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Rob NorthrupZeppelin vs. Pterodactyls (1936)

"This is the sort of genius project that makes me bless the Internet every day as the greatest invention in the history of mankind." - John Brownlee, AMC tv's Sci-Fi Scanner Blog.
http://blogs.amctv.com/scifiscanner/2007/08/zeppelins-vs-pt.html

One of the wacky ideas floated by Hammer Films in 1971 but never developed beyond a sweet poster was 'Zeppelin vs. Pterodactyls.' People have said it's tragic this movie was never made. Now tragically it has been made, a 2007 mashup of public domain cliffhanger serials and old movies. What if Republic Pictures had gotten this idea in 1936? See it here. Watch for glimpses of John Wayne, two 'Wilhelm' screams, and one actor who wasn't even born until 1939.

I've been passing it off as a 1936 Republic Pictures serial. But there are some glaring anachronisms in it, and I'm not doing a very thorough job of hoaxing anyone. Sorry if you fell for it. Don't believe everything u read on teh internetz. (That quote from John Brownlee is true though. Don't take my word for it. Go verify it for yourself.)


This movie is part of the collection: Open Source Movies

Producer: Rob Northrup
Production Company: Awkwardly Publishing
Audio/Visual: sound, black & white
Language: English
Keywords: zeppelin; pterodactyls; Hammer Films; Republic Pictures; cliffhanger; serial; serials; mashup
Contact Information: For pedantic production notes and a guide to the inside jokes, see http://evilbobdayjob.blogspot.com/2007/07/zeppelin-vs-pterodactyls-1936.html

Creative Commons license: Public Domain

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Reviewer: radioman714 - - October 7, 2009
Subject: Works for me
Good mashup...great job of editing..

I liked it

Reviewer: Nosenod - - December 20, 2008
Subject: Good idea, incoherent result
Lots of models and stop motion animation of flying wings, biplanes, and pterodactyls from old serials & movies. Ugly new lettering. The music doesn't advance the new "plot" well, in which a flying wing attacks a Zeppelin, biplanes attack the flying wing, plus a few clips of pterodactyls; the picture quality and lighting changes constantly so I was never able to suspend belief that these clips were parts of a whole. The music editing doesn't support the idea well; e.g. the Zeppelin is eventually shot down, without any musical vamp, just a lot of plane engine noises. Occasional cuts to live action actors, but so many actors, and so incoherently that there's no sense of plot, the actors seem do things without obvious reasons. Expository dialog, almost none. The editing does not support the action well, one is never sure of where things are located relative to other things, the vantages change too confusingly.

On the whole not good, but it shows things to avoid and hilites several difficulties of the technique -- someday it might inspire somebody to do it better.

Reviewer: emesy2006 - - August 1, 2007
Subject: Hello
I am Miro from Slovakai. Interesant site.

Reviewer: IAmTheRedDragon - - August 1, 2007
Subject: Great fun
I enjoyed this - it really captures the style of the old serials, and is wonderfully silly! Very well put together.

Credits

The main theme song is taken from Captain Scarface (1953) which is supposed to be public domain, so I hope the music is too.

The song with which Ace Drummond (John "Dusty" King) delights his fellow passengers is "Give Me A Ship and A Song" by Kay Kellogg.

Shotlist

Clips are taken from:
Dick Tracy (1937)
Ace Drummond (1936)
The Lost World (1925)
Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet (1965)
Three Musketeers (1933)
The Hurricane Express
Shadow of Chinatown
The Phantom Creeps (1939)
Undersea Kingdom (1936)
Thief of Baghdad (1978 TV movie)
Newsreels: Akron Disaster (1933), Giant Dirigible Sets Record (1936), Zeppelin Explodes (1937 Hindenberg)