"The She Creature" -1956.

 Tagline: "It can and did happen! Based on the authentic FACTS you've been reading about!" That's strange. I remember the Korean War, a moon landing, civil unrest, the Kennedy assassination....nothing about a bug-like creature with double Ds. You'd think that would have made the news. Too bad Ricki Lake wasn't around back then. She would have had this front and centre for weeks!

Plot: Pretty simple, actually. A gifted sideshow hypnotist uses a beautiful young woman as his guinea pig

to bring forth the souls of those who died hundreds (or even many thousands) of years ago. The catch? One such entity, once summoned, materialises and kills!

 The good part, at least for the hypnotist, is he controls the She-Creature and decides who dies.

The bad part is the girl doesn't want to do this anymore and knows the She-Creature is an ancient part of her.

Unfortunately, he's an evil hypnotist

and she isn't so she can't break free from him. He wants more, of course, (men!) but even an evil hypnotist can't force a beautiful young woman to love an ugly old man. Meanwhile, a heroic young-ish hypnotist (on the right)

is being wooed by a young wealthy woman and her old, even wealthier father (on the left)....for different purposes, I'm happy to say. The rich father latches onto the evil hypnotist,

making them both a metric crap-ton of money with his dire predictions that keep coming true. Hmmmm....that's peculiar. Luckily, Johnny Law (on the left)

starts to notice that whenever the hypnotist predicts a death it happens. (He's so smart! And handsome, too! Oh, some young girl will be lucky to have him if he doesn't get killed by the reincarnated spirit of a murderous monster!) But it's hard to prove he's the killer when he's nowhere near the crimes when they happen.

Luckily, we have a brave young-ish, handsome-ish hypnotist who is ready to do mental battle for the soul of our Elizabeth Taylor wannabe. See? Simple. Easy-peasy.

Things I learned from this movie: 1- a recently deceased individual will remain standing until his corpse is revealed,

2- in the 50's even female monsters had spectacular racks,

 3- I can't imagine the Catholic Church was okay with the writers saying people evolved from giant, murderous bug creatures, 4- when your vehicle is being pushed over a cliff, please remain seated during the entire 15 seconds it takes for the She-Creature to finish,

 5- for the sake of the lady playing Andrea (the hypnotised girl) I reaaaaaally hope the Evil Hypnotist ate a breath mint,
6- alcoholism can be cured in mere moments,
7- if you work as a barker in a game of chance you will have a wheel of fortune in your room with you so people know where you work,

8- upon seeing a seven-foot tall monster while dozing in your bed, you will make no attempt to escape the bed until you are thrown violently into the aforementioned wheel,



















9- "It's such a nice night, I think I'll get dressed up as a 19th century magician and go for a stroll on the beach",

10- before PETA and ASPCA were around you could just huck dogs at actors,

11- apparently there are no attractive men in the field of hypnosis,

12- bullets (as usual) have little to no effect on this monster, posing the question: why do these people even bother having guns?

Bonus facts: The actress who played Andrea, Marla English, was married to the same man since 1956! Marla just passed away last December in Tuscon, AZ.

 

The actor who played Dr. Lombardi (the Evil Hypnotist), Chester Morris, was far more famous for playing playing the role of Boston Blackie in the many films that contained that character in the 40's.

Morris was a lifelong friend of director Roland West, who upon his deathbed in 1952, confessed to Morris the murder (in 1936) of actress Thelma Todd. Miss Todd was best known as a foil for the comedic likes of Laurel and Hardy and The Marx Brothers in the 30's. Morris took his own life in 1970, rather than linger on with the cancer he had developed.

 

The actor who played The Rich Daddy (Tom Conway, real name "Thomas Sanders")

was a raging alcoholic who, towards the end of his life, spent many months in various hospitals. During one visit, his friend and former sister-in-law Zsa Zsa Gabor pressed $200 into his hand and urged him to use the money to bribe the nurses to "be good to him". Instead, Conway left the hospital and died in his girlfriend's bed, having drank most of the money away. His more famous brother, George Sanders, had long since cut ties with his boozing brother. Sanders is remembered as "Shere Khan - The Tiger" in The Jungle Book. A bit of a cad himself, George was a famous womaniser and all around jerk. Famous quote from George Sanders: "A woman, a dog and a walnut tree, the more you beat them, the better they be." Lovely. Can't say I was sad to read he had committed suicide two years after his brother's death. Douche.

 

Our heroic hypnotist, Ted Erickson, was played by a B-movie regular by the name of Lance Fuller.

  Fuller was also in one of my favourites: This Island Earth, where he played "Brack". He's the dude with the white hair. Fuller was also in Girls In Prison along with Adele Jergens and Richard Denning (who were in Day The World Ended together). It's like a big ol' B-movie family!

 

Our love interest with the alcoholic "former" fiancée, Dorothy Chappel, was played by Cathy Downs. Downs was being groomed for big things by the chiefs at Fox, even playing the title role in the classic western My Darling Clementine opposite Henry Fonda. No real reason is given for how Miss Downs ended up in cheesy movies like this one, The Amazing Collossal Man

and The Phantom From 10,000 Leagues but I for one am happy that she was. Good job, Miss Downs, wherever you are.  

 

How about a little input as to which movie I should watch next? I have recently purchased The Screaming Skull, along with The William Castle Collection and The Monster That Challenged The World. You could pick one of those or anything you may have heard of that's in the B-movie genre. If I don't already have it I can probably find it. First we'll see who leaves a request in the form of a comment here on the blog. If, and it's a mighty big "if", I get more than one request I will write down all suggestions on tiny slips of paper, drop them in a hat and then wear that hat while I watch whichever one of the suggestions I want! Ha ha! Didn't see that coming, didja? No, really, suggest away and I will choose one. Promise. I'll even give you full credit for the pick unless you don't want your name published.