Well, that was nearly it for monsters at this year’s T-Fest weekend. Following Attack of the Puppet People, we watched Police Raid (1947), an interesting if not spectacular crime thriller made in the East German (i.e., Soviet) sector of Berlin after the war, by studio DEFA. There’s a set of films like available now called Wrack and Ruin. I was expecting it to be a bit more propaganda-y, but not really. Eventually I’ll give the rest of the films in the set a look.
Next was a real obscurity, Brit flick The Body Stealers (1969). This is a skydiving / alien invasion mashup, although we never see the aliens and it’s more of a police procedural about skydivers disappearing mid-skydive. It’s a really odd duck. By all rights it should be terribly boring, but for some reason it kept our interest. The cast includes Georges Sanders (in a typical nothing role) and Maurice Evans. His role here isn’t quite as memorable as that of Dr. Zaius.
Finally we watched Lady Streetfighter (1981). This was an amusingly terrible action film starring a woman of a certain age with an impenetrable European accent. Chad Richard has a dictum that few things are sillier than a person trying to be sexy and failing. At one point the heroine, talking to someone on the phone, starts licking the headset. (?) Point to Chad Richard. (The all time example of this was Elizabeth Berkley flopping around like an electrocuted carp during a pool sex scene in Showgirls.)
That was it for Sunday. Monday was a short day (for me) as I eventually left for home mid-afternoon. However, we got in viewings of Iron Fist: The Giants are Coming (1970), a typically terrible Turkish superhero film. Boy, you think something like Lady Streetfighter is awful and then you see something like this. Still, it was, as you’d expect, enjoyed by all.
My final viewing was the Ultra Q episode The Primordial Amphibian Ragon (1966), one of the few chapters with a human-sized monster. This is the old “she only wanted to get back her kid / egg” plot. Still, fun!
After I left they apparently watched Circus of Fear (1966), a color Krimi starring Christopher Lee. I’ve seen it, but I don’t remember much about it. Anyway, according to Chad R that was the fast feature this year.
