50 Years Ago This Week... and Last Week... In Cincinnati Theaters

This first group of pictures opened here on September 1, 1971. At the time these ads first appeared, I would never have guessed that DAUGHTERS OF DARKNESS - 50 years later - would be the most widely available movie of the bunch. After all, it was rated R, it was from an obscure distributor (Maron Films / Gemini Releasing) and, from a distance, its cast's conflation of European art cinema and American daytime drama was perplexing. Sadly, I didn't get to see the film during its initial run but, in a sense, the version shown at that time HAS become something of a lost item, after all. Prior to its stateside release, Harry Kumel's erotic terror classic was given the once-over by notorious NY-based "film doctor" Fima Noveck, who cut some material to side-step an X rating, inserted various "fades to red," as well as a new theme song performed by Lainie Cooke (mistaken by some historians for the voice of Delphine Seyrig). This alternate version has not been available on any home video medium since the VHS days, when it was initially released by Continental Video. But now you can easily find the original uncut version in a must-have box set from Blue Underground, which offers the film on both Blu-ray and 4K Ultra HD, with the original musical soundtrack CD as a bonus. 

DAUGHTERS OF DARKNESS also played at a couple of local drive-ins with William O'Brown's THE WITCHMAKER (1969) and, as a third feature on the weekend, Terence Fisher's masterpiece THE DEVIL'S BRIDE (1968).

THE LAST RUN was a (then) new Richard Fleischer picture, but began as the latest John Huston film. Huston and Scott did not see eye-to-eye, and the star had the greater authority on set in this case. 1971 doesn't seem so long ago to me, so it's disorienting for me to see an ad "torn from today's headlines" whose fames of reference in regard to action pictures are Cagney, Robinson, and Bogart. 

Next up is a curious, experimental fusion of documentary and science fiction scenario, written by David Seltzer (who would later pen THE OMEN), in Dr. Hellstrom (Lawrence Pressman) presents an audio-visual presentation that offers persuasive evidence of a possible insect takeover of the planet. I still haven't seen this; I really should. There was a DVD and Blu-ray release of this title, but they are now OOP and very pricey.   

To be perfectly honest, there HAD BEEN a Western like DOC before, because this is essentially the story leading into John Sturges' GUNFIGHT ON THE O.K. CORRAL, with Stacy Leach as Doc Holliday and Harris Yulin as Wyatt Earp, given a suitably gritty, revisionist 1970s treatment by director Frank Perry and screenwriter Pete Hammill. Well worth seeing, it was recently made available on Blu-ray and DVD by Kino Lorber in a definitive presentation. 

Last but not least was this American International double feature, whose double-barreled campaign really shows no enthusiasm at all for either Gordon Hessler's MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE (which they fooled with extensively before releasing it) nor BUNNY O'HARE, an actual AIP flick starring Bette Davis, which was just as importantly the last theatrical release for the work of the extraordinary OUTER LIMITS stylist Gerd Oswald. It would have amounted to an okay if somewhat bittersweet evening for those who ventured out to see it, The AIP Golden Age was definitely over. Happily, the director's cut of MURDERS is now standard and it can be found on Blu-ray from Shout! Factory on a better double bill with Daniel Haller's THE DUNWICH HORROR (1970).

And now, two more titles that were hitting my local screens 50 years ago this week...  

Another AIP double bill! This one posited the latest Ishiro Honda kaiju-fest alongside something cruder, the independently-made, not-particularly-awaited return to the director's chair for Anthony M. Lanza (THE GLORY STOMPERS). YOG, MONSTER FROM SPACE was AIP's retitling of the film, which is today known by its preferred title SPACE AMOEBA, which can still be found on DVD from Tokyo Shock. which is how it's generally known today. Notably, it was the first Toho kaiju entertainment to be produced after the death of special effects innovator Eiji Tsubaraya, who had left Toho by this time to create and nurture his own television production empire. The effects and monster designs are generally fine, though some short cuts are visible. THE INCREDIBLE 2-HEADED TRANSPLANT is most notorious for starring Bruce Dern, who plays the mad doctor who grafts the head of a rabid criminal (Albert Cole) onto the body of a giant, lumbering man (John Bloom) with the mind of a child. Both heads went on to co-star in Al Adamson's DRACULA VS. FRANKENSTEIN. It's available on Blu-ray as a Rifftrax disc. On a DICK CAVETT SHOW appearance, Bruce Dern refused to answer questions about the film because his paycheck had bounced.

One of the last of the high concept drive-in movie titles, WEREWOLVES ON WHEELS was directed by Michel Levesque, who subsequently made the nostalgic favorite SWEET SUGAR for Roger Corman's New World Pictures before finding a more lasting niche as an art director and production designer on such films as Russ Meyer's SUPERVIXENS (1975), UP! (1976), and BENEATH THE VALLEY OF THE ULTRA-VIXENS (1979), as well as BOBBIE JO AND THE OUTLAW (1976) and THE INCREDIBLE MELTING MAN (1977). The biker gang includes Stephen Oliver (PEYTON PLACE), Severn Darden (THE PRESIDENT'S ANALYST), Billy Gray (THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL), and Barry McGuire ("Eve of Destruction" and another PRESIDENT'S ANALYST alumnus). The version found on Amazon Prime is incomplete, but fortunately it's available on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber.

(c) 2021 by Tim Lucas. All rights reserved.

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