Actuakers One of my all time favorites.

Ezmae Chang This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Mathilde the Guild Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Francene Odetta It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

Steve Nyland (Squonkamatic) Peter Graves sonorously narrates Sunn Classics uproarious Bigfoot documentary with all of the authority of Captain Crunch. The film is best remembered in my circle for a genuinely hair raising segment where Bigfoot rummages through the belongings of a group of "Boy Scouts" out camping without adult supervision. Attention is also given to the Loch Ness Monster and indeed, Graves is able to conclude with authority that it is a population of aquatic dinosaurs who have somehow escaped the ravages of time. He also concludes that Bigfoot is actually a population of 200 or more bipedal creatures who exist at one with nature, and have only come to our attention as mankind has cruelly encroached on their habitat with all our unwelcome riot & clamor.The same approach is found in Sunn Classic's "In Search of Noah's Ark", which taught us that the Ark split in two and rests half submerged in a glacier on Mount Ararat, just waiting for earnest Christians to free it from the ice. Sunn's "The Lincoln Conspiracy" also finds in favor of a complex conspiracy to assassinate Lincoln centered around super spy / traitor Union Colonel Lafayette Baker, who would have made Oliver Stone blush with embarrassment for his ham-fisted script for "JFK". And the overlooked "The Bermuda Triangle", which posits with authority that ships, airplanes and whole civilizations have been sucked into the very bowels of the Earth itself by a misfired Atlantean particle beam accelerator, lost somewhere off the coast of Bimini.The films are classic Americana, made with working class families who went to the movies two or three times a year in mind, demanding otherwise wholesome G-rated fare suitable for all-ages and fueled by a bizarre zeal to have it all be true even when flying in the face of common sense. "Mysterious Monsters" succeeds admirably, cashing in early on the Bigfoot craze that even "The Six Million Dollar Man" got caught up in and demanding our acceptance by appealing to our conscience rather than science. Forty years later there's still no hide or bones to study and it's to my personal disappointment that garbage films like this sort of got shoved under the carpet as people realized how stupid it all was. It is the right of earlier eras to be as slack-jawed and backward as they like. I for one marvel at garbage such as this film, celebrating with forthright authority man's unending quest to sucker each other out of a couple dollars — In this case, movie tickets, and it worked brilliantly. These movies all made gobs of money with almost nothing up front, though don't sell the talents of the filmmakers short. They knew exactly what they were doing just like the guy at the carnival sideshow knows what he is doing. It's called show business.The results are actually highly entertaining, the one slow spot in the film being a sequence where a "psychiatrist" is shown "hypnotizing" his "patient", who relates a tale so filled with mystery as to sound not just poorly scripted, but unrehearsed. Yet that's half the fun. Not just marveling at how bad, dumb or outrageously idiotic the movie is, but in knowing that it was the best they could manage under the circumstances. Which means there's hope for the rest of us, or at least those of us who refuse to stop believing in Bigfoot and the Bermuda Triangle, UFOs or "Ancient Aliens". Take your pick, spark up and just enjoy being smarter than the dimwits who paid money to see this, ate it up whole, and went home wanting more. Now that's funny.

a_l_i_e_n "The Mysterious Monsters" deals with the search for creatures science is not yet prepared to confirm the reality of. The elusive "stars" of this film are Big Foot, The Abomidable Snowman and The Loch Ness Monster. I actually saw this movie in a theatre in 1976, and one thing I do recall is being astonished to witness for the first time in my life the famous "Patterson film", blown up to a 35 millimeter print and projected on a big screen. "Look at that!" I gushed to my buddy Ian as an actual sasquatch marched across the screen, elongated arms a swingin'. Then, in the film's most famous image (frame 325), "she" turned and looked straight out at all of us in the theatre. That for me was certainly the highlight of this movie, although it did have some other interesting bits. I liked the part where star/narrator Peter Graves takes a brief case to psychic, Peter Herkos. Graves then asks Herkos, who allegedly was told nothing about the contents of the case, to draw a picture based on any "impressions" he received from what was inside. Herkos then draws a picture of a large hairy looking man. So what was in the case? A plaster cast made from an alleged Big Foot track. There was also a couple fairly jolting dramatic recreations. In one, a fisherman discovers a Big Foot "monkeying" with his net. Another depicted an incident in which a woman was visited by a Big Foot that stuck it's hairy arm through her front window. Those were the most memorable original parts of "The Mysterious Monsters." The rest of the movie however seemed to be pretty much all culled from a television special that ran on CBS a couple years before called "Monsters- Mysteries Or Myths?", the true benchmark for documentaries dealing with the strange and paranormal.Back then it was a widely executed trick to take a television show or made-for-TV-movie and release it to theatres (particularly in Canada) with some extra footage (maybe 10 or 15 minutes worth) not shown for the TV airing. The original "Battlestar Gallactica" is a case in point. Of course we'd pay theatre admission prices to see it cuz, well, because we didn't know the bloody thing would be shown for free on American television in a few months.That aside, what made this the rare documentary to be re-packaged for theatres was the huge sensation "Monster- Mysteries Or Myths?" caused upon it's initial television airing. Nothing before this show had on so massive a scale spread the word about the possible existence of Big Foot. The Internet and tabloid shows, which today would be the normal route for any new "evidence" about the existence of mysterious creatures simply didn't exist in the 1970's. The National Enquirer was probably the only major source for paranormal news back then so it was like a revelation when this special aired. Plus, the fact it was a professional looking documentary (produced by the Smithsonian Institute no less) that took a serious approach to the subject matter didn't hurt either. Add to the mix some well composed, spooky music and coolest of all, the excellent choice of Rod Serling as narrator, and the result was something that held a massive TV audience it's very grip. Producer Robert Guenette did not disappoint, globe trotting first to the Himaylas for a look at the mystery of the abominable Snow Man. One portion presented "evidence" from an expedition that recovered a Yeti scalp, hide, and even a mummified Yeti hand. Witnesses included a Sherpa girl who claimed to have been attacked by the Snow Man. How salaciously cool is that?Next the program shifted to the continuing search for Yeti's North American cousin, Big Foot. This section included interviews with sasquatch hunters prowling the densely wooded areas of Oregon and northern California; verbal accounts by eye witnesses (some of whom really did look like hicks); and a very scary dramatic recreation in which Big Foot pays a late night visit to a boyscout troop. Richard Kiel ("Jaws" from the Bond movies) wearing excellent makeup played the curious sasquatch. The only disappointing thing about "Monsters- Mysteries Or Myths?" was the absence of the famous "Patterson film", but as mentioned above, they corrected that by featuring it prominently when the documentary was re-packaged for the theatres and released as "The Mysterious Monsters". Finally, the special traveled to Scotland for a look into the search for the Loch Ness Monster. This segment included strange sonar blips, the famous "Dinsdale Film" (considered the most convincing footage ever taken of "Nessie"), as well as the now discredited "Surgeon's Photo". There was also a shocking piece of film in which a man in a speed boat is killed on the Loch after striking a mysterious turbulence. Of course some Scottish eye witnesses were presented including a vicar who, as you listen to him, you can't help but ask yourself, "how could a man of the cloth who seems as kindly as this chap be lying?" The original "Monsters- Mysteries or Myths?" became the highest rated documentary in television history. A record that stood until at least the early 1990's, and as far as I know still holds to this day. It certainly posed some fascinating questions but answered none about whether these creatures really do exist. One thing is certain though: "Monsters- Mysteries Or Myths?" did more to educate the public about crypto-zoology than anything before it, inspiring a host of crypto-zoological and paranormal-themed imitators like "Man Beast", "The Outerspace Connection" and "In Search Of Noah's Ark".

chargersouthpaw I recorded this movie off of TBS years ago & have just about worn out the tape from watching it over & over again. It covers just about everything you want to know about Bigfoot up until 1975. I would love to see Peter Graves do an updated version with all of the new info that has come out in the past 30 years. The Patterson Film is always the best part of any Bigfoot documentary. Even in 2005 there is nobody that has been able to prove that the film is a fake. I really don't see how anybody can think that it is a man in a monkey suit on that film. There is no way on God's green earth that somebody could have done that good of a job making a suit like that in 1967. Also, hoaxes are really hard to keep up for long periods of time because somebody usually gets loose lipped. Patterson died in '72 & swore on his death bed that the film was real. Bob Gimlin has said that he hasn't made a dime off of the film so if it was a fake, you would think that he would blow the whistle & then collect a ton of money going on the talk show circuit. Then there would be the guy who "played" Bigfoot. Bob Heironimus has said that he was the guy in the suit & was paid $1,000 to do it but never received his money so he started telling people around Yakima, Washington that he was Bigfoot. Until either Bob Gimlin says it was a fake or someone finds the "suit", I will always believe that that film is real.

james-humphrey-1 This movie, which appears to take it self very seriously as a scientific documentary, argues its points so poorly and with such 70's flair (see Peter Graves) that it succeeds grandly as a mockumentary of itself and what passed for "science" 30 years ago. It's a laugh riot. Other than the big budget reenactments (which are entertaining in themselves), you'll wonder whether this film was written, directed, and edited for a 7th grade science project. Watch this film with other well-educated 30 somethings and be transported back to the days when you were scared @#$!less by Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster, and killer bees. Hey, aren't those killer bees supposed to have overrun America by now? (Disclaimer: killer bees may not appear in this film.)