Fifty Before '50: MONSTER MAYHEM COLLECTION

 by JB

We have here an early nominee for “Disc of the Year.”

At the beginning of April, the fine folks at Film Masters released this two-disc set that is chockablock full of cheesy monsters, budget special effects, inexplicable musical numbers, and scenes shot economically at famous Bronson Canyon in Griffith Park.

This Monster Mayhem Collection includes Frankenstein’s Daughter, Giant from the Unknown, Brain from Planet Arous, and Monster from Green Hell; the Frankenstein picture and the Brain picture are two of my particular favorites.

I must admit my first motivation for purchasing the new set was space. I am running out of room for physical media in my office, and this would allow me to replace four separate keep-cases with one. Then I saw the cornucopia of extras and I began to mentally salivate, waiting for the new discs to arrive.

LONG, POINTLESS TANGENT: For a number of reasons, I thought that relatively new boutique Blu-ray label Film Masters was an offshoot of similar boutique Blu-ray label Film Detective. I bought many of Film Detective’s early releases and loved them. Film Masters seemed to focus on the same sorts of genre titles. So, I asked the Google Machine, “Hey, what gives? Are Film Masters and Film Detective really the same company?” The answer came from friend-of-the-site Heath Holland over at Cereal at Midnight. “No, Film Masters and The Film Detective are two separate companies, but they are closely linked by the same founder. Philip Hopkins founded The Film Detective and later launched Film Masters as a brand new, separate boutique DVD and Blu-ray label focused on the preservation and restoration of classic cinema. While The Film Detective was acquired by Cinedigm in 2020 and operates largely as a streaming channel and content distributor, Hopkins moved on to establish Film Masters to focus on physical media and film restoration." A-ha!

THE PLOTS IN BRIEF: In Frankenstein's Daughter (1958), Dr. Oliver Frank (Donald Murphy) turns Trudy Morton (Sandra Knight) into a monster by plying her with secret formula fruit juice. She nightly turns hairy and ugly and runs amuck. Trudy’s friend Suzie Lawler (Sally Todd) winds up with her head grafted onto the body of Frank’s second (male) monster. Why? In a charming nod to how shitty the past really was, Dr. Frank explains, “Now we're aware the female mind is conditioned to a man's world. It therefore takes orders, where the other ones didn't.” Dr. Frank turns out to be the last living descendant of... guess who! He changed his name to “Frank” because changing it to “Stein” would just be too goddamn obvious.

Giant from the Unknown (1958) finds residents of a small California town up in arms about a recent spate of livestock mutilations. Turns out, it’s the Diablo Giant (Buddy Baer), running amuck around the outskirts of town.

In 1957's Brain from Planet Arous, Gor, a mischievous and horny brain from the titular planet, arrives on Earth and possesses the body of Steve March (John Agar). Gor falls in love with Steve’s fiancé Sally Fallon (Joyce Meadows). Gor runs amuck and engages in destructive mischief. A less destructive brain, Vol, comes down to earth to vanquish Gor. To accomplish this, he possesses... another body (Arf). Vol explains to anyone who will listen that Gor is a wanted criminal on Planet Arous.

Monster from Green Hell (1957): Doctors Brady and Morgan (Jim Davis and Robert Griffith) head an experimental rocket program that sends animals into space. A rocket containing wasps is irradiated and lands in South Africa, with predictable results. Giant wasp-like creatures run amuck in an area known as Green Hell. When all seems lost, an active volcano begins to spew and conveniently kills all the radioactive bugaboos. Morgan notes wryly that nature has ways of covering up mistakes and concluding low-budget B-movies.

The transfer on Brain from Planet Arous is a tad grainy, but acceptable. The prints of Giant and Monster look fine. The transfer on Frankenstein’s Daughter is one of the best I’ve ever seen, sharp and crisp. The transfer on Frankenstein’s Daughter will make you wish that you lived back then. It will make you wish that you were best friends with John Ashley and that you drank a lot of mid-priced beer.

Film Masters has thoughtfully included the following bonus features, which really make this package a must-buy: Frankenstein's Daughter and Giant from the Unknown, full-length commentary with Tom Weaver; The Brain from Planet Arous, full-length commentary with Tom Weaver and special guests; Giant from the Unknown, archival full-length commentary with Gary Crutcher; and Monster from Green Hell, full-length commentary with Stephen R. Bissette. Featurettes include: “Richard E. Cunha: Filmmaker,” “Missouri Born: Films of Jim Davis,” “The Man Before the Brain: Director Nathan Juran,” and “The Man Behind the Brain: The World of Nathan Juran”.

THINGS I LEARNED FROM BONUS FEATURES AND FURTHER PROOF THAT EVERYTHING IN HOLLYWOOD IS CONNECTED SOMEHOW:

1) Nathan Hertz, the director of Brain from Planet Arous, was actually Nathan Juran. Juran started his career in Hollywood as an art director, winning an Oscar for John Ford’s How Green Was My Valley. He later directed The Deadly Mantis at Universal, Hellcats of the Navy with future President Ronald Reagan, 20 Million Miles to Earth and The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad with special effects by Ray Harryhausen, and perennial cult favorite Attack of the 50-Foot Woman.

2) Sandra Knight, female lead in Frankenstein’s Daughter, was Jack Nicholson’s first wife. Knight’s romantic interest in the film, John Ashley, later appeared in several Beach Party movies and ended his Hollywood career producing The A-Team on television. Second lead Sally Todd was Playboy magazine’s Playmate of the Month for February, 1957. Harry Wilson, who plays the Monster once it gets its new head, was a popular character actor who appears in The Wizard of Oz, Some Like It Hot, Guys and Dolls, and The Great Race.

3) The makeup effects in Giant from the Unknown were handled by Jack Pierce, famous for his Universal Monster makeups in the 1930s and '40s.

4) Some original release prints of Monster from Green Hell had sequences tinted green. Spooky.

These movies are just plain fun. If we judge new releases of classic and cult films using some super complicated mathematical formula that equates cost and hours of enjoyment derived, (Perhaps c = price per film/hours spent watching X rewatchability quotient2?) this release is off the charts. Not only are its pleasures multitudinous... but I JUST CAN’T DO MATH. I’m too busy rewatching Brain from Planet Arous and Frankenstein’s Daughter. Pass the brains.