Eegah! (1962) d. Arch Hall Sr. (USA) (90 min)
“Love Breaks the Time Barrier!”
Arch Hall Sr. produced and directed this deliriously delightful train wreck under the pseudonym of Nicholas Merriwether, and then cast himself in a major supporting role under another aka of "William Watters." One assumes this was done to not call attention to his relation to the film’s nominal star, Arch Hall, Jr., who zips around in his dune buggy, squints and smiles a lot from under his zany blonde pompadour, and croons a couple of tunes to his girl Roxy (Marilyn Manning, The Sadist) – usually with other girls’ names as the titles.
The biggest appeal for this “caveman falls for modern girl” fable – both literally and figuratively – is seeing future 7’2 James Bond villain Richard Kiel strut his stuff in a mothy loincloth whilst sporting some of the sketchiest facial hair this side of a back-alley Santa Claus.
The conceit is that Eegah has survived lo these millions of years by gulping down water from the sulfur spring in his desert cave-dwelling domicile, which is a possible explanation for the stench emanating from one’s Blu-ray player. (Cheap shot, maybe, but I could hardly pass it up!)
Shot for only $15,000 over the course of 14 days, packed with unintentional laughs and eye rolling galore, with a swimming pool climax intended to evoke boo-hoo memories of King Kong, and capped by a phony Bible reference (there is no is Chapter 4, verse 32 in Genesis). In short, Eegah! is pure incompetent genius, later to become a fan favorite episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000.
Trivia: Filmed in Bronson Canyon, Eegah’s cavern is also Ro-Man’s headquarters (from legendary 1953 turkey Robot Monster) seen from a different angle.
BONUS FEATURES:
Brand new 4K Restoration from the original camera negative
Mystery Science Theater 3000 Version (first run on Aug 28, 1993)
Interview with star Arch Hall, Jr. (14 min)
Interview with MST3K creator Joel Hodgson (7 min)
Essay by Film Detective editorial advisor Don Stradley
Eegah! is available now on Blu-ray (only 1500 copies made!) from The Film Detective, Something Weird, and Shout! Factory and can be ordered HERE:
https://www.thefilmdetective.com/eegah
.
No comments:
Post a Comment