Entry #14: Eegah

Release Date: April 1, 1965
Budget: $15,000

The first thing I noticed about Eegah was that it was shot in color: not so dazzling hues of pink and green.  The director must have spent nearly half of the budget on this extravagance.  It neither hurts nor helps this movie, but it is a nice change of pace from other movies shot in this time period.

The plot is unique and dumb: young woman, Roxy, stumbles across a prehistoric man in modern times and her father, a noted writer, goes looking for this crazy creature in hopes of a plot for a new book.  Eegah, the prehistoric man kept young by the sulfur spring in his cave (I think), eventually takes the woman and her dad hostage.  Roxy's boyfriend, Tommy, with the help of his rad dune buggy, saves the pair but not before Eegah has time to develop an unquenchable lust for the beautiful young heroine.  The caveman then goes on a rampage in town looking for his new love, but is ultimately shot by the police and killed by modern society. 

The lesson we learn is that cavemen just don't fit in today's face paced world.  Sorry to spoil it for you but remember, I watch them so you don't have to.

Some of my favorite (read: ridiculous) parts of Eegah are:

• Tommy is dashing young hero with a fine quaff of hair that doesn't change regardless of whether he goes swimming, sleeps in the desert, or fights cavemen;
• Tommy is also a fine guitar player.  So fine that whenever he picks up his guitar a full band starts playing behind him complete with backup singers and a bass guitar even if he is strumming alone by the pool or playing an acoustic in the MIDDLE OF THE FUCKING DESERT;  
• Eegah's beard is so fake that it makes the Creeping Terror look believable.  They should have spent some of the budget money on wardrobe and left this thing in black and white; 
• The dune buggy spends so much time on screen and plays such an integral part that it should have been credited with a role.  It almost makes me wonder if the Director didn't own this hot rod and was so proud of it that he insisted it be in half of the movie (you know how guys can be with cars); 
• After Tommy saves Roxy and her dad and is tearing out of the desert, he turns to Eegah and delivers the most memorable line of the movie: "So long highpockets!"  I can only imagine that "highpockets" was a very derogatory term in the 1960's, but I love it and aim to bring it back.

If Eegah had ended with Tommy's decree, it probably wouldn't even have made this list.  It's the last 30 minutes of Eegah stumbling about town, half scaring the bumbling townsfolk, and looking for Roxy that is truly painful.  The acting gets significantly worse, the action scenes seem to acted in slow motion, and plot really thins out (if that's possible).   

The bar has been set pretty low so far in this project so I have to break these movies down into their basic components to see how they compare: 1) The first hour of Eegah is mildly interesting, with chase scenes, love, and suspense. 2) the video and audio quality are tolerable, at points even seemingly like a big-boy movie; and 3) there are no strings visible over styrofoam UFOs.  Sure it's dumb, too long, and 1960's corny, but it isn't as dumb, poorly filmed, and corny as other movies of the genre (i.e. super low budget, shitty 60's movies). 

I give Eegah -7 stars.  Truthfully, if it had ended after 60 minutes, It would probably be in the -1 or -2 range.  I think I actually enjoyed the first 60 minutes, which makes me worried that I might be suffering from the bad movie version of Stockholm Syndrome. 

So long highpockets!  (get it trending among your friends)