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Post by dem bones on Feb 27, 2017 12:17:26 GMT
If I offer up a salaciously detailed description of the seitan and veggie-burger goulash I just cooked up, festooned with bok choy and brown rice, will that be sufficiently horrible to goad ye on? "Seitan" .... "veggie-burger goulash" .... "bok choy" ? Uh .... this is something to do with taxidermy, right? Annette is strangely drawn to a mural which records the following dark chapter in ancient Egyptian history. Rameses VIII had two sons, Ra and Be. Ra devoted his life to the betterment of mankind, Be pursued hedonistic pleasures. Jealous of his brother's popularity, Be conspired to turn the Pharaoh against Ra and have him banished as a sorcerer. That's fixed him! But Ra thrived in the desert and was duly appointed King of a nomadic tribe. Learning of his brother's plans to return to the homeland, Be sent a band of assassins to do away with him for good. The killer's returned with Ra's hand as proof that he was no more. Great Scott! Could this be a clue as to why the Bedouin brotherhood got all shirty with her father and mutilated his corpse in similar fashion? Moments before the attack, the eminent archaeologist made Annette a gift of a curious medallion when surely it belonged with the rest of the trove. For shame, Sir! You are no better than a common tomb-looter! Severed hands wherever you look. It's like something out of an Amicus horror film! Super-smoothy Adam Beauchamp continues to ingratiate himself with Annette and her fiancé (Sir Giles is on a perma-drunk, so little point sucking up to him). On the eve of the exhibition, he invites them to dinner. John, too busy overseeing the construction of King's circus, cries off. Annette happily accepts, even dresses up for the occasion. But which flashy trinket will show off her gown to best effect? Why, the medallion, of course! It has the desired effect. All through their unofficial semi-date, Beauchamp can't tear his eyes away from Annette's cleavage. At first she flatters herself that he's enraptured with her fabulous melons - Oh, Adam, you naughty boy! - but no, it really is just the sodding jewellery. Still, he is father a dish. If he plays his cards right, this could be his lucky ... John interrupts their little intrigue, and not a moment to soon. He's not in the best of moods, what with King's insufferable ego-tripping driving him gaga, and his bride-to-be spending more time than is decent with old smarmy bollocks here. And how comes she never told him that her father was handing out relics before they'd been verified? Lets have a look at it, anyway. Um, curious disc, almost but not quite gold. I'd date it circa blah blah B.C. Not so, chimes in Beauchamp, an expert all of a sudden. This is early Old Kingdom, at least two centuries earlier than the stuff from the tomb. John storms off for a consultation with Sir Giles. Perhaps the self-pitying old git will sober up for long enough to confirm which of them is right. A blow to the back of the head leaves him in a coma. The unseen culprit makes away with the medallion ... It's all getting very exciting!
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Post by helrunar on Feb 27, 2017 15:33:54 GMT
Thanks for this latest thrilling installment! I may actually have to go back and finish watching the film. It's on a Hammer DVD set I own and I started it several years ago but put it aside "for later"... an all too familiar tale in the Helrunar eyrie...
cheers, H.
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Post by helrunar on Feb 27, 2017 17:47:28 GMT
Love that cover and blurb. I love 1960s horror paperbacks.
But honestly, pace one of those yarns--if you shop at a queer antique shop, you should know you're trolling for trouble. Particularly if you open the door and the bell jing-a-lings and a familiar voice rings out from behind the till, "Hallo Dear, I'm Julian and this is my friend Sandy!"
My ass is so gonna get banned here, one of these days...
cheers, H.
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Post by pulphack on Feb 27, 2017 17:56:33 GMT
Not if I have a say - it's always nice to vada your dolly old eke, heartface...
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Post by dem bones on Feb 28, 2017 9:17:41 GMT
"There was a stale, sickly sweet grave smell; and all the time the heavy breathing."The Grand Opening, a private showing for assorted luminaries and members of the press. Earlier in the story Alexander King bragged of his personal friendship with Phileus T. Barnum, so there was never a chance of him underplaying the occasion. It's a glitzy affair for sure with Nubian dancing girls, state of the art light-show, and a warm up routine from the man who made it all possible - himself - which concludes on a reminder of the deadly curse so if you want to leave now you are free to do so .... And now the moment we've all been waiting for. The flamboyant tycoon slices open the seal of the sarcophagus, throws open the lid, and ..... and .... and somebody's stolen the mummy! Ruined! Who could have done such a thing? Hamshi Bey! The swarthy swine approached him earlier with a new, vastly improved offer from his government for the return of their property. It must be him! Mummies don't just get up and shamble away. He'll kill the pompous little meddler! John revives from his coma. Finally it has all come clear to him why someone would be prepared to kill for the medallion. It is inscribed with the sacred words of life. Whoever battered him is working to revive the mummy! King storms off in the London fog and soon finds himself hopelessly lost down by the river. A bandaged horror emerges from an archway ... The attack on star pupil John has shamed Sir Giles back to sobriety. A life ban from Egypt might prove tricky for one of his profession, but, dash it all!, there are considerably worse things in life, one of them being a reanimated mummy out to kill those who desecrated it's tomb. Adam Beauchamp has confessed to Annette that he's several thousand years older than he looks. He is none other than Be, cursed by his father to wander the earth until Ra Antef, the brother he so infamously betrayed, returns to kill him! Be/ Beauchamp knows it is asking a lot, but would she be prepared to elope with him to the sewer beneath his mansion? Annette agrees without protest. It is almost as if she is mesmerised by his authoritative voice. If only she realised what she is getting herself into. For as they descend into the tunnels, someone - or something - follows. The murder mummy is not to be denied its final vengeance .... It's disappointing the Hammer Omnibus ran to just the two volumes (well, I think so, anyway). Would have loved to read John Burke novelizations of The Mummy's Shroud, The Horror Of Frankenstein, Dracula: AD 1972 and Dr. Jekyll & Sister Hyde.
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Post by helrunar on Feb 28, 2017 21:11:45 GMT
If I'm remembering correctly that Robert Bloch wrote the early 1970s TV movie The Cat Creature, filmed by cult director Curtis Harrington for ABC-TV's Movie of the Week series, I wonder if he had seen this movie. The two share some themes in common. Cat Creature turns up on youtube periodically.
Great fun!
cheers, H.
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Post by dem bones on Mar 5, 2017 14:29:28 GMT
Have now recovered sufficiently from encounter with The Curse Of The Mummy's Tomb to risk revisiting the opener, see if I can improve on Mr. Crab's "generous 3/5".
The Gorgon: It is 1910 again. Castle Borski stands high in the mountains overlooking the village of Vandorf, a backwater of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire. As far as the outside world is aware, the crumbling ruin has been uninhabited for years, but the villagers know otherwise. Something terrible has taken up residence in the castle, something that kills with just a glance! And such terrible murders! What can it be that has turned its seven luckless victims to stone?
Sascha Cass has been modelling for roaming artist Bruno Heitz at his hideaway in the forest. At close of this evening's session young Sascha nervously drops the bombshell - she is pregnant. Blast! Bruno is not a fellow to shirk his responsibilities. Marriage it is then, and no better time than the present to brave her father, Janus Cass, ferocious landlord of The Saracen Inn. By the time Sascha has pulled on her clothes, Bruno is already half way to the village. She hurries after him. A figure steps from the trees to claim victim number eight ...
Cut to the Medical Centre where nurse Carla Hoffman is doing her best to ignore Inspector Kanof's tiresome advances. Like she doesn't already have her hands full fending off that slimy old lecher, Dr. Namaroff! As luck would have it, Kanof is brought back to earth with a bump when the porters arrive bearing the latest stretcher case. Carla peels back the sheet to reveal - the petrified corpse of Sascha Cass! Kanof is all business again. He cannot afford for an eighth murder to go unsolved and is looking to pin them all on Bruno, who, lacking any standing in the community, makes for a most convenient scapegoat. Sascha's final act is a valiant attempt to communicate her disdain at so blatant a miscarriage of justice, but her middle finger drops off mid-gesture. Kanof optimistically requests an autopsy. There are only so many miracles can be performed with a hammer and chisel, but Namaroff does his best.
Martha, the resident lunatic, is inclined to turn violent during a full moon, but this night she excels her previous best and mauls a member of staff. Namaroff instinctively links her spasm to the mysterious murders, but what can it all mean? Confound it all, man! Who is responsible for this Devil's work?
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Post by helrunar on Mar 5, 2017 19:04:04 GMT
Dem, you truly are a laugh riot. I have no idea if how you present the story is true to John Burke's characterization of some of the principal personalities. If so, Burke embroidered a few things--possibly due to working from a shooting script as opposed to the completed film, but I have no idea.
Just what you have written, which represents what I recall to have been the first ten minutes at most of the film's action, means I now have an excuse to watch The Gorgon again. Yay!!!
cheerily,
H.
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Post by dem bones on Mar 6, 2017 18:39:01 GMT
I have no idea if how you present the story is true to John Burke's characterization of some of the principal personalities. That my reputation for meticulously researched "review"s should be called into disrepute! Have a care, Sir! Why, from the tone of your comments, a body might think I just bang out any old random nonsense that comes into my head! Actually, that's true 99% of the time, but not on this occasion. Straight up, the sexual harassment in the workplace stuff is present in Mr. Burke's adaptation, as is the business with Sascha's middle finger dropping off - can't remember that happening in the movie? As KC and his sunshine crabs observe in the initial post, he also reinstates Medusa over Megaera and tidies up the Greek mythology. I doubt John had much option but to flesh out the scripts. They were a little on the flimsy side. Professor Jules Heitz travels from Berlin to attend the inquest into his son's "suicide." Such is the hostility of the Vandorf community that he's forced to put up in a neighbouring town. He learns that Bruno was found swinging from a tree shortly after the discovery of Sascha's body. The inquest is a travesty, the verdict a foregone conclusion. The Coroner accepts any old bent "evidence" and hearsay to establish Bruno's guilt. Professor Heitz vows to clear his son's name. As he's jostled from the Court a "drooling, inbred youth" taunts him; "She'll strike you like she struck the others." "SHE ?" "STRIKE ?" "THE ?" "OTHERS ?" WHAT CAN IT ALL MEAN? Nothing to you and I, perhaps, but an invaluable clue to the Professor! As we all know, his specialist subject is "the influence of myth on the aesthetic development of contemporary poets and novelists," so it takes him all of two paragraphs to establish the real culprit is a monster out of ancient Greek mythology! All this without anyone having the good grace to inform him that Sascha's body was turned to stone! The Professor puts up at Bruno's studio hovel in the woods. The villagers' animosity toward him has increased since the kerfuffle in the courtroom until he hardly dare show his face on the streets. The police refuse an interview. Exasperated, he pays his old friend Namaroff a visit, but Namaroff is friend no more. It's hopeless. "Everywhere I go I sense a conspiracy of silence." A vigilante group torch the studio. Inspector Kanof drives away the culprits but lets it be known in no uncertain terms that Heitz and his servant are unwelcome in the district so why don't they just shove off back to Berlin? The Professor has other ideas. Late one night he we writes his colleague Professor Meister at Leipzig University requesting that son Paul be excused to join him in Vandorf at the earliest opportunity. Then he sets off alone for Castle Borski .....
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Post by helrunar on Mar 6, 2017 20:03:47 GMT
LOL, Dem! I totally don't remember Carla being at all disturbed by Namaroff (the Peter Cushing character)'s gallantries, so if that's in the Burke text, either the shooting script had a different angle on their relationship, or Burke embroidered. I actually know nothing of Mr. Burke's career or other work--maybe I should prowl around here and see if there's a thread for that. Thus, I have no context to evaluate whether he tended to use a liberal hand in writing out these storyettes.
Believe me, I've had The Gorgon on my "to watch again" roster since last fall, when I revisited The Reptile and Plague of the Zombies, both excellent yarns worthy of a discerning viewer's time.
Your Gorgon bibliography fills me with mingled awe and dread--at some point, I'm going to need to attempt to track down some of those tales. I've read the Bacon but not sure I know where to find the other stories... I've also been meaning to track down a similar story, by Rose Macaulay if memory serves, about a woman on a summer holiday in early 1950s Capri having a horrifying spectral encounter at the site of the ancient baths where Emperor Tiberius had his little pastimes... Of course I can't recall the title...
cheers, H.
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Post by dem bones on Mar 7, 2017 6:35:43 GMT
I actually know nothing of Mr. Burke's career or other work--maybe I should prowl around here and see if there's a thread for that. Thus, I have no context to evaluate whether he tended to use a liberal hand in writing out these storyettes. This wouldn't be the worst place to start: John Burke: "A relatively unsung Brit pulp hero". And in the case of the Hammer Horror Film Omnibus x 2, "storyettes" is so much more appropriate than "novelizations." Your Gorgon bibliography fills me with mingled awe and dread--at some point, I'm going to need to attempt to track down some of those tales. I've read the Bacon but not sure I know where to find the other stories... I've also been meaning to track down a similar story, by Rose Macaulay if memory serves, about a woman on a summer holiday in early 1950s Capri having a horrifying spectral encounter at the site of the ancient baths where Emperor Tiberius had his little pastimes... Of course I can't recall the title... cheers, H. If you locate the Rose Macauley story, please add it to the listing!
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Post by helrunar on Mar 7, 2017 12:40:03 GMT
Dem, That Rose Macaulay story (not a Gorgon tale, but telling of a horror from pagan Roman antiquity come back to terrorize a foolish tourist in 1950s Italy) is called "Whitewash." It was included in a Virago anthology of ghost stories by women writers which you reviewed here way back in 2007. I know this because when I searched the story title online, one of the links showed the page for your review. I didn't see a notice from you of this specific tale, however. I read it way back in the mid 1970s and will have to see if I can find it again.
I look forward to exploring the John Burke thread!
cheers, H.
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Post by Swampirella on Mar 7, 2017 17:03:44 GMT
Dem, That Rose Macaulay story (not a Gorgon tale, but telling of a horror from pagan Roman antiquity come back to terrorize a foolish tourist in 1950s Italy) is called "Whitewash." It was included in a Virago anthology of ghost stories by women writers which you reviewed here way back in 2007. I know this because when I searched the story title online, one of the links showed the page for your review. I didn't see a notice from you of this specific tale, however. I read it way back in the mid 1970s and will have to see if I can find it again. I look forward to exploring the John Burke thread! cheers, H. That sounds like my kind of story! I'm going to try to get ahold of it, in the Virago anthology or elsewhere....I see it's also in The Second Ghost Book (Cynthia Asquith) in case anyone's interested.
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Post by helrunar on Mar 7, 2017 20:21:51 GMT
Hi Miss Scarlett, The story was also included in Lady Cynthia Asquith's Second Ghost Book which had several reprints during the 1960s and, I think, more recently.
Best, H.
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Post by Swampirella on Mar 7, 2017 20:58:03 GMT
Hi Miss Scarlett, The story was also included in Lady Cynthia Asquith's Second Ghost Book which had several reprints during the 1960s and, I think, more recently. Best, H. Hello, H. I found that out rather quickly too, but it was kind of you to let me know in case I hadn't . Now I don't know whether to buy one or both books so for now am being sensible and buying neither I really have too many books; I bought and gave away the 2nd Ghost Book a few decades ago as I didn't like it much, at least at the time. Best back, Miss Scarlett
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