1961 - BACHELOR IN PARADISE, Bob Hope comedy is distrurbing view of American life.

Bob's a writer of racy books about the love lives of people in various countries.  He's moved to early 1960's suburbia to write a book on the sex lives of women in the Burbs in this ethological study disguised as a typical Bob Hope comedy.

There is something deeply disturbing about watching this film's portrayal of suburban life.  The housewives are glorified slaves, the husbands are essentially sexist pigs.  The housing development is ruled by women during the day and men at night.  Hope tries to shake things up and gets a lot of blow back.

Hope is as smooth as ever delivering one liners that are a little below par for him but he manages to put them over.  Lana Turner is Hope's love interest.  Turner was one of MGM's big stars and she's kind of at the tail end of her career.  Turner was actually a better actress than she was given credit for and she's closer in age to Hope who is playing sort of an over the hill playboy.

An interesting comedy about conformity, loss of identity and the role of women in early 60's society.

109 minutes, written by Valentine Davis and Hal Kanter

1953 - IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE - another not so classic science fiction film

Space "we mean no harm to your planet," aliens have landed on earth after their spaceship breaks down.  While attempting to repair it they set into motion all sorts of problems "in 3D"  for the local residents of some hell hole town in Arizona.

The future auteur of Gilligan's Island, Jack Arnold and apparently uncredited writer Ray Bradbury decided to approach this science fiction film with the premise that space aliens don't want to hurt anyone.  Instead the aliens approach is to bore everyone to death.  There is absolutely no tension in this film with the exception of a bunch of silly 3D effects that are supposed to keep an audience's interest by scaring them with smoke coming out of the screen and empty clothes hangers sticking out at the audience.

The aliens can disguise themselves as people and one of them assumes the form of the girlfriend of science fiction stalwart Richard Carlson our hero.  Her clever disguise to fool him is to put on a cocktail dress and parade around the desert in high heels.

Even with a short running time, this film really outstays it's welcome.  However the space aliens are worth a little bit of a laugh.  It Came From Outer Space was released the same year as Invaders From Mars, Beast From 20,000 Fathoms, War of the Worlds and the seminal classic Robot Monster.  All these films are a lot more fun to watch than this turkey.

81 minutes, screemplay by Harry Essex. 

1959 - NO NAME ON THE BULLET - an impressive Western drama.

Probably the best film I've seen in the past few weeks.  Audie Murphy is a professional killer who rides into a small western town with the intention of killing someone, the question is who will it be.

This existentialist western reminds me of something that Clouzet could have filmed in his prime.  What is kind of amazing about this film is that it was directed by Jack Arnold the future director of Gilligan's Island, and written by Gene Coon, who was associated with the original Star Trek series and wrote the infamous "Spock's Brain" episode.  Which only goes to show that a good story can always survive a "gifted" auteur. 

The hired killer is played by medal of honor winner Audie Murphy.  Murphy was a baby faced solider who supposedly killed over 240 Germans during World War II.  If you were looking for someone to play a hired killer who better than Murphy who was a real killer.  Murphy gives a very fine low key performance throughout the film supported by a bunch of Universal's contract actors.

This is a compact tightly plotted film, that makes some interesting points about the human condition.  Somehow High Noon gets all the credit as a serious adult western drama, but this film is vastly superior to that one. 

77 muinutes.

1958 - MONSTER ON THE CAMPUS, does he have office hours?

Well you see there's this professor at this community college who gets the school to buy him a million year old fish.  The fish has some kind of slime in it, so if you touch it or inject it or smoke it you revert to some kind of prehistoric beast or monster as the professor unfortunately finds out. 

Short and silly from the 1950's  Universal monster cycle and with that monster mask and those crazy rubber hands it's hard to believe this ever scared anyone.  Probably if the film has any inventiveness to it at all it's the ridiculous ways they find to get the professor to change into a monster.  The fish blood dripping into the pipe tobacco is certainly original if completely ridiculous. 

Between all the scenes of creepy hands sticking out from behind bushes and trees, it's hard to not laugh at the professor/monster's have baked musing about the nature of the human beast as if anyone is supposed to take that seriously. Still Monster On The Campus is a lot more fun than Inception.

Silly as this film is, it was remade as the big budget science fiction film Altered States, 22 years later.  Guess which version is more entertaining?

77  monstrous minutes

THE CLASSIC UNIVERSAL SCIENCE FICTION FILMS!!

1957 - THE MONOLITH MONSTERS: Rocks from outer space fall to earth and when they get wet, they begin to grow and move (fall?) towards a small town threatening to smash it to pieces. Rocks aren't exactly the scariest monsters in the world. 77 rocky minutes.

1956 - THE MOLE PEOPLE: People who went underground during the Noah's Ark flood have now evolved into albino mutants. They just happen to control a group of mutant mole people as their slaves. Two scientists from the outside world armed with only a flashlight but no extra batteries are forced to fight them off. 78 burrowing minutes.

1955 - TARANTULA: A scientist for no particular reason, decides that the world needs giant animals such as bunny rabbits and tarantulas. The giant tarantula escapes and is finally destroyed by fighter pilot Clint Eastwood. Directed by Jack Arnold who was also responsible for directing many episodes of "The Brady Bunch" and "The Love Boat".  80 spray it with some Raid minutes.

 1957 -  THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN: Probably the best film in the series, Richard Matheson wrote a great screenplay and the movie is very well directed by Jack Arnold. Jack Arnold may be one of the most important keepers of American cultural taste, he directed episodes of "Peter Gunn," "Perry Mason," "Rawhide," "Gilligan's Island," "The Mod Squad," "Wonder Woman," "The Love Boat," "The Bionic Woman," and "Buck Rogers in the 25th Century."   77 minutes.