I had planned to start this column in January 2022, but decided to get the jump on it with the remainder of December. The following are the upcoming new Films & Series that are recommended by F&TVR for the month of December.
Landscapersis a Limited Series premiers on HBO December 7th, and features David Thewlis and Olivia Colman in a true crime drama based the story of Chris & Susan Edwards who become the the principle suspects when two bodies are found in Nottingham.
David Thewlis & Olivia Colman in Landscapers premiers on HBO December 7th
The Lost Daughter is the feature writing/directing debut of Maggie Gyllenhaal as she adapts Elena Ferrante’s novel to the screen; the film will receive a limited theatrical release on December 17th and premier on Netflix on December 31st.
Dakota Johnson & Olivia Colman inThe Lost Daughter
The cast features: Olivia Colman with support from Dakota Johnson, Peter Sarsgaard, Jessie Buckley, Ed Harris, and Paul Mescal.
Olivia Colman &Dakota JohnsoninThe Lost Daughter
Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story hits Theater’s on December 10th. I can’t imagine anyone missing this!
Ansel Elgort & Rachel Zegler in West Side Story
Red Rocket a new film from the director that brought you Tangerine opens in Theaters on December 10th. It is the story of a burnt out porn star returning to his hometown. How could anyone resist such a synopsis? The film features former MTV VJ Simon Rex.
Simon Rex in Red Rocket
Spider-Man: No Way Home comes your way on December 17th, but only in theaters. The film brings Tom Holland back in the leading role for round three with a cast that includes: Alfred Molina (Dr. Octopus), Jamie Foxx (Electro), & Benedict Cumberbatch as Doctor Strange, and possibly some surprises.
Zendaya & Tom Holland in Spider-Man: No Way Home
Nightmare Alley is coming to theaters only on December 17th and is an F&TVR must see for December.
Bradley Cooper in Nightmare Alley
Guillermo del Toro’s first feature since his incredible Best Picture Oscar winning The Shape of Water (2017)is a Neo-noir version of William Lindsay Gresham’s novel of the same name.
Bradley Cooper, Cate Blanchett & Rooney Mara in Nightmare Alley
First made into a film in 1947 that starred Tyrone Power, Joan Blondell, Coleen Gray and Mike Mazurki; del Toro’s version stands to be very different indeed.
Don’t Look Up is a new film that will debut on Netflix on December 24th that boasts a dream cast including: Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence, Jonah Hill, Timothee Chalamet, Cate Blanchett & Tyler Perry.
Cate Blanchett, Tyler Perry, Leonardo DiCaprio & Jennifer Lawrence in Don’t Look Up
A college professor and one of his students go on a mission to warn the world about the coming of a killer comet that will destroy the planet Earth, and yes–it’s a comedy and a December must see.
Jonah Hill, Leonardo DiCaprio, Meryl Streep & Jennifer Lawrence in Don’t Look Up
Joel Coen’s The Tragedy of Macbeth will be in theaters and on Apple TV Plus on December 25th.
Denzel Washington & Frances McDormand in The Tragedy of Macbeth
Denzel Washington & Frances McDormand star and are supported by Brendan Gleeson, Corey Hawkins, Harry Melling, and Moses Ingram. Another F&TVR must see without any reservations.
You would have to work very hard to come up with a film in the same stratosphere as Guillermo del Toro’s The Shape of Water (2017). While not a sequel to The Creature from the Black Lagoon, it can easily be read that way. It is a lyrical fantasy that defies disbelief. It is the happy ending that every kid that watched the original film wished for and that del Toro made happen. Every frame brings you closer to the realization that anything is possible, or at least you want to believe it is so. It is less of a horror film than a beautifully bizarre beauty and the beast story.
Doug Jones & Sally Hawkins
Richard Jenkins and Doug Jones
The Shape of Water (2017)
Everything, from the production and casting to the fine points in the script are perfect. The cast performs flawlessly taking you deeper into the story’s depths, letting you float in the comfort of the lovers’ dream.
Julie Adams
Julie Adams
The Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954)
The original film was where del Toro’s influence began–a classic tale of unrequited love. The first film in the trilogy it is undoubtedly the film that most people remember. The next, The Revenge of the Creature is the closest to del Toro’s in that the creature is brought back from the jungle and kept in a holding tank where an effort is made to communicate with him, and of course a beautiful young scientist, Helen Dobson (Lori Nelson) is one of the specialists. The Creature’s heartache is revived.
Lori Nelson & Ricou Browning
Lori Nelson & Tom Hennesy
The third entry in the series is my favorite after the first because of its bizarre film noir influenced narrative (no comment on the Creature’s prison attire). At first, I thought I’d just been watching too much noir, but it was not my imagination: from the opening shot of the convertible racing up to the dock, the film was pure hot house noir right down to the smoldering ice blonde doctor’s wife.
LEFT: Lobby Card. RIGHT: Leigh Snowden in The Creature Walks Among Us
The usual Film Noir conflict, jealousy, and double crossing ensues. There is the nice guy, the tough guy who won’t leave the girl alone, and the husband that pays her no attention except to berate her or accuse her of being unfaithful.
Leigh Snowden & Gregg Palmer
Gregg Palmer & Jeff Morrow
The jealous husband kills the tough guy and plans to frame the innocent Creature, but the Creature catches on and breaks out of his holding cell and kills the doctor.
Don Megowan as the Creature
At the end of this noirish escapade, the Creature exits and goes back into the sea; presumably, to drown due to his newly evolved lungs. There is no way I can let a sleeping sea creature lie. Somehow, he doesn’t drown but swims to LA where he gets rid of the prison suit they put him in and finds a Brooks Brothers where they are happy to fit him in a nice cream colored suit and a power tie that shouts, “I’m a fish out of water! Ask me how?” He then locates an office for lease on the seedy side of Hollywood Boulevard, and the landlord tells him it’s 250 clams a month and insists on three months security deposit because the Creature’s references are all wet. The Creature has the payment delivered packed in dry ice. Next, he hires the dead doctor’s wife as his receptionist and opens a private investigator’s office to the stars. Fade to deep blue.
When I watched The Invisible Man for the first time, I was knocked out by Elizabeth Moss’ bravura performance. I also thought it was an incredibly creative update of the story. Focusing on the victim put so much more power in the villainy of the titular character. The Invisible Man is more terrifying because we can’t see him, but like his victim, we know he’s there.
Universal chose to go with Blumhouse and Leigh Whannell’s The Invisible Man after the failure of their original Dark Universe plans in the wake of the remake of The Mummy.
Blumhouse has had hits in the horror field with a number of projects including; The Purge, Insidious, Paranormal Activity, and Ouija. The success of the Blumhouse produced Get Out had further enhanced the studio’s prestige with both box office success and rave reviews. Reportedly Blumhouse now has a first look 10 year contract with Universal Pictures that will lead to their involvement in future Universal Monster reboots.
Elizabeth Moss in The Invisible Man (2020)
After the success of The Invisible Man, Elizabeth Moss was approached by Universal to appear in a sequel. Moss is interested in a new version of The Invisible Woman, a lighthearted follow-up to the original Invisible Man. She did, after all, make the invisibility suit vanish.
Elizabeth Moss in The Invisible Man (2020)
In a Collider interview published 10/13/2021, Jason Blum confirmed, “Wolfman, we are also working on the script, got to get the script, right. In that case, it’s Ryan Gosling…But working on trying to get a script that he feels good about and comfortable about and excited about.” The idea was pitched by Gosling and until he is satisfied with the script, there will be no full moon.
Ryan Gosling
Leigh Whannell exited Wolfman due to scheduling issues, and Ryan Gosling brought Derek Cianfrance (Blue Valentine) onto the project. He also worked with Gosling on Place Beyond the Pines.
Also in pre-production is Bride, with Scarlett Johansson on deck as both producer and actress in the lead role, and Sebastian Lelio is slated to direct a script written by Rebecca Angelo, Lauren Schuker Blum, and himself.
Screenplay by Ted Sherdeman/Adapted by Russell Hughes based on the Story by George Worthing Yates
Cinematography by Sidney Hickox
Music by Bronislau Kaper
Warner Brothers / 1hr 34min
CAST: James Whitmore (Sgt. Ben Peterson), Edmund Gwenn (Dr. Harold Medford), Joan Weldon (Dr. Patricia Medford), James Arness (Robert Graham), Onslow Stevens (Brigadier General Robert O’Brien), Christian Drake (Trooper Ed Blackburn).
Them! opens with a shot of the desert and Bronislau Kaper’s ominous score as a plane appears in the distance and slowly pulls us into the action. We then meet police Sargent Ben Peterson (James Whitmore) as the plane’s pilot leads Peterson and his partner Ed Blackburn (Christian Drake) to a child (Sandy Descher) that is roaming through the desert as if in a trance. Parking their squad car, they call out to the child, but she does not respond. Obviously in shock, she just keeps walking.
The pilot than contacts them about an abandon car and trailer further down the road. They take the girl and head down the highway. At first it looks normal. Until they walk around to the side of the trailer that has been smashed open. It’s a mess inside, everything even money is scattered inside the vehicle. There is a bloody cloth, but no real clue as to what happened. There is a mysterious print in the sand that neither officer can identify.
When the specialist from the Department of Agriculture arrives in response to the print lifted from the sand at the trailer site, he is taken to see the girl who has not yet snapped out of her shock. He holds a vial of formic acid under her nose and she bursts out of her impingement, jumping up with a scream and shouting, “Them! Them! Them!”
Sandy Descher in Them!
The power of the film emits from director Gordon Douglas’ (They Call Me Mister Tibbs!) direction that keeps a serious demeanor never allowing camp to set in, but he doesn’t forget to include humor. Much of it is centered on Edmund Gwenn’s (The Trouble with Harry) Dr. Medford. From the moment he and his daughter Patricia get off the plane, he contributes the needed comic relief within the bounds of his hyper serious character. He comes down out of the plane’s hatch, but his daughter gets stuck and all that can be seen of her are her legs. Both Sargent Peterson and Agent Graham take note of her predicament while Dr. Medford remains oblivious.
Joan Weldon, James Arness & James Whitmore in Them!
Both Dr. Medfords suspect the truth, giant ants, but they refuse to tell even the FBI agent until they are certain. Special AgentRobert Graham is not used to waiting and quickly loses patience with the doctors.
Them!
Simply one of the best and most enduring of the creature features from the 1950’s. The ants are really frightening and the action is exuberantly real. A fine cast plays it with deadpan chagrin and terror.
Forbidden Planet(1956)
Directed by Fred McLeod Wilcox
Screenplay by Cyril Hume based on a Story by Irving Block & Allen Adlerloosely based on William Shakespeare’s The Tempest (Uncredited)
Cinematography by George J. Folsey
Music Department: Bebe Barron & Louis Barron composers of electronic tonalities
CAST: Walter Pidgeon (Dr. Morbius), Anne Francis (Altaira Morbius), Leslie Nielson (Commander Adams), Warren Stevens (Lt. ‘Doc’ Ostrow), Jack Kelly (Lt. Farman), Richard Anderson ( Chief Quinn), Earl Holliman (Cook).
MGM / 1hr 38min
Forbidden Planet was not the first film to have its screenplay based on a Shakespeare play, but it certainly was the most unusual. The film that was influenced by the world of Prospero and Miranda became an influence in the world of science fiction. The excellent script’s original story foreshadowed many science fiction tales to come. Many of the TV shows and films that came later borrowed freely from Forbidden Planet, from the story telling to the uniforms to the use of robots and even the names of weapons.
LEFT:Leslie Nielson, Warren Stevens, Jack Kelley, Anne Francis &Walter Pidgeon inForbidden Planet (1956) RIGHT: William Shatner, DeForest Kelley & Walter Konig in Star Trek: The Original Series (1966)
In addition, the cast was exceptional including: Walter Pidgeon, Leslie Nielson, and Anne Francis. The film looks like the blue print for the soon to be popular, Star Trek: The Original Series (1966) right down to the landing party of three (in Star Trek usually the Captain, Spock & Bones), and the Captain getting the girl. More blatantly, Forbidden Planet’s, United Planets Starship C-57D is reflected in Star Trek’s Federation of Planets Starship USS Enterprise.
LEFT: Anne Francis & Leslie Nielson in Forbidden Planet (1956) RIGHT: Nancy Kovack & William Shatner in Star Trek (1966) Season 2 Episode 19
The decompression chambers on the United Planets Starship C-57D look like a prototype for the USS Enterprise’s transporter.
LEFT: Decompression Chambers in Forbidden Planet RIGHT: Transporter in Star Trek: the Original Series
Set design in subsequent science fiction films echo the long before its time set design displayed when Morbius takes Adams on a tour of the Krell’s astonishing complex. Star Wars (1977), Blade Runner (1982), and Total Recall (1990) come to mind. In Total Recall it was a machine that was built by ancient Martians to create air on the planet.
Forbidden Planet (1956)Total Recall (1990)
Robby the Robot not only influenced both television shows and films, but the robot in the 1966 television series, Lost in Space was designed by Robert Kinoshita who had also designed Robby for Forbidden Planet.
LEFT: Anne Francis & Robby the Robotin Forbidden Planet (1956)RIGHT: Robot (B-9 class) & Jonathan Harris in Lost in Space (1965)Publicity photo
LEFT: R2D2 in Star Wars (1977)RIGHT:The Robot & Maxwell Jenkins in Lost in Space (2018-2021)
Forbidden Planet is a classic of the genre and remains a must see film for both science fiction fans as well as the casual film viewer.
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
Directed by Don Siegel
Screenplay by Daniel Mainwaring & (Richard Collins/Uncredited due to being blacklisted) based on story by Jack Finneyserialized in Collier’s Magazine
Cinematography by Ellsworth Fredericks
Music by Carmen Dragon
Allied Artists Pictures / 1hr 20min
CAST: Kevin McCarthy (Dr. Miles J. Bennell), Dana Wynter (Becky Driscoll), Larry Gates (Dr. Dan Kauffman),King Donovan (Jack Belicec), Carolyn Jones (Theodora Bellicec), Jean Willes (Nurse Sally Withers), Ralph Dumke (Police Chief Nick Grivett).
The undeniable high point in 50’s Science Fiction, Invasion of the Body Snatchers has so much going for it that it will never go out of date. The opening is unforgettable as Kevin McCarthy tries to convince disbelieving doctors and authorities that the world is in danger of being invaded by interstellar plant life! Just the extreme yet subtle manner in which the aliens supplant the humans in their own bodies defies rational thought.
Larry Gates, King Donovan, andKevin McCarthy in Invasion of the Body Snatchers
Once the doctor calms Dr. Bennell (Kevin McCarthy) down getting him to calmly tell his tale, the action begins. As the good doctor returns home from a trip, we are introduced to the characters as he finds that something odd has been going on during his absence. Many of the townspeople have tried to make appointments while he was away, but on his return, most of those that seemed panicked to see him, cancel without explanation! At the same time, there are a number of people that are under the delusion that someone they are close to is not really that person anymore.
Dana Wynter in Invasion of the BodySnatchers
Once Bennell realizes what is actually going on, the clock begins to tick as he and Becky Driscoll are aided by Belicec’s in plotting to escape and expose the alien plot.
Dana Wynter & Kevin McCarthy in Invasion of the Body Snatchers
A well honed script based on a serialization that ran in Collier’s magazine is transformed into a masterpiece of science fiction, horror, and suspense. Don Siegel’s direction employs economy and pacing to keep the beat as it gradually quickens with every scene. The cast is as memorable as the story itself, and each character is fully realized as the horror slowly engulfs them. The exceptionally shot black and white adds to the feeling of isolation and fear.
The film has been re-made three times: Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978), Body Snatchers (1993), The Invasion (2007) with varying degrees of success; although none have surpassed the original, they stand as a testament to it’s influence.
Facts, Rumors, and Hearsay
Them!
“Sharp, slightly vinegary formic acid is the one-carbon volatile acid, a chemical weapon found in ants and other insects but turned against them by the anteater, which relies on it to help digest them.” Harold Mcgee WSJ – 10/24/2020, What Does Outer Space Smell Like?
Forbidden Planet
The Robinson’s (Lost in Space – 1966) robot was created by Robert Kinoshita, who also designed Robby the Robot for Forbidden Planet (1956).
Invasion of the Body Snatchers
Don Siegel directed two episodes of the original Twilight Zone. One of the episodes featured Robby the Robot from Forbidden Planet. The episode aired November 15th, 1963 and was titled, Uncle Simon.
The last sequence was not filmed on the Hollywood Freeway, but on an out of the way cross-bridge. The cars were actually manned by stunt drivers. Don Siegel admitted that Kevin McCarthy was in real danger of getting hit, because the sequence was shot at dawn and the actor was nearing complete exhaustion.
Years after the film, Dana Wynter received a message on her answering machine from Kevin McCarthy and he said: “Hi Becky, this is Miles. Stay awake won’t you!”
Ken Russell’s pyrotechnic and more than a little hallucinatory biopic focuses on a night spent at Lord Byron’s Villa Diodati in Switzerland, and the antics of Percy Bysshe Shelley, Mary Godwin, Claire Clairmont, Dr. John Polidori , and their host, the enigmatic, Lord Byron. This was the night that a horror story contest was suggested which in time led to Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818) and Polidori’s Vampyre (1819). It is interesting to note that both the Frankenstein monster and the fictional vampire were born of the same night. Out of one night of revel, two horror tales were brought to life.
Natasha Richardson & Julian Sands in Gothic (1986)
It is a fictionalized telling, but much of it is based on the known facts and speculation about what went on at Villa Diodati on that singular night. The cast is well up to the task of portraying Byron and his guests. Byrne is both ingratiating and sinister; Shelley is nearly mad, and drinking laudanum during the proceedings with spectacular results; Mary is the rational yet jealous wife; Claire is entirely the mad mistress and spurned woman. Dr. Polodori is the very wild card. Certainly, much of it had to be imagined and that is where screenwriter Volk’s and director Russell’s own creative madness takes hold and spins a tale of lust, jealousy, guilt, and regret.
Polidori’s story was the first fictional vampire story; although vampires were mentioned in non-fiction writing as far back as 1718 in the Treaty of Passarowitz, where the local practice in Serbia and Ottenia of exhuming bodies and “killing vampires,” was mentioned. The first appearance of the word vampyre in English would be in 1732 in news reports about epidemics of vampirism in eastern Europe.
CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT:Julian Sands & Natasha Richardson / Myriam Cyr / Myriam Cyr & Natasha Richardson in in Gothic (1986)
The next vampire tale to be published would be Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu’s 1872 novella, Carmilla. It would be part of the influence for the German film, Vampyre (1932) which came out a year after Tod Browning’s, Dracula (1931). Bram Stoker’s novel, Dracula was published in 1897 twenty-five years after Carmilla. It is certain that the creator of Dracula was influenced by his predecessors in terror.
Illustration from Carmilla by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu (1872)
Frankenstein is the more famous of the two tales that gestated on that strange evening where a contest for the best horror story powered a kind of chilling paranoia that brought out the worst and the best from all in attendance. All of it is gleefully imagined and brought to life in Gothic.
This is an excellent film for anyone interested in the legend of George Gordon, Lord Byron as well as those curious about the influences that spurned such a young woman to create so imaginatively terrifying a novel in that particular time and place.
Facts, Rumors & Hearsay
Director Cameo: Ken Russell and his family are on the tour boat at the end of the film.
When Shelly comes down from the roof and expresses his obsession with lightning, Byron calls him “Shelly, The Modern Prometheus,” which would become part of the original title for Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus.
“Mad, bad, and dangerous to know,” Lady Caroline Lamb on Lord Byron.
Adrienne Barbeau began her career on the Broadway stage in Fiddler on the Roof (1968); prior to that, she had been working in a nightclub as a go-go dancer while auditioning for acting jobs. In 1972, Barbeau was nominated for a Tony award for her performance (Musical) as Rizzo for best supporting actress in the original Broadway production of Grease. By the mid-seventies she was doing mainly TV work in both series and movies. From 1972 to 1978, she was a series regular on Maude. In 1978 she met John Carpenter on the set of Someone’s Watching Me! a made for TV movie with Laura Hutton in the lead role that showcased Carpenter’s talent as a director.
Adrienne Barbeau in The Fog (1980)
Barbeau and Carpenter were married in 1979, and she made her feature film debut in John Carpenter’s, The Fog (1980); Carpenter wrote the part with his wife in mind.Her next film with her husband directing was the classic, Escape From New York (1981). Less a horror film than action adventure, Barbeau fit right into the exceptional cast that includes Kurt Russell, Lee Van Cleef, Donald Pleasence, Earnest Borgnine, Tom Atkins, and Isaac Hayes. The film was highly rated by both critics and audiences and Russell’s character, Snake Pissken remains his best known role.
LEFT: Earnest Borgnine, Henry Dean Stanton, Adrienne Barbeau & Kurt Russell in Escape From New York (1981) LEFT: Kurt Russell & Adrienne Barbeau in Escape From New York(1981)
John Carpenter directing Adrienne Barbeau in Escape From New York (1981)
In 1982 Wes Craven’s Swamp Thing was released, and was seen mainly as a campy version of the DC comic book, but Barbeau & Jourdan manage to lift the film above its director’s somewhat low aspirations. It is a better film than many may recall, and is a good film to revisit.
Adrienne Barbeau in Swamp Thing (1982)
In 1981’s Creepshow, George A. Romero presents five tales in a screenplay written by Steven King. How could you go wrong, five stories inspired by E.C. Horror comics of the 1950’s penned by the undisputed master of horror that are both creepy and wickedly funny?
Adrienne Barbeau in Creepshow (1982)
Barbeau has had a long and colorful career and currently has two films in pre & post production: Hellblazers a new horror film with Billy Zane, Bruce Dern, and Tony Todd (Candyman 1982) in post production, and Pitchfork with Tony Todd and Dee Wallace (Cujo 1981) in pre production.
Carnivale cast photo
Adrienne Barbeau
Carnivale (2005)
She has also starred in TV shows with guest spots on Dexter (2009), Gray’s Anatomy (2009), Creepshow (TV series 2019), American Horror Stories (2021), and as a regular in 24 episodes of the astonishingly well written and produced but sadly, short lived, Carnivale (2003-2005). She has had a total of 153 screen credits to date and counting.
Lori Hallier & Cynthia Dale
Lorie Hallier & Cynthia Dale
My Bloody Valentine (1981)
Lorie Hallier
Prior to My Bloody Valentine, Hallier appeared on the TV series, Bizarre in 1979. My Bloody Valentine was her first film appearance, and she went on to do guest appearances on many popular TV shows, including:
Trapper John, M.D., The Dukes of Hazzard, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, and The Twilight Zone to name just a few. Hallier also appeared in a number of TV movies. She has clocked 94 screen credits to date.
Cynthia Dale
Lori Hallier & Cynthia Dale in My Bloody Valentine
Cynthia Dale has had a long career in both film and television as both an actress and producer. After a TV movie appearance at the age of 10 in The Wonder of It All (1971), her next was in My Bloody Valentine in 1981. She also had a part in The Boy in Blue (1986) with Nicolas Cage, Christoper Plummer, and David Naughton (An American Werewolf in London), and Moonstruck (1987), and the successful TV series, Street Legal (1988-94).
Adrienne King
Adrienne King in Friday the 13th
Friday the 13th2
Adrienne King is best known for Friday the 13th and Friday the 13th 2. Although she has continued working intermittently, she currently has only twenty on screen credits including three that are in pre-or-post production.
Adrienne Kingearning her Scream Queen title in Friday the 13th
Jeannine Taylor
Jeannine Taylor
Kevin Bacon & Jeannine Taylor
Friday the 13th (1981)
Jeannine Taylor has only two screen credits, and only one appearance in a horror film: Friday the 13th. The Royal Romance of Charles and Diana (1982), a TV movie,was her other screen credit. Taylor will be forever remembered by fans as the axe victim in the former. She commented on her brief screen career, “But as far as acting in major motion pictures… I didn’t think I was pretty enough. I wasn’t tall and blonde – I didn’t ever think of myself in that way.”
Robbie Morgan
Morgan’s career on the screen was also a short but memorable one that began in 1969 with Me, Natalie with her playing the titular character along side: Patty Duke, Elsa Lanchester, Martin Balsam, Al Pacino, and James Farentino.
Robbie Morgan in Me, Natalie (1969) Lobby Card
Her very next role was in a horror film in which she played a student at a dance studio run by, shall we say, a lunatic? In 1971’s answer to 1961’s Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? Debbie Reynolds and Shelley Winters appear in the formulaic horror story What’s the Matter with Helen? A young Morgan does a diminutive version of Mae West in a musical interlude.
What’s the Matter with Helen? Poster (1971) / Robbie Morgan in What’s the Matter with Helen? (1971)
Nine years later she played Annie in Friday the 13th and would only appear in three more projects in the 80’s, two of which were TV movies: Forbidden Love (1982) and I Married a Centerfold (1984). She also appeared in an episode of The Fall Guy “Eight Ball” (1983). Her next appearance was not until 2015 in Dutch Hollow. Most recently, her character in Friday the 13th was the focus of Episode 10 of the TV series, Coroner’s Report “Annie Phillips” (2021)
Robbie Morgan inFriday the 13th (1981)
Lauri Bartram
Laurie Bartram inFriday the 13th (1981)
Mark Nelson & Laurie Bartram in Friday the 13th
Friday the 13th was Laurie Bartram’s last screen credit in another short lived career. She began with two appearances on the TV series, Emergency! in 1973.
Next, she made an uncredited appearance in The House of Seven Corpses (1974), and from 1978 through 1979 was a regular on 85 episodes of the TV soap opera, Another World.
Felissa Rose
Felissa Rose in SleepawayCamp (1983)
Sleepaway Camp is a deadpan parody of Friday the 13th as well as an original in its own right with an infamous twist ending. Unlike most of the Friday the 13th Scream Queens, Rose has had a long and eventful film career with too many projects in pre & filming & post production to name, and a total of 148 screen credits as well as 32 producer & 1 writing credit.
Barbara Crampton
Bruce Abbott &Barbara Crampton
Bruce Abbott & Barbara Crampton
Re-Animator (1985)
Re-Animator remains the most entertaining as well as successful film version of an H.P. Lovecraft story. Barbara Crampton’s performance gives her a special place in the Scream Queen hall of fame. She also has enjoyed a long career on screen which began with 83 episodes on the daytime soap opera, Days of Our Lives (1983-84). She then did a TV movie and a guest shot on the TV series, Santa Barbara (season 1 episode 16-1984). Before being cast in Re-Animator, Crampton appeared in Brian De Palma’s Body Double (1984) in a supporting role. Re-Animator (1985) was the film that would land her in the horror hall of fame for all eternity!
LEFT: Bruce Abbott & Barbara Crampton in Re-Animator (1985) RIGHT: Barbara Crampton & Gary Daniels in Cold Harvest(1999)
Crampton has continued working in both TV & Films and to date has 69 screen credits including Snow Valley (2021) which is in post production.
LEFT: Barbara Crampton in From Beyond (1986) Barbara Crampton LEFT: Barbara Crampton in Puppet Master: The Littlest Reich (2018)
Facts, Rumors & Hearsay
Friday the 13th
Adrienne King was stalked by a fan with an obsession for her, terrified, she requested a much smaller role in Friday the 13th 2. She also refused to do horror conventions for 20 years.
Adrienne King’s scream was so good it clinched her getting the part.
My Bloody Valentine
Lori Hallier on Bloody Valentine: “I was watching it for the first time in 15 years. When I saw myself it was like watching a stranger, but I could finally watch it as a movie and see what made it cult-like.”
Creepshow
In the segment The Crate, the characters Wilma “Billy” Northrup (Adrienne Barbeau) and Professor Dexter Stanley (Fritz Weaver) are a tongue in cheek parody of the alcoholic and psychotically dysfunctional Martha and George in the film Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966) Starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.
Sleepaway Camp
Being only 13 at the time, Felissa Rose was unable to see her own movie in theaters.
Re-Animator
Barbara Crampton does all of her own screaming in the film.
Originally, the film was going to be a faithful adaptation of the H.P. Lovecraft novella, Herbert West – Re-Animator, but morphed into a parody of Frankenstein.
After many delays, Black Widow finally reached theaters and streaming on July 9th! Those of us who have followed Scarlett Johansson’s career were thrilled by the long awaited telling of the Black Widow’s origin. Adding yet another hit to her long line of films as she bids farewell to the Marvel Universe: Johansson is supported by Florence Pugh in a breakout action role that may place her in the lead role of Black Widow in future Marvel projects. Moving forward, Johansson has done the voice of Ash in Sing 2 which is completed and due in December. She is rumored to be cast as Audrey in a remake of Little Shop of Horrors along with Avengers co-star, Chris Evans, and is cast in and is also a producer on Bride (a free standing update of The Bride of Frankenstein from Universal). Both films are in pre-production.
Scarlett Johansson, Mary Kay Place & Aleksa PalladinoScarlett JohanssonManny & Lo (1996)click photos to enlarge
Looking back, Johansson has had a varied and memorable journey to becoming one of the most visible of Hollywood stars. Beginning her career on the stage at age eight in an off-Broadway production of Sophistry starring Ethan Hawke, she then had small parts in only two films (North 1994 & Just Cause 1995) before receiving her first leading role at the age of eleven in 1996’s Manny & Lo for which she was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for Best Female Lead. She went on to play three more supporting roles before appearing with Robert Redford in her breakout film, The Horse Whisperer in 1998.
Scarlett Johansson Scarlett Johansson & Robert RedfordThe Horse Whisperer (1998) click photos to enlarge
Having that success under her belt, she starred in the forgettable My Brother the Pig (1999) with Judge Reinhold before landing a featured role in the Coen Brother’s, The Man Who Wasn’t There (2001). Certainly, just being cast in Redford’s and the Coen’s films was a sign of things to come.
Scarlett JohanssonScarlett JohanssonThe Man Who Wasn’t There (2001) click photos to enlarge
Her next film has the distinction of appearing on 140 critic’s ‘top 10 lists’; 2001’s Ghost World, based on the independent comic created by Daniel Clowes, is that rare character driven drama that knows where it’s going and why. Terry Zwigoff’s & Daniel Clowes’ adaptation gives life to characters already realized on the pages of Clowes’ comic. With Zwigoff’s tight direction and a cast that fits, the film moves right to the heart. Johansson & Birch shine as two girls at loose ends who like to entertain themselves by causing chaos in other people’s lives. When they target a lonely man with one of their cruel stunts, it backfires in all directions, changing their lives as well as his. The film also showcases Steve Buscemi giving his best performance since Trees Lounge (1996).
Scarlett Johansson & Thora Birch Steve Buscemi Ghost World (2001)click photos to enlarge
The next two films are problematic: An American Rhapsody (2001) is a sentimental telling of a true story that just doesn’t play, Eight Legged Freaks (2002) a film based on 50’s B Sci-Fi suffers from lack of direction. Neither of these films slowed her down as she moved on to the unforgettable Girl with a Pearl Earring (2003). Johansson is the main reason it is so memorable: she soars as Griet opposite Colin Firth’s Vermeer.
Scarlett Johansson & Colin Firth in Girl with the Pearl Earring (2003)
The film rides on Johansson’s performance as Griet. It is impossible to take your eyes off of this young peasant girl as she moves through the foreign environment of the artist’s household. Her beauty is accentuated by her honest reactions to all that transpires around her. Although an uneducated girl, Griet shows herself to be wiser than her sophisticated hosts. At 17 she is more observant and adroit than the lady of the house. This tends to bring the woman’s hatred of her out in the open. Without reservation, this remains one of Johansson’s best performances.
Facts, Rumors & Hearsay
GHOST WORLD
Ghost World was the first film to receive an Oscar nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay based on a Graphic Novel or Comic Book.
Ghost World’s main character’s name, Enid Coleslaw, is an anagram of the film and comic book’s author, Daniel Clowes.
Scarlett Johansson submitted an audition tape to the producers of Ghost World and landed the role of Rebecca.
GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING
Out of all the animals used in the various scenes, Scarlett Johansson fell in love with one of the cats and named it ‘Merkin’. The cast & crew went to great lengths to allow her to adopt the cat and have it to be transported from Luxembourg to New York city.
Colin Firth’s nickname on the set was Fabio, due to the wig he wore made him look like the model Fabio.
The painting that Griet (Scarlett Johansson) inspired Vermeer to paint while she is washing the window is called Woman with a Water Jug.
I just read an article in a wonderful publication called Scary Monsters: Castle of Frankenstein2021 Annual about how Universal never brought The Bride back in any of the many Frankenstein sequels. Further, the writer pointed out that The Bride was never even mentioned in those sequels. He further lamented that since Frankenstein’s Monster was indestructible, shouldn’t The Bride be as well? I’ve idly wondered why The Bride’s tenure was so short myself, but never with the sense of humor and acumen displayed by George Humenik in his article. It got me thinking about the aborted Universal Dark Universe and what a let down it was for fans of the Universal horror films. Then, Leigh Whannell’s The Invisible Man came out to good reviews and box office, and the idea of freestanding reboots could be embraced. Any event that could lead to such a well written and produced film couldn’t be all bad.
Boris Karloff & Elsa Lanchester and Elizabeth Hobson & Colin Clive in The Bride of Frankenstein
The thing is, the film that I was most anxious to see was the sequel or reboot or remake or whatever of The Bride of Frankenstein. I’d read that Scarlett Johansson was a possible candidate for The Bride in the Dark Universe. Although I am a fan of hers, she didn’t seem like the right choice. Let me just add that being part of what was planned as the Universal Dark Universe would not have been a good thing for Mrs. Jost or anyone else. The problem now is–is there anyone interested in making a free standing Bride of Frankenstein update? I am aware that it sounds crazy to some, but it is one of those things that is just begging to be resurrected. Just take a moment and consider the possibilities while I tell you what I think would lead to a perfect creation.
I’ve given this a lot of thought (some would say too much), and I think I’ve come up with the ultimate formula for success! First, you would need all the right parts: Producer(s), Writer, Director, and of course actors. Please note that only Producers, and of course actors, are plural. The last thing a project like this needs is to be stitched together by various writers. As far as Directors go, the Duff Brothers would be an exception, but I don’t want to see the Bride stuck in the 80’s. As Producers I’m seeing Blumhouse with James Gunn co-producing, writing, and directing. So far, so good.
James Gunn (producer/writer/director) & Elizabeth Banks as The Bride
Now, the cast. That leads me straight to Elizabeth Banks who has worked with Gunn in the past (Slither) and is as quirky as Elsa Lanchester and as talented as well: she will bring the needed lightning to the revived Bride! For the great great great grandson or whatever of Dr. Frankenstein (plug in a Germanic first name as below),
Bruce Dern as Dr. Henrik Frankenstein V
I can think of no actor who would do the part more justice than Bruce Dern. His assistant? Steve Buscemi of course! Who else?
Steve Buscemi as Dr. Willem Pretorious
Now, you recall that I didn’t think Scarlett Johansson would be the right choice for the Bride, but she would be the perfect choice for the fiance of the Doctor’s son, Dr. Elmore Frankenstein. Elmore, a psychotic psychiatrist is in love with Elizabeth Von Hooten, heiress to the Von Hooten fortune and unknowing funder of the revival of The Bride project.
Scarlett Johansson as Elizabeth Von Hooten
Colin Jost as Dr. Elmore Frankenstein
Okay Universal, now, it’s up to you to decide what the next updated Universal horror film should be! I’m trying to give you a jump start here; attach those electrodes and get this party started already. Myself, I’m going to see about renting a tux, because this is one, or maybe two, weddings I don’t want to miss.
LAST MINUTEUPDATE!
Oops, looks like I was wrong again! According to IMDB, Universal is planning a film called Bride that is in pre-production and lists Scarlett Johansson in the titular part. Here’s hoping it all comes together, but honestly–just imagine what a wild ride a James Gunn written & directed Bride of Frankenstein would be!
In 1967 two very different American films would cause a change in the way we looked at movies. The French New Wave had splashed the shores of the US and there were film-makers and wannabes that paid attention. The story of how they came to be and what happened next, opened the doors for a new way of story telling and a freedom of expression on film that still informs us today. Before looking at these two films and the films that followed, a preface is necessary.
ABOVE LEFT: Patrick Auffay and Jean-Pierre Léaud in Les quatre cents coups (1959)ABOVE RIGHT: Jean-Pierre Léaud in Les quatre cents coups (1959)AKA: The 400 Blows
Truffaut’s 400 Blows (1959) a film about growing up and disillusion and change, Godard’s Breathless (1960) about an anti-hero and senseless waste, Polanski’s Repulsion (1960) about a young woman’s decent into madness, all had an indelible impact on American film-makers. It was truly a case of what comes around, goes around as the Europeans had been heavily influence by old Hollywood and then they, in turn, influenced young US film-makers and indirectly, the entire film industry.
Jean Seberg & Jean-Paul Belmondo in Breathless (1960)
It is impossible to over estimate the influence of the New Wave and European films when you look closely at what happened in American film in the late 60’s and early 70’s. By the late 1950’s, Television had already impacted the film industry and given rise to the success of producers Roger Corman and gimmick master William Castle. Both film-makers achieved success by offering audiences what couldn’t be seen on television. Hollywood was in trouble, but they were also in denial.
William Castle’s 13 Ghosts (1960) & Roger Corman’s X: The Man With the X-Ray Eyes (1963)
Add to this the cultural changes that had been broiling since the 1950’s, and were about to explode through the nation via the expansion of Television. For the first time news events could be broadcast anywhere in the country in flashing moving pictures. All of the fury, passion, or horror of an event could be played and re-played until it became much more than just news. The news was now a living thing; it could cry or laugh or bleed. The assassination of JFK became a recurring nightmare on screens across the country on November 22nd, 1963.
The President’s motorcade moments before the fatal shots were fired. Photo Walt Cisco, Dallas Morning News (Public Domain)
Gone was objective reporting; such images could not be controlled. They elicited feelings: love, happiness, despair, hope, hatred, grief. It was a Pandora’s box that had been opened with the best of intentions.
Concurrently, the Beatles had formed in 1960 and the little Liverpool band went on to become a world wide phenomenon unlike anything that came before them. Not only would they revolutionize rock and roll, but they would be the precursors to an unprecedented youth revolution that would soon further influence everything from race relations, to fashion, to politics, to television, to cinema.
The Beatles with Ed Sullivan, February 1964 (Photo courtesy CBS Television)
The fledgling pop band toured England and Germany as their popularity rose with every record sale. By 1963 a writer at the New York Times wrote a series of articles praising their music compositions. After overcoming record company shenanigans in the US, the Beatles were finally on their way to the Ed Sullivan Theater in February of 1964. The show was seen by more than 70 million viewers (over 30% of the US population). The critical reviews were dismal, but America’s youth had been awoken and Beatlemania went what would be considered viral today.
A Hard Day’s Night (1963) Lobby Card
In the same year, A Hard Day’s Night was released. The film documented their meteoric ascension as it displayed their personalities to an eager audience. The film, directed by Richard Lester, was not only what Beatles’ fans dreamed of and a box office hit, but a critical success as well.
A Hard Days Night
A Hard Days Night
The film was both fantastic fiction and a spot-on day and night in the life of the true four riders of a renaissance that no one expected but many welcomed with open arms.
At the very same time Black America was rising. Their cries for freedom, long muffled, were now booming. The Civil Rights movement was making much overdue traction as unrest exploded across the country. The voices of many were still not being heard; Dr. Martin Luther King was lighting the way to peace, but the majority of Americans were still not listening.
Civil Right March on Washington D.C. 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Race riots raged throughout the 60’s: Birmingham, Alabama (1963), Harlem, NY (1964), Philadelphia, PA (1964), Watts/LA, CA (1965), Newark , Plainfield, and New Brunswick, NJ (1967), and Detroit, Michigan (1967). The 60’s were such a frantic ride in so many directions that there was bound to be a backlash. Far too many white Americans were on the wrong side of History.
On Thursday, April 4th, 1968 Dr. Martin Luther King was shot on the balcony of his room at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. This horrid act precipitated the Holy Week Uprising that flared up in racial violence that took 40 lives across the country. In more that 100 cities the shot that killed Dr. King exploded.
LEFT ABOVE:The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. stands with other civil rights leaders on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tenn., on April 3, 1968, a day before he was assassinated on that same balcony. From left are Hosea Williams, Jesse Jackson, King, and Ralph Abernathy. RIGHT ABOVE: The aftermath of the Holy Week Uprising
Only two months later Robert Kennedy, who was running for president, was shot and killed at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. He had just won the South Dakota and California 1968 Democratic Party presidential primaries.
All of these events were compounded by the ever expanding Viet Nam War and the resistance against it. The demonstrations against the war were causing yet more division and unrest. Again, the large segment of White America (referred to sometimes as the ‘silent majority’) was not getting it. Something was going terribly wrong.
Anti War demonstration 1963
Anti War demonstration1970
Viet Nam War Veterans against the War, Boston Common 1965
Less people were going to the movies as the real-life drama was readily seen on the TV home screen. It was not only Hollywood that was floundering, it was the entire country. A fracture had begun that would haunt the nation for the next fifty years.
On television between 1967 & 1969, the Smother’s Brothers were making many laugh and even more angry on The Smother’s Brothers Comedy Hour. Their social and political satire was irreverent and calculated. Worse, it was well written, funny, and struck bone. It was infuriating the network and the White House, eventually leading to their firing in 1969.
The Smothers Brother’s Comedy Hour: George Harrison showed up in 1968 as a surprise guest to offer moral support. “Whether you can say it or not,” Harrison urged them on the air, “keep trying to say it.”From the book, Dangerously Funny: The Uncensored Story of The Smothers Brother’s Comedy HourbyDavid Biancullli
It was within this boiling cauldron that Bonnie and Clyde and The Graduate were conceived and produced and then projected on screens. Nothing would ever be the same again.
NEXT Part 2: Bonnie & Clyde and The Graduate
Gene Hackman, Warren Beatty, and Faye Dunaway in Bonnie & Clyde; Anne Bancroft in The Graduate both released in 1967
Cast: Gig Young (Martin Sloan), Michael Montgomery (young Martin), Ron Howard (young boy), Frank Overton (Robert Sloan), Irene Tedrow (Mrs. Sloan)
Walking Distance is a good example of how much mileage the show could get out of a simple, well written story paired with a fine actor. Martin Sloan (Gig Young) comes back to the small town he grew up in and finds it much more familiar than he expected.
Gig Young in Walking Distance
Young (They Shoot Horses, Don’t They) delivers a hauntingly layered performance as a 50’s ad man at the end of a very short rope; he has come back to his hometown looking for answers. His chagrin at finding things just as he remembers them is confounding, deepening his pain as he helplessly encounters what he so hopelessly desires. The Universe has thrown him a spit ball. Young captures the calm (or as Thoreau would have it, quiet) desperation of modern man with an unsettling ease. Some call it a mid-life crisis, some a nervous breakdown, it culminates with the realization that you suddenly find yourself in a place that you never meant to inhabit.
Gig Young in Walking Distance
Familiar faces supporting him in the cast include Ron Howard, Irene Tedrow, and Frank Overton (To Kill A Mockingbird). Overton does a measured job as Martin’s father; Ron Howard is the perpetual 50’s every boy, and character actress Irene Tendrow is perfect as Martin’s frightened mother.
David Wayne & Thomas Gomez in
Escape Clause (Season One, Episode 6)
Directed by Mitchell Leisen
Cinematography George T. Clemens
Written by Rod Serling
Theme music Bernard Herrmann, Stock music Jerry Goldsmith & Lucien Moraweck
Cast: David Wayne (Walter Bedeker), Thomas Gomez (Cadwallader), Virginia Christine (Ethel Bedeker), Raymond Bailey (Doctor), Dick Wilson (Jack)
Escape Clause is another favorite of mine that features David Wayne (The Andromeda Strain), a multi-talented and prolific stage, screen & TV actor who originated the roles in the original Broadway productions of Og in Finian’s Rainbow, Ensign Pulver in Mister Roberts, and Sakini in Teahouse of the August Moon.
David Wayne in Escape Clause
Hypochondria has taken control of Walter Bedeker’s (David Wayne) life. The doctor (Raymond Bailey) finds nothing wrong with him, but he can see the toll that Walter’s behavior is taking on his long suffering wife (Virginia Christine), and writes her a prescription for vitamins. Christine (Invasion of the Body Snatchers), a noted character actor, is convincingly entwined in her husband’s absurd anxiety.
Virginia Christine & David Wayne in Escape Clause
The story is delivered with a light touch of dark humor which enhances its impact as it unwinds to its surprising climax and conclusion. The performances of both Wayne & Gomez (Ride the Pink Horse) are extreme parodies of their characters while the rest of the cast plays it perfectly straight. From the moment that Cadwallader (Thomas Gomez) enters, he is a counterpoint to Bedeker in every way. Indirectly direct and not so subtly ironic, he makes a comically chilling Satan.
Thomas Gomez in The Escape Clause “…a fragment of an atom of your being…your soul.”
Bedeker’s eagerness to make a deal for immortality is all the more unsettling because he has been so cautious of even the most mundane things; yet, he trusts this man that has suddenly appeared in his bedroom. Once the agreement is made (complete with flaming signature to bind it), Bedeker further tests our willful suspension of disbelief as he tries to fight the boredom of being immortal with outlandish schemes and actions. Easily one of the best episodes in the series.
Rod Serling’s Closing Narration: There’s a saying, ‘Every man is put on Earth condemned to die, time and method of execution unknown.’ Perhaps, this is as it should be. Case in point: Walter Bedeker, lately deceased, a little man with such a yen to live. Beaten by the Devil, by his own boredom – and by the scheme of things in this, The Twilight Zone.
These two early episodes are a good reason to re-watch what you think you remember. I guarantee that on a careful viewing, you will find much more in each than what you think you recall. Both, well worth another trip into The Twilight Zone.
Facts, Rumors, and Hearsay
Walking Distance
One of the townspeople that Martin Sloane remembers walking through Homewood is “Dr. Bradbury.” Rod Serling, the screenwriter of this episode, was acknowledging the inspiration of Ray Bradbury.
This episode was Ron Howard’s first time being credited as Ronnie Howard.
Escape Clause
The episode features two actors best known for long-running TV commercials: Virginia Christine (as Mrs. Olson for Folgers Coffee for 21 years) and Dick Wilson (as Mr. Whipple for Charmin Bathroom Tissue for 25 years).
