CHUD.com Community › Forums › CREATURE CORNER › Creature Corner Main › Share Your Love for the Old 50's B&W Monster Flicks
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

Share Your Love for the Old 50's B&W Monster Flicks

post #1 of 31
12/11/06 at 11:51pm
Thread Starter 
Watching the "Automatons" thread got me all nostalgic for the old school B&W monster flicks, w/ the Ray Harryhausen inspired stop motion animation, square jawed heroes and fainting heroines, big, loud orchestral scores and nuclear embiggened monsters. I watched tons of these as a kid (channel 9 in NY & NJ, WWOR, was great for these). My favorite, which I'll watch any time it's on AMC, is "Them!", the one about the giant ants. But I loved "It Came From Beneath the Sea", w/ the giant octopus, "Tarantula!", "The Crawling Eye" and "The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms" too.

C'mon, you know you love 'em. What's your fave(s)?

As a side note, I note there was a trace of gore in the 'Automatons" trailer, which was something you don't see much of in the olds chool flicks mentioned above. Do you think that adds to or detracts from the retro feel of that film? Personally, I think it adds to it because (a) I just love gore, and (b) it's kind of surrealistic seeing it in this context.
Reply
post #2 of 31
12/12/06 at 12:49am
Creature from the Black Lagoon scared the shit out of me when I was little. I also loved The Thing from Another World, and the original Kevin McCarthy Body Snatchers was great.
Reply
post #3 of 31
12/12/06 at 2:35am
Gotta go with Gojira (or Godzilla, to us gaijin). The recent DVD release only serves to remind me that there's a reason he's the king of all monsters.
Reply
post #4 of 31
12/12/06 at 3:53am
THEM! Beats everything all to hell! As much as I hate the thought, a remake intrigues me. Just as long as they keep the creepy little girl.

If I was in charge of things, I would commision a remake with tons of gore and some gratuitous nudity.

Also dig The Blob. McQueen who was almost 30 and looked it, playing a teen.
Reply
post #5 of 31
12/12/06 at 11:40am
Quote:
Originally Posted by IggytheBorg
As a side note, I note there was a trace of gore in the 'Automatons" trailer, which was something you don't see much of in the olds chool flicks mentioned above. Do you think that adds to or detracts from the retro feel of that film? Personally, I think it adds to it because (a) I just love gore, and (b) it's kind of surrealistic seeing it in this context.
Just to let you know, there's very little gore in it. It's mostly (obviously toy) robots shooting laser beams at each other and blowing their circuits apart. It's really fun. I just wish there were more fights in the flick!

As far as my favorite 50s flicks- I gotta go with Them! as well. Fiend Without a Face is another great one. (Lucky McKee was supposed to be remaking that...)
Reply
post #6 of 31
12/12/06 at 12:34pm
I love Them! as much as the next nerd who grew up in front of the television on Saturday afternoons eating Fruit Loops. But Ymir takes the gold medal here. No contest.
Reply
post #7 of 31
12/12/06 at 12:35pm
And if giant bald men in diapers count as monsters, The Amazing Collosal Man takes the bronze.
Reply
post #8 of 31
12/12/06 at 1:25pm
Holy shit... I don't even know where to begin. One of my favorite subgenres easy. Any 50's Harryhausen flick gets my vote (The 7th Voyage of Sinbad, 20 Million Miles to Earth, It Came from Beneath the Sea, Earth vs. the Flying Saucers). Gojira & Black Lagoon both debuted in '54 (had their 50 year anniversary couple years ago)... 54 must have been an awesome year for monster fans.

Any fan of this era of Monster movies needs to see: The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0307109/

I also have a soft-spot for the retarded Robot Monster...
PUNY HUMANS!!!


There's some other great examples in this thread if you weed out the modern nominations: http://chud.com/forums/showthread.php?t=95009 (Unfortunately the site that this thread links to with the lobby cards is dead).

My Shill moment for the day: You really need to pick up this inexpensive set= http://www.creature-corner.com/?type=reviews&id=1854

Jack Arnold directed some great sci-fi/horror flicks of the 50's for Universal:
It Came from Outer Space
Creature from the Black Lagoon (and Revenge)
Tarantula
The Incredible Shrinking Man
Monster on the Campus

EDIT: Honorable mentions to these other Sci-Fi/Monster greats (some are greater than others)=
Invasion of the Saucermen (Frank Gorshin!)
It Conquered the World (is that a Space Cucumber?)
Alligator People
The Day the Earth Stood (not really a monster flick, but it's got Gort)
The Thing From Another World
War of the Worlds
It! The Terror from Beyond Space (inspiration for Alien)
The Monster That Challenged the World
Attack of the Giant Leeches
The Killer Shrews
The Giant Gila Monster
From Hell It Came (Walking Monster Tree Stump!)
Caltiki, the Immortal Monster
Attack of the Crab Monsters
Monster from Green Hell
Rodan! The Flying Monster

And these "Lost World" flicks:
Journey to the Center of the Earth
Lost Continent
Land Unknown
The Giant Behemoth
Reply
post #9 of 31
12/12/06 at 2:22pm
Darkmite is my hero.
Reply
post #10 of 31
12/12/06 at 2:24pm
If anything... I'm thorough.

Or maybe that's= "obsessive".
Reply
post #11 of 31
12/12/06 at 2:27pm
That should go on your tombstone: "A Good Man...And Thorough"
Reply
post #12 of 31
12/12/06 at 6:14pm
Thread Starter 
Wow! I was afraid this thread would totally not get taken seriously as "just another list" thread, but Darkmite8 just went to friggin' town. Thanks for such a thorough (or was it obsessive?) and enthusiastic response.
Reply
post #13 of 31
12/30/06 at 1:14am
Thread Starter 
Just to make Darkmite jealous: Mom had some money left in the Christmas gift budget this year, and threw in a collection of 50's sci-fi and horror movies. 4 sets of 12 DVD'd each; 50 movies per set. That's 200 movies total. And I've never even heard of the majority of these, but there are some classics in there as well. I'll be watching these till the end of the year, at least. I don't know what these things cost, but as a last minute throw in, purchased at Walgreen's, they had to be cheap. How cool is that?
Reply
post #14 of 31
12/30/06 at 8:06am
50s Monster movies are possibly the biggest gap in my horror collection at present- I currently only have Creature From the Black Lagoon (which I do like)
I've had my eye on Gojira and Them for a while, though.
Reply
post #15 of 31
12/30/06 at 1:58pm
Thread Starter 
Those are 2 of the best. Why I don't have either in my collection is beyond me. I've loved Them! for years, and they never made a better Gojira/Godzilla movie. CFTBL is also a classic. I don't have any of those old Universal monster flicks either. That's a situation I'll have to remedy as well.
Reply
post #16 of 31
12/30/06 at 4:50pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by IggytheBorg
Those are 2 of the best. Why I don't have either in my collection is beyond me. I've loved Them! for years, and they never made a better Gojira/Godzilla movie. CFTBL is also a classic. I don't have any of those old Universal monster flicks either. That's a situation I'll have to remedy as well.
I did invest in most of the best of the Universal lot lately, though I'm still unsure whether to bother with The Invisible Man.
Reply
post #17 of 31
1/1/07 at 11:19pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Xagarath Ankor
I did invest in most of the best of the Universal lot lately, though I'm still unsure whether to bother with The Invisible Man.
I just saw "The Invisible Man" this past October; AMC was showing 24/7 (mostly old) monster flicks all month in preparation for Halloween. It was neat to see, just because it's an old classic that I actually had never seen before. But I personally felt no great need to own it. I thought the lead character was obnoxiously overacting. Mayb he felt he had to, w/ his voice being all he had to work w/, but it still turned me off. It doesn't compare favorably to the rest of Universal's stable, IMO.
Reply
post #18 of 31
1/1/07 at 11:51pm
Abbot and Costello Meet The Invisible Man is much better.
Reply
post #19 of 31
1/10/07 at 9:29am
Thread Starter 
Just broke into the massive movie packs I got for Christmas and watched "The Giant Gila Monster", "Attack of the Giant Leeches" and "The Beast of Yucca Flats". I started "Revolt of the Zombies", but haven't finished it.

So far, none of these is in the same league w/ 'Them!", but they're enjoyable all the same. You do have to cut them a lot of slack in places, like in "Attack of the Giant Leeches", when you realize you're never going to get a good look at the monsters because the costumes the "monsters" are in probably look terrible and the filmmakers are trying to coverthat up by giving you only glimpses of the creatures, or when you realize "Beast of Yucca Flats" is basically a silent movie w/ a (pretty bad) soundtrack laid over it afterward to simulate dialogue. But that's always been part of the fun with this type of film. I'm sure Darkmite would agree.
Reply
post #20 of 31
1/16/07 at 10:23pm
Thread Starter 
Just watched "The Killer Shrews". typical giant monster fare. In this case, the definition of "giant" is about the size of a dog (real shrews are apparently the size of very small mice, so that's incredibly large when you think about it). One thing I kind of liked was the fact that rather than just drag cheesy puppets around whenever you caught a glimpse of the monsters (they did use puppets for the close ups and attack scenes; no way around that, I guess), when they showed the shrews just running thru the woods chasing our heroes or attacking the compound's front gate, it looks like they put costumes on dogs. Stupid as that sounds, given the limits of FX technology at the time, I though this was pretty cool, because the "shrews" actually moved like real life animals. No choppy stop motion animation, no floppy or all but immobile puppets; they ran and scratched at the front gate just like real live animals, because they were real live animals. In. . . cheesy fur coats and . . . and masks. . .

But you get the idea. Of the several ways they could have gone with this, this was a good choice I think. And they could actually share scenes w/ the actors, because the dogs were the actual size the monsters were supposed to be (unlike other "giant" monster movies w/ real animals that never appeared in the same frame, like the above mentioned "Giant Gila Monster"). Of the 5 classic flicks in my boxed set that I've watched so far, I think I liked this one the best so far.
Reply
post #21 of 31
1/17/07 at 10:52am
There's an MST3K box set that includes their ripping apart The Killer Shrews. Definitely something you should check out.
Reply
post #22 of 31
1/17/07 at 11:21am
I heart The Killer Shrews. That one strange scientist reminds me of the autistic nerd from American Splendor.
Reply
post #23 of 31
1/17/07 at 11:24am
Island of Terror with Peter Cushing is another favorite. The idea of creatures killing you by dissolving your bones and sucking them out of your body is damned freaky. Plus there's that great scene involving Cushing and the axe.
Reply
post #24 of 31
1/17/07 at 4:38pm
I actually liked The Giant Gila Monster quite a bit and Attack Of The Giant Leeches wasn't that bad at all. Beast Of Yucca Flats was pure, concentrated awfulness however, a force of pure evil. Iggy it looks like we both got the same horror movie pack haha.
Reply
post #25 of 31
1/17/07 at 4:58pm
I've loved 'The Monolith Mosters' since the late '60's, when I first saw it on TV. Not strictly 'monsters', yet I believe that to be their selling point. As Michael Biehn once said,
"It can't be reasoned with, it can't
be bargained with...it doesn't
feel pity or remorse or fear...
and it absolutely will not stop.
Ever. Until you are dead."

Combine the non-thought/emotion/(hell intelligence of ANY kind) and add it with the Gremlin's talent to multiply exponentially...plus the fact that they are towering crystal columns...hell, you've got a winner.


They DO go out like whiney bitches, though...
Reply
post #26 of 31
1/17/07 at 6:11pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by BobClark
Island of Terror with Peter Cushing is another favorite. The idea of creatures killing you by dissolving your bones and sucking them out of your body is damned freaky. Plus there's that great scene involving Cushing and the axe.
HOLY SHIT! I have been trying to remember the name of this film for YEARS! This film creeped me out IMMENSELY when I saw it on TV as a kid! Thank you, Mr. Clark! Does anyone know if this is available on DVD?
Reply
post #27 of 31
1/20/07 at 11:29pm
Big hearts to the whole class of flicks....even (especially?) the lame ones. I like the CFTBL just fine...figure he's one of the A-listers, really. But the giant bug movies were great. Deadly Mantis, Black Scorpion, Them....right up to Night of the Lepus. I also sorta liked the 60s Vincent Price "Master of the World" and "City Beneath the Sea" sort of movies a lot. And the stop motion stuff. All of it.

But while I always enjoyed them, there was no b-movie that creeped my shit out until I saw some lame made-for-tv movie starring Bernie Casey (god bless 'im) in the early 70s called "Gargoyles". I flat out refused to walk up the stairs to my room after watching that stupid thing. And feared seeing it for years....until well after I was into college. Then I chanced upon it and realized how very sad and lame it was. But for several years I had a complete dread of winged demons waiting for me in the dark somewhere out in the great Southwest.
Reply
post #28 of 31
1/20/07 at 11:57pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by teledork
But while I always enjoyed them, there was no b-movie that creeped my shit out until I saw some lame made-for-tv movie starring Bernie Casey (god bless 'im) in the early 70s called "Gargoyles". I flat out refused to walk up the stairs to my room after watching that stupid thing. And feared seeing it for years....until well after I was into college. Then I chanced upon it and realized how very sad and lame it was. But for several years I had a complete dread of winged demons waiting for me in the dark somewhere out in the great Southwest.
I loved this one as well. Haven't seen it in years, though. Don't recall it being lame. . . .
Reply
post #29 of 31
1/21/07 at 12:31am
Perhaps lame isn't quite the word I should go for....

But there's a massive difference in the effect it had on me as a ten year old watching by myself in the dark of my living room with no one else moving around and the one it had on me in my twenties kicking back brewskies on my couch with my wife.

I miss feeling "ten year old scared" though.....
Reply
post #30 of 31
1/21/07 at 12:41am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by teledork
Perhaps lame isn't quite the word I should go for....

But there's a massive difference in the effect it had on me as a ten year old watching by myself in the dark of my living room with no one else moving around and the one it had on me in my twenties kicking back brewskies on my couch with my wife.

I miss feeling "ten year old scared" though.....
I hear ya. For some reason I never fully understood, "The Blob" and any sequel thereto had the same effect on me as a kid. Watching th late 80's remake w/ Kevin Dillon in a darkened movie theatre (oh, cruel irony!) was actually a test of sorts for me, and I was in college at the time, too. It has gone on to become a movie I truly love. And it doesn't scare me anymore. We watched "Beware the Blob" a couple Halloweens ago at my pal jay's house (he had a custom called "Scary Movie Night", where we'd rent the lamest horror movie we could find and make fun of it, MST3K style), and laughed at how BAD that film was. but at 9. . . sheer terror. Lame though it was.
Reply
post #31 of 31
1/21/07 at 1:29am
I don't have any real interest in horror today, but like many others I grew up on these corny 50s and 60s monster flicks.

How about:



or



This one freaked the hell out of as a kid, especially the bleak ending.
Reply
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home
  Back to Forum: Creature Corner Main
CHUD.com Community › Forums › CREATURE CORNER › Creature Corner Main › Share Your Love for the Old 50's B&W Monster Flicks