B-Movie Celebration 2008

“Up!” Director: Russ Meyer. Candy Samples, Raven De LaCroix, Edward Schaaf, Robert McLane, Janet Wood, Linda Sue Ragsdale, Kitten Natividad. Enter, if you dare, the world of Russ Meyer, a world filled with buxom beauties with bare breasts, off-the-wall violence and bright, cartoonish color. The plot? Well, there isn’t too much, but it all starts with the murder via piranha of a masochistic Nazi and takes off from there with a climactic chainsaw battle and Kitten Natividad as our nude Greek Chorus explaining the whole thing. This is easily Meyer at his most outrageous, so strap yourselves in and enjoy the ride.

Director: Roy Ward Baker. Ingrid Pitt, Pippa Steele, Madeline Smith, Peter Cushing, George Cole, Dawn Adams, Kate O’Mara. This tale of female vampires was adapted from Sheridan Le Fanu’s “Carmilla,” which was filmed many times before and since. From Hammer, this was first in a trio of films including “Lust For A Vampire” and “Twins Of Evil.”

Director: Byron Haskin. Gene Barry, Les Tremayne, Ann Robinson, narrated by Sir Cedric Hardwicke. H.G. Wells’ tale of a Martian invasion was transplanted from Victorian London to 1950s America. The result is one of the 50s’ most vivid and terrifying sci-fi films with Oscar-winning special effects that continue to enthrall today.

Watch Horror Films, Keep America Strong In the days before On Demand and Netflix (or even VHS, for that matter), movie buffs got their fix at home through weekly television showcases — and none were more gloriously homespun than Creature Features. Bob Wilkins hosted eight years of monster mashes for Bay Area audiences, always backed by a banner proclaiming, "Watch Horror Films, Keep America Strong." Tom Wyrsch borrows the motto for his illuminating documentary on this forgotten chapter of television history. George Lucas was reportedly a big fan of Wilkins, so

Director: Greydon Clark. Jack Palance, Cameron Mitchell, Martin Landau, Ralph Meeker, Tarrah Nutter, Sue Ann Langdon, Neville Brand, Larry Storch. An alien goes around throwing lethal carnivorous discs at people. This was directed by B-veteran Clark, who got his start by acting in Al Adamson’s “Satan’s Sadists” (1969) and went on to become a prolific director with such films as”The Hi-Riders” (1978), “The Return” (1980) and “Joysticks” (1983), to his credit. And look at all the familiar names in the cast!

Director: Edward Bernds. Hugh Marlowe, Nancy Gates, Nelson Leigh, Rod Taylor. A spaceflight to Mars breaks the time barrier and ends up on post-apocalyptic Earth. This yarn is said to owe a lot to H.G. Welles’ “The Time Machine.” Directed by a former and future Three Stooges director.