DVD bargain of the day…

Updated on August 4, 2005 By Ken Begg 7 Comments

Sci-fi buffs will want to grab up the fun ’50s giant bug epic The Black Scorpion and savor it’s great Willis O’Brien [not Ray Harryhausen, as I previously stated; see the reader corrections in the comments] stop-animation. (If not the silly, non-matching drooling scorpion head they use for insert shots.) Amazon.com is selling it for $10, half of the list price. Remember, buy $25 worth of stuff from Amazon and you get free shipping. Amazon is also featuring the (to me) rather less fun Harryhausen flick The First Men in the Moon, also for $10/50% off. Other Amazon options include the second season of CSI for $35, a stellar 61% off; The Howling SE for $10.50 (45% off); the campy damaged woman classic Ice Castles for $10.50/48% off; The Last Dragon for the same. A more complete list can be found at DVDPricesearch.com.

At the same site, info can be found on Overstock.com’s deals on some Farscape and Andromeda season sets for up to %61 off list. Also, given one’s tastes, one might be excited to learn that they are selling Country Bears, with Christopher Walken (!) and Haley Joel Osment (welcome to the rest of your career, champ) for $8.60/71% off.

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  • Self-Loathing Narcissist

    Actually, the animation on BLACK SCORPION was done by Harryhausen’s mentor (and KING KONG maestro) Willis O’Brien, with assist from Pete Petersen (who split up animating duties with Harryhausen on MIGHTY JOE YOUNG, and went on to help O’Brien on THE GIANT BEHEMOTH). However, there is some Harryhausen animation on the disc, in the form of the “dinosaur” sequence Ray and O’Brien did for the otherwise unexceptional (and long-unseen) Irwin Allen nature documentary, THE ANIMAL WORLD (1956). Also trailers for three Harryhausen films.

    Plus there’s some cool stop-motion test footage from two O’Brien/Petersen projects that ultimately never got made, THE LAS VEGAS MONSTER and THE BEETLEMEN. These are the things that one might see a vague reference to in special effects journals, or at best, a grainy photo, but would never expect to have the chance to see on home video. THE BLACK SCORPION is fun enough on its own, but for stop-motion fans, this is one of those discs that would be worth the scratch for the supplements alone.

    Also, bear in mind that when Richard Denning and co are lowered into the cavern in THE BLACK SCORPION, the other critters they encounter are supposedly the sort of things we would’ve seen if the legendary, lost “spider pit” sequence from KING KONG hadn’t been cut out.

  • Self-Loathing Narcissist beat me to the punch; I was going to say the same thing.

    I hated the little kid in Black Scorpion. Hated him with a passion. Only kid that irritates me worse is the brat in Son of Frankenstien. “WHY HELLO!” Gah!

  • Yes, the kid was incredibly irritating. His scenes inspired me to urge the stop-motion beasties, “Faster, guys, faster!”

    On the other hand, Mara Corday is ultra-foxy.

  • The worst cinematic kid I’ve ever seen was the original Kenny, from the original Gamera. Bear in mind, Gamera was not a Friend to Children (or anyone else) in this film, yet the kid kept endangering every plan to deal with the titanic turtle of terror.

  • In Kenny’s defense, Gamera did rescue him from the light house.

    That and the fact he is insane.

  • It doesn’t help that he exists in a world in which adults are such dullards that they don’t notice him stowing away in the basket they lower into the scorpion’s nest.

  • Anonymous

    From what I’ve heard of the character, I’m not sure if I would have, er, “noticed” him stowing away in a basket being lowered to certain death either…

    Just sayin’.

    — John Nowak