The Way The Future Was

For reasons far too trivial to go into, I had a chance to revisit several old sci-fi movies recently and the trailer for a more recent one.

(C’mon, really?  
Do we need
any more excuse
than that for
a blog post?  
No?  
I thought not…)

First and best is Doomwatch, a well made 1972 British film based on the popular 1970-72 BBC series. Doomwatch was the first eco-science fiction TV series, and while the series covered a variety of topics, most of them dealt in some fashion with negative human impact on the environment.

Doomwatch the movie might best be described as The Shadow Over Innsmouth done from a strictly rational scientific POV:  Investigators trying to determine why a remote fishing village is plagued with violence and genetic mutations discover it’s due to unauthorized chemical dumping in the fishing banks.

A tight, well made little movie, expertly produced, but what had been a forewarning in 1972 is sadly old news half a century later.

”When will they ever learn?
When will they ever learn?”

Next up is The Creation Of The Humanoids (1962) and the best thing I can say about this is that while it’s not a good movie it sure ain’t a dumb one.

There’s a lot of good ideas bubbling around in this one, all the more pertinent today as artificial intelligence impacts more and more on our lives.

The problem with this one is that is s-o-o-o damn deadly dull.  It’s almost all talk, no action, shot on an ultra-low budget, and directed and performed in a manner that would shame Mrs. Gilmore’s 7th grade drama club.

On the positive side, in addition to some genuinely interesting ideas, it’s photographed by Hal Mohr, a two-time Oscar winning cinematographer who knew how to light and stage scenes for maximum impact.  It looks like a first season episode of Star Trek:  The Original Series and is worth watching for that reason alone.

This was the last professional credit for legendary make-up artist Jack Pierce, who created the Karloff version of the Frankenstein monster thirty years earlier.  Sorry to say the make-up is only adequate; at least the greasepaint was evenly applied.  The dark contact lenses that cover the entire eyeball look painful and may explain why there’s so little movement in the film; more than once an actor playing a robot gropes blindly for a prop.

Dudley Manlove is in the film and I gotta say he’s convincing playing one of the primary robots (read into that what you will).  It’s interesting to contrast his stoic robot here with his near hysterical alien in Plan 9 From Outer Space.

(If you want to watch
a Dudley double feature,
watch Creation…
first and save Plan 9
for the palette cleanser.
You’ll be glad you did.)

Discussion of Creation… led to mention of two other ineptly made low budget sci-fi films.

Teenagers From Outer Space (1959) was written / produced / directed / photographed / edited by Tom Graeff, who also did the special effects and played a small supporting role.

This one played on local TV all the time when I was growing up, and it’s as bottom basement as it comes.  A semi-pro effort, Graeff funded the movie by getting the performers to pay for the production.

The performances are exactly what you’d expect from such an arrangement.

It’s dirt cheap, not even able to afford a shoestring for a budget, and has been righteously mocked by MST3K and others for its cheapness…

…but sunuvagun, Graeff completed it and got it into theaters as part of a double bill.

It looks cheap (costumes consist of lengths of duct tape on turtleneck sweaters) but it’s ingenious cheap, and considering how little Gaeff had to work with, this is as solid a production as one could hope for under the circumstances.

Gaeff, alas, came to a tragic end.  It’s unclear if the financial failure of Teenagers… drove him to a mental breakdown or if he had a pre-existing condition, but he eventually tried to change his name to Jesus Christ II then later announced he was producing a big budget movie with A-list talent…only none of the talent named knew about it.

Having sabotaged his already floundering career, Graeff left Hollywood and eventually committed suicide. 

Teenagers… is nothing special, and it’s not even half as good as The Creation Of The Humanoids but considering its origin, it’s nothing to be ashamed of.

On the other hand, The Doomsday Machine (started 1967; completed 1972) is an acute embarrassment.  Originally starting production under a different title with Herbert J. Leder directing, the project soon ran out of money and sat uncompleted for…well, considering the final result, we can’t say the “better” part of five years.

Eventually the existing footage wound up in the hands of Harry Hope (there’s an ironic name under the circumstances) who called in the legendary Lee Tabor Sholem, better known as “Roll ‘Em Sholem” to push this pup out the door.

Sholem enjoyed a well earned reputation as a director who completed low budget projects on time (important) and under budget (even more important).  They cobbled together some new scenes that didn’t match any of the existing footage, threw in a bunch of special effects seemingly selected at random, and released The Doomsday Machine on an unsuspecting world.

The only thing notable about The Doomsday Machine is the bonkers cast comprised of Hollywood hasbeens Henry Wilcoxon and Bobby Van, B-movie favorites Grant Williams and Mala Powers, future TV star Mike Farrell, and what-the-hell-is-he-doing-here? Casey Kasim.

(Seriously,
Doomwatch
shoulda warned
us about this one.) 

Finally, a movie I haven’t seen / have no interest in seeing / couldn’t even finish the teaser trailer:  Ebola Rex.
Yeah, it looks just as fncking stupid as it sounds.  The company that made this has produced over 40 ultra-low budget derivative exploitation films in the last six years.  Thanx to advances in CGI now just about anybody can make a feature length video production with copious special effects and superimposed explosions.

Not convincing, but copious.

I’m not going to criticize this video unseen or the people who made it, but for the luva Mike, the makers of all the films above would have given a left arm (maybe not theirs, but somebody’s) for even that level of technical quality, can’t you do something with it a little more than deliberately cheesy pastiches of already cheesy old movies?

I mean, the people making The Creation Of The Humanoids and Teenagers From Outer Space and even The Doomsday Machine were honest to Gawd trying to make the best movie they could.

Take a look at Sean Baker’s oeuvre
You don’t have to do
his kind of stories but at least
aim for his level of quality.

© Buzz Dixon