Quote of the day! The File on Thelma Jordon (1950)”I’m no good for any man for any longer than a kiss!”

..SHE’LL LIE…KILL OR KISS HER WAY OUT OF ANYTHING!

THE FILE ON THELMA JORDON (1950)

CapturFiles_5
Barbara Stanwyck and Wendell Corey in Robert Siodmak’s The File on Thelma Jordon
*photo courtesy of Doctor Macro

Directed by Robert Siodmak (The Spiral Staircase 1945, The Killers 1946, Criss Cross 1949) this is a slick film-noir crime thriller with the ballsy Stanwyck as femme fatale Thelma Jordon in love with jewel thief Tony Laredo (Richard Rober) who gets her to steal from her rich aunt, and winds up shooting her, then making it look like a robbery. Wendell Corey plays gullible Cleve Marshall the assistant district attorney who manages to get Thelma an acquittal at trial. They start a passionate affair but Thelma is no good, and Tony reappears back in the picture… these things never end well…

“I’m no good for any man for any longer than a kiss!”

CapturFiles_4
photo courtesy of Doctor Macro

“Maybe I am just a dame and didn’t know it!”

CapturFiles_6

CapturFiles

CapturFiles_1

Maybe I’m just a dame and thought I was a MonsterGirl

Jo Gabriel is MonsterGirl: Little Birds

I’m feeling a little nostalgic for the musiciany side of me this morning. I’ve got a lot of film posts coming up, but I don’t want to forget that my heart and roots are firmly grounded in being a singer/songwriter. For those of you who follow my little cinematic tirades, I though you might like to see a live performance of mine, and see the girl behind the MonsterGirl mask…

Here I am performing my song ‘Little Birds’ live at Hofstra University….

Your ever lovin’ MonsterGirl and Siren Joey

PS: I miss my dreadlocks

A Trailer a Day Keeps the Boogeyman Away! Terror Creatures From The Grave (1965)

“They rise from dank coffins in the dead of night, murdering their victims in an orgy of slaughter!”

TERROR CREATURES FROM THE GRAVE (1965)

Terror-Creatures_from_the_Grave

Walter Brandi  (The Playgirls and The Vampire 1960,Bloody Pit of Horror 1965) plays Albert Kovac an attorney who arrives at a strange desolate castle to settle the estate of the recently deceased Dr. Hauff. Starring the magnificent icon Barbara Steele who plays Cleo Hauff, the young widow who is having an affair. Riccardo Garrone plays Joseph Morgan and Mirella Maravidi plays Hauff’s daughter Corinne. Alfredo Rizzo  plays Dr Nemek, and Luciano Pigozzi is the trusted servant Kurt. The history of the castle has been haunted by a curse, furthermore Dr Hauff used to dabble in the black arts and claimed to be able to summon the spirits of the dead victims of the plague to wreak vengeance on those he felt betrayed him.“The water will save you.”

CapturFiles_2

CapturFiles

CapturFiles_1
‘Go back to the dead!!!’

Terror+Creatures+from+the+Grave+(1965)+_004

CapturFiles

Terror+Creatures+03

In this atmospheric Gothic Italian horror film from the 60s, there are several creepy and classical effective moments of morbidity and gruesome death scenes. And disembodied hands are always sort of yucky.

Beautiful Barbara
just magnificent in her Barbara Steele-ness

Truthfully, I could watch anything that Barbara Steele was in, she has such a splendid kind of sensuality that just oozes off the screen, and those darkly fervent eyes that mesmerize. (wow didn’t really mean to rhyme there)and while this isn’t really a stand out vehicle for her in any way as compared to her other work, the film is not a bad little romp through some vintage Euro chills for it’s 87 minutes, even without the Italian version’s brief gratuitous breast shot. Directed by Massimo Pupillo (Bloody Pit of Horror 1965 with Mickey Hargitay, La Vendetta di Lady Morgan 1965 with Erica Blanc and Barbara Nelli as Lady Susan Morgan and Django Kills Softly 1967) Cinematography by Carlo Di Palmi who worked on Michelangelo Antonioni’s 1966’s masterpiece Blow Up.

CapturFiles_10
CapturFiles_11
CapturFiles_12
terror-creatures1

terror-creatures-from-the-grave-1966+poster

 

See ya round the snack bar, no butter on mine thanks-MonsterGirl

The Film Score Freak Recognizes: ☆ ‘The Man of a Thousand Faces’ It’s Lon Chaney’s Birthday April 1st

Lon Chaney
Lon Chaney Sr. (Leonidas Chaney) April 1 1883- August 26 1930

The Film Score Freak wants to pay tribute to The Man of a Thousand Faces, the inimitable Lon Chaney Sr. who’s evocative style of physical performance, volatile and poignant, effusive, penetrating and always sublime characterizations created some of the most memorable roles in cinematic history.

Happy Birthday Lon Chaney, we here at The Last Drive In wish you never get slapped, never to be unknown, never to be in the shadows or swing from a bell unless you’re ringing it for joy, to keep your wonderful face unmasked and the music playing til the ends of time, no matter how many thumbs or arms or legs you have, or whatever unholy mischief you might be up to, we adore you forever from here to Zanzibar….

My song ‘Passing/Arriving’ appears on my lo-fi album The Amber Session, you can visit my official site at Ephemera 

He_Who_Gets_Slapped
as Paul Beamont or HE in He Who Gets Slapped 1924
Laugh, Clown, Laugh with Loretta Young
as Tito in Laugh, Clown, Laugh (1928) with Loretta Young
Lon Chaney andnJoan Crawford The Unknown
Alonzo in The Unknown 1927 with Joan Crawford
Lon Chaney as The Phantom
Lon Chaney as The Phantom of the Opera 1925
Lon_Chaney_as_Chinese_immigrant_Yen_Sin_in_the_film_Shadows_(1922)
Lon Chaney as Chinese Immigrant Yen Sin in Shadows (1922)
London after Midnight
as Professor Edward C. Burke in London After Midnight 1927
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
as Quasimodo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame 1923
The Miracle Man in and out of costume
Chaney in and out of his costume as The Frog for The Miracle Man 1919
The Penalty with Ethel_Grey_Terry_and_Lon_Chaney
as Blizzard in The Penalty 1920 with Ethel Terry
The Shock
as Wilse Dilling in The Shock 1923
The Unholy 3 (1930)
Echo – The Ventriloquist in The Unholy Three 1930
West of Zanzibar
Phroso in West of Zanzibar 1928
The Unknown with Joan Crawford
Alfonso in The Unknown with Joan Crawford

Happy Birthday Lon Chaney-With love to a man of many monsters from a MonsterGirl