Silent Wierdness: Born Today September 9: Neil Hamilton

Silent Wierdness: Born Today September 9: Neil Hamilton: 1899-1984 Born James Neil Hamilton on Sept. 9, 1899, his first film dates from 1918, he is yet another silent actor who got his st...

"Holy Smokes Batman...it's Commissioner Gordon!"

A Bit Of Trivia:

3 live action actors who have played the role of Commissioner Gordon have gone by their middle names in their professional career's:  James Neil Hamilton (here), Martin Patterson (Pat) Hingle, and Leonard Gary Oldman.  Of the the three, Hamilton is the only one whose first name was James in real life shared the first name of Comm. James Gordon (who often went by "Jim") from the comics.

ALSO:

Neil Hamilton was also a cousin of:

He also appeared in at least two horror films:  The Cat Creeps (1930) & The Devil's Hand (1961), made two appearance on the original series "The Outer Limits," and....

Played a character called "Malcolm" on....

Some Season 7 Closer Trivia

SPOILERS!!

Brenda's word's "looks like love" are her words at the end of both the series pilot and the series finale.

Lt. Provenza reveals that he has actually been sued 18 times in life, not including his 5 divorces!!

As of the end of the series the audience still has not met Brenda's three brothers.  We do learn that their names are Clay Jr. Bobby and Jimmy.  Jimmy we learn is in long term same sex relationship and lives with his partner in New York.

We finally find out that Buzz's actual first name is Francis.

We find out that Brenda was actually born on a military base, and that her father Clay Sr. was in the Air Force for 25 years.

We find out that Chief Pope attended Stanford.

Capt. Raydor reveals that she is married and Catholic.  She tell Gabriel that she has been separated from her gambling, alcoholic husband for 20 years and that "it's all very Catholic."  Her husband's profession is that he is supposed to be a lawyer.

We met Buzz's very attractive sister Casey, who visiting from Seattle, where she works as a Meteorologist, for the holidays.  We also find out that they lost their father at a very young age.

In episode "Star Turn" the central details surrounding the death of the father of the young girl seeking fame and fortune in Hollywood, were taken from a real case in 2009.

Part of "Death Warrant" was filmed on location that the historic Olvera Street.

Tarantula (1955)

Yet another Jack Arnold directed ditties, this time with a mad scientist thrown in for good measure.

Release Date:  15 Dec. 1955

Runtime:  80 minutes

Directed by Jack Arnold

Stars:  Leo G. Carroll, Mara Corday, and John Agar

Screenplay by:  Robert M. Fresco and Martin Berkeley

Music by:  Herman Stein (again, uncredited)

Aspect Ratio:  1.85:1 35 mm

Sound:  Western Electric Recording mono

Tagline:  Monster Spider...crawling terror 100 feet high!

The actual spider actor was manipulated with little air jets to move about just so on the miniature set that built for it.

Acromagalia does, or rather can, cause facial distortions that are considered severe, but not cause have been reported as severe as the cases shown in the film.

Professor Demer predicts that by the year 2000 (and keep in mind, he presents this as dire) the world's population would be more than 3 and 1/2 billion people--in fact, the population 12 years ago now, was closer to 6.7 billion!

Clint Eastwood has a bit part in this film as part of the jet squadron that is bombing the huge spider.

Forbidden Planet (1956)

This is the only movie I've got tonight that is on Blu Ray, which I haven't actually watched before, but given the crazy, wild Eastman color that the film was shot in, it should be a hoot. Robbie the Robot should look interesting.  It should also be mentioned that this is the only film today with a writing credit going to William Shakespeare!!

Release Date:  15 Mar. 1956

Runtime:  98 minutes

Directed by:  Fred M. Wilcox

Stars:  Walter Pidgeon, Anne Francis, Leslie Nielsen

Screenplay:  Cyril Hume

Music by:  no one...it doesn't have a soundtrack, though the electronic composers the Barron's were actually blocked from being credited in the category through the studio system.

Aspect Ratio:  2.55:1 (CinemaScope)

Color:  Eastman Color

Sound:  Western Electric Sound Recording mono with Perspecta Sound encoding.

Tagline:  Earthmen on a fabulous, peril-journey into outer space!

It is credited as being the first major motion picture to have the music performed entirely on electronic instruments, but it's "soundtrack" is provided by various sounds that things, devices and creatures give off in the course of the film.

The music composed for the original theatrical trailer for the film was composed by Andre Previn.

One famous scene that was written as comic relief, but never filmed has Robby the Robot responding to the ship's cook who has complained about a lack of female companionship--he brings him a female chimp.

Was shot on the Wizard Of Oz soundstage.

Is loosely based on Shakespeare's The Tempest.

Marvin Miller who voiced Robby The Robot, also narrated the theatrical trailer.

Was nominated for an Academy Award.

Electronic tonalities composed by avant-garde electronic musicians Louis Barron and Bebe Barron.

Them! (1955)

This is the atomic monster movie to end all atomic monster movies!  This is just pure movie monster madness and has suspense to spare.  There is nothing even remotely campy about the story or the film and one feels a serious gut wrenching fear for the children involved.  For me, it doesn't matter how many times I see it (and I've seen it probably around 100 times), the ants still make me uncomfortable, even though I am well aware that such "atomisized" creatures are basically an impossibility--that's master movie making!  This one was even nominated for an Oscar.

Release date:  19 June 1954 (I thought it was supposed to be Speilberg's release of Jaws in 1975 that kicked off the "summer blockbuster!")

Runtime:  94 minutes

Directed by:  Gordon Douglas

Stars:  James Whitmore, James Arness, Edmund Gwenn, Joan Weldon & Fess Parker

Screenplay:  Ted Shredman & Russel S. Hughes from a George Worthing Yates story.

Music:  Bronislau Kapeer

Aspect Ratio:  1.75:1 35mm

Sound:  RCA Sound System mono

Tagline:  Kill one and two will take it's place!

Trivia:

Despite that this went on to be Warner's highest grossing film in 1954, in the production phase the studio slashed the budget, nervous about putting so much money into an atomic themed film.  With that budget slash went the 3-D color that it's was supposed to be shot in.

The sounds that the ants are making as they find prey (ie: humans) is actually from tree frogs.

Walt Disney personally screened the film because he was interested in casting James Arness as Davey Crockett, but after seeing the film he decided that Fess Parker would actually be better for the part.

The B-25 Mitchell that transports the father/daughter doctors was actually the personal transport of a 2-star general.

The flamethrowers used were actually real combat throwers on loan from the Army, they were standard combat issue.

James Whitmore had to wear "lifts" to help correct the height difference between him and James Arness.

Leonard Nimoy makes a cameo appearance in this (actually I think at the time, it was hardly a "cameo," and more like a "bit part/").

The camera seen being used in the helicopter scene is a kind of product placement, it's a Stereo Realist 3-D camera.

Attack Of The Crab Monsters (1957)

Gotta get some Roger Corman action in here somewhere today!!  This is his 1957 gigantism entry---with really, really big and hungry crabs!  But these aren't your typical atomic anomaly.  These things absorb the thoughts of their victims and actually taunt future victims with them!!

Release Date:  10 Feb. 1957

Runtime:  62 minutes

Directed by:  Roger Corman

Stars:  Richard Garland, Pamela Duncan & Russell Johnson

Screenplay by:  Charles B. Griffith

Music:  Ronald Stein

Aspect Ratio:  1.178:1 35 mm

Sound:  mono

Tagline:  From the depths of the sea...a tidal wave of terror

Goofy Trivia:

Was released along with Not Of This Earth (also a Corman film) as a double feature in drive-ins.

A scene involving two pilots that are flying the plane that explodes was shot with scripted lines, but was cut from the final version.

Actor Russel Johnson broke his toe on the set, due to the film's low budget, however he got no time off.

Two people "played" the crab, with one Ed Nelson providing the voice, and the other, Beach Dickerson operating the crabs arms.

Creature From The Black Lagoon (1954)

OK, there is not doubt, this is an absolute classic--and not just in confines of 1950's science fiction timeline.  It is regarded as one of the great science fiction classics in all of cinema history, not mention an early pioneer of 3-D.  One thing that stands out about it for me is that this is a creature that is not the product of some atomic experiment or other types of pollution; this creature is a genuine evolutionary throw-back that just happens to still exist the the remote Amazon.  Instead of it stalking humans in cities and doing massive damage to urban ares, it's the humans that invade his territory and do plenty of damage to it in the name of science.  Of course, the creature (Gill Man) MUST become infatuated with the sole woman on board ship...this was the 1950's after all!  And there is plenty of on-board jealous squabbling over the lady by the human males as well.

Release Date:  5 Mar. 1954

Runtime:  79 minutes

Directed by:  Jack Arnold

Stars:  Richard Carlson, Julie Adams, Richard Denning, & Antonio Moreno

Screenplay:  Harry Essex & Arthur A. Ross

Music by:  3 uncredited chaps that included Henry Mancini (studios!!).

Aspect Ratio:  2.00:1 35 mm

Cinematic Process:  Universal 3-D

Sound:  Western Electric Recording mono

Tagline:  Creature from a million years ago!...every man is mortal enemy...every woman's beauty his prey!

Goofy Trivia:

The creature suit was based on the Oscar trophy given out at the Academy Awards.

Ricou Browning the man in the gill man costume had to hold his breath for up to four minute's at a time, because the creature was supposed be gilled for underwater and out water breathing--there could be no air bubbles.  Not surprisingly he was a professional at this, as he produced under water shows in FLA's Weeki Wachee.

Gill man made an appearance on The Munsters as "Uncle Gilbert."

Actor Ben Chapman played the creature when it was out of the water.

Some of the detail work of the gill man costume is based on 17th century woodcuts of a mysterious creatures Sea Monk & Sea Bishop. 

Filmmaker Jean Renoir was rumored to by a script doctor on the project.

Igmar Bergman reportedly watched the movie every year on his birthday.  Now that's a traditional I can get behind!

The film had a real fossil of an amphibian named after in the form of  Eucritta melanolimnetes.

When World's Collide (1951)

A very serious and well done piece of 50's Sci-Fi Cine', When Worlds Collide is an apocalyptic time bomb of a movie.  Only a handful of people are let in on a terrible secret, namely that within one year, the earth will collide with a small star and that is entering the solar system, dragging a planet, Zyra, with it.  The earth, of course, will be obliterated--so what to do?  Well try to build a rocket that will transport some human to the invading planet, even while they have no idea whether it is habitable or not....but what do they have to loose??  It's a kind of space-age Noah's ark kind of thing.

Release Date:  August 1951

Runtime:  83 minutes

Directed by:  Rudolph Mate'

Stars:  Richard Derr, Barbara Rush, Peter Hansen & Larry Keating

Screenplay:  Sydney Boehm based on the novel of the same name

Music by:  same composer as World Without End:  Leith Stevens

Aspect Ratio:  1.37:1 35 mm

Color:  Technicolor (fake news reels in Black and White)

Sound:  Western Electric Recording Mono

Tagline:  Planets destroy Earth!

Goofy Trivia:

Originally this was to be a Cecil B. DeMille project in the 1930's entitled "The End Of The World."

Rocket ship was designed by space artist Chesley Bonestell.

Film debut of soap actress Rachel Ames.

The volcanic eruption shown as one of the effects of Zyra's passing was reused in two other films:  The Time Machine (1960) and Atlantis:  The Lost Continent (1961).

The ending with the disembarking on Zyra looks totally fake because it was a crappy matte painting used in a rush to get out a promotional.  George Pal, the film's producer, wanted to build a whole set for the planet, but Paramount secretly shipped out the film with the painting in it at the last minute, presumably  to save money.  We can only wonder how cool the finished product would have been!

The band Powerman-5000, headed by Rob Zombie's younger brother, has a song on their 1999 Tonight The Stars Revolt entitled "When World's Collide."

World Without End (1956)

1950's science fiction classic, complete with a shirtless Rod Taylor (see below), this is one of the first time travel post apocalyptic astronauts return to earth flicks our there.  Four (all male, of course) astronauts find themselves back on earth after experiencing a strange pull on their spacecraft in a return voyage home from Mars.  When they land, they find the earth strangely devoid of people, then, as they travel by foot searching, they start to find strange creatures, like giant spiders.  Eventually they encounter cavemen like people and, most strangely of all, scantly clad women in mini dresses....  Finally, there those dudes with the plastic skullcaps on...and these guys are supposed to be advanced humans???  Obviously, this is not the Earth they left!  It's a solid piece of sci-fi from the era, but still those women...it's hard not to laugh (or perhaps be a little disturbed) when they show up.  It's certainly not hard to see where the original Star Trek series got a lot of set and costume ideas from. And the creatures, like the spider they encounter in a cave early on in the film are clearly rubber....and, I'd swear, Ed Wood stole that prop sometime later in the decade to use in one of his films!  You know, just flay around, it's looks like it's killing you.

Release Date:  25 Mar. 1956

Runtime:  80 minutes

Director:  Edward Bernds

Stars:  [the above mentioned] Rod Taylor, Nelson Leigh & Hugh Marlowe

Screenplay:  By the director

Music by:  Leith Stevens

Color:  Technicolor (in CinemaScope)

Sound:  Western Electric Recording Mono/Perspecta Stereo

Aspect Ratio:  2:55.1

Tagline:  Thru the Time Barrier, 552 years ahead....Roaring To The The Far Reaches Of Titanic Terror, Crash-Landing Into The Nightmare Future!

Goofy Trivia:

This was released as a double feature with The Indestructible Man.

The title comes from a Anglicized Catholic devotional.

The director claimed to have invented "mutate" and "mutant" for the film from a Latin word for "much changed."

Those motorized rubber spider were actually reused, not by Ed Wood, but by Bernds himself in Queen Of Outer Space and Valley Of Dragons. 

Hugh Marlowe's part was originally intended for Sterling Hayden.

Rod Taylor famously went on to star in another time travel movie:  The Time Machine (1960).

The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957)

After not having access to the Internet last Friday, it's nice to be back!  Looking forward to a day filled with some vintage Science Fiction from the 1950's--the age of the atomic monster!!  And speaking of what movie makers conjured up that toxins could do to you, in this case "pesticides" or "insecticides", we are starting off the with case of the Incredible Shrinking Man!

Release Date:  April 1957

Runtime:  81 minutes

Director:  Jack Arnold (the director of Creature From The Black Lagoon)

Stars:  Grant Williams and Randy Stuart (along with a cat and tarantula!)

Screenplay By:  Richard Matheson from his own novel

The Score:  which is actually very good and dynamically tense was composed by four men who were not even credited in the film...gotta love that Studio System....

Ratio:  Standard 1.85: 1 35mm

Sound:  Westrex Recording System Mono

Tagline:  Moment by moment, terror mounts!

Goofy Trivia:

Though uncredited, the cat that starred as the menace to Scott Carey's life was named "Orangey"--for being a huge red tabby bruiser.

Special effects guys figured out, after a lot of experimenting (!), that they could get the giant drops of water that were needed for size scale by filling up condoms and dropping them....

Writer Richard Matheson also penned a screenplay sequel for this entitled The Fantastic Shrinking Woman, in which Carey's wife (Randy Stuart) would herself start to shrink, but the project was scrapped by Universal.

Shrinking Man and Cat 1 by shrinkingman