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Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970) in the PNW

Details: Written by: Administrator; Category: The 1970s in Northwest Cinemas; Hits: 435

This is a collection of media from the initial runs of "Beneath the Planet of the Apes" (1969) in the Pacific Northwest.

Click on images for larger versions

Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970)

“Beneath the Planet of the Apes” feels like a sequel made by people who knew the first film had already delivered the real blow and were now stuck wandering through the aftermath. Instead of building something new, it follows another stranded astronaut who moves through the wreckage like a man arriving late to a disaster everyone else has already given up on. The apes are still tangled in their rigid pecking order, clinging to authority out of habit more than conviction, and the humans hiding underground have twisted their survival into something half-religious and half-deranged. Every group is convinced it’s the last sane one left, and every group behaves like that’s enough reason to escalate.

The film trudges forward with a kind of weary fatalism. The adventure edge from the original is gone, replaced by a sense that the world is running on fumes. The apes march toward conflict because their leaders tell them to, and the humans cling to rituals that feel like they were invented by people who forgot what the rituals were supposed to mean. Ideology hangs over everything like a stale fog, and the movie keeps suggesting that once a society decides it’s chosen, it will gladly destroy itself to prove the point.

The world looks harsher this time. Sun‑blasted ruins above, claustrophobic chambers below, all of it giving the impression that civilization didn’t just collapse once but twice, and everyone is still picking through the rubble. The characters feel worn down, less like individuals and more like the last flickers of competing myths trying to outlast each other.

What makes “Beneath the Planet of the Apes” oddly compelling is how blunt it is about the absence of hope. It doesn’t try to outdo the original or twist the knife in some clever new way. It just walks deeper into the fallout and shows how every faction clings to its own sacred story until the whole thing becomes a slow-motion act of self-destruction. It’s bleak, strange, and strangely honest about how people behave when the world is already broken.

Director: Ted Post

Writers: Paul Dehn, Mort Abrahams, Pierre Boulle

Stars: James Franciscus, Kim Hunter, Maurice Evans

Buy "Beneath the Planet of the Apes" (1969) DVD on Amazon (SPONSORED)

Buy "Beneath the Planet of the Apes" (1969) bluray on Amazon (SPONSORED)

June 24, 1970 ad (Portland)

June 22, 1970 article (Portland)

June 23, 1970 ad (Portland)

June 24, 1970 photo (Portland)

June 25, 1970 ad (Portland)

June 26, 1970 ad (Portland)

July 1, 1970 ad (Seattle)

July 2, 1970 article (Seattle)

July 3, 1970 ad (Seattle)

July 4, 1970 ad (Seattle)

July 5, 1970 photo (Seattle)

July 5, 1970 ad (Seattle)

Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970) poster

Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970) trailer
Buy "Beneath the Planet of the Apes" (1969) DVD on Amazon (SPONSORED)
Buy "Beneath the Planet of the Apes" (1969) bluray on Amazon (SPONSORED)

Count Yorga, Vampire (1970) in the PNW

Details: Written by: Mortado; Category: The 1970s in Northwest Cinemas; Hits: 624

This is a collection of media from the initial runs of "Count Yorga, Vampire" (1969) in the Pacific Northwest. "The Dunwich Horror" was the second feature.

Click on images for larger versions.

Count Yorga, Vampire (1970)
“Count Yorga, Vampire” reads like a cranky postcard from a moment when horror was trying to grow up and kept tripping over its own shoelaces. It wants to be a serious update of the old vampire tale, but mostly ends up as a clever little con that knows how to look the part. The sets are thrift-store charming, and the camerawork is competent enough to keep you watching even when the script is content to circle the same idea until it wears thin.

The actors do the heavy lifting. The lead sells charm like a practiced pickpocket, and the rest of the cast wobble between genuine fear and the kind of obliviousness that makes the predator look smarter than fate. The film moves at a pace that sometimes feels like confidence and sometimes like laziness. Scares arrive not because the movie invents new terrors but because it keeps poking at the same soft spot until something gives.

What sticks is attitude more than plot. There is a sour little thesis here about a modern world that is too polite and too distracted to notice when something dangerous slips through the door. It is cynical without being preachy and rough around the edges in a way that can be oddly satisfying. If you go in expecting a polished masterpiece, you will be annoyed. If you go in wanting a compact, slightly sleazy mood piece that knows how to make a few effective choices and then walk away whistling, you will get your money's worth.

Director: Bob Kelljan
Writer: Bob Kelljan
Stars: Robert Quarry, Roger Perry, Michael Murphy
Buy "Count Yorga, Vampire" (1969) bluray on Amazon (SPONSORED)
Buy "Count Yorga, Vampire" (1969) DVD on Amazon (SPONSORED)

June 16, 1970 ad (Portland)