Author Archive: Retro

Absolutely the most fiendish idea ever conceived.

In 1881, in Algeria, Michael Denning and Hector Servadac are fighting a duel when a comet brushing Earth takes the two men to the Moon where they discover a prehistoric civilization.

Dr. Conway has perfected a machine which he believes will predict earthquakes, and has determined that one will strike California within 24 hours. He and his patron, Dr. Morton, attempt to convince the Governor but he cannot bring himself to declare an emergency when there is no proof the machine works – which, within 24 hours, it is proven to do. More significantly, Conway is getting readings which indicate a series of additional, pending quakes around the world, which also begin to occur; and more still seem to be on the way. With his assistant “Hutch”, to whose love for him he seems oblivious, Conway takes his equipment to the deepest point of Carlsbad Caverns, in hopes that being closer to the center of the earth will help discern the cause of the earthquake epidemic. It does, when they inadvertently discover a new element which lies dormant in watery pools deep within the earth but, [...]

Five individuals from five nations, including the “Superpowers,” USA, USSR, and China, suddenly find themselves on an alien spacecraft. An alien gives each a container holding capsules. No power on earth can open a given container except a mental command from the person to whom it is given. Each person has been provided with the power of life and death. Any of these individuals has the capability to instantaneously launch the capsules to whatever coordinates he/she chooses, and each capsule will then eradicate all human life within a 3,000-mile radius of its designated location.

Three London gentlemen take a vacation rowing down the Thames, encountering various mishaps and misadventures along the way.

An American reporter smells a story when he is stranded in an Iron Curtain country where the local dictator is using gamma rays to transform children into mutated henchmen.

Teenage hoodlum goes on a shooting spree, picks up some chicks and takes it on the lam. The whole entourage winds up at a farmhouse, where they hide out and hold a family hostage. Produced by Sam Katzman. Dir. Fred Sears

An impoverished family of acrobats is befriended by a squirrel who helps them attain a fortune. Dir. Irving Pichel.

Rocket Man is pitted against the sinister Dr. Vulcan in this intergalactic battle of good and evil. A feature length condensation of the serial King of the Rocket Men. The rock band leader who calls himself Commander Cody must have loved it too, because he named his band after it.