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Decades before Brad Pitt starred in Meet Joe Black, the story of a vacationing Grim Reaper was adapted for the screen from a popular play. Frederick March, playing Death, disguises himself as a European prince and spends three days with an amenable duke at his palatial estate. Women are instantly attracted to the Lord of the Underworld, but back off when they sense his true nature--that is, all women except for the beautiful young innocent (Evelyn Venable), who is destined to marry the duke's son.

Filmed in 1934, this is more sensual than the Pitt remake, though the acting style is more mannered than some audiences may enjoy. But at only 78 minutes, the emotional content, as well as the ending, feels more real than the lengthy '90s version. --Rochelle O'Gorman ... Read more

Reviews (20)

Saw orginal, and both remakes,Original Best
I was a young lady when I saw Fredic March in Death Takes A Holiday, I was a young mother when I saw the remake with Monte Markham and now as a grandmother I saw Meet Joe Black. Which one is the best in my mind? Mr. Pitt and Mr. Markham Can't hold a candle to the style of Mr. March.The ending is still as touching and chilling as it was the first time I saw it. I have seen it many times since and it still has the same effect on me. It's a wonderful movie, a bit dark but consider the era in which it was made just adds to the effect the movie wants to parlay to it's audience.It's a timeless treasure, not to be missed. You've seen the rest now see the best!!!!!

Poor. Whereas "Meet Joe Black" is long & boring,
"Death Takes a Holiday" is merely boring. This is not a knock on Fredric March or Brad Pitt, both fine actors. It is simply creepy yet too one dimensional to be taken seriously. A play that did not transfer well. As for Death, aparently he likes to vacation with the stupid, idle, rich rather than real people. Ironically, these stiffs are already half dead. They have nothing to say yet prattle on endlessly about it. Death isn't much better. I fell asleep & had to rewind a bit. It didn't matter. Such excellent suject matter squandered twice 64 years apart. I really do like the old movie classics. This one... disappointing.

Meet Prince Sirki
Sixty-four years before we met death disguised as "Joe Black"(Brad Pitt), Prince Sirki amused himself among the living for a three day holiday. Although not quite the lavish production of it's remake "Meet Joe Black", "Death Takes a Holiday" is a wonderful romantic fantasy from 1934, and is shot beautifully in black and white cinematogrpahy.

A wealthy and aristocratic family, and their houseguests, are visited by the 'grim reaper'...'the old man'...DEATH! Only the head of the household knows who Prince Sirki really is, and why he is there. They strike a deal, and the Prince has 3 days to learn why he is so feared by the human race. For those three days, he lives among them, experiencing and taking in all he can of human ways, and what's more..NO ONE dies while Death is on holiday. Weapons of war malfunction, accident victims walk away without a scratch, people can't even commit suicide when they try! But here's the catch..Sirki falls for the beautiful and deeply pensive Grazia. Will he take her with him to that other world when his time has expired? Does the power of love win out in the end?

The great Fredric March gives an exquiste performance as "Death" trying to adjust to life.It is so beautifully filmed and the performances were so brillant at bringing the marvelous characters to life, that it was like watching a play. Although a serious subject, there are many moments that will make you smile, and in the end, you may view the subject of death a little differently.

If you love the classic films of the thirties, this is a must see. It is also nice to have as a companion to "Meet Joe Black". If you are looking for this on DVD, it is included in the 2 disc "Ultimate Edition" of Joe Black. That way you can have "death" come to you in the form of Fredric March OR Brad Pitt!...What a way to go!...Enjoy....Laurie

Mysterious,very interesting, magnetizing
A very rare presentation of a story, even more rare a captivating mind boggling series of events. A story that can frighten you while holding a deep interest. Should be a movie that will be a classic for all time. Anyone interested in parapsychology, the "other Side", or even interests of and about death would surely appreciate this movie. The story presents "Death" who may spare or take. "Death" who comes for a visit to feel as a "Man", who came, to leave with an experience for himself(Death). A powerful moving story that can "educate" the viewer and possibly change their view of life and "Death". A "Must See" movie that one would remember for a long time. Possibly the movie may affect one forever , all while waiting, Yes, to meet and finally see "Death" again.

Death lives!
Rather archaic, and a bit difficult to sit through, this is still a fascinating film. On re-screening it recently, I found that some scenes had lingered in my memory for 43 years. Death takes human form temporarily to satisfy his curiosity about why we humans fear him so much. During his "holiday", no one dies. The idea that a moratorium on death for a few days would not become immediately obvious and would not cause screaming headlines worldwide cannot be taken seriously, nor can the entire film. (Check out the climactic announcement, "He is -- Death!!" Very melodramatic.) This is a film that requires a huge suspension of disbelief, but if you do so, you will enjoy it. Fredric March was an unusual choice to portray Death, but he does his typically fine job. Science fiction writer Fred Pohl has said that seeing this film in his early teens caused him to not fear death. ... Read more

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In I'm No Angel, Mae West's second star vehicle, she's sideshow attraction Tira, "the girl who discovered you don't have to have feet to be a dancer." As usual, West wrote all her own dialogue for the film, and it's full of priceless wisecracks. A crowd of men ogles her as she tosses off a saucy little number, "They Call Me Sister Honky Tonk," swinging her hips phlegmatically. Then she slithers offstage, muttering "Suckers." Bored with life, Tira consults a fortuneteller. "I see a man in your future," he drones. "What, only one?" quips Mae. Tira wants to quit the carnival, so her boss (an unctuous Edward Arnold) makes her a proposition. If she'll become the show's lion tamer, she can meet "the swells." Just one little thing: she's got to put her head in the lion's mouth. (West insisted on performing this stunt herself, to the horror of Paramount Pictures' executives.) Enter Cary Grant as Jack Clayton, an aristocrat who falls for this floozie from the wrong side of the tracks. Some of the film's merriest scenes show Tira and her five black maids having a ball dancing and singing as she prepares for her dates with Jack. (West made it her business to keep as many of her black girlfriends working in movies as possible.) Tira's head maid, Beulah, played by Gertrude Michael, is the object of that momentous line "Oh, Beulah, peel me a grape." Mae slays 'em all in this picture, dressed, as always, in fabulously flamboyant finery. --Laura Mirsky ... Read more

Reviews (18)

Quintessential Mae West.
Tira (Mae West) is a gold-digging circus performer who reluctantly agrees to a dangerous lion-taming act to get herself out of a jam. The act is a great success, making Tira the talk of the town. Her flashy show at Madison Square Garden catches the eye of a wealthy businessman named Kirk Lawrence (Kent Taylor), who becomes infatuated with Tira and lavishes her with expensive gifts. Concerned for Kirk's social situation, his cousin and business partner, Jack Clayton (Cary Grant), attempts to convince Tira to reconsider their relationship. She does, and falls head over heels for Jack. But just as it looks like Jack and Tira will live happily ever after, Jack breaks off the relationship. A heartbroken but still stubborn Tira decides to sue him for breach of promise.

1933's "I'm No Angel" was Mae West's second starring role on the silver screen. After her previous film, "She Done Him Wrong", saved Paramount Pictures from financial ruin, the studio gave her carte blanche to do whatever she liked on this one. "I'm No Angel" was written entirely by Mae West. It's a romantic comedy, but West's character is not a romantic. Tira is nothing if not practical in her relationships with men. And there is no mistaking that the film exists entirely to showcase Ms. West's oversized personality and eye-catching figure. This is Self promotion and Star vehicle with capital S's. Mae West was 40 years old and a tad chunky when she made this film. But she didn't hesitate to cast herself as a sex goddess whom men of all ages found irresistible. And she gets away with it by sheer force of personality. West deserves a lot of credit for making audiences root for a union between a trash-talking middle-aged strumpet and a 29-year old gentleman of means. Such a relationship wouldn't gain approval in real life in 1933, and it wouldn't now. The success of "I'm No Angel", then and now, is testament to its star's great charisma. Cary Grant is more handsome than he would be during his years of star status, and surprisingly thinner. I don't think any actor could hope to share a scene with West without being upstaged by her, but Grant does a nice job of making Jack Clayton sympathetic, especially during the trial scenes. "I'm No Angel" is sometimes absurdly contrived, but that's the nature of romantic comedy. No bigger personality than Mae West ever graced the screen, and it's her presence that makes this film worthwhile. The DVD has no menu, only scene selections. And the movie begins as soon as the disc is inserted into the player.

The Wild, Wild West
Mae West was purportedly quoted as saying, "I fear no man". Whether she actually did, I have no trouble believing it. In "I'm No Angel", Miss West plays "Tira", a carnival hootch dancer who becomes a lion-taming headliner in "The Big Time", and has numerous men orbiting her, like moons around Venus. She is a women completely at ease with herself, fears no one, makes no apologies, and the men love her for it, in spite of themselves. Miss West played, essentially, the same role in real life, the "Bad but not Evil" woman. No beating around the bush for Mae-she told you who she was, what she wanted, take her or leave her-and made you laugh! She was "Women's Lib" in flashy gowns, big hats, and lots of diamonds. There are many of West's famous lines in "I'm No Angel", such as "When I'm good, I'm very, very good, but when I'm bad, I'm better", "Beulah, peel me a grape!", and many more. Her co-star is screen legend Cary Grant, whom Mae selected for 2 of her films on sight. The first was "She Done Him Wrong", and then this one. She said, "He was so good I had him twice-in pictures, I mean." The lady was an original. She was not "beautiful" or slender, but men were drawn to her (her brains being her sexiest feature), progressive (she defended homosexuals long before Stonewall), had interracial friendships and romances (she had lovers of African descent, as well as having black performers in her films), and was still attracting men well into her 70s! She also wrote her own material. So, if you're feeling a bit adventurous, go West, because "You can be had!"

"Oh Beulah... peel me a grape!"
Mae West basically saved Paramount Pictures from bankruptcy with this and her other hit film of 1933 "She Done Him Wrong" (her other career highlight, also with Cary Grant). She was 40 when she made this film, and even for the early 30s she was plumper than the female ideal, and her face was wide and her nose was too long. But since she acted like she was the sexiest thing who ever was, and told you so too, you believed her: her uncontrollable sex appeal was her costant running joke and it never ever palled. Here she's Tira the lion tamer, who tames the richest men in New York society with equal ease: when Cary Grant withdraws his engagement she sues him for breach of promise, and she has great fun cross-examining the witnesses in her trial. Years before Lucille Ball or Carol Burnett, Mae West proved the old sexist canard that "female isn't funny" is an out and out lie. Who could be funnier than she is, sashaying around with her African-American maids delivering her ripest lines?

A knockout in its time -- and still packs a wallop
Decades before the women's movement was to gain momentum in this country, Mae West, with her inimitable combination of feminine wiles and macho, and a keen wit thrown into the mix, began her own revolution by standing all previous conceptions about women and their societal roles on their ear. Her substantial talent in singing, acting and one-liners give her the wherewithal to have the whole act succeed where many others' attempts would not. The result is great entertainment, a hallmark in the history of American cinema, and an impression on the audience that we were all better off for this woman having graced our culture.

WONDERFUL MAE.....
It's hard to believe they let this go out of print. It's one of Mae West's brightest and funniest films. Before the censorship czars got after her, that is. Legendary Mae struts and sings her way through this tale of circus hootchie Tira who gets in a legal jam thanks to her hoodlum boyfriend. Needing fast cash for an attorney, she reluctantly agrees to be the show's lion tamer and put her head in a lion's mouth. She becomes an immediate star and rises to the top. She hooks a rich beau (Kent Taylor) but falls for his business partner Kirk (Cary Grant) and they become engaged to marry. But her old circus cronies won't let her retire and try to frame her in a scandal to break up the engagement. When the ruse works and Kirk breaks off with Tira, she takes him to court for breach of promise. "I'm No Angel" is all Mae. From the screenplay (which she wrote) to the gowns (which are knockouts---especially the "spider web" gown) she's the star and dominates every scene she's in. She's absolutely wonderful. From strutting around and singing with her maids to taking over her own case in the courtroom, you can see there was no one like her and never would be. She was totally unique and unequaled in terms of sheer star power. Some of her racy quotes are here in "I'm No Angel" but, alas, the better ones lie in "She Done Him Wrong" (also with Grant) and that one never made it to DVD. These two are the better of her films---"My Little Chickadee" with W.C.Fields notwithstanding---and it's a shame they're not in print. The Universal DVD of "Angel" looks good and is a collector's item now. But I'm for re-releasing ALL of her films on DVD. As I'm sure she would love to know, Mae West still has an audience and always will. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

5 Came Back: The Best of the B's
Hollywood occasionally tells the tale of a group of travellers stuck within an enclosed arena against which they must contend with opposition externally and internally. In 5 CAME BACK, director John Farrow places some surprisingly well-known actors (Lucille Ball, John Carradine, Chester Morris, and C. Aubrey Smith)in an airplane that is caught in a storm and crash lands in the head-hunter jungles of Brazil. What makes this film click is the unexpectedly successful melding of fine acting with a gloomy and dense jungle backdrop that serves to bring out the best and the worst of the passengers. Lucille Ball is a floozy that nevertheless can rise to the challenge of surviving in a forest and still look good enough to find romance with the co-pilot. John Carradine plays Crimp the bounty-hunter who determines to bring in his prisoner for the reward. But the one who steals the show is veteran character actor C. Aubrey Smith, who has made a career of playing the distinguished English upper crust gentleman who knows how to die with the same style as how to live. This is no film of special effects; in fact one can even see the blatant rubber undersides of the planted "trees" against which the head-hunters appear from the ankles down. 5 CAME BACK is however the ancestor of such future films as STAGECOACH and THE BREAKFAST CLUB. What makes movies like this resonate even with the cheesiness of the production values is the odd way that locked in strangers must confront their inner demons even as they must face their outer ones. 5 CAME BACK is a fine example of this genre.

Great classic film find!
I'll admit I started watching this film because I'm a big Lucy fan, but before long I found myself engrossed. I couldn't wait to see who came back.

The film is not as predictable as you might think. Spoilers follow...

What a powerful ending!

Who could have seen the twist coming when Vasquez alone picks those who live and those who die. I watched the film assuming it would turn out to be a "lifeboat" situation, full of justifications and categorizations. Instead, Vasquez chooses based on logic and morality. This would be a wonderful conversation starter!

And the surprises just kept coming -- I audibly gasped when we see only two bullets in the gun. I suppose there is a concept, then, that justice is finally served as Vasquez alone is left to the hands of the natives.

Frankly I didn't think Peggy (Lucy) had a chance of surviving as the woman with a questionable reputation, and yet she redeems herself when she becomes Tommy's mother.

My only gripe with the film is that it ends prematurely, literally with their fate up in the air. We have to assume they all make it back safely, but even a quick sequence of the plane landing or even seeing safety ahead would have sufficed. Perhaps the director and writers were telling us that the real drama was not on the plane at the end but on the ground. Is Vasquez the central character then? I'll have to watch it again and think about it some more.

Full of complex characters and wonderful performances, "Five Came Back" is a classic worth watching again!

LUCY FANS WILL APPRECIATE IT.
First of all, this minor cult classic was made in 1939: if it was made in any other year, it would have garnered more attention rather than to have gotten lost in obscurity. In LA, nine passengers board the SILVER QUEEN, a plane piloted by Bill Brooks bound for Panama City. On board, passengers include Peggy Nolan (Lucyball) a lady of the pavements (!), Crimp (John Carradine) a ruthless detective determined to bring back his prisoner, the anarchist Vasquez (Joseph Calleia) for a $5,OOO reward - among other assorted colourful characters. The plane is force landed during a nasty storm in a dense jungle - and there are native drums threatening attack....when the plane is fixed - at long last - it can only take back 5 passengers. Directed by John Farrow, father of Mia and husband to Maureen O'Sullivan, this taut little "B" thriller from RKO is still quite enjoyable. Dated, to be sure, it nevertheless entertains with its GRAND HOTEL - like storyline both on a plane & in the jungle. The supporting cast is excellent: Wendy Barrie, C. Aubrey Smith, Patric Knowles & Alan Jenkins. Lucy's leading man is Chester Morris - as Bill. ... Read more

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Cecil B. DeMille's pre-Hays Code Roman costume drama manages to mix fast-and-loose historical facts with melodrama and titillation. Fredric March plays Marcus Superbus, a Roman soldier and womanizer who jeopardizes his position in Nero's storm troopers by developing a crush on a beautiful Christian girl, Mercia (Elissa Landi). With the Christians keeping their faith far underground, Superbus walks a tightrope between his obligations to the state and his love for Mercia until she and her family are rounded up and hauled off to the arena. The Sign of the Cross is not without its problems; by modern standards, it often seems slow and stagy, and its moralistic message comes across as blunt and heavy-handed. DeMille, however, shrewdly knew how to keep an audience's attention in ways that would have been impossible in subsequent years. Consider Claudette Colbert as the alluring, evil Poppaea, lolling in a bath of asses' milk with her breasts almost completely exposed. Or there's the scene where Marcus tries to get Mercia to loosen up a bit; his idea of a fun time is to take her to an orgy where she's groped by a lesbian during an erotic dance. Then there's Charles Laughton as the decadent Nero, his fey manner abetted by an oiled-up boy-toy at his side in nearly every scene. The climactic scenes at the arena are still violent today, with Christians being gnawed by lions, gladiators knocking each other's brains out, and an Amazon spearing a Pygmy and carrying him around like a kebab! The Sign of the Cross was heavily cut for rerelease in later years but is now available again in its uncut form. --Jerry Renshaw ... Read more

Reviews (11)

a really good bad movie
totally ludicrous but highly enjoyable. supposedly this movie has a christian message but after watching it you wonder why in the heck anyone would want to become a christian because the bad guys seem to be having fun. the martyrs only have a few depressing hymns to keep themselves going. but that elissa landi is darn good looking. Unfortunately she cannot compare to claudette colbert in a milk bath. this is a fascinating scene you should watch many times. this is the kind of garbage that got demille roasted endlessly by critics, but the bald old tryant could do some wonderful things on film even though he wasn't a master of sublty. the big roman coliseum segment at the end is a smash. as junk goes, this is at the very top. highly recommended. also an excellent example of a pre-code movie getting away with murder.

A FASCINATING FILM.
Shot in shimmering soft focus by Karl Strauss, this is a beaufiful film to watch. Its detail is ferocious in such scenes as when we see a grotesque face orgasmically spouting milk into the Empress Poppaea's pool, or the lesbian occupant inviting a handmaiden to strip and join her. The arena scenes are very well shot, form the first line-up of gladiators, the Emperor accompanied by a naked male slave, to the horror of dismemberment, the tragic banality of Christian self-sacrifice.......... Jesse Lasky's last major achievement befor being ousted from Paramount was to bring back to the fold his old partner, Cecil B. DeMille, whose productions elsewhere since 1925 (with the exception of KING OF KINGS (Pathe, 1927) were decididly below par. The prodigal's return was approved by Adolph Zukor with the proviso that C.B. must not spend more than $650,000 on the remake (it was first filmed in 1914) of THE SIGN OF THE CROSS. Wilson Barrett's play was perfect material for DeMille, floridly depicting the pure love of a Roman virgin (Elissa Landi, in one of her rarely seen film roles available on video) for Marcus Superbus (Fredric March) who is lusted after by the wicked Poppeia (Claudette Colbert) the wife of Nero (Charles Laughton). Spirit triumphs over flesh, once the latter fills plenty of footage, and the hero joins the heroine and other Christians in an arena full of lions, etc. DeMille dips the seductive Colbert into asses' milk for his biggest bathtub scene, and allowed Laughton (murmuring "delicious debauchery!" to overact gloriously. The film was completed in eight weeks (inside the budget) and was a sensational, erotic and financial success.

the roar of the lions, the smell of the crowd
Bizarre and lavish, this 1932 epic is an entertaining curiosity piece. It starts in "Rome...the third night of the Great Fire, 64 A.D.", with Charles Laughton as a flabby, insane Nero, playing a harp and taking delight in the conflagration, with his hatred for Christians the basis for the plot.
It meshes together the faith and determination of a few brave souls with the debauchery of the times and mankind's fascination with the misfortunes of others, culminating in the remarkably well filmed Colosseum scene.
From Claudette Colbert, who plays Poppaea, Nero's wife, bathing in milk (and it was real milk, which started to sour and stink on the second of many days of filming), to the crocodiles on the march, there are depictions of every kind of excess and sensual liberty.

The costuming is skimpy, even to Frederic March's laughable micro-mini outfits, and the dialogue is often silly with some of the hammiest performances on film, but DeMille's talent for orchestrating crowd scenes, and the good/evil theme of the film make for outrageous and sometimes thought-provoking viewing. It's about depravity, courage, and the triumph (if only spiritually) of the underdog, and well worth seeing for the arena sequence alone.
Based on Wilson Barrett's popular 1895 play, the cinematography by Karl Struss (who in his long career also did the '58 cult favorite "The Fly") is brilliant, with many cross images using light/shade and doors. Total running time is 125 minutes.

SELLER IS A THIEF !
BEWARE ! seller is a THIEF . I bought a vhs from seller . finally emailed after seven days . And sd his computer was down . sd he would check on my order and never emailed me back . kept emailing seller . Never had a response . Take my advise before buying from seller or you will be next .

Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die
...

I found this to be the general attitude of the Roman people, if this movie is at all historically accurate, and I believe it is. A very pitiful, empty, tragic existence. To hate other people so much just because they love and serve God, and to be so deadened in spirit that you don't mind killing en masse.

Well... I watched it last night because it has been years since I've seen a DeMille movie and I wanted to see what it was like. While I will not dismiss DeMille as a director, I think I will dismiss this movie from consideration for my collection. For one thing, the characters weren't very developed. They got somewhat lost in a sea of extras and Roman spectacles and I couldn't really get into their shoes and understand or feel much for them. Yes, it was sad when Mercia had to go face the lions, but by the time it happened, I'd been sickened by so many disgusting spectacles in the Coliseum that I didn't really think I could deal with any more tragedy. I would say that the only character that moved me deeply was the innocent laughing little Christian girl whose mother died. She was so oblivious to what was really happening, and when the kind old man took her up to the lions with him, he told her they were going to see Mother. Very touching.

The main characters....

Charles Laughton was perfect for Nero. You don't want to feel anything good about Nero, and Laughton makes it easy to despise him - the neurotic weirdo with Rome at the mercy of his cruel insanity. He was so disgusting all the way through the movie, and he is last seen calmly eating grapes while human beings are slaughtering and being slaughtered below him.

Claudette Colbert as Poppaea was very strange and I never understood her a bit except that she had designs on Fredric March. Her clothes were slinky and her hair style was weird, and I didn't really like her at all. I did like her pet leopard, though.

Fredric March aka "Marcus Superbus" was okay in his role except for a few minor things. The curled hair was very unbecoming, the outfits he had to walk around in were equally so. They seemed to get worse and worse as the movie wore on, too. And once again the character was undeveloped except for the understanding that he was a womaniser and a roué. (That is an old term meaning cad.)

And there was Mercia, and I can't really say much about her either because her character didn't seem deep enough to jump into. She seemed to be a loving girl devoted to purity and virtue and God, and in the prison it was good to see her ministering to the needs of her fellow prisoners.

Then there was all the risquée display of women... Claudette bathing in her donkey milk bath (gross to begin with) was obviously topless. Then there was the weirdo at Marcus' party who sang "Naked Moon" or whatever it was called and danced around Mercia quite erotically. And in the Coliseum, there were a couple of women being executed who wore nothing but garlands of flowers wrapped around themselves. I just found it weird that a lot of this stuff got past the censors, and I didn't really think it was necessary.

And speaking of the Coliseum, that whole scene was revolting for the simple reason that I don't like to watch people mass murdering each other for the amusement of a degenerated society. It was so disturbing to see the entire audience revelling in the bloodiness of the spectacle.

I won't say that everything in the movie was bad. The motif of the Cross appeared traced in the sand, constructed from branches or twigs, in shadows on the floor from windows... That was very artistic. Mercia once stood against a door as if she was hanging on a cross.

Despite all the negatives and mediocres of this movie there was one element of it that I don't think anyone should ignore. I've known about the martyrdom of Christians in Rome for years, but never really given deep thought to how frightening and terrible it would be. But it is the only cause really worth dying for, and I hope that I would be willing to face lions or fire or whatever else, if I would ever be called to die that way.

So that sums up my opinion of the film. It did leave an impression on me - mostly negative though it may be. Watch it if you want, but I can't highly recommend it, and definitely not for children. ... Read more

Reviews (6)

Al Adamson fails again.... Stay away!
I had seen two movies by Al Adamson before this one, "Dracula vs Frankenstein" and "Vampire Men of the Lost Planet", so needless to say, my expectations weren't very high, but this movie still managed to disappoint me.

As usual, it doesn't take long until Al Adamson seems to forget the main plot, and instead focuses on totally uninteresting side plots. And unlike "Vampire Men of the Lost Planet", this movie isn't the least "good-bad", it doesn't have any entertainment value at all except maybe in some of the scenes in the beginning with John Carradine. He gets top billing but his part is actually pretty small.

I can not recommend this movie, not even to fans of bad movies, like myself. Save yourself the time and money.

Charming Trash
This is one beauty of a head-scratcher. It is, literally, 3 movies in one. Al Adamson made the tight-yet-pointless heist film ECHO OF TERROR (a/k/a TWO TICKETS TO TERROR) in 1964, only to see it chopped up and intermixed with new footage several years later (starring John Carradine as an ethical but mad scientist) and retitled MAN WITH THE SYNTHETIC BRAIN, and sold as a horror cheapie to television. Not to be outdone, he and producer Sam Sherman further complicated matters by adding a third plot strand to the mix (something to do with killer zombies and yet another mad scientist, not to mention a rather sickly looking Tommy Kirk), and another new title, BLOOD OF GHASTLY HORROR. In order for the final incarnation to make sense, there are flashbacks-within-flashbacks all over the place. There was yet another version, PSYCHO-A-G-GO, which had musical numbers spliced amongst the madness!
Amazingly, it's quite an enjoyable viewing experience following the severely warped logic of the narrative, which only gets more confusing with each viewing.
Toppping it off is some of the best commentary I've yet heard on any dvd, provided by Sam Sherman, who promises to some day restore the integrity of Adamson's ECHO OF TERROR to its original glory (well, one can hope).
As with Ed Wood, it's hard not to admire director Al Adamson's earnestness, and Vilmos Szigmond's cinematography (on the ECHO OF TERROR portions), despite the faded print used for the dvd, shows a precocious eye for composition. A most unusual recommendation!

blood of ghastly horror
I just bought this movie, & must give it 4-stars for that old time, low budget appeal. Good movie to watch when you want something ENTIRELY DIFFERENT. Normally, I can figure out the ending, or what will happen next, but not in this one. It will keep you guessing. Reminds you of those summer nights at the Drive-in movie.

Blood of Ghastly Horror
Alot of twists & turns in this one. If you like'm off-the-wall, and with a "B" movie appeal, you gotta check it out. I love John Carradine in any role. He was made for low budget horror.

Blood of Ghastly Horror
EXCELLENT!!! IF OLD B-MOVIES IS YOUR BAG, WITH A TOTALLY UNPREDICTABLE STORY, THIS IS YOUR MOVIE. THE MOVIE HAS MANY DIFFERENT TURNS, WITH MULTIPLE STORIES, WHICH WILL NOT MAKE THE ENDING EASY TO GUESS. IT ALSO HAS THAT GREAT 60'S B-MOVIE CHARM. THIS IS BAD DRIVE-IN CINEMA AT ITS BEST. ... Read more

Reviews (8)

Life Imitates Art
This movie is a classic example of "Life Imitates Art". Many a bike club was built on the premise of this and many other 60's scooter tramp flicks like this one. Own a piece of American counter-culture and add this jem to your library!

violent and sexy biker movie
The movie starts promisingly with a couple indulged in petting suddenly interrupted by a gang of bikers. They drug the girl and rape her, then set the forcibly drugged and drunk couple in their car and roll the car over the edge of a cliff.
And the action never stops in this fine drive-in classic biker movie dubbed by producer Sam SHERMAN as the "CITIZEN KANE of biker movies". Well, I don't agree to that (in my view the best biker film of all time is the Spanish THE MAD FOXES), but SATAN`S SADISTS is great fun nevertheless.
The further plot concerns a former marine hitchhiking through the California desert, who is offered a lift by a middle-aged couple, a cop and his wife on second honeymoon. They decide to have a meal at a roadside diner. Suddenly the biker gang arrive at the diner! You can probably guess, what happens next: the bikers make trouble, molesting the waitress and harrass the cop's wife, prompting the cop to draw a revolver. Things get nasty, resulting in the policeman's wife getting raped (unfortunately we don't get to see too much nudity here) and the death of the cop, his wife and the diner's owner. The ex-marine and the waitress escape in the desert, killing two bikers in the process. One guy meets a particularly nasty end by being drowned in the toilet! The furious bikers give chase and the couple must fight for their life...

WOW! They don't make movies like that anymore. SATAN`S SADISTS is a sleaze masterpiece, full of violence, nudity, violent sex and drug abuse. The film is rather anti-establishment, like many movies of the period. And the characters are really cool! Sure, the ex-marine is a bit boring as well as his new found girlfriend, the waitress. But the bikers deliver. Particularly Russ TAMBLYN is great as the cool but psychopathic gang's boss Anchor. He delivers a nice anti-establishment speech before shooting the cop and the other victims at the diner. And his accomplices are a rather weird bunch! Two of the gang members are handicapped, a biker is one-eyed (but wears sunglasses nonetheless), another even needs a hearing aid (!). The only concern of the bikers seems to be sex and getting stoned. And the dialogue is sometimes over the top - like when the bikers encounter three girls in the desert, one of them sunbathing topless, which prompts one biker to remark "She is keeping her milk warm."
Oh yeah, I really love this movie.

The DVD itself is filled with lots of extra features. First, there is an introduction to the movie vy producer Sam SHERMAN, who talks about how cool the film is and that it has gained a cult following worldwide. This segment however looks like it was shot 100 years ago.
Producer SHERMAN also appears in an interesting interview. This guy knows some stories to tell and it is fun to listen to him. The producer also provided an audiocommentary on which I can not comment, because I did not listen to it and I am generally not a fan of audiocommentaries. However I did listen to the radio interview with Regina CARROL, wife of director Al ADAMSON and staring in SATAN`S SADISTS as "freak-out girl". It is a promotional piece and again fun to listen to. There is also a gallery of behind-the-scenes photographs, presented in a way, as if they were shown in a drive-in theatre.
Then there is the film's trailer, which is outstanding. It starts with a disclaimer: THE SHOCKING SCENES YOU ARE ABOUT TO SEE ARE NOT SUGGESTED FOR THE WEAK OR IMMATURE. IF YOU CANNOT TAKE IT, WE ADVISE YOU TO NOW PATRONIZE THE CONCESSION STAND OR LOOK AWAY FROM THE SCREEN DURING THIS PREVIEW OF "SATAN'S SADISTS". The trailer promotes the film with the tagline A REBELLION OF HUMAN GARBAGE! Seeing is believing.
There are also 3 TV teaser trailers for the film as well as four additional trailers for other films, all directed by Al ADAMSON: DRACULA VS. FRANKENSTEIN (trashy beyond belief, only for diehard trash film fans), the slightly better zombie romp BLOOD OF GHASTLY HORROR, ANGELS WILD WOMEN (a promising looking exploitation flick) and GIRLS FOR RENT (titled erronously I SPIT ON YOUR CORPSE on the trailer menue) starring XXX actress Georgina SPELVIN of THE DEVIL IN MRS. JONES fame.
A great disc!

If you like entertaining, violent, politically incorrect B-movies, buy it! You won't be disappointed.

Overrated
This is the most overrated film I've seen in a while. I hoped for a violent, sexist, stark, disturbing biker film, and I got cheese. The motorcycles are awful, some of them are like dirt bikes and others no self-respecting biker would ever ride. The Satans colors look like iron-on patches. The violence is very antiseptic, with very litte gore, almost no nudity, and no realism. The plot and continuation are pathetic; could someone explain to me how the manniken-haired "good guy" got up that mountain so quick at the end to fight Firewater, or better yet, why? Also, the picture and sound quality are abyssmal, rendering whole sections of the movie unwatchable. A total waste of time and money, and completely misrepresented by anyone who gives it a good review.

from Fringe Video Fanzine Issue #005
One of the greatest biker films of all time. Very nasty, raw and violent. "...Released during the height of the biker film craze, the film made enough money to finance several more movies..." The simple western good guys vs. Bad guys type plot consists of a bike gang who "...terrorize some people at a desert diner until the gang is done in by a drifting Vietnam vet..." This is Al Adamson's breakthrough film, which propelled him and partner Sam Sherman into business with the introduction of a company called Independent International Pictures Corp. The film was intended to be the jewel which they would market to the drive-in crowd. "...not at all typical Adamson fare... It contained no footage from other movies..." Extreme for the time, the film starts with the rape of a large breasted women, and later LSD being forced to unwitting girls before they are raped and murdered. Miles away from the usual Hollywood type exploitation biker movies that regulars like Casey Kasem [Cycle Savages (1969) / Wild Wheels (1969) acted in. This is a film that strayed far away from the mainstream, and found an audience amongst the anti-establishment film going crowd who were eating up such films as: The Wild Angels (1966) or Easy Rider (1969). Said to be "...the Citizen Cane (1941) of biker films..." So extreme that many say that the film almost ruined the career of the main star Russ Tamblyn [West Side Story (1961) Twin Peaks (1990 - 91). The anti-police speech Tamblyn does, as he sits on top the car is probably the highlight of the movie. Shot in 16mm and blown up to 35mm to save money for the casting. Al Adamson managed to hire such notables as John 'Bud' Cardos [Hells Angels on Wheels (1967) / Psych-Out (1968)], Greydon Clark [Skinheads (1989)], and Regina Carrol [Beat Generation (1959) / Viva Las Vegas (1964)] who later married director Al Adamson. Audio commentary on the disc by Sam Sherman, also features a radio interview with Regina Carrol, some behind the scenes photos, and short documentary called 'Producing Schlock'

An Excellent movie!
This 60's biker movie is a lot of fun. Rampaging biker gang with psycho leader, older couple on vacation, good-guy marine and the young waitress - priceless. I could have done without the rape scenes, but the camera didn't dwell on them too long.

The acting really couldn't be much better. Excellent characters. Apparently filmed in 11 days. Doesn't get much better for b-biker flicks. ... Read more

Reviews (44)

i'm gonna come right out and say it...
...i don't like season 1!

i don't like dr. erhardt as much as tv's frank (who does?) and the riffing is more sparse and of a slightly weaker style. but i was thinking, for a new fan seeking to discover mst3k, this may not be a bad jumping off point (although manos is a better start).

this episode is indicative of the true original philosophy of mst3k. most of the best episodes aren't mystery or science-oriented (manos, mitchell, many sci-fi eps such as jack frost or final sacrifice), but the crawling hand is a true, cheesy, BAD scifi/horror movie. and that was the original intent of the show: to riff on bad scifi/horror flicks. and the riffing IS good, it's just not as good as it would become in later seasons.

nobody should miss out on this episode, but other episodes are better, and once you're well-versed in mst3k-dom, you'll revisit this episode less often than the others.

You will believe a hand can crawl!
Ah, MST3K Season One. I can see how some people, even MST3K fans, might be disappointed by this video. Instead of TV's Frank, Dr. Forrester has Dr. Larry Erhardt (John Weinstein) for a sidekick, and it is Weinstein rather than Kevin Murphy supplying the voice of Tom Servo. The set looks as cheap as it really was, the silhouettes in the theater are sort of green-looking, Joel sometimes seems to forget which bot is which, and the jokes are sometimes rather lame. However, the show is still hilarious. If you've never seen a Season One episode before, cut Weinstein's Servo voice some slack. Initially, I hated it, but being fortunate enough to have the whole first season on tape, I found that this initial Servo incarnation was actually pretty funny in his own right after I got used to him. This one video probably won't make you a Weinstein fan, but give him a chance.

As for the movie itself, The Crawling Hand was perfect MST3K material--there's a silly plot, an annoying teenager, and some incredibly bad acting. America's space program is apparently run in a little warehouse somewhere in the middle of nowhere, and the scientists there are in a tizzy. On two occasions, a guy has been sent to the moon, landing successfully, then being lost on his way back to earth. This second time, communication is reestablished with the astronaut 20 minutes after he has run out of oxygen. He begs the men in the control room (actually, it's really just a desk) to blow him up before he reenters the atmosphere. The doctor-type guy finally hits the red button. Meanwhile, a supposedly smart slacker goes swimming in the ocean with his Swedish girlfriend, and while they are frolicking around they run across a human hand lying on the beach. Naturally, our hero decides he must have that hand; he sneaks back that night (apparently this is the one beach in California that no one whatsoever goes to) and makes the wonderful hand his own, lovingly placing it in his landlady's storage room behind some relish. Soon, the hand (which does crawl, just like the title says) begins strangling people (that's gonna happen, you know). At this point, the sheriff, AKA Alan Hale (Skipper!), commences an investigation. One print found on the body of the first victim is matched to the fingerprint of the blown-up astronaut, and that's when the Space Boys come out to try and clean up a little of their mess. To complicate matters, our boy who found the hand begins having episodes wherein he turns into an "Elvis zombie" with heavy mascara under his eyes and feels compelled to strangle people himself. As you may have guessed, it all comes down to some hand to hand combat in the end.

I think this is one of the best Season One episodes. I particularly enjoyed one skit in which the guys all pretend to be William Shatner being choked by a disembodied hand. Joel and the bots are still developing the real spirit and style of the show, but the genius is already unmistakably there. Most importantly, I can assure you that this show is very funny.

Haven't we all had a crawling hand in bed?
This DVD set is from the cable tv show, "Mystery Science Theater 3000". They sometimes cut the film down and on-screen throughout the entire film, they mock and criticize it. Just as if you are in the real movie theatre with people talking during the film.
But if you would like to see the entire, uncut version of the movie without MST 3000 intervening, just turn the DVD over for the entire, uncut version in all its glory.
This is the second space mission to go wrong. While space engineers Peter breck and Kent Taylor haggle over the failure of no communication with the astronaut Lockhart who is running out of oxygen, the astronaut begs for space operations to press the red button. This would explode the craft instantly. After merciful pleading from the astronaut, operations comply. This is the second man they have lost upon return entry. Only four astronauts left. They need these men to handle the lunar rocket. What is it on the moon that is driving these men crazy to the point of near-death?
The debris from the exploded space craft has landed like a meteorite. What terror will escape and attack the young teenagers in this California beach town?
Haven't we all had a crawling hand in bed?
Also in the cast: Rod Lauren as "Paul". Allison Hayes as "Donna". Allan Hale Jr as "Sheriff Townsend" (Gilligan's Island tv series). The Crawling Hand was Joseph F. Robertson.

"Mrs. Burke, I thought you...were Dale!"
This episode is just one of many that contain the "deathless" line: "Mrs. Burke, I thought you...were Dale!"

Naturally, our whole family likes these episodes, because we starred in the original 1968 Grape-Nuts TV commercial from which this riff comes. (Yes, Mrs. Burke AND Dale are real, alive, well, and living in the USA.)

Many thanks to MST3K's Best Brains for riffing our commercial decades after it ran (and to Mr. Murphy for helping to clear up the trouble about the origin of this riff)!

The Sound Of One Hand Clasping...
Peter Breck (Big Valley) plays a very intense scientist with the space program. How intense? So intense that I expected his head to sail off at any minute! You see, one of his astronauts (named Lockhart) has gone nuts, pleading with ground control to "push the red button" and blow up his ship. They comply, detonating Lockhart. Meanwhile, a young med student and his girl go swimmig on a california beach. Low and behold, they find a severed arm in an astronaut uniform sleeve! Paul (the med student) comes back for it later, taking it home in a shower curtain. He hides it behind some preserves in his landlady's pantry. The arm starts creeping around, knocking some jars over, waking the landlady, who must investigate. Of course, she gets choked bug-eyed! Unfortunately, the hand doesn't do much else, as it possesses Paul and uses him to cause further mayhem. Enter Alan Hale jr. as the portly sheriff. The rest is pretty dull. Watch it late at night and don't feel too bad if you fall asleep... ... Read more

Reviews (6)

Death rays, sea monsters, and murder by spear gun...
Okay, I certainly had no illusions of grandeur when I popped this one into the DVD player, and neither should you. The Phantom From 10,000 Leagues? A more apt title would be the Guy in the Cheap Monster Suit From 20 Feet (or 0.00109730 Leagues, if you want to get technical)...

The film, directed by Dan Milner and presented by Samuel Z. Arkoff and James H. Nicholson (hence the incredibly cheapness of the entire affair) stars Kent Taylor, who also starred as Boston Blackie in the television series of the same name along with various cinematic wonders as The Crawling Hand (1963), Brides of Blood (1968), Satan's Sadists (1969), The Mighty Gorga (1969), and Brain of Blood (1972). The film also stars Cathy Downs, who later appeared in films like The She Creature (1956), The Amazing Colossal Man (1957), and Missile to the Moon (1958), Michael Whalen (who also appeared with Ms. Downs in Missile to the Moon, Rodney Bell, Phillip Pine, Vivi Janess, and Pierce Lyden as Andy, the janitor.

The film opens with a fisherman casting a net off a small dingy, I guess, to catch some fish. Underneath the boat we see a man in a somewhat elaborate, yet highly unresponsive, monster suit. He pushes some on the bottom of the boat, and this causes the man to let out a feeble yell and fall into the water. The creature then proceeds to...the best way I could describe this is to say the creature began having relationship with the man in the water. I suppose it was meant to look like it was attacking the fisherman, but it surely didn't...anyway, the next scene shows the fisherman's corpse and his dingy on the beach, and we meet out main character, Dr. Ted Stevens (Taylor), or, as he's calling himself Ted Baxter, for reasons of his own for now, discovers the body. As the good doctor is looking over the body, government man William Grant (Bell), or Mr. Grant as he's known throughout the film, arrives and starts questioning Ted Baxter about what he's doing. Ted Baxter? Mr. Grant? I know, I know...if characters named Mary Richards and Murray Slaughter show up, we got us a full blown episode of The Mary Tyler Moore show...anyway, it appears the fisherman died of burns produced by exposure to radiation. So the pre-martial activities with the sea serpent were just salt in the wound? Bleeech...

The story progresses, and we learn that a professor of a local university, Professor King (Whalen) is working on some secret project, one of great interest to his secretary Ethel Hall (Janiss) and the professor's opportunistic assistant George Thomas (Pine), both whom he doesn't trust, for good reason. We also meet the professor's daughter, Lois (Downs), who really has no other purpose in the movie other than looking good and being a romantic foil for Taylor's character. Apparently the fisherman who turned up charbroiled wasn't the first victim, and the locals have concocted a story about a phantom(?!) haunting the cove, taking people. What is this, a Scooby Doo mystery? And what's Dr. Stevens role in this story? Turns out, as an expert in atomics and 'death ray' technology (I kid you not), he was assigned to investigate, but no one told Mr. Grant, who is also looking into the matter. Apparently Professor King has developed a way to mutate normal sea creatures into monsters, and now one is guarding and feeding off a fissure of uranium within the cove, and killing anyone who comes near it. Also, it seems the Professor's assistant George Thomas is working with some unknown group to steal the Professor's plans, whatever the heck they are, and get paid big time. As for the Professor's secretary Ethel, well, she's just nosey, and we all know what happens to nosey secretaries, right? They get shot with a spear gun in the back. Oops...I give too much away...oh man, this is too good...who's the killer running around shooting a spear gun at people? It's no big mystery, as the culprit is highly moronic...I mean, a spear gun? Anyway, this mess of a movie shambles along, some more people die, people commit acts of idiocy, and the whole thing gets resolved about twenty minutes later than it should have, filling out the 80 minute run time.

The whole film is just so very cheap...the cardboard sets, clunky and unwieldy expository dialogue, utterly inane characters, and the complete predictability of the plot. It may seem like I've given things away in my review, but I really haven't, as you'll see most of what I talked about coming long before it does...

The print here looks really shoddy, being washed out, grainy, and just all around generally poor. Is there a better source print out there? Perhaps, but who's going to bother finding it? Retromedia does provide a good amount of extras for its' release including Drive-In Antics featuring Fred Olen Ray and Miss Kim (there is a bit o' nudity here, so don't let the kiddies watch), intermission spots, the kind you used to see in theaters and drive ins spouting the virtues of the snack bar and removing the speaker from your car window before leaving the drive-in, a still gallery for the film, Drive-In Antics bloopers/outtakes, and a whole slew of trailers of highly dubious films like the one on this disc along with trailers for Beast of the Yellow Night (1971), Curse of the Vampires (1971), Invasion of the Blood Farmers (1972), Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers (1988), Fatal Justice (1993), Evil Spawn (1987), and Scalps (1983). I guess if I take one thing away from this film it's if you're going to choose a weapon to murder someone, a spear gun probably shouldn't be your first choice. I mean, if you miss, it just takes too long to reload, and you completely lose the element of surprise. There are several releases of this film out there, so features subject to change.

Cookieman108

Where'd They Dredge This One Up?
The DVD transfer of this film is of the same shockingly bad quality I am beginning to expect from "Alpha Video Classics". Newsflash to those who transfer movies to DVD -- please don't copy VHS to DVD... it really doesn't look that good.

So anyway, it wouldn't matter even if the quality *was* good. This movie is complete dreck. There's very little in here to laugh at or enjoy, and it certainly isn't an interesting picture.

Creature from the Black Lagoon does far better what this film tries (and fails) to do. In fact it takes precisely 10 minutes of viewing time to recognize this film for what it is: a cheap knock-off of Creature from the Black Lagoon which was released 2 years earlier (1954).

The monster suit is so ungainly and poorly designed that the man inside can barely move, and it looks for all the world like he is afraid to swim or move too quickly for fear of his monster head toppling off.

Save yourself the time and money, and don't bother. Try the Creature from the Black Lagoon instead.

Radioactive Gill-Man meets Ted Baxter and Mr. Grant
Strange deaths near an oceanography school are attributed to a phantom by some of the locals. Various people have come to investigate. What they find is a powerful radiation source on the ocean floor and a bizarre fish-man guarding it.

Intrigue and counter-intrigue mesh until we are not sure who is on what side (except for one character who always seems shady). But in the end, the dangerous radiation source is deactivated and, as in Godzilla, the scientist takes the awful knowledge with him.

This is a basic disk with Play and Scene Selection as the only options.

This is a bad movie. Some would say it was bad enough to be good. My main problem with the lot is that the first victim we see is knocked out of his rowboat. Later, it always seems that getting back into a rowboat is all it take to be safe from the creature.

Despite the obvious plug of the title (taken from Beast From 20,000 Fathoms), the creature is rather disappointing (no Harryhausen effects here). In the early scenes it looks very lion like in the face (complete with mane). The resemblance disappears when seen from the side. Unlike the Creature From The Black Lagoon, this rubber suit does not seem designed for swimming so the actor does not move much underwater (lessening the suspense).

I have to say that this is one I will be watching again even if it is not up to the "bad" standards of other B-Movies.

Ted Baxter and Mr. Grant: the secret history revealed
As a fan of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, I could not help but be amused by the coincidental facts that the main character initially uses the assumed name of Ted Baxter and ends up working with an investigator named Mr. Grant. Luckily, The Phantom From 10,000 Leagues has a little more going for it than this ironic coincidence. As the movie begins, a fisherman is pulled into the water by some monstrous sea creature. When his radioactive remains wash up on the beach, Ted Baxter is there to find him (though I'm not sure why he was walking along the beach in a suit). He seeks out the head of the oceanography college, and eventually he confesses that he is actually Ted Stevens, author of two important but controversial books on the use of heavy water for atomic purposes and radiation-induced mutation. He undertakes a diving expedition off the coast and comes across a huge source of dangerous uranium-induced radioactivity and a monstrous creature seemingly guarding it; from his own limited experimentation, he knows this dangerous, obviously man-made threat must be destroyed. The scientist is paranoid about his work, which brings him under suspicion. Also under suspicion are the scientist's secretary and assistant. As the movie progresses, we see the phantom kill a few more people, watch Stevens woo the daughter of the scientist he is investigating, watch in amazement as the scientist changes his jacket an inordinate number of times, and wait for something to happen - this effort is in vain, for the most part. There are a couple of good explosions near the end, but the conclusion holds no real surprises whatsoever.

The title implies that the phantom originally comes from some place 10,000 leagues under the sea; actually, all of the underwater action seems to take place a couple of hundred yards offshore. The divers we watch every so often exploring the ocean floor have the remarkable knack to come up to the surface exactly beside their boat, no matter how far away from it they have traveled. As for the phantom, I thought he was portrayed rather well; he certainly looks like something one would want to avoid beneath the ocean waters, and the moviemakers wisely show him standing still for the most part. This movie is your typical 1950s underwater monster adventure, offering little to delight but little to disappoint the audience. In other words, it's not bad - but it's not good, either.

Movie not so hot to start with; DVD finishes it off
Phantom from 10,000 Leagues is not a great movie. It's not even a great bad movie. It's really for cheesy 50s ARC/AIP SF completists only. The movie is below-average low-budget 50s dreck; talky and slow-moving, with few laughs, and very little 'face time' for the monster. The human drama is only slightly compelling and the infrequently spotted "phantom" looks like a big paper milk carton with teeth and claws. Or something. Buy the cool-looking poster instead. Makes Monster from the Ocean Floor seem breezy and action-packed in comparison. The only good thing you can say about this flick is that apparently the Milner brothers made enough cash off of it to finance their magnum opus, From Hell It Came. I wish THAT movie would come out on DVD!
Of course if the disc transfer and extras were good enough, 50s trashcore fans like us would have to get this for the library anyway, right? Unfortunately, this DVD is definitely subpar. To start off, the transfer is fair to mediocre at best. It really looks like it was mastered from an EP mode VHS tape, or recorded off-air from a UHF station, using a loop antenna. Very flat, very grainy/fuzzy; not as bad as a Madacy disc, but close. It's actually hard to tell if it's the print or the transfer that's to blame 'cause it's just so bad overall. And in a really tacky move, to say the least, the otherwise presumably G-rated disc includes several trailers featuring frontal nudity and softcore sex scenes. Not that junior is pestering you to see this movie or anything, but questionable nonetheless. But you're not going to buy this disc anyway; I guarantee you will be disappointed for the money. I would advise waiting for Image or Rhino to get around to putting this out unless you absolutely have to see it. (When I realized that Fred Olen Ray was involved in this DVD, it all started to make sense.) ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Vro-o-om, vro-o-om
An independent biker film with cheap production values and a swiss cheese plot that will probably become a cult classic in a few years. Hard to follow the theme in some places. Utterly forgettable. I will probably give my copy away.

End of an Era
Al Adamson was always much better at making action films, especially those starring bikers, than the horror films he is mostly known for. "Satan's Sadists", for example, is still one of the best biker films ever made. However, in the early 1970s he found himself stuck with a just completed biker film at a time when the public had grown bored with biker films and stopped attending. So, seeing the success of films about groups of tough women like Roger Corman and Jack Hill's Pam Grier prison films, he decided to change the emphasis of the film and its marketing. Thus Angels' Wild Women was created, placing greater focus on the women in the bike group and ads greatly exaggerating how tough and mean they are were released.

Actually, the bikers in the film are quite tame. In contrast to Al's classic "Satan's Sadists", this film provides a positive perspective on bikers. The men do get into a bit of macho posturing, but otherwise they're nice folk looking for fun and freedom.

The plot of this film is quite worthwhile, however, and provides an excellent look at the end of an era. When the film was made, the Manson family trials had just occurred, which led those equating Manson's family with the hippies to declare that the hippy movement was dead. This movie, which was largely shot at the Spahn ranch, out of which Manson operated, taps into this.

The plot is simple: The females of the Angels gang are left on their own while the men attend a convention with another gang. One of the Angels gets involved with a love cult run by a sadist while visiting a ranch, and it is up to the other women to try to get her out after she learns that the leader is a criminal. Thus tragedy enters the Angels' attempt at creating a new society based on love and freedom. The women are all portrayed strongly and positively, however, it is up to the men to come to their rescue in the end. As with most of Adamson's action films, not all the good guys survive, and a certain level of sadness underlines the fun and excitement.

Though a well acted and directed movie with a decent script, Angels' Wild Women is more like a good action movie than great art like "Easy Rider", but is similar in its bitter-sweet examination of the end of an era.

Decent, but falls short
Biker gangs cruising around, causing little trouble.

Having scene Satan's Sadists first, I was not as impressed with AWW. The chicks could have been a little meaner and some more violence might have helped. Dragged at several spots. ... Read more

Reviews (8)

Life Imitates Art
This movie is a classic example of "Life Imitates Art". Many a bike club was built on the premise of this and many other 60's scooter tramp flicks like this one. Own a piece of American counter-culture and add this jem to your library!

violent and sexy biker movie
The movie starts promisingly with a couple indulged in petting suddenly interrupted by a gang of bikers. They drug the girl and rape her, then set the forcibly drugged and drunk couple in their car and roll the car over the edge of a cliff.
And the action never stops in this fine drive-in classic biker movie dubbed by producer Sam SHERMAN as the "CITIZEN KANE of biker movies". Well, I don't agree to that (in my view the best biker film of all time is the Spanish THE MAD FOXES), but SATAN`S SADISTS is great fun nevertheless.
The further plot concerns a former marine hitchhiking through the California desert, who is offered a lift by a middle-aged couple, a cop and his wife on second honeymoon. They decide to have a meal at a roadside diner. Suddenly the biker gang arrive at the diner! You can probably guess, what happens next: the bikers make trouble, molesting the waitress and harrass the cop's wife, prompting the cop to draw a revolver. Things get nasty, resulting in the policeman's wife getting raped (unfortunately we don't get to see too much nudity here) and the death of the cop, his wife and the diner's owner. The ex-marine and the waitress escape in the desert, killing two bikers in the process. One guy meets a particularly nasty end by being drowned in the toilet! The furious bikers give chase and the couple must fight for their life...

WOW! They don't make movies like that anymore. SATAN`S SADISTS is a sleaze masterpiece, full of violence, nudity, violent sex and drug abuse. The film is rather anti-establishment, like many movies of the period. And the characters are really cool! Sure, the ex-marine is a bit boring as well as his new found girlfriend, the waitress. But the bikers deliver. Particularly Russ TAMBLYN is great as the cool but psychopathic gang's boss Anchor. He delivers a nice anti-establishment speech before shooting the cop and the other victims at the diner. And his accomplices are a rather weird bunch! Two of the gang members are handicapped, a biker is one-eyed (but wears sunglasses nonetheless), another even needs a hearing aid (!). The only concern of the bikers seems to be sex and getting stoned. And the dialogue is sometimes over the top - like when the bikers encounter three girls in the desert, one of them sunbathing topless, which prompts one biker to remark "She is keeping her milk warm."
Oh yeah, I really love this movie.

The DVD itself is filled with lots of extra features. First, there is an introduction to the movie vy producer Sam SHERMAN, who talks about how cool the film is and that it has gained a cult following worldwide. This segment however looks like it was shot 100 years ago.
Producer SHERMAN also appears in an interesting interview. This guy knows some stories to tell and it is fun to listen to him. The producer also provided an audiocommentary on which I can not comment, because I did not listen to it and I am generally not a fan of audiocommentaries. However I did listen to the radio interview with Regina CARROL, wife of director Al ADAMSON and staring in SATAN`S SADISTS as "freak-out girl". It is a promotional piece and again fun to listen to. There is also a gallery of behind-the-scenes photographs, presented in a way, as if they were shown in a drive-in theatre.
Then there is the film's trailer, which is outstanding. It starts with a disclaimer: THE SHOCKING SCENES YOU ARE ABOUT TO SEE ARE NOT SUGGESTED FOR THE WEAK OR IMMATURE. IF YOU CANNOT TAKE IT, WE ADVISE YOU TO NOW PATRONIZE THE CONCESSION STAND OR LOOK AWAY FROM THE SCREEN DURING THIS PREVIEW OF "SATAN'S SADISTS". The trailer promotes the film with the tagline A REBELLION OF HUMAN GARBAGE! Seeing is believing.
There are also 3 TV teaser trailers for the film as well as four additional trailers for other films, all directed by Al ADAMSON: DRACULA VS. FRANKENSTEIN (trashy beyond belief, only for diehard trash film fans), the slightly better zombie romp BLOOD OF GHASTLY HORROR, ANGELS WILD WOMEN (a promising looking exploitation flick) and GIRLS FOR RENT (titled erronously I SPIT ON YOUR CORPSE on the trailer menue) starring XXX actress Georgina SPELVIN of THE DEVIL IN MRS. JONES fame.
A great disc!

If you like entertaining, violent, politically incorrect B-movies, buy it! You won't be disappointed.

Overrated
This is the most overrated film I've seen in a while. I hoped for a violent, sexist, stark, disturbing biker film, and I got cheese. The motorcycles are awful, some of them are like dirt bikes and others no self-respecting biker would ever ride. The Satans colors look like iron-on patches. The violence is very antiseptic, with very litte gore, almost no nudity, and no realism. The plot and continuation are pathetic; could someone explain to me how the manniken-haired "good guy" got up that mountain so quick at the end to fight Firewater, or better yet, why? Also, the picture and sound quality are abyssmal, rendering whole sections of the movie unwatchable. A total waste of time and money, and completely misrepresented by anyone who gives it a good review.

from Fringe Video Fanzine Issue #005
One of the greatest biker films of all time. Very nasty, raw and violent. "...Released during the height of the biker film craze, the film made enough money to finance several more movies..." The simple western good guys vs. Bad guys type plot consists of a bike gang who "...terrorize some people at a desert diner until the gang is done in by a drifting Vietnam vet..." This is Al Adamson's breakthrough film, which propelled him and partner Sam Sherman into business with the introduction of a company called Independent International Pictures Corp. The film was intended to be the jewel which they would market to the drive-in crowd. "...not at all typical Adamson fare... It contained no footage from other movies..." Extreme for the time, the film starts with the rape of a large breasted women, and later LSD being forced to unwitting girls before they are raped and murdered. Miles away from the usual Hollywood type exploitation biker movies that regulars like Casey Kasem [Cycle Savages (1969) / Wild Wheels (1969) acted in. This is a film that strayed far away from the mainstream, and found an audience amongst the anti-establishment film going crowd who were eating up such films as: The Wild Angels (1966) or Easy Rider (1969). Said to be "...the Citizen Cane (1941) of biker films..." So extreme that many say that the film almost ruined the career of the main star Russ Tamblyn [West Side Story (1961) Twin Peaks (1990 - 91). The anti-police speech Tamblyn does, as he sits on top the car is probably the highlight of the movie. Shot in 16mm and blown up to 35mm to save money for the casting. Al Adamson managed to hire such notables as John 'Bud' Cardos [Hells Angels on Wheels (1967) / Psych-Out (1968)], Greydon Clark [Skinheads (1989)], and Regina Carrol [Beat Generation (1959) / Viva Las Vegas (1964)] who later married director Al Adamson. Audio commentary on the disc by Sam Sherman, also features a radio interview with Regina Carrol, some behind the scenes photos, and short documentary called 'Producing Schlock'

An Excellent movie!
This 60's biker movie is a lot of fun. Rampaging biker gang with psycho leader, older couple on vacation, good-guy marine and the young waitress - priceless. I could have done without the rape scenes, but the camera didn't dwell on them too long.

The acting really couldn't be much better. Excellent characters. Apparently filmed in 11 days. Doesn't get much better for b-biker flicks. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Vro-o-om, vro-o-om
An independent biker film with cheap production values and a swiss cheese plot that will probably become a cult classic in a few years. Hard to follow the theme in some places. Utterly forgettable. I will probably give my copy away.

End of an Era
Al Adamson was always much better at making action films, especially those starring bikers, than the horror films he is mostly known for. "Satan's Sadists", for example, is still one of the best biker films ever made. However, in the early 1970s he found himself stuck with a just completed biker film at a time when the public had grown bored with biker films and stopped attending. So, seeing the success of films about groups of tough women like Roger Corman and Jack Hill's Pam Grier prison films, he decided to change the emphasis of the film and its marketing. Thus Angels' Wild Women was created, placing greater focus on the women in the bike group and ads greatly exaggerating how tough and mean they are were released.

Actually, the bikers in the film are quite tame. In contrast to Al's classic "Satan's Sadists", this film provides a positive perspective on bikers. The men do get into a bit of macho posturing, but otherwise they're nice folk looking for fun and freedom.

The plot of this film is quite worthwhile, however, and provides an excellent look at the end of an era. When the film was made, the Manson family trials had just occurred, which led those equating Manson's family with the hippies to declare that the hippy movement was dead. This movie, which was largely shot at the Spahn ranch, out of which Manson operated, taps into this.

The plot is simple: The females of the Angels gang are left on their own while the men attend a convention with another gang. One of the Angels gets involved with a love cult run by a sadist while visiting a ranch, and it is up to the other women to try to get her out after she learns that the leader is a criminal. Thus tragedy enters the Angels' attempt at creating a new society based on love and freedom. The women are all portrayed strongly and positively, however, it is up to the men to come to their rescue in the end. As with most of Adamson's action films, not all the good guys survive, and a certain level of sadness underlines the fun and excitement.

Though a well acted and directed movie with a decent script, Angels' Wild Women is more like a good action movie than great art like "Easy Rider", but is similar in its bitter-sweet examination of the end of an era.

Decent, but falls short
Biker gangs cruising around, causing little trouble.

Having scene Satan's Sadists first, I was not as impressed with AWW. The chicks could have been a little meaner and some more violence might have helped. Dragged at several spots. ... Read more

Reviews (44)

i'm gonna come right out and say it...
...i don't like season 1!

i don't like dr. erhardt as much as tv's frank (who does?) and the riffing is more sparse and of a slightly weaker style. but i was thinking, for a new fan seeking to discover mst3k, this may not be a bad jumping off point (although manos is a better start).

this episode is indicative of the true original philosophy of mst3k. most of the best episodes aren't mystery or science-oriented (manos, mitchell, many sci-fi eps such as jack frost or final sacrifice), but the crawling hand is a true, cheesy, BAD scifi/horror movie. and that was the original intent of the show: to riff on bad scifi/horror flicks. and the riffing IS good, it's just not as good as it would become in later seasons.

nobody should miss out on this episode, but other episodes are better, and once you're well-versed in mst3k-dom, you'll revisit this episode less often than the others.

You will believe a hand can crawl!
Ah, MST3K Season One. I can see how some people, even MST3K fans, might be disappointed by this video. Instead of TV's Frank, Dr. Forrester has Dr. Larry Erhardt (John Weinstein) for a sidekick, and it is Weinstein rather than Kevin Murphy supplying the voice of Tom Servo. The set looks as cheap as it really was, the silhouettes in the theater are sort of green-looking, Joel sometimes seems to forget which bot is which, and the jokes are sometimes rather lame. However, the show is still hilarious. If you've never seen a Season One episode before, cut Weinstein's Servo voice some slack. Initially, I hated it, but being fortunate enough to have the whole first season on tape, I found that this initial Servo incarnation was actually pretty funny in his own right after I got used to him. This one video probably won't make you a Weinstein fan, but give him a chance.

As for the movie itself, The Crawling Hand was perfect MST3K material--there's a silly plot, an annoying teenager, and some incredibly bad acting. America's space program is apparently run in a little warehouse somewhere in the middle of nowhere, and the scientists there are in a tizzy. On two occasions, a guy has been sent to the moon, landing successfully, then being lost on his way back to earth. This second time, communication is reestablished with the astronaut 20 minutes after he has run out of oxygen. He begs the men in the control room (actually, it's really just a desk) to blow him up before he reenters the atmosphere. The doctor-type guy finally hits the red button. Meanwhile, a supposedly smart slacker goes swimming in the ocean with his Swedish girlfriend, and while they are frolicking around they run across a human hand lying on the beach. Naturally, our hero decides he must have that hand; he sneaks back that night (apparently this is the one beach in California that no one whatsoever goes to) and makes the wonderful hand his own, lovingly placing it in his landlady's storage room behind some relish. Soon, the hand (which does crawl, just like the title says) begins strangling peo