This is one of the BEST 'BAD" movies ever made...hands down. Next to BRIDE of the MONSTER...this may well be
thee best...IMHO. At the end of the cat fight in the dance club,the camera breifly shows a picture of a cat that's hanging on the wall-and a disimbodied 'MEOW' is heard! The sleazy music heard in the strip joint is great too! "WAH wah wah waaaaaah -wah wah-digit-digit!"
Plus early film gore (it was originally shot in 1959...and not released until a few years later),and the pinhead monster-in-the-closet scared the crap outta me when I first saw it on a Saterday afternoon as a kid in the 70's. A Classick!!!!
This was one of my first genuine horror movies, too. Chanel 6 out of Birmingham featured it on their afternoon
Tom York & Dialing for Dollars movie, along with THE GIANT GILA MONSTER, THE KILLER SHREWS, and THE SCREAMING SKULL. I couldn't have been more than four! All scrared the livin' crap outta me, and I haven't been the same since.
I recently watched the MST3K version again. Surprisingly they used the once 'rare' uncut version, which shows the Thing in the Closet in its full glory as it bites a hunk out of Herb Ever's neck, holds the bloody chunk of meat so we can get a good gander at it, and then tosses it on the floor. It also features the full version of Karl getting his (good) arm ripped off and rubbing his bloody stump all over the walls of the basement.
Bela connection! If you look really close during the photoshoot at the model's apartment you can see Sammy Pertillo (BELA LUGOSI MEETS A BROOKLYN GORILLA) as one of the photographers. Eddie Carmel, who played the Thing in the Closet, was famous in the art world as the subject of Diane Arbus' photo titled
Jewish Giant at Home with His Parents.