Friday Night At The Home Drive-In: The Headless Ghost (1959)

Posted on March 25, 2023 by Angus Kohm

The Headless Ghost (1959) by #PeterGrahamScott
w/#RichardLyon #LilianeSottane

Three students visit a haunted castle and decide to hide and deliberately miss the bus so they can spend the night.

“HEAD-HUNTING TEENAGERS LOST IN THE HAUNTED CASTLE!”

#Horror #Comedy
#NotQuiteClassicCinema
#FridayNightAtTheHomeDriveIn

Apparently, The Headless Ghost (1959) was shot in three weeks on the same sets as Horrors of the Black Museum (1959) and was intended to run as part of a double bill with that movie. Producer Herman Cohen said:

“We knocked out that picture very, very fast; that’s why the running time is so short, like sixty-five minutes… In fact, we started Headless Ghost as I was still finishing Black Museum, editing and cutting it. But I honestly don’t recall too much else about this picture, it was so bad.”

Continue reading →

Friday Night At The Home Drive-In: Teenage Zombies (1959)

Posted on March 17, 2023 by Angus Kohm

Teenage Zombies (1959) by #JerryWarren
w/#DonSullivan #KatherineVictor

A crazed scientist uses nerve gas to turn local teenagers into slaves.

“See Teenage Girls Thrust Into the Weird Pulsating Cage of Horror!”

”A fiendish experiment performed with sadistic horror!”

#Horror #SciFi
#NotQuiteClassicCinema
#FridayNightAtTheHomeDriveIn

Someone once asked me if Teenage Zombies (1959) is a good movie. I froze like a ghoul in the headlights. Truth be told, Teenage Zombies is a bad movie. A very bad movie. There’s really no way around that. So I looked this person square in the eye and said:

”I like it.” Continue reading →

Friday Night At The Home Drive-In: Beyond the Time Barrier (1960)

Posted on March 11, 2023 by Angus Kohm

Beyond the Time Barrier (1960) by #EdgarGUlmer
w/#RobertClarke #DarleneTompkins

A military test pilot lands in a post-apocalyptic future.

“Trapped! … in the incredible cosmic world that moves 100 years beyond time!”
”A Spectacle of the World of Tomorrow! Fantastic Sights to Stagger the Imagination”

#SciFi
#NotQuiteClassicCinema
#FridayNightAtTheHomeDriveIn

Beyond the Time Barrier (1960) Is another entertaining low budget science fiction movie by Edgar G. Ulmer. It’s probably not quite as good as The Man from Planet X (1951), but it’s a cut above many other movies in the genre. Continue reading →

Friday Night At The Home Drive-In: The Man from Planet X (1951)

Posted on March 4, 2023 by Angus Kohm

The Man from Planet X (1951) by #EdgarGUlmer
w/#RobertClarke #MargaretField

An alien from a mysterious planet uses hypnotic powers to enslave a Scottish island.

“The WEIRDEST Visitor the Earth has ever seen!”

#Horror #SciFi
#NotQuiteClassicCinema
#FridayNightAtTheHomeDriveIn

The Man from Planet X (1951) is a fairly serious minded SciFi movie – not unlike The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951). The fact that they were both released in 1951 is interesting to me. The Day the Earth Stood Still Is by far the better movie, but The Man from Planet X is solidly above average. It’s said that Steven Spielberg took the idea of an alien communicating through music from this movie and used it in Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977). If that’s true, it’s an impressive legacy of influence for Edgar G. Ulmer’s low budget B-movie. Continue reading →

Friday Night At The Home Drive-In: Zombies of Mora Tau (1957)

Posted on February 25, 2023 by Angus Kohm

Zombies of Mora Tau (1957) by #EdwardLCahn
w/#GreggPalmer #AllisonHayes

A fortune hunter leads a search for diamonds guarded by undead sailors off the coast of Africa.

“TERROR ON THE AFRICAN VOODOO COAST”

“Human in Shape Only!”

“A Tide of Terror Floods the Screen!”

#Horror #Zombies
#NotQuiteClassicCinema
#FridayNightAtTheHomeDriveIn

When I was kid, I dreamed of searching for – and finding – lost treasure. My dad had some old geology maps that showed where all of the gold, silver, and copper deposits were located. I imagined one day travelling to those shiny red dots and digging for gold.

I also read an article in the newspaper about treasure hunters who searched old abandoned houses and found jars of silver coins buried under the floorboards. I added this activity to my future to do list.

I also went to the library and took out books about famous pirates. I carefully studied the reproductions of old hand drawn maps that showed where they had buried their stolen treasure. One day I would solve the mystery, I vowed, and find Blackbeard’s lost fortune.

Sadly, I never did any of those things. And I probably should have – because, truth be told, they would have been just as likely to lead to success as anything else I tried. But then again, who knows what kind of unearthly horrors I might have uncovered…? Continue reading →

Friday Night At The Home Drive-In: Horrors of the Black Museum (1959)

Posted on February 17, 2023 by Angus Kohm

Horrors of the Black Museum (1959) by #ArthurCrabtree

w/#MichaelGough #JuneCunningham

To provide material for a new book, a crime writer hypnotizes his assistant into committing grisly murders.

“SEE! The Fantastic Binocular Murder! SEE! The Vat of Death!”

#Horror
#NotQuiteClassicCinema
#FridayNightAtTheHomeDriveIn

I thought that I knew what Horrors of the Black Museum (1959) was about. I definitely watched it a few years back, and in my memory, it was about people visiting a museum and getting trapped there (or something like that). Apparently, I was remembering a different movie. Continue reading →

Friday Night At The Home Drive-In: War of the Satellites (1958)

Posted on February 11, 2023 by Angus Kohm

War of the Satellites (1958) by #RogerCorman

w/#DickMiller #SusanCabot #RichardDevon

An `unknown force’ declares war on Earth when the UN ignores warnings to stop attempting to send a satellite into deep space.

”We’re up against a race of beings whose intelligence is as ours to ants and bacteria.”

#Horror #SciFi
#NotQuiteClassicCinema
#FridayNightAtTheHomeDriveIn

War of the Satellites (1958) was apparently made in response to the media frenzy that was created by the launch of the U.S.S.R.’s Sputnik satellite – which was, in fact, the first satellite sent into outer space. The movie was made very quickly. It reportedly only took eight weeks to go from first thinking up the idea to screening the finished movie in theatres. This seems a little hard to believe, until you remember that War of the Satellites was produced and directed by Roger Corman. Not only did the man make great movies, he made them cheap and fast. Continue reading →

Friday Night At The Home Drive-In: Frankenstein’s Daughter (1958)

Posted on February 4, 2023 by Angus Kohm

Frankenstein’s Daughter (1958) by #RichardECunha
w/#JohnAshley #SandraKnight #DonaldMurphy #SallyTodd

Frankenstein’s grandson creates a female monster in modern day L.A.

“IT reaches from the grave to re-live the horror… the terror…
“MORE Terrifying! MORE Destructive!”

#Horror #SciFi
#NotQuiteClassicCinema
#FridayNightAtTheHomeDriveIn

Frankenstein’s Daughter (1958) is, as of this blog post, my least popular Friday Night At The Home Drive-In tweet in a long time. Perhaps that says something about the movie, or its reputation. Or perhaps it’s just one of those Twitter anomalies. In any case, this is a movie that I first saw when I was fairly young – and then again several times over the years – so I’ve always quite liked it. But maybe it’s just another case of nostalgia working its magic on me…

Continue reading →

Friday Night At The Home Drive-In: Creature With the Atom Brain (1955)

Posted on January 28, 2023 by Angus Kohm

Creature With the Atom Brain (1955) by #EdwardLCahn
w/#RichardDenning #AngelaStevens

An ex-Nazi mad scientist uses radio-controlled atomic-powered zombies in his quest to help an exiled American gangster return to power.

“Terror true to science, based on laboratory experiments described in national magazines!”

“You Won’t Believe Your Eyes!”

#Horror #SciFi
#NotQuiteClassicCinema

Creature With the Atom Brain (1955) was produced by Sam Katzman. The last movie I wrote about that he produced was The Giant Claw (1957), which is a masterpiece of #NotQuiteClassicCinema – “the best of the worst” as some people have said – I’ll simply say that I loved it. Creature With the Atom Brain, on the other hand, is actually pretty good. Surprisingly serious and effective, in a way. This could be because it was written by Curt Siodmak, who is perhaps most famous for writing The Wolf Man (1941). Continue reading →

Friday The 13th At The Home Drive-In: Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood (1987)

Posted on January 21, 2023 by Angus Kohm

Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood (1987) by #JohnCarlBuechler

w/#LarParkLincoln #KaneHodder

Jason Voorhees is accidentally freed from his watery prison by a telekinetic teenager.

”On Friday the 13th, Jason is Back… But this time… He’s Met His Match!”

#Horror #Slasher #FridayThe13th
#FridayNightAtTheHomeDriveIn
#FridayThe13thAtTheHomeDriveIn

I remember when Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood (1987) first came out, I actually thought it looked kind of cool. I had hated part five (as most fans did at the time, but as I wrote a while back, it’s really grown on me over the years). I was also annoyed by part six (basically because I didn’t think that Jason should come back after being destroyed at the end of part four), so I actually didn’t watch it for years (but when I finally did, I loved it). When Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood came out, I hadn’t been excited to see a new Friday the 13th movie since part four – but this movie changed that (at least a little). Continue reading →

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B-Movie Nights & Other Delights

Friday Night At The Home Drive-In: The Headless Ghost (1959)

Friday Night At The Home Drive-In: Teenage Zombies (1959)

Friday Night At The Home Drive-In: Beyond the Time Barrier (1960)

Friday Night At The Home Drive-In: The Man from Planet X (1951)

Friday Night At The Home Drive-In: Zombies of Mora Tau (1957)

Friday Night At The Home Drive-In: Horrors of the Black Museum (1959)

Friday Night At The Home Drive-In: War of the Satellites (1958)

Friday Night At The Home Drive-In: Frankenstein’s Daughter (1958)

Friday Night At The Home Drive-In: Creature With the Atom Brain (1955)

Friday The 13th At The Home Drive-In: Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood (1987)