SYNTHETIC FLESH!

There it is, right on the cover of MONSTER WORLD #8 (May 1966), a full color portrait of the mad fiend to be found in DR. X (1932). MONSTER WORLD, for those who came in late, was a spin-off sister (brother?) publication of the legendary FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND. In the mid 1960s, FM was enjoying unprecedented success, so much so that publisher James Warren and editor Forrest J Ackerman decided to launch a companion magazine. MONSTER WORLD was published in between issues of FM, had a lower cover price and fewer pages but it was filled with great articles and photos. Sadly, the magazine only lasted ten issues. 

I know for a fact that it was in the pages of the issue featured above that I first learned of such a film as DR.X. Of course, for years, until I actually saw the film, I was under the mistaken impression that the monster on the cover was Dr. X himself, but that's not the case. 

No, the misshapen monstrosity of a mug depicted on the cover belongs to Preston Foster but to say any more about how he got that way would be to spoil the delights to be found in this early two-color Technicolor, pre-Code horror film. Early Technicolor film certainly had it's limitations but the cinematography here works to the films' advantage with most scenes cast in various shades and hues of orange and green. The lurid, lush green color is particularly atmospheric in this story of the "Moon Killer", a maniac who strikes when the moon is full. 

DR. X has a lot of things going for it in addition to the primitive Technicolor palette. Lionel Atwill is superb in the title role as Dr. Xavier (surely Stan Lee and Jack Kirby saw this film when they were young), the lovely Fay Wray (here sporting her natural brunette hair color),  impressive sets and art direction (some of the sets are towering), nimble camera work by Ray Rennahan that includes several striking high angle shots, mixed with compositions in laboratories that foreground arcane scientific equipment. Preston Foster is good as the monster who craves "synthetic flesh" and the whole thing moves at a good clip under the command of Michael Curtiz. In fact, Curtiz, Atwill and Wray would team up again the following year for THE MYSTERY OF THE WAX MUSEUM (1933), another early Technicolor horror film that served as the inspiration for HOUSE OF WAX (1953).

But a couple of things work against DR. X and they are things that are hard to ignore. First is the screenplay by Robert Tasker and Earl Baldwin. Based on the play THE TERROR (1931) by Howard W. Comstock and Allen C. Miller, DR. X can never quite escape it's origin on the stage. Even though much credit should be given to Curtiz and the crew to try and open up the action, there are several extremely stagy sequences that consist of people standing around talking. 

I could overlook that to some extent because a lot of early '30s films are stagy (see Tod Browning's DRACULA (1931)). But what really grates on me is the performance by Lee Tracy as happy-go-lucky newspaper reporter Lee Taylor. Tracy strains mightily to be funny and perhaps audiences of the time enjoyed his antics and found them a good way to leaven the tension of the rather gruesome goings-on. But from a 2020 perspective, Tracy's schtick comes off as inept and annoying. What's worse, he's the hero of the story, destroying the monster and getting the girl.

Still, DR, X has it's moments of pure pulp horror and for that I commend it and recommend it to all horror aficionados and all of those little boys who stared in wonder at the cover of MOSNTER WORLD #8 and wondered if they'd ever have the chance to see this landmark film. 

THE BLACK CURTAIN

 

THE BLACK CURTAIN (1941) is the fourth Cornell Woolrich novel I've read in the last year or so. Although it starts out strong, the ending feels a bit forced and contrived. However, that in no way lessened my enjoyment of the book and my anticipation of savoring more Woolrich novels in the future. 

CURTAIN deals with the classic noir trope of amnesia. A freak accident restores Frank Townsend's memory one day but he's left with a three year gap in his life that he has no recollection of. He soon finds himself hunted by a mysterious man in gray. Townsend goes back to the street where the narrative opening accident occurred, hoping to find some clue to his missing past. He finds a young girl who knows him as Dan Nearing and knows he's wanted for murder. Townsend and the girl team up to discover the real killer and it's here where things get a bit stretched.

From out of nowhere, Townsend suddenly develops and employs deductive skills second only to Sherlock Holmes. He can decode Morse Code sent by eye blinks (!) and figures out how the deadly shotgun blast was engineered in a fantastical way. 

Still, Woolrich keeps the tension turned up to maximum throughout resulting in a satisfying thriller of psychological suspense. BLACK CURTAIN was filmed as STREET OF CHANCE in 1942 (a film I have not seen but will be on the look out for), as a radio drama on SUSPENSE in 1943 and as a Sydney Pollack directed episode of THE ALFRED HITCHCOCK HOUR (no surprise, this material is straight up Hitch's alley) in 1962. 

Recommended for all noir fans. 

SENSE OF WONDER

This is another one of those "woulda, coulda, shoulda" pieces that I hate to write. 

I recently finished reading SENSE OF WONDER: A LIFE IN COMIC FANDOM (TwoMorrows, 2001) by Bill Schelly. Boy, do I wish I had read this absolutely wonderful book sometime before last September. You see, Bill Schelly passed away on September 12th of 2019. If I had read this book while he was still alive, I most certainly would have reached out to him in some way to let him know how much I enjoyed his book. 

SENSE OF WONDER, subtitled "A Personal Memoir of Fandom's Golden Age", is exactly that. It's a heartfelt look back at one young man's discovery of both comic books and subsequently, comic book fanzines in the early and mid 1960s. While Schelly was slightly older than me, I could nonetheless identity with a lot of the things he writes about. Schelly's love for comics and zines ultimately led him to publish his own fanzines, of which, SENSE OF WONDER was the longest running and, in the end, most professionally produced of all of the zines he cranked out either alone or with the assistance of likeminded fans. 

It's a wonderful, "you-are-there" look back at a truly magical time in American comic book history aided immensely by Schelly's stellar prose. SENSE OF WONDER is an often funny, sometimes deeply moving accounting of one man's coming of age at the same time his most beloved of media was experiencing immense growing pains itself. 

Recently, SENSE OF WONDER was re-released with additional material by Schelly that frames his various adventures through the lens of a young gay man, which Schelly was. His homosexuality is only vaguely hinted at in the original edition of SENSE and even though I haven't read the expanded version, I have no doubt that it can only be an improvement on what Schelly had already accomplished. Schelly comes across as honest, thoughtful and insightful about comics, life, and various relationships and I'm sure the new edition sheds additional light on his unfortunately way too short life. 

The only other book by Bill Schelly that I've read is EMPIRE OF MONSTERS (Fantagraphics, 2019), his brilliant biography of horror magazine publisher James Warren. I have a few other Schelly scribed and/or edited tomes here in the old man-cave that I'll get to hopefully sooner rather than later. These include his Joe Kubert (one of my all time favorite comic book artists) biography, MAN OF ROCK (2008), the stunning hardcover collection THE ART OF JOE KUBERT (2011), COMIC FANDOM READER (2002), THE BEST OF ALTER EGO (2008)  (with the legendary Roy Thomas, my all-time favorite comic book writer) and THE GOLDEN AGE OF COMIC FANDOM (1995). 

In addition to these and other books on comics fandom, Schelly wrote two books about the great Otto Binder, a critically acclaimed bio of John (Little Lulu) Stanley and an Eisner Award winning book about the legendary Harvey (MAD) Kurtzman. 

Had Schelly lived, there's no doubt he would have continued to contribute meticulously researched, lively written volumes of comics history spotlighting both the endless trove of treasures contained in fanzines, the phenomenon of fandom itself and the creative men and women who brought those wonderful four-color fantasies to life. 

I deeply regret not having had the chance to communicate with this talented man while he was with us. If you have even the slightest interest in the history of comic books, I urge you to seek out and read any and all of the books you can find with the Bill Schelly byline. I promise, you won't be disappointed. 

 

"TROLLOP? WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?"

 

Platinum tressed sexpot Mamie Van Doren, poured into a pair of blue jeans and a too-tight sweater, shimmies and shakes her way through several godawful "rock 'n roll" song and dance numbers in the notorious '50s exploitation film UNTAMED YOUTH (1957). The "musical" numbers serve to pad out the 80 minutes running time which would otherwise clock in at less than hour without Van Doren repeatedly strutting her stuff. 

UNTAMED YOUTH is the tale of a group of wayward teens and young adults (all of the actors are clearly way too old for the parts and totally unconvincing as "youth"), who are arrested and forced to serve their terms doing hard labor on a cotton farm. These kids can work in the cotton fields all day (often wearing improper clothing, no sign of protective hats and occasionally bursting into songs) and then dance and sing the night away back in the mess hall. Boy, do those kids have a lot of energy! Anyone else would be totally exhausted after a day of back breaking labor but not these untamed youth. 

The cotton farm is owned by the sinister Russ Tropp (John Russell), a crook who is out to exploit not only the youth at his command but also a number of illegal alien workers about to cross over from Mexico. It's all part of a plot cooked up by Tropp and corrupt Judge Steele (Lurene Tuttle), who conveniently sentences young offenders that come before her to work on the farm. Turns out Tropp and Steele are secretly married (it's definitely a May-December romance), with Tropp using the Judge for his own ends. 

Steele's son, Bob (Don Burnett), takes a job on the farm only to discover the misdeeds taking place there including the working to death of a young woman, Baby (Yvonne Fedderson), who is five months pregnant at the time of her death. Bob, along with the plucky Lowe sisters, Penny (Van Doren) and Jane (Lori Nelson), uncover Tropp's scheme and shut down the entire operation.

Cinematographer Carl E. Guthrie shoots most of Tropp's scenes from an extreme low angle making the already tall man seem even more visually imposing. Tall, dark and handsome, John Russell had a long career in both television and feature films. He starred on two television series in the 1950s, SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE (1955-1957) and LAWMAN (1958-1962) and appeared in three Clint Eastwood films: THE OUTLAW JOSEY WALES (1976), HONKYTONK MAN (1982) and PALE RIDER (1985). 

Real life rock star Eddie Cochran is featured as "Bong", one of the "kids" and he's featured in a couple of musical numbers. 

Lori Nelson is known to genre fans for her appearances in REVENGE OF THE CREATURE (1955) and Roger Corman's THE DAY THE WORLD ENDED (1955) while Van Doren's genre work includes THE NAVY VS. THE NIGHT MONSTERS (1966) and VOYAGE TO THE PLANET OF PREHISTORIC WOMEN (1965). 

UNTAMED YOUTH is nowhere as taboo shattering as it's reputation would lead one to believe. It's a fairly routine story with a serviceable supporting cast. But make no mistake about it, UNTAMED YOUTH is Mamie Van Doren's film from beginning to end. She's there to sell tickets, raise eyebrows and quicken male pulses, both young and old.  

She succeeds at doing these in a most magnificent way.