Shameless Double Plug: Go On, Pre-Order Now

As a result of writing this Blog, I’ve come to the attention of the venerated Los Angeles-based Vinegar Syndrome outfit, specialists in revamped special editions of longlost DVDs, mostly of the cult variety. So I was recently called upon to head into the recording studio and deliver an audio commentary on The Terrornauts (1967), an Amicus production that was funded, somewhat unusually, by Joseph E. Levine, producer of Zulu (1964) and about to become a gazillionaire with The Graduate (1967).

He had commissioned Amicus to bring him a sci-fi double bill, with They Came from Beyond Space (1967) intended as the main feature. This was the program that went out in the United States. But much of the reason for The Terrornauts’ entry into cult territory was that it went A.W.O.L elsewhere, the other picture in Britain going out as the support to a bigger Hollywood-style feature, and so The Terrornauts was effectively left on the shelf.

Where it would have remained except for one of those flukes of the business.

Following the lack of any sightings of The Terrornauts on British cinema screens, star Simon Oates’s career took a dive, and he ended up in a succession of guest appearances on television series.

But then, as luck would have it, one of the earliest television ecological thrillers Doomwatch (1972) put him back in the limelight and, cashing in on that success, The Terrornauts saw the light of day.   

Or so the story of revival miracle went.

In fact, I discovered this wasn’t the case at all. The Terrornauts had appeared on movie screens the previous year as support to Flight of the Doves (1971). But that was a flop and pretty much the movie disappeared. And as is the way with movies that vanish for no apparent reason, a groundswell grew.

The result of which is this splendid 4K offering, with yours truly as a bonus feature.

I plugged my forthcoming book King of the Action Thriller, Films from the Mind of Alistair MacLean, due to be published later this year by McFarland, a month or so back. At the time I said it was available for pre-order. Turns out it wasn’t at the time. But it is now.

So what are you waiting for?

My Blogs on Alistair MacLean have proved among the most popular I’ve ever done, so there’s clearly a demand for more. In fact, it was once again, thanks to the Blog, and someone else reading it, that I embarked on the book in the first place.

I’d be remiss in all the flurry of shameless plugs not to mention my audio commentary for Henry Hathaway’s Dean Martin-Robert Mitchum mystery western Five Card Stud (1968) also from Vinegar Syndrome.

See below for ordering links.

https://vinegarsyndrome.com/

King of the Action Thriller