Book Review: Earth vs the Sci-Fi Filmmakers

Monster kids rejoice!

2005 will go down as a very good year, sci-fi wise. Among other movies, Steven Spielberg’s updated War of the Worlds premiered and is doing good business, and the trailers for Peter Jackson’s King Kong are whetting people’s appetites for that December’s release.

And in a nice bit of serendipity, Tom Weaver’s latest compilation of interviews with classic horror and sci fi personalities has now hit the streets, and two of the interviews included are with Gene Barry (the star of the original 1953 The War of the Worlds), and a ‘retro’ interview with Merian C. Cooper, writer/director/producer of the Willis O’Brien’s classic King Kong (1933).

What more could a sci fi fan ask for? Well, there’s a total of 20 interviews in the book, running the gamut from actors to screenwriters to film producers, and all of them giving insights into what it was like working in the Golden and Silver Ages of Hollywood’s Horror and Sci Fi universe.

Tom Weaver has been conducting interviews with genre giants for twenty years. His interviews have appeared in and continue to appear in Star Log, Fangoria, Video Watchdog, and other magazines, before being compiled into collections published by McFarland. Yes, all the interviews here previously appeared in those magazines – but, in truncated form. There’s much new information between these full cover pages, witin the ‘stomach’ as it were, of the Venusian invader from It Conquered the World.

I’ve already mentioned the Gene Barry interview. Barry (as indeed, all the interviewees) gives a brief biography, before concentrating on the genre film for which he is most famous, The War of the Worlds. There’s some fun photos of the young Barry and Ann Robinson mugging it up for the cameras, which are a real treat. And Weaver’s final question, regarding the new War of the Worlds that was in pre-preparation during this interview: “If you were offered a cameo, or any part at all-” Barry responded, “Of course I would take it. It would be thrilling.” [Both Gene Barry and his co-star Ann Robinson appear as the grandparents at the very end of the new War of the Worlds.]

Gary Clarke tells of his days as a teenage werewolf in How To Make A Monster (taking over for the young Michael Landon who didn’t want to reprise his role.) This interview segues into that with Gary Conway, who did reprise his role as a teenage Frankenstein for this movie. (Unfortunately, to my mind, Weaver doesn’t include any information about Conway’s time on Land of the Giants, the TV series on which he starred in the late 60s, or questions about his co-star in the later Burke’s Law, Gene Barry, but there’s so much information packed within that I suppose that’s a mere quibble. )

Bob Burns, the famous “sci-fi/horror/fantasy film archivist” provided Weaver with an audio recording of a 1964 screening of the original King Kong, in which Cooper afterwards fielded questions from the audience, which Weaver transcribes here. [Cooper died in 1973].

Robert Dix, the son of Richard Dix, tells stories about his famous father, as well as his own work on such movies on the classic Forbidden Planet (he’s the crewmember who says, “Funny to see two moons in the sky, isn’t it?” just before the Monster attacks). He then discusses the Westerns he made later on in his career, and his cameo on Live and Let Die thanks to his friendship with Roger Moore.

Donnie Dunagan reveals his memories of a child actor, working with Boris Karloff and Basil Rathbone on the set of The Son of Frankenstein. He will say nothing about his experiences with Lionel Atwill here (Inspector Krogh), but after this interview (which was a ‘rediscovery’ of him by Tom Weaver’) he set up a website which gives more information. (Dunagan’s life after being a child star would make an excellent subject for a movie, on its own, as he was in the Marine Corps and served three tours in Vietnam.)

Alex Gordon, producer, speaks in detail of his work on *Day the World Ended. Peter Graves, most famous as Jim Phelps on Mission: Impossible, is quizzed about his work on sci fi during the 50s, as well as his role in the classic Billy Wilder movie Stalag 17, starring William Holden.

Gary Gray speaks about The Next Voice You Hear (“a movie in which God turns radio monologist for six nights – which starred James Whitmore, Nancy Davis [later Mrs. Ronald Reagan], and precocious son Gary Gray.”)

Arch Hall, Jr.s interview, his “first ever” is about twice as long as everyone else’s, but then there’s so much for Hall to cover, from his father, the famous Arch Hall, Sr., his own movie work including The Sadist, and the classic Eegah with Richard Kiel, and his own activity with the Flying Tigers.

Stephen Kandel tells us all about Chamber of Horrors, a failed television pilot that was turned into a horror movie instead, starring Patrick O’Neal as the homicidal Baltimore Strangler. Carolyn Kearney has lots of interesting things to say about her work on The Thing That Couldn’t Die, and her work with Boris Karloff in the tv series Thriller.

Writer Ken Kolb reveals his work on The 7th Voyage of Sinbad, not to mention the fun he had doing scripts for the tv program Wild, Wild West. Robert Lippert Jr. gives insight into Lon Chaney Jr.

A really fun interview takes place with Jan Merlin, and it’s all dedicated to his work on the classic The List of Adrian Messenger. That’s the movie in which dozens of Hollywood stars appeared in cameo spots…or did they?

Mary Mitchel, star of Panic in Year Zero, Dementia 13 and Spider Baby, has many funny stories to tell. (Younger fans might recognize her more quickly from *Looney Tunes: Back in Action, in which she worked with Roger Corman). Elliot Reid tells what it was like to work for Disney on *The Absent-Minded Professor and other movies. Stanley Rubin, producer of The Man He Found, reveals what it felt like to see the movie taken from him by Howard Hughes and re-worked into The Whip Hand (1951), to capitalize on the “anti-Communist sentiment” during the late 1940s.

Frankie Thomas, star of the classic 50s sci fi program, Tom Corbett, Space Cadet, sounds like a fun guy in his interview. The show also starred Jan Merlin as Roger Manning, and in addition to lots of detail on the making of the program, and the fact that it still has fans today (I myself collect the Tom Corbett books on which the shows were based) there are lots of fun photos. In fact, all of the photos in this book are “cherce,” as you might say, most of them never before seen behind the scenes stuff provided by the interviewees.

Finally, Burt Topper talks about his directorial stint on The Strangler, and his work with Victor Buono (who died all to young.)
This is, quite simply, a fun book, to read straight through or to dip in now and again. The wide range of interviewers ensures that everyone will find something they like, and considering that ol’ serendipity, ever interview is worth reading in case someone you do like is mentioned. The full color cover is quite a hoot, as well.

Flaws? Well, the book isn’t especially thematic. It would have been nice if an interview with Ann Robinson had appeared in this book to compliment the one with Gene Barry, but her interview with Weaver was published in Attack of the Monster Movie Makers: Interviews with 20 Genre Giants in 1994.

Indeed, if you want an in-depth look into the 40s and 50s age of horror and sci-fi filmmaking, you can do no better than to track down all of McFarland’s compilation of Weaver interviews. You get dozens of different looks (from different interviewees) of all the directors, from Roger Corman to Robert Wise, and all the actors, from John Agar to Lon Chaney Jr. to Bela Lugosi.