Monthly Archives: October 2014

PICTURE OF THE DAY: THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1957) – French poster

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Curse of Frankenstein - foreign posterPICTURE OF THE DAY: THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1957) – French poster

Here’s a colorful French poster from the Hammer classic, THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1957), starring Peter Cushing as Baron Victor Frankenstein and Christopher Lee as the Creature.

It’s the film which launched the Hammer Films horror phenomenon, as it proved so successful at the box office in 1957 that Hammer quickly followed suit the following year with DRACULA (U.S. title HORROR OF DRACULA) which was also a success, and they never looked back. THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN was the biggest box office money maker of the year in England in 1957.

THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN was also the first time that Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee co-starred together in a horror movie.  They would go on to star in over twenty movies together.  Interestingly enough, it’s not the first time they both appeared in the same movie.  That had already happened twice before,  as Cushing and Lee were both in the Laurence Olivier version of HAMLET (1948) and John Huston’s MOULIN ROUGE (1952).

Anyway, I love this poster, especially the colors.  I particularly like the vibrant colors used on Peter Cushing and Hazel Court.

There are some really neat French horror movie posters.  If you get a chance, check them out online.  Likewise, you can find some excellent Spanish, German, and Japanese posters.  Why stop there?  Check out as many countries as you can.  You’ll be pleasantly surprised at what you find.

Looking for a different kind of Halloween treat this year?   Treat yourself to some fun international movie posters.

Happy Halloween!

Thanks for reading!

—Michael

IN THE SHADOWS: GLENN STRANGE

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Glenn Strange as the Frankenstein Monster, perhaps the most recognizable of the movie Frankenstein monsters.

Glenn Strange as the Frankenstein Monster, arguably  the most recognizable Frankenstein monster of all time.

In The Shadows: GLENN STRANGE

By Michael Arruda

 

With a name like Glenn Strange, how could you not appear in horror movies?

Glenn Strange amassed a whopping 314 screen credits over his long career which spanned five decades, from 1930 to 1973.

Granted, most of these were in westerns, including the long running television series GUNSMOKE (1961-1973), but horror fans will forever remember Strange for his portrayal of the Frankenstein Monster in three of the Universal Frankenstein movies, the final three to be exact: HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1944), HOUSE OF DRACULA (1945) and ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN (1948).  In fact, you can make the argument that it is the image of Glenn Strange as the Frankenstein Monster, not Boris Karloff who originated the role that is the most iconic image of the classic Universal Frankenstein Monster.  It’s Glenn Strange as the Frankenstein Monster we see in so many of the movie stills and posters.

Karloff may be the definitive Frankenstein monster (he is, without doubt), but Glenn Strange just might be the most recognizable.

Welcome everybody to another edition of In The Shadows, the column where we honor character actors from the movies, especially horror movies.  Today we look at the career of Glenn Strange, the actor whose image as the Frankenstein Monster may be the most iconic.

The majority of Glenn Strange’s 314 screen credits were in westerns, in a career that began in 1930. He finished his career on the TV show GUNSMOKE, where he enjoyed a recurring role as Sam the bartender which lasted for the full run of the series.

In addition to his three stints as the Frankenstein Monster, Strange also appeared in several other genre films. Here’s a look at Strange’s horror/science fiction credits:

 

FLASH GORDON (1936) – Robot/Soldier/Gocko – the famous Buster Crabbe serial.

THE MAD MONSTER (1942) – Petro – Gets turned into a werewolf by mad scientist George Zucco in this Grade Z thriller.

THE MUMMY’S TOMB (1942) – Man Riding Buckboard (uncredited) – bit part in this classic Lon Chaney Jr. Mummy movie from Universal.

THE BLACK RAVEN (1943) – Andy – mystery and murder in an old dark house, again with George Zucco.

THE MONSTER MAKER (1944) – Giant/Steve – another mad scientist movie. This time it’s J. Carrol Naish as Dr. Igor Markoff busy turning people into monsters.  Why?  Because he can!

HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1944) – the Frankenstein Monster – Glenn Strange was a natural choice to play the Monster, as he stood at nearly 6’7”. HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN, the sixth film in the Universal Frankenstein series, is memorable because it’s the first film which included all three of the major Universal monsters, Lon Chaney Jr. as the Wolf Man, John Carradine as Dracula, and Glenn Strange as the Frankenstein Monster.  Also notable because Boris Karloff returned to the series after a two film hiatus, not as the Monster, but as the demented Doctor Gustav Neimann.  Decent Universal monster movie, and Strange isn’t bad as the Frankenstein Monster, although he really isn’t in the movie all that much and doesn’t get to do much of anything until the film’s final reel.  But he was good enough to return as the Monster in the next two Universal Frankenstein movies.

HOUSE OF DRACULA (1945) – the Frankenstein Monster – Strange’s second stint as the Frankenstein Monster, again teaming up with Lon Chaney Jr.’s Wolf Man and John Carradine’s Dracula. Once more, has little to do until the film’s final reel where he comes back to life just in time to be destroyed yet again.

ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN (1948) – the Frankenstein Monster- The third time Strange would play the Frankenstein Monster would be the best time. Ironically, his screen time as the Monster is greatly increased in this movie, and the character probably has the most to do since the early days of the series.  Once again teamed with Lon Chaney Jr. as the Wolf Man, but this time Bela Lugosi made his triumphant return as Dracula, reprising the role for the first time since the original 1931 classic!  All in all, in spite of it being a comedy, this is one of the better Universal Monster movies.  A classic in its own right.

MASTER MINDS (1949) – Atlas, the Monster – plays a monster in this Bowery Boys horror comedy featuring yet another mad scientist who turns people into monsters, this time played by Alan Napier, famous for playing Alfred on the Adam West BATMAN TV series.

SPACE PATROL (1950-1955) – Captain Jonas – guest spot in this early 1950s space television show.

THE COLGATE COMEDY HOUR (1954) – the Frankenstein Monster – appeared as the Frankenstein Monster in an episode featuring Bud Abbott and Lou Costello.

 

Glenn Strange passed away on September 20, 1973 succumbing to lung cancer at the age of 74.

Glenn Strange: August 16, 1899 – September 20, 1973.

Thanks for reading everybody!

—Michael

FURY (2014) – Brutal War Tale Does Its Job

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Fury-2014Movie Review:  FURY (2014)

By

Michael Arruda

 

If there’s one message in FURY (2014), the new World War II action movie starring Brad Pitt, it’s that war is a hell that just won’t quit.  Even in the waning days of the war, the fighting continues, oftentimes with more ferocity than ever before.

To this end, FURY succeeds.  It’s a brutal in-your-face slugfest between Allied soldiers and the Nazis.  We see heads blown off, eyes stabbed out, and even a severed face lying on a tank seat.  It’s not for the squeamish.

Where FURY lags, however, and what prevents it from being a superior movie, is a lack of character development and a limiting story. FURY plays out like a slice-of-life portrait of five World War II soldiers battling against the odds in the final days of the war, as the Allies penetrate further into Germany.  It’s not the most dangerous mission ever undertaken, nor is it the most heroic war tale ever told.  It’s simply five men doing their job.

It’s less about the mission and more about the men, which is fine, except that this kind of a story deserves deeper character development.  While we do get up close and personal with these guys, the film never jettisons its action scenes in favor of scenes where we get to know these characters, save for one, perhaps the best scene in the movie, where the soldiers share a dinner with two German women.

When FURY opens, Sergeant Don “Wardaddy” Collier (Brad Pitt) who commands the tank “Fury” has just lost one of his men, which leaves the rest of his crew, Boyd “Bible” Swan (Shia Lebouf), Trini “Gordo” Garcia (Michael Pena) and Grady “Coon- Ass” Travis (Jon Bernthal) angry and upset.  Collier receives new orders to take his small group of tanks and intercept a squadron of Nazis.  Even though the war is drawing to a close, the Nazis are not giving up, and the fighting is more vicious than ever.  As such, the Allies are enduring heavy casualties, and Collier and his small group of tanks are being asked to do a job which normally requires more firepower, which they just don’t have right now.

Collier’s crew is assigned a new soldier, the very young Norman Ellison (Logan Lerman) who’s only trained as a communications officer and is as green as a cucumber when it comes to combat.  After razzing him initially, Collier’s crew welcomes Norman into the fold, even as he admits he has no desire to kill anyone.

The tanks are ambushed, and all of them are destroyed except for “Fury,” which leaves Collier and his crew to take on the Nazis on their own.

FURY was written and directed by David Ayer, who earlier this year wrote and directed the Arnold Schwarzenegger actioner SABOTAGE (2014).  I enjoyed FURY much more than SABOTAGE.  Ayer also wrote and directed the police drama END OF WATCH (2012).  He wrote TRAINING DAY (2001), the film in which Denzel Washington won the Best Actor Oscar, and he wrote the original THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS (2001).

Ayer has been around, more as a writer than a director, and of the films he’s directed that I’ve seen, FURY might be his best yet.  It has a solid story, exciting action sequences, tense war action, and a competent cast.  The action is fast and furious, and the battle scenes do not disappoint.  Sure, more attention could have been paid to character development, and it could have used an additional plot point or two to lift it above the standard war movie, but as is it’s still a very satisfying movie.

Brad Pitt is solid as Sgt. Collier.  He’s the rock which holds his men together, and he’s the driving force that pushes them through the dark places.  In front of his men, he’s a bull, but alone, he breaks down, succumbing to the war horrors engulfing them.  I continue to enjoy Pitt’s string of recent performances, including roles in such films as INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS (2009), MONEYBALL (2011), and KILLING THEM SOFTLY (2011).  Pitt was probably better in all three of those films, but his performance here is a good one, and it’s a role I enjoyed more than his most recent work in WORLD WAR Z (2013) and THE COUNSELOR (2013).

Just as good as Pitt is Logan Leman as green soldier Norman Ellison.  It’s largely through Ellison’s eyes that we see the horrors of the war, and we watch as Ellison goes from a naïve boy to a hardened soldier.

Both Shia LeBouf as “Bible” Swan and Michael Pena as Garcia are very good, but it’s THE WALKING DEAD’s Jon Bernthal as the animal-like Travis who stands out among the tank crew.  Travis is such a violent visceral character, and Bernthal has a field day playing him.  As we saw when he played Shane on THE WALKING DEAD, Bernthal is a very talented actor who I hope continues to land bigger and bigger roles in the movies.

While the action scenes are topnotch, especially the tank battle in which the Allied tanks are outgunned by a single Nazi tank, the best scene in the movie isn’t an action scene.  It’s when Collier brings Norman into a German home in which they find two young women.  While the other men engage in wild sex with the local German women, Collier shows Norman a more civilized get-together, over a home-cooked meal.  Of course, civility only goes so far, as Collier bursts into the woman’s home with a rifle and orders them to make dinner.

When Norman retreats into the bedroom with the lovely young Emma (Alicia von Rittberg), they share an intimate conversation and have what appears to be consensual sex.  Afterwards, when Emma leaves the bedroom, she looks at her cousin and smiles at her.  I don’t think Emma would be smiling had she been raped.  The whole point of this scene is that Norman is not a brute and that he doesn’t force himself upon the girl.  Then again, he’s a soldier with a rifle, and so certainly the door is open for interpretation.

Of course, when Travis, Garcia, and Swan arrive, that’s a different story, and Travis does everything in his power to humiliate and degrade Emma, in spite of Norman’s and Collier’s protestations.  The range of emotions throughout this sequence goes far deeper than at any other point in the film.  It’s the best scene in the movie.

I wish there had been more scenes in the film like this.

But as it stands, FURY is a very good movie.  It’s a down and dirty World War II thriller which serves as a sad reminder that war is a brutal ugly business.  As Brad Pitt’s Wardaddy Collier says in one of the best lines from the film, “It (the war) will end soon, but before it does, a lot more people have to die.”

For the men inside Fury, it can’t end fast enough.

—END—

PICTURE OF THE DAY: LET ME IN (2010)

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What happens when Abby (Chloe Grace Moretz) enters her friend's home without being invited first, in LET ME IN (2010).

What happens when Abby (Chloe Grace Moretz) enters her best friend Owen’s home without being invited first, in LET ME IN (2010).

PICTURE OF THE DAY:  LET ME IN (2010)

 

Here’s a still from LET ME IN (2010), the exceptional vampire movie by director Matt Reeves.

LET ME IN is a remake of the Swedish horror movie LET THE RIGHT ONE IN (2008), and both these films are excellent.  I found LET ME IN just as good as LET THE RIGHT ONE IN.

LET ME IN tells the story of a young boy Owen (Kodi Smit-McPhee) bullied at school who develops a close friendship with a mysterious young girl Abby (Chloe Grace Moretz) who recently moved into the apartment next door.  It turns out, Abby is a vampire.

The best part of LET ME IN is that the true horror in this one is the way Owen is bullied at school, and the story is set up so that in spite of the horrible things we see Abby do as a vampire, we’re actually rooting for her to survive so she can help Owen with his bully problem.

There are also many wonderful tender moments in this one, and this photo is from one of my favorite scenes in the movie.  Abby tells Owen she can’t enter his apartment unless he invites her inside.  When Owen doesn’t do this, as he’s not sure he believes her, she enters anyway.  Once inside, she begins to bleed profusely.  Seeing this, Owen rushes to her immediately and hugs her, repeatedly telling her she’s invited.  It’s an emotional and touching moment in the film, in a movie that is full of moments like this one.

LET ME IN was the comeback film for England’s Hammer Films, and it’s directed by one of the best genre directors working today, Matt Reeves, who also directed CLOVERFIELD (2008) and DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES (2014).  It also has an excellent cast, including its two talented young leads, Chloe Grace Moretz and Kodi Smit-McPhee.

If you haven’t seen LET ME IN, you’re missing quite a treat.  Even though it’s about two twelve year olds, it’s a very adult movie, and it doesn’t skimp on the horror. It’s not a gory shock-filled extravaganza, but rather a beautifully shot deliberate and very suspenseful thriller that will hook you from its opening moments right up until the end.

It’s one of my favorite vampire movies of recent years, and I highly recommend it.

—Michael

THE HORROR JAR: The HALLOWEEN movies

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halloween_posterI wrote this HORROR JAR column on the HALLOWEEN movies for the Halloween issue of the Horror Writers Association Newsletter.  It’s up this month.

—Michael

 

THE HORROR JAR:  HALLOWEEN Series

By Michael Arruda

 

Welcome to THE HORROR JAR, the column that compiles lists of odds and ends about horror movies.  It runs regularly within the pages of my blog, THE BLOG OF MICHAEL ARRUDA, located at marruda3.wordpress.com.  For the first time ever, in celebration of this very special Halloween issue, THE HORROR JAR appears in the pages of the HWA NEWSLETTER.

Today we look at the HALLOWEEN movies, a series that began with John Carpenter’s groundbreaking low budget shocker back in 1978.

I still remember when HALLOWEEN first came out.  It really was something of a phenomenon.  I was at the movies with some friends, and this was 1978, so I was 14, and there was this huge line ahead of us which poured out of the building, when one of the ushers came outside to announce “HALLOWEEN is sold out! HALLOWEEN is sold out!”  People in line huffed and swore, and then to the delight of my friends and me who were not seeing HALLOWEEN, they left the line, enabling us to step right up and buy tickets for whatever movie we were seeing that night.

But I remember wondering, “What’s the story with this movie, HALLOWEEN?”  I had never seen so much buzz about a horror movie before.  I mean, there was JAWS a few years earlier, but I never considered that a true horror movie.  It was more a horrific adventure.  And then I started hearing all these things about HALLOWEEN, how scary it was, how good it was, and the next thing I knew I was seeing it myself, and yes, it was as scary as advertised.  What I don’t remember is how my friend and I got in to see it, because it was Rated R, and they used to check ids back then, and we were just 14.  I think we must have lucked out and had a high school student working the ticket line that night.

HALLOWEEN became a tremendous success and inspired a brand new subgenre of horror movie, the slasher flick.  It’s no accident that in spite of its low budget, it’s one of the best horror movies ever made.  John Carpenter held nothing back when he made this one, and nearly every scene he crafts in this movie is a good one. HALLOWEEN just might be Carpenter’s masterpiece.

In addition to his masterful direction, Carpenter also wrote the iconic music score, which adds so much to this movie it’s almost like an additional character.  In fact, the story goes that after an initial showing, a producer frowned upon the film and told Carpenter he needed to go back and edit it some more.  Carpenter made only one change:  he added his music score.  The same producer saw it again and loved it this time, thinking Carpenter had made major changes.

In HALLOWEEN, a group of babysitters are terrorized on Halloween night by masked killer Michael Myers who has escaped from an asylum after fifteen years of silent confinement.  He returns to his hometown where as a young boy he had murdered his own sister fifteen years earlier.  He’s pursued by his doctor, Dr. Loomis (Donald Pleasence) who hopes to prevent Michael from causing another bloodbath.  Easier said than done, because Michael Myers refuses to die.

HALLOWEEN inspired a bunch of sequels, none of which come close to matching the quality of the first film.  In fact, you could make the argument that there’s only been one very good HALLOWEEN movie, the first one.

Here they are, including the recent remakes by Rob Zombie, the movies in the HALLOWEEN franchise:

HALLOWEEN (1978)

Directed by John Carpenter

Screenplay by John Carpenter and Debra Hill

Music by John Carpenter

Dr. Sam Loomis:  Donald Pleasence

Laurie Strode:  Jamie Lee Curtis

Annie:  Nancy Loomis

Lynda:  P.J. Soles

Sheriff Brackett:  Charles Cyphers

Michael Myers:  Tony Moran

Running Time:  91 minutes

John Carpenter’s masterful direction makes this one a true horror classic.  So many neat touches.  My favorite is Michael Myers’ white mask emerging from the darkness behind Jamie Lee Curtis, who is impressive in her film debut as babysitter Laurie Strode.  Donald Pleasence acquits himself rather well as Dr. Loomis, the man in hot pursuit of the demonic Michael Myers, in a role originally offered to Peter Cushing and then later to Christopher Lee.  Both actors turned it down, a decision Lee has called one of his biggest regrets.  The Michael Myers’ mask is a re-vamped William Shatner STAR TREK mask, chosen by the props department because of their ultra-low budget.  John Carpenter also composed the memorable music score.

 

HALLOWEEN II (1981)

Directed by Rick Rosenthal

Screenplay by John Carpenter and Debra Hill

Music by John Carpenter and Alan Howarth

Dr. Sam Loomis:  Donald Pleasence

Laurie Strode:  Jamie Lee Curtis

The Shape:  Dick Warlock

Running Time:  92 minutes

Dreadful sequel to HALLOWEEN takes up right where the original left off, as Michael Myers continues his pursuit of Laurie Strode, while the tireless Dr. Loomis tries to stop him.  Without John Carpenter in the director’s chair, this one plays like a cheap imitation.

 

HALLOWEEN III:  THE SEASON OF THE WITCH (1983)

Directed by Tommy Lee Wallace

Screenplay by Tommy Lee Wallace

Music by John Carpenter and Alan Howarth

Dan Challis:  Tom Atkins

Cochran:  Dan O’Herlihy

Running Time:  98 minutes

This one has nothing to do with the Michael Myers storyline.  Instead, we have a mad toymaker who plots to kill children across the country on Halloween night by using demonic Halloween masks.  John Carpenter planned to make a different HALLOWEEN horror movie each year, each one with an entirely different story centered on Halloween, but this movie flopped at the box office, mostly because audiences were looking for Michael Myers, and the idea was abandoned. HALLOWEEN III is actually not that bad, as long as you go in expecting the worst!

 

HALLOWEEN 4:  THE RETURN OF MICHAEL MYERS (1988)

Directed by Dwight H. Little

Screenplay by Alan B. McElroy

Music by Alan Howarth

Dr. Sam Loomis:  Donald Pleasence

Rachel Carruthers:  Ellie Cornell

Jamie Lloyd:  Danielle Harris

Michael Myers:  George P. Wilbur

Running Time:  88 minutes

The title says it all, as Michael Myers is back, and he’s madder than ever!  In spite of the silly storyline, this has always been one of my favorite films in the HALLOWEEN series.  The plot takes place ten years after the events of the original film, as Michael Myers awakes from a coma and escapes from yet another institution when he learns that he has a niece living in Haddonfield, so naturally he wants to kill her.  I’ve never liked the direction the series took, that Myers simply wanted to kill his relatives.  He was much scarier in the original film where he was an unpredictable killing machine.  Why the obsession with his own family?  I always thought he simply hated women.

But this one is a lively film in the series, as director Dwight H. Little includes some impressive action scenes and suspense sequences, and the script by Alan B. McElroy remembers to have fun, like the scene where the armed vigilantes all jump into their pick-up trucks in an attempt to lynch Michael Myers.  Good luck with that!

It also helps that Donald Pleasence is back, reprising his role as the ever dedicated and relentless Dr. Sam Loomis, who will stop at nothing to hunt down and destroy Michael Myers.  Pleasence seems to have really grown into the role here, as this is probably his best performance in the series.  Young Danielle Harris in her film debut is also very good as little Jamie Lloyd, Myer’s niece who becomes his intended victim throughout the movie.   Interestingly enough, Harris would return to the series as an adult, as she would star in both of the Rob Zombie HALLOWEEN remakes as Annie Brackett.

HALLOWEEN 4 also has the best final scene in the series other than the original film.  It really works and stays with you long after the movie has ended.

It’s also the first film in the series not to involve John Carpenter at any level, since he was dissatisfied with the script and distanced himself from the project.

 

HALLOWEEN 5:  THE REVENGE OF MICHAEL MYERS (1989)

Directed by Dominique Othenin-Girard

Screenplay by Michael Jacobs, Dominique Othenin-Girard, and Shem Bitterman

Music by Alan Howarth

Dr. Sam Loomis:  Donald Pleasence

Jamie Lloyd:  Danielle Harris

Michael Myers:  Don Shanks

Running Time:  96 minutes

Direct sequel to HALLOWEEN 4, but this one is nowhere near as good.  It’s a much darker film than HALLOWEEN 4, but I’ve never warmed up to it.  Gone is any sense of fun the previous film had.  This one introduced the mysterious character of “The Man in Black” who’s certainly interesting, but it’s clear watching this movie that the writers had no idea who he really was, and they make the audience wait until the next film in the series to find out.

 

HALLOWEEN:  THE CURSE OF MICHAEL MYERS (1995)

Directed by Joe Chappelle

Screenplay by Daniel Farrands

Music by Alan Howarth and Paul Rabjohns

Dr. Sam Loomis:  Donald Pleasence

Tommy Doyle:  Paul Rudd

Dr. Terence Wynn:  Mitchell Ryan

Michael Myers:  George P. Wilbur

Running Time:  88 minutes

There’s very little right with this sixth film in the series, yet somehow I like it better than HALLOWEEN 5.  Director Joe Chappelle gives this one some style, and screenwriter Daniel Farrands has some neat ideas, but the true culprit here are a host of rewrites/re-edits that dramatically changed the plot in this one, and not for the better.  The identity of “The Man In Black” and his cult’s relationship with Michael Myers is laughable.  This movie also marks the final appearance of Donald Pleasence as Dr. Loomis in the series, as Pleasence died during filming.

 

HALLOWEEN H20:  20 YEARS LATER (1998)

Directed by Steve Miner

Screenplay by Robert Zappia and Matt Greenberg

Music by John Ottman and Jeremy Sweet

Laurie Strode: Jamie Lee Curtis

Will Brennan:  Adam Arkin

Molly Cartwell:  Michelle Williams

Norma Watson: Janet Leigh

John Tate:  Josh Hartnett

Ronny Jones:  LL Cool J

Jimmy Howell:  Joseph Gordon-Levitt

Michael Myers:  Chris Durand

Running Time:  86 minutes

Probably my favorite of the HALLOWEEN sequels, as it marked the return of Jamie Lee Curtis to the series.  Slick, polished, well-written production, this one has one of the better casts in the entire series, but it does tend to be a bit talky and struggles in the scares department.

 

HALLOWEEN:  RESURRECTION (2002)

Directed by Rick Rosenthal

Screenplay by Larry Brand and Sean Hood

Music by Danny Lux

Laurie Strode:  Jamie Lee Curtis

Michael Myers:  Brad Loree

Freddie Harris:  Busta Rhymes

Running Time:  94 minutes

Bottom of the barrel entry in the HALLOWEEN franchise.  By far, the worst film in the original series.  I thought this was as bad as things could get.  I was wrong.

 

HALLOWEEN (2007)

Directed by Rob Zombie

Screenplay by Rob Zombie

Music by Tyler Bates

Dr. Samuel Loomis:  Malcolm McDowell

Sheriff Lee Brackett:  Brad Dourif

Michael Myers:   Tyler Mane

Michael Myers, age 10:  Daeg Faerch

Running Time:  109 minutes

Dreadful re-imagining of the original HALLOWEEN by writer/director Rob Zombie.  Best part is the Michael Myers background story, and the performance by young Daeg Faerch as the ten year-old Michael.  The film explains how Michael Myers came to be better than any of the films before it.  However, the rest of the movie is horrible.  Malcolm McDowell, usually one of my favorite actors, is stoic and forgettable as Dr. Loomis.  In spite of a fun cast, this one is no fun at all.  It makes for a very long 109 minutes.  This movie has its fans, but I’m not one of them.

 

HALLOWEEN II (2009)

Directed by Rob Zombie

Screenplay by Rob Zombie

Music by Tyler Bates

Dr. Samuel Loomis:  Malcolm McDowell

Sheriff Lee Brackett:  Brad Dourif

Michael Myers:   Tyler Mane

Laurie Strode:  Scout Taylor-Compton

Running Time:  105 minutes

This sequel to Rob Zombie’s reimagining of HALLOWEEN is even worse than the first film, if such a thing is a possible.  Violence is way over the top and nonsensical.  Zombie seems to have forgotten his sense of storytelling in these two movies.

Well, there you have it:  the HALLOWEEN movies.

It’s really a shame that the HALLOWEEN series has come to a close on such a low note.  These latter movies are a far cry from John Carpenter’s original iconic classic from 1978.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this list, and I look forward to seeing you next time on another HORROR JAR, which you can read each month at THE BLOG OF MICHAEL ARRUDA at marruda3.wordpress.com, along with many other goodies and tidbits, both horror and otherwise.

Thanks for reading!

—Michael

THE QUOTABLE CUSHING: THE REVENGE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1958)

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"I wonder if I can trust you?" Dr. Stein (Peter Cushing) asks young doctor Hans Kleve (Francis Matthews) in this atmospheric scene from THE REVENGE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1958) .

“I wonder if I can trust you?” Dr. Stein (Peter Cushing) asks young doctor Hans Kleve (Francis Matthews) in this atmospheric scene from THE REVENGE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1958) .

THE QUOTABLE CUSHING:  THE REVENGE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1958)

By

Michael Arruda

Welcome to the latest edition of THE QUOTABLE CUSHING, that column where we celebrate classic lines of dialogue from Peter Cushing movies.  Why?  Because I’ve been a fan of Peter Cushing my whole life, and it’s his performances in the movies which inspired me to become a horror writer.

Today we look at dialogue from the second Hammer Frankenstein movie, THE REVENGE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1958), a direct sequel to their mega-hit THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1957).  It’s Peter Cushing’s second time playing Baron Frankenstein in the movies, and he would go on to play the Baron four more times.

THE REVENGE OF FRANKENSTEIN usually gets a bad rap among fans, and some even consider it the weakest of the series, but I’ve always liked this one.  The biggest problem it has— especially following the shock-filled THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN— is that it’s simply not all that scary.  But it does tell a memorable story, one of the more intelligent and thought-provoking of the entire series.

Peter Cushing is once again superb as Baron Frankenstein in his second stint playing the role.  This time he’s using an alias, Dr. Stein, and he makes the doctor a more likable character this time around, downplaying Frankenstein’s villainous side.

THE REVENGE OF FRANKENSTEIN might be the most subtle film of the entire series, as there are lots of neat little nuances that lift this sequel to classic status.  Here’s a look at some memorable Peter Cushing quotes from THE REVENGE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1958), screenplay by Jimmy Sangster with additional dialogue by Hurford Janes.

Some of the best dialogue in the movie is the conversations between Dr. Stein (Peter Cushing) and his new young assistant, Dr. Hans Kleve (Francis Matthews).  In this scene, the first time these two characters meet, Hans has snuck into Dr. Stein’s home and interrupted his dinner, with the bold assertion that he knows Stein’s true identity:  Baron Frankenstein.  This scene contains a neat bit where Peter Cushing uses a cloth to wipe a carving knife while speaking to Hans, and the young doctor can’t take his eyes off the sharp instrument while Dr. Stein questions his loyalty.

Let’s listen:

HANS:  I’m the first, I suppose, to recognize you.

STEIN: For what I am, or for what you would have me be?

HANS:  No, the resemblance is too striking.  That, and your present activities lead to only one conclusion.

STEIN: So, and what if I am this Baron Frankenstein?

HANS:  Are you?

STEIN: Just now you were telling me, now you’re asking. Dr. Kleve, why are you so interested in this gentleman?

HANS:  I’m in search of knowledge.

STEIN: Oh, knowledge! Oh, so that’s it!  My name is Frankenstein, I’ll admit.

HANS:  Ah!

STEIN: But it’s a large family, you know. Remarkable since the Middle Ages for its productivity.  There are offshoots everywhere, even in America, I’m told.  There’s a town called Frankenstein in Germany.

HANS:  Are you the Baron Frankenstein?

STEIN: Then there are the Frankensteins emanating from the town of that name in Silesia.

HANS:  Are you Baron Frankenstein?

STEIN: Yes, Dr. Kleve.

HANS:  I was sure of it.  I told you that I’m in search of knowledge.  I want to learn more than any university can ever teach me.  I want to be the pupil of the greatest doctor, the finest medical brain in the world, your pupil, Baron Frankenstein.

STEIN: Highly commendable. And if I refuse?

HANS:  You won’t.

STEIN: So, either I employ you in my researches, or— surely this is blackmail? An ugly trait in a doctor.

HANS:  I see it is an agreement of shall we say mutual reciprocation?  Your knowledge in return for my assistance.

STEIN: And your silence? (gets up from his seat)  I’m not an easy man to work for.

HANS:  Few men are.

STEIN: And when you’ve learned all you want to know, you might change your mind about keeping silent. I wonder if I can trust you.  (Picks up a carving knife)  But then uncertainty is part of life’s fascination, isn’t it?  (Wipes knife with a cloth, while Hans watches cautiously.)

HANS:  I’ll take the risk if you will.

This is a very neat scene.  It’s all very subtle, but it works.

 

Later, Stein and Hans are in the laboratory, when the discussion turns to the past.

STEIN: You know that I—that Frankenstein, was condemned to death.

HANS:  Yes.

STEIN: Do you know what for?

HANS:  Well, surely everyone knows.  The story’s become a legend.  He created a man who became a monster.

STEIN: It should have been perfect. I made it to be perfect.  If the brain hadn’t been damaged, my work would have been hailed as the greatest scientific achievement of all time.  Frankenstein would have been accepted as a genius of science.  Instead, he was sent to the guillotine.  I swore I would have my revenge.  They will never be rid of me.  This is something I am proud of.

(Removes tarp and reveals to Hans a body frozen in a tank.)

HANS:  Who is he?

STEIN: Nobody. He isn’t born yet.  But this time he is perfect.  Except for a few scars, he’s perfect.

 

There’s also a decent amount of amusing comic relief in this movie, like in this scene early on, when the Countess brings her daughter Vera to be examined by Dr. Stein, and it’s obvious the girl isn’t sick but that the Countess is only interested in Dr. Stein as a possible future husband for her daughter.

STEIN: I’m afraid there’s very little more I can do for your daughter. Doctors are not magicians.  We cannot diagnose maladies which are not there.

COUNTESS:  You are a man, doctor.  You could do a great deal for her.  Everything I have goes to Vera, when she marries.  It was her father’s last wish.  (Dr. Stein reacts with a knowing expression as he realizes where the Countess is going with this conversation)  Now I’m having a musical evening soon.  I so much hope you’ll be able to come.

STEIN: As much as I like music, I have very little free time.

COUNTESS:  Ah, poor man.  A life devoted to the needs of others.  No time for a life of your own.

STEIN: There’s always time for the important things.

 

Then there’s this bit in the hospital room, where Dr. Stein treats the poor but also uses their body parts for his experiments.  In this scene, he has his eye on the arm of a pick-pocket.

STEIN: You must have it off.

PATIENT #1:  Have what off?

STEIN: This arm.

PATIENT #2:  You’ll have to strangle him with one arm, Harry!

PATIENT #1:  You ain’t going to have my arm off, that’s for sure.

STEIN: If you’d rather die, it’s up to you.

PATIENT #2:  Let him have it, Harry.

PATIENT #1:  The arm don’t pain me none.

STEIN: It’s of no use to you.

PATIENT #1:  What do you mean no use—?

STEIN: Be quiet. (To his assistant):  Five o’clock in the theater.

PATIENT #1:  Doctor, I won’t be able to work no more.

STEIN (to his assistant): What is his work?

ASSISTANT:  Pick-pocket.

STEIN: You’ll have to find another trade or use the other hand.

 

A few moments later, the members of the medical council, including young Hans Kleve, who sees Dr. Stein for the first time, approach the doctor in the poor hospital with a special invitation.

Peter Cushing loved to work with props in his scenes. If you see enough of his movies, you’ll notice that he seems to be most comfortable acting when he’s doing more than one thing, whether it’s fiddling with a pipe, a diary, a pocket watch, or even a carving knife.  He’s incredibly active in his scenes.  In this entire sequence, he converses with the medical council while busily examining a patient.  He barely looks at the council members.

STEIN: Well, what can I do for you?

PRESIDENT:  Well, I am the president of the medical council.

STEIN: Congratulations.

PRESIDENT:  At our last meeting, it was agreed that you should become a member.

STEIN: Really? (To his assistant)  Have this new man washed, and then I’ll look at him.  I am greatly honored, gentlemen.

PRESIDENT:  Then you accept?

STEIN: No.

MALKE: Every doctor on the faculty regards your attitude as an insult!

STEIN: When I arrived in Carlsbruck, without means or influence, and attempted to set up in practice, I was met by a firm resistance from the medical council, which apparently exists purely to eliminate competition. I have built up a highly successful practice alone and unaided.  Having grown accustomed to working alone, I find I prefer it.  Do I make myself clear, gentlemen?

HANS:  Quite clear.

STEIN: Thank you. Good day.

 

THE REVENGE OF FRANKENSTEIN isn’t completely devoid of thrills.  When Karl (Michael Gwynne) escapes and suffers from yet another damaged brain, he becomes a murderer with cannibalistic tendencies, and he kills a young girl in the park.  When the police find the body, they ask for Dr. Stein’s assistance, in this atmospheric scene.

STEIN (to boy): Did you see who attacked her?

(Boy is too emotionally upset to answer.)

POLICE CONSTABLE:  All he could tell me was when he heard the girl scream, he shouted, and then the man rushed off. If it was a man.

STEIN: What do you mean?

CONSTABLE:  Well, sir, the boy said he had a strange shape, almost like an animal, but of course he only caught a glimpse of him.  I think this is more than just an ordinary murder.

STEIN: Have you searched the park?

CONSTABLE:  Thoroughly, sir.

STEIN: Well, there’s nothing I can do here. I’ll let you have my report.

CONTSTABLE:  Thank you, sir.

I’d like to read that report.  “Girl murdered by brain damaged patient. Not responsible for his actions.  His brain needed more time to heal.”

 

And there you have it, some fun Peter Cushing quotes from THE REVENGE OF FRANKENSTEIN.

Hope you enjoyed them, and we’ll see you again next time on a future edition of THE QUOTABLE CUSHING.

Thanks for reading!

—Michael

GONE GIRL (2014) – Exceptional Adult Thriller

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Gone-Girl-2014-film-posterMovie Review: GONE GIRL (2014)

By Michael Arruda

I had originally planned to review GONE GIRL solo for Cinema Knife Fight and post the review here on this blog as well, but then L.L. Soares decided he’d like to see the movie too, since he’s a big fan of director David Fincher, and so we reviewed the movie as a Cinema Knife Fight column, which will be posted this weekend.

However, I had penciled in today’s date as the time I would post the GONE GIRL review on this blog.  To honor that schedule, and to avoid spoiling our Cinema Knife Fight column, I’ve decided to post an abbreviated review of GONE GIRL.

Be sure to check out the more extensive review after midnight on Sunday October 12 at cinemaknifight.com.

GONE GIRL is director David Fincher’s latest movie, the story of a man whose wife disappears under suspicious circumstances, and as a result, he becomes the prime suspect in the crime.

The movie opens with Nick Dunne (Ben Affleck) visiting his twin sister Margo (Carrie Coon) at The Bar, a bar which the two of them own, and over a drink they commiserate over Nick’s wife Amy (Rosamund Pike), so right off the bat we get the sense that all is not well with Nick and his wife.

When Nick returns home, he finds that his wife is not there, and there’s a glass table that has been knocked over and shattered, and it’s just weird enough to raise a red flag. Nick calls the police, and responding to the call are Detective Rhonda Boney (Kim Dickens) and Officer Jim Gilpin (Patrick Fugit).  When they discover traces of blood at the scene, Boney calls in her crime unit, and when word gets out that Amy has disappeared under suspicious circumstances, and Nick seems to be overly relaxed in front of the media, the accusations begin to fly.

The question on everyone’s mind is: where is Amy Dunne, and did Nick kill her or didn’t he?  And that’s as far as I want to go in discussing the plot, because the less said about the plot of GONE GIRL the better.

Ben Affleck is very good here as Nick Dunne in an understated performance. Affleck portrays Nick as man who doesn’t always react in the way others think he should, and it’s difficult to gauge whether he’s being manipulative or simply boneheaded.  As a result, he’s always on the defensive, and the media eats him alive.

The best performance in the movie belongs to Rosamund Pike as Amy Dunne. I’ve seen Pike in other movies, but this might be my favorite role of hers so far.  Pike makes Amy an even more complicated and intricate character than her husband.  They are one of the more intriguing movie couples I’ve seen in a while.

Nearly as good as Affleck and Dunne is Carrie Coon as Nick’s twin sister Margo. Margo is the one who seems to have a level head on her shoulders, and she is constantly trying to help her brother, but it’s a frustrating and losing battle as she’s out of her league when dealing with the likes of Amy and her brother.  Coon is terrific in the role.

Kim Dickens makes Detective Rhonda Boney a refreshingly smart character not bound by the clichés of the police detectives in the movies. She actually shows a lot of restraint when the media has already tried and convicted Nick, but she refuses to arrest him until she finds more evidence.

One of the best things about GONE GIRL is that three of the best characters in the movie, in terms of acting and writing, are women.  This doesn’t happen in the movies very often.

Tyler Perry makes his mark as hotshot defense attorney Tanner Bolt, and like Detective Boney, Attorney Bolt is not your typical cliché movie lawyer. He finds the whole story of Nick and Amy fascinating and seems entertained by the whole ordeal, and while he continually gives Nick solid and truthful counsel, you get the feeling he’d rather be booking his client on an episode of Dr. Phil.

Neil Patrick Harris plays Desi Collings, a man from Amy’s past, who she once accused of stalking her. He plays a key role in the story, and Harris does a nice job making him weird and sad at the same time.

GONE GIRL is an exceptionally well-made movie by director David Fincher.  He’s made a lot of movies, and GONE GIRL ranks near the top.

Fincher also serves as Executive Producer to the hit TV show HOUSE OF CARDS on Netflix, and I saw some similarities between the powerful political couple on HOUSE OF CARDS played by Kevin Spacey and Robin Wright, and Nick and Amy in this movie.  They’re obviously quite different characters in terms of personalities and social status, but they both share an almost pathological obsession with their mates which transcend the usual boundaries for husbands and wives in television and the movies.  Nick and Amy are like Francis and Claire Underwood without the political ambitions and with more time on their hands.

GONE GIRL is a very dark movie that will make you feel like you need a shower to wash off the grime once you leave the theater.  There is one very shocking brutal scene that is more disturbing than the majority of “shock” scenes usually found in the traditional Hollywood horror movie.

The film boasts an excellent screenplay by Gillian Flynn, based on her novel of the same name. The characters are fleshed out, and even better, the plot is refreshingly original and keeps you guessing all the way to the end.

 GONE GIRL is an intensely satisfying movie that works on nearly every level, and if you prefer dark movies, you’ll especially love this one.

—Remember to check out the full Cinema Knife Fight review at cinemanknifefight.com this weekend!—

—END—-

IN THE SPOOKLIGHT: NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (1968)

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Night_of_the_Living_Dead posterHere’s my latest IN THE SPOOKLIGHT column, on the George Romero classic NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (1968), published in the October 2014 edition of The Horror Writers Association Newsletter.

 

IN THE SPOOKLIGHT

BY

MICHAEL ARRUDA

Today we have THE WALKING DEAD.  But years ago, the zombie phenomenon which swept the nation was NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (1968).

George Romero’s cult classic from 1968 is more than just a superior horror film:  it’s a landmark film that inspired a genre.  It’s the film that put zombie movies on the map, or at least the modern zombie movie.  Before NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, zombie movies, while still a genre, with classic films like WHITE ZOMBIE (1932) starring Bela Lugosi, and Val Lewton’s I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE (1943) were hardly a major player in the horror movie canon. NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD changed all that.

In truth, THE WALKING DEAD, the mega hit TV show on AMC, can thank NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD for re-defining the parameters of the genre. NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD is the movie that first showed the walking dead eating the bodies of the living in graphic grotesque detail, and it’s one of the first films to deal with the zombie apocalypse.

Best-selling author Craig Shaw Gardner tells a neat story about first seeing NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD in the 1960s at the movies at the tail end of a triple feature, following THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1957) and HORROR OF DRACULA (1958).  Now that’s a triple feature I wish I had gone to see!  Gardner recounts that when NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD started, he and his buddies almost left the theater because the film was in black and white, and they thought it was going to be a cheapie B-movie, but they stayed, and they were rewarded by one of the scariest movies they had ever seen.

In large part, NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD works so well because it is so unlike the other horror films of the decade.  For ten years England’s Hammer Films dominated the horror market with their opulent period piece thrillers and Frankenstein and Dracula sequels starring Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee.  At the same time Vincent Price was matching them fright for fright with his appearances in the 1960s Roger Corman Edgar Allan Poe movies.

But in 1968, NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, along with Roman Polanski’s ROSEMARY’S BABY, bucked the trend and started something new. Gone were the formulaic horror movies of yesterday.  In their place, at least in the case of NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, was a low budget newsreel quality flick that was as unpredictable and jarring as it was graphic and violent.

Like John Carpenter’s HALLOWEEN (1978) would do ten years later, NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD burst unannounced onto the horror scene and single-handedly carved out a brand new genre of horror movie.  In the case of HALLOWEEN, it was the slasher flick, and with NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, it was the zombie movie.

But unlike HALLOWEEN and other trend-setting horror movies, films like THE EXORCIST (1973), JAWS (1975) and THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT (1999), success for NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD didn’t happen overnight.  In fact, NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD was not a box office smash but instead became a cult hit as it was a drive-in movie favorite and a midnight movie mainstay for years and years.  Romero himself didn’t make a sequel until ten years later, with DAWN OF THE DEAD (1978).

The low budget style works to the film’s advantage, as there is a realistic feel throughout.  It makes you believe that the zombie apocalypse might truly be happening.  Of course, the main reason NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD succeeds in spite of its low budget is the stylish direction by George Romero. It has no-name actors, and it’s shot nearly all in one place, at a farmhouse, but there’s nothing cheap about the way this one is crafted.  In fact, the opposite is true.  Romero’s direction is almost art-house level.

NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD tells a simple story.  A young woman name Barbra (Judith O’Dea) and her brother are attacked by a zombie in a graveyard.  Her brother is killed, and while she’s still in shock, she escapes to a farmhouse where she meets another man Ben (Duane Jones) who is also fleeing from the reanimated dead.  There are also more people hiding out in this house, and the rest of the film chronicles their efforts to ward off the attacking zombies while trying to learn why all of this is happening.

NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD is as dark a horror movie as you’re going to find, and it still works today.  It’s brutal storyline and shock effects still hold up rather well, even for modern audiences.

Romero does a tremendous job at the helm, keeping this film suspenseful throughout, as it builds up to its horrific graphic conclusion.  The screenplay by Romero and John A. Russo tells a flat out in-your-face terror tale, but it also does something more, as it also serves as a reflection of the turbulent times of the 1960s.

It was released in 1968, one of the more violent years in American history, with the assassinations of both Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr.  There was also the Vietnam War, and racial tensions were heating up.  With the main character Ben being a black male, pretty much unheard of in 1968, especially in horror movies (Sidney Poitier wasn’t doing the horror film thing) the film really delves into race relations, especially in light of how this movie ends.

Interestingly enough, the character was originally written to be quite different.  Ben was going to be a rough and crude truck driver, but when the studious looking Duane Jones auditioned for the part, the role was re-written for him.  Seriously, I can’t imagine the ending packing the same wallop with a white truck driver Ben.  The film’s ending blows you out of the water because Ben is black.  It lifts all that has come before it to another level entirely, and makes NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD something far more than just a straightforward horror movie.  Very few horror movies can make this claim.

Also of note, the word “zombie” is never used in the film.  The zombies are referred to as either “those things” or ghouls.  TV’s THE WALKING DEAD has also borrowed from the same playbook, as they don’t use the word zombie in their show either.

This Halloween season, while you’re enjoying the latest episodes of THE WALKING DEAD, remember the film that inspired it, the one that created the movie zombie as we know it today: NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD.

They’re coming to get you, Barbra!

—END—

MEMORABLE MOVIE QUOTES: YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN (1974)

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Some of the funniest conversations in YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN (1974) occur between Dr. Frankenstein (Gene Wilder) and Igor (Marty Feldman).

Some of the funniest conversations in YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN (1974) occur between Dr. Frankenstein (Gene Wilder) and Igor (Marty Feldman).

MEMORABLE MOVIE QUOTES: YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN   (1974)

By

Michael Arruda

It’s one of the funniest movies of all time, and it’s the subject of today’s MEMORABLE MOVIE QUOTES column, the column where we look at fun quotes from some memorable movies.  The film is YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN, Mel Brooks’ hilarious spoof of the old Universal Frankenstein movies.  It’s absolutely hilarious and works on every level. Nearly every joke works.

Seriously, there are so many memorable lines from YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN, there’s not enough space in one column to cover them all.  We will definitely have to re-visit YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN in future MEMORABLE MOVIE QUOTES columns.

Some of the best lines are between Dr. Frankenstein (Gene Wilder) and Igor (Marty Feldman), and so in this column we’ll focus on the conversations between these two characters.

Here’s a look at some memorable lines from YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN, screenplay by Mel Brooks and Gene Wilder:

 

When Dr. Frankenstein and Igor first meet, they have this discussion regarding their names:

IGOR: Dr. Frankenstein…

DR. FRANKENSTEIN:  Fronkensteen.

IGOR:  You’re putting me on.

DR. FRANKENSTEIN:  No, it’s pronounced “Fronkensteen.”

IGOR:  Do you also say “Froaderick”?

DR. FRANKENSTEIN: No… “Frederick.”

IGOR:  Well, why isn’t it “Froaderick Fronkensteen”?

DR. FRANKENSTEIN: It isn’t. It’s “Frederick Fronkensteen.”

IGOR:  I see.

DR. FRANKENSTEIN: You must be Ee-gor.

IGOR;  No, it’s pronounced “eye-gor.”

DR. FRANKENSTEIN:  But they told me it was “ee-gor.”

IGOR:  Well, they were wrong then, weren’t they?

 

And later, this funny bit in a horse and wagon with Dr. Frankenstein, Igor, and Victor’s female assistant Inga (Teri Garr) on their way to the castle:

 

(A wolf howls)

INGA:  Werewolf!

DR. FRANKENSTEIN: Werewolf?

IGOR:  There.

DR. FRANKENSTEIN: What?

IGOR:  There, wolf. There, castle.

DR. FRANKENSTEIN: Why are you talking that way?

IGOR: I thought you wanted to.

DR. FRANKENSTEIN: No, I don’t want to.

IGOR:  [shrugs] Suit yourself. I’m easy.

 

One of my favorite Igor moments in the film is when he gives this advice to Frederick Frankenstein, who’s sad that his initial experiment to create life has failed.

IGOR: You know, I’ll never forget my old dad. When these things would happen to him… the things he’d say to me.

FRANKENSTEIN: What did he say?

IGOR:  “What the hell are you doing in the bathroom day and night? Why don’t you get out of there and give someone else a chance?”

Igor then returns to eating silently.

 

A bit later at the dinner table:

IGOR: (referring to the dessert): What is this?

FRANKENSTEIN: Schwartzwalder Kirschtorte.

THE MONSTER (off-camera): Mmmmm!

FRANKENSTEIN:  Oh, do you like it? I’m not partial to desserts myself, but this is excellent.

IGOR:  Who are you talking to?

FRANKENSTEIN: To you. You just made a yummy sound, so I thought you liked the dessert.

IGOR:  I didn’t make a yummy sound. I just asked you what it is.

FRANKENSTEIN:  But you did. I just heard it.

IGOR:  It wasn’t me.

INGA:  It wasn’t me.

FRANKENSTEIN:  Well, now look here. If it wasn’t you, and it wasn’t you…

THE MONSTER (off-camera):  Mmmmmm!

 

Here is one of the most famous exchanges in the film, the classic bit where Dr. Frankenstein finds out just what kind of brain Igor has collected for him:

FRANKENSTEIN:  Now that brain that you gave me. Was it Hans Delbruck’s?

IGOR (pauses): No.

FRANKENSTEIN: Ah! Very good. Would you mind telling me whose brain I did put in?

IGOR:  Then you won’t be angry?

FRANKENSTEIN: I will not be angry.

IGOR:  Abby someone.

FRANKENSTEIN: Abby someone. Abby who?

IGOR:  Abby… Normal.

FRANKENSTEIN: Abby Normal?

IGOR:  I’m almost sure that was the name.

FRANKENSTEIN (chuckles): Are you saying that I put an abnormal brain into a seven and a half foot long, fifty-four inch wide gorilla?

(Grabs Igor and starts shaking and strangling him.).  Is that what you’re telling me?

 

And to finish, one of my favorite silly bits in the whole movie:

IGOR:  Where are you going?

FRANKENSTEIN:  To wash up. I’ve got to look normal.  (As he says this, his bow tie pops open, making him look ridiculous.) We’ve all of us got to behave normally.

 

And that’s it for now. We’ll re-visit YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN in a future column.

Thanks for joining me today, and I’ll see you next time on another edition of MEMORABLE MOVIE QUOTES.

Thanks for reading!

—Michael

 

 

PICTURE OF THE DAY: THE NIGHT STALKER (1972)

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The superhuman vampire Janos Skorzeny (Barry Atwater) attacks reporter Carl Kolchak (Darren McGavin) in THE NIGHT STALKER (1972)

The superhuman vampire Janos Skorzeny (Barry Atwater) attacks reporter Carl Kolchak (Darren McGavin) in THE NIGHT STALKER (1972)

PICTURE OF THE DAY:  THE NIGHT STALKER (1972)

Here’s a still from one of the all-time best vampire movies, THE NIGHT STALKER (1972), starring Darren McGavin as reporter Carl Kolchak, and Barry Atwater as Janos Skorzeny, the superhuman vampire terrorizing the streets of 1970s Las Vegas.  Both actors are pictured here, in a scene from the film’s exciting conclusion.

I’ve written about this before, but it bears repeating:  it’s easy to forget based on the quality of this movie that it was originally a made-for-TV movie.  It was actually released to theaters after it had premiered on television.  That’s how popular it was!

It has an ultra-tight script by Richard Matheson, spot on direction by John Llewellyn Moxey, and a topnotch cast led by Darren McGavin in the role which would become his signature role.  McGavin would reprise the role in the sequel, THE NIGHT STRANGLER (1973) and again in the weekly television series THE NIGHT STALKER (1974).  Also in the cast is Simon Oakland as Kolchak’s tormented editor Vincenzo, and Carol Lynley as Kolchak’s girlfriend Gail Foster.

THE NIGHT STALKER is quite the scary little film (it clocks in at a swift 74 minutes) and it remains frightening throughout, saving some of its most chilling sequences for its ending, part of which is pictured here.

Kolchak has received a lead on where the vampire lives, and while searching the house he discovers one of the missing women tied to a bed with an intravenous needle pumped into her arm, as Skorzeny (dig that name!  One of the all-time best movie vampire names:  Janos Skorzeny!) is keeping her prisoner to serve as his own private blood bank.

Kolchak attempts to release the woman, but Skorzeny returns, trapping Kolchak inside.  In today’s Picture of the Day, we see Kolchak defending himself from Skorzeny with a crucifix.

Barry Atwater only played a vampire once, in this movie, but he’s so damned scary. It’s a shame he never returned for a NIGHT STALKER sequel.

Darren McGavin did return of course, taking on a supernatural strangler in THE NIGHT STRANGLER, and all sorts of ghouls and monsters in the short-lived TV series THE NIGHT STALKER.

But the best of the lot is this first film, THE NIGHT STALKER.

The other fun thing about THE NIGHT STALKER is that there aren’t too many movie vampires like Janos Skorzeny.  He’s rather unique when you think about it, as he possesses supernatural physical strength not often seen in a movie vampire.  He fights off a dozen police officers at one point, outruns a police car in another, and pushes away a police motorcycle like it’s made of paper.

But of course the best part of THE NIGHT STALKER, really, is Darren McGavin’s performance as Carl Kolchak. There’s a reason he’s remembered most for this role.

THE NIGHT STALKER is one of the scariest vampire movies ever made, and it’s still as powerful today as it was back in 1972.

Thanks for reading!

—Michael