The first “Creature
Feature” I saw as a child was Bert I. Gordon's The Cyclops. Back
in 1963 when we were living in New York I accidentally stumbled upon
this movie on the Chiller Theater TV
broadcast. Chiller was one of the first Horror Shows back in
the 60's and was popular enough to be on prime time saturday night at 8pm.
This movie is the one that
probably started my fascination with the horror host/show that
continues through this day. The Horror show was a staple of local TV
all through the 60's to the early to mid 70's. By the eighties most
of these shows had past their prime and were to be replaced by the
expansion of cable TV, syndicated broadcasts, infomercials and late
night comedy shows (SNL) Some of the Horror host/Shows have returned
as of late but I will elaborate more on this topic on a later post.
The plot of The Cyclops
concerns a woman Susan Winter (Gloria Talbot) looking for her fiancée
who was lost somewhere in a remote area in Mexico. She hires a team
to help her find him. As they investigate the area they begin to find
giant animals and high radioactivity in the mountains. Eventually
they come face to face with the large and angry Cyclops and of course
bad things happen! This Cyclops is one of my Favorite Bert Gordon
creations. Reminiscent of the monster in War of the Colossal Beast
(also directed by Gordon) this creature really freaked out the 4 year
old me.
Rounding out the cast are
James Craig (The Revenge Of Dr X), Tom Drake and the great Lon Chaney
Jr! The Cyclops himself was played by Duncan Parkins who also played
The Colossal Beast.
.5.jpg)
In 1955 Bert Gordon (Mr
B.I.G. as he was known) made his first feature “King Dinosaur”.
He was primarily known for his Giant Monster movies (The Amazing
Colossal Man, The Beginning of the End, Earth vs The Spiders, Attack
of The Puppet People, Food Of The Gods, Village Of The Giants). All
are B-Movie classics and worth seeking out I might add.
.9.jpg)
.9.jpg)
Warner Archives has
finally released The Cyclops on DVD through their website only. It
was previously available on the Elvira Thriller Videos series back in
the 80's. Apparently Warner's originally put
out the new DVD with the eye gouging scene of the Cyclops missing but
it has been restored.
So if your looking for a
fun Creature Feature keep an eye out for The Cyclops, I highly recommend it!
Morbius
And here's a clip
No comments:
Post a Comment