The Bride & The Beast / The White Gorilla

Description

"The Bride and the Beast" (1958) is a supernatural drama of terror and scientific fiction produced and directed by Adrian Weiss. The script was written by none other than Edward D. Wood Jr. When Laura (Charlotte Austin) and Dan (Lance Fuller) get married, she appears to be more interested in Dan's gorilla. It's revealed through hypnosis that she was Queen of the Gorillas in a previous incarnation. "White Gorilla" (1945) A white gorilla is snubbed by black gorillas because he is the wrong color. Cut off from his tribe he becomes lonely and angry. After troubling hunters and natives, the white gorilla fights the king of the black gorillas while we are told by a narrator that the fate of Africa hangs in the balance. The movie was made by editing some 40s acting into footage from a 1927 silent serial, Perils of the Jungle, starring Frank Merrill the fifth screen Tarzan. Bonus Features: Advertising Galleries for both| Enhanced for 16x9| White Gorilla: Photo Gallery of Bob Burns| Bride and the Beast: "Ballyhoo"| Bios| Trailers| Tom Weaver and his works| Bride and the Beast Commentary with Charlotte Austin, Bob Burns, Slick Slavin (Trustin Howard) and Tom Weaver| White Gorilla Commentary with Bob Burns and Tom Weaver| Bonus Video: Surviving footage from "Perils of the Jungle" serial (1927) - Source for the stock footage used in "The White Gorilla" Specs: DVD9; Dolby Digital; 142 minutes; B&W; 1.66:1 / 1.33:1 Aspect Ratio; MPAA - NR; Year - 1958, 1945; SRP - $14.99.

Customer Reviews:

"Loads of Fun Cult Favorites ... The Bride & The Beast (1958) & The White Gorilla (1947) ... VCI Home Video".......2007-02-21

VCI Entertainment and Kit Parker Films presents "POSITIVELY NO REFUNDS DOUBLE FEATURE Vol 1" (The Bride & The Beast (1958) & The White Gorilla (1947) --- (Dolby digitally remastered) --- both releases have become cult favorites and classics ... featuring top performances from the '40s and '50s with outstanding drama and screenplays, along with a wonderful cast and supporting actors to bring it all together ... another winner from the vaults of almost forgotten Hollywood gems.

First up we have Allied Artist Pictures feature "THE BRIDE & THE BEAST" (1958) (78 mins/B&W) --- Under Adrian Weiss (Director/Producer), Louis Weiss (Producer), Adrian Weiss (Screenplay), Edward D. Wood Jr. (Screenplay), Les Baxter (Original Score), Roland Price (Cinematographer), George M. Merrick (Editor), Samuel Weiss (Editor), Harry Thomas (Makeup Artists), George Endler (Special Effects) ------ the cast includes Charlotte Austin (Laura Carson Fuller), Lance Fuller (Dan Fuller), Johnny Roth (Taro, Houseboy-Guide), William Justine (Dr. Carl Reiner), Gil Frye (Capt. Cameron), Jeanne Gerson (Marka, Cook), Steve Calvert (Gorillas), Trustin Howard (Soldier-Messenger (as Slick Slavin), Eve Brent (Stewardess (as Jean Ann Lewis), Bhogwan Singh (Man in Hut Killed by Tiger) ------ the story line Dan Fuller (Lance Fuller) who is the big game hunter takes his new bride Laura (Laura Carson) to his secluded country home on their wedding night ... He keeps a pet gorilla in a cage in the cellar ... Laura is entranced instead of fearful, and allows the dangerous ape to hold her hand and stroke her hair. During the night, the amorous gorilla breaks free of its cage, goes upstairs and practically starts petting with the captivated Laura, until Dan wakes up and shoots it dead. A hypnotherapy session with a country doctor (who entertains Bridie Murphy-style regression theories) produces an instantaneous reason for Laura's mad love - she was a great ape in an earlier life! ... soon they'll be on safari in Africa, which will put Laura back in contact with her gorilla clan - seems she's more interested in gorilla's ... It's revealed through hypnosis that she was Queen of the Gorillas in a previous incarnation, against whom Bwana Dan doesn't stand a ghost of a chance ... will Dan save and rescue Laura, don't leave the theater, you're in for a big surprise.

BIOS:
1. Charlotte Austin
Date of birth: 2 November 1933 - Charlotte, North Carolina
Date of death: Still Living
2. Lance Fuller
Date of birth: 6 December 1928 - Somerset, Kentucky
Date of death: 22 December 2001 - Los Angeles, California
3. Adrian Weiss (Director)
Date of birth: 1 May 1918 - New York, New York
Date of death: 27 October 2001 - Oxnard, California
4. Edward D. Wood Jr. (Director/Writer/Producer/Actor)
Date of birth: 10 October 1924 - Poughkeepsie, New York
Date of death: 10 December 1978 - North Hollywood, California

Second produced by Frase and Merrick Pictures on the double bill is "THE WHITE GORILLA" (1947) (62 min/B/W) --- Under Harry L. Fraser (Director), Louis Weiss (Executive Producer), Harry L. Fraser (Producer), George M. Merrick (Producer), Harry L. Fraser (Screenplay), Lee Zahler (Original Score), Robert E. Cline (Cinematographer), Bert Longenecker (Serial Footage), Adrian Weiss (Editor), Thomas Connoly (Set Decoration), George M. Merrick (Production Supervisor), Adrian Weiss (Production Manager), Glen Glenn (Sound Engineer), Wally West (Stuntman) ------ the cast includes Ray Corrigan (Steve Collins/Konga, the White Gorilla/Narrator), Charles King (J. Morgan, the Trader), Francis Ford (Mr. Stacey), George J. Lewis (Hutton), Lorraine Miller (Ruth Stacey), Harry Belmour (Alexander Marley), Budd Buster (Carter),Eugenia Gilbert (Phyllis Marley), Will Herman (Moto), Frank D. Hutter (Renee), Walter Maly (Stephens), Frank Merrill (Ed Bradford), Milburn Morante (Joe Marks), Bobby Nelson (Kimpo, The White Jungle Boy), Albert Smith ('Brute' Lou Hanley) ------ the story line with some clever editing from a 1927 silent serial, "Perils of the Jungle", starring Frank Merrill the fifth screen Tarzan and a 1947 drama footage ... the narrator Ray "Crash" Corrigan tells of his adventures to his trading post friends, of the dangers in the jungle with a White Gorilla ... our film has elephants, lions, tigers, black gorilla and of course the white gorilla thrashing around in just about every scene ... through many trials and tribulations our hero if we can call him that arrives at the trading post just bearly alive ... will the White Gorilla find him or can he elude this savage beast and keep the picture going for another reel ... don't touch that dial until the final chapter --- all courtesy of VCI Entertainment, who in my humble opinion is the best there is in restoring early serials and film noir features like this one.

BIOS:
1. Ray Corrigan
Date of birth: 14 February 1902 - Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Date of death: 10 August 1976 - Brookings Harbor, Oregon
2. Harry L. Fraser (Director)
Date of birth: 31 March 1889 - San Francisco, California
Date of death: 8 April 1974 - Pomona, California,

BONUS FEATURES:
1. Advertising Galleries for both
2. White Gorilla: Photo Gallery of Bob Burns
3. Bride and the Beast: "Ballyhoo"
4. Bios
5. Tom Weaver And His Works
6. Bride and the Beast Commentary with Charlotte Austin, Bob Burns, Slick Slavin (Trustin Howard) and Tom Weaver.
7. White Gorilla Commentary with Bob Burns and Tom Weaver
8. Bonus Video: Surviving footage from "Perils of the Jungle" serial (1927) - Source for the stock footage used in "The White Gorilla"

Hats off and thanks to Les Adams (collector/guideslines for character identification), Chuck Anderson (Webmaster: The Old Corral/B-Westerns.Com), Boyd Magers (Western Clippings), Bobby J. Copeland (author of "Trail Talk"), Rhonda Lemons (Empire Publishing Inc), Bob Nareau (author of "The Real Bob Steele"), Trevor Scott (Down Under Com) and VCI Entertaiment as they have rekindled my interest once again for B-Westerns and Serials --- looking forward to more high quality releases from the vintage serial era of the '20s, '30s & '40s and B-Westerns ... order your copy now from Amazon or VCI Entertainment where there are plenty of copies available on DVD, stay tuned once again for top notch action mixed with deadly adventure --- if you enjoyed this set, why not check out VCI Entertainment where they are experts in releasing B-Westerns and Serials --- all my heroes have been cowboys!

Total Time: 141 mins on DVD ~ VCI Home Video KPF-564 ~ (2/27/2007)

The Blood Island Vacation (Brides of Blood / The Mad Doctor of Blood Island / Beast of Blood / Brain of Blood)

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It's a John Ashley Shag-A-Thon...

The Blood Island Vacation (Brides of Blood / The Mad Doctor of Blood Island / Beast of Blood / Brain of Blood)
Starring: Kent Taylor , Beverly Powers , John Ashley , Eva Darren , and Mario Montenegro (II)
Director: Gerardo de Leon , and Eddie Romero
Manufacturer: Image Entertainment
ProductGroup: DVD
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ASIN: B0001BKABC
Release Date: 2004-03-02

Description

Ahoy, there's terror straight ahead on Blood Island! Go back to the days of drive-ins and damsels in distress with this quartet of scream-filled classics. Upon arrival, you'll be escorted by your tour guide John Ashley and the lovely Brides of Blood, who are all lined up by the island chiefs for sacrifice to a horribly mutated monster living in a jungle filled with an assortment of ghastly beasts. Then stop off for a visit with the Mad Doctor of Blood Island, whose experiments combining plant and man have resulted in green-blooded fiends bent on destruction, with only Mr. Ashley and the lovely Angelique Pettyjohn capable of stopping this blood-soaked rampage. And be sure to keep your eyes peeled for the island's resident Beast of Blood, a headless creature who swipes human noggins for its own gruesome ends. Can Ashley and beautiful Celeste Yarnall make it to the forbidden Valley of Doom before it's too late? Before you leave, feast your eyes on an evil dwarf, a lumbering monster, a basement filled with chained women, and the wicked Brain of Blood used in nightmarish transplants resulting in a whirlpool of horror. So come and stay on Blood Island for a while; it's the vacation getaway of your wildest screams!

Customer Reviews:

It's a John Ashley Shag-A-Thon..........2006-06-07

"Drinking your own blood is the paradigm of recycling." - Gary `Head Injury' Busey "I'm with Busey" (2003)

Producer/Distributor extraordinaire Sam Sherman and Image Entertainment have teamed up to present The Blood Island Vacation package, an awesoma DVD set of four Filipino produced, hemoglobin drenched, drive-in classics at one heck of a nice price...here's what you get...

Brides of Blood (1968)

Directed by Eddie Romero (Mad Doctor of Blood Island, Beast of the Yellow Night), Brides of Blood (1968) and featuring Kent Taylor (The Day Mars Invaded Earth, The Mighty Gorga, Hell's Bloody Devils), former stripper Beverly Hills aka Beverly Powers (Kissin' Cousins, Invasion of the Bee Girls), and John Ashley (Muscle Beach Party, The Eye Creatures, Beast of Blood), the film involves various, mutated creatures terrorizing natives on a place called Blood Island. Extras included are as follows; a short audio commentary track featuring distributor Sam Sherman, an interview with director Eddie Romero, an original Brides of Blood wedding ring giveaway promo, a "House of Terror" live horror show promo, a Beverly Hills pinup gallery, a Blood Island image gallery, liner notes by Jim Arena, a Brides of Blood essay by Christopher William Koenig, and a trailer for this film, along with ones for Mad Doctor of Blood Island (1968), Beast of Blood (1971), Brain of Blood (1972), Blood of the Vampires (1971), The Blood Drinkers (1966), and Raiders of the Living Dead (1986).

Mad Doctor of Blood Island (1968)

Produced and directed by Eddie Romero (Brides of Blood, Beast of the Yellow Night, Beast of Blood), the film stars John Ashley (High School Caesar, Beach Blanket Bingo, Beast of Blood) and Angelique Pettyjohn ("Get Smart", Clambake). Ashley plays a scientist (not the same one from Brides of Blood), who visits Blood Island and finds himself caught up in some nasty business as a deranged scientist on the island is performing hideous experiments involving green blood. Extras include a short audio commentary track featuring distributor Sam Sherman, an interview with director Eddie Romero, an original Mad Doctor of Blood Island `green blood' prologue bit, a "House of Terror" live horror show promo, a still gallery, liner notes by Jim Arena, a Mad Doctor of Blood Island essay by Christopher William Koenig, and a trailer for this film, along with ones for Brides of Blood (1968), Beast of Blood (1971), Brain of Blood (1972), Blood of the Vampires (1971), The Blood Drinkers (1966), and Raiders of the Living Dead (1986).

Beast of Blood (1972)

Produced, co-written, and directed by Eddie Romero (Mad Doctor of Blood Island, Brides of Blood, Beast of the Yellow Night), the film features John Ashley (High School Caesar, Muscle Beach Party, Hell On Wheels) and Celeste Yarnall (The Face of Eve, The Velvet Vampire). Ashley reprises his role from Mad Doctor of Blood Island returning to the island to discover the evil that had thought been destroyed is still thriving. Extras included are as follows; a short audio commentary track featuring distributor Sam Sherman, an interview with director Eddie Romero, an interview w/ Celeste Yarnell conducted by Sam Sherman, a `lost' opening sequence, a "House of Terror" live horror show promo, a still gallery, liner notes by Jim Arena, a Beast of Blood essay by Christopher William Koenig, and a trailer for this film, along with ones for Brides of Blood (1968), Mad Doctor of Blood Island (1968), Brain of Blood (1972), Blood of the Vampires (1971), The Blood Drinkers (1966), Raiders of the Living Dead (1986), and Horror of the Blood Monster (1970).

Brain of Blood (1972)

Co-produced and directed by Al Adamson, the film features Kent Taylor (Brides of Blood, Satan's Sadists), Grant Williams (The Incredible Shrinking Man, The Monolith Monsters), the colossal (7'4") John Bloom (Dracula vs. Frankenstein, Bachelor Party), Regina Carrol (Blood of Ghastly Horror, Doctor Dracula), Vicki Volante (Hell's Bloody Devils, Horror of the Blood Monsters), Reed Hadley (The St. Valentine's Day Massacre), and the diminutive (2'11) Angelo Rossitto (Mesa of Lost Women, Invasion of the Saucer Men, Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome), this feature has nothing in terms of relation to the three other films in this set other than the fact they were all distributed by Sam Sherman through his Independent-International Pictures, Inc. film company. This film involves a sickly Middle Eastern dictator arranging to have his brain transplanted to another body, and a certain amount of wackiness ensues... extras included are as follows; a short audio commentary track featuring distributor Sam Sherman, an interview with director Eddie Romero, an interview with Beverly Powers, a "House of Terror" live horror show promo, a Blood Island still gallery, liner notes by Jim Arena, and a trailer for this film, along with ones for Brides of Blood (1968), Mad Doctor of Blood Island (1968), Beast of Blood (1971), Blood of the Vampires (1971), The Blood Drinkers (1966), Raiders of the Living Dead (1986), and Horror of the Blood Monster (1970).

As far as the picture quality on the four DVDs, they're all in full screen (1.33:1) aspect ratio and all look very decent. There are some obvious age elements (white specking, the occasional vertical line), but the colors are bright and sharp, and the overall quality is superior to any VHS copies of the films you may seen in the past. Also, each has audio presented in Dolby Digital mono audio, which also comes through well. As far as the actual films go, I'd rank Brides of Blood and Mad Doctor of Blood Island among the best here, with Beast of Blood following a close 2nd, while Brain of Blood comes in a very distant 3rd. One last note, distributor Sam Sherman does provide audio commentaries on each of the DVDs, but they're not so much specific to the film rather than to an overall history of the films and his experiences, and they don't tend to run the length of the films.

Cookieman108

The Beast Box (Bride of the Gorilla / Bella Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla / The Beach Girls and the Monster ) (1952)

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The Beast Box (Bride of the Gorilla / Bella Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla / The Beach Girls and the Monster ) (1952)
Starring: Beast Box
Manufacturer: Image Entertainment
ProductGroup: DVD
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ASIN: B000A59Q1O
Release Date: 2005-09-06

Description

No man, woman or teenager is safe with these gigantic fiends on the loose! First, scaly creatures from the depths rise in THE BEACH GIRLS AND THE GORILLA and the Monster to attack a bunch of party-happy hipsters trying to catch a few waves, turning their hopping shindig into a beach blanket scream-o! Then newly married plantation owner Raymond Burr finds wedded bliss turning into the ultimate domestic nightmare when a voodoo curse turns him into a savage beast, leaving his poor confused spouse a RIDE OF THE GORILLA! Finally, nightclub comedians Duke and Sammy plummet from the air and land on an island where humans are being transformed into big, raucous apes in the wild monster comedy BELA LUGOSI MEETS A BROOKLYN GORILLA. This collection of three king-sized hits packs in too much fun for just one disc!

Average customer rating:

Gorilla My Dreams: A Mildly Amusing Ed Wood Disaster
Clip footage galore !
A classic trash movie
LOW BUDGET JUNK.....
Serviceable DVD of Ed Wood-scripted gorilla-love oddity

Bride & The Beast
Starring: Charlotte Austin , Lance Fuller , Johnny Roth , William Justine , and Gil Frye
Director: Adrian Weiss
Manufacturer: Retro Media
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Orgy of the Dead

ASIN: B0000687F7
Release Date: 2002-06-25

Customer Reviews:

Gorilla My Dreams: A Mildly Amusing Ed Wood Disaster.......2006-08-01

Laura Carson (Charlotte Austin) has just married big game hunter Dan Fuller (Lance Fuller.) On her wedding night she finds herself strangely attracted to Spanky, a gorilla gone bad that Dan keeps locked up in a basement cage. Before you can say "Ed Wood wrote this," there are gun shots, nightmares, hypnotism, and Dan's unhappy discover that bride Laura may be the reincarnation of a gorilla queen! Can you dig it?

Now and then a bad movie becomes unintentionally hilarious, but most of the time bad movies are simply bad. BRIDE AND THE BEAST actually teeters between the two, and this is largely due to the two leads: even in the face of producer-director Adrian Weiss' obvious lack of talent, Austin and Fuller prove unexpectedly competent, and they actually manage to hold the worst of the dialogue at bay. What this means, however, is that BRIDE never self-destructs in the ludicrous way of such films as PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE--and in consequence it isn't so much unintentionally hilarious as it is unintentionally amusing in a mild sort of way.

The film is full of absurdities. Dan Fuller's basement, where the ill-fated gorilla Spanky is caged, has a refrigerator, but illumination is provided by torch. Servant Taro (Johnny Roth, in what seems to be his only film role) is very obviously a white man in bad "native" make-up; he runs around saying "Bwana" a lot. There is a lot of canned wild animal footage, shots of Africa that look suspiciously like shots of South America, and men in bad gorilla costumes. And Ed Wood being Ed Wood, he just can't resist writing references to angora sweaters into the script.

The print is mediocre, but it is worth pointing out that it was probably never very good to begin with, and the DVD release comes with several bonuses of no interest. Fans of cult films, and especially die hard fans of Ed Wood, will enjoy it--and for their sake I give it three stars. But just about every one else should give it a miss.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer

Clip footage galore !.......2005-11-23

The Bride and the Beast (1958) - 2 B-stars
1 star for Ed Wood's horrible script and plot
1 star for the feeble attempt to tie together clip footage with the rest of the film.

Ed Wood did not direct this movie, but he did write the screenplay, and it's really the screenplay - and the low budget - that really sinks this movie. This is one of those "Aftrican safari" movies that are half made of clip footage, and you can obviously recognize the difference. It's always entertaining to see how the poor beleagued director tries to pierce together the movie from Ed Wood's horrible script and the horrible clip footage, and the constant continuity errors.

Things I've learned from The Bride and the Beast :

* Gorillas can detect telepathic brain waves and know about people's past lives.
* Gorillas are the most fearsome animals in the jungle.
* If suitably angered, a gorilla can bend iron bars.
* Hypnosis unlocks a person's past life, and eventually make them literally become their past life (such as : a gorilla).
* The African savannah is also half Brazilian rainforest. In this weird hybrid, you don't need machettes because there are already clear paths from one place to another.
* South American natives live in Kenya, and are always on hand to teach weaving to rich white women.
* Leopards hunt during the day.
* A man can fight off tigers AND gorillas, hand-to-hand, and only have scratches.
* Gorillas live in giant caves, like Fred Flintstone.

A classic trash movie.......2004-08-15

"The Bride and the Beast" (1958 - 73 minutes), photographed originally in black & white, is a supernatural drama of terror and scientific fiction produced and directed by Adrian Weiss. The script is of the fantastic Edward D. Wood Jr, the known Ed Wood, director, writer, producer and actor, also called "the worst moviemaker of all time" for carrying through cheap films of dubious quality and with amateur actors. The incredible thing is that, after his death, all his work had become "cult", turning him into one of the most acclaimed accomplishing of the sort.
The film tells the history of Dan Fuller, a young and famous hunter and his pretty bride, Laura, that is strangely seduced by a gorilla. Dan keeps in captivity, in the basement of his house, an enormous gorilla that he brought from Africa. In the night of his honeymoon, the dangerous beast becomes very aggressive, escapes from its cage and goes up to the room to meet the young woman. Something very strange happens between the beauty and the beast and Dan has to kill the gorilla. From there, Laura starts to have terrible nightmares, making her husband calls a psychiatrist. When the doctor hypnotize Laura, he discovers that she was a gorila in one of hers last lifes. Dan has set appointments to a new safari in Africa and takes his wife with him. Nearest the wild animals, the couple will live moments of great tension when Laura is kidnapped by one gorilla. A classic trash movie.

LOW BUDGET JUNK............2002-08-24

I waited years to see this little epic and when I found it available on DVD, I snapped it up. Then I watched it. Well. I should have just given up. But no, I have a fondness for low budget horror movies. However, "Beast" is a curious failure and it broke my heart that it wasn't even enjoyable on a mere camp level. Lance Fuller brings new bride Charlotte Austin home and introduces her to his pet ape he keeps in the basement. He's a big game hunter. Austin and the ape develope an attraction for each other (no, really) and soon the gorilla is sneaking up to her room. Fuller catches the beast making passes at her (really!) and shoots it dead...to Austin's dismay. She goes under hypnosis from Fuller's friend and discovers she was a gorilla in a past life. Then they go on safari and she allows a big gorilla to abduct her and never goes back to Fuller. Way, way too much jungle stock footage kill the story. There are moments of hallucinatory silliness, yes, but the movie just doesn't hold up on it's own. I was so bummed out that it was, indeed, a "bomb" all the way that I walked out the next day and gave it to some guy I saw sitting on the curb. Now that's sad. And I love gorilla movies! Where's "GORILLA AT LARGE" on DVD? It's got Anne Bancroft getting carried away, it's in lurid color AND has Charlotte Austin in it! "Bride and the Beast" is too cheaply made to enjoy.

Serviceable DVD of Ed Wood-scripted gorilla-love oddity.......2002-07-07

Bride and the Beast, co-produced by Adrian Weiss (ex B-movie editor/producer) and (father?) Lewis Weiss (ex silent and cheapie western producer), and scripted by Edward D. Wood Jr., never really replicates the manic delirium of Wood's directorial efforts (Plan 9, Glen or Glenda, Night of the Ghouls, etc.) Unlike those films, the fun here results not so much from breathless incompetence as from the ludicrousness of the overall concept. Bride and the Beast is a campy, immensely entertaining melange of jungle thrills, domestic melodrama, and past-life regression/reincarnation hokum, with a touch of implied bestiality thrown in to give it that Woodian je ne sais quoi. Lance Fuller moves up from his supporting role in the equally enjoyable jungle-horror opus Voodoo Woman to star as Dan Fuller, big-game hunter, who returns home to his jungle "mansion" with newlywed bride Laura, played by gorgeous, sultry Charlotte Austin (Gorilla at Large, Daddy Long Legs, Frankenstein 1970). Johnny Roth is houseboy/guide Taro, one of those Natives of Indeterminate Ethnic Makeup (apparently a member of that B-movie caste who refer to white men as "bwana," Taro's skin color varies throughout, he has Caucasian features, and wears a turban). Veteran monkey-suiters Steve Calvert and Ray "Crash" Corrigan play the gorillas. The excitement starts as soon as the honeymoon begins: Laura reveals her fur fetish to Dan; she and his full-grown pet gorilla, Spanky, are strangely affected/attracted by each other; Laura has disturbing dreams about gorillas; Spanky breaks out of his cage during a thunderstorm to menace (?) her; Dan awakes, shoots and kills Spanky, then later takes Laura to a shrink who hypnotically regresses her and determines that she was a gorilla in a previous life! (Hypnotic regression was a hot topic at the time because of the famous Bridey Murphy case; see Corman's The Undead, I Was a Teenage Werewolf, Fright, etc.) Progressing from a man-eating tiger hunt in the jungle to Laura's abduction by a pair of horny gorillas (one is blonde like White Pongo) and final showdown at Bronson's Canyon, Bride ultimately surprises with an incredible ahead-of-its time 'downbeat' ending. Crazy as it sounds, Bride and the Beast really isn't a knee-slapping Bad Film atrocity; in spite (or perhaps because) of the offbeat subject matter I actually found it quite absorbing, yet hugely entertaining on a camp level as well. The younger Weiss's actually fairly competent, if pedestrian, direction keeps the plot moving along briskly, and the substantial stock footage is integrated into the movie rather well for a cheapie of this type. (People with animal-cruelty sensitivities may be offended by a few clips.) The musical score is by an apparently slumming Les Baxter (famous for his 'exotica' LPs and numerous AIP soundtracks) and Harry Thomas (Frankenstein's Daughter, Night of the Ghouls) did the makeup. Highly recommended for fans of cheesy jungle thrillers, gorilla freaks, and Ed Wood completists. Makes a great co-feature with Curt Siodmak's Bride of the Gorilla.
With the Allied Artists catalog in DVD limbo due to Warner Home Video's apparent indifference and foot-dragging, this will likely be the only disc release of this movie in the foreseeable future. Unfortunately, the transfer appears to be from a 16mm source print, and while the tonal values range from very good to excellent (a little worse in some of the stock footage) and the black level and shadow/highlight detail are pretty acceptable, the print has a slightly soft, dupey look; no worse than a typical TV print, but probably a bit of a letdown to those spoiled by the typically tack-sharp Image/Wade Williams DVDs. Fortunately, physical damage is limited to some light speckling and spotting, leaving the picture very watchable overall. The mono audio is clear and the included 35mm trailer looks generally excellent, if also a bit soft and exhibiting some light speckling and lining. Six chapter stops and a nicely done if somewhat skimpy gallery of about a dozen stills and lobby cards (accompanied by some jarringly inappropriate music) are also provided. Another 'bonus' is a pretty awful (bad acting, unfunny 'comedy') 3.5-minute sequence from the aborted Wood-scripted Beach Blanket Bloodbath, featuring Forrest J Ackerman and Bobbie Bresee, which completists may care about but that will probably not impress anyone else. Also (dis)gracing the disc is an interview with and some shorts by one David "The Rock" Nelson, whose miserable home videos (that have insanely been compared by some to Ed Wood movies) are so embarassingly putrid they make Beast of Yucca Flats look like Citizen Kane. A complete waste (I fast-forwarded through most of it) and definitely INessential; consider yourself warned. In total an acceptable if less than ultimate package that will have to tide gorilla fans over till someone digs up and transfers some crisp 35mm elements (don't hold your breath).

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Ultimate Sleepover DVD Giftset
Starring: Sam Waterston , Tess Harper , Gail Strickland , Reese Witherspoon , and Jason London
Director: Robert Mulligan , Peter Markle , and Melville Shavelson
ProductGroup: DVD
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ASIN: B000NSH07U
Release Date: 2007-04-10

Amazon.com

This giftset includes 15 sleepover favorites including: Material Girls, Uptown Girls, Saved!, Legally Blonde, Legally Blonde: Red, White & Blonde, Valley Girls, Virginia's Run, Man in the Moon, The Princess Bride, Courage Mountan, Yours, Mine & Ours, Mermaids, Mystic Pizza, Sleepover and Beauty & The Beast.

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"King Dinosaur (1955) & The Jungle (1952) ... Sci-Fi of the '50s ... VCI Home Video"
Flawed King Dinosaur

King Dinosaur / The Bride & the Beast
Starring: William Bryant , Wanda Curtis (II) , Douglas Henderson , Patti Gallagher , and Marvin Miller
Director: Bert I. Gordon , and Adrian Weiss
Manufacturer: Image Entertainment
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B0000CG8GY
Release Date: 2003-11-11

Customer Reviews:

"King Dinosaur (1955) & The Jungle (1952) ... Sci-Fi of the '50s ... VCI Home Video".......2006-11-08

VCI Entertainment and Kit Parker Films presents "50s Sci-Fi Double Feature: King Dinosaur (1955) & "The Jungle" (1952) (Dolby digitally remastered)...featuring top performances by actors of the '40s and '50s with outstanding drama and screenplays...from almost forgotten and little known films that will leave you wanting more...so pop some popcorn, sit back and enjoy the movie.

First up we have Lippert Pictures "KING DINOSAUR" (1955) (63 min/B&W) --- Under Bert I. Gordon (Director / Producer), Al Zimbalist (Producer), Tom Gries (Screenwriter), Gordon Avil (Cinematographer), Mischa Terr (Composer (Music Score), John A. Bushelman (Editor), Jack Cornall (Editor), Howard A. Anderson (Special Effects) ------ the cast includes William Bryant (Dr. Ralph Martin), Wanda Curtis (Dr. Patricia Bennett), Douglas Henderson (Dr. Richard Gordon), Patti Gallagher (Nora Pierce), Marvin Miller (Narrator (voice) . . . . . . this film in some circles is considered a cult classic for collectors ... our story opens with an unknown planet that has joined our solar system "Planet Nova" ... it's up to our top scientists to explore and discover if there is life on the planet, if there is what kind and is it friendly ...our four cast members land on this planet and run into various obstacles ... can we start a colony or will there be nothing but death and ruin, don't leave the theater you're about to discover this exciting answer yourself.

SPECIAL FEATURES:
1. Scenes censored from British Release
2. Theater Lobby cards & Behind the Scenes Shots
3. Sample Pages from The Original Script with Director Notes
4. Advertising Gallery on King Dinosaur

TRAILERS:
1. King Dinosaur (1955) - William Bryant and Marvin Miller
2. Death Monster - (not available)
3. Bride and the Beast (1958) -Charlotte Austin and Lance Fuller

BIOS:
1. Bill Bryant
Date of birth: 31 January 1924 - Detroit, Michigan
Date of death: 26 June 2001 - Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California
2. Marvin Miller (aka: Marvin Mueller) (Narrator)
Date of birth: 18 July 1913 - St. Louis, Missouri
Date of death: 8 February 1985 - Los Angeles, California
3. Bert I. Gordon (aka: Bert Ira Gordon) (Director)
Date of birth: 24 September 1922 - Kenosha, Wisconsin
Date of death: Still Living

Second on the double bill is Lippert Pictures - "THE JUNGLE" (1952) (74 mins/Sepiatone) --- Under William A. Berke (Director / Producer), Orville H. Hampton (Screenwriter), Carroll Young (Screenwriter), Clyde de Vinna (Cinematographer), Daksnamurti (Composer (Music Score), G. Ramanathan (Composer (Music Score), L. Balu (Editor), A.J. Dominic (Art Director), P.B. Krishnan (Art Director) ------ the cast includes Rod Cameron (Steve Bentley), Marie Windsor (Princess Mari), Cesar Romero (Rama Singh), Ruby Mayer (The Aunt (as Sulochana), M.N. Nambiar (Mahaji), David (Prime Minister (as David Abraham), Chitra Devi (Dancer), Ramakrishna (Young Boy) . . . . . . our story has our hero Rod Cameron as the great white hunter, who has escaped a previous encounter with giant mammoth elephants ... Marie Windsor the Indian Princess and Cesar Romero as the Rama Singh don't believe Cameron's story ... Romero's brother was killed on Cameron's first safari and believes he had something to do with it ... much Indian wildlife and scenic landscape with a twist and surprising ending ... ........there's a great deal of entertainment here for all the film fans out there...all courtesy of VCI Entertainment, who in my humble opinion is the best there is in restoring early serials and features like this one.

BIOS:
1. Rod Cameron (aka: Nathan Roderick Cox)
Date of birth: 7 December 1910 - Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Date of death: 21 December 1983 - Gainesville, Georgia
2. Cesar Romero (aka: Cesar Julio Romero Jr.)
Date of birth: 15 February 1907 - New York, New York
Date of death: 1 January 1994 - Santa Monica, California
3. Marie Windsor (aka: Emily Marie Bertelsen)
Date of birth: 11 December 1919 - Marysvale, Utah
Date of death: 10 December 2000 - Beverly Hills, California
4. William Berke (Director)
Date of birth: 3 October 1903 - Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Date of death: 15 February 1958 - Los Angeles, California

SPECIAL FEATURES:
1. Marie Windsor remembers "The Jungle" as told to Tom Weaver
2. Theater Lobby Cards & behind the scenes shots
3. Advertising Gallery
4. Trivia

TRAILERS:
1. The Jungle (1952) - Rod Cameron, Cesar Romero and Marie Windsor
2. Jungle Bride (1933) - Anita Page & Charles Starrett
3. Macumba Love (1960) - Walter Reed, Ziva Rodann, William Wellman Jr and June Wilkinson.
4. White Gorilla (1945) - Ray Corrigan and Lorraine Miller

Great job by VCI Entertainment for releasing the "King Dinosaur (1955) & The Jungle (1952), digital transfere with a clean, clear and crisp print...looking forward to more of the same from the '40s and '50s vintage...order your copy now from Amazon or VCI Entertainment, stay tuned once again with a top notch films from the Forgotten Age of Hollywood that only VCI Entertainment (King of the Serials) can deliver...just the way we like 'em!

Total Time: 132 mins on DVD ~ VCI KPF563 ~ (10/31/2006)

Flawed King Dinosaur.......2004-04-03

I cant really recommend this set due to the flawed master copy of King Dinosaur.
Starting at the 19:10 minute mark the image on screen breaks up into pixelised horizontal lines a total of 60 times through the movie at 16 different places. I've contacted the supplier and they've replied with:
It is not a faulty disc. This is, unfortunately, a built in condition of the only master available for this film from it's legal owner Weiss Global Ent. and the same problem exists, I believe, in the official vhs release of a few years back.

This is a real shame because the movie itself is hilarious.
I guess the best thing to do is to wait until (hopefully) Rhino releases it as part of a future MST3K volume !

Average customer rating:
Sci-Fi Movie Marathon Volume 2: 8 Movie Pack

Manufacturer: RightNow Disc
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Genres | DVD | Video
Product Features:

BONUS: Each movie comes with a portable-media friendly version that can be downloaded to your Apple iPod!

Eight feature films on four DVDs

Phantom from 10,000 Leagues,Track of the Moon Beast,Horrors of Spider Island,Robot Monster,Bride of the Gorilla,Hercules and the Captive Women,Assignment: Outer Space,Blood Tide

ASIN: B000GT8NAE

Product Description

The legends of Science Fiction are gathered here for you in this definitive DVD collection of some of the greatest Sci-Fi classics to ever come out of Hollywood. This 8 DVD collection is sure to provide you with countless hours of entertainment. Volume 2 includes: Phantom from 10,000 Leagues directed by Dan Milner and starring Kent Taylor; Track of the Moon Beast directed by Richard Ashe and starring Chase Cordell; Horrors of Spider Island directed by Fritz Bottger and starring Harald Maresch; Robot Monster directed by Phil Tucker and starring George Nader; Bride of the Gorilla directed by Curt Siodmak and starring Raymond Burr; Hercules and the Captive Women directed by Vittorio Cottafavi and starring Reg Park; Assignment: Outer Space directed by Antonio Marghereti and starring Rick Van Nutter; Blood Tide directed by Richard Jefferies and starring James Earl Jones

The Brides (2 pack) The Bride And The Beast/The Brides Wore Blood

Average customer rating:

The Brides (2 pack) The Bride And The Beast/The Brides Wore Blood

ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

DVDs Under $14.99 | Today's Deals in DVD | Special Features | DVD | Video
ASIN: B000FEA02O

Product Description

The Bride and the Beast: Wedded bliss for a young couple (Lance Fuller and Charlotte Austin) is marred slightly by the bride's discovery of her husband's pet gorilla, for which she begins to develop an unnatural attraction; her husband's understandable jealousy leads him to destroy the ape. Hypnotic past-life regression leads Austin to the conclusion that she was actually a gorilla herself in a previous existence, which explains her obsession... sort of. The pair decide to get away from it all, journeying through some tedious stock footage to the jungles of Africa for a hunting safari, where yet another chest-pounding primate (besides Fuller, that is) has been waiting for just such a golden opportunity to have his way with the young lady. If this has the feel of an Ed Wood sub-classic, that's because it is at least by way of the screenplay. This may serve to explain the array of chic angora sweaters sported by Austin and the abundance of incongruous stock footage. The Brides Wore Blood: Four brides are murdered on their wedding nights. The culprit is a vampire, who thrives on virgin blood. One of the girls comes back to life, only to marry our blood-sucking "hero." Now we have two vampires to contend with. It's in color, it's 86 minutes, and it's all been done before-sometimes better, sometimes worse.

DVD:

DVD

DVD