Zugzwang! The Terror From Beyond Space
I've loved monster movies ever since I was a kid. On Saturday nights I would stop off at the bodega, buy some popcorn and orange drink, and settle in to watch Creature Features or Chiller Theater.
Like many local TV stations across the country back then, Creature Features had a host, called The Creep, who would introduce the mostly terrible monster movies.
They gradually disappeared over time, enjoying a brief revival with Elvira, Mistress of the Dark...
...and Joe Bob Briggs with TNT's Monstervision.
You can still find Joe Bob streaming on Shudder with The Last Drive-in, but as far as I know, the only remaining regular horror host is Svengoolie, on MeTV.
All of which is the long way around to telling you I was watching the 1958 classic It! The Terror from Beyond Space on Svengoolie last week. The film is best known for being the "inspiration" for 1979's Alien. In other words, Alien used A LOT of the plot and setpieces from It!
I've seen the film many times, but this was the first time I locked onto... the chess scene!
I've blown up the image, but it's impossible to distinguish the pieces from each other, so we can't tell if the position is a real one or just randomly staged for the camera. We do, however, have dialogue about the game, and here it is, verbatim (thanks, Scripts.com!):
Eric: "Every move I make's worse."
Van Heusen: "Ah, come on, Eric, resign."
Eric: "No! I haven't resigned a game in 30 years. I'll be damned if I'm gonna do it now."
Yes, Eric is in zugzwang and is being pigheaded about it. If he hasn't resigned a game in 30 years, he is either extremely good, or he gets checkmated a lot.
The game gets interrupted when a crew member goes missing. (Gee, I wonder what happened to him?) But Eric and his opponent, Carruthers, both end up surviving, so maybe they were able to continue after "vacation" was over. (A little Chess.com humor there.)
If you've spotted chess games in progress in film, TV or streaming, let me know. I'm always more interested in games where you can see the board well enough to re-create the positions.
