D V D s
movies after escaping from Hungary during the Soviet crack­ down in 1956), ANGELS’ WILD WOMEN looks considerably bet­ ter than SATAN’S SADISTS and DRACULA VS. FRANKENSTEIN and translates to video fairly well. Colors are pale in spots and con­ trasts are middling, but the pre­ sentation looks and sounds decent. The cropping of the origi­ nal ratio (either 1.66:1 or 1.85:1) leaves close-ups looking awfully cramped, however. Sherman re­ counts the picture’s history but spends comparatively little time talking about it. Instead, he cel­ ebrates the drive-in experience and discusses the industry of the time, looking back with fondness on some of the competitive friendships he had. He also remi­ nisces about Adamson and ex­ presses annoyance with those who disparage the director’s work, saying that they sell him short because they do not take the era and demands of the mar­ ket into account. Fair enough, but the bottom line is the final product and the majority of view­ ers will agree that this is not one of Adamson’s more entertaining efforts. The commentary lags about 10s behind the action throughout and contains some awkward editing. The patchwork history of
DRACULA VS. FRANKENSTEIN is a minor anecdote compared to all of the behind-the-scenes tinkering involved in the creation of the picture that finally came to be known as BLOOD OF GHASTLY HORROR. In 1964, Al Adamson made his directorial debut with ECHO OF TERROR, a heist picture in which he had a small role as a robber killed by one of his partners (Roy Morton). Despite attractive cinematogra­ phy by Vilmos Zsigmond (in Techniscope, with Technicolor’s
dye-transfer printing process giv­ ing the movie a very nice look for its meager cost) and behind- the-scenes competence, the fin­ ished product had no name actors and failed to find a dis­ tributor. In an effort to make it more exploitable, new footage featuring Morton was shot (en­ hancing the deranged behavior of his character by having him commit several murders), along with some musical numbers showcasing Tacey Robbins, a singer Adamson was promoting at the time. With these new in­ serts, the movie was released by Hemisphere Pictures in 1965 as PSYCHO A GO-GO. When Hemi­ sphere’s rights expired, the movie reverted back to Adamson at a time when he and Sherman were selling some of their properties to Allied Artists Television. Since Allied was only interested in ac­ quiring horror and science fic­ tion, Sherman wrote new scenes featuring Morton and John Car- radine (as a mad scientist re­ sponsible for Morton’s insane acts), and most of Robbins’ foot­ age was dropped. This version appeared on TV as MAN WITH THE SYNTHETIC BRAIN and was also issued theatrically (with a bit of additional violence) in 1969 by American General Pictures as FIEND WITH THE ELECTRONIC BRAIN. When AGP closed its doors at the end of 1970, the movie went back to Adamson and Sherman, who decided to reissue it themselves, through Independent-International, as BLOOD OF GHASTLY HORROR In addition to some opening titles animation by Bob LeBar, the I-I edition includes new scenes that add Regina Carrol, Kent Taylor, Tommy Kirk and a zombie to the storyline! GHASTLY HORROR is the only variant currently avail­ able for viewing and it is every
bit as choppy and nonsensical as you would expect, a must for fans of mix-and-match movies. A zombie (BRAIN OF BLOOD s
Richard Smedley) strangles some people in an alley, includ­ ing two policemen, and Lt. Cross (Tommy Kirk) has no leads to go on. The situation becomes even more puzzling when Cross receives a box con­ taining the severed head of an­ other colleague, along with a note saying that the killings are reparation for the death of some­ one named Corey. A dig through the files provides the details of that case (and the lead-in for one very long flashback). Joe Corey (Roy Morton) was a Vietnam vet who ended up with a shell frag­ ment lodged in his brain. He was brought back home to America, where Dr. Vanard (John Carra- dine) was enlisted to perform brain surgery on him. Corey then participated in a jewel robbery that went bad, and killed one of his own partners (Al Adamson) when the police arrived on the scene. The half million dollars in stones procured by the thieves was lost along the way, only to be discovered by the young daughter of David Clarke (Kirk Duncan). The psychotic Corey committed another murder and then threatened to do in the oblivious Clarke and his wife, unless the man turned over the jewels. Vanard admitted to a po­ lice lieutenant (Joey Benson) that he secretly tried out his new arti­ ficial brain component on Corey, which was designed to take over the function of damaged cells. The experiment brought Corey out of his vegetative state but turned him into a madman. A most unappreciative patient, Corey returned to the doctor’s office and subjected him to a le­ thal dose of electricity, before
53
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84
