Eegah

One night after shopping, Roxy Miller (Marilyn Manning) is driving to a party through the California desert when she nearly runs her car into Eegah (Richard Kiel), a giant caveman. She tells her boyfriend Tom Nelson (Arch Hall Jr.) and her father Robert Miller (Arch Hall Sr.) about the giant. Her father, a writer of adventure books, decides to go into the desert to look for the creature and possibly take a photograph of it. When his helicopter ride fails to show up at his designated pickup time, Tom and Roxy go looking for him.

Roxy is soon kidnapped by Eegah and taken back to his cave while Tom searches for her. In Eegah's cave, Roxy is reunited with her father, who tells her that he has begun to communicate with the caveman and has developed a theory as to the creature's astounding longevity. When a frisky Eegah expresses what seems to be a romantic interest in Roxy, her father, fearful that the creature may kill them both if he is rebuffed, suggests she put up with as much of it as she can bear. Eegah never tries anything too explicit, though, and Roxy even ends up giving him a shave before Tom arrives and helps the Millers escape. Crushed, Eegah follows them back to civilization, a final confrontation ensues, and Eegah is killed.

• Arch Hall Jr. as Tom Nelson
• Marilyn Manning as Roxy Miller
• Richard Kiel as Eegah
• Arch Hall Sr. as Robert Miller
• Clay Stearns as Band Member
• Bob Davis as George
• Deke Richards as Band Member
• Ron Shane as Detective
• Addalyn Pollitt as George's Wife
• Lloyd Williams as Mr. Kruger, Helicopter Pilot
• Ray Dennis Steckler as Mr. Fishman
• Bill Rice as Chef
• Carolyn Brandt as Fishman's Girl

Arch Hall Jr plays the main protagonist in this cult classic

Following the financial success of his first venture into the drive-in/juvenile delinquency genre, The Choppers, Arch Hall Sr. was able to fund Eegah, a starring vehicle for his son, Arch Hall Jr., who had some success with songwriter Alan O'Day on the rock and roll/surf rock scene in Los Angeles. Hall Sr. co-wrote the film with Bob Wehling, directed the picture under the pseudonym Nicholas Merriweather, and co-starred opposite his son under the name William Watters. While the library music used to underscore the picture was supplied by André Brummer (under the name Henri Price), an uncredited O'Day ended up being the music editor on Eegah.

Hall Sr. looked to create an Elvis Presley-style screen persona for his son and made sure that Eegah was peppered with various rock and roll songs (including two songs he wrote called "Vicky" and "Valerie"). The film attempts elements of traditional schlock-horror and youth-comedy genres and anticipates the 1960s "beach party" genre. One of the members of the rock and roll band shown in the film was Deke Lussier, who, as Deke Richards, later became a highly respected songwriter and record producer at Motown Records.[2]

Hall Sr.'s company, Fairway-International Pictures, located in Burbank, California, was also Hall's place of residence and doubled for a number of locations in the picture, including the Millers' apartment.

Assistant cameraman Ray Dennis Steckler appears in the picture as Mr. Fischer, the man at the hotel who is thrown at the pool near the end of the picture. Steckler, who had previously moved to Hollywood to become a cameraman, made his directing debut the next year in the Arch Hall Jr. vehicle Wild Guitar. Steckler's first independent feature, The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies!!?, was later distributed by Fairway-International.

Often considered to be one of the worst films ever made, the film has a rare approval rating of 0% on Rotten Tomatoes, with 8 critical reviews.[3] The first real notoriety the film had past its initial release was being included in the 1978 book The Fifty Worst Films of All Time. In his Classic Movie Guide, film critic Leonard Maltin awarded the film a "bomb", his lowest rating possible, calling it "A staple at 'All-Time Worst Film' festivals".[4] Writing in DVD Talk, critic Ian Jane described the film as "terrible in all the right ways" and "about as bottom of the barrel as they come".[5]

The film is listed in Golden Raspberry Award founder John Wilson's book The Official Razzie Movie Guide as one of the "100 Most Enjoyably Bad Movies Ever Made."[6]

A still from the infamous scene where Eegah licks shaving cream

In 1993, Eegah! was featured on Comedy Central's cult television series Mystery Science Theater 3000 and became a fan favorite. In the published episode guide to the series, The Mystery Science Theater 3000 Amazing Colossal Episode Guide (ISBN 0-553-37783-3), the cast considers the shaving scene from Eegah, in which Eegah lolls his tongue around and laps up shaving cream, to be one of the most disgusting things they have witnessed during their time on the show. The writers also speculate that some kind of romantic relationship existed between Arch Hall Sr. and his on-screen daughter Marilyn Manning, due to the uncomfortably non-familial chemistry in their scenes together. One of the film's more inept moments became a running joke on the show: Hall Sr.'s line "Watch out for snakes!" is blurted out despite a lack of any visual source for the dialog.

In 2009, Eegah! was featured in a season five episode of the television series Cinema Insomnia.[7]

• List of American films of 1962

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Eegah.

• Eegah at IMDb
• Eegah at AllMovie
• Eegah at the TCM Movie Database
• Eegah at the American Film Institute Catalog
• Eegah is available for free viewing and download at the Internet Archive