In 60 Fractions of Megon...

I finally got around to watching Mario Bava's colourful outer space B-movie romp "Planet Of The Vampires" (or should I say "Planet of the Alien Fog That Turns Visitors Into Something Vaguely Zombie-ish"). I expect I'm not the first to mention the odd lack of blood sucking creatures from the film, so I'll leave it at that. It doesn't really matter what label some suit decided to slap on it since the film is quite wonderful in its look, feel and how it completely embraces what a good B-movie should be - making the most of low budgets, meager sets and goofy, stilted dialogue with a storyline that moves at a solid pace and still provides some unexpected moments.

My favourite moment, though, was this rather wonderful bit of scientific gobbledygook from early in the film:

Crew member into microphone:

"In 60 fractions of megon we'll start landing maneuver."

Automated voice over intercom:

"The intensity of the gravitational field will be maintained at the wave moment of force G7. Synchronize the meteor rejector on the electromagnetic control device. Apply neurovascular tension. Supress corticle areas x, y, z. Insert the automatic controls. We will keep a distance of 2 parsec from our sister ship Galliot."

I particularly like the fact that a parsec is actually 3.26 light years and their sister ship Galliot is orbiting the same planet they are.

Anyway, I had a great deal of fun with it and continue to love how Bava and his cinematographers use colour and lights to not only paint beautiful visuals but to bring a sense of discomfort and dread to the proceedings.

A few samples moments:

A Single Image #19

Manhattan Murder Mystery (1993 - Woody Allen)

Now There's Something You Don't See Everyday... #4

The Passion Of Darkly Noon (1995 - Philip Ridley)

Now There's Something You Don't See Everyday... #3

With A Friend Like Harry (2000 - Dominik Moll)

A few minutes of Gas-s-s-s

It was with a mixture of apprehension and giddy excitement that I popped "Gas-s-s-s" (also known as "Gas! -Or- It Became Necessary to Destroy the World in Order to Save It") into the DVD player some time ago. You see, I'd been reading Roger Corman's "How I Made a Hundred Movies in Hollywood and Never Lost a Dime" and felt the urge to catch up with a few of those several hundred films he's had a hand in. I've seen (and loved) pretty much all his Poe films and, despite a bit too much self-congratulating in the book, love the fact that he really did a lot for independent filmmaking and gave so many people their starts in the industry. However, I've also seen some of his other films too...

Given the cost constraints, time constraints and just general skill constraints, I can certainly appreciate what Corman did in many of his quickie films. Sometimes it works and a little fun gem pops out (e.g. "Bucket Of Blood") and other times it doesn't (e.g. "Creature From The Haunted Sea"). So there was "Gas-s-s-s" and I wondered where it may fall on the spectrum...

Turns out, somewhere in between. I pretty much rank it along with the psychedelic "The Trip" due to the concept and its occasional inventiveness. Though it's down right silly at times (not always in the best way - the humour fluctuated all over the place)and poorly acted for much of it, there's this one short segment of the movie that stood out for me. It happens when the wandering heros of the movie stumble upon an outdoor concert with Country Joe And The Fish playing and the visuals get all psychedelic man. The music wasn't great, but for a few minutes all these images flew across the screen. In order to see them a bit better, I did a frame by frame step through of that section of the film and found some really great stuff (pardon the 46 screen captures that follow):


















































Maybe Roger knew what he was doing after all...