Some of my reviews

[Ozzymandias]

A few of my recent viewings: The Body Beneath/Vapors    DVD. It is hard to imagine but this is the first Andy Milligan film I’ve seen that looked good. You could actually see what was going on through most of the movie. It doesn’t have the “soaked in dirty dishwater look” that Maltin or Ebert talked about. The sound quality on this one was also very good.

With that in mind, this would be a great vampire film if Andy Milligan had any idea about what vampires do. Rev. Algernon Ford wants the vampirism in his family to continue, so he hunts down distant relatives with the aid of his hunchback (surprise) servant Spool and three green faced (note their necks are white), chipmunk voiced (“Heeellllooo”) women in fluorescent ball gowns. The vampire women appear out of nowhere to chloroform their victims and fondle their hair. Spool, like all good Milligan hunchbacks, takes his lumps (sorry for the pun). He is beaten, nailed to a tree and set on fire. Along the way Ford’s catatonic wife suddenly plunges knitting needles into the eyes (which look like hardboiled eggs) of a maid who tried to aid the rescue of one of the cousins from Carfax Abbey.

 In an odd ending, Rev. Ford calls together all the vampires in Highgate Cemetery for a feast (cousin who is a London model) to tell them they are moving to America. This is filmed in and strange psychedelic effect. A pudgy, white-faced female vampire called Queen Elizabeth goes off on an anti-American rant that would have Osama bin-Ladden saying, “She is way out of line.” Ford talks her into it. When Spool ask to go with them, they all take turns setting him on fire. The actual ending is kind of cool twist.

Vapors    is to Milligan, what Glen or Glenda is to Ed Wood. The difference is this film isn’t a docu-drama, it is more of a one-act play, shot in black and white, the way most underground films of the sixties were. Two guys meet in a New York bathhouse and begin discussing their lives. I’ll just say if you are offended by Will and Grace  and SpongeBob, this 30 minute film is not for you. This film was  Milligan’s first and shows some promise, what happened?  The picture and sound quality isn’t great, but most of the other experimental films of the sixties were the same. This DVD does have two of Milligan’s better films along with some trailers for his films and radio ads and posters for some exploitation movies of the 60s and 70s.

If that was Milligan’s best, then Who Killed Doc Robbins?   is a massive chink in Hal Roach’s armor. I bought this for my brother-in-law for Christmas. He wanted a Little Rascals DVD. I found one for a $1 and this was next to it with the phrase “produced by Hal Roach in the style of the Little Rascals.”

This was the Our Gang farm team. Curly (Spanky-like leader), Speck (an annoying Alfala clone with freckles), Duddly (smart kid with glasses) two little girls and two Buckwheat-ish twins named Dis and Dat. I could go into all of the horrible un-PC gags perpetrated on Dis and Dat, but that would turn you all off.
George Zucco is the villain. Unlike the Our Gang films which had Depression era â€" New Deal story lines with greedy businessmen harassing the kids and their families, this is a convoluted Cold War story involving the firing mechanism for an atomic weapon invented by the kids pal, Fix-it Man Dan.

Best bet: find the real Our Gang/Little Rascals and watch them.

Finally, The Beast of Yucca Flats . A great transfer for a dollar DVD. Too bad the film goes nowhere. Does this even have a plot?  Something about an atomic explosion mutates Tor Johnson into a monster. The camera lingers on the victims who look more like they are taking a nap in the sun. Speaking of sleeping there is a woman who appears to sleep in her dress. I don’t know what she has to do with the movie. There are two kids (who aren’t good enough to be in the Who Killed Doc Robbins? movie) are told “a thousand times” by their butt-ugly mother “Not to play with coyotes!” At one point, Tor gets mad and throws a rock on the ground. The narrator doesn’t help either. He never gives us any relevant info.

Sorry if this is a little long.

[Scott]

Still haven't got over to Walmart for my $1copy of BEAST OF YUCCA FLATS and I still have THE GHASTLY ONES on my list. The last Milligan films I saw (THE RATS ARE COMING THE WEREWOLVES ARE HERE ! ) were like you said "soaked in dirty dishwater look" not to mention the dialogue.

[Ozzymandias]

The dialogue in  The Body Beneath seems to be a little more reserved as is the gore. Only the Queen vampire speech toward the end seems forced and over the top. The only time it looks bad is in the outdoor shots at Highgate Cemetery, but that lends to the atmosphere.