ZOMBIES OF MORA TAU and GAMMA PEOPLE in '50s Horror and Sci-Fi Forum

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ZOMBIES OF MORA TAU and GAMMA PEOPLE

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Ted Newsom	Re: ZOMBIES OF MORA TAU and GAMMA PEOPLE	#41	[-]
Apr 29 07 2:32 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Nope. I'm just uninformed.
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The Drunken Severed Head	Re: ZOMBIES OF MORA TAU and GAMMA PEOPLE	#42	[-]
Apr 29 07 4:09 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Well, I don't know if they're well-known bands. Just thought you might be referencing them. http://www.drunkenseveredhead.blogspot.com/
KAIJUG	Re: ZOMBIES OF MORA TAU and GAMMA PEOPLE	#43	[-]
May 1 07 6:19 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I just saw that Zombies will be on TCM in July along with The Man Who Turned To Stone
Precode	Re: ZOMBIES OF MORA TAU and GAMMA PEOPLE	#44	[-]
May 9 07 5:06 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	You didn't hear this from me, but there's a very strong possibility that some of these titles may be legitimately released on DVD before year's end. Mike S. (don't ask me any more; I've said too much already)
HalLane	Re: GAMMA PEOPLE	#45	[-]
May 9 07 6:13 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Say no more, Mike, say no more, wink wink, nudge nudge, I'll bet that Eva Bartok's a go-er, eh, a go-er, know what I mean, rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr, Say No More! "Snips and snails and poppydoc tails...."
opticalguy	Defending ZOMBIE OF MORA TAU	#46	[-]
Jul 28 07 5:37 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Im sure I must’ve posted about this film elsewhere on this board but I couldnt find it. I am definitely in the pro Zombies of Mora Tau faction. It actually has zombies. You see the very creepy Karl Killer Davis almost immediately. It’s got underwater stuff (all dry-for-wet) which I personally loved. It’s got Allison Hayes at her hottest plus some cutie named Autumn Russell who had but a few credits to her name. It’s just scary enough for a wimpy kid (me) but not enough to cause serious nightmares. There is a bit of pathos both in Joel Ashley’s character (George Harrison!?!?) who refuses to believe his wife (the very hot Ms. Hayes) is a zombie and Marjorie Eaton’s character “Grandmother Peters” who apparently has hung-out in zombie-infested Mora Tau just to be near her zombie-fied husband for many years. Of course there are many risible elements. The dry-for-wet underwater scenes come in for particular mockery but the underwater zombies work better that way in my opinion. The fact that Mora Tau is in the “whites only” part of Africa and has elaborate mansions and a very temperate climate (hey, maybe that’s why “Grandmother Peters” settled there and the real estate prices must be very reasonable) makes me cackle a bit. Of these titles it’s one of the more watchable flicks. Thanks to TCM I’m catching up with a number of late 1950s second-string horror and sci-fi flicks. Zombies of Mora Tau still is a load of fun but The Man Who Turned to Stone deserved the criticism it got from Bill Warren in Keep Watching the Skies, volume one. Still I rather enjoyed these little potboilers. It’s as if they were part of some series like Thriller in that they were pretty mild in the shocks department but pretty solidly done. The Gamma People was too darned peculiar (I too haven’t seen it since the 1960s when it was part of the package of films shown on one of my home town’s local TV stations) wouldn’t fit in with this bunch. It wasnt good but it had a very creepy, disquieting feel to it that I remember 40 years later. For no particular reason I’m grouping the following flicks in my “fun but not very good” 1950s package: ZOMBIES OF MORA TAU VOODOO ISLAND THE PHARAOHS CURSE THE MAN WHO TURNED TO STONE CREATURE WITH THE ATOM BRAIN INVISIBLE INVADERS THE MONSTER OF PIEDRAS BLANCAS THE WEREWOLF THE BLACK SLEEP Most of those films seem like part of a TV syndication package now that I look at it. opticalguy1954@yahoo.com (Spencer Gill) Last Edited By: opticalguy Aug 24 11 5:59 PM. Edited 1 times.
Alias the Scarecrow	ZOMBIES OF MORA TAU	#47	[-]
Jul 28 07 5:50 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I am a fan of every one of these films posted above; low-budget, true, but great entertainment in any case..I'm glad most of them are coming out on DVD this fall.
Bill Warren	Re: ZOMBIES OF MORA TAU	#48	[-]
Jul 28 07 9:15 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Well, I think THE WEREWOLF is actually good, not just watchable fun.
Precode	Re: ZOMBIES OF MORA TAU	#49	[-]
Jul 29 07 6:37 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I concur. I just watched it again to do the chapter stops, and was surprised to see how smart and even moving it was. (VERY MINOR SPOILER) Ritch generates real pathos for his plight, and the two scientists aren't your standard-issue nutjobs but thoughtful men who actually want to do something good for mankind and seem genuinely pained that they need to kill their human guinea pig. Mike S. (plus the Big Bear locations give it a nice, non-cheap look)
Bill Warren	Re: ZOMBIES OF MORA TAU	#50	[-]
Jul 29 07 6:43 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	THE WEREWOLF is a movie I'd love to do the commentary track for. That and CREATURE WITH THE ATOM BRAIN, one of the two greatest movies ever made. (The other being IT CAME FROM BENEATH THE SEA. Well, that's what I wrote in my diary at the time.)
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Monsterpal	Re: ZOMBIES OF MORA TAU	#51	[-]
Jul 29 07 7:18 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I think they still are the greatest, Bill.
David Schecter	Re: ZOMBIES OF MORA TAU	#52	[-]
Jul 30 07 12:18 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I agree about THE WEREWOLF. It's a well-made film, and one of the better lycanthropy pictures out there.
Bill Warren	Re: ZOMBIES OF MORA TAU	#53	[-]
Jul 30 07 12:26 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	My first experience with THE WEREWOLF was seeing a trailer for it while staying with my aunt in Portland. But I had to return to Gardiner before the movie actually opened; it didn't turn up in my neck of the woods for almost another month, and I almost blew out my seams with the intensity of my eagerness to see it. The trailer includes most of the transformation in the mine tunnel, and I had almost never seen anything so terrifying and yet so exciting. It was up there with Gort melting the plastic that contained him, and the drunk-sees-moving-skeletons scene in the original BLUE LAGOON, the two scariest things I had seen up until about then.
DrPaulArmstrong		#54	[-]
Dec 6 07 7:05 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	How can I not have seen this? How, how, how, I ask you? What is it, like 68 minutes? 68 minutes of.........................FUN! Maybe this was on late night when I was a kid, but I think I'd remember it. I mean, hell, it delivers, it really delivers: 1) action 2) zombies People don't just sit around in a long single frame and talk about the vague possibilities of Zombies that might sorta be out there maybe. Zombies are poppin' out all over the place. At times it's even a bit visceral; one gets a knife in the chest and walks away with the hilt sticking out. Then there's the fake dream-like underwater stuff that I believe was shot by Carl Dreyer. And of course Allison Hayes. You'll think I'm nuts but at times I was reminded of my favorite horror writer William Hope Hodgson, whose focus was not only sea horror but often tales that invoked a siege mentality (even in non-horror stories like "The Plans of the Reefing Bi-Plane"), something I also enjoy in KILLER SHREWS, FIEND WITHOUT A FACE and ATTACK OF THE CRAB MONSTERS. The shipwreck, the zombie sailors walking underwater (with carefully placed seaweed stole), the exciting fight on the deck of the steamer. Yes, yes, I'm excited about ZOMBIES OF MORA TAU. What can I say? It's great fun, very tight. And it really avoids the low budget pitfall of endless verbal padding. Really enjoying me my Katzman set.
Rakshasa		#55	[-]
Dec 6 07 7:53 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	I have the Katzman set but haven't watched Zombies Of Mora Tau yet. I will watch it now. MuWah-Ha-Ha-Ha!!!!!! . Links To All The Classic Monster Stills I've Posted: http://monsterkidclassichorrorforum.yuku.com/topic/30758
TomWeaver999		#56	[-]
Dec 6 07 9:10 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	<< Yes, yes, I'm excited about ZOMBIES OF MORA TAU. What can I say? It's great fun, very tight. And it really avoids the low budget pitfall of endless verbal padding. << I liked it as a kid, like it now. Quite imaginative in its own way. And, when it wants to be, quite funny. "What are they gonna DO, picket all the jewelry stores on Fifth Avenue??"
TServo4		#57	[-]
Dec 6 07 9:48 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	GAMMA PEOPLE also has the distinction of being George Melachrino's final effort as a film composer, which was secondary to his RCA contract arranging, conducting and producing RCA's "Music For..." albums with his orchestra, The Melachrino Strings. His big hit was in the late '50s (around the same time as GAMMA PEOPLE) with "Music for Relaxing." Anyone whose parents had an LP player in the '50s and '60s will remember his music-- it was the kind of stuff you would hear playing at home or at the department store alongside folks such as Montovani, Lenny Dee, Lawrence Welk, Jackie Gleason, etc., etc. J. Theakston Capitol Theatre, Rome, NY
Rakshasa		#58	[-]
Dec 7 07 6:18 AM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	MikeTheMook wrote: Speaking of MORA TAU, at the beginning of the film there is a little written on-screen intro, pre-credits I believe. The phrase "Twilight Zone" was used in that intro. Didn't know how many people picked up on that, especially since this was 2 years before Rod Serling brought TZ to tv. I'm quoting and responding to Mike The Mook over a year after his post, but YES, I totally noticed the use of the phrase "Twilight Zone" in the on-screen written pre-credit intro. Made me wonder about the derivation of "Twilight Zone", as I had always assumed Rod Serling coined it. Like Dr. Armstrong (aka Atomic Larry), I somehow never saw this film growing up. I thought it was really cool. I loved the images of the zombie crew slowly coming in and out of the water. Very creepy and haunting. The underwater scenes were indeed dream-like. I'd have to watch it again, but I thought maybe the camera was shooting through a tank of water with the actors on the other side of the tank walking slowwwwly as if they were actually under water. Allison Hayes and the other gal (the blond) were smokin' hot. Thank you. I also must mention that the old woman truly seemed to pull up some real emotion as she finally gets her chance to get rid of (i.e. "destroy") the diamonds and set her zombie husband free. Her tears seemed quite real and rather moving. Nice! Links To All The Classic Monster Stills I've Posted: http://monsterkidclassichorrorforum.yuku.com/topic/30758 Last Edited By: Rakshasa Dec 7 07 3:17 PM. Edited 1 times.
Bill Warren		#59	[-]
Dec 7 07 3:09 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Made me wonder about the derivation of "Twilight Zone", as I had always assumed Rod Serling coined it. No, he never claimed that--he couldn't, as it had been in use for some time. One way it was used was to describe the area on Mercury between the perpetually sunny and perpetually sunless sides.
Rakshasa		#60	[-]
Dec 7 07 3:15 PM Reply Quote More My Recent Posts	Bill Warren wrote: Made me wonder about the derivation of "Twilight Zone", as I had always assumed Rod Serling coined it. No, he never claimed that--he couldn't, as it had been in use for some time. One way it was used was to describe the area on Mercury between the perpetually sunny and perpetually sunless sides. Cool. Thanks Bill. I never knew that. Links To All The Classic Monster Stills I've Posted: http://monsterkidclassichorrorforum.yuku.com/topic/30758
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