DRIVE-IN
DISCS VOLUME 1:THE GIANT LEECHES (1960)
Director: Bernard L. Kowalski
THE SCREAMING SKULL (1958)
Director: Alex Nicol
Elite Entertainment
DRIVE-IN
DISCS VOLUME 1:Elite Entertainment has initiated their long-awaited "Drive-In Discs" series with this double feature of classic B-movies that were originally released by American International Pictures. The films are fun, but the real novelty here is a variety of drive-in extras that take the viewer back to better days of movie viewing (and better movies!).
The first feature, THE GIANT LEECHES ("Attack of the Giant Leeches" on the credits) was produced by Roger Corman's brother Gene. Like a typical Corman production at that time, the film's activities center around men in unconvincing rubber suits--this time giant blood sucking leeches that feed off people. Sexy Yvette Vickers plays the town whore in a small swampland. She cheats on her beefy husband (played by AIP legend Bruno VeSota), who's the but of several fat jokes. He holds his trampy wife at gunpoint with her cowardly lover, and they are then abducted by the creatures. Ken Clark plays the sheriff who's out to find the true location of the town's missing bodies.
The second feature, THE SCREAMING SKULL tells the story of a husband (John Hudson) trying to terrorize his unstable second wife (Peggy Webber) into a nervous breakdown in an attempt to steal her fortune. He does this by throwing skulls around and staging ghastly incidents to make her think his first wife's spirit is haunting her. The director, Alex Nicol, plays Mickey the Gardner, a childlike idiot that the husband wants to blame all the shenanigans on.
Both features are letterboxed at 1.85:1 and are 16x9 enhanced, and the two black and white films show considerable wear, but are acceptable. THE GIANT LEECHES was previously available on Slingshot's "Roger Corman Retrospective Vol. 1," and was full frame. Slingshot's transfer adds more information on the top of the screen, but the Elite transfer (apparently from the same source, as both discs include a "National Film Museum" marker) is a notch better. THE SCREAMING SKULL is the better looking of the two, as the source material is in cleaner shape, except for several splices/jump cuts.
The special feature here is a second audio track affectionately called DISTORTO! (in honor of the classic filmmakers/showmen of the 50s and 60s who created such in-theater gimmicks as Percepto and Emergo). This track makes the films sound like they're being played through a drive-in speaker, and viewers can experience such sounds as crickets chirping, lovers slamming car doors as they go to the concession stand, and hecklers whistling at the screen. Unlike, the idiotic mentality of the MST 3000 crowd, these viewers actually watch the movies. Most of the talking occurs during the intermission, and the appropriately fun heckling is heard only a couple of times, notably when Yvette Vickers and Peggy Webber flash a little sex appeal or are in a various states of undress.
In between the features, we get treated to a number of classic intermission films, shorts and trailers, most of which are in surprisingly pristine condition. Classic ads include "Pic, the smoking bug repellent" and "Chilly Dilly" pickles, as well as the drive-in standards; "Hello Voting Lovers" promo ("Public Displays of Affection Will Not Be Tolerated" warning), "Tex Rides Again" refreshment break short, "Let's All Go To The Lobby" animated intermission clip, and more.
There are a couple of cartoons; a color "Popeye" and a black and white "Betty Boop" (which looks great!). Both are "windowboxed (all the other intermission stuff is letterboxed in the same ratio as the features). There are also trailers for THE GIANT GILA MONSTER and Roger Corman's THE WASP WOMAN, apparently the next double feature team-up in this series. So break out the stale popcorn and warm soda, and enjoy what will hopefully be the start of a long line of drive-in double features from Elite! (George R. Reis)