A Quick Look: SEND ME NO FLOWERS (1960 - color)

   The combo of Rock Hudson and Doris Day was box office gold for several years. Their films remained popular on television for decades, and still pop up from time to time (though with nowhere near the frequency they did when advertised family programming blocks were more common). In SEND ME NO FLOWERS, Rock plays a hypochondriac who mistakenly believes he's about to pass on. In order to help wife Doris with the transition, he tries to find a replacement for himself and get him to fall in love with Doris, and she with he! This leads to some confusion on Day's part, as you might imagine! Tony Randall is Rock's sidekick, and his humorous, tearful reaction to hearing that his friend is as good as dead remains one of the most memorable bits. Day's title song will keep you humming for days. The parody of medicine commercials remains as fresh as ever, though there is direct reference to contemporary ad campaigns. Charming, delightful film.

Godzilla on VHS

A Quick Look: THE COLOSSUS OF NEW YORK (1958)

   Producer William Alland more or less created the Universal science fiction thrillers of the 50's (aided greatly by director Jack Arnold). Alland found himself at Paramount in the late 50's, and similarly cranked out a string of successful genre pictures for that studio. Among these was THE COLOSSUS OF NEW YORK, considered a certified classic. In the film, a promising young scientist is struck down in motor vehicle accident. His father, a brilliant surgeon, thinks the world will suffer for this loss and keeps his son's brain alive in his laboratory. The brain is then transferred into a mechanical body, but the loss of his human body soon manifests a loss of his humanity as well. The film is a real showcase for actor Ross Martin, despite his limited screentime, amid a strong cast which includes Mala Powers. Although this one features a big robot, it's actually of the living brain genre. The haunting piano score and limited locations give this one a feel more akin to the 40's thrillers.

A Quick Look: PLANET OF DINOSAURS (1977 - color)

   In retrospect it's kind of obvious that such a film would be made. Although the theme of prehistoric life in outer space was well traveled before (KING DINOSAUR, WOMEN OF THE PREHISTORIC PLANET, VOYAGE TO THE PREHISTORIC PLANET, etc), it seems odd so direct an approach as this didn't happen until 1977! The producer tried to do some research in making his independent epic, by noting that stop-motion-heavy creature films tended to have longevity at the box office and even longer continued life on television. So, a story about the crew and passengers of a space cruiser being stranded on a planet populated by dinosaurs seemed a perfect cash-in on all things dinosaur and space related. For whatever reason, though, the film inexplicably slipped through theaters almost unseen. Although it did have some television play, it didn't get near the exposure you'd think it would have. The film did slightly better on video. It slid into public domain, however, so there were several VHS releases and the film was later farmed for it's dinosaur footage by other independent productions. It's last major blip on the radar was as a subject for Rifftrax. It was a good idea, blending space opera and dinosaurs, but it just didn't find an audience. A good example of how even the seemingly perfect project can fail if the breaks are against it. (By the way, beware of more recent editions on disk, as they have souped up some of the special effects work -in pointless little ways, like adding blobs of light to the business end of firing ray guns. Those seeking the unadulterated version of the film can find several older VHS editions.)

A Quick Look: AT WAR WITH THE ARMY (1950)

   Like most comedy teams who came from the stage, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis were subject to a bit of experimentation when writers tried to adapt them to the big screen. AT WAR WITH THE ARMY was a service comedy based on a popular stage play, and Dean and Jerry were tossed into a show which really didn't have a headline star or act. As result, Dean and Jerry actually have few scenes together of the type we're all familiar with. With his zany antics, the film seems to favor Jerry and gives him several solo scenes. There's actually not much plot here, as it's more just a series of Army-related scenes played for laughs. One subplot involves a G.I. discovering his girl is That Way and framing Jerry as the father. Honestly, I need to see it again, but one gag that has always stuck with me involves an early scene where the schedule is being made out for the next morning and it keeps getting stretched earlier and earlier on account of several incidental details. The film has since fallen into public domain, and thus was issued on numerous tapes of varying quality. The best print I ever ran across was actually broadcast on TCM.

A Quick Look: REPTILICUS (1962 - color)

   REPTILICUS tells the story of a frozen fragment of dinosaur tissue that proves to be very much alive! When a section of the tail of an unknown dinosaur is brought up by a mining drill, the specimen is sent to Denmark. There, it begins to grow... As you might expect, the world is soon trembling under the threat of a gigantic, indestructible monster. A monster generally accepted to be the single goofiest menace the world has ever faced. This is the only giant monster movie made in Denmark, and the level of cooperation the American-backed production received from the Danish government is staggering. Naval warships firing into the sea would normally be stock footage, but here the Danish Navy was actually sent out to fire off some rounds for the movie crew! Still, the movie is pretty inept in just about every technical sense. The script is astoundingly bad, even by the standards of imported kiddie fare. It's charming, though, like seeing a movie put together by a little kid who loved monster movies but didn't have any understanding of how the world actually works. When all is said and done, the film is wildly entertaining. Despite American International being publicly ashamed the film (not that it stopped them from giving it a fully ballyhooed release), it was a huge hit for the studio, and played for years. The monster also became somewhat iconic of drive-in monsters, stock footage representing such turning up on several contemporary sitcoms. For trivia sake, it was (just like KONGA and GORGO) also spun off into a comic book, which changed the monster's name to "Reptisaurus" after only a couple of issues. Another distinction shared by all three films is that they were also adapted into pornographic paperback novels!

A Quick Look: TARGET EARTH (1956)

   I would've adored this film as a kid, and I enjoyed it immensely as an adult. Scattered survivors find themselves the only inhabitants of a large city which has been evacuated overnight. Figuring an enemy invasion is imminent, the group bands together and tries to reach the Army positioned outside the city limits. Then they see the invaders -seven foot robot soldiers controlled from outer space! Richard Denning stars, and character actor Richard Reeves is given a larger-then-usual turn as one of the survivors. Whit Bissell is among the outside scientists trying to find a weakness in the invaders. Wonderful obscure 50's science fiction. I believe it was Image that released a very nice scope DVD some years back (another label released the film since, in a nearly identical box), one of which I hope to pick up eventually. Unfortunately, this earlier disk is long out of print and must've been pressed in limited numbers. They command a hefty price for a disk.