“Science Fiction Double Feature” from The Rocky Horror Picture Show references lots of movies.
We unpack it all…
I have watched, well, not exactly watched, butexperiencedThe Rocky Horror Picture Showover 100 times.
Ive only watched it about 30 times.
I performed in a Friday night cast 72 times from when I was 15 to when I was 17.
The original Janet wouldnt kiss the woman playing Frank, whose name was Leslie.
I had no problem.
She looked better in the corset than I ever would.
It wasnt just the movie.
It was the music.
Same night I saw Squeeze for the first time.
Some of them I watched because of the song.
Most Id already seen.
Science Fiction Double Feature is bedded on a simple descending chord progression…. Klaatu comes from the phrase Klaatu barada nikto which means … whatever you want it to mean.
It was based on the short story Farewell to the Master by Harry Bates.
The screenplay was by Edmund H. North.
He was Sandman ontheBatmanseries in the 60s.
He came up through the York Repertory Theatre.
Channel 13 used to runFlash Gordonon Friday or Saturday nights in the 70s.
Flash Gordon was played by Larry Buster Crabbe, former Olympic swimmer.
Buster Crabbe was a Tarzan before he spaced out.
Crabbe went into space again as Buck Rogers.
Jean Rogers, no relation to Buck, played Dale Arden.
Charles B. Middleton played Emperor Ming the Merciless, who ruled the planet Mongo.
His daughter, Aura, was played by otherwordly Priscilla Lawson.
Richard Alexander played Prince Barin, who ruled Arboria, the planet of the trees.
Richard OBrien made a cameo appearance.
Claude Rains was also the poor corrupt cop whos heart was his least vulnerable spot, Inspector Renault inCasablanca.
Claude Rains father was the English actor Frederick Rains.
Claude started acting when he was 11.
Rains taught at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.
One of his students was Laurence Olivier.
Rains was nominated for an Oscar inMr.
Smith Goes to Washington.
He was a Nazi in Alfred HitchcocksNotoriousand, like Michael Renny, played onAlfred Hitchcock Presents.
Rains was Julius Caesar in the 1945 version ofCaesar and Cleopatra.
It made Hitler cry.
It wasnt capitalism that killed the beast.
She was also inDoctor X, but well get into that later.
She was first noticed in the 1928 filmThe Wedding March, directed by Erich von Stroheim.
Fay Wray turned down a cameo appearance in the Peter Jackson remake ofKingKong.
They landed in Arizona and everyone thought they were a meteor.
They have these machines that turn them into … really nice people, once you get to know them.
you’re free to take these aliens to dinner.
It starred Richard Carlson, Barbara Rush, and Charles Drake.
Harry Essex penned the script with Jack Arnold based on a Ray Bradbury screen treatment.
And this is how the message ran.
Science Fiction double feature.
It had nothing in common with this movie and Bogart only snarled if you brought it up.
Curtiz was an artist and brought that to this movie.
It also starred Fay Wray, who screams beautifully as Doctor Xs daughter Joan, and John Wray.
Doctor Xis part horror and part crime film.
The crime is a murder and the murderer nibbled on the corpse.
Heady stuff for 1931, but delicious fare forRockyHorror.
Dr. X didnt build any creatures though.
She started as a model when she was four years old.
Before C3PO and R2D2 there wasRobby the Robot.
It was basicallyThe Tempest, Willie Shakespeares box office smash, in space.
Get out your telescopes, its the one in the corner.
He came to Broadway in 1924 and playedThe Late George Apley.
He had an uncredited part inCaptains Courageouswhich won Spencer Tracy an Oscar.
Carroll played Joseph inWuthering Heightsagainst Laurence Olivier.
Alfred Hitchcock loved Carroll and put him in six films includingSpellboundandNorth by Northwest.
On TV he played the ghost onTopperand Alexander Waverly onThe Man From UNCLE.
Tarantula (1955)
Tarantulais about areallybig spider.
No, the surprise is that spideys taken out by SPOILER ALERT Dirty Harry.
Clint Eastwood packs his magnum on top of a fighter jet.
read more: The Enduring Legacy of the Rocky Horror Picture Show
Tarantulais really about food.
Professor Gerald Deemer wants to grow big food.
Of course the first thing on the menu is what?
Whats he thinking here?
Start with a fucking carrot or something.
Hes growing huge rats and spiders.
Where the fuck is this guy going to open his restaurant?
She played Cassandra inHelen of Troy, and Judith inThe Devils Disciple.
Scott moved to horror inCrack in the Worldand the William Castle 1963 remake ofThe Old Dark House.
She also played inBikini Paradise.
The Day of the Triffids (1962)
Vegetarians eat vegetables.
Humanitarians, like Doctor X, eat humans.
Triffids are vegetables that eat humans, vegetarian or not.
The whole world was watching a spectacular shower and they all went blind.
They walk.The Day of the Triffidswas directed by Steve Sekely, and also starred Howard Keel.
Especially in todays hipster world.
If you take the goofy glasses off Brad Majors, you see Barry Bostwicks almost-leading-man looks.
I mean, this guy got started on Broadway inGreasewith a bigger part than John Travoltas.
Dana Andrews started at Californias Pasadena Playhouse in 1935.
Andrews spoke out against encroaching obligatory sex in Hollywood when he was SAG President.
Britain does the devil up right.
Curse of the Demonwas based on M. R. James 1911 murder thrillerCasting the Runes.
I kinda like it.
Its become iconic as far as horror images go.
They dont party like its Y2K.
How could they with all those Lego buildings being washed away?
My kids made the same volcano for their sixth grade science project that they use in this movie.
Producer George Pal wanted to make a sequel calledAfter Worlds Collide, but lost theConquest of Space.
George Pal
George Pal started out as an unemployed architect.
Hey, dont we all?
Joel McCrea was an unemployed architect inDead Endand George Costanza said he was an unemployed architect onSeinfeld.
And then of course, theres Gary Cooper inFountainhead.
He went to America after making the short filmGoing to America.
It was an anti-fascist film in a pro-fascist society and they chased him out with torches.
Pal got Jimmy Durante to dance with a cartoon squirrel inThe Great Rupertand announced he was headed forDestination Moon.
He produced the science fiction classicWar of the Worldsbefore makingWhen Worlds Collide.
George Pals bride was Elisabeth Zsoka Grandjean, who he married in 1931, when he was 23.
At the late night, double feature, picture show.
Bastard got it in first).
I was ten or eleven.
I saw it a bunch of times in the movies.
I bought the album.
I learned some The Hell of It on guitar.
I stole the lobby cards and the movie poster.
It made me see everyBrian De Palmapicture, including the early ones withRobert De Niro.
I was primed forRocky Horror.
It was at one point the B picture toPhantom of the Paradise.
In the back row at the late night double feature picture show.
Back Row
The best place to sit no matter what youre hiding.
Everyone is looking the other way.
