I suck with technology, give me a computer & tell me to fix it and I will screw it up even more. Sometimes, I think, technology is not all it's cracked up to be and this week it is all about technology screwing up. Wait, humans are behind this, as always, so we are the bad guys yet again. I was thinking of newer films but my heart belongs to the tacky movies of the 1950's that I used to watch every Sunday afternoon on the UHF channel. Wandering Through The Shelves is the brainchild of this weekly series so head on over to find out what the other film buffs have chosen...here are my fun 3...
1. TARANTULA-1955
Clint Eastwood's first film role but he doesn't say much, or anything from what I can recall. This freaked me out that I had nightmares and one repeated nightmare where my dad is driving and we see the big spider walk over a golf course. Anyhoo, a scientist decides to try to conquer food shortages by creating a serum that, unfortunately has drastic results. a tarantula escapes and continues to grow and needs food to survive. Enter a pretty assistant who helps the local Doctor get to the bottom of these killings. Bleccchhh, I hate spiders.
2. ATTACK OF THE GIANT LEECHES-1959
Oh how bad but good this movie is. It starts off with a slut, I mean, a cheating wife and her latest conquest get sucked under the depth of a swamp by these, can ya guess? yup, giant leeches. A game warden, his girlfriend and her doctor dad investigate and find out these leeches are the result of some atomic testing and are not only big but are intelligent (obviously no relation to Trump:)). What are they to do but destroy these parasites. It's a Roger Corman production so how can one go wrong:)
3. MYSTERIOUS ISLAND-1961
I love Ray Harryhausen, who is a wiz with stop motion animation, and the composer Bernard Herrmann, both were part of this film. It starts off during the American civil war where a few union soldiers and a confederate abscond with a huge balloon and land on a lush island. No sooner do they land but they must fight off a giant crab which they do and have a good meal as a result. Enter 2 women who come ashore from a sunken ship and you have a cute romance starting. Of course, Captain Nemo has been helping these castaways and you find out he has been trying to?? Yup, stop the food shortage by screwing with the growth hormone, hence the big animals and insects. This is actually quite a good film with entertaining characters and the great score just adds to everything.
What would be your 3?
Technology makes me think of AI. But since you went the animal route, I'll say Jurassic Park.
ReplyDeleteI almost went with A.I. which is a great and under-rated film. I wanted to go the 50's shlock fest
DeleteHi, Birgit!
ReplyDeleteThis is my genre and I have seen all three of these films!
First I want to say happy birthday to actress Marsha Hunt who turned 101 yesterday. Bless her heart! Second, I wonder if my recent post with the horror movie posters planted ideas in your noggin for this post. As you recall at Shady's Place you and I were discussing Richard Long who appeared in Cult of the Cobra and House On Haunted Hill. Richard married Playboy Playmate Mara Corday who was featured in your first posted film Tarantula and two other horror movies that I saw as a boy: The Giant Claw and The Black Scorpion. I have a framed vintage poster of the 1957 movie The Black Scorpion on my wall. A while back we were also discussing John Agar, Shirley Temple's first husband, and the star of low budget sci-fi horror flcks that included Tarantula, The Mole People, Daughter of Dr. Jekyll, The Brain From Planet Arous, Attack of the Puppet People, Invisible Invaders and Hand of Death. I first became acquainted with Leo G. Carroll, the third star of Tarantula, on TV in the role of Cosmo Topper, then in Hitchcock's North By Northwest and later in The Man From U.N.C.L.E. and The Girl From U.N.C.L.E.
One thing you don't want to do in movies like these is to go parking on lover's lane or be a curvy woman disrobing in her house with the curtains open. The monster will get you every time.
Roger Corman is one of my favorite producers and directors and I watch all of his films with glee. I saw several pictures that boasted the spectacular stop motion animation wizardry of Ray Harryhausen.
These three creepy trailers were Halloween treats, dear friend BB. Thank you!
Yes! You inspired me to go the 50's schlock best fest of movies. I love these movies because they are so bad but so good...I almost chose Attack of the Killer Shrews but i think I talked about them before. Leo G. Carroll is a great character actor and I was surprised he had done some of these movies. John Agar was a creep to Shirley Temple and he ended up an alcoholic. Richard Long was someone I always liked for some reason. Roger Corman is the best when it comes to these movies. Happy belated to Marsha Hunt who was, and is, not only beautiful but very intelligent and not one to shy aware from what is important, one reason she ended up on the blacklist
DeleteAn interesting coincidence, I’ve just been rereading(after many years) Stephen King’s history of horror fiction and film, Danse Macabre!
ReplyDeleteI’ve seen and enjoyed The Mysterious Island. I suppose you’ve also seen 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea? Not a horror movie, but lots of technology and of course, it has Captain Nemo.
A technology-gone-mad film that terrified me was The Fly - the original one, not the remake. Vincent Price was in it, not a villain for once.
And of course, there’s the classic Forbidden Planet, with the civilisation that wiped itself out and the scientist who made use of the technology...
I haven't read that book but have other books about horror films. I have seen 20,000 Leagues and James Mason makes a great Captain Nemo. The original Fly freaked me out as well especially the ending when the fly is trapped in the spider's web..blecchhh. Forbidden Planet is a great choice!
DeleteSunday afternoons I watched old movies with Bill Kennedy on CKLW. Never saw any of these.
ReplyDeleteI miss those movies for a Sunday Afternoon
DeleteI recall watching Tarantula on late-night local TV in the late sixties. There was an off-screen announcer (presumably pre-recorded) who came on before and after some of the commercial breaks. I cracked up at one point, when he said "And now we return to... TAR-an-TULLA!"
ReplyDeleteOh my...that is funny
DeleteGiant spider movie noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooope! lol
ReplyDeleteHahahaaa...Yup hence my repeated nightmares
DeleteI'm still not sure whether I'm scared of spiders or I just hate them, but I'm pretty sure I'll pass Tarantula. Ewww!
ReplyDeleteI grew up in the country and I don't like them. Yuck a doodle!
DeleteGood job you came up with two I haven't seen! I'm sure they're terrible but I'll have to keep an eye out for the first two. I have seen Mysterious Island, it was silly and goofy but fun none the less and quite an impressive cast for something so flyaway.
ReplyDeleteI also reached back a bit for my choices.
Frankenstein (1931)-Dr. Henry Frankenstein (Colin Clive) of whom it might be generously said has a screw or two loose attempts with the latest technology to create life by assembling a creature from body parts of the dead in his laboratory deep within the walls of his remote castle. Assisted by the loyal, deformed Fritz (Dwight Frye), he succeeds in bringing his monster (Boris Karloff) to life in florid fashion. However, trouble is brewing when the confused and traumatized monster escapes into the countryside and begins to wreak havoc. Iconic and seminal film impressively director by James Whale, with a touching performance by Karloff, set the standard for all horror movies to follow.
Demon Seed (1977)-Susan Harris (Julie Christie) and her husband Dr. Alex Harris (Fritz Weaver) a renowned scientist live in a home he has modified to be run by voice-activated computers. Dr. Harris has also developed Proteus IV, an extremely advanced and autonomous artificial intelligence program. When Harris becomes disturbed by Proteus’s demands to be let "out of this box". Harris switches off the communications link but Proteus restarts itself, constructs a robot takes control of the house and traps Susan inside. Object: impregnate Susan to assume human form. Strange, unsettling sci-fi based on a Dean Koontz novel is strengthened by having a talent like Julie Christie in the lead.
Tron (1982)-Young computer engineer Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges) discovers that his work is being stolen by one of his company’s executives-Ed Dillinger (David Warner). He attempts to hack the system but something goes awry and Flynn is transported into the digital world, facing off against Dillinger's computerized likeness, Sark, and the imposing Master Control Program. Aided by Tron (Bruce Boxleitner) and Yori (Cindy Morgan), Flynn fights a technological battle for control. Though the graphics are wildly dated now they were cutting edge when this was released.
I am without words...you have not seen 2? Wow!! I hope you do, yes, they are bad but they are so much fun. I have not seen Demon Seed but I love Frankenstein with the great Boris Karloff or named as ? :) Poor Boris loved to garden and, he went home in full make up gear, to water his flowers. A neighbour freaked out and called the cops. Poor Boris had to explain. Tron is still a fun movie as long as you take the effects for that time.
DeleteHi Birgit - I suspect these are films I will never see ... but well done on coming up with something different. AI is going to change so much ... cheers Hilary
ReplyDeleteIt would blow my mind if you saw these movies:) You are right about AI
DeleteI haven't seen any of these.
ReplyDeleteMaybe one day??
DeleteI still love those old sci-fi movies and watch at least one a week. Technology can cover so much so I'll skip around with a few of my choices:
ReplyDelete2001: A Space Odyssey blew me away when I first saw it in the theaters and the technology portrayed in that film still seems so cutting edge and realistic.
2) Enemy of the State (1998) was a chilling story about how modern technology can intrude in our lives and destroy us.
3) Eye in the Sky (2015) presented a dilemma of modern warfare where kills can be done from far off using satellite info and drones and such. That film made me think and does offer a philosophical exercise about right and wrong when the personal nature of war is rendered faceless.
So many good films can fit into this category.
Arlee Bird
Tossing It Out
2001 is a great pick! I never would have thought of Enemy but you are so right about the technology. The last film I have not seen but it reminds me of an old Star Trek episode where everything was done by computers. When a certain "sector" was hit, people's numbers were called out and they had to line up to be disintegrated.
DeleteClint Eastwood in a horror movie?!? Oh my.
ReplyDeleteYes..his debut. It would be fun to ask him about this movie.
Deletehaha I seen the giant spider one way back. I thought it was funny. Guess I'm okay with spiders. Eight Legged Freaks is another spider one.
ReplyDeleteI haven't seen Eight Legged Freaks and still on the fence with that one
DeleteBIRGIT ~
ReplyDeleteHmmm.... Movies about TECHNOLOGY. Not exactly in my wheelhouse but...
I remember liking 'WAR GAMES' with Matthew Broderick.
'THE MATRIX', of course.
And 'TWELVE MONKEYS' with Bruce Willis really caught me by surprise. I went in not expecting it to be my mug o' beer but I thought it was so good I saw it twice and may even see it again someday.
Would 'PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE' count under the 'Technology' category? If so, that would be my #1 in a 'Tarantula' kinda way.
~ D-FensDogG
STMcC Presents 'BATTLE OF THE BANDS'
Plan 9 would fit and I almost used this one but I had used this film before. Twelve Monkeys is an excellent pick and one where Bruce Willis and Brad Pitt are excellent in it. The Matrix works for sure and so does War Games.
DeleteI'm trying my hand with low technology these days-- pencil and paper. :-)
ReplyDeleteThat sounds good to me:)
DeleteThese are fun old flicks. Perfect for Halloween for sure. Hugs-Erika
ReplyDeleteI think they are fun
DeleteHaven't seen any of these- but they look perfect for the spooky season. :)
ReplyDelete~Jess
They would be
DeleteNope, never heard of these, but they're not my kind of films. The big critters? Nope. Not going near them.
ReplyDeleteYup don't blame you especially how people die..yuck
DeleteThere's a theory that your 50's movies were a metaphor for the Red Menace that are spreading and will take over the world! These creatures, Duck and cover!
ReplyDeleteWall Street? People with the PC equivalent of a 5 foot wide tv with a 12" screen, green background and yellow teletype replacing the typewriter. That technology at that time sped things up quite a bit.
Sneakers with Redford and Poitier. They don't just sign on to anything.
I have to see sneakera still but i want to. You are right about the theory of the red scare. Many of these films were about this fear.
DeleteHi Birgit; I haven't seen any of these films and would definitely pass on that first one. My arachnophobia would kick-in, bigtime! Interesting tidbit about it being Clint Eastwood's first movie, though. The technology-based films that come to mind are 2001: A Space Odyssey, Short Circuit and Robocop, but there are so many. Have a good weekend!
ReplyDeleteYour pixks are perfect and i totally understand the fear of spiders which i have as well. I was 12 whwn my dad told me to climb a ladder and spray raid since spiders would make webs in front of our diningroom window. I sprayed and all these spiders started coming down on top of me! I jumped off the ladder and was very upset with my dad.
DeleteWhat a horrible experience! I would have totally freaked out, as well.
DeleteGiant monsters! Yes! You know what sucks, though. I haven't seen any of these. What have I been doing with my life?
ReplyDeleteTime to rectify this!
DeleteNever seen ANY of these! (I couldn't even watch Them, which has my fav James Arness in it!) You always find the neatest movies to showcase here, and I'm always so pleased when it's one that I have seen and enjoyed. You like all genres I think, whereas I'm more of the gentle 'oldies' or old westerns! Have a great weekend, and TFS
ReplyDeleteI love westerns and thenold movies and plan to showcase some in the oncoming weeks
DeleteI love movies from that era also. These look fun! :D
ReplyDeleteThey are😊
DeleteThankfully I can say I'm not the only person who has not seen or even heard of any of these films. You certainly chose a different route than I would have suspected most people would have. Always love your synopses, though.
ReplyDeleteYeah, i like to go different:). Im happy you like reading my 2 cents.
DeleteGiant Leeches??? Now that's scary.
ReplyDeleteNo relation to Trump? That's funny. Heh.
Hope you're having a great one.
Giant leeches would be scary...wait there is one in the oval office
Delete