Don't laugh! This little grungy studio made a few decent movies. I'm going to pick my "Top Ten" and give reasons later for my choices. I thought I'd do this to see what some of you grade "B" movie fans would pick as the best of the studio known as Producer's Releasing Corporation a.k.a Pretty Rotten Cr*p, Pretty Rotten Crud, or "Prick" Productions (This is a new one I've heard lately!) Here's my top ten:
1.) THE DEVIL BAT (Better than any of Bela's "Monogrammers" by far! A Lugosi favorite of mine!)
2.) MINSTREL MAN (A fun musical, no less, from Joseph H. Lewis! "Remember me, to Carolina...! The film includes a good cast of character actors who seemed to have been punished, perhaps by Warner Bros.?)
3.) BLUEBEARD (Top Edgar G. Ulmer and John Carradine!)
4.) STRANGLER OF THE SWAMP (Great spooky Charlie Middleton! I'm siding more with Everson than "Poor Tom" Weaver regarding this film!)
5.) DETOUR (By reputation only, I still haven't seen this alleged low-budget "classic" yet!)
6.) THE MAD MONSTER (George Zucco does his "mad scientist" stuff and Glenn Strange does a goofy "tribute" to Lon Chaney, Jr. by combining "Lennie" from OF MICE AND MEN with "Larry Talbot" from THE WOLF MAN! The "arguement" Zucco has with illusions of his rival scientists is well done. The weird credit titles seemed to have been copied years later for FORBIDDEN PLANET! Really!)
7.)FOG ISLAND (Murder mystery with Zucco and Atwill, etc. Very well done by PRC standards, I think!)
8.) TERROR HOUSE (a.k.a. THE NIGHT HAS EYES, which is technically a British import - a good "B" mystery film from England with a good cast and an outstanding young James Mason - but it WAS released here by PRC!)
9.)HITLER'S MADMAN (Like DETOUR, this is a film I haven't seen, so it rests on several critical reputations as a film so good for PRC that MGM bought it from them, and marketed the film as a good "B" picture.)
10.)THE FLYING SERPENT (I haven't seen this film in years, and it may not be as good as I have thought (basically a remake of THE DEVIL BAT story), but I'm picking it by default! Mr. Ken may argue for THE BLACK RAVEN or something like THE MONSTER MAKER with J. Carrol Naish, but I haven't seen either film in many years, so I can't really choose fairly!)
Okay, those are my picks! Have I missed something really spectacular - by PRC standards, anyway? Any of the Buster Crabbe "Billy the Kid" westerns any good at all? I thought of HIS BROTHER'S GHOST, but I can't remember if I've seen it or not. Would Dr. Paul Carruthers think my list was the work of a "Bombastic ignoramus" or does it have some merit to it? "Vhat dhoo you thingk?"
Mr. Len
1.) THE DEVIL BAT (Better than any of Bela's "Monogrammers" by far! A Lugosi favorite of mine!)
2.) MINSTREL MAN (A fun musical, no less, from Joseph H. Lewis! "Remember me, to Carolina...! The film includes a good cast of character actors who seemed to have been punished, perhaps by Warner Bros.?)
3.) BLUEBEARD (Top Edgar G. Ulmer and John Carradine!)
4.) STRANGLER OF THE SWAMP (Great spooky Charlie Middleton! I'm siding more with Everson than "Poor Tom" Weaver regarding this film!)
5.) DETOUR (By reputation only, I still haven't seen this alleged low-budget "classic" yet!)
6.) THE MAD MONSTER (George Zucco does his "mad scientist" stuff and Glenn Strange does a goofy "tribute" to Lon Chaney, Jr. by combining "Lennie" from OF MICE AND MEN with "Larry Talbot" from THE WOLF MAN! The "arguement" Zucco has with illusions of his rival scientists is well done. The weird credit titles seemed to have been copied years later for FORBIDDEN PLANET! Really!)
7.)FOG ISLAND (Murder mystery with Zucco and Atwill, etc. Very well done by PRC standards, I think!)
8.) TERROR HOUSE (a.k.a. THE NIGHT HAS EYES, which is technically a British import - a good "B" mystery film from England with a good cast and an outstanding young James Mason - but it WAS released here by PRC!)
9.)HITLER'S MADMAN (Like DETOUR, this is a film I haven't seen, so it rests on several critical reputations as a film so good for PRC that MGM bought it from them, and marketed the film as a good "B" picture.)
10.)THE FLYING SERPENT (I haven't seen this film in years, and it may not be as good as I have thought (basically a remake of THE DEVIL BAT story), but I'm picking it by default! Mr. Ken may argue for THE BLACK RAVEN or something like THE MONSTER MAKER with J. Carrol Naish, but I haven't seen either film in many years, so I can't really choose fairly!)
Okay, those are my picks! Have I missed something really spectacular - by PRC standards, anyway? Any of the Buster Crabbe "Billy the Kid" westerns any good at all? I thought of HIS BROTHER'S GHOST, but I can't remember if I've seen it or not. Would Dr. Paul Carruthers think my list was the work of a "Bombastic ignoramus" or does it have some merit to it? "Vhat dhoo you thingk?"
Mr. Len
