The Bloody Pit

The Bloody Pit #7- THE GIANT BEHEMOTH (1959)- commentary

This time out I'm using the podcast format to represent the commentary track I made for the fine 1959 monster film THE GIANT BEHEMOTH. I love this movie and was unhappy with the track provided on the otherwise excellent DVD so I took it upon myself to record an alternate. You can synch the track up with the film or just listen to me prattle on as if it were a normal podcast. Of course, the more familiar you are with the movie the more sense certain things will make as I comment on scene specific events. In any case, I hope you will think I did a good job. This track has some faults –  verbal sloppiness & stammering and occasional stutters- but I hope I got across the information well enough to be enjoyed by fans. I think I've become much better at this kind of thing since I started podcasting three years ago but I'm not too embarrassed by my work on this six year old recording. I’d like to clearly acknowledge the sources for the information in the track. -Two interviews conducted by Tom Weaver were most helpful- one with director Eugene Lourie and the other with leading man Gene Evans. -Mark Berry’s fine book The Dinosaur Filmography was an invaluable resource. -The wonderful article from SPFX magazine #26 by Paul Mandell was fantastic and helped me form up my own thoughts about the film. -And last was Mark Berry’s great interview with Desmond Davis about his career. I’ve tried to get my hands on a documentary about the life and career of composer Edwin Astley but that has proven harder than I thought. Produced in 2001 it’s never been released on video but I hope to catch up with it one day. Oh- and one last thing. I must apologize for my most glaring verbal mistake. Near the very end of the track I seem to think the current year is 1978. I meant to say something else but obviously my mind and mouth were not linked at that moment. Of course, these films often make me feel like I’m 10 years old so maybe my slip was a Freudian one. Please drop me an email at thebloodypit@gmail.com to let me know what you think

The Bloody Pit #6- Sgt. Preston of the Yukon

With the end of Winter fast approaching you might think my thoughts would turn to Spring and the fun outdoor activities just around the corner. No- not me. I'm still trying to enjoy the indoor activities that the colder months bring like hunkering down in front of the TV and watching television shows from the 1950s or listening to old radio shows from even earlier decades. That is the subject of this spontaneous episode of The Bloody Pit. I fell in love with the old Challenge of the Yukon radio show years back and when the snow flies (or when it ought to be flying) I relish settling in and enjoying some of these adventure shows. Sgt. Preston and Yukon King tales are very much a relic of their times but that is one of the things I find appealing about them. I like the TV show but I love the radio episodes so I've folded one of them into this short podcast. I hope you enjoy this look at a mostly forgotten piece of entertainment history.

You can drop me a message at thebloodypit@gmail.com any time. Thank you for listening.

The Bloody Pit #5- A Christmas Carol Appreciation

There are many stories that bring the Yuletide season to life for us but I think that the most life affirming of them all is tale of Ebenezer Scrooge's terrifying night of ghostly visits. A Christmas Carol is a holiday time perennial for many reasons but that it reminds us of the importance of treating our fellow humans well is easily its chief virtue. One hopes that it doesn't take supernatural intervention to show most people the error of their ways but, just in case, its always nice to have the idea of a dreadful, dark future hanging overhead to keep the nastier side of human nature under control.

On this episode of the Bloody Pit I am joined by two dear friends to discuss both the classic Charles Dickens' story itself and the various adaptations of it that have helped to stick A Christmas Carol so strongly into the public consciousness. There have been a great number of film adaptations and, while we can't speak authoritatively about all of them, we touch upon as many of them as we can in roughly two hours of conversation. So please join me, John Davis and Ryan Reed as we have a fine time discussing the highs and lows of quite a few attempts to bring to the screen one of the best tales of redemption ever written. Things do get a little boisterous at times and we hope you have some fun too!

Remember that you can drop us a note at thebloodypit@gmail.com with your comments, suggestions or even your own favorite version of A Christmas Carol. We look forward to hearing from you and have a Merry Christmas!

The Bloody Pit #4- ROCK 'N' ROLL HIGH SCHOOL (1979)

The Bloody Pit returns with a show focused on a comedy! I would have never have thought I'd be covering a comedy on the podcast but my buddy John Hudson convinced me and I'm glad he did. This is my first show with Mr. Hudson an with any luck it won't be the last. He is a damned good podcaster so far and his perspective is a unique one. He certainly keeps me on my toes!

ROCK 'N' ROLL HIGH SCHOOL is a Roger Corman production from 1979 that manages to be both a wonderful time capsule and rather timeless. As a teen comedy it is great but as a slice of rock & roll history its a classic. Where else are you going to get to see The Ramones try to act? Or Paul Bartel attend a rock concert? Or Mary Warnov blow up (fake) mice in a lab experiment? This has been a cult film since its release and its cable TV screenings in the 1980s probably cemented its reputation in the eyes of many people long ago. Its a low-budget, scattershot and often silly movie that has great characters and a lot of heart which is another way of saying it is truly endearing and fun. Of course, the amazing people behind the camera deserve a lot of praise and we take the opportunity to discuss a number of them as we go along. We even have the great good luck to have a brief interview with Riff Randell herself about ROCK 'N' ROLL HIGH SCHOOL! That's right- Mr. Hudson got to sit down recently with the legendary P. J. Soles and discuss the film and her memories of the shoot. Very cool! We can't thank her enough for being so nice and so generous with her time. What a sweet lady! So settle in and enjoy!

Please feel free to write in with your thoughts on the show to thebloodypit@gmail.com and let us know what your first Ramones album was. Let us know what band you think might have made for an equally entertaining film made in 1979 with this crew of filmmakers. Thank you for listening and we'll see you again soon. You can grab the show from the DropBox link on Th Bloody Pit Of Rod or from iTunes.

The Bloody Pit #3- Another 10 Favorite Movies

After a two month wait I finally bring you Episode #3 of The Bloody Pit and I can guarantee two things- less terrible sound than episode #1 and a more comfortable host. Yes- I’m slowly getting used to conducting a solo show and I think it is evident here. As for the subject matter I once again present a list of ten of my favorite films and speak a bit about each. This listing brought out a few surprises for me and was much harder to construct so maybe this is an even more interesting group of entertainments. Maybe? I can certainly hope so, any way. I pretty much stay on topic even if the occasional digression does have to be curtailed especially when I get anywhere near a chance to talk about Howard Hawks, Sam Peckinpah or Antonio Marghertti films. I just love those gentlemen’s work so much! Oh- and I get to talk a little bit about Christmas movies. Or at least one particular Christmas movie.

Please drop the podcast a note, if you are so inclined, at thebloodypit@gmail.com. You can take the opportunity to present your own list of favorite movies as faithful correspondent Mark did in the Mail Bag section of this episode. There is nothing more fun than talking about someone else’s taste in film! As always, the show can be grabbed at the link below or pulled down from the iTunes store. And if you can review The Bloody Pit over there it would really help get the word out that the show exists. Thanks for listening and now go watch something fun.

The Bloody Pit #2- YOR, THE HUNTER FROM THE FUTURE (1983)

The often derided, demeaned, sneered at and insulted YOR THE HUNTER FROM THE FUTURE (1983) is the subject of the second Bloody Pit podcast. This great and glorious Italian slab of muscled joy deserves much better attention than it has received over the years and, even if it has been recently issued on DVD (sort of), not enough people living in the 21st century are aware of the magnificence of this classic. For this epic movie I begged super-fan Jeff Nelson to join me and Yor newbie (and NaschyCast co-host) Troy Guinn sat in as well so that we could have a variety of viewpoints. Its always fun to introduce people to this bizarre barbarian adventure and if we accomplish only that one thing I would thrilled. But I also hope that we can educate some of the Negative Nellies out there as to the brilliance of what YOR brings to the table. At the very least this show will clue listeners in to the facts about what they have and have NOT seen. Far too few folks are aware that if all they have ever seen is the theatrical version, then they missed over two hours of monster filled awesomeness. So, until you see Yor fight a one-eyed, multi-tentacle lake monster you haven't really seen YOR!

This show grew to epic proportions -just like the full length version of the film- and many odd subjects are discussed. I spend a long while praising director Antonio Margherti an his sterling miniature work while, in an embarrassing turn of events, Troy confesses his love for Telly Savalas. It gets a little strange. I was impressed that Jeff noticed that, in a way, a better title for the film would have been YOR- AGENT OF GENOCIDE and that the last section of the film could have been called DARTH KENOBI AND THE DOOM TROOPERS. We all three agree that the title used was a poor choice but would one of ours be any better? We'll never know.

Remember that you can subscribe to the show through iTunes. Please write to the podcast at TheBloodyPit@gmail.com to let us know what you think.

The Bloody Pit #1- 10 Favorite Movies

This is the first episode of a new podcast and I must say I'm excited to be bringing this to you. The plan for this show is for each episode be on a different subject depending on whatever the participants want to discuss. For the first show I've decided to do a short, solo piece about my ten favorite movies. This will let listeners know where I'm coming from as a film fan and maybe even hint at some of the topics to be covered in the future. I have hopes that this will spark some back & forth as others compose their list of favorites as well. I've also added an older review to the end that I hope will jumpstart some discussion about a certain science fiction franchise. This is short and sweet (?) so I hope you enjoy the first Bloody Pit Podcast! Drop us a line at thebloodypit@gmail.com and let us know what you think. Oh! I know the 4Shared site now forces you to register with them to download shows and for that I apologize. Until I can find a better way iTunes may be the only way to get these episodes without signing up for a site you may never use. Sorry about that. I'll embed it below as well to see if that is better for some folks.