Mesa of Lost Women
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Movie Reviews of Mesa of Lost Women
Movie Review: A true classic!
Summary: 5 Stars
Let me begin by stating the complaints about the soundtrack are so far off base, they're practically in the stands with the overweight Yankees fans gorging on hot dogs. The atmosphere of surreality is practically *created* by the flamenco music, Why, MOLW wouldn't be nearly as askew, or as fun to watch, without it. This is, in fact, the 50's version of a David Lynch film. And what's not to love, huh? We've got giant tarantulas, beautiful women (especially the morena with the restaurant dance...ouch!), ~MIDGETS~, a mad scientist, a bible-quoting madman with a gun. See the ensemble of the redneck riviera without the plane fare or the crocodiles! Bad taste is indeed timeless. Lester Bangs, call your office.Movie Review: The Good, The Bad, and The Sublime
Summary: 4 Stars
Right before I was lulled into unconciousness by the flamenco guitar/piano soundtrack, I knew when I came to I should jot down a couple of lines about this opus. Ed Wood fans sing his praises on high but who carries the torch for Ron Ormond? Indeed, this film is a virtual who's who for Wood fans. Delores Fuller pops up, Lyle Talbot narrates (one of the greatest non-Wood rants ever penned), and Wood even recycled that comfortably numb soundtrack for "Jailbait". But the real wonder here is Harmon Stevens as Leland Masterson. From the get-go, when Stevens is on the screen you can't take your eyes off him. In particular a sequence at a sleazy Mexican dive when Masterson/Stevens is sitting at a table across from Doreen Culbertson/Paula. This is one of longest zombie grins in film history this side of the father in "Eraserhead" during the dinner sequence. Yes, Uncle Fester(Jackie Coogan) is on hand as the mastermind behind it all but he turns in an Academy award performance in comparison to the others. The inanity does slow a bit about half way through but bad movie lovers can't go wrong with this. How about Ormond's "Monster and The Stripper" AKA "The Exotic Ones"... any word on its DVD release?Movie Review: Average DVD of legendary Z-chiller
Summary: 3 Stars
I would have to include Mesa of Lost Women in that unique subgenre of "is it spellbindingly awful or just awful?" (members of which include The Creeping Terror, Beast of Yucca Flats, They Saved Hitler's Brain, Teenage Devil Dolls, Battlefield Earth, etc.). Bad movie fans may find this a scream, or merely dull depending on their taste and mind-set at the time of viewing (and how many Carl Dreyer films they've made it through). No rants please, I love Carl Dreyer movies. It is fairly slow-moving, even for a poverty-stricken 50s thriller, and that guitar-and-piano score has the potential to put the most stable person in the rubber room. That said, the plot, dialogue, characterizations, etc. are so loony that there is much to marvel at for those tough enough to stick it out: Jackie (Uncle Fester) Coogan as a demented scientist, Spider-Babe Tandra Quinn's bizarre dance stylings, mutant midgets, florid narration, etc. And this is mandatory viewing for fans of that giant spider prop (you know the one).The DVD itself is not terrific, but serviceable. The brightness, contrast, and tonal values are quite adequate, although the sharpness is a bit soft, and the print suffers from relatively low-level but fairly constant speckling, dirt spots, and sporadic vertical and horizontal scratches. Some stretches of the film are pretty clean, some aren't, although overall it is still an improvement over the VHS copy I taped off PBS [!!] several years back. Interestingly, the TV print shows vertical scratching at the same points in the film and in the same locations in the frame as the DVD; perhaps these flaws derive from the master elements. In other details, the prints were not identical. There appear to be no missing shots/scenes other than the 15-second "prologue" tacked on to the TV print before the opening titles (was this part of the original theatrical release?). The DVD actually runs just slightly longer than my tape. Extras include the Mesa trailer (also a little dirty), chapter stops, and five more trailers advertising other Image discs. Not as impressive as other Image releases (e.g., Missile to the Moon), but given the history of this movie, it's possible that no better print of the film was available. Once again, Z-movie completists will probably be pleased with the disc, if not overly excited; anyone not into this stuff already, run for your life!
Movie Review: OF MICE, SPIDERS AND FREAKS
Summary: 3 Stars
A difficult and preachy film that falls into that slender catagory of 1950's sci-fi/horror set outside the United States and in Mexico - South of the Border chillers (KRONOS is another) - where the labor was cheap, the deserts always dry and the talent always in a sweat. The story behind MESA is simple enough - a mad doctor has crossed the power of a spider with the sexual wiles of the female form - creating a labor force of immortal, super strong and mute women who do his every bidding, biting and killing for... reasons unknown. Like all mad scientists he simply does what he does because he can... no reason needed. While MESA comes up short in many ways (is it a cautionary tale? Is it an environmental feature?), it does have it's moments - the best being found in Harmon Stevens performance as Dr. Leland Masterson - a man turned mad by the experiments of Dr. Arana (our evil villian) - whose performance is a near exact copy of Lon Chaney Jr. as "Lenny" in OF MICE AND MEN (in fact, Leland has escaped from a mental hospital in this film and is being hunted down by a man named "George") - very uncanny. This film also features THE SPIDER - perhaps one of the most often used monster props in fast and cheap sci-fi movies in the 1950's (you can also see it in MISSLE TO THE MOON), plus there is a cameo of Dolores Fuller (GLEN OR GLENDA) - the one time love and leading lady of Ed Wood. While this kind of movie is not for everyone - collectors will want this film - it crosses so many lines (there are moments in this film which have a Todd Browning FREAKS feel to it which is too exact to be anything but direct theft), it has one good performance, one famous name (Coogan) - and one awful leading lady, Mary Hill - whose line delivery is so emotionless that you can see the punctuation at the end of every sentence - awful - but fun. As for the casual viewer - I do recommend MESA OF LOST WOMEN as it is a true conversation piece, and despite how bad it is - you will watch it straight through, not understand one moment of it - and then find yourself wanting to watch it again just to see if it was really that bad.Movie Review: How do you rate something like this?
Summary: 3 Stars
Bad wigs, a completely absurd plot, and a voice-over narration that rivals even the Astounding She Monster in over-the-top, rancid melodrama. And the unending guitar...
And yet, there were highlights. The engaging escaped lunatic managed to be fun to watch. Tarntella's dance was, well, something to see, even if it won't win any awards. As Z grade movies go, this one offered a few giggles, and in a 3$ rental, that's what I look for.