Richard E. Cunha Rules!

            I’ve been shocked lately when I ask friends what they’ve been watching in their social-distancing caves. Quite a few cheerily admit, “Contagion,” or, worse yet, “Outbreak.” To me that’s like being in a house on fire and instead of rushing outdoors, stopping to watch the “burning of Atlanta” sequence in Gone With the Wind. Why would you watch anything that will only deepen anxiety levels?

            Friends call and ask for recommendations on YouTube and Amazon Prime, and weeding through their libraries I was delighted to find the films of Richard E. Cunha, like She Demons, Frankenstein’s Daughter, Giant From The Unknown and Missile To The Moon. Often lumped with Edward D. Wood Jr. as another schlockmeister, books on horror and sci-fi usually dismiss Cunha’s work. One book on exploitation films erroneously reported that the director was “hurt over the bad reviews his horror films garnered. Despondent over the turn of events, he traveled to the Peruvian jungle and has never been heard since.” Well, that’s news to author Tom Weaver who interviewed Cunha, and producer Arthur A. Jacobs, for a lively discussion about their films in “Interviews With B Science Fiction And Horror Movie Makers,“ an invaluable collection of revealing, behind-the-scenes, recollections by actors and directors working in that genre.

            Here’s the deal with Richard E. Cunha’s films. Sure, they are cheaply made, incredibly silly and kind of stupid- but they are also wildly entertaining. Do you know how tedious many Drive-In movies from the 50s are now? There are countless ones that are just boring as hell. But Cunha’s films only get funnier through the years. And you can’t just watch one. They’re like potato chips- you have to eat everything in the bag. So, settle back into the couch, turn the phone off, and dive right into crackpot Cunha-land. 

            Richard E. Cunha began his career making newsreels for the United States Air Corps during World War II. He then graduated to making commercials and industrial films until a friend suggested he break into feature films. Brainstorming, Cunha and producer friend Arthur Jacobs decided a monster movie was the way to go. Bert I Gordon was turning out giant bug movies at the time, and they didn’t have the bucks or expertise to do special effects. So, they settled on something inexpensive- they could use an incredibly tall actor (Buddy Baer) and have him become a giant monster conquistador, freed from suspended animation during a lightning storm, who terrorizes a town. This became Giant From The Unknown, which was made with a budget of $55,000 and shot a hundred miles outside L.A. up in the mountains in Big Bear. Cunha even served as director and cinematographer on the film to save money. Famous make-up man Jack Pierce (who did the original Frankenstein) created the dirt-crusted, reanimated Giant. The plot is about an archeological professor (Morris Ankrum) and his daughter (Sally Fraser), who head up to “Devil’s Crag” with another rock specialist (Ed Kemmer), hoping to prove the existence of a giant Spaniard who once roamed the countryside. Unfortunately, they find their giant murderously alive, re-united with its armor and sword, and cutting a path of destruction. The grumpy Sherriff (Bob Steele) has a weird, unnatural, pallor throughout the film and Cunha related to Tom Weaver that the makeup man complained, “it’s not my fault- he told me to do it!” Apparently, the actor believed people of a certain age looked younger with white makeup on- so throughout the film you begin to wonder if the Sherriff is secretly a sneaky little drag queen. There’s a great fight between the hero and the Giant at the end of the film near an old windmill, shot during a light snowstorm, which is surprisingly atmospheric.

            Shopping the film around, Astor Pictures agreed to fund their next venture, and suddenly they had $80,000 to make their masterpiece- She Demons. It’s about a group who are shipwrecked on an uncharted island. There’s the stalwart leading man Fred Macklin (Tod Griffin), the wisecracking crewmate (Victor Sen Yung) (who makes far too many cringe-inducing “Chow Mein” jokes), and the spoiled, blonde bratty rich girl- Jerrie Turner (played by Irish McCalla, famed for the TV series Sheena, Queen Of the Jungle). Jerrie just bitches and moans on the beach, her only interest, “Where’s my powder blue cashmere shortie?” The survivors soon find that the island is inhabited by a bunch of Nazi soldiers who delight in whipping and imprisoning a bunch of native girls. You can tell by their bad German accents, crying “Schnell!” every so often to hilarious effect. The island is ruled by a Mengele-like doctor (Rudolph Anders) who is experimenting on the natives turning them into “She Demons” with crusty make-up and fake fangs, just to return his scar-faced wife Mona’s (Leni Tana) beauty. Mona walks around with her entire head bandaged until the finale when she reveals her hideous real appearance. Leni Tana didn’t want to wear all that terrible make-up at the end so Richard Cunha’s own wife filled in. One of the highlights of the film is a native dance number (accompanied by bongos) by the Diane Nellis Dancers, that is riotously funny. Cunha wrote the screenplay and interjected plenty of snappy, tongue-in-cheek dialogue, which makes She Demons so much fun.

            Cunha’s next was the deliriously deranged- Frankenstein’s Daughter. The film opens with bad girl and tease Suzie (Sally Todd), being dropped off by her blue balls boyfriend (Harold Lloyd Jr.). As he drives off she suddenly sees a young woman running down the sidewalk in a nightgown with hideous fangs and fuzzy eyebrows. The unfortunate “monster” is actually sweet, wholesome Trudy (Sandra Knight), who, nightly is unwittingly slipped a drug concoction created by mad scientist Oliver Frank (Donald Murphy), who works as an apprentice to Trudy’s Grandfather (Felix Locher). Oliver is really Oliver Frankenstein, a relative to the infamous monster-maker and he is secretly using the lab to help cobble together a female creature from stitched-together body parts collected by the gardener- Elsu (Wolfe Barzell). His final creation is this hilarious giant-headed disfigured creature played by Wallace Beery’s understudy- Harry Wilson– who dubbed himself “The Ugliest Man in Pictures.” The makeup for the monster was quickly designed on the set and when they came up to the director to reveal it, Cunha admitted “I nearly died.” But with the budget and shooting schedule they just had to live with it. Critics of the film mock the lumbering bucket-headed monster but to be honest it’s part of the film’s loony charm. Late in the film Trudy hosts a rock and roll barbecue around her pool with boyfriend Johnny (John Ashley) and Harold Lloyd Jr. joins the band to croak out two lackluster tunes “Special Date” and “Fly Away Tonight,” music no teenager in their right mind would ever listen to again.

            Cunha’s final sci-fi movie was the belovedly batshit Missile To The Moon, basically a remake of Cat-Women Of The Moon. Two fugitives- Gary (Tommy Cook) and Lon (Gary Clarke)- stowaway on a homemade rocket ship heading for the moon. The lead scientist  Dirk (Michael Whalen) finds two other unsuspecting travelers aboard- his daughter June (Cathy Downs) and her fiancé Steve Dayton (Richard Travis). Dirk is accidentally killed during a meteorite shower, but the gang does make it to the moon. There they are attacked by rock creatures (silly, Gumby-like creations) and are chased into a cave where they are captured by the female race that rule the moon, lorded over by their blind leader “The Lido” (K.T. Stevens). The moon women were played by International Beauty Queens, who, director Cunha admits, “were a real pain….none of them were actresses….and couldn’t hit marks and couldn’t say lines- it was frustrating.” There’s a stupid-looking giant spider at the end, which was a prop they rented from Universal Studios. “We paid practically nothing for it,” Cunha admits, and it shows.         

After that, Cunha went on to direct hundreds of commercials for TV, but his movies continue to live on because of their nutty, goofy appeal. Every time I watch them I find new things that astound and amuse me. And, in these anxiety-ridden days, they are just what the doctor ordered.