CREEPY-CREATURES DOUBLE-FEATURE:
THE CRAWLING HAND (1963) + THE SLIME PEOPLE (1963)
One Crawls. One Grabs. Both Attack!
Label: VCI Entertainment
Region Code: Region-Free
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 88 Minutes 6 Seconds
Audio: English PCM 2.0 Dual-Mono with Optional English Subtitles
Video: B&W 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1)
Director: Herbert L. Strock
Cast: Peter Breck, Kent Taylor, Rod Lauren, Alan Hale, Allison Hayes, Arline Judge
The first half of this producer Joseph A. Robertson (the director of Auntie Lee's Meat Pies) produced creature double-feature is The Crawling Hand (1963), directed by Herbt L. Strock (How To Make a Monster), which opens with NASA scientists Steve Curan (Peter Breck, The Sword and the Sorcerer) and Max Weitzberg (Kent Taylor, The Day Mars Invaded Earth) and assistant Donna (Allison Hayes, Attack of the 50 Foot Woman) in the control room fretting how several moon missions have ended in disasters with the astronauts inexplicably dying upon re-entry. The latest moon mission is in process and involves astronaut Capt. Lockhart (Ashley Cowan, The Buccaneer), who after successfully leaving the moon and about to re-enter Earth's atmosphere radios and shows up on a monitor looking like a proto goth with dark circled eyes, indicating that he has become infected or possessed by some sort of alien force, begging the scientist to blow up the capsule before he can return to Earth, which the elder scientist obliges, blowing the capsule which seemingly burns up in the atmosphere.
Meanwhile, in California young medical student Paul (Rod Lauren, Terrified) and his girlfriend Marta (Sirry Steffen, TV's The Beverly Hillbillies) are hanging out at a secluded beach in California when they find the severed forearm and hand of the astronaut laying in the sand. Marta is terrified of it and they leave, not even bothering to report a severed forearm and hand to Sheriff Townsend (Alan Hale Jr., Gilligan's Island, The Giant Spider Invasion). Later that night when alone Paul returns to the beach and recovers the arm for further study, wrapping up up in a shower curtain and storing it in the kitchen pantry for some reason, unaware that an alien force still inhabits the hand. The killer hand springs to life and promptly kills his landlady Mrs. Hotchkiss (Arline Judge, The Age of Consent), before attempting to strangle him, not killing him, but exerting it's evil influence over him, causing him to become a sunken-eyed evil-doer who tries to strangle Marta and the elderly proprietor of the local soda shop (Syd Saylor, The Hawk at Wild River). A schlocky slice of sci-fi and a fun killer hand entry, a sort of no-budget riff on The Beast with Five Fingers, and notable for the finale in which two ravenous junkyard cats eat the hand, saving the day!
Label: VCI Entertainment
Region Code: Region-Free
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 75 Minutes 59 Seconds
Audio: English LPCM 2.0 Dual-Mono with Optional English Subtitles
Video: B&W 1080p HD Widescreen (1.78:1)
Director: Robert Hutton
Cast: Robert Hutton, Robert Burton, Susan Hart, William Boyce, Les Tremayne
The second half of this producer Joseph A. Robertson (the director of Auntie Lee's Meat Pies) produced creature double-feature is The Slime People (1963), which is not surprisingly the sole directing credit of star Robert Hutton, a threadbare clunker about Los Angeles being attacked by subterranean "Slime People", spear-toting boogeymen from a prehistoric age who fill the air with a strange fog that creates a invisible dome over the area so that they can terraform it into a more hospitable environment for them to thrive on the surface. At the start of the film TV reporter/pilot Gregory (Robert Hutton, They Came from Beyond Space) experiences the invisible barrier and is forced to land his plane, on the ground he notices that oddly everyone is missing, except for scientist Professor Galbraith (Robert Burton, I was a Teenage Frankenstein) and his daughters lovely Lisa (Susan Hart, Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine) and Bonnie (Judee Morton, Experiment in Terror) who arrive on the scene and fill him in on the Slime People satiation. A short time later a they pick up another survibor named Cal (William Boyce), and eventually stumble upon a quirky writer Norman who lives in isolation, played by Les Tremayne (The War of the Worlds). They band together an hole up in the TV new studio where Greg works, but after being flushed out by the encroaching Slime People end up at a butcher shop where they plan to enter the reptilian invaders subterranean labyrinth to put an end to their evil fog machine. It's a super silly sci-fi flick and made on the cheap for sure, but I love the premise. The drooling subterranean reptilians looks a bit like the stone-skinned Thing from the Fantastic Four comics crossed with a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, or maybe an armadillo. It's supposed to be L.A. but it's in a pretty rural looking area, and the smoke-machines used to create the impenetrable fog obscure a lot of what's happening, but regardless, I love this sort of schlock, and I think it's nutty that I'd never seen either of these flicks before, especially since having grown up watching loads of 50s and 60s schlock on the WPIX or WSYE monster movie matinees shows, but somehow this pair seems to have eluded me till now, which is a shame, if I had watched these as a kid still in the single-digits I would have been absolutely enthralled by these, I'm a bit more cynical now, but these were still a hoot.
Audio/Video: Both films presented in 1080p HD widescreen on a single-disc Blu-ray courtesy of VCI and Kit Parker Films, with The Slime People getting a 1.78:1 presentation while The Crawling Hands is exhibited in 1.85:1. They are advertised as being newly scanned in 4K from the 35mm film negatives, and they do look quite nice. Grain is present, depth and clarity are modestly pleasing, as are the contract and grayscale, the one setback are somewhat milky looking black levels. There's are some faint vertical lines that pop up, but fine detail and texture is appreciable. if not exactly eye-popping. Audio for both come by way of English LPCM 2.0 dual-mono with optional English subtitles, the tracks are authentically flat and representative of the low-budget filmmaking of the era. The tracks are clean and well balanced, other than some very light hiss in spots these were clean and well-balanced. These cheaply made sci-fi clunkers get a solid HD presentation from VCI Entertainment.
Extras include a new Audio Commentary by Rob Kelly of the Fade Out Podcast, it's a solid track wherein he covers the cast and crew, locations, and notes that screenwriter Joseph Cranston is the father of Bryan Cranston, and getting into the lurid later career of producer Joseph R. Robertson. Unearthing the Slime People: Tom Weaver in Conversation, with Susan Hart on the Line is an archival piece that has been 'Newly Visualized for this Release' that runs about 55 minutes with the always entertaining monster kid Tom Weaver as he interviews Hart by phone, she talks about the film and it's budget, while Weaver keeps the conversation flowing, revealing tidbits throughout, while also reading excerpts from interviews with her late husband, the film's star/director Robert Hutton. Next is a brief video featurette, the 3-min Rubber Monsters, Real Fears: Mid-Century Sci-Fi, which features a "Script Generation: ChatGPT" credit, so fuck that, no thank you, and let's move on. The last of the disc extras is a 7-min Classic Drive-In Sci-Fi Poster Gallery.
Packaging extras include a Two-sided Sleeve with Original Cover Art by Robert Kelly and Retro-Artwork on the flip-side, plus a Limited Edition Slipcover with the Robert Kelly Artwork which is available on the first 1,500 units of the Blu-ray.
Special Features:
- The Crawling Hand – Audio Commentary by Rob Kelly, artist, reviewer, podcaster, and film buff extraordinaire!
- Unearthing the Slime People: Tom Weaver in Conversation, with Susan Hart on the Line (Original Archival Audio with Newly Visualized for this Release) (54:49)
- Video Featurette: Exploring 1950’s and 60’s Sci-Fi, Creature-Features: Robber Monsters, Real Fears: Mid-Century Sci-Fi (3:02)
- Classic Drive-In Sci-Fi Poster Gallery (7:00)
- Two-sided Sleeve with Original Cover Art by Robert Kelly and Retro - Artwork on the flip-side
- Limited Edition Slip Case (available on the first 1,500 units Blu-ray only).
Screenshots from the VCI Entertainment Blu-ray:
THE SLIME PEOPLE
THE CRAWLING HAND
Extras:
Buy it!
#ad
