Written by James M. Tate / 11/23/2016 / No comments / betty beall , horror , jazz score , kent taylor , marie windsor , maury dexter , science-fiction , sixties
MAURY DEXTER'S 'THE DAY MARS INVADED EARTH' W/ KENT TAYLOR
Poster Art for the Maury Dexter soft invasion Martian flick YEAR: 1963 |
The Beverly Hills mansion where Dr. David Fielding, played by Dexter's WALK TALL villain and HARBOR LIGHTS hero Kent Taylor, and his family are holed-up after he discovering a way to connect or receive messages with the planet Mars, is like a character in itself — and a starring role since much of Dexter's camera glides us through the endlessly elegant locale as if he'd found something amazing enough to write an entire motion picture around...
More like Roman ruins than a Florida mansion, this place has everything |
Especially a long, curved driveway the couple enter as he, and the audience, witness for the first time, without aid of music as if we're on a quietly guided tour, just past a gated brick wall and iron gate to the mysterious labyrinth of a mansion further in, which includes a sort of bushy maze very much liken to a film that MARS is very reminiscent of, and could have, along with (and especially) BURNT OFFERINGS, been an influence for Stanley Kubrick's THE SHINING based on Stephen King's novel...
Kent Taylor squared along a long and spooky, shadowy corridor |
family could be in jeopardy... Then again, the entire clan winds up with the same problem, so in this case, misery loves alien possession...
Basically, they're clones of themselves, and some of the more chilling, eerie moments occur when we first realize they're human copies: for instance, the husband is spotted in the vast backyard by his wife when, it turns out, he was really inside, and it's a slow and meticulous, creepy and mysterious fashion in which something is discovered, and nothing is really believed, even by the witnesses. Though it's not all so subtle: The first time we learn the secret is when the doc's double is revealed, sitting behind his desk after the Real McCoy leaves his office, ironically stating how there's no life on Mars... And it's more an intriguing science-fiction tale than a movie to actually scare an audience...
Kent Taylor aims at himself in Maury Dexter's soft invasion YEAR: 1963 |
As if the titular invaders are controlling the very picture, from the inside/out — not a bad feat for what's considered pure camp cinema, and, while the performances are right on par as Kent Taylor spouts science-talk like he really knows it, since he really looks it, and as Noir favorite Marie Windsor's presence classes up the joint and serves legitimacy, her daughter, played by a lithe, pug-nosed Betty Beall, wields the perfect hybrid of scream queen and eventually, like the rest of the family — strangers in the mansion as they're strangers to themselves — a touch of creepy, foreboding mystique in this "soft invasion" thriller that's only real downfall would be any prior expectations of something with a bigger budget, or a desire for a flawless finale.
Cloned daughter Betty Beall be all sexy twice in Maury Dexter's sci-fi thriller THE DAY MARS INVADED EARTH |
Move over, Mars Rover, or Wall-E, a steam iron is far more believable to roam Mars |
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
All Time Popular
-
Robyn Hilton enters into an eclectic exploitation comedy career in Wonder Women circa 1973 As mentioned a few posts ago, ROBYN HILTON, b...
-
year: 1978 cast: Allen Garfield, Leif Garrett, Kathleen Lloyd, Tony Alva, Pam Kenneally rating: ***1/2 Although promoted as a Leif Garr...
-
Kari Michaelsen in Saturday the 14th year: 1982 In LOVE AT FIRST BITE, a popular comedy that took the vampire genre by satire, Richard ...
-
Cornelia Sharpe in BUSTING Year: 1974 Rating: **** Starring Elliott Gould and Robert Blake as determined vice cops BUSTING hookers, makin...
-
Mary-Louise Weller in NATIONAL LAMPOON'S ANIMAL HOUSE ANIMAL HOUSE, directed by John Landis and produced by Ivan Reitman, stars John Be...
-
Kerri Green and John Candy in SUMMER RENTAL Year: 1985 John Candy, in his first leading role, plays a burnt-out air traffic controller ...
-
Robyn Hilton on STARSKY AND HUTCH Model/Actress ROBYN HILTON played Mel Brook's secretary in BLAZING SADDLES and turns up in an epis...
-
Robyn Hilton in Video Vixens the same year as Blazing Saddles: 1974 The Anthology of Comedic Parodies, already done in several Woody All...
-
CADDDYSHACK is best known for the iconic leading actors: Rodney Dangerfield, Chevy Chase, Ted Knight, and Bill Murray, but originally the ...
-
Elizabeth James and Tom Laughlin on equal ground YEAR: 1967 THE BORN LOSERS wasn't supposed to happen but thank God it did since BIL...
Featured Post
RUSHING THROUGH JOHN SCHLESINGER'S 'HONKY TONK FREEWAY'
Title: HONKY TONK FREEWAY Year: 1981 Rating: **** John Schlesinger's HONKY TONK FREEWAY has two composers: Elmer Bernstein doing his usu...
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.