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Greetings, and welcome to VIEWING THE CLASSICS. Here you'll find capsule reviews of vintage movies from the early days of cinema through the 1970s, with a special emphasis on sci-fi, horror, and mystery movies. Be sure to check out the Pages links, where you can find a Film Index of all my reviews, links to the reviews organized by cast members, directors, and other contributors, and links to my reviews of the films of talented young director Joshua Kennedy.

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Wednesday, September 4, 2013

The Thing That Couldn't Die (1958)

Starring William Reynolds, Andra Martin, Jeffrey Stone, Carolyn Kearney, Peggy Converse
Directed by Will Cowan
(actor & director credits courtesy IMDB.com)

The residents of a California ranch dig up an ancient chest containing the still living head of an evil and powerful being.

To my mind, this is probably the least imaginative of Universal Pictures' horror films, and not scary in the least, but it doesn't matter- it's a hoot.  From the film's bizarre heroine who searches for buried treasures with a divining rod, to the bug-eyed stares and silent lip movements of the disembodied head, to the ranch hands whose characters seem to be ripped from the pages of "Of Mice And Men," this is a guilty pleasure throughout, and an entertaining one to watch.  The filmmakers should be given some credit for creatively hiding actor Robin Hughes' body in his scenes as the "head," perhaps due to the skill of cinematographer Russell Metty, who put his talents to far better use in Orson Welles' Touch of Evil the same year.

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