EEGAH (1962)
Label: The Film Detective
Region Code: Region-FREE
Rating: Unrated
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 2.0 Mono with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080P HD Widescreen (1.66:1)
Director: Arch Hall Sr.
Cast: Richard Kiel, Marilyn Manning, Arch Hall Sr., Arch Hall Jr.
The Arch Hall Sr. directed bad-film classic Eegah (1962) is the story of a caveman (Richard Kiel, Moonraker) who has been living undetected in the Californian desert outside of Palm Springs for thousands of years. He's the last of his kind, a living fossil who have survived through the millennia by drinking a youth-ifying sulfur water spring that can only be found in his cave, somehow existing undetected by civilization until he is struck by a car driven by teenager Roxy (Marilyn Manning).
The caveman has designs to make off with the teen but is scared away from the scene by the sudden arrival of her boyfriend, Tom (Arch Hall Jr., The Sadist), a guitar-slinging teen crooner who moonlights at the local gas station. Though he didn't see the 7 ft.-tall caveman she tells him and her amateur adventurer father (Arch Hall Sr.) about it, and while both seem slightly less than convinced by her tale her father sets out to look for the reported wild-man on his own.
When he fails to return home at the agreed upon time Roxy and Tom head out to the desert in his hot-rod dune buggy looking for him, with Roxy being abducted by the caveman. he takes her back to his sulfur-water springs cave, where she discovers her injured father and the mummified remains of the wild man's ancestors.
The wild-man's name is Eegah and he seems alright, a hospitable host who offers Roxy meat from his latest wild game kill, sniffing her scarf and even allowing her shave his beard-burdened visage. Eventually a shotgun-toting Tom tracks them down and the trio escape on the dune buggy back to Palm Springs.
Eegah however is quite smitten with young Roxy and tracks her down through the scent on her scarf back to Palm Springs where he interrupts a high-society social gathering and much mayhem ensues.
It's a bad film alright, but a fun one, Arch Hall Sr. cast his sour-faced teen-son Arch Hall Jr. as the heroic teen who also happens to be a coiffed, guitar-strumming, teen-crooner, and the films features several musical numbers, all of which are about other girls besides Roxy, and they're not bad, I kind of dig 'em! Shot on the cheap the film has a ramshackle regional film feel that I love, it doesn't take itself too seriously and the pace is brisk. Seeing future 7' 2" 007-alum Richard Keil as the caveman is a hoot, being the beast in this love triangle with tragic, though thoroughly ham-fisted, 'beauty killed the beast' trappings. Not a great film by any stretch of the imagination but a fun watch if you're in the right frame of mind.
Audio/Video: Eegah! 91962) arrives on region-free Blu-ray from The Film Detective who present the film in the original 1.66:1 widescreen aspect ratio. This is a new 4K scan of the original camera negative, which was provided by Something Weird Video, and it looks mighty impressive. I have only ever seen this film through the now infamous MSTK3 episode, which is handily included here as an extra (courtesy of Shout! Factory), so you can see for yourself what a fantastic improvement this restoration is. There's are some faint scratches, splice marks and other visible film imperfections apparent throughout, but there's a new depth and clarity to the image that is very impressive. Colors are greatly improved, the red of the dune buggy really pops, and there's some actual detail in the image highlighting fabric textures and facial details in close-ups. While it is grainy I appreciate that it has not been digitally-scrubbed and looks very filmic. Notably, this is an actual pressed Blu-ray disc, not a BD-R like a few past Blu-rays from the distributor.
Audio on the disc by way of an English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono with optional English subtitles. The track is fairly clean and crisp but it's got some source related issues, dialogue levels, intelligibility and intensity vary due to what sounds like poor sound recording techniques during the filming, with plenty of flat sounding overdubs.
Extras include the aforementioned MST3K episode from '93, plus an interview with MST3K creator Joel Hodgson who speaks about lampooning the film on the show, how his feeling on the film have changed over the years, and how it became a centerpiece for the travelling live show version the series. Arch Hall Jr. himself shows up for a 13-min interview, holding a guitar the whole time, discussing his father's career, how he launched his own production company, their first film and bringing on Richard Keel for Eegah!, after he initially refusing to play a cannibal in an earlier pitch.
The single-disc film arrives on a limited edition of 1500 Blu-ray from The Film Chest in a standard Blu-ray keepcase with a single-sided sleeve of artwork which is also mirrored on the Blu-ray disc. Inside there's a 4-page booklet with an appreciation from Don Stradley from The Film Detective that worth a read.
Special Features:
- Mystery science Theater 300 Version (1003)
- An Interview with MST3K Creator Joel Hodgson (7 min)
- An Interview with Arch Hall Jr. (13 min)
- 4-Page Booklet with an Appreciation from Don Stradley of The Film Detective.
The cult-tastic Eegah (1962) has a little bit of something for all bad-film lovers, we get a strangely coiffed heroic teenage rock ‘n roller, a love-lorn seven-foot-tall Neanderthal, some dune buggy hot-rodding and plenty of hammy acting from all involved. It's a great time with a bad-film, and the new 4K restoration from The Film Detective is above and beyond anything I would have expected for this regional slice of 60's weirdness.
