Cult Movie Theatre: Black Moon Rising

Tommy Lee Jones as Quint.

To supplement his income as a director early in his career, John Carpenter penned screenplays--several of which were subsequently produced without his involvement. He wrote the Western Blood River for John Wayne's production company. It was intended as a star vehicle for The Duke, but he died before the movie was made.

Another Carpenter screenplay, written around 1980 was Black Moon Rising. Carpenter once called it his "my car is stolen and I'm going to get it back story."  His script went unproduced for almost ten years until the release of Black Moon Rising in 1986. Carpenter received a co-writing credit on the screenplay, but otherwise had nothing to do with the finished film. He even claims to have never seen it.

Linda Hamilton as a car thief.

Tommy Lee Jones stars as Quint, a high-tech thief employed by the government to steal a data tape from a corrupt corporation. He nabs the cassette tape, but not before a rival--now working for the bad guys--recognizes him. At a desert gas station, Quints hides the tape in an experimental hydrogen-fueled car being transported to Los Angeles. His plan is to find his own way to L.A. and retrieve the tape once there.

Quint's plan goes awry when the car is stolen--along with many other luxury vehicles-- from a nightclub parking lot. Quint follows the car thieves to a twin-tower complex where the stolen cars are being kept under heavy security. It won't be easy, but his only course of action is to steal the car back so he retrieve the tape.

The experimental Black Moon.

It's a shame that John Carpenter didn't direct Black Moon Rising. As he showed in Escape from New York and Assault on Precinct 13, Carpenter has a gift for fast-paced action films with colorful characters. However, in the hands of journeyman director Harley Cokeliss, Black Moon Rising is a perfunctory heist film elevated by Tommy Lee Jones's convincing performance and some modestly impressive car chases.

Jones captures Quint's world-weary facade--one can't imagine him staying in retirement for very long. As a car thief who becomes Quint's lover, Linda Hamilton sports a big '80 perm and a lot of pouty attitude.  Sadly, she displays none of the natural strength that she did in The Terminator two years earlier. She and Jones also make an odd pair--in fact, I was somewhat stunned when Cokeliss cuts from the pair riding in her Mercedes to a bedroom lovemaking scene!

Robert Vaughn as the villain.

The supporting cast includes veterans such as Robert Vaughn, Richard Jaeckel, and Kennan Wynn--and then gives them little to do. Vaughn does his best to make his villain creepy by mooning over videos of Hamilton's character from the night he "recruited" her off the street.

The film's saving grace is an extended heist sequence that culminates in the climax. It doesn't come close to Topkapi or even The Return of the Pink Panther, but still generates reasonable tension. Indeed, if you keep your expectations low, Black Moon Rising is a satisfactory popcorn movie--but it's a small bag of popcorn and you'll still be hungry.

Cult Movie Theatre: The Green Slime

Robert Horton as the stoic hero.

What do you do when you learn that a six million ton asteroid is on a collision course with Earth and impact is just ten hours away?

The UNSC (United Nations Space Center?) recalls Commander Jack Rankin (Robert Horton) from retirement and sends him to Operating Base Gamma 3. Once there, Rankin's mission is to plant two explosive devices on the asteroid, thereby reducing it to atomic dust. Rankin's arrival at the space station is a little awkward. He assumes command from former best friend Vince Elliott (Richard Jaeckel), who is planning to marry Rankin's former flame Dr. Lisa Benson (Luciana Paluzzi).

Luciana Paluzzi as Dr. Benson.

Before this revived love triangle can be sorted out, though, Rankin and Elliott must destroy the asteroid. Their mission goes well, but a colleague gets a trace amount of a green organism on his uniform. Back on the space station, the organism begins to reproduce exponentially ("It's spreading like wildfire!"). Pretty soon, Gamma 3 is being overrun by green, one-eyed, tentacled creatures that feed on energy and kill the crew by electrocuting them.

Made by MGM in 1968, The Green Slime was an American-Japanese co-production. It was shot in Tokyo by a Japanese crew, but with an American cast (except for Italian beauty Paluzzi). Many of the extras were not professional actors. Some critics claim it was intended as the fifth installment in an Italian science fiction film series about a space station called Gamma One. (The first movie in that series was 1966's Wild, Wild Planet.) 

One of the cheesy-looking creatures.

The Green Slime is now considered a camp classic thanks to its atrocious special effects, silly-looking alien creatures, and composer Charles Fox's rock 'n' roll title song. That said, the monster-on-the-space station premise works well enough and foreshadows Alien (1979)--though both movies owe much to It! The Terror From Beyond Space (1958).

As the stoic hero, Robert Horton appears to be having a lot of fun. In one scene, I swears he looks like he's about to burst out laughing. Sadly, the stunning Luciana Paluzzi has little to do. She was one of my favorite Bond henchman, playing fiery Fiona Volpe in Thunderball (1965). She also appeared in Muscle Beach Party (1964), in which she tried to steal Frankie Avalon away from Annette. The unfortunate Vince was played by the always solid Richard Jaeckel, who forged the most successful film career of the three leads.

Shouldn't it be "The Green
Slime is coming?"

The Green Slime was directed by the prolific Kinji Fukasaku. He later produced Asian box office hits like Battles Without Honor and Humanity (1973) and the controversial Battle Royale (2000). The latter film preceded The Hunger Games by eight years with its futuristic tale about high school students who must participate in a government-sponsored game in which they kill one another until only one survives.

Incidentally, there are two versions of The Green Slime. The U.S. release is 90 minutes long, while the Japanese version clocks in at 77 minutes. It omits the love triangle, has a different title theme, and sports a more downbeat ending.

Cult Movie Theatre: John Carpenter Channels Howard Hawks in "Assault on Precinct 13"

When Los Angeles police officers execute six gang members for stealing guns, the local gangs join together and swear a blood oath to retaliate against the city. That afternoon, a gang member randomly shoots a young girl. Her father, overcome with grief and rage, pursues and kills his daughter's murderer. But then, the hunter becomes the hunted and the father seeks protection inside a police station with the gangs in pursuit.

Austin Stoker as Lt. Bishop.

What he doesn't know is that Precinct 9, Division 13 has been replaced by a new police headquarters. Only a skeleton crew, led by a new highway patrol lieutenant, remains inside the old building. Of course, there are also some unexpected prisoners--to include death row killer Napoleon Wilson--who arrived when a prison bus had to make an unplanned stop. It's shaping up to be a long night for Lieutenant Ethan Bishop, as he battles hundreds of gang members assaulting the police station, copes with the prisoners inside, and deals with power outages and severed phone lines that keep the precinct building isolated.

Following the success of his debut film, the sci fi satire Dark Star (1974), writer-director John Carpenter wanted to make an homage to Howard Hawks' Rio Bravo. His limited budget of $100,000 prevented Carpenter from making a Western, so he transplanted the action to modern-day L.A. and titled his script The Anderson Alamo. Running a crisp 91 minutes, Carpenter's film jettisons Hawks' well-defined characters, but still retains the central premise of an unlikely group of misfits fending off an attack on a jail against all odds.

After a slow build-up, the last half of the film is almost wall-to-wall action as the gang members make varied attempts to capture the police headquarters. In addition to Rio Bravo, Carpenter has a grand time paying homage to other genre classics such as Night of the Living Dead (1968) and The Thing from Another World (1951). In regard to the latter, there's a long hallway that will look mighty familiar to sci-fi fans. As for Night of the Living Dead, Carpenter has acknowledged that Romero's ghouls inspired the gang members, who become nameless, nondescript creatures once the siege begins. In addition, Night fans will pick up on subtle references like the brief discussion on the merits of the basement as a safety haven.

Darwin Joston as Napoleon Wilson.

The use of little-known actors, which was a financial necessity, works to the film's advantage. While there were never any concerns about John Wayne's John T. Chance dying in Rio Bravo, the fate of Austin Stoker's Ethan Bishop remains in doubt until the film's closing scenes. The three leads--Stoker, Laurie Zimmer as a police employee, and Darwin Joston as the death row killer--acquit themselves nicely. Joston, a quirky screen presence, comes across as an early version of Kurt Russell's Snake Plissken from Carpenter's later Escape from New York (1981). One of the running gags in Assault on Precinct 13 has people asking Napoleon Wilson how he got his first name. (He replies that he'll tell them later...but never does.)

Kim Richards then and now.

Laurie Zimmer.

The only cast member to achieve any kind of stardom was Kim Richards, who played the young girl Kathy. She starred in Disney's Escape from Witch Mountain and its sequel. Decades later, she gained fame (of a sort) playing herself on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. Of the three leads, Laurie Zimmer, who conveyed brains and beauty, seemed like the one most likely to succeed. However, she made only three more films and retired from acting. Twenty-seven years after Assault on Precinct 13, filmmaker Charlotte Szlovak tracked her down for the documentary Do You Remember Laurie Zimmer? It revealed that Zimmer was a teacher who was married and living in San Francisco.

Although the film takes place in Precinct 9, Division 13 headquarters, the film's backers thought the title Assault on Precinct 13 was more memorable (and rightly so). The movie only did so-so business in the U.S., but performed very well in Europe and led to Carpenter making Halloween (with a budget that tripled the one for Assault). Halloween (1978) went on to gross $70 million at the boxoffice (yes, that's 233 times its budget).

A respectable remake of Assault on Precinct 13 appeared in 2005 with Ethan Hawke, Laurence Fishbourne, and Maria Bello. It retains the 1976's film's basic plot, but changes the characters.

Finally, John Carpenter's memorable, minimalist score for the original film--which was written in just three days--was unavailable as a soundtrack until 2003.

Cult Movie Theatre: I Bury the Living

This review is by guest blogger ClassicBecky from ClassicBecky's Brain Food.

Richard Boone in IBTL.

Have you ever been digging through a big barrel full of DVDs at Walmart and thought you found a gem...and the gem turns out to be cheap glass? A few years ago, I found a collection of DVDs with 85 science fiction movies. Frankly, I had forgotten my glasses that day, so I couldn’t read the tiny type required to list all 85 titles on the back of the DVD set. I figured, what could go wrong? Surely there would be a bunch of good ones in the group. That’s how I found the 1958 film I Bury The Living (IBTL), starring Richard Boone. It was one of three movies that even seemed like they might be good, the others being White Zombie, which I do like, and The Crawling Eye, which I thought sounded fun. The rest had names like Hercules vs. the Amazon Women and Clowns on Mars.  Pretty sad.

I really like Richard Boone, having suffered a huge crush on him when he played Paladin, the gentlemanly, very moral gunman on Have Gun--Will Travel on TV. That black and silver ensemble – what girl child could resist it? It was strange to see him in ordinary street clothes in IBTL, and he didn’t seem as tall without his black cowboy hat. However, he was still masculine, appealing, and a good actor. The movie also starred Theodore Bikel, a well-respected actor, and Robert Anderson,  a well-known character actor and Dad to Dennis the Menace.

Boone plays Robert Kraft, a businessman who has to take his turn amongst the big boys in town to run Immortal Hills, the town cemetery.  Bikel is Andy McKee, a Scottish cemetery groundsman who has 40 years in the business and is creepily attached to his graveyard. Anderson is Jess Jessup (his parents must have had no imagination), the town newspaperman who must be frantically looking for some kind of story…he is always at the cemetery.  Other members of the cast include recognizable character actors and a woman who plays Boone’s love interest. She is actress Peggy Maurer, whose only other claim to fame is the two-minute part of grown-up Wendy in 1960’s Peter Pan.

The real star of the show is The Map. I capitalize The Map because it is the centerpiece of the movie.  isual effects man Edward Vorkapich (who never did anything much else in the movie biz) designed The Map, and it is fairly creepy. It’s really big, and shows the topography of the cemetery. Big black lines, which are never explained as far as what they represent, are scrawled across the map, and look like weird Picasso-ish eyes. Throughout the movie, the map changes perspective, becomes brighter and the black lines bolder. It does so as Kraft goes quietly crazy. 

Bikel and Boone in front of The Map.

In his capacity as manager of the cemetery, it is Kraft’s job to keep track of the dead who are already buried there, and the pre-planners who are yet to come. Black pins are used to mark the already-present dead, and white pins to mark customers who have not yet arrived. The tension begins when Kraft, who apparently can’t tell black from white, keeps using black pins to mark the living. When he accidentally does this, the people die, like right away, pretty much dropping in their tracks from auto accidents, heart attacks and the like. Kraft begins to believe that he is causing the deaths. He becomes hyper-aware of McKee’s annoying singing and the sound of the chisel chipping away at the gravestones McKee is making. McKee, in the meantime, is of little help to Kraft’s mental state, and is just generally strange. The story, which has holes like swiss cheese, finally wraps up with a barely believable ending.

IBTL is directed by Albert Band, known for extremely B movies (my favorite title of his is Dracula’s Dog). The music, which is OK but not particularly good, was done by music editor Eve Newman, also known for her work on Roger Corman’s Poe movies. She also composed the score for TV’s Sky King, one of my favorites when I was a kid (“Out of the blue of the western sky comes … Sky King!”)  According to IMDb, most of the people involved in IBTL appear to be best known for this movie, which apparently wasn’t much of an asset to their curriculum vitae.

Turner Classic Movies did show IBTL on its underground movie schedule in 2007. Otherwise, I don’t know where you would find it except in the big barrel at Walmart. By the way, it didn’t really have 85 movies–just 30. Still, three good movies out of 30 is not a good bargain!

The poster is great, but whoever designed it must not have actually seen the movie.  A great “cry”?  Maybe from the audience who paid money to see it.  Otherwise, I didn’t hear a thing.

The Five Best Cult Films of the 1960s

Cult film--it's a label that's often applied far too loosely. For purposes of this list, my definition is that a cult film is a motion picture that: (1) lacked significant popular or critical success when originally released; (2) has maintained a small, but loyal, following over an extended period; and (3) has not "gone mainstream." Some movies started out as cult pictures, such as the original Night of the Living Dead, but became famous and lost their cult status.

The 1960s was a banner decade for cult films, so it was a challenge to narrow our choices to the five best cult films of the decade. At the risk of omitting some popular choices, here are our picks:

Carol Lynley--is she really a mother?

1. Bunny Lake Is Missing – Not all cult films are low-budget efforts, as evidenced by this "A" picture that has been sadly forgotten by all except a few faithful fans. Carol Lynley stars as a young American woman, recently transplanted to London, who claims that her daughter has been kidnapped…but no one can remember having seen the girl. Director Otto Preminger’s last great film surprisingly recalls his first classic, Laura. Both films begin as conventional crime dramas dealing with kidnapping or murder, but then an unexpected plot twist takes each in a different direction. An underrated gem.

2. The Last Man on Earth – As far as he knows, Robert Morgan (Vincent Price) is the only remaining human in a world destroyed by a plague of vampirism. Each night, a horde of the bloodsucking creatures gathers around his fortified house and cries out in hunger for the man inside. This first adaptation of Richard Matheson’s terrifying 1954 novel I Am Legend was made in Italy on a shoestring budget. Price is the only English-language actor in the cast. But, despite its financial limitations, it remains an impressive work filled with compelling images and frightening sequences. Later versions starring Charlton Heston (The Omega Man) and Will Smith (I Am Legend) pale in comparison.

Constance Towers in The Naked Kiss.

3. The Naked Kiss (1964) – A prostitute, yearning for a better life, gets a second chance in a Thortonesque town. She finds meaning in her life through caring for handicapped children--but evil lurks in the shadows of this idyllic community. Sam Fuller's lurid melodrama still packs a punch. It paved the way for more acclaimed films like David Lynch's Blue Velvet. Ironically, Fuller's previous film, Shock Corridor, is a better-known cult classic. In my opinion, though, The Naked Kiss is a far superior movie.

B&W publicity still of woman,
balloons, and giant creature.

4. The Lost Continent – I always loved this plot summary from one of my fellow Cafe bloggers: "Shipwrecked survivors drift to an apparently deserted land of strange creatures, killer seaweed, and Spanish soldiers who answer to El Supremo, a leader who appears to be no more than a child--and 'hardly old enough to wipe his own bottom' (as one character puts its)." The Lost Continent also features people that "wear" hot air balloons so they don't sink on boggy land and a groovy title song crooned by a Tom Jones wannabe. What's not to like? Surprisingly, this lively adventure was made by  Hammer Films and stars the marvelous Eric Porter (Soames on the original British TV series The Forsyte Saga).

Linda Lawson as Mora.

5. Night Tide (1961) – A lonely sailor (Dennis Hopper) on shore leave meets a mysterious young woman who plays Mora the Mermaid at one of the pier's tourist attractions. Unfortunately, she may be a siren--"half human and half creature of the sea"--with homicidal tendencies. Written and directed by Curtis Harrington, Night Tide is a moody, stylish black-and-white mystery that makes excellent use of its seaside setting, complete with arcades, coffee houses, and gaudy tourist traps. Though often slow and talky, Night Tide has a haunting quality that lingers after the final credits. Hopper gives a remarkably restrained performance and Linda Lawson channels Simone Simon (The Cat People).

Honorable Mentions: Carnival of Souls; Black Sunday; Danger: Diabolik; Seconds; and Nothing But the Best.

Classic Cult Movies A to Z

What's a cult movie? Let's skip the formal definitions and focus on five common attributes: (1) a cult film wasn't a a success--with audiences or critics--when first released; (2) it has since acquired a fan base that champions it; (3) it features an offbeat plot, theme, or visual style; (4) it features people who weren't famous, but became famous; and (5) it may have acquired a following due to its camp or nostalgia value. With our own description in mind, let's get to the Cafe's A to Z rundown of classic cult movies:

Assault on Precinct 13 - John Carpenter's directorial debut was a taut, contemporary remake of Howard Hawks' Rio Bravo about a revenge-minded street gang attacking an almost-closed police department manned with a skeleton staff.

Bugsy Malone - A gangster musical with all the adult characters played by kids. Thirteen-year-old Jodie Foster played Fat Sam's moll Tallulah.

The City of the Dead - Better known in the U.S. as Horror Hotel, this atmospheric 1960 suspense tale shares several plot elements with the same year's better-known Psycho.

Detour - A hitchhiker encounters big trouble courtesy of a dead body, a femme fatale, and a very long telephone cord in this 1945 film noir. Another fine choice for "D" is D.O.A.

Eraserhead  - David Lynch's visually compelling feature-length directorial debut is about...well...I'm not sure.

The Flesh Eaters - An actress, her assistant, and a hunky pilot are forced to land on an almost-deserted island. Its one inhabitant is a mad scientist who has created microbes that live in the saltwater and snack on human flesh. A more mainstream choice for "F" would be The Fearless Vampire Killers.

Gun Crazy - John Dall, a young man with a lifelong fascination for guns, meets comely Peggy Cummins, a "bad girl" sharpshooter at a local carnival. Love, a crime spree, and tragedy ensue!

Harold and Maude - Harold is a young man obsessed with death; Maude is a 79-year-old who embraces the joys of life. They meet at a funeral and love--of a kind--blossoms between them.

Invisible Invaders - Invisible aliens inhabit the bodies of dead Earthlings and try to wipe out the human race. Awful script and flat performances...but the premise is fun and the striking images of the walking corpses pre-date Night of the Living Dead.

Jack the Giant Killer - The best Ray Harryhausen fantasy adventure made by someone other than Ray Harryhausen. The special effects wiz in this case was Jim Danforth. Bryan Singer (X Men) is currently remaking it.

Mike Hammer has no time for love!

Kiss Me Deadly - Ralph Meeker is lean and mean as Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer in a film filled with a mysterious stranger, an even mysterious-er box (dubbed "the great whatsit"), and a nuclear explosion.

The List of Adrian Messenger - A clever mystery about a murderer who is a master of disguises. Its cult rep, though, is due to the cameos by famous actors in deep disguise (e.g., Robert Mitchum, Frank Sinatra).

The Maze - There's something moving through that Scottish castle's giant maze at night--and you will never guess what it is! Unique 1953 3-D flick directed by the famous set designer William Cameron Menzies.

Night Tide - Sailor Dennis Hopper falls in love with a sideshow mermaid, who claims to be a descendant of the real thing--only these are murderous mermaids.

O Lucky Man! - Malcolm McDowell is an ambitious young coffee salesman who eventually finds "the reason to live on and not to die" in Lindsay Anderson's witty update of Candide--complete with an incredible song score by Alan Price.

Peeping Tom - The film that ruined Michael Powell's directorial career in 1960 has since been hailed as a masterpiece by Martin Scorsese and other notables. The mix of violence and voyeurism is still potent today.

Look up in the sky. It's a bird...no, Q!

Q, the Winged Serpent - An Aztec god in the form of...well...a winged serpent flies around New York City biting off the heads of residents. A quintessentially quirky classic from writer-director Larry Cohen.

Reefer Madness - An unintentional camp classic about the perils of marijuana. It was one of the first "midnight movies" shown at theaters across the U.S. in the 1970s. Of course, one could argue that The Rocky Horror Picture Show is more deserving of the "R" slot.

Santa Claus Conquers the Martians - Pia Zadora's five minutes of fame in the 1980s hastened this 1964 film's entry into the cult classic status. Still, its subject and camp value may have been enough without Pia.

Rockin' in Spinal Tap.

This Is Spinal Tap - Rob Reiner's  hilarious mock-documentary about a rock band is so popular among its loyal fans that a 4 1/2 hour bootleg version exists.

The Undying Monster - Someone or something is killing local villagers near the Hammond estate. Are there supernatural forces at work? A rare foray in the 1940s horror genre from 20th Century-Fox.

Vanishing Point - A driver who delivers souped-up sports cars bets he can make it from Denver to San Francisco in fifteen hours. As he eludes various highway patrols, a blind disc jockey dubbed Super Soul turns him into a media "hero."

Whistle Down the Wind - Three children in rural England discover an escaped criminal in their barn and believe he is Jesus. Written by Hayley Mills' mother; later made into an unsuccessful stage musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber.

X: The Man With X-Ray Eyes - Interesting, downbeat sci fi with Ray Milland who experiments on himself with a new X-ray vision drug. Directed by Roger Corman.

You Never Can Tell - A wealthy dog named Rex is murdered--and then reincarnated as human private eye Rex Shepard (Dick Powell). His goal: Track down his killer.

Zardoz - Futuristic jumble is nowhere near as clever as it thinks it is. Yet, there are enough interesting ideas and Sean Connery as a guy named Zed to make it an acceptable choice in the hard-to-fill "Z" spot.