Wednesday, November 2, 2016

25 REASONS TO WATCH OLD MOVIES Part 07

Well, now that the Halloween party is over, we can get back to the business at hand, and where I left off over a month ago was at Part 6 1/2, of  '24 Reasons To Watch Olde Movies' and this is the second installment, which makes it officially Part 7 I guess! Anyway, here they are, the gals that make up the second half of Part 7, and a mighty fine assortment they are!

#164 - Anne Neyland "Jailhouse Rock" "Man With A Camera" "Men Into Space"
(She even looks like Elvis in the bottom pic)

#165 - Gaby Fainon -  "Assignment: Outer Space" "Blood And Roses"

#166 - Julie London - "Nabonga" Man From U.N.C.L.E."
(Probably better known as a singer, songs sung by Julie have been in 42 movies)

#167 - Kitty de Hoyos - "Trip To The Moon" La Loba" "Adventure At The Center Of The Earth"
MeOW!!!!

#168 - Laraine Day - "The Woman On Pier 13" "Burke's Law"

#169 - Laura Betti - "Blood Brides" "A Bay Of Blood" "At Night All Cats Are Crazy"

#170 - Linda Christian - "The Devil's Hand" "Tarzan And The Mermaids"

#171 - Margaret Hayes - "Saboteur" "The Beat Generation" "13 West Street"

#172 - Merry Anders - "The Hypnotic Eye" "The House Of The Damned"
"The Time Travelers" "Women Of The Prehistoric Planet"

#173 - Nora Hayden - "High School Confidential" "The Angry Red Planet"

#174 - Viviane Ventura - "Battle Beneath The Earth" "The Man From U.N.C.L.E."

#175 - Yvonne Romain - Hammer Scream Queen - "Corridors Of Blood" "Circus Of Horrors" "Danger Man" "The Curse Of The Werewolf" "Night Creatures"

So that's it for now! I'm working on Part 8 which will bring us up to 200 total, and I'd like to make it to Part 13, but the further I go, the more mainstream AND the more obscure it gets! What kills me is that if I had been more astute when I started this blog, we could have tried to get an interview or something with a great majority of these women, but now, a mere 9 years later, most of them are gone, except for Yvonne, and I'm pretty sure she lives in England!

Monday, October 31, 2016

HAXAN: Witchcraft Through The Ages / Aljosha Production Company, Svensk Filmindustri - 1922

So, like, Happy Halloween Everbloody!! We'll end our October adventure with this amazing bit of Swedish/Danish silent film making from 1922! This story is part history lesson followed by re-enactments with actors depicting the history of witchcraft from its earliest days through to the present day. The result is this documentary-like film that's among the first to use re-enactments as a visual and narrative tool. From pagan worship to satanic rites to hysteria, the film takes us on a journey through the ages of witchcraft with very effective visual imagery...

Images in the movie include witches kissing the ass of Satan, boiling non-baptized babies and giving birth to demons, not to mention getting a full tour of the state-of-the-art in medieval torture devices, none of that is shown here though!

Nymphs were considered witches because they liked to run around naked in nature with their little animal friends surrounding them!

Stocks were a useful device to subdue witches while trying to figure out what the Hell to do with them!

Even the church has its problems, no place is safe from witches and even the devil hisself!

Oh boy, it's time for all the little (and big) demons to come out and play! These scenes have such a magical, surreal quality to them!

Here's the amazing entrance to the devilish underground play land where all the demons can go have a ball...

In order to get in, one must get past the greeter pigs!

Okay, so like... Let the freak show begin!!

First up is this fine piece of... err.. tail, for all the demons to drool over!

Here's the devil's platter, large enough to accommodate a nice, succulent, naked female body!.. Dinner is served!!

Oh, what the Hell.. Let's dance!!

Anyway, the scenes are all devilishly appealing, making for one very interesting flicker. The original movie was 122 minutes long! So, kids, that's all of our Halloween Countdown 2016! We're back on the regular track on Wednesday, see you then!

Sunday, October 30, 2016

R.I.P. JOHN ZACHERLE - September 26, 1918 - October 27, 2016

Well, I don't usually do things like this, but I just found out from the WFMU Rock 'n' Soul Ichiban blog that the Babe Ruth, the Jim Morrison, of horror hosts, John Zacherle just passed away at the age of 98 three days ago on October 27th!

When I was a kid, we didn't get Zacherley's show on TV, but the fact that out of all the cool monsters in the world, they chose to put Zacherley on the cover of Famous Monsters Of Filmland twice out of 15 issues, you just knew he was THE best! In retrospect, when I finally saw his work, it didn't change my opinion! Just like Forrest J. Ackerman, or Vincent Price, or Boris Karloff, some people will just never ever be duplicated, and John Zacherle was one of a kind!
If you know who he was, then this is a sad moment, and if you don't, then it's even sadder!

Saturday, October 29, 2016

THE MUMMY'S TOMB - "Buried Fury" (1942)

So, this is my last post of this year's "Countdown To Halloween," and I couldn't figure out if I wanted to use the "Shindig Halloween Special" from 1965, "The Paul Lynde Halloween Special" from 1976, or the last of the Gossamer trilogy starring Duck Dodgers, but then I decided to do something classy and just go all out classic for a change!

For a good 40 years or so, Horror movies were dominated by a mere handful of creatures! 
The whole Frankenstein family, Vampires, Werewolves, Invisible People, Jekyll and Hyde characters, and Mummies! Of them all, it's obvious that Vampires have stayed at the top of the game, but they are eternal creatures, so what more would you expect, but the Mummies, except for a couple of exceptions, have finally ran out of Tana leaves, and are a dying breed, literally, and figuratively!!

 On the right is the legendary George (The Flying Serpent, The House Of Frankenstein, The Mummy's Ghost, The Mad Ghoul, The Mad Monster, The Monster And The Girl) Zucco as the Mummy's keeper, Andoheb!

 "The Mummy's Tomb" is a revenge movie! The Westerners violate the ancient Egyptian tombs and are sentenced to death! It's no wonder the U.S.A. still pays millions of dollars to Egypt year after year!

 But the life force of the Mummy is this potion of Tana leaves that just got spilled on the floor! Set him on fire, and the world is free of the Mummy's revenge forever! (Almost!)

The Mummy didn't die in that horrific scene, because, well, dead people can't die!
So the Mummy gets a new owner, and he's shipped off to America!

The always entertaining Turhan (The Mad Ghoul, The Climax, The Amazing Mr. X) Bey as Mehemet Bey is the new Boss of the Mummy, and just like any good Boy Scout, he pledges to have the Mummy do his job, and kill all of the family of anybody that had anything to do with desecrating their holy resting place!

Cool Police lab, figuring out shit the good old fashioned way!

When he said get rid of ALL the family members, he meant it! 
Mary (The Bride Of Frankenstein, The Body Snnatcher, The Invisible Man Returns) Gordon was one of those kind of people that movies would be lost without! Largely uncredited, she was in over 300 films as a housekeeper or a cleaning woman, etc!

I love shots of newspapers! 
Oh, sure, they'll figure it out now with all these journalists on the case!

The star of the show is Lon Chaney Jr. as the Mummy! Kharis is his name! The dichotomy is that he is slower than a five some of mole asses, but, if he catches you, your goose is cooked, it's over!

Elyse Knox is Isobel Evans. She's planning on marrying into a family that doesn't have much future!
I like her outfit, but I swear she wears it for about 3 days! In this movie Dick Foran is Stephen Banning, and in "The Mummy's Hand" he plays Steve Banning!

Finally, it's time to change!!
Elyse was also in "Free, Blonde and 21," and she had the recurring role of Anne Howe in six Joe Palooka movies!

 Kharis is not happy with Mr. Bey when he is told to go and kidnap the girl because he wants to marry her! That just wasn't part of the program, and Kharis knows it!

But since he just won the employee of the week award, he goes out to do his job! Believe it or not, even though she looks like she is in her 20's, Isobel's Mom just tucked her in!

Let the marriage ceremony begin!

Some things just aren't meant to be, and Kharis goes up in flames again!

She's still wearing that same top!

I hope you had a good time, and thanx again to all the good folks who make the Countdown happen! 
HAPPY HELL ON EARTH YA'LL!!!

Monster Music

Monster Music
AAARRGGHHH!!!! Ya'll Come On Back Now, Y'Hear??