Larry Blamire's Masterpiece: The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra

                                                        

Sometimes there is nothing good on television at 6:00 a.m. But sometimes, you just luck out and find a gem. I love B movies. I know when we think of B movies, we think: poorly made; bad acting; bad scenery, etc. etc. But, sometimes a B movie is freaking great. This is a repost of a blog I wrote in 2012.

                                                                   
My younger sister Lucy and I live on the east coast, but my mother and middle sister, Jane, live in Napa California. Lucy and I head out west once a year to visit. While there, my sister, Jane, plans a steady string of day trips to keep us pretty much out all day, every day. We had been at Jane’s house for almost two weeks and Lucy and I were wearing down from all the day trips.

                                                              

                                                               

This one particular morning Lucy and I awoke at 6:00 in the morning to get ready for lunch on the Napa Wine Train. We dragged ourselves out to the kitchen and made a pot of coffee while waiting for everyone to wake up. Lucy was surfing the cable guide to find something to watch until the caffeine took effect. She came across a movie called The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra.                                                        

“Let’s watch this,” I said, not wanting to watch the news or infomercials that are usually on during that ungodly time of day. We did and we became instant fans of the film and the man who wrote and directed this science fiction gem, Mr. Larry Blamire.

The Film

The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra is a 20001 independent film that spoofs all those 1950 B movies that I grew up watching. Larry Blamire not only wrote the screenplay, but he directed the film and also had a part in the film.
                                                                 

                                                                  
He is a man of many talents. It stars Jennifer Blaire as Animala, Larry Blamire as Dr. Paul Armstrong, Fay Masterson as Betty Armstrong, Andrew Parks as Kro-Bar/Bammin, Susan McConnell as Lattis/Turgaso, Brian Howe as Dr. Roger Fleming, Dan Conroy as Ranger Brad, Robert Deveau as the Farmer and Darrin Reed as the mutant.

Plot

A scientist and his wife are searching for a meteorite that has crashed into the woods. This meteorite contains a rare element called atmosphereum. While searching for the meteorite, another scientist is asking a Ranger the location of Cadavra Cave. He’s looking for the lost skeleton.

Later that night, another meteorite crashes to earth and that is when the fun begins. We are introduced to two of the wackiest aliens to ever grace the big screen. Aliens Kro-Bar and Lattis from the planet Marva are stranded on earth with the ship’s pet mutant. They need the atmosphereum in order to return home. After disguising themselves as human, they are mistaken for the owners of a cabin. I’m still trying to figure out what the skeleton has to do with the story.                                                             

 

 

Fleming finds the alien’s device that morphed them into human shape and creates a helpmate from four different animals. Her name is Animala and she helps Fleming find the skeleton. From here on, the race is on when the aliens and Armstrong and his wife try to keep Fleming from resurrecting the Skeleton.

 

Conclusion

My sister Jane heard Lucy and me laughing out loud and she came out to investigate what had her two sisters so animated so very early in the morning. Plans to get an early start on the day’s events were forgotten as the three sisters watched The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra. Like I said before, I’m a lover of B movies. Larry Blamire expertly kept his film true to the B movie formula, but with one great difference. He included his audience into the joke and it was amazing.
                                                              

I’ve learned that the actors were instructed to act weird to make the film even crazier than it was. The aliens played by Andrew Parks and Susan McConnell should have gotten some type of award for their performance...freaking funny!
                                                       

There is a sequel, The Lost Skeleton Returns Again, but I haven’t seen this. My bad and I hope to find it on Netflix if possible. If you want to see a great spoof on B movies, please watch this film.