Monster of the Day #1237

Updated on November 9, 2015 By Ken Begg 23 Comments

AIP’s Sam Arkoff and James Nicholson famously would think of titles, commission poster art, and then if theater owners booked the movie, they would go ahead and, you know, make it.

Given this system, I wonder how many of these films came into existence purely because of the fantastic poster art of Albert Kallis?

By the way, I originally was going to feature Italian pulp monster art this week, but it’s nearly all pornographic, so I decided to go in another direction.

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  • Eric Hinkle

    This is the one with the time-traveling shrink who’s basically a villain himself, right? Given that he tries to wreck the time-stream as I recall. Where”s Doctor Who when we need him?

    I also believe this one is on Youtube for anyone who wants to watch it.

  • Eric Hinkle

    Oh, and in the ‘If this actually matters’ file, I just learned that the World Fantasy Award will no longer honor H.P. Lovecraft because he was non-PC and old and white and whatnot. I wonder how many people actually still care.

  • bgbear_rnh

    Yes, I guess should be enough to raise the dead.

  • Flangepart

    The World Fantas…oh, them! yeah what ever happened to those guys? Ah, that’s right…ego over talent.

    “Terror that screams from the grave!”…bet it’s a bit muffled.

  • I liked this movie for Digger Smolken, the weird gravedigger who would change the words of popular nursery rhymes into morbid ditties.

  • Beckoning Chasm

    I wondered if AIP ever changed a poster to reflect the actual movie, then I realized they would say “But that would cost money” and answered my own question.

  • Gamera977

    Sad, but can’t say I’m surprised considering how the Puppykickers burned down the Hugo’s in a childish fit. Because giving all the awards to a tiny clique is the paragon of ‘diversity’.

  • Marsden

    That sounds worse than you probably intended.

  • Eric Hinkle

    Didn’t poor Digger get his noggin lopped off by the end? I remember the sexy witch chopping somebody’s head off at one point.

  • bgbear_rnh

    nudge nudge, wink wink, say no more squire ;-)

  • Eric Hinkle

    And I just discovered that the fans, well the SJW fans, of a freaking cartoon show of all things (Steve Universe if you care) harassed and bullied a young lady into near suicide because she didn’t draw the characters ‘correctly’.

    When did fandom become so vile?

  • Meet the new bosses, same as the old ones.

    Entirely too many oversensitive souls out there who think its completely in their right to do whatever enters their heads to right their perceived injustice. Done all without the slightest awareness that they’re just reenacting the same crap that happened decades ago, only with the names changed.

    The internet makes it worse, but only by bring it out into the light more. My hope is that there’s a backlash coming that’ll squash this current batch of idiots. Only trouble is this cycle doesn’t seem to wanna stop.

  • Eric Hinkle

    “My hope is that there’s a backlash coming that’ll squash this current batch of idiots.”

    May it be soon.

  • Luke Blanchard

    Are there any known movies that didn’t get made because no-one booked them?

  • The Rev.

    That whole thing with the SU fandom is one of the most hideous things I’ve ever seen on the Internet. And yes I am completely serious. I’m sorry anyone else here also witnessed it.
    I just hope mentioning it here doesn’t bring the fuckhead brigade to this peaceful site…

  • sandra

    As I recall, The Undead is a pretty good little b-movie, but I guess the original audience was disappointed, since the poster has nothing to do with the plot.

  • Eric Hinkle

    Yikes! I didn’t even think of that! Mister Begg, if you want to delete my remark(s) here, go right ahead!

  • Beckoning Chasm

    In Bill Warren’s “Keep Watching The Skies” books, he has several pages of announced titles that never appeared. Some of those could be AIP films that never hooked any bookers.

  • Luke Blanchard

    Thanks, Beckoning.

  • The Rev.

    The sexy witch chops off the head of the innkeeper. Smolken makes it to the end; he’s one of the many characters pondering whether the female lead should let history take its course (meaning off with her head) or stay alive and disrupt history and the time stream and who knows what else. I recall him dourly saying she should go ahead and die and escape the miserable times they live in. Because he’s fun like that.
    I love when Mike and the ‘bots start yelling “STAAAAAAAAY!!!!” during that conversation.

  • The Rev.

    As was often the case in a Corman movie, it has some pretty interesting ideas, but the execution lacks a bit and it looks as threadbare as you’d expect. However, this one is enlivened by a lot of fun characters (the slimy psychologist or whatever he was; Smolken; that wonderfully hammy ‘n’ cheesy Devil; the hyperactive imp); a couple of nice twists and turns (rather liked the comeuppance slimy guy gets); and Allison Hayes at her hottest and most seductive. I mean, the main female character is quite fine herself, but if I’d been Pendragon and had Livia throwing herself at me with wild abandon, I would have happily followed her to damnation.
    It was a fine choice for MST3K; but it’s fun enough that you can watch it on its own.

  • Eric Hinkle

    Thanks for straightening me out on my mistake.

  • Rodford Smith

    That’s not fandom. That’s people.