Giant Gila Monster/Gammera/axe murders at Portage…

Updated on February 16, 2009 By Ken Begg 10 Comments

Saturday the 28th of Feb will see another monster triple bill at Chicago’s historic Portage Theater.

6:45 The Giant Gila Monster Hilarious ‘monster’ action (that thing is so darn cute!) and worse rock ‘n’ roll make this pretty much a perfect example of ’50s sci-fi cheese.  Really, this movie is worth ten bucks alone.

8:15  Gammera

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the Invincible  Yes, the American distributors of the first, b&w Gamera movie did add an extra ‘m’, probably for “Mmmmmm, that’s good giant monster action.”  Man, this is a great bill already.

10:00 Dementia 13 Psycho killer suspenser directed by a very young Francis Ford Coppella for skinflint producer Roger Corman.

Dealers will be on hand with all sorts of goodie merchandise, and there will be cool monster models on display too.  All for a ten spot.  There’s a city lot about a block away, and you need to feed the meter until 9:00; after that, parking is free.  The machine takes quarters and, I think, credit cards, but I always bring quarters.  Parking in the city just went up, so I think it’s a buck an hour now, but that’s not that big a deal.

I just got advance word on March’s show, it will consist of Horror of Party Beach, Humanoids of the Deep and CHUD!

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  • Blackadder

    Man, I wish I lived in Chicago. (Well, not really, but I wish I lived close to a theater showing those movies!) I have them all on DVD, but it’s just not the same.

  • That is a great triple feature, although March’s lineup looks to equal it.

    The Brian Donlevy scenes in Gammera are rather sad. He had been such an excellent actor, and he looks so bored in this (or possibly he’s just trying to hide his embarrassment — the “U.N.” set is indescribably cheap).

  • I dunno… for some reason, “The Giant Gila Monster” always seems to be lacking something when it’s not on a bill with “The Killer Shrews”.

  • fish eye no miko

    I actually kinda like Dementia 13. The whole plot with the woman keeping her husband’s death a secret (that’s not a spoiler, it’s pretty much at the beginning of the film) is kinda neat, and takes a few very interesting turns.

  • Ah man… that’s a *killer* lineup….

    I just have one concern… what area of Chicago *is* the Portage in? I live up here in Chicago North (AKA Wisconsin), and I worry about ending up in the Wrong Places in any major metropolitan area, Chicago in particular.

  • The theater’s on the north side of the city, about four miles up Milwaukee Avenue past the NW suburb of Niles. The address is 4050 N. Milwaukee, in case you want to Mapquest it.

  • roger h

    have fun.

    I can never see The Giant Gila monster now without adding the “dialog” for the lizard as done on MST3K.

  • Ericb

    “I can never see The Giant Gila monster now without adding the “dialog” for the lizard as done on MST3K.”

    The line “I like to watch, blalalalalalalalala.” cracks me up ever time

  • Nah, I gotta go with “I’m probably going to get blamed for that.”

  • fish eye no miko

    “And the Lord said, ‘DIE, CHILDREN, DIE’!”