TRAILERS #5: HORROR/SCI-FI EXPLOITATION OF THE ‘50S AND ‘60S (1992) *** ½

This is the kind of trailer compilation I would like to see more of.  It has a distinct theme running throughout (most of) the running time that thematically links the titles together.  It doesn’t even matter if many of these trailers appeared in previous Something Weird collections.  The fact that there’s an overreaching theme makes it more entertaining (to me, at least) than seeing just a random assortment of trailers tossed together.  

The theme for the first half of the compilation is monster/alien/maniacal women.  The trailers are linked by words in their titles, which makes it a lot of fun trying to guess which one is coming up next.  For example, Bride of Frankenstein, is followed by Bride of the Monster and The Brides of Fu Manchu.  Daughters are represented by Frankenstein’s Daughter, Daughter of Dr. Jekyll, and Jesse James Meets Frankenstein’s Daughter (along with its co-feature, Billy the Kid vs. Dracula).  There’s Voodoo Woman, The Wasp Woman, The Leech Woman, and Night of the Cobra Woman.  (“Filmed in Slitherama!”)  The She-Creature, She Freak, and The Astounding She-Monster are also grouped together.

That’s a lot of lethal ladies!

There are also awesome taglines aplenty:  Queen of Blood (“She Turns the Milky Way into a Galaxy of GORE!”), Teenage Doll (“Hellcats in Tight Pants Running in Packs!”), Teenage Gang Debs (“The Go-Go Girls Who Go TOO FAR!”), Berserk (“I Get Stabbing Pains When I See a Victim Fall on Naked Bayonets!”) 

The girl power motif is dropped about halfway through, which is a tad disappointing.  While I wish they had kept the badass beauties theme, there’s still plenty of good shit here as we get a fun assortment of horror (Deadtime Stories, Frankenstein’s Bloody Terror, and Midnight), Al Adamson movies (Nurse Sherri, Girls for Rent, and Horror of the Blood Monsters), Empire Pictures (From Beyond, Troll, and Ghoulies), Blaxploitation (Ebony, Ivory, and Jade, Dr. Black, Mr. Hyde, and Dolemite), and drive-in fare (Sweet Sugar, Terminal Island, and Truck Stop Women), with an occasional oddity like Macabro (a bizarre looking Mondo movie) tossed in there for good measure.  I think my favorite trailer was the double feature of Dracula, Prince of Darkness and Plague of the Zombies, which advertised a great giveaway:  “’Dracula Fangs’ for every boy and ‘Zombie Eyes’ for every girl!”

Even though the title suggests all the trailers will be from the ‘50s and ‘60s, there’s a lot from the ‘70s, a few from the ‘80s, and even one from the ‘30s.  (Girls on Probation… starring RONALD REAGAN!)  You won’t care because there’s a helluva lot of great stuff here.  In addition to trailers, there are also a bunch of clips from spook show previews, commercials, newsreels, and drive-in concession ads peppered throughout to remind you of how very different the times were when these films were released.

Here's the complete trailer rundown:  The Blood-A-Rama Show (featuring, Blood Bath, Queen of Blood, Blood of Dracula, and A Bucket of Blood), Bride of Frankenstein, Bride of the Monster, The Brides of Fu Manchu, The Brides of Dracula, Spook Show ad, Frankenstein's Daughter, Daughter of Dr. Jekyll, “The Shock-O-Rama Show” (Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter and Billy the Kid vs. Dracula), Cat Girl, Devil Girl from Mars, refrigerator giveaway ad, Voodoo Woman, The Wasp Woman, The Leech Woman, The Snake Woman, Night of the Cobra Woman, Attack of the 50 Foot Woman, Prehistoric Women, The Werewolf vs. The Vampire Woman, The Wild Women of Wongo, newsreel footage of women in the Air Force, The She-Creature, She Freak, The Astounding She-Monster, She Demons, Bon Bon commercial, Lady Frankenstein, Queen of Blood, Teenage Doll, Teenage Gang Debs, Girls on Probation, Monika, the Story of a Bad Girl, Female Jungle, Gypsy Wildcat, Blood of Dracula, an ad for a “Double Love Show”, Strait-Jacket, Berserk, “Screaming Mee-Mee Spook Show ad, Frankenstein Created Woman, The Brain That Wouldn't Die, a wig ad, Dinah East, Sinderella and the Golden Bra, Nurse Sherri, ‎Girls for Rent, Blood-O-Rama Shock Festival, ‎From Beyond, Horror of the Blood Monsters, a double feature of Mutiny in Outer Space and The Human Duplicators, Troll, Blazing Stewardesses, Deadtime Stories, Ghoulies, Blood of Ghastly Horror, Satan's Sadists, Dracula vs. Frankenstein, Macabro, Frankenstein's Bloody Terror, The Twilight People, Don't Open the Window (AKA:  Let Sleeping Corpses Lie), Vampyres, The Booby Hatch, Midnight, a double feature of Dracula: Prince Of Darkness and Plague Of The Zombies, a double feature of Blood Bath and Queen of Blood, Bloodeaters, a drive-in PSA about speakers, The Green Slime, House Of Psychotic Women, Ebony, Ivory & Jade, Dr. Black, Mr. Hyde, Dolemite, The Human Tornado, Disco Godfather, Sweet Sugar, Terminal Island, and Truck Stop Women.