Last On Of The Evening: Beast From Haunted Cave (1959)

This C or even D grade horror shlock from the late 1950's, it's also a favorite.  The soundtrack, especially the opening "atomic sci fi" sounding organ intro is a good reminder of why Ed Wood really thought he should be taken seriously.  Well, maybe he should have, if this is any indication of what was slightly more mainstream.  

The film was produced by Gene Corman, famed schlock horror director Roger Corman's older brother, which would go a long way toward explaining how this got made in the first place.  The late 1950's saw the very first signs of the crumbling of the studio system and independent film production companies began to view themselves in a slightly better light than the likes of say "Screen Classics," which produced Glen or Glenda, you know...the Ed Wood movie.  That doesn't mean that they produced anything close to "A list" stuff, but there was a lot more work for these little companies than had been before.  Gene Corman certainly never presented the world with any titles close to "Test Tube Babie" or "Racket Girls" as Wood first production company had.

Incidentally, Gene was also the producer on the creature feature Attack Of The Giant Leeches.

If this film bears any resemblance to Q. Tarantino's/Robert Rodriquez's  From Duck Till Dawn, as some have remarked on--I don't think that's a mistake.  Anyone who is a fan of Tarantino knows, that, despite it's universal hatred, he is a huge fan of Manos:  Hands of Fate, a film that is located firmly in the top lowest rated horror films on IMDb.  It wouldn't surprise me one bit if he got the idea of the bifurcated crime/horror segments in a movie from this very film--right down to the blood sucking.

I also know that this is precisely the sort of film that music legend Frank Zappa loved.  On several live recordings he makes fun of these low budget films in a very pointed but hilarious fashion.  In one case calling the monster a huge "inverted ice cream cone."  This is just the kind of film where "the girl" twists her ankle on behave of the ice cream cone.

Geez, another very cool movie poster!

What The Hell??

Is this Easter???