Monster of the Day #3301

Updated on November 19, 2021 By Ken Begg 11 Comments

So after the last movie of the day shift, followed by a (of course) fun episode of The Untouchables (“Ya Yelllllllllaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!”), and Chad R’s quiz on demon movies–one in a walk by first time attendee Cullen–we broke for dinner.

A few years ago I showed the WC Fields movie Never Give a Sucker an Even Break, I apparently helped usher in a new era where we can show completely mainstream movies. So Sandy opened up the night shift with Destry Rides Again, a wonderful Jimmy Stewart western that he showed because “everyone should have seen at least on Marlene Dietrich movie.” No grousing at seeing a real movie was heard, and the next time anyone who hadn’t seen it before sees Blazing Saddles, they’ll get what Madeline Kahn was doing.

The next film was Buddha’s Palm, which I had just stumbled across on YouTube that very week. Sandy was in because a look at the trailer revealed exactly the kind of super-gonzo Hong Kong kung fu movie everyone loves, only with characters also shooting cartoon beams. Well, we didn’t know what we were in for. It was pretty clearly a much longer work, like ten hours or something, cut down so that everything was 90 straight minutes of crazy action with was no breathing room. It was exhausting. You don’t watch Buddha’s Palm–you survive it.

We ended things with our traditional T-Rex movie. Back came ol’ Karel Zeman (Invention for Destruction) for the second time that day. It was my childhood favorite Journey to the Beginning of Time. They used to show this on Garfield Goose when I was a tot, cut until into little daily snippets. I always remembered it this way:

Announcer over a black card: “JOURNEY TO THE BEGINNING OF TIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIME: CHAPTER 37 THE STEGOSAURUS!”
Cut to boys on a raft. One points to the shore, says “Look, a stegasourus!” and we cut over to see a dinosaur.
Cut to black card. The Announcer: “JOIN US TOMORROW FOR ANOTHER EXCITING CHAPTER OF JOURNEY OF THE BEGINNING OF TIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIME!!!”

So four or five young lads go to a museum to learn about dinosaurs and end up on a raft down a river. As they travel they are taken further into the prehistoric past. It’s pretty great, and chock full of not just dinosaurs but other examples of prehistoric weirdness.

Happy Friday and weekend, everyone. Watch something stupid.

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  • bgbear_rnh

    No watch party? OK, I’ll pick something weird myself ;-)

    I am glad to hear about Destry. I feel I am the only Westerns fan amongst my peers sometimes. There are always Corman/Lippert westerns to cross over and get a foot in the door.

  • Okay, some T-Rex movies to consider in the future:

    Planet of the Dinosaurs
    My Science Project
    the Carnosaur movies
    Dinosaur Island ’94
    Dinosaur Island ’14 (which would feature the first feathered T-Rex)

  • bgbear_rnh

    Sticking with the westerns, I assume “Valley of Gwangi” has been done.

  • I’d never seen an episode of The Untouchables before, mainly because it isn’t in my line. It was a decent episode, but, again, not my thing.

    Destry Rides Again is also not in my line. Most of the run time has it a comedy, which makes its switch to drama at the end more than a little jarring, at least for me. I doubt I’d watch it again, but I’m not sorry I watched it. Jarring or not, the climax is one of the best I’ve seen in a long time.

    Buddha’s Palm. Man. Buddha’s Palm. It really is in it’s own category.

    Maybe it’s because of what it was following, but I found Journey to the Beginning of Time a trifle dull, even with the excellent animation. I am sorry the disk stopped before the end and we never got to see how the kids managed to get back home.

    As for the contest, I was deeply shocked I won. I suspect I won’t be so lucky again.

  • Ken_Begg

    Am I the only person who finds Planet of the Dinosaurs to be a complete bore fest? I know Sandy wants to show it. I think we’ll be at the beginning of the end (although a long end) when we start showing the Carnosaur movies, because I feel like those will get trotted out when there’s nothing else left. I was watching my new Blu Ray of The Land Unknown the other day, still my favorite dinosaur/T-Rex movie.

  • Ken_Begg

    No, that one’s always been held in reserve, but really it’s time has to be coming.

  • Dr. Freex wasn’t a fan of Planet of the Dinosaurs when he reviewed it for The Bad Movie Report.

    I like the dinosaur scenes, but the drab costumes and annoying synth score always made the other scenes a slog.

  • You’ll have to track down copies of Battle Wizard; A Boxer’s Omen; and Holy Flame of the Martial World for subsequent T or T(ween) Fests.

  • The Rev.

    Yeah, PotD is not very exciting for the most part. The dino stuff is fun but there isn’t enough of it to compensate. I probably like it slightly more than The Beast of Hollow Mountain but that’s damning with faint praise.

    I really like the first Carnosaur and kind of hope we show it someday. Feel free to never show the sequels, though. Even though the second one would let us watch Kirk get mad at another Aliens ripoff, and does have a few moments of hilarity.

  • Beckoning Chasm

    The second Carnosaur movie is not so much a “rip off” of Aliens as a “complete duplicate.”

  • Killer Meteor

    The dinosaur footage from Journey was recycled in an early UK 60’s sci-fi TV serial called Pathfinders in Venus.