"The Fiend of Dope Island" (1961)

Welcome back to another installment of Drive-In Cinema.

Say what you will about the lack of truth in advertising. Guaranteed, what you’re about see in the following trailer is exactly what you’ll get in the 1961 crime drama motion picture “The Fiend of Dope Island”.

The plot centers on a megalomaniac of a small Caribbean island, who uses the local natives and his henchmen to grow and ship marijuana. When he becomes bored with his empire, which he treats like his footstool, he summons a beautiful nightclub singer from the mainland to be his love-toy, but when she falls for his second-in-command…

Well, I think you can guess where all this is headed. For a more detailed synopsis of the plot, go to TCM.

But why have me waste words on this. Here’s an eloquent review written by Mark Shanks of Oregon for Amazon.Com, which gets to the point:

“OK, this one takes the all-time prize for over-the-top, pure wild-man scenery chewing. In fact, as the case itself claims, Bennet doesn't just CHEW the scenery, he swallows it whole! It begins with our "fiend" pulling out his whip (any more obvious Freudian symbolism would be pointless) and dealing a few lashes to someone because......hey, he don't NEEEED no steeeekin' reason! As he proudly proclaims, he owns EVERYthing on the island! And since his "staff" is about the most lame-brained crew this side of the Three Stooges, he's a busy man, whippin' everyone and everyTHING in sight. But that's before the girl arrives, and then he REALLY goes berserk! Great fun - I can't recall EVER seeing such vein-popping, chest-thumping, rip-roaring hyper-machoism. Sets a new standard - makes John Agar in "Brain From Planet Arous" look as if he were on Thorazine. You HAVE to see it!”

Here’s what Mr. Shanks means. Watch this:


(Thanks to SabuCat Trailers for the clip!)

Enough said? If you'd like to buy a copy of this movie (which comes with another equally terrible film, Pagan Island, as a double feature drive-in delight), go to Amazon.Com.

See ya later, at the drive-in theater.

"Motorcycle Gang" (AIP 1957)

It’s not the drive-in really, not unless you get to enjoy truly bad cinema. Never mind that crap you get today that sincerely disappoints one’s soul, like “Monsters V. Aliens” and “Land of the Lost.” These films were made by the cream of Hollywood’s crop. Expectations are high. (Or were…)

What I mean by bad cinema are the films crafted by individuals and companies where no lofty expectations are held, where the cream doth not rise, but settles, congealing into a blackened sludge on the bottom. Such films tickle our fancy. How can someone be so openly gawdawful, so brazen in his or her ineptitude?

“Oh dear God, what were they thinking…?”

On today’s installment of Drive-in Cinema, let’s take a peek at 1957’s Motorcycle Gang. (Thanks to SabuCat Trailers for the clip):



Was that fun? What did you think of that body throw John Ashley gets? The next guy that pulls a gun on me in a dark alley…I will seriously not try that on him. ‘Cause I’ll get shot. Better just cough up my wallet…

More or less Motorcycle Gang is a teenage angst film, typical of those crafted by American-International Pictures (A.I.P.…ask for them by name.). The plot is simple: a kid trying to go straight is challenged by a ne’re-do-well friend from his past. This all centers, of course, on motorcycles, which at the time of this film’s conception, were a popular item among the youth, along with hot rods, and were seen as symbols of rebellion against all that was good about America. Oh--and the love a woman is at stake here, too. Girls, like motorcycles, were a popular item among 1950s youth and too were seen as symbols of rebellion against all that was good about America.

For a complete synopsis of the film and credits try here at TCM. If you'd like to buy a copy of the movie, you could try here, or Amazon.Com.