WEBVTT - Weirdhouse Cinema: Creature with the Atom Brain 0:00:03.040 --> 0:00:06.120 Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:13.320 --> 0:00:16.680 Hey you welcome to Weird House Cinema. This is Rob Lamb. 0:00:16.640 --> 0:00:19.720 And this is Joe McCormick. And today we're going to 0:00:19.760 --> 0:00:24.439 be covering a movie from the nineteen fifties about evil 0:00:24.600 --> 0:00:29.120 scientists who want to use long distance electrodes to power 0:00:29.160 --> 0:00:31.840 the brains of dead men to do their bidding. No, 0:00:32.040 --> 0:00:35.720 not Plan nine from outer Space, not The Bride of 0:00:35.720 --> 0:00:39.080 the Monster. It's another movie with a very similar premise. 0:00:39.320 --> 0:00:41.839 This was sort of in the air. Apparently. This is 0:00:41.920 --> 0:00:45.879 nineteen fifty five's Creature with the Adam Brain. 0:00:46.159 --> 0:00:49.080 Which has always been a confusing title because I think 0:00:49.080 --> 0:00:51.360 for a while I even just would read it as 0:00:51.440 --> 0:00:55.680 Creature with the Atomic Brain, because what would Adam brain 0:00:55.840 --> 0:00:58.480 even mean other than possibly super small brain. 0:00:59.120 --> 0:01:02.400 Obviously, Yeah, it seems like an advance on the insult 0:01:02.480 --> 0:01:04.920 Pea brain. You know, you go down to pe brain, 0:01:05.040 --> 0:01:06.800 and then what's below that Atam brain? 0:01:06.880 --> 0:01:10.080 I guess, Yeah, but no, it's essentially in the same 0:01:10.160 --> 0:01:14.680 vein as atomic brain. But yeah, but not only is 0:01:14.720 --> 0:01:17.240 this like perhaps an idea of a reduced brain, also 0:01:17.520 --> 0:01:20.039 reduced runtime. This one comes in at a slim sixty 0:01:20.120 --> 0:01:22.640 nine minutes. The one of the reasons we picked it 0:01:22.680 --> 0:01:24.320 for this week was that we had a super long 0:01:24.360 --> 0:01:27.360 movie last week and we had a short week this week, 0:01:27.440 --> 0:01:29.759 so it seemed like a good time to dip back 0:01:29.800 --> 0:01:31.120 into the nineteen fifties. 0:01:31.640 --> 0:01:34.520 Sixty nine minutes. That's I don't know, that's kind of 0:01:34.600 --> 0:01:36.800 on the long side for these movies. I think a 0:01:36.800 --> 0:01:39.720 Attack of the Crab Monster is more like sixty three. 0:01:40.560 --> 0:01:43.759 Yeah. Some of those Corman and Corman as pictures come 0:01:43.800 --> 0:01:48.440 in at an hour or less, so yeah, they can 0:01:48.480 --> 0:01:51.680 get shorter now. The other fun thing about this pick 0:01:51.920 --> 0:01:56.280 is that it inspired a Rocky Ericsson song. Rocky Erickson 0:01:56.560 --> 0:02:01.560 was a, if not the textan psychedelic rocker who lived 0:02:01.600 --> 0:02:06.000 nineteen forty seven through twenty nineteen, did a number of 0:02:06.560 --> 0:02:12.400 songs that were inspired or referenced horror movies or horror 0:02:12.520 --> 0:02:15.680 movie themes, and so it's kind of a treat to 0:02:15.680 --> 0:02:18.400 get to talk about a movie that he strongly and 0:02:18.480 --> 0:02:21.200 directly references. I think another one we've talked about is 0:02:21.240 --> 0:02:25.600 possibly nineteen fifty nine's The Alligator People. But yeah, today's 0:02:25.639 --> 0:02:28.520 movie inspired the Rocky ericson track of the same name, 0:02:28.639 --> 0:02:31.520 Creature with the Adam Brain, which you can find on 0:02:31.560 --> 0:02:33.800 the nineteen eighty one album The Evil One. 0:02:34.360 --> 0:02:37.480 I first heard this album, I'm pretty sure, in the 0:02:37.720 --> 0:02:42.040 summer between my freshman and sophomore year of college. I 0:02:42.080 --> 0:02:45.160 was hanging out with a friend and he put this 0:02:45.320 --> 0:02:51.760 on while we were playing chess, and it quickly became 0:02:52.080 --> 0:02:55.160 one of my favorite albums of all time, though it's 0:02:55.200 --> 0:02:58.800 one that I think is apparently not for everybody. I 0:02:58.840 --> 0:03:01.320 thought it was just great, but I took The Evil 0:03:01.320 --> 0:03:04.400 One like back to school with me in the fall, 0:03:04.639 --> 0:03:06.840 and you know, I was playing it for all my friends, 0:03:06.840 --> 0:03:09.160 and I feel like a lot of them just weren't 0:03:09.200 --> 0:03:11.520 into it. But it's one of my favorite rock and 0:03:11.600 --> 0:03:15.880 roll records ever. Two Headed Dog, The Wind and More, 0:03:16.040 --> 0:03:21.440 Bloody Hammer, Cold Night for Alligators, Night of the Vampire Creature, 0:03:21.440 --> 0:03:23.320 with the Adam Brain, the Hits Never Stop. 0:03:24.480 --> 0:03:27.040 Yeah, I Think You You originally turned me on to 0:03:27.440 --> 0:03:29.480 Rocky Erickson, and it took a little while for it 0:03:29.520 --> 0:03:32.560 to really get it hooks into me this album in particular, 0:03:33.000 --> 0:03:36.640 but eventually it did, and come back to it pretty frequently. 0:03:36.680 --> 0:03:40.040 They're they're pretty often pretty hard hitting songs. There's been 0:03:40.080 --> 0:03:43.840 pretty heavy stuff at times, and the lyrics are tremendous fun. 0:03:44.560 --> 0:03:47.440 But I want to say, while a number of songs 0:03:47.480 --> 0:03:51.360 on this fantastic album, the album is very monster themed overall, 0:03:51.400 --> 0:03:54.600 and while a number of songs on the album make 0:03:54.800 --> 0:04:00.360 oblique reference to identifiable monster movies, for example, the Alligator People, 0:04:00.400 --> 0:04:03.320 there's a song on there called It's a Cold Night 0:04:03.360 --> 0:04:06.240 for Alligator as it talks about how the dogs choke 0:04:06.280 --> 0:04:08.720 on their barking when they see alligator persons in the 0:04:08.760 --> 0:04:12.120 bog and fog. I'm pretty sure the song Night of 0:04:12.160 --> 0:04:14.960 the Vampire must have something to do with a particular 0:04:15.040 --> 0:04:17.800 vampire movie. That's the one where if it's raining and 0:04:17.839 --> 0:04:20.320 you're running, don't slip in mud because if you do, 0:04:20.520 --> 0:04:25.720 you'll slip in blood. That's just logic. But anyway, so 0:04:26.040 --> 0:04:28.440 a lot of these other songs, the references are kind of, 0:04:28.920 --> 0:04:31.760 you know, oblique illusions. But this one is just head on. 0:04:32.040 --> 0:04:34.560 The song is called Creature with the Adam Brain. It's 0:04:34.600 --> 0:04:37.320 about a movie called Creature with the Adam Brain, and 0:04:37.440 --> 0:04:42.039 the song at multiple points just Rocky starts reciting dialogue 0:04:42.120 --> 0:04:49.640 from the film. 0:04:49.800 --> 0:04:53.920 Yeah, yeah, so it's pretty dead on. And I looked around. 0:04:53.720 --> 0:04:57.440 I've never read any books, you know, dedicated biographies about 0:04:57.520 --> 0:05:02.440 Rocky Erickson, but I found an article an interview from 0:05:02.440 --> 0:05:05.800 The Quietness. I'm not sure what year this is, but 0:05:06.120 --> 0:05:09.919 titled getting to Grips with Rocky Ericson and there's a 0:05:09.960 --> 0:05:12.919 part where they ask him. The interviewer says, what's your 0:05:12.920 --> 0:05:16.120 favorite horror movie? And Rocky Erickson says, quote, I like 0:05:16.160 --> 0:05:18.000 the Creature with the Adam Brain, and I like the 0:05:18.040 --> 0:05:21.440 Giant Cricket. I like them too a lot. Yeah, so 0:05:21.480 --> 0:05:25.200 we have that to go on the Giant Cricket. I think. 0:05:25.200 --> 0:05:27.559 I'm not sure he might be referring to nineteen fifty 0:05:27.560 --> 0:05:31.400 seven's beginning of the end, but yeah, pretty strong on 0:05:31.480 --> 0:05:34.080 the Creature with the Adam Brain here. Maybe there's some 0:05:34.080 --> 0:05:36.640 other interviews where he goes into it more. But there 0:05:36.680 --> 0:05:39.080 is something it is interesting to think about because on 0:05:39.120 --> 0:05:41.520 the surface, if you watch this movie not knowing it 0:05:41.560 --> 0:05:43.960 was anyone's favorite, you might guess that it is no 0:05:44.000 --> 0:05:46.120 one's favorite. Like, there are a lot of fun things 0:05:46.160 --> 0:05:50.120 about it, but it doesn't necessarily scream top tier fifty 0:05:50.240 --> 0:05:54.920 sci fi horror. But it does some things extremely well. 0:05:55.760 --> 0:05:58.840 You know, there's some moments that are far creepier than 0:05:59.320 --> 0:06:01.320 you might expect. Them to be, and the ones that 0:06:01.360 --> 0:06:04.839 I kept coming back to were these moments where our 0:06:05.000 --> 0:06:08.239 antagonist Buchanan, who will get into and who is referenced 0:06:08.240 --> 0:06:12.560 in Rocky's song, is using super science to compel the 0:06:12.720 --> 0:06:16.839 dead to do things or speaking through the dead, And 0:06:17.400 --> 0:06:19.760 I don't know, I kept coming back to that thinking 0:06:19.760 --> 0:06:24.279 about trying to figure out what Rocky found so fascinating 0:06:24.279 --> 0:06:25.200 about this movie. 0:06:25.960 --> 0:06:28.640 I agree with that assessment. I totally had a great 0:06:28.680 --> 0:06:31.240 time watching this, but I don't think it is top 0:06:31.320 --> 0:06:35.279 tier in any dimension. It's not like a truly great 0:06:35.600 --> 0:06:38.880 fifty sci fi film in terms of being scary or 0:06:38.920 --> 0:06:43.800 having interesting science fiction premises or in human drama any 0:06:43.839 --> 0:06:46.520 of that. It's also not one of the most notable 0:06:46.520 --> 0:06:49.120 in terms of excesses of cheese, Like it's not in 0:06:51.160 --> 0:06:55.600 Edward territory. You know, this is a competently made film, 0:06:55.720 --> 0:06:58.560 but nevertheless, it does have some things that are working 0:06:59.240 --> 0:07:01.960 in both directs and overall it's a fun ride and 0:07:02.040 --> 0:07:04.320 it just moves right along. This is not a slow 0:07:04.440 --> 0:07:05.599 or dull film. 0:07:06.080 --> 0:07:08.920 Yeah, yeah, it does. It does really really move right along. 0:07:09.080 --> 0:07:12.040 So anyway, it'd be interesting to keep all this in mind. 0:07:12.080 --> 0:07:14.120 And again, we also have to drive home. You don't 0:07:14.120 --> 0:07:17.560 have to have any kind of like specific reason to 0:07:18.000 --> 0:07:20.960 champion a particular horror movie or sci fi movie that 0:07:21.000 --> 0:07:22.680 no one else does. I don't know, you know, this 0:07:22.800 --> 0:07:25.760 is just one that's stuck with Rocky ericson and he 0:07:25.800 --> 0:07:26.840 made it into a great song. 0:07:27.120 --> 0:07:30.000 So there you go. Sorry, I just put this together. 0:07:30.080 --> 0:07:32.160 You mentioned that. So he said the other one that 0:07:32.240 --> 0:07:34.400 might be his favorite as the Giant Cricket. And you 0:07:34.520 --> 0:07:36.840 think that might be beginning of the end if that 0:07:37.080 --> 0:07:39.480 is correct. Beginning of the end is a bird Eye 0:07:39.480 --> 0:07:40.160 Gordon film. 0:07:40.760 --> 0:07:44.600 Oh okay, just had to flag that there might be 0:07:44.640 --> 0:07:48.160 something else that could be classified as the Giant Cricket. 0:07:48.200 --> 0:07:50.840 But this is the main one I came across, and 0:07:50.880 --> 0:07:52.600 it seems to be in that sweet spot of fifties 0:07:52.600 --> 0:07:53.520 films that he's into. 0:07:54.160 --> 0:07:57.280 This is the one. It doesn't it have like one 0:07:57.280 --> 0:08:00.000 of the special effects shots in it is a bird 0:08:00.200 --> 0:08:02.960 Gordon had a regular sized cricket crawling over like a 0:08:03.000 --> 0:08:05.600 postcard of the New York Skyline. Yeah. 0:08:05.640 --> 0:08:06.440 I think that's the one. 0:08:06.680 --> 0:08:08.160 Yeah, that's smart. 0:08:08.480 --> 0:08:11.360 All right, Well, elevator pitch for the creature with the 0:08:11.360 --> 0:08:14.080 Adam brain. The best I could come up with is 0:08:14.320 --> 0:08:19.280 popular Science Magazine, June nineteen fifty five. The horror movie. 0:08:20.080 --> 0:08:23.000 That's good, Yeah, because there is a real feel of 0:08:23.280 --> 0:08:27.120 I just caught up on the latest, you know, bleeding 0:08:27.280 --> 0:08:30.560 edge science, and now I'm going to write a script 0:08:30.960 --> 0:08:34.040 for a horror movie that we have to make next week. 0:08:34.600 --> 0:08:36.880 You know, I've got another take on it. So if 0:08:37.360 --> 0:08:40.880 Edward originally sold Bride of the Monster as Bride of 0:08:40.880 --> 0:08:45.000 the Atom, this is like they're exploring more stuff in 0:08:45.080 --> 0:08:47.720 that space. We already did Bride of the Atom. Whatso 0:08:47.800 --> 0:08:51.320 how about entry level employee of the Atom? And I 0:08:51.360 --> 0:08:53.080 think that that's sort of the premise here. 0:08:53.679 --> 0:08:55.880 Yeah, all right, let's go ahead and listen to that 0:08:55.920 --> 0:08:57.360 trailer audio. This is pretty good. 0:08:57.400 --> 0:09:13.640 One fish and science creates an electronic monster so terrifying 0:09:14.080 --> 0:09:16.080 only screams can describe it. 0:09:17.920 --> 0:09:29.559 Come back Home, Come back Home. According to the evidence, 0:09:29.559 --> 0:09:32.520 Hennessy was murdered by a creature with adam rays of 0:09:32.600 --> 0:09:36.360 superhuman strength and a creature that cannot be killed by bullets. 0:09:43.040 --> 0:09:47.240 I said I would live to see you die. I 0:09:47.400 --> 0:09:50.679 just came from the bureau and checks the murderer's fingerprints. 0:09:51.120 --> 0:09:52.480 His name is Willard Pierce, and. 0:09:52.600 --> 0:09:55.199 Let me have it from the finals petty theft for 0:09:55.720 --> 0:09:59.960 three months in prison. Rule I could have took burcular 0:10:00.040 --> 0:10:02.000 then they have strength enough to break those bars like that? 0:10:02.080 --> 0:10:05.040 Do you think that's something? Answer this one? How could 0:10:05.040 --> 0:10:06.679 a dead man have strength enough to do it? 0:10:10.440 --> 0:10:13.400 Fantastic? But based on scientific fact. 0:10:16.360 --> 0:10:20.920 Please, hello, your fly you will stop all planes and 0:10:21.080 --> 0:10:26.200 trucks searching for radio activity. If you do not, many 0:10:26.280 --> 0:10:29.920 people will be killed. There will be no other warning. 0:10:30.120 --> 0:10:32.280 Hello, Hello, Hello, they hung. 0:10:32.120 --> 0:10:33.320 Up before put a trace around us. 0:10:35.600 --> 0:11:11.400 Slow down, Dave, Dave Date, No, well them kill him? 0:11:11.440 --> 0:11:14.240 There you go. Based on scientific fact, this is a 0:11:14.440 --> 0:11:17.760 This is a film that screams to be viewed. 0:11:18.080 --> 0:11:22.120 This is hard science, hard science. This is like it's 0:11:22.120 --> 0:11:22.920 like Asimov. 0:11:24.840 --> 0:11:27.520 All right, if you're before we go any further, if 0:11:27.320 --> 0:11:30.120 if you would like to watch this movie before you 0:11:30.120 --> 0:11:32.040 get into the discussion, well you can. 0:11:32.320 --> 0:11:32.600 You can. 0:11:32.600 --> 0:11:34.920 You might catch a stream or two here or there, 0:11:35.000 --> 0:11:37.319 but the surefire way to view it is to pick 0:11:37.400 --> 0:11:39.640 up some physical media. There are a couple of nice 0:11:39.679 --> 0:11:43.200 collections that include it. One is the four DVD pack 0:11:43.480 --> 0:11:47.240 Icons of Horror collection Sam Katzman, which you can buy 0:11:47.400 --> 0:11:50.600 wherever you get your discs, that features the giant Claw 0:11:50.640 --> 0:11:53.800 creature with The Adam Brain, Zombies of Mara Tao, and 0:11:53.840 --> 0:11:57.160 the Werewolf. Arro Video also put these four movies out 0:11:57.200 --> 0:12:00.120 on Blu Ray in the set titled Cold War or 0:12:00.200 --> 0:12:04.200 Creatures for Films from Sam Katzman, and I included a 0:12:04.240 --> 0:12:06.440 picture of the whole spread. Here, Joe, this one looks 0:12:06.480 --> 0:12:08.560 really nice. This is not how we watched it, but 0:12:09.360 --> 0:12:12.080 this looks splendid if I can't even look at it 0:12:12.120 --> 0:12:15.000 too closely. Otherwise I'm gona tempted to buy this thing, 0:12:15.040 --> 0:12:15.600 and I don't have. 0:12:15.559 --> 0:12:18.520 The shelf space gorgeous. Maybe I'm gonna buy it. 0:12:18.600 --> 0:12:21.960 And then look at that that adom brained creature right 0:12:21.960 --> 0:12:22.640 there on the cover. 0:12:22.840 --> 0:12:26.880 Beautiful. I gotta say the original posters for the creature 0:12:27.640 --> 0:12:31.000 with the Adam Brain are very good because they have 0:12:31.200 --> 0:12:34.839 a sort of like a green guy wearing a long 0:12:34.920 --> 0:12:39.400 coat with his arms outstretched walking towards you, and then 0:12:39.840 --> 0:12:43.440 instead of having him carrying an unconscious woman, they just 0:12:43.520 --> 0:12:45.959 have like an upside down woman at the bottom of 0:12:46.000 --> 0:12:48.120 the poster. They're like, oh, yeah, okay, we'll have that 0:12:48.160 --> 0:12:50.680 in there somewhere, but she's just like floating in white space. 0:12:51.200 --> 0:12:55.800 But then the green guy, his head is a drawing 0:12:55.960 --> 0:12:56.920 of an atom. 0:12:56.920 --> 0:12:59.800 So yes, there you go. Yeah, like the symbol of 0:12:59.840 --> 0:13:04.080 the Adam just super imposed over his skull. All right, well, 0:13:04.120 --> 0:13:06.160 let's get into the connections on this one. So normally 0:13:06.200 --> 0:13:08.120 we would of course start with the director, but we're 0:13:08.120 --> 0:13:10.920 going to break tradition here and start with the producer 0:13:11.040 --> 0:13:13.720 since we just mentioned him, and I think maybe it's 0:13:13.760 --> 0:13:16.840 fitting for this sort of release as well. And we've 0:13:16.840 --> 0:13:18.640 never talked about this a producer before, but this is 0:13:18.679 --> 0:13:21.840 producer Sam Katzman, who lived nineteen oh one through nineteen 0:13:21.960 --> 0:13:26.000 seventy three American film producer and director, famous for his 0:13:26.040 --> 0:13:28.880 ability to pump out low budget features and serials that 0:13:28.960 --> 0:13:32.160 actually made money. The genres were all over the place, 0:13:32.240 --> 0:13:35.440 as you might expect, but they obviously included horror movies. 0:13:36.160 --> 0:13:38.160 Not only did he do some beat nick films, but 0:13:38.240 --> 0:13:42.040 I've seen some film historians credit him with the creation 0:13:42.240 --> 0:13:44.280 of the term beat nick. I don't know if that's 0:13:44.440 --> 0:13:46.880 accurate or not, but at least he was in there 0:13:47.000 --> 0:13:48.760 enough that some people think he might have just come 0:13:48.840 --> 0:13:52.680 up with the term. He only directed five films, all 0:13:52.720 --> 0:13:55.840 of them released in nineteen thirty seven, but he produced 0:13:55.880 --> 0:13:58.880 one hundred and twenty four films and Some of the 0:13:58.920 --> 0:14:02.120 more well known titles include some very fun B movies 0:14:02.160 --> 0:14:04.640 that I think are much beloved. There's nineteen forty one's 0:14:04.640 --> 0:14:07.440 The Invisible Claw in nineteen forty two's The Corpse Vanishes. 0:14:07.480 --> 0:14:11.320 Those are both Bela Lagosi films. There's nineteen fifty six 0:14:11.480 --> 0:14:15.120 is The Werewolf, nineteen fifty seven's The Giant Claw. That's 0:14:15.160 --> 0:14:19.040 a giant bird movie. As I recall nineteen fifty sevens 0:14:19.080 --> 0:14:23.840 The Zombies of MARITAO and nineteen sixty sevens Kissing Cousins 0:14:24.040 --> 0:14:25.000 starring Elvis. 0:14:25.600 --> 0:14:29.480 Oh oh boy, is this one okay question? I haven't 0:14:29.480 --> 0:14:31.800 seen all the Elvis movies. Does he sing in all 0:14:31.880 --> 0:14:34.320 the movies? Or sometimes does he just act? 0:14:35.040 --> 0:14:37.400 You know, I've never watched an Elvis movie all the 0:14:37.400 --> 0:14:40.640 way through, but I assume he does. Why don't you 0:14:40.680 --> 0:14:42.840 put Elvis in your movie if he's not gonna sing? 0:14:43.200 --> 0:14:47.480 I don't know. Elvis was handsome, surely? Well, yeah, yeah, 0:14:47.760 --> 0:14:50.240 I think they make movies with singers where they don't sing. 0:14:50.520 --> 0:14:53.360 They do they do, And you know, I think we've 0:14:53.400 --> 0:14:55.480 certainly watched some things that had singers in him and 0:14:55.480 --> 0:14:56.040 they don't sing. 0:14:56.280 --> 0:15:00.720 Does Chris Christofferson sing in Blade? I think he does. 0:15:01.040 --> 0:15:07.680 He does not used every Elvis movie I've seen a 0:15:07.760 --> 0:15:10.640 part of includes him singing. But yeah, I mean maybe 0:15:10.640 --> 0:15:11.920 he didn't. I just don't know if he sings in 0:15:12.000 --> 0:15:14.960 all of them. Right in, let us know, all right. 0:15:15.080 --> 0:15:19.000 The director is Edward L. Kahn, who lived eighteen ninety 0:15:19.040 --> 0:15:22.400 nine through nineteen sixty three. I've seen him referred to 0:15:22.560 --> 0:15:26.040 as the one week Wonder because he could apparently absolutely 0:15:26.040 --> 0:15:28.400 pump these movies out. He was a kind of your 0:15:28.400 --> 0:15:30.680 go to guy. You got a B movie that needs 0:15:30.720 --> 0:15:33.320 to be made, it's definitely got that B movie budget. 0:15:33.560 --> 0:15:35.160 This is the guy that will get you across the 0:15:35.160 --> 0:15:39.640 finish line. He was all about quantity over quality and 0:15:40.040 --> 0:15:42.760 was highly prolific in the low budget film scene for 0:15:42.800 --> 0:15:45.560 three decades, directing one hundred and twenty eight films, a 0:15:45.600 --> 0:15:48.240 lot of B movies. Certainly didn't win any Oscars or 0:15:48.240 --> 0:15:50.680 anything like that, but there's some really fun movies in 0:15:50.680 --> 0:15:53.120 the mix. You might know him from some of his 0:15:53.240 --> 0:15:56.160 nineteen fifties horror and sci fi films, some of which 0:15:56.680 --> 0:16:00.440 have actually wound up on Mystery Science eight or three 0:16:00.440 --> 0:16:03.440 thousand and the like over the years. There's nineteen fifty 0:16:03.480 --> 0:16:07.480 seven's It The Terror from Beyond Space, which is often 0:16:07.520 --> 0:16:11.360 cited as being very influential and in particular influential on 0:16:11.480 --> 0:16:14.720 Dan O'Bannon's alien work in the decades to come. 0:16:14.920 --> 0:16:18.600 How many different movies have we cited as likely inspiring Alien. 0:16:18.960 --> 0:16:20.920 We're getting to the point where I don't know if 0:16:20.960 --> 0:16:23.160 it makes sense to say it's inspired by because if 0:16:23.360 --> 0:16:26.960 it's inspired by like seven different movies, then that's just synthesis, 0:16:26.960 --> 0:16:27.320 isn't it. 0:16:27.880 --> 0:16:31.680 Yeah, Yeah, I agree. Yeah, there's a whole list of 0:16:31.720 --> 0:16:33.800 them at this point, but I don't know. I haven't 0:16:33.800 --> 0:16:36.160 seen it. The Terror from Beyond Space. It be interesting 0:16:36.200 --> 0:16:40.080 to see exactly exactly what texture or detail he could 0:16:40.120 --> 0:16:43.800 have conceivably taken from that. Other films from this director 0:16:43.840 --> 0:16:46.880 include Invasion of the Saucer Men, The Zombies of Marital 0:16:47.440 --> 0:16:50.680 nineteen fifty six, is The She Creature, fifty nine's The 0:16:50.760 --> 0:16:55.600 Invisible Invaders, and The Four Skulls of Jonathan Drake. He 0:16:55.640 --> 0:16:59.040 did a lot of westerns action films, bikers, various social 0:16:59.080 --> 0:17:02.800 exploitation films of the thirties, forties, fifties, and very early sixties. 0:17:03.520 --> 0:17:07.560 I have seen a description of his movie The Invisible 0:17:07.600 --> 0:17:12.720 Invaders as being pretty much the same premise as creature 0:17:12.720 --> 0:17:15.960 with the Adam Brain, except instead of a gangster and 0:17:16.000 --> 0:17:19.280 a scientist, it's aliens who are using the who are 0:17:19.320 --> 0:17:22.520 reanimating the remote controlled corpses. Nice. 0:17:22.520 --> 0:17:24.600 I mean, you got a winning concept, you keep doing 0:17:24.640 --> 0:17:27.080 it all right? Well that brings us who are the 0:17:27.119 --> 0:17:28.920 writer of this piece? And this is a writer we've 0:17:28.920 --> 0:17:32.840 discussed previously on Weird House. This is Kurt Cidmack, who 0:17:32.880 --> 0:17:36.240 lived nineteen oh two through the year two thousand. He 0:17:36.280 --> 0:17:38.400 wrote the screenplay for nineteen forty six as The Beast 0:17:38.520 --> 0:17:42.640 with Five Fingers starring Peter Lorii, which we talked about. 0:17:42.640 --> 0:17:46.399 He also wrote a novelization of that particular screenplay. He 0:17:46.480 --> 0:17:49.639 was a German born novelist, screenwriter, and director who left 0:17:49.680 --> 0:17:52.240 Germany for first the UK and then the US due 0:17:52.240 --> 0:17:56.560 to concerns overrising anti Semitism under the Nazis. His German 0:17:56.600 --> 0:17:59.920 output was already pretty successful prior to all. This included 0:18:00.200 --> 0:18:03.520 sci fi film titled FP One Doesn't Answer about a 0:18:03.560 --> 0:18:08.200 sort of sci fi aircraft carrier base. He did British 0:18:08.240 --> 0:18:10.879 war thrillers in some comedies, but then he struck it 0:18:10.920 --> 0:18:13.640 big with his nineteen forty one screenplay for The Invisible 0:18:13.640 --> 0:18:16.760 Man Returns and his original screenplay for forty one's The 0:18:16.800 --> 0:18:20.760 Wolfman starring Claude Rains, Bell Lagosi, and Lon Chaney Junior. 0:18:21.160 --> 0:18:22.879 He went on to write a whole lot of screenplays, 0:18:22.880 --> 0:18:25.960 including Frankenstein Meets The Wolfman forty three, I Walked with 0:18:26.000 --> 0:18:29.760 a Zombie from forty three, Son of Dracula also forty three, 0:18:29.800 --> 0:18:32.800 House of Frankenstein from forty four, and many more. He 0:18:32.880 --> 0:18:36.120 wrote the forty two sci fi novel Donovan's Brain, which 0:18:36.160 --> 0:18:40.359 was adapted three times. Also, his brother, Robert Cimac, was 0:18:40.400 --> 0:18:43.760 a director known for nineteen forty six as The Killers 0:18:43.840 --> 0:18:46.520 and The Spiral Staircase, among others. 0:18:47.000 --> 0:18:49.199 You mentioned that he wrote the movie I Walked with 0:18:49.240 --> 0:18:51.680 a Zombie from nineteen forty three. I Walked with the 0:18:51.760 --> 0:18:55.000 Zombie is also the name and pretty much the entire 0:18:55.119 --> 0:18:58.480 lyrical content of another song by Rocky Erickson on the 0:18:58.560 --> 0:19:03.080 album The Evil One, which just repeatedly proclaims I walked 0:19:03.080 --> 0:19:05.280 with the Zombie last night. Great stuff. 0:19:05.359 --> 0:19:07.800 Yeah, definitely go go listen to some of this album 0:19:07.920 --> 0:19:12.800 after you listen to this podcast episode. As far as 0:19:12.840 --> 0:19:15.400 the script for this movie goes, you know, perhaps nothing 0:19:15.440 --> 0:19:17.200 special on the grand scheme of things, but I think 0:19:17.240 --> 0:19:21.560 it does seem legitimately interested in creating something inspired by 0:19:21.600 --> 0:19:25.960 the frontiers of science of the day, maybe on a 0:19:26.000 --> 0:19:29.040 tight schedule and a limited budget, obviously, but I also 0:19:29.080 --> 0:19:32.320 thought the dialogue is mostly pretty snappy, even if on 0:19:32.400 --> 0:19:36.920 the whole the movie feels very explanatory and procedural. Reminds 0:19:36.960 --> 0:19:39.240 me of some of the serials I've seen from this 0:19:39.359 --> 0:19:42.320 time period, but better pace, better acted, and so forth. 0:19:50.760 --> 0:19:53.639 All right, let's get into the cast here. Our star 0:19:54.280 --> 0:19:58.679 is Richard Dinn, playing doctor chet Walker. Dinning lived nineteen 0:19:58.760 --> 0:20:02.159 fourteen through nineteen ninety. Now you might well recognize this 0:20:02.240 --> 0:20:06.240 lean cut of fifties leading man here, because he did 0:20:06.240 --> 0:20:09.240 work quite a lot, and he's probably best remembered though 0:20:09.320 --> 0:20:14.240 for one particular creature feature. His credits go back to 0:20:14.280 --> 0:20:17.560 the late nineteen thirties with various adventure films, comedies, and 0:20:17.600 --> 0:20:20.919 so forth. But in nineteen fifty four he starred in 0:20:21.040 --> 0:20:23.520 Jack Arnold's Creature from the Black Lagoon. 0:20:23.960 --> 0:20:26.119 Was he one of the forgettable humans in it? 0:20:26.560 --> 0:20:29.600 He's the forgettable human in it? Oh okay, if you 0:20:29.640 --> 0:20:33.280 look up for some reason, you're looking up stills from 0:20:33.520 --> 0:20:36.199 a Creature from the Black Lagoon and you don't focus 0:20:36.240 --> 0:20:39.920 on that fabulous monster costume, you'll probably see Richard Dinning 0:20:40.840 --> 0:20:44.320 standing around, you know, shirtless boat or on a boat 0:20:44.400 --> 0:20:47.160 with a shotgun, comforting a woman. 0:20:47.280 --> 0:20:50.119 That sort of thing. I would say, Richard Dinning is 0:20:50.760 --> 0:20:54.040 not bad in this movie, but not great either. He's 0:20:54.080 --> 0:20:55.359 sort of there, He's fine. 0:20:56.320 --> 0:21:00.479 It's a very warkhorse performance, Like does he do anything now? 0:21:01.000 --> 0:21:01.920 Is there anything bad? 0:21:02.000 --> 0:21:02.200 Now? 0:21:02.600 --> 0:21:05.359 Is there anything where you're like, Yeah, you really leaned 0:21:05.359 --> 0:21:07.440 into that and made it more interesting than it should 0:21:07.480 --> 0:21:10.160 have been. It's hard to make a case for that, 0:21:10.200 --> 0:21:16.080 but absolutely fulfills the role here. So after a Black 0:21:16.160 --> 0:21:18.600 Lagoon he continued to act in war in action films, 0:21:18.640 --> 0:21:22.080 and really most of his output is not sci fi 0:21:22.200 --> 0:21:24.800 or horror. But it's just one of those quirks where 0:21:25.080 --> 0:21:27.600 I think a mean creature from the Black Lagoon casts 0:21:27.640 --> 0:21:30.360 a far greater shadow than perhaps anything else he was in, 0:21:31.359 --> 0:21:33.840 certainly in terms of things we're likely to discuss on 0:21:33.920 --> 0:21:38.080 Weird House, but he was also in nineteen fifty seven's 0:21:38.080 --> 0:21:40.840 The Black Scorpion. I know this is a monster movie 0:21:41.119 --> 0:21:43.080 you've been tempted to do before, Joe, because it has 0:21:43.160 --> 0:21:46.280 a kind of aridunculous looking monster in it. 0:21:47.680 --> 0:21:50.760 I've the name sounds familiar, but I've forgotten what this 0:21:50.880 --> 0:21:53.399 monster is. I must have sent it your way. Let 0:21:53.440 --> 0:21:56.360 me look it up. Oh yes, okay, yeah, we may 0:21:56.359 --> 0:21:59.880 have to return to this someday. Sorry. I got briefly 0:22:00.400 --> 0:22:03.960 because there's apparently another unrelated movie called Black Scorpion from 0:22:04.000 --> 0:22:07.000 the nineties that looks like some kind of uh, I 0:22:07.040 --> 0:22:09.720 don't know, erotic action movie or something. You know, I'm 0:22:09.720 --> 0:22:11.120 seeing a lot of shiny leather. 0:22:11.960 --> 0:22:16.400 Yeah, that's some sort of like syndicated female superhero thing. Now, 0:22:16.400 --> 0:22:19.080 this one was like a desert monster movie with a 0:22:19.080 --> 0:22:20.840 big goofy scorpion monster in it. 0:22:21.400 --> 0:22:24.320 That sounds right, Okay, yeah, yeah, well I have to 0:22:24.359 --> 0:22:25.040 take a look again. 0:22:25.359 --> 0:22:27.000 He was also in nineteen fifty five Is the Day 0:22:27.040 --> 0:22:29.720 the World Ended and if you're if you're looking outside 0:22:29.760 --> 0:22:33.920 of genre. He also had a pretty i think third 0:22:33.920 --> 0:22:37.840 billing in nineteen fifty seven's Unaffair to Remember, which is 0:22:37.880 --> 0:22:41.960 a pretty big picture, but not creature level. Not creature level. 0:22:42.160 --> 0:22:46.000 I'd say his role in this movie is somewhat likable, actually, 0:22:46.080 --> 0:22:49.040