Friday, October 31, 2014

THE OTHERS - LESSER KNOWN HORROR FILM STARS

Let's face it there are iconic of horror film actors that people of any age can name and recognize. Karloff, Lugosi, Chaney, Price, Lorre, Christopher Lee, and Peter Cushing. You might even add Jack Nicholson into the mix.

And then there are some horror film actors, who were utility players or the farm team. They may not have worked for the big studios, may have labored in the shadow of the big stars, worked in other countries or their lives were tragically cut short, however, no self-respecting monster kid would say they don't know who they are. Even casual fans see them and go "Oh yeah, THAT GUY!" So, I decided to pay homage to those individual who were the stars of some lesser know films, but defiantly should be remembered.

LIONEL ATWILL

Lionel Atwill worked both in horror films for Warner Brother and Universal. Usually played a mad scientist.


LESLIE BANKS
Stared in CHAMBER OF HORRORS and THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME.

JOHN CARRADINE
I really don't have room to list every horror film John Carradine was in, but I also don't have room to list every Western John Carradine was in. Second to Christopher Lee for playing Dracula the most times.

TOD SLAUGHTER
I wrote about his turn as Sweeney Todd in another post. He also was in the overlooked werewolf film, THE FACE AT THE WINDOW, as well as HORROR MANIACS, THE MURDER IN THE RED BARN, and THE CRIMES AT THE DARK HOUSE.

J. CARROLL NASH
Among his horror credits include DRACULA VS FRANKENSTEIN, THE BEAST WITH FIVE FINGERS, THE MONSTER MAKER, HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN, and DR. RENAULT'S SECRET.

GEORGE ZUCCO
Appeared in THE MUMMY'S HAND, THE MONSTER & THE GIRL,THE MAD MONSTER, DR. RENAULT'S SECRET, THE MUMMY'S TOMB, DEAD MEN WALK, THE MAD GHOUL, VOODOO MAN, FOG ISLAND, and RETURN OF THE APE MAN, and several others.

LARID CREGAR
Stared in the sound version of THE LODGER and HANGOVER SQUARE. Died from excessive weight loss on a crash diet.
ANTON DIFFRING
The perfect Aryan villain. Appeared in THE MAN WHO COULD CHEAT DEATH, CIRCUS OF HORRORS, FAHRENHEIT 451, THE BEAST MUST DIE, and played Dr. Frankenstein in a famous Hammer/Universal TV pilot, The Tales of Frankenstein.

MICHAEL GOUGH
Appeared in THE HORRORS OF THE BLACK MUSEUM, THE SKULL, KONGA, BLACK ZOO, DR. TERROR'S HOUSE OF HORRORS, CURSE OF THE CRIMSON ALTAR, and many others. Also played Alfred the Butler in the Batman movie series.

GERMAN ROBLES
Starred in THE VAMPIRE, THE VAMPIRE'S COFFIN, THE CURSE OF NOSTRADAMUS, THE CASTLE OF MONSTERS, THE BLOOD OF NOSTRADAMUS, NOSTRADAMUS AND THE DESTROYER OF MONSTER, and THE BRAINIAC. He also dubbed the Spanish voices of Dr. Tom Horton on Days of Our Lives, KITT on Knight Rider and both Col. Henry Blake & Col. Sherman Potter on M*A*S*H.
PAUL NASCHY
The King of Spanish horror films. Best known as the cursed werewolf, Waldermar Daninsky. Here is his IMDB listing.
ROBERT QUARY
He was Count Yorga. Nuff said.

DAVID HESS
Best known as Krug in THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT, he also appeared in HOUSE ON THE EDGE OF THE PARK, SWAMP THING, BODY COUNT, and ZOMBIE NATION. Also wrote the songs "Start Movin" for Sal Mineo, "I Got Stung" for Elvis and "Speedy Gonzales" for Pat Boone.

Thursday, October 30, 2014

#THROWBACK THURSDAY - SUPER 8 MONSTER MOVIES


I always wanted a movie projector, so I could get these Super 8 monster movies and watch them. They were sold locally at K-Mart and in the back of Famous Monsters, Creepy, Vampirella and Eerie magazines. They were severely edited versions of the original and even had different titles. Here is a photo of some boxes I found on Pinterest.

#THROWBACK THURSDAY - HALLOWEEN COSTUMES & MASK

HAPPY CLOWN
FRANKENSTEIN MONSTER
THE HULK
MISS KITTY
GRANNY CLAMPETT
SAMANTHA
HERMAN MUNSTER
A BEATLE
UNDERDOG
BATMAN
THE SHADOW
BART SIMPSON
BARNABAS COLLINS


Wednesday, October 29, 2014

THREE DEMON BARBERS WITH NO WAITING - SWEENEY TODD IN THE MOVIES

In the world of horror movies, popular characters show up in multiple films and remakes. I would not attempt to cover the numerous film versions of Frankenstein, Dracula or Dr. Jeckle and Mr. Hyde, in one post. On the other hand, there are three film versions of the story of Sweeney Todd. That can be done.

The character first appeared as a villain in a penny dreadful entitled The String of Pearls in the 1847. He turned up in several stage plays, radio dramas, TV productions and the famous Stephen Sondheim musical from 1979. However, there have only been five movies. Two of them are from the silent era and not easy to come by. As for the sound era, there are three film versions that I intend to look at in this post: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street from 1936, Bloodthirsty Butchers from 1970, and Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street from 2007.

One thing became obvious watching these three films this weekend, the story contain some of the same elements and same names, but never quite present the story exactly alike. All three feature Sweeney Todd, Mrs. Lovett, as well as characters named Tobias and Johanna. However, each one has its own quirk or trademark to the story, including sailors fighting natives at the Cape of Good Hope, a public showdown with an Italian barber and an Irish, Shakespeare-quoting, cross dressing, clown named Corky.


I'm going to start off with the most recent and best version. Director Tim Burton's big screen version of the Stephen Sondheim musical stars Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter in the roles of Sweeney and Mrs. Lovett. The 70s stage version gave Sweeney Todd a back story that had not been present in other versions, which made him slightly sympathetic rather than a hard-core killer. Besides being motivated by revenge, Sweeney's first murder is of a former assistant, who has reinvented himself as an Italian barber and plans to blackmail him after he best him in a public shaving exhibition. In this version, Tobias is a young sailor, who saved Sweeney's life, and Johanna is Sweeney's long, lost daughter.

As with most of Tim Burton's films, Sweeney Todd inhabits a dark, gloomy, grim version of London brimming with little touches that make the film a blood-soaked nightmare. However, the one thing that I didn't care for was the Stephen Sondheim songs. To para-phrase Homer Simpson, "Why did they have to ruin a perfectly good demon barber story with all that fruity singing?"


Now, I should say here that I've owned two of these movies (Bloodthirsty Butchers and Demon Barber of Fleet Street) on DVD for sometime. I had watched them several times before this weekend. However, after watching Tim Burton's masterpiece, I chose to re-watch Andy Milligan's 1970 version entitled Bloodthirsty Butchers right after the 2007 version. WOW! Talk about a sharp contrast in production, dialogue and everything. This version has John Miranda and Jane Hilary as Sweeney Todd and Mrs. Lovett. Annabelle Wood is Johanna, who is employed by Mrs. Lovett. Tobias is played by Milligan regular, Berwick Kaler. Tobias works for both Sweeney and Lovett. He is as cold blooded a killer as Sweeney.

An awkward moment between Sweeney (left), Anna and Corky (right)

This version also features Sweeney's alcoholic wife Becky (A woman in Victorian England named Becky?), Mrs. Lovett's invalid husband, Sweeney's mistress/musical hall performer Anna and her on-stage partner, Corky the Irish, Shakespeare-quoting, cross dressing clown (above). The extra characters are there to facilitate one of Andy Milligan's trademarks: boring, unnecessary dialogue and spiteful bickering. Sweeney even gives Johanna's fiancee a sexist rant that includes an illusion to PMS. Johanna is the only likeable female character in the movie.

While Burton takes you into a gloomy version of Victorian London, Milligan really doesn't even try to pass 1970 London off as Victorian London. Sweeney Todd's name is painted on the window of his modern barber shop in green paint. The barber shop has a black and white tile floor (another Milligan trademark). The women's costumes are cute and colorful 70s maxi-dresses, probably made by Andy Milligan himself. Speaking of Milligan's dressmaking career, his old, leftover, rubber mannequins make an appearance as the victims of Sweeney and Tobias. One of the highlights of this film is an outdoor scene that features Milligan barking like a dog while filming to add a bit of ambient noise. When you watch an Andy Milligan film by itself, you notice what is wrong with his films, but watching this film immediately following Tim Burton's version, it is obvious that Andy Milligan makes Ed Wood look like..., well, Tim Burton.


Finally, there is the 1936 George King version entitled The Demon Barber of Fleet Street staring Tod Slaughter as Sweeney and Stella Rho as Mrs. Lovett. In this version, Tobias is an orphan boy entrusted to Sweeney by Beadle (A character that appears in the Burton version) to work as his assistant. Johanna is the daughter of a wealthy business partner that Sweeney hopes to force into marriage. The film ends with Johanna disguised as a boy, as in the 2007 version.

This version is adapted from the original stage melodrama versions of the story in which Sweeney is a mean, greedy villain, who rubs his hands together and laughs maniacally. If Slaughter had a handlebar mustache, he would be twirling it (Actually he did in some of his films). Slaughter's Sweeney is at his menacing best when he says, "Come here, Tobias!" and "Now, I'll polish you off" as the opens the trap door beneath the barbers chair.

Slaughter and King were frequent collaborators, much like Burton and Depp. There films were part of the "quota-quickies" and later turned up on late-night television. They can now be found in Mill Creek box sets. King is not a spectacular or artistic director like Tim Burton, but his films look decent and work as a whole, unlike Milligan. King, on a tight budget, manages to include a small scale battle between a group of sailors (lead by Johanna's fiancee) and natives at the Cape of Good Hope. King does play with the story telling format by having a comical wrap-around sequence with a modern barber telling the story of Sweeney Todd to a customer.      

The subject of Sweeney Todd in the movies may not lend itself to a whole book, but for a blog post it works out well. You can also watch all three of these movies in one night, just like I did. Ironically, it left me with a craving for meat pie.      

Monday, October 27, 2014

R. I. P MARCIA STRASSMAN



I'll bet you didn't know she was a singer before she was on MASH and Welcome Back, Kotter. She recorded as few sunshine pop songs in the late 60s.

Tuesday, October 21, 2014

TERROR IN THE HAUNTED HOUSE or MY WORLD DIES SCREAMING - A MOVIE REVIEW


William Castle was known for his horror films with gimmicks in the theater to engage the audience. A few producers jumped on the bandwagon. Most notably, Alfred Hitchcock asked theaters to for a "No Late Admissions" policy on the movie PSYCHO and even used this in promotions for the film. It worked, both increasing ticket sales and the shock value of the movie.

On the other hand, some promotional gimmicks failed. One of those was Psycho-rama and a film called TERROR IN THE HAUNTED HOUSE or MY WORLD DIES SCREAMING. To go into to much detail on this film isn't worth it, because unlike William Castle, the producers of this film didn't even attempt to make a great film. They thought their gimmick "Psycho-rama" would cover their shoddy workmanship. All you need to know is a woman has recurring nightmares about the attic of an old empty house. Her new husband takes her to the house on their honeymoon.



"Psycho-rama" was a series of "subliminal messages and images" that were added to the film to "heighten the terror." Subliminal messages are supposed to be hidden, so as to only be recognized by the subconscious. The "Psycho-rama" images appear as a sudden flash that blots out the action on screen for about two seconds. The other problem is the images they chose to use to "heighten the terror." If the producers had any sense, they would have used a photo of a skull, an angry dog or a gruesome corpse. The images the producers used were a cartoon drawing of a bald guy with thick glasses eating a mouse and a devil sticking his tongue out (above). After a while, these start to get annoying because they seem to pop-up at random.

Add to this the story writing on the story is cliched and rather bland. Also several typical continuity errors, such as the story taking place late at night, yet when characters walk outside, it is daylight. Also the cars seem to change the direction they are parked mid-scene.


This film also waste two very talented people: Actress Cathy O'Donnell, who appeared in the movies BEN HUR and THE BEST DAYS OF OUR LIVES, and Gerald Mohr, who was the star of the TV series, Foreign Intrigue, narrator of The Lone Ranger TV series, and the original cartoon voices of Green Lantern and Mr. Fantastic Reed Richards. I notice they even spell Ms. O'Donnell's name wrong on the poster.

It is interesting to watch once for the novelty, but you probably won't watch it over again like many of the great horror films and even a few of the bad ones.


 

Sunday, October 19, 2014

CASTLE DRACULA FUN HOUSE COLORFORMS

Some of my favorite toys as a child were the many Colorform playsets I had. Castle Dracula Fun House was one I especially loved. What set this one apart from the others was the working doors in which you could hide the cartoonish versions of the famous Universal monsters behind, so you could torment the goofy guy in the ugly pajamas. I would like to know the artist name. I wish I knew what happened to my set, I would love for my 4 ear old great-nephew to play with it. You can click on the photos for a larger look.


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