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Post by David A. Riley on Oct 15, 2023 11:38:44 GMT
Greatly enjoyed the new BFI Blu-ray of Targets, Peter Bogdanovich's early feature starring Boris Karloff as an aging horror film star who believes his brand of gothic chills are out-moded, and Tim O'Kelly as a young family man who snaps and goes on a killing spree. A justifiably lauded film that contrasts the make-believe horrors of cinema with real world horrors. Karloff is tremendous in his last great role, which is basically a more world-weary version of himself. I also rewatched Arrow Video's Blu-ray of Mario Bava's Black Sabbath, with Karloff playing both host, linking together the three stories that make up the film, and also Gorka, the 'wurdulak', feasting vampirically on his own loved ones. The Blu-ray features both the Italian and US versions of the film, which vary in some interesting ways, particularly in the story of a young woman receiving menacing phone calls, which is a ghost story in one version but not in the other. Karloff was far luckier than Bela Lugosi in some of his final films, such as Targets (which I recently watched on the great BFI bluray) and, of course, The Sorcerers, though neither bizarely are as well known as Lugosi's Plan 9 From Outer Space, though I know which I would prefer to watch! |
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Post by andydecker on Oct 15, 2023 11:39:11 GMT
Got a new BD edition of Renato Polselli's The Vampire and the Ballerina or L'amante del vampiro by German label Anolis. As the movie is from 1960 it is of course very tame and more interesting because of its context than its content. But the BD extras are nice, some audio-commentaries, the usual rambling interview by screenwriter Ernesto Gastaldi, in hindsight one of the architects of the Giallo and so on. Polselli later went on to made ever more experimental - or incoherent depending on one's taste ā horror movies like The Reincarnation of Isabel aka Black Magic Rites. Still the script here had some nice and unusual ideas. Also watched So Cold the River (2022) directed by Paul Shoulberg. Erica is a documentary filmmaker whose career crashed; now she is doing funeral videos. For a lot of money she is tasked with profiling the life of dying and mysterious billionaire Campbell Bradford, including his ties to his hometown, but Erica is given few clues as to his past other than a bottle of water from a local spring. Erica travels to a resort he once frequented, where there are dark and evil secrets. This was filmed at the West Baden Hotel in Indiana and looks beautiful and creepy. Hard to believe that this is a holiday resort. But the story presents more questions than answers, and it got mostly negative reviews. I can understand this, it tries to do I guess what one could call magical realism; the plot doesnāt make a lot of sense if you expect something linear or A equals B. The ending is baffling, and I am honest, I didn't get it either. But it is not that you want to throw something at the screen because of its idiocy. As a movie it is beautifully shot with some spectacular scenes and pictures and an uncomfortable atmosphere right out of Ramsey Campbell. It even managed to say some critical words about documentary film making without making it as broad as a barn door or ramming it in your throat. Quite an achievement in our current times.
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Post by andydecker on Oct 15, 2023 11:43:59 GMT
are as well known as Lugosi's Plan 9 From Outer Space, though I know which I would prefer to watch! just makes one sad. One can help feel sorry for Lugosi. |
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Post by David A. Riley on Oct 15, 2023 12:00:10 GMT
are as well known as Lugosi's Plan 9 From Outer Space, though I know which I would prefer to watch! just makes one sad. One can help feel sorry for Lugosi. I absolutely agree. I'm sure Lugosi himself would have prefered a Peter Bogdanovich or a Michael Reeves than an Ed Wood Jnr, though he died too soon for either to be contenders. |
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Post by šrincess šµuvstarr on Oct 15, 2023 12:30:16 GMT
Plan 9 just makes one sad. One can help feel sorry for Lugosi. I absolutely agree. I'm sure Lugosi himself would have prefered a Peter Bogdanovich or a Michael Reeves than an Ed Wood Jnr, though he died too soon for either to be contenders. He didn't really have much say in the matter. Being dead when it was made. His Bride of the Monster with Ed Wood is no worse than many B-movies of that type. |
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Post by The Lurker In The Shadows on Oct 15, 2023 20:45:17 GMT
Karloff was far luckier than Bela Lugosi in some of his final films, such as Targets (which I recently watched on the great BFI bluray) and, of course, The Sorcerers, though neither bizarely are as well known as Lugosi's Plan 9 From Outer Space, though I know which I would prefer to watch! Not just in his final films. Poor Bela was screwed over by Hollywood from early on, as he petitioned so hard to play Dracula on film after his stage success that they paid him far less than they should have done. And the ingratitude continued from there on, with Lugosi side-lined, turned into a stooge, or having his role butchered, like in Frankenstein Meets The Wolfman. Shameful behaviour by Universal, as it's the presence of Lugosi, far more than Tod Browning's direction of the script, that elevated Dracula and kicked off the lucrative horror cycle they traded off for decades. It's sad that he didn't live long enough to find a champion, beyond Ed Wood Jr. |
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Post by David A. Riley on Oct 16, 2023 9:56:42 GMT
Karloff was far luckier than Bela Lugosi in some of his final films, such as Targets (which I recently watched on the great BFI bluray) and, of course, The Sorcerers, though neither bizarely are as well known as Lugosi's Plan 9 From Outer Space, though I know which I would prefer to watch! Not just in his final films. Poor Bela was screwed over by Hollywood from early on, as he petitioned so hard to play Dracula on film after his stage success that they paid him far less than they should have done. And the ingratitude continued from there on, with Lugosi side-lined, turned into a stooge, or having his role butchered, like in Frankenstein Meets The Wolfman. Shameful behaviour by Universal, as it's the presence of Lugosi, far more than Tod Browning's direction of the script, that elevated Dracula and kicked off the lucrative horror cycle they traded off for decades. It's sad that he didn't live long enough to find a champion, beyond Ed Wood Jr. Lugosi definitely did not get decent treatment in Hollywood. I read somewhere that Lugosi preferred making movies in England as he was treated with far more respect here. The ridiculous script changes to Frankenstein Meets The Wolfman are well chronicled, especially the original concept of the creature being blind as per the ending of the previous film, which Lugosi followed, only for this idea to be ditched after filming so that his performance no longer made any sense, with his outstretched arms as he blundered "blindly" about. Some of his treatment in the States was possibly because of his left-wing revolutionary activities in his homeland, which resulted in him fleeing to the States. Hollywood moguls were only too keen to take advantage of this to keep his pay down and, in the '50s in the McCarthy era made getting parts even harder. |
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Post by bluetomb on Oct 16, 2023 13:04:03 GMT
Not just in his final films. Poor Bela was screwed over by Hollywood from early on, as he petitioned so hard to play Dracula on film after his stage success that they paid him far less than they should have done. And the ingratitude continued from there on, with Lugosi side-lined, turned into a stooge, or having his role butchered, like in Frankenstein Meets The Wolfman. Shameful behaviour by Universal, as it's the presence of Lugosi, far more than Tod Browning's direction of the script, that elevated Dracula and kicked off the lucrative horror cycle they traded off for decades. It's sad that he didn't live long enough to find a champion, beyond Ed Wood Jr. Lugosi definitely did not get decent treatment in Hollywood. I read somewhere that Lugosi preferred making movies in England as he was treated with far more respect here. The ridiculous script changes to Frankenstein Meets The Wolfman are well chronicled, especially the original concept of the creature being blind as per the ending of the previous film, which Lugosi followed, only for this idea to be ditched after filming so that his performance no longer made any sense, with his outstretched arms as he blundered "blindly" about. Some of his treatment in the States was possibly because of his left-wing revolutionary activities in his homeland, which resulted in him fleeing to the States. Hollywood moguls were only too keen to take advantage of this to keep his pay down and, in the '50s in the McCarthy era made getting parts even harder. I suspect its existence is unlikely but I would dearly love to see the intact version of The Mystery of the Marie Celeste rather than the butchered and incomprehensible Phantom Ship cut. Lugosi and early Hammer is a combination that it's downright tragic not to have all of. |
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Post by The Lurker In The Shadows on Oct 16, 2023 18:16:22 GMT
I think tonight's viewing will include some episodes of Dark Shadows to mark the passing of Lara Parker, who played Angelique, the witch whose obsessive love turned Barnabas Collins into a vampire, as well as various other roles in the gothic soap opera, including a pair of twins, one good, one evil, and other incarnations of the witch. She played a ghostly manifestation of Angelique in the film Night of Dark Shadows, and decades later returned to Dark Shadows on audio for Big Finish, made a cameo appearance in the Tim Burton film, and wrote several very entertaining novels based on the series.
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Post by šrincess šµuvstarr on Oct 16, 2023 19:12:08 GMT
Lugosi definitely did not get decent treatment in Hollywood. I read somewhere that Lugosi preferred making movies in England as he was treated with far more respect here. The ridiculous script changes to Frankenstein Meets The Wolfman are well chronicled, especially the original concept of the creature being blind as per the ending of the previous film, which Lugosi followed, only for this idea to be ditched after filming so that his performance no longer made any sense, with his outstretched arms as he blundered "blindly" about. Some of his treatment in the States was possibly because of his left-wing revolutionary activities in his homeland, which resulted in him fleeing to the States. Hollywood moguls were only too keen to take advantage of this to keep his pay down and, in the '50s in the McCarthy era made getting parts even harder. I suspect its existence is unlikely but I would dearly love to see the intact version of The Mystery of the Marie Celeste rather than the butchered and incomprehensible Phantom Ship cut. Lugosi and early Hammer is a combination that it's downright tragic not to have all of. Lugosi made a series of films for Monogram, a poverty row studio, in the 1940s. The one that stands out is The Invisible Ghost, it's well directed and actually allows Lugosi to show off his acting in more than just his sinister mode, though there is that as well. Also of note is the black actor in it, Clarence Muse; although playing a stereotypical black role at that time of a butler, he doesn't play the usual comedic buffoon, instead he is intelligent, well spoken, and restrained. There is a nice scene of Lugosi and Muse together with the cook. It is very human. |
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Post by šrincess šµuvstarr on Oct 17, 2023 19:07:50 GMT
I think tonight's viewing will include some episodes of Dark Shadows to mark the passing of Lara Parker, who played Angelique, the witch whose obsessive love turned Barnabas Collins into a vampire, as well as various other roles in the gothic soap opera, including a pair of twins, one good, one evil, and other incarnations of the witch. She played a ghostly manifestation of Angelique in the film Night of Dark Shadows, and decades later returned to Dark Shadows on audio for Big Finish, made a cameo appearance in the Tim Burton film, and wrote several very entertaining novels based on the series. I watched the first episode a while ago, did its style change much over the run? I've seen references to the Barnabas Collins ones, they seem different in tone. |
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Post by The Lurker In The Shadows on Oct 17, 2023 20:59:55 GMT
I watched the first episode a while ago, did its style change much over the run? I've seen references to the Barnabas Collins ones, they seem different in tone. It started out as a gothic drama with storylines about family secrets and rivalries, revenge and murder, with only hints of the supernatural in old family legends and folktales. Then, after a few months, the first ghost made an appearance, though the supernatural elements were still in the background. The supernatural elements helped the ratings, so a longer storyline involving a human incarnation of a phoenix ran for a few months. Then producer Dan Curtis decided to go all out and bring in a vampire, which is where Barnabas Collins came in, with the plan being to kill him off after 13 weeks. Only he proved too popular, and there was no way it could go back to being a regular soap opera, so they travelled back in time to 1695 to show how Barnabas became a vampire, and this brought in Angelique, the witch. The show would go on to include more time travel into different eras of Collinwood's past - and, briefly, its future - more ghosts, werewolves, Frankenstein-like monsters, Jekyll and Hyde-type characters, zombies, curses, Lovecraftian elder gods, and parallel universes, among other things. And all of this at tea-time, every weekday, for about 5 years. |
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Post by helrunar on Oct 18, 2023 13:27:16 GMT
Dark Shadows is my all time favorite television series. It's very theatrical and a lot of it is considered "too slow" by viewers today (even those in my own age cohort)--it was shot live on tape, as was a lot of 1960s British television, so it's more like watching a stage play with brilliant actors who occasionally flub a line or make a pratfall because they only had 3 or 4 hours to rehearse before going in front of the cameras (which were huge, and sometimes show up onscreen, along with the boom microphones, the stagehands, etc.).
I used to think "you had to be there" to enjoy it but I'm on a fan group on a platform called Discord and a lot of the most enthusiastic fans are youngsters in their 20s. The intrigue continues.
Hel.
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Post by ripper on Oct 18, 2023 15:29:30 GMT
I suspect its existence is unlikely but I would dearly love to see the intact version of The Mystery of the Marie Celeste rather than the butchered and incomprehensible Phantom Ship cut. Lugosi and early Hammer is a combination that it's downright tragic not to have all of. Lugosi made a series of films for Monogram, a poverty row studio, in the 1940s. The one that stands out is The Invisible Ghost, it's well directed and actually allows Lugosi to show off his acting in more than just his sinister mode, though there is that as well. Also of note is the black actor in it, Clarence Muse; although playing a stereotypical black role at that time of a butler, he doesn't play the usual comedic buffoon, instead he is intelligent, well spoken, and restrained. There is a nice scene of Lugosi and Muse together with the cook. It is very human. I agree that The Invisible Ghost is one of Lugosi's best Monograms. I also like The Devil Bat, with Lugosi playing a scientist creating perfumes, and getting annoyed that he is not being suitably rewarded for the large profits his efforts win for the company he works for. |
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Post by The Lurker In The Shadows on Oct 18, 2023 15:45:45 GMT
Dark Shadows is my all time favorite television series. It's very theatrical and a lot of it is considered "too slow" by viewers today (even those in my own age cohort)--it was shot live on tape, as was a lot of 1960s British television, so it's more like watching a stage play with brilliant actors who occasionally flub a line or make a pratfall because they only had 3 or 4 hours to rehearse before going in front of the cameras (which were huge, and sometimes show up onscreen, along with the boom microphones, the stagehands, etc.). I used to think "you had to be there" to enjoy it but I'm on a fan group on a platform called Discord and a lot of the most enthusiastic fans are youngsters in their 20s. The intrigue continues. Hel. I knew about Barnabas Collins and Dark Shadows via various horror film books when I was growing up, and a BBC screening of Night of Dark Shadows, though my first chance to watch an episode was when Channel 4 had a Soap Weekend in the mid-90s showing episodes of various soap operas from around the world. Bizarrely, the DS episode they chose was one without Barnabas, but from the 1897 storyline. I confess, I wasn't impressed at all by the cheap videotape look and theatricals, so I didn't bother watching when the SciFi Channel were airing it... ...until one night, when I was up late writing and it came on, so I left it on in the background (at the time they were showing two episodes per day starting at 3.00am). The next night I found myself paying more attention, and by the third night I was stopping what I was doing to sit and watch it properly, as it reeled me in. This was the end of the parallel time story and the trip to Collinsport in the future and the beginning of the Rose Cottage and Gerald and Daphne saga. From this point on, I was hooked. The videotape quality and inability to edit out fluffs didn't matter in comparison to the imagination and ambition of the series, and the theatrical acting is all part of the atmosphere. It remains one of my favourite series, which I return to time and again, thanks to the coffin-box set of DVDs of the entire series, the books, and the Big Finish audios. |
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