The Bell from Hell (1973) is a surreal Spanish-French psychological horror film directed by Claudio Guerin Hill, with post-production supervised by Juan Antonio Bardem after Hill’s tragic death on the final day of shooting. The film stars Renaud Verley as Juan, Viveca Lindfors as Aunt Marta, and Maribel Martín as cousin Esther. Swedish-born actress Lindfors is well known for roles including Queen Margaret opposite Errol Flynn in The Adventures of Duan Juan 1948, starring in Night Unto Night in 1949 directed by third husband director Don Siegel, in Dark City 1950, and for her role in the segment Father’s Day of 1982’s Creepshow.
Set in a small Spanish town, the story follows Juan, a young man recently released from a psychiatric facility, as he seeks revenge against his aunt and cousins who had him committed in order to steal his inheritance. The film explores themes of madness, revenge, and family corruption, blending dark comedy with shocking violence.
Hill’s direction emphasizes a Gothic atmosphere through Chiaroscuro lighting in abandoned houses and eerie village settings, surreal juxtapositions of beauty and horror, and unsettling close-ups of Verley’s enigmatic expressions. There are also graphic depictions of slaughterhouse brutality.
Uniquely disturbing, it stands out for its bizarre and unsettling scenes: Juan’s elaborate, cruel pranks on townspeople; A disturbing sequence in a real slaughterhouse; the use of bees as a weapon against his aunt; and a climactic scene involving cousins tied up in a makeshift torture chamber.
As a cult classic of European horror, the film is notable for blending arthouse sensibilities with exploitation elements. The production of The Bell from Hell is marked by the director’s death on the last day of filming, either from a fall or a jump from the bell tower featured in the film. This tragic event adds an eerie layer to the film’s already unsettling atmosphere. It remains a unique and disturbing entry in 1970s Euro-exploitation, combining psychological depth with shocking imagery and a darkly sardonic sensibility.
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The Awful Dr. Orloff (1962), directed by the often-labeled king of Eurosleaze, Jesús Franco, is a landmark film in European horror cinema. Franco has made over 150 movies; however, due to the various re-titling, re-edits, and the insertion of hard-core scenes for ‘specialty’ markets, a definite total is hard to say. This Spanish-French co-production stars Howard Vernon as the titular Dr. Orloff, a deranged scientist attempting to restore his daughter’s disfigured face using skin grafts from kidnapped women. The film is probably the earliest spin-off of Georges Franju’s medical horror. – Eyes Without a Face in 1962, in which the mad doctor grafts women’s faces onto his disfigured daughter.
The film follows Dr. Orloff and his blind, deranged, and deformed assistant Morpho (Ricardo Valle) as they abduct beautiful women from Parisian nightclubs. Morpho has a nasty proclivity to bite his female victims to death! Meanwhile, Inspector Tanner investigates the disappearances, aided by his fiancée Wanda Bronsky, who bears a striking resemblance to Orloff’s daughter.
Franco’s direction emphasizes atmospheric Gothic horror, featuring Chiaroscuro lighting in the castle and night exterior scenes, creating a haunting ambiance, and the use of evocative photography, such as the silhouetted shots of the two villains carrying a coffin towards the forbidding castle and a murder which occurs in front of an upstairs window, viewed only by the street below. One of his driving motivations is to make the viewer as uncomfortable as he possibly can.
There are unsettling close-ups of Vernon’s piercing gaze, described as reaching “deep into your soul.” The film is pretty graphic (for its time) with its depictions of surgery and violence, including a scene of Orloff making a gory scalpel incision on a topless woman and the grotesque appearance of Morpho, with his bulging eyes and lecherous behavior.
The Awful Dr. Orloffis considered a pivotal work in the evolution as the first internationally successful European / Spanish horror film. It helped launch the career of Jesús Franco and established several Gothic narrative tropes that would recur in European horror. The Mad Scientist narratives blend horror and medical science fiction. As one of the trademarks of the director, he loves to use increased focus on graphic violence and eroticism with the use of atmospheric locations and Gothic imagery and the more explicit, boundary-pushing films that would follow in the 1960s and 1970s. The European version reveals more gruesome surgical shots and hints at necrophilia, which were removed from the American prints. The subdued American version was a double bill with The Horrible Dr. Hichcock 1962.
Initially met with negative reviews, the film has since gained cult status. It’s praised for its atmospheric cinematography. by G. Pacheco, evocative score, and willingness to push genre boundaries. The character of Dr. Orloff became a recurring figure in Franco’s filmography, appearing in various forms in later works. Franco revisited the character in various forms throughout his career, with The Sinister Eyes of Dr. Orloffbeing one of the later iterations.
THE HORRIBLE DR. HICHCOCK 1962
The Horrible Dr. Hichcock (1962) is a landmark Italian Gothic horror film directed by Riccardo Freda and written by Ernesto Gastaldi. Starring Robert Flemyng as Dr. Bernard Hichcock and Barbara Steele as his new wife, Cynthia, this often disturbing film explores themes of necrophilia, guilt, and the consequences of dark desires.
Set in 1885 London, the story follows Dr. Hichcock, a brilliant surgeon with a disturbing secret: he drugs his wife Margaretha to indulge in necrophilic desires. When an accidental overdose seemingly kills her, Hichcock flees England. Returning 12 years later with his new wife, Cynthia, he finds himself haunted by his past and struggling to resist his perverse urges.
The film delves into taboo subjects, blending elements of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart” with themes of guilt, obsession, and the battle between scientific progress and dark human impulses.
Freda’s direction emphasizes the colorful Gothic atmosphere through interior Chiaroscuro lighting. Unsettling close-ups of Flemyng’s piercing gaze and the expressionistic use of color, particularly vivid reds, symbolize lust. Once again, the film focuses on Mad scientist narratives blending horror and medical science fiction, and, much like Dr Orloff, its focus is increased on the graphic confluence of violence and eroticism.
The film has gained cult status and is praised for its atmospheric cinematography by Raffaele Masciocchi and evocative score by Roman Vlad. The Horrible Dr. Hitchcock draws inspiration from and pays homage to several classic thrillers and horror pictures, including Alfred Hitchcock’s works, particularly Rebecca, Vertigo, and Jane Eyre.
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Seduction and Surrealism: Unraveling Queens of Evil:
Queens of Evil (1970), directed by Tonino Cervi (Today We Live, Tomorrow We Die 1968, Nest of Vipers 1978), is an atmospheric Italian horror film that blends elements of psychedelia, eroticism, and supernatural horror. The film, also known by its Italian title Le Regine, or Il Delitto del diavolo presents a thought-provoking allegory on the clash between counterculture ideals and traditional societal norms that is an infusion of high fashion – psych-folk horror- pastoral fantasy and dreamlike isolation, much like Tam Lin 1970, The Wicker Man 1973 and Psychomania 1973.
The film is part of a niche cinematic sub-genre that blends pastoral fantasy with elements of folk horror, set in the late 1960s to early 1970s. These films juxtapose high fashion with mature fairytale narratives, featuring unconventional behavior and a darkness of spirit, creating a unique atmosphere that merges glamour with nature’s mystique.
The narrative follows a young motorcyclist named David (Ray Lovelock) who encounters three mysterious and seductive women living in a secluded house in the woods. As David becomes entangled in their world, the film explores themes of temptation, freedom, and the darker aspects of human nature.
As part of obscure cult cinema – Cervi’s Queens of Evil (1970) is a beguiling cinematic oddity that makes it hard to define. This dark adult allegory, often categorized as Italian horror, is closer to a gothic fable of dark enchantment. A hypnotic sojourn into a world of counterculture critique, psychedelic imagery, and gothic fairy tale elements; at its core, it presents as a cautionary tale wrapped in the guise of a surreal nightmare, much like Bava’s 1973 fantasy horror – Lisa and the Devil in its broad chimerical brush strokes and its use of vivid hallucinatory illusion rather than a conventional narrative.
Tonino Cervi, a versatile Italian filmmaker who straddled the worlds of directing and producing, left his mark on cinema from the 1960s through the early 2000s. While his directorial efforts like the middling spaghetti western TODAY WE KILL…TOMORROW WE DIE! and the provocative nunsploitation film THE NUN AND THE DEVIL were notable; his true legacy lies in his exceptional work as a producer. He collaborated with some of Italy’s most celebrated directors, including Bernardo Bertolucci on THE GRIM REAPER and Michelangelo Antonioni on RED DESERT, released in 1964, premiering at the Venice Film Festival. He also worked on the landmark anthology BOCCACCIO ’70.
An Italian counterculture gem that will resonate with fans of the surreal and absurd, Queens of Evil is a vibrant and flamboyant film. It offers an enjoyable experience in its own eccentric way as Cervi’s direction blurs the lines between reality and fantasy, guiding viewers through a labyrinth of seductive illusions and hidden dangers.
The film’s hypnotic atmosphere, punctuated by moments of startling beauty and unsettling horror, serves as the connective tissue that binds its disparate elements into a cohesive whole. The surreal, phantasmagorical quality, coupled with its exploration of masculine desires and fears, elevates Queens of Evil beyond mere Euro-exploitation/horror, transforming it into a mesmeric journey through the subconscious. The languid pacing and oblique storytelling may alienate viewers seeking more conventional thrills. However, for those willing to surrender to its peculiar rhythms, its calm before the storm, the film offers a rich synthesis of ideas and images that linger long after the credits roll.
Queens of Evilis a cult classic for a reason. It invites us to rewatch with fresh eyes and sparks conversation, which is what cult films often do best. It manages to deviate from the trend of gothic horror by focusing on a more contemporary setting and themes, finding its place within counterculture cinema. Though the film does blend some aspects of gothic horror, its ruthless psychological gamesmanship elevates Queens of Evil beyond mere psychedelic pastiche and counterculture themes, which sets it apart from the more traditional Italian horror film.
In the context of Italian horror cinema, Queens of Evilemerged during a transitional period in the 1970s as it saw a decline in the pure gothic Italian horror genre, with the industry shifting towards Giallo films and occult-themed movies inspired by international successes like Rosemary’s Baby and The Exorcist.
Italian horror cinema significantly evolved during this period, moving from traditional gothic horror narratives to more contemporary, psychologically complex, and socially relevant themes. This shift reflected the rapid changes in the late 1960s and early 1970s cultural landscape.
The Vietnam War, social unrest, the rise of the counterculture, a lot was happening. People started to question those old systems of power and authority—complex ideas about society, power, and the human condition.
Queens of Evil reflected this transition, blending traditional gothic elements like the eerie villa and isolated setting but retaining a very contemporary look and feel. The film explores the era’s anxieties surrounding the prevalent counterculture and societal upheaval, mirroring the turbulent zeitgeist of its time.
The film draws parallels to fairy tales, with David comparing the house to “Snow White’s house,” setting up a dark fairy tale account. This comparison enhances the symbolic nature of the women as enchantresses or witches.
Along with the essence of an intensely bleak tale, it definitely possesses a duality. Queens of Evil manages to be both beautiful and repulsive. Echoing everything from ancient Greek myths to classic literature and the Bible. The dark hypnotic twist makes this film unique and trippy, as David is supposed to be the symbol of freedom, but then he falls under the Queens’ spell so easily. Maybe those hippie ideals were a little naive.
David represents the young idealists who rebel against the status quo yet remain vulnerable to corruption when his deepest longings are awakened. Ray Lovelock stars in this enigmatic tale as the lone hippie, David. Lovelock is a charismatic bad boy with a sculpted physique. As David, he is lavished with adoration by the sisters within an idyllic setting until he is ultimately led as a lamb to the slaughter.
The French actress Haydée Politoff during the filming of the movie El gran amor del Conte Dracula’, directed by Javier Aguirre, 1972, Madrid, Spain. (Photo by Gianni Ferrari/Cover/Getty Images).
Among his co-stars are Haydée Politoff, of the Eric Rohmer films THE COLLECTOR (1967) CHLOE IN THE AFTERNOON (1972), and also Count Dracula’s Great Love (1973). His other co-stars are Silvia Monti of A LIZARD IN A WOMAN’S SKIN (1971) and THE FIFTH CORD (1971); and Ida Galli, whose credits include LA DOLCE VITA (1960), HERCULES IN THE HAUNTED WORLD (1961), THE LEOPARD (1963), THE WHIP AND THE BODY (1963), THE PSYCHIC (1977) and many others.
At the heart of the film, Lovelock’s David is a mix of naivety, angelic beauty, and charm. David embodies the ideals of the hippie movement – freedom, non-conformity, and a rejection of materialistic values. His motorcycle journey through the Italian countryside serves as a metaphor for the counterculture’s quest for enlightenment and escape from societal norms. However, David’s idealism is quickly put to the test when he encounters the titular “Queens.”
Imagine David, the story’s doomed protagonist; he’s a free-spirited cruising through the Italian countryside on his motorcycle. It sounds idyllic, but we know there’s a twist coming. Like David in Queens of Evil, riding his steel horse down open roads, it draws a clear parallel to Peter Fonda’s iconic role as Wyatt in Easy Rider (1969). The open road becomes a metaphor for the search for personal freedom and meaning. Both films feature protagonists who embody the late 1960s and early 1970s counterculture ethos, using motorcycles as symbols of their desire for freedom and rebellion against conventional society.
In Easy Rider, Wyatt (Peter Fonda) and Billy (Dennis Hopper) embark on a cross-country motorcycle journey, encountering various aspects of American culture and facing hostility from those who oppose their lifestyle. Similarly, David in Queens of Evil encounters mysterious and potentially dangerous characters during his travels who also oppose what he stands for.
A striking parallel exists between the archetypal narratives of wayward, virile ‘princes’ or studs ensnared within a pastoral paradise and the insatiable, evil Queens (i.e., Ava Gardner in Tam Lin) and seductive sirens who seek to possess them. This clash of archetypes, the untamed masculine spirit versus the ruthless feminine intellect, reflects the deep-seated cultural anxieties and preoccupations surrounding the nature of power, desire, and the fear of women’s primacy in particular, as with Tam Lin, older women’s primacy.
Tam Linand Queens of Evil feel akin to the psychedelic folkloristic cinema, which captures that brief moment when fashionable trends were turning towards folklore motifs. Films thrive on a strong narrative, and legends are fed by things that are false and things that are true.
From the mythic sirens to folkloric temptresses, male protagonists throughout literary and cultural narratives have repeatedly found themselves ensnared by seductive forces that promise liberation but ultimately threaten destruction.
For example, the Sirens from Greek mythology in Homer’s Odyssey are creatures who lure male sailors to their doom with their enchanting songs. Odysseus had to be tied to his ship’s mast to resist their temptation. The story of Pinocchiofeatures a place called Pleasure Island, where boys are lured with promises of fun and freedom, only to be transformed into donkeys. Some versions of Sleeping Beauty depict the prince being lured into danger by the sleeping princess’s beauty. In certain folklore, creatures like Succubi or some interpretations of vampires specifically target and lure men.
These stories often serve as cautionary tales, warning against the dangers of temptation, curiosity, or naivety. They reflect the consequences of unchecked desires.
The Raven-haired sylph who: "walks in beauty like the night"¦ Of cloudless climes and starry skies; And all that's best of dark and bright; Meet in her aspect and her eyes"¦" "”Lord Byron
Barbara Parkins is an icon of the 1960s, appearing in two of the decade's most popular and legendary film and television productions.
Barbara's exquisite beauty is undeniable, but her captivating performances in Peyton Place and Valley of the Dolls truly secured her legacy in Hollywood history and our collective consciousness. As beloved – Betty Anderson in the television series Peyton Place and as Anne Welles in the notorious adaptation of Jacqueline Susann's sensational novel Valley of the Dolls (1967). These memorable roles continue to resonate with audiences today.
But beyond any of it, the glamour, serious drama, pulp fiction, or even the camp, there is an actress who possesses an otherworldly beauty and a depth of character and quality. Not only has she touched our hearts with her performances as these two classic heroines, but she is also one of those recognizable actresses who project strength, confidence, and poise.
Barbara Parkins will undoubtedly be remembered for her portrayal of Betty Anderson Cord in the iconic 1960s prime-time operatic melodrama Peyton Place, which ran from 1964 to 1969.
Based on Grace Metalious's "˜dirty book,' Peyton Place blew the lid off of the hypocritical conformity of small-town America, capturing the complexities of American morality through high drama, showing the dark underbelly of a quaint community of "˜wholesome' families striving for normalcy amid controversial issues. That everything is not safe, it's not always comfortable, and it is without real struggle. And sometimes, life can be downright ugly. Her novel captures the "complexities of human existence"”the dramas, highs and lows, conflicts, and teenage sexuality"”depicting life’s un-romanticized, unvarnished reality. While the book offended some readers, it intrigued others, and despite being a popular show, critics often deem it shocking yet captivating."(The Baltimore Sun 1999 Laurie Kaplan article THE WOMEN OF PEYTON PLACE)
“Barbara Parkins has caught the public's eye, partly because of her beauty, partly because she is a capable little actress. But mostly because she seems to have an inner fire. She's a volcano in a tight dress.'' (From an article BARBARA PARKINS: MOST PROMISING NEWCOMER – Niagra Falls Gazette March, 1965 by Dick Kleiner)
Baba Yaga or the Devil Witch the (United Kingdom) titles, or Kiss Me, Kill Me/Black Magic (1973) the (US) titles
“Weird {is} the operative word here. Though framed by a simple story, director Corrado Farina's approach to the film is every bit as avant-garde and surrealist as its source material. The plot had me scratching my head in bewilderment. Compelling visuals kept me watching.'' "” from Brian Lindsey’s Eccentric Cinema review.
In Slavic/Russian folklore, the Baba Yaga is a strikingly revolting witch who flies around in a giant pestle – and steals and eats children. In the middle of a Russian forest, she lives in a shack built on top of giant chicken legs that can move at will. The folklore Baby Yaga is a sinister, macabre mythological presence, unlike the deviant sensual being that Carroll Baker portrays in Corrado Farina's Euro-horror film. This iteration of Baba Yaga is the seductive sorceress who manages to summon – with simmering antagonism, a world of pain – "˜symbolically' baring her predatory, wanting lips, which desire the heroine – Valentina.
According to the Monthly Film Bulletin review from 1974, critic Geoff Brown noted that he reviewed an 81-minute dubbed version of the film Baba Yaga. Brown stated that “due to 20 minutes of the film being cut and through the English-language dub, “the film had lost some of Farina’s socio-political arguments.” However, Brown also commented that most of these removed elements were reduced to “modish chit-chat” on topics ranging through various ideas.”
In the 70s, while exploring Giallo and Euro-exploitation films, I remember my first shudder and first impression of Baba Yaga. I had the feeling that something odd and erotic had taken place, and for me, it was like waking up from a hazy, surreal dream. Carroll Baker has always captivated me, and in the role of Baba Yaga, I felt she brought a level of Old World Hollywood class to a very provocative horror film.
An Italian/ French co-production, Baba Yaga is a delirious mixture of the supernatural, psychoanalysis, dream interpretation, vivid color schemes, pop art, eroticism, and fetishistic imagery. Baba Yaga, the film, revamps Russian folklore and transports the story into contemporary Milan.
As a stylish arthouse horror film from the 1970s, Baba Yaga explores the borderline between reality and imagination, embracing the sleazy allure of after-dark cinema"”fascinating and perhaps too challenging to define. There are striking elements that establish themselves with a clear sapphic element that already existed in Crepax’s work, creating an eroticized vision seen through the heterosexual ‘male gaze’ and driven by what Laura Mulvey termed "to be looked at-ness" that are kept in Farina’s film.
While I am still drawn to the film as an artifact of this decade's concentrated influence on an unmistakably hybrid genre (Horror, Euro-Exploitation, Giallo), Baba Yaga still manages to weaponize the straight male visual pleasure of actualizing their faulty version of lesbianism and bases the narrative around male sexual fantasies.
Farina and Crepax reveal the inherent bias fueled by a male-centric culture through a lens shaped by a male-centric point of view, which emphasizes the heteronormative expectation of female-female sexual exploitation.
Setting these critical observations aside"¦ The backdrop of Baba Yaga's 1970s fashion and Italian pop culture adds washes of a chic, mod, and bold cinematic experience.
Director Corrado Farina, who had previously envisioned another strange art-horror film, They Have Changed Their Faces (1971), now delivers this strange film with a mesmerizing array of visuals. The film seamlessly transitions from sharp pop design to muted Gothic hues and vents into full-fledged experimental cinema. Farina roams free with unrepentant visual skill frame by frame.
Crepax's prominence stems not only from his introduction of erotic themes but also from his innovative approach to storytelling within the medium, incorporating nudity and daring themes.
“I shall waste you and waste you and waste you”¦”
The Ballad of Tam Lin, Tam Lin, Games and Toys or The Devil’s Widow 1970
“McDowall builds a broodingly enigmatic sense of menace out of stray allusions and apparitions that hover without ever really being explained or over-exploited: the snatches of [Robert] Burns intimating the presence of diabolic machinations; the girl terrified by her own unspoken Tarot prophecies; the dialogue that rings like blank verse, as though it had been used over and over again. Above all, though, this menace is effective chiefly because it is rhymed with a mounting sense of quiet decorum, as though reality, the world of the ordinary, everyday banality, were suddenly present to Tom for the first time.”“¨”” Tom Milne, Monthly Film Bulletin, June 1977
“She Drained Them Of Their Manhood–And Then Of Their Lives! “
That’s the tagline American International Pictures exploited to promote this obscure British fantasy/horror film. Made as a last hurrah at the close of the 1960s, The Ballad of Tam Lin or Tam Lin, emerged from a singular blend of McDowall’s audacious, unwavering, and fearless vision to subvert cinematic tradition and bring on board first-rate talent to see that vision realized.
Back in the day, I was armed with my VCR at the ready to capture those late-night TV excursions into obscure horror. Tam Lin would be one of those hidden gems that still lingers in my mind like a nostalgia hangover.
Dear friends, Ava Gardner and Roddy McDowall on the Tam Linset.
“The film is a gothic fairytale modernized. When viewed in those terms and in the context of the original folklore – it makes perfect sense.”-McDowall.
Legendary Hollywood Goddess Ava Gardner is the evil “Queen of the Fairies” in Roddy McDowall’s wickedly provocative adult fairytale. Initially presented as a horror film, Tam Lin, with its hauntingly beautiful narrative, emerges more as a tragic fable of love and revenge. Or it can be seen as a dark, cautionary adult fairytale with a tangible Brother’s Grimmesque tale of beware the wrath of a slighted Queen, or there is terror amidst the remote woods. With the emergence of the counterculture of the 1960s, there was a growing fascination with all things pagan and folk-sy, with the use of symbolism, iconography, and formal tropes. For instance, the use of bridges we see throughout Tam Lin has often represented those liminal spaces between divergent realms.
Among its myriad titles, at the heart of Tam Lin lies Michaela “˜Micky’ Cazarete – a worldly Aesthete or ‘sorceress,’ however you choose to see her… embodied by the luminous Ava Gardner in one of her 44th and final leading roles. As ravishingly beautiful as ever, Gardner plays the succubus-like enchantress always wrapped in stunning, opulent attire and a flickering flame, drawing the wings of any naive lad she captures for her bed.
The story retells the artfulness of a wicked enchantress, a queen of the faeries who enraptures the young with her otherworldly beauty and beguiles and mesmerizes them to drain their vitality. And there is a cruel twist to this Gothic fable. At sunset of the seventh year, she is compelled to sacrifice her favorite male love to replenish her (life force or her desire.) Eternally restless, she is a damned soul; she is a paradox both breathtaking and horrifying, filled with a hunger that can never be satiated.
Psychedelic Folkloristic cinema like Tam Lin represents a cultural paradigm situated at a point in time where things were poised to move away from the psychedelic utopianism and iconoclasm of the 1960s, which began to pivot towards more introspective, darker turns. Similar in an impressionistic aesthetic, Tam Lin evokes for me another moody art piece horror, Queens Of Evil, aka /Le Regine 1970/Il delitto del diavolo.
Above are two images from Queens of Evil (1970).
Both films stylistically point to the florid decadence that was evolving into the weary and hostile era to come. Like Ian McShane, with his piercing and intense blue eyes crowned by dark brows and lashes, the charismatic bad boy with a sculpted physique, Ray Lovelock, is lavished with adoration within an idyllic setting until he is ultimately led as a lamb to the slaughter.
A striking parallel exists between the archetypal narratives of wayward, virile princes ensnared within a pastoral paradise and the insatiable, evil queens and seductive sirens who seek to possess them. This clash of archetypes, the untamed masculine spirit versus the ruthless feminine intellect, reflects the deep-seated cultural anxieties and preoccupations surrounding the nature of power, desire, and the fear of women’s primacy, in particular, as with Tam Lin, older women’s primacy.
Scene from The Night of the Iguana 1964.
Ava Gardner circa 1960.
I can include another early 70s horror favorite that registers with its mod/post-modern indulgence  – Messiah of Evil 1973. Messiah of Evil began to show signs of a crack in the shimmery good vibes of the 1960s as it dips its toes – heavily –  into the stark contrast of the coming brutal, gritty tone of later 1970s horror films. Tam Lin and Queens of Evil feel akin to the Psychedelic Folkloristic cinema, which captures that brief moment when fashionable trends were turning towards folklore motifs. Films thrive on a strong narrative, and legends are fed by things that are false and things that are true.
Some critics consider it as one of the original folk horror films. Others see it as an improvisation of the post-Rosemary’s Baby cycle of genre films.
Above are two scenes from the folk horror film The Wicker Man (1973).
“In Tam Lin there is a sense of playful opulence and a mod/post-mod sharpness to the style which could be compared and contrasted with say the murk, grime and tattiness of the also sub/counter-culture orientated folk horror related film Psychomania which was released in 1973.” (Stephen Prince founder/writer at A Year in the Country)
A pioneering work of folk horror, Tam Lin can be considered a proto-folk horror film. Not only does it predate The Wicker Man by four years, but it shares some striking thematic similarities. Both films delve into the darkness of cults, driven by a need to appease deities through ritual sacrifice. An unsettling yet obscured supernatural atmosphere permeates both narratives, further accentuated by their remote, rural settings, fertile ground for tales of witchcraft and pagan practices. Notably, both films boast innovative and provocative British soundtracks and share the distinction of being primarily filmed in the evocative landscapes of Scotland.
Tam Linanticipates Blood on Satan’s Claw, released in 1971, and yes, once again, like The Wicker Man in 1973, showcasing its creeping pastoral horrors. The film’s ’60s art-house decadence and its aesthetic serve as many of the films that could be perfectly placed inside a time capsule from the merging decades of the late ’60s & 1970s. A film movement that draws inspiration from the rich period of European art cinema. Tam Lin’sdreamy and, at times, barely lucid tone frames this moody lyrical love story set in the bucolic countryside of Scotland until it moves into a horror-filled, phantasmagorical manifestation of the original poem the story is based on. Midway, the film shows a visual shift of spiritual flight, transformation, and salvation from supernatural retribution.
This is the second of two features about Beverly Washburn. You can read Part One here.
THE INTERVIEW:
1. Your first part in a film was for the 1950 film noir classic The Killer that Stalked New York starring Evelyn Keyes. You were supposed to be the first victim, a little girl who gets smallpox from Keyes who is on the run spreading the plague. And it was a speaking part. The script said, "˜'There sits little Walda Kowalski with her great big brown eyes and brown hair'' but you had blonde hair and blue eyes. You immediately thought that you wouldn't get the part. But Western star Jock Mahoney lied to the producers of the film at Columbia Studios after he saw you in the lobby while auditioning for the part of Walda. Mahoney met you 3 months earlier at one of your sister Audrey's shows. He was very taken with you, so he raved to the producer that you had done all this work even though you had no credits. And you got the part!
Essentially it was Mahoney's misdirection that helped your career! "¨"¨Does it ever make you laugh that it took a harmless lie, a few speaking lines, and tragically dying from smallpox in a Columbia Studios production to give you the leverage you needed to move forward in your acting career? Can you tell us about that experience?
Getting my first big break was perhaps a little unusual particularly since it was based on a little lie! I had met Jock Mahoney a few months prior to the audition for the role in “The Killer That Stalked New York” which was to be filmed at Columbia Studios. At 6 years old, I had an agent who had sent me on countless auditions, none of which I ever got due to the fact that I had no experience other than having worked as a model of children’s clothes.
The role of little Walda Kowalski was listed in the script as a little girl with big brown eyes and brown hair. Now that description wasn’t pertinent to the actual role, however when a writer writes in a character, he or she typically envisions what they might look like. Well, right off the bat, it seemed apparent that I wasn’t what they were looking for because I had blue eyes and blonde hair. As I was sitting in the lobby among many little brown-eyed and brown-haired other hopefuls and my not having any experience, it seemed that this would just be another letdown and another rejection for me. As I waited to go in, something marvelous happened. Jock Mahoney happened to walk through the lobby! He remembered me as we had met at the Veteran’s Hospital in Long Beach California where he had been the guest of honor and where my sister was performing her act for the Veterans. He asked my mother what I was doing there and when she told him I was reading for the part of Walda, he said “I’ll be right back.” What we found out later was that he went into the office of the Casting director and told them that I was perfect for the role, that I had done this and I had done that, when the reality was, I hadn’t done a thing other than model! He was under contract at the time and had some clout, so they took his word for it. So as the story goes, he lied, they believed him and I got the part!
I do laugh sometimes thinking about how that all came about. I think about him from time to time and realize how blessed I was to have it unfold the way it did because after I had that one speaking role, it was then that I was able to continue on."¨ It’s such a “catch-22 ” situation because they don’t want to hire you if you don’t have experience, but how do you get the experience if they don’t hire you? I of course will forever be grateful to him for allowing me that one break, albeit he had to tell a little white lie in order for them to give me the role!
First off, I'd like to thank Beverly Washburn who graciously lent her valuable time in collaborating with me and guiding me to make this a proper tribute.
These events allow us to meet and engage in conversations with beloved actors who stir up a sense of nostalgia for their classic films and television roles, all having now achieved cult status. We celebrate these fond memories and possess a vast appreciation for the legacy of their work. We go to Chiller fanatical about these guests. Some may be a bit austere, but so many are incredibly gracious, funny, down to earth, and grateful for our devotion.
In October of 2023, I went to spend time with my friend Sara Karloff. but also to get the chance to meet someone I've had a long-time fan affection for: Beverly Washburn.
Beverly turned out to be a charming, kind, and genuine person who still possesses that unique intonation to her voice. She has the same sweetness and organically winsome smile she had as a young actor. And I would be careless if I didn't state up front that she is also a champion of animals and has become a true friend.
She might be legendary for her adeptness at weeping, but she can also laugh on a dime. Her laughter comes off without a hitch. It’s a very natural practice for her, showing her marvelous sense of humor with a lightness that flickers from her blue eyes.
Her biography Reel Tears: The Beverly Washburn Story ‘Take Two'( click the link to purchase) is filled with truly poignant, humorous, and engaging anecdotes about the golden age of Hollywood and beyond. Her writing is refreshing, delightful, and unpretentious. But she is also a courageous writer who shares with bare honesty her very personal journey sometimes tinged with tragedy and her productive career in television growing up as a beloved child actor. Her memoirs include an affectionate forward by her friend Tony Dow of Leave It To Beaver fame.
During the golden years of Hollywood, Beverly Washburn graced the silver screen as a luminary child actor in the 1950s and 1960s. She found the careful balance between comedy and "˜real tears' with the uncanny gift of crying on cue.
A consummate performer, she effortlessly cut across the terrain of both humor and drama, leaving an everlasting mark on the hearts of her audience.
Beverly as Lisbeth Searcy in Old Yeller (1957).
Not only is she the timeless muse who appeared in some of the most cherished movies of the time, but during the Golden Age when television was redefining American culture, Beverly appeared in countless shows as a natural whenever she was featured in the storyline. She always summoned the ability to adopt a serious mood or show with an aptitude for humor that began the moment she stepped on the stage with comedian Jack Benny in 1952. As a favorite child actor during the rise of live television in the 1950s, the little blonde pixie eventually grew into a very pretty ingenue taking the teen fan magazines by storm in the 1960s.
Beverly Washburn appeared in nearly 100 television shows. During her Hollywood years, many of her feature films were nominated for Academy Awards. She worked with some of the most notable directors such as Cecil B. DeMille, George Stevens, and Frank Capra. She also worked alongside some of the greatest Hollywood actresses including Jane Wyman, Anne Baxter, Piper Laurie, Dorothy McGuire, and Barbara Stanwyck.
She was the girl who could not only cry on cue but could reduce the audience to tears. Often asked how she was able to cry so easily on screen, she has said in interviews that she's overly sensitive and just tried to put herself in the character's place in that situation.
Talking to her now, she feels extremely blessed when looking back over her long career, and she never forgets to express the love she has for her fans whenever she's been interviewed. She is also very grateful that her parents were very supportive yet they never pushed her into acting.
She writes in her wonderfully colorful biography filled with joyful photographs and hilarious anecdotes that even though there may have been times when her family might have had only a half of a bean, her mom would share it with anyone. Beverly’s mom and dad were by her side every step of the way and were very well-liked by both cast members and crew. Her mom kept her grounded, humble, and realistic and helped her stay on a good path while navigating the business.
Beverly Washburn grew up in a humble middle-class home in Hollywood California. Acting was something that she realized she wanted to do and truly enjoyed. Beverly is not only incredibly grateful to her many fans, she readily embraces them as the reason she has remained so popular and valued as an actor. And it makes her truly happy when she puts a smile on someone's face.
She followed in the footsteps of a talented family of entertainers, her father's brothers and sisters were in Vaudeville, traveling the circuit with a song and dance act called The Four Pearls. In the 1950s her sister Audrey went to Hollywood High and was a classmate of Carol Burnett. The two became friends and both worked as ushers at the Egyptian Theater on Hollywood Boulevard. Audrey became Penny Marshall's stand-in for Laverne & Shirley and wound up singing backup for Marlene Dietrich in Las Vegas. It was Audrey's show biz career that eventually led Beverly down that path.
Beverly was merely 3 years old when she started modeling children's clothes. When Beverly was 5 years old, she tagged along with her mom and sister Audrey, an acrobat, to entertain veterans at Long Beach Hospital. On one particular occasion, she had a dancing gig at the Capitol Theatre in Yakima Washington. The emcee asked Beverly to come up on stage and sing ‘I'm a Big Girl Now.’ Beverly felt very comfortable in front of an audience. She was a natural.
There she met Western movie star Jock Mahoney – the Range Rider. She was mesmerized by this tall handsome cowboy. He would play a role in setting Beverly's career in motion. Her lack of experience was a hurdle but she and her mom persevered. Beverly's mom saw her potential and hired an agent, Lola Moore, who represented some of the best-known child actors in Hollywood at the time. It wasn't easy at first to get this notable agent's attention. She was turned away by Moore's overwhelmed secretary. But her tenacious mother was not willing to take no for an answer even when Moore's office in Hollywood was overflowing with anxious little girls looking to be the next child star.
In the busy agent's office, her mom managed to catch sight of Lola Moore's photo, so she and Beverly waited in the parking lot. When Moore got back from her meeting at 20th Century Fox, she was met by a little blonde cutie who wasn't afraid to speak her mind. " I sure like your hat, Miss Moore." Beverly flashed that bright smile of hers. Moore who had been an imposing figure had no time for anything but serious business. Studying Beverly with delight, she answered with a hearty " Well you're the only one who does! Know why I wear such large hats?” "No Ma'am I don't." "It's my signature. I want people to know I'm around. I want them to see me coming.''
Beverly was an honest and polite child who looked straight at Moore she said, "I don't know how they could have missed you anyway.''
Lola Moore found this refreshing and laughed and invited the two up to her office to talk. Understanding that Beverly had no acting experience, or whether the camera was going to take to her, Moore set her up with a drama coach Mildred Gardner and she began taking voice lessons, diction, and other important acting techniques. Though Beverly had no formal training, she was a natural. She never got involved as a Method actor. She was briefly taught by Gardner but after a few weeks she informed Beverly’s mother, ” Your daughter has a natural ability to act, and taking lessons would only ruin it.”While the utmost compliment, Beverly has imagined how far she might have gone if she had formerly studied.
This is where she perfected her famous ability to "˜cry' so well. Beverly has described this gift stating that she would think of what she was supposed to be crying about, imagining herself in that situation, and the waterworks would follow. Beverly says of herself that she's a very sensitive and emotional person. TV guide wrote a two-page article entitled BEVERLY WASHBURN EARNS HER SALT BY CRYING ON CUE. In the book Ladies of the Western written by Boyd Majors and Michael Fitzgerald, they included a chapter called ‘Queen of the Criers.’
Beverly loved to be in front of the camera, but when she was ready she was faced with a dilemma. Every time they sent her out on an interview she didn't get it because she had no experience or credits to her name. It was a real Catch-22.
Beverly with Evelyn Keyes in The Killer That Stalked New York (1950).
Then, essentially fate stepped in a couple of months later while auditioning at Columbia Studios for a speaking part in the classic film noir thriller The Killer That Stalked New York which would be released in 1950. Beverly was 6 at the time of filming. Jock Mahoney who was under contract with Columbia, happened to be walking through the lobby and remembered meeting her at sister Audrey's show.
Beverly didn't fit the description of Walda Kowalski, the little girl the script describes as having "˜brown hair and brown eyes' in the film. She thought she wasn't going to possibly get the part because she had blonde hair and blue eyes. Her mother told her in a very soft-spoken voice,” Honey you're not gonna get this part, but just go in and do your best.''
Mahoney asked Beverly's mother why she was at the studio, and she told him that she was going to be reading for a part in the film, and had been getting turned down numerous times because she had no experience. He told her " I'll be right back.'' Later she would come to find out that he went to the producer and raved about all the work she had done even though she hadn't done a darn thing. They believed him and she got the part. On the first day of shooting, Beverly was excited to be sitting in the big makeup chair getting her makeup and hair done which they put in little curls, possibly trying to make her look like Shirley Temple which was fine with Beverly since she was a big fan of Shirley Temple.
The Killer That Stalked New York (1950) is a classic film noir about a woman, Evelyn Keyes, who smuggles jewelry into New York from Cuba. After she contracts smallpox she goes around infecting everyone she meets in the city. The authorities try to track her down before an epidemic breaks out.
Beverly plays the first victim who gets smallpox from Keyes, and that's how they learn about the outbreak. She had two scenes in the motion picture. One is where Keyes gives her a pretty brooch and the second is when she buys the farm. The makeup department afforded her a deathly look by making her as pale as possible, which in B&W made her look grayish. Shown in an oxygen tent, it was a very melodramatic death! After The Killer that Stalked New York, she continued to go on auditions but now she had a big credit to go with her name.
Here Comes the Groom (1951) starring Bing Crosby and Jane Wyman. Beverly with Jacques Gencel.
Because of that one speaking role for Columbia Pictures, other opportunities opened up. After the noir thriller, she was called to a screen test for her next film Here Comes the Groom in 1951. It would be a role in a motion picture directed by Frank Capra and starring Bing Crosby, Jane Wyman, Alexis Smith, and Franchot Tone. The film also featured fashions by costume designer Edith Head and cameos by Louis Armstrong, Dorothy Lamour, Phil Harris, Cass Daley, and Frank Fontaine. Here Comes the Groom was a huge B&W musical, and an important part throughout the film. She plays a refugee who speaks very little French, makes the funniest faces, and shows off a natural sense of comedy at such an early age, as she plays off Jacques Gencel.
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Beverly worked on the film for 3 months, afterwards Bing Crosby gave her a beautiful doll that she named Dixie, after Crosby's wife at the time. After filming wrapped up, Crosby signed a photograph for Beverly saying, " I hope to play in your next picture.”
This would not be the only wonderful treasure Beverly would receive from actors. Even Jane Wyman gave her a beautiful dress. While the motion picture was not a huge success at the box office, it did win an Oscar for Best Song "˜'In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening'' written by Hogie Carmichael and Johnny Mercer.
In 1951, her next little part took the form of a theatrical film featuring the iconic superhero, Superman. Titled Superman and the Mole-Men, this film served as the pilot for the subsequent TV series starring George Reeves as the eponymous hero and Phyllis Coates as Lois Lane, the fearless reporter. The TV series ran from 1952 to 1958.
Beverly had so much fun cast as a little girl who plays with a radioactive ball in her bedroom. Two of the mole men (who are not space aliens but come from inner earth) climb through the window and she plays with them until her mother discovers the strange little men with her daughter and screams!
The story revolves around a 17th-century witch named Jennifer, played by Veronica Lake, and her father Daniel (Cecil Kellaway), who are burned at the stake by the Puritans. Before their execution, they curse the descendants of the man responsible for their demise, the Wooley family.
In a quest for vengeance, Jennifer cast a malevolent curse upon all future generations of the Wooley family, ensuring that each of their sons would be destined to marry the wrong woman, leading to a lifetime of unhappiness.
Their spirits have been trapped in a tree for centuries.
Fast forward to the 20th century, and lightning strikes the tree, releasing the spirits of Jennifer and Daniel. Jennifer, still a mischievous and enchanting witch, is determined to seek revenge on the Wooley family. However, when she meets Wallace Wooley, played by Fredric March, a descendant of her accuser, she finds herself falling in love with him.
Jennifer decides to abandon her vengeful plans and use her magical powers to win Wallace’s heart. She brews love potions, casts spells, and creates humorous chaos in the process. As their love story unfolds, Jennifer’s magical antics lead to a series of comical and unexpected situations.
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I Bury the Living will be a film I cover in-depth for Sunday Nite Surreal. So stayed tuned
I Bury the Livingis a 1958 horror-thriller film directed by Albert Band. The strange and offbeat story uses a graveyard as its primary stage, to follow Robert Kraft (played by Richard Boone), a cemetery manager who discovers that the placement of black and white pins on a map (a map that is a matrix of a sardonic, animated face) of the cemetery seems to affect the fate of the individuals they represent. When he mistakenly places a black pin in a plot reserved for a living person, mysterious and tragic events begin to unfold the first time the uncanny deaths occur is when Kraft sticks the wrong pins in the plot owned by newlyweds, and winds up dead. The question of the film is, was it a mere coincidence, or can Kraft control who lives or dies?
As the body count rises, Kraft becomes increasingly obsessed with unraveling the deadly secret behind the map, leading to a suspenseful and chilling exploration of fate, superstition, and the boundaries of reality. Theodore Bikel plays Andy McKee. Frederick Gately’s (Wicked, Wicked 1975, mostly working in television) cinematography almost gives the film the effect of being a stage play.
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An oddity, Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies!!? is a cult film released in 1964, directed by Ray Dennis Steckler, who also appears in the film as the character Jerry (Ray Dennis Steckler aka "˜Cash Flag'). The movie is often considered one of the worst films ever made and has achieved a certain notoriety in the realm of cult and exploitation cinema. The low production values, amateurish acting, and incoherent plot have contributed to its reputation as a “so bad it’s good” movie.
The film’s plot is quite bizarre and disjointed, featuring a mix of elements like romance, hypnotism, murder, and musical numbers, and yet nothing is ever fully explained such as the reason for the acid-disfigured victims kept in a cage. It follows bad boy Jerry and his friends as they attend a beach carnival, where Jerry becomes hypnotized by Madam Estrella and is compelled to commit murder. The film then follows his efforts to resist the urge to kill and uncover the secrets of the sinister Madam Estrella though the motives of Madam Estrella and her aide, Ortega, are also unclear.
Unemployed jerk Jerry (Ray Dennis Steckler credited in this oddity as "˜Cash Flag') is pals with sidekick Harold (Atlas King), but he’s a lousy boyfriend to Angela (Sharon Walsh). When he takes her on a date to the beach carnival, they go to see a mysterious fortune-teller named Madam Estrella (Brett O'Hara). Jerry is attracted to one of the dancers at the carnival named Carmelita (Erina Enyo) which pisses off Angela. Jerry is invited to come backstage and is put under a hypnotic spell by Madam Estrella and soon begins to go on a murder spree killing dancers, beginning with headliner Marge Neilson (Carolyn Brandt). Jerry is haunted by strange hallucinations and soon learns the news of the carnival killings. When he seeks out Angela, he gets a wave of murderous lust again and nearly kills her too. Jerry is determined to learn Madam Estrella's hidden secrets.
Also, the film features various dance costumes and scenes from the carnival midway, which are noted for their historical interest as they capture the atmosphere of the Long Beach Pike in the early 1960s.
Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies!!? has garnered a cult following among fans of low-budget and exploitation cinema. It is often appreciated for its unintentional humor and its unique blend of genres and elements. Interesting note:
The three cameramen who started their careers under Ray Steckler’s guidance would go on to leave indelible marks in the film industry. Joseph V. Mascelli, for instance, authored a widely acclaimed cinematography manual, plied his trade as a cinematographer for Arch Hall Sr., and even took a shot at directing his own Z-horror film, “Monstrosity.”
In parallel, the camera operator Vilmos Zsigmond and his assistant, László Kovács, who had fled Hungary in the tumultuous year of 1956, embarked on their ascent with the Hollywood camera profession. Their involvement in “Incredibly Strange Creatures” marked one of the early steps in their dedicated climb, how ironic – they began their remarkable careers with one of the worst films ever made.
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Island of Terror is a 1966 British horror film directed by Terence Fisher. The story unfolds on a remote island off the coast of Ireland, where a group of scientists led by Dr. Brian Stanley (played by Peter Cushing) and Edward Judd as Dr. Davis West becomes embroiled in a terrifying ordeal.
A series of gruesome deaths occur on the island, with victims reduced to skeletal remains, and the local population is gripped by fear. Dr. Stanley and his team soon discover the cause of these horrors: the island has become infested with deadly, gelatinous creatures resembling turtle-like amoebas with tentacles, which suck the bones out of their victims, leaving them as lifeless husks. The monocellular creatures are reminiscent of those in Caltiki, the Immortal Monster 1959Â which also features a scene in which one of the characters loses a hand.
In the pursuit of a potential cancer cure on a remote island nestled off the Irish coast, the project’s esteemed scientist unwittingly creates a monstrous new organism that thrives by devouring all other living creatures.
As the scientists and the island’s inhabitants attempt to combat the horrific creatures, they realize that traditional weapons are ineffective against them. The film explores themes of scientific curiosity, survival, and the desperate struggle to find a way to defeat the relentless, bone-devouring monsters. The film also stars Niall MacGinnis as Mr. Roger Campbell. Offering support to David West is his beloved socialite girlfriend, Toni Merrill (Carole Gray).
Island of Terrorfeatures two well-known actors in British cinema, Sam Kydd plays the constable, John Harris who discovers a missing farmer dead in a cave. The frightening discovery reveals the body is a mass of jelly. Eddie Byrne (Hammer’s The Mummy, The Vengeance of Fu Manchu) is the island doctor, who mocks mere simplicity used to describe the gruesome condition of the corpse: “There was no face, just a horrible mush, with the eyes sittin’ in it.”Â
Fisher knows how to create an eerie landscape and in this horror/sci-fi hybrid, the mood is suffocating due to the isolation and the inescapable reality that they are all marooned on this remote island. The village is encircled by these insatiable parasites, as they try desperately to survive while scrambling to find a way to exterminate these organisms before catastrophe strikes. Of course, there’s a twist ending… the scenario repeats itself in Japan.
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The Incredible 2-Headed Transplant is a 1971 science fiction horror film directed by Anthony M. Lanza. The story revolves around an ambitious scientist, Dr. Roger Girard (Bruce Dern), who conducts a groundbreaking and ethically questionable experiment.
Dr. Girard successfully performs a head transplant, attaching the head of a convicted murderer, Max (played by Albert Cole), to the body of a mentally disabled man, Danny (played by John Bloom). The result is a grotesque and unnerving two-headed lumbering mess. Max and Danny’s conflicting personalities and desires create chaos and tension within their shared body.
As Dr. Girard struggles to control his increasingly unhinged creation, Max’s criminal tendencies resurface, leading to a series of violent and deadly actions. The trashy pick also stars Pat Priest (The Munsters) Berry Kroeger, and Casey Kasem.
The Incredible 2-Headed Transplant is known for its cheesy, campy, and exploitative nature, more ridiculous than bizarre, or macabre. It has become a cult classic for all the obvious reasons.
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Actor John Carradine attends the premiere of Dark Eyes on March 23, 1981, at Warner Beverly Theater in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images)
"I am a ham! And the ham in an actor is what makes him interesting. The word is an insult only when it's used by an outsider – among actors, it's a very high compliment, indeed."
In the history of cinema, there are stars that burn white hot. Then there are those who wind up taking a detour – yet they've earned the vibrancy and a willingness to explore even the vast floor of the ocean's bottom – this is emblematic of a beloved cult B actor. Those who tickle us with a zeal for chills and chagrins, guffaws and gadzooks, individualism and inimitability, captivating and crapola!
In his later years, John Carradine would come to be known as one of these"¦ the crime is… he was a damn sensational actor!
"I never made big money in Hollywood. I was paid in hundreds, the stars got thousands. But I worked with some of the greatest directors in films and some of the greatest writers. They gave me the freedom to do what I can do best and that was gratifying."
In regards to his horror legacy, this is what he had to say in 1983 in an interview for KMOX tv:
“That’s the least of my work. I’ve done almost 400 films and only 25 have been horror.”
When you think of John Carradine you might recall his brilliant performance as Casy in The Grapes of Wrath. Carradine had worked with some of the most notable actors and directors in the history of cinema and by the end of his career, he also managed to plumb the depths with some of the crummiest.
Then again you might be excited by his translation of the Dracula mythos in five films: two from Universal’s finely tuned House of Frankenstein (1944), House of Dracula (1945), and three from the later decade’s trash heap – Billy the Kid Versus Dracula (1966), Vampire Hookers (1978), and Nocturna (1979).
On Bela Lugosi in 1956: "Lugosi was a craftsman. I've known him for 25 years. He was a considerate and kind gentleman. As for the parts we both played, he was the better vampire. He had a fine pair of eyes. Nobody will ever be able to fill his shoes. He will be missed by us all."
Like Whale's Frankenstein monster, Carradine actually missed out on playing the monster and the lead role in Dracula (1931).
With 354 film and television credits to his iconic career, John Carradine was known for his distinctively deep baritone voice and tall, thin frame, a "˜towering, craggy frame' which often earned him roles as villains and sinister characters, mad doctors, Draculas, hobos, drunks and a slew of nefarious Nazis devils!
At times he had the charm of a jaunty Grim Reaper. Even those smart pale blue eyes that flicker cannot be obscured by that quizzical squint.
William Beaudine on the set of The Face of Marble 1946.
He often worked with director John Ford but you've no doubt seen him playing a mad scientist in Captive Wild Woman 1943, The Face of Marble 1946, and The Unearthly 1957.
But one thing that links all these archetypes together is Carradine’s range of either an austere penetrating reserve or a flamboyant spirit framed by his willowy shape. Carradine can intone with either his whispering rumination from a well-written script or summoning his grandiose voice as he reads aloud the trashiest, tackiest dialogue that only he can make appear as a highfalutin soliloquy.
His nicknames were the Bard of the Boulevard and The Voice.
Carradine's career includes significant Academy Award-worthy roles, but in contrast, once he started his descent into the madness of acting obscurity, he embodied figures of grotesques and unsavory types. Eventually, he appeared in films more like a drifter just passing through in overambitious garbage Z movies. And now, he will always be considered one of the big-time heavies of the horror genre.
Still, he has left behind a legacy of striking screen performances: the sinister Sgt. Rankin in The Prisoner of Shark Island, and the somber "Long Jack" of Captains Courageous. He played a melancholy Lincoln in Of Human Hearts, a treacherous Bob Ford in Jesse James, the curious stranger Hatfield ofStagecoach, and one of his greatest contributions to the acting craft, as earnest dispirited preacher Casy in The Grapes of Wrath. All masterful characters in Hollywood's golden age of filmmaking.
Carradine appeared in eight Oscar Best Picture nominees: Cleopatra (1934), Les Misèrables (1935), Captains Courageous (1937), Alexander's Ragtime Band (1938), Stagecoach (1939), The Grapes of Wrath (1940), The Ten Commandments (1956), and Around the World in 80 Days (1956). Only the last of these won.
He has appeared in eight films that have been selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically or aesthetically” significant: The Invisible Man (1933), The Bride of Frankenstein (1935), Stagecoach (1939), The Grapes of Wrath (1940), Johnny Guitar (1954), The Court Jester (1955), The Ten Commandments (1956)and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962).
Though he was known for his ability to bring a kiss of intensity and an air of mysteriousness to his characters, often cast in villainous and sinister roles – he was highly regarded for his versatility and range as an actor. Despite his status as a horror icon, Carradine was more than just a genre actor and never wanted to be known for his long involvement with horror pictures, as he called them.
He was transitional in all genres such as historical dramas, war and spy films, film noir, westerns, horror, sci-fi, mystery thrillers, and romantic comedies. His career ran the spectrum of storytelling.
Carradine was capable of serious dramatic reverie, and earnest and sober performances til ultimately – schlocky b movies, ‘The "˜Divine Madness' of this flamboyant, grand old man of the theater and Hollywood, Carradine's persona emerged as a confluence between the individualist and distinguished gentleman.’(John Carradine: The Films edited by Gregory Willam Mank)
But after all this superior work in an industry that chewed up and spits out great actors, even after his contribution to the horror genre that once saw him as one of the ruling class in Universal's horror films such as House of Frankenstein and House of Dracula. There is a place for him amongst the aristocracy of Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, Christopher Lee, and Peter Cushing, though he might be considered the vagabond of the horror pantheon, as he will undoubtedly be remembered for his role in B horror and exploitation films.
"I have shot, strangled, or otherwise disposed of many a victim on the screen in my day. However, more mayhem has been committed on me than I ever committed on anyone else. I have been poisoned, drowned, shot, pushed off cliffs, hanged, strangled, electrocuted, and run over by subway trains."
John Carradine is a noble eccentric, a cult icon who enjoyed photography and painting, sang opera, loved sculpting, knew the Bard's work by heart, and could recite Shakespeare at every opportunity. Interviews and commentary from other people in the industry would relate stories of John Carradine getting potted with a drink in hand and spouting Shakespeare and funny anecdotes. "He had a repertoire of bad jokes and off-color reminiscence of Old Hollywood." He was famous for that as much as for his acting.
Carradine is known for his theatricalizing, his out-of-control drinking, and his private life which was a circus. A life bombarded with non-conformity, chaotic marital trials and tribulations, arrests for not paying alimony, drunk driving, prostitution scandals, and bankruptcy that left him destitute.
With all the disorder in Carradine's life, the reputation that the actor built from his earlier career took a ruinous insult over the years.
By the end, the actor didn't bother to read a script, he learned his part no matter how ridiculous yet he took anything that came his way so he could pay the rent, finance his dream of having his own theater company and support his boys.
"An opera cape, top hat, ebony stick, and glittering diamond studs set John apart in a town where a tuxedo is considered formal dress. At intermissions, he stands gracefully in the lobby, smoking a long Russian cigarette and twirling his cane"¦ It is the kind of exhibitionism that made Hollywood, in its colorful beginnings, the most talked about town on Earth"¦"
John Carradine with his actor sons, John, Keith, and Robert courtesy Getty Images date unknown.
Fred Olen Ray: "He was both a prince and a rascal" "¦" He was colorful and dramatic"¦ He had a sweeping, majestic personality and an extraordinary voice that somehow managed to make the worst dialogue sound good."
Keith Carradine: "Here was this Shakespearean actor who, in the 1950s to feed his children, did a lot of horror movies. That's mostly what he's known for. I think it sort of broke his heart."
We know him for his deep voice, that low-pitched booming voice that sounds like well-worn leather and warm spices-cinnamon, sandalwood, and clove. He delivers his dialogue more like a fustian oratory, a sagacious silver-tongued scholar intoning a sermon instead of reading his lines straight.
From an interview with KMOX tv:
What do you think made you so successful as an image that I think maybe that incredible voice?
“I think the voice helped and another thing that helped I think was the fact that – well my face Darryl Zanuck was once heard saying when he came out of the rushes for something that I was in. He said "that guy Carradine got the god damndest face (He laughs) What he meant by that I don't know but I think that was part of it. Well I think the voice helped a lot. Cecil DeMille said I had the finest voice in the business and he was right I did have the finest voice in the business. Still have. But it's because I had been because I spent so much time in the theater and because I did Shakespeare. As I told my boys if you want to. Be an actor play all the Shakespeare you can get your hands on. Cause if you can play Shakespeare you can play anything. And I did a lot of Shakespeare. Cause that's why I became an actor because I wanted to be a Shakespearean actor.”
John Carradine is an actor that commands a parade of imagery and similes. He's just that darn interesting. I find him to have an almost regal symmetry that strikes me as handsome.
He is wraithlike and sinewy, withered, worn to a shadow, and as thin as a rake yet his presence is boundless.
A lanky actor wafting around the screen like a willow tree, hollow-cheeked, rawboned, and lantern-jawed, the opposite of Herculean – but make no mistake his presence is immortal.
And in a not-so-flattering light, he's been referred to as cadaverous.
"I wasn't eccentric in those days. I was just trying to learn my craft and improve what I had"¦ cadaverous I'm a very thin man Cadaverous means looking like a cadaver and at least I do look alive. I look like I might live another five minutes!"
The French actress Haydée Politoff during the filming of the movie El gran amor del Conte Dracula’, directed by Javier Aguirre, 1972, Madrid, Spain. (Photo by Gianni Ferrari/Cover/Getty Images).
