Bathing beauty loses head!... Human fly defies gravity!...

Lady, that's impossible!...

Own All This in One Film!:

• Disappearing Girl
  
• Food From the Air!
  
• The Lake Mirage
• Bathing Beauties Swim on Dry Land!
  
• Girl Holds Her Man!
  
• Headless Girl!
  
• India Rubber Girl!
  
• Human Fly!
  
• Split Stage Trick!
  
• Horse Race Run Backwards!
  
• Fish Jump into Boat!
  
• Bearded Lady!
  
• Waltzing Jeep!
  
• Cinderella & Magic Wand!
  
• 6-in-1 Drum Majorette!
  

No contest -- simply the best 180 feet of 8mm ever!

Sure, their wonky film editing or print quality frequently broke your heart, but no film company screamed exploitation quite like Ken Films! Rival Castle Films may have had the upperhand in the technical department (e.g., cogent editing and savvy box art), and they certainly had a more durable stable of attractions with perennial "cash cows" like Abbott & Costello, Woody Woodpecker and the Universal Monsters, but Ken Films occasionally hit a homerun with one of their digests, and could boast of its own unique roster of star attractions, too:

"Laugh with Jerry Lewis, thrill to Joan Crawford and Cary Grant, follow the exciting adventures of John Wayne and Charles Laughton!"...

Really, if you were itching to pursue the exciting adventures of John Wayne and Charles Laughton, there was no other game in town but Ken Films (at least, until the advent of Tom Dunnahoo's gray market Thunderbird Films in the 1970's, but that's another story!)...

Reel Image assistant, Sherman Osborne, has set the controls of the Wayback Machine to the years 1968 and 1970, for some nostalgic perusals of the coveted "Science Fiction" section of the Castle Films catalog!...

First stop is 1968, when Aurora Monster Models still inhabited toy store shelves... and every kid's secret wish was that Pop would forsake his corny "News Parade" collection and latch onto any film on this page!...

And one final adjustment of the Wayback's dial for a glimpse at the "Science Fiction" page from the 1970 catalog!...

Wouldn't it be great if we could still send for this vintage 1947 Castle Films catalog today? You will note it was offered absolutely free to all legitimate "projector owners" -- they being a very elite group indeed back in the day! Just imagine the unparalleled thrill of finding this in your mailbox and poring over those descriptions of "170 thrilling home movies"!

And just gape at those prices: $1.75 for 50-ft "Headline" in 8mm ($2.75 for silent 16mm headliner), and $5.50 for the "Complete" edition on 200-ft. reel (that's a whopping $17.50 for all those high rollers equipped with 16mm sound!). Surprisingly, those prices pretty much held steady into the 1960's! And as paltry as these prices might seem today, they remained pretty much a king's ransom to us boomer kids of that era! At best, we might have wangled a solitary "Complete" edition for an occasional big event like a birthday or Christmas gift (it would have never been a coveted "monstuh" title though; rest assured that Mom & Dad would probably spring for a "Zippy the Chimp" before they would ever consider "Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man")!

Be sure to check out the multipaged gallery of Castle Films box art offered by Mark Evanier by clicking on "The Mummy's Tomb of Castle Film Boxes" photo below! Mark also serves up a nice concise history of Castle Films!