Product Details

• Actors: Jackie Coogan, Allan Nixon, Richard Travis, Lyle Talbot, Mary Hill
• Directors: Ron Ormond, Herbert Tevos
• Format: Black & White, NTSC
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Englewood Entertainment
• VHS Release Date: November 2, 1998
• Run Time: 70 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6305187886
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #83,735 in Video (See Bestsellers in Video)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
Jackie Coogan as a mad scientist? You mean Uncle Fester? Of course, why not? As the mad scientist in Mesa of Lost Women, Coogan has assembled a race of scantily clad superwomen, "spider women" with long fingernails, led by an enormous tarantula. Deep in the Mexican interior, a researcher (Robert Knapp) tries to get to the bottom of things, but winds up under the spider women's spell, and puts in a weird, lobotomized goody-two-shoes performance for the rest of the film. Anyone who's a fan of Ed Wood's celluloid atrocities The Giant Leeches, The Giant Gila Monster, or countless other examples of '50s sci-fi junk should love the almost incomprehensible Mesa of Lost Women. In fact, Ed Wood fans should recognize this movie's incredibly irritating classical guitar and piano score from Wood's stinker Jailbait. From the first clumsy dance number in a Mexican bar to the movie's high-tension finale, this is jaw-dropping stuff. --Jerry Renshaw

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars OF MICE, SPIDERS AND FREAKS, January 18, 2001

By	Thomas E. O'Sullivan (Knoxville, Maryland United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Mesa of Lost Women (DVD)

A difficult and preachy film that falls into that slender catagory of 1950's sci-fi/horror set outside the United States and in Mexico - South of the Border chillers (KRONOS is another) - where the labor was cheap, the deserts always dry and the talent always in a sweat. The story behind MESA is simple enough - a mad doctor has crossed the power of a spider with the sexual wiles of the female form - creating a labor force of immortal, super strong and mute women who do his every bidding, biting and killing for... reasons unknown. Like all mad scientists he simply does what he does because he can... no reason needed. While MESA comes up short in many ways (is it a cautionary tale? Is it an environmental feature?), it does have it's moments - the best being found in Harmon Stevens performance as Dr. Leland Masterson - a man turned mad by the experiments of Dr. Arana (our evil villian) - whose performance is a near exact copy of Lon Chaney Jr. as "Lenny" in OF MICE AND MEN (in fact, Leland has escaped from a mental hospital in this film and is being hunted down by a man named "George") - very uncanny. This film also features THE SPIDER - perhaps one of the most often used monster props in fast and cheap sci-fi movies in the 1950's (you can also see it in MISSLE TO THE MOON), plus there is a cameo of Dolores Fuller (GLEN OR GLENDA) - the one time love and leading lady of Ed Wood. While this kind of movie is not for everyone - collectors will want this film - it crosses so many lines (there are moments in this film which have a Todd Browning FREAKS feel to it which is too exact to be anything but direct theft), it has one good performance, one famous name (Coogan) - and one awful leading lady, Mary Hill - whose line delivery is so emotionless that you can see the punctuation at the end of every sentence - awful - but fun. As for the casual viewer - I do recommend MESA OF LOST WOMEN as it is a true conversation piece, and despite how bad it is - you will watch it straight through, not understand one moment of it - and then find yourself wanting to watch it again just to see if it was really that bad.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mesa Of Uncle Fester, May 10, 2003

By	Bindy Sue Frønkünschtein "bigfootsalienbaby" (under the rubble) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

This review is from: Mesa of Lost Women (DVD)

Mesa Of Lost Women is one of my favorite hunks of cheese! Jackie Coogan (yep, uncle Fester) is a mad scientist, working with petuitary gland transplants. He's successfully transplanted tarantula glands into human women (it doesn't work on men, only turns them into evil dwarves), turning them into mute amazons with extremely tacky wigs. Another scientist visits Dr. Fester and sees the horrible experiments. He refuses to help, so the head spider-woman "Taran-Tella" (Tandra Quinn) injects him with a serum that seems to make him bonkers. The good doctor ends up in the nuthouse, only to escape out a window. Anyway, he seeks revenge on Taran-Tella and shoots her (after she is allowed to dance in a saloon, causing hearts to race). The vengeful, nutty doctor then forces a pilot (Allan Nixon) to take him back to the mesa. Lots of spider-women and dwarves roam around aimlessly. A giant, stuffed tarantula flops onto a hapless victim or two, and fun is had by all. The ending is no surprise, but I'll not spoil it here. The soundtrack is hideous!! A flamenco guitar twangs along, accompanied by piano work best described as being played by a hammer-handed baboon on acid! Highly recommended...

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Oh, yeah - Film's a collaborative art..., July 20, 2000

By	"drfreex" (Houston, TX USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mesa of Lost Women [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Fans of astounding cinema will enjoy this movie, since it plays like a lost Ed Wood film. Ron Ormond took an unfinished movie started by Herbert Tevos, and tried to finish it with minimal effort - the story is presented as a flashback via a minor character who couldn't possibly know the story, continuity errors and overripe dialogue abound. Jackie Coogan (!) plays a mad scientist who is creating giant spider puppets and then turning them either into knock-out women or leering dwarves. An incredibly odd movie.