Recently my manager at work was explaining to some other people I work with that not only do I like old movies, but I'm not really interested in anything unless it's a really obscure title no one's ever heard of. I think that's a bit exaggerated, but true in a certain respect, as like all classic film fans, I enjoy making film discoveries, meaning finding movies that weren't on my radar that I've come to enjoy so much, I think of them as hidden treasures. These are titles that aren't necessarily obscure, but not very widely known or play on television often, that I had to dig for a little bit to discover.
1) The Most Dangerous Game (1932)
I read the classic short story this film was based on in high school, but don't recall ever hearing about the film until after I saw King Kong, and on reading about that classic production, learning that some of the same cast and crew filmed this movie on the same sets around the same time. This was in the early days of DVD, and I was rather surprised to find it on DVD in a Best Buy after not having been able to find it on VHS. It immediately became my favorite film, with a wonderfully villainous performance by Leslie Banks, a terrific music score from the great Max Steiner, and a great action packed pace.
2) The Mad Ghoul (1943)
After having fallen in love with the Universal monsters after first seeing the original Frankenstein in the early 90s, I quickly devoured all the titles they had at Blockbuster, and started purchasing the ones released to VHS they didn't have at my local Suncoast or through mail order. I'm not sure where I ended up getting this title, but in those days knew nothing about it, other than it featured George Zucco, who I had enjoyed so much in The Mummy's Hand. Although the film hasn't received a lot of critical praise, I adored it, as Zucco is in fine form as a college professor who tries to steal his assistant's girlfriend by turning him into a zombie, the Universal music cues are first rate, and King Kong's Robert Armstrong entertains as a wisecracking reporter.
3) The Lost World (1925)
Another film I never knew existed, which I learned about back in 1993, when in the wake of the release of Jurassic Park, Siskel & Ebert profiled the film in a home video segment on their TV show. I made a trip with my family to Minnesota not long afterward and after having discovered my first Suncoast video store in the Mall of America, I quickly picked this one up on a Goodtimes VHS. Willis O'Brien's pre-King Kong triumph, the silent film employs some of the earliest stop-motion animation of dinosaurs against the background of the story of Professor Challenger, an irascible adventurer played by Wallace Beery. It remains an all-time favorite.
4) From Hell It Came (1957)
I first found out about this film in the pages of a Sinister Cinema catalog and couldn't believe the synopsis when I read it, about an ambulatory tree monster who stalks human beings on a South Seas island. It's gotten recent attention as a camp classic, but I think it's fun and enjoyable on its own level, and yes the tree monster's bark is worse than its bite. It's widely available now as a Warner Archive DVD, soon to come out on Blu-Ray.
5) She Devil (1957)
This one was very hard to find until Olive Films released it on DVD just a few years ago. From Kurt Neumann, director of The Fly, it's the story of a woman whose life is saved by an experimental serum developed from insect venom. She transforms into an aggressive woman without morals who now has become nearly invulnerable and can change her hair color at will! Billed as a female monster movie, it's probably just wrong on a number of levels, but it's a hoot.
6) The Man From Planet X (1951)
I had never heard of this one, before I decided to start collecting 1950s sci-fi films on DVD, and found this one in a video store on the classic Midnite Movies collection of releases from MGM & United Artists. From low-budget auteur Edgar G. Ulmer, it's not very well known compared to other 50's sci-fi, but it's a lot of fun with Robert Clarke as a reporter covering a strange planet traveling near the Earth, who encounters a very eerie alien visitor on the foggy moors of a British isle.
7) Fiend Without A Face (1958)
Marshall Thompson stars as a military officer who's blamed by villagers near his base who think their atomic experiments are causing mysterious deaths that invisible creatures are the real culprit behind. When the creatures finally become visible, it leads to a climax with a memorable battle between Thompson and some really creepy stop-motion animated creatures.
8) The Neanderthal Man (1953)
I knew star Robert Shayne from old episodes of The Adventures Of Superman but had never heard of this film before I saw it advertised on small video label Cheezy Flicks' website. Shayne discovers a way to regress himself to a primitive caveman, but not before attacking colleagues who don't take his theories seriously with some incredibly worded insults. It may not be a great film, but it's definitely a guilty pleasure, with a real tiger the filmmakers try to pass off as a sabertooth by cutting between it and an unconvincing stuffed replica.
9) Man Without A Body (1957)
Another film that's not a great one, but it's just so loony, it's become a favorite. George Coulouris plays a cruel tycoon who discovers he has a brain tumor, and then learns there's a doctor who's succeeded in keeping decapitated heads of monkeys alive. So because he wants his diseased brain replaced with one which will still be successful in the corporate world, he digs up and steals the head of Nostradamus, and has the doctor bring it back to life. Strangely, Nostradamus doesn't want to cooperate with George's plan.
10) Adventures Of Captain Marvel (1941)
I grew up a comic book fan and was rather startled to discover in my early teens in a Starlog magazine an ad for the VHS release of several classic Republic serials, including this adaptation of one of my favorite comic book characters. Needless to say, I asked my mom to order it for me, and love it to this day. Although it's not very faithful to the comic book, the serial is an action-packed delight with impressive flying sequences using a dummy on wires, and an Agatha Christie-like plot in which characters who might be the hooded villain of the piece are killed off one by one.
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