Sunday, March 2, 2008

THE DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS - Johnny Douglas or Ron Goodwin - "Convict Party" (1962)

So you see, that's one of the problems with these films. You've got a composer, and or some uncredited guy adding additional music, and it can get pretty hard trying to pinpoint who did what if you don't have some super inside info. Like in this film, the soundtrack is largely orchestrated except for this part where the convicts are making the girls party with them, so of course the music has to be different too, it has to be dirty, it has to swing! It's gotta be the other guy composing at that point. To quote "The IMDB" "Although credited with "additional music", composer Johnny Douglas actually supplied more music than the main composer, Ron Goodwin. According to the official music cue sheets, Douglas wrote 26 mins, Goodwin 19 minutes." Who did what? Probably only Tabonga's 7th cousins know, and if you've ever partied with those space vegetables, you know it's not even worth discussing! 
 
The oldest trick in the book, take advantage of people's curiosity, of course all the rubberneckers are going to look! 
 
"Day Of The Triffids" is one of our favorite movies, and Howard Keel does a fantastic job in what was his only real horror role! 
 
Cinematographer Ted Moore was working overtime on some of these shots. This one through the dancing girl's legs to the drunk with his head on the table, and the zombified drunk girl on the left is too much! 
 
What a scene!!!! These girls are being held captive, but the one dancing on the table seems to be having a pretty good time! One thing's for sure, the music is hot!!! 
 
Then the stupid giant plants from outer space decide to literally crash the party, crash through the windows, crash through the walls! 
 
As the movie goes on, you'll see that you can burn or electrocute or melt the triffids, but shooting doesn't work very well, and who gave this guy the bright idea to try and hit it with a chair? 
 
Why didn't they use the same method we use to keep all the plants in line? Eat them!! Steamed or boiled, with a bunch of butter and some black pepper, maybe some soy sauce! I'll bet those triffids would be at least as good as brussel sprouts or scallop squash, probably better!! 
 
"The Day Of The Triffids" is a brilliant movie, and everybody should go out of their way to see it. The acting is great, the colour is beautiful, and it's just a very solid film on a lot of different levels, and I definitely believe Stephen King saw this movie as a kid!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dude, Tabonga have some cool cousins!!.. Wait til you see who next killer cuz is!

Greg Goodsell said...

Dude, I thought it was totally lame with the bit about how sea water can kill the Triffids. That ranks down there with the alien invading menace being vanquished by tap water in SIGNS!

Anonymous said...

Howard Keel was NOT in the original cut of this film! That was an all English cast and a story that stuck fairly close to the book. The film was too short for American distributor's taste and lacking any name stars (particularly American) to appeal to U.S. audiences, so a sub-plot involving Keel holed up in a lighthouse was added for the U.S. release!

Eegah!! and Tabonga! said...

Yo Buzz, you might want to lay off the absinthe a little. You got the right story, but the wrong people! Howard Keel was indeed in the original, it's Kieron Moore who is in the added lighthouse scenes.

Monster Music

Monster Music
AAARRGGHHH!!!! Ya'll Come On Back Now, Y'Hear??