The Skull (1965) - Newspaper Ad [San Francisco Examiner - September 28, 1965]

September 28, 1965

Despite my growing up on a semi-regular diet of assorted Hammer and Amicus films broadcast on television, coupled with my burning through all the Robert Bloch novels and short stories I could get my hands on in the late 80s and early 90s, a viewing of The Skull has eluded me.

The source material for the film was a short story by Bloch titled The Skull of the Marquis de Sade, which was first published in the September 1945 edition of Weird Tales. While I have read the story twice - first in Final Reckonings, the first volume of The Complete Stories of Robert Bloch, and again in the 1963 anthology Bogey Men - I have zero recall of it.

The Skull was first released on a double-bill with The Mad Executioners, a German 'Krimi' film from 1963. It appears to be one of a very few to receive wide distribution in the United States. If the IMDB is to be believed, that is.

Creature from Black Lake (1976) - Newspaper Ad [San Francisco Examiner - September 22, 1976]

Creature from Black Lake is one of a handful of films from my childhood that I deemed to be "far too scary" to see, because the ads were scary enough, thank you.

I finally caught up with this particular piece of regional filmmaking cheese when it played after an episode of Kolchak The Night Stalker on the CBS Late Night Movie. At least that is how I remember it.

Creature from Black Lake turned out to be an inoffensive little thing, about as scary as an episode of The Six Million Dollar Man featuring Bigfoot (Andre the Giant). My being a fan of Dennis Fimple, Jack Elam, and Dub Taylor no doubt helped keep my interest...

The Hills Have Eyes (1977) - Newspaper Ad [Oakland Tribune - September 4, 1977]

Ah, yes. Yet another ad that both fascinated and terrified me, back in the days of my childhood. Although I had no idea who Michael Berryman was at the time, his unique visage glaring out at me from this ad made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.

On the lower left hand portion of this ad, you will see a listing for the Coliseum drive-in. This was our family's preferred drive-in, because of its proximity to home. I think we were seeing Star Wars, but this was playing on the neighboring screen and I kept looking over to see if anything scary and forbidden to my ten-year-old eyes might be glimpsed.

I do remember seeing the trailer attack scene and the film's ending, but the context and meaning of those silent scenes were incomprehensible to me, of course.

That would change in 1984, when The Hills Have Eyes was broadcast on one of the English language channels in Hong Kong. I recorded the broadcast and, for the next few years, that version of the film was the one I became familiar with.

Turns out that version had an alternate ending. In the domestic theatrical release the film ends with a shot looking up on the exhausted and exhilarated Doug (Martin Speer), after he has finished violently stabbing Mars (Lance Gordon) to death.

The televised version dissolves from that to a long shot of Bobby (Robert Houston) and Ruby (Janis Blythe) walking together toward a staggering Doug. Bobby is then shown introducing Ruby to Doug, it is here the film fades from this somewhat bucolic image of potential healing and the end credits begin.

I had no idea this was not how The Hills Have Eyes ended until I showed this version to a friend. Seeing it left him slack jawed and flabbergasted.

This alternate ending does help to explain how and why Bobby and Ruby are married in the shoddy misfire that was The Hills Have Eyes Part II.

Up from the Depths (1979) - Newspaper Ad [Oakland Tribune - September 1, 1979]

One of an innumerable number of ads that were better (much, much better, in fact) than the film being advertised. Considering some of the broad performances, goofy dialog, and whatnot, it came as no surprise to learn that director Charles B. Griffith intended, or wanted, Up from the Depths to be much more of a broad comedy than producer Roger Corman "allowed" it to be.

Or, maybe, the comedy just was not all that funny to begin with? No idea. I just know that the movie itself, while it does have some goofy so bad it's good charm to it, is best consumed by seasoned b-movie aficionados only.