Sunday Nite Surreal- Eye of the Devil (1966) The Grapes of Death!

“Catherine it’s our belief in something… that makes that thing… for a moment, or forever-DIVINE…” -Phillippe de Montfaucon

EYE OF THE DEVIL (1966)

Directed by J. Lee Thompson (Blonde Sinner 1956, Tiger Bay 1959, Cape Fear 1962, The Reincarnation of Peter Proud 1975) the outre surreptitiousÂ Eye of the Devil (1966) is an atmospheric smorgasbord of uncanny & haunting images encircled by the air of clandestine and provocative underlying forcefulness. With ease, the film pulls you into an esoteric world of ancient rites and beliefs and primal fears and urges to prevail against or more aptly in honor of the pagan notion of the rule & reign of the old ways, and the dominant elementals. It’s a bit of a cryptic occult meditation on reverence, immortality, sacrifice, and reaping what you sow.

Niven is urbane and resolute in his stature as Patriarch of the French family who comes home to the ancestral chateau to tend to the vineyards, (the past season’s crop has suffered) and take his rightful place during the rites of the ceremonial harvest. Phillipe must not only observe the deadly family secrets that have survived for centuries but more horrifying than that, it must continue to be passed down to his children.

CapturFiles_45 Christian Caray is a very wicked boy and his sister Odile is no better — Philippe’s Aunt Countess Estell “ **Christian Caray is a very wicked boy and his sister Odile is no better”**

Eye of the Devil works so well to capture our ideologies by the throat partly because of the convincing performances by the enormously talented cast who inhabit this secret world, Deborah Kerr, David Niven, Flora Robson (Beast in the Cellar 1970 ) as Phillipe’s Great Aunt Countess Estell, Donald Pleasence as a malefic cleric Pere Dominic with a shaved head and solemnity, David Hemmings, Sharon Tate, and Emlyn Williams.

Both Sharon Tate and David Hemmings play two beautiful yet sinister figures lurking about. David Hemmings went on to do Michelangelo Antonioni‘s Blow Up (1966) and Sharon Tate whose first movie this was, went on to do Roman Polanski’s originally called Dance with The Vampires, now called The Fearless Vampire Killers, a comedic romp through the classical vampire story, though a little numbing possessed a few hilarious moments.Â

The film is an adaptation of Philip Lorain’s novel Day of the Arrow.

Once again absolutely stunning visuals frame the picture by cinematographer Erwin Hillier.

Erwin Hillier combined with director J. Lee Thompson’s directing style is a tense and well-focused gaze creating a closed world of authentic dis-ease. Beautifully photographed with slight suggestions of The Wicker Man. There is an intoxicating ambiance perfectly underscored by the simplistic yet alluring music by composer Gary McFarland. Hillier’s close-ups capture fertile images of evil & arcane sensuality.

David Niven is the Marquis Philippe de Montfaucon who is the owner of a historic Vineyard. When a dry season hits the harvest he is summoned to the castle Bellenac. Deborah Kerr plays his wife-Catherine de Montfaucon who is told to remain in Paris with the children, but she follows him anyway. And for her trouble, she is assailed in the woods by very ominous figures in hoods which make for a very potent scene… which does not cease even up to the end’s shocking climactic conclusion.

The opening frames are quick cuts that utilize the sound of a speeding train, cut away frames between reveal shots of a sharp arrow, we hear the train sirens, a lavish cocktail party in high society, an old world-looking bearded man on the train, the arrow is raised- it pierces the heart of a white dove, the woods are filled with hazy black hooded figures, eerie and ominous they stand by the trees. A cross of branches is set on fire. Close up on Sharon Tate then close up on Hemmings then the screen goes black and the credits roll"¦..

It's a post-modern and riveting way to open a film with an esoteric narrative "¦the film’s title is set against the speeding to train its windows like eyes themselves staring back at us.

When Phillippe the Marquis arrives in Bellenac the villagers all seem to revere him, lifted their hats to him, head downward, humbled and proud. He meets up with the cleric Pere Dominic (Donald Pleasence) the mood and furnishings give one the idea of an Orthodox Christian sect.

Some thought he would not return to Bellenac the butler knew he would return"¦ Phillippe asks how about your father?

"I’ve never doubted the path you have chosen" Phillippe-"What makes you think I've chosen it?"

Pere Dominic-"You came back didn't you."

The priest places an elaborate amulet on the table. Phillippe picks up the amulet Dominic tells him "I think you have chosen it Phillippe, my son."

Family friend Jean-Claude Ibert (Edward Mulhare) sits by the fireplace in Paris talking about Phillippe’s trip back to Bellenac. Catherine tells him the first time she was there after their wedding she says it was the most frightening place almost as though they were back in the Middle Ages. Jean-Claude tells her that Phillippe had always been obsessed with the place as if he was trying to solve its diabolical secret.

Once at the castle, Philippe seems distant as if he is following a mysterious compulsion guided by the pervading force of a cult that recognizes ancient pagan rituals, and perhaps sacrificing his own life in order to save the vineyard. Catherine can do nothing to change her somnolent husband’s mind to leave and come back with her and the children to Paris.

Both Sharon Tate as the luminous Odile de Caray and David Hemmings as the impish Christian de Caray play two beautiful yet otherworldly and sinister figures lurking about with bows and arrows. Turns toads into doves, and is fixated on the children.

Odile mesmerizes both Jacques and Antoinette. She asks if they believe in magic, then she demonstrates her powers by changing a frog on a lily pad into a dove. Could she be using the art of hypnosis to create an illusion?

Catherine does not want her brother Christian to kill any more doves on the property and isn’t happy to see her influence over her children. It begins to rain. But Odile tells her that they are not life-giving clouds and that they will pass quickly. Catherine asks why she is at Bellenac. Odile tells her that she and her brother come there often… Then Christian appears and shoots an arrow into a tree right next to Catherine. The siblings wander through the landscape like other-worldly minions.

Phillippe begins to pull away consciously from his wife and children, he tells her to take them and leave. She pleads with him to come home with her and that she can help him. In a sense, it’s all begun and even if she tries to make a fuss afterward, no one will either believe her or come forward to help her.

She says he must be mad, that he’s dying for nothing, walk away from this stupid evil.

“I’m dying for what I believe.”

“No one can help me, not even you. You don't understand you could never understand”

He is preparing for a glorious pilgrimage of the soul. He is beyond being reached. He is prepared for the festival of ‘The Thirteen Days” or rather The Thirteen Dancers…

Alain de Montfaucon (Emlyn Williams) tells Catherine that he expects to be a living God and that Pere Dominic is more than part of it… He is all of it. He is a Pagan. And Bellenac is… A Fortress of Heresy…

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

IMDb fun fact:

Originally Kim Novak was cast in the role of Catherine de Montfaucon. Filming began in the fall of 1965 in France. Near every scene had been filmed when Kim Novak fell from a horse and wasn’t able to complete her scenes. Deborah Kerr was hired to take over and every scene that featured Miss Novak had to be re-shot with her replacement.

008-sharon-tate-theredlist — **The film’s opening credits read-Introducing Sharon Tate**

tate-thompson-eye-devil — **J. Lee Thompson on the set with Sharon Tate**

HAVE A SO-REAL SUNDAY NITE- FROM YOUR EVERLOVIN’ MONSTERGIRL!

Live Long & Prosper… an icon dies at 83 Leonard Nimoy -goodbye

I have to admit I came sort of late to the Star Trek fanaticism – quietly then ravenously I devoured every episode until the first and original series was done. I came away with a lot of feelings about Roddenberry’s vision and the incredible collection of actors who inhabited that ‘space’… But one thing became a constant for me. While I have always been a fan of Leonard Nimoy in general, his Mr Spock became one of my most beloved favorite characters of a television series. He possessed a certain sexy nerdiness, with integrity and courage that made him an iconic figure. That’s because Nimoy knew how to manifest that special spirit- part grace part intellect. We’ll miss you so much, but now it’s time for you to boldly go where no man’s gone before in a different realm and live long and prosper there. With Love -Joey

Sadly MonsterGirl

Quote of the Day! The Rose Tattoo (1955)

THE ROSE TATTOO (1955)

I have become a huge fan of Anna Magnani ever since I saw her recently in …And The Wild Wild Women (1959)Â & not to mention The Fugitive Kind 1960 Yet anotherÂ incredible performance not only by the charismatic Magnani but Marlon Brando their chemistry is combustible!… And…

I’ve always loved Tennessee Williams. Just having finished watching The Rose Tattoo which won Magnani the Oscar for Best Actress in 1955, I felt like sharing one of the myriad of wonderful pieces of dialogue in this deeply emotional yet witty and engaging film directed by Daniel Mann.

The Baroness Serafina Delle Rosa loved her man with a passion that rivaled the sun itself. But he was wild like a Gypsy and when he dies in a police chase smuggling something illegal under the bananas in his truck, Serafina falls apart. She believes her husband was a God and she a mere peasant who worshiped him and so she goes into mourning like a good Sicilian woman hiding herself away and waiting for a sign from the Madonna. She is a deeply faithful woman.

She lives under the delusion that her man was perfect even though everyone else in the village knows that Rosario Delle Rosa was stepping out on his wife with Estelle Hohengarten (Virginia Grey ) who works at a night club in New Orleans.

MP-marisapavan-rosetattoo-kneeling — **Serafina makes Seaman Jack Hunter (Ben Cooper) kneel before the Madonna and promise to honor her daughter Rosa’s (Marisa Pavan) Innocence.**

CapturFiles_1 — **She asks if her husband told Father Del Leo during confession about the other woman…**

Even after the town’s Strega, the priest, the fish wives and everyone else knows Serafina’s husband was unfaithful, she keeps the urn of his ashes on the mantle and lets her heart go to seed.

Then, one day Alvaro Mangiacavallo-(Burt Lancaster) wants to be set up with the widow as he has a good heart but is poor and lonely. He wants a woman who doesn’t have to be beautiful she can be plump, but has her own business and a nice home.

Burt Lancaster is always bigger than life no matter if he’s Elmer Gantry or Ole Swede Anderson in The Killers (1946)

Though he enters the film halfway through, his presence brings the oxygen that Serafina denies herself. She will not believe the lie, that her man was not ‘glorious’. She rants and raves and tears at herself dramatically throughout the story trying to deny what people say, and also denying herself as a sensual woman who deserves to be loved and desired.

I have always been so taken with how much Williams‘ perspective coming from the woman’s point of view is so sympathetic. His characters are usually flawed but very human, and filled with passion, and longing and a need to be desired and believed, and to be seen for who they are.

I am astounded by Magnani’s almost operatic performance as the volatile poignant authentic woman who holds on for as long as she can refusing to believe her ‘fictional’ beautiful man has betrayed her love. Even when she’s causing a commotion in town or shouting in Italian on her own front porch, her pain is palpable and you feel for her. Magnani is a muse for the passion in women that should never be taken for granted…Raw and bare… is Magnani’s Serafina.

But then begins a comical, tumultuous and a bit unorthodox courtship…

Alvaro- “Do you have a bathroom in your house?”

Serafina– “Of course we have a bathroom why”

Alvaro- “We don’t have one at our house and I would like to wash up because I think maybe I smell like a goat, you know…”

Serafina–“Please help yourself”—-He leaves the room

“Oh Madonna Sante… My husband’s body with the head… of a clown (hand gesture) A clown that smells like a goat…”

Your EverLovin Joey saying Oh Madonna Sante, I wish you all well!

Save

Classic Hollywood Birthdays

Happy Birthday Claire Bloom… ironically enough- we’re watching The Haunting tonight so we’ll see Theo in velvet once again. 18 Years ago , we had our first date watching The Haunting because it was both our favorite films. Wendy’s commentary was from a lighting designers perspective and mine was from loving Gothic classic horror films…. Thanks Claire Bloom for bringing us together 18 years ago today…. Love Joey

â™¥ï¸Ž Here’s to Valentine’s Day – one and all! from me & Pepe Le Pew

“May I call you Darling?… You may call me Streetcar… because of my desire…!”

Your EverLovin’ MonsterGirl

Quote of the Day! The Sweet Smell of Success (1957)

THE SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS 1957

J.J. Hunsecker to Sidney Falco: “I’d hate to take a bite outta you. You’re a cookie full of arsenic.”

Very dark satire with a screenplay by Clifford Odets. This is a Film Noir masterpiece directed by Alexander Mackendrick (The Lady Killers 1955)

Starring the enigmatic Burt Lancaster as J.J. Hunsecker… a power-hungry columnist whose unethical practices and megalomania make him a force to be reckoned with. Tony Curtis plays the smarmy climber– press agent always on the make–Sid Falco. He’s J.J.’s wingman who has to clean up the wake of the destruction he leaves behind with his brutal and persuasive influence. It’s a dark and sinister condemnation of the world of entertainment, publishing, nightclubs, social circles… the works!

The film also stars Martin Milner as Steve Dallas a jazz musician who wants to marry J.J.’s younger sister Susan (Susan Harrison) There’s a very strong undercurrent of incestuous fixation on the part of J.J. toward his sister, as he controls her every move and tries to destroy the young woman’s relationship with Steve. Fantastic dialogue throughout and James Wong Howe’s cinematography is exquisitely framed for the dark and intriguing atmosphere of New York City’s nite life. Elmer Bernstein adds his wonderful score to this urban morality play.

2010-02-01_2328 — **I love Barbara Nichols as Rita the cigarette girl…**

Always sweet here at The last Drive In-Your EverLovin’ MonsterGirl!

4 Outstanding Actresses: It’s 1964 and there’s cognitive commotion!

MBDPUEA EC001 — Anne Bancroft is a lady who lunches and listens to gossip in The Pumpkin Eater – being held hostage by the intensely neurotic Yootha Joyce a lonely housewife sitting next to her while trapped under the hair dryer of life…

CapturFiles — The woman at the hairdresser’s-“It’s like I told you, my life is an empty place!” Jo-**“Well, what do you want me to do about it?”**

“The question isn’t who’s going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me.” – Ayn Rand.

Cognition-(noun) The mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience, and the senses.” A result of this: a perception, sensation, notion, or intuition.

These 4 particular films seem to be part of a trend of films that deal with either women’s brewing emotional turmoil or in the case of Jean Seberg’s Lilith- a creeping organic madness, perhaps from childhood trauma that is not delved into.

Let’s consider women either in distress or the oft-used “hysterical’ trademark that summons every neurotic ill associated with women. With these 4 films, it’s the same root problem: Why should society determine what counts as an emotional problem? This is especially true for women as if she were the engendering source of a specific kind of female mayhem, the creator of the tumult itself… Capable of giving birth, does she also give birth to a certain kind of madness directed inwardly or aimed outward at society and its unyielding ethical questions?

It’s not that I think Barbara Barrie is troubled because she falls in love with a black man. It’s that the world is troubled by her decision. Because of her choice, a society inherently cruelly punishes her by taking away the one thing she had personal power over, to remove her child from her life. Although she has a wonderful relationship with Frank, both are being judged and condemned.

The judge awards custody of her little girl to the biological father even though he is not the better parent. Not too long ago, women could be hospitalized just for being menopausal, based on what their husbands said.

Women were at the mercy of white male society’s judgment. So if a white woman loves and marries a black man in the volatile climate of the civil rights 60s, it would absolutely cause turmoil and quite the commotion.

All these women experience cognitive commotion but are not necessarily crazy. One Potato Two Potato is about the societal impositions forced upon an interracial couple and the strain of a child custody battle forcing her to qualify herself as a good mother. The sentiments of the time, the courts, and society, in general, are disempowering Julie through her motherhood.

This inflicts an agonizing torture on Barbara Barrie’s character Julie. Barrie’s performance as well as Bernie Hamilton as a man whose own masculinity is tested, tears me up inside…

A white woman, Julie Cullen, falls in love with Frank Richards, a black man, against the will of everyone around them, including his parents, who think he should stick with his own kind. Eventually, Frank’s mother and father come around and embrace Julie and her daughter, who considers Martha and William her grandparents.

Julie has a son with Frank…and suddenly is being faced with a white judge deciding on who will gain custody of her little girl from a previous marriage to a man, Joe Cullen, who abandoned them years ago. Not til he finds out that she is being raised by a black man does he rise to take action and gain custody of his daughter.

This is a courageous story to relate to in 1964. Barrie’s anguish is one that is not self-inflicted, there is no mental disorder or neurotic dilemma yet it would challenge anyone who dares to be truthful and follow their heart in a world where many people must hide who they are. A beautiful love story that becomes tainted by the stain of ingrained hatred and ignorance. And causes ruination to a happy family. Barbara Barrie’s performance as Julie Cullen Richards is nothing short of intuitively astounding.

Just for funzies, I wanted to paint some contrast into the mix, therefore pointing to films that truly deal with women and mental illness. More than cognitive commotion, they’re unstable, non compos mentis, deranged, knife-wielding, murderous femmes, traumatized, delusional dames… or all out CRAZY NUTS!!!!!!!!!

And…

I’ll probably write about all these films mentioned–the women on the verge of a nervous breakdown or already on the shoulder of the weary road of life with all four tires flat at some point. I’ll consider Charles Vidor’s Ladies in Retirement 1941 where Ida Lupino has to take care of her two dotty sisters, Elsa Lanchester and Edith Barrett, as the Creed sisters… They’re wonderfully cuckoo!!! I did a little piece on this gem a while back…

Robert Siodmak’s The Dark Mirror 1946 with Olivia de Havilland playing twins Terry & Ruth Collins, Gene Tierney gorgeous yet cunningly homicidal in Leave her To Heaven 1945, Laraine Day is totally unhinged in The Locket 1946, Joan Crawford as Louise Howell has a nightmare filled flashback in Curtis Burnhardt’s Possessed 1947.

“she is shown as alienated and stricken with psychological torture”– {source Marlisa Santos The Dark Mirror; Psychiatry and Film Noir

Then again, in Anatole Litvak’s story, actually set in a mental institution with Olivia de Havilland stuck in The Snake Pit 1948, Vivian Leigh is the consummate delusional Blanche DuBois in Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire 1951… Marilyn Monroe gives a riveting performance as the deranged babysitter–(oh god kid just be quiet for Nell) in Roy Ward Baker’s Don’t Bother to Knock 1952, Joanne Woodward is in emotional conflict with three different personalities all herself…In The Three Faces of Eve 1957.

Eleanor Parker gives a stunning portrayal of multiple personality disorder in Hugo Haas’ Lizzie 1957, I’ve written about Liz Taylor almost getting her frontal lobe sucked out at the request of her domineering Aunt -(Katherine Hepburn) just to hide her son’s sordid secret life in Suddenly, Last Summer 1959, Jean Simmons tries to find happiness in a loveless marriage that isn’t her fault in the engrossing Home Before Dark 1958, Ingmar Bergman’s Striking minimalist piece about mental turmoil in his beautifully photographed Through a Glass Darkly 1961, William Castle’s groundbreaking gender-bending Homicidal 1961.

**Woodward in The Three Faces of Eve 1957.**

Carroll Baker is a traumatized rape survivor in Something Wild 1961 and what I found to be a misogynist romp wasting several wonderful actresses who were offered these humiliating roles in The Chapman Report. In particular, Clare Bloom deserved better with her talent -as a nymphomaniac struggling with her sexual desires until she ultimately commits suicide in The Chapman Report 1962 and good old William Castle’s once again with his Strait-Jacket 1964 starring one of the ultimate Grande Dames Joan Crawford this time wielding an axe in addition to her nightmarish flashbacks.

Now… none of the 4 women I am covering here are homicidal or dangerous, all these women are experiencing a psychic struggle with issues that speak from their place in the world as women… who are defining somehow in their own way, what their identity means to them… Well, perhaps Lilith is a bit more volatile in terms of how she wields her sexuality and influences men & women! But she is a divine innocent albeit-nymphomaniac living in a dreamy world of her own –not a homicidal vamp who devours men and spits them out… She is innocent without malice. The men do the damage to themselves…

“And her eye has become accustomed to obvious ‘truths’ that actually hide what she is seeking. It is the very shadow of her gaze that must be explored”--Luce Irigaray

still-of-max-von-sydow,-harriet-andersson-and-gunnar-bjoÌˆrnstrand-in-saÌŠsom-i-en-spegel-(1961)-large-picture — **Max von Sydow,, Harriet Andersson, and Gunnar Bjormstrand in -(1961)-Through the Glass Darkly directed by Ingmar Bergman.**

Beautiful Poison: Jean Simmons in Angel Face (1953) & Gene Tierney in Leave Her To Heaven (1945)

Twentieth Century Fox-Inside the Photo Archive — **Gene Tierney as the murderously deranged Ellen Berent Harland in Leave Her to Heaven 1945.**

Seance on a Wet Afternoon 1964

SÃ©ance on a Wet Afternoon 1964: A Conspiracy of Madness Part II- “They're really quite adaptable, children. They're like"¦ little animals.”

rideau-de-brume-1964-02-g — **Kim Stanley gives an unnerving performance as a delusional and dangerous woman who plots to kidnap a child so she can claim her psychic powers and then locate her…**

And of course the two titans of Grande Dame Guignol fÃªtes courtesy of Robert Aldrich…

***What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? 1962* & *Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte 1964***

repulsion3 — ***Roman Polanski’s very post-modern, almost Brechtian/Picassoesque ode to insanity starring Catherine Deneuve in Repulsion 1965.***

There’s always Hitchcock’s Marnie (1964), showcasing an unstable female in distress brought on by childhood trauma. Considering Hitch’s lavish colors and overt psychological embellishments that have created a pulpy romanticized landscape, which at times obfuscates the mental turbulence rather than letting it surface on its own. I chose to set this film aside and instead include the more off-the-beaten-path of psychological leanings pictures. 1964 seemed to be one hell of a year for Women in Distress by virtue of the female psychological crisis, once again to reiterate -not the ‘hysteria’ kind, mind you.”

“From the socially conservative 1950s to the permissive 1970s, this project explores the ways in which insanity in women has been linked to their femininity and the expression or repression of their sexuality. An analysis of films from Hollywood’s post-classical period (The Three Faces of Eve (1957), Lizzie (1957), Lilith (1964), Repulsion (1965),Images (1972) and 3 Women (1977)) demonstrates the societal tendency to label a woman’s behavior as mad when it does not fit within the patriarchal mold of how a woman should behave. In addition to discussing the social changes and diagnostic trends in the mental health

profession that define “appropriate” female behavior, each chapter also traces how the decline of the studio system and rise of the individual filmmaker impacted the films’ ideologies with regard to mental illness and femininity.”

— from FRAMING FEMININITY AS INSANITY: RE PRESENTATIONS OF MENTAL ILLNESS IN WOMEN IN POST-CLASSICAL HOLLYWOOD by Kelly Kretschmar

WOMEN ON THE VERGE… OF A BREAKTHROUGH!

Psyche 59 (1964)

Patricia Neal and Sammantha Eggar in Psyche 59 — **Patricia Neal and Samantha Eggar in Psyche 59 (1964).**

The Pumpkin Eater 1964

the-pumpkin-eaters-27498_3 — Ann Bancroft and Peter Finch are a married couple in crisis. Having perpetually popped out a myriad of children, she is yet again pregnant. Will this keep him home this time…? The Pumpkin Eater (1964).

One Potato Two Potato 1964

onepotatoetwopotatoe1964_85738_678x380_11212014041259 — **Barbara Barrie falls in love and marries Bernie Hamilton. Once her ex-husband realizes that his child is being brought up by a black man, times get even tougher for the couple.**

Lilith 1964

THE WOMEN!!!

Barbara Barrie

Patricia Neal

Anne Bancroft

Jean Seberg

LET’S BEGIN WITH…!

Alison Crawford (Patricia Neal) –“Love has to stop somewhere along the line, otherwise it’s almost “like committing suicide. “

PSYCHE 59 (1964) – Alexander Singer (A Cold Wind in August 1961 with Lola Albright and Scott Marlowe) directs the remarkable Patricia Neal as Alison Crawford, a woman struck down with a form of psychosomatic or hysterical blindness. Alison is aware that the affliction is all in her mind since the doctors can’t find anything organically wrong with her sight. Her ‘hysterical blindness’ and memory loss of the events leading up to her accident follows a fall down the stairs while she is pregnant. When she awakens, she is unable to see.

CapturFiles_9 — Alison **“My Brain won’t accept the images that my eyes make.”**

What is happening for Alison is that she is subconsciously blocking out the truth about her husband and her younger, coquettish sister Robin.

She is now living a very quaint life with her husband, played by the austere Curd Jürgens (I love him as the devilishly urbane concert pianist Duncan Mowbray Ely in The Mephisto Waltz, 1971).

Aside from her intense husband Eric, Alison’s very sexually charged sister Robin (Samantha Eggar) has now come to live with the couple after a divorce. Robin hovers very close to Eric like a carrion bird waiting to pick the bones of Alison’s troubled marriage. While Alison doesn’t have any cognitive memory of what led up to her fall, it’s obvious to us that she can sense the strong attraction between her husband and younger sister. At one time, her younger sister Robin and Eric had been involved before Alison caught and married him. Robin hasn’t stopped lusting after him. Slowly, Alison’s memory comes back as the flashes and images of what she experienced right before she lost her sight literally come into view.

Singer builds the tension in the air slowly, methodically, until it all comes to a head against the skillfully contained cinematography by Walter Lassally (The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, 1962, Zorba the Greek, 1964, To Kill a Clown, 1972).

IMDb tidbit-Patricia Neal was offered the lead in The Pumpkin Eater, but it was not 100% confirmed she would get the role. She then opted, to her later regret, to make Psyche 59 (1964) instead, since it was an official offer.

Neal gives a restrained yet powerful performance of a woman who is trapped in self-imposed darkness by her fear of the truth.

There is very subtle theme of self-brutality that exists for each of the characters, Alison’s self-imposed sightlessness, Eric’s indignant stoicism is palpable as he walks through the story like a trapped stray dog, He is agitated by Robin’s presence because he can not resist her.

Robin, her younger sister, must have been quite young at the time of her relationship with Eric, which begs the question of appropriate behavior on his part. Robin constantly asserts a seductive influence on Eric right in front of the disadvantaged Alison.

She is both a hyper-sexual narcissist and a bit self-destructive at the same time; either way, she gets off on playing the seductress, torturing Eric, right in front of her sister, dark sunglasses, and delicate pout. Although Alison suffers from blindness, she maintains a certain dignity that, although all three characters seem like she is, one of the trapped animals in a psycho-melodramatic forest, we get a sense that she will one day regain her freedom and spread her wings and fly away from it all, truth in hand.

CapturFiles_13 — Alison “**We must be near the marshes”** Robin **“We just passed it “¦ Coming to the old windmill soon”¦ it’s still turning.. nothing’s changed”** Alison “**There’s a factory there now, Don’t protect me, Robby. Don’t make up windmills.”**

Based on the novel by FranÃ§oise des Ligneris, with a screenplay by Julian Zimet (who wrote Horror Express 1972 and one of the best atmospheric little horror obscurities The Death Wheelers 1973 formally called Psychomania about a group of British motorcycle thugs and their pretty birds who dabble in the occult. Beryl Reid and George Sanders being one of their relatives, learn the secret of immortality. But you have to die first to obtain it.)

Psyche 59 is an interesting psychological mood piece, almost post-modernly impressionistic with its stark and polished black and white photo work. And Patricia Neal who had just won an Oscar for her role as Alma Brown in Hud 1963 and gave a command performance in 1957 as Marcia Jeffries in A Face in the Crowd is just exceptional as Alison who is trying to navigate the dark world surrounding her.

The film is strange and at times subtly cruel yet Neal’s character relies on our visual journey which becomes quite painful at times yet beautiful as she begins to emerge. In the film, Patricia Neal’s relationship with Curd Jürgens has an eerie parallel to real-life marriage to writer/spy Roald Dahl, but I don’t want to get into the sensationalized tidbits of public people’s wreckage.

The film also stars Ian Bannen as Robin’s poor, befuddled boyfriend, Elspeth March, and Beatrix Lehmann as Alison’s staunch, science fiction-reading grandmother—I wish I had one of those!

Continue reading “4 Outstanding Actresses: It’s 1964 and there’s cognitive commotion!” →

Life Lessons from Barney Fife -“Mad Worm?”

BARNEY IS AT IT AGAIN… TEACHING HIMSELF THE ANCIENT ART OF KARATE!

Barney–“You know where most of the karate moves come from?”
Andy- “No”
Barney- “From Animals"¦”{"¦} “Guess what animal this is, ready- What is it?”
Andy- “I don't know”
Barney- “Guess”
Andy- “A worm?”
Barney- “Andy” (Sighs)
Andy- “Well it was wiggly”
Barney- “Andy… this is a deadly animal, vicious"¦ a killer!”
Andy- “A mad worm?”

Stay clear of wiggly mad worms now, ya hear! Your EverLovin’ MonsterGirl

Postcards From Shadowland No. 14

12_angry_men_1957 — **12 Angry Men (1957) Directed by Sidney Lumet** Lee J. Cobb, E.G. Marshall, Jack Klugman, Edward Binns, Jack Warden, Henry Fonda, Joseph Sweeney, Ed Begley, George Voskovec… also stars John Fiedler, Martin Balsam and Robert Webber

**Broken Blossoms (1919) Starring Lillian Gish as Lucy the girl.**

C cigarettegirl — **The Cigarette Girl from Mosselprom (Moscow) 1924 Directed by Yuri Zhelyabuzhsky -starring Yuliya Solntseva as Zina Vesenina- the cigarette girl**

**Christmas Holiday (1944)** **Directed by Robert Siodmak-starring Deanna Durbin & Gene Kelly**

Curse-of-the-Demon-2 — **Curse of the Demon (1957) Directed by Jacques Tourneur-Starring Dana Andrews, Peggy Cummins and Niall MacGinnis**

Diana-Dors-My-Wifes-Lodger-28310_5 — **Diana Dors as Eunice Higginbotham in** **My Wife’s Lodger (1952)**

harry-woods-call-of-the-savage — **Directed by Lew Landers Harry Woods is Borno in- Call of the Savage (1935)**

Hi Dante's Inferno devil — **L’Inferno 1911, Dante Alighieri “A Divina ComÃ©dia”, Directed by Giuseppe de Liguoro.**

seaHawkmers-1924-02-g — **The Sea Hawk 1924 Directed by Frank Lloyd**

Hodiak and Bankhead in Lifeboat — Alfred Hitchcock’s Lifeboat (1944) cinematic stage play with the vast scope of the Ocean and the claustrophobic air of desperation. Brilliant performances by Tallulah Bankhead and John Hodiak looking his hunkiest best…

Ingmar Bergman's Virgin Spring — **The Virgin Spring (1960) directed by Ingmar Bergman-disturbing journey of revenge**

J Gilda — **Gilda (1946) directed by Charles VIdor and stars the magnificent Rita Hayworth in the title role Gilda Mundson Farrell, here dancing with Glenn Ford. A film noir classic**

**Last Tango in Paris 1972 directed by Bernardo Bertolucci-stars Marlon Brando and Maria Schneider as a pair of angst filled lovers whose relationship is based on sex & death**

ManMadeMonster2-1 — **Man Made Monster 1941 starring Lionel Atwill as the deranged Dr Rigas**

monsieur Verdoux — **Monsieur Verdoux 1947 directed by and starring Charles Chaplin-brilliant dark comedy of murder and anti-conformity.**

Night of the Hunter Gish & Co. — Charles Laughton’s oneric fable of childhood terrors, the bonds of friendship and the plight of Love vs Hate… Beautifully filmed- starring Lillian Gish as Rachel Cooper and Robert Mitchum as the diabolical Harry Powell in Night of the Hunter (1955)

Peggy+Ann+Garner_jane+eyre — **Jane Eyre 1943 directed by Robert Stevenson starring Peggy Ann Garner is young Jane.**

**Plunder Road (1957) directed by Hubert Cornfeld, perhaps one of the most edgy crime story film noirs headed up Gene Raymond and Elisha Cook Jr.**

Robert Ryan in The Set Up — The Set-Up (1949) Robert Ryan stars as boxer Stoker in Robert Wise’s extraordinary noir film centered around the boxing ring and a down on his luck fighter that still has a lot of fight left in him. One of my favorite film noir classics, much to do with Ryan’s performance and Milton R. Krasner’s cinematography…

saboteur norman-lloyd- — **the Wonderful Norman Lloyd in Alfred Hitchcock’s Saboteur 1942**

**Rock Hudson is psychologically and physically spun around on his head in Seconds 1966 by John Frankenheimer- A story about that precious commodity… one’s identity**

Seeds of Sin 1968 Andy Milligan — **SEEDS (1968) Directed by Andy Milligan- it’s seedy and low budget and the perfect exploitative indulgence…**

Shack Out on I0I — **Shack Out on 101 (1955) different styled film noir starring Lee Marvin as Slob.. directed by Edward Dein and co-stars Terry Moore and Frank Lovejoy**

ship of fools — **Stanley Kramer directs this incredible ensemble of actors in Ship of Fools (1965) Here showing George Segal, Michael Dunn and Lee Marvin**

somwhere in the night john hodiak — **John Hodiak tries to remember in Somewhere in the Night (1946) -a taut amnesia themed noir with great characters. Directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz. Here with Fritz Kortner as Anzelmo or Dr Oracle.**

streetwithnonamebmp — **Street With No Name (1948) starring Mark Stevens and directed by William Keighly -This film noir also stars Richard Widmark and Lloyd Nolan…**

sunrise — **Sunrise (1927) directed by F.W. Murnau starring Janet Gaynor and George O’Brien-Beautifully filmed silent masterpiece**

t-nightbirds — **Nightbirds 1970 Andy Milligan’s gritty cult journey about two miscreants in London.**

Terror From the Crypt — **Terror in the Crypt aka Crypt of the Vampire 1964 directed by Camillo Mastrocinque based on the Karnstein saga with Adriana Ambesi and Ursula Davis and the immortal Christopher Lee**

**The Fiend Who Walked the West (1958) directed by Gordon Douglas and starring Hugh O’Brian and a really psychotic Robert Evans.**

**The Scavengers 1959 starring Carol Ohmart directed by John Cromwell -an obscure film noir also starring Vince Edwards**

The Secret Garden Margaret O'Brien — The Secret Garden 1949 starring Margaret O’Brien and a wonderful cast Herbert Marshall, Dean Stockwell, Gladys Cooper, Elsa Lanchester, Reginald Owen, Brian Roper, Aubrey Mather isobel Elsom and George Zucco fill out this fantasy drama directed by Fred M. Wilcox

the seventh sin — **The Seventh Sin (1957) directed by Ronald Neame and Vincente Minnelli starring Eleanor Parker and FranÃ§oise Rosay FranÃ§oise Rosay as Mother Superior**

The Soft Skin 1964 Francoise Dorleac — **The Soft Skin 1964 FranÃ§oise DorlÃ©ac directed by FranÃ§ois Truffaut**

**The Stranger 1946 directed by Orson Welles**

the terrible_people_1 — **The Terrible People (1960) directed by Harald Reinl adapted from the story by Edgar Wallace stars Joachim Fuchsberger**

The Wild Boys of the Road thirty three — **The Wild Boys of the Road 1933 directed by William Wellman**

**The Young One 1960 directed by Luis BuÃ±uel starring Key Meersman as Evalyn. Also stars Zachary Scott and Bernie Hamilton**

The-Exterminating-Angel — **The Exterminating Angel (1962) directed by Luis BuÃ±uel**

The-Twilight-Girls — **The Twilight Girls (1957) by AndrÃ© Hunebelle**

To Kill a Mockingbird Jim and Dill — **To Kill a Mockingbird 1962 directed by Robert Mulligan -John Megna as Dill and Phillip Alford as Jem. adapted from Harper Lee’s masterpiece**

See you soon… Your EverLovin’ MonsterGirl!

Sunday Nite Surreal: Serrador’s The House That Screamed: Elegant Taboos in the Gothic Horror Film-The Fragmentation of Motherhood, castration and the enigma of body horror

THE HOUSE THAT SCREAMED (1969)

“TEACH HER TO TAKE CARE OF ME LIKE YOU DO” — Luis talking to his mother ‘Madame Fourneau‘

Before there were shows like Criminal Minds, CSI or Dexter where I learned about dis-articulation, the graphic motif used in the human marionette themed Season 8 episode 10Â of Criminal Minds ‘The Lesson’ directed by Matthew Gray Gubler (Meow!) not only for me, the most adorable, desirable nice guy, and brilliant quirky actor but outstanding director as well. Just watch Mosely Lane or the afore mentioned episode starring the equally brilliant"¦.Brad Dourif as Adam Rain the Marionette Master who creates living puppets to re-enact a childhood trauma. I never heard of ‘Enucleation’- or removing the eyes with a highly sharpened melon baller until Criminal Minds.

The Lesson criminal-minds — **“The Lesson” episode of Criminal Minds directed by Matthew Gray Gubler. Starring Brad Dourif one of THE most** **underrated actors… It doesn’t get more jaw-tightening than this-!**

This is all the stuff that gives me… yes me!!!!, MonsterGirl the heebies, the pip, and the whim whams and perpetually horrific nightmares for days, months even. BUT!

Before there was such contemporary graphic violence pouring forth from the television screen, or feature scare films deemed ‘torture porn’... that it could almost wear your psyche down to its raw unsheathed fibers… there was a beautiful elegant, and mind-bending kind of psychological horror.

With The House That Screamed, the fear and anguish mixed with the exquisitely restrained performances by the ensemble of actors is more powerful than movies like Wolf Creek and Hostel which merely brings you excruciatingly close to realism and as violent as a trip to the slaughterhouse.

There ARE certain films that remain a haunting experience… but in a way that serves as an emotional release not a shock to your sympathetic nervous system.

capturfiles_6

One film, in particular, will always be one of my favorite classical horror films of all time. The House that Screamed (1969) directed by Narciso IbÃ¡Ã±ez Serrador starring IMHO one of the finest actresses Lilli Palmer is rife with so many social taboos yet still maintains its elegance. Filled with images of Sado-Masochism -the archetypal Devouring Motherhood, the effects of repression, and young nubile beauties’ whose libidos are firing off sparks all over the boarding school. The untenable gap between adults and children, a brutal secret society of Sapphic sadists, an Oedipal complex brought to an eventual disturbing climax fit for modern screening.

CapturFiles_17 — **“This is a boarding school, not a prison"¦”** Madame Fourneau **” If it isn't one, we'll make it one.”**

CapturFiles_4 — **Lilli Palmer is wearing Revlon’s “repressive salmon’ lipstick–that special color that just says–Yes I’m a ball buster and a closet lesbian to boot!**

CapturFiles_15 — “Don't you understand that none of these girls are any good? By the time they bring them to me, they're already marked"¦ Or they've done worse things and then they hand them over to me"¦{…} In time Luis, in time you'll find the right girl, and you'll marry her. You'll have your own home. These girls are poison"¦ You need a woman like me who will love you, take care of you, protect you. We'll find her"¦ you'll see"¦ you'll see."

Lilli Palmer's (Body and Soul 1947, MÃ¤dchen in Uniform (1958), and The Boys from Brazil 1978) are about Madame Fourneau, the headmistress of an all-female school for ‘troubled’ or ‘unwanted girls’.

Lilli Palmer as teacher Maria Rohmer inÂ MÃ¤dchen in Uniform, had a heady lesbian theme running through its narrative which here is reprised in a Spanish horror film that reaches back to Grand Guignol.Â

The rigid and stale institutionalized environment of The House that Screamed molds ‘good girls’. This repressive sexual confinement, it bursts wide open into a sensationalist breeding ground for the lesbian as predator trope. The repressed older woman is taken in by the beautiful innocence of a wild girl who defies her rules, pushing back against Palmer’s obvious infatuation, she makes Palmer’s character suffer as a voyeur as she awakens out of the nubile young adolescent into her sexual primacy as a seductive maiden. Palmer’s pain is exquisite.Â

Her son Luis is played by the eternally cherubic looking if not eerily handsome John Moulder-Brown. (known for his stint in a few 70s psycho-sexual thrillers like Deep End 1970 & Forbidden Love Game 1975 directed by another underrated Spanish director Eloy de la Iglesia.

Maude in housescreamed — **The film also co-stars Mary Maude whose natural earthy beauty reminds me of Barbara Hershey as Irene ( Crucible of Terror 1971, Scorpio 1973).**

CapturFiles_2 — The lovely **Maribel Martin...** will she escape the finishing school? Here is Martin as Isabelle she also starred in (The Blood Spattered Bride 1972.

CapturFiles_12 — Ironically, it is Madame Forneau’s rigid obsession with controlling everything around her (as she glides through the school in her starched white blouses-a facade to her self-constraint) that creates the grisly puzzle to the plot, which I will not divulge here.

The House that Screamed is epiphanic of the thing that dreams and beautiful nightmares are made of… not these latest hellish journeys through graphic violations of the mind, body and soul, obliterating, annihilating any patch of humanity left to detect, without a purpose, a meaning nor cathartic release…

If I see one more woman’s mouth slashed from ear to ear like Gwynplaine (Conrad Veidt’s character in The Man Who Laughs (1928) A story filled with poignant heartache with layers of gut reaction not a story with a sense of regurgitation. But I digress…

This film is an elegant horrifying waltz, textural, voyeuristic Spanish thriller, and timeless late 60s horror film… an absolute masterwork of art. From the acting, cinematography, Neo-Gothic art & set direction, the incredible use of lighting, music, and sound design (each frame exists with its own individual cue that marks the scenes with a spine-chilling ambiance, a chorus of whimperings & glossolalia) and the fabulous period wardrobe designed by VÃctor MarÃa Cortezo.

**Cristina GalbÃ³ as Teresa arrives at the finishing school and is greeted by Madame Fourneau.**

The film begins with Teresa (Cristina GalbÃ³ What Have You Done To Solange? 1972) being dropped off at a remote, finishing school for said "problem" girls run by the severely domineering Madame Fourneau (Lilli Palmer), whose impish son, Luis (John Moulder-Brown) is held captive himself, by his mother's doting maternal iron hand. (Moulder's outre boyish expression is creepy in and of itself.) Yet it bares out the ironic theme of pure evil laying in wait behind the mask of purity. Luis is left to scour the perimeters of the school, voyeuristically gazing through small peepholes observing and befriending certain girls, like a rat who scurries behind the walls, he manages to arrange clandestine rendezvous with certain of the nymphs he chooses, while watching them during their weekly shower ritual–nightgown on–nudity is NOT an option unless you beg the wrath from the headmistress! (It throws her into a hypnotic-homophobic/homoerotic fugue).

There are several disappearances assumed to be a case of the girls being runaways as they are known for their sexual liaisons with delivery men, but there is something much more sinisterÂ lurking at ‘Le Residencia’- The Finishing School the alternate title to The House that Screamed 1969.

The narrative, the film’s oxygen is apprehensive. As tautly wound as one of Teresa’s mother’s (the prostitute) corsets. Driven by the beauty of a frightening impressionist painting, the cinematography, (Godofredo Pacheco & Manuel Berenguer ) and the applied use of color, conjuring the film's atmosphere like a Gothic masterpiece of terror. Colors are also very emblematic of the works of Mario Bava having given his films a lush surreal dream-like quality to them, making work like Black Sabbath 1963 a memorable walk through a lush nightmare. The House That Screamed evokes a world of repression, decay, and an unseen menacing eye that is brushed with vibrant liquid-like colors.

The rigid yet pulsing tempo of the pace that is leading us to the horrifying conclusion, the haunting exquisiteness of the score by Waldo de los RÃos, its beautiful simplicity which leaves me humming for days… the visual perspective that allows us to participate in the claustrophobic, repressive quality of tristesse about the school. The eroticism is so very self-contained. It's this type of eroticism that I find more compelling than any literal sexual exploitation and B nudie flick unless the point is ‘exploitation’ (which I’m a complete fan of )and beauty is not the operative function. The psycho-sexual elements and the horror story are not overstated, they are trembling below the surface waiting to hyperventilate from all the tension. This is one gorgeous horror film that never gets old for me.

Guillermo Del Toro who is probably the only auteur I think could attempt a re-make having used a similar eye with Pan’s Labyrinth 2006 and The Devil’s Backbone 2001 which had that sensibility that allows the horror to appear beautiful. As of late, I’ve become a fan of Eloy de la Iglesia and his style of storytelling. I’ve given these kinds of films the more powerful title of "Fable horror" The stunning and quiet sensuality brings you just to the edge but does not indulge your fight or flight response.

If you haven’t seen The House That Screamed and are curious about a film that led the 60s out with an elegant scream, and if you’re a fan of Lilli Palmer then take a stab at this one. Oops sorry for the ironic cliche there. I think you’ll be able to watch it without one hand over your face and no threat of night terrors either… If you want nightmares, just watch Criminal Minds while eating a large bowl of pasta at 10 pm then go straight to bed… I promise it’ll be far worse than anything you’ll experience from Serrador’s incredible The House That Screamed!