THE CREATURE OF DESTRUCTION

     The CREATURE OF DESTRUCTION was one of the cheap horror movies made by Larry Buchanan for AIP-TV. It was a color remake of the B movie THE SHE CREATURE.
     The highlight of THE SHE CREATURE was the great costume for the monster which was made by Paul Blaisdell a B movie costume maker who made monsters for the films: INVASION OF THE SAUCER MEN, VOODOO WOMAN, THE DAY THE WORLD DIED, IT CONQUERED THE WORLD and had a cameo in the movie THE GHOST OF DRAGSTRIP HOLLOW as a bitter monster movie suit maker. That last film role became true a few years later.
     The monster suit in the CREATURE OF DESTRUCTION looked like a rubber diver suit with scales and a silly looking monster mask with ping pong ball eyes and fangs. It looked like a cheap Halloween mask. This suit was also used in the movie IT'S ALIVE also by Buchanan.

THE EYE CREATURES

     THE EYE CREATURES (1966) was a color remake of the 1950's sci fi comedy INVASION OF THE SAUCER MEN. Shot on 16mm THE EYE CREATURES was released as part of a TV package by AIP TV.
     The space invaders of THE EYE CREATURES were men in lumpy suits who wear head masks that featured a bunch of ping pong ball eyes and large open unmoving mouths. Some of the actor did not wear whole alien suits. They wear black tights and monster masks. I guess director Larry Buchanan thought no one would notice.
     This film would be featured on MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000.

SCHLOCK TV MOVIES OF LARRY BACHANAN.

     Back in the 70's and the 80's when local TV would run movies I use to see a lot of the TV movies of Larry Buchanan.
     Larry Buchanan was an exploitation film maker who made a deal with AIP-TV to make some 16mm movie features in color for them to fill out their TV packages.
     Among the films Buchanan shot for AIP-TV was THE EYE CREATURES (A remake of INVASION OF THE SAUCER MEN) ZONTAR THE THING FROM VENUS (A remake of IT CONQUERS THE WORLD) IN THE YEAR 2998 (A remake of THE DAY THE EARTH DIED) IT'S ALIVE (Not the one with the mutant killer baby) CREATURE OF DESTRUCTION (Remake of THE SHE CREATURE) THE CURSE OF THE SWAMP CREATURE, and the film he is best known for MARS NEEDS WOMEN.
     Buchanan films were shot for very little money and it shows. The same monster costume is used in both IT'S ALIVE and CREATURE OF DESTRUCTION. All of Buchanan's monsters have ping pong ball eyes.
     After MARS NEEDS WOMEN  the movie THE EYE CREATURES  seem to be Buchanan's best known film. The film is pretty much a scene by scene remake of INVASION OF THE SAUCER MEN but lack the great pulp magazine type alien invaders. The film would be featured on the TV show MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000.
     Many of Buchanan movies can be found at the Internet archives. http://www.archive.org/

ANOTHER CAB CALLOWAY CARTOON

     This is from the cartoon MINNIE THE MOOCHER with the voice of Cab Calloway as a ghost scaring Betty Boop and her sidekick Bimbo.

LOST MOVIES

     I heard somewhere that about 70 percent of all silent movies made are lost and about 50 percent of all sound movies. As a film fan I find it depressing to think that a movie would disappear off the face of the Earth after playing in movie theaters  and will never be seen again.
     From time to time they do find some lost movies. Sometimes it's just a few reels or a few minutes of footage like in the case of THE GOLEM (1915) Other lost movies found in my life time are: MYSTERY OF THE WAX MUSEUM, THE GHOUL, and the 1910 version of FRANKENSTEIN  from the Edison Studios.

    The 1910 version of FRANKENSTEIN was the Holy Grail of lost movies for a long time. No LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT.

     I always like to think that somewhere there is a print of a lost movie waiting to be found.