Tag Archives: British

Blood of the Vampire (1958) – Friday Night At The Home Drive-In

Posted on by

POster for Blood of the Vampire (1958)Blood of the Vampire (1958) by #HenryCass
w/#DonaldWolfit #VincentBall #BarbaraShelley

A wrongly convicted doctor is sent to a harsh institution where he assists the creepy warden conduct experiments with blood.

“No woman alive is safe from the most frightening fiend in the history of horror!”

“He begins where Dracula left off!”

#Horror #SciFi
#NotQuiteClassicCinema
#FridayNightAtTheHomeDriveIn

Blood of the Vampire (1958) is another horror film from 1958 which I had never heard of before. It’s directed by Henry Cass, who also made a film called The Hand (1960), which I wrote about a while back. That one was more of a film noir, or crime drama, than a horror film. Blood of the Vampire feels like a Hammer horror film at first, but as it goes along it starts to become more of a strange drama of sorts. But much like The Hand, it’s just offbeat enough to be a rather interesting watch… Continue reading →

Stranger from Venus (1954) – Friday Night At The Home Drive-In

Posted on by

Poster for Stranger from Venus (1954)Stranger from Venus (1954) by #BurtBalaban
w/#PatriciaNeal #HelmutDantine #DerekBond

A woman meets a man with no pulse who is here from Venus to warn Earth about the atom.

“When the Earth had Fourteen Seconds to Live!”

“There is no pulse. There are two possible explanations for this; I am drunk, or you are dead.”

#SciFi
#NotQuiteClassicCinema
#FridayNightAtTheHomeDriveIn

Last week I wrote about a weird British science fiction movie that was actually based on a play (!) and as a result was actually much better than I expected. This week I’m writing about another weird (albeit less weird) British science fiction film that wasn’t based on a play – but feels very much like it could have been. I am talking about Stranger from Venus (1954), directed by Burt Balaban.  Continue reading →

Cosmic Monsters (1958) – Friday Night At The Home Drive-In

Posted on by

Poster for Cosmic Monsters (1958)The Strange World of Planet X /
Cosmic Monsters (1958) by #GilbertGunn
w/#ForrestTucker #GabyAndré

A friendly visitor from outer space warns against conducting experiments with the Earth’s magnetic field, that could mutate insects into giant monsters.

“Shock by incredible shock this ravaging death overruns the earth…menacing mankind with overwhelming chaos!”

#Horror #SciFi
#NotQuiteClassicCinema
#FridayNightAtTheHomeDriveIn

What can I say about Cosmic Monsters (1958) AKA The Strange World of Planet X? I had never heard of it before last week, and probably for good reason. It strikes me as an attempt to recapture the magic of The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) Both movies have (basically) the same premise: an alien comes to Earth to warn us to stop doing something stupid that will lead to our destruction. However, The Day the Earth Stood Still is a stone cold classic directed by Robert Wise, who made fan favourites like The Haunting (1963), Born to Kill (1947) and The Body Snatcher (1945).

Cosmic Monsters, on the other hand, is a mostly forgettable film directed by Gilbert Gunn, who also made, uh… Tyneside Story (1943)… Girls at Sea (1958)… and What a Whopper (1961)..?  Hmmm… not even another SciFi Horror film, I don’t think. Continue reading →

Friday Night At The Home Drive-In: The Hand (1960)

Posted on by

Poster for The Hand (1960)The Hand (1960) by #HenryCass
w/ #DerekBond #RonaldLeighHunt 

In Burma, British soldiers refuse to divulge military information and have their hands chopped off. Years later,. a mad killer terrorizes London by cutting off the hands of his victims.

“From War-Torn Burma to the Asphalt Jungles of the Big City His Revenge Was the Crime of the Century!”

#Horror #Crime
#NotQuiteClassicCinema
#FridayNightAtTheHomeDriveIn

The Hand (1960) is not the typical sort of movie I used to see on Not Quite Classic Theatre. It’s almost more of a film noir, or crime drama, than a horror film. However, the hand-chopping action earns it a place as at least a horror adjacent movie. Continue reading →

Friday Night At The Home Drive-In: Horrors of the Black Museum (1959)

Posted on by

Horrors of the Black Museum (1959) by #ArthurCrabtree

w/#MichaelGough #JuneCunningham

To provide material for a new book, a crime writer hypnotizes his assistant into committing grisly murders.

“SEE! The Fantastic Binocular Murder! SEE! The Vat of Death!”

#Horror
#NotQuiteClassicCinema
#FridayNightAtTheHomeDriveIn

I thought that I knew what Horrors of the Black Museum (1959) was about. I definitely watched it a few years back, and in my memory, it was about people visiting a museum and getting trapped there (or something like that). Apparently, I was remembering a different movie. Continue reading →