31 Days of Cheese: Day 26 - Monster A-Go-Go

And we spend yet more time in grade-Z Movie hell. Oh god. Why? Why poverty? Why do innocents suffer? Why is man born to trouble? And really, why Monster A-go-go?

This is a confused, inept, cheap mess of a film. Really. Just awful. So bad your jaw keeps dropping and you end up with a strained jaw muscle from its dropping so much.

You know sometimes these kinds of films can have interesting or just odd back stories. For example the behind the scenes story of Troll 2 and The Creeping Terror are a heck of a lot more compelling than the actual film turned out to be.

Not so much here.

In 1961 Bill Rebane started making a film about how an astronaut comes back to earth and becomes a ten foot tall radioactive giant who walks about killing people. He ran out of money. Twice and was unable to actually finish making the picture.

Then in 1964 Herschell Gordon Lewis, aka the Wizard of Gore (story for another time) needed a film to be the second feature for his film Moonshine Mountain (if he gave the theaters a twofer package he’d get more money, well duh). He knew Bill had this footage hanging about so he paid bill, took the footage, added maybe a couple three scenes and a narrator and slapped a film together. The resulting horror was Monster A-Go-Go.

In the DVD commentary, yes there is a DVD with commentary and I have listened to it and have been punished for my sin as a result. Anyway in the DVD commentary Bill Rebane, well, the only real way to put it is that he complains about what Lewis did with the film. He constantly mentions unused footage and the like.

Still, it’s not like Lewis cut up a master piece here. Citizen Kane this ain’t.

Lewis didn’t over expose the film, Lewis didn’t put in static shot after static shot were people talk at each other and then kind of stop. Lewis didn’t keep filming after running out of money the first time and losing all the actors so that about ½ through the film we meet all new people.

None of that was Lewis.

What Lewis did was add the narration and not bother to fix any of the bad sound. You can barely hear the actors at times. Also he didn’t bother to add music to one scene where one actor says to another “remember that song?” it makes it very weird.

And then there is the infamous scene were the camera focuses in on a telephone and someone off camera (I’m guessing the actor himself) makes a bruppptttt noise and then the phone is answered. I can only guess that Bill intended to put an ring in there in post production but well Lewis didn’t because that would have cost money.

And what Lewis did, was, since the ending had not been shot, changed the ending to “and suddenly it all a dream.” Or such like. At any rate at the end the monster disappears like he had never existed. Then they roll credits and people I assume, would throw things at the screen.

Just a miserable soul sucking experience and some 70 minutes of your life you’ll never get back. I’ve seen it 4 times now (for reasons I dare not tell) and so that’s 280 minutes I’m never getting back. That hurts to think about.

Enjoy with Martinis with Anchovy Olives. No I don’t have the foggiest idea what they are. It’s in the film.