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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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Friday, July 27, 2018

Night Of The Blood Beast (1958)

Starring Michael Emmet, Angela Greene, John Baer, Ed Nelson, Tyler McVey
Directed by Bernard L. Kowalski
(actor & director credits courtesy IMDB.com)

A test pilot crashes and dies on his return from outer space, but the research team he was working for is shocked that his body remains preserved, and don't realize something else has returned with him.

We have here another sci-fi thriller from Roger Corman's production company, this time produced by his brother Gene, and although it borrows many elements from The Thing From Another World, the way Martin Varno's screenplay assembles them makes for effective chills.  Shot on a low budget, and per Wikipedia, in only 7 days, the low budget shows with very limited special effects and a creature costume to be used later in Corman's Teenage Caveman.  Nevertheless the script and cast still engaged me, with Emmet standing out as the pilot whose motivations will be challenged by his alien contact, and Greene as Emmett's fiancee and a doctor for the research team, emotionally challenged while discovering how Emmett is no longer completely human.  Alexander Laszlo's score is eerily effective as well, although it's difficult to tell how many of his cues were original to this picture, as they were also used in a number of other films.

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