cult film freak: william alland

Showing posts with label william alland. Show all posts

Written by James M. Tate / 2/04/2025 / No comments / alix talton , craig stevens , creature , cult , fifties , nathan juran , pat conway , science-fiction , william alland , william hopper

PRODUCER WILLIAM ALLAND PRESENTS 'THE DEADLY MANTIS'

<p></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgye4zQbbXK4qSDkqmTIIYM0BqyqH7pE7UbGqGPRRDuz_5z16l9DxEPJqbFcb9eK8qt17VHMG2hRVYmEqmUW-Te4Hm2u1bj-S-CvNzzMoODIwJQOJe3xgUkeERgHc7FuPojruVUFX4JcI9uxyS9nUIPNoxfj7Nq92V_PGHI5D0jUyzznxGiG4-9GOfauwru/s1920/Screen%20Shot%202025-02-04%20at%208.44.58%20PM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="906" data-original-width="1920" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgye4zQbbXK4qSDkqmTIIYM0BqyqH7pE7UbGqGPRRDuz_5z16l9DxEPJqbFcb9eK8qt17VHMG2hRVYmEqmUW-Te4Hm2u1bj-S-CvNzzMoODIwJQOJe3xgUkeERgHc7FuPojruVUFX4JcI9uxyS9nUIPNoxfj7Nq92V_PGHI5D0jUyzznxGiG4-9GOfauwru/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202025-02-04%20at%208.44.58%20PM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Title: THE DEADLY MANTIS Year: 1956 Rating: ****</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Various military compounds are attacked by an unseen yet formidable menace — an impenetrable force of some kind, and, in that, only the title reveals the deck — the first half playing out like a mystery rather than a creature-feature, and these are the most effective scenes — TV's PERRY MASON towering gumshoe William Hopper is the only Scientist that may be able to learn the source of what's leftover from a wrecked plane: a piece of whatever had obviously caused it...<br>
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The interior shots are effective in sparse B&W, making terrific use of scientific knowledge spouted from Hopper with confident-until-she's-terrified ingenue Alix Talton at his side — how the mysterious cause of destruction is... through pages of exposition, narrowed down into an insect feels like a rare science class that won't put you to sleep...</p><p><span></span></p>

alix talton, craig stevens, creature, cult, fifties, nathan juran, pat conway, science-fiction, william alland, william hopper

PRODUCER WILLIAM ALLAND PRESENTS 'THE DEADLY MANTIS'

Title: THE DEADLY MANTIS Year: 1956 Rating: **** Various military compounds are attacked by an unseen yet formidable menace — an impenetrab...

PRODUCER WILLIAM ALLAND PRESENTS 'THE LAND UNKNOWN'

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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6DmGW0vs2qZm44EZpAGWco0cpKR9QsZZlNqbzoUfiJ3bDPS4VacpI3T8Gqqwd6hFz54Fb-li-bQQqYp0nmYElNIhhxfvPus1VLjtLS3C9wLx8winG_t9tLNwu_YmFD6tvMBpaJMaovwVz/s1600/affiche-l-oasis-des-tempetes-the-land-unknown-1957-2.jpeg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="390" data-original-width="500" height="310" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6DmGW0vs2qZm44EZpAGWco0cpKR9QsZZlNqbzoUfiJ3bDPS4VacpI3T8Gqqwd6hFz54Fb-li-bQQqYp0nmYElNIhhxfvPus1VLjtLS3C9wLx8winG_t9tLNwu_YmFD6tvMBpaJMaovwVz/s400/affiche-l-oasis-des-tempetes-the-land-unknown-1957-2.jpeg" width="400"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Year of Capture and Release: 1957</u></td></tr>
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Thinking it would be on par with the aesthetic value of BLACK LAGOON and
 REVENGE OF THE CREATURE, producer William Alland's topnotch director, 
Jack Arnold, who also shot TARANTULA, wanted nothing to do with this
 cheapie that, in the rudimentary stages, was supposed to be colorized 
with semi-big stars attached...<br>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUvaczod5Wm-ME15ANBgLSR7N_koiaf_N7U7NHb95uO64W5vs1drhaMbWu86kXwfb0zwVi0A9PWmYhxjpT7Qbwq_mB98bv-h_DiL9hwevXVpW2TQK8RTnaY4E0ohjcR1pr3qOsivFp-HM/s1600/Screen+Shot+2016-08-31+at+9.50.42+PM.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUvaczod5Wm-ME15ANBgLSR7N_koiaf_N7U7NHb95uO64W5vs1drhaMbWu86kXwfb0zwVi0A9PWmYhxjpT7Qbwq_mB98bv-h_DiL9hwevXVpW2TQK8RTnaY4E0ohjcR1pr3qOsivFp-HM/s320/Screen+Shot+2016-08-31+at+9.50.42+PM.jpg" width="217"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u> Paperback-Approach Poster Art</u></td></tr>
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But with a nice matte as a primal mileau, it's enough to convince both an audience and a small group of 
Arctic dwelling researchers, with their military-trained employees 
including a magazine-handsome helicopter pilot in future FBI 
television-show regular William Reynolds...<br>
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Along for the ride is his everyman mechanic; a 
pretty blond ingenue; and, conveniently enough, a leading man who's more
 an expert on prehistoric history than the snowy region surrounding this
 strange and UNKNOWN tropical enigma, partially based on a true story about a mass of warm 
water discovered strangely in the middle of the frozen Antarctic — and the very same location 
for that year's b-creature THE DEADLY MANTIS... Indeed, producer Alland was a busy man in 1957...<br>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQWzZ4aTFHMiUGLrTumq1EE2JgO6TVWgVqGZgyG6v1FneRlq7ZOu50qRBjUxEpEf-mLr_JfEcCvmGBCTF78TLj7glj1ZNGowzE9rxutwvKke3IvI8PNSfZvmgyNuyX_knzMPwJI_Q6jVA/s1600/Screen+Shot+2016-08-31+at+9.33.48+PM.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQWzZ4aTFHMiUGLrTumq1EE2JgO6TVWgVqGZgyG6v1FneRlq7ZOu50qRBjUxEpEf-mLr_JfEcCvmGBCTF78TLj7glj1ZNGowzE9rxutwvKke3IvI8PNSfZvmgyNuyX_knzMPwJI_Q6jVA/s320/Screen+Shot+2016-08-31+at+9.33.48+PM.jpg" width="170"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>LAND Score: ***1/2</u></td></tr>
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The warm water's explained quickly, derived from a volcano, and the 
Dino-land follows, a hell-hot purgatory the characters are trapped in. 
The helicopter <i>can</i> start but without taking flight – this following a 
quick, eerie sighting: the swoop of a pterodactyl starts the ball 
rolling, or rather, the helicopter falling...<br>
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Then, within this extremely hot and humid valley, resembling the 
wide-shot background of any Tarzan film, the foursome's hunted by 
various dinosaurs: The good ones look wonderfully fake, like a 
water-creature hybrid of The Loch Ness Monster and the aquatic man-eating dino in
 KING KONG. And especially the T-Rex, with a mouth that opens wide and 
awkward, like a large parade float or a Halloween mask giving enough 
room for the person to breath...<br>
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For it is, like GODZILLA, a man-suited 
beast instead of the larger budgeted stop-motion. And on the other side 
of the coin are the lame, cheap Dinosaurs that are, ironically, the
 most realistic — in fact, they <i>are</i> real: Gila Monsters (or 
Iguanas) superimposed to look giant in the fashion of, say, Bert I. 
Gordon. But enlarged rats, ants and humans work better since they become
 an immense version of a normal size we're already familiar with...<br>

action, adventure, creature, cult, dinosaur, fifties, science-fiction, shirley patterson, william alland, william reynolds