From Zombos' Closet

Zombos' Closet...a vast trove of endearingly cheap thrills, including movie and book reviews, and scans of his collections of cinema pressbooks, goofy paper-cutout Halloween decorations, and his amazing collection of Mexican lobby cards from B-grade films. If you have time to descend into a serious rabbit-hole of marvelous trash-culture nostalgia, visit that site just as soon as you possibly can. (DangerousMinds.net)

about this blog From Zombos' Closet...

Halloween 2020: Michaels

Okay. Maybe I'm rushing the Halloween season along a bit too fast, but can you blame me? With the pandemic, I'll take whatever little bit of Halloween Heaven I can find as quickly as possible. I think a lot of Halloweeners are feeling the same way: both adults and kids. Will it happen, won't it happen? Boy, the Halloween Tylenol and razor in apple scares of the 1970s and 1980s was a cakewalk compared to this virus. 

Home Depot, disappointingly, didn't have anything out yet, but I swung by Michaels and...they didn't have much of anything out yet either, just the so-cute it's safe Fall decorations; you know, the scarecrows, colorful autumn leaves, and blank-faced foam pumpkins just filling store shelves while die-hards wait for the REAL deal to start with the spooky stuff. But...

Michaels did have Lemax Spooky Town starting to take shape! So here's a look at some of the newer creations for 2020. And there were Halloween trees! I don't recall seeing these before, but for the true fan of Halloween like me--if my wife would let me, but she wouldn't--there are spooky trees you can put up and decorate rather gloomily and doomsily and ghostly. If your wife or significant other would let you, of course.

Doc Savage (1975) Pressbook and Herald

It's a shame that George Pal's last movie had to be Doc Savage with Ron Ely. Ely was a good casting choice, but the movie was a misfire from script to execution. How one can take the precursor to Superman and not run with it boggles the mind. Chuck Connors was in consideration to play Doc back in 1966 and that would have been very interesting to see. Unfortunately the window of opportunity for that one passed and we have the 1975 camp abomination with the ear-slapping theme song and attrocious acting. Doc's Fabulous Five are more Shabby Handful than their portrayals in the pulps. Poor production values also pounded more nails into its cinematic coffin, a far cry from when I, along with others, enthusiastically watched the trailor at one of Phil Seuling's Comic Cons before the movie hit theaters.

Here's the pressbook and herald. I'll note the printing on this pressbook is fairly cheap, too. Both Arnold Schwarzenegger and The Rock were associated with a Doc Savage movie at some point, though nothing's come of it. Hopefully Netflix or another streaming channel will develop a series, which is the best approach, for Doc Savage, and even The Shadow: they both have a lot of stories to tell.

Comic book reader version: Download Doc Savage Pressbook

Mysterious Island (1961) Pressbook

Thanks to Terry Michitsch for again reaching into his collection and providing these wonderful scans of the American pressbook for Mysterious Island. With a rousing score by Bernard Herrmann, Herbert Lom providing the gravitas, and Ray Harryhausen's exciting stop-motion creations, this is a lively and colorful adventure.

Comic book reader version:  Download Mysterious Island Pressbook

Haunted Hollywood Series Hosted by David Del Valle

David Del Valle hosts 20 cult classic horror movies on Full Moon Streaming starting July 31st.

Up first are Horror Express, Bride of the Monster, and The Flesh Eaters. David introduces each movie, and if you know David or follow his posts on Facebook, you already know the wealth of anecdotes and personal experiences he carries with him regarding the stars who made these movies memorable for horror fans. Sometimes amusing, sometimes sad or wistful, his commentary is always fascinating and revelatory.

You can follow David Del Valle on Facebook here.

Check out Full Moon Features here.

The Invisible Boy (1957) U.S. Pressbook

Thanks to Terry Michitsch for providing these wonderful scans of the American pressbook for The Invisible Boy. You can see the UK one here.

Bill Warren gives it the respect it deserves in his Keep Watching the Skies! American Science Fiction Movies of the Fifties. Somewhat a sequel to Forbidden Planet (well, if you do a lot of stretching in regards to Robby the Robot's presence, that is), the story is geared for young boys of the 1950s (who wouldn't want a powerful robot guardian, boy or girl?). Toss in an evil-thinking super computer that wants world domination and you have a boy just wanting to have fun, but he has to save the world too, which can be such a bother. His parents are eggheads, making it a bit difficult for him (he's just an average kid), and Robby, of course, must choose to become more than the sum of his diodes too. Definitely worth a watch if you haven't seen it yet.

Read the comics reader version: Download Invisible Boy Pressbook.

The Invisible Boy (1957) Theater Herald

Here's the colorful movie herald for The Invisible Boy and an ad copy insert sheet.  They wanted to recoup some of Robby the Robot's construction costs, so they tossed him in this one, with a boy and a maniacal computer looking to dominate the world (shades of the 1970s Forbin: The Colossus Project). These wonderful scans are courtesy of Terry Michitsch.

 

 

 

King of the Wild (1931) Pressbook

Here's a pressbook for the pre-code serial, King of the Wild (for a re-release in 1945) with Boris Karloff.  I added some lobby cards too.

Comic book reader version: Download King of the Wild 1931 Pressbook

See more pressbooks from Zombos' Closet.

Tesis (1996)

Zombos says: very good

What kind of horror movie fan are you? Do you go for the more fictional creatures of the night, say Dracula or the Frankenstein Monster, or the ever-ubiquitous zombies? Perhaps you prefer your horrors more real, a Hannibal Lecter munching on someone’s guts instead of a Werewolf ripping them apart? My preference leans toward the imaginary terrors: I know they are not real, so I can enjoy their scares more because I know they really will not get me, if you know what I mean. But then there are the terrors by day and night that are not imaginary, even when framed in a fictional narrative. They draw on the real world, deriving their monsters from the headlines, or history, or the neighbor whose house sits one or two across from you; or maybe they even attend the same school you do.

In Alejandro Amenabar’s Tesis, Angela (Ana Torrent) wants to write a thesis on audiovisual violence. It is all very academic, if you were to ask her, but deep down, there is something else driving her rationale for wanting to write on such an unsavory topic. Sure, she is a film student, and, yes, she enlists her professor’s reluctant help in securing graphic viewing material, but it is not quite that simple. Director and writer Amenabar complicates the path to her thesis by tossing in questions about whether she is being honest with herself, whether others are being honest with her, and just how much her thesis is an academic exercise or a deep pleasure she wants to gratify. Her confusion with all this is our confusion too, and that’s where Tesis kicks into gears as a thriller, a horror, and a do you like watching this stuff and why? And, of course, there’s the monster to contend with. But who is it?

The key players involved in answering this important question, while providing the drama, actions, and scares are, (if you are a Boris Karloff Thriller fan, imagine he is sinisterly introducing them with that knowing twinkle in his eyes): Angela, the student who cannot keep her thesis totally academic; Chema, (Fele Martinez), the student whom everyone knows is the go to weirdo for sick videos; Bosco (Eduardo Noriega), the student who Angela is strangely attracted to in an unhealthy way; Castro (Xabier Elorriaga), the substitute professor who believes audiences drive what movies should be made; and Figueroa (Miguel Picazo), Angela’s professor, who suffers from asthma and pokes around forgotten places in the university where dust and mold spores are not the only things that can make his asthma much, much worse.

Amenabar wrote Tesis while he attended Complutense University and filmed it in the halls of the School of Communications. How he filmed it makes for a rather big building with austere hallways and secretive spaces. It is in one of these spaces that Professor Figueroa discovers a snuff video, after Angela asks him to see what violent content is available in the library. Unfortunately, he is too successful in finding the right material for Angela’s thesis.

Before this plot-forward discovery, Angela has already presented us with a question. Earlier, while riding the train to school the conductor warns that a suicide has splattered across the tracks and insists that everyone not look at the tragic and violent scene as they leave the station. Angela cannot resist, however, and almost reaches the platform’s edge before she is directed away by the conductor. She could not help herself. She wanted to see the aftermath of the suicide. But what about us watching her wanting to see the suicide? I admit I was disappointed. Perhaps I have watched too many recent horror movies and my expectations were formed by them. No Jacques Tournier subtlety for many of today’s directors and fans, they just want the gore. Did I really want to see brains and limbs and guts spread out in a nice red splotch of chunky mess? How would that have made Tesis better for me? The movie starts teasing us about violence and how we view it before the story even begins. How metafilmic! But be assured you do not need to worry about the story getting bogged down because of it. Even Scream, a metafilmic movie franchise, is terrifying and satisfying to watch, although Amenabar’s tone and mood here are more realistic, more downbeat than Scream would care to be.

Angela asks Professor Figueroa to help her find violent videos for her thesis. While he hunts through the library, she asks her classmate Chema to see what video nasties he may have. At first, he refuses to show her anything and recommends Mickey Mouse as a more suitable thesis topic. In the cafeteria, they glare at each other as she listens to classical music through her earphones and he listens to heavy metal through his. We know they are opposites, on the surface, but are they really opposites at heart? Chema finally agrees to show her his collection of videos. She asks if people really watch these movies. He replies, “You, for instance.” She says she does not enjoy them.

The following day she finds the snuff video that Professor Figueroa discovered in the library. At first she can only listen to it. Once Chema finds out about it he wants to see it. They watch it together and he recognizes the girl in the video, Vanessa, had gone missing from the university a while back. He also sees a digital zoom was used. Angela, although it is her thesis project, is facing away from the television screen. She refuses to look, seeing only intestines where Chema sees the horizontal lines indicating which camera was used to film the torture and death. She does not want to get involved, now knowing a real person may have been killed. But later, seeing Bosco using the same type of camera that recorded the snuff movie, she cannot help herself and starts following him. The cat and mouse game begins. Is Bosco the killer or someone else? Why is Angela drawn to Bosco when Chema insists he is a psycho? Why does Chema hide information from Angela even though he is drawn to her? At first reluctant to seek the truth, Angela is carried away by her own attraction to danger and violence. Her role switches from thesis-motivated investigation to final girl survival as the human monster smells fresh blood.

A lot of very dry but very revealing critical analysis has been written about this Goya Award winning film made by a film student about fictional film students, but at its core is a simple question: how much violence, whether real or fictional, do you want to see? And why do you want to see it? It is a good question that all horror fans should ask themselves.

The Night of the Hunter (1955) Pressbook

Directed by Charles Laughton (his only directed movie), The Night of the Hunter offers a poetically sinister mix of silent movie and expressionistic inspired terror. It's one of the best horror movies you've probably never seen. Robert Mitchum is more than chilling in his role as a serial-killing preacher, whose hand tatoos signify his inner turmoil between love and hate. According to Wikipedia, "the influential film magazine Cahiers du cinéma selected The Night of the Hunter in 2008 as the second-best film of all time, behind Citizen Kane." I wouldn't argue with their assessment. 

See more pressbooks and heralds From Zombos' Closet. Comic book reader version: Download The Night of the Hunter Pressbook

King of the Forest Rangers (1946) Pressbook

Jack Mathis (Valley of the Cliffhangers) made a reprint of this pressbook available in the 1970s, when fandom was rediscovering the serial action format (especially with the more comic book and comic strip-sourced heroes on the silver screen). I would love to find the "circus" herald, mentioned on the Exploitation page. I'm not sure what denotes a circus herald, but the 5x17 inches size may be a clue. And not many movies would suggest a Special Timber or Logging District Stunt fo promotion, I'm sure.

See more pressbooks and heralds From Zombos' Closet. Comic reader version: Download King of the Forest Rangers Pressbook

Killers From Space (1954) Pressbook

Yes, Killers from Space is a very low budget, and a lazy production for early 1950s science fiction movies. I suggest you revisit it, though, because it's storyline involving alien abduction and espionage is still good, albeit never fully realized. As a kid watching this on television, I was always fascinated by the ping pong eyes of the aliens. As an adult, hell, I'm still fascinated. It's awful but still fun to watch. Given more money to expand the story and the action, the giant insects, dying-planet aliens, and subversion plot would have made it a memorable entry among 1950s science fiction movies.

See more pressbooks and heralds From Zombos' Closet. Comic book reader version: Download Killers From Space Pressbook

Blackhawk: Fearless Champion of Freedom (1952 ) Pressbook

Made in the final years of the serial format, Blackhawk didn't have the budget power to fully realize the popular comic book character. Still worth a watch, though, as Kirk Alyn was always super in his roles. Here's the exciting pressbook used to promote the movie to theaters. The title change (The Miraculous Blackhawk: Freedom's Champion to Blackhawk: Fearless Champion of Freedom) happened when home video kicked in, according to the wiki article. Miraculous is a bit presumptuous, when you think about it.

Comic reader version: Download Blackhawk Pressbook. See more pressbooks and heralds From Zombos' Closet.