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When
I was a kid, between the time I wanted to be a
cowboy (blame
Bing Crosby for that) . . .
The Cowboy - 1887
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.
The amazing thing about this movie is he
lassoed them in
Japan . . .
Viewfinder links:
