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Dragon's Domain Records presents THE ALBERT GLASSER COLLECTION, VOLUME 9: HORROR. The 1950s were Albert Glasser's busiest as a film composer, scoring many films across multiple genres. With this ninth collection of the composer's music, we are pleased to explore two films focusing on horror that Glasser scored in the late 1950s: ATTACK OF THE PUPPET PEOPLE and GIANT FROM THE UNKNOWN.
Released in 1958, GIANT FROM THE UNKNOWN was directed by Richard E. Cunha, written by Frank Hart Taussig and Ralph Brooke, starring Ed Kemmer, Sally Fraser, Bob Steele, Morris Ankrum, Oliver Blake, Jolene Brand, Billy Dix, Gary Crutcher and Buddy Baer as the Diablo Giant.
Set in a rural California community overshadowed by local superstition and fear, GIANT FROM THE UNKNOWN begins with a string of mysterious livestock killings blamed on an ancient Native American curse. Local resident "Indian" Joe (Dix) warns the townspeople that the region is haunted by the spirit of a murderous giant executed generations earlier for crimes against Native Americans during the Spanish colonial era. Skeptical archaeologist Dr. Cleveland (Kemmer) and his daughter Janet (Fraser) investigate the legend while researching the historical presence of conquistadors in the area. Their discoveries eventually uncover the terrifying truth: the so-called "Diablo Giant" is a gigantic armored Spaniard who has somehow survived for centuries and now stalks the countryside killing anyone who crosses his path...
Also released in 1958, ATTACK OF THE PUPPET PEOPLE was directed by Bert I. Gordon, written by George Worthing Yates and Gordon, starring John Agar, John Hoyt, June Kenney, Michael Mark, Jack Kosslyn, Marlene Willis, Ken Miller, Laurie Mitchell, Scott Peters, Susan Gordon, Jean Moorhead and Hal Bogart.
ATTACK OF THE PUPPET PEOPLE follows Sally Reynolds (Kenney) as she accepts employment as secretary to the soft-spoken but unnervingly possessive Franz (Hoyt), whose office and private quarters are filled with eerily realistic dolls displayed in glass cases. When Sally's fiancé Bob Westley (Agar) mysteriously disappears, she begins to suspect Franz after noticing that one of the figurines bears an uncanny resemblance to Bob himself. Her fears deepen when she learns that Franz's former secretary (Moorhead) vanished under similarly suspicious circumstances.
The police initially dismiss Sally's increasingly frantic claims, believing stress and imagination are clouding her judgment. But Franz's horrifying secret is eventually revealed: using a shrinking device of his own invention, he miniaturizes people and keeps them imprisoned in suspended animation as permanent companions who can never leave him. When Sally threatens to resign, Franz subjects her to the same fate. Believing his tiny captives helpless, Franz revives Bob and several others to keep Sally company. Unfortunately for him, the miniature prisoners soon realize that their combined intelligence and determination may finally allow them to escape and turn the tables on their gigantic captor...
Born January 25, 1916, Albert Glasser was a composer, conductor and arranger of film music. One of the most prolific B-movie composers, Albert Glasser started off as a copyist in the music department at Warner Brothers in the late 1930s, learning the art of film scoring from scratch while working under Max Steiner and Erich Wolfgang Korngold. He graduated to orchestrating, and by the mid-1940s was composing his own scores. He scored approximately 200 films during his career, many for American International Pictures and director Bert I. Gordon. For the US War Department, Glasser composed for Frank Capra's Special Services Unit and for Office of War Information radio shows for overseas broadcasts. For television, he composed the score for THE CISCO KID. For radio, he composed scores for HOPALONG CASSIDY, CLYDE BEATTY, and TARZAN.
Dragon's Domain Records presents THE ALBERT GLASSER COLLECTION VOLUME 9: HORROR, featuring the premiere release of original music composed by Albert Glasser for ATTACK OF THE PUPPET PEOPLE and GIANT FROM THE UNKNOWN, mastered by James Nelson at Digital Outland. The booklet contains liner notes written by noted author David Hirsch.
- BSX
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