This was one of two attempts Warren made at what they called "A New Kind of Magazine"--a photographic comic book version of a horror film.At the time, of course, magazines like this made total sense--there was no home video, so if you missed a film in the theatre and it didn't play on TV, you were mostly out of luck. So this was your best shot at seeing a particular movie.
My main question though, is--why, in God's name, did they pick The Horror of Party Beach? The other film they tried, The Mole People, was hardly a classic, but next to this it looks like Citizen Kane.
HOPB's plot, such as it is, concerns some radioactive waste that is dumped into the ocean. It mixes with some fish and the remains of a human at the bottom of the sea, forming...well, you'll see.
But you can't base a whole film on the monster, so then we get lots of scenes featuring actors partying on the the beach! The main two characters are Hank and Tina--Hank is angry at Tina's drinking, and her low-down partying ways. Tina dumps that square, and heads off to party and twist to the tunes of the Del-Aires!
While Tina is shimmying, she's noticed by a gang of motorcycle "toughs", and she in turn notices one of them...
There are other panels I could've run here, but I thought this one in particular could be taken out of its context and used for almost any purpose. So, bloggers, right-click to your heart's desire!Anyway, as Tina makes time with the biker guy, Hank, sad and lonely, is noticed by Elaine, where she makes a play for him.
Unfortunately, Hank sees that Tina is getting down with the biker guy, and challenges him to a fight. The biker gang gangs up on Hank, and beats him up, "Bully of the Beach" style. Meanwhile, Tina wanders off to go sunbathing(!)
It's here where the makers of The Horror of Party Beach planned their big reveal. If there's any scene you've ever seen from this film, in some compliation movie(like It Came From Hollywood) or some horror movie retrospective, this is the one they show:
Tina is sunbathing on a rock, caring only about herself, when, unexpectedly, a mysterious shadow appears just under the surface of the water. A shape begins to form, and finally we see the horrible, nightmarish creature created from man's carelessness and destructiveness:
...and that pretty much ends any interest you'd ever have in The Horror of Party Beach. The "horror", as it were, is a relatively life-sized, immobile creature suit, eyes locked in permanent surprise. Did I oversell it?
Anyway, the creature attacks Tina, shreds her(in a surprisingly bloody scene) and carries her off. The beach-goers hear this, and panic ensues. The newspaper runs an even-more panic-inducing "Sea Monster Kills Girl!" headline(damn NewsCorp!), Hank consults a scientist(who happens to be Elaine's Dad), the monster attacks a slumber party, killing many of the girls.
The Del-Aires sing another song(not because of that), and the monster then attacks some mannequins in a department store window. This guy ain't exactly the Creature From the Black Lagoon.
In doing so, the broken glass cuts off part of his hand, which the authorities study and figure out a chemical that can kill them(turns out there are now two monsters!).
Elaine, trying to help out, goes out looking for radioactive traces of the creature. She gets her foot stuck inbetween some rocks, which draws the monsters out. Hank, the cops, and Dr.Gavin arrive just in time, with the chemical solution they've prepared.
So as they spray the monsters with the solvent, there's time for one last funny-out-of-context panel:
Anyway, the creature attacks Tina, shreds her(in a surprisingly bloody scene) and carries her off. The beach-goers hear this, and panic ensues. The newspaper runs an even-more panic-inducing "Sea Monster Kills Girl!" headline(damn NewsCorp!), Hank consults a scientist(who happens to be Elaine's Dad), the monster attacks a slumber party, killing many of the girls.
The Del-Aires sing another song(not because of that), and the monster then attacks some mannequins in a department store window. This guy ain't exactly the Creature From the Black Lagoon.
In doing so, the broken glass cuts off part of his hand, which the authorities study and figure out a chemical that can kill them(turns out there are now two monsters!).
Elaine, trying to help out, goes out looking for radioactive traces of the creature. She gets her foot stuck inbetween some rocks, which draws the monsters out. Hank, the cops, and Dr.Gavin arrive just in time, with the chemical solution they've prepared.
So as they spray the monsters with the solvent, there's time for one last funny-out-of-context panel:
Did Morton's Salt pony up some money for this movie?
Anyway, the creatures are destroyed, Party Beach is safe again for biker gangs and indiscriminate teenage sex, and Hank and Elaine profess their love for one another. The End.
"Story Adaptation and Art Direction" is credited to Wally Wood and Russ Jones, in a textbook case of an incredible amount of talent being focused on an incredibly unworthy subject.
Two fun facts about this adaptation:
1)Wood and Jones(who painted the cover) retouched the photos of the monster to make it look like he had savage fangs in his mouth, not the hot dog-looking things in the original film.
2)Woody himself appears in the film, sort of, as TV newscaster:
Anyway, the creatures are destroyed, Party Beach is safe again for biker gangs and indiscriminate teenage sex, and Hank and Elaine profess their love for one another. The End.
"Story Adaptation and Art Direction" is credited to Wally Wood and Russ Jones, in a textbook case of an incredible amount of talent being focused on an incredibly unworthy subject.
Two fun facts about this adaptation:
1)Wood and Jones(who painted the cover) retouched the photos of the monster to make it look like he had savage fangs in his mouth, not the hot dog-looking things in the original film.
2)Woody himself appears in the film, sort of, as TV newscaster:
The two sequences featuring a TV newscast were put together especially for this magazine, with Woody himself playing the part!
This book was published under the umbrella title of Famous Films and released late 1964, to be followed by The Mole People early 1965. I guess sales weren't too good, since Famous Films as a magazine was never seen again.
If, for some reason, you actually want to learn more about this book and/or film, I recommend Scott Shaw!'s Oddball Comics piece on it here or a wonderfully, superflously in-depth analysis of the movie here. And may God have mercy on your soul.
Update: I really should've included this in my intial review--a shot of the monster as it actually appears in the film, Hebrew Nationals-and-all. As you can see, it is the total opposite of horrifying.
This book was published under the umbrella title of Famous Films and released late 1964, to be followed by The Mole People early 1965. I guess sales weren't too good, since Famous Films as a magazine was never seen again.
If, for some reason, you actually want to learn more about this book and/or film, I recommend Scott Shaw!'s Oddball Comics piece on it here or a wonderfully, superflously in-depth analysis of the movie here. And may God have mercy on your soul.
Update: I really should've included this in my intial review--a shot of the monster as it actually appears in the film, Hebrew Nationals-and-all. As you can see, it is the total opposite of horrifying.
12 comments:
One big difference between the comic and the movie is that in the movie the monsters didn't have teeth! Certainly not the shark-like fangs that Warren's retouch guy added in the book. No, in the film, the radioactive sea beasties had mouthfuls of... well, I'm not sure what they were supoosed to be, but they looked like hotdogs.
Seriously.
Oops. Shoulda finished reading your review before posting. I was just amazed by the photos!
I actually think this movie is entertaining, in a 2 AM, battling insomnia sorta way...
i should probably add a pic of the original hot dog-in-mouth version of the monster. who the hell thought that would be at all scary?
Wonderful post, Rob. Don’t you hate running out of sodium when you’re fighting monsters?
I have that issue, I used to get everything Warren published. Contents may have been crap, but that cover, with the horizontal beach babe in the pink satin bikini, and the terrific beatnik lettering is one of my favorites. And there’s a gloppy Wally Wood logo on the back cover that is great, too.
I never noticed Wood as the newscaster, but I remember how the sound effects and bold lettering (like in the "sodium" panel) just screamed "Wally Wood".
It's a fun movie, though. And the basis of one of the best MST3Ks
In the late 70s, someone put out a series of paperback books using this style of storytelling (fumetti is the name for it, I guess). The books were in color and used card stock, so the spines broke apart after a few reads. They adapted a few Star Trek episodes and the Donald Sutherland remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
That panel of the monster threw me, too, as I always loved that the monsters looked like they were disturbed in the middle of a hot dog eating contest! It seems that's the one thing EVERYONE remembers about this movie! LOL
Guys-
The "double bill" of Hammer's FRANK & DRAC was a part of this seies, too:
http://www.geocities.com/unifan2001/warrenmags.html
Best,
-Craig W.
I always imagined that Warren might have been inspired by the popular movie photo-novel mags published in France. My favorite was Star Cine Cosmos, it was terrific. They’d do Japanese monster movies, Hammer films, Hercules movies, anything. You can get a taste here: http://pagesperso-orange.fr/bmania/StarCineCosmos0.htm
It’s a French site, but you can click the links and see some of the covers and insides.
Here’s a selection of fumetti mags, just click covers to see that magazine’s selections: http://pagesperso-orange.fr/bmania/Presentoir.htm
This movie's selection might have had something to do with the entire production being done on Long Island.
I think it was filmed in Connecticut (but the beach is the Long Island Sound).
Help, Harvey Kurtzman's magazine for Warren used fumetti's a lot, both adding gag balloons to movies stills and shooting originals, so that may have added to the idea.
Does anyone know if the producers for these fumetti one-shots turned over a ton of stills to Warren or if some panels were actual pront blow-ups?
As a Long Islander, I am all to familiar with party beach horrors.
This movie rules, and I'll need to get my hands on this and Mole People. Like, pronto.
There have been various "party beach horror" movies since, but few done with as much passion.
A band called "Sloppy Seconds" has a song, appropriately titled: Horror at Party Beach.
It's a bit of a tribute to this wonderful cinematic achievement.
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