Teenage Zombies (1959, Katherine Victor, Don Sullivan, Paul Pepper, Mitzie Albertson) – Classic Movie Review 12,657

Jerry Warren’s infamously bad 1959 film Teenage Zombies stars Katherine Victor, Don Sullivan, Paul Pepper, Mitzie Albertson, and famed LA disc jockey Chuck Niles as hulking, bearded Ivan the Zombie, as well as Warren’s wife Brianne Murphy.

‘Young Pawns Thrust into Pulsating Cages of Horror in a Sadistic Experiment.’

Writer-producer-editor-director Jerry Warren’s 1959 film Teenage Zombies stars Katherine Victor, Don Sullivan, Paul Pepper, Mitzie Albertson, and famed LA disc jockey Chuck Niles as hulking, bearded Ivan the Zombie, as well as Warren’s wife and production manager Brianne Murphy. It is made by is made by the couple’s production company, G.B.M. Productions.

Katherine Victor stars as mad scientist Dr Myra, who turns a quartet of water-skiing teenagers named Reg (Don Sullivan), Skip (Paul Pepper), Julie (Mitzie Albertson), and Pam (Brianne Murphy) into her sex slaves thanks to her new nerve gas.

While sailing their boat, the teens accidentally come across the island run by Dr Myra, who, backed by Eastern foreign agents, intends to turn everyone in the US into mindless, obedient zombies. The teens find themselves imprisoned by zombie Ivan (Chuck Niles) in Pulsating Cages of Horror in Myra’s basement.

This unnervingly bad sci-fi chiller is hysterically funny if the mood is right to laugh at terrible movies. Evan Hayworth [billed as Mitch Evans] plays the Gorilla wearing a cheap rental costume.

Also in the cast are J L D Morrison, Steve Conte, Jay Hawk, Nan Green, Mike Concannon, and Don Neeley.

Chuck Niles recalled: ‘I was just walking around like Frankenstein, that’s all, no lines, just ‘gluergugluergu,’ and I’m pretty good at that. The movie was just terrible.’

The film was released as the top half of a double bill with Jerry Warren’s The Incredible Petrified World, first shown on November 12, 1959 and later released on April 16, 1960.

Warren writes the screenplay under his pseudonym of Jacques Lecoutier.

Katherine Victor (born Katena Ktenavea; August 18, 1923 – October 22, 2004) had appeared in Ron Ormond’s Mesa of Lost Women (1953). Her films with Warren include Teenage Zombies (1959), Creature of the Walking Dead (1965), House of the Black Death (1965), The Wild World of Batwoman (1966), and Frankenstein Island (1981). She said she met Warren by chance in mid-1957 while he was preparing Teenage Zombies. She recalled was surprised that he gave her almost no directorial help making the film.

Teenage Zombies is directed by Jerry Warren, runs 73 minutes, is made by G.B.M. Productions, is released by Governor Films Inc, is written by Jerry Warren [Jacques Lecoutier], is shot by Allen Chandler, is produced by Jerry Warren and Brianne Murphy, and is scored by Jerry Warren.

Release date: November  12, 1959.

It was not registered for copyright so it is in the public domain.

In September 2023, it resurfaced in the UK on TPTV.

© Derek Winnert 2023 – Classic Movie Review 12,657

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