While Mystery Science Theatre 3000 brought a lot of films to a whole new audience, which is a good thing, the problem is that they told that same audience that these were bad movies and should be made fun of. And that is not a good thing. Sure, the movies didn’t have a huge budget, probably not the best script, and maybe even a cheesy monster, but the people involved making it gave it their all. And for that, you have to give some credit. Plus, as I’ve stated many, many times, if you were entertained once it’s over, then it is not a bad movie!

The two titles recently released by VCI Entertainment, The Crawling Hand and The Slime People, both from 1963, are two perfect examples of that. Both were produced by Joseph F. Robertson, who got his foot in the door in Hollywood by these two films. A short time later, he started producing and directing adult features, under the name Adele Robbins. He came back to the horror genre to produce Dr. Caligari (1989) and directing Auntie Lee’s Meat Pies (1992). But we’re here to discuss those first two titles!

The first title, The Crawling Hand, is about a spaceship that loses its way back from the moon, with the poor astronaut running out of air. But somehow, he seems to have survived longer than he should, but is now in agony, begging for ground control to destroy his ship. Because they can’t risk the ship bringing something back to Earth, the detonate the spacecraft. Somehow, the astronauts arm makes its way back to Earth, landing on a local beach, where it is discovered by a young couple. The boy, played by Rod Lauren, decides to bring the arm back home, hiding it in his garage. But not only is the arm not dead, it starts to infect his mind, turning him into a crazed killer. We have a lot of the old-style hand crawling around where the arm its attached to is just hidden off camera. An old technique but still fun.

The two running the space program are Peter Breck and Kent Taylor, as well as Allison Hayes. For someone who grew up watching the TV show Big Valley, I was well aware of who Breck was. I recognized Kent Taylor from Brides of Blood (1968), as well as the films he appeared in for Al Adamson, such as Blood of Ghastly Horror (1967), Satan’s Sadist (1969), and Brain of Blood (1971). But Kent had been working in pictures since the early ‘30s, so while he might have been on the downswing of his career, it didn’t mean he couldn’t still give a great performance. And of course, while she’s not in a lot of it, we have Allison Hayes, most famous for being the title terror in Attack of the 50 Foot Woman (1958). Again, a very talented actress and it really does help the picture play better than one would think. Hell, you even got Alan Hale Jr.!

Sure, everyone is acting their hearts out, with a script that could probably use a polish or two but is still fun. The original story was co-written from Joe Cranson, who had also co-written Ted V. Mikels’ The Corpse Grinders (1971), is the father of Bryan Cranston of Breaking Bad fame.

Director Stock is well known for a string of these low-budget titles in the sci-fi and horror genre, and once again, a lot of them being damn entertaining. My favorite of his work is I was a Teenage Frankenstein (1957), but he also directed The Magnetic Monster (1953), taking over for Kurt Siodmak, as well as doing AIP’s Blood of Dracula (1957) and How to Make a Monster (1958).

While this is a fun movie, and I would recommend, I’m not sure what happened on this new print but there are parts here, especially in the beginning, where it is almost washed out and very bright. Other shots are fine, nice and clean, but then others are way too white.

When we get to The Slime People, we have another great example of filmmakers with very little money, getting a small cast and making the most out of that. Even when most of the budget when to creating the suits for the title terrors. I’m thinking they only made 3 suits because I think that is all you see onscreen at any given time, though they make it look like there’s several of them. Plus the fact that these are pretty damn cool looking monsters! Original in design, and even though it’s obviously a guy in a suit, I think they are pretty damn effective.

Director Robert Hutton also stars as Tom Gregory, a sports newscaster that is flying in small plane and trying to land in LA but is having some difficulties in both flying and trying to reach someone at the airport. When he does land, he finds the airport deserted, before a car pulls up with a professor, played by Robert Burton, and his two daughters, Judee Morton and Susan Hart, the future wife of AIP head James Nicholson. It is from the professor and a newsreel they find at the local TV station that we learn about the invasion of the slime people, creatures that came from underground. These invaders have created some sort of a hard-shell dome over the area, that way they can cool down the temperature making it suitable for them to come out during the day. At the TV station, they run into a marine, Cal, who was knocked out by the Slime People and thought dead. Cal is played by William Boyce, who only appeared in a handful of things in his career. They also run into my favorite character actor, Les Tremayne, as a grumpy old writer who thinks this whole invasion thing is a hoax, and anybody that believes it is an idiot. He quickly collapses into a quivering mess when he realizes story is true. As the professor and Tom tries to figure out a way to get through the shell, while not being captured or killed, they discover the fog machine that is creating the hard covering and set out to destroy it!

This is the only feature Hutton directed in his long movie career, which started back in the early ’40s. Near the end of this career, he appeared in bit parts in a few horror titles, like The Vulture (1967), Torture Garden (1967), Cry of the Banshee (1970), Trog (1970), and Tales from the Crypt (1972).

There is a lot of walking through the fog here, either searching for the wall that has trapped them, looking for or evading the Slime People, that can feel a bit dragging for a film that is 76 minutes long. I would say the monsters are the stars of the show, because of their cool looking design, which we really can get a good look at throughout the picture, but also the cast makes it a pretty fun ride.

The print of this film looks great. Hard to tell sometimes because the scenes with fog covering up most of the scene, but it is made to look like that. There is also an hour-long interview that film scholar Tom Weaver conducted over the phone with Susan Hart about this film and her career. It’s really interesting to hear about the business from that point of view.

This release is a great double feature, perfect for a nice family fun afternoon with the kids. These films are perfect for those young horror fans that are eager to dive into the genre but are young enough that you want to make sure you don’t corrupt them too quickly!