanwhile, back
Speaker 1: at the alien monastery, the alien assistants um that the
Speaker 1: man and the woman are giving into their emotions and
Speaker 1: they're doing sex with each other. So Dr Otto h
Speaker 1: vernoff here he watches on via his closed caption television
Speaker 1: system does not approve, so he sends in Ferranc Salon's
Speaker 1: monster and kill Has it killed Dr Kirian? Yes, so
Speaker 1: like two of the Remember these are aliens inhabiting the
Speaker 1: resurrected bodies of dead human scientists that I guess the
Speaker 1: human passion gets too much for them. They fall in love,
Speaker 1: and as punishment, Michael Rennie sends Frankenstein to kill them
Speaker 1: or kills one of them, Yeah, kills Dr Currian. And
Speaker 1: then once Dr Cirian is sufficiently strangled, Ferranc Salon's monster
Speaker 1: just casually walks out, which I thought was a nice touch.
Speaker 1: It's like out mission accomplished them just a passionalist servant
Speaker 1: at this point, he has no heart, He only has
Speaker 1: a capacitor. Yeah, so this is what I was talking
Speaker 1: about earlier with like the scenes of the aliens will
Speaker 1: not stop talking about how they are superior because they
Speaker 1: have no emotions. And then it's the movie just becomes
Speaker 1: all about crushes. It's nothing but crushes. Yeah, but they
Speaker 1: do kind of deal with it in a in an
Speaker 1: interesting way in that um, Yeah, clearly the alien underlings
Speaker 1: have beginning of given into their emotions. And then meanwhile
Speaker 1: the work is getting too much for Toban again. He's
Speaker 1: starting to see monsters in the mirror when they're not there.
Speaker 1: He gets a call from Patty's character and he's gonna
Speaker 1: check in on her. He's like, all right, I'm coming. Uh.
Speaker 1: You know, it seems like it's an emergency, but it's
Speaker 1: not an emergency monster emergency. It's a romantic emergency. So
Speaker 1: they spend the night together. Yeah, she I, I love
Speaker 1: you because we are humans. Yeah. Back in the lab,
Speaker 1: Dr Varnov decides that Malva needs some some chair time
Speaker 1: for her irrational emotional choice. Says and There is a
Speaker 1: fun scene though, where she she like lashes back and
Speaker 1: she's like, actually, you have emotions. You're letting emotions getting
Speaker 1: the better of you because you're jealous, and that's why
Speaker 1: you sent in France Salon's monster to kill Dr Carrion.
Speaker 1: You could tell Renny is like, really threatened to buy this?
Speaker 1: Ah you response he has never heard anything like this,
Speaker 1: So again there, This does seem like an element of
Speaker 1: the plot where this could have been expanded upon and
Speaker 1: dwelt upon more. This idea of like, um, you know,
Speaker 1: aliens without passions occupying human forms and then being overcome
Speaker 1: by passions. I imagine this is something that's been explored
Speaker 1: better in other pictures or books well, and picking up
Speaker 1: one what we just said, the fact that they have
Speaker 1: passions also now gives rise to new patterns of speech,
Speaker 1: gives rise to rhetorical ploys, and turns like like oh
Speaker 1: you yeah. Now, I'm not sure I didn't accurately represent
Speaker 1: this in my notes. But the other thing that Malva
Speaker 1: has done at this point that has earned the ire
Speaker 1: of her master is that she freed the werewolf and
Speaker 1: the blond assistant. She freed um uh Do Nynsky and
Speaker 1: like she saw the love they have for each other,
Speaker 1: and she's like, no, it's fine, I respect your love.
Speaker 1: You should go and she unlocks their cage and lets
Speaker 1: them go free. It's heartwarming. Yeah, So eventually we returned
Speaker 1: to d Nynsky and Um and his blonde accomplice here,
Speaker 1: and they're wandering some more of those wonderful ruins that
Speaker 1: you see throughout the picture, and they have some kind
Speaker 1: of like cool doom metal dialogue here where they talk
Speaker 1: about how they have no future and they're cursed, but
Speaker 1: they have this bond between the two of them, and
Speaker 1: he makes some decision to seek out the judge that
Speaker 1: we established earlier on uh, that he has some history with,
Speaker 1: and the blonde character says, okay, well let's do that.
Speaker 1: But also I love you enough to shoot you with
Speaker 1: a silver bullet and kill you. Um, so just so
Speaker 1: you know I'm here for you when that time comes.
Speaker 1: Heartwarming once again. Now, meanwhile, the law enforcement is beginning
Speaker 1: to close in on on the operation here, I guess
Speaker 1: I mean Toberman is getting ready to wander into the
Speaker 1: monastery for some reason. Right, he decides to show up,
Speaker 1: and there's groovy music as he shows up for some reason.
Speaker 1: But then the gates closed behind him. Uh. Dr Varnoff says,
Speaker 1: is clearly expecting him. He's admitted to the control room
Speaker 1: and Dr Varnoff chats with him via close circuit television
Speaker 1: for the next room, and um, he just goes ahead
Speaker 1: and tells him everything. Um. And not only does he
Speaker 1: tell him everything that has occurred and his plan, he
Speaker 1: also says, hey, I have video footage from the future,
Speaker 1: and he shows him um Elsa's death. Uh. And he
Speaker 1: also shows Toberman footage of his own body in chains
Speaker 1: in a dungeon. And if I understood this correctly, he's
Speaker 1: also saying, yeah, I'm gonna change you up in the dungeon.
Speaker 1: Here's footage from the future when it happens, and these
Speaker 1: other bodies are gonna come to life and claw your
Speaker 1: eyes out. No, not the other bodies, bats, he says.
Speaker 1: Bats will come and claw your eyes out. That's how
Speaker 1: you will die. That makes more sense. I will chain
Speaker 1: you up and then there will be bats and they
Speaker 1: will attack your eyeballs. Well, well, that's that's good because
Speaker 1: that's more in line with what occurs. Yes, but I
Speaker 1: was also floored by the execution by bat. What but
Speaker 1: also footage from the future. The aliens have videos, Like
Speaker 1: is this actual video footage from the future, like information
Speaker 1: translated through time, or is this like a simulation of
Speaker 1: what he has in store for him? That was a
Speaker 1: very good question. I I do not know though. It
Speaker 1: just sort of transition, didn't it Like he's looking at
Speaker 1: the footage of himself in the future, chained up in
Speaker 1: the dungeon with the bats, and then suddenly he just
Speaker 1: is chained up there. It's almost like by looking at
Speaker 1: that it manifested his reality. Yeah. Meanwhile, back in the
Speaker 1: human world, Um, news of all this has reached the mayor,
Speaker 1: so now you know things are pretty serious. Uh. The
Speaker 1: judge is there, he's concerned over his daughter's disappearance. The
Speaker 1: judge reveals the whole Werewolf d Nynsky connection, and everybody's like,
Speaker 1: all right, let's go investigate this monastery. Let's get all
Speaker 1: the cops together, let's head up there and see what's happening.
Speaker 1: So we got our pitchfork wielding mob yep, or they're
Speaker 1: getting the pitchforks together. Uh. And meanwhile back there at
Speaker 1: the monastery, we see the future has come true Toberman
Speaker 1: is in chains. He's harassed by bats. But as he's
Speaker 1: being harassed by bats, who shows up to save the
Speaker 1: day But d Nynsky, the werewolf he arrives with with
Speaker 1: his blonde uh lover here they free uh Toberman and
Speaker 1: Donisky Warnson though it's like, look, you gotta get out
Speaker 1: of here. You gotta get things moving along because the
Speaker 1: full moon is almost upon us. I'm not injected with serum,
Speaker 1: and there's no way I can stop what is going
Speaker 1: to happen to me. He's gonna go hulk mode. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and as two Tiberman escapes, he goes through skeleton and
Speaker 1: cobweb written crypt. He's going to seek out Elsa and
Speaker 1: save her. But for Donninsky, finally the change is coming.
Speaker 1: The full moon is here, allegedly somewhere, he starts the
Speaker 1: long emotional transformation sequence. Um is an acting tour to force.
Speaker 1: As he slowly transforms into full wolfman mode, He's like
Speaker 1: staggering down the hall. You can see the cuts when
Speaker 1: the cuts happened to put the more hair on him,
Speaker 1: but I don't know. It's it's a pretty good sequence, nonetheless,
Speaker 1: and I was thinking, Okay, we're finally going to see
Speaker 1: him smack down the vampire but nope, nope, nope, somebody
Speaker 1: else smacks down the vampire. It is Toberman encounters the vampire,
Speaker 1: once again emphasizing the vampire not only doesn't appear to
Speaker 1: have super strength, it appears to be weaker than the
Speaker 1: average man. Yeah, Tiberman just kind of what breaks a
Speaker 1: pool queue and owners and like just kind of walks
Speaker 1: him into a corner and then stabs him through the
Speaker 1: heart and then the vampire melts. The vampire does sort
Speaker 1: of do a flying like a turnbuckle jump at Toberman
Speaker 1: before that, but other than that, he's he's not very impressive. Yeah,
Speaker 1: not much of a fight here, but there is a
Speaker 1: cool fight coming up. There are a couple of cool fights,
Speaker 1: so you get we're Wolf versus Mummy, and then we're
Speaker 1: Wolf versus Frank Salon. Yeah, and the Mummy battle was
Speaker 1: a lot more solid than I was expecting, mainly because
Speaker 1: of the way that d Nynsky deals with the Mummy.
Speaker 1: There's this big spinning wooden wheel part of the set
Speaker 1: that I'm not sure what function this had in the
Speaker 1: castle of this had to do with, Like I think
Speaker 1: it's a rack. I think it's a track. Is it
Speaker 1: just pure torture they show because Doberman Doberman Toberman, whatever
Speaker 1: his name is, the detectives on it earlier, and he's
Speaker 1: like tied to it. They're stretching him out. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: But I guess it's multi purpose because you can also
Speaker 1: shove somebody inside it, and so that's what d Nynsky
Speaker 1: does with the mummy. Shoves the mum inside this wheel,
Speaker 1: starts turning the wheel, and then grabs the torch, shoves
Speaker 1: the torch in there with the mummy, lights the mummy up,
Speaker 1: and so we get this kind of maccabre scene of
Speaker 1: the flaming mummy thrashing inside of this rotating wooden torture wheel,
Speaker 1: which I thought was a pretty pretty cool visual. That's right,
Speaker 1: but I would say this is still not the main SmackDown,
Speaker 1: which is Werewolf versus Farron, that's right, and Atomic Farron
Speaker 1: coming at a full powered Valdamir Doninsky Werewolf. It is
Speaker 1: a big, drawn out battle with lots of pushing and
Speaker 1: shoving and clawing and strangling and slamming. Eventually, though the
Speaker 1: werewolf wins. He pushes the atomic Monster into some electronic
Speaker 1: machinery and the shock takes the big man down takes
Speaker 1: the big monster down, defeated by electricity, as many monsters
Speaker 1: in films are. Uh. And then, of course, what's going
Speaker 1: to happen to the werewolf and the and is he
Speaker 1: going to be shot in the heart by his true
Speaker 1: love with a silver bullet, not just by his true love,
Speaker 1: by the woman who loves him enough to die with
Speaker 1: him in an exploding monastery slash castle slash alien laboratory. Yes,
Speaker 1: that is exactly what happens, though they really they just met. Thing,
Speaker 1: is this this romance? Really? Um? What was was on
Speaker 1: speed run? But yeah, she basically after he's defeated France
Speaker 1: Salon's monster, he turns on her. You know, he can't
Speaker 1: control the monster. The werewolf just wants to kill and
Speaker 1: and slay and all. So she pulls out the gun,
Speaker 1: she shoots him, and then we cut to this scene
Speaker 1: where now we have Dnnski back in human form, with
Speaker 1: a with a gunshot wound in his chest and then
Speaker 1: laying next to him also dead is Um is his
Speaker 1: blonde lover, and she's been slashed by werewolf claws and
Speaker 1: they you know, they're hand in hand. So yeah, they're
Speaker 1: they're the doomed. Uh, they have no future here, and
Speaker 1: we get this kind of uh you know, Gothic into
Speaker 1: their romance. Though. Of course, Valdimir Doninsky will be back
Speaker 1: in a number of Werewolf films. They'll do a do over.
Speaker 1: Oh and then the of course Michael Renny is chastised.
Speaker 1: He he gets chewed out by his bosses. Yeah, there's
Speaker 1: the scene where the aliens start talking to him through
Speaker 1: the TV screen. Uh, and you know, he's like, well,
Speaker 1: the labs about to blow up. Um, and they're like, yeah,
Speaker 1: you failed, and he's like, well, I failed, but you
Speaker 1: should spare my assistant here. Her failure was my failure.
Speaker 1: And then the aliens are weirdly well like, well she's
Speaker 1: not really in any way, and they make her vanish
Speaker 1: and then the lab blows up, destroying everything. I'm not
Speaker 1: sure what that meant. Yeah, she does, she just disappears.
Speaker 1: Is that a better fate for the aliens? I don't
Speaker 1: know how they appeared in the first place. Yeah, it
Speaker 1: feels like maybe they were working up to something else
Speaker 1: than they ran out of time or energy to finish
Speaker 1: that particular part of the plot. But the fight, we
Speaker 1: get a speech at the end. It's kind of like
Speaker 1: the speech at the end of it conquered the world,
Speaker 1: which where we learned that man is a feeling creature.
Speaker 1: And this time they talk about how actually the aliens
Speaker 1: thought it was our passion that makes us weak, but
Speaker 1: in fact, it's our passion that makes us strong. The
Speaker 1: whole reason they couldn't beat us is because these human
Speaker 1: bodies they just fall in love on speed run mode,
Speaker 1: and that basically it makes us useless as soldiers in
Speaker 1: our own destruction. And the aliens seem to I guess
Speaker 1: they realized that this is true and decided just to
Speaker 1: not come back. They're like, yeah, Earth unconquerable. I learned
Speaker 1: too late. That is our passion that makes us strong. Okay,
Speaker 1: I got one last thought about Assignment terror. Uh. It's
Speaker 1: it's nearly there, it's not quite complete. But I kept
Speaker 1: thinking about the monsters in this movie as the Breakfast Club, right,
Speaker 1: because you got can't count Yeno, sure, count yanush uh whatever?
Speaker 1: His name is the Dracula store brand Dracula, He's Anthony
Speaker 1: Michael Hall. He's the nerd uh. And then you've got
Speaker 1: the Mummy is clearly Molly Ringwald because Rich Royalty aloof
Speaker 1: there you go. Uh for Ron Salon is obviously Amelio Esteveez.
Speaker 1: He is definitely the jock of the group. This Frankenstein
Speaker 1: would eat a bag of twelve sandwiches for lunch and
Speaker 1: and so forth. The wolf Man, that's Judd Nelson, because
Speaker 1: he's the bad boy with a heart of gold who
Speaker 1: falls in love in the end, like his badness is
Speaker 1: tamed by love. Uh. It kind of falls apart because
Speaker 1: I couldn't think there's not really any equivalent for Ali Sheety,
Speaker 1: who's a very important part of the breakfast Club. Kind
Speaker 1: of wonder well, maybe if we had known the golem,
Speaker 1: the golem would have been Alie Sheety, like putting pixie
Speaker 1: sticks on on toast or something. But the last element
Speaker 1: there that clearly works is that Michael Renny's character is
Speaker 1: Paul Gleason the principle to a t Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: the story arc is there even right you You you
Speaker 1: start off thinking it's just cold and uncarrying. He doesn't
Speaker 1: understand these kids. But by the end of it, you
Speaker 1: see that there's more to him. You get to know
Speaker 1: him a little bit more, and uh, to a certain extent,
Speaker 1: the same thing it's true with Michael Renney's character. I
Speaker 1: think this could have legs. I kind of want to
Speaker 1: see a monster, a true monster remake of The Breakfast Club. Well,
Speaker 1: we're gonna go and close it out there, but we'll
Speaker 1: remind everybody that Stuff to Blow Your Mind and the
Speaker 1: Stuff to Blow Your Mind channel primarily a science podcast
Speaker 1: with core episodes on Tuesdays and Thursdays. On Monday's we
Speaker 1: do listener mail, On Wednesday's we do a short form
Speaker 1: artifact or monster fact, and then on Friday's we cut
Speaker 1: loose and we focus on less important matters with weird
Speaker 1: House cinema and which we we set everything else aside
Speaker 1: and just talk about a weird film. Huge thanks to
Speaker 1: our audio producer J J. Pauseway. If you would like
Speaker 1: to get in touch with us with feedback on this
Speaker 1: episode or any other, to suggest a topic for the future,
Speaker 1: or just to say hello, you can email us at
Speaker 1: contact at stuff to Blow your Mind dot com. Stuff
Speaker 1: to Blow Your Mind is production of iHeartRadio. For more
Speaker 1: podcasts for My Heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app,
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.