We round out a month of "feminine monster" movies with one of my personal favorites, and our belated return to Toho Studios' house of destruction spectacle. Today's topic is "Mothra," a deceptively flamboyant fantasy flick that's jam-packed with political and religious imagery.Bibliography:Susan Sontag, "The Imagination of Disaster" (1965)Steve Ryfle and Ed Godziszewski, "Ishiro Honda: A Life In Film - From Godzilla to Kurosawa" (2017)Donate to 70+ community bail, mutual aid, and racial justice organizing funds across the country: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/bailfundsgeorge_floydAll original music courtesy of Niel Jakobyhttps://nieljacoby.bandcamp.com/Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/MonsterCrazeMemoirsOfficialiTunes/Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/monster-craze-memoirs/id1491963648Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3aSrQ5JFez33XuVanaFYIwPocket Casts: https://pca.st/lkra63chSoundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/user-3949861YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCB_GcDWtQj_2wGEnlAB7P4AFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/Monster-Craze-Memoirs-106199087480182/Twitter: https://twitter.com/KennethJWaste2

"Unknown World" is special effects artists and newbie producers Irving Block and Jack Rabin's spiritual follow-up to "Rocketship X-M." Consistently underrated, I found it a pretty sublime meditation on the allure of escapism at times of existential crisis, perhaps just as relevant to our current moment as it was to the dawn of the so-called "Atomic Age."Donate to 70+ community bail, mutual aid, and racial justice organizing funds across the country: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/bailfundsgeorge_floydAll original music courtesy of Niel Jakobyhttps://nieljacoby.bandcamp.com/Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/MonsterCrazeMemoirsOfficialiTunes/Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/monster-craze-memoirs/id1491963648Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3aSrQ5JFez33XuVanaFYIwPocket Casts: https://pca.st/lkra63chSoundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/user-3949861YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBGcDWtQj2wGEnlAB7P4AFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/Monster-Craze-Memoirs-106199087480182/Twitter: https://twitter.com/KennethJWaste2

Texas millionaire Gordon McLendon produced this regional two-fer in 1959, and ushered himself into those always problematic "worst of all time" movie annals. But Rocco and I opt to disagree with that hyperbolic reputation, and instead appreciate the films as relatively well-made examples of their genre and time, as well as uniquely relevant distillations of American conservative ideology.Cited in this episode:Cynthia J. Miller & A. Bowdoin Van Riper, "Marketing, Monsters, and Music: Teensploitation Horror Films," The Journal of American Culture, Volume 38, Number 2 (June 2015)All original music courtesy of Niel Jakobyhttps://nieljacoby.bandcamp.com/Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/MonsterCrazeMemoirsOfficialiTunes/Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/monster-craze-memoirs/id1491963648Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3aSrQ5JFez33XuVanaFYIwPocket Casts: https://pca.st/lkra63chSoundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/user-3949861YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCB_GcDWtQj_2wGEnlAB7P4AFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/Monster-Craze-Memoirs-106199087480182/Twitter: https://twitter.com/KennethJWaste2

I’m flying solo for this bonus episode and digging down deep in praise of “The Mole People,” that modest, deceptively advertised B-movie that has a lot to say about history, race, and philosophy. Fair warning that, somewhere along the way, I do get lost on another of what I promise will be my final rant about “so bad, it’s good” film culture.All original music courtesy of Niel Jakobyhttps://nieljacoby.bandcamp.com/Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/MonsterCrazeMemoirsOfficialiTunes/Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/monster-craze-memoirs/id1491963648Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3aSrQ5JFez33XuVanaFYIwSoundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/user-3949861YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCB_GcDWtQj_2wGEnlAB7P4AFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/Monster-Craze-Memoirs-106199087480182/Twitter: https://twitter.com/KennethJWaste2

With "How to Make a Monster," Herman Cohen attempted to dramatize the effect of corporate conglomeration on the marginalization of the "B" movies' invaluable technicians and artists. In the process, it allegorized American International Pictures' own exploitation of the over-worked and under-appreciated Paul Blaisdell.Bibliography:Randy Palmer, Paul Blaisdell, Monster Maker: Biography of the B Movie Makeup and Special Effects Artist (1997)Bryan Senn, "Twice the Thrills! Twice the Chills!" Horror and Science Fiction Double Features, 1955 - 1974 (2019)Tom Weaver, Attack of the Monster Movie Makers (1994)Donate to 70+ community bail, mutual aid, and racial justice organizing funds across the country: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/bailfundsgeorge_floydAll original music courtesy of Niel Jakobyhttps://nieljacoby.bandcamp.com/Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/MonsterCrazeMemoirsOfficialiTunes/Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/monster-craze-memoirs/id1491963648Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3aSrQ5JFez33XuVanaFYIwPocket Casts: https://pca.st/lkra63chSoundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/user-3949861YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBGcDWtQj2wGEnlAB7P4AFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/Monster-Craze-Memoirs-106199087480182/Twitter: https://twitter.com/KennethJWaste2

We're talking shrinking, growing - people growing and shrinking! So we of course had to start off with this undisputed classic written by weird fiction titan Richard Matheson and directed by Jack Arnold: From 1957, it's the existentialist melodrama-cum-adventure thriller "The Incredible Shrinking Man"!Donate to 70+ community bail, mutual aid, and racial justice organizing funds across the country: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/bailfundsgeorge_floydAll original music courtesy of Niel Jakobyhttps://nieljacoby.bandcamp.com/Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/MonsterCrazeMemoirsOfficialiTunes/Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/monster-craze-memoirs/id1491963648Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3aSrQ5JFez33XuVanaFYIwPocket Casts: https://pca.st/lkra63chSoundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/user-3949861YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBGcDWtQj2wGEnlAB7P4AFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/Monster-Craze-Memoirs-106199087480182/Twitter: https://twitter.com/KennethJWaste2

Here's part one of an epic, month-rounding two-parter, starting with one of the most influential and revered sci-fi films of all time, "The Day the Earth Stood Still."Summary: It's so god damn good but, also, it's kinda fascist, yo!All original music courtesy of Niel Jakobyhttps://nieljacoby.bandcamp.com/Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/MonsterCrazeMemoirsOfficialiTunes/Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/monster-craze-memoirs/id1491963648Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3aSrQ5JFez33XuVanaFYIwPocket Casts: https://pca.st/lkra63chSoundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/user-3949861YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCB_GcDWtQj_2wGEnlAB7P4AFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/Monster-Craze-Memoirs-106199087480182/Twitter: https://twitter.com/KennethJWaste2

First episode of our break takes on Bert I. Gordon's debut Z-feature "King Dinosaur," and explores questions of animal cruelty in commercial cinema.Works Cited:Glenn Erickson, "King Dinosaur," review for DVD Savant (2002)Dennis Fischer, "Science Fiction Film Directors, 1895 - 1998" (2011)Mark Thomas McGee, "Talk's Cheap, Action's Expensive: The Films of Robert L. Lippert" (2014)W.J.T. Mitchell, "The Last Dinosaur Book: The Life and Times of a Cultural Icon" (1998)Courtney E. White, " "The Utmost Care, Kindness, and Consideration": The MPPDA versus Allegations of Animal Abuse, 1923 - 1925," Cinema Journal, Vol. 55, No. 4 (Fall 2016)Donate to 70+ community bail, mutual aid, and racial justice organizing funds across the country: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/bailfundsgeorge_floydAll original music courtesy of Niel Jakobyhttps://nieljacoby.bandcamp.com/Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/MonsterCrazeMemoirsOfficialiTunes/Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/monster-craze-memoirs/id1491963648Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3aSrQ5JFez33XuVanaFYIwPocket Casts: https://pca.st/lkra63chSoundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/user-3949861YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBGcDWtQj2wGEnlAB7P4AFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/Monster-Craze-Memoirs-106199087480182/Twitter: https://twitter.com/KennethJWaste2

Who likes more mad scientists?Well, okay, Doc Quatermass isn't so much mad as he is really, really some kind of right populist anti-hero.Basil Rathbone on the other hand? Yo, straight up bananas.Donate to 70+ community bail, mutual aid, and racial justice organizing funds across the country: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/bail_funds_george_floydAll original music courtesy of Niel Jakobyhttps://nieljacoby.bandcamp.com/Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/MonsterCrazeMemoirsOfficialiTunes/Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/monster-craze-memoirs/id1491963648Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3aSrQ5JFez33XuVanaFYIwPocket Casts: https://pca.st/lkra63chSoundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/user-3949861YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCB_GcDWtQj_2wGEnlAB7P4AFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/Monster-Craze-Memoirs-106199087480182/Twitter: https://twitter.com/KennethJWaste2

We dip a bit into "The Monster of Piedras Blancas," a slapdash production cobbled together by former Universal employees laid-off during the studio's late-'50s decline, before heaping praise on "The Vampire," yet another of these oldies that uses sci-fi horror as allegory for addiction.Donate to 70+ community bail, mutual aid, and racial justice organizing funds across the country: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/bailfundsgeorge_floydAll original music courtesy of Niel Jakobyhttps://nieljacoby.bandcamp.com/Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/MonsterCrazeMemoirsOfficialiTunes/Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/monster-craze-memoirs/id1491963648Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3aSrQ5JFez33XuVanaFYIwPocket Casts: https://pca.st/lkra63chSoundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/user-3949861YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBGcDWtQj2wGEnlAB7P4AFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/Monster-Craze-Memoirs-106199087480182/Twitter: https://twitter.com/KennethJWaste2