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

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.

Welcome Home Brother Charles (1975) - Newspaper Ad [Oakland Tribune]

May 18, 1976

While I do remember seeing the ads for Jamaa Fanaka's Penitentiary, I did not learn of this earlier offering from the writer-director until much later in life. Welcome Home Brother Charles is about an angry black man that kills people with his ginormous and sentient penis.

Of course I would like to see it, one day. I might even try to watch it back-to-back with Frank Henenlotter's Bad Biology, which I also still need to see.

Yog: Monster from Space [aka Space Amoeba, aka Gezora, Ganime, Kameba: Kessen! Nankai no daikaijû] (1970) - Newspaper Ad [Oakland tribune]

August 3, 1971

I saw a portion of Yog: Monster from Space at the Southshore Cinema, but not all of it. For whatever reason I thought it would be cool to run home, tell my mom about the giant octopus scene, and then run back to watch the rest of the movie.

Yeah, that is not how reality works, obviously. I wasted a good hour and a half, minimum, running back and forth, when I should have just stayed in the theater and watched the entire movie. So it goes. 

I really need to catch up with this one.

The Bird with the Crystal Plumage [ L'uccello dalle Piume di Cristallo (1970)] - Newspaper Ad [San Francisco Examiner]

October 6, 1970

Dario Argento's impressive feature film debut was an atmospheric jolt of terror and suspense that caught the attention of both critics and audiences. I was unable to see it for myself until the mid-to-late 1980s, when it was released on home video.

A Bucket of Blood (1959) / [Attack of] The Giant Leeches (1959) - Newspaper Ad [San Francisco Examiner]

February 4, 1960

"Be a nose. Be a nose!"

Roger Corman's black comedy classic A Bucket of Blood provided yet another memorable Saturday afternoon viewing experience for me. While the overt comedy went over my child brain, what lodged and cemented the film in both memory and heart was the character of Walter Paisley (brought to life by the legendary character actor Dick Miller).

The second half of this double feature is a mid-tier monster movie that still managed to scare and gross me out as a child. As an adult the most interesting thing about it, for me, is that its director, Bernard L. Kowalski, also helmed the 1973 snake-themed thriller Sssssss. 

Frankenstein (1931) - Newspaper Ad [San Francisco Examiner]

December 3, 1931

The success of Dracula set the stage for the taking of this risky second venture into gothic horror. With Dracula, at least, there was the proven success of the stage production it was adapting to point at and assuage the concerns of dubious investors.

That was not the case with Frankenstein, though. This was a big swing gamble that had more than a few people at Universal Studios questioning the commercial instincts of Carl Laemmle Jr., the 23-year-old head of production.

Laemmle's instincts proved correct, though. Frankenstein was another smash hit for the studio and, coupled with Dracula, opened the creative doors, so that other monsters would be able to shamble out of the shadows and up onto the big screen.

Bloodthirsty Butchers (1970) / Torture Dungeon (1970) - Newspaper Ad [Oakland Tribune]

May 19, 1970

I am sure some might argue a mere two theaters showing an Andy Milligan double-feature would be two too many theaters showing an Andy Milligan double-feature.

Milligan's bargain basement penny dreadfuls are, in no uncertain terms, an acquired taste. One that, despite my having read Jimmy McDonough's excellent and harrowing The Ghastly One: The Sex-Gore Netherworld of Filmmaker Andy Milligan, I have struggled to acquire.

My struggle goes beyond the rank and eye-scalding cheapness of the films themselves. Beyond the sadistic and misanthropic cruelty that is displayed in them. My struggle, and reluctant fascination with them, might best be summed up by a John Waters blurb on McDonough's book...

"Andy Milligan is one scary man."

And that is true. Andy Milligan is far scarier than any of the cheap and ugly movies he made.

The Crawling Eye (1958) / Cosmic Monsters [The Cosmic Monster (1958) - Newspaper Ad [San Francisco Examiner]

March 3, 1959

Any afternoon that The Crawling Eye (aka The Trollenberg Terror) would air on either KTVU's Chiller Diller or KBHK's Monstrous Movie was a good one. Despite its being mocked and ridiculed on the very first episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000, that fact is eclipsed by my fond memories of it scaring the daylights out of me, back in the day.

There is also the acknowledgment John Carpenter has given the film as a seminal influence on his own cult classic shocker, The Fog. I think the influence is quite obvious, too. Something that only makes me love both movies all the more.