forgoton classics - Sci Fi movies

Mike! said:
I was going to mention "Wizards" and I remember going to the movies with a bunch of kids from the neighborhood to see "The Phantom Tollbooth" Starring Butch "Eddie Munster" Patrick. I'm guessing that's the last paycheck he got out of Hollywood too. It was one of those starts with live action, then slipping into a cartoon universe shortly there after. I remember two things about it, the Watchdog, a dog with a clock in his gut (Flavor-flav prequel?) and the "Fully Galvanized Car". I guess rust was a bit of a problem in the cartoon universe...
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I remember he got stuck in a swamp called the doldrums, where these odd droplet-shaped monsters were singing him to sleep with a song that went something like "Don't say there's nothing to do in the doldrums, it's just... not... true!" You get the distinct impression that once he fell asleep they were going to eat him, but somehow he was saved. BTW, like all boomer icons, Butch Patrick has had something of a career renaissance in the last decade or so, and an attempt is being made to launch a reality TV show, called Life's a Butch!
 
Vortigern99 said:
Another of my favorite films! It was released the week before STAR WARS and so got completely rolled over by that explosive phenomenon, but WIZARDS still managed to make more money than Disney's release of FANTASIA at the same time.
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Looking at it on YouTube now, I suspect that the whole subplot of the two knuckleheaded pirates in Pirates of the Caribbean was inspired by the subplot of the two knuckleheaded soldiers from Scorch in Wizards.
 
I Ratant said:
Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone
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An awful thing, but one of Molly Ringwald's first.
She was so superior to everyone else in the movie.
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About the same time, this equally awful thing came out..
The Ice Pirates
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Mostly notable for the disclosure of the infestation of "space herpes".. little monsters that ran around the space ship.
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You just nailed two of my favorites. I watched Spacehunter about a hundred times as a kid.
I always caught just the last half of Ice Pirates, but it was also cool.

Oh, and someone mentioned Rowdy Roddy Piper?
Is there anyone on Earth besides my family who saw Hell Comes to Frogtown?
Piper plays the last fertile man on Earth, who is tasked with inseminating a bevy of fertile women, who are kidnapped by giant mutant frogs, who. . .
Well, you get the idea.
Perhaps forgotton for a reason.
 
Alferd_Packer said:
How many here have actually seen Dark Star?
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I have seen it twice, when I was a teen. Great film! I especially remember the ending...

... with the astronauts ending up as part of their dream after the "beach ball" blows up. One surfing down to the surface of a planet, one becoming part of kind of comet. Was there a third? I don't remember what happened to him.
 
autumn1971 said:
You just nailed two of my favorites. I watched Spacehunter about a hundred times as a kid.
I always caught just the last half of Ice Pirates, but it was also cool.

Oh, and someone mentioned Rowdy Roddy Piper?
Is there anyone on Earth besides my family who saw Hell Comes to Frogtown?
Piper plays the last fertile man on Earth, who is tasked with inseminating a bevy of fertile women, who are kidnapped by giant mutant frogs, who. . .
Well, you get the idea.
Perhaps forgotton for a reason.
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Seen it. Mistakenly misquoted the famous "bubblegum" line to this little known wonder of film... I was of course wrong too. Right guy, wrong cheesefest of a movie.
:rolleyes:
 
autumn1971 said:
You just nailed two of my favorites. I watched Spacehunter about a hundred times as a kid.
I always caught just the last half of Ice Pirates, but it was also cool.

Oh, and someone mentioned Rowdy Roddy Piper?
Is there anyone on Earth besides my family who saw Hell Comes to Frogtown?
Piper plays the last fertile man on Earth, who is tasked with inseminating a bevy of fertile women, who are kidnapped by giant mutant frogs, who. . .
Well, you get the idea.
Perhaps forgotton for a reason.
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That reminds me of a movie I saw once of frogs attacking some isolated southern mansion. The only part of it that I can clearly remeber is a scene where an old guy gets killed and the cut to a frog spinning around on a turntable.
 
Alferd_Packer said:
That reminds me of a movie I saw once of frogs attacking some isolated southern mansion. The only part of it that I can clearly remeber is a scene where an old guy gets killed and the cut to a frog spinning around on a turntable.
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Starring Sam "I was born to play Cowboys" Elliot! :D

Hokey 'revenge of nature' 70's gold.
 
You want a really forgotten classic?


1954:"Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Presents " The Man who heard Everthing".

As the result of a car crash a man gets "super hearing" who becomes a terrible burden. Any slight sound is distressingly loud. Confined to a hospital room , the tears of a visitor are deafening as they fall.
Then he hears the distant voice of an alien in trouble begging for help and only he can hear her......

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0564849/fullcredits#cast
 
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Fairly relieved to find people who've seen They Live...I was beginning to think I might have dreamed the whole thing! :jaw-dropp

If the parameters are being bent enough to include sword and sorcery, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention Hawk the Slayer. It was like Krull without the charm.
 
Vortigern99 said:
I'm more of a classic horror and fantasy buff than sci-fi, but one of my favorite "forgoton" ;) old sci-fi flicks is The Twonky (1953), a comedic sf film from the director/writer of Five (the first post-apocalyptic survival movie) among other gems.

The Twonky is weird and obscure and delightful. It's about a TV set that is actually a robot from the future! It's a servant robot that goes to extreme and amusing lengths to please its "master", a typical suburban male, by lighting his cigarettes with a laser beam, turning money into more money so he can pay people off, and zapping the vice squad (don't ask) with a memory ray. The man tries to destroy the Twonky, but to no avail; it keeps coming back to "help" him some more, and ends in a very Twilight Zonesque way. Very amusing, different, and little known low budget sf "classic".

BTW, this site is a treasure trove of classic sci-fi movie reviews, described in amusing detail, with pics, through the sf releases of the 50s and 60s. The Twonky is listed and reviewed under the 1953 heading.
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However, as I understand it, no complete version can be found as it got some hacked up and was never put back together completely. TCM brought it back as complete as available about a year ago and I DV'ed it!!
 
Psi Baba said:
Rocketship X-M. One of those movies that you might have low expectations for, only to be surprised that it's not bad. However, it is unusual in that unlike most sci-fi movies of the time,
everyone dies at the end! :(


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I remember when seeing that in the original release :) why those meteors made so much noise in space. :)
And how there was enough fuel to get to Mars and back, for a Moon mission.
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On the video side, the rocket exhaust from Captain Video's space ship would come out the rear of the vessel, and make a turn upwards.
I thought at the the time (1953) I'd run the rocket -down- a wire, and turn the tv camera on its side to show the exhaust going straight back, as it should have.
 
MG1962 said:
It was funny the whole film is this epic fantasy of world shattering events. The final scene, the good brother pulls out a colt 45 and caps the bad brother lol
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It's a Luger, 9mm. And the symbolism is that he has turned the bad brothers technology against him to allow the return or the world of magic. Psychologist friend of mine who watched it with me was appalled, I was cool with it ("cause I would have done the same thing).:)
 
Alice Shortcake said:
"Dark Star"...one of my all-time favourites! But I'm surprised no-one's mentioned "This Island Earth"
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I should have, but there are so many 50's classics that are actually decent SF that it's hard to rember/bring up all of them!! Just the good one's even.:)
 
Naddig74 said:
I've seen Dark Star...

I'd add;

Life Force; Based on the book Space Vampires by Colin Wilson which I haven't read but my friend says is nothing like as good as the film. Boys, when you watch this film you will exclaim 'my god, they're almost perfect' at least once. The film also suggested to us the band names 'Malevolent Umbrella' and 'Don't Kiss Patrick Stewart.'

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You left out (as a reviewer essentially says) the two best parts of the film: Mathilda May as the alien - mostly nude through the film: :D http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089489/
 
RhodyDave said:
I second "Life Force", and yes, they are nearly perfect! :D

One of my favorites is "A Boy and His Dog".
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Got to see that prior to completion at a WorldCon in DC - Harlan was there to talk about it and show it. Cool crowd to watch with !!:D
 
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