Our rabbits need a new patch, and this seems the best place.
Hopefully the old BHF crew will find their way here over the coming days and we'll have some chat about tonight's screening of The Strange Door and Blood From The Mummy's Tomb.
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In my humble opinion, for we are Legion, if it's a tosser between doing it or not doing it, it's gorra be do it. We need a porpoise in this insignificant life of mine. What say the Soothmakers?
Any ideas on doing the 1975 season....?
We ought to have a plan. I watched Denholm Elliott as Roddy Usherette in a Mystery and Imagination. Before I had time to think of a logical strategy, YT took me to a 1976 Short Story Theater of the Poe tale. It's cheap as muck but quite....how you say...literary? No romance. 30 minutes long. The music is familiar. Oh lordy, it's recycled from Superbeast!
That will be my double bill for today. Better ideas are welcomed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRJby3PCfbo
Confirmation that that double bill was part of the season: https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/32cf79fa9ac444c98428e65125d7358d
Something seems to have gone a bit wrong with the Genome listing there though. See if you can spot the mistake...
It's a really mixed season, with the middle four films not being horror at all.
Wasn't there always some doubt as to whether or not ONE MILLION B.C. (or MAN AND HIS MATE as "we" know it) plus the silent NOAH'S ARK actually constituted part of the '75 season? Slap bang in the middle, but they don't appear on all lists. Maybe they weren't billed that weekend as "Fantastic Double Bill" in the Radio Times... Where is that man when we need him?
But yes sir, I would love to watch all those again. I might not have actually seen the Vic Mature lizard epic since 1975. And certainly not NOAH'S ARK. As regards THE CABINET OF DR CALIGARI, there are so many different tints and music scores of that one out there that I'm not sure if I've rewatched the "right" one since. I don't think I've seen THE TELL TALE HEART since then either, or THE MAZE.
"The '75 season (which we haven't covered - yet) was mind-blowing for me as a 14-15 year old. I was absolutely amazed by the silent CALIGARI, plus QUATERMASS II, THE TELL TALE HEART..."
Indeed, Graham. I think it was the first time I'd seen ein deutscher Stummfilm and I was gobsmacked as the kids say (or said fifty years ago). I think we should do the 1975 Season, perhaps in the 1982 hiatus or maybe another time (possibly around Halloween time this year?). It would give me an excuse to finally watch One Million B.C. which has been sitting unseen on my hard drive for about ten years.
Next year's prep is to listen to The Secret History of Hollywood's utterly magnificent series of podcasts on Val. Shadows: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-secret-history-of-hollywood/id965023632
And at the end of that final round, I see that moodie has coincided with me on absolutely nothing. But wait - there's an additional twist to come....
In the most "Pointless" part of this useless endeavour, I have calculated The Pleasure Factor across the Bored. Our "best" film can't get a 0, but it could get a 4 (4 multiplied by 1 point equals 4 points, do you see?). It didn't - it got an almost pointless 7. The worst of the lot got an embarrassingly huge score of 75. And here they are, this time in order of our otorgated levels of greatness/ enjoyability -
1) NIGHT OF THE DEMON
2) DR TERROR'S HOUSE OF HORRORS
3) LEGEND OF THE WEREWOLF
4) THE GHOUL
5) THE BEAST MUST DIE
6) FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE
7) CAPTAIN KRONOS: VAMPIRE HUNTER
8) THE SKULL
9) THE BEAST WITH FIVE FINGERS
10) PARANOIAC
11) (Joint place) THE MAD GHOUL/ CHAMBER OF HORRORS
12) CURSE OF THE WEREWOLF
13) THE BEAST FROM 20,000 FATHOMS
14) (Joint place) THE DEVIL-DOLL/ TOWER OF LONDON
15) NIGHT OF THE LEPUS
16) THE BAT
17) DAUGHTERS OF SATAN
Thank you and goodnight!
I think my list would look something like this:
1. Night of the Demon
2. The Beast Must Die
3. Legend of the Werewolf
4. From Beyond the Grave
5.The Ghoul
6. Dr. Terror's House of Horrors
7. Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter
8. The Beast with Five Fingers
9. Curse of the Werewolf
10. Paranoiac
11. The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms
12. Chamber of Horrors
13. The Bat
14. Night of the Lepus
15. The Mad Ghoul
16. The Devil Doll (1936)
17. The Skull
18. Tower of London
19. Daughters of Satan
And mal coincides with me on two titles! DR T in 5th place, and PARANOIAC in 8th! Don't forget - it's up to you individually to note and corralate (sp?) the snaps and bingos of other viewers. I'm only snapping and bingoing my own coincidences. Stay tuned, it can only get better.
But as an "interesting" global aside, looking at the bills and remembering my reaction to them, I can almost trace my childhood going into adolescence and later dotage. The '75 season (which we haven't covered - yet) was mind-blowing for me as a 14-15 year old. I was absolutely amazed by the silent CALIGARI, plus QUATERMASS II, THE TELL TALE HEART... The '76 season was stunning as well, so much so that I had my first and only published works eh published about the films in a fanzine. Michael Stotter's... Horror Appreciation Society? FRANKENSTEIN CREATED WOMAN! I was Marty Scorsese even before he was!
The '77 season... the big long Drac, Frank and friends... Loved them all. The '78 season didn't quite do the same for me. KING KONG then SUPERBEAST? My world was falling apart. I was 16-17 and had probably started boozing, looking for fleshy pleasures away from the telly...
The '79 season - We watched that just last year! I was still obsessed by the synthetic flesh of Blackpool's Pleasure Beach. I missed DR X because of her. But I got back on the rails shortly afterwards. And despite having said that, and despite 1980 being the year that the doublers made the cover of the Radio Times, I was once more slightly distracted from the films at the time - I can't recall why. Maybe it was that transvestite surprise in Calella. It was an odd season that one, the one we just watched.
1981 will be next year if we're still here. All those Val Luton-Bus films totally rekindled my love for those things. But that's another past, waiting to be told - in the future.
1) FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE
2) THE SKULL
3) NIGHT OF THE DEMON
4) THE BEAST MUST DIE
5) DR TERROR'S HOUSE OF HORRORS
6) THE GHOUL
7) LEGEND OF THE WEREWOLF
8) PARANOIAC
9) CHAMBER OF HORRORS
10) CURSE OF THE WEREWOLF
11) THE BEAST WITH FIVE FINGERS
12) CAPTAIN KRONOS VAMPIRE HUNTER
13) THE BEAST FROM 20,000 FATHOMS
14) NIGHT OF THE LEPUS
15) TOWER OF LONDON (39)
16) THE MAD GHOUL
17) THE DEVIL-DOLL (36)
18) THE BAT
19) DAUGHTERS OF SATAN
Interesting that Night of the Lepus is in nobody's bottom two so far, given its reputation. I guess its minimal entertainment value at least bumps it up over what we think of as snoozefests. I'd put it below ToL if the latter was actually a horror movie.
Hey man Crazy Man, I also positively rated the '36 DEVIL DOLL - in fact we both put it in 7th place. Our other bingo was NIGHT OF THE LEPUS in 17th! LEGEND OF THE WEREWOLF went up considerably for you this time. Same with me - in fact I put it in 4th place compared to your 6th. The real surprise though for me - and everyone else in the world - was THE MAD GHOUL. 3rd place in my list!
Still hundreds of results to come in before we can start talking about tendencies.
This was my 'provisional' list before seeing the films again:
1 Night of the Demon
2 Dr. Terror's House of Horrors
3 The Beast with Five Fingers
4 The Ghoul
5 The Beast Must Die
6 Tower of London (1939)
7 From Beyond the Grave
8 Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter
9 Paranoiac
10 The Devil Doll (1936)
11 The Mad Ghoul
12 The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms
13 Curse of the Werewolf
14 Legend of the Werewolf
15 Chamber of Horrors
16 Night of the Lepus
17 Daughters of Satan
18 The Skull
19 The Bat
This is my definitive list (for the time being) having watched them all again:
1 Night of the Demon
2 Dr. Terror's House of Horrors
3 The Beast with Five Fingers
4 The Ghoul
5 The Beast Must Die
6 Legend of the Werewolf
7 The Devil Doll (1936) / Tower Of London (1962)
8 Chamber of Horrors
9 Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter
10 From Beyond the Grave
11 The Mad Ghoul
12 Paranoiac
13 Tower of London (1939)
14 The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms
15 Curse of the Werewolf
16 The Skull
17 Night of the Lepus
18 The Bat
19 Daughters of Satan
So no change in the Top 5. At the bottom, The Skull moves up two places because it looks nice although it's about as dull and unengaging as the last three. The biggest surprise was Legend Of The Werewolf went up considerably in my estimation. I seem to be the only one to positively rate the 36 Devil Doll but it's fun in its way, and I think Vincent Price could have been good in the Barrymore role in a hypothetical remake. I can't imagine The Cush or Sir CLee in drag, though.
Right then, after having thought out a complicated points system to review this season's fillums, I have decided to abandon the idea and just do a list of my personal best to worst. This is very similar to what CMM published on July 5, the difference now being that we have now seen (most of) the films recently. How much did you enjoy them? The truly interesting part of the game is that you can't rate two films equally. Nineteen films, nineteen degrees of enjoyabilty. Funny to see that CMM put THE BAT as the worst of the lot, going on memory. It's my worst of the lot too, below NIGHT OF THE LEPUS and DAUGHTERS OF SATAN. But without any more fannying around, I give you -
1) THE SKULL
2) NIGHT OF THE DEMON
3) THE MAD GHOUL
4) LEGEND OF THE WEREWOLF
5) DR TERROR'S HOUSE OF HORRORS
6) CAPTAIN KRONOS VAMPIRE HUNTER
7) THE DEVIL-DOLL
8) PARANOIAC
9) THE GHOUL
10) THE BEAST FROM 20,000 FATHOMS
11) TOWER OF LONDON (39)
12) CURSE OF THE WEREWOLF
13) FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE
14) THE BEAST MUST DIE
15) THE BEAST WITH FIVE FINGERS
16) CHAMBER OF HORRORS
17) NIGHT OF THE LEPUS
18) DAUGHTERS OF SATAN
19) THE BAT
I mistookably watched the '62 TOWER OF LONDON instead of the right old one. That would come in quite high up the list, around the 5-and-a-half mark. CMM may choose to insert it wherever he likes, and moodie can do the same with the '64 Shonty DEVIL DOLL. I didn't see the correct DEVIL-DOLL this year, but my rating is based on a vague memory of a rabbit I did about it on Ye Olde Bored.
I can see gallons of giggles and fun to be had comparing ratings here. Anyone else put THE SKULL at the top and THE BAT at the bottom? Just think of the excitement when we see that someone has given the same rating for some films around the middle of the chart! In my case, if someone else gives a 12 to CURSE OF THE WEREWOLF, I'll be literally dancing on the ceiling with amazement.
Let the fun commence!
I didn't join in the re-watch this weekend having been unable to resist popping TBMD into my player as soon as the disc arrived. My orgasmic reaction to that is on the BD thread. I've always loved this film. I recorded the 1980 screening and watched it lots of times and have since bought it on DVD and BD (twice). The idea of mashing up Agatha Christie, the action genre and the horror genre still seems very fresh to me and, like Kim Newman, I'd be happy to see a remake.
As an aside, I once had a (Marvel?) comic that contained a who-is-the-werewolf story in which the werewolf hunter identified the werewolf by drawing a pentagram in the palm of his hand. The only suspect who did not remark on the pentagram was the werewolf who thought that only he could see it since he always saw the mark on the hand of his next victim. When I showed this to my school chum he annoyed me by guessing the identity of the monster ... based on the colour of his trousers.
Tower Of London (1962)
If this had been made in colour, as was intended before the penny pinching producer decided it would be shot in B/W to save money, it would probably be as well regarded as the Corman/Price/Poe cycle of films.
It's an engaging and enjoyable low brow mix of Richard III and Macbeth, with Price in fine fettle in another 'tormented nobleman' role heading a larger cast than was usual in his AIP films of the time. Daniel Haller does his customary magic in upping production values on a budget (plus a nice touch to add slime to the walls of the underground passages) and there's an effective score alternating between regal and courtly and creepy and sinister, which does wonders in heightening the effect of various scenes. The horror content is considerably greater than in the 1939 film, with ghastly tortures, ghostly manifestations and sorcery galore. The bloody weals on the back of Mistress Shaw after being whipped and her torment on the rack made me squirm and the rat-in-the-box punishment must have made many a stomach turn. The mid section of the film is fairly suspensefully handled. It all moves along at a good lick and the pace never flags. Aussie genre regular Michael Pate is Price's confederate in treason, essaying a sort of reprise of his evil aristo from The Black Castle (1952) in which he played alongside Karloff - thirty years later he'd appear in maestro of madness Philipe Mora's The Return Of Captain Invincible starring Christopher Lee.
The Beast Must Die (1974)
Amicus' last horror outing was one of their most entertaining genre efforts. Luckily for me, I never remember the identity of the werewolf between viewings - same with Howling V: The Rebirth (1989) which follows a similar plotline. Having recently seen Marlene Clark's terrific work in Lord Shango (1975) during my Voodoo Cinema season, I felt it was a shame she didn't get more to do here. When the 'twist ending' came I felt perplexed - what do you mean it wasn't any of the guests after all? And he'd never even suspected? But I'd forgotten (again) that the real twist was that there were two werewolves. Even when Cushing explained I still couldn't remember who the real culprit was apart from knowing it wasn't him. For some reason I'd always suspected it would turn out to be the other girl. Maybe because of all the 'hormone' business. Anyway, it's all very silly but enjoyable with it. I do like Anton Diffring and he's very good in this. The Cush plays it all in deadly earnest and I was glad to see he actually had much more screen time than I'd remembered. Poor old Charles Gray on the other hand didn't get much of a look in. Calvin Lockhart was just sort of there, not very good but not very bad. He were alright. A couple of things I noticed - the 'suspense music' is from the 'Vampire' segment in the previous year's Vault Of Horror (and probably some other Amicus stuff) and I recognised the bridge and riverside shack from Daleks - Invasion Earth 2150 AD.
Just finished watching The Beast Must Die. But now it's time for a quick slurp, a gasper and grilled scallops. I won't be back....but my rabbits will.
I have rather shot myself in the foot over the last couple of weeks by not watching two films around the midnight hour....if the whole idea was to recreate the experience of forty years ago. So this morning I watched Tower of London in instalments while cooking the lunch, leaving TBMD for siesta time.
THE RABBIT MUST DIE
--------------------------
Blu-ray? The copy that's up on YouTube looked great, and for free it's cheap at half the price.
Interesting establishing shot during the titles - That looks to me very like the coast of the North-West Highlands of Scotland. In a "seamless" cut, we see the high shot of the car then a close-up of the jeep in Shepperton. Different car I imagine. I suppose that the crew didn't actually go to Scotland to film that title sequence and thus I'm, guessing that it's stock footage...maybe from a Scottish travelogue documentary or something? I'm also assuming that the idea of filming the title sequence "off the coast of Shepperton" was jettisoned.
And all this is acompanied by Douglas Gamley's awful opening music. Sorry moodie! To me it's trying to jump on the Blaxploitation soundtrack bandwagon, but it sounds so light and...gay...that it would be more appropriate for a holiday programme like "Wish You Were Here". The music gets better after that, especially when it's just doing a kind of contemporary beat - that stuff really reminded me of Roy Budd. Then we're onto dodgy music ground once more with some rip-roaring jazz solos... Good jazz, but entirely incongruous. Gamley was then much more congruous and effective when going back to just the spooky atmospherics.
So already we're seeing what I detect as being old men's ideas of what's hip. We'd seen that before in DRACULA A.D. 1972, with the unconvincing hippies and the unconvincing-but-real Marsha Hunt. I suppose all this was kind of in the wake of SHAFT, but cobbled together by a bunch of hopelessly square trad geezers. I also see a connection with THE SATANIC RITES OF DRACULA. That's the one which people often cite as being like an episode of "The Avengers", but THE BEAST MUST DIE is even MORE like an episode of "The Avengers".
Ha! I've just noticed that the film was released on video in the USA under the title BLACK WEREWOLF. That's either very clever or incredibly dumb... Think about it. Anyway, is the film any good? No, it isn't. Did I enjoy it? Up to a point but not sufficiently so. The actors mostly sit in a midrange of effectiveness. The best performances come from Pete Cush and Charles Gray, but regarding the Cush I found myself incapable of following his gobbledygook about werewolf lore, instead concentrating on his Edward Van Sloan.... hairpiece. Was that a one-and-only?
The worst are those who are supposed to be young and hip, so Tom Chadbon and Marlene Clark are already at a disadvantage because their lines are dreadful. The worst of all though is Calvin Lockhart, truly pathetic as the lead.
Oh yes, the gimmick... I didn't even bother thinking about who the werewolf was, because when absolutely everybody could be "it" due to their "acting strange" scenes and "I-wouldn't-trust-them-in-my-house" past, the revelation is hardly that. Although I have to give credit for the attempted double-twist, it still hardly made me raise an eyebrow in amazement.
Very middling on the entertainmentometer. I still have to think of my "end-of-season game". It seemed a good idea the other night, but I'll have to perfect it. Having said that I might just ask you list your faves from this year's season, and the ones you didn't like much. But wait - I may need your collaboration in polishing things up. I'll decide once the final rabbit is in.
We thoroughly enjoyed 'The Beast Must Die' again, and it didn't hurt that the new Indicator Blu-ray presents the film in all its glory for the first time. It looks fabulous, which is to be expected, but it sounds great too - Douglas Gamley's funky score really benefits from the new restoration. The film itself is like a comfy old jumper, but somehow, even though I've seen it a million times, it all still works. The stalking scenes are still great bits of suspense and I still love the scene where the werewolf seeks out poor old Pavel and kills him to neutralise Newcliff's security system. The visual clarity of the blu-ray does make the shaggy dog werewolf unavoidable and tends to make the day-for-night photography even more obvious, but these elements only add to the charm of the thing. Just like the good old werewolf break. Love it!
I'll be late with my rabbits, too. We've just been lured out of confinement by some mates to go out for snifters and fodder.
RIGHT LATE RABBIT OF LONDON
-------------------------------------
Quick rabbit, no time to think, things to do. Finally watched the correct TOWER OF LONDON last night. Good things in it - it does have quite a sumptuous sweeping look
of grandeur to much of it and it kept me watching. The thing is, although I "learned" the real history at school a hundred years ago, I simply couldn't be bothered trying to follow the who's who and why are they doing that last night. I didn't really care. But it was impressive enough with my brain switched off. I don't know if it would have been much greater with my brain switched ON. I don't care too much about that detail today, meaning right now.
For "horror" fans we have good but brief torture chamber dungeon scenes, and Boris Karloff. And some recycled music from Drac, Frank, and Wolfman films. For non-horror fans we have historical codpieces. Actually it's quite a good film if you're not expecting anything too horrific. Imagine it were The Adventures of Robin Hood, and then you get unexpected scenes of torture.
Vindaloo Pee was very young in 1939. I didn't recognise that voice. It wasn't the usual velvet nasal sneer of the Pee I knew. It was more normal. Did he adopt a different voice after 1939? Good scene of him and Razzle Bathbone having that drinking competition. Pee was spilling over the top for the most part of course, but less so than I thought he would. Maybe he wasn't allowed to chew Razzle's and Boz's scenery at that early stage of his career. In amongst the mugging he did put on some really choice facial expressions, with giggles. Enjoyable to see and hear.
I don't know how to finish this pitiable rabbit, surely the worst I've ever engendered. But I must get it out the way. There. It's done.
So I've made space in my agenda for THE BEAST MUST DIE tonight. That rabbit may come in later than usual due to commitments tomorrow. I hope it's a better rabbit than this one.
My idea of the "end of season game" today seems full of holes. I'll tell you about it anyway maybe tomorrow or Monday, or Tuesday. Bye bye!
I've just finished watching the correct Tower of London, so I'm glad that at least CMM is going to watch the incorrect one. I hope all of you others out there take heed and follow in my mistakes. It makes it all more brotherly and communal.
I'm on for The Beast Must Die tomorrow. Don't think I've seen it since 1980. Then there will be rabbits. And then... a little survey of mine...just to bind us all even more together.
So tomorrow's DB chez CMM will be Vincent Price in Tower Of London (1962) followed by The Cush in The Beast Must Die. And that'll be us done for another year already.
CMM, I gave you a "like", or a "heart" or whatever it is for your comments regarding The Skull, but I am actually disappointed that you seem to have been possessed by the evil spirit that still inhabits the skull of the Marquis de Jagger.
The Skull (1965)
Well, like Jagger and co, I tried and I tried and I tried and the result was always the same. Can’t get no satisfaction from this film.
While I fully recognise all its merits, of which it has plenty, as you others have mentioned, (and I’m a country member of the Freddie Francis fan club), the overiding problem is that it just doesn’t add up to anything much at all. I’m sorry, Jerry, but there it is. I had to watch in two parts, because after forty minutes I’d already had enough. I felt no interest in, or empathy for, Maitland and zero concern for the fate of his barely glimpsed, carboard cut-out wife. The Skull-O-Vision sequences were just as daft as when FF repeated the trick in The Creeping Flesh. The only flicker of interest came with the spectacular demise of the seedy landlord and spotting the ‘Damballah’ mask that Marco must have stolen from Biff Bailey and sold to Maitland. Luckily Max'n'Milton quickly returned to the anthology format.
mal, you inadvertently copied me! Congratulations. By the way, STV's '70s screenings of THE SKULL were on January 14th 1972 (my first exposure to it), then on March 14th 1974. Those were the "Don't Watch Alone" screenings, which I have geekishly separated from my "general horror" jotters. If I am idle enough later I might be able to give you a date for the late '70s STV screening, after wading through hundreds of pages of jotter jottings.
Until right now I hadn't actually realised that I'd already seen the film three times before its 1980 showing.
The Skull is Freddie Francis' masterpiece. I don't think any other British director of the era could have achieved what he did here. It's Bavaesque in its visuals, Kafkaesque in its paranoid dream sequence, Jamesian in its haunted relics and yet unique. There's a purity in the lengthy battle between Cushing and the unseen, silent elementals in that it relies on the actor's performance, Francis' visuals and Lutyens' score, almost without dialogue at all. Huge kudos too to John Wilcox for his photography and Bill Constable and/or Scott Slimon for those sets. The supporting cast is amazing as well, typical of Amicus to cast even the smaller roles so carefully, and putting Wymark and Woodthorpe in the same scene achieves maximum sleaziness.
I first saw The Skull on a Friday night on STV sometime in the late '70s. It made a huge impression on me then, even pan-and-scan, with adverts, on a 24" set, such that I could recall every bit of it in vivid detail for years afterwards. Watched on a big set in proper widescreen that really shows Freddie's compositions is almost a religious experience.
One final observation: this is the first feature-length (as opposed to portmanteau segment) horror film that I can remember in which evil triumphed. Can anyone recall any earlier examples that I might have missed?
As I dropped off in the last five minutes of TOL (I know I shouldn't watch films in bed) and finished it this a.m. I haven't had time to watch The Skull yet. And now I have to go and make the missus happy (it's about time you cut that bloody grass!) so my musings will be delayed. Sorry for the inconvenience, I know how you're all waiting with bated breath.
By the way, I'm not reading any of those comments that are pouring it at this very moment. I don't want to be contaminated. Any copying of ideas is purely coincidental.
THE RABBIT SKULL
----------------------
I was fairly familiar with this, having seen it in about '74, then in 1980 and once more a couple of years ago. I always liked it very much. But last night it was an absolute masterpiece!
What are the common criticisms? It's too long. It's wafer thin. It's illogical. The skull is on wires. And what do I say to all that? A POX on you all!
This is a marvelous film, Freddie Francis' best. And it's all atmosphere. Fluid camerawork and a stunning colour scheme makes this (probably) the most Bava-esque Brit horror of 'em all. I'm not sure if I read that somewhere once, but if I did, I agree with it. There's a pervading dream-like quality to the whole thing, where logic doesn't intrude. That's a good way to cover up plot holes, but it totally works whether by accident or not. In fact, although Freddie Francis as director (and moreso Terry Fisher, as CMM would say) could be overy prosaic, in THE SKULL he evokes some of the semi-dream world of the best of Polanski. What was that mummy that fell out of Patrick Wymark's cupboard? What are those demons that compell Sir Clee buy the objects at the auction? Why is Jill Bennett's role so underwritten that we don't really get to see her being wifey with the Cush? IT DOESN'T MATTER! It's as much a disorientating nightmare for Peter Cushing (top-notch in his role) as it is for us the audience.
The last half hour is almost silent (save for the music) and relies heavily on Cushing's superb portrayal of the down-to-earth man suddenly enveloped in a nightmare situation which would drive any sane, ordinary man totally mad. I'm glad Jack Nicholson didn't play this part. If he had, we wouldn't understand what the problem is with being driven to stab your wife to death.
Special special mention for Elisabeth Lutyens. Some passages are very much reminiscent of DR T's HOUSE OF Hs, but I believe THE SKULL to be her best ever film score. It's absolutely as fundamental to the mood of the film as is having a camera there to film things in the first place. Almost like musical theatre. There was a partial re-recording of the score released on CD, but it's too short. Kind of distant-sounding too, often a problem with concert-hall re-recordings of closely-miked film scores.
So then, THE SKULL is a masterpiece of cinema!
WRONG RABBIT OF LONDON
--------------------------------
I remember enjoying this in 1980, at least I thought it was 1980. It wasn't. It was in February 1976 - Forty-four and a half years ago, when absolutely everything horrible was glorious. Surely today, as a jaded old curmudgeon, I would see it as the cheap bollox serious people say it is....
And to that I say, "A pox on them!", because Corman's admittedly cheap n' cheerful semi-remake of the one I "should" have watched is wonderful. It's definitely got that Corman stamp. Most of the usual crew is there, including Daniel Haller, and I'm very proud to say that I'd have known it was a Corman film even if I didn't know it. What an auteur he was, except on the ones he handed over to other crew and cast members.
So, although this was shot in the States, a lot of it looks like it could have come straight out of MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH or, looking back, PIT AND THE PENDULUM - despite the black n' white photography. And Corman has a very particular way of building up to the climax of a scene, which is very often just a slow tracking shot to a knowing expression on a character's face. He even almost does the obligatory dream sequence, but cuts it short.
I haven't seen The Right Tower, but I think that this one probably accentuates the horror aspect over the historical, probably to the film's advantage. There's a late battle scene though, which is actually from the '39 film. This one concentrates on murder, madness and torture though, so we already have more than a hint of USHER, PIT and MASQUE. And plenty of ghosts turn up to torture Vincent Price's conscience. His descent into madness is the core of the film, and it must be said that he's bloody awful in it. I think that his Richard III in THEATRE OF BLOOD was less hammy than this. Bloody awful acting, and just right.
One more thing I want to mention about this production - the extraordinarily strong music score. Corman's films of the period usually had good scores, but this one is rather unusual and something of an enigma. It was written by Michael Andersen, who studied under Miklós Rózsa but was much more productive doing concert music, symphonies and chamber pieces. Here his score is very much cut from the same cloth as any of the big-budget Hollywood epics scored by Rózsa himself. How could Andersen write all that in such a short time, and have it played by such a seemingly large orchestra? Andersen is credited as Music Director only... Could his score have been patched together from his cod-Rózsa library cues? Gene Corman was in charge of post-production, and Roger remembers very little about it, but I want to know.
So then, WRONG RABBIT OF LONDON - Absolutely splendid!
Tower Of London (1939). It's not a horror film per se and it's not Shakespeare, but it is an endearingly old fashioned pot-pourri of historical half truths, cinematic clichés and Hollywood spectacle. If you took this and added sex, gore, grime, celebrity cameos and eighty years you'd get Game Of Thrones or The Last Kingdom. Man Is the Monster.
I enjoyed the performances of Baz R, Boz K and Vinnie the P, and had to laugh at the Phibes-esque burning of the dolls after the removal of each of Richard's victims. Some of the broad(s') American accents ( the Queen and Lady Alice) were annoyingly distracting and the chimney sweep shennanigans a bit tiresome. But the plotting and planning and conspiring and conniving scenes are what it's all about and the plot thickens at the pace of quick setting cement - in fact, it belts along so much that it seems like much of the action takes place over the course of a few months instead of one and a half decades. The ultimately lethal drinking contest between Baz and Vinnie is a highlight and a nicely macabre detail is Richard's armour customised to accomodate his hump.
Pre-ejaculation rabbit - The wrong TOWER is absolutely splendid. The right and only SKULL is a near masterpiece. You have been warned.
We tried. We got about 30 minutes into the 'Tower of Boredom'. before we realised that there were other things we could be doing with our Saturday night.
Ah! I'll do The Right Tower followed by The Rabbit Must Die. Solved!
Next week there's only one film scheduled for some unfathomable reason (money?) so I propose to watch my own double bill - the Corman remake of Tower Of London followed by The Yeast Must Rise.
Jeezo, so the last time I'd seen the wrong Tower was apparently in February 1976!
Feckit! I watched the wrong Tower! Just as well it was brilliant. I'm not mentally prepared for the right Tower now. Been looking forward to THE SKULL (adequate quality on DailyMotion, and not pan n' scan), so I'll probably do my rabbits on the wrong Tower, and I hope the right Skull. That's the one with Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee having their first snooker lesson, isn't it?
Did I watch the wrong Tower?
Well, I see the copy of The Skull in my vaults was a faded, pan and scan job of dubious origins, and my opinion thus far has been based on memories of TV showings and a substandard dupe. So I've quickly sourced a good quality DVD print - maybe I'll cut it some more slack if I can see it in its true light.
What's the colour remake? I'm watching the black and white remake.
An early viewing of Tower of London for me this weekend as there's football on when I'd normally be watching. I've no idea what Universal thought they were doing here. They look to have spent a fair bit on the film. With their prescient casting of Vincent Price alongside Rathbone and Karloff they assembled a great horror cast. But instead of making a horror film they made a yea verily, cod historical with some questionable supporting performances and bad dialogue. The DVD print I watched (in the Boris Karloff Collection) is so dark in the climactic battle scenes that it's hard to tell what happened to Basil and Boris. I'll say this for it though, it's a hell of a lot better than the colour remake.
Dunno why everything is underlined after I typed the archive thing... Even edited it out and it's still all underlined.
It's nearly tomorrow! I was just checking my "safe" options for watching the doubler (no DVDs of them on my shelf). Of the three main numbskull sites that dunderheids use and watch "on the computer", TOWER OF LONDON was, I had noted, only available on THAT ARCHIVE PLACE. Glad I checked, because now it isn't. But it is on DailyMotion. I think it's inferior visually to the YouTube upload (a fairly recent addition), but be careful - it's in a language a dinnae unnerston at all. THE SKULL is up too on DM, fairly fuzzy but not too bad.
Memories - Loved TOWER OF LONDON in 1980. Haven't seen it since.
Loved THE SKULL in about 1973, "liked" it in 1980, and LOVED it again about three years ago when it was up in a crisp copy on YT.
Your mammaries and expectations?
Cripes! I said that Roy Hudd was the Carry On Comedy in LEG END. It was Ron Moody. Was Roy Hudd in it? Roy Castle was, I know that. Rod Hull wasn't, or was he?
I just checked. Roy Hudd wasn't in it, Ron Moody was, Rod Hull wasn't, Roy Castle was. I shall not edit my original post. May it serve as a warning as to what might eventually happen to us all.
The Bat ... is a dog. I imagine septuagenarian director Crane Wilbur like some bored actor manager unenthusiastically dragging a hoary old chestnut of a play that should have been retired decades before through the provinces only this time he's stuck a camera in front of it and hoped for the best. Similarly, Agnes Moorehead is pushing 60 here and might as well have been sleepwalking through her role for 20-odd years. None of the rest of the performances are much good and Vinnie is totally wasted. It all looks really cheap and the jazz music over the titles is bewilderingly inappropriate. The worst thing though is the material itself. This sort of crime melodrama with old dark house overtones had been so done to death by the mid thirties, whether featuring crazed human cats, bats or gorillas, that the only way to do them was as pastiche or outright comedy. The Bob Hope version of The Cat and the Canary was released 20 years before The Bat tries to play the genre straight again. Unfortunately, the only entertainment I got out of it was unintentional, the scenes with the detective unsubtly hinting to the audience that Vinnie is the Bat feeling they could have been taken from an episode of Police Squad! or some other ZAZ spoof that pushed the material and performances only one notch further.
Legend of the Werewolf - see my comments here https://darrellpbuxton.wixsite.com/passthemarmalade/forum/the-films-1970s/legend-of-the-werewolf regarding the "making of" book and a few choice snippets that will be of interest. I'm glad to see some love for this movie, which I've always thoroughly enjoyed, much more so than CotW. It works well as a low-budget monster movie but it's Cushing who is the chief delight here. It's great to see him getting so much screen time and having the chance to put in a bit of comedy, such as in the brothel scene. I would have loved a whole series of Paul Cataflanque supernatural investigations. David Rintoul hasn't had many high-profile screen roles, although he did play the lead in the '90s version of Doctor Finlay. I was fortunate enough to see him in a production of Richard II opposite the great Derek Jacobi in the title role a long time ago and it's probably the best Shakespeare I've seen. Add me to the list of people who crave a BD of this.
And you are both spot on about the music, which I forgot to mention - I plead keyboard fatigue.
Legend Of The Werewolf (1975) Going Underground!
It’s no secret to anybody I’ve told before that I find most of Freddie Francis’ films more engaging than most of Terence Fisher’s. Here’s another case in point. Despite the cheap and tawdry look of the film (shot ‘on location and at Pinewood Studios’and I’m guessing the location was Black Park rather than Paris), there’s something about this one that helps it transcend the rather basic plot and leave Fisher’s Curse Of The Werewolf as an also-ran.
A similar comparison for me is John Gilling’s The Mummy’s Shroud, which has more going for it than Fisher’s original (notwithstanding Cushing and Lee). Both TMS and LOTW share the major drawback of starting with cringeworthily poor first acts, but once the story proper kicks in the rest is compellingly watchable despite budgetary constraints and some dodgy performances (David Buck in the former, Lynn Dalby as Christine in this).
For his second stab at the werewolf story (or reworking of the first) Anthony Hinds’ writing seems to have come a fair way in the 14 years since his Hammer screenplay. His characters seem more rounded, the story progression more cohesive, the period setting realistically rougher and with a touch more social commentary.
The previous times I’d viewed I always found Ron Moody’s portrayal rather buffoonishly exaggerated and one-note, whereas now I got an Albert Steptoe vibe – a sordid, sleazy old man but with an underlying pathos and vulnerability. Cushing is urbane, charming, resourceful and also pissed off with his superiors’ constant interfering and questionable motivations (and his despairing cry of ‘You fools! Blundering idiots! Must you always kill?’inevitably recalls similar laments from Baron Frankenstein). Marjorie Yates as the Madame is fairly credible in the usually overplayed ‘tart-with-a-heart’ role and the whole film reeks of poverty, misery, immorality, cruelty, hypocrisy, injustice and ultimately tragedy. All elements to be found in COTW to be sure, but somehow better handled here. The scene in which Étoile was forced to bash the brains out of the wolves was pretty hard to watch.
LOTW also easily beats COTW in the action stakes, with a satisfyingly high number of werewolf attacks and substantial body count. The sewers provide an atmospheric setting for a few scenes and the finale. The make up and transformation scenes are well done, although David Rintoul in human guise tends to be a bit insipid, certainly lacking the charisma of Oliver Reed. But then again, who doesn’t? Roy Castle’s small role adds a touch of black humour and helps pad out the running time.
Imagine if Hinds had written a third draft, bringing together the best from Curse and Legend. That could have been the dog's bollocks.
Summing up this weekend's event, my opinion of The Bat remains unchanged, while Legend Of The Werewolf has gone up slightly in my estimation. And would probably go up further if we ever get to see a decent print.
Not much love for The Bat then. It probably helped that I went in with zero expectations and must have been in just the right mood to enjoy an 'old dark house' style comedy, but I genuinely thought it was a fun little film, well written and acted. I don't know if I ever need to see it again, mind you, but I was expecting it to be a slog, and it wasn't.
LEG END OF THE RABBIT
----------------------------
I find myself agreeing largely with moodie on this one. I was never particularly impressed with this on previous viewings, but last night it was thoroughly entertaining. Quite a delight actually. Perhaps I was just in a benevolent mood with the wine, but I found it much more enjoyable than Hammer's CURSE. While I remember, apart from the make-up, David Rintoul did seem to share some of the brooding quality of young Ollie when "normal" or whimpering, perhaps more gentle-featured, kind of like a mixture of Ollie Reed and Richard Beckinsale.
Yes indeed, great little film. I love all the things people have criticised it for. The obvious low budget resulting in cramped sets, a zoo with two animals, a hoorhouse conveniently next door. Was that supposed to be the Sakri Bloo painted on cardboard in the background? I liked all that. There was almost a kind of German Expressionism to the wonky buildings.
Loved the (long but nor boring) preamble with Hugh Griffiths, Renee Houston and Tiny. Classic comedy. Some of the later comedy more than borders on Carry On, especially Roy Hudd, but it's endearing - or it was last night. Roy Hudd, Roy Castle... I keep thinking that Rod Hull was in this. Was he? Not even Emu? The zoo could have done with one. Oh, a very special mention for Peter Cushing. I think he's absolutely splendid in this, with just the right balance of steely determination, gallows humour and innocent charm. He could have overdone this, as he had done in some roles before and after, but he's just perfect here. I even think that the final confrontation in the sewers is more "emotional" than the ending of CURSE, which was a bit spoiled by Clifford Evans' "Oh well" raise of an eyebrow.
And correct again, moodie. The Harry Robinson score is great. Now I recall... I have a book about the Making Of this.... It's back hame in a cupboard. It broke some of the musical cues down, I think. What was that book?
So, totally enjoyed this after totally not enjoying THE BAT. But I didn't have wine with The Bat.
THE BAT'S RABBIT
---------------------
I have to say that I had completely the opposite reaction to moodie's (ah, and now I see it, similar to CMM's). I found this to be stressfully irritating. It must have looked creaky and dated even in 1959. So a bunch of annoying old lesbian spinsters wander or just stand around in an old house and scream at absolutely everything (a noise, a mouse, the wind, a suit of armour, a killer). They're not all old lesbian spinsters actually. Three of them are, one of the younger ones is wee and dumpy, and there's even a good looking one - who's recently married and has therefore been shagged correctly. As for the others, no chance. In fact this film was so annoying that I can only imagine it appealing to old lesbians and people who get a thrill out of watching Angela Lansbury bugging the tits off everybody in Murder She Wrote. Moodie, do you identify with any of those groups?
Actually, there are a few positive aspects. Vincent Price is in it. There's one genuine chill (the only thing about the film which I remembered from 1980) when The Bat comes down the stairs quickly behind Wee Dumpy and kills her. The YouTube upload was very nice, bringing out one or two nicely photographed compositions of churrasco oscuro. And I'm now vaguely interested in seeing the earlier versions, just to see how they compare.
Nah, I think this has been the worst in a pretty variable bunch of doublers so far. I rate it lower than DAUGHTERS OF STAN.
The Bat (1959). Very noticeably based on a stage play, this overly talky and flatly made murder mystery was already antiquated in the 1950s. The plot was contrived and at the same time insipidly basic. There were no thrills, chills or suspense, and the culprit was obvious from the start. There are plenty more entertaining Old Dark House mystery/comedy films than this - eg The Bat Whispers (1930) with its dynamic, experimental cinematography, The Rogue's Tavern ( 1936) combining a real mystery with some enjoyable crosstalk routines, The Ghost Walks (1934) cleverly twisting the traditional formula and turning the expected into the unpredictable, Behind The Mask (1932) with a particularly sadistic mystery villain portrayed by Edward Van Sloan....Unfortunately The Bat offers none of these elements nor anything else of particular note.
The Bat - Surprisingly entertaining stuff! It's very much a 'Cat and the Canary' clone, but it has a nicely witty script and refreshingly for the 50s, it puts the female characters front and centre. It's really Agnes Moorhead's show, and she gets the best lines. Vinnie doesn't really make much of an impression, but he hadn't hit his stride yet. It was lovely to see Gavin Gordon in something again, most memorable as the plummy Lord Byron from the intro to 'Bride of Frankenstein' and the poor rich dope in 'Mystery of the Wax Museum'. Silly stuff but lots of fun, I thought. Legend of the Werewolf - I still think this is a little gem. I don't know if that's me being objective or if it's the result of nostalgia, but who cares? It has a lot in common with Hammer's 'Curse' but it gets the origin stuff out of the way pretty early and delivers a lot more werewolf action. We wouldn't see another satisfying werewolf rampage like this until 'An American Werewolf in London'. I still think the werewolf make-up is effective, but that's probably down to David Rintoul, who sells it with his snarling features.
Ron Moody is a bit annoying, but Peter Cushing is great and he has a lovely re-union with Roy Castle. And I love the Harry Robinson score - I think this and 'Twins of Evil' are my faves. Please get this and his score for 'The Ghoul' out on disc. Come to that, please get this and 'The Ghoul' out on disc too! The two films really deserve to be better regarded than they are.
Just about to start on the old Bat (Agnes Moorhead).
And here's that widescreen HD version of 'The Bat': https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptZDe07CE_M&fbclid=IwAR27_do6VWOTE8E8PswFDrrOJnvlxVqSUaAtJUb6dTIh8Xlkx0dMkzt4A_g
The sound's not great, but I believe the picture quality is the best you'll find at the moment!
In case anyone has trouble finding it, here's my upload of 'Legend of the Werewolf': https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5sdWrkNZe0I
I may go with the YT options. These days I can't be arsed to put a DVD in the player.
I have that same triple disc set and I also can't recall watching The Bat in 1980, or indeed ever. I'm pretty sure I didn't see next week's pretend horror Tower of London in 1980 either.
My copy of The Bat is on triple DVD titled '3 Classic Horrors Of The Silver Screen vol 3' with Little Shop Of Horrors and Bride Of The Monster. I suspect /half recall that it's the also ran of this particular trio.
My copy of Legend Of The Werewolf is on a bootleg DVD-R that someone sent me. I can't remember what I'd done to them.
Don't forget, moodie, to go to "moodie"'s upload if your watching the Weerwulf's Leg End on the tube. I was checking my supplies today. Go for the widescreen bat rather than the square one or the colourful one, and, most importantly moodie's leg end.
It was most strange. I "made a mistake" when searching for the Leg End this morgan. I typed the title then "175" instead of "1975", and moodie's superior upload was the first to appear. And yet on searching for just the title alone, and even when adding the correct year, moodie's upload was nowhere to be seen.
I never saw The Bat in 1980, so that will be fun. And it's always good to see the Werewolf's Leg End. :)
I'm working myself up into a frenzy here. THE BAT's on on Saturday. My memory of it is that it's boring, but that there's one scene that I thought was quite scary. Somebody comes down the stairs quite quickly. That's all I recall.
I saw LEG END OF THE WEERWULF at the cinema (I always looked older than my years - I'm only 25 now). I had to love it, like an obligation then. But at the back of my mind I knew that I was underwhelmed. Same goes for its TV screening 40 years ago.
Knowing now that it IS tatty and threadbare, I'm looking forward to it. I'm not expecting to be overwhelmed, but merely whelmed will do.
I have nothing more to say about Night Of The Leapers. Maybe if they'd got Gerry Anderson to make it....
And those stupid little kids responsible for all the death and destruction should have had all their pocket money confiscated for the next twenty years. So much for "a precocious interest in science". Still, I bet the Chinese put them up to it.
I think I even sent one to that place where thee'n'me got banned from. You know the one where saddoes post selfies with old has-beens. And Veronica Carlson.
And I've got pictures.
Veronica Carlson was there, too.
All of us at the same time.
And so were Roger Corman and Kevin McCarthy.
And I was in her hotel room.
Well, we did spènd the night together.
Part 2. We only had breakfast, we didn't spend the night together.
Night Of The Lepus.
So how did this stand the test of time (43 years since I last saw it)?
It didn't. Maybe I wasn't in the mood or too sober or preoccupied with other things or too old etc, but I'm sure I thought it was a real hoot when we saw it at the School Film Club in 1977. Of course, Stuart Whitman was the Nick Cage of his generation and what's more the whole thing felt like a TV Movie Of The Week. And can you imagine everyone in a drive in following a lone cop's command to line up their cars in order to stop 'a herd of killer rabbits'? Still in 1972 there was still some respect for authority I guess, unlike today's 'I have the right not to wear a facemask and you can't make me'.
Incidentally I once had breakfast with Janet Leigh.
The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms.
I only remembered the NY rampage and the rollercoaster finale, so it was a pleasant surprise (and the best bit of the whole film) to have the prelude set in the Arctic wastes for the creatively named "Operation Experiment". There's a bit of an atmospheric The Thing vibe, some tension and a surprisingly fast sighting of the Beast. Then the tedious, disbelieving authorities/ romantic subplot set off on their predictable course, only enlivened sporadically by some rather fun stop motion monster action. Otherwise the characters are bland and unmemorable and the 'military machine rumbling into action' unengaging (though well enough staged) with the climax being the most eventful ten minutes. I felt rather sorry for the Beastie. Apart from that, two things struck me; 1 platonic kissing on the mouth was still not taboo among Anglo Saxons, (it was unextraordinary even in the same family when I were a lad); 2 one of the fellows on board the ship lowering the diving bell seemed to have a plastic /Auton looking face.
Oh, and it was OK for filmakers to feed an octopus to a shark to get an 'action scene'.
The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms. I don't much like Godzilla or its many, many ripoffs and I don't much like this one either. There's a certain charm in Harryhausen's SFX, although not in the poor underwater scenes, but, as is usually the case with these films, the dialogue is pretty poor and the monster isn't very interesting. I much prefer director Eugène Lourié's British takes on this genre, Gorgo and The Giant Behemoth (Lourié directed 4 theatrical features and the only one that wasn't about a giant reptile was about a big robot, The Colossus of New York).
Night of the Lepus. Having watched this one not long before the demise of the BHF board I watched it with one of the commentary tracks this time. It points out that the huge success of Willard (which I watched last year and didn't like) sparked a rush of studios acquiring any properties focusing on "small animal horror"*. One such novel was Russell Braddon's The Year of the Angry Rabbit (currently yours from Amazon for £890.80 with FREE DELIVERY) which is a satirical SF novel in which Australia tries to take over the planet, very different from what ended up on the screen. The main problem with Night of the Lepus is that it's not as bad as a movie about killer giant rabbits ought to be. It has creditable actors in many of the roles and is mainly quite competent - apart from the bunny FX - and there's only a small amount of howlingly funny dialogue (albeit that "There's a herd of killer rabbits heading this way" is a classic). Somehow, you want non-actors fluffing their lines, answering phones that haven't rung and day-for-night scenes so dazzlingly bright that everyone has to wear sunglasses.
*I think Frogs may be the best of these.
I haven't read this week's rabbits because I fell asleep twenty minutes into TBF20kF. I woke up 38 minutes into NOTL just to switch off the tablet. Now I'm going to sit under the vine with a cuppa ( or possibly a glassa), a fresh pack of Luckies and watch them both. If I find myself nodding off ( digestion and all that) I'll take a dive dive dive in the pool to freshen up. My rabbits should be among you by eventide.
NIGHT OF THE RABBITS' RABBIT
--------------------------------------
And so last night came to pass and I was shunted off to "the computer room" to watch this. No big telly, no big bed, but plenty of wine. This was a monumental occasion for me, because I had missed it 40 years ago, being in Calella getting pished and leaping from the twelfth-floor balcony onto the concrete pavement below time and time again. I never did hit the swimming pool from that distance. Besides, it was at the other side of the hotel. But I digress.
The film opens with some documentary footage of the over-population of rabbits since the days of black and white, all intoned earnestly by a scientific type. It was extremely Pythonesque. In fact, every time the word "rabbit" or "rabbits" was spoken throughout the film (about five billion times) I fell on the floor laughing. As the film progressed it became more and more like an episode of The Goodies, but unfortunately longer. Let's not beat about the Australian bush - this film is not great.
There's more than a hint of... what's the term for those SF films which address serious issues... a kind of "be careful what you do with nature" way? "Terrible Danger Films?" Anyway, this one put me in mind of TARANTULA in its set-up and in its use of rural landscapes, but totally lacking the poetry of Jack Arnold's vision. Other times it reminded me of the - what's the term... "Terrible Danger Films" (?) of early Cronenberg or early(ish) George Romero. But this one showed no sign of a talent to look out for in the future. It was nice to see DeForest Kelley though, even if with that moustache and not-Bones hair he looked more like Benny Hill doing either McCloud or Cannon, or both.
Monty Python, The Goodies, Benny Hill... the omens were beginning to show near the start. When we do get to see the big bunnies rampaging across train sets to the sound of horses galloping, it becomes almost endearing. And there's a little bit of gore! A man gets his arm chewed right off! It does seem to soon jettison the idea of making a political statement about "being careful with what we are doing to nature" ("Terrible Danger Film"?) and just move onto straight drive-in braindead territory. Not good even on that level. On the other hand I stayed awake and kept watching until the end but, overall this is an......
AWFUL WARRENING MOVIE.
THE RABBIT FROM 20,000 FATHOMS
------------------------------------------
I missed this 40 years ago because I was charming the bikinis off some transvestites in a seedy joint down Calella way, but I had seen it in my even earlier days on the Beeb (SF season, Wednesday early eve?) and then fairly recently (in the last ten years or so) on DVD. So no surprises, but it was nice to get reacquainted with it, especially on the "big" telly with a bottle of red at hand. This was Friday. I can't do twofers any more. I've lost my staying power.
Yes, as moodie mentioned, I think this was the one that set the ball rolling as regards big monsters. It's a pretty good film, but probably less fun than the more minor ones. Of that ilk I'd choose THE BLACK SCORPION as my fave. Anyway, having just said "more minor" I'm making it sound like this one's "major". Historically yes, but as you all know the budget was very small and Ray Harryhausen only had the one dinosaur model to work with. On the whole I found it a little stolid.
The cast is reasonable, even if the leads are a little bland. Cecil Kellaway does his loveable old man routine (he was 62 here - Will I look like that in three or four years?) with his funny little walk, and he does it well. Kenneth Tobey is personable and Lee Van Cleef is the one who destroys the monster at the end. Seeing as Clint Eastwood destroyed TARANTULA, can anyone remember if Eli Wallach destroyed any monsters in '50s action-SF films?
It's inevitable we're gonna get some military suits in this, but they're thankfully out of the way for the most part. I liked the Ray Harryhausen effects. I think even very jerky stop-motion has a special charm. I still get a childish kick out of seeing big cities destroyed by stop-motion monsters, and those scenes are well done here. Also particularly effective are the glimpses of the monster through the blizzards in the first reel and its night-time attack on the lighthouse (neatly disguising the full-frontal monster jerking off in daytime)
Yeah, enjoyed it. I'll give it a 6 outta 10. Maybe even a 7 due to my big bed, my big telly, and my big bottle of wine.
Almost managed to watch both of these last night, but sleep overtook me towards the end of Lepus. However, I think I'd seen enough by that point to unleash my own rabbits... The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms - Enjoyable 50s monster movie, which adheres closely to the formula (maybe this is the film that established that formula?) - early sighting leads to lengthy investigation, with fleeting glipmses of the monster, building up to a rampaging finale. So it helps that the human cast who spend most of the running time debating whether the beastie exists then tracking it down are a likeble lot. I must have this mixed up in my head with 'It Came from Beneath the Sea' because I was surprised that Kenneth Tobey was only a secondary character here. Paul Hubschmid is fine as the leading man and I found myself wondering why I hadn't seen him in many other features. I'm guessing it was the accent. It was also lovely to see 'The Great Solvani' as the bumbling professor and Paula Raymond was fine as his assistant. You could probably argue that there's not enough creature action, but I have a strange issue with stop-motion effects so I wasn't that bothered. Good old 50s creature-feature hokum. Night of the Lepus - This is basically 'THEM!' but with bunnies instead of ants. And of course, the big problem is that bunnies just aren't scary, no matter how the film-makers cut around them. When they do show up, they're just cute, not scary. So it tends to make us root for the rabbits, and not for the humans who spend most of the film doing horrible things to the floppy-eared hoppers. The film doesn't seem to know that it's ludicrous and the tone is all wrong. So what fun there is to be had from the gory attacks is sunk when we see slow-mo bunnies hopping past miniature houses and cars. It's just a film with a fatally flawed central premise, and the only way you could theoretically make a good film about giant bunnies would be if it was a comedy, or at least had its tongue in its cheek. In the end, they bravely try to take it seriously, but it's impossible for us to do the same. I'm just left wondering what they were thinking, and how this ever got made. I'm glad it did, I just wish it was more fun to watch.
While we continue to experience some technical difficulties in the Radio Times back issue department, it seems like Sherry was rather let down by his "will this do?" approach to film reviews and committed the cardinal sin of Hammer Mania when misattributing Dr Terror to that august studio. Eagle-eyed Amicus afficionados in Stoke-on-Trent were swift to cry foul. Can Sherry recover from his faux pas as the season progresses? Only time will tell.
Playing RT catchup, starting with Sherry Morley's reviewlettes of our week 2 presentations. It's easy to forget in our always online age that reviewers might, not having seen the film, need to revert to the blandest of plot descriptions. But Phil the Jenks always seemed to have a witty bon mot to hand in such circumstances that his successor lacks.
The meat in the horror sandwich this week is some fairly tedious Brass Tacks viewer feedback stuff that makes you wonder what substance programme schedulers were abusing to come up with this; even supposing you were interested, would you wait up until just shy of midnight on a Saturday night for it? Makes me long for the dulcet tones of Mr Benaud, R.
So tomorrow is the big day. In the morning I'm going to embarrass myself by competing in my first ever regional golf championship. The same night I'm probably going to embarrass myself by falling asleep to Night Of The Leapers/Lepers after waiting forty years to see it a second time.
And in the general spirit of catchup (and just in case no-one has posted Radio Times snippets already) this is what Sheridan Morley had to say about the first double-bill pairing.
Sherry is not one to wear his research lightly on his sleeve, basically admitting to cribbing his piece on THE GHOUL out of the MFB - money for old reviewing rope.
I've turned up late for the double-bill shindig with a warm party can of Watney's Red Barrel & some Monster Munch only to discover everyone else has been here for hours and are somewhat tired and emotional.
Never mind - I watched THE MAD GHOUL recently courtesy of Scream(!) Factory's Universal Horror Collection (aka Law of Diminishing Returns) series Vol. 2. Not bad - GZ and EA are good value as always, and David Bruce is a pretty good ghoul. Nowhere near as toe-curlingly tedious as the gems on offer in later volumes (yes, Captive Wild Womain, I'm talking about you).
As for DR TERROR, its still my least favourite portmerrion, due to the wildly uneven quality of the episodes therein; definitely a touch of Longfellow's little girl about it.
Agreed there Mike about the Cush's "danger zone" role (veering into Abner Perry/ Doc Who "panto for the kids" - which he loved doing). It's perhaps indicative of my feelings towards FBtG that he plays essentially the same part in DR T's, but Dr Schreck is the real deal, even when (or particularly when) sharing a railway carriage with Fluffy Fleaman and Biff Bonkers. Oh, and regarding CAPTAIN KRONOS... I seem to be the only person in the universe, or at least on the marmalade site, who likes the scene in the church with the shadow of the cross - or Worzel Gummidge doing blocky arm movements. All style and no substance, that's me. And everybody who knows me agrees with that. Some of them say I have no style either. But enough of me.
Are you all looking forward to THE BEAST FROM 20,000 FATHOMS and NIGHT OF THE LEPUS? Right, that's enough of you lot - back to me. Forty years ago I MISSED the two of them! Why??? Was I an idiot? Yes!!! Just as in 1979 I'd missed DR X and CURSE OF FRANK because I was in Blackpool with my mates (real lads), drinking beer and looking for any scruffy old totty at the Pleasure Beach, in 1980 we had progressed to Calella on the Costa Dorada. Our behaviour hadn't changed much since the previous year. And if you look at news from modern times, it looks like the youth of today are still an absolute disgrace to society. I'd have had myself shot. But the important point of all this is that I MISSED THE FILMS!!! I had seen the sea monster film in a previous BBC SF season I think, and I got it on DVD about ten years ago, and watched it. Bah, it doesn't really ignite much of a flame of enthusiasm in me, but if I'm comfy on my bed with wine then that'll maybe be enough to do the trick. As regards the LEPUS film... This will be a momentous moment in my life. I have never ever seen it, so this will be the first time!!! And I think I downloaded it correctly (actually, my Number 1 son, Charlie Jr, did it for me. He's much brighter than me. Must have inherited his mother's jeans).
But enough of me. Are YOOZ lot looking forward to Saturday's double bill? And if so why?
I've watched From Beyond The Grave over the last couple of days because I'd loaded it onto my tablet at some point and as the wifi connection down the end of my garden is iffy, it was that or go indoors...
I still think it's pretty mediocre quite frankly. Despite some interesting ideas, decent camera moves, and good performances, the stories all feel a bit rushed, the sets cramped and the exterior locations tawdry. I found Cushing's role a bit insipid and a bit pantomime-like (heading for Abner Perry/Dr Who territory). Maybe Geoffrey Bayldon would have made a good cranky antique shop proprietor instead, if that's what they were aiming for. And Lesley-Anne Down was a total non-entity in the last story.
Oh! I posted last night but it doesn't seem to have saved.
Paranoiac I enjoyed very much. As with so many of Freddie Francis' films it really benefits from being seen on great big telly. I only have the DVD but that looked splendid, even the process work which normally stinks (the bad cgi of its day). The choirboy provides what I think is Hammer's best (only?) jump scare and that mask is awfully creepy. It's not as good as Taste of Fear but it's among the next tier of the mini-Hitchcocks - and it's particularly refreshing that it's not another "homage" to Les Diaboliques.
Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter I had to end up watching on Hammer's YT channel (over 1.6m views for CK:VH). I was already familiar with the character from House of Hammer before I ever saw the film so I was aware that it was intended as a sort of time-hopping franchise. It's a pity that never happened because there's potential there that is let down by the execution. I love the idea of a Clint Eastwood type vampire hunter; I love the idea of different types of vampires with their own ways of feeding and of being destroyed. Sadly, the film looks very cheap with poor production design, bland photography, under-powered action sequences and mostly weak performances. Laurie Johnson's score is great though. The weird shadow cross looks to me like a combination of sloppy editing and a shot being missing. They really ought to have binned it because it doesn't work as it stands.
Hopefully Mal will be along shortly. He's probably VERY busy with work, as usual!
That moment you mention is IS strange and perplexing, moodie. I think Higgy hates it too. I think it's a classic case of a director putting something silly into a film because he thinks it will look cool.
I love that scene because it DOES look cool. The film's nuts anyway, so anything goes.
Forgot to mention, there's one bit in Captain Kronos that always confuses and annoys me, and it did so again on this viewing. The bit where the lass goes into the church and there's a great big shadow of a cross on the wall, and then it slowly lowers its arms, and the girl sees it (whatever it is) and screams, then we cut away, What's going on there? Is the vampire standing with his arms out like a cross, or is the evil presence of the vampire causing a cross to 'wilt'? It certainly doesn't look like it could be the vampire because the arms are far too square and blocky looking. Whichever the explanation, it doesn't make a lot of sense and it's a classic case of a director putting something silly into a film because he thinks it will look cool. Does this moment strike anyone else as strange and perplexing, or is it just me?
CAPTAIN KRONOS: RABBIT HUNTER
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Now this I do like. Having read Higgy's comments I feel guilty about liking it. But I must be true to my own nincompoopery. Okay, so it's not top-drawer Gothic Ham from the golden era at Bray. It may not even be top-drawer '70s Ham, but it's enjoyable, engaging and likeable. It also strives for originality, to some degree of success. I was all happy and comfy watching it on the big TV screen, me sat sitting there on my big bed with a gottle of red on the bedside table. That helped.
True, it has a somewhat TV feel to it. Brian Clemens stuff usually did, even his big screen work. Here I was sometimes reminded me of "Thriller", perhaps due to Laurie Johnson's Herrmannesque score. Actually , there's a kind of schoolboy humour to much of it. It's almost like a Robert Fuest film, but the humour here may be even more schoolboyish. Maybe that's why I like it so much. It's on my level. Loved the sets, the lighting, the photography, the architecture of the houses (sorry Paul), the John Cater character, the toads or frogs, the jokes ("Toad in the hole", "And...mate".), the scenes in the pub, the insults (sorry Paul) - Those pub scenes are greatly entertaining, and although it's a small role for Ian Hendry I think it's one of his best performances. He never looked "relaxed" enough in his performances. He always looked like he wanted to be somewhere else, but he's wonderbra in this. Oh, and the prolonged death of John Carson. Brilliant. Caroline Munro filled her costumes nicely, and I even found Horst an appealing character. I wish I could go back in time and have long hair and muscles and sit smoking big long smoky things. Cool guy, even today I believe.
There's even a certain poignancy in the theme of the search for eternal youth and perpetual beauty. One minor problem was that whatsername who played Shane Briant's sister was a dog. But that's a very uncharitable thing for me to say about someone who is probably very nice in real life, and it doesn't spoil what is for me a most entertaining romp.
PARANOID RABBIT
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I'd been looking forward to this on Dailymotion because I had checked weeks ago, and there are two uploads which looked good enough for me, with (almost) correct aspect ratios. The titles were great and the tracking shot towards the door of the church after the titles quite marvelous.
So there I goes sitting down to watch this the other night. Yes, that photography is stunning. Lizzie Lutyens doing her stuff. Freddie Francis doing that neat tracking shot, all very enthrlling indeed. And then they started speaking. In German. So there I goes and I switches to the other DM upload, with a slightly different running time. And it's in German too. So what do I do? Go to bed? Watch Captain Kronos instead? No, I watches it in German! I didn't understand the finer plot details, but I nver do anyway. I liked this film for the photography, some of the acting (Ollie Reed does tend to go OTT though, but in a good way. That scene in the pub, when he's fighting and grabs the darts was great. I witnessed a similar scene in the early '90s when I was doing summer work on Guernsey. Ollie lived directly across the road from my digs, and my room was high enough that I could see over the top of his high hedges into his garden. What parties he had. He was also allowed to drink in the pubs then, and graciously held the door open for me once, doing a kind of gentlemanly bow. The bit about the darts was a lie, but the rest is all true.
Where was I? Oh yes, great photography, generally good Ollie, looked good enough as a film for me to want to track it down in a language I can understand. Even after watching the film my German language skills don't go much beyond "bitter" and "wonderbra". Hey, that Elisabeth Lutyens score sometimes reminded me of DR T's HOUSE. And wasn't that Cosmo Valdemar himself who Ollie was wrestling with in the (un)climactic moments?
Unclimactic ending...Yes, it did feel a bit rushed, as if they didn't know how to finish things off. Good show though. Not quite Wonderbra, admittedly.
Paranoiac - Reasonably entertaining stuff, with plenty of twisty bits and a cracking performance from Ollie. But to be honest, the main appeal for me is in terms of pure eye candy. The Eureka Blu-ray just looks bloody gorgeous, almost distractingly so! I found that the main pleasure for me was in simply marveling at the textures of peoples' jackets and the details of the wallpaper! I don't know if that suggests that the film itself wasn't sufficiently engaging or if it's just a testament to Arthur Grant's glorious widescreen black & white cinematography, Bernard Robinson's production design, and the joys of HD presentation. Possibly a bit of both. Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter - Again, reasonably entertaining stuff, although the HD presentation is less kind to this one, tending to betray the threadbare production, especially when seen next to the gorgeous Paranoiac! This looks more like an episode of 70s telly than a feature film, and the fact that most of the action takes place in the woods reminded me of similarly impoverished productions like Hawk the Slayer. It's cheaper to have your action unfold in a patch of trees, because then you don't have to build many sets. This was obviously supposed to be a bit of a swash-buckler, but I always find the action scenes a bit lacking. I found myself wishing for the sort of attention to fight choreography and stunts that we see nowadays. So the action scenes are lacking in ooomf, but thankfully there's some interesting stuff about a new kind of vampire, and the procedures involved in finding out how to destroy it. The cast are fine although I always find it distancing when one of the central roles is dubbed. However, it's nice to see Caroline Munro get to use her own voice for a change, and she looks stunning, as always.
Very interesting rabbits so far, especially from the Higgers. I'm not as intellectual as that, so I'll just say that I liked both films. I think that I'm so unintellectual that I liked Captain Kronos for all the things Higgy hated about it. The real rabbits are in the hutch until I set them loose to plunder your fields of carrots, perhaps...tomorrow.
Our old pal Paul Higson joined in last night for the second film, Captain Kronos. Although he's a member here, he says it's a hassle to access the board via smartphone, so he's allowed me to reproduce his Facebook comments here. Take it away, Paul Higson;
I am overfamilar with it. Structurally I find it quite a cruel film all the more so because of the comic adventure feel. I see it in its parts now rather than the sum total but as I say it is from overfamiliarity and the opportunity to see those parts rather than a preference for parts over the whole gig. That is because Clemens is perpetually playful whereas others would have prodded on with story with less imagination which might better benefit a lesser film.
I find it so cruel (though I could go on about the film at greater length than this) due to the fate of the Sorrell family. A happy family with three beautiful daughters (even if as is often the case in Hammer none of them look related). Gradually through the film they are unpleasantly slain. It is that pattern of return to kill more until all are dead that I find especially grim alongside the comical fantasy of other aspects of the film.
That along with the death of Dr Marcus really bring the film down and appall in a way that a horror film should. It adds to the contradictory airs and makes it the unique exercise that it is. I wish also that the Durwards' home was a better design, less spacious and better lit. The Doctor's residence....well, I don't want to leave it...and others too are compact. The Durward's place needed much lower lighting as it only beggars the question of structure and what is keeping it up with such a cavernous space and at night given how dark it is while Caroline beds down in it that it is suddenly so white lit by what...a candle? I need to go back and look at it to study they shift from dark to light because It nags me so but I have never questioned how. The end fight could have been more effective in shadows.
There are moments that irritate me though, like the cruciform shadow in the church, particularly holding on the shot, the infantile names Kronos chucks at Hendry and failed assailants (fatty, big mouth, etc) and donning the old face mask in Wanda's bed, makes Kronos look stupid and is an insult to the viewer suggesting we don't get it otherwise.
Captain Kronos - Vampire Hunter
As I saw this just three months ago, I'm sitting it out tonight. Here's my review from last time, plus a couple more observations:
Never one of my favourite Hammer films, I'd only seen it twice before, both times in a Spanish dub. Frankly the actor who dubbed Horst Janson in the Spanish release did a much better voiceover job than Julian Holloway did for the original. Seeing the film for the first time in English, the only halfway decent performances come from John Carson, John Cater and Shane Briant. The whole film feels rather flat to me, most of the characters are sketchy, inspid ciphers and the muddled story comprises one incident after another with no real sense of continuity or unity.
Makeup and effects are not up to Hammer's glory days either, and it's immediately obvious that Lady Durward/Karnstein's old age mask is an old age mask way before the big reveal. Clemens' occasionally over-ostentatious direction fits the material well and the film is a visual treat. The relationship between Kronos and Grost is both amusing and touching and the scenes of the attempted extermination of Marcus add a touch of gallows humour. Likewise, the 'tooling up' scene before the final showdown raises a chuckle. The final swordfight is well realised but once it's over everything grinds to a halt, with only a desultory farewell scene remaining. A shame that all the novel elements (vampire hunting team, alternative vampirology, swashbuckling, horror in broad daylight, epic score, etc) didn't gel into a satisfying and engaging whole. Conceptually contrived as a kind of Western with a Stately Home standing in for a Ranch, Shako wearing soldiers in place of Cavalry troopers, a tatty country Inn replacing the Saloon and outlaws with rapiers instead of six shooters for hire, the film meanders its way to the final showdown at sundown. With more robust characterisations and a smoother narrative flow it could well have started a new Hammer franchise.
Paranoiac (1963)
Though I watched this one last November, I dutifully saw it again tonight. I must admit to FFing through the twenty minutes before the finale (for all their virtues, these twisty plot driven Sangster thrillers don't stand up to excessively-frequent revisits to the same extent as some of the Gothics). What I wrote then will serve as tonight's rabbit;
Freddie Francis' debut at Hammer is a slick psycho-thriller, with the usual quota of twists and turns which Jimmy Sangster put into all of his Hammer suspense pictures. Apart from the plot, which is the one from the B/W thriller cycle that can most justifiably be said to reflect the influence of Hitchcock's Psycho, the film's major assets are Francis' classy cinematography and Oliver Reed's terrific performance as a hard drinking, self-centred and homicidal nutcase. The Ashbys' mansion is cannily lit and filmed to resemble a sinister, gothic old dark house, while the creepy organ playing at dead of night, Simon's cobwebbed secret lair and a vicious assailant in a hideous mask add further 'traditional horror' touches. Janette Scott rather lets the side down with her patchy portrayal of the haunted heiress (sometimes fine, sometimes insipidly unconvincing) and Alex Davion (later to be seen in Plague Of The Zombies) is also somewhat bland. Luckily Reed and the ever reliable Sheila Burrell are on hand, also small roles are filled by stalwart British thesps Harold Lang, Sydney Bromley and Marianne Stone. Not forgetting tasty Gallic dish of the day Lilliane Brousse as the bogus nurse. Elisabeth Lutyens provides a perfect, unsettling score.
Ich habe keine idee
Am I wrong, or are the two Dailymotion Paranoiacs only in German? I watched one of them last night.