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Saturday, August 4, 2007

THE REVENGE OF DOCTOR X (1970)





Also known as The Double Garden (What a lame title for a flick!) and a slew of other names, The Revenge of Doctor X is the one that was on the disc so, that's the one we're going with.

Dr. Bragan (James Craig) is a scientist for NASA. He has burning both ends of the candle for so long that he is frazzled. His assistant suggests that he take a trip to Japan to study his passion, botany. On the way to the airport he has some car trouble. The guy that runs the nearby station happens to raise snakes, but it isn't the snakes that interest our good doctor. He spots a venus flytrap. The station owner isn't interested in selling the plant, but hands the Doc a shovel and a box to get his own plant.

Doc takes the plant to Japan and sets about splicing it into a monster with another plant that exists only in Japan. Lucky thing he was vacationing there, huh?

Did I mention his female assistant? Nice looking oriental woman. The film has a few of those. When the Doc goes scuba diving he gets the help of a bevy of topless pearl divers. Really the high point of the film.

Well, one thing leads to another and it doesn't take long before the monster is on the lose. Seems that our Doctor made the damned thing so it could walk. It doesn't take long before it's terrorizing the villagers and eating little children. Doc decides to confront the monster in a final battle.

See, this doesn't sound so bad, does it? Unfortunately, the movie drags. It takes more than half the flick before he even starts working on the damned monster and when he does, it is laughable at best.

The true winners of this flick would have to be the aforementioned naked women and the lead actor. He screams and shouts most of his lines. And with a script by....ready for it? Edward D. Wood Jr. That's right, good old Ed Wood penned this train wreck of a flick and in the hands of director Kenneth G. Crane (Monster From Green Hell) it doesn't get much better. I remember catching this on an afternoon when I lived in Plymouth, Indiana. It seemed a little better at the time. I must have been drinking.



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