WILLIAM SMITH...VAMPIRE-SLAYER by Dave Goode

 

For years I've imagined some American movie producer back in the 1960s making masked wrestler flicks. The heroes portrayed most likely by the stars of the European sinew & sandal movies.The American bodybuilders who traveled from Muscle Beach to Italy to play Hercules, Maciste, and Ursus. Actors like Steve Reeves, Rock Stevens (Peter Lupus), and Mark Forest. But especially Gordon Scott, Dan Vadis, and Brad Harris.

 

 

Recently I was watching GRAVE OF THE VAMPIRE (1972) again and thought the perfect name taking, butt kicking answer to Mexico's Blue Demon could have been "Big" Bill Smith, King of the Biker Flicks, who would play a professional wrestler in the 1978 sports drama BLOOD AND GUTS. But without a mask.

 

 

 

 

GRAVE OF THE VAMPIRE directed by John Hayes from a screenplay by Hayes and David Chase (Kolchak) has gained a cult following over the years. The story has actor Michael Pataki playing Caleb Croft a rapist/murderer who rises from his grave a vampire after being electrocuted 30 years earlier. He brutally attacks a young couple who are making out in a parked car in a grave yard. And maybe it's just me. But can you think of a less romantic place to make love than in a grave yard? Killing the man the vampire rapes the woman in an open grave.

 

 

The woman gives birth to a strange gray hued baby. It of course is the child of her undead attacker. But she is a bit unhinged after her attack. And believes the baby to be the child of her murdered boy friend. This is the reason she continues to carry the child after she is told the baby is a parasite draining her of blood from within. After giving birth she continues to feed him with her own blood. Sending her to an early grave. There is one very eerie seen that shows the child watching from the shadows as other children play in the sun.

 

 

 

 

 

The grown son James Eastman played by William Smith tracks down his vampiric father who is now teaching night courses in the occult under the name Professor Lockwood. The climax of the movie has father and son throwing down against each other in a battle of good vs. evil. Not quite as good as the fight Smith had in the movie DARKER THAN AMBER (1970). But then what is? And it does make you think of Smith opening a can of whup @#$$ on other supernatural menaces. 

 

 

 

 

Art by Vance Capley

 

 

 

FAN BOY FANTASY MOVIES by Dave Goode

When I first imagined a Mighty Samson movie based on the Gold Key comic book from the Silver Age I stunt casted Clint Walker or Denny Miller as the mutant superman of a post apopaletic future. Largely because of their physical stature. But since this was a fantasy anyway I reimagined Kirk Douglas in the role. After all the paintings on the covers of the comic books have Samson resembling Douglas as he appears in the movie THE VIKINGS ( 1958 ). Peter Cushing would be perfect as the scientist Mindor. And rounding out the cast as Sharmaine , Mindor's daughter and Samson's love interest , would be 60s fan boy favorite Deanna Lund. Of course the real star of the flick would have been Ray Harryhausen's special effect mutant monsters.

Sam Katzman was the type of producer you could imagine making movies based on the stories found in " men's sweat magazines ".The man who cast Johnny Weissmuller as Jungle Jim after the former Olympic champ became too old to be a believable Tarzan would see the potentialof casting Steve Holland as a jungle adventurer. Especially after realizing he could use the covers of the sweat mags as posters. Just write in a scene to match the action of the cover illustration.You could do the same with the WW Two covers Holland posed for as a two - fisted American fighting man.

Steve Holland was also the model for Jason Striker , the martial arts hero for a series of books written by Piers Antony and Roberto Fuentes. The series came out in the 1970s when everyone was " kung fu fighting ". And at the time I thought Jason Striker , the black belt judoka and karateka would have made a good subject for a series of movies. But not starring Holland. Though the covers featuring Holland would make great posters. The person playing Striker would have been American karate and kick - boxing champ Joe Lewis.

THE CONAN WHO SHOULD HAVE BEEN ! by Dave Goode

 

I've got a very short list of actors who I think would have been great portraying Robert E. Howard's barbarian hero Conan of Cimmeria. There's Charles Bronson who may have been too short to play Conan. But may have been just right to play another of Howard's characters, the Pict king Bran Mak Morn. Then there is Jack Palance who was perfect as Attila the Hun in the movie SIGN OF THE PAGAN (1954). It was his performance as Attila that got me thinking that Palance would have been great as Conan. Or even better as King Kull,yet another of Howard's barbarian heroes. And then there's "Big" Bill Smith, the actor/bodybuilder best known for his roles in action flicks playing both heroes and villains.

Smith did play Conan's father in CONAN, THE BARBARIAN (1982). And most critics thought that his brief performance was the best thing about the movie. Ten or fifteen years earlier he would have been great as Conan himself. And in 1982 he would have been great as the older King Conan of Howard's stories The Phoenix On The Sword and The Hour Of The Dragon a. k. a Conan The Conqueror.

I imagine a younger Bill Smith starring in an adaptation of my favorite Howard Conan story Beyond The Black River. And he would have been equally good in A Witch Shall Be Born. Imagine if you will Vincent Price as the mercenary general Constanius the Falcon. And Barbara Steele as the twin sisters Queen Taramis and Salome , the witch of the title. But more importantly imagine Smith as the pantherish Cimmerian in the most famous scene from the Conan series. Fierce!!!