Well, I suppose it's appropriate that I have to do this post all over again. It was originally posted on January 22, but I decided to add some information and somehow deleted the entire thing. What a drag. That's going to push part three and four out. Part One can be found here. Let's continue the review of what movies were shown during the WSM Channel Four horror movie series Creature Feature which ran on Saturday nights at 10:30PM. The great Sir Cecil Creape hosted these shows and was often the main reason to tune in to the show. This list will have the first half of 1972. I've provided a short synopsis of each entry. If you want more information you can always go to IMDB, google it, or you can buy the forthcoming book by Larry Underwood AKA Dr. Gangrene all about Nashville horror movie hosts and the films they showed.
January 1, 1972 King of the Zombies 1941 It's a requirement that doctors on islands be evil. This one is in control of a small army of zombies.
January 8, 1972 Preempted by the UCLA vs Oregon basketball game
January 15, 1972 Atom Age Vampire 1960 There's an exotic dancer. A mad scientist. Glands from murdered women. But no vampire.
January 22, 1972 Battle of the Worlds 1961 There's an errant planet on a collision course with Earth. No, it's not Nibiru. It's called "The Outsider" and flying saucers attack from it.
January 29, 1972 The Disembodied 1957 Jungles seem to always be full of voodoo cults.
February 5, 1972 Preempted by the Winter Olympics
February 12, 1972 Preempted by the Winter Olympics
February 19, 1972 Godzilla 1954 Atomic radiation awakens a monster that takes it out on Japan. This is the American version, but this didn't matter to me as a child. One of my favorites of all time.
February 26, 1972 House on Haunted Hill 1959 The fantastic Vincent Price shines in this haunted house thriller. The great director Willam Castle helms this spooky gimmick filled dark ride.
March 4, 1972 The Last Man on Earth 1964 Vincent Price returns for another week on Creature Feature and this time he has the greatest immune system ever.
March 11, 1972 Preempted by the Cerebral Palsy Telethon
March 18, 1972 The listing is for Godzilla's Revenge, but the description is for Son of Godzilla 1967. I know if was a little orphan monster I'd be overjoyed to have Godzilla adopt me.
March 25, 1972 Hands of a Stranger 1962 A concert pianist gets a hand transplant. But they came from a killer and we're not talking Jerry Lee Lewis.
April 1, 1972 Rodan 1956 A giant turkey vulture menaces Japan.
April 8, 1972 The Little Shop of Horrors 1960 A fable about a carnivorous plant which feasts on people. It's going to love Soylent Green. Feed me Seymour!
April 8 & 9, 1972 Sir Cecil Creape made an appearance at Woolco in Nashville.
April 15, 1972 The Brain from Planet Arous 1957 An alien brain takes over a scientist's body so it can conquer Earth. You'd think an alien brain would have better things to do.
April 22, 1972 From Hell It Came 1957 Groot runs amok! No, wait, it's a different tree.
Sir Cecil Creape would appear on the cover of the April 23, 1972 Tennessean Sunday Showcase. He had become a bit of a sensation for Channel 4. Station management figured Creature Feature would attract an audience mainly of teenagers, but it turned out lots of us young Gen X children were being allowed to stay up late and watch too.
April 29, 1972 The Man Without a Body 1957 A businessman who is dying of a brain tumor steals the head of Nostradamus from a crypt so it can be transplanted to his body. Nostradamus should have seen that coming.
May 6, 1972 Not of this Earth 1957 An alien from the planet Davana uses a matter transporter to come to Earth. He needs blood to save his planet. How will it get it?
May 13, 1972 Creature Feature gets expanded to run from 10:30PM to 1AM on Saturday nights. My first thought was that they were showing double features, but the second thing listed for this night wasn't a movie. This would be the case for a few weeks and then the television guide started putting in "Karloff Special" so from the dim recesses of my mind I remembered that Boris Karloff hosted the show Thriller. So you would get a movie and a Thriller episode each week on Creature Feature(s). If the Thriller episode is known I will provide a link to the IMBD entry. If you only see "Karloff Special" listed I wasn't able to find the name of that one. These would be run before the movie beginning in June before swapping to after the movie in March of 1973.
May 13, 1972 The Premature Burial 1962 Roger Corman film based on Edgar Allan Poe.
The episode of Thriller is "The Twisted Image"
May 19, 1972 Sir Cecil Creape would pay a visit to Mercury Plaza in Murfreesboro, Tennessee! Mercury Plaza was always putting on neat stuff. I rode an elephant there once. Saw a dolphin show. I met Bozo the Clown. I either missed this one completely or my folks conveniently didn't tell me. Or maybe I did go....memories are tricky things.
May 20, 1972 This episode of Thriller is "Worse Than Murder"
Attack of the 50 Foot Woman 1958 This one gets a bad review in the Showcase. It's not Village of the Giants, but it's still a pretty cool b movie.
May 27, 1972 This episode of Thriller is "Man in the Middle"
The Sorcerers 1967 Boris Karloff can hypnotize you and feel what you feel. Trippy man, trippy.
June 3, 1972 "Karloff Special" This episode of Thriller is "The Mark of the Hand"
The Giant Behemoth 1959 Atomic tests awaken a giant dinosaur. This one attacks London.
June 10, 1972 "Karloff Special" Indestructible Man 1956 Lon Chaney Jr. plays a brutal criminal who is put to death. However the Detective on the case wants to find out where Lon's character hid the stolen loot. So, he is brought back to life and becomes indestructible.
June 17, 1972 "Karloff Special" The Wasp Woman 1959 The owner of a cosmetics firm wants to keep from aging so a scientist convinces her to take Zinthro which is made from wasp enzymes. She should have tried botox instead.
June 24, 1972 "Karloff Special" Per Murfreesboro newspaper the Daily News Journal this episode of Thriller is "Child's Play" From Hell It Came 1957 previously aired on April 22, 1972
We would start to see more repeats into the second half of 1972 and more in 1973. It was the nature of the business. Most stations didn't have Ted Turner type money so they could only buy the film libraries they could afford. I'm no expert on that era of television business, but I'm pretty sure they rented these movie packages for a set time. Very few people had the ability to record television video from home at this point. Movies and syndicated shows would get rerun often. This was fine with me since this was the only way you'd get the chance to see films you enjoyed again. They became like good friends that paid you visits. Stay tuned for part three tomorrow.
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