It all began with those Saturday-afternoon movies at the Roxy Theatre in downtown Tacoma when I was a boy. It cost a dime for the bus, a dime to get into the movie, and a dime for popcorn. The management knew how to pack 'em in on Saturday afternoons: science fiction and monsters were all it took to fill every seat in the Roxy.

Later, it was Creature Feature on Friday night at eleven on Channel 13. One had to be a bit older to persuade the parents that it was okay to stay up so late on a Friday night but the reward was a black-and-white cheaply-produced film with bad acting, awful dialogue and lots of thrills produced by aliens and mutants.

"The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra" is not about a time machine but is, itself, a sort of time machine. Made in 2001, it transports one back to the good old days of the Roxy Theatre and Creature Feature. Thanks, Larry Blamire -- who wrote it, directed it and stars in it -- for the trip.

The film is shot in black and white and recorded in mono, as it should be, for authenticity's sake. All the parts are there: a scientific scientist and his brainless but comely wife; a space ship stranded on Earth in seek of a rare element needed to power the ship for the return voyage; a skeleton with powers of mental telepathy, in need to the same rare element to be reanimated; a sexy woman made out of the parts of forest animals; a mutant with a huge rubber head and horrifying claws who is tamed by the beauty of a human female.

Ed Wood would have loved this movie .. and so did I. None of you cultured intellectuals will ever see it, but at least, if someone mentions it to you, you will have the benefit of my review.