First B movie experience

[Scottie]

My high school friends and I began watching bad movies as a joke when there was nothing else to rent in a Hollywood video store. We picked up Attack of the Gila Monster, Beaks, and [/b]Maniac[/b]. I was the only one of the group to really take bad movies to the next level, but nothing beats watching [b/Space Mutiny[/b] with friends who can still appreciate some real b-movies.

[Mofo Rising]

I don't when I made the transition to watching bad movies as entertainment.

I grew up watching genre films.  That is sci-fi, fantasy and horror (also comedy, always comedy).  These were not "b-films" to me, only the movies I wanted to watch (and pretty much the only movies I did watch).  You don't really know they are bad films until you grow up, which I eventually did.

Now I watch all movies, but I'll always be devoted to genre films.  I actually list some "b-movies" as some of the best movies I've ever seen.  RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD is one of my best movies of all time, and I'll weigh that up against THE GODFATHER any day.

But I don't know when I started enjoying truly bad movies.  When did I realize the crazed brilliance of the truly awful TROLL 2?  (The first TROLL was one of those movies I mentioned earlier.  I didn't know it was bad when I was a kid.)

One movie sticks out in my mind.  EVIL DEAD II.  I saw that late one night watching HBO expecting a straight up horror movie.  That viewing was electrifying.  A truly unexpected experience, and one which showed the unending promise of the undiscovered b-movie.  And to think, I was only hoping to see naked breasts.  God bless you, Sam Raimi.

[Dr. Kobb]

I wanna know what sound effect was used to make Godzilla's voice!  Do you know the answer, Susan, or were you asking out of curiosity?

I heard once that Tarzan's yell is in fact a hyena's braying played backwards.  Sounds ludicrous, but for all I know, it could be scripture.

[Steve Byczek]

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047034/trivia

Hi Friends: Click on the above link.


Susan... According to the IMDB,Godzilla's roar was a glove pulled slowly over a contrabass,which is a big fancy violin. Or at least,this is how they made his roar in the first "Godzilla" movie made in 1954. Not sure about the many sequels. Maybe they re-recorded this sound and altered it with sound equipment?

Dr. Kobb..I read somwhere Johnny Weismuller's "Tarzan" yell was a combination of his own voice and a laughing hyena. I think the original King Kong was various animal yells (bears,lions,tigers,etc.) mixed together and played backwards.

Lots of interesting trivia on the IMDB.


Sincerely,Steve.

[Susan]

Cool, thanks steve. I always used to wonder what it was, one of the things it reminded me of was dragging a large heavy desk or piece of furniture across a gymnasium floor..lol

As for Weismuller - i've heard everything from it's a mix to the real thing. I'm more included to think it was the real thing, i've heard that stated as a fact on tv shows moreso than the other. All it takes is a little yodeling ability, right? ;-)

[Steve Byczek]

Susan....If memory serves...I think Godzilla's roar in his first flick, and the early movies, was slow,low pitched,and downright eerie. In the newer entries in the series (late 60's and throughout the 70's),his cry became faster and higher pitched, perhaps even slightly friendly.  Did they simply speed up the old cry from the earlier films,or did they record a new one to announce his "personality change" (he was a villian in the early movies,and became a "good-guy" in the newer entries).

Dr. Kobb...Read somewhere that they actually played audio-recordings of Johnny Weismuller's "Tarzan" yell at his funeral service while they were placing his casket in the ground. I wonder if he requested this in his will (just like Bela Lugosi requested in his will to be bured in his Count Dracula cape) or if Weismuller's family and friends came up with this on their own????

To all of my friends on this board...Speaking of audio recordings at celebrity funerals.... According to one website I read, Andy Kaufman actually made a recording of himself laughing out loud hysterically. He had it rigged so that the recording played whenever people would get close to his casket, and payed their "final respects". I guess Andy Kaufman did get the "last laugh" after all! LOL!



Sincerely,Steve.

[Susan]

I guess funerals can be fun, i always wanted to hire a magician at mine to saw my casket in half. ;-)

I sure hope drobert carradine isn't buried with the sound of his nerd laugh echoing in the background

[Brother Ragnarok]

I imagine my love of things B began with watching GI Joe and Transformers cartoons.  My love of dinosaurs and through them all monsters led to me seeing some stuff that I otherwise wouldn't have, like "Creepozoids," because back then neither myself or my parents knew what "unrated" meant, aside from the fact that it wasn't R so it must be okay.
One of my first and favorite theatrical memories is "Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla."