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Wow, a whole century. The (in)famous master of schlocky creature/monster movies, a name who I remember from childhood on and whose movies I just had to see (if I ever caught them). May he rest in peace.
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Gordon worked with composer Albert Glasser on "The Cyclops", "Beginning Or The End", "The Amazing Colossal Man", and "War Of The Colossal Beast', "Earth Vs. The Spider", and "The Boy And The Pirates". Dragon's Domain should do a 2 C.D. set devoted to these scores, though legal problems may prevent the third score from coming out on C.D.. I wonder what project those two are now doing up there? R.I.P. Bert I. Gordon.
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Double post!
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Posted: |
Mar 19, 2023 - 4:02 PM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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Bert I. Gordon’s first foray into filmmaking was as producer, cinematographer, and editor of 1954’s SERPENT ISLAND. In the film, “Pete Mason” (Sonny Tufts), a has-been booze lover; a Pennsylvania secretary (Mary Munday or Rosalind Hayes, [sources differ]); and “Kirk Ellis” (Tom Monroe), a cantankerous captain, join in search of a priceless treasure in Haiti.
The film was directed by Tom Gries and was produced for just $18,000. There is scant evidence that it ever played in theaters. By January 1955, it was already playing on late shows on local TV stations. The film’s score is credited to Domingo Rodrigues, but the film’s opening title music comes from Elmer Bernstein’s CAT-WOMEN OF THE MOON (1953).
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Posted: |
Mar 20, 2023 - 2:34 PM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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Bert I. Gordon began his directorial career with 1955’s KING DINOSAUR. Offscreen narration, provided by Marvin Miller, explains the beginning action, during which the planet “Nova” is discovered, and scientists build a spaceship to explore it. Four scientists (two men and two women) are sent to the new planet. In between romantic interludes, they face a Tyrannosaurus rex.
Gordon directed the $15,000 film over a 7-day period. He and Al Zimbalist also developed the story and co-produced the film. Tom Gries wrote the screenplay. Louis Palange (with an uncredited assist by Gene Garf) provided the unreleased score for the film. The camera and other pieces of equipment were borrowed, the four-member cast worked for deferred salaries, and much use was made of stock footage.
Reportedly, prior to production, Gordon reviewed stop-motion dinosaur footage brought in by Ray Harryhausen and Ray Bradbury. At the end of the screening, he did not even acknowledge them. There was no comment at all, no “good,” “bad,” or “get lost,” just Gordon walking out. Harryhausen and Bradbury were upset and disappointed.
In the film, the footage of the “dinosaurs” is actually footage of an iguana and other lizards or alligators, combined with shots of the actors in special effects process photography. A couple of years after their meeting, upon leaving the premiere of the film, Ray Bradbury went up to Gordon and said "Remember me? Ray Bradbury? It won't make a dime!" Contrary to that prediction, Gordon asserted in a 1978 interview that “it was very successful. After its release, there were several financial groups ready to invest in a film of my own design.”
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Posted: |
Mar 21, 2023 - 4:07 PM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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Reporter “Audrey Aimes” (Peggie Castle) is driving along a highway in Illinois when she is stopped by the military. She learns that a small town was destroyed, and everyone has seemingly disappeared. She goes to a lab run by the Department of Agriculture. The lab's director, “Dr. Ed Wainwright” (Peter Graves) tells her that strange things have been happening ever since he discovered that a bunch of grasshoppers managed to get into a silo containing a batch of radioactive wheat. They soon discover that the grasshoppers have grown to monstrous proportions, and not only are they devouring the local vegetation, but they have developed a taste for human flesh as well. Now the insects are marching towards Chicago. With the military threatening to destroy the city with the atom bomb, this could be the BEGINNING OF THE END.
Bert I. Gordon produced and directed the 1957 film, which marked the first production by AB-PT Pictures, a subsidiary of the American Broadcasting-Paramount Theatres organization. Gordon’s story idea for the film was inspired by THE TEN COMMANDMENTS, the big movie hit of 1956. That film's biblical plague of locusts became Gordon's plague of giant grasshoppers invading a modern city.
Gordon had to locate a wingless variety of grasshoppers that could not fly or hop so that they could not escape during filming. He imported 200 from Texas, and at the end of production only twelve were still alive. Since he couldn't get the grasshoppers to climb vertically up the side of a model building, Gordon placed a large photo of a high-rise building on a table, had the insects walk across it horizontally and tilted the camera downward to make it look as if they were crawling up.
Albert Glasser’s score was released by Dragon’s Domain in 2022.
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Posted: |
Mar 23, 2023 - 4:18 PM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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ATTACK OF THE PUPPET PEOPLE finds elderly and lonely doll manufacturer “Mr. Franz” (John Hoyt) operating a workshop called “Dolls Incorporated” on the fifth floor of a city office building. As his secretary has suddenly “disappeared,” he advertises for a new one, and immediately takes a liking to sweet “Sally Reynolds” (June Kenney) and convinces her to take the job. Constantly hanging around Mr. Franz’s office is pushy business associate “Bob Westley” (John Agar) who has sights on getting closer to Sally. He falls in love with her and asks for her hand in marriage while viewing THE AMAZING COLOSSAL MAN at a drive-in theater. Although they plan to elope, the next day Bob mysteriously goes missing, and Sally suspects Mr. Franz of turning her fiancé into a tiny living doll. A police sergeant (Jack Kosslyn) doesn’t believe her, even though several other missing persons have also wandered into Franz's place of business. Soon Sally is shrunken and reunited with her beau and a group of other little people including a jolly marine (Scott Peters), a rockin' and rollin' couple of teens (Kenny Miller and Marlene Willis), and a blond floozy (Laurie Mitchell).
Bert I. Gordon produced and directed this 1958 sci-fi horror film, as well as doing the special effects. The film was rushed into production by American International and Gordon to capitalize on the popular success of Universal-International's THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN, released the previous year. Gordon’s daughter Susan, who appeared in the film, was a last-minute substitute for another child actress who was ill and unable to perform. Six minutes of Albert Glasser’s score appeared on Kritzerland’s release of Glasser’s THE BOY AND THE PIRATES in 2010.
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Posted: |
Mar 23, 2023 - 4:36 PM
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By: |
Last Child
(Member)
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Gordon worked with composer Albert Glasser on "The Cyclops", "Beginning Or The End", "The Amazing Colossal Man", and "War Of The Colossal Beast', "Earth Vs. The Spider", and "The Boy And The Pirates". Dragon's Domain should do a 2 C.D. set devoted to these scores, though legal problems may prevent the third score from coming out on C.D.. I wonder what project those two are now doing up there? R.I.P. Bert I. Gordon.
Odd that you didn't know, and noone has chimed in, that these have all been released. Announced in the music forum, listed on Soundtrackcollector. "Colossal Man/Beast" was cancelled shortly after its release, but buyers received download links so digital copies were temporarily available.
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