Mill Creek Drive-In Classics: The Devil’s Hand (1961)
About the Author: Shannon Briggs has been a passionate fan of cinema ever since his grandmother recorded The Monster Squad on VHS through cable and gave it to him. You can see more of his musings on Twitter @MisterShannonB and read more his reviews at https://letterboxd.com/MisterShannonB/ Just a few seconds into the opening titles of […]
Bloodlust! (1961)
Man, don’t ever do what Betty, Johnny, Jeanne and Pete do in this movie. They go on a vacation together and when their ship’s captain gets too drunk to navigate, they head off to a jungle island to have some fun. Have we learned nothing from, well, every movie ever? Johnny (why yes that is […]
The Absent Minded Professor (1961)
Based on the short story “A Situation of Gravity” by Samuel W. Taylor and in part on Hubert Alyea, a professor emeritus of chemistry at Princeton University known as “Dr. Boom*” for, well, blowing things up, The Absent Minded Professor is the start of the Medfield College shared universe that has been obsessing me over our […]
The Parent Trap (1961)
Based upon the 1949 book Lottie and Lisa by Erich Kästner, The Parent Trap is the kind of movie Disney made in the early 60s — sure, it’s funny and financially successful, but it also has the kind of high quality that gets a movie nominated for two Academy Awards. Teenage girls Sharon McKendrick and Susan Evers (both […]
The Pit and the Pendulum (1961)
A loose — very loose — adaption of the Edgar Allan Poe story, this film was written by Richard Mattheson*, directed by Roger Corman and learns from the success of The Fall of the House of Usher by bringing back much of its creative team — cinematographer Floyd Crosby, art director Daniel Haller and composer Les […]
The Phantom Planet (1961)
William Marshall was born in Chicago, Illinois. He started his entertainment career as the vocalist for Fred Waring and the Pennsylvanians — Waring was “The Man that Taught America to Sing,” as well as the inventor of the first commercially available electric blender in the U.S., the Miracle Mixer, which Dr. Jonas Salk used to […]
SON OF KAIJU DAY MARATHON: Mothra (1961)
Godzilla may be the most popular kaiju there is, but at least when it comes to Toho’s stable, Mothra is number two, appearing in thirteen of Godzilla’s movies and her own trilogy in the Heisei era. She got her start when producer Tomoyuki Tanaka hired author Shin’ichirō Nakamura to write an original kaiju story. Working […]
The Dead One (1961)
The Dead One is a significant movie because it’s one of the first two zombie films made in color — the other is Dr. Blood’s Coffin — and it was made outside of the Hollywood system in New Orleans. It mostly played in Southern drive-ins, in Mexico and the UK before it disappeared for 41 years. […]
KAIJU DAY MARATHON: Gorgo (1961)
A co-production of the United Kingdom, the United States and Ireland — all united to rip off a film from Japan — Gorgo is all about a pearl diving crew taking a little monster to London and being gobsmacked when its mother comes to tear up Big Ben. Originally, this was going to be set in […]
KAIJU DAY MARATHON: Reptilicus (1961)
As Jonah taught us on the new Mystery Science Theater 3000, every country has a monster. This movie was filmed twice in Copenhagen, Sjælland and Jylland, Denmark. Huh? That’s because it was shot once in Danish and once in English because why dub this movie? Only Danish actress Bodil Miller doesn’t appear in the American cut […]
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