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Post by andydecker on Jun 9, 2021 20:47:48 GMT
Andreas, I totally get what you mean about bad horror comedies. Somehow "The Cloak" does work for me, but I can understand why some viewers wouldn't enjoy it. It helps of course that I am a huge fan of Jon Pertwee--he is "my Doctor." cheers, Steve While I am well versed in Who - I have a thing for fictional universes and Who fascinates me, I am the proud owner of the Virgin books - I have never seen the Pertwee Doctor. The first and only Who episodes shown on German TV before the new series started was actually McCoy and a few Colin Baker. The series was not a success at the time.
I gathered that Pertwee was kind of action man Who. And much beloved.
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Post by helrunar on Jun 10, 2021 18:12:45 GMT
Here's another recommendation, given your interest in girls' schools and similar environments--the 1969 film The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. Here's a scene. www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIh0z9TY0yoThe "interests" with which Miss Brodie furnishes Mary MacGregor do not lead her to a good place, alas. H.
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Post by ripper on Jun 12, 2021 16:44:42 GMT
The Amicus anthos have been mentioned and I agree that all are worth a viewing. My favourites being Dr Terror's House of Horrors and Tales from the Crypt.
If you want something a bit tongue in cheek, with Vincent Price at his hammy best, try Abominable Dr Phibes, Dr Phibes Rises Again, and Theatre of Blood.
For spooky scares, see The Haunting, 1963 version and absolutely not the 1999 one, and The Innocents.
If you do enjoy schoolgirls in peril movies, I recommend I Start Counting, Assault and And soon the Darkness (ok the girls in that last one are nurses, but it is the same type of thing and make sure it is the 1970 version). Fright with Susan George as a babysitter in peril could also be squeezed in.
If you fancy some old-fashioned stop-motion fun, there's Jason and the Argonauts, Jack the Giant Killer, Golden Voyage of Sinbad, and Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger.
There's some very black humour in An American Werewolf in London, with ace transformation scenes and Jenny Agguter as a nurse unwittingly shacking up with a werewolf.
There are the 60s and 70s Hammer Dracula and Frankensteins, plus others such as Hands of the Ripper, Dr Jekyll and Sister Hyde, Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires, Twins of Evil, Vampire Lovers, and Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter.
The above is mostly British made or at least filmed here. Are you also looking for stuff from across the pond?
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Post by šrincess šµuvstarr on Jun 12, 2021 17:15:36 GMT
The above is mostly British made or at least filmed here. Are you also looking for stuff from across the pond? I don't mind the nationality. I've been told the Italians did some interesting films too.
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Post by šrincess šµuvstarr on Jun 12, 2021 17:17:00 GMT
Here's another recommendation, given your interest in girls' schools and similar environments--the 1969 film The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. Here's a scene. www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIh0z9TY0yoThe "interests" with which Miss Brodie furnishes Mary MacGregor do not lead her to a good place, alas. H. Thank you. I've heard of the book, but never read it.
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Post by ripper on Jun 12, 2021 18:47:45 GMT
As well as the 1968 film, there was also a TV series of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie from around 1976 that seems to have been largely forgotten.
Barbara Steele made a series of gothic horrors in Italy in the 1960s, such as Black Sunday/Mask of Satan, Nightmare Castle, The Ghost and Castle of Blood. I think all are worth a look if you like a bit of gothic hijinks set in old castles and houses.
In the late 70s and into the 80s, Italian studios cashed in on the popularity of George Romero's Dawn of the Dead with lots of zombie movies. Zombie Flesh Eaters, Burial Ground, Zombie Creeping Flesh being just a few. Note that, like many Italian productions these films went under several titles, also they are pretty gory.
I would also recommend Demons and Demons 2. Both are gory, but also fast-paced and exciting
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Post by helrunar on Jun 12, 2021 18:52:50 GMT
Black Sunday (Mask of the Demon) in which Barbara Steele emphatically does NOT play a schoolgirl, is one of my favorite films. Superb Gothic horror at its most sublime.
A couple of her other films such as The Long hair of death and An Angel for Satan (in which I seem to recall she whips an impertinent young man in an effort to instruct him in some of the niceties of civilised behaviour) are well worth viewing also. And of course she had sort of a cameo role (appearing in 4 or 5 scenes) in Curse of the Crimson Altar which is one of my not-so-guilty Sixties pleasures.
On a very different octave, I strongly recommend Vadim's 1960 film Et Mourir de Plaisir (Blood and Roses) with Annette Vadim and Elsa Martinelli... stunning photography by Claude Renoir, shot in the gardens of Hadrian's Villa outside Rome.
H.
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Post by šrincess šµuvstarr on Jun 12, 2021 22:07:13 GMT
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Post by Swampirella on Jun 12, 2021 22:09:53 GMT
Just guessing, but maybe the US versions have some of the gorier bits edited out? Not too many otherwise there's be no movie left, I gather.
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Post by šrincess šµuvstarr on Jun 12, 2021 22:14:38 GMT
Just guessing, but maybe the US versions have some of the gorier bits edited out? Not too many otherwise there's be no movie left, I gather. Are they gory? I didn't realise. I wasn't told they were. One is a Viking tale.
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Post by Dr Strange on Jun 12, 2021 23:00:22 GMT
I am not too up on European film, especially the more art house stuff - but the French film Les Diaboliques (1955) is a stone-cold classic, had a huge influence on Hitchcock's Psycho, and was reportedly Robert Bloch's all-time favourite "horror" film. DO NOT go anywhere near the 1996 Hollywood remake with Sharon Stone.
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Post by helrunar on Jun 13, 2021 0:26:56 GMT
Hi Princess,
The two Bava films in your set I have seen, Black Sunday and Black Sabbath, are not gory at all by modern "standards" (if that's what one should call it). They're very atmospheric Italian horror films that pre-dated the "giallo" fad of the 1970s.
The Italian version of Black Sunday (Mask of Satan/the Demon) is the one to see. People who are genre fanatics watch the American version for the score and a few other minor details. I meant that they watch it in addition to the Italian version. Same with Black Sabbath--the attraction of the US release print in that one is that Karloff voiced his own dialogue. He was obviously looped in Italian for the Italian version.
cheers, Hel
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Post by helrunar on Jun 13, 2021 1:23:00 GMT
Princess, Here's a review I wrote of another good Sixties British horror film, Witchcraft (1964). I wrote this for a limited-edition volume that came out in 2016. Trailer here. The film used to be available on this platform to watch for free but alas... www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiXk6pwJSkoH. Don Sharpās Witchcraft (1964) is one of the more notable examples of how atmosphere, understatement, art direction, and characterization can come together in the hands of a masterful director to create a memorable tale of gothic supernatural horror. The first shot underlines how the modern world of bypasses, rapid transit, and property development is encroaching upon the supernatural world of the dead. The movie is in a sense a parable about how the dead strike back. Though some of the living do survive, they lose their homes and quite a bit of their sanity in the process. Witchcraft was produced under the aegis of Lippert-API, which had co-produced several films with Hammer in the mid-1950s. This may explain why I have seen the 1964 film erroneously described as a Hammer production. It used some personnel who also worked at Hammer, notably composer Carlo Martelli and music director Philip Martell. Writer Harry Spalding was Canadian, and a regular employee of production company head Robert Lippert. Spalding, who was quite prolific, also wrote the screenplays for House of the Damned and Curse of the Fly. Spaldingās script cleverly structures the story around conflicts that exist on multiple layers. The most fundamental conflict, it is suggested, is one of religionāthe age-old battle between the new religion of Christianity, and the old religion of ancient Pagan belief. Somewhat unusually for a Sixties Witchcraft outing, the script does not link the Whitlock familyās rites to Satanism; it is spoken of as āthe Old Religion,ā which was how real-life Witches of the era always called their own beliefs. (In earlier times, the phrase āthe Old Religionā in England usually meant Catholicism, which had been superseded with the establishment of the Anglican Communion.) Witchcraft focuses on a long-running feud between two families, the Laniers and the Whitlocks. The vendetta goes back to the era of the Seventeenth Century when the Lanier family displaced the original settlers, the Whitlocks, from their ancestral family home. The story begins when the conflict takes a nasty turn as a contractor working for the Laniers bulldozes a graveyard including Whitlock family tombs. Unfortunately for the thuggish contractor (a deft performance from Barry Linehan), among the graves disturbed is the resting-place of Vanessa Whitlock. Tried for Witchcraft, she was buried alive and is now something of a family guardian for the clan. She rises from the dead and begins to enact her revenge on those who have desecrated her own grave and harried her family with their intrusions and demands. The central focal point of this film is Yvette Reesās remarkable performance as Vanessa. With no dialogue, she becomes a mute eidolon of spectral fate, eyes cold and staring, an uncanny half-smile sometimes playing upon her dead lips. The inexorableness of the doom meted out by Vanessa upon her victims is one of the most chilling elements of Witchcraft. Her power is a thing as much in the minds of those she marks for death, as it is manifest in any lurid occult or supernatural phenomena. An effectively creepy moment is when a victim finds one of Vanessaās favorite poppets close by and suddenly screams, āthe devil-doll!ā Carlo Martelliās score and the camerawork of Arthur Lavis (who went on to work on Hammerās Journey to the Unknown series in the later Sixties) are both important elements in building the atmosphere of this unusual tale. There is a Romeo and Juliet theme in the āstar-crossedā liaison between the younger Lanier scion (attractive David Weston, who also appeared as the romantic lead in Cormanās classic Masque of the Red Death) and the Whitlock daughter, portrayed sympathetically by Diane Clare (who went on to do Plague of the Zombies for Hammer). The love affair isnāt given much screentime, but it does provide a poignant reminder of a sad fact: entrenched clan hatred promoted by family vendettas across generations can have tragic consequences for the children of those families. The film had a 13 day shooting schedule. Presumably Don Sharp was given a decent period of preparation time, because the resulting film has a very finished look, with a number of eye-catching camera angles and setpieces. Sharp became noted for thinking on his feet, eventually acquiring a formidable reputation as a class A production doctor. In the following year (1965), Sharp gave Face of Fu Manchu an extraordinarily upscale look, particularly exceptional as the latter film was a Harry Alan Towers outing. For Hammer, Sharp did such films as Kiss of the Vampire and Devil-Ship Pirates.
Don Sharp started out as an actor, and a very important element in Withcraft is the focused, often understated use of actors to convey atmosphere, emotion, tension, and the more subtle human elements of the themes playing out in the story. This is particularly noteworthy in scenes involving supporting actresses Viola Keats (as Aunt Helen) and Marie Ney (portraying family matriarch Malvina Lanier), both of whom are very well used here. Lon Chaney Jr. was well cast in the role of antagonistic family head Morgan Whitlock. His only gaffe came in a scene late in the story, when he was heard addressing David Weston as "Amy" instead of "Todd." Weston himself had a minor stumble in an earlier line in the same scene: so one must presume that time had run out and another take simply was not possible. It is worth noting that Chaney's best moment in the entire film may have come at the end of this same scene. When he tells his niece (the Diane Clare character) that she will see the risen Vanessa that night at the Roodmas Sabbat revels, Chaney's tight smile and the gleam in his eyes are genuinely creepy. It has been reported that Chaney had to do his work on the picture in the mornings; due to his alcoholism, he wasnāt able to work much at all in the afternoons. With the very tight shooting schedule, this evidently posed something of a dilemma, but I feel the results made the risk worthwhile. The cult sequences are exceptionally atmospheric in Witchcraft. I was particularly struck by the design chosen for the Whitlock family altar. It is positioned before a wall upon which is mounted a fanged animal skull. The skull seems to be intended to be the head of a being represented by what may have been a cow-hide, stretched out with hooves outspread, and nailed to the wall. This deity was most likely meant to represent the ancient Horned God of the Witches as described in the works of Margaret Murray (now widely discredited amongst scholars of Witchcraft, but her writing certainly does make for some vividly evocative reading.) On the altar itself, a human skull and hourglass brood on the lefthand side, with a thurible on the righthand side. Flanked by a pair of heavy black tapers, in the center of the shrine, is a tall, pentagonal monstrance bearing a crystalline sphere which may have been intended to be a scrying glass. This mostly likely functioned as an aniconic representation of the Mother of the Landācalled by some the Black Goddess. The Altar is the meeting-point of the realms of Time, Fate, and Death. It is a remarkable image, and unquestionably stands out amidst the clutter of vaguely Satanist bric-a-brac weāre used to seeing in other Witchcraft-themed films of the Sixties and Seventies. The Whitlock family altar, and the shadowy, catacombed crypt in which it is situated, lend an element of what is now being called āfolk horrorā to the proceedings. The imagery strikes a genuine note of the ancient and uncanny.
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Post by dem bones on Jun 13, 2021 5:56:55 GMT
Barbara Steele made a series of gothic horrors in Italy in the 1960s, such as Black Sunday/Mask of Satan, Nightmare Castle, The Ghost and Castle of Blood. I think all are worth a look if you like a bit of gothic hijinks set in old castles and houses. I grew up bemoaning the fact that nobody famous lived within about a 500 miles radius of me. In the past year I've discovered Barbara Steele and her mum lived one street from primary school I attended, Linda Hayden was only a mile away in Hatch End, Alvin Stardust and Roger Moore were around the corner, and David 'Fengriffen' Case was within a 30 minute walk. During the mid-sixties Roger Moore needed a police escort to open the Christmas Church fair at St. William of York, Stanmore (i.e., next street along from Spinney haunted by a phantom monk), as parishioners protesting Mr. Moore's presence at the function as he was seeking a divorce. Commendably, the organiser, Mr. Chandler of the church choir, stood his ground: Mr. Moore was not a Catholic, not bound by its doctrines, his morals were his own affair, and furthermore, he was giving of his own free time to raise money for the church. The event was a success, raising Ā£750 toward paying off the church debt. "Mr. Moore visited every stall at the fair and later appeared on the balcony where he signed autographs for half an hour." A vindicated Mr. Chandler paid tribute. "Undoubtedly Mr Moore ensured the success of the fair and we are indeed very grateful to him."
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Post by Shrink Proof on Jun 13, 2021 6:14:00 GMT
I grew up bemoaning the fact that nobody famous lived in within about a 500 miles radius of me. In the past year I've discovered Barbara Steele and her mum lived one street from primary school I attended, Linda Hayden was only a mile away in Hatch End, Alvin Stardust and Roger Moore were around the corner, and David 'Fengriffen' Case was within a 30 minute walk. Where I grew up (Hyde, near Manchester) the only famous near-neighbour was Wayne Fontana of Wayne Fontana & The Mindbenders, so not exactly A-list. But that all changed when locals Ian Brady & Myra Hindley brought their own unique brand of fame to the neighbourhood. Years later (after I'd moved away) the place had a famous medic too - Dr Shipman. Hyde has the dismal distinction of being best known for its serial killers...
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