Don't know why I suddenly had the urge to see this low-budget TV movie once again (after not having seen it in many years), actually I don't even know how or why I remember it at all, but I did and quick as a wink found it available for streaming on youtube. That's the problem with the Internet, there's just too much instant gratification. It would have helped my character a little if I'd had to spend some time looking. Well, at least, the quality of the print wasn't perfect.
This is actor Cornell Wilde near the end of his long career, so he is playing the father here, sleep-walking though the part of Dr. Mercer Boley, a paleontology professor (I think that's what he's called) who specializes in debunking old monster myths, fetishes and practices and writing best-selling books about it all. He is joined by his daughter Diana (Jennifer Salt) for the summer while he completes his latest research for an upcoming - as he describes it - '...nice,coffee table book.'
Salt is a baby-voiced, would-be journalist in a fetching 1970 'hippie' ensemble - flowing pants, beads and skimpy halter. I remember my brother swooning over this vision - he was then a callow young lad with rampaging hormones and Jennifer Salt was supposedly 'hot'. Looking back from 2013, I'm afraid whatever it was she had then seems to have been diluted by the mists of time or some such. But as usual, I digress.
Heading out from the airport, Dr. Boley and his daughter are immediately caught up in his current research when stopping by an eccentric old geezer's road-side 'museum' to check out some promised rare specimens, they are promptly attacked by creatures in the night. The 'museum' goes up in flames and so does the old geezer. But not before he'd shown Dr. Boley his prize possession, a giant skeleton of an upright humanoid animal with bat-like wings and horns. Uh-oh.
Father and daughter make a tentative escape in their station-wagon but not before something drops on the roof of the car and leaves great claw marks. That something is a reptilian, scaly-skinned creature who causes the winsome Miss Boley to emit ear-splitting screeches.
Somehow the much put-upon car makes it to a convenient gas station in the middle of nowhere - I might add that this whole film takes place in as uninhabited a desert town as hasn't been seen on-screen since the 1950's monster movies. Remember THEM? You get the idea.
The gas station is within walking distance of a motel and oh by the way, the police station.
Anyway, once Boley, the daughter, the sheriff and his deputy head out to investigate the crime scene, they run into some dirt bikers - one of whom is the young and lanky and handsome Scott Glenn in a very early role. The sheriff is eager to close the case so he pounces on the dirt-bikers as the likely culprits. Boley and Diana haven't mentioned the 'monsters in the night' thing going on because Boley says they have no real proof - yet. He is foolishly hoping to keep things quiet until he gets his book written. Yeah, right.
Well, one thing leads to another and yet another and before you know it, the winsome Miss Diana has been spirited away by the king of the gargoyles played rather effectively (with some ferocious make-up) by Bernie Casey.
The king is quite taken with the nubile young human with gold hoop earrings and white halter top. (So it wasn't only my brother who lusted after Jennifer Salt back in the day.)
The gargoyle king drops his captive back at the cave in the hills where the other gargoyles reside. A jealous female instantly catches on that human-girl might be competition. She's having none of that.
"You must teach me, Diana," says the king. She is holding her father's books which have turned up in the cave (I think some of the younger, wingless gargoyles took them from the motel room or maybe the car) and which the king needs to understand in order to save his species from annihilation.
There are lots and lots of scenes showing Diana in her halter top.
The gargoyle egg nursery - incubation time: 400 - 500 years. And we thought nine months was rough.
In the meantime, while Diana is learning about gargoyle sociology, the dirt-bikers, the sheriff, the deputy and Dr. Boyle are busy fending off attacks out in the desert as they get closer to the caves. Boyle is helped in his endeavor to save Diana by - you guessed it - the jealous female of the species.
Boyle decides the eggs must all be destroyed (there are tens of thousands) to save mankind. In the resulting melee, the king and his consort fly away into the night. What happens next? You'll have to wait another 400 to 500 years to find out.
Despite the desperately low budget, lackluster dialogue, wooden acting (except from Bernie Casey who is marvelous) the film is a hoot and even has its creepy moments. You will definitely need some popcorn to wile away the dull stretches - mostly shots of cars driving on deserted highways - and also because movie monsters and popcorn just naturally go together.
Since it's Tuesday, don't forget to check in at Todd Mason's blog, Sweet Freedom, to see what other overlooked or forgotten films and/or audio visuals, other bloggers are talking about today. There is usually something to suit any mood.
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