Killers from Space (also known as The Man Who Saved the Earth) is a 1954 American independent science fiction film produced and directed by W. Lee Wilder, and starring Peter Graves, Barbara Bestar, Frank Gerstle, James Seay, and Steve Pendleton. Shot in black-and-white, the film originated as a commissioned screenplay from Wilder's son Myles Wilder and their regular collaborator William Raynor.
Under the working title of The Man Who Saved the Earth, production took place from early- to mid-July 1953 at KTTV Studios. Scenes featuring the cavern hideout of the aliens were shot in Bronson Canyon in Los Angeles. The effect for the aliens in the film was done by Harry Thomas. He was told to make large eyes for them, albeit on a cheap budget, since glass eyes would have cost too much. Needing an idea, he found it while looking in his refrigerator: plastic egg trays, of which he used the top portion by cutting it with a heated screwdriver. He then cut little holes with the screwdriver. Owing to a lack of further time meant that he did not do further work that he would have liked to do, such as sealing the sides with cotton.
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Dishonored Lady (also known as Sins of Madeleine) is a 1947 American film noir crime film directed by Robert Stevenson and starring Hedy Lamarr, Dennis O'Keefe and John Loder. It is based on the 1930 play Dishonored Lady by Edward Sheldon and Margaret Ayer Barnes. Lamarr and Loder were married when they made the film, but they divorced later in 1947.
In this film, beautiful art editor Madeleine Damian (Hedy Lamarr) carries on numerous loveless affairs. After a failed relationship with advertiser Felix Courtland (John Loder), the increasingly depressed Madeleine attempts suicide. When Jack Garet (William Lundigan), her secretary and former lover, tries to blackmail her, Madeleine resigns and seeks a reclusive life. Neighbor David Cousins (Dennis O'Keefe) befriends Madeleine, but soon Courtland and Garet discover her whereabouts and disrupt her new life. Production was scheduled to begin no later than January 1945. However, problems with the Motion Picture Production Code caused a delay. The Hays Office insisted that two love affairs in the script, one in Mexico and the other in New York, might be "overloading" the picture, and also objected to the "night of sordid passion." A memo dated April 25, 1946, stated that, despite revisions, the script was unacceptable because of its gratuitous sex and references to Madeleine's unsavory family secrets. In the final film, references to Madeleine's parents were omitted completely. A character named Moreno and an affair in Mexico City were excised, and the "night of sordid passion" was not shown. All suggestions that Madeleine was a murderer, or had even contemplated murder, were also removed from the film. In the final script submitted to the Hays Office, Madeleine takes a trip hoping that the time will come when she can be with David; the reunion at the film's closing was added later. Li'l Abner is a 1940 film based on the comic strip Lil' Abner created by Al Capp. The three most recognizable names associated with the film are Buster Keaton as Lonesome Polecat, Jeff York as Li'l Abner, and Milton Berle, who co-wrote the title song.
This was the first of two films based on the popular Al Capp strip, the second being Paramount's 1959 musical, Lil' Abner, which was also based on the hit 1956 Broadway musical Lil' Abner. In this version, Li'l Abner becomes convinced that he is going to die within twenty-four hours, so he agrees to marry two different girls: Daisy Mae (who has chased him for years) and Wendy Wilecat (who rescued him from an angry mob). It is all settled at the Sadie Hawkins Day race. Kangaroo (also known as The Australian Story) is a 1952 American western film directed by Lewis Milestone. It was the first Technicolor film filmed on location in Australia.
Thinking it will be easy to make his fortune Down Under, Englishman Richard Connor (Peter Lawford) travels to Australia only to find he's been grossly misinformed. Broke and demoralized, he teams up with petty criminal John Gamble (Richard Boone) just to scrape together enough money to go back home. Their plan is to con a local rancher (Finlay Currie) into thinking Connor is his estranged son, but things go awry when Connor falls in love with the rancher's daughter (Maureen O'Hara). We've added a sharp new print of the 1940 Boris Karloff horror film, The Ape. Karloff plays Dr. Bernard Adrian, a kindly mad scientist who wants to cure a young woman's polio. He needs spinal fluid from a human to complete the formula of his experimental serum.
The film is based on Adam Hull Shirk's play The Ape, which was previously adapted by Nigh as The House of Mystery (1934). The Ape was made by Monogram Pictures Corp. after making several Mr. Wong films with both Karloff and director Charles Nigh. Production on The Ape started on August 6, 1940. The Ape was released on September 30, 1940, and was distributed by Monogram Pictures |
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