Vickers, Yvette

Attack of the 50 Ft. Woman

Nancy Archer has had an alien encounter and it's left her 50 ft. tall! Now she sees the men in her life from a new angle--looking down on them--and it's time to fight back! Director: Nathan Juran Starring: Allison Hayes Yvette Vickers William HudsonRunning Time: 66 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: SCI-FI/FANTASY Rating: NR UPC: 085391145059 Manufacturer No: 114505

Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned... especially when you're fending off The Attack of the 50-Foot Woman! One of the most beloved camp classics of the 1950s begins with a three-way recipe for sci-fi disaster: Cheating husband Harry (William Hudson) is married to alcoholic heiress Nancy (Allison Hayes), but he's got a scheming mistress named Honey (Yvette Vickers) and a burning desire for Nancy's lavish inheritance. But before the greedy lovers can say "Super-Size Me," the insanely jealous Nancy gains a towering advantage: After exposure to radiation from a spherical alien satellite, Nancy grows to a height of (yep, you guessed it) and proceeds to wreak havoc as a giant dame with an attitude problem. As often happened with cheesy sci-fi and horror films of the Eisenhower era, the movie's deliriously exploitative poster promised more than the movie actually delivers, which perhaps explains why director Nathan Juran (whose next film was the comparatively lavish The 7th Voyage of Sinbad) opted to be credited as "Nathan Hertz." And while the special effects are cheesy and cheap (involving oversized miniatures, repeated process shots, see-through double-exposures, and a giant, rubbery arm used for King Kong-like clutching scenes), it's still possible to feel a hint of compassion for poor ol' Nancy, and that--along with the enjoyable performances of Hayes, Hudson, and Vickers--is probably why Attack has gained such a loyal cult following over the decades. Fueled by atomic-age paranoia and timeless human foibles, it's a feminist revenge thriller with lasting appeal, remade in 1993 with better special effects and Daryl Hannah in the title role. --Jeff Shannon

Pressure Point

Oscar® winner* Sidney Poitier sizzles in an electrifying role (Show Business Illustrated) as a prison psychiatrist who clashes with a racist inmate (Bobby Darin) in this explosive and provocative (Citizen News) drama that packs a powerful wallop (LA Herald Examiner)! A prison doctor is charged with treating a hate-filled young man who s been jailed for sedition. As he probes the patient s nightmares the psychiatrist realizes his twisted visions mask a lust for violence. But the inmate has become a model prisoner and unless the doctor can convince officials that he s dangerous he ll soon be back on the street. *1963: Actor Lilies of the Field; 2001: Honorary AwardFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: ACTION/ADVENTURE Rating: NR UPC: 027616901491 Manufacturer No: M110053

Attack of the Giant Leeches

It's hard to say whether this is a low-rent Southern Gothic melodrama or a monster movie; it seems that director Bernard Kowalski couldn't make up his mind which genre to pursue. A local poacher turns up in the swamp half-dead with sucker marks all over his body. Soon after, a fat slob bartender (Corman regular Bruno VeSota) finds his hottie of a wife making out with her boyfriend and forces them into the swamp at gunpoint. From there, the two become a leech snack. When more people disappear in the bayou, the local game warden and resident scientist (isn't there always one, regardless of how remote the place is?) take it seriously and discover the monstrous bloodsuckers. Despite the grade-Z trappings of this movie, threadbare plot, and ludicrous monsters, there are still some chilling and effective moments, such as the scene where doomed victims of the leeches are left to watch in horror as their attackers approach in their lair. The mutated leeches are a result of radiation (but of course). At a scant 62-minute running time, this is some prime drive-in trash, and it's over with before you even have a chance to get sick of it. --Jerry Renshaw

Gangsters Guns & Floozies Crime Collection: I, Mobster

The Wasp Woman - Attack of Giant Leeches

The Screaming Skull/Attack of the Giant Leeches - Drive-In Discs Vol.1

In an effort to re-create a genuine drive-in experience in the comfort of your own living room, Elite Entertainment has paired up two horror films with nothing in common, tossed in a couple of cartoons, and dredged up a night's worth of intermission fillers. Alex Nicol's The Screaming Skull is an eerily effective little psycho-thriller about a newlywed (Peggy Webber) who moves into her husband's secluded mansion and becomes haunted by the ghost of his first wife. Borrowing liberally from Hitchcock's Under Capricorn (in particular the titular skull that follows our traumatized heroine around ), Nicol gives it a Southern Gothic twist with a decaying old mansion, a "slow," childlike handyman, and a strangling, overgrown setting. The Giant Leeches is another story, a swamp trash take on Creature from the Black Lagoon with floppy rubber creatures trawling the everglades for victims. They're as scary as a garbage bag and about as distinct too, but the real fun is the film's hothouse melodrama of hick poachers and hot-to-trot hillbilly adulterers. The giant bloodsuckers are explained away in classic fashion: "Maybe our proximity to Cape Canaveral has something to do with it."

Elite's transfers are better than one would expect, a little soft perhaps but clear, clean, and intact, and they've both been effectively letterboxed. They've also gone the extra mile to complete the drive-in experience with the alternate "Distort-O" audio option. Select the track and listen to the glorious low-fi reproduction of the tinny, buzzy drive-in speaker sound. --Sean Axmaker

I, Mobster

From the ghetto street to the mob boss seat follow Steve Fisher a young boy from the slums who uses drug pushing and murder to climb the crime syndicate ladder to become the boss.Run Time: 81 minutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: CHILDREN/FAMILY Rating: NR UPC: 796019797795 Manufacturer No: LVD52138

Roger Corman Retrospective, Vol. 1 DVD

Attack of the Giant Leeches (1959)

Bucket of Blood/Attack of the Giant Leeches

"A Bucket of Blood" (1959, 65 min.) - Roger Corman directed and produced this black comedy set in a coffee shop where a group of 'far-out' beatniks inhabit a world of their own fantasies. "Attack of the Giant Leeches" (1960, 63 min.) - The placid backwat