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Starring Rock Madison and Asa Maynor. Directed by Jerry Warren.

BijouFlix regulars are familiar with the amazing work of Jerry "Mix n' Match" Warren. For decades, Warren fashioned a shoestring career out of purchasing awful Mexican flix and re-editing them with new scenes into awful American flix, with such exploitation monikers as CREATURE OF THE WALKING DEAD and THE WILD WORLD OF BATWOMAN.

The usual lot of 'has-been' actors wandered in and out of the American scenes Warren shot on the cheap Stateside, and in most of his latter efforts, the lack of production values for the American footage contrasted with the often good production values of the higher-budgeted Mex fare is ludricously bad.

But in his first flick MAN BEAST (1956)? Believe it or not, there is ample evidence contained within its frames that Warren once had higher ambitions as a director/producer. Though of course it is damning with faint praise, MAN BEAST is definitely the high point, so to speak, of Warren's unsteallar albeit steady output.

The story of MAN BEAST is one of the reasons why this effort lingers as favorable when most Warren flix leave a vaguely "used" feeling in the average viewer (whomever that is!). But herein, Warren's obvious care in producing the best he could -- which is to say, barely adequate but professional in most respects -- at least throws a curve ball into the folks who pitch the argument "there's no such thing as a good Jerry Warren flick."

Strike one for pitcher in the Yeti suit! Because, flaws and all, MAN BEAST is a perfectly fine B-movie in the 50's monster sense, at once beholden to the headlines about yeti it exploits and at the same time managing a minor suspenser concerning a wife searching for a missing husband who has vanished in the... Himalayas.

Forsaking reason, she engages a local Sherpa to act as guide. Saner minds try to reason with her, but she departs into the mountains, determined to discover her husband's fate. And as the first yeti pops up from beneath the snowdrifts undetected by her search party, you just know: things are not going to 'go' as she intended. Indeed, they're about to go horribly wrong.

That's enough about the plot. There are some narrative twists worth preserving for intended viewers, and further story details would ruin 'em. Suffice to say, Warren's wise decision to hire a screenwriter results in a much finer production than his norm.

Enough easy 'cheap' shots; Warren's been positively abused in this regard, perhaps rightly so. But here's to him for doing what few else would do in his day: import Mexican movies and consistently distribute them in America. This not only enriched him but the Mexican film industry, which was glad to have at least one Gringo who "got it" and did business with them (even if he, uhm, "altered" them for the American market).

While it is easy to laugh at his movies, in short, don't forget to soberly remind yourself that were it not for Mr. Warren's admittedly bad efforts, there would have been no Mexican cinema shown as widely as his efforts were theatrically in their day.

The studios certainly had no interest in building a market and taste for foreign flix -- witness their continuing xenophobia to this day -- and so, bad or great, Warren at least had the audacity, tenacity and pretty decent editing skills to patch together disparate elements into a semi-coherent whole (sometimes).

So hidden in the junk flix he imported and ruthlessly recut, Warren did what no other showman in his era did: popularize Mexican cinema amongst mostly Anglo American kiddies who grew up contentedly watching his releases in suburban matinees and drive-ins with the parents and who would have never otherwise knowingly nor willingly seen a Mexican flick.

Pretty devious and probably unintended, but if your taste runs to anything non-American in flix, Warren is a name you should know if not at least have cursory respect. And as MAN BEAST demonstrates, he was capable of much better than his career ever otherwise produced, which ala Orson Welles and Ed Wood gives his career an inevitably sad overtone.

For Yeti/Bigfoot enthusiasts, this is a true 'must-see.' The serious tone of the handling of the creature, along with a pseudo-mythology of its origins and means of survival, makes MAN BEAST almost believable at times. As fans of Cine du Sasquatch know and know well, making an entertaining Yeti flick is not an easy task; making one that is almost two-point-five dimensional as this effort is as rare as the oxygen on top of Mount Everest. -- Notes by Dave Coleman.

"Actually pretty amazing — a coherent Jerry Warren film...by no means a classic, but it's probably the best thing Jerry Warren ever did and is actually worth a watch." -- Dave Sindelar, SCIFILM

"Not bad for a '50s B-movie about the yeti." -- ubik-11, IMDB

"Made by the future director of FRANKENSTEIN ISLAND and THE WILD WORLD OF BATWOMAN... for one scene involving the exterior of a temple, Warren jumped a fence onto another set and began shooting." -- ghast1957, IMDB

Features: Full Frame. B&W. Stereo. 67 mins. Original Collector's Grade Cover Art only from BijouFlix. VideoCD Price: $9.95. VHS Price: $12.95. DVD Price: $15.95.

Mysterians, The

aka Earth Defense Force. Starring Kenji Sahara, Akihiko Hirata & Yumi Shirakawa. EFX by Eiji Tsuburaya. Directed by Ishiro Honda.

Only a real Grinch at heart couldn't love a flick so amiably pleasant and entertainingly diverting as THE MYSTERIANS. A super-rarity for decades, this early Toho classic is a real charmer, complete with scary aliens who want to mate with Earth women, a giant robot who smashes everything in its path, and of course the required flying saucers.

In essence, THE MYSTERIANS was Toho's answer to the spectacular success of George Pal's WAR OF THE WORLDS. Though very different movies, they share a trait of serious-mindedness that is altogether rare if not absent in later kaiju efforts.

Further, actual Japanese stars take center stage in the thespian roles. And while no one looks to rubber suit monster flix for Anthony Hopkins style acting, it's still refreshing to have believable actors who underplay rather than the more obnoxious mugging so common in later efforts.

The most refreshing aspect is the actual tension generated by the race against time aspect of the storyline. As the earth scientists work in harmony to devise a technological demise to the invaders' superior abilities, the stakes actually feel at risk instead of inevitable, unlike later and more pandering kaiju flix.

In terms of harmony of direction and effects, the venerable duo of Honda and Tsuburaya is at its very best in this saga. Though as dated as Pal's WAR OF THE WORLDS, THE MYSTERIANS is equally charmingly so, and therefore a bona fide "must see" for fans of either gentlemen, kaiju cinema or alien invasion flix. -- Notes by Dave Coleman.
Request Flick Winner -- Suggestion by Mark Shanks-- thanks, Mark!

"Ishirô Honda tale of technological ingenuity vs. a superior invading force... special FX in THE MYSTERIANS are almost uniformly top-notch... nobody does buildings consumed in sheets of flame or earthquake damage like a Japanese FX crew." -- Bad Movie Report, STOMP TOKYO

"When I was young I remember that the 'Marcolights' were pretty cool and the music was very dramatic. The music still sounds good today... You may be pleasantly surprised to see the leader of the Seven Samurai as the head scientist." -- gjhong, IMDB.com

"Perhaps the most intriguing of all Toho sci-fi films." -- Ken Hanke, MOUNTAIN XPRESS

"The actor playing the Leader of the Mysterians was Yoshio Tsuchiya. He also played the Vapor Man in THE HUMAN VAPOR, Controller of Planet X in GODZILLA VS. MONSTER ZERO, and Businessman Shindo in GODZILLA VS. KING GHIDORAH... Eiji Tsuburaya's advanced special effects highlight a battle of fire, lasers, rockets, tanks, and flying saucers between the humans and space aliens... A cool alien invasion movie." -- Oliver Chu, IMDB.com

"A surprisingly serviceable science fiction film... Honda's aliens arrive in giant pyramids, anticipating CHARIOTS OF THE GODS by 20 years, and proceed to stomp the Japanese countryside in high style." -- Dave Kehr, CHICAGO READER

Features: Full Frame. Color. Stereo. Uncut. 84 mins. Exclusive, Original Collector's Grade Cover Art (see above) only from BijouFlix. WARNING: ADULTS ONLY! VideoCD Price: $8.95. VHS Price: $11.95. DVD Price: $14.95.

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aka Bigfoot the Mysterious Monster. Starring Peter Graves and Peter Hurkos. Directed by Robert Guenette.

This nearly impossible-to-find docudrama is a bona fide rarity and one of our all-time “most requested by customers” flix, so we’re very glad to finally offer it to all of you who have so patiently awaited its debut. Starring Peter Graves as the man with the mission to prove whether crypto-zoological species like Sasquatch and the Loch Ness Monster are “real” or imagined, MYSTERIOUS MONSTERS (1975) owes its popularity to the successful marketing of its initial releasing company, the venerable but sadly extinct Sunn Classic Pictures Inc.

In case you don’t remember Sunn Classic, they were the Salt Lake City-based group of canny Mormon distributors who realized early on that by making only the movies that pre-surveyed audiences in malls selected as desirable (“which of the following movies would you see based on the title alone?”), they could largely avoid the costly disasters of the studios. The formula was so successful that it didn’t take Hollywood long to essentially adopt it and basically make Sunn Classic irrelevant. But before their strategy was co-opted, they made such anti-classics as IN SEARCH OF HISTORIC JESUS, HANGAR 18, THE LINCOLN CONSPIRACY, and THE LIFE & TIMES OF GRIZZLY ADAMS, among many others.

In this cash-in on the 1970’s Sasquatch craze, Sunn cannily hired director Robert Guenette, who would later go on to even greater cult fame as the director of both THE MAKING OF STAR WARS and GREAT MOVIE STUNTS: RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK, both definitely great behind-the-scenes looks at movie production at the studio level. But in MYSTERIOUS MONSTERS, he may have struck the deepest nerve with his Gen X audiences, most of whom very fondly remember this overly-serious attempt to not just prove Sasquatch exists – it’s a given by host Peter Graves – but actually discredit anyone who says Bigfoot could possibly be only a myth. This uneven-handed quality makes the flick conversely popular with True Believers, who enjoy seeing Sasquatch presented as fact rather than pseudo-science and outright quackery.

Though the focus is on Bigfoot, there is extensive coverage given to other Fortean-style encounters with the unknown, including a visit with psychic Peter Hurkos, the Loch Ness Monster and Yeti among others. In fact, the footage of the Loch Ness castle in ruins and endless fathoms of brackish waters attests to why the sightings – fact or fantasy? – easily persist in such a foreboding environment. If you’re into the crypto-zoo’ism of it all, the rare 16mm footage of the earliest known Loch Ness Monster sightings captured from the 1930’s onward is a treasure trove, as are the priceless sequences containing many classic Abominable Snowman footage taken in the Himalayas, including what was widely authenticated to be a Yeti scalp during the expedition (it was later discredited as being composed of Yak hair). But of course, the piece de resistance is the classic Patterson footage, which is analyzed herein and declared authentic beyond further dispute. Whether or not you believe Peter Graves as he gravely intones said verdict is whether or not you believe the recent death-bed confessions the footage was “just a hoax” as authentic or not. However you believe, the footage herein is remarkably well presented, showing none of the color loss and washed-out contrast similar use in SASQUATCH, THE LEGEND OF BIGFOOT contains. Herein, while a bit soft, at least the colors are as they appear in the 16mm original; while both flix have exactly the same footage, MYSTERIOUS MONSTERS has a slight edge for quality of color saturation and accuracy to camera original.

Speaking of visual quality: we’re also glad to report that the private collector’s copy we were able to secure for our master source is actually quite good, and while it shows some video artifacts, it is by and large quite acceptable as a viewing copy. Owing to the scarcity, we are presenting MYSTERIOUS MONSTERS with our best digital enhancements without reservation to fans of the flick; as always, your 100% satisfaction is guaranteed. -- Notes by Dave Coleman.

"Peter Grave narrates! With Bigfoot! The Loch Ness monster! The Abominable Snowman! Peter provides proof! Can you take it?" -- Michael Weldon, PSYCHOTRONIC GUIDE

Features: Full Frame. Color. Stereo. 86 mins. Exclusive, Original Collector's Grade Cover Art (see above) only from BijouFlix. VideoCD Price: $19.95. VHS Price: $22.95. DVD Price: $24.95.