The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra (Special Edition) [DVD]

"The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra" recounts that fateful day that "the Earth was disemboweled in terror!" Filmed in the miracle of "Skeletorama," Larry Blamire's wonderful spoof of great 1950's science fiction films pays homage to and pokes good-natured fun at this genre of a golden cinematic age. Shown in black and white, the film doesn't miss an element that makes the old sci-fi films wonderful: the sets are perfect, the special effects are beyond perfect, the cast is incomparable, and the tone and nuances of the film are exactly on the mark.Largely filmed in Bronson Canyon, the movie opens with Dr. Paul Armstrong (Blamire) and his wife Betty (Fay Masterson) driving a Thunderbird up a narrow road. He is a scientist, and they are looking for a meteor that has recently crashed in the area which Paul suspects contains atmospherium, the most rare radioactive element. Meanwhile, Dr. Roger Fleming (Brian Howe) an evil scientist, ("I'm a scientist; I don't believe in anything") is hunting for Cadavra cave in the same area. Another "meteor" lands, but this one turns out to be a spaceship from the planet Marva, carrying Kro-Bar (Andrew Parks,) Lattis (Susan McConnell,) and a mutant (Darrin Reed.) The mutant quickly escapes, alarming the aliens, who also need atmospherium to repair their ship.Roger finds long lost Cadavra Cave and it's famous occupant, the Lost Skeleton of Cadavra under a sheet about five feet from the cave's entrance. The skeleton comes to life for Roger, and immediately starts insulting him. The skeleton instructs Roger to get him atmospherium to help completely revive him. He then decides to rest ("I sleep now!") leaving a three-way competition for atmospherium in Bronson canyon. Paul and Betty find the meteor full of atmospherium and the others scheme to obtain it. Lattis and Kro-Bar change their appearance into that of normal humans with their transmutatron, and decide to visit Paul and Betty in their cabin, although they are puzzled by their strange Earth clothes. The dialogue about Kro-Bar's tie (he finds the "neck restrainer" most uncomfortable) and Lattis' dress, which she refers to as an "inverted cloth funnel" is priceless. In another touch of genius, the aliens have great difficulty understanding how stairs and doors work ("This is insanity!") and finally provoke Paul and Betty to open the door. Paul and Betty are puzzled by their strange mannerisms, and all four actors (especially Susan McConnell) are masters of subtle expressions and physical comedy in the cabin scenes. I found it a hilarious touch that as weird as their Marvan names were, that Blamire had the aliens choose yet another set of equally odd Earth names for themselves when they introduce themselves to the Armstrongs (Kro-Bar becomes Bamin, while Lattis becomes Tergasso.) Betty thinks they are the Taylors who rented them the cabin, so they are invited in for drinks. When invited to sit the aliens look anything but normal when they declare "Fold yourself in the middle!" and sit with a great flourish. Lattis quickly polishes off a very strong scotch and soda and gets talking about girl stuff with Betty ("I also appreciate your soft cloth funnel, Betty.") As her intoxication worsens Kro-Bar alleviates everyone's discomfort with the reassurance that "My wife sometimes forgets she is not a space alien."Outside the cabin Roger saw the aliens use the transmutatron to change their appearance, so he makes a date for himself by firing the transmutatron at four different forest animals, creating the beautiful Animala (Jennifer Blaire, Blamire's wife) in the process. Blaire is wonderful in her velour catsuit. Her animal traits are perfect, and I especially love the fuzzy black booties that conceal her feet. Roger teaches Animala how to speak and eat with humans, then they go knock on the cabin door. The scenes that follow are a lesson in physical comedy, emotional control, and direction for actors and filmmakers alike. The dinner scene is beyond hilarious, and the wonderfully stilted dialogue is delivered absolutely perfectly.The skeleton commands Animala to bring her the atmospherium ("Amish terrarium") and he even tries his mind control on Betty, who passes out. The aliens figure out what Roger is up to (Lattis deadpans the line "You are different from the other humans...more disgusting I think,") and they agree to form an alliance to get the atmospherium from Paul. Before it's over, Animala does a very seductive dance for Paul (whose dancing is much less seductive, and much funnier.) This musical cavorting causes Paul to bring the meteor to the spaceship. Betty goes looking for Paul and is immediately carried away by the hideous (and deeply amusing) mutant, while great 1950's style music plays, followed by betrayals and a lesson in street smarts for Lattis and Kro-Bar.I love that through it all the skeleton is incredibly abusive to Roger, the one person who actually cares about him, and Roger's next task is to set up a horrible skeletal wedding of horrors preceded by more dancing. Betty, Paul, Kro-Bar, and Lattis go inside the spaceship ("It's just like your house, only it travels through space") and have some refreshments, in this case wine from cherries ("what we call 'linbooba,'") although Lattis' earlier indiscretions notwithstanding, Kro-Bar insists that on Marva they gave up getting drunk "eons of your years ago," which was an extremely subtle nod from Blamire to Ed Wood, which I absolutely loved.I love the cheesy skeleton movements, especially when he walks and climbs down the mountain while Roger dutifully asks "What orders do you have for us, my bony wonder?" The skeleton hypnotizes Lattis and Kro-Bar and forces them to dance (the laughter quotient is turned to eleven during the alien dancing) before marrying Lattis himself. That, of course, means that Kro-Bar must be dispatched before the "King of Cartilage" can wed Lattis, and it's looking pretty bleak for the Marvans. Betty comes to the rescue by luring the mutant to the wedding, and as the wedding gets crashed, Betty battles Animala and Paul battles Roger, who is eventually choked to death by the skeleton for incompetence. Defying the odds, Betty defeats Animala, and the mutant battles the skeleton. It's all very tense, but the skeleton eventually gets tossed off a mountain, Animala gets changed back into four animals (which Blaire says are a fox, a bird, a squirrel, and a lynx,) the mutant succumbs to injuries, even though he has developed a mysterious and loving bond with Betty, and in the final scene, in perfect 1950's sci-fi style, Kro-Bar delivers a somber and semi-pompous monologue about understanding the differences between people.The DVD comes with an amazing quantity of extras: there is a cast commentary, a crew commentary, a trailer, the "Skeleton Frolics" cartoon short that was shown with the film in theaters, an "Obey the Lost Skeleton Featurette," a cast question and answer session, a blooper reel, "Virtual Skeletables," and previews. Of these the commentaries are absolutely wonderful, and make clear not only the process used in making the film, and the opinions of the cast and crew, but really demonstrate the genuine affection that Blamire and company have for this genre of film. The bloopers are also a must-see, particularly the skeleton miscues.I cannot recommend "The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra" more highly. I have loved these silly sci-fi movies since I was very young, and I always will. This is an amazingly well done, respectful tribute and spoof of those famous movies, and I appreciate Larry Blamire having the vision to undertake this project. The good news is that the Lost Skeleton has just returned in a sequel, so make sure you pick that up too.

There have been a few spoofs of 1950's and 1960's science fiction movies before and after The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra, but none have entered the strange and wonderful territory that Larry Blamire does when he wrote, directed and acted in this movie. Filmed on a shoestring in high definition video and screened at the Egyptian Theatre as part of the American Cinemateque series, it was discovered by a film company executive who fell in love with it and scooped it up for Sony TriStar. It was then transferred to glorious black and white film for general distribution. It still shows up here and there at special venues but now you can grab a copy for your own personal viewing.This movie goes beyond just a mere Sci-Fi spoof, and enters a whole new hilarious world. It is inspired somewhat by Plan 9 from Outer Space's Ed Wood's work, however this is an original piece of work, not just a take-off. Larry Blamire has an ear for wonderfully byzantine dialogue which turns on and references itself, and does hilarious verbal gymnastics throughout the film. His actors are all professionals in television and movies and have worked with the likes of Stanley Kubrick and Steven Spielberg yet here, they were carefully directed and coached into the roles of enthusiastic but not-very-talented thespians acting seriously (but not too successfully) in a 1960's era low budget Sci-Fi B movie.This film has layers of enjoyment beyond that of just a humorous imitation of a low budget film. You'll enjoy the carefully crafted too-long pauses in dialogue, the occasional semi-cracking of the fourth wall, the earnestness with which the actors wrap their mouths around the surrealistic dialogue and of course, the purposely low-budget designed yet spot-on rocket ship, monster and creature. The skeleton is well, a skeleton, which talks with a sonorous, self-important, echoing baritone, and the monster a "Mutant" which somewhat resembles a walking ear of corn still in its husk, was designed and built beautifully by Cortney Skinner, inspired by the low-budget movie monster-makers of the 50's and 60s'.The major actors are Larry Blamire (the earnest scientist), Fay Masterson (The doting but somewhat clueless housewife of the scientist), Andrew Parks and Susan McConnell (wonderfully impassioned and clunky space aliens), Jennifer Blaire (a sexy slinky cat-like [literally] femme fatale), Dan Conroy (a strangely un-able forest ranger) and Robert Deveau as a hapless farmer. These are all roles that you might have seen over the years in various genre movies, but here they are distilled into unexpectedly eccentric and singular comic performances.This film stands up to several viewings (you'll spot something new each time) and you'll need to watch it a few times just to catch the dialogue you missed because you were laughing too hard the first time.The DVD extras are as carefully crafted as the movie. There's an astoundingly authentic and funny period style trailer created by Michael Schlesinger, the Sony TriStar executive who discovered this film. You'll see hilarious outtakes (in color!). There's a cast and crew Q&A videotaped at the Egyptian Theatre (at which they were discovered by Sony) The cast and crew commentary is not only more entertaining than most you hear on DVDs but it also gives you an idea of the genuine warmth and affection these artists have for each other. You'll feel like they're in your livingroom with you. The "Virtual Skelectables" created by the Mutant creator, Cortney Skinner, are a series of ingeniously designed, imaginary retro collectables... toys, games and figures flawlessly fabricated to look like the real thing, as if the movie actually did exist in the 1950's and these were the products and toys marketed to go with the film. There's also a cartoon short, "Skeleton Frolic", a 1937 animated color film by the famed animator, Ub Iwerks.This makes the perfect gift for that special someone (you know who that is) and a perfect DVD around which to plan a party...be it Halloween or just any weekend.Blamire's sequel is said to be in production!

The beauty of this film is that it walks the perfect line... deliciously goofy and ridiculous, but played with such serious and straight faces that you could almost (but not quite) believe the cast didn't know they're in a spoof. It pokes fun at many B movie conventions: the obvious use of stock footage, cheesy effects and models, silly costumes and props, alien invasions, rubber suited monsters, living skeletons. But as much as it mocks old scifi movies, it feels like the film makers have a genuine affection for them.Don't expect "Airplane" or "Hot Shots" off-the-wall absurdity, it's not that kind of parody. This film plays it much straighter, but the wonderfully-written dialogue had me laughing out loud.Funny enough for anyone, but definitely recommended to 50's and 60's scifi movie lovers.

If you are familiar with bad 50's sci-fi, know and love the format and feel you know what to expect, this can be gold. I suggest watching this [...] if you are undecided; it will tell you what you need to know as to whether you'll love or hate it.For me, the pastiche was so loving and apt that I laughed...hard. There are a few quiet moments, mostly near the end [which is accurate to the original films but still unwelcome], but there were a number of times when we had to rewind the film for fear of missing other funnies in our laughter.Watch the review and see for yourselves; the thing is so earnest, like the original 50s films, that I can't think ill of it.

Like all of Larry Blamire’s films this is great fun. A great send up of those B Movie Sci-Fi films from the 50s & 60s.

Another good film from Blamire. I may have not enjoyed it as much as spooky night or forehead but that may be because I saw it third. It is though well done and another great combo of script and performance. There is a lot going on here: Blamire clearly puts a lot of work into something which is just supposed to be a zany comedy.

One of my all time favourite films. If you enjoy things like Young Frankenstein (or other 'spoof' type films) it's probably for you.