Relentless (1989) - Newspaper Ad [San Francisco Examiner - August 27, 1989]

 

Psycho (1960) - Newspaper Ad [Oakland Tribune]

August 14, 1960

When I was much younger, and far more willing to believe the ballyhoo, I wondered how film venues enforced the "no admittance after the picture starts" requirement. The truth is they did not. While I am sure that the earliest (i.e. opening day or special early screening) showings made a bit of show of "enforcing" the supposed requirement, it was just marketing hype. Hitchcock was not all that different from William Castle, or any other exploitation film huckster, in that respect.

One casual, and debatable, observation on my part. Psycho might qualify as Hitchcock's last undisputed "significant" film, as well as his most famous work. While Hitchcock's post-Psycho filmography did offer up such entertaining and memorable highlights as The Birds and Frenzy, their successes, commercially and critically, were just a faint echo of the wallop that had been made by Psycho.

20 Million Miles to Earth (1957) / The 27th Day (1957) - Newspaper Ad [Oakland Tribune]

June 23, 1957

20 Million Miles to Earth tells the tragic tale of a Venusian animal brought back to Earth where, alone, confused, and scared, it is tormented by equally confused and scared humans. Although somewhat hampered by its paltry budget, the stop motion animation by Ray Harryhausen is superb. The unnamed alien, known to fans as the Ymir, is so skillfully animated that it moves and reacts as if it were a living being and not a mere special effect.

This would be the first of three films that Nathan Juran would make with Harryhausen. The other two being the 1958 classic The 7th Voyage of Sinbad and 1964's First Men in the Moon.

The 27th Day is a movie I have the vaguest memory of seeing a portion of on television. It was a scene of a man being hit by a car. But that is all I remember of it.

The film was based on a 1956 novel written by John Mantley, who would go on to write a season two episode of The Outer Limits that was titled Behold Eck! Mantley also served as producer, perhaps show runner, for the television series Gunsmoke from 1965 - 1975, and is credited with writing 17 episodes and producing 240. He also produced and wrote the late 1970s series How The West Was Won. He also had some producing credits on the series The Wild, Wild West, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, and MacGyver.

I was also surprised and delighted to learn that the film was directed by William Asher. A television workhorse, Asher credited as director on 102 episodes of I Love Lucy, a first season episode of The Twilight Zone titled Mr. Bevis, 131 episodes of Bewitched, and many, many more.

But I know Asher best for directing the queasy 1981 hagsploitation-themed slasher thriller Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker, which I saw on the big screen as Night Warning.
 

Empire of the Ants (1977) - Newspaper Ad [Oakland Tribune - June 12, 1977]

Last year I clipped and shared the STARTS WEDNESDAY ad for Bert I. Gordon's Empire of the Ants that ran in the San Francisco Examiner. Now it is the Oakland Tribune's turn.

The other day the 7 disc Sangster Directs Hammer box set from Severin arrived in the mail. One of the film contained therein is Fear in the Night, which just so happens to feature star Joan Collins. Who played a vibrant and campy role in today's subject.

My reason for mentioning this factoid is that the Fear in the Night disc features a video essay titled Joan Collins: Queen of the Horror Film. Collins appeared in a lot of British horror films in the early seventies, the most famous being Tales from the Crypt, of course. 

Yet it seems this particular slice of b-grade cheese schlock was the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back. Embarrassed and, quite possibly, infuriated, Collins would option her sister Jackie's novel The Stud and reinvent both her public persona and acting career. A decision that paid huge dividends when she was cast in the long-running primetime soap opera Dynasty.
 

Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger (1977) - Newspaper Ad [San Francisco Examiner]

June 5, 1977

Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger might be the only Ray Harryhausen effects movie I saw on the big screen. While this June 5, 1977 ad clipped from the San Francisco Examiner listed the Alameda Theatre, I remember seeing it at the ever reliable Southshore.

While the film has a bevy of stop motion beasties to enjoy, the only big screen moment that lodged in my memory was the antagonist bemoaning there was not enough magic potion to fully complete her transformation from bird back into human form. "Not enough! Not enough!"

 

Seven Days in May (1964) - Newspaper Ad [Oakland Tribune]

February 23, 1964

I think this might be my favorite John Frankenheimer movie. Tense and believable from start to finish, Seven Days in May gets me to the edge of my seat every time I watch it.
 

Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972) - Newspaper Ad [Oakland Tribune - July 23, 1972]

Conquest of the Planet of the Apes was released a couple of weeks after my fifth birthday. The 'first' time I saw it may or may not have been when it made its network television debut, although I had my doubts about that.

Because memories of my having seen several key scenes in the film on the big screen, such as the interrogation and tragic end of Armando (Ricardo Montalban), came to mind as the movie unfolded. 

These memories went beyond mere déjà vu, though. I could remember sitting in a movie theater and watching the damn thing.

Yet my parents were adamant that they had never taken me to see the movie. That this was the first time any of us had ever watched it.

Perhaps they had not taken me to see the movie, but someone else had? Because I remember sitting in what might have been the Alameda Showcase, before it became the Southshore Twin, and watching this movie.

Empire of the Ants (1977) - Newspaper Ad [San Francisco Examiner - June 12, 1977]

While I may not have been the most studious of biblical readers, I do know that it is supposed to be the meek who are supposed to inherit the Earth. After everyone else kills each other off, or the Rapture, or... you know what, never mind. Forget about it.

The ad campaign image for Bert I Gordon's The Food of the Gods, which was released the previous year, scared the snot out of me. This one, not so much.

While I would have liked to have been able to see it on the big screen, that was not to be. I did not see either The Food of the Gods or Empire of the Ants until they 'premiered' on Channel 7's The 3:30 Movie program. Something that necessitated the film's being trimmed down to a brisk 75 minutes, so that 15 minutes of commercials could also be broadcast in that 90-minute weekday afternoon time slot.

While I was gobsmacked at how silly they turned out to be, I also have never, ever been bored while watching them. They are tasty slices of the silliest kind of cinematic cheese.

It's Alive (1974) - Newspaper Ad [Oakland Tribune - April 10, 1977]

Larry Cohen's iconic monster baby opus It's Alive had a brief theatrical run in 1974, but was pulled and shelved by an unimpressed, or just plain embarrassed, distributor. 

Three years and a regime change later, the new boss had a far more favorable opinion of It's Alive than the old boss. So, in 1977, the movie was pulled off the shelf and re-released, with a snazzy new campaign that scared the living daylights out of nine-year-old me.

I was fascinated and petrified by the sight of that clawed hand draped over the side of an ever so slowly twirling basset, the thumping heartbeat that began as soon as it came into view, and the monstrous cry heard just after the narrator intones, "You see, there's only one thing wrong with the Davis baby... it's alive."

While not a huge hit by today's standards, the film did rake in a tidy profit for the studio. So a sequel was requested. More on that later.

I didn't see It's Alive until well into the 1980s. While it was not quite the traumatizing creature feature I had imagined as a child, it was nonetheless an intriguing and fascinating little nightmare scenario.