Monster of the Day #1385

Let’s try more obscure ’40s films. I’m sure I’ll do some repeats. Again, I have to whip up a records of these things one day. Anyhoo, these are generally cheaper films, and so the monsters will usually be inexpensive, briefly seen and mostly just guys in make-up.

This first one is a deviation from that, however. Although actually more inspired by Cat People, I suspect, than The Wolf Man, it uses a four legged werewolf. I can’t remember what would have disappointed me more as a kid, this sort of thing or the wolfman-type guy we only get for 20 seconds in The Undying Monster, but surely either of them would have disgruntled Kid Ken.

I hope everyone had a good weekend. Oh, and T-Fest will be in November this year.

  • Gamera977

    ‘Okay, he’s dead- now to pee on him to mark him as my kill…’

  • Beckoning Chasm

    “Hey, that’s pretty good at ‘playing dead’!”

  • Eric Hinkle

    He looks far better trained than the wolves and dogs in DAY OF THE ANIMALS. That movie gets very comical when you learn enough about canines to realize that the wolf about to attack Susan Backlinie is in a placatory posture (probably watching their trainer off to the side). Or the “savage” attacking dogs wildly wagging their tails as they ‘maul’ people.

  • The briefly shown monster. Is there nothing crueler to do to a kid? I waited an entire movie for the Curse of the Swamp Monster, only to have it just grab its creator and hop in with the alligators… God I hated that flick.

    Makes me wonder what I would have thought about Alligator People.

    (Fun fact: I loved Five Million Years to Earth as a kid despite its almost total lack of aliens. Apparently the floating devil head and bad video aliens worked much better than ping pong ball eyes.)

  • Leslie Nielsen and the bear kills me every time I think about the movie.

  • bgbear_rnh

    walksies!

  • Flangepart

    Reminds me of what James Lileks once said after a Werewolf related rock song: “One thing about the wolfman they never told you. Right before he killed you…he’d sniff your butt.”

  • Flangepart

    E-yeah…real dogs with their people, they look at you, wondering what’s gonna happen next.”Food?…Food?…play?” Where as TV dogs and a lot of movie dogs just stare off side to see that the trainer tells them to do next. REALLY mucks it up for us dog people.
    “Poor devil dog. Must have been a boring day on set during that scene.”

  • bgbear_rnh

    One of my favorite animal “movie mistakes” happens with horses. A standard trope westerns is to have the heroes going w/o water for a long time and finally encountering water in a joyous celebration. Often the horses just stand there and watch, but they should be crazy thirsty as well.

  • Ericb

    Sometimes expectations can make or break a film when you are a little kid. For instance I liked the movie Donovan’s Brain when I was little but was severely disappointed with The Lady and the Monster. They were based on the same story but while the former promised me a brain and I gave me a brain the latter promised me a monster and gave me … just a brain!

  • Rock Baker

    I saw a lot of 40’s films as a kid, but this one draws a blank with me. Which one is it?

  • Eric Hinkle

    I do wish they’d explained in the movie why Nielsen’s character went nuts from the virus while everyone else stayed sane*. It’s made worse since they say at the end of the movie that they wanted to find survivors in the high country to see why it didn’t affect them too — when it only ever affected one person!

    For that matter what virus affects people and animals, but only if they’re at 5000 feet and higher?

    * — I wonder if Nielsen went mad because he was a New York ad executive, and so was already pretty evil (joke!).

  • Eric Hinkle

    Looks like it killed Nielsen’s character too.

  • Beckoning Chasm

    GAAH! MY EYES!

  • Eric Hinkle

    Odd question, but does the blog look different to anyone else? It’s like the whole layout has changed.

  • Ken_Begg

    Yes, I had a guest review to post (the longest ever for the site!) and it wouldn’t go up because the WordPress version wasn’t updated. So I went crying to my tech person, Carina Magyar, and while she was in there she tried out this new template. The reviews are *gasp* in alphabetical order now, and I really like the black background when scanning a review.

  • Is there any way to get the Forum back in the sidebar? I know it isn’t super bust these days, but something over there does occasionally catch my eye and it’s still a good option when I don’t want to derail a thread with something. Other than that, I love the new layout much better than the old and that sure isn’t any sort of deal breaker.

  • Eric Hinkle

    Thank you for explaining, Mister Begg.

  • Gamera977

    Hmmm, going to take some getting used to!

  • Looks good to me.

  • Mr. Rational

    The shorter version of what Ken is saying is that it’s all my fault. Sorry, Eric. :)

  • Eric Hinkle

    It’s okay, I was just wondering if my eyes were going bad. Well, worse.

  • Carina Magyar

    Wishes become commands!

  • Ken_Begg

    I wish i had a million dollars!

  • Carina Magyar

    How about a thumbnail grid in the main menu of every Monster of the Day instead?