According to Brian Patrick Duggan, in his book Horror Dogs: Man’s Best Friend as Movie Monster, the first dog in a motion picture appears in Edison’s Athlete with a Wand in 1894; but that dog just happened to be in the shot, lying at the foot of the athlete doing all the work, so he points us to Rescue Rover (1905), for a more action-oriented Collie. That family canine as rescuer theme leads us to Rin Tin Tin and more stories of dogs leaping into action to save us dumb humans or battle evil humans too, in movies, comics, and books. Of course, the horror genre has morphed the family-oriented dog to terrorize us, chase us, tear us apart, and, in general, make us run like hell or scream like hell. Rin Tin Tin was not a scary dog. Going to 1904, in Edison’s Dog Factory, the first hint of making dogs scarier, if only in a comedic way, can be found. Duggan goes on to note how the movie poster advertising began to show the dog as dangerous (in a wholesome way). By the time we get to 1978 and Devil Dog: The Hound of Hell, the movie poster art focused on those sharp canine teeth a lot more, which was definitely not wholesome.

Rin Tin Tin’s predecessor, Strongheart, starred in six films from 1921 through 1927, but just two of those posters show the dog only launching himself at bad guys. From 1922 through 1931, the more famous Rin Tin Tin averaged even fewer examples, with only three posters out of twenty-six showing him poised just prior to grappling with the film’s villain. The implied canine violence in advertising and what was shown on screen was justifiable, because Strongheart or Rin Tin Tin were protecting their people or meting out canine justice. (Duggan, Brian Patrick. Horror Dogs: Man’s Best Friend as Movie Monster (Dogs in Our World) (p. 103). McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers. Kindle Edition.)

End Note: Warner Brothers originally had the popular Rin Tin Tin, but dropped the poor dog because of sound issues and their focus on talkies with humans. That’s when Mascot picked up the franchise with their first all-sound serial Rin-Tin-Tin The Lone Defender. Clearly they didn’t worry about his barking. 

By the early 1950s, Republic was looking to save money on serial production. They cut the runtime of each chapter, added stock footage from previous serials, and shortened production time.

One major clearance problem involved the trade name of Ace Hi gasoline, required to be diplayed on the back of a tank truck  [Ep. 7] to match stock [footage] from Mysterious Doctor Satan. When it was discovered that Ace Hi was a real brand marketed by the Midwest Oil Company of Minneapolis, associate producer Franklin Adreon and production manager Jack Baker approved the usage of Ace Hi with the addition of the nonexistent Holt Oil Company lettered beneath the product name. Loeb and Loeb, Republic’s law firm, opinioned that associating Ace Hi with the fictitious oil company still maintained the risk, but its incidence was lessened. In line with Republic’s policy not to prominently feature trade names, the pumps and signs at a Union Oil station used as a location prior to the truck sequence were masked with large X-lettered paper sheets to conceal the labeled product actually being dispensed on the immediate premises. (Valley of the Cliffhangers, Jack Mathis, 1975)

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Government Agents
vs Phantom Legion (1951) PressbookRead More »

When you talk about exploitation cinema, here’s a good example to include in your discussions. The 1960s and 1970s were exorbitant decades for movies that pushed beyond good taste; which, of course, is the provocative and decadent theme of any enjoyable exploitation movie. The Devil’s Sisters took its cue from the real-crime story of the Gonzalez Valenzuela sisters (Las Poquianchis), who ran their murderous prostitution ring from the 1950s to 1960s. William Grefè (Sting of Death, Death Curse of Tartu, Whiskey Mountain, etc.), directed the movie in Florida over ten days. Rantbit has an engrossing write up worth reading. Grefè also directed Impulse, with William Shatner and Harold Sakata (you know him as Odd Job from Gold Finger). The extensive documentary, They Came From the Swamp, the Films of William Grefè, discusses Impulse and how Sakata almost strangled to death during one scene. Shatner, suddenly realizing turning blue wasn’t one of Sakata’s acting skills,  rushed to help him.

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The Devil’s Sisters (1966) PressbookRead More »

Bob Steele was a B movie cowboy star through the late 1920s to 1940s, working at the Republic, Monogram, Producers Releasing Corp, Supreme,  and Tiffany studios (TMDB). I have a special liking for Steele because he stood 5 feet and 5 inches, my height, and still seemed to tower over the bad guys. He had a brief but unforgettable role in The Big Sleep, and won acclaim for his portrayal of Curley in Of Mice and Men. While his early cowboy days saw the most dusty trails, he still appeared in various westerns including Rio Bravo, The Comancheros and others. He also did the non-westerns, Atomic Submarine and Giant From the Unknown. In the 1960s, he played Trooper Duffy on F Troop. From the silents to the talkies, he had a long, and memorable for us, career.

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Riders of the Sage (1939) PressbookRead More »

Have not caught this movie noir yet, but the reviews are meh. Filmed in ten days, notable problems mentioned with the film include lackluster direction, stifled acting, and lack of suspense. It’s use of San Francisco landmarks and its depiction of a city-wide manhunt provide a unique period snapshot for the city in the early 1950s (San Francisco Film Locations). The movie also made use of voice-over narration that early 50s movies seemed to love. Here it’s more of the documentary-styled type (used in crime dramas) instead of the character-driven type (like in Sunset Boulevard). Noir movies especially used the voice-over narrator to instill a sense of  reflection, and inspection, into the private gumshoe’s mind and viewpoint. See Jessica Jones for a good example of its modern usage. Sonny Tufts (yeah, that guy in Cat-Women of the Moon), had a good career going until his slide into alcoholism, making the 1950s and beyond one, long, downhill run. This period of his life led eventually led to his name becoming a punchline for joking, with it mentioned in such places as The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show and My Mother the Car. Marjorie Steele did only four movies before moving on to a career in sculpting and painting.

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No Escape (1953) PressbookRead More »

It Came From Hollywood sends along this pressbook for The Night They Killed Rasputin. Here’s what they had to say.

Distributed by Brigadier Films, this drama picture features John Drew Barrymore as the character Prince Felix Yousoupof, an homage to this father, John Barrymore’s, portrayal of the character Prince Paul Chegodieffin in the 1932 film Rasputin and the Empress. That 1932 Rasputin offering also featured John Drew Barrymore’s Aunt & Uncle, Lionel and Ethel, respectively. Drew Barrymore, daughter of John Drew Barrymore, has yet to make a Rasputin picture. If you’re keeping count, I’ve mentioned the name Barrymore five times and the name Rasputin three times, just in case this turns into an internet-drinking game! Brigadier Films distributed only four films in its existence between 1960-1962. The other three were The Tell-Tale Heart (1960), Kamikaze (1961), and The Smashing of the Reich (1961). Kamikaze & Reich saw some success as a double-bill in 1961, and both showed up in TV packages that were played almost non-stop between 1962 and the mid-1970s.

John Barrymore Jr. (he changed his name to John Drew Barrymore) had a lot of weight on his shoulders coming from such an illustrious family of actors. He did fairly well in American movies and television, and also in Italian movies, but a troubled life with addiction problems, and four marriages, eventually made acting parts dry up and he turned away from public life. “Barrymore eventually withdrew from acting, with his final two appearances being a 1974 episode of Kung Fu and an uncredited role in the 1976 film Baby Blue Marine” (Wikipedia).

Try selling a movie today with the tagline “with guts and a gun and a babe for bait,” I dare you. Yes, there was a time where the male gaze was all over the place in movies, and bosomy women were always depicted with little clothing in the poster art. That’s not to say the movies were bad to watch; just male-centric to a point that wouldn’t be acceptable today. And for good reason. Typecasting beauty could be stifling when the variety of roles was limited. But Anita Ekberg was indeed an eye-full and Dana Andrews, even through his alcoholism, was good to watch, with that raspy, pillowy, voice and his hardboiled edge. From Laura to Night of the Demon, he delivered the goods.

The Cobra, an Italian and Spanish production, imported by AIP, was pure 1960s movie fodder with its drugs, espionage, and spy drama. Anita Ekberg plays a strung out junkie in the film. Given little to do except look pretty (which kind of worked against being strung out), critics still took notice of her acting chops. She is forever remembered for THAT scene in La Dolci Vita where she waded into Rome’s Trevi Fountain. She also appeared in Abbott and Costello Go to Mars and Screaming Mimi.

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The Cobra (1967) PressbookRead More »