July 14, 2020

A boy & his dinosaurs ~ memories of a spunky youth @ 80

~

When I was a kid, between the time I wanted to be a cowboy (blame Bing Crosby for that) or a space cadet . . .


 The Cowboy - 1887


. . . (ended up being a space cadet, anyway) . . . 


Frankie Thomas - 1952  


. . . and the time I wanted to be an archaeologist, I wanted to be a paleontologist. I loved dinosaurs; I thought they were the coolest things ever. Unfortunately, dinosaurs first appeared during the Triassic period, around 243 million years ago, a little before my time. 
     
Any movie that had a dinosaur in it was OK with me. The reasons I loved King Kong, aside from the fact that he was WAY cool, was that he fought one as Ann Darrow (Fay Wray) watched and screamed her head off at the top of a tree stump. Jessica Lange would reprise the role 43 years later. Plus the score by Max Steiner dramatically amplified the action (probably one of the films that made me fall in love with movie sound scores) (YouTube link below).         


King Kong & friend - 1933
with Ann Darrow on the tree stump


Then there was the 1940 film, One Million B.C.! WOW! I loved that movie! Although in real life mankind came millions of years after the age of the dinosaur, the film had Tumak, Victor Mature, battling one or two of them (links below) with Carole Landis as his main squeeze;  Lon Chaney, Jr. was also in the film and Werner R. Heymann wrote the score. Of course, there was the obligatory erupting volcano to keep the plot moving. It was released in Britain as, A Man and His Mate.   
      



D.W. Griffith began directing One Million B.C. under the title When Man Began but Hal Roach and his son, Hal Roach, Jr. finished directing it. Roy Seawright and Frank Young stuck fins on various crocodiles, lizards and iguanas and photographically enlarged them. This inspired the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals to ban such gruesome uses of these animals, so the footage from this film was later recycled over and over in many films including the 1953 movie, Robot Monster, a really wretched movie often called the worst one ever made (rivaling Plan 9 From Outer Space directed by Ed Wood with Bela Lugosi).




The saving graces that rescued Robot Monster from men in gorilla suits (groan, this one wore a diving helmit) (links below): it was the first Sci-Fi movie with stereophonic sound, it was filmed in 3-D, it featured a half-naked, Hollywood hunk, George Nader . . .


publicity photo


. . . and the biggest surprise of all, the score was by Elmer Bernstein.!!!!!! To be fair, it was during the notorious McCarthy era Hollywood Black List; Bernstein needed to work in order to eat.    

Another surprise is in 2017 the film was made into a musical (links below) with music, lyrics and book adaptation by Rich Silverman; it doesn't fair any better than the original movie!!!!! 




Marcus Chavez (Ro-Man) & Jamie Miller


Before MTV had enough music videos to fill their day they scheduled the most amazing specials and events. In 1982 MTV aired a TV special; Videography Studios and 3D Video pooled their resources and shot 3D footage entitled, Robot Monster - The Special Edition, to wrap around the 1950s Sci-Fi classic, Robot Monster. The rock group, SPACE CADET star as the guys in silver lamé.... with Bob Burns in the famous Tracy the Gorilla suit from the kid's TV series, The Ghost Busters (link below), however, you need 3D glasses to view it!          

Returning to One Million B.C., it was remade in 1966 by the British production group, Hammer Film Productions (of gothic horror film fame) with a new title, One Million Years B.C.   




The special effects by Ray Harryhausen were pretty good for the time (link below); it starred John Richardson as Tumak and his sweetheart was Raquel Welch.




The movie stank but Welch was a knockout! The film made her an international sex symbol. She was chased by a dino or two in it . . .       


 


. . . and the movie had the volcano eruption as well; Hollywood had a thing about dinosaurs and volcanoes and passed the concept on to the rest of the world (links below).   

By the time Godzilla came along in 1954 I was past dinosaurs as a possible profession. I was deep into Ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, the Incas and the Aztecs by then; I was still into ancient civilizations (actually, I still am) when the King Tut exhibition tour was in San Francisco in 1976 which blew me away.   


King Tut funerary mask
exhibition tour, San Francisco - 1976
 
      
I will always have a soft spot in my heart for a movie with a dino or two in it. In 1993 Jurassic Park, directed by Steven Spielberg, satisfied that fondness in spades; the movie isn't so great but the special effects by Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) are terrific and the Brontosaurus (main theme) by John Williams of Star Wars, is grand, regal and beautiful! (links below).    




I recently saw a film on TV, Cowboys Vs. Dinosaurs, made in 2015 (links below). It was pretty cheesy with the hero, Val Walker (portrayed by Rib Hillis of Sharktopus vs. Pteracuda and Dinocroc vs. Supergator fame), actually lassoing a dinosaur! Can you believe it?  
    
        


The amazing thing about this movie is he lassoed them in Japan . . .  


. . . and in Korea with Sara Malakul Lane helping him.

 

For serious consideration, however, there is the 1999 six-part nature documentary television miniseries on BBC Earth devoted to the age of the dinosaur titled, Walking with Dinosaurs (links below). The special effects are superb, however, it tells it like it was; it is not at all romanticized. Squeamish beware! The series won two BAFTA Awards, three Emmy Awards and a Peabody Award in 2000.  



            
            
Viewfinder links:           

Lon Chaney, Jr.
Bing Crosby                      
Ray Harryhausen             
Bela Lugosi              
Victor Mature
George Nader         
Star Wars @ 40           
John Williams        
Ed Wood                   
       
Net links:           
Rotten Tomatoes ~ One Million B.C.           
WSU.edu ~ One Million BC      
           
YouTube links:           
           
BBC ~ Walking With Dinosaurs:           
      Allosaurus ambushes its prey       
      Argentinosaurus ~ Biggest Dinosaur Ever!  
      Argentinosaurus vs. Mapusaurus gang   
      Carcharodontosaurus    
      Dinosaur Cannibalism    
      Dinosaur Massacre
      Diplodocus Herd: Ballad of Allosaurus    
      Oviraptorid Fights to Protect Nest   
      Sinornithosaurus: A poisonous bite       
      Spinosaurus fishes for prey        
      Spinosaurus vs Carcharodontosaurus
      The vegetarian T-Rex        
Cowboys vs. Dinosaurs         
Jurassic Park ~   
      Main Theme     
      Welcome to Jurassic Park Scene     
Bing Crosby - I'm An Old Cowhand (From The Rio Grande)    
KC and the Sunshine Band ~ Space Cadet           
King Kong ~                  
      Beauty Killed the Beast Scene         
      Kong vs. T-Rex Scene     
One Million BC (1940)    
One Million BC (colorized Trailer) (1940)      
One Million Years B.C. (1966)        
Robot Monster trailer (1953)      
Robot Monster complete (1953)              
Robot Monster the Musical ~
      I Always Walk Alone    
      Official Trailer   
      Official Trailer Two   
      Robot Monster the Musical Reviews       
Robot Monster - The Special Edition     
Whatever Happened to Ro-Man? (7 mins., 30 secs.)      
       
         
           
dinosaur stampede

     

Ye! Haw!

       
           
Styrous® ~ Sunday, July 12, 2020       

















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