Blu-ray Review: Cold War Creatures: Four Films from Sam Katzman (1955 – 1957)

Producer Sam Katzman was responsible for a stunning array of poverty-row shockers, and this new box set from Arrow Video (along with MVD Entertainment) brings forth the creepy cream of the crop! Without further arcane ado, let’s dip out terror toes in this putrid pond, shall we?
First comes Creature with the Atom Brain (1955):
Gangsters are being found tits up, with radioactive dead man’s fingerprints found all over the scene, so the police are baffled.
How is this a thing? Well, exiled gangster Frank Buchanan (Michael Granger) hooks up with Wilhelm Steigg (Gregory Gaye),  a Nazi mad scientist who is trying to create a new mindless work force created from the bodies of the dead.
Frank likes the sound of that shit, believe you me, and before long him and Dr. Feelbad are back in the States and putting a murder on each and every gangster that has ever crossed Buchanan… wait, why are the police angry this dude is doing their job for them?
Directed by Edward L. Cahn, he of Invasion of the Saucer Men and It! the Terror from Beyond Space fame, (working from a script by Curt Siodmak whom you may know as having written 1941’s The Wolfman for Universal) presents a solid little sci-fi pot-boiler here with some tight acting, a few moody scenes (that opener is a shadow drenched winner), and a fantastically outrageous (but just serious enough) bit of pseudo-science for horror hounds to sink their teeth into!
On the downside, there are a few scenes that are a bit chatty (especially in the second act) and keep us from the zombies versus gangsters ghoulish goodness we paid our admission for, but the film nevertheless satisfies in the eerie end!
As for special features on disc one, we get an info packed, amiable audio commentary courtesy of film critic critic Russell Dyball, followed by a nearly hour and fifteen minute conversation with legendary Swamp Thing artist/film critic Stephen R. Bissette discussing the entirety of Katzman’s career.
Also included are the condensed 8mm version of the film (you could buy shortened versions of films on reels in the days before VHS for you young fiends out there), the film’s theatrical trailer, and an image gallery.
Disc two brings us 1956’s The Werewolf (which unbelievably enough was written by Robert E. Kent and James B. Gordon, and not the previous film’s scribe given his past and all… ):
Speaking of the past, a disheveled man wanders into a wintry small mountain town with no recollection of his name or what he’s doing there. Naturally, the man is a werewolf and has began attacking people around town all willy-nilly.
As this is an isolated community, it doesn’t take the locals to realize the new guy in town is behind it… but they couldn’t guess the monstrous menace in their misty mountain midst!
Full of subtext (the freaky ’50s weren’t exactly stranger friendly, and our hero’s plight could be taken as an antecedent to xenophobia or the communist witch hunts of the decade), a fun werewolf make-up design (courtesy of an uncredited Clay Campbell, beautiful woodland locales (that offer a fairy tale element to the proceedings while adding a great sense of isolation as well), and nods to the werewolf mythology while creating a fun new cause for lycanthropy.
Adding to the positives with this fright flick are a thoughtful, emotional performance from Steven Ritch as our (for a time) nameless hero that adds a ton of depth to what could have been a standard creature feature, and a great art design that at times harkens back to the wonderful shadows and angles of German Expressionistic cinema.
Bonus material here includes a scholarly yet lively audio commentary from critic Lee Gambin, and a visual essay exploring the roles of women played in Katzman’s productions courtesy of historian and critic Alexandra Heller-Nicholas.
As before, a condensed 8mm version of the film, the flick’s theatrical trailer, and an image gallery are also included.
Disc three features 1957’s Zombies of Mora Tau:
Rich bastard George Harrison (Joel Ashley) has a wild hair up his ass regarding the salvaging an ass-load of diamonds from a ship that wrecked off the coast of Africa decades previous.
Once on the scene, Harrison and his divers make a rather shitty discovery; the ship’s crew are undead and are charged with defending the treasure until it’s destroyed (diamonds. those are probably easy to break with absolutely zero special tools). Will the curse be broken or will the treasure’s curse claim them all!
Filled with Southern Gothic tropes (that swamp encircled mansion leads the way there regardless of the African setting), some atmospheric sequences (those pre-dug graves are a true wicked winner), and some solid performances (Allison Hayes… who’s best known role would be in the following year’s Attack of the 50 Foot Woman is great fun to watch as the picture’s femme fatale… but the true star is Marjorie Eaton, who delivers great lines with the utmost dryness as the elderly matron that knows way too much about what is going on in those murky depths) director Edward L. Cahn (Remember him from up yonder?) delivers a solid blend of action film and zombie picture that moves at a nice clip and even adds some fun new twists to the then burgeoning genre (the underwater walking dead on display here would go on to influence such fright flicks as 1977’s Shock Waves, 1979’s Zombi 2, 1981’s Zombie Lake, and 2005’s Land of the Dead).
I will tell you one thing, walking slow in a diving suit equipped with a soap bubble blowing device absolutely does not convincingly convey “underwater action”… truly an added bonus in the hilarity department, and a hearty “well done” for reading the script and saying “We have no money for this, but fuck it”.
Special features on this disc kick of with a fantastic audio commentary courtesy of critic Kat Ellinger that explores not only the film’s production, but the origins of the zombie genre as well, followed by a visual essay by critic Josh Hurtado exploring the mash-up of mythic creatures and science in Katzman’s oeuvre (a fun, well-done piece!).
Once again, the flick’s theatrical trailer, and an image gallery are included… but no 8mm version this go-around.
Lastly on disc four comes The Giant Claw (also from 1957):
Mitch MacAfee (Jeff Morrow) gets his ass reemed for reporting a U.F.O. while testing a new radar system… well that and the fact the base he’s assigned to lost one of the three jets it sent out to investigate his claim.
In a nearly unbelievable (there’s a word that sums up the entirety of this picture) the plane MacAfee is flying home to New York in crash lands in the Adirondack mountains after an encounter with the same U.F.O…. and after that fracas more and more aircraft vanish… which leads to the astonishing discovery that a Kong-sized turkey from another galaxy has arrived on Earth in what is doubtless a direct action of revenge for every Thanksgiving celebrated in America…
Speaking of turkeys, most people find this film to be the biggest “turkey” of all… but, as with most things regarding our beloved creature features, “they” are wrong!
Look the acting, story, and cinematographic basics are all solid, but the main reason this film is remembered is because of it’s absolutely bonkers monster-bird (it’s a marionette strings visible at every juncture), a creature that is both memorable and entertaining… and if presented any other way I’d wager we’d be talking a lot less about this film many, many decades later!
Special features on disc four begin with a spirited audio commentary courtesy of critics Emma Westwood and Cerise Howard (who have a wonderful time discussing the film’s merits and history), followed by a visual essay examining the theme of Cold War paranoia Katzman’s creature features courtesy of critic Mike White.
As always we also get the film’s theatrical trailer, and an image gallery… and the 8mm version returns!
Every film on the set also comes with an introduction from author and critic Kim Newman that offers even more insight into these fantastically fearsome features, and all of the above comes in a box containing a fully illustrated 60-page collector’s book featuring extensive new writing by film experts Laura Drazin Boyes, Neil Mitchell, Barry Forshaw, Jon Towlson and Jackson Cooper, an 80-page collector’s art book featuring reproduction stills and artwork from each film and new writing by historian and critic Stephen R. Bissette (this is easily one of my favorite bonus items in any release of this year),2 double-sided posters featuring new artwork by Matt Griffin (absolutely gorgeous dark and moody pieces here), and eversible sleeves featuring artwork from the same.
To sum it all up; if you are in the mood for some truly entertaining drive-in flicks from the fearsome fifties then this set will be like pure fried gold to your arcane ass… don’t miss this one!