Search - Sci-Fi Classics on DVD

Crazy Movies -- Awful Transfer to DVD

Scotman | Mt. Shasta, CA | 11/11/2008

(2 out of 5 stars)

"These were hard to watch with the awful scratchy quality of these black and white films. Unlike Universal and Warner Bros., St. Claire Entertainment did a very bad job of transfer. The sounds of people talking and other effects did not match their mouths or actions. Terrible transfer.

I will add to this review later.

Disc One includes Phantom from 10,000 Leagues, The Brain that Would Not Die and Teenagers from Outer Space.

Disc Two tops that cheese with: The Phantom Planet, First Spaceship on Venus and They Came From Beyond Space.

Disc Three is especially bad, both in transfer quality and acting: The Atomic Brain, The Last Woman on Earth (A Corman film, done in other DVD sets in color), The Giant Gila Monster and the Amazing Transparent Man!

{I dived into this Disc first. "The Last Woman on Earth" has it where all the oxygen on the planet goes away just when our heroes are underwater on a diving expedition. When they surface, they find everyone on Puerto Rico dead except for themselves. The whole story centers around a love triangle. I thought the selfish man was maturing while the lawyer guy who wanted his wife was nuts. No explanation of the disaster nor any real gripping tale, just sort of plods along. I am sure there are survivors somewhere -- submarine crews, other divers, etc. -- so to call her the last woman on earth and the lawyer does not want kids -- a sad tale.]

{The Amazing Transparent Man was a trip. A convict gets a break from prison, and hooks up with The Major, a guy who wants to make him invisible. Oh, forgot to tell you pal, the radiation will kill you in a month. The convict tries to rob a bank, but then his invisibility turns on and off like a flashlight. What's up with that? Heroics at the end --Man was not meant for such knowledge. Gosh!}

{The Atomic Brain was not that bad. Awful quality, lots of dust and scratches -- the half naked woman in the chamber, the cute zombie girl who wanders around, a man with a dog's brain, a Mexican girl with a cat brain (who scratches someone's eye out--ugh), and an old woman who wants her brain placed into a babe's body -- but the mad scientist has other plans. The cute chicks make this film somewhat watchable. The ending is especially entertaining. Meow!]

[Attack of the Giant Gila Monster was a bit rough; this was mostly a teen flick with lots of good ol' rock & roll and darn those kids anyway, gosh darn it. Not a lot of monster. The train sequence they had two different train scenes for the same train, then the string pull was obvious when it went off the tracks. Geesh.... Ray Kellogg wrote and produced. He also did Killer Shrews and was part of the special effects team *uncredited* on The Day the Earth Stood Still.] The Day the Earth Stood Still


Checking Wikipedia, there are much better sets out there for many of these titles.

"Better" Corman Films:

The Masque of the Red Death / The Premature Burial

The Roger Corman Puerto Rico Trilogy (This also has the Last Woman on Earth, except there is a commentary by the actress and director).

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