Cinemaventure

There are movies that are so bad they are fun to watch.  I have to admit the movies of Ed Wood do not fit this category for me.  They are so bad they are painful.  Fortunately Sam Katzman sometimes fills the bill.  Katzman (1901-1973) was a producer and director whose career started in 1933.  He worked in Westerns, serials such as Columbia's Superman (1948), Jungle Jim movies with Johnny Weismuller (earning the nickname "Jungle Sam"), and even produced an Elvis Presley movie.  Reportedly he did not care for the experience because the large budget made him uncomfortable.  He worked cheap and fast but usually delivered watchable product.  But even a low-budget mogul such as Katzman could pinch pennies in the wrong area.  In this case it was special effects that suffered. The Giant Claw (1957) is a comedy riot, which is not what was intended.  A good cast of professionals including Jeff Morrow, Mara Corday, Morris Ankrum, and Edga...

Once upon a time in a magic land called Hollywood there were entities called "Studios". They came in all sizes, from giant (MGM) to mite (PRC). The biggest Little Studio was called Republic Pictures and was home to stars such as John Wayne and Roy Rogers. The ruler of this studio was Herbert Yates whose talent involved getting a lot of product for a small amount of money. However, he was not as cheap as PRC and made motion pictures that looked good. Herbert Yates had one fatal flaw; he fell in love with former Olympic skater Vera Hruba Ralston and married her. He also made her the star of many motion pictures (hereafter called pictures because your scribe is getting lazy). He had hoped to make her another Sonja Henie, but there was just so much you could do in a picture wearing ice skates, so he placed her in other movies. There were many actresses prettier and more talented than Vera, but there were also those much worse, but they tended to work for even smaller st...