[Updated] Monster of the Day #282

This was one of the most effective and scary looking aliens from the 50s and interestingly turned out to be relatively benevolent in the end. A long, long way from the cute “Close Encounters” and “E.T.” aliens.

Hmmmmm, was reading Ken’s reviews of ‘The Cosmic Man’ and ‘Stranger From Venus’ over on the old site and he noted that ‘good’ aliens were generally handsome humanoids and ‘evil’ aliens horrid monsters. Odd, this was one of the few aliens that didn’t follow the pattern. Don’t know if I’d call it ‘good’ but as Eric pointed out it wasn’t evil either – as I remember the aliens just wanted to repair their starship and leave.

Ah, yes. The Monocle gang. Wonder if they’re related to the species we saw in ‘The Atomic Submarine’, before he/she/it got a nuke up the exhaust port.

“Stop that, I have lousy depth perceprion.”- Leela.

Reed: I may be wrong, but I think it’s It Came From Outer Space, based on Gamera’s post.

I haven’t seen it, though.

Also, Ken must be feeling better.

Or else he’s decided he’s better off making everyone else suffer with those puns of his.

Ken, your pun made me long to be punched by a shark!

To spell it out even more, the Castle (the Universal library) and Ken Films (AIP’s library) digests that were sold so heavily through Famous Monsters were usually 200′ versions and would run about 8 minutes or so. 400′ editions would run more like 16 minutes, and thus you could get a lot more of the plot than you could in a 200′ digest. They got even cheaper, though, as many a cartoon was released in 50′ editions. Those were the ones most kids bought for their projectors.

Families tended to buy the 200′ editions (from racks at the local drug or grocery store), but there was also a market for 400′ and even feature prints. (The under-the-counter porn stuff Ken mentions, meanwhile, was usually on 50′ or 100′ reels, although you could find longer stuff if you wished. I briefly came into possession of 200′ X loop starring notorious stripper Candy Barr! Don’t worry, I didn’t watch it. I donated it to Something Weird Video.)

Most of the shorter films were silent, which was cheaper than sound. Sound films become more common the longer you go. Today, sound is the norm. The 200′ format is perfect for cartoons, and many are still being pressed today (the best way to get some of the Disney stuff). I have several recent pressings of cartoons like Two-Gun Goofy, Donald’s Crime, Coal Black and de Seven Dwarfs, and Uncle Tom’s Cabana. The 8mm market remains the best market to find a lot of these classic “banned” or heavily edited cartoons.

There are also different formats of film. 8mm (or ‘regular’ 8 mm), Super 8 (which is the current format of choice), 16mm (good for schools and churches, as well as home use, also the format used by television up until just recently), 35mm (which is what you see at the theater), and a few special sizes like 70mm! Television still uses film a lot more than you might think, with a lot of stuff shot on Super 16 (which, if I understand it right, uses the entire space on the emulsion to record the image, so the sound can be recorded onto a disc). The irony being that the earliest soundtracks were also recorded on discs, just of another type.

Yes. I’d say late 40’s up to about 1982(? 83?) you could still find digests in general and department stores. With the coming of VHS and BETA, formats which could hold an entire feature and always in sound, and no extra cost for color, digests began to die off. Digests are hardly ever produced today, although much the same function is served with excerpts. Hobbiests today sometimes buy segements from a feature (like a battle sequence from one of the Matrix movies) when they get put out. Trailers are real big on the current market. Pop has a Super 8 trailer for Serenity.

I used to make box art for 200′ and 400′ boxes. The trouble (?) with today’s world is that now ANYBODY can make box tops so I no longer have a marketable skill in that arena.