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Mysterious Island, the thrilling 1961 adventure film, brings Jules Verne's fantastical vision to vivid life. As a sequel to Verne's classic 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, the movie follows a daring group of Confederate prisoners who make a bold escape from captivity during the height of the Civil War by commandeering an enemy balloon. However, their bid for freedom takes an unexpected turn when strong winds blow them drastically off course, stranding them on an uncharted island filled with awe-inspiring wonders and spine-chilling horrors.

 Written By Ken Hulsey Cookie Monster Strikes! As an expert in monster films, I'm excited to feature some of the best, like "Creature From The Black Lagoon" and "Them!," as well as some of the worst, such as "Green Slime" and our present topic, "Creature From The Haunted Sea." Both types of films can be enjoyed for various reasons. "Creature From The Haunted Sea" is no exception to the rule that bad movies have their own charm. The sheer weirdness of this film is simply too much to overlook. Only the legendary low-budget filmmaker Roger Corman could have concocted such a strange mix of camp, cheesy rip-offs, cliche characters, and the most poorly designed movie monster ever. At least the Ro-Man from "Robot Monster" had some charisma!

The images come from the Vintage Los Angeles Facebook page , but unfortunately I can't provide photo credit. They show Ann-Margret performing as "Ann Margrock" on the animated sitcom The Flintstones. The show aired on ABC-TV for 6 seasons from 1960 to 1966. The photos capture Ann recording voice-overs with Alan Reed (the voice of Fred) and Jean Vander Pyl (the voice of Wilma) at the Hanna-Barbera studios in Los Angeles in 1963.

The story opens with Linus and Lucy venturing into a nearby pumpkin patch in search of the perfect pumpkin. After Linus rejects a few smaller options, Lucy spots the largest pumpkin in the patch. Linus then clumsily rolls the massive pumpkin back home. Once there, Lucy grabs a large knife and starts slicing into the pumpkin, gutting it. At this point, a horrified Linus cries out, "Ohhhh, you didn't tell me you were going to kill it!" and begins wailing.

Written By: Ken Hulsey Retiring from the monster business, Dr. Frankenstein plans to pass the reins to his hapless nephew, Felix, at an upcoming convention attended by an assortment of famous creatures - Frankenstein's monster, Dracula, the Werewolf, the Creature from the Black Lagoon, and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, among others. But when the incompetent and overly kindhearted Felix proves unfit for the role, the monsters hatch a plot to eliminate him and seize control of Frankenstein's latest, and most dangerous, discovery - the secret to total destruction. The film utilized Rankin/Bass' "Animagic" stop motion animation technique, which involved photographing figurines in successive still frames, repositioning them slightly between each shot - a process akin to that used for Art Clokey's Davey and Goliath and the original King Kong. Notably, a creature strongly resembling Kong himself makes a cameo appearance in the film, though due to licensing restrictions, h...

Like many science fiction fans, I developed a lifelong love of the genre after being introduced to Star Trek as a child. My older cousin Rick, an avid fan himself, persuaded me to watch the show. The first episode I saw was “Arena,” which featured a fight between Captain Kirk and a Gorn captain orchestrated by an unseen alien race. As a young boy fascinated by dinosaurs, I was initially drawn in by the reptilian Gorn. However, it was the intelligent writing and compelling storylines that kept me coming back for more. The show's spirit of adventure and exploration matched my own longing to travel beyond my backyard. What six-year-old doesn't dream of piloting a starship across the vast expanse of space? After that first taste, I was hooked, becoming a devoted Trekkie and sci-fi enthusiast for life. Although the show had a loyal fan following during its initial prime-time run, Star Trek never achieved strong ratings. NBC, the network that aired it, frequently changed the show...

 Written By: Ken Hulsey For the last few weeks Terri and I have been spending our Saturday afternoons watching the films of legendary Japanese film maker Akira Kurosawa. The first film that we watched was the 1961 samurai epic Yojimbo which has inspired numerous films like A Fist Full of Dollars (which is a direct rip-off) and Star Wars just to name two. The film follows a former samurai named Sanjuro who wanders into a rural village controlled by two rival gangs. Seeing an opportunity to raise a little money and have a little fun Sanjuro plays the two sides against each other by manipulating their lust for power and paranoia to make them destroy each other. Desperate for the samurai's allegiance to destroy their rival each faction tries to buy his services. Just as one side believes they have a bought the samurai and he is on their side, he flips allegiances and demands a higher price.   It is a dark comedy that works on so many levels and like most Kurosawa films draws ...

 About a decade ago I was in a comic book shop when I stumbled upon a folder with several photographs from the original Star Trek television series. The owner of the store told me that he acquired the images in the 90s as part of a collection of items that belonged to a man who worked for a production company that did work for the show. Included in that collection were also some props and episode scripts that were sold years prior, the photographs were all that remained.  I was eager to add these photos to my ever growing collection of memorabilia and the store owner just wanted to get rid of them. Luckily for me, no one had ever shown any interest in the photos so I was able to purchase them for next to nothing. Over the years I have speculated that the images, which were taken from actual episodes as opposed to being staged publicity shots, were probably used in the series of Star Trek Fotonovels that were published in the late 1970s.  Star Trek Fotonovels were a series...

 The Fantastic Four have always been my favorite superhero team and TJ Dietsch has composed a wonderful article about their vast history over at the Marvel Comics website: Class is now in session and the topic is Fantastic Four 101! In this introductory Marvel Comics guide, we explore the earliest history of Marvel’s First Family of heroes, and how their first appearances way back in the swingin’ 60s—guided by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby —laid the groundwork for the entire Marvel Universe! It’s true! Best of the Fantastic Four, Vol. 1 Hardcover Book - $13.99 @ Amazon.com Even before the famous quartet headed for space, two of the greatest creators in comics joined forces to change the industry forever. Back in the late 50s and early 60s, the comic book landscape looked much different than it does today. Super heroes had had their day and while some were still kicking around, comic stands were filled with Western, Sci-Fi, Crime, Horror, and Romance books, most of which were aimed at a...

I recently discovered that Google will be closing down their Photo Album Archives on July 19th. Since I have literally thousands of images uploaded there from the various blogs that I created over the past couple of decades, I'm faced with the challenge of going through them all for images that I want to keep. So I have been frantically going through album downloading everything that I wanted to preserve. Godzilla, the Showa-Era Films, 1954–1975 (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray] - $139.96 @ Amazon.com I wanted share some of these classic movie images with everyone. Today I decided to go with a couple of screen captures that I took from the 1962 Japanese monster mash King Kong vs Godzilla. Synopsis:   Tako, advertising director of Pacific Pharmaceuticals, is frustrated by the low viewership of their sponsored documentary show and realizes that he needs a more sensationalist approach. Tako orders two of his men, Sakurai and Furue, on an expedition to Faro Island to investigat...

 With all the hype about a new free 24/7 Godzilla channel on Pluto TV this week I decided to delve into my archives and post one of my favorite Godzilla movie stills from the film Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster. I first posted this image on my first blog, Monster Island News, way back in April of 2008. It was part of a post that featured the information from the US press book that I painstakingly copied word for word. Super7 Toho Godzilla King Ghidorah - 3.75 in Scale Reaction Figure - $25 @ Amazon.com Here is an excerpt from that: NEW MONSTER PROVES THREE HEADS BETTER THAN ONE It was bound to happen! Forget the axiom that two heads are better than one. The very latest in world destroyers is one head up on it as proven in "Ghidrah - The Three Headed Monster" the new Tohoscope / Eastmancolor thriller which opens at the..(Insert Theatre Name) ..Theatre on..(Insert Opening Date).. Those veteran one headed monsters, Godzilla, Rodan and Mothra are on hand to learn this new les...

 Th Fantastic Four have always been my favorite super heroes and one of favorite issues from the silver age is issue 91 published in October of 1969. I love the cover with The Thing being harassed by what appears to be prohibition era gangsters. I guess it kinda reminds me of the classic Star Trek episode 'A Piece of the Action'. Here is a synopsis of the issue from Marvel Comics: On the planet Kral, a world whose culture is mirrored by the legendary 1930's mobster Machine Gun Martin who was captured and brought to the planet, Boss Barker makes a bet with his opponent Lippy Louie that his acquisition of the Thing will be able to defeat his best fighter, the Mekkan known as Torgo. While the Fantastic Four on Earth begin searching for their friend Ben, Ben himself is delivered into slavery at the hands of Boss Barker. Along the way Ben learns that the Skrull's of this planet adopted 1930's humanoid forms, inspired by Martin, and captured beings from other worlds to fi...

 As you can see I'm still spending a good chunk of my free time sifting through the hundreds of old movie photos looking for interesting images to share with everyone. Today I stumbled upon a set of rare photos from the set of the 1968 science fiction classic Planet of the Apes. I actually have quite a few of these so I decided to try and focus on a set that feature the lovely actress Linda Harrison who played Nova. Check Out: Movie Poster and Lobby Cards From The Black Lagoon, The Master Of Suspense and Galaxies Far Away Return To The Planet Of The Apes - Flames Of Doom (1975) Going To Dinner And A Movie In April 1968 Zira In The Twilight Zone ... Or Is It Rod Serling On The Planet of the Apes? Beneath The Planet Of The Apes (1970)(20th Century Fox) Escape From The Planet Of The Apes (1971)(20th Century Fox) Geek-O-Rama On The Planet of the Apes Retro Toy Rodeo: Mego's Planet of the Apes Fortress Playset (1975) Retro Saturday Morning: Return to the Planet of the Apes (1975)(NB...

For the first of my Fantastic Photos From Fantasy Films features for 2023 I have a movie still from one of my favorite monster movies, the 1962 clash of the preverbal cinema giants, King Kong vs Godzilla. In the image we see Kazuo Fujita (Kenji Sahara) rescuing Fumiko Sakurai (Mie Hama) from the icy water as Godzilla approaches.   As is the case with many of these classic Japanese monster movie stills the image is a composite of several other images in this case the water rescue in the foreground in front of a scene of scared train passengers being evacuated by bus. To finish off the scene a mountain village was added and the cherry on top is good old Godzilla himself/ This is one of my favorites! Original Japanese version. Tako, advertising director of Pacific Pharmaceuticals, is frustrated by the low viewership of their sponsored documentary show. Realizing that he needs a more sensationalist approach, Tako orders two of his men, Sakurai and Furue, on an expedition to Faro Islan...