Heroines & Scream Queens of Classic Horror: the 1940s! A very special Drive In Hall–ween treat!

Evelyn Ankers
promo shot for The Wolf Man- Evelyn Ankers

THE WOMEN OF CLASSIC HORROR: THE 1940S!

You could say that Evelyn Ankers is still the reigning queen of classical 1940s horror fare turned out by studios like RKO, Universal, and Monogram. But there was a host of femme scream tales that populated the silver screen with their unique beauty, quirky style, and/or set of lungs ready to wail, faint, or generally add some great tone and tinge to the eerie atmosphere whenever the mad scientist or monster was afoot. Some were even monstrous themselves…

For this upcoming Halloween, I thought I’d show just a little love to those fabulous ladies who forged a little niche for themselves as the earliest scream queens & screen icons.

ELSA LANCHESTER 1902-1986

I’m including Elsa Lanchester because any time I can talk about this deliriously delightful actress I’m gonna do it. Now I know she was the screaming hissing undead bride in the 30s but consider this… in the 40s she co-starred in two seminal thrillers that bordered on shear horror as Mrs. Oates in The Spiral Staircase 1945 and a favorite of mine as one of Ida Lupino’s batty sisters Emily Creed in Ladies in Retirement 1941

I plan on venturing back to the pre-code thirties soon, so I’ll talk about The Bride of Frankenstein, as well as Gloria Holden (Dracula’s Daughter, Frances Dade (Dracula) and Kathleen Burke (Island of Lost Souls) Gloria Stuart and Fay Wray and so many more wonderful actresses of that golden era…

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Elsa Lanchester as Mrs.Oates in director Robert Siodmak’s The Spiral Staircase 1945
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The Sister Creed in Ladies in Retirement 1941 starring Elsa Lanchester, Ida Lupino, and the wonderful Edith Barrett (right)

ANNE NAGEL  1915-1956

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the playfully pretty Anne Nagel.
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Anne Nagel & Lon Chaney Jr in a promo shot for Man Made Monster
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Anne Nagel was strapped to the slab and at the mercy of the ever-mad Lionel Atwill. Here comes the glowing Lon Chaney Jr! in his electric rubber suit in Man Made Monster!

The depraved mad scientist Lionel Atwill working with electro biology pins gorgeous red-headed Anne Nagel playing June Lawrence, to his operating slab in Man Made Monster 1941. Lon Chaney Jr. comes hulking in all aglow as the ‘Electrical Man’ which was his debut for Universal. He carries Anne Nagel through the countryside all lit up like a lightning bug in rubber armor. Man Made Monster isn’t the only horror shocker that she displayed her tresses & distresses. She also played a night club singer named Sunny Rogers also co-starring our other 40’s horror heroine icon Anne Gwynne in the Karloff/Lugosi pairing Black Friday in 1940.

She played the weeping Mrs.William Saunders, the wife of Lionel Atwill’s first victim in Mad Doctor of Market Street 1942. And then of course she played mad scientist Dr Lorenzo Cameron’s (George Zucco’s) daughter Lenora in The Mad Monster 1942. Dr. Cameron has succeeded with his serum in turning men into hairy wolf-like Neanderthal monsters whom he unleashes on the men who ruined his career.

Anne Nagel and Lionel Atwill Mad Doctor of Market Street
Anne Nagel and Lionel Atwill Mad Doctor of Market Street.

Poor Anne had a very tragic life… Considered that sad girl who was always hysterical. Once Universal dropped her she fell into the Poverty Row limbo of bit parts. Her brief marriage to Ross Alexander ended when he shot himself in the barn in 1937, and Anne became a quiet alcoholic until her death from cancer in 1966.

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Lon Chaney Jr and Anne Nagel Man Made Monster

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Dr. Cameron’s daughter Lenora (Anne Nagel) discovers the wolf-like man in his laboratory in The Mad Monster.
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Glenn Strange as Petro the Hairy man in The Mad Monster 1942.

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the sultry Anne Nagel and Bela Lugosi in Black Friday 1940 photo courtesy Dr. Macro.

MARTHA VICKERS- 1925-1971

Martha Vickers
the beauty of Martha Vickers.

Martha was in noir favorites The Big Sleep 1946 & Alimony 1949. This beauty played an uncredited Margareta ‘Vazec’s Daughter’along side Ilona Massey as Baroness Elsa Frankenstein and the marvelous older beauty Maria Ouspenskaya as Maleva the gypsy! in Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man 1943. Then she played heroine Dorothy Coleman in Captive Wild Woman 1943 and Miss McLean in The Mummy’s Ghost 1944.

Originally Martha MacVickar she started modeling for photographer William Mortenson. David O Selznick contracted the starlet but Universal took over and put in her bit parts as the victim in Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man and in other ‘B’ guilty pleasures like Captive Wild Woman & The Mummy’s Ghost. She was also the pin-up girl for WWII magazines.

Martha also starred in other noir features such as Ruthless 1948 and The Big Bluff 1955. She was Mickey Rooney’s third wife.

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Martha Vickers and Humphrey Bogart in The Big Sleep photo courtesy of Dr. Macro.
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Martha Vickers and Lon Chaney in Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man.
Martha Vickers and John Carradine in Captive Wild Woman
Martha Vickers and John Carradine in Captive Wild Woman
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I just can’t resist Vicker’s sex appeal here she is again… Wow!

JANICE LOGAN 1915-1965

Though Logan made very few films including Opened By Mistake 1940, her contribution to women who kick-ass in horror films and don’t shrink like violets when there’s a big bald baddie coming after you with a net and a bottle of chloroform, makes you a pretty fierce contender even if you are only 7 inches tall! As Dr. Mary Robinson (Janice Logan), Logan held it all together while the men were scattering like mice from the menacing google eyed Dr. Cyclops played superbly by Albert Dekker.

FAY HELM  1909-2003

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Fay Helm as Nurse Strand with John Carradine in Captive Wild Woman.

Fay Helm played Ann Terry in one of my favorite unsung noir/thriller gems Phantom Lady 1944 where it was all about the ‘hat’ and she co-starred as Nurse Strand alongside John Carradine in Captive Wild Woman. Fay played Mrs. Duval in the Inner Sanctum mystery Calling Dr. Death with Lon Chaney Jr. 1943

Ella Raines and Fay Helm in Phantom Lady
Ella Raines and Fay Helm in Phantom Lady.

Fay Helm plays Jenny Williams in Curt Siodmak’s timeless story directed by George Waggner for Universal and starring son of a thousand faces Lon Chaney Jr in his most iconic role Larry Talbot as The Wolf Man 1941

Fay as Jenny Williams: “Even a man who is pure in heart and says his prayers by night, may become a wolf when the wolfbane blooms and the autumn moon is bright.”

Fay was in Night Monster 1942. Directed by Ford Beebe the film starred Bela Lugosi as a butler to Lionel Atwill a pompous doctor who falls prey to frightening nocturnal visitations. I particularly love the atmosphere of this little chiller with its swampy surroundings and its metaphysical storyline.

Dr. Lynn Harper (Irene Hervey- Play Misty For Me 1971) a psychologist is called to the mysterious Ingston Mansion, to evaluate the sanity of Margaret Ingston, played by our horror heroine Fay Helm daughter of Kurt Ingston (Ralph Morgan) a recluse who invites the doctors to his eerie mansion who left him in a wheelchair.

Fay gives a terrific performance surrounded by all the ghoulish goings on! She went on to co-star with Bela Lugosi and Jack Haley in the screwball scary comedy One Body Too Many (1944).

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Irene Hervey as Dr. Lynn Harper –Night Monster 1942.

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Fay Helm in Night Monster.
Fay Helm with Bela the gypsy in The Wolf Man
Fay Helm with Bela the gypsy in The Wolf Man.

LOUISE CURRIE 1913-2013

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Ape Man Bela and Louise Currie

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Bela Lugosi as half ape half man really needed a shave badly in The Ape Man 1943, and Louise Currie and her wonder whip might have been the gorgeous blonde dish to make him go for the Barbasol. One of the most delicious parts of the film was its racy climax as Emil Van Horn in a spectacle of a gorilla suit rankles the cage bars longing for Currie’s character, Billie Mason the tall blonde beauty. As Bela skulks around the laboratory and Currie snaps her whip in those high heels. The film’s heroine was a classy dame referred to as Monogram’s own Katharine Hepburn! She had a great affection for fellow actor Bela Lugosi and said that she enjoyed making Poverty Row films more than her bit part in Citizen Kane! And I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that she appeared in several serials, from both Universal & Republic like The Green Hornet and Captain Marvel.

Tom Weaver in his book Poverty Row HORRORS! described The Ape Man as “a Golden Turkey of the most beloved kind.”

Louise Currie followed up with another sensational title for Monogram as Stella Saunders in Voodoo Man 1944 which again features Lugosi as Dr. Richard Marlowe who blends voodoo with hypnosis in an attempt to bring back his dead wife. The film also co-stars George Zucco as a voodoo high priest and the ubiquitous John Carradine as Toby a bongo-playing half-wit “Don’t hurt her Grego, she’s a pretty one!”

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Pat McKee as Grego, Louise Currie, John Carradine, and Bela Lugosi in Monogram’s Voodoo Man 1944.
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the outrageous Voodoo Man 1944

Continue reading “Heroines & Scream Queens of Classic Horror: the 1940s! A very special Drive In Hall–ween treat!”

Johnny Stool Pigeon (1949) “He was a gangster and a hoodlum and he hated every cop that ever breathed”

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JOHNNY STOOL PIGEON 1949

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William Castle had success with When Strangers Marry ’44, with (Kim Hunter and Robert Mitchum) and was well regarded for the work he did for RKO with his brilliantly offbeat The Whistler series.

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With Johnny Stool Pigeon, Castle directs this uncluttered and obscure little film noir, pairing Shelley Winters and Dan Duryea who made Larceny a year earlier and would then do another picture together, Winchester ’73 in 1950.

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Dan Duryea and Shelley Winters in Winchester 73 photo courtesy of all things Duryea @ http://danduryeacentral.blogspot.com/
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Shelley Winters and Dan Duryea in William Castle’s Johnny Stool Pigeon 1949 promo courtesy of Dan Duryea Central blog spot

It’s an entertaining programmer lensed with a semi-documentary style utilizing the usual noir voice-over to aid in the storytelling as Howard Duff’s character narrates the action as he goes undercover as Mike Doyle.

Scripted by Robert L. Richards  (Act of Violence 1948) is based on a story by Henry Jordan. Using stock music by an uncredited Miklós Rózsa.

With cinematography by Maury Gertsman (Blond Alibi ’46, The Brute Man ’46, Ma and Pa Kettle ’49, The Glass Web ’53, The Creature Walks Among Us ’56). The moody visuals are courtesy of filming on location in San Francisco and Tucson. The old-style pier scenes with the opening shoot-out in the warehouse to the customs check with rows of cars at the Mexican border in Tucson give the picture the comfortable feel of added realism of 1949.

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beautiful exterior shots of the Tucson sky.

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A young sailor gets off a ship carrying a sack. He’s meeting up with a hood named Carter. They’re trafficking heroine from the Orient.
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Federal Agents Morton and Harrison are in pursuit.

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“Get your hands up and stay where you are.”

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The young man is shot by his accomplice. Agent Morton looks at his wallet to id him.
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Morton (Howard Duff) goes on to narrate from here-“Someone in Shanghai told him a way to make an easy buck and he believed him. All he needed was luck. And so one night on a Shanghai dock they slipped something into his hand that looked like an ordinary can of tobacco. Only it wasn’t and John Whalen wasn’t lucky.”
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it certainly wasn’t an ordinary can of tobacco

With a fantastic cast as follows- Shelley Winters, Howard Duff, Dan Duryea who made 3 other noir classics that year in 1949 (Manhandled, Criss Cross, & Too Late for Tears), and co-stars Tony Curtis, John McIntire, Barry Kelley, and Leif Erickson.

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photo courtesy of Dan Duryea Central Blog Spot.

Duryea is marvelous as always, playing the quintessential sneering oily voiced cynic who’s a sympathetic slick, and snickering ‘bad guy’ that you just have to like.

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Dan Duryea as Johnny Evans photo courtesy of Dan Duryea Central Blog Spot.
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photo courtesy of Dan Duryea Central Blog Spot

Howard Duff plays it straight as George Morton a federal narcotics agent who goes undercover to infiltrate a syndicate of criminal heroin smugglers. He enlists the help of childhood pal now convict, Johnny Evans (Dan Duryea) a hoodlum he’s sent to Alcatraz for life. Now getting him sprung so Johnny can help him sneak inside the big drug operation and bust it wide open. Naturally, Johnny hates cops but his wife has just died from an overdose which Morton uses to convince Johnny to help him catch these dangerous drug runners.

Of course, there’s conflict between these two men, as Morton’s on a mission and Johnny’s vowed revenge. Johnny Evans helps Morton get a new identity as they infiltrate the powerful gang of drug dealers.

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photo courtesy of Dan Duryea Central Blog Spot

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Morton now using the name of Mike Doyle, Johnny go to Vancouver where McCandles the drug lord uses his floozie blonde Terry to keep an eye on the pair. Like any good gritty and sexy charged thriller Johnny Evans falls for Terry who only only seems to have eyes for Morton. Ah, the eternal triangle lives on as they travel to Tuscon where the dangerous drug deal is about to go down at the Mexican border crossing.

Gangly but wily rancher Nick Avery (John McIntire) doesn’t trust these two from the get-go. The team must be loyal to each other if they want to remain above suspicion. It’s great grist for the noir narrative mill as we must wait and see whether Johnny will sell Morton out to this gang of thugs.

Johnny Stool Pigeon also features a first-time role for a young Tony Curtis who plays a mute pretty boy hired killer who can’t seem to place Morton/Mike Doyle’s face but it’s lurking in his memory from the time they chased Carter and Joey spots them in the hallway. He’d just killed Carter, having been sent there to kill their San Francisco connection so he wouldn’t squeal.

Uncredited bit player Tony Curtis’ only spent a few seconds on screen doing the rumba with Yvonne DeCarlo in Robert Siodmak’s Criss Cross ’49, That little spark of sexy flare made Universal realize that they had a star on their hands.

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doing the rumba with Yvonne DeCarlo in Robert Siodmak’s Criss Cross ’49.

Gang moll blonde Terry is played by Universal’s new voluptuous Shelley Winters. Who begins her long career starting out as a whiny, trashy yet outre charismatic sex pot.

I’ve got a special feature waiting at the Last Drive In’s snack bar all about Shelley Winters and her impressive contribution to film.

Duryea’s character keeps us guessing as to whether he’s going to betray Morton and turn into a ‘stool pigeon’. It’s a great little match-up of the likable Duff and Duryea as they play the eternal unwilling partners in conflict as they journey from San Francisco to Vancouver and then to a luxury ranch in Tucson run by the slimy Nick Avery, as amiable as a snake in the grass.

Continue reading “Johnny Stool Pigeon (1949) “He was a gangster and a hoodlum and he hated every cop that ever breathed””

Step Right Up! It’s The William Castle Blogathon: Day Two!

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Today is going to be a humdinger with some offbeat features to tantalize and titillate and make you whistle!

Goregirl’s Dungeon will be hosting Kristina at Speakeasy, The Metzinger Sisters of Silver Scenes & Heather Drain (Mondo Heather)

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I felt inspired here at The Last Drive In by all the ballyhoo and pageantry to do a ‘William Castle’s Villains & Victims! Scream-O Vision...’

David Arrate from My Kind of Story is sharing a particularly special little feature called It's a Small World (1950) ‘Image Gallery’ I dare you not to fall head over heals for Harry Musk!

Ivan of Thrilling Days of Yesteryear & Radio Spirits: is whistling at us with his fabulous series:

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The Whistler (1944)

Mark of the Whistler (1944)

Voice of the Whistler (1945)

I’ll also be featuring Ray at Weird Flix -as he mesmerizes us with the Slaves of Babylon (1953)"¨

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Slaves of Babylon

Lindsey at The Motion Pictures -brings us an interesting take on the film Matinee (1993) A Cinematic Love Letter to the films of William Castle

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Ivan’s got more over at Thrilling Days of Yesteryear The Chance of a Lifetime (1943)

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Karen at Shadows and Satin, our wonderful Dark Pages gal will titillate us with –Mysterious Intruder (1946)"¨

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Mysterious Intruder

And my partner in crime at Goregirl's Dungeon -is bringing us a fabulous bevvy of–The Women of Castle’ so head over there and ogle those beauties!

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Patricia Breslin Homicidal

Carol Haunted Hill

And the Spine-Tinglers Are:

Monday, July 29th:

Aurora at Once upon a screen…: The Night Walker (’64)

Rich at Wide Screen World: Top 5 William Castle Gimmicks

Le at Critica Retro: Texas, Brooklyn and Heaven (’48) ‘Live Dreaming’

Furious Cinemas: William Castle: Mad as Hell Movie Showman

Lindsey at The Motion Pictures: Favorite Things About… House on Haunted Hill

Forgotten Films: Macabre (’58)

Barry at Cinematic Catharsis: 13 Ghosts (’60)

Joey at The Last Drive In: House on Haunted Hill (’59) ‘Only the ghosts in this house are glad we’re here’

Goregirl’s Dungeon: Fun with GIFS: The William Castle Edition

Tuesday, July 30th:

David Arrate of My Kind of Story  It's a Small World (1950) ‘Image Gallery’

The Last Drive InWilliam Castle’s Villains & Victims! Scream-O Vision…

Ivan of Thrilling Days of Yesteryear) & Radio Spirits: The Whistler, Mark of the Whistler, Voice of The Whistler

Heather Drain at Mondo Heather: 13 Frightened Girls! (1963) & Hullabaloo & Horror: A Tribute to William Castle

Lindsey at The Motion Pictures: Matinee (1993) A Cinematic Love Letter to the films of William Castle

Karen at Shadows and Satin: Mysterious Intruder (1946)

Kristina at Speakeasy: The Houston Story (1956)

Ray at Weird Flix: Slaves of Babylon (1953)

The Metzinger Sisters at Silver Scenes: Busy Bodies: Promoting Castle’s Camp” & The Films of William Castle!

Ivan G. Shreve at Thrilling Days of Yesteryear: The Chance of a Lifetime (1943) {Boston Blackie}

Goregirl's Dungeon: The Women of Castle

Wednesday, July 31st:

Brian Schuck at Films From Beyond The Time Barrier:Strait-Jacket (1964)

Joey at The Last Drive In: Johnny Stool Pigeon (1949)

Rob Silvera at The Midnight Monster Show: Double feature Homicidal (1961) & House on Haunted Hill (1959)

Lindsey at The Motion Pictures: Macabre (1958)

David Arrate My Kind of Story-Images: It’s a Small World (1950)

Goregirl's Dungeon: Goregirl's Dungeon on YouTube: Alex North & Vic Mizzy

Thursday, August 1st:

Steve Habrat at Anti Film School: Mr Sardonicus (1961)

Classic Movie Hub: The Busy Body (1967)

John LarRue at The Droid You’re Looking For: William Castle Gimmick Infographic

Paul Lambertson at Lasso the Movies: The Tingler (1959)

Goregirl's Dungeon: Favourite Five Series: William Castle

Lindsey at The Motion Pictures:Tribute

Scenes From The Morgue:Showcase of newspaper ads for William Castle films

Stacia at She Blogged By Night: Let’s Kill Uncle (1966)

Ruth- R.A Kerr at Silver Screenings: The Old Dark House (1963)

Ivan G. Shreve at Thrilling Days of Yesteryear: I Saw What You Did (1965)

Ray at Weird Flix: The Saracen Blade (1954)

Friday, August 2nd:

Toby Roan at 50 Westerns: The Law vs Billy the Kid (1954)

Misty Layne at Cinema Schminema: Project X (1968)

Jenna Berry at Classic Movie Night: Ghost Story/Circle of Fear

Kristen atJourneys in Classic Film: Spine-Tingler: The William Castle Story

Joey at The Last Drive In: Back Story: What Ever Happened to William Castle’s Baby? (Rosemary’s Baby)

Jeff Kuykendall at Midnight Only: Bug (1975)

Gwen Kramer at Movies Silently: After the Silents: Chills! Thrills! William Castle Special!

David Arrate at My Kind of Story-Images: Shanks (1974) & Masterson of Kansas (1954)

The Nitrate Diva: When Strangers Marry (1944)

Dorian Tenore Bartilucci at Tales of the Easily Distracted: The Spirit is Willing (1967)

Vinnie Bartilucci at Tales of the Easily Distracted:Zotz! (1962)

Sam at Wonders in the Dark: Christopher Komeda’s Score, Rosemary’s Baby (1968)

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Welcome to The William Castle Blogathon: Day One!

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Bill and Skeleton

IT’S DAY ONE OF THE WILLIAM CASTLE BLOGATHON– I FEEL SOMETHING EERIE AND YET PLEASANT CRAWLING UP MY SPINE!  I THINK IT’S EXCITEMENT SO SCREAM, SCREAM FOR YOUR LIVES!!!!! HAPPY 54TH ANNIVERSARY TO THE TINGLER

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Here at The Last Drive In -We’re kicking off the celebration with some very spine tingling, toe tapping tales in celebration of the great William Castle.

Aurora over at Once upon a screen… is hiding under the sheets as she talks about The Night Walker (1964) starring Barbara Stanwyck, Robert Taylor and Lloyd Bochner.

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Rich, over at Wide Screen World, offers us his Top 5 William Castle Gimmicks!

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(Le) at Critica Retro discusses charming romp Texas, Brooklyn and Heaven (1948)

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MacGill, Ryan, Bates and Hamilton- Texas, Brooklyn and Heaven

And my wonderful partner in crime, Terri at Goregirl's Dungeon, will be setting the Wow Meter off into the red with her Fun with GIFS: The William Castle Edition!

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So don’t be afraid my fearless friends- head over to the dungeon and see Terri’s cheeky tribute to the July 29, 1959 54th anniversary nod to our little pal… The Tingler plus…her fun with gifs!-you won’t be able to take your eyes off ’em

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Terri at Goregirl’s Dungeon will be hosting folks at her lair with bars on the windows and vats of boiling acid; so go there and be thrilled to your bones!

Furious Cinema, Lindsey at The Motion Pictures, Forgotten Films, Barry at Cinematic Catharsis

And me at The Last Drive In, showing some love to my favorite Castle fun house fright ride- House on Haunted Hill (1959). Good old Mrs Slydes still scares the hell out of my cat… okay maybe me…. when she glides through the dark wine cellar.

The Spine-Tinglers Are!

Monday, July 29th:

Aurora at Once upon a screen…: The Night Walker (’64)

Rich at Wide Screen World: Top 5 William Castle Gimmicks

Le at Critica Retro: Texas, Brooklyn and Heaven (’48) ‘Live Dreaming’

Furious Cinemas: William Castle: Mad as Hell Movie Showman

Lindsey at The Motion Pictures: Favorite Things About… House on Haunted Hill

Forgotten Films: Macabre (’58)

Barry at Cinematic Catharsis: 13 Ghosts (’60)

Joey at The Last Drive In: House on Haunted Hill (’59) ‘Only the ghosts in this house are glad we’re here’

Goregirl’s Dungeon: Fun with GIFS: The William Castle Edition

Tuesday, July 30th:

Heather Drain at Mondo Heather: 13 Frightened Girls! (1963) & Hullabaloo & Horror: A Tribute to William Castle

Lindsey at The Motion Pictures: The film Matinee (1993) and how it was inspired by Castle

Karen at Shadows and Satin: Mysterious Intruder (1946)

Kristina at Speakeasy:  The Houston Story (1956)

Ray at Weird Flix: Slaves of Babylon (1953)

The Metzinger Sisters at Silver Scenes: Busy Bodies: Promoting Castle’s Camp” & The Films of William Castle!

Ivan G. Shreve at Thrilling Days of Yesteryear: The Chance of a Lifetime (1943) {Boston Blackie}

Goregirl's Dungeon: The Women of Castle

Wednesday, July 31st:

Brian Schuck at Films From Beyond The Time Barrier: Strait-Jacket (1964)

Joey at The Last Drive In: Johnny Stool Pigeon (1949)

Rob Silvera at The Midnight Monster Show: Double feature Homicidal (1961) & House on Haunted Hill (1959)

Lindsey at The Motion Pictures: Macabre (1958)

David Arrate My Kind of Story-Images: It’s a Small World (1950)

Goregirl's Dungeon: Goregirl's Dungeon on YouTube: Alex North & Vic Mizzy

Thursday, August 1st:

Steve Habrat at Anti Film School: Mr Sardonicus (1961)

Classic Movie Hub: The Busy Body (1967)

John LarRue at The Droid You’re Looking For: William Castle Gimmick Infographic

Paul Lambertson at Lasso the Movies: The Tingler (1959)

Goregirl's Dungeon: Favourite Five Series: William Castle

Lindsey at The Motion Pictures: Tribute

Scenes From The Morgue: Showcase of newspaper ads for William Castle films

Stacia at She Blogged By Night: Let’s Kill Uncle (1966)

Ruth- R.A Kerr at Silver Screenings: The Old Dark House (1963)

Ivan G. Shreve at Thrilling Days of Yesteryear: I Saw What You Did (1965)

Ray at Weird Flix: The Saracen Blade (1954)

Friday, August 2nd:

Toby Roan at 50 Westerns: The Law vs Billy the Kid (1954)

Misty Layne at Cinema Schminema: Project X (1968)

Jenna Berry at Classic Movie Night: Ghost Story/Circle of Fear

Kristen at Journeys in Classic Film: Spine-Tingler: The William Castle Story

Joey at The Last Drive In: Back Story: What Ever Happened to William Castle’s Baby? (Rosemary’s Baby)

Jeff Kuykendall at Midnight Only: Bug (1975)

Gwen Kramer at Movies Silently: After the Silents: Chills! Thrills! William Castle Special!

David Arrate at My Kind of Story-Images: Shanks (1974) & Masterson of Kansas (1954)

The Nitrate Diva: When Strangers Marry (1944)

Dorian Tenore Bartilucci at Tales of the Easily Distracted: The Spirit is Willing (1967)

Vinnie Bartilucci at Tales of the Easily Distracted: Zotz! (1962)

Sam at Wonders in the Dark: Christopher Komeda’s Score, Rosemary’s Baby (1968)

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Postcards From Shadowland No.12

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Baby Doll (1956) Elia Kazan directs Carroll Baker, Eli Wallach, Karl Malden and Mildred Dunnock as Aunt Rose Comfort
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Robert Cummings and Priscilla Lane in Alfred Hitchcock’s Saboteur (1942)
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Richard Attenborough in director John Boulting’s British Noir Brighton Rock (1947)
David Wayne in Jospeh Losey's version of M (1951
David Wayne in Jospeh Losey’s version of M (1951)
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F.W. Murnau’s Faust (1926)
Franju  Nuits rouges (1974)
George Franju Judex (1963)
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Gloria Grahame in Fritz Lang’s noir classic The Big Heat (1953)
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Hedy Lamarr in "Lady of the Tropics" 1939
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Ida Lupino in Nicholas Ray’s On Dangerous Ground (1952)
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George Franju’s Judex (1963) with Channing Pollock
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Joseph Losey’s remake of the classic M (1951) starring David Wayne and a creepy clown balloon.
Mason Arlene Dahl Jounrey To The Center of The Earth
James Mason and Arlene Dahl in Jules Verne’s Journey To the Center of The Earth 1959
Metropolis
Fritz Lang’s Metropolis (1927) Brigitte Helm
Odds against Tomorrow
Odds Against Tomorrow (1959) Directed by Robert Wise staring Robert Ryan, Harry Belafonte, Gloria Grahame and Shelley Winters. Cinematography by Joseph C. Brun
On Dangerous Ground
On Dangerous Ground (1952) Directed by Nicholas Ray & an uncredited Ida Lupino-Starring Ida Lupino and Robert Ryan
Robert Ryan in odds against tomorrow
Odds Against Tomorrow (1959) Robert Ryan as racist ex-con Earle Slater and Mel Stewart (Henry Jefferson) as Hotel Juno’s Elevator Operator.
Sleep My Love
Douglas Sirk’s Sleep My Love (1948) Starring lovely Claudette Colbert, Robert Cummings & Don Ameche
Svengali-Barrymore
Archie Mayo’s Svengali (1931) starring Lionel Barrymore & Marian Marsh
The Citadel Carol Lombard
Carole Lombard stars in Vigil in the Night (1940) directed by George Stevens
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Lew Landers’ The Mask of Diijon (1949) starring Erich von Stroheim and Jeanne Bates
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Rita Hayworth in The Lady from Shanghai 1947
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Fernando Méndez’s The Vampire’s Coffin (1958) starring Abel Salazar and Ariadna Welter
woman's prison
Lewis Seiler’s Women’s Prison 1955 starring Ida Lupino, Cleo Moore, Jan Sterling, Audrey Totter, and pictured here Phyllis Thaxter

Postcards From Shadowland no. 9

1933 das testament der dr. mabuse
The Testament of Dr. Mabuse 1933 Fritz Lang
Ace In The Hole
Ace in The Hole – Billy Wilder
Aroused 1966
Aroused 1966 Anton Holden
Bayou 1957
Poor White Trash aka Bayou 1957-Harold Daniels
Blues in the night
Blues in the Night 1941-Anatole Litvak
Edward G Robinson-Little-Caesar with Douglas Fairbanks jr. and Glenda Farrell
Directed by Mervyn LeRoy-Edward G Robinson is Little-Caesar (1931) with Douglas Fairbanks jr. and Glenda Farrell
Experiment in Terror Ross Martin as Red Lynch
Experiment in Terror – Blake Edwards directs -Ross Martin as Red Lynch
Gene Tierney Tobacco Road 1941
Gene Tierney Tobacco Road 1941 directed by John Ford
George Pujouly  Brigitte Fossey Forbidden Games Jeux interdits 1952 René Clément
George Pujouly Brigitte Fossey Forbidden Games (Jeux interdits) 1952 directed by René Clément
Granny-The Southerner
Granny-The Southerner-Jean Renoir
Jeux Interdits
Jeux Interdits
knock on any door
Knock On Any Door 1949 Nicholas Ray
Lena Cabin in The Sky
Lena Horne-Cabin in The Sky 1943- Vincente Minnelli
Lon Chaney in He Who Gets Slapped
Lon Chaney in He Who Gets Slapped 1924 Victor Sjöström
Modern Times Charlie Chaplin
Modern Times Charlie Chaplin 1936
Never Take Sweets From A Stranger
Never Take Sweets From A Stranger 1960 Cyril Frankel
Night of The Demon-Tourneur
Curse of The Demon- 1957 Jacques Tourneur
Peter Lorre in The Man Who Knew Too Much1956
Peter Lorre in Alfred Hitchcock’s The Man Who Knew Too Much 1956
Rashomon
Rashomon 1950 -Akira Kurosawa
Repulsion
Roman Polanski’s Repulsion 1965 Catherine Deneuve
The Cobweb
The Cobweb-1955- Vincente Minnelli
The Last Laugh-letzte mann and emil-jannings in
The Last Laugh 1924-with emil-jannings directed by F.W Murnau
the sweet smell of success
The Sweet Smell of Success 1957-directed by Alexander Mackendrick written by Clifford Odets
Viva Zapata with Marlon-Brando and Jean Peters-
Viva Zapata 1952 with Marlon-Brando and Jean Peters-Elia Kazan directs

A Trailer a day keeps the Boogeyman Away! Between Two Worlds (1944)

BETWEEN TWO WORLDS (1944)

Between Two Worlds '44 poster

Produced by Jack L Warner and Mark Hellinger and directed by Edward A.Blatt, with a screenplay by Daniel Fuchs and based on Sutton Vanes play “Outward Bound” this story is a journey with an extraordinary ensemble cast, featuring John Garfield, Paul Henreid, Sydney Greenstreet, Eleanor. Parker, Edmund Gwenn, George Tobias, George Coulouris, Faye Emerson, and Isobel Elsom.

With an beautifully evocative score by Erich Wolfgang Korngold (Kings Row 1942,The Sea Wolf 1941)

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The film begins with an air raid during WWII, in which several people are unable to seek shelter. As the film transcends it’s earthly boundaries, it emerges as a mystical and melancholy tale of lost souls thrown together on a mysterious ship, trying to grasp the meanings of their lives, as they reflect and react to each other.

Aboard this strange ship which acts as a traveling Pergatory the players must wait and see if their final destination will either be heaven or hell, as their paths become clear to them, and they awaken to their final destinies.

Tom Prior: I read a great epitaph once, I’m gonna steal it for myself.
Scrubby: Sir?
Tom Prior: Here lies Prior, died a bachelor. Wifeless. Childless. Wish his father’d died the same.

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Here in this world, saying be happy-MonsterGirl

Twelve Neglected Characters from Classic Film.

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1) The tragically poetic Pete Krumbein in Edmund Goulding’s Nightmare Alley 1947 played by Ian Keith.
Franzi
2) The flamboyant Franzi Kartos in Caught 1949 portrayed by Curt Bois ‘darling’
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3) Stauffer, alias Fred Foss in The Dark Corner 1946-played by the wonderful William Bendix in the white linen suit…
Jan Sterling in Women's Prison -Brenda
4) Good-hearted kite hanger, Brenda Martin in Women’s Prison 1955 – the eternal pixie Jan Sterling.
Brute Force Jeff Corey Freshman Stack
5) Jeff Corey, as the cringing, cowardly informer ‘Freshman’ Stack in Brute Force 1947.
Granny Tucker
6) Beulah Bondi as spiittin’ Granny Tucker in Jean Renoir’s The Southerner 1945 ‘Ah shuckity’
Ma Stone- Jane Darwell, The Devil & Daniel Webster
7) Ma Stone in William Dieterle’s The Devil and Daniel Webster 1941– the grand Jane Darwell.
Wills and Jewel talk at tea-Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte
8) Cecil Kellaway as Harry Wills and Mary Astor as Jewel Mayhew in Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte 1964.
Elisha Cook Jr. Jazz wild drummer Cliff-phantom ladyjpg
9) Cliff the jazz sexed drummer in Phantom Lady 1944– the ubiquitous Elisha Cook Jr.
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10) Quirky sisters Louisa and Emily Creed in Ladies in Retirement 1941Edith Barrett & Elsa Lanchester.
11) The wonderful stoolie Mo whose saves for her headstone and plot out on Long Island played with that razor-sharp wit of Thelma Ritter in Pickup on South Street (1953).
12) Jack Oakie as Slob in Jules Dassin’s realism masterpiece Thieves’ Highway (1949).

 

Nightmare Alley (1949) In the cutting room with editor Barbara McLean. See the descent of man, the human condition up close, and throw in a Geek, please.

NIGHTMARE ALLEY 1947Barbara McLean: Groundbreaking Film Editor

Photo from February issue of Vogue 1952 here’s cutter Barbara McLean editing All About Eve.

Director William Goulding’s Allegorical Carnival/ Noir masterpiece based on William Lindsay Gresham’s book: an Americana study of the rise and fall of personal morality, that reaches to the lowest depths of show business with sleazy inhabitants and the sinister and shadowy world of  freak- shows, mentalist acts, geeks, alcoholism and the voyeuristic throng that feed off the human suffering of others

Tyrone Power as Stan Carlisle and Joan Blondell as Zeena Krumbein.
Ian Keith as the alcoholic, mentalist Pete Krumbein.

In Nightmare Alley Barbara McLean contributes to creating a landscape of a distorted reality alongside the dark, clandestine, and arcane carnival atmosphere. The film is beautifully woven, as the seamless images flow into one another. McLean blends together the invisible strands that only one’s dreams could effectively manifest. McLean’s editing constructs much of the surreal and tormented ‘movement’ of the film. It’s what transports each scene of the film, making it every bit as if WE were inhabiting someone’s nightmare.

Coleen Gray created a little electrifying entertainment for the crowd.

With 62 film credits to her name, half of which were with filmmaker Henry King, Barbara McLean is a master of cutting and shaping. She’s worked on some of my all-time favorite films including this film, Goulding’s Nightmare Alley, Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s No Way Out (1950), Henry King’s The Song of Bernadette (1943), Robert Wise’s The Desert Rats (1953), John Ford’s Tobacco Road (1941) and again Mankiewicz’s All About Eve (1950). McLean also worked as an editor on Elia Kazan’s Viva Zapata in 1953, and in 1954 with Michael Curtiz’s on The Egyptian. She edited the first movie filmed in CinemaScope, The Robe (1952), directed by Henry Koster.

Bette Davis and Celeste Holm in All About Eve.
Jennifer Jones in The Song of Bernadette.
Linda Darnell in No Way Out.
Gene Tierney in Tobacco Road.

Barbara McLean was one of the most recognized editors working during the reign of Darryl F. Zanuck at the 20th Century Fox Studio, from the 1930s to the 1960s. Eventually achieving the honor of division chief of the editing department in 1949. She joined Fox in 1935 as one of only eight female film editors working in Hollywood in the 1930s. McLean was part of a huge team of technicians, writers, directors, and collaborators that Zanuck went to for guidance. She was very influential in much of  Zanuck’s decision-making process, as she often acted as an adviser to the Hollywood movie mogul, helping him coordinate even a single shot.

She won the 1944 Academy Award for Film Editing for her work on Wilson (1944) director Henry King’s biopic film of Woodrow Wilson’s political career. McLean was nominated another 6 times for that award, including her work on All About Eve. I think she should have won the 23rd annual Academy Award for All About Eve, but she lost to Ralph E Winters and Conrad A Nerig for their work on King Solomon’s Mines. It was a tough year to compete with nominations also going to The Third Man and Sunset Boulevard. McLean’s greatest collaboration was with filmmaker Henry King, a relationship that spanned over 29 films including Twelve O’Clock High 1949.

Her last editing credit was for Henry King’s Untamed (1955). In later years, McLean acted primarily in a supervisory and administrative capacity, eventually retiring from 20th Century Fox in 1969, due to her husband’s declining health. She received the inaugural American Cinema Editors Career Achievement Award in 1988. McLean died in Newport Beach, California in 1996.

Twelve O’Clock High 1949 with Gregory Peck

Her impact was summarized by Adrian Dannatt in a 1996 obituary in The Independent: McLean was “a revered editor who perhaps single-handedly established women as vital creative figures in an otherwise patriarchal industry.” Writer Tom Stempel, in a piece about Darryl F. Zanuck, writes of McLean‘s influence on Zanuck‘s filmmaking; “For all her focus on keeping the narrative moving, McLean’s editing could dazzle if called for. In A Bell for Adano (1945), she took material director Henry King shot on the return of the Italian POWs to their village and put it together with such a pure sense of emotion that when she cut at exactly the right moment to King’s overhead shot of the prisoners and villagers coming together in the square, the cut was more heart-stopping than conventional close-ups would have been.”

McLean brings together the writer’s and director’s vision and gives it completeness, a cohesion, like alchemy with film footage, she creates cinema gold. According to Bright Lights Film Journal “the basic rules of film editing, first established in the silent era, still govern the industry today: maintain your eye lines, preserve continuity, respect planarity (the rules governing the transposition of three dimensions onto a two-dimensional plane), find a good rhythm, and, most important, always advance the story.” Here is where McLean excels. If you look at the variety of narratives, milieus, and landscapes McLean has stitched together in the editing room, you can see how expansive her vision explores the realms of the human condition, moral corruption, and redemption weaving together images that shape the story into ‘the big picture’, with all the little pieces of the intricate moments of the framework, revealing an intimate story, a memorable story, a universal notion of people living in a state of transformation.

If I could enter the film industry at this stage of my life, there would be one thing aside from my already being a music composer, of course, would be to sit in the editing chair. One of the things I look for in a film, and feel passionately certain about is the cinematography, scoring, and casting, if there is one singularly essential component to what makes a film greater…it’s the editing.

We should also celebrate the women working in the very male-dominated career of film editing, women like Barbara McLean and even Dorothy Spencer (Lifeboat 1944, Stagecoach 1939, and the film I recently blogged about Valley of The Dolls 1967).

I should also mention, Anne Bauchens, who was Cecil B. DeMille’s editor, cutting nearly all his movies from 1915 until his death in 1959, and Margaret Booth. Two women who haven’t been put in the greatest light in terms of their ‘difficult’ personalities and skill, something I’ll write about in future. But aren’t women always difficult to work with? Geez.

And so let’s raise a toast to Barbara McLean’s contributions to the cinema… a pioneer in the industry not only breaking the glass ceiling but taking all the pieces and putting them back together to make an indelible cinematic mural for ages to come.

And now for the Carnival ‘Geek’ in Nightmare Alley: Tyrone Power’s astonishing portrayal of Stanton ‘Stan’ Carlisle the ambitious carney who rises to evangelistic notoriety as a slick and cunning mentalist, only to descend into the realm of self-destruction when power corrupts, consumes and destroys his life, ultimately leading him back to sideshow freakery becoming the very ‘geek’ he once found repulsive. McLean’s treatment of the film’s climatic excursion into the bowels of the carnival and Stan’s diminution into the shadows is quite viscerally staggering.

Tyrone Power’s nightmarish descent into the world of the ‘geek’

According to the book Carny Sideshows by Tony Gangi, a ‘Geek’ is:

An unskilled performer whose performance consists of shocking, repulsive and repugnant acts. This “lowest of the low” member of the carny trade would commonly bite the head off a living chicken, or sit in a bed of snakes. Some historians distinguish between “geeks” who pretend to be wild men, and “glomming geeks” whose act includes eating disgusting things. See the 1949 movie “Nightmare Alley” for a good geek story as well as for an excellent depiction of the mentalist’s technique of “cold reading”. In later years the geek show turned into a “see the pitiful victim of drug abuse” show. “Geek” as a verb (“he geeked”) is one of several terms in use among wrestlers meaning to intentionally cut oneself to draw blood.

A geek who bites the heads off snakes…

Either on the fairway or the cutting room floor, I’ll be there! Your ever-faithful -MonsterGirl!