Tag Archives: Larry Buchanan

Texas Schlock Book

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Some of you that have been following the Krypt for a while might have heard me speak of my love of Texas filmmaker Larry Buchanan, who made films with a budget that would make even Roger Corman shudder. So when I came across this new book entitled Texas Schlock: B-movie Sci-Fi and Horror from the Lone Star State. It even has a chapter on Mr. Buchanan, I knew I had to have a copy for the Kryptic Library. And once it comes and I get to it, you can bet there will be a review posted here.

In the meantime, this 274 page book is priced at $29.95, and was written by Bret McCormick, who directed The Abomination (1986) and enough other similar titles to completely understand what “schlock” is. According to the write up on Amazon, “McCormick perfectly captures the crackpot appeal of low-budget classics like ZONTAR the Thing from Venus and rounds up an amazing rogue’s gallery of schlockmeisters to tell their behind-the-scenes tales.” 
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Book Review: American International Pictures: A Comprehensive Filmography

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American International Pictures FilmographyAmerican International Pictures: A Comprehensive Filmography
Published by McFarland, 2019. 451 pages.
By Rob Craig

I was a little apprehensive on tackling this book for review, mainly because I had already reviewed two previous volumes of Craig’s work and found them written a little above the subject. By that I mean he seemed to find a lot of subtext in some low budget features that I personally don’t think were ever there. But that is just a difference of opinion, and I hoped with his latest book on AIP films, it would be a little different. And it was. For the most part.

If you are a fan of American International Pictures, then simply put, this book is a must. It covers over 800 feature films, television series, and TV specials that were from AIP or under one of their many partners. It is an A to Z filmography, covering titles that are very familiar to ones that you might never of heard of. One of the things I really liked about this volume is that each film has a brief synopsis, usually taken from a pressbook, and that’s it when it comes to the plot. This leaves the story left open for the viewer to really discover instead of the author laying it out play-by-play style when that can lead the reader not even to bother with it! The beauty lies in everything the author writes about after the synopsis, with plenty of little informational tidbits and trivia. Continue reading →

Horror History: Les Tremayne

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tremayneLes Tremayne
Born Apr. 16th, 1913 – Died Dec. 19th, 2003

Here is an actor that was more famous for his voice than his face. In fact, along with Bing Crosby and President Franklin D. Roosevelt, he was one of the most distinctive voices on American radio. Born in England but moving to the states when he was only 4, it didn’t take long for him to develop his voice. By the age of 17, he was already working in radio. During the ’30s and ’40s, you could hear Tremayne’s voice on as many as 45 shows a week. He also appeared in countless TV shows over his career, from soap operas to westerns to thrillers and everything in between, including the role as the Mentor in the TV show Shazam!

But cult movie fans will recognize him for his roles in films like War of the Worlds (1956), The Monolith Monsters (1957), The Monster of Piedras Blancas (1959), and The Angry Red Planet (1959). For real fans of the cheesy classics, he also appeared in The Slime People (1963) and in Larry Buchanan’s Creature of Destruction (1967), and the killer snake movie Holy Wednesday aka Snakes (1974).

With a very distinct voice, Tremayne will always be remembered to cult film fans like us, always giving it all, never winking at the camera, and always entertaining the audience.

Horror History: Bill Thurman

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billthurmanBill Thurman
Born Nov. 4th, 1920 – Died Apr. 13th, 1995

While Thurman had appearances in notable films like Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) or Bogdanovich’s The Last Picture Show (1971), as well as Hollywood films like Places in the Heart (1984) and Silverado (1985), he really is more known to cult fans that love films that are more off the beaten path. Thurman appeared in films like Creature from Black Lake (1976), The Evictors (1979) and the cult title Mountaintop Motel Massacre (1986). But digging even deeper into the cult history, Thurman also appeared in over a dozen films of Texas filmmaker Larry Buchanan, most notably in titles as The Eye Creatures (1965), Curse of the Swamp Creature (1965), Zontar: The Thing from Venus (1966), Mars Needs Women (1967), and It’s Alive (1969).

Now the thing about Thurman that is memorable were his performances. Was he Oscar winning caliber? Not even close. But more importantly, he was always enjoyable to watch on screen. When I see his name in the title, I know that he is going to try his best and presenting a interesting character on screen, and usually does. Thurman is one of these actors that truly deserves to be remembered since most people are not even familiar with the movies that he’s in, let alone the actor himself. So the next time you’re watching a low budget film that might have been made in Texas, keep an eye out for this large man, most likely with southern drawl to his speech. Most likely, that will be Bill Thurman.

It Came from Hunger – A Must Autobiography

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TIt Came from Hungerexas filmmaker Larry Buchanan has always had a special place in my film fan’s heart. Making titles with very little money, he still managed to create something that I’ve always found entertainment in, even if for the wrong reasons. He gave us titles like The Eye Creatures, In the Year 2889, Zontar: The Thing from Venus, The Naked Witch, The Loch Ness Horror, and of course, Mars Needs Women, along with so many others. His budgets tended to be so low, a mere fraction of what Roger Corman was getting to make his low budget features. But Buchanan still go them made, and usually turned a pretty decent profit. Granted, most of them won’t be remembered for being anything but a turkey, but hey…at least they are being remembered, right?

Years ago, I was lucky enough to score a hardcover copy of his autobiography It Came From Hunger: Tales of a Cinema Schlockmeister, originally published by McFarland in 1996. If I didn’t love his work then, I surely did after reading this wonderful and insightful book. It does give a lot of information on how he got started in the business and how he managed to continue it in throughout his career, even when he had little or no money to make a picture. The stories within these pages, such as what happened to his very first feature film, are so compelling and fantastic, really giving an insight to this man who just loved making movies.

This book has been long out-of-print and tends to go for big bucks on the secondary market. But now, you can get your own paperback edition of this book for only $9.99! Even at triple the price, this book is a must for independent filmmakers, as well as anybody who loves these kind of films.

You can read my review of this book by clicking HERE.

So do yourself a favor and head over to Amazon to order your copy today. I promise you that you will just love this one. And if not, then you’re only out $10!

Horror History: Larry Buchanan

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larrybuchananLarry Buchanan
Born Jan. 31st, 1923 – Died Dec. 2nd, 2004

Buchanan holds a special place in my heart. Not the greatest filmmaker out there, or even close. But there is just something special about him and his films that hold my admiration. Many people thing that Roger Corman is king of the low budget filmmaking, but they have never heard of Buchanan. He was based in Texas and was making films at a fraction of the cost Corman was getting. And while his films may not have been “good” films, they usually turned a profit, so that means he really was a successful filmmaker. One of his first films, The Naked Witch (1961) was made for only $8,000 and made $80,000 the first month it was release. Not a bad investment.

He was hired by AIP to direct some remakes of four of their movies for the growing TV market. Again, with a considerable lower budget and only one name actor, he cranked them out in no time flat. Lucky for fans like me, a good number of his films are available on DVD, and one of them usually finds its way in my annual Turkey-Day marathon. As we said, they might not be good films, but they are entertaining.

Here are some of Buchanan’s titles to seek out: The Eye Creatures (1965), Zontar: The Thing from Venus (1966), Curse of the Swamp Creature (1966), Mars Needs Women (1967), Creature of Destruction (1967), plus many more. It may take a couple of viewings to really understand this guy, but if you are a fan of low budget drive-in style films, then you might find some enjoyment out of these.

Turkey Day 2013

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t-day 2013 survivorsYou would think that after 10 years of holding these little marathons, putting movie viewers through some possibly horrendous films was not the nicest or smartest thing to be doing. Yeah…you would think. To those that think this just plain crazy, you are correct!  But we do it anyway. The people that come out to help me celebrate my annual party are die-hard cinephiles that don’t mind getting on their hands and knees, drudging through the muck of cinematic garbage, or at least what some may call it. We try to find the higher points on these films, even though with some it is very tough to do that with, but we try anyway. It is our way to not only test our endurance, but also to highlight some of these hardworking filmmakers and their finished accomplishments. No matter how bad or good they might be, we feel they need to be remembered, even in the worse way.

We had no T-day virgins this year, but seasoned veterans that obviously are gluttons for punishment. While we thought for a while that Aaron Christensen wasn’t going to be able to make it due to an acting gig, he was able to work his way out for the first 4 movies before having to catch a train to meet up with his ride back to Milwaukee. That’s dedication. Honestly, I was thrilled that he did since it wouldn’t have been the same without him, since he has been here to every one of them since 2005.  Also returning was Joe Wallace, Jennifer Kilzer, Craig Clark, Jason Coffman, Neil Calderone, and Brian Fukula. Brian also had to leave early, after the 3rd film, but we get him credit for making the trip out for what he could. My son Nick had to work this year, so he missed most of the movies, but did arrive in time to catch one of them. And of course, probably one of the real reasons these guys keep coming out for this event is all the amazing pizzas made by my wife Dawn, who was able to sit in the last few movies. We had the usual breakfast pizzas, Italian beef pizza, crab Rangoon pizza, but also some new ones like the chili rellenos pizza that was just incredible.

Once again, we got through 7 films, but managed to devour 12 pizzas this time. So with only 8-9 of us here for most of the day, we seemed to go through a lot more pizzas than last year. I’m sure the excitement of the movies just meant we were burning up more calories, making us hungrier. Yeah…sure…I buy that.  But lets get to the movies.

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Turkey Day 2011

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t-day2011-1Welcome to our latest installment for our Turkey Day Marathon recap.  For our 9th year holding this little festival, it has grown quite a bit over the last few years.  At one point during the marathon, we had 8 people here, all eyes glued to the amazing film that was coming our of the TV.  Well, maybe not amazing, but definitely entertaining.  In fact, not one of the 7 films that we got through this year was one of those that we were just waiting for the end to come.  So that really was a first for our T-Day viewing party.  Usually there is at least one title that makes us just hate life in general.  Not to say we didn’t have our fill of Turkeys.  We had quite a few gems in here.

But before we get to the films, lets get to the victims.  As always, Dr. AC (aka Aaron Christensen), my Turkey Day co-pilot since 2005 was there.  As well as Craig Clark, making another long journey to take part in the marathon.  Last year, Joe Wallace and his girlfriend Jen had stopped by near the end.  But this year, they were here right from the start.  And our newest victim was another Chicago horror regular, Jason Coffman.  He is no stranger to movie marathons, so we knew he was a would have no problem joining our cinematic shindig.  My son Nick had to work for most of the day, but was back in time to catch the last couple of flicks.  And while not in the kitchen making copious amount of food for the gang, my wife Dawn came down for a couple of the films as well.  I mean, she’s married to me, so it can’t be too much of a surprise for her to see these kind of flicks….just saying!  But let’s get on to this years movies.

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Turkey Day 2008

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Now in the 6th year of holding my annual Turkey Day marathon, AC and I took another fistful of films considered to be turkeys, B-movies, MST-fodder, or just a waste of time.  But not for us.  As crazy as we might be, we find quite a bit of enjoyment out of watching these films, where the filmmakers were really trying to their best to make a good film.  Granted, most of them missed the mark when it comes to being good.  But is it entertaining?  That is the true test of a film, turkey or not.  So let’s venture forth and see what fun we got ourselves into this year.  From a couple of alien invasion films, Tiny Tim as a clown, Hammer’s sci-fi epic, or a low budget film from good old Michigan, we had our work cut out for us this year.  Let’s begin.

EyeCreatures2The Eye Creatures (1965) – Larry Buchanan was a filmmaker that makes Roger Corman look like he had bigger budgets than James Cameron.  He was making his little films in his home state of Texas, and usually turning a profit.  Sure, he may not have made high quality films, but the ones that he made, made money.  And in the film business, that is the only way to continue to making films.  He had made a deal with American International Pictures to remake their film Invasion of the Saucer Men.  Of course, with a much lower budget, and in color.  But it didn’t stop him from giving them, and us, The Eye Creatures.  This was so successful, that he went on to remake 3 more titles from the AIP catalog.

Starring John Ashley, the film pretty much follows the original, except the creatures themselves.  Where in the original, the creature designs were well-crafted and thought out by Paul Blaisdell.  But here, we have guys in suits that look like the Michelin Man’s 2nd cousin.  There are a couple of scenes where there are several of the alien creatures attacking, moving very slowing and waving their arms.  But if you look closely, you will see that only a couple of the closer aliens had full body suits on, while some others just have their head and shoulders covered, the rest of their bodies covered in black.  Pretty damn funny that nobody caught that.

But none the less, Ashley gives it his all, like he always did.  And it’s a fun movie with the definite feel of the ‘50s movies that it was based on.  There is a lot of the silly humor in here, with both some main characters, and the whole subplot of a couple of military guards that like to use the radars to spy on the kids making out in lovers lane.  Lucky for us, the film did get an actual DVD release, so many can enjoy it for years to come.

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Horror History: John Agar

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johnagarJohn Agar
Born Jan. 21st, 1921 – Died April 7th, 2002

Though he started his film acting career doing westerns, it’s the films he did in the ‘50s that made John Agar so memorable to horror fans.  Agar was a staple when it came to battling giant monsters, aliens, and mad scientists.  He always gave it his all, even when the script wasn’t the greatest, or even the monster that he was fighting against.  He always gave a fun and entertaining performance, even when working with uber-low-budget king Larry Buchanan on a couple of films.  He would even make appearances in more modern day films in titles like Clive Barker’s Nightbreed and the Tope Hooper directed episode of John Carpenter’s anthology Body Bags.

Of few of his highlights (and lowlights, depending on your feelings) would be Revenge of the Creature (1955), Tarantula (1955), and The Brain from the Planet Arous (1957), as well as Larry Buchanan’s  Zontar: The Thing from Venus and Curse of the Swamp Creature (both 1966).