Rocketship Weird Retro Captain's Blog - Weird Retro

Oi! Don't Forget your Umbrella! Good Manners Subway Posters From Japan.

30/4/2015

In the north east Asian countries of Japan and South Korea, the carrying of an umbrella is a vital tool come rain or shine. Either to keep the rain off, or the sun from beating down on you, umbrellas are carried everywhere. So the idea of reminding people to take their umbrellas isn't such a strange thing. Despite the message that these posters give off. Looking into them more deeply, explains that maybe Japanese culture isn't quite as weird as it may appear on the surface. For example, the random Marilyn Monroe poster, is a play on words. The text in the top right corner "Kaerazaru kasa" (umbrella of no return) is a play on "Kaerazaru Kawa," the Japanese title for "River of No Return," the 1954 movie starring Monroe. The Jesus image, reads at the top "Wishing to God again and again". The poster makes a play on the words "kasa" (umbrella) and "kasane-gasane" (again and again). A little bit of insight into graphic design choices and public information posters? Do you really care?

Mid-Week Movies Massacre: The Godfather Of Gore, Herschell Gordon Lewis

29/4/2015

The self-titled "Godfather of Gore" Herschell Gorgon Lewis is credited with creating the splatter or gore genre of horror movies. Although by today's standard of gore, Lewis's movies are little more than low-budget high-camp quirky exploitation these days. But when he started making his gore movies, nothing the likes of had been seen before. Saturated colours, and buckets of bright red blood, his movies flew under the radar of the MPAA. Who simply weren't prepared for this kind of movie.

Working outside of the system, he usually worked with exploitation producer David F. Friedman. Initially making nudie-cuties, and screw-ball comedies, like The Adventures of Lucky Pierre (1961), a film made for a shoestring budget of $7,500.

Lewis and Friedman entered wanted to tap markets that their nudies couldn't or wouldn't reach, andso in 1963 they made Blood Feast. Now a cult classic, that is considered by many to be the first ever "gore" movie. The simply buckets of blood and cheap special effects trickery found a willing and ready market, especially in the drive-ins. So the pair followed up Blood Feats with Two Thousand Maniacs! (1964) and Colour Me Blood Red (1965). They'd hit on a formula, and they were going to milk it for all it was worth. As soon other exploitation film-makers picked-up on the movies Lewis was making, and started making their own gore movies. After Colour Me Blood Red, Lewis and Friedman stopped working together, but Lewis continued to make gore movies. His next were A Taste Of Blood and The Gruesome Twosome, both 1967. He still continued to make nudie and softcore movies, as well as a couple of children's films. But it is his gore movies that he's most well known for. He started using the word in the titles of his movie. In 1968 he made Doctor Gore (also known as How To Make A Doll), followed by 1970's The Wizard Of Gore, and in 1972 Gore Gore Girls. Most recently after a gap of nearly 40 years, in 2002 he made a sequel to Blood Feast, Blood Feast 2: All U Can Eat.

Herschell Gordon Lewis: The Godfather Of Gore (2010): A great documentary charting the career of Lewis, and the creation of the gore movie genre. The film gives viewers a fun ride through the mind of the mad genius that is Lewis, as well as the people he worked with. Giving an insight into independent and exploitation film-making of the period, taking you on a journey through the genres of nudie-cuties, roughies and ultimately gore.

Through interview, rare footage, clips and even a recreation of lost footage. The documentary is lovingly handled by exploitation horror writer and director Frank Henenlotter, who credits Lewis's movies as starting him on the path towards becoming a film-maker. Henenlotter himself, has made some classics of 1980s and early 90s horror, with the Basket Case series, Brain Damage and Frankenhooker.

Teenage Mutant Ninja (In The UK "Hero") Turtles Watched Through 90s VHS Snow.

27/4/2015

In 1990 they released the eagerly awaited movie Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Or as it was called in the UK, Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles. Apparently in among those random words being thrown together, "ninja" was way too much for the British censors.

Anyway, as a too old to know better 20 year old, I was a massive turtles fan. I had T-shirts, comic books, figures and all sorts of Turtles related merchandise. I couldn't wait for the movie to hit the cinemas in the UK, so sort out a dodgy bootleg VHS video copy of the movie. And it wasn't before long that some shady geezer offered me a blank tape that he claimed to be a copy of the movie. Of course I snapped his hand off, and ran home to bask in the glory that was the much anticipated Turtles movie experience. Erm... Well I didn't get what I expected.

Now watching bootleg videos through a snow-storm wasn't that unusual in the 80s and 90s. But this, this was a total blizzard. I literally sat through the whole thing, with random turtle like shapes ghosting across the screen, while following the action purely via the soundtrack. Which was surprisingly good. What did I do after it ended? Probably shouted "awesome" and ran around bragging about how I had a bootleg copy of the movie. That people then begged to borrow, and I lent out begrudgingly. How did they react? They reacted by shouting "awesome", and trying to either buy it off me or tape-to-tape copy it with two VHS video recorders wired together... True story... And you try to tell kids today about how a "cam" version of a torrented movie they downloaded off the Weird Wide Web isn't that bad a quality! No chance!

Saturday Morning Mind Control And Church On Sunday Looney Tunes!

26/4/2015

Back in 1980s and 90s, there was a rise in paranoia from the right-wing Christian fundamentalists, that kids TV shows were the work of Satan. That characters like the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, He-Man and the Care Bears were brainwashing kids to fall under Satan's command.

And one the top crazies peddling this utter nonsense was an author called Phil Philips. Who claimed after he "studied over a thousand hours of cartoons", that they were full of occult messages and satanic practices. His book Saturday Morning Mind Control, published in 1991, was just one of fanatic Phil's works of raving religious lunacy. He had previously published Turmoil In The Toybox in 1986, which argued that the Smurfs, He-Man, Care Bears, My Little Pony, Cabbage Patch Kids, Mighty Mouse and Rainbow Bright are all the devil’s toys concocted in the deepest layers of hell to lead our children to doom. (Actually he may have a had point with Cabbage Patch Dolls.)

He followed that up with Halloween And Satanism (1987), then Saturday Morning Mind Control (1991), and finally Dinosaurs: The Bible, Barney, and Beyond (1994). An indictment of the evil nature of the big purple singing and dancing demonic dinosaur.

Turmoil In The Toybox attempts to claim that toy makers purposely use pagan symbolism in toy design. My Little Pony unicorn? Pagan! He-Man? Totally pagan, no question! Yoda and Darth Vader? Big bad pagans! Barbie? A godless pagan worshipping slut! Now rational people can laugh and poke fun at Phil's crazy Christian ravings, but there must be plenty of brainwashed fundamentalists out there who fell for his idiocy. Chucked out all the plastic, turned off the TV and shoved a copy of the Bible in little Johnny's hand. As later copies of Turmoil claimed it had sold over 135,000 copies.

Cult Film Friday: The Quiet Earth (1985)

24/4/2015

The Quiet Earth is a film that sneaks up on you, a slow paced post apocalyptic sci-fi film from New Zealand that has left a lasting impression on many who have watched it. Directed by Geoff Murphy, who went on to be the 2nd Unit Director on the Lord Of The Rings trilogy, under the famous New Zealand film director Peter Jackson.

Based loosely on the 1981 sci-fi novel of the same name by Craig Harrison, the movie has also been compared to the 1959 post apocalyptic sci-fi The World, The Flesh And The Devil. Which also featured only three cast members, strikingly similar to those in The Quiet Earth. Leading some to describe it as an unofficial remake.

Scientist Zac Hobson awakens to a world where everyone seems to have disappeared. Eventually coming upon two other survivors, they set-out to try and discover what happened to everyone else. Zac believing it has something to do with an experiment he was working on called Project Flashlight, that may have caused something he calls The Effect.

The Quiet Earth is sci-fi in the tradition of serious, thought provoking and philosophically driven sci-fi of the 70s. Here there are no aliens, no big special effects, no clever bells and whistles. Just simple story telling, exploring the loneliness of psychological effects of being the last humans on the planet.

A film of two halves. As initially the first half explores Zac's spiral into madness, as he believes himself to be the last man on Earth. Blaming himself for causing the disappearance of all teh people. Then he meets the other two survivors, and the film becomes one of human relationships, between three people from different walks of life thrown together by circumstance. With a cleverly conceived ending that is confusing and mind-bending, leaving some viewers in stunned silence as the credits roll.

Touched By The Hand Of God! (Part 2)

23/4/2015

The first Touched By The Hand Of God! post was so popular, I just had to do another one. Just when you thought sniggering at vintage Christian album covers that use the words "touch" or "come" couldn't get any weirder, check out this selection. As we go further down the spiral of innocently depraved albums.

Mid-Week Movie Massacre: Pieces (1982)

22/4/2015

Following last week's Mid-Week Movie Massacre: Top 70s Massacres Not From Texas With Chainsaws, we jump into the bloodied pool that is the 1980s. Based on a single image that I came across, while looking up last week's posters. The image (below) of a woman cut in half, slumped in the corner of a bathroom in a pool of her own blood. I've seen a lot of horror movies, but I couldn't place this one. Turns out I'd not seen the movie, a 1982 splatter-fest called Pieces. How this one had slipped under my radar is utterly baffling, but hey even the most hardcore cinephile can't see literally every movie out there can they?

Pieces is a US/Spanish exploitation slasher flick, (original title: Mil gritos tiene la noche translation: A Thousand Screams in the Night), which was apparently a "drive-in favourite", according to Wikipedia. A chainsaw weilding serial killer collects body parts from his victims to create a grisly human jigsaw puzzle. Even the clips of YouTube make this look like an all-out over-the-top awesome blood and guts roller coaster ride of gore.

I dug through YouTube to find the scene related to the image I had come across. And it has to be said that the close-up of cutting the girl on half was pretty realistic looking for such a low budget movie. It turns out that the film makers actually used a pig carcass, and cut through it with a real chainsaw. Nice and obvious touch that really worked. Right I'm off to see if I can get my hands on a copy of this film...

I saw this image and just had to look up the movie.

A full release version only made it to the UK few years ago. It had a "limited" release in 1984, and from what I can see was never offically released on video in the UK. If it was released on video in the 80s, it would have certainly made the BBFC Video Nasties list. All of which I have, and it isn't among the schlock, gore and awful nonsense that did make it on the list. In the United States, an uncut and uncensored director's cut wasn't released until 2008.

Designer Of Welcome To Fabulous Las Vegas Sign, Betty Willis Dies Aged 91.

21/4/2015

The Welcome To Fabulous Las Vegas Sign, is an iconic piece of pop culture. It was designed by American graphic designer Betty Willis, in 1959. It was created at the request of local Nevada businessman Ted Rogich, who sold it to Clark County, Nevada. The classic sign was never copyrighted, as Willis gifted it to the city she loved and lived in most of her life. She designed the sign while working for the Western Neon company, and also designed the Moulin Rouge Hotel and Casino sign in the city. But the Welcome To Las Vegas sign was the signature piece she will always be remembered for. She continued designing signs until she retired at the age of 77. She died at the age of 91 at her home in Overton on 19th April.

The sign is located in the median at 5100 Las Vegas Boulevard South, considered some to be the official southern end of the Las Vegas Strip. The sign, like most of the Strip, sits in the town of Paradise and is located roughly 4 miles (6.4 km) south of the actual city limits of Las Vegas. The lesser known backside (south-side) of the sign reads, "Drive Carefully" is large red lettering, with "Come Back Soon" under it in blue cursive text, mirroring the style on the more well known front-side of the sign. On December 6, 2013, the State Historic Preservation Office for the State of Nevada announced that the sign had been added to the State Register of Historic Places.

Kids TV: Speed Racer (1967 - 1968)

21/4/2015

Originally a Japanese manga series in the late 1950s by manga and anime artist Tatsuo Yoshida, Mach GoGoGo was developed into an animated series in the late 60s. The story of teenage race-car driver Gô Mifune (known as "Speed Racer" in the American version) who aspires to be the world's best with the help of his friends, family and his father's high-tech race-car, the Mach 5. The series was originally syndicated to the United States, and ran for 2 seasons, totalling 52 episodes. With some of the violence of the Japanese animation cut, and redubbed it became an instant cult classic, that inspired an over-the-top colour saturated CGI movie in 2008.

Along with the Japanese animations Astro-Boy and Gigantor, Speed Racer was one of the earliest examples of anime to find success outside of Japan. The animation for Speed Racer utilized a lot of stock repeat footage, as many animations of the era did, but stood out in its stylistic dynamic design. Using a framing and style directly lifted from the manga series, the animation gave viewers the feeling of speed through fast pans, off-centre angles, and extreme close-ups. All edited at frenetic break-neck speed.

His often repetitive adventures centered around Speed's car built by his Pops (the Mach 5), his girlfriend Trixie, his little brother Spritle (with his pet chimp Chim-Chim), and his mysterious brooding older brother, Racer X.

The show's success in the United States spawned a whole Speed Racer franchise, ranging from comics, video releases, merchandise, the live-action film, and new animations in the 1990s and 2000s.

Board Games: Is The Pope Catholic!?!

19/4/2015

A board game for those Roman Catholics to good old days of the church, when it was much more strict, filled with rules and utterly out of touch with the modern world. Is The Pop Catholic!?! Sub-titled the Catholic Nostalgia Game, was the brainchild of two brothers from Boston, who wanted to make a tongue-in-cheek take on the church before the Vatican II.

Released in 1986, the game tests players knowledge of pre-Vatican II doctrine. The game is a sort of Catholic combination of "Trivial Pursuit" and ''Monopoly". Players mark their progress around the board laid out in the likeness of a rosary by advancing up the "church hierarchical ladder" from altar boy to pope, by completing "a six-decade rosary". Being a Catholic is obviously an advantage when playing!

The introduction to the game reads, "This game is dedicated to the "survivors" of the Catholic Church and the Catholic educational system which existed prior to and shortly after Vatican II. This game offers practicing Catholics, "fallen away Catholics," and those Catholics somwehere in between, the opportunity to re-experience those "golden years" of pagan babies, May Crowining processions, sin, Saturday afternoon confessions, meatless Fridays, sin, Baltimore Catechisms, ruler-battered knuckles, and sin... all of which led us to become "soldiers of Christ and heirs of heaven." Although the stated goal of this game is to become the "Pope," the underlying purpose is to look back, resurrect a memory or two, and perhaps find some humor and healing for that period in our lives." The brothers spent four years and $50,000 developing the game with the priests from Indiana advising them. Despite enlisting church help, as the brothers, "wanted to come across as basically respectful of the church", the game caused controversy among conservative church members, on its release.