Cinemateca » Sci-Fi

The Ape Man (1943)

admin2 — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 14:40:45 +0000

Conducting weird scientific experiments, crazed Dr. James Brewster, aided by his colleague Dr. Randall, has managed to transform himself into a hairy, stooped-over ape-man. Desperately seeking a cure, Brewster believes only an injection of recently-drawn human spinal fluid will prove effective. With Randall refusing to help him, it falls to Brewster and his captive gorilla to find appropriate donors.

Horror | Sci-Fi

Bela Lugosi	…	Dr. James Brewster
Louise Currie	…	Billie Mason
Wallace Ford	…	Jeff Carter
Henry Hall	…	Dr. George Randall
Minerva Urecal	…	Agatha Brewster
Emil Van Horn	…	The Ape

Ape, The (1940)

admin2 — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 14:36:14 +0000

Dr. Bernard Adrian is a kindly mad scientist who seeks to cure a young woman’s polio. He needs spinal fluid from a human to complete the formula for his experimental serum. Meanwhile, a vicious circus ape has broken out of its cage, and is terrorizing towns people.

Drama | Horror | Sci-Fi

Boris Karloff	…	Dr. Bernard Adrian
Maris Wrixon	…	Miss Frances Clifford
Gene O’Donnell	…	Danny Foster
Dorothy Vaughan	…	Mother Clifford
Gertrude Hoffman	…	Jane, Adrian’s Housekeeper (as Gertrude W. Hoffman)
Henry Hall	…	Sheriff Jeff Halliday
Selmer Jackson	…	Dr. McNulty

Mad Monster, The (1942)

admin2 — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 19:36:35 +0000

Dr. Cameron’s colleagues laughed at the brilliant scientist’s theories regarding blood transfusions and drove him from his academic position in disgrace. But it will be Dr. Cameron who gets the last laugh. Hidden in a decaying mansion in the swamplands with his dutiful daughter, Lorena, and his simple-minded handyman, Petro, Dr. Cameron finally creates the serum that he is sure will restore his honor. Using Petro as his guinea pig, he proves that a man can be turned into a werewolf. Werewolves are powerful yet mindless beasts who lust to kill. What could be more perfect than an army of werewolves to fight the Axis powers? But before Dr. Cameron sends his serum to the War Department, he has a little score to settle with the scientists who humiliated him. Unfortunately, Lenora’s boyfriend, Tom Gregory, is a very nosy reporter who asks a lot of questions, all of which lead back to the vengeful scientist.

Horror | Sci-Fi

Johnny Downs	…	Tom Gregory
George Zucco	…	Dr. Lorenzo Cameron
Anne Nagel	…	Lenora Cameron
Glenn Strange	…	Petro

The Lost World (1925)

admin2 — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 18:46:58 +0000

Explorer Professor Challenger is taking quite a beating in the London press thanks to his claim that living dinosaurs exist in the far reaches of the Amazon. Newspaper reporter Edward Malone learns that this claim originates from a diary given to him by fellow explorer Maple White’s daughter, Paula. Malone’s paper funds an expedition to rescue Maple White, who has been marooned at the top of a high plateau. Joined by renowned hunter John Roxton, and others, the group goes to South America, where they do indeed find a plateau inhabited by pre-historic creatures, one of which they even manage to bring back to London with them.

Adventure | Fantasy | Horror | Sci-Fi

Bessie Love	…	Miss Paula White (as Miss Bessie Love)
Lewis Stone	…	Sir John Roxton (as Mr. Lewis Stone)
Wallace Beery	…	Prof. Challenger (as Mr. Wallace Beery)
Lloyd Hughes	…	Edward E. Malone (as Mr. Lloyd Hughes)
Alma Bennett	…	Gladys Hungerford (as Miss Alma Bennett)
Arthur Hoyt	…	Prof. Summerlee (as Mr. Arthur Hoyt)

The Corpse Vanishes (1942)

admin2 — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 07:46:41 +0000

After the death of many brides in their weddings and disappearance of their corpses, the snoopy journalist Patricia Hunter notes that all of them were wearing an orchid in their breasts. She finds that the hybridization of the orchid was made by Dr. Lorenz, and she decides to interview him about the flowers. She hitchhikes on the road with Dr. Foster and they are hosted by Dr. Lorenz in his isolated house. Dr. Lorenz is indeed a mad scientist that sleeps with his wife in coffins, and with the assistance of a dwarf and his strong retarded brother, extract gland fluids from the neck of the abducted virgins to keep his elder wife young.

Sci-Fi | Horror

Bela Lugosi	…	Dr. Lorenz
Luana Walters	…	Patricia Hunter, Reporter
Tristram Coffin	…	Dr. Foster (as Tris Coffin)
Elizabeth Russell	…	Countess Lorenz
Minerva Urecal	…	Fagah
Angelo Rossitto	…	Toby (as Angelo)
Joan Barclay	…	Alice Wentworth

Frankenstein (1910)

admin2 — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 18:03:53 +0000

Frankenstein, a young medical students, trying to create the perfect human being, instead creates a misshapen monster. Made ill by what he has done, Frankenstein is comforted by his fiancée but on his wedding night he is visited by the monster. A fight ensues but the monster, seeing himself in a mirror, is horrified and runs away. He later returns, entering the new bride’s room, and finds her alone.

Short | Horror | Sci-Fi

Mary Fuller	…	Elizabeth
Charles Ogle	…	The Monster
Augustus Phillips	…	Frankenstein

Things To Come (1936)

admin2 — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 08:24:01 +0000

A global war begins in 1940. This war drags out over many decades until most of the people still alive (mostly those born after the war started) do not even know who started it or why. Nothing is being manufactured at all any more and society has broken down into primitive localized communities. In 1966 a great plague wipes out most of what people are left but small numbers still survive. One day a strange aircraft lands at one of these communities and its pilot tells of an organization which is rebuilding civilization and slowly moving across the world re-civilizing these groups of survivors. Great reconstruction takes place over the next few decades and society is once again great and strong. The world’s population is now living in underground cities. In the year 2035, on the eve of man’s first flight to the moon, a popular uprising against progress (which some people claim has caused the wars of the past) gains support and becomes violent.

Sci-Fi

Raymond Massey	…	John Cabal / Oswald Cabal
Edward Chapman	…	Pippa Passworthy / Raymond Passworthy
Ralph Richardson	…	The Boss
Margaretta Scott	…	Roxana / Rowena (as Margueretta Scott)
Cedric Hardwicke	…	Theotocopulos
Maurice Braddell	…	Dr. Harding
Sophie Stewart	…	Mrs. Cabal

Arrest Bulldog Drummond (1939)

admin2 — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 11:05:10 +0000

The invention of a war machine, that brings to explosion everything one wants to, puts Scotland Yard and Captain Drummond into alarm.

Adventure | Sci-Fi

John Howard	…	Capt. Hugh Chesterton ‘Bulldog’ Drummond
Heather Angel	…	Phyllis Clavering
H.B. Warner	…	Col. J.A. Nielsen
Reginald Denny	…	Algernon ‘Algy’ Longworth
E.E. Clive	…	‘Tenny’ Tennison
Jean Fenwick	…	Lady Beryl Ledyard
Zeffie Tilbury	…	Aunt Meg
George Zucco	…	Rolf Alferson
Leonard Mudie	…	Richard Gannett
Evan Thomas	…	John Smith
Clyde Cook	…	Short, Mustachio’d Constable (Sacker)
David Clyde	…	Tall, Cleanshaven Constable (McThane)
George Regas	…	Soongh, Lady Beryl’s man
Neil Fitzgerald	…	Sir Malcolm McLeonard
Claud Allister	…	Sir Basil Leghorne

Blake of Scotland Yard (1937)

admin2 — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 06:25:48 +0000

Sir James Blake has retired from Scotland Yard so that he can assist his niece Hope and her friend Jerry in developing an apparatus they have invented. Sir James thinks that their invention has the potential to prevent wars, and plans to donate it to the League of Nations. But a gang of criminals led by the elusive “Scorpion” steals the device, and Blake and his associates must recover the invention and determine the identity of the “Scorpion”.

Crime | Sci-Fi

Ralph Byrd	…	Jerry Sheehan (archive footage)
Herbert Rawlinson	…	Sir James Blake (archive footage)
Joan Barclay	…	Hope Mason (archive footage)
Lloyd Hughes	…	Dr. Marshall (archive footage)
Dickie Jones	…	Bobby Mason (archive footage)
Lucille Lund	…	The Duchess, a Gang Moll (archive footage)
Nick Stuart	…	Julot, Male Apache Dancer (archive footage)
Sam Flint	…	Chief Inspector Henderson (archive footage)
Gail Newbury	…	Mimi, policewoman posing as dancer (archive footage)
Jimmy Aubrey	…	Baron Polinka (archive footage)
Theodore Lorch	…	Daggett, the butler (archive footage)
George DeNormand	…	Gang Member posing as Newshawker (archive footage)
Bob Terry	…	Peyton, lead thug (archive footage)
William Farrel	…	Count Basil Zagaloff (archive footage)
Frank Wayne	…	Charles (archive footage)

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1916)

admin2 — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 16:40:03 +0000

The Universal Film Manufacturing Company was not known in the silent era as premier producer of motion pictures.
Yet, in 1916 they produced a film that could not be made effectively without expensive special effects and special photography.
The novel had previously been made as short films in 1907 by Georges MÃÂ©liÃÂ¨s and in 1913 by French company ÃÂclair.)
Marshalling the expertise underwater experts Ernest and George Williamson, Universal financed the extensive production which would require location photography, large sets, exotic costumes, sailing ships, and a full-size navigable mock-up of the surfaced submarine Nautilus.

Action | Adventure | Sci-Fi

Lois Alexander	…	Prince Daaker’s daughter as a child
Curtis Benton	…	Ned Land
Wallace Clarke	…	Pencroft
Howard Crampton	…	Cyrus Harding
Jane Gail	…	A Child of Nature
Joseph W. Girard	…	Maj. Cameron
Dan Hanlon	…	Prof. Aronnax
Allen Holubar	…	Capt. Nemo
Ole Jansen
Noble Johnson
Leviticus Jones	…	Neb
Matt Moore	…	Lt. Bond
Martin Murphy	…	Herbert Brown
Edna Pendleton	…	Aronnax’s daughter
William Welsh	…	Charles Denver (as William Welch)