16 posts tagged “dvd”
I promised I would write about the second of our classic horror movies we watched at the weekend, so here it is.
The film was “The Killer Shrews” (1959), directed by Ray Kellogg (“The Giant Gila Monster”, 1959) and starring James Best and Ingrid Goude (Miss Sweden and 2nd runner up in the 1956 Miss Universe pageant). Best is probably most well known for his role as the sheriff in “The Dukes of Hazzard”, the TV series.
The movie tells the story about a boat captain and a group of scientists trapped on an island during a hurricane. But that’s not the end of it. Mutant giant killer shrews populate the island!
This was, of course, before animatronics, so the shrews are in fact dogs (we even recognised a Dalmatian by its spotted legs) dressed up. The close ups involve puppets that look more like demented hyenas, but anyway.
According to Wikipedia, shrews eat “seeds, insects, nuts, worms and a variety of other foods in leaf litter and dense vegetation”. In the movie, these giant shrews like horses and humans. Interestingly, according to the same article, some species are venomous. Those in the film certainly are.
The film is also known as “The Attack of the Killer Shrews”.
We watched two more of our classic horror movies this weekend.
The first was “The Monster Maker” (1944), which tells the tale of a mad scientist, Dr Igor Markoff (J. Carrol Naish), who has designs on a young woman, Patricia Lawrence (Wanda McKay), who resembles his late wife, whom he drove to suicide by injecting her with a deforming disease called acromegaly.
He injects Patricia’s concert pianist father, Anthony Lawrence (Ralph Morgan), with the disease and promises the antidote only if he is permitted to marry Patricia.
Naish also acted in, among others, “Beau Geste” (1940) and “Annie Get Your Gun” (1950).
The film was directed by Sam Newfield. We have already watched his “The Mad Monster” (1942) and “Dead Men Walk” (1943).
Despite the poor science, it was quite a decent movie.
Later this week, I’ll tell you about the other movie, so watch this space.
This weekend the minister of home affairs and I managed to watch three of the horror classics in our collection.
The first was the bizarre "Maniac" (1934). The film starred Bill Woods as Don Maxwell, an actor and impersonator who works as a lab assistant to a Dr Meierschultz (Horace B Carpenter), a mad scientist who is working on reanimating dead people.
Maxwell kills Meierschultz and disguises himself as the dead doctor, taking over his life. The film then degenerates into a surreal mess of plots and subplots, most of which make no sense. The acting was also quite amateur and some of the lines are awful.
In one scene, for example, a roomful of women are chatting. One mentions the press. "The press?" responds another. "That reminds me, I have pressing business!"
"Maniac" was directed by Dwain Esper, the same man who produced the now-notorious "Reefer Madness" (1936) and the same year directed "Marihuana", also known as "Marihuana, the Devil's Weed" and "Marihuana, the Weed With Roots in Hell!"
The interesting thing about "Maniac" is that it has several scenes where the women are topless. I wasn't aware that filmmakers could get away with that back then.
The second movie was "The Vampire Bat" (1933), starring Lionel Atwill, Fay Wray (she of "King Kong" fame) and Melvyn Douglas. In the village of Kleinschloss, people start dying. The victims have two puncture marks in their necks and are drained of their blood. The villagers believe vampires have returned to the area, but police inspector Karl Brettschneider (Douglas) is not a superstitious man, and suspects something else is afoot.
It was the best of the three films we watched. The plot was decent and the acting good.
The director, Frank R Strayer, is famous for directing about a dozen of Blondie and Dagwood films between 1938 and 1943, as well as "The Sickle or the Cross" (1949).
Atwill (who starred as Dr Otto von Niemann) appeared in several films, including "To Be or Not to Be" (1942), and several Sherlock Holmes movies. Douglas had a long career. His first film was in 1931 ("Tonight or Never") and his final screen role was in 1982 ("The Hot Touch").
The third film was "The Ape" (1940), starring Boris Karloff as Dr Bernard Adrian, a shunned scientist who seeks to restore a young woman's ability to walk. His method is unorthodox - he uses spinal fluid as a serum. At the same time, an ape has escaped from a circus in town and is attacking the townsfolk.
The ape, of course, looks like something from a Halloween party rather than a circus.
The film was directed by William Nigh, of "Where Are Your Children?" (1943) fame. We recently watched his "The Fatal Hour" (1940) and "Black Dragons" (1942).
A pretty mediocre film, but watchable, nonetheless.
The title of this post doesn't refer to New England's loss against Indianapolis, although that is a horror in itself.
No, it has to do with the fact that the minister of home affairs and I watched another two movies in our collection of horror films.
The first was "The Fatal Hour" (1940), which was not a horror at all, but a murder mystery. I cannot fathom why it was included in the set, unless the compilers spotted that Boris Karloff was the lead actor and assumed that it was a horror.
Nevertheless, it was actually a pretty good movie if you ignore the fact that Boris Karloff, very much a Caucasian, is portraying a Chinese detective, James Lee Wong. The plot was decent and the acting was not at all bad.
The film was directed by William Nigh, who, you may remember, also directed "Black Dragons", which I blogged about earlier. He also directed such films as "Where Are Your Children?" (1943) and several other Wong movies, including "Mr Wong, Detective" (1938), "The Mystery of Mr Wong" (1939), and "Mr Wong in Chinatown" (1939)..
"The Fatal Hour" also featured Grant Withers as Captain Street and Marjorie Reynolds as reporter "Bobbie" Logan. Reynolds played Logan in several Mr Wong films, and in other of Nigh's films, such as "Doomed to Die" (1940).
The second film we watched was "Dead Men Walk" (1943), about a man who rises from the grave as a vampire and seeks vengeance against the brother who killed him.
George Zucco plays both brothers, while the role of Gayle Clayton, who is victimised by the vampire over a long period, was played by Mary Carlisle. As far as I can tell, this was her 59th and final film, even though she was only 31 at the time. Apparently she then took a job as manager of the Elizabeth Arden Salon in Beverly Hills.
Zucco is best known for his role as Professor Moriarty in "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" (1939).
"Dead Men Walk" is a somewhat quaint movie, and one of the more enjoyable ones in the collection. It was directed by Sam Newfield, who directed more than 200 "B" movies - sometimes more than 20 in a single year!
I don't recommend the movie "Revolt of the Zombies" (1936), one of the classic horror movies in our collection of 50.
The minister of home affairs and I watched it this weekend, and were not very impressed with it. Set in Cambodia after World War I, it centres on a love triangle. Clair Duval (Dorothy Stone) accepts a marriage proposal from Armand Louque (Dean Jagger), but only to arouse the jealousy of Clifford Grayson (Robert Noland).
Her plan works, and she accepts Clifford's subsequent proposal, which enrages Armand, who sets out for revenge, using a zombie army he creates using some occult information gleaned from his translations of ancient Cambodian documents.
The acting was not very good and at times the story line was far too unbelievable, even for a horror movie (and this is more a weird drama than a horror).
The film was directed by Victor Halperin, who also wrote it. I suppose we should have known it would be bad, given that he also directed "White Zombie", which we watched not too long ago. Halperin reuses footage from that movie - the close-up shot of Bela Lugosi's eyes - to indicate that the zombies are being controlled.
Dorothy Stone acted in only four movies, all between 1932 and 1944. "Revolt of the Zombies" was her third. The movie was the only one that Robert Noland acted in.
Dean Jagger (1903-1991), on the other hand, got 133 acting credits between 1929 and 1987. He received an Oscar for best supporting actor for his role in "Twelve O'Clock High" (1949). Most of his acting in his later years was on TV. He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
During my week off work, the minister of home affairs and I watched only one of our collection of classic horror movies. The reason was that I received a Tintin DVD box set from the minister as a birthday present, so we watched a lot of those instead.
The horror we watched was "The Terror" (1963), starring Boris Karloff and co-starring a young Jack Nicholson. It was directed by Roger Corman, who also directed some previously seen movies in the collection, namely "The Little Shop of Horrors" and "Creature from the Haunted Sea".
The Terror is about an officer in Napoleon's army (Jack Nicholson) who encounters a woman (Sandra Knight). She turns out to be the ghost of the wife of a local baron (Karloff) and is under the spell of a witch who wants to drive the baron to suicide.
The movie was apparently filmed in four days, and Corman used the same set he used for filming "The Raven", which he had just completed recording and which also starred Karloff and Nicholson.
Can't get away with that kind of thing these days. But it wasn't a bad movie at all. It's worth noting that it is the first movie in our collection that is in colour and not monochrome.
Last night the minister of home affairs and I watched "The Beast of Yucca Flats" (1961), the latest in our horror movie collection.
We both agree it is by far the worst of all the movies we have seen from the collection so far. And the minister thinks it is the worst movie yet made. I think "Ishtar" still beats it, but only just.
A defecting Russian scientist (Tor Johnson - a former Swedish wrestler) is driven into Yucca Flats by pursuing Soviet agents. There he is exposed to radiation from a nuclear blast (or "A-bomb" as they called such things back then) and turns into a monster who has a lust for killing people.
The movie is really just two men hunting a monster (with a short diversion as they start shooting at the wrong man at one stage). Then the monster is killed and the movie ends with a hare sniffing at the corpse (although it looks somewhat like the hare is contemplating becoming carnivorous).
An annoying narrator, who constantly refers sarcastically to "progress" talks throughout the movie, making it seem like an anti-nuke propaganda film. The narration was done by the director, Coleman Francis.
Apparently "The Beast of Yucca Flats" was filmed with no sound, that being added during post-production. There is talk that it was in fact filmed with sound, but the soundtrack was lost.
The movie was featured on the old TV series, "Mystery Science Theater 3000".
Do yourself a favour - avoid it at all costs!
The latest in our horror movie collection, which the minister of home affairs and I watched last night, was "The Screaming Skull" (1958).
John Hudson stars as Eric Whitlock, who brings his new bride, Jenni (Peggy Webber) to the mansion where he lived before with his late first wife, who died on the grounds in an accident.
Jenni is extremely wealthy, and it seems Eric wants to get his hands on her money.
Soon, Jenni starts seeing skulls appearing in various places around the house.... Is the former Mrs Whitlock haunting her? Or is Eric trying to drive her mad?
It was an acceptable movie, charmingly primitive, as many of the old horror classics are. The really amusing thing was the opener, in which a narrator says that the movie is so scary that it might kill its viewers, so the producers promise to foot the burial costs of anyone dying while watching the film. A coffin on the screen has a card on it that reads: "Reserved for you".
The film was directed by Alex Nicol (1916-2001), who also acted as Mickey, the gardener. The last movie he acted in was "Woman in the Rain" (1976).
It's great to get back into the old horror movies again now that our DVD player has been replaced.
Last night the minister of home affairs and I watched "White Zombie" (1932), starring Bela Lugosi as Murder Legendre, a witchdoctor in Haiti who turns people into zombies.
Legendre is hired by Charles Beaumont (Robert Frazer) to help him get Madeleine (Madge Bellamy) away from her fiancé, Neil Parker (John Harron) and into his own arms. Instead, Legendre turns Madeleine into a zombie slave.
The director was Victor Halperin (1895-1983), who directed his first movie, "When a Girl Loves", in 1924, and his last, "Girls' Town", in 1942.
We also saw Frazer as Amos Hanlin in "Black Dragons".
"White Zombie" was a quaint movie, but pretty dreadful compared with some of the others in our collection. Certainly not one I'd recommend.
Last night the minister of home affairs and I watched the first of our 50 horror classics since the burglary.
"One Body Too Many" (1944), actually a comedy thriller rather than a horror, was directed by Frank McDonald (1899-1980), also known for directing 1960s TV series "McHale's Navy", as well as dozens of other movies and TV series.
The film is billed as starring Bela Lugosi, although Lugosi's main role was simply a creepy butler, called Murkil, who walked around offering everyone coffee.
The real star was Jack Haley as Albert Tuttle, the insurance agent. Haley is best known for his role as the Tin Man in "The Wizard of Oz". Despite the billing, Haley is the lead actor, since he appears in almost every scene and steals every scene he is in.
Albert Tuttle arrives at a mansion to sell a $200 000 insurance policy to millionaire Cyrus Rutherford. But Rutherford has just died and all his relatives are at the mansion. Rutherford's will keeps the relatives at the house until he is entombed in a glass dome. If his wishes are not carried out, those who inherit the least will get the most, and vice versa. No one knows who has inherited what, although the initial portion of the will makes it clear what Rutherford thought of every one of his relatives.
Tuttle is enlisted to guard the body to make sure no one takes it away to bury it contrary to Rutherford's wishes.
Then the bodies start piling up....
It's an amusing film, quite enjoyable.
