Silent Movies

Queen of Schlock! The B Movies Queens: Beverly Garland

When you hear the name Beverly Garland, what movies or television shows come to mind? My Three Sons is usually the first thing that pops up. Am I wrong? The thing is, this incredibly talented actress is know for more than that. So much more. Anyone who is a fan of 1950s sci-fi b-movies will be nodding their head in agreement right now.

My introduction to Beverly Garland was not My Three Sons. As I’ve mentioned in many posts, I grew up watching horror and sci-fi movies with my Dad. Many of them on late night television, especially 1950s b-movies. Midnight seemed to be the prime time for them. The perfect way to end your broadcast before the station went off the air for the evening. Yes, I was watching late movies with my dad or at least part of them. I usually fell asleep.

The very first movie I remember seeing Beverly Garland in was It Conquered The World. This is a 1956 black and white Roger Corman movie and possibly one of my favourite 1950s sci-fi movies. The movie also starred  Peter Graves and Lee Van Cleef. I’ve seen this movie several times and never tire of it.

As with many directors Roger Corman loved using actors in a number of his movies and Beverly was no exception, the following year (1957) she appeared in Not of This Earth. This movie is another sci-fi featuring an alien. If you are looking for the perfect Beverly Garland double bill, I strongly suggest watching Not of This Earth and It Conquered the World.

In 1959 Beverly starred in The Alligator People with Lon Chaney Jr.. This is a science-fiction horror film directed by Roy Del Ruth. It’s one of my favourite bad costume movies.

Eventually, Beverly Garland would become known for her television work, starring in many film noiresque and action themed shows. A few to check out if you can find them are The Asphalt Jungle, Danger Man, Dr. Kildare, The Fugitive and Gunsmoke.

Over the years, Beverly Garland would have guest appearances in many televisions shows, but would have a reoccurring role in both My Three Sons and Scarecrow and Mrs. King. Having a long and illustrious career, there are many different genres to chose from, but I highly recommend you check out her 1950s sci-fi movies first.

I’ve posted either the full movies or trailers below.

Each month I run a b-movie night called Killer B Cinema. Join Lizzie Violet & Zoltan Du Lac for a monthly evening of b-moves from the 1950s to 1990s! There will also be trivia with prizes & much more! Please follow us on Instagram and Facebook!

Queen of Schlock! Oh Canada! Black Christmas

One of my all time favourite Christmas traditions is to watch Christmas themed horror movies. In the times before Gomez and when I was single, I would do this every Christmas day. I would wake up, drink too much coffee, eat waffles and have an all day movie marathon. It was my spooky, happy place. Now that I’m married, I no longer have the one day marathon, instead, I spread the movies out over the month of December. The one tradition I’ve held onto is I always kick it off with Black Christmas!

If you are unfamiliar with this Canadian horror gem, first off what? Second, you are welcome. You need to go watch the movie and then come back to this blog post. I’ll wait.

Good. Now that you have all watched it, let’s get to it. And for those in the back who still haven’t watched it, here is what this movie is about. {an aside: I’m talking about the 1974 version, you will rarely see me post remakes} This absolute masterpiece is a 1974 Canadian movie that was  produced and directed by Bob Clark. Yes, that Bob Clark (A Christmas Story, Porky’s). It stars Olivia Hussey, Keir Dullea, Margot Kidder, Andrea Martin and John Saxon. The story takes place in a sorority house and on the University of Toronto campus and is about a group of sorority sisters who receive heavy breather, creep phone calls from a deranged killer. Oh, and it takes place right around Christmas!

Trivia: The movie is titled Silent Night, Evil Night in the United States.

Black Christmas not only has some of the best twist and turns, it has one of the creepiest endings in any horror movie! It’s an absolutely delight to watch. It was also one of the first movies to use the point of view of the killer. Scenes in the film involving the point of view shots of the killer scaling the house was accomplished through the use of a rig designed by camera operator Bert Dunk, it was attached to Dunk’s head as he climbed up the side of the house. Over time other’s have perfected the technique. AND was the precursor to slasher movies such as Halloween!

Trivia: If you are someone who likes to check out filming locations, the interior shots of the sorority house was filmed at 6 Clarendon Crescent, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Other filming locations information can be found here. (Please remember that this is a private home and respect the privacy of the owners.)

If you want to add a few others to your Xmas Horror and b-movie viewing, also check out Silent Night, Bloody Night, Silent Night, Deadly Night, Don’t Open Until Christmas, Santa Clause vs The Martian’s and of course Gremlins!

Each month I run a b-movie night called Killer B Cinema. Join Lizzie Violet & Zoltan Du Lac for a monthly evening of b-moves from the 1950s to 1990s! There will also be trivia with prizes & much more! Please follow us on Instagram and Facebook!

Queen of Schlock! The B Movies Queens: Julie Adams

The first time I noticed Julie Adams, was when I saw a movie still from The Creature From The Black Lagoon, in a copy of my cousin’s Famous Monsters magazine. I was ten. The photo was the one where the monster is carrying her (see below). To me, she looked like a goddess in her white bathing suit, she was perfection. After seeing the photo, I bugged my dad endlessly to let me watch the movie. Eventually, he relented.

I know some of you are saying, ‘What father lets their child watch a horror movie!’ Well, mine did and often. There are way scarier movies than this, that I had viewed as a ten year old. None of them scared me, they still don’t. I guess I built up an immunity. Heck, there are way scarier things in the world and even as a kid, horror movies were an escape for me.

Over the years, I have watched this movie dozens and dozens of times. Along with Jaws, they tend to be the movies that kick off summer for me. But wait… this isn’t the only Julie Adams movie I’ve watched and it certainly, isn’t the only movie she ever made, not to mention the many television appearances. But first… let’s talk a little bit about who Julie Adams was.

Julie Adams was born as Betty May Adams on October 17, 1926 in Waterloo, Iowa, the daughter of Arkansas-born parents Esther Gertrude (Beckett) and Ralph Adams, who was a cotton buyer. Her family moved a great deal; the longest she lived in one town was eight years in Blytheville, Arkansas. In 1946, at the age of 19, she was crowned “Miss Little Rock” and then moved to Hollywood, California to pursue her acting career. Adams worked as a part-time secretary and began her film career in B moviewesterns. {source Wikipedia}

In the beginning of her career, Julie tended to be type cast typecast as a western heroine. Personally, I don’t consider this a bad thing, since I love westerns, not to mention, during the 1950s she co-starred opposite some of Hollywood’s top leading men, including my movie crush James Stewart (Bend of the River – 1952), Rock Hudson (The Lawless Breed (1953) and One Desire (1955)),  Tyrone Power (The Mississippi Gambler – 1953), Glenn Ford (The Man from the Alamo – 1953), and many more!

HORIZONS WEST, Julie Adams, 1952

Some of Julie’s notable television roles were The Incredible Hulk, Cannon, Quincy, M.E., Rockford and Wife and co-starring with James Stewart in The Jimmy Stewart Show. Julie also had a recurring role of real estate agent Eve Simpson for ten episodes of CBS’s Murder, She Wrote.

Oh and we can’t forget that she starred along side Elvis Presley in Tickle Me! in 1965.

Julie never stopped acting. As she grew older, her roles where not as often and much more selective, but she was still working up to her early nineties. She has also continued to be a goddess in my eyes!

Trivia:
*Crowned Little Miss Rock at the age of 19.
*Her name changed from Betty May (real name), to Julia, then to Julie.
*In Italy, all her films were dubbed by either Dhia Cristiani, Renata Marini or Lydia Simoneschi.
*Had to perform most of her own stunts in Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954).
*Life long friends with Jimmy Stewart

Each month I run a b-movie night called Killer B Cinema. Join Lizzie Violet & Zoltan Du Lac for a monthly evening of b-moves from the 1950s to 1990s! There will also be trivia with prizes & much more! Please follow us on Instagram and Facebook!

Queen of Schlock! The B Movies Queens: Gothic Scream Queen Barbara Steele

Tis the time of year, when things are gloomier, night falls faster and the night air carries an eeriness. On our evening walk, guided by the brightness of the full moon, we can hear the howls of werewolf in the distance, and when we pass the seemingly abandoned manor, we see the curtains flutter, leaving use to wonder if it is a ghost or the wind finding its way through a broken pane. Do we run or stand and observe the night as it creeps in around us? In a situation like this, it’s best to take guidance from the dark Goddess herself, Barbara Steele. What would she do in a situation like this? Barbara would grab the biggest candelabra she could find and would wrap her delicate fingers around it, holding onto her skirt, walking forward, fearless, letting curiosity win her over as we’ve known her to do in every single gothic horror she has starred in!

I’m sorry… did I hear someone in the back ask who Barbara Steele was? How DARE you! Barbara Steele is the ultimate gothic horror scream queen. She is the dark Goddess!

Barbara Steele is a British actress, best known for the Italian Gothic horror movies she starred in, mostly in the 1960s. Many will know her for her breakthrough role in Black Sunday (1960) while others will know her from her later role as Dr. Julia Hoffman / Countess Natalie Du Pres in Dark Shadows (1991).

***During the 1960s, Steele starred in a string of Italian horror films, including Black Sunday (1960), The Horrible Dr. Hichcock (1962), The Ghost (1963), The Long Hair of Death (1964), Castle of Blood (1964), Terror-Creatures from the Grave and Nightmare Castle (both 1965). She also starred in Roger Corman‘s 1961 adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe‘s short story The Pit and the Pendulum and the British film Curse of the Crimson Altar (1968).

Steele returned to the horror genre in the later 1970s, appearing in three horror films: David Cronenberg‘s Shivers (a.k.a. They Came From Within) (1975), Piranha (1978), and Silent Scream (1979). *** {source Wikipedia}

My all time favourite Barbara Steele movies are Castle of Blood, Nightmare Castle and Black Sunday. I’ve seen all three on both DVD and on the big screen. Viewing them on the big screen is of course the best way to view them, and I’m grateful that The Bloor Cinema showed them (they are no longer around) Recently, we showed The She Beast at Killer B Cinema. Right before Covid struck. It was a definite crowd pleaser. A little She Beast trivia, because Barbara Steele was only available for one day, she was kept on the set during 18 hours of shooting. It was a gruelling day, but the producer felt it was necessary. Apparently, she was beyond angry with him.

One thing that has always bothered me about movies starring Barbara Steele is they dubbed her voice and British accent in many of them. This was done for American audiences and unfortunately, in many cases, the only copies available. (they did the same to Caroline Munro)

I’ve been a fan of gothic horror for a very long time and I owe that to Barbara Steele. I was introduced to her when I was a teenager and I have adored her ever since. I get cravings to watch her movies when the gloom of November creeps in. There is a spookiness about the wind blowing through the barren trees, that goes hand-in-hand with the ultimate scream queen.

What is your favourite Barbara Steele movie?

Each month I run a b-movie night called Killer B Cinema. Join Lizzie Violet & Zoltan Du Lac for a monthly evening of b-moves from the 1950s to 1990s! There will also be trivia with prizes & much more! Please follow us on Instagram and Facebook!

Queen of Schlock! Oh Canada! Blood and Donuts

Oh my Goth heart! This is one of my absolutely favourite Canadian made, not to mention iconic, filmed in Toronto movies. Blood & Donuts is truly a piece of Canadiana that you all must witness.

What is it about you ask. A sexy vampire who wakes up after 27 years to an entire new and confusing world. It was 1995 afterall. The sexy vampire befriends the late night Goddess working the counter at an 24-hour donut shop and the people who hang out there. Did I mention donuts? Damn it… now I want donuts!

This movie has it all. It’s dark and broody while being funny as hell. It was directed by iconic Canadian director Holly Dale, written by Andrew Rai Berzins, and starring Gordon Currie and Helene Clarkson. David Cronenberg plays a cameo role as the local crime boss. You get to see some of Toronto before it became condo city, along with the brilliant opening shot which feature the CN Town in the background. (see below)

I first saw this movie in the theatre and fell madly in love with it. I also bought it on VHS as soon as it came out… yes VHS. Shut-up! (fyi you can still buy the VHS tape on Amazon) I sadly, no longer have it and have been searching for a DVD copy of it. If anyone wants to buy me a copy for Yule, I’d love you forever.

The next time I watch it though… I need to get donuts. I say I’m going to do that every single time… but then I forget. It just means, I get to watch this movie again! There are no complaints from me. If you haven’t seen this movie, you need to. If you are a goth and haven’t seen this movie… what’s wrong with you???

I also wanted to add, I’ve been asked a few times why I don’t give more thorough breakdowns and synopsis of the movies. I thought I should address that. I don’t want to write a post with spoilers, I would rather talk about why I did or didn’t like a movie, in hopes that you will watch the movie. There are enough blogs out there with spoilers.

Each month I run a b-movie night called Killer B Cinema. Join Lizzie Violet & Zoltan Du Lac for a monthly evening of b-moves from the 1950s to 1990s! There will also be trivia with prizes & much more! Please follow us on Instagram and Facebook!

Queen of Schlock! Oh Canada!

Oh Canada! How we forget about the amazing and amazingly bad movies you’ve made! The thing is, we shouldn’t be forgetting about the movie industry of our truly wonderful country. Some of my all time favourite movies have been made here and I think I need to talk more about them. I’ve decided to add a new series to Queens of Schlock called Oh Canada. For this post I am going to give an overview of some of my favourites and then upcoming, I will talk about specific movies, actors or directors.

What sparked this? We recently watched Frankenstein On Campus. A gem from 1970 that was shot in Toronto. It stars Robin Ward. Robin Ward was a favourite of mine when I was a kid. I will have an upcoming post about him as well. The thing is, we live in a country with so, so many talented film makers and actors. We need to be watching way more Canadian content than we actually do. I remember watching a lot of Canadian horror in the 1970s and 1980s and being so much more creeped out by it than our American counterparts. One of my all-time favourite Christmas horror movies to watch is Black Christmas. I watch it every single year!

As someone who tried her hand at acting and who has many friends in the film industry, it is high time we start talking a lot more about Canadian film. The Good. The Bad. And The Ugly.

Click here for a list of a few dozen movies you should be checking out!

Currently, these are some of my top Canadian made films. Much of it is low budget, but all if it is awesome! What are your favourite Canadian made movies? What classic Canadian films do you suggest I watch?

Frankenstein On Campus (1969) This movie stars one of my all-time favourite Canadian actors, Robin Ward.

Blood & Donuts (1995)  is a 1995 Canadian super natural comedy horror film directed by Holly Dale, written by Andrew Rai Berzins, and starring Gordon Currie and Helene Clarkson. David Cronenberg plays a cameo role as the local crime boss.

Black Xmas (1974) This is part of my yearly Yule tradition. I watch this movie, every single year!!!

Cannibal Girls (1973) There are lots of recognizable faces in this movie, especially if you are a fan of SCTV and the Hilarious House of Frightenstein. Anyone recognize Andrea Martin, Eugene Levy and Fishka Rais. 

The 1970s and 1980s were also huge for Canadian horror movies, especially those made by David Cronenberg. Below is a list of a few of my favourites. (no all are by Cronenberg)

Scanners (1981)

Rabid (1977) This movie freaked me out as a kid.

Dead Ringers (1988)

Videodrome (1983)

The Brood (1979)

The Little Girl Who Lives Down The Lane (1976) Raise your hand if you recognize a young Jody Foster.

Each month I run a b-movie night called Killer B Cinema. Join Lizzie Violet & Zoltan Du Lac for a monthly evening of b-moves from the 1950s to 1990s! There will also be trivia with prizes & much more! Please follow us on Instagram and Facebook!

Queen of Schlock! Bad Ass Women: Tura Satana

Tura Satana. Oh how I love thee. Let me name the ways. I love your badassery in Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill!, your martial arts prowess in The Doll Squad and your careless whimsy as you off your enemies in Astro Zombies (though… sadly not my favourite of your movies), not to mention that amazing pink cutout dress! Your style, your flare, your sass.

For those who don’t know who this badass woman is (how dare you), here is a little blurb from Wikipedia.

Satana was born Tura Luna Pascual Yamaguchi in Hokkaidō, Japan. Her father was a Japanese silent movie actor of Filipino descent, and her mother was a circus performer of Native American (Cheyenne) and Scots-Irish background. After the end of World War II and a stint in the Manzanar internment camp in Lone Pine, California, Tura and her family moved to Chicago.

Tura Satana studied martial arts since she was a child (sadly, due to being sexually assaulted as a child – she later sought out all of her attackers and got revenge), as a teenager she formed a girl gang and as a result was sent to reform school, at the age of 13 she was forced into a marriage to a 17 year-old boy by her parents, at the age of 15 she moved to Los Angeles and using a fake I.D. she became a burlesque dancer, was romantically linked to Elvis and was convinced by Harold Lloyd (yes that Harold Lloyd – silent screen star) to become an actress. Tura was an incredible and fascinating woman. I would have loved to have met her.

In my own opinion, I always hoped that Tura Satana had a longer career. Her screen presence was undeniable. After the movie The Doll Squad, she lived through the tragedy of a former lover shooting her. She stopped acting for a few decades because of it, returning in 2004 to make a couple more Astro Zombie movies. Thankfully, she did the comicon circuit, allowing new generations to appreciate her! There is a documentary being made about her and I hope it gets released one day.

A few of her other roles were in The Girl From U.N.C.L.E., Irma La Douche, and the sequels to Astro Zombie.

My two all time favourite movies are Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill! and The Doll Squad. She is beyond a total badass in both of those movies. We recently had a movie night in our backyard, a way to get our Killer B Cinema fix, while socially distancing with our neighbours. It was a first time viewing of Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill! for everyone else who joined us. If you haven’t seen either of these movies, go do it now! I’m posting either trailers or full movies below.

The Astro Zombies (1969)

The Doll Squad (1973)

Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (1965)

Each month I run a b-movie night called Killer B Cinema. Join Lizzie Violet & Zoltan Du Lac for a monthly evening of b-moves from the 1950s to 1990s! There will also be trivia with prizes & much more! Please follow us on Instagram and Facebook!

Queen of Schlock! The Movies I Just Can’t Get Through

We all have them. Books we couldn’t read to the end, television series we quit watching partway through a season and movies we just can’t watch to the end. I watch a lot of movies and I make every effort, no matter how bad the movie is, to watch it all the way through. No. Matter. How. Bad. It. Is! I love bad movies. I especially love really bad movies. However, there are a few I cannot, no matter how hard I try, finish watching.

I also want to make it clear that I’m not slagging the makers of these movies. I’m sure when they were making the movie, that they had a hit on their hands. I love movie makers who are so incredibly dedicated to their craft that they see it through to the end. It’s why I love Ed Wood Jr. so much. I find movie makers like this inspiring. It’s just… some movies are just not watchable. At least the ones I talk about below, are not watchable for me. If you loved them, kudos. We all have different tastes.

Chai Lai is a 2006 Thai action film about five female top-secret crimefighters. The movie is a Thai knock off of Charlie’s Angels. I love knock off movies made by other countries. I love seeing their take on the movie. It’s why we show so many Turkish knock-off movies at Killer B Cinema. This one though…. oh boy. It was not good. At one point I asked my husband how much time was left, I thought we must be getting towards the end, and when he said 43 minutes, I told him, I was out. I was so hopeful for this one. It had action and cheese. I love cheese. The biggest issue was it was impossible to follow. Even if it’s a horrible movie, there needs to be something that helps you follow along. Anything! I can make it through a Neil Breen movie and those never make sense, so it says a lot that I couldn’t make it through this one!

The trailer to the movie honestly makes it look like an awesome movie… don’t be fooled by the trailer.

The Wild Women of Wongo (1958) Someone… actually recommended this one to me. They thought since it was so bad, I’d enjoy it. Well, they were right, it’s bad. So bad I was twenty minutes in and stopped watching it. The other night my husband saw it on YouTube and thought it looked fun and as soon as he started watching it, I picked up my phone and started scrolling through Instagram and explained why I wasn’t going to watch it again. That’s usually the sign that I’ve checked out of a movie. He lasted maybe ten minutes. In case you want to give it a try yourself, I’ve posted the full movie below.

Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women (1968) I really, really wanted to like this movie! It stars Mamie Van Doren. I love Mamie Van Doren. It’s also a Roger Corman Production and Roger is another of my favourite filmmakers. Sadly, it was another movie that I lasted about twenty minutes. To be completely honest though, I may not have been in the right frame of mind the day I tried to watch it and I am willing to give this one another try. If I do, I will report back.

Those are three of the recent movies that I couldn’t get through. What movie have you watched that you couldn’t watch to the end?

Each month I run a b-movie night called Killer B Cinema. Join Lizzie Violet & Zoltan Du Lac for a monthly evening of b-moves from the 1950s to 1990s! There will also be trivia with prizes & much more! Please follow us on Instagram and Facebook!

Queen of Schlock! The B Movies Queens: Caroline Munro

Everyone’s favourite b-movie bombshell is one of my all-time favourite b-movie actresses. I’ve loved her since seeing her guest role in the Christmas Horror movie classic Don’t Open Until Christmas and fell even more in love when I saw her in movies such as Starcrash and the Hammer sensation Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter. If I ever see her name billed for a movie, I’m watching it! Oh yes, I am!

Who, oh who am I talking about? The illustrious b-movie queen herself, Caroline Munro! I like so many others swoon when we see her grace the screen. Recently, we rewatched her in The Golden Voyage of Sinbad and will soon be rewatching her in another Hammer classic Dracula A.D. 1972. Yes, her role is small in this one, and there are bigger stars such as Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing, however, I come for the vampires, but always stay for the Caroline Munro!

And let’s not forget the fact that she was a Bond Girl! She played Naomi, Stromberg’s personal pilot, and a would-be assassin in the movie. Her voice was once again dubbed (as in many of the movies she was in), which I never understood. I get it, this happens a lot. They did it to Barbara Steele as well. Both have lovely voices and British accents. Why you would dub over that is beyond me!

Some Caroline Munro Trivia:

*Caroline is a trustee of the Ray and Diana Harryhausen Foundation.
*In 1977, Munro turned down the opportunity to play villainess Ursa in Superman in favour of Naomi in The Spy Who Loved Me.
*Caroline, that’s Ms. Munro to you, continued to work in numerous British and European horror and science fiction films through the 1970s and 1980s.
*Munro’s career commenced in 1966 when her mother and a photographer friend entered some headshots of her in The Evening News‘s “Face of the Year” contest.

Yes, this was mostly me fangirling, but… if you haven’t heard of Caroline Munro. You. Are. Welcome!

For those of you who also love her as much as I do, what is your favourite Caroline Munro movie?

Each month I run a b-movie night called Killer B Cinema. Join Lizzie Violet & Zoltan Du Lac for a monthly evening of b-moves from the 1950s to 1990s! There will also be trivia with prizes & much more! Please follow us on Instagram and Facebook!

Queen of Schlock! Wasp Woman of the 1950s and Today.

During COVID we’ve been watching a lot of television shows and movies from the 1950s, especially horror and sci-fi. Though entertaining and revisiting a simpler time of no computers or cell phones is nice, there is a certain way of life that is a consistent thread/trend throughout each of these shows/movies and one that is very, very apparent in The Wasp Woman. Now don’t be silly, I’m not going to give it all away in the first paragraph. Read on dear human. Read on!

The Wasp Woman (a.k.a. The Bee Girl and Insect Woman) is a 1959, independently made, American black-and-white science fiction-horror film, produced and directed by Roger Corman, that stars Susan Cabot, Anthony Eisley, Michael Mark, and Barboura Morris. The film was originally released by Filmgroup as a double feature with Beast from Haunted Cave.[1][2] To pad out the film’s running time when it was released to television two years later, a new prologue was added by director Jack Hill.

The founder and owner of a large cosmetics company, Janice Starlin (Susan Cabot), is disturbed when her firm’s sales begin to drop after it becomes apparent to her customer base that she is aging. Zinthrop has been able to extract enzymes from the royal jelly of the queen wasp that can reverse the aging process. Janice agrees to fund further research, at great cost, provided she can serve as his human subject. Displeased with the slowness of the results, she breaks into the scientist’s laboratory after hours and injects herself with extra doses of the formula. {source Wikipedia} This is where the true horror begins!

I love this movie for so many reasons. My number one reason usually isn’t the script, it’s the monster and in this case the Wasp Woman. The make-up department did an amazing job making her look horrifying (head and hands of a wasp). I, myself have a phobia with wasps and hornets and was uncomfortable not only watching the scenes where they showed real wasps but by the actual wasp woman costuming. The things that scare you the most, right?

What audience was this movie meant for? According to Tim Dirks, The Wasp Woman was one of a wave of “cheap teen movies” released for the drive-in market. They consisted of “exploitative, cheap fare created especially for them [teens] in a newly-established teen/drive-in genre”. {source Wikipedia} Now that drive-in theatres have become popular again due to COVID, I’m hoping one of them does 1950s b-movies and the original double bill of The Wasp Woman and Beast From the Haunted Cave.

I think one of my favourite things about Roger Corman is many of his movies touch on the dark side of humanity. The Wasp Woman is definitely one of them. Another of my favourite things is he is able to make a movie for as little money as possible. The film was made for an estimated budget of $50,000. We are considering making our own b-movies and Roger Corman continues to inspire us. You will also notice that musical score from this movie was used in several other Corman movies including Little Shop of Horrors. The Wasp Woman‘s musical score, written by Fred Katz.

Star Susan Cabot, who I loved in this movie and many others, had a tragic end to her life. In the 1980s, she was suffering from severe mental illness, including depression and suicidal thoughts. On December 10, 1986, Cabot’s only child, 22-year-old Timothy Roman, bludgeoned her to death in their Los Angeles home after Cabot awoke in a panicked state and attacked him. It was a heart-breaking end to Susan’s life.

Someone did an amazing job cleaning up the quality of this version. Give it a watch before it vanishes from YouTube!

Oh yes, the trend I was speaking of. The one where women aren’t allowed to age gracefully, get old and definitely shouldn’t get gray hair or wrinkles. Ya that one. Sadly, not much has changed over the decades. Society still hasn’t learned to stop bullying women about their appearance and continue to set ridiculous standards. Many women still inject themselves with poison and unknown substances just to appear thin and youthful. When it comes to that part of the movie, 2020 is no different than in 1959.

Each month I run a b-movie night called Killer B Cinema. Join Lizzie Violet & Zoltan Du Lac for a monthly evening of b-moves from the 1950s to 1990s! There will also be trivia with prizes & much more! Please follow us on Instagram and Facebook!