X: The Man with the X-Ray Eyes (1963)

 

X: The Man with the X-Ray Eyes (1963) 

Presented below is my favorite Roger Corman directed feature.

Black Sabbath (1963) - American and Italian versions

Mario (Black Sunday, Planet of the Vampires, Dr. Goldfoot and the Girl Bombs , Danger: Diabolik, etc.) Bava's 1963 horror show Black Sabbath seems almost quaint in comparison with the gut wrenching (literally) ongoing output as modern scare films ramped up the realism, blood and gore from the late 60s onward.

Even a few years after it's release, the film proved powerful enough to provide a fledgling blues/rock band from the UK with a suitably "heavy" name, changing from Earth to Black Sabbath - the rest of that story is music history.

Genre stalwart Boris Karloff introduces the festivities and also appears in "The Wurdalak" segment. Heavy on suspense and atmosphere throughout, my favorite of the three tales of terror that make up the movie is the one titled "The Drop of Water, which is the first up in the American version. "The Telephone" is the middle segment in the US release and is also the one most altered from the Italian original.

American version

Italian version

Ray Harryhausens skeletons

Ray Harryhausen's special effects handiwork has been a highlight of fantasy films throughout the years before the advent of computer cinematic enhancement. An especially outstanding segment of his work has to be the animation of skeletons to battle human defenders in both Jason and the Argonauts (1963) as well as in The 7th Voyage Of Sinbad (1958), scenes from both movies are included below.

Jason and the Argonauts (1963)



The 7th Voyage Of Sinbad (1958)



as a bonus, here's a compilation of all of
Ray Harryhausen's creations in chronological order
with Tito Puente's "Mon Ti" as the soundtrack


plus

The 7th Voyage of Sinbad - 1958 - trailer



This has been slightly edited from its originally posting
on MySpace blog Nov. 2009

Great Toy Robbery (1963) Christmas cartoon

Recently discovered this rocking Canadian Christmas cartoon from 1963. Animated and scored in a very swinging, early 60s manner, this short incorporated Santa into a wild west theme and is a Christmas treat. Also created by Jeff Hale (as well as Norman McLaren, Gerald Potterton and Grant Munro) in 1963 is the second bonus cartoon - Christmas Cracker.

The Great Toy Robbery


plus
Christmas Cracker