AL ADAMSON'S DRACULA VS. FRANKENSTEIN.

Behind the scenes at DRACULA VS FRANKENSTEIN. Director Al Adamson in the center.

     DRACULA VS FRANKENSTEIN is a drive in classic directed by Al Adamson. It features Lon Chaney Jr, Angelo Rossito, J. Carrol Naish and John Bloom a seven foot four inch tall actor as the Frankenstein monster.
     The film was shot in small parts and in the first version there was no Dracula or Frankenstein monster. The monsters were added to the movie later on.
     The film is known in Europe as THE BLOOD OF FRANKENSTEIN and is not to be confused with two other films in Europe that uses the title of DRACULA VS FRANKENSTEIN and I have seen a VHS video tape of the movie under the title REVENGE OF DRACULA.
     I have also seen ads for the film under the title of TEENAGE DRACULA. Those ads insist that the film is a musical.

THE HORROR OF PARTY BEACH.

     The HORROR OF PARTY BEACH is a film that is better seen than read about. It has be be seen if you are a fan of off beat monster movies.
     It is at the beginning a mix of  the beach party/motor cycle gang type of films that were popular at the time in many drive ins.
     The film then takes a strange turn when a garbage boat dumps into the ocean near the beach a few metal barrels of atomic waste which start leaking within seconds and skeletons  on the ocean floor near the leaking barrels form into fish men monsters and they then invade the beach and a nearby town to kill people and turn them into fish monsters like their shelves.
     The monsters are class B movie rubber suits.

FRANKENSTEIN CONQUERS THE WORLD

     The Japanese movie FRANKENSTEIN CONQUERS THE WORLD is one of the stranger Frankenstein movies made.
     The film starts during World War Two when the Germans send to their Japanese allies the still living and beating heart of the Frankenstein monster to study. The heart ends up in the city of Hiroshima just in time for the dropping of the atomic bombs.
     Years later in Hiroshima a strange looking young man with Frankenstein monster features is found and he turns out to be the Frankenstein monster which regenerated from the living heart.
     The monster boy grows into a giant and fights a giant lizard like monster at the film's end.
     The film would be fallowed by THE WAR OF THE GARGANTUAS in which the monster grows fur giving him an ape like look and another monster regenerates from a part of himself but is evil.
      The release version in the United States would remove all mentions of the monsters growing from the heart of the Frankenstein monster. In the Japanese prints the furry monsters are still called Frankenstein.

THE GIANT CLAW.

     THE GIANT CLAW is one of those B sci fi movies that gave the rest a bad name during the 1950's. The actors made the film before seeing the special effects and were surprised to see that the monster from outer space that they were pretending to react to was a cheap looking Gnoonie Bird puppet.

INVASION OF THE ANIMAL PEOPLE AKA TERROR IN THE MIDNIGHT SUN.

Yeti monster from INVASION OF THE ANIMAL PEOPLE. 

   
     INVASION OF THE ANIMAL PEOPLE aka TERROR IN THE MIDNIGHT SUN was a sci fi film shot in Sweden. It was directed and written by Americans from the United States and was shot in English because they had international sales in mind for the movie.
    The Swedish title was INVASION OF LAPLAND and the film played in Europe under the title of TERROR IN THE MIDNIGHT SUN.
    The rights for the United States was bought by producer director Jerry Warren who re cut the film for the theaters and then for television. Actor John Carradine was added to the film by Warren.
    Many people insisted that Warren's re cut of the film caused it to make no sense. I have seen the Swedish version and it also makes no sense.

A PENNY FOR YOUR THOUGHT- A short story.

     Into the pawnshop walked Leo Mackson. He placed his pawn ticket down on the pawnbroker's desk. Leo was in a hurry.
     "I'm here to recollect my memories." He told the pawnbroker. He tried not to act like a pushy jerk. He often acted like a pushy jerk and was trying to break the habit.      "I am sorry young man. But you are a day late and your memory tapes were bought up very quickly by a young lady this morning. She was waiting at the door this morning when I open up this morning."
     "Damn!" Yelled Leo out loud. Then he remembered he was trying to stop acting like a jerk.
"Sorry. But dammit. For the last month those blank spots in my mind have been driving me crazy. I'd pass the park or some restaurant or something and I hear the ringing in my ears and wonder what that place meant to me."
Leo regretted pawning his memories. But he had no other way to quickly raise the money he needed to cover his credit card debts.
     The pawnbroker pulled out a card from behind his desk.
     "The day you placed your memories here this young lady came in and gave me her card and told me to call her should you not reclaim them. She is the one who bought them this morning. Maybe she will sell them back to you. It couldn't hurt to try."
     He handed Leo the card. As Leo looked at the name on the card he had a strange feeling as if one of those blank spots in his mind were bothering him again. There was the ringing in his ears once again.
     Leo's ears were ringing loud when he walked up to the big white house. When the red headed woman open the door the ringing got louder. He knew that there was something here he should be remembering. "It's good to see you again Leo. I only wish you knew who I was."
     "Who are you?" The ringing in his ears told him that she must of been someone he knew. "Please come in and we'll talk." As Leo walked in he saw that there was a memory recorder/player sitting on a table in the living room. Leo figured she must of rented it somewhere since it was a high class device. Not one of those cheap home models that many people had. It was all set up and ready to use as if she was waiting for someone to come over and use it. "My name is by the way Janet. You knew that at one time. Till about a month ago we were lovers. Then we had a fight and you moved out."
     "I lived here?" He looked around the living room. He could not imagine living in such a nice place. The ringing in his ears was endless.
     "Yes you did. Put on the headpiece and I'll play back your memories tapes of me." For almost a hour Leo sat there reliving their love affair. After the tape ran out Leo noticed that the memory recorder was not set on playback but was set on memory injection. His memories of Janet and what she had meant to him had now returned to his mind. The ringing was gone. Leo walked up to Janet and gave her a kiss. 

     Later that night Leo asked Janet what was it that they had fought about.
     "It was over another woman you were seeing. You were cheating on me."
    "Who? I don't remember another woman." A slight ringing was in his ears.
    "I know you don't remember her. I erased that part from the memory tape."

THE END.


Copyright 2016 By Teel. Please do not reprint or repost without permission.

THE OLD MOVIE THEATER- A Short Story.

     No I can not tell you the name of the movie theater. You got to remember that I was still drinking in those days and my mind was in a fog every minute of the day every day of the week.
     In those days before I quit drinking I would every morning start wondering around downtown looking for cans and plastic bottles to recycle. Of course there was a bunch of us downtown doing that so I had to look all day in all the trashcan. I would stop to have a drink from time to time from my bottle that was left over from the night before.
     I always kept my eye open for the police. If they caught you with an open bottle in public they would pour it out. In those days I would have rather been hit over the head with a billy club than lose my bottle of wine.


     About an hour before night fall I would take the cans and bottles to a recycle yard near the water front and would cash them in.
     Next I would stop at a liquor store on Main street that I liked for some reason. I got all my wine there.
In those days I would wear my big old jacket that had the torn lining on the inside of the left side. I would slip my bottle into that tear in the lining so that no one could see the bottle in plain sight.


     I would then walk a block over to the corn of Market Street and Glass street. Market in those days was an awful block. A lot of the stores were boarded up or closed up because the places would be out of business. There was a lot of junk shops. By night fall what few businesses there was would be closed up and just about no one would be walking around the street out there.
     The only business that was open on that block after dark was a rundown movie theater. Really rundown. It looked like it was going to fall over with the next rain storm.
When I would get there would be a lot of people like me. Winos and junkies and others who had no where to stay after dark.
     A really tall man with grey hair would open the door and every night would yell the same thing to the crowd there:
     "Admission is five dollars each and anyone making trouble will be thrown out of the theater. We close at 6AM."
     I would always buy a hot dog or two from the dirty looking snack bar. It was run by a large angry looking woman. I don't know why she was always angry looking. No one I can recall dared try to annoy her. She looked too mean.
     Many of the people who came to the theater came every night like I did and everyone had a favorite spot to sit. I like to sit near the back near the door against the wall. When I dozed off I would lean against the wall.
No one would sit near me so I felt safe there.
     They ran only one movie at this theater. I guess since the place was mostly a flop house for the homeless they figured it did not matter what film they ran. It was a cheap looking slasher horror movie. I saw that film every night that I slept in that theater. I saw it hundreds of times over a two year span of time.
     The print of the film was really beat up and full of splices and jump cuts. It was called something like BIKINI GIRLS GET KILLED.
     I would drink from my bottle and watch the movie every night till I passed out. Many times I would wake up again and drink some more as I watched more of it.
     I can remember every bit of that movie. I can replay the whole thing in my head. It was about a maniac in a rubber skull mask who killed women in bikinis. Every time a woman would put on a bikini you knew she was going to die within five minutes.
     "Mr Johnson I need to go back to the office. Thanks for talking to me."
     "No problem. Has your boss said anything about me leaving here soon?"
     "No not yet. I will let you know if he tells me anything about it."


     Doctor Jones left the small room and made sure to lock the door behind him before returning to the office.
     At the office he was met by Dr. Brown the head of the mental hospital.
     "How is he today?" He asked Dr. Jones.
     "Pretty much the same. He still believes that the murders were scenes from movie that he believe he saw somewhere."


THE END.

Copyright 2015 By Teel

Please do not reprint or repost without permission.