cLASSIC MOVIES

In the grand tradition of Golden Age TV, Monster Island Theater brings horrible horror movies and hideous surprises right into Alameda living rooms.

Hosted by Vicki Vampyr, Alameda's Ghouly Girl of the Midnight Hour, Monster Island Theater films are mostly down right awful; but that's why they need your love. At times, though, certain ones actually reach for the heavenly heights (or more fittingly, the Depths of Hell), and it's up to the viewer to decide which is which.

As Raymond Chandler said, "But down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid."

Everyone loves a good mystery, and the place to go in Alameda for a nefarious fix is Crime Street. These are movies the way they used to make them.

Tune in and you may have the feeling you just stepped out of a time machine into a forgotten neon city crowded with tough guys and curvy dames looking to make a big final score.

Though the last venue in Alameda to view a movie with your family from the comfort of your own automobile is long gone, Skyland Drive-In Theatre provides you with an opportunity to see some of those films that were geared to that uniquely American outdoor experience.

Yes, imagine yourself in a beautiful Chevy Bel-Air, gazing through the windshield of your mind for the most surreal Science Fiction cinema and the coolest and craziest Teenage Juvenile Delinquent movies.

From the late fifties until the mid-sixties, gladiators roamed the wide wide world of cinema, and an international smourgasbourd of dubbed actors and actresses, in countless epics of mighty splendor, were served up in savage stews of Greco-Roman mythologies, Biblical stories, folk-tales and melodramatic adventures.

These films, long gone from theaters and syndicated afternoon home pleasures, have been resurrected by Professor Edison J. Nello for Ancient Fantasies.

Each film in the series has gone through a careful, loving "cinematic reforestation" process under the supervision of Professor Nello, who also provides an insightful introduction to each film.