Burt I. Gordon
Courtesy of Photofest
Bert I. Gordon, the sci-fi director who aimed to terrorize the drive-in residents of the 1950s and ’60s with a low-budget film featuring giant creatures, shrinking humans and radioactive monsters, has died. he was 100 years old.
Gordon died Wednesday of complications from a fall at his home in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, his daughter Patricia Gordon said. hollywood reporter.
Highlights (lowlights?) of his B-movie resume include: Cyclops (1957), amazing giant man (1957), beginning of the end (1957), earth vs spider (1958), Attack of the Puppet People (1958), tormented (1960), boy and pirate (1960) and picture mom dead (1966).
In the ’70s, Gordon directed Vince Edwards and Chuck Connors police ties (1973) and Screenplay and Director how to be successful in sex (1970), necromancy (1972), food of the gods (1976) and The Mac starring Joan Collins, ant empire (1977).
Perhaps as a way to keep costs down, Gordon’s films were often family affairs.His late wife Flora assisted him with low-quality special effects, and her late daughter Susan starred in four of his features. .
Although his film budgets were small, Gordon was nicknamed “Mr. BIG” (which is also his initials) and was able to get high-profile actors to work for him. Some are on the descent of their careers, others are on the rise.
Don Ameche, Martha Hyer and Zsa Zsa Gabor picture mom dead (Hedy Lamarr dropped out after being arrested for shoplifting); Peter Graves fought a giant grasshopper beginning of the end; Basil Rathbone practiced dastardly magic in the 1962s magic swordBeau Bridges and Ron Howard Youngsters Dealing with Mysterious Goo in the 1965s giant villagewhich featured a performance by The Beau Brummels.
Gordon’s most notable casting was Orson Welles, who has a penchant for the occult in horror films. necromancy.
Gordon was warned about Wells’ habit of blowing his nose at directors and insisting he only works from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. provided a refrigerator full of ribs.
“It was easy to see that he wanted his ego. [stroked] … All about him was that he was an important person. was Gordon recalled in 2003.
Gordon was also told never to ask Wells. citizen cane“Don’t tell me it’s your favorite movie. Don’t ask him how it was…just don’t mention it.”
amazing giant man played out the horrors of nuclear proliferation. It featured Glenn Langan as Colonel Glenn Manning trying to rescue a downed pilot near a plutonium bomb test site when an explosion occurs. Radiation exposure turns him into a 70-foot bald menace that terrorizes Las Vegas.
Gordon made a sequel, behemoth war, the following year.Manning somehow survived the fall from the Hoover Dam at the end of the first film, and the giant is now portrayed by Cyclops Star Duncan “Dean” Parkin.
All this was fodder for the comedy series host Mystery Science Theater 3000, brought Gordon Cannon to a new audience. “I saw it once and I didn’t like them making fun of [his work],” he said. “I take my films very seriously.”
Bert Ira Gordon was born on September 24, 1922 in Wells’ hometown of Kenosha, Wisconsin. His love of special effects can be traced back to the first film his camera gave him when he was nine years old.
“I use it to do tricks,” he explained. Or I did the “ghost” thing of rewinding the film in the darkroom. “
Gordon graduated from the University of Wisconsin and produced and shot The Adventures of 1954 after making television commercials. snake islandstarring Sonny Tufts as a treasure hunter.
he followed king dinosaur (1955), which he wrote and directed on a budget of $18,000. His special effects combined stock footage, rear projection, and an iguana (meaning the dinosaur in the title) that didn’t budge on anything Gordon did.
“Finally, I went to the library in Beverly Hills to find out about Gila monsters and lizards,” he recalled in 2014.
The next day, he brought a heavy heat lamp to the set to bring the herbivore to life.
Gordon’s films were always accompanied by the tagline “50 tons of creeping black terror!”how was it earth vs spider I got promoted. The film included a scene of a giant tarantula awakened by rock and roll.
of Attack of the Puppet People (“Puppet Dwarfs vs. Crushing Giant Beasts!”), John Hoyt plays a lone puppeteer who shrinks people to a sixth of their original size. Character played by June Kenny ( earth vs spider) applies for a job at his factory after her former secretary mysteriously disappears (you can guess what happened to her).
Hoyt has over 250 credits listed on IMDb. chalkboard jungle, spartacus and Cleopatra — but for him there was nothing better Attack of the Puppet People“Because he felt a sensitivity, an emotion he could discern,” Gordon noted.
In 2011, Gordon received a Career Achievement Award from the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films. he published his autobiography The amazing giant world of Mr. BIG,A year later.
And at 93, he has indicated that he is yet to be released. psychopath secret (2015), the first film in 26 years.
He was married to Flora for over 30 years before divorcing in 1979. She died in 2016 at the age of 90. Susan Gordon, who also appeared in the 1959 Danny Kaye film 5 pennies and in the episode of twilight zone and my three sonswas 62 when he died of cancer in 2011.
In addition to his daughter Patricia, he has a wife, Eva. Two other daughters, Christina and Carol. 6 grandchildren; and 19 great-grandchildren.
