Author: dante_s_ghost@yahoo.com

HEADER: Allison Hayes in The Undead (1957)

Pamela Duncan (as Diana Love) in The Undead (1957)

Pamela Duncan (as Helene) in The Undead (1957).

The Undead (1957) AIP

Directed by Roger Corman

Screenplay by Charles B. Griffith & Mark Hanna

CAST: Pamela Duncan (Diana Love/Helene), Richard Garland (Pendragon), Allison Hays (Livia/Witch), Val Dufour (Quintus Ratcliff), Mel Welles (Smolkin the Gravedigger), Dorothy Neumann (Meg Maud/Witch), Billy Barty (The Imp), Bruno VeSota (Scroop the Innkeeper), Robert Devon (Satan).

This film is a curiosity in so many ways that the only way to describe it is as the motion picture equivalent of a train wreck. You just can’t stop watching it because you have to know how it’s going to come out. It is a time travel horror fantasy complete with Satan himself in the final reel. If you are looking for a party film that requires no attention span, you have found it. Pamela Duncan stars in the dual role of Diane Love (a streetwalker) and Helene (a condemned witch in the Dark Ages). A head shrinker regresses Diane to her past life convinced that it will save her from her current wicked ways. This makes as much sense as anything else that happens in this most bizarre of Roger Corman’s films. It is interesting for its complete abandon of sense and an eerie staginess that gives it an other worldly feel. Scream Queen Allison Hayes stars as the witch, Livia.

Attack of the Crab Monsters (1957) Allied Artists

Directed by Roger Corman

Screenplay by Charles B. Griffith

1hr 2min / Not Rated

Cast: Richard Garland (Dale Brewer), Pamela Duncan (Martha Hunter), Russell Johnson (Hank Chapman), Leslie Bradley (Dr. Karl Weigand), Mel Welles (Jules Deveroux).

Top notch Corman with giant telepathic crabs on the loose. Pure monster movie with mutated crabs attacking to gain control of the world. Surprisingly solid entry. Great one to run at night when you’re at the beach (or down the shore if you live in New Jersey).

Pamela Duncan & Richard Garland in Attack of the Crab Monsters (1957)

Pamela Duncan (1924-2005)

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Sterling Hayden and Pamela Duncan in Gun Battle at Monterey 1957, Pamela Duncan and Richard Garland in Attack of the Crab Monsters 1957.

Pamela Duncan worked mainly in TV from the early fifties to 1964, appearing in everything from The Roy Rogers Show (1954) to 77 Sunset Strip (1963) accumulating 98 screen credits. She also appeared in a few movies including the Roger Corman films, The Undead and Attack of the Crab Monsters which brought her a short lived notoriety and fame.

Pamela Duncan in The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp (1955) & Death Valley Days (1952)

Allison Hayes (1930-1977)

Richard Garland & Allison Hayes in The Undead (1957)

Allison Hayes worked in both TV and Feature Films (with a total 0f 69 screen credits from 1954 to 1967), and was also a prolific scream queen of the 1950’s starring in a number of B horror films that kept the drive-ins running. She is best known for Attack of the 50 Foot Woman (see Science Fiction Films: 1950’s Part 3).

Allison Hayes’ other horror films include: The Unearthly (1957 / starring John Carradine), The Disembodied (1957), The Undead (1957), Zombies of Mora Tau (1957), The Hypnotic Eye (1960) and The Crawling Hand (1963).

Beverly Garland & Allison Hayes in Gunslinger (1956)

Curucu, Beast of the Amazon

(1956) Universal

Directed by Curt Siodmak

Screenplay by Curt Siodmak

1hr 16min / Not Rated

CAST: John Bromfield (Rock Dean), Beverly Garland (Dr. Andrea Romar), Tom Payne (Tupanico), Harvey Chalk (Father Flaviano) Larri Thomas (Vivian the Dancer).

Although Beverly Garland did a lot of TV and Feature Films that included dramas, westerns, and thrillers, she was also in a number of B horror films. It is difficult to choose the worst one, and for many, choosing a best would also be a chore. Curucu, Beast of the Amazon is definitely in the running for the worst or best depending on the viewer. The experience of performing in them was best summed up by Garland herself:

“You don’t have to act in these pictures. All you have to do is possess a good pair of lungs. I can scream with more variations from shrill to vibrato than any other girl in pictures.”

and on a more serious note:

“It’s funny today because it’s so ridiculous. But at the time, it was very serious! We were just actors doing our best, I think. None of us overacted. I’m not saying we weren’t good. We didn’t do it tongue-in-cheek. We really meant it. We gave our all. We were serious, good actors and we played it seriously.”

Written & directed by Curt Siodmak, author of a number of other Universal horror films including: The Invisible Man Returns (1940), Black Friday (1940), The Wolf Man (1941), as well as the Val Lewton classic I Walked with a Zombie (1943). It is difficult to understand what happened with its script especially because he also directed, though the answer may be found in this quote about the location shooting in the Brazilian Jungle by Siodmak himself:

“I shot it down there in the jungles. I never recovered, physically.”

John Bromfield and Beverly Garland in Curucu, Beast of the Amazon (1956)

The film is carried by its attractive leads, John Broomfield and Beverly Garland and the Brazilian location photography.

Both Hayes and Garland did many TV appearances including:

Allison Hayes in Tales of Wells Fargo (1957) & Allison Hayes & Robert Williams in Tombstone Territory (1957)

Amanda Blake & Beverly Garland in Gunsmoke (1955), Beverly Garland in The Twilight Zone (1959), David Janssen & Beverly Garland in The Fugitive (1963)

It Conquered the World (1956) AIP

Directed by Roger Corman

Screenplay by Lou Rusoff

1hr 11min / Not Rated

CAST: Peter Graves (Dr. Paul Nelson), Beverly Garland (Claire Anderson), Lee Van Cleef (Dr. Tom Anderson), Sally Fraser (Joan Nelson), Russ Bender (Brig. Gen. James Pattick), Jonathan Haze (Privete Manuel Ortiz), Dick Miller (Sargent Neill).

Beverly Garland in It Conquered the World (1956)

It Conquered the World (1956) which also starred Peter Graves and Lee Van Cleef is also a serious runner for worst, although the unintentionally (we hope) hilarious creature with its bat like flying minions does make for a deer in the headlights reaction for many (myself included). Garland supplies the screams and Peter Graves, well he’s characteristically grave as he fights back against It.

Not of This Earth (1957) Allied Artists

Directed by Roger Corman

Screenplay by Charles B. Griffith & Mark Hanna

1hr 7min / Not Rated

CAST: Paul Birch (Paul Johnson), Beverly Garland (Nadine Storey), Morgan Jones (Harry Sherbourne), William Roerick (Dr. F.W. Rochelle), Jonathan Haze (Jeremy Perrin) & Dick Miller (Joe Piper).

Paul Birch & Beverly Garland in Not of This Earth (1957)

Not of This Earth (1957) is my pick for the best of Garland’s B horror, and not only because it was re-made in 1988 as a Traci Lords vehicle. Yes, really, but also because it is entertaining and Paul Birch’s performance brings a solemnity that keeps the film grounded as Beverly Garland is drawn into the horror of alien invaders in search of blood, lots and lots of blood.

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Paul Birch & Beverly Garland in Not of This Earth (1957)

This is a good spot to show pictures from the 1988 re-make for thee of little faith. This was Lord’s first main stream film after the scandal of her underage work in adult films. Corman offered her another role, but because it also contained nudity; she turned it down–due to wanting to get away from the image of an adult star. I like that there’s even a hokey looking lamp in the shot below, even though it is not a table lamp:

Tracy Lord in the 1988 re-make of Not of This Earth

Beverly Garland also stared in Swamp Women & The Alligator People of which the less said the better.

Beverly Garland in Swamp Women (1956) & The Alligator People (1959)

Facts, Rumors & Hearsay

After finishing Curucu, Beast of the Amazon, Corman realized that he had enough film leftover to make another movie. He devised a screenplay, and using some of the actors from Curucu made Love Slaves of the Amazons (1957).

Not of This Earth fell into the public domain because the release print did not include the copyright year.

Allied Artists Pictures released Not of This Earth on a double bill with Attack of the Crab Monsters (1957) with the tag line, “Terrorama! Double Horror Sensation!”

When leading lady Beverly Garland got her first look at the monster in It Conquered the World, she cried, “That conquered the world?”.

Composer and musician Frank Zappa made a tribute to It Conquered the World in his album, Roxy & Elsewhere with the song Cheepnis (1973).

The bat-like creatures that It uses to control people in It Conquered the World would later be re-used in Roger Corman’s next film, The Undead (1957).

Attack of the Crab Monsters was actress Pamela Duncan’s first film for Corman, and she starred in The Undead a month later.

Attack of the Crab Monster’s actor, Russell Johnson would later co-star in the TV series Gilligan’s Island.

The seaplane shown in Attack of the Crab Monsters is a Douglas Dolphin.

NEXT in Scream Queens 7

The Good, the Bad & the Absurd

Allison Hayes in Attack of the 50 Foot Woman (1958)

Attack of the 50 Foot Woman (1958)

Warner Brothers

Directed by Nathan Juran

Written by Mark Hanna

1hr 5min / Not Rated

CAST: Allison Hayes (Nancy Fowler Archer), William Hudson (Harry Archer), Yvette Vickers (Honey Parker) Roy Gordon (Dr. Isaac Cushing), George Douglas (Sheriff Dubbitt), Ken Terrell (Jess Stout), Otto Waldis (Dr. Heinrich Von Loeb), Ellen Stevens (Nurse), Michael Ross (Tony the Bartender/Space Giant), Frank Chase (Deputy Charlie).

Here we jump ahead to 1958 to look at a movie that is all three: Good, Bad & Absurd. I believe there is more good than bad and equal parts good and absurd; since it is a must see–you be the judge. The plot involves aliens (well, one alien anyway) a cheating husband, a floozy, and one very ticked off wife. The ticked off wife comes in contact with a giant alien and then takes on his proportions. How could you go wrong with that set up?

Allison Hayes, William Hudson & Yvette Vickers as Wife, Cheating Husband and Floozy in Attack of the 50 Foot Woman (1958)

The movie is more silly science fiction brought to you partly by writer Mark Hanna who had a hand in writing Roger Corman’s incomprehensible The Undead (1957). This film at least has the added bonus of intentionally funny dialogue like:

Honey Parker: Didn’t you say she was in the nuthouse for awhile?
Harry Archer: A private sanitarium.
Honey Parker: What’s the difference. She was off her rocker, wasn’t she?
Harry Archer: I suppose so. They’ve got some fancy name for it.

and:

[Finding a giant footprint on the Archer’s yard]
Deputy Charlie: Wow! What is that?
Sheriff Dubbitt: I don’t know. Whatever it is, it wasn’t made by some Japanese gardener.

The idea of the film was designed to ride the wave of films that were popular at the time, The Amazing Colossal Man (1957) and The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957). All in all a film that is about what it purports to be about–Attack of the 50 Foot Woman works on its own absurdly funny terms.

Facts, Rumors, & Hearsay

The ad for this movie was designed by Roger Corman and is in the Museum of Modern Art’s permanent collection. It was also chosen as one of the 25 best movie posters of all time (coming in at #8) by Premiere Magazine.

Principle photography was completed in only eight days.

NEXT: The Good, the Bad & the Absurd continues…

Starting off our list (which is in reverse chronological order) are two very original werewolf films, Ginger Snaps & An American Werewolf in London. Although An American Werewolf in London stays truer to the werewolf mythos, it turns the victims regret into a living dread, and Ginger Snaps is a brilliantly black comic look at the changes that can be brought on by the full moon. The following films remain the most imaginative of not only the werewolf genre, but of horror films in general.

Ginger Snaps (2000) DEJ Productions

Directed by John Fawcett

Written by Karen Walton

1hr 48min / Rated R

CAST: Kathrine Isabelle (Ginger), Emily Perkins (Bridgette), Kristopher Lemche (Sam), Jesse Moss (Jason), Danielle Hampton (Trina), Mimi Rogers (Pamela), John Bourgeois (Henry), Peter Keleghan (Mr. Wayne), Christopher Redman (Ben), Lindsay Leese (Nurse Ferry).

Kathrine Isabell & Emily Perkins in Ginger Snaps (2000)

Karen Walton’s screenplay renders an entirely original take on werewolf mythology. The script’s feminist’s tongue in cheek narrative takes the viewer into the darkness in wonderfully weird ways. Fawcett’s direction elicits exceptional performances by all, especially Isabelle & Perkins who quickly make the roles their own. This is a must see, Halloween or not. So when that moon comes up don’t forget to press play!

An American Werewolf in London (1981) Universal

Written & Directed by John Landis

1hr 37min / Rated R

CAST: David Naughton (David Kessler), Griffin Dunne (Jack Goodman), Jenny Agutter (Nurse Alex Price), Anne-Marie Davies (Nurse Susan Gallagher), David Schofield (Dart Player), Brian Glover (Chess Player), Lila Kaye (Barmaid), Joe Belcher (Truck Driver), Paddy Ryan (First Werewolf)

Griffin Dunne, David Naughton, and Jenny Agutter in An American Werewolf in London (1981)

Easily one of the most frightening of all classic monster horror films. Everything from the transformation to the haunting by the werewolf’s victims is terrifying. One of the most memorable scenes is a nightmare that is even more horrifying than the situation that Naughton (David Kessler) finds himself in after being bitten and killing his friend. An exceptional cast adds atmosphere and includes Jenny Agutter (Logan’s Run 1976, The Avengers 2012) as Naughton’s lover and nurse. This hardcore werewolf tale is not for the faint of heart, but is perfect for a terrifying Halloween.

The Howling (1981) MGM

Directed by Joe Dante

Written by John Sayles and Terence H. Winkless

1hr 31min / Rated R

CAST: Dee Wallace (Karen White), Patrick Macnee (Dr. George Waggner), Dennis Dugan (Chris), Christopher Stone (William “Bill” Neill), Kevin McCarthy (Fred Francis), Belinda Balaski (Terry Fisher), Elizabeth Brooks (Marsha Quist), Robert Picardo (Eddie Quist), Margie Impert (Donna).

Dee Wallace, Margie Impert, Patrick Macnee, and Elizabeth Brooks in The Howling (1981)

With a screenplay by John Sayles (Brother From Another Planet 1984) you must expect the unexpected and this offering is unique in the extreme. Joe Dante expertly juggles the frights with the funny and is assisted by an exceptional cast including Dee Wallace, Kevin McCarthy, and Patrick Macnee. One of the great werewolf pictures that digs a little deeper than the rest of the pack.

Wolfen (1981) Orion

Directed by Michael Waldleigh

Written by Michael Waldleigh & David Eyre & David M. Eyre, Jr.

1hr 55min / Rated R

CAST: Albert Finny (Dewey Wilson), Diane Venora (Rebecca Neff), Edward James Olmos (Eddie Holt), Gregory Hines (Whittington), Tom Noonan (Ferguson), Dick O’Neill (Warren), Dehl Berti (Old Indian).

Albert Finney, Dick O’Neill, & Diane Venora in Wolfen (1981)

This film stays even further from the pack, and has a very different take on werewolves. Wolfen is a horror film that is part mystery and suspense and set in the South Bronx. Dewey Wilson (Albert Finney) is investigating a number of brutal deaths that appear to be animal attacks. Finney (Big Fish 2003) is supported by a strong cast as well as a well written script that also reflects on the plight of Native Americans. This is another must see that scares and informs. It may be due to its very original narrative that it has not received the popularity that it deserves. Be that as it may, a perfect Halloween who done it.

The Curse of the Werewolf (1961)

Hammer Films

Directed by Terence Fisher

Written by Anthony Hinds based on the Novel by Guy Endore

1hr 33min / NR

CAST: Clifford Evans (Alfredo), Oliver Reed (Leon), Yvonne Romain (Servant Girl), Anthony Dawson (The Marques Siniestro), Josephine Llewellyn (The Marquesa), Richard Wordsworth (The Beggar), Anne Blake (Rosa Valiente).

Oliver Reed, Yvonne Romain, & Anthony Dawson in The Curse of the Werewolf (1961)

The Curse of the Werewolf is the most underrated of all of the Hammer horror films. Yet, even though it is one of their best efforts, it has never received the popularity of the Dracula and Frankenstein pictures. It boasts a competent script that reflects some 1960’s values, even though it is set in 18th Century Spain. It has a fine cast that includes Yvonne Romain (Circus of Horrors 1960) and Oliver Reed (Oliver 1968) as the Werewolf. This neglected classic is Terence Fisher’s most accomplished work and is a fine way to spend a full moon with a loved one.

The Wolf Man (1941) Universal

Directed by George Waggner

Written by Curt Siodmak

1hr 10min / NR

CAST: Claude Rains (Sir John Talbot), Warren William (Dr. Lloyd), Ralph Bellamy (Colonel Paul Montford), Patric Knowles (Frank Andrews), Evelyn Ankers (Gwen Conliffe), Bela Lugosi (Bela), Maria Ouspenskaya (Maleva), Fay Helm (Jenny Williams), & Lon Chaney Jr., (as Larry Talbot, the Wolfman)

Lon Chaney Jr., Evelyn Ankers, and Maria Ouspenskaya in The Wolf Man (1941)

This is the film that started it all with a fine script by Curt Siodmak (I Walked With a Zombie 1943), and an astonishing cast that gives gravity to the story of the gypsy legend of the werewolf. Bela Lugosi is solid as the gypsy and Claude Rains (Casablanca 1942) scores once more as Talbot Sr. Evelyn Ankers (Ghost of Frankenstein 1942) is the love interest put in peril by the full moon. The film is one of the most popular of the original Universal horror films, and it made Chaney a star. For a classic Halloween, this film is fun for the entire family.

NEXT: Scream Queens 1950 – 2020: 70 Years of Horror

Two very different interpretations of Woolrich stories can be found in the work of two unlikely directors. The first, Deadline at Dawn, is the only film directed by well known theatrical director, Harold Clurman. The second, The Bride Wore Black, directed by one of the leaders of the French New Wave, Francois Truffaut. Truffaut was tipping his hat to Hitchcock with Bride, but the reasons for Clurman’s venture into the world of Noir is unclear. To further confound reason, the screenplay was written by Clifford Odets!

Deadline at Dawn (1946) RKO Pictures

Not Rated/82 minutes

Directed by Harold Clurman & William Cameron Menzies (uncredited).

Screenplay by Clifford Odets based on the Novel by William Irish (AKA/Cornell Woolrich).

CAST: Susan Hayward (June Goffe), Paul Lukas (Gus Hoffman), Bill Williams (Alex Winkler), Joseph Calleia (Val Bartelli), Osa Massen (Helen Robinson), Lola Lane (Edna Bartelli), Jerome Cowan (Lester Brady), Marvin Miller (Sleepy Parsons).

Under the name William Irish, Cornell Woolrich published Deadline at Dawn. The book is a nightmarish journey through the darkness of the city made by a paranoid sailor due to the death of a woman he meets while on leave. He feels he has to find the killer by dawn or he will be blamed for the murder. Helping him come to that conclusion are the cabby, Gus (Paul Lukas) and the Taxi dancer, June (Susan Hayward).

Harold Clurman was a theatrical director and this was his only feature film. The playwright, Clifford Odets had collaborated with Clurman on the stage and wrote the screenplay based on the William Irish novel. Odets’ treatment surely would be unique. His previous screenplays included: The General Died at Dawn (1936), None But the Lonely Heart (1944), and Rhapsody in Blue (1945/uncredited). Noir was not exactly his niche. Between that and Clurman’s feeling that he was slumming, it is astonishing that the film came out as well as it did. The final result has been credited to William Cameron Menzies who was uncredited as a co-director.

Above: Bill Williams, Susan Hayworth & Paul Lukas in Deadline at Dawn

The film showcases Susan Hayward in glorious black and white by cinematographer, Nicholas Musuraca whose prior credits include the atmospheric photography for Val Lewton’s Cat People (1942), and The Seventh Victim (1943). Atmosphere is what he brings to Deadline at Dawn as well. Hayward’s performance is the center of the film with the vitality that moves the characters through the shadows and into–well–more shadows.

The Bride Wore Black/La marie etait en noir (1968) UA

Not Rated/107 minutes

Directed by Francois Truffaut.

Screenplay by Francois Truffaut and Jean-Louis Richard based on the Novel by Cornell Woolrich.

CAST: Jeanne Moreau (Julie Kohler), Michel Bouquet (Coral), Jean-Claude Brialy (Corey), Claude Rich (Bliss), Alexandra Stewart (Mlle Becker), Michael Lonsdale (Rene Morane).

In 1968 Francois Truffaut released a film that was his tribute to Alfred Hitchcock, and he even went so far as to hire Bernard Herrmann to write the score. For that alone this film is a unique treasure.

The film stars the talented Jeanne Moreau (Jules et Jim) as the bride, Julie Kohler in a performance that enthralls the viewer in her role as the vengeful widow. Her husband is assassinated at their wedding. It is an accident, but that does not seem to matter to the Julie as she takes out the killers one by one.

Truffaut takes Woolrich’s tale and makes it his own, perhaps that is the greatest tribute he could bestow on Hitchcock. Truffaut’s style seems antithetical to Noir and yet, the film works in the same way that Truffaut’s second film, Shoot the Piano Player (1962) became a classic of the genre.

Both of these films are must sees not because of how they fit into the Noir mold, but because of how they don’t.

NEXT

Chandler: The Blue Dahlia & Murder, My Sweet

The Thing from Another World (1951) RKO Pictures

Directed by Christian Nyby, and Howard Hawks (uncredited).

Screenplay by Charles Lederer based on the story, Who Goes There by John W. Campbell, and Howard Hawks (uncredited), and Ben Hecht (uncredited).

CAST: Margaret Sheridan (Nikki Nicholson), Kenneth Tobey (Captain Patrick Hendry), Robert Cornthwaite (Dr. Arthur Carrington), Douglas Spencer (Ned Scott), James Young (Lt. Eddie Dykes), Robert Nichols (Lt. Ken MacPherson), Dewey Martin (Crew Chief Bob), William Self (Cpl. Barnes), Eduard Franz (Dr. Stern), Sally Creighton (Mrs. Chapman), and James Arness (The Thing)

Co-written and Co-Directed by Hollywood A lister, Howard Hawks (uncredited) The Thing from Another World is the dark mirror version of The Day the Earth Stood Still. Howard Hawks was the credited producer of this creature feature that paints aliens as monsters of destruction. The Thing from Another World remains one of the classics of Science Fiction and Horror even if we are viewing through the wrong end of the telescope. All of our worst fears are confirmed: the aliens are coming and they are possessed by a mindless evil, or is it just a superior intelligence trying to survive? The second classic science fiction film of the fifties is as much horror as science fiction. It is as though Frankenstein’s Monster has fallen from the stars (and in fact when Hawks was trying to get the make-up for the film’s monster to his liking after many tries, he told make-up artist Lee Greenway to put a Frankenstein type of head on Arness). Instead of a village of frightened peasants, we have a group of military men, scientists, and a journalist, but the results are pretty much the same.

Adding insult to injury, Nikki left a note taped to the Captain referring to his legs. We see that Nikki is enjoying stringing Captain Hendry along. Kenneth Tobey plays the lead straight and is good humored as Sheridan uses her wry whimsy to bait him.

The group of military men have been assigned to assist the scientists in investigating an object that has landed in the arctic. They find what appears to be a large saucer shaped object buried in the ice. The decision to blast it out with Thermite explosives turns out to be an error, because the blast indirectly destroys the object. It should have just melted the ice, but the heat generated by the blaze sets off something in the craft that causes the explosion, “that was the engine,” shouts one of the men.

As they start to investigate the cause, they find that something was thrown from the ship and frozen just beneath the surface. Having learned their lesson with the loss of the ship, they decide to cut the figure out of the ice. They then take the block of ice back to their base and into a large storage room.

ABOVE: Robert Cornthwaite, Eduard Franz, Dewey Martin, Robert Nichols, William Self, Douglas Spencer, Kenneth Tobey, and James Young.

Unable to control the temperature of the room, the Captain orders the window in the room to be broken, he defies Dr. Carrington’s demand to be allowed to thaw the being for immediate scientific investigation. The Captain is trying to get orders on how to proceed, but they cannot get through on the radio. Tension builds between the scientists and the military over the handling of the creature.

ABOVE: Dewey Martin & Kenneth Tobey.

Dewey Martin, Robert Nichols, William Self, Margaret Sheridan, Douglas Spencer, Kenneth Tobey, & James Young.

Meanwhile, Lt. Ken MacPherson, who is on first watch over the creature, is getting creeped out because the ice is clearing and he can better what is in the ice. He is especially bothered by the creature’s eyes. This and the dropping temperature cause the Captain to shorten the shifts on the watch to two hours apiece.

When the watch changes and the replacement throws an electric blanket over the block of ice (presumably so he won’t have to look at the Thing in the ice), and of course, the ice begins melting. Suddenly, the Thing is loose. The guard escapes to alert the others. They sound the alarm and dash to the storage room to try to contain the creature.

ABOVE: Dewey Martin, Kenneth Tobey, & James Young.

When they arrive in the storage room, the Thing has already gone outside. It is being attacked by the dogs and escapes when the men come out, but leaves behind an arm that has been torn off. While the scientists discuss what they are learning from the limb–the hand begins to move. This broadens their understanding of the creature. They have surmised that the creature is of vegetable matter and now they realize it feeds on blood. The blood of the dogs giving life to the detached limb is ominous and it reverberates in the men’s reactions. Seeing that the creature is a threat, they set off after it in earnest.

The film is still one of the best of the early Science Fiction/Horror films and it is a terrific monster movie. The cinematography is excellent, the script is well paced, and all of the players are on point giving a realistic feel to the base which enhances the horror of the situation. There is a good deal of action and the fact that you don’t get to see the Thing up close until nearly the very end, adds to the suspense of the movie.

The film was remade in 1982 as The Thing by John Carpenter who stayed truer to the original story with the Thing being a shape shifter. The effects are horrific and Ken Russell and the rest of the cast are in for a hell of a ride.

Facts, Rumors, & Hearsay

Directors John Frankenheimer, Ridley Scott, Tobe Hooper, & John Carpenter all credit the film as an influence on their own work.

James Arness complained that the Thing make-up and costume made him look like a giant carrot.

Hawks was turned down by a number of insurance companies when trying to insure the production due to the fact that the Thing was to be set on fire, ravaged by dogs, frozen in a block of ice, set on fire, & electrocuted.

The film was made at a cost of only $40,000.00 which is still low budget by today’s standards equating to about $380,000.00.

There is a possibility that Ben Hecht and William Faulkner, both friends of Hawks, contributed to the script.

Available on DVD, Blu-Ray and streaming.

NEXT

The Good, the Bad, & the Absurd

Halloween is right around the corner and on this dreary Friday the 13th at F&TVR, I am planning on recommendations for Halloween viewing. As the lightning flashes and the thunder echoes and I’m thinking of the upcoming full moon, I am inspired to do two short early Halloween picks posts. This first one is general and the full moon post will be themed. So here goes. The first two are favorites of mine, the second of which has spawned an FX series. The third, the obligatory chiller! This is just a warm-up–more will follow.

ABOVE: Carol Kane, Iggy Pop, & Steve Buscemi

The Dead Don’t Die (2019) Written & Directed by Jim Jarmusch.

A departure for the director boasting a stellar cast including Steve Buscemi, Danny Glover, Bill Murray, Chole Sevigny, Carol Kane, Tilda Swinton, Iggy Pop, & Tom Waits among others that have worked with Jarmusch on prior projects. Jarmusch decapitates the genre in his own unique style.

What We Do in the Shadows (2014) Written & Directed by Jemaine Clement & Taika Waititi.

Again, more comedy than horror in this mock documentary about vampires that inspired the 2019 FX show of the same name. This is a great Halloween film that can be followed up with episodes from the FX series for an extended Halloween recalling good times along the Carpathian Mountains.

Silent House (2011) Directed by Chris Kentis & Laura Lau. Screenplay by Laura Lau based on the original screenplay The Silent House (2010) by Oscar Estevez

ABOVE: Elizabeth Olsen in Silent House (2011)

For those looking for a less humorous and more frightening Halloween, Silent House is claustrophobic creepy. A remake of Gustavo Hernandez’s The Silent House, Kentis & Lau’s Silent House is carried by the virtuoso performance of Elizabeth Olsen in a single shot tour de force.

NEXT: Full Moon Halloween Movie Madness

Introduction

Too Marvelous for (Just) Words!

Stanley Lieber wanted to be a novelist. When he started working for Martin Goodman at Atlas/Timely Comics that was his dream. He began by writing short prose stories (every comic book had to have one to qualify for the lower book rate shipping), but he changed his name to Stan Lee to sign off on these because he wanted to save his real name for the important writing that would be in his future, his novels. His first filler story was a Captain America story. Little did he know how long he would be working with this character. How could he? The comics were at an impasse. It seemed like they were about to go the way of the dinosaur, but then Stan Lee happened. Not only did he revive the faltering company owned by Martin Goodman by making it the marvel of the industry, but he influenced the company he would come to call his Distinguished Competition again and again. Just as DC’s Justice League had spurred him to create the Fantastic Four many of his innovations would be noticed and embraced by not only DC National Comics, but by anyone who was paying attention.

Two early issues of The Fantastic Four each featuring an enduring menace; Namor, the Sub Mariner in issue #4 who will be a temptation to Sue Storm for some time to come, and the brilliantly evil, Doctor Doom in issue #5. Namor, not exactly a villain, but a lothario and rival for Sue’s affections. Namor’s two concerns, protecting his underwater kingdom and making Sue Storm his queen. Dr. Doom, the King of Latvaria whose passions are defeating the Fantastic Four and ruling the world.

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The personalities and private concerns of his characters became the drama and comedy that powered his stories and made them memorable, above: Johnny Storm (Chris Evans), Sue Storm/Invisible Woman (Jessica Alba), Reed Richards/Mr. Fantastic (Ioan Gruffudd), Ben Grimm/The Thing (Michael Chiklis), Alicia (Kerry Washington, and Stan Lee’s Cameo as Willie Lumpkin. Life was never simple with the Fantastic Four.

His most important contribution to comic books was not just the many wonderful characters he created or co-created with others, but how he managed to imbue them with real life characteristics beyond what was necessary to tell an action/adventure story. He all but literally breathed life into them. He simply gave them what he called ‘hang-ups’ which is how he referred to the real life problems that we all have. He brought them down to earth and in doing so, made them more credible to his readers even though their powers and adventures were incredible.

In addition, he was a master showman. With his simple ‘Stan’s Soapbox’ column, he managed to make readers feel that he was talking to them, and they had no reason to believe he wasn’t. It made the experience of reading comic books interactive before anyone ever dreamed of a PC. The letter pages contained letters from readers of all kinds including some who were destined to draw and write the very comics that they were reading and writing to. Even those readers that didn’t go on to draw or write comics were mentored by Stan. He helped them to see the world though his eyes of wonder and imagination.

The comics flourished, in part because they could make anything happen that could be drawn. The writer’s imagination could be full blown without having to worry about how to produce the powers, effects, outer space, even other planets and their inhabitants. Imagination reigned on the four color pages. It took television and the movies decades to catch up. Now, no matter what the artist puts on the story board, it can be translated to the screen.

ABOVE: Captain America (Chris Evans), Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), Mark Ruffalo (The Hulk), & Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) in The Avengers (2012)

The current blockbuster super hero films are the result of an odyssey that Lee started out on in 1981 when he relocated to California to concentrate on developing Marvel TV and feature film projects. The earliest success was TV’s The Incredible Hulk (which may have prompted Lee’s decision to get more involved) starring Bill Bixby & Lou Ferrigno. Stan Lee was a consultant on 82 episodes from 1977 to 1981. Guest stars on the show included Loni Anderson, Ray Walston, Sally Kirkland, Pat Morita, Joi Lansing, and Mackenzie Phillips to name just a few that appeared during the five successful seasons.

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ABOVE: The Incredible Hulk, Season 4 Episodes 1 & 2 Prometheus: Ric Drasin, Laurie Prange, Bill Bixby, & Lou Ferrigno.

NEXT: Spider-Man

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The Mystery of the Wax Museum 1933 Vs. House of Wax 1953 Vs. House of Wax 2005

This Double Vision pulls into perspective the original The Mystery of the Wax Museum that starred Lionel Atwill, Fay Wray, Glenda Farrell, and Monica Bannister and House of Wax that starred Vincent Price, Carolyn Jones, and Phyllis Kirk and the more literal House of Wax with Elisa Cuthbert, Paris Hilton, and Chad Michael Murray.  All are Warner Brother’s films and all are credited to be based on the story, The Wax Works by Charles S. Beldon, but all is not as it seems. Join us as we solve The Mystery of the Wax Museum!

The Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933 Warner Brothers)

Directed by Michael Curtiz

Screenplay by Don Mullaly & Carl Erickson based on the Short Story, The Wax Works by Charles S. Beldon.

CAST: Lionel Atwill (Ivan Igor), Fay Wray (Charlotte Duncan), Glenda Farrell (Florence Dempsey), Frank McHugh (Jim), Allen Vincent (Ralph Burton), Gavin Gordon ( George Winton), Edwin Maxwell (Joe Worth), Holmes Herbert (Dr. Rasmussen), Arthur Edmund Carewe (Sparrow/Professor Darcy), Claude King (Mr. Galatain), Monica Bannister (Joan Gale).

ABOVE: Fay Wray in The Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933)

The script for The Mystery of the Wax Museum was based on the story Wax Works by screenwriter Charles Beldon, but Beldon did not write the screenplay for any of the films based on his story. More horror fans are familiar with the 1953 version than they are with this first film based on the Beldon short story. In this version there are elements of romance and comedy that do not appear in the 1953 version, House of Wax. For that reason, I will spend more time reviewing the first film’s narrative.

The film was directed by Michael Curtiz who began his career in silent films in 1912, and later directed such well know classics as Casablanca and Passage to Marseilles. We can see his talent in the opening shots of the film. The beginning is very like the remake of 1953, but the montage in this film is much more cinematic. When the film opens we see a shot with title, London–1921, and then through a rain drenched mew a Wax Museum. Then, inside of the museum the camera pans the displays as we hear the storm that continues outside. Finally we find Ivan Igor (Lionel Atwill) at work before cutting back to the outside and hear and see an approaching carriage, and next a cut to a man in the shadows. We see two men in the carriage wearing top hats. The men dismount and go to the museum door as the man in the shadows watches.

ABOVE RIGHT: Joe Worth (Edwin Maxwell)

Ivan welcomes the two men, one of whom is a patron and the other is a distinguished art critic. Upon viewing Ivan’s work, the critic announces that he will submit the works to the Royal Academy. When they depart, the man in the shadows is watching and he walks through the rain and into the museum. He is Igor’s silent partner, Joe Worth (Edwin Maxwell), and he grumbles that he is there to go through the books. The museum has lost money, he complains because Igor does not do the kind of displays the public wants. Igor’s distaste for the macabre has kept him from sculpting the type of wax figures that are the stock and trade of most wax museums. The horrific displays of murder and depravity are what draw crowds, but Ivan finds this type of art abhorrent.

BELOW: Ivan Igor (Lionel Atwill), and Joe Worth (Edwin Maxwell) just before Worth sets the museum on fire.

Although the critic is going to submit Igor’s work to the Royal Academy, Igor’s silent partner wants to burn down the museum to collect the insurance money. He and Igor argue and there is a fight, during which, his partner sets the museum ablaze. We see the burning wax figures as they fight and the fire spreads. Ivan is knocked out and left for dead as Worth leaves the building, locking Igor in.

It is not until he has entered his rooms and sitting at a desk that he turns to the camera and we recognize Joe Worth. He’s on the phone and there is something that he is anxious to get, but we don’t know what it is, and we cut to the morgue where a new body is being wheeled in by two attendants. A man is hiding under a sheet on one of the other tables and his face is horribly scarred. Once the attendants leave, he gets up and begins looking for a particular body.

BELOW: Glenda Farrell plays Florence Dempsey, brassy reporter & Frank McHugh is her stern but good hearted editor, Jim. Their animosity belies their love.

In the cast Frank McHugh and Glenda Farrell provide both the comedy and the romance, her as a brassy blonde reporter and he as a quick tempered newspaper editor. They are little more than a plot device to add romance and move the investigation along. In stereotypical roles with what is now dated dialogue, the two make the best of it. Fay Wray does a good job as the slightly more fleshed out heroine, but could have done wonders with more screen time. It is here that she begins her notoriety as a scream queen that will be fully blown in the film for which she is best known, King Kong.

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ABOVE: Lionel Atwill & Fay Wray.

We learn from Florence (Glenda Farrell) that eight bodies have been stolen from the morgue in the last 18 months. Meanwhile, we see the workshop of Ivan Igor’s new museum. He is wheelchair bound and shows one of his sculptors his hands that were badly damaged in the fire. He is no longer able to sculpt the beautiful wax figures that he so loved and lost, and he is unable to replace on his own. We see a large casket shaped box brought in and opened by his assistants. It is the body of the woman that was stolen from the morgue that has been made into a wax figure, Joan Gale (Monica Bannister).

Allen Vincent (Ralph Burton), one of Igor’s assistants calls his girl, Charlotte Duncan (Fay Wray) and arranges to meet her for lunch, and we see that she shares her rooms with Florence Dempsey. When Charlotte arrives at the wax museum to meet Ralph for lunch with Florence in tow, he explains that he can’t go to lunch because the old man (Igor) is getting the museum ready for the opening that night. Florence rushes into the museum and sees the exhibits. She looks at the Joan of Arc that has been made from the body of Jane Gale (Monica Bannister), and she thinks she recognizes the missing Judge Ramsey in the wax figure of Voltaire, but is caught by Igor, who promptly asks her to leave. Then, though the open door, he sees Charlotte and envisions a wax figure for his museum and asks Ralph to introduce him to her.

He tells her that she resembles one of his works, and then he asks her if she would pose for him. He welcomes her to the opening. The reporter finds the connection between Joan of Ark and Joan Gale. After they leave, one of Igor’s assistants asks if he’ll have the pleasure of Miss Duncan posing for him. When Charlotte shows up at the opening, he welcomes her as his little Marie Antoinette. He decides that the weather had dampened the opening, and he will close early. The reporter breaks in and asks about the Joan of Arc display. Igor explains that he didn’t sculpt it due to his mangled hands and introduces his assistance, Sparrow (Arthur Edmund Carewe). The reporter follows him and gets into Joe Worth’s building and thinks she has stumbled onto another stolen body when a terribly deformed man in a dark hat and long cape comes down the basement stairs. He pushes the oblong box a few feet before he is disturbed by a sound. He then shuts off the lights and goes back up the stairs.

Florence flees the basement and gets the police to search the building. She gives them an unbelievable description of the caped intruder. Then the police open the oblong box to find only excelsior packed bottles of whiskey: her credibility is completely gone. Turns out Joe Worth is a bootlegger. The raid leads to the arrest of Sparrow, who turns out to be a junkie, and the pocket watch of the missing judge is found on him. Now, the reporter has the support of the police.

Meanwhile, Charlotte goes looking for Ralph at the museum and is tricked by Igor into getting herself locked into a room that leads to the sinister waxworks and her screaming begins in earnest before she is saved just in time.

Although dated in parts due to moving from late 1921 to the current time of 1933, the film does have its strong points. Atwill and Wray are exceptional, and another stand out performance is given by Arthur Edmund Carewe as Sparrow the junkie. All things considered, a film worth revisiting. It is a little more difficult to find on DVD than most films from the same period due to copyright issues. There is a Warner’s House of Wax DVD that includes The Mystery of the Wax Museum.

 House of Wax (1953 Warner Brothers)

Directed by Andre De Toth

Screenplay by Crane Wilbur based on the Short Story, The Wax Works by Charles S. Beldon.

Rated GP / 128 minutes

Cast: Vincent Price (Professor Henry Jarrod), Frank Lovejoy (Detective Tom Brennan), Phyllis Kirk (Sue Allen), Carolyn Jones (Cathy Gray), Paul Picerni (Scott Andrews), Roy Roberts (Matthew Burke), Angela Clarke (Mrs. Andrews), Dabbs Greer (Sgt. Jim Shane),  Charles Bronson (Igor), Reggie Rymal (Paddleball barker).

The big hype for the 1953 version of House of Wax was that it was shot in 3D. With the growing popularity of television across the country film-makers tried a number of gimmicks to bring in customers to movie houses which were feeling the impact of the new medium.

The best known version of Beldon’s story, House of Wax opens with a static shot of a dark rainy street as the titles flash in wonderous SteroVision 3D. As the credits end, the camera pans slowly to a window of the wax museum. Then we are inside the building where there is the distinct shadow of a woman holding a knife and seconds later we see that it is being cast by a wax figure.  The pan continues past more displays, but they are not of horrors, but of an historical nature.  Finally we come to Jarrod (Vincent Price) working in his studio. The opening is very similar to The Mystery of the Wax Museum.

His business partner, Matthew Burke (Roy Roberts) shows up and he is concerned with the losses that his investment has taken. Jarrod tells him of a possible investor that may be interested in buying him out. When the prospective investor arrives, Jarrod’s partner goes up to his office. He is discouraged when he returns from his office as Jarrod tells him that it will be months before they will have the investor’s contribution, so he shows Jarrod an insurance policy and suggests that they burn down the museum for the cash. As Burke attempts to set the figures on fire, Jarrod intercedes and a fight ensues as the wax figures burn wildly.

The story is simplified and moves more smoothly without the shift in the time period which dates the earlier version. There is not the added drama of the newspaper reporter or the intrigue of Joe Worth being a bootlegger. Although Atwill gave a solid performance in the lead of Mystery of the Wax Museum, Vincent Price’s performance in House of Wax was such that he became one of the brightest of the horror film stars who’s light like a true star, has not diminished and we still see clearly long after his death.

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ABOVE: Carolyn Jones & Vincent Price in House of Wax (1953)

Phyllis Kirk is excellent as the heroine and Carolyn Jones delivers a comic triumph as her roommate that usually won’t say no and ends up as Jarrod’s Joan of Arc display in an obvious homage to 1933’s The Mystery of the Wax Museum.

ABOVE: Carolyn Jones, Roy Roberts, & Phyllis Kirk in House of Wax (1953)

House of Wax  (2005 Warner Brothers)

Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra

Screenplay by Chad Hayes & Carey W. Hayes based on the Story by Charles S. Beldon.

Rated R / 113 minutes

Cast: Elisha Cuthbert (Carly Jones), Chad Michael Murray (Nick), Brian Van Holt (Bo), Paris Hilton (Paige), Jared Padalecki (Wade), Jon Abrahams (Dalton), Robert Ri’chard (Blake), Dragicia Debert (Trudy Sinclair).

The latest version of Charles Belden’s story is much different from its predecessors and has a very dark sense of humor. The best way to begin a review of this version of House of Wax is to acknowledge that it is a bad slasher movie dropped into a gothic horror setting! We have six teens on their way to a big game stop on the way and camp and end up going into a town that is more than a little mysterious to get a replacement fan belt for their car. It appears that everyone in the town is a wax figure.

The producers of this film include Joel Silver and Robert Zemeckis, and they went all out and built the entire town. Not just studio sets, but a free standing town. Joel Silver and Robert Zemeckis have produced a number of remakes of old horror classics including, The House on Haunted Hill, and 13 Ghosts. Both of which have also been set pieces. The most extreme being the house/ghost containment box in Thir13en Ghosts. None of these films have lived up to the original films. House of Wax is no exception. The production values can’t save the film from the mindless script, but it is funny and in some parts very frightening.

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ABOVE: Elisha Cuthbert in House of Wax (2005)

The lead in the film is Elisha Cuthbert best know for The Girl Next Door and the television series 24. Giving a good performance is not a problem for her and she delivers here in what were some grueling scenes to film. Kudos also go to Paris Hilton along with a good sport award for best scream queen death scene ever.

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ABOVE: Paris Hilton in House of Wax (2005)

I know that there are those among you that would have me dipped in hot wax for just daring to include the 2005 version in this piece, but the author of Waxworks is credited because the film does use the main idea of the original story. Someone insane is murdering people to create wax figures. That and the title pretty much end the connection.

The 1953 version, House of Wax is the enduring classic and will remain so for many more years. Unless of course, Guillermo Del Toro or Jordan Peele decide to remake it.

The Vampire Lovers (1970) Hammer/AIP/MGM

Directed by Roy Ward Baker

Adapted by Harry Fine & Tudor Gates and Michael Style from the Novella by J. Sheridan Le Fanu

Screenplay by Tudor Gates

124 minutes.

CAST: Ingrid Pitt (Marcilla/Carmilla/Marcalla Karnstein), Pippa Steel (Laura), Madeline Smith (Emma Morton), Peter Cushing (General von Spielsdorf), George Cole (Roger Morton), Dawn Addams (The Countess), Kate O’Mara (The Governess/Mme. Perrodot), Jon Finch (Baron Joachim von Hartog), Douglas Wilmer (Baron Joachim von Hartog).

The Vampire Lovers was a landmark for Hammer Films as it was the first of their horror films to contain nudity. It also featured a female vampire who fancied women (Carmilla). Due to these new directions it was also the first Hammer Film to receive an R rating in the United States (Just an year earlier, Midnight Cowboy received an X rating). As Madeline Smith observed in an interview, the production was part of an “uneasy marriage between Hammer and American International.” AIP was brought in to draw audiences back into the theaters to see Hammer Films. As Madeline Smith put it, they were there, “to hot them up!” She further exclaimed that she didn’t really realize what they were going to do to “Hot” them up! And “hot them up” they did.

The emphasis on bosoms, already a staple of Hammer Horror, was increased and the nudity of Ingrid Pitt and partial nudity of Madeline Smith took them over the top, if you will pardon the expression. The film was based on the 1872 novella by J. Sheridan Le Fanu, Carmilla, one of the earliest works of vampire fiction. Bram Stoker’s Dracula would not appear until 1897. Fanu, like Stoker was Irish and may have been an influence on the author of Dracula and Dracula’s Guest.

Whether or not the lesbian behavior was implied in Fanu’s text is beside the point, in the Hammer Film version it is the basis of the tale. It powers the sexuality that drives Carmilla throughout the narrative. Ignoring some of the traditional vampire mythology such as fear of daylight, Carmilla’s behavior is not what is typical for the vampire film as established by Stoker and later by Hollywood.

Another change is that the woman are in the foreground and the usual lead actors are reduced to much less screen time. Peter Cushing’s character of General Von Spielsdorf is little more than a supporting player as is Jon Finch’s Baron Joachim von Hartog, and Douglas Wilmer as Baron Joachim von Hartog. They give wonderfully professional support in this film where the roles are effectively reversed placing the women at center stage.

The two actresses more than delivered. Ingrid Pitt is wonderfully evil as Carmilla, and Madeline Smith’s innocence and tragic trust of the demon was astonishingly well performed. The Vampire Lovers did come near the end of Hammer’s reign as the studio of Gothic Horror, but it was a fitting finale and a sincerely wicked effort.

Ingrid Pitt (1937-2010)

Ingrid Pitt was featured in two subsequent Hammer features, Countess Dracula, and The House That Dripped Blood. Both films were released in 1971. Prior to making the Hammer films, she had appeared in Where Eagles Dare (1968) with Clint Eastwood and Richard Burton.

She appeared with Christopher Lee and Britt Ekland in The Wicker Man (1973). An exceptionally well done horror film with a screenplay by Anthony Schaffer that has become a British cult classic. She went on to a long career in film and television including most notably: Doctor Who (1972 & 1984), and Smiley’s People (Mini-Series 1982).

Ingrid Pitts’ last film was an animated short. It focuses on her time in and escape from a Nazi concentration camp when she was eight years old. Her story is told in the acclaimed film short, Ingrid Pitt: Beyond the Forest (2011). This 6 minute animated short was written and narrated by Ingrid Pitt and Directed by Devin Sean Michaels. Animated by (then 10 year old) Perry S. Chen with characters designed by academy award winner, Bill Plympton.

Madeline Smith (1949)

Madeline Smith’s first Hammer appearance was a small part in Taste the Blood of Dracula (1970) where she was billed as Maddy Smith. In the same year, The Vampire Lovers was released insuring that her name would be forever associated with Hammer horror. Her career would be a long and varied one as she appeared in both television and theatrical films. From British comedy shows like The Two Ronnies and Doctor at Large (both 1971) to films like Theater of Blood with Vincent Price and Live and Let Die (both released in 1973) and The Bawdy Adventurers of Tom Jones (1976). She also appeared in the last of the Hammer Frankenstein series, Frankenstein and the Monster From Hell (1974). Peter Cushing was in his usual fine form, but the make-up that turned David Prowse (best know for his silent performance in Star Wars) into the Monster From Hell was not the films crowning glory nor was the script. All in all making one wish that The Vampire Lovers had been the Hammer horror swan song.

Left and Center: Live and Let Die. Right: The Bawdy Adventures of Tom Jones.

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