San Diego Comic Con 2011

     I have been going to the Comic Con in San Diego every year since 1975. I only went one day this year but I enjoyed myself and I took a lot of photos which I will post over the next few days.

    Chester Brown the artist writer of the comic book Yummy Fur is shown here at the start of a panel about his latest comic novel- He is holding an Inkpot Award for his work in comics which was given to him just before the panel started.

RED ZONE CUBA aka NIGHT TRAIN TO MUNDO FINE

     Director Coleman Francis is best known for THE BEAST OF YUCCA FLATS which is I believe the worst film ever released to movie theaters. He also directed THE SKYDIVERS which is a fairly well shot B movie that you can't believe was made by the same people who made THE BEAST OF YUCCA FLATS.
     Francis made one other movie an adventure film/ crime drama / war picture called RED ZONE CUBA and is also known as NIGHT TRAIN TO MUNDO FINE (MUNDO FINE  means the the end of the world) I have never seen a print of the film under the title  NIGHT TRAIN TO MUNDO FINE so it may have been a production title before release. I have never seen a poster for the film so it must of had a very limited release or went straight to television for the local late night market of the era.
     The production values to RED ZONE CUBA are not as low as THE BEAST OF YUCCA FLATS but they fall way below the B movie production values of THE SKYDIVERS.
     The screenplay for the movie plays like the first draft of a badly written novel. It tells the story of a mean escape convict named Griffin who joins up with a pair of loser ex cons and the three of them join a group of soldiers who go to take part in the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba. Their group is wiped out but they escape Cuba and return to the U.S.A. and go on a crime spree. That the film's end Griffin is shot down by the police and the ex cons are arrested.
     The film has a horrible atmosphere of of doom about it.  John Carradine appears at the film's begin and tells a reporter that Griffin ran all the way to Hell which  for tells his death. The ex cons Cook and Lanis who wanted to keep out of trouble and jail end up arrested. They take part in the doom Bay of Pigs invasion. Griffin and Lanis encounter a man who's business is going down the drain and his daughter is a war widow who gone blind. There is a happy reunion between a wounded soldier and his wife who was shot by Griffin. I always thought that scene was an last minute rewrite. The death of both would have been more in the tone of this movie.
     RED ZONE CUBA is a crudely made productions in a kind of blurry black and white that gives the film an accidental arty look. It's as if this was an art house movie gone bad. The title NIGHT TRAIN TO MUNDO FINE sounds like an art house movie title.
     Coleman Francis aside from directing and writing the screenplay also plays Griffin. He is not bad in the role. A better screenplay and production values would have helped.
     But if low budget filmmakers waited till they had money for good production values a lot of movies would have never been made.

WORST THAN PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE

     PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE has been called the worst movie ever made and it is a bad 3rd rate film. In fact I would call it the GONE WITH THE WIND of bad movies. But I do not think it is the very worst film made. I will give two examples of worst movies...
     ROBOT MONSTER was shot in 4 four days without sets for 16 thousand dollars. The monster is a man in a gorilla suit and space helmet. It was cheaper for the productions to use that suit than rent a robot suit.
    THE BEAST OF YUCCA FLATS. This was the last movie that Tor Johnson would have a feature role in. He plays a scientist who is caught in an atomic blast and becomes a mad killer. That film had no production values. It is a 55 minute black and white movie of Tor Johnson wandering around the desert killing people. The film was shot without sound and voices are cheaply dubbed in would the actors backs are to the camera or off screen.
     Other films to consider for worst movies include: THE CREEPING TERROR, GLEN OR GLENDA and the STARMAN / SUPERGIANT movies from Japan.

COMMANDER USA

     Years ago when the USA CABLE channel was new they use to show old time B movies  in the afternoon  on Saturdays as I recall. These movies were hosted by a comic dressed as a superhero who called himself Commander USA.

     Commander USA was a blue collar type of man who was also a superhero as well as a TV host. It was a rather funny act between scenes of old bad movies. They use to run a lot old Mexican dubbed movies before they disappeared when the copyright laws changed.

       I had the feeling that Commander USA was a has been superhero just trying to pay the rent. The kind of old has beens that appear at conventions and sell old pictures of themselves and their autograph.

    



HARPO CAN TALK

     Over the years when I would see a Marx Brothers movie I would wonder if there was any recordings of Harpo Marx speaking since he always played his roles mute. He even done a TV drama once in which he played a mute man.
     I found this news reel clip on You Tube and have re posted it here. Harpo does say a few words.
     For you younger readers who don't know who the Marx Brothers are go out and find a copy of the movie DUCK SOUP or NIGHT AT THE OPERA.