First out of the galactic gate is King Dinosaur (1955), a Jurassic-aged movie that should have been called Welcome to the Neighborhood!. Well, at least, that's what Earth should've said to the newest member of the Solar System, the planet Nova, and just left it at that. It seems that due to some sort of strange gravitational anomaly, Nova has scooted over so close to Earth that Man can now successfully journey to another planet. And indeed, before you can say "Jules Verne," America has already put together a crack team of scientists and doctors and a sturdy rocketship to withstand the weeks and months of interstellar space travel towards the strange, new world - all within the first 15 minutes! Director Bert I. Gordon, responsible for such sci-fi delights as Earth Vs. The Spider (1958), The Magic Sword (1962), and Attack of the Puppet People (1958), was not one to waste time.
The four explorers include William Bryant as Dr. Ralph Martin; Wanda Curtis as chemist Dr. Patricia Bennett; Douglas Henderson as Richard Gordon; and Patti Gallagher playing Nora Pierce. Once the foursome arrive on Nova, they encounter all manner of giant-sized creatures, most of which have been recycled from producer Hal Roach's One Million B.C. (1940). All sorts of reptilian riff-raff, from giant iguanas to giant crocodiles to giant gila monsters to, oddly enough, not-so-giant snakes, battle it out over feeding rights on the Earth-borne finger food. Of course, the four humans make their visit harder on themselves by acting a bit too aggressive against the natives and each other. The explorers seem to lack an innate curiosity about what makes these creatures tick, but they more than make up for it with trigger-happy sharp-shooting. Richard Gordon exhibits a severe temper when he twice shoves poor Dr. Patricia Bennett out of the way during a crisis involving an injured Dr. Ralph Martin. And of course, the team exits the planet with a unique, lasting gift from planet Earth: the detonation of an atomic bomb, with one team member claiming, "Well, we've done it. We've brought civilization to planet Nova."
Filling out the double-bill is The Bride and the Beast (1958), an Allied Artists production, from producer/director Adrian Weiss and a screenplay by none other than Edward D. Wood, Jr. Charlotte Austin marries handsome Lance Fuller and both look forward to living happily ever after, but once they arrive at his former bachelor pad, she discovers a pet gorilla named Spanky in his basement. (Seriously.) Soon Austin begins to feel a strange attraction to the gorilla. After Fuller kills the ape, Austin discovers through hypnosis that she was a gorilla in a former life, answering any questions about her peculiar infatuation with Spanky. "I still shudder at the strange sensation I had when the gorilla was trying to be tender," Laura says, while swathed in an Angora sweater. (The quality of the DVD image is sharp enough that you can actually see pieces of the Angora sweater flying around the set when Laura suddenly awakes from a disturbing nightmare.) While she and Fuller are on safari in Africa, another gorilla kidnaps Austin, seemingly with her acquiescence. Fuller tries to go "mammal y mammal" with the gorilla to rescue his wife, but he's defeated and Austin returns to her ancestral element.
Much of this disc's supplementary material is devoted to Ed Wood, or at least the spirit of Ed Wood. One extra is about David "The Rock" Nelson, a filmmaker who makes Wood look like a French-favored auteur. After viewing the truly bizarre interview with Nelson and his film Mummy A.D. 1993, plus a trailer for brilliant things to come, Man From Plan 9, one can happily admit that King Dinosaur and The Bride and the Beast aren't so bad at all.
For more information about Retromedia's Drive-in double feature of King Dinosaur/The Bride and the Beast, visit Retromedia Entertainment. To order King Dinosaur/The Bride and the Beast, go to TCM Shopping.
by Scott McGee
