Monster Dog

You always learn something new at the Lucky 13 Saloon. The other night, my friends and I were admiring the promising title of the film Monster Dog (set to the Lucky 13's jukebox soundtrack, of course) when we were startled to see that the film's star looked just like the former Vincent Furnier.

It turns out that in 1984, in the depths of his commercial and artistic decline (before his comeback), Alice Cooper starred in a Spanish horror movie, as a rock star ("Vince Raven") dealing with a slew of, yes, monster dogs. To dedicate another sentence to the plot would give it more credit than it deserves, but it is a blast to watch Cooper, the film's sole good actor, ham it up among the b-special effects. He even gets a song, "Identity Crises," which proclaims "I've got an image out of control," as if anyone with a passing interest in this movie didn't already know that about Alice. But no matter how much he feels like "James Bond...Billy the Kid...Sherlock Holmes...Jack the Ripper," there's no escaping the fact that he's Alice, a first class rock star who shines in every role, even Monster Dog.