Multiplex Mash-Up :: June, 1975

 

 

 

 

 

Multiplex Mash-Up :: Evil Does Not Die, It Waits to Be Reborn! (June, 1978)

 

 

 

 

 
And now, Boils and Ghouls, I give you William Girdler’s completely demented The Manitou, whose plot of an ancient Indian shaman being reborn from a tumorous growth on the back of Susan Strasberg’s neck — that’s more malignant than benign, and the fruitless efforts of her boyfriend, in the form of Tony Curtis, and a modern medicine man, in the from of Michael Ansara, to stop him until the patient manages to channel the inner-spirits of technology to send the massacring midget-man back to hell in a laser-disco light-show finale for the ages will definitely leave you boggling. For more on Girdler, The Manitou, and the rest of his catalog, I strongly suggest you check out this wonderful tribute site.

The Manitou (1978) Mid-America Pictures :: Simon Productions :: Manitou Productions Ltd. :: AVCO Embassy / EP: Melvin G. Gordy, David Sheldon, Melvin Simon, Herman Weist / P: William Girdler / AP: Jon Cedar, Scott M. Siegler, Gilles de Turenne / D: William Girdler / W: William Girdler, Jon Cedar, Thomas Pope, Graham Masterton (novel) / C: Michel Hugo / E: Bub Asman / M: Lalo Schifrin S: Tony Curtis, Susan Strasberg, Michael Ansara, Stella Stevens, Burgess Meredith

Remembering Ray :: Where Were You in ’78? (June, 1978)

 

 

 

 

 

 
And we’ll wrap up this week long tribute to Ray Harryhausen where it began for me. E’yup. It was here, in a similar matinee setting back in the 1970’s, that I saw my first Harryhausen film, Jason and the Argonauts, and got my first taste of Dynamic Dynamation. Already enchanted and mesmerized by what I had seen, I clearly remember the climax, when the Children of the Hydra (the skeleton army) first broke out of the ground and assembled, I had edged so far forward in my seat, pulled along as gravity asserted itself on my lower jaw, I almost toppled over into the row ahead of us. And though my dream of being a stop-motion monster animator this encounter inspired never came to pass, I have been living vicariously through Harryhausen’s films ever since and enjoying the hell out of every minute of them. And for that I would like to say, thanks.

Ray Harryhausen
(1920-2013)