A Trailer a Day Keeps the Boogeyman Away! Halloween A-Z

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Pharaoh’s Curse 1957

Pharaoh’s Curse is a 1957 American horror film directed by Lee Sholem (Tobor the Great and Superman and the Mole Men)

Character actor George N Neise plays the obsessed archaeologist Robert Quentin as part of a team of American archaeologists who unwittingly awaken a three-thousand-year-old ancient curse while excavating the tomb of a Pharaoh that is rumored to be cursed. Unlike the embodiment of the traditional mummy in the Universal franchise, one of the expedition members (Alvaro Guillot) falls prey to the vengeful spirit of the mummy seeking revenge on those who have desecrated his tomb. It needs to feed on fresh blood to sustain itself which makes it more vampiric than a mummified fiend. Rather than its victims being strangled by rotting bandaged hands, they are left with bite marks on their throats and an odd trace of mold on their necks.

The film starts off at a British outpost nestled in the heart of Egypt. An officer receives strict orders to locate an unsanctioned archaeological expedition and compel them to return to Cairo promptly. En route this small contingent of British soldiers crosses paths with an eccentric Egyptian woman who cryptically warns of dire consequences should they fail to halt the expedition in its tracks. But when they arrive at their destination it’s too late. The archaeologists have not only stumbled upon the tomb of the Pharaoh but have also dared to unseal it, unleashing a malevolent force, and one of the expedition members undergoes a ghastly transformation into a creepy old geezer in pajamas resembling a desiccated mummy-like figure that can’t seemingly be killed.

Pharaoh’s Curse stars Mark Dana as Captain Storm, Diane Brewster as Sylvia Quentin, Ziva Rodann (Macumba Love 1960) as Simira, Ben Wright, and Terence de Marney as Sgt Smolett.

Paranoiac 1963

Paranoiac is a 1963 as part of British psychological horror film produced by Hammer directed by Freddie Francis and scripted by Jimmy Sangster.

The story centers around the wealthy Ashby family, who reside in a large, secluded mansion on the English coast included are the Ashby siblings, Simon (Oliver Reed) and Eleanor (Janette Scott), who are haunted by the tragic death of their parents in a car crash several years earlier. They live under the care of their guardian, Aunt Harriett (Sheila Burrell).

Many years prior, a tragic car accident claimed the lives of two affluent parents, leaving their three children in the care of an eccentric aunt. However, just a few years later, one of the sons seemingly took his own life, leaving behind a fragile and emotionally unstable daughter and a spoiled, belligerent son who indulges in alcohol, exhibits emotional volatility, and behaves abhorrently in every way imaginable.

The sister, who was never a paragon of mental stability, becomes convinced she has encountered her dead brother, Tony, despite all evidence to the contrary. When Tony (Alexander Davion) unexpectedly resurfaces sometime later, doubt lingers over whether he is truly the lost sibling or a cunning impostor. This unexpected return sends Reed’s character spiraling further into madness, accentuating his already unstable and erratic behavior. Paranoiac co-stars Maurice Denham and Lillian Brousse.

The Psychopath 1966

The Psychopath is a uniquely creative and disturbing British horror offering from Amicus produced by Max J. Rosenberg and Milton Subotsky Released in 1966, it was directed by Freddie Francis with a screenplay by Robert Bloch. The film revolves around a series of gruesome murders that shock the tranquil streets of London. Each victim is found with a doll placed near their lifeless body, bearing a striking resemblance to the deceased and their method of execution.

Beginning with Reinhardt Klermer, a middle-aged amateur violinist is on his way to meet his friends who play together as a chamber quartet when a red car runs him down – repeatedly. The unseen murderer leaves a doll in Klermer’s likeness which even includes a miniature violin case. On the scene is Inspector Holloway portrayed by Patrick Wymark, who takes charge of the investigation and believes the murder is most likely committed by one of Klermer’s ensemble. Until, they too are killed (poisoned, stabbed, and hanged) accompanied by dolls, that are tokens of their death left at the crime scene along with their dead bodies. Holloway discovers that each of the victims had given evidence against a convicted war criminal whose bizarre paralyzed widow (Margaret Johnston -Flora Carr in Night of the Eagle aka Burn, Witch Burn 1962) and her curious son Mark (John Standing) seem likely suspects. Both the queer Von Sturms are collectors of dolls. Also under suspicion are Louise Saville (Judy Huxtable) and her fiance (Donald Loftis), because one of the victims was Louise’s father who did not approve of their getting married. Holloway even finds a doll with his likeness but that doesn’t stop him from getting at the truth.

There are some very effectively creepy moments and the art direction of Von Sturm’s doll-infested house is perfectly macabre. Perhaps there are those who will find this game of cat and mouse giallo cliche but the final scene of the film still causes a shudder in me that still seems to linger. The puzzle is solved but it’s nearly an excessively unpleasant revelation that left me with a queasy shudder at the end.

Detective Superintendent Holloway portrayed by Patrick Wymark, takes charge of the investigation, and he soon discovers that the victims are all connected to a past crime. As he delves deeper into the case, he unravels a web of dark demented secrets.

As Holloway races against time to catch the elusive killer, the film keeps the audience on the edge of their seats with its suspenseful atmosphere and a chilling score by composer Elisabeth Lutyens and pulp fiction-style layouts by cinematographer John Wilcox (The Third Man 1949).

The Possession of Joel Delaney 1972

The Possession of Joel Delaney 1972 is an unsettling American horror film directed by Waris Hussein. The movie is often noted for its exploration of supernatural and psychological horror elements, which align with the distinct characteristics of horror films from the early 1970s.

Norah Benson (played by Shirley MacLaine), is a successful career woman living in New York City. Her life takes a disturbing turn when her brother Joel Delaney (played by Perry King) becomes possessed by a malevolent spirit.

Joel, once a gentle and caring family man, starts exhibiting violent and erratic behavior. He begins to speak in a strange and menacing voice, displaying a complete personality change that terrifies Norah. Desperate to understand and help her brother, she delves into the mystery surrounding his possession.

As Norah tries to grapple with her brother’s transformation as she investigates, she uncovers a sinister connection between Joel and a mysterious woman from the city’s underworld named Alvean (played by Lovelady Powell). Alvean seems to hold the key to Joel’s possession and the dark forces at play. Like many horror films of the 1970s, the movie incorporates elements of cultural and social commentary, reflecting the anxieties that arose in that decade of filmmaking.

Phobia 1980

Phobia is a 1980 psychological thriller directed by John Huston and starring Paul Michael Glaser. Glaser plays a psychiatrist Dr. Peter Ross, involved in a radical new therapy and comes under suspicion when his patients are murdered, each according to their individual phobias. The film co-stars John Colicos, Susan Hogan, Patricia Collins, Lisa Langlois, and Alexandra Stewart.

Parents 1989

Parents 1989 is -excuse the pun – a delicious black comedy/social commentary/horror film directed by Bob Balaban. The film’s appropriately bizarre title for its Germany release was ‘Daddy ist ein Kannibale’, or ‘Daddy is a Cannibal!’

The story is set in the 1950s and follows a young boy named Michael Laemle (Brian Madorsk). Michael Laemle is the young and curious protagonist of the film. He’s a sensitive boy who becomes increasingly suspicious of his parents’ behavior. As he unravels the dark secrets of his family, he becomes the audience’s passport into the disturbing world of the Laemle household. Michael’s transformation from innocence to paranoia is a central theme in the film. Sure it’s not missed that the surname of the family in this movie is “Laemle”, a likely nod to Carl Laemmle Jr. producer of such horror classics as Frankenstein 1931, Dracula 1931, The Mummy 1932 and The Invisible Man 1933.

He starts to become suspicious of his parents, Nick (Randy Quaid) and Lily (Mary Beth Hurt), as he notices their peculiar behavior. His father works for a meat company, and the family consumes a lot of meat themselves, but Michael suspects that it might not be ordinary Grade-A choice cuts of beef. As he grows increasingly paranoid, he dives deeper into and uncovers disturbing secrets about his parents and their gruesome eating habits. They are cannibalistic murderers.

Parents is a unique and unsettling blend of black comedy and horror that delves into themes of conformity, the American family, and the dark underbelly of suburban life.

It serves as a satirical commentary on the conformist values of 1950s suburban America and portrays a seemingly idyllic family and neighborhood, which hides a disturbing and taboo theme of cannibalism. The film explores the idea that beneath the facade of normalcy, people may be repressing their darker impulses. Parent’s dark humor is at the core essence of Balaban’s film. It finds absurdity in the mundane and macabre doings of the Laemle family’s life. The contrast between the sunny, idyllic facade and the nightmarish truth is skillfully woven into the narrative to evoke simultaneous astonishment and amusement, played for both shocks and laughs. Its unconventional take on suburbia has endeared it to dedicated aficionados of offbeat, cult cinema. The eerie retro visual paintings of 50s American living, photographed by cinematographers Ernest Day and Robin Vidgeon, and the provocative score by Jonathan Elias contribute to the film’s overall sense of unease.

Nick Laemle: Michael, are you ready to behave? I thought I’d tell you a little story? Want to hear a story? I’ll tell you a little story and I want you to shut up until I’m finished.
Michael Laemle: [Tied to a chair by his father] You eat people.
Nick: I’ve been watching you, Michael. You’re an outsider, you’re not like them. You’re like us.
Michael: I don’t love you any more.
Lily Laemle: Yes, you do.
Nick: We’re bound for life, no matter how much you hate us.(as he slowly unties Michael] I’m untying, and when you’re free, you can sit down with us and eat, or you could run outside and shout your little secret to the world. And you know what they’ll do, Michael, hmm? They’ll come here and they’ll burn us. Is that what you want? You want to see them burn your parents?
Lily: Mint jelly?

One of my favorite actors who doesn’t get enough attention is Sandy Dennis. Here she has a supporting role as Millie Dew the school social worker who is worried about Michael’s behavior and is one of the outside figures who begins to sense that something is amiss in the Laemle family.

Many critical essays on Parents delve into its social commentary, particularly its critique of 1950s suburban conformity and the facade of the nuclear family. The film portrays the unsettling idea that beneath the veneer of a perfect suburban family, there may be hidden, disturbing secrets. Some essays examine the psychological horror aspects of the film, focusing on the transformation of the protagonist, Michael, from innocence to paranoia. The Laemle family serves as a metaphor for the anxieties and fears lurking in the American psyche during the 1950s. Parents also challenge traditional gender roles, with the mother, Lily, taking on a more dominant and unsettling role compared to the father, Nick. This inversion of gender expectations adds layers to the film’s exploration of identity and conformity.

This is your EverLovin’ Joey Sayin’ Phew! glad that’s over! Stay tuned for the letter Q unless that gives you the quivers!

Film Noir ♥ Transgressions Into the Cultural Cinematic Gutter: From Shadowland to Psychotronic Playground

“Unexpressed emotions will never die. They are buried alive and will come forth later in uglier ways.”
― Sigmund Freud

“Ladies and gentlemen- welcome to violence; the word and the act. While violence cloaks itself in a plethora of disguises, its favorite mantle still remains sex.” — Narrator from Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (1965).

Faster Pussycat
Tura Satana, Haji, and Lori Williams in Russ Meyer’s Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! 1965
Cul-de-Sac
Françoise Dorléac and Donald Pleasence in Roman Polanski’s Cul-de-sac 1966.
the Naked kiss
Constance Towers kicks the crap out of her pimp for shaving off her hair in Sam Fuller’s provocative The Naked Kiss 1964.
Shock Corridor
Peter Breck plays a journalist hungry for a story and gets more than a jolt of reality when he goes undercover in a Mental Institution in Sam Fuller’s Shock Corridor 1963.
CapturFiles_3 copy
Bobby Darin is a psychotic racist in Hubert Cornfield and Stanley Kramer’s explosive Pressure Point 1962 starring Sidney Poitier and Peter Falk.

THE DARK PAGES NEWSLETTER  a condensed article was featured in The Dark Pages: You can click on the link for all back issues or to sign up for upcoming issues to this wonderful newsletter for all your noir needs!

Constance Towers as Kelly from The Naked Kiss (1964): “I saw a broken down piece of machinery. Nothing but the buck, the bed and the bottle for the rest of my life. That’s what I saw.”

Griff (Anthony Eisley) The Naked Kiss (1964): “Your body is your only passport!”

Catherine Deneuve as Carole Ledoux in Repulsion (1965): “I must get this crack mended.”

Monty Clift Dr. Cukrowicz Suddenly, Last Summer (1959) : “Nature is not made in the image of man’s compassion.”

Patricia Morán as Rita Ugalde: The Exterminating Angel 1962:“I believe the common people, the lower class people, are less sensitive to pain. Haven’t you ever seen a wounded bull? Not a trace of pain.”

Ann Baxter as Teresina Vidaverri Walk on the Wild Side 1962“When People are Kind to each other why do they have to find a dirty word for it.”

The Naked Venus 1959“I repeat she is a gold digger! Europe’s full of them, they’re tramps… they’ll do anything to get a man. They even pose in the NUDE!!!!”

Darren McGavin as Louie–The Man With the Golden Arm (1955): “The monkey is never dead, Dealer. The monkey never dies. When you kick him off, he just hides in a corner, waiting his turn.”

Baby Boy Franky Buono-Blast of Silence (1961) “The targets names is Troiano, you know the type, second string syndicate boss with too much ambition and a mustache to hide the facts he’s got lips like a woman… the kind of face you hate!”

Lorna (1964)- “Thy form is fair to look upon, but thy heart is filled with carcasses and dead man’s bones.”

Peter Fonda as Stephen Evshevsky in Lilith (1964): “How wonderful I feel when I’m happy. Do you think that insanity could be so simple a thing as unhappiness?”

Glen or Glenda (1953)“Give this man satin undies, a dress, a sweater and a skirt, or even a lounging outfit and he’s the happiest individual in the world.”

Glen or Glenda
Ed Wood’s Glen or Glenda 1953

Johnny Cash as Johnny Cabot in Five Minutes to Live (1961):“I like a messy bed.”

Dr. Moreau (Charles Laughton) Island of Lost Souls: “Do you know what it means to feel like God?”

The Curious Dr. Humpp (1969): “Sex dominates the world! And now, I dominate sex!”

The Snake Pit (1948): Jacqueline deWit as Celia Sommerville “And we’re so crowded already. I just don’t know where it’s all gonna end!” Olivia de Havilland as Virginia Stuart Cunningham “I’ll tell you where it’s gonna end, Miss Somerville… When there are more sick ones than well ones, the sick ones will lock the well ones up.”

Delphine Seyrig as Countess Bathory in Daughters of Darkness (1971)“Aren’t those crimes horrifying. And yet -so fascinating!”

Julien Gulomar as Bishop Daisy to the Barber (Michel Serrault) King of Hearts (1966)“I was so young. I already knew that to love the world you have to get away from it.”

The Killing of Sister George (1968) -Suzanna York as Alice ‘CHILDIE’: “Not all women are raving bloody lesbians, you know” Beryl Reid as George: “That is a misfortune I am perfectly well aware of!”

The Killing of Sister George
Susannah York (right) with Beryl Reid in The Killing of Sister George Susannah York and Beryl Reid in Robert Aldrich’s The Killing of Sister George 1960.

The Lickerish Quartet (1970)“You can’t get blood out of an illusion.”

THE SWEET SOUND OF DEATH (1965)Dominique-“I’m attracted” Pablo-” To Bullfights?” Dominique-” No, I meant to death. I’ve always thought it… The state of perfection for all men.”

Peter O’Toole as Sir Charles Ferguson Brotherly Love (1970): “Remember the nice things. Reared in exile by a card-cheating, scandal ruined daddy. A mummy who gave us gin for milk. Ours was such a beautifully disgusting childhood.”

Maximillian Schell as Stanislaus Pilgrin in Return From The Ashes 1965: “If there is no God, no devil, no heaven, no hell, and no immortality, then anything is permissible.”

Euripides 425 B.C.“Whom God wishes to destroy… he first makes mad.”

Davis & Crawford What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?
Bette Davis and Joan Crawford bring to life two of the most outrageously memorable characters in Robert Aldrich’s What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? 1962.

WHAT DOES PSYCHOTRONIC MEAN?

psychotronic |ˌsīkəˈtränik| adjective denoting or relating to a genre of movies, typically with a science fiction, horror, or fantasy theme, that were made on a low budget or poorly received by critics. [the 1980s: coined in this sense by Michael Weldon, who edited a weekly New York guide to the best and worst films on local television.] Source: Wikipedia

In the scope of these transitioning often radical films, where once, men and women aspired for the moon and the stars and the whole ball of wax. in the newer scheme of things they aspired for you know… “kicks” Yes that word comes up in every film from the 50s and 60s… I’d like to have a buck for every time a character opines that collective craving… from juvenile delinquent to smarmy jet setter!

FILM NOIR HAD AN INEVITABLE TRAJECTORY…

THE ECCENTRIC & OFTEN GUTSY STYLE OF FILM NOIR HAD NOWHERE ELSE TO GO… BUT TO REACH FOR EVEN MORE OFF-BEAT, DEVIANT– ENDLESSLY RISKY & TABOO ORIENTED SET OF NARRATIVES FOUND IN THE SUBVERSIVE AND EXPLOITATIVE CULT FILMS OF THE MID TO LATE 50s through the 60s and into the early 70s!

I just got myself this collection of goodies from Something Weird!

weird-noir
There’s even this dvd that points to the connection between the two genres – Here it’s labeled WEIRD. I like transgressive… They all sort of have a whiff of noir.
Grayson Hall Satan in High Heels
Grayson Hall -Satan in High Heels 1962.
mimi3
Gerd Oswald adapts Fredrick Brown’s titillating novel — bringing to the screen the gorgeous Anita Ekberg, Phillip Carey, Gypsy Rose Lee, and Harry Townes in the sensational, obscure, and psycho-sexual thriller Screaming Mimi 1958.
The Strangler 1964 Victor Buono
Victor Buono is a deranged mama’s boy in Burt Topper’s fabulous The Strangler 1964.
Repulsion
Catherine Deneuve is extraordinary as the unhinged nymph in Roman Polanski’s psycho-sexual tale of growing madness in Repulsion 1965.

Just like Alice falling down the rabbit hole, Noir took a journey through an even darker lens… Out of the shadows of 40s Noir cinema, European New Wave, fringe directors, and Hollywood auteurs brought more violent, sexual, transgressive, and socially transformative narratives into the cold light of day with a creeping sense of verité. While Film Noir pushed the boundaries of taboo subject matter and familiar Hollywood archetypes it wasn’t until later that we are able to visualize the advancement of transgressive topics.

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