Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Richard Valcourt on April 7, 2009 at 6:47pm

The Body Snatcher (1945)

This is not the one you may be thinking of. This is an absolute gem of an eerie, creepy horror movie starring Boris Karloff and based on the Robert Louis Stevenson short story. Bela Lugosi is also featured in a non-starring role, but the two of them are very memorable together. It was directed by Robert Wise, who also directed a little film you may have heard of called The Day the Earth Stood Still.

It takes place in 19th century Scotland, at a medical college where a professor is having difficulty getting enough cadavers for research. Enter Karloff, who is only too happy to help. I have always been a big Karloff fan, but here he simply shines. Everything is all dark shadows and suggestion and mood, which means it's slow by today's standards but it all works brilliantly. The climactic scene will have you climbing the walls.

I first saw this years ago on American Movie Classics (back when that was actually a good cable channel), and I recently rented it from Netflix, on a double bill with I Walked with a Zombie (also a rather good little movie). It got even better with time.

Permalink Reply by Mack Fuller on April 16, 2009 at 9:10am

Hell Comes to Frog Town, made with a low budget and some atrocious acting, it's still a fun Roddy Piper Film. it's the kind of movie you can watch while enjoying a pizza and some ice cold beer.

Spaced Invaders, it's kind of a family movie, but it has little green men from mars, it's a fun comedy.

Demon Seed (1977) - based on a Dean Koontz Novel it's about a super computer that endeavors to become human. Probably has the strangest, and trippiest Computer and woman sex scene I have ever seen. Stars Julie Christie

Hanger 18, good ufo flick.

Permalink Reply by Elessarina on April 18, 2009 at 9:07am

Quatermass and the Pit -I think it's a cracking film, a good spooky mystery.

Capricorn One - i absolutely love this, not sure it is entirely in with the science fiction genre as it is more of a conspiacy movie but it's a little known gem in my opinion.

Permalink Reply by Paul on April 19, 2009 at 4:06pm

Quatermass and the Pit was a great film.

I agree with you about Capricorn One. It's more of a conspiracy thriller than a science-fiction film, but it is a very good film.

What it did make me think of though, oddly, is Colossus: The Forbin Project which is a tale of artificially intelligent super-computers gone badly wrong. It's been a long time since I watched this but I remember it had me completely gripped when I did.

Permalink Reply by Kingsley on April 24, 2009 at 9:57pm

All four Quatermass stories were great, although I have to say the movie of Quatermass and the Pit was very poor compared to the original BBC serial. The original still exists, although I don't know how available it is now.

Unfortunately the BBC destroyed their recordings of The Quatermass Experiment, as they did with many other shows of that era, but in 2005 the BBC recreated it using the original scripts and closely following the semi-live techniques of the 1950's when it was first produced. It's well worth seeing if you can get hold of it.

It's a shame that Nigel Neale choose only to novelise the 4th and final Quatermass series that he wrote and BBC policy lead to two of the original broadcasts not being preserved (a bit like much of Patrick Troughton's Dr. Who), but Bernard Quatermass is undoubtibly one of the least known great sci-fi characters of all time!

Permalink Reply by Gecko, Seth...brother of Richie! on May 19, 2009 at 12:34am

Loved Capricorn One.

Permalink Reply by Loren Miller on November 15, 2009 at 6:15am

Colossus, the Forbin Project was pretty reasonable. I read the book ages ago and it does follow the book very closely. I also find it amusing both in its conception of the size of the machine necessary to accomplish that much computing power and the utterly asinine mistake of "putting all your eggs in one basket." That kind of thinking bugged me then, and movies like Jurassic Park and Eagle Eye have NOT helped matters!

Permalink Reply by Tim Garrett on May 24, 2009 at 10:08am

I agree on Capricorn One although OJ is one of the astronauts. Excellent black helecopter chasing a biplane sequence through the desert scene near the end.

It's rarely on TV and hard to find.

Permalink Reply by Richard Valcourt on April 19, 2009 at 3:48pm

Hey wait a minute...every movie is enhanced by pizza and cold beer. ;-)

Permalink Reply by Kingsley on April 24, 2009 at 9:41pm

I don't think I've ever seen this. At least I don't remember it and I'm a huge Pete and Dud fan. Not Only But Also and Derrick & Clive (crude, I know), still have me falling off my chair despite being recorded before I was born. And of course, Pete was one of the founders of Private Eye...

Thank you.
You've just added another film to my must acquire that DVD list!

Permalink Reply by Gecko, Seth...brother of Richie! on May 15, 2009 at 6:41pm

SATURN FIVE.
Late seventies starring Kirk Douglas and Farrah Fawcett. And the strangest performance ever from Harvey Keitel whos voice is dubbed.
CONQUEST OF SPACE
Early sixties lots of old stereotype characters that you often seen in films of the fifties and early sixties not bad SFX for the time and the story while handled in a hokey way much of the time isnt bad either.

Permalink Reply by Jo Jerome on May 16, 2009 at 10:43am

The casting alone makes me want to see that film.

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