Imagine you’re 19 again and back in the 1950s. Summer is here. You jump in your hot-rod Lincoln, pickup your best girl and cruise out to the drive-in theater for an all-night monster movie marathon.
They’re all fond memories now – the car, the girl, drive-in theaters – but the movies survive in the form of posters that someone had the foresight to save.
Last Chance by LiveAuctioneers will sell a collection of authentic and affordable movie posters at an auction June 21. Absentee and Internet live bidding will be available exclusively through LiveAuctioneers.com.
Here – with bits or commentary from Leonard Maltin’s Movie and Video Guide – is a selection of five of the posters advertising low-budget horror movies from a unique era:
‘The Astounding She Monster’
An “awesomely cheap little film” about an apparently evil female alien who kills with her touch. The poster features incredibly rich color and eerie, out-of-this-world artwork by the legendary Albert Kallis.
‘I Married a Monster from Outer Space’
This rehash of Invasion of the Body Snatchers has some creepy moments and co-stars champion boxer turned actor Maxie Rosenbloom. The little film has developed a cult following.
‘From Hell It Came’
A monstrous tree monster rises from the grave of a wrongfully executed native prince to terrorize the inhabitants of a South Sea Island. “As walking-tree movies goes, this is at the top of the list,” reports Maltin’s movie guide.
‘The Hideous Sun Demon’
Following the commercial success of The Astounding She-Monster, actor Robert Clarke, who also starred in She-Monster, decided to make his own science-fiction film. The Hideous Sun Demon stars Clarke as a doctor who is exposed to radiation and turns into a ghastly lizard creature. Shot during 12 consecutive weekends by a crew consisting of USC film students, the film is notorious as a “hideously low-budget production.”
‘The Unearthly’
Mad Scientist John Carradine experiments in immortality, which results in a basement full of deformed morons. The characters of this film were created by Edward D. Wood Jr., the legendary low-budget movie director. Lurid!
