everyday is halloween

thursday nite drive-in double-feature

so many movies, so little time.  i think charles dickens said that.  at any rate, you know how much i dig 1950s monster movies.  that era was rich in creature features.  & this DVD does its best to replicate a night at the drive-ins by inserting cartoons, intermission shorts, PSAs from the management warning young lovebirds to tone down their public displays of affection.  plus, it uses DISTORTO SOUND.  the track is in mono to recreate the experience of listening to the movie with a drive-in speaker.  that shit was tinny as hell.  also, there is the ambient sounds of car tires driving over gravel & the light banter of your drive-in seatmates reacting to scenes on the screen.  overall, this disc does a fairly good job of it.  but for the movies, both are creature features released in either 1959 or 1960.  i couldn't get a precise year.  the dust jacket of this disc says they are both from 1960, but when i look them up online i get the year 1959.  who cares.  the giant gila monster was made to capitalize on the rock&roll youth culture of the 1950s with hot rods, malt shops & a rock&roll singer who is also the hero.  & there is a giant gila monster taking out a few of the locals.  why?  how?  again, who cares.  this is a dumb ass monster movie that makes no bones of it being a vehicle to sell to the drive-in circuit of that time.  but the wasp woman is another thing for sure.  shot in a couple of weeks on the cheap by roger corman this flick stars susan cabot as an aging cosmetics company owner, janice starlin.  she is also the face of the company & because she is the aging face for advertisements sales have fallen flat. to fix that issue & get sales roaring upward cabot enlists the services of dr. eric zinthrop, played by michael mark.  the good doctor's research of wasps is of interest to jan because of an alleged fountain of youth made by the royal jelly of the queen wasp. does jan want that royal jelly?  does corman make movies for a buck & a half?  the only problem is that ingesting too much of queen wasp royal jelly can turn you into a human wasp homicidal hybrid.  but for a few sweet days the user can look 15 years younger!  oh man!  guess where this movie is going.  some people are ripped apart!  including the night watchman played by bruno vesota who has maybe two minutes of screentime.  oh my!  well but so, corman knows how to make a movie.  the pacing is slow for today's audience, but the editing & photography belie corman's famed cheapness.  this movie is as much a study on the danger of wanting eternal youth as it is an example of solid exploitation movie making.  

boo!