It has been a while since I wrote up a movie review and I have been really wanting to sit down and watch a good b-film for a few weeks. Well, today I finally did, I present you with Lady Frankenstein.

This 1971 film stars Lady Frankenstein (Tania), the beautiful, but demented daughter of Baron Frankenstein. After arriving at her father’s home after leave, she tells him that she plans to follow in his footsteps in his strange experiments on animals. After witnessing a hanging, Baron decides to steal the body for his experiments. The Baron and his assistant Marshall (who also happens to be Tania’s lover) feed life back into the body, thus creating a monster. The monster gets loose, kills a bunch of people, and eventually kills Baron Frankenstein himself. Tania quickly decides to start to take over where her father left off in his experiments. She decides to use Tommy, the handsome but ’slow’ stable boy, as her victim, in order to provide pleasure for herself. After a bit of convincing Marshall allows her to transplant his brain and heart into Tommy’s body. All goes well with the operation, but the monster is still on the loose. The townspeople who are fed up with these killings decide to take action….

This movie started out quite slow, and we were very tempted to turn it off at one point, but not long after that it started getting good. When I say good, I mean funny. The movie is of poor quality, but the premise of the movie really makes the film. What could possibly be better than a beautiful mad scientist creating a monster to satisfy herself??

So sorry for no movie review last weekend. My brain needed a minor break from watching B films. This week I wanted to watch a classic film, and one that I had not seen before. After a few minutes browsing recommendations online, Invasion of the Body Snatchers seemed the obvious choice. How silly that in all my years I hadn’t see this until now. I sure am glad I did–this is a great one!

After returning home from a short holiday Dr. Miles Bennell finds that a number of people in town are acting quite peculiar. Around the same time Dr. Bennell is reunited with a former flame, Becky. Becky quickly realizes that her cousin Wilma is among those acting strange. Suddenly afraid of their Uncle Ira Wilma continues to go on about how “Uncle Ira isn’t Uncle Ira anymore”. It isn’t until late one night when Miles’ friend Jack calls him over to his house, that they realize the severity of what is going on in town. When Miles and Becky arrive at Jack’s house, he shows them a body he found. A body with no life, no expressions, and completely void of emotion. However it does have an eery resemblance to Jack. They soon discover that these creatures or “pod people” are replacing the humans for which they look like, and are completely unidentifiable other than their lack of emotions. Like all other films in this genre it soon becomes a race for two people to save the entire planet from these Body Snatchers.

This movie was a lot of fun to watch. The film was pretty fast paced, and unlike a lot of old movies–kept my attention throughout the entire film! The theme of this movie reminded me a lot of I Married a Monster from Outer Space, and when I was looking at the Wikipedia page for this film, they said the same thing. If you are just getting started on the B-movies, this would be a great place to start. Now I can’t wait to see all the remakes they did of this 1956 classic!

Usually I use the Saturday Night Movie reviews as a good reason to branch out and see hilarious bad films that I have not yet seen. Occasionally though, if there is a bad film that I love enough, I will do a write up on a film that I have seen. I always watch it again before I write the entry, so I can refresh my mind enough to actually write something of interest about the movie. The Brain that Wouldn’t Die is one of the latter. I have seen this movie countless times, and just adore it. The first time I watched it was back in the 90’s on Mystery Science Theatre 3000.

Like Teenagers from Outer Space, this one is public domain, and you can watch it in it’s entirety here on Indulgences.

Dr. Bill Cortner and his fiancee Jan are in a terrible accident after some reckless driving on Bill’s part. Bill is thrown from the car, but survives pretty much scratch free. Jan, on the other hand, is not so lucky-she was decapitated. Naturally Bill is mortified, so he wraps her head up in a blanket and flees the scene, hoping to somehow keep Jan alive. Once he arrives in the lab he hooks up her head to a helmet with wires coming out of it, and places it in a tray of liquid. In no time at all Jan is alive again and furious that Bill would not let her die. Since Dr. Cortner had been experimenting with transplant surgery, he quickly concludes that he must find a ‘doner’ body for Jan’s head. He goes out on the town, looking for pretty girls, with even prettier bodies to bring home and attach to Jan’s head. As if things weren’t scary enough already, locked behind the door in the laboratory is a monster that growls, grunts, and rattles the door. Jan has some sort of telepathic communication with the monster, and she continually talks about getting even with the doctor for what he did to them. As you can imagine, it only gets more intense as the doctor narrows in on the perfect body for his lovely head…

This movie is such fun, and a very quick watch. It is among the favorites of many B-film fanatics that I know or have talked to. With lines such as “Keep your g-string on” and “Who’s to tell me to blow if I don’t want to. This is my dressing room too, remember?” this movie is an instant classic in the low budget genre. This film is full of amusing bloopers and mess-ups that are so obvious, you really get a sense of how low of a budget they were working with. The Brain that Wouldn’t Die is B-film gold, and a must see!

After I rented Cat Women of the Moon, this was one of the films that Blockbuster Online recommended to me. I was really excited about this one because it had pretty good reviews, unlike a lot of those old campy movies! When we got the film we watched it half way through before it started to skip terribly, eventually just freezing completely. After trying to clean the disc off, and having the same problem, we reported it, and had to wait almost a week to finish watching this movie!

Queen of Outer Space’s theme seems quite typical of many sci-fi films of the late 50’s and early 60’s. A ship full of men head to the moon and they crash land in some mysterious location. Naturally, the place they land is inhabited only by gorgeous women with long legs, short skirts, and large bouffants. Though many sci-fi films followed that formula, this one tops all others, not only because it stars Zsa Zsa Gabor, but because it goes above and beyond most films of that era in its usage of sexual connotation.

After crash landing in on an unknown planet, the four men aboard get out to investigate. They oldest of the crew quickly concludes that they are on the planet Venus. After a less than welcome greeting from the women of the planet, they quickly learn that the planet is ruled by the evil, masked queen, Yllana, and that the men went extinct many years before. They quickly meet Talleah (Zsa Zsa Gabor) who tells them of her plan to try and over throw the queen. After a brief stint with the queen, one of the men removes her mask to find that her face is horribly disfigured. Yllana explains that men did it to her, the radiation from wars caused her scars. The now furious queen decides that the only choice she has is to destroy the Earth, and all the men on it. The four men on Venus need to fight the evil queen for their lives, the lives of their ladies, and for every single person on Earth.

While there is a storyline somewhere in this movie, it is hard to pay attention when all you see on the screen is men and women making kissy faces at each other. While the three younger men quickly find ladies to latch onto, the oldest man in the bunch gets the pleasure of watching the three couples have a steamy make out session in a cave, while trying to hide from Queen Yllana. This movie was really worth the wait. It was highly amusing, and the picture was so clear and easy to watch. Zsa Zsa and her accent were never explained….was she from the opposite side of Venus?

I first saw this movie about a year or two ago, when I bought a box set of old sci-fi movies. The only thing I can remember thinking throughout the entire movies was; where are the teenagers? The only one that looks like they could possibly be under the age of twenty is Betty, the lead, and she is not from outer space.

Apparently Mystery Science Theatre 3000 aired this movie back in the 90’s, but I failed to see that one. This movie is public domain, so you can view the entire film completely free, and right here on Indulgences!

Teenagers from Outer Space starts out when three teenagers land on Earth, in hopes of using the land to farm their giant animals, the Gargons, for food. Immediately after emerging from the space craft one of the men, Thor, vaporizes a small dog. Derek, one of the other teenagers on board, inspects the remains of the dog, and finds a tag that was once on the dog’s collar. He sees that the metal piece has been inscribed which makes him realize that there is intelligent life on this planet. Derek lets the rest of the crew know that he does not support them using the Earth as a place for farming for the Gargons out of fear that it will wipe out the human race. The other crew members feel no pity whatsoever and Derek quickly flees. The Gargon does not do well in the Earth’s atmosphere, so the other crew members leave it behind as the call back to their people and let them know of Derek’s departure. Derek goes in search of the address on the dog tag. Upon arrival he is offered a room in the house, and forms a quick bond with Betty, the girl of the house. As Thor calls home he is connected with their leader and it is soon revealed that Derek is his son, and must be found. Thor goes out in search of Derek, killing anyone who stands in his way with his vaporizing gun. As Thor chases Derek and Betty around town the Gargon begins thriving, and grows quickly. It soon becomes a fight that Derek and Betty must fight against Thor, the Gargon, and hundreds of incoming ships filled with Gargons.

This movie is a pretty cheesy one, but still a lot of fun to watch. The movie is filled with hilarious special effects to watch out for. One of my favorite bits is when the vaporizing occurs. The body is suddenly transformed into nothing but a skeleton and a puff of smoke. Amazing! The Gargons are quite frightening as well. Though quite dark and shadowed, it is very clear to make out their shape— a lobster! It is clear to see why Betty is so scared of the Gargon, a lobster the size of a house would scare the crud out of me as well! For more information, and some really funny trivia read what is posted on Wikipedia about Teenagers from Outer Space.

Firstly, let this be said; John Waters films are not for everyone. Let me reword that; John Waters films are for hardly anyone. There are very few (that I know) who can stomach his movies.

Ok now that that is out of the way, let me also say that John Waters is quite possibly the number one person I would like to meet that I haven’t already. His sense of humor is incredible, he has strange and weird hobbies, he knows the most interesting of people, he collects fake babies, and he is an all around incredibly interesting person. He takes complete trash, adds a dash of his magic, and suddenly his films are the most colorful, hilarious, absurd, and disgusting things you could possibly imagine.

Desperate Living is the story of the events that take place after an incredibly neurotic woman (Peggy) and her housekeeper (Grizelda) accidentally murder Peggy’s husband. They quickly flee their suburban Baltimore home to avoid being arrested by the police. Shortly outside the city they are pulled over by an officer. The officer rapes the two women and tells them of Mortville, a community in the woods for outcasts, weirdos, and criminals. Once they arrive to the garbage infested Mortville, they go in search of a room for rent. As luck would have it, they find a room out back of a house, who’s previous tenant died the night before. The property belongs to two promiscuous lesbian lovers, Muffy and Mole, who Peggy and Grizelda quickly befriend. Shortly after arriving the have a run in with the queen of Mortville. The queen is an unpleasant lady who gets her kicks watching others suffer, torturing her daughter, and from men 1/3 her age. Desperate to escape their crummy living conditions, Peggy sees a way to work with the queen, and give all the citizens rabies so that they can wipe out the entire town of Mortville. It soon becomes a race for the other characters to overthrow the queen and Peggy, and regain their rights in Mortville.

Like all John Water’s films, this one contains all the usual suspects, Mink Stole, Edith Massey, and Mary Vivian Pierce. However, this was the only film he made during the life of Divine, that he wasn’t in. In an interview John Waters said that Divine was supposed to play the housekeeper, but was unable to fit it in with his schedule. Nevertheless, Jean Hill played Grizelda perfectly.

Made in 1977 this is classic John Waters, and in my opinion one of his best films. Like his other works, this movie is full of nudity, controversial imagery, and total filth. I always watch in complete fascination at the characters he has met in his life, befriended, and later captured on film. Each one of the actors (in all of his films) brings so much of themselves to each role, that you really get to feel like you know the stars themselves. As someone who spends a lot of time people watching, I think this is the cream of the crop in strange human behavior.

**There is nudity and much vulgarity in the following trailer…..so watch with caution! **

This movie is such a huge cult classic. I can’t remember the first time I saw it, but I know I know that I did fall in love immediately. Something about movies about ‘bad girls’ or ‘girl gangs’ just really amuses and intrigues me.

The film is about three go-go dancers looking to get some thrills in the dessert. As they race around in their fast cars, they quickly discover a couple on their way out to the dessert as well. The head of the pack, Varla, savagely murders the boyfriend then takes the girlfriend, Linda, hostage. The three girls hop into their separate cars and drive off to a gas station. One of the girls, Billie, sees a good looking guy pushing a man in a wheel chair. The gas attendant tells the girls that the father is extremely wealthy, and the son, who is pushing him has the brain of a vegetable. Varla decides that the pack should follow them out to their house to steal the old man’s money. Soon after arriving at the Ranch the girls are discovered. They tell the old man that Linda was involved in a freak accident, is the daughter of politicians, and is mentally unstable, so they have to tie her up and gag her and return her to her parents. The old man invites the girls to lunch, and they accept. From here on out it becomes a knock down, drag out race for every person’s life, the money, and love.

Everything about this movie is high drama, and action packed. This film is quite possibly the ultimate in young boy fantasies. There are girls who like girls, girls who like boys, girls who fight with each other, revealing midriffs, low cut tops, girls in bikinis, car races, gun battles, weight lifting, and so much more. Everyone should see this movie because it is such a classic gem.

I found this movie while browsing through the requested films on Blockbuster.com. Once I saw the cover of the movie, I immediately knew that it must be rented! After watching the trailer for it, and a dance scene from the movie on YouTube, I was further convinced, and moved it to the first film in my queue.

Like many sci-fi films from the 1950’s, this film is about a crew of men discovering a race of beautiful women, in a place where all the men died out years before. It starts out inside a spaceship that has just taken off from Earth. The crew consists of four men and one woman, and they are on their way to the moon. As they get closer to the moon Helen, the lady of the ship, begins have strange ‘feelings’ like she had been there before. After landing the ship on the dark side of the moon, the crew gets out to explore. Helen tells them of a cave that she knows about, and they go to investigate. They soon find out that there is oxygen on the moon, and their space suits are completely unnecessary. After taking off the suits, wandering off without them, and fighting off two gigantic spiders, the crew returns to find their suits missing. Not long after, the cat women show up, and naturally the men all begin to fall for them. It is soon discovered that they are telepathically controlling Helen, with the intentions of taking the space ship, and taking over the Earth.

This film was actually quite a bit of fun to watch. It is a nice short one-64 minutes, so there isn’t a lot of fluff taking place throughout the film. The sets and special effects are pretty funny, but done pretty well for the time. I laughed out loud, when they were in the space ship, and they all buckle their seat belts- on their chairs with rolling wheels! I am still not sure why the moon women are called Cat Women, the only thing I could figure was that it was because they were all wearing matching black cat suits, or that their eyebrows arch up, sort of in the shape of cat ears. The ending of the movie is hysterical, everything that led up to it is over so quickly and undramatically. It makes you think to yourself, ‘did they just do that because they were tired of working on this film?’.

I watched this movie about a year ago with my husband. I thought it was hysterically entertaining, but he on the other hand thought it was a “sack of crap”. Recently I put it on again, and it was much more well received the second time around. I’m not exactly sure what changed for him, but he too thought it was hilarious.

When several people in California turn up dead, of unknown causes, the authorities get involved. After a little investigation they conclude that the deaths were brought upon by ’sexual exhaustion’. With a cast of buxom beauties in dark sunglasses, it is soon revealed that the women in the film are injecting themselves with hormones from bees in order to have bigger busts, smaller waists, and to reverse any signs of aging. Unfortunately for these women, the hormone injections have some nasty side affects. After taking these injections, the women are officially transformed into ‘bee girls’. After the transformations their entire eye turns black, so they are forced to wear sunglasses in order to fit in to society. Another affect is that they have a constant desire to mate. Putting two and two together, the officials soon figure out that these bee girls are behind it all.

This 1973 grindhouse film is a cross between soft core porn and a monster movie. Unlike most classic monster movies however, the victim experiences extreme happiness in his last seconds alive.

This film is about as good as it came in the 1970’s for B films. With gorgeous women with feathered hair and all sorts of promiscuous sex, one may catch themselves saying “bom chika bow wow” repeatedly during the coarse of the movie. Nudity aside, this movie is actually pretty entertaining. It’s one of those movies, that are so ridiculous that you find yourself laughing over the intense and suspenseful scenes. The close ups on the women’s eyes are truly one of the creepiest things I have ever seen. One of the best bits of the movie to watch out for is when they show the bee girls’ point of view.

This week we signed up for Blockbuster.com to avoid all the trouble of going to the dreaded video store. It also saves us a considerable amount of money, and their are far more videos.

We have used Blockbuster online before, along with Netflix, both at the same time for a small period of time. I love how you can browse through films you liked, get recommendations, and rate the films with just a click of a button. Of course, knowing me, I start clicking on all the films that have one star ratings. My queue is now filled with monster movies, sci-fi thrillers, and grindhouse style movies. I can’t wait!

This movie was the first film we received in the mail. I chose it because it was written by one of my favorite filmmakers; Edward D. Wood Jr. According to Wikipedia, it was also the most financially successful film that had Ed Wood’s input.

This movie is the story of what happens to teenage girls when they get everything they ever wanted. The lead in this movie is Paula Parkins, the daughter of a well to do couple who give her everything but attention. With the lack of attention and structure in her life Paula quickly looks elsewhere for her kicks. She gets some girls together and organizes a girl gang. The girls start robbing and terrorizing innocent victims and establishments. At one point the girls find a couple parked upon Lover’s Lane. They tie up the girl, and bring the boy into the woods and rape him. The girls soon get in connection with another girl, during a steamy makeout party, who wants a local school to be vandalized. Somehow the police get tipped off, and the film quickly becomes a high speed chase and gun battle, ending the girls’ violence spree, with a shocking surprise ending.

With a classic good girls gone bad storyline, this film sort of captures your attention, as you want to see what crazy antics these young girls pull next. With their makeout pajama party, rape, guns, high speed chases, and bullet bras, this is the perfect example of what the life of a bad girl was supposed to be. It is a classic 50’s ‘movie with a moral’ film. Teenagers gone violent due to the parent’s poor parenting. With a lack of money the wardrobe and props were very limited. According to this film vandalizing a school merely means turning desks on their side, and being shot produces no blood whatsoever. Nevertheless, these are the things that I loved about this film. It’s limited budget, under dramatic acting, tight sweaters, and controversial subject are all classic Ed Wood style.