Cheezy Trailers (Action/Exploitation/Science Fiction V. 1 & V.2/Cheezy Flicks DVD)

 

Picture: C     Sound: C-     Extras: C     Compilations: B

 

 

You can never have enough collections of movie trailers on DVD and YouTube just does not cut it or replace it.  We see them here and there, but can never see enough and Cheezy Flicks has issued several collections.  The first four we will look at are one on Action films, one on Exploitation and two on Science Fiction, all including some films we have reviewed elsewhere on this site.

 

The Cheezy Action set is mostly comprised of a cycle and practical genre of adventure films that have more to do with British Cinema and their action films that portrayed imperialism that built the British Empire as a fun adventure and all world’s outside the U.K. as places of “the other”.  This made a big comeback post-WWII peaking with the 70mm Technirama epic Zulu, included here.

 

There are several attempts MGM made to revive Tarzan and continue him as a profitable franchise by adding color and widescreen cinematography, but none made a dent in the success of the Johnny Weissmuller series, no matter who they cast.  Some lasted a while and Tarzan’s Greatest Adventure even had a soon-to-be-known Sean Connery in a supporting villain role and you can see him here too.

 

Among the other films include Sword Of Sherwood Forest, a full color, widescreen, scope feature film that was a sequel to the 1950s British Robin Hood TV series (reviewed elsewhere on this site) that replaced almost the entire TV cast save lead Richard Green and Man From Deep River (1972), the first of a series of cannibal cycle films popular at the time for grindhouses.  We also get howlers like Morgan The Pirate, Hell On Devil’s Island, Sandokan The Great, Journey To The Lost City, Two Sane Nuts, Watusi, Perils Of Nyoka, Shark Reef and higher profile releases like Mogambo, the 1950 King Solomon’s Mines, Zulu (as noted) and a few John Wayne films.

 

 

Cheezy Exploitation is more like sexploitation as the list is a combination of B-movie exploitation made prior to the advent of X-rated films and exploitation films celebrated by the likes of Quentin Tarantino like Switchblade Sisters (which Tarantino reissued himself), Black Mama/White Mama and Myra Breckinridge.  It shows how the counterculture influence affected filmmaking all the way to the major studios.  Some of the titles are too silly to list because they are simple as anything, but early drug-oriented films are included.

 

 

The two Science Fiction volumes feature many films that are not B-movies, but classics like Them! and 2001: A Space Odyssey.  It is also the only volume here where some of the films are available in High Definition editions on Blu-ray. 

 

Volume One:

 

First Men In The Moon

Fantastic Voyage

Earth Vs. The Flying Saucers

Thunderbirds Are Go!

One Million Years B.C.

War Of The Worlds (1954)

Escape From The Planet Of The Apes (short trailer)

Godzilla (1954)

Fire Maidens From Outer Space

Five Millions Years To Earth (aka Quatermass & The Pit)

The Green Slime (1968, aka Battle Beyond The Stars)

The Giant Behemoth

It Came From Outer Space

The Incredible Melting Man

The Love Factor (aka Zeta One)

Gorgo

Barbarella (widescreen trailer)

Phantom Planet

Konga

The Incredible Melting Man

Attack Of The Puppet People

Phantom From Space

The Incredible Shrinking Man

Unidentified Flying Objects (1956)

Mysterious Island

 

 

Volume Two:

 

The Day The Earth Stood Still (1950)

The Flesh Eaters (1964)

The Brain Eaters (1958)

The Atomic Man (1955, aka Timeslip)

The Thing From Another World (1951)

Last Days Of Man On Earth (1973, aka The Final Programme)

Day Of The Animals

Invisible Invaders

Attack Of The 50 Ft. Woman

The Return Of The Fly

Empire Of The Ants

The Day Mars Invaded Earth

Superargo & The Faceless Giants (1968, a sequel)

Barbarella (TV trailer)

Enemy From Space

Rollerball (1975)

Giant Spider Invasion

It! The Terror From Beyond Space

2001: A Space Odyssey

Forbidden Planet

Planet Of The Vampires

Invaders from Mars (1953)

Futureworld (1976)

The Day Of The Triffids (1962)

Silent Running

The Navy vs. The Night Monsters

Women Of The Prehistoric Planet

The Time Machine (1960)

Fantastic Planet

Five Millions Years To Earth (aka Quatermass & The Pit)

Laserblast (teaser)

Message From Space

Phase IV (1976 teaser)

Death Race 2000 (1976)

Battle For The Planet Of The Apes

Conquest Of The Planet Of The Apes

 

 

The various aspect ratios are presented at 1.33 X 1 and include material framed differently than final releases (you can get a 1.33 X 1 trailer for a 2.35 X 1 scope film) and some films that were in color have black and white trailers here.  Part of the reason is TV did not go color until the mid-1960s, while such trailers were still made afterwards for black and white TV stations.  Some 2.35 X 1 letterboxed trailers need a 16 X 9 HDTV to unsqueeze the scope image.  The PCM 16/48 2.0 Mono is very mixed and you should be careful of audio switching and playback levels, but that is typical of such compilations.  Some jumpcuts also exist on some prints.

 

Extras are limited on all volumes to trailers for other Cheezy Flicks DVDs and Intermission Trailers from back in the day.

 

Cheezy Flicks has also issued two on Horror we hope to cover next and expect they will do more down the line.  The sooner the better.

 

You can purchase these releases under their respective genres of Action, Science Fiction and “Mature” for Exploitation at:

 

http://www.cheezyflicks.com/

 

Just click on the CATEGORIES button on the upper left hand corner.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo