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Post by almuric on Sept 30, 2016 19:31:21 GMT -5
So, it's almost Halloween time again, and it's time for me to embark on my yearly month-long Horror movie marathon. Now, in previous years I did a lot of Universal movies which I reviewed back on the old board. Rather than rehash that, this year I'll only do a few new Universal reviews (the Creature From the Black Lagoon series), with a greater emphasis on other classic chillers from the '30s all the way to the '90s. Feel free to add your own stuff.
Next time: The Mystery of the Wax Museum.
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Post by deuce on Sept 30, 2016 20:35:41 GMT -5
I knew there was something missing...
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Post by almuric on Oct 2, 2016 10:09:25 GMT -5
The Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933) - Universal had proven there was an audience for Horror, and other studios were beginning to try their hands at it. A year before, Warners had done Doctor X which like this movie was directed by Michael Curtiz (of Casablanca and Adventures of Robin Hood fame) and starred Fay Wray and Lionel Atwill. This isn't a bad movie by any means, but it never quite takes off until the end. Part of the problem is the tone. Warners clearly wasn't entirely comfortable with doing straight-up Horror, so we have a lot of scenes and characters that would feel more at home with their crime dramas and comedies. Unlike the early Universals, this is set in the then here-and-now, so we have brightly-lit contemporary New York scenes followed by shadowy, atmospheric bursts of Horror. The effect is jarring.
It also doesn't help that the "mystery" aspect is weak. There's not much doubt that Atwill is behind the body-snatchings, and the only real mystery is the identity of the hideous scarred figure (who is compared in dialogue to Frankenstein). But the climax, when they finally remember they're doing a Horror movie, is great. We get some of Curtiz's patented dramatic shadows and Wray's unmasking of Atwill, breaking his wax mask to reveal his horribly-scarred face is perfect.
This was filmed in the two-color Technicolor process, just like Doctor X. Warners apparently only used the process on their two Horror movies to use up their contract with Technicolor. The process wasn't liked by the public and this would be the last movie made with it. The movie, being Pre-Code, has several moments of sauciness that may surprise the modern viewer. Glenda Farrell's character casually asks a policeman about his sex life and checks out the girlie magazine he's reading. There's references to shacking up and a junkie plays a role near the climax.
Whatever its weaknesses, the movie clearly had an impact. Spooky wax museums would appear in a lot of mysteries over the years to come. And twenty years later, the story would be revisited and be used for another cinematic innovation.
Next time: The Price of Wax
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Post by almuric on Oct 4, 2016 9:36:49 GMT -5
House of Wax (1953) - What, Hollywood is remaking a classic movie in 3D? Man, the more things change . . .
Yes, this was one of the first movies made during the 3D craze sparked by 1952's Bwana Devil. And while most remakes are needless, this one improves on the original in almost every respect. First of all, it's a period piece, set in turn-of-the-last-century New York. Second, the tone is more consistent. This movie knows what it's about and gets down to business right away. The scene where Phyllis Kirk is pursued down the foggy streets by Price are perfect. This was a first in another respect. Vincent Price had crossed paths with the Horror genre before (The Invisible Man Returns, most prominently) this was the role that cemented him as a cinematic boogeyman.
There are a few scenes which were clearly intended to showcase the 3D effects which are a little silly, but still amusing. The only place where the original has an edge is the unmasking scene, which lacks the same impact here that it did in the other version, possibly because it happens too quickly.
And keep your eyes open for a very young Charles Bronson ("Buchinsky" here) as Price's assistant, Igor.
But enough wax museums. I crave monsters, so I turn my eye to a more recent monster movie that has gone on to spawn a franchise of its own . . .
Next time: How does that grab 'ya?
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Post by johnnypt on Oct 6, 2016 19:48:46 GMT -5
When I ran out of Universals, I picked up some of the older collections too:
Who knew that back before Casablanca, back before all those Errol Flynn swashbucklers, Michael Curtiz was MASTER OF TWO COLOR TECHNICOLOR! Warners got around to putting these old primitive color movies out in whatever form they still exist, along side other films in much better shape.
The one they put out a few years ago has two versions of one story, each using different “gimmicks” as it were. MYSTERY OF THE WAX MUSEUM (1933) has an early Lionel Atwill performance as a master wax sculptor whose partner lives by the rule “Nice wax museum you got here. Shame if something was to happen to it. Lucky we got insurance…” Well, Atwill doesn’t take kindly to this and tries to stop the place from being torched, but fails miserably and ends up stuck in the conflagration. Years later, he’s back and opening another museum. But his hands are burned up, how is he doing all that great work? And who’s this mysterious masked figure stealing corpses from morgues? And what will happen to Fay Wray, who just so happens to look like his old statue of Marie Antoinnette? The picture still works pretty well, and the primitive color actually enhances the creepiness. Twenty years later, Warners remade this using another theatrical gimmick, 3-D, as HOUSE OF WAX (1953). This is the one most of us saw while growing up since it was on TV all the time, compared to the original which was feared lost for many years. And it has a lot of popular touchstones-Vincent Price in one his most famous horror roles, all the goofy 3-D images, like a guy bouncing a paddle ball in your face (not to mention the can-can girls) and familiar faces Charles Bronson and Carolyn Jones in supporting roles. It follows the original pretty closely, redoing some scenes shot for shot. And it’s still kind of creepy, though I have to admit the original was more so.
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Post by almuric on Oct 7, 2016 18:51:48 GMT -5
Tremors (1990) - Man, this one's a lot of fun. It's not every day you find a Horror movie that can take its premise seriously and have a lot of fun with it at the same time. Manages to be funny and scary, which isn't easy. And of course, you have a great cast, including Michael Gross's movie-stealing (and eventually franchise-stealing) performance as Burt Gummer, a survivalist confronted with the one catastrophe he couldn't prepare for. The graboids are a very cool creation (possibly inspired by the sandworms of Dune) and their mysterious origins (various theories are floated, but nothing is confirmed) give them a slightly Lovecraftian flavor.
Followed by a large number of sequels and prequels and a short-lived TV series.
Next time: The Other Bat-Man.
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Post by almuric on Oct 10, 2016 9:45:13 GMT -5
The Devil Bat (1940) - The '40s marked the decline of Bela Lugosi in Hollywood. While he'd still be in a few more Universal movies, he was usually stuck playing the red herring butler or something insultingly minor. But over in the cheapies of Poverty Row, Bela still had draw and PRC (Producers Releasing Corporation) was willing to give him a starring role.
The kindly Dr. Carruthers (Lugosi) is angry at his employer and to get revenge, works on enlarging bats with electrical stimulation of their glands, turning them into giant killer bats. Carruthers then trains the bats to attack and kill anyone wearing a certain aftershave. Seriously. This is goofy as all get out, but fun. The alleged protagonist (Dave O'Brien) plays a newspaper reporter who is so lacking in journalistic integrity that he actually fakes a picture of a Devil Bat attack (using what looks like the same puppet used for the "real" bats). But when he shoots and kills a real bat, he's hailed as a hero and his previous hoax immediately forgiven. Man, I thought I was cynical about the news media . . . But the movie really belongs to Bela. There's not an ounce of subtlety in his performance and that's just fine for this sort of movie. Its fun to watch him in what would otherwise be time-wasting filler scenes where he's puttering around his lab doing mad science stuff.
The Devil Bat proved a big hit for PRC and a sequel of sorts was made, 1946's The Devil Bat's Daughter which doesn't star Lugosi. This movie was one of Hollywood's many failed attempts to copy the success of Val Lewton's subtle, psychological Horror and continued the trend of Lugosi not appearing in the sequels to his own hits.
Bela had fallen far, but he would fall even farther before the end.
Next time: You finally made a monkey out of me.
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Post by paulmc on Oct 11, 2016 9:07:14 GMT -5
Introduced my son (6yr old) to his first monster movie yesterday afternoon - THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON.
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Post by deuce on Oct 11, 2016 11:36:44 GMT -5
Tremors (1990) - Man, this one's a lot of fun. It's not every day you find a Horror movie that can take its premise seriously and have a lot of fun with it at the same time. Manages to be funny and scary, which isn't easy. And of course, you have a great cast, including Michael Gross's movie-stealing (and eventually franchise-stealing) performance as Burt Gummer, a survivalist confronted with the one catastrophe he couldn't prepare for. The graboids are a very cool creation (possibly inspired by the sandworms of Dune) and their mysterious origins (various theories are floated, but nothing is confirmed) give them a slightly Lovecraftian flavor. Followed by a large number of sequels and prequels and a short-lived TV series. Next time: The Other Bat-Man. Though it was released in 1990, I consider Tremors one of the great movies of the '80s. Everything in that movie worked and the cast was excellent. |
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Post by almuric on Oct 15, 2016 20:03:52 GMT -5
The Ape Man (1943) - I have seen far too many films featuring guys in unconvincing gorilla costumes. Just this morning, TCM was showing a Bowery Boys movie with --- guess what? --- a guy in an unconvincing gorilla costume. These synthetic simians were once an important part of the motion picture business, featuring in jungle movies, comedies and Horror movies. Bela Lugosi did several movies with them, the first of which is 1932's The Murders in the Rue Morgue. On the other end of his career, one of his last movies was Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla. Between them lay this Monogram cheapie.
Bela plays a scientist who meddles with Things Man Was Not Meant to Know, with predictable results. The alleged hero is once again a wisecracking reporter, so it's up to Bela to provide the sizzle. But Bela's not having much fun, saddled with a makeup job that makes him look more Amish than apish. Apart from his hunched posture, he could shave and nobody would be the wiser. Where his Ygor makeup played to his strengths as an actor, this is just embarrassing. Watching him wrestle with a threadbare gorilla impersonator at the climax is just sad.
This movie was directed by William "One-Shot" Beaudine, who has 370 credits on IMDB, and that might be lowballing it. The best thing that can be said is that his work is competent, if unremarkable. The rest of the cast is unremarkable and barely competent.
One element lifts this movie from total boredom into mild interest. A mysterious man is glimpsed at several points in the movie, eavesdropping on the plot. At the very end he's confronted and admits:
"I'm the one who wrote this movie. It's kind of silly, isn't it?"
Yes, it is. It's also the only memorable bit in the whole mess.
But the idea of a meta-Horror movie is a solid one. And eventually, someone would make one. But before we get to that, we'll have to examine the movies of one the genre's greatest creative minds.
Next time: Purely and simply evil
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Post by almuric on Oct 19, 2016 20:35:00 GMT -5
Halloween (1978) - Once upon a time, John Carpenter ruled the Horror genre onscreen. And it began with this movie. Nowadays the Slasher movie is a bit tired, having been done to death and resurrected more times than their murderous pseudo-protagonists. But there was a time when it was fresh, and it started here. I hardly need to rehash the setup, but I'll say that Carpenter does a masterful job with the slow-burning tension as Myers escapes and begins stalking his unsuspecting victims. When people finally start dying, it's genuinely shocking. Donald Pleasance, a common face in Carpenter's movies, plays Dr. Loomis, a psychiatrist who is the film's Van Helsing figure, the only person who understands the true threat Michael Myers poses to the public. There's an understated air of the supernatural surrounding Myers. His escape, his seeming ability to appear and disappear at will, and the fact that he seems to survive getting shot point-blank at the climax points to something more than human about him. Alas, the sequels would just get silly with this. A real shame.
Look out for a sheriff "Leigh Brackett" and pay attention to the movie playing on TV. It'll become very important later in Carpenter's career . . .
This was a huge success, spawning countless inferior sequels, remakes and ripoffs.
The Thing (1982) - The first movie in what has been dubbed Carpenter's "Apocalypse Trilogy", three movies that deal with apocalyptic themes. This is a remake of 1951's The Thing From Another World, itself an adaptation of John W Campbell's short story "Who Goes There?". Carpenter immediately creates a mood of claustrophobic discomfort, with a cast of characters we only barely get to know before the shapeshifting Things start replacing them. The film took criticism for its thin characters, but it actually helps as the film goes on. The audience doesn't know them well enough to tell which ones are real and which ones are imitations. The Things could be anyone, even the protagonist played by Kurt Russell. The various forms of the Things are visually amazing, with an aura of the Lovecraftian which is still all-too rare in cinema. In fact, Lovecraft's ghost is haunting the entire trilogy, but more on that next time.
Amazingly, this was a flop when it was first released. In fact, a lot of Carpenter's work has been panned and done poorly at the box office, only to be rediscovered and reappraised later. Indeed, much was the case with our next two films.
Next time: I've got a message for you. You're not going to like it.
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Post by deuce on Oct 19, 2016 20:57:13 GMT -5
Halloween (1978) - Once upon a time, John Carpenter ruled the Horror genre onscreen. And it began with this movie. Nowadays the Slasher movie is a bit tired, having been done to death and resurrected more times than their murderous pseudo-protagonists. But there was a time when it was fresh, and it started here. I hardly need to rehash the setup, but I'll say that Carpenter does a masterful job with the slow-burning tension as Myers escapes and begins stalking his unsuspecting victims. When people finally start dying, it's genuinely shocking. Donald Pleasance, a common face in Carpenter's movies, plays Dr. Loomis, a psychiatrist who is the film's Van Helsing figure, the only person who understands the true threat Michael Myers poses to the public. There's an understated air of the supernatural surrounding Myers. His escape, his seeming ability to appear and disappear at will, and the fact that he seems to survive getting shot point-blank at the climax points to something more than human about him. Alas, the sequels would just get silly with this. A real shame. Look out for a sheriff "Leigh Brackett" and pay attention to the movie playing on TV. It'll become very important later in Carpenter's career . . . This was a huge success, spawning countless inferior sequels, remakes and ripoffs. The Thing (1982) - The first movie in what has been dubbed Carpenter's "Apocalypse Trilogy", three movies that deal with apocalyptic themes. This is a remake of 1951's The Thing From Another World, itself an adaptation of John W Campbell's short story "Who Goes There?". Carpenter immediately creates a mood of claustrophobic discomfort, with a cast of characters we only barely get to know before the shapeshifting Things start replacing them. The film took criticism for its thin characters, but it actually helps as the film goes on. The audience doesn't know them well enough to tell which ones are real and which ones are imitations. The Things could be anyone, even the protagonist played by Kurt Russell. The various forms of the Things are visually amazing, with an aura of the Lovecraftian which is still all-too rare in cinema. In fact, Lovecraft's ghost is haunting the entire trilogy, but more on that next time. Amazingly, this was a flop when it was first released. In fact, a lot of Carpenter's work has been panned and done poorly at the box office, only to be rediscovered and reappraised later. Indeed, much was the case with our next two films. Next time: I've got a message for you. You're not going to like it. was well-done, but Crom, the spawn of it... Yeah, The Thing was a flop, but Halloween was huge. Says something about the IQ of the average viewer, IMO. Carpenter is probably the best Lovecraftian director so far. |
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Post by deuce on Oct 20, 2016 9:14:57 GMT -5
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Post by mrp on Oct 21, 2016 2:17:58 GMT -5
I love the old Universal monster movies, but this year I am going to delve into the Hammer Horror films, especially those with Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing. I've set my DVR for a bunch of them on TCM this month and plan on diving in starting this coming weekend.
-M
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Post by johnnypt on Oct 21, 2016 8:01:36 GMT -5
I love the old Universal monster movies, but this year I am going to delve into the Hammer Horror films, especially those with Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing. I've set my DVR for a bunch of them on TCM this month and plan on diving in starting this coming weekend. -M
A couple of years ago TCM did a great Hammer run on Friday nights: first was Frankenstein: Curse/Revenge/Created Woman/Must Be Destroyed (why they left out Evil I don't know). Then Dracula with Horror/Brides/Prince/Risen/Taste. The four Mummies were the next week, then a grab bag the final week with Gorgon, Reptile and a few others.
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