Category: Directors and Filmmakers

The She Creature (1956) Bridey Murphy’s Reincarnation meets Beulah the Busty Crusty ‘She Creature’ from Paul Blaisdell’s imagination.

“Hypnotized! Reincarnated as a monster from hell!”

THE SHE CREATURE 1956

In 1952 the world celebrated the famous Bridey Murphy regression case. It began when one Morey Bernstein hypnotized a Colorado housewife named Ruth Simmons. Under a trance, emerged the personality of Bridey Murphy an 18th Century Irish woman.

from the film The Search For Bridey Murphy

In 1956 Bernstein published his book The Search For Bridey Murphy. Eventually the story made it onto the screen by Paramount Pictures, starring Teresa Wright and Louis Hayward, a film which is on my short list of things to watch.

And if you have a guilty pleasure for musicals as I do, you’ll see the story retold in Vincente Minneli’s On A Clear Day You Can See Forever 1971 starring musical diva Barbara Streisand, Yves Montand and Jack Nicholson. With some of the BEST music by Burton Lane and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner.

Barbara Streisand as Daisy Gamble in Vincente Minneli’s 1970 On A Clear Day You Can See Forever.

Now in 1956 when A.I.P was churning out goodies like It Conquered The World 1956  for Roger Corman, the idea of past life regression became of some interest to producer Alex Gordon.

The She Creature incorporated the concept of a lovely girl harboring a past soul or souls, but due to the fact that A.I.P. wanted monsters in their pictures, they used the best of both worlds and mixed an unconventional idea that was all the rage at that time, and threw in an ancient busty crusty beastie that rose from the sea, whenever the girl was in a trance.

So you have it, a girl from the 20th century inhabited by a female creature from the primordial edges of time’s beginning. Schlocky fun from Samuel Z. Arkoff, Alex Gordon and one of my favorite directors who can take a b-movie sci-fi/horror picture and bring a bit of grimy noir sensibility to it the great Edward L. Cahn.

Jerry Zigmond’s contribution was coming up with the title THE SHE CREATURE and the screenplay was written by Lou Rusoff. The film stars Chester Morris as Dr Carlo Lombardi, Marla English as his subject Andrea, good ole Tom Conway as Timothy Chappel, Cathy Downes as Dorothy Chappel, Ron Randell as Lt. Ed James, Lance Fuller as Dr. Ted Erickson Frieda Inescort as Mrs Chappel and of course Paul Blaisdell as Beulah!

Chester Morris (Alibi 1929, The Big House 1930, Five Came Back 1939) plays the smarmy Dr. Carlo Lombardi, carnival hypnotist and prognosticator extraordinaire. Morris brings smarmy to a whole new level here, that it even makes Jack Cassidy‘s villains’ seem Christ like. Lombardi travels around rich circles impressing the affluent patrons, with his ability to regress his female hostage, oops I mean patient back in time, probing old memories of their past lives, thereby proving that reincarnation is real.

Another nifty trick is the claim that he can summon forth the incorporeal spirit or soul from the past and manifest it into a physical form.

It starts out on the desolate beach at night where the mustachioed mad hypnotist Lombardi is standing in silhouette , then walking along the shore, dressed in black like a villain from a silent movie, about to tie a maiden to the train tracks. He’s staring out at the sea, a distant shape is forming in and out of the breaking tides.

Dr. Carlos Lombardi communing with the ancient she creature that is waiting out in the misty turbulent ocean.

“Now on This very night I have called into the unknown depths of time itself. She is here. And with her coming, the world will never be as it was. Neither man nor animal will be the same. This, I, Dr. Carlo Lombardi have brought into being!”

Suddenly the camera focuses on a monstrous invisible foot print in the sand. The moment is broken when King the loyal dog of Dorothy Chappel, starts barking and breaks Lombardi’s concentration. Dorothy’s father Timothy Chappel a promoter, is hosting a party this particular weekend at their fancy beach house. Invited to the party is Dorothy’s boyfriend Dr. Ted Erickson who is a notable expert on the subject of psychic research. He’s not comfortable mingling with the idle rich, he’s basically just a ‘farm boy’ and just doesn’t fit in with Dorothy’s father’s crowd.

Mrs.Chappel believes in the powers of the supernatural She tries to convince her husband that Lomardi’s prediction that something terrible is going to happen along this part of the coast tonight, they’ll be ‘a visitation from the occult world’ and tells him seriously that he must meet him. Tim Chappel laughs at his wife, and remarks, that “Some women keeps pets, or grow roses for kicks, my wife supports quack occultists.”

Mrs.Chappel tells her husband that he puts this girl in a deep trance and sends her back over 300 years. When she was a girl in England. ” I tell you it’s uncanny!” Mrs.Chappel is vehement!

Continue reading “The She Creature (1956) Bridey Murphy’s Reincarnation meets Beulah the Busty Crusty ‘She Creature’ from Paul Blaisdell’s imagination.” →

A trailer a day keeps the Boogeyman away! Look In Any Window (1961)

LOOK IN ANY WINDOW 1961

In the 60’s Paul Anka was considered a dreamy teen idol. In Look In Any Window directed by William Alland (more known for his work as producer Creature From The Black Lagoon 1954, The Deadly Mantis 1957, Tarantula 1955, This Island Earth 1955 stop me I could go on and on!) , Anka plays the very distressed Craig Fowler, a troubled young man who is surrounded by inappropriate, over sexed adults, and very dysfunctional parents played by Ruth Roman and Alex Nicol as Jackie and Jay Fowler.

Craig’s world stinks, as his mother is an unhappy woman starved for attention, and he witnesses his father Jay erupt into a mess while on a drinking binge, after losing his job and his ‘manhood’.

It’s ever so angst ridden for the boy being crowded by so many pathetic adults and oh…the ‘Suburbia Traumatica’  of it all! The film rips wide open the myth of clean suburban living and the even more mythic ‘All American Family.’

The entire neighborhood is on the prowl in this film. Carole Mathews plays Betty Lowell who’s lecherous husband steps out on her every chance he gets. Perfect for the role of the womanizing Gareth Lowell is the wonderfully slickety and smarmy Jack Cassidy.

While all the adult drama and provocative neighborly love is going on, an attraction starts to bloom between Craig and Betty’s daughter Eileen (Gigi Perreau).

And what about the secret compulsion that Craig is hiding!How about his naughty proclivity for peering into windows!

Anka sings the theme song, “Look In Any Window” with a breathy tone that makes your skin crawl…creepy yes, haunting… not so much.

“Nothing between their secrets and the neighborhood except a pane of glass!”

“The screen shocks with the truth about what goes on in the most ‘respectable’ neighborhoods in town!”

“It’s The Must-See Story Of Morals And Mistakes… Told With Unashamed Biting Frankness!”

From The Vault: The Queen of Spades (1949)

“The Dead Shall Give Up Their Secrets!”

THE QUEEN OF SPADES 1949

The Queen of Spades is a masterpiece if ever I saw one. Associate Producer Jack Clayton was on board for this film, directed by Thorold Dickinson (Gaslight 1940) who came onto the project last minute. Adapted to the screen by Rodney Ackland and Arthur Boys from the story written by Alexander Pushkin. The story could have easily been dreamt up by Aleksei Tolstoy,  Ivan Chekhov -(The Drop of Water) Nikolai Gogol  or even Oscar Wilde.

My partner Wendy even mentioned Edgar Allan Poe as she watched along with me. It brought to my mind, his short story Never Bet The Devil Your Head. Which of course was brought to life by Frederico Fellini in the segment of Spirits of The Dead 1968 called Toby Dammit, featuring the work of actor Terence Stamp.

Terence Stamp as Toby Dammit in the segment of the same name as part of Spirits of The Dead. Directed by Frederico Fellini 1968 Based on the short story by Poe, Never Bet The Devil Your Head.
From Mario Bava’s Black Sabbath 1963 vignette The Drop of Water based on a story by Chekhov.
Boris Karloff stars in an adaptation of Tolstoy’s story in the segment about The Wurdelak.

It’s clear that Russians are very good at telling Ghost stories and notorious for telling tales about selling your soul to the Devil!

The Queen of Spades, stars Anton Walbrook, Edith Evans, Yvonne Mitchell and Ronald Howard.

The gorgeous music scored by Georges Auric   (Beauty and The Beast (1946), The Innocents (1961), and Wages of Fear 1953 just to mention a very few!) is as heart wrenching as it is heroic, drawing out the exquisite melody and chord changes to reach the soul and twist it into knots while it lingers.

What can I say about the gorgeous cinematography by Otto Heller.The odd camera angles are reminiscent of the great German Expressionist movement, something from Fritz Lang or the use of light and darkly dreamy angles like that of Carl Theodor Dreyer.

Even without any sound, the story would have emerged from the screen as a powerful cautionary tale, rife with grotesque and compelling characters.

The film is an arresting fairytale, that’s dreamy, and haunting in it’s imagery and perhaps, yes perhaps as visually stunning as I dare say Jean Cocteau’s  La Belle et la Bête 1946 or Julian Duvivier’s Flesh and Fantasy 1943 and collaborative efforts of Alberto Cavalcanti, Charles Crichton, Basil Dearden and Robert Hamer’s Dead of Night 1945.

Betty Fields and the mysterious mask salesman in Flesh and Fantasy
Michael Redgrave and his dummy in Dead of Night

There are frames so masterfully conjured in shadow, that you might even think you’re watching Film Noir or an obscure Val Lewton production. Either way, The Queen of Spades sort of defies being labelled a specific genre.

It has it’s own melancholy fantasy that draws from many elements of  the mystery/suspense crime/noir and supernatural horror gems of that golden age, when visual structure was as essential to the narrative as was the character development and dialogue.

Anton Walbrook is wonderful as Moira Shearer’s domineering impresario Boris Lermontov in Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s The Red Shoes 1948

Anton Walbrook  plays the bitter and venomous Capt.Herman Suvorin an army engineer, who is so poisoned by his resentments toward the ruling aristocracy , that he wants to gain his own wealth, and punish those around him who have benefited by their birthright and title. Suvorin does not want to take life as it comes, he wants to “Grab life by the throat and force it to give him what he wants!”-Suvorin.

This he conspires to do by trying to learn the secret of winning at a card game named Faro, from the Old Countess Ranevskaya, played by Edith Evans.

The marvelous British actress Dame Edith Evans
It’s always a bad omen to draw The Queen of Spades!

After a frustrating night of watching a few of his fellow army officers play Faro, taunting Herman as if he was not of the same class, he bursts out of his room in a self absorbed rage, and wanders onto the streets and into a dusty old book store, first picking up a book about Napoleon Bonaparte whom he admires (his portrait hangs in Herman’s humble room) because Napoleon came into his power at age 26!

Herman Suvorin possess a similar intensely maniacal quality that makes him a very unapproachable,manipulative and unlikable man. Looking at him was like “looking into the eyes of Satan!”

Fatefully placed next to Napoleon’s book is another book, suddenly and with a creepy alacrity, the old bookshop owner picks up the ancient bound leather and starts relating it’s contents to Herman, as if he’d been chosen the messenger… warning Suvorin about the secrets and dangers of tampering with the universe. The old man told Herman that he’d either wind up having riches… or lose his eternal soul!

“You might wind up gaining a fortune or losing your precious soul!”

In terms of appearance and demeanor I thought of Riffraff from Rocky Horror Picture Show, and wondered if this little bookish crypt keeper was an inspiration for Richard O Brien!

Herman purchases the book for 3 rubles, and starts reading aloud to us. This mysterious book, about people making deals with the Devil, and a certain mysterious Count d. Saint Germaine who lived in an isolated palace and molded wax images of his chosen victims, thereby trapping their souls forever in his power.

Herman Suvorin slowly and thoughtfully recites to us from the book:

Containing the true stories of people who sold their souls in return for wealth, power or influence"¦ Chapter IV The Secret of The Cards
Countess R"¦(Countess Ranevskaya )
In the year seventeen hundred and forty six, (60 years ago)
The Count d. Saint Germain arrived in St. Petersburg.
He chose for his residence, a palace on the outskirts of the city.
and soon there were strange rumors, about the weird dwelling and it’s mysterious occupant. It was certainly true that in the vaults of the palace. he had a curious collection of wax figures, which, so it was whispered, contained the souls of those who had fallen under his evil influence. He would derive intense please from modeling the wax figures from his intended victims, each one of whom was chosen.
with deliberate appreciation. Thus the countess Ranevskaya, acknowledged as the most beautiful woman in Russia came to excite his attention. He learned that in spite of a jealous husband, all the men had vied for her favors.

Sleeping with a handsome stranger, gets The Countess into grave trouble!
This stranger warns the Countess of having amorous encounters, then robs her of her jealous husband’s money!

When the last of the guests had left. the countess went down the secret stairway.. To admits the young stranger she had promised to meet. She alone had the key to the hidden door. They had an amorous meeting. He was a cad and threatened her with scandal. Taking all her money. She was haunted by the fear of scandal. She needed to replace the money. In her despair she remembered the message from Saint Germain. she had no alternative but to answer the mysterious summons.  She would sell her soul"¦ anything  to save herself…

Is Saint d. Germain really The Devil?

Germain’s messenger tells the young Countess to meet him at his palace!

In Saint Germain’s vault of waxworks, just before the darkness closes in, and the Countess screams off screen…

Continue reading “From The Vault: The Queen of Spades (1949)” →

Postcards From Shadowland No.2

BORN TO KILL (1947) Directed by Robert Wise starring Claire Trevor and Lawrence Tierney
CAGED (1950) Starring Eleanor Parker, Agnes Moorehead and Ellen Corby
The Cape Canaveral Monsters 1960
The Spiral Staircase 1945 directed by Robert Siodmak, Starring Dorothy McGuire, George Brent and Ethel Barrymore
Phantom Lady 1944 Directed by Robert Siodmak, starring Ella Raines, Franchot Tone and Elisha Cook Jr.
I Walked With A Zombie 1943 Produced by Val Lewton, directed by Jacques Tourneur, edited by Mark Robson, written for the screen by Curt Siodmak and starring Frances Dee, James Ellison and Tom Conway.
MAN HUNT 1941 directed by Fritz Lang, starring Walter Pidgeon, Joan Bennett and George Sanders
QUICKSAND 1950
The Naked Kiss 1964
PUSHOVER 1954 directed by Richard Quine, starring Kim Novak and Fred MacMurray
The Seventh Victim 1943 Produced by Val Lewton and directed by Mark Robson, starring Kim Hunter, Tom Conway and Jean Brooks.
THE BURGLAR 1957 Directed by Paul Wendkos and starring Dan Duryea, Jayne Mansfield and Martha Vickers
Sunset Blvd. 1950 directed by Billy Wilder, starring Gloria Swanson and William Holden.

The Dark Drawer: Four Obscurely Fabulous Film Noir Fare…

“Down this street raced dead-end violence!”

DOWN 3 DARK STREETS (1954)

“Down This Street Raced Dead-End Violence… Down This One Stretched Excitement Taut As Silk!”

Kenneth Tobey doesn’t last too long in 3 Dark Streets!!

Directed by Arnold Laven, this noir is part police procedural. It stars gruff he-man Broderick Crawford ( the pre-Tony Soprano alpha male, bull in the china shop cop) as FBI Agent John ‘Rip’ Ripley. Likable and mild-mannered Kenneth Tobey plays his partner agent Zack Stewart, who is gunned down from the shadows while juggling three cases that might be interrelated. John Ripley continues to hunt down the relationship between all these cases and find his partner’s murderer!

Never say You Never Saw Nothin’!

One connection involves gangster Joe Walpo as Ripley finds his hideout through Joe’s glitz and glamorous girl friend Connie Anderson played by Martha Hyer. Joe gets gunned down, and cleared of Stewart’s killing. Connie won’t be receiving anymore shiny things in the mail anymore!

The Second link involves a car theft ring. Ripley uses Vince Angelino’s (Gene Reynolds) wife to turn on his fellow thugs when Vince finds out that they have roughed up his gentle and blind wife, Julie, played by the beautiful Marisa Pavan.

2 bit hustler and thug Matty Pavelich (Claude Akins) smacks around a nice blind girl, what a crumb!

The last and most disturbing case involves Kate Martell, the victim of an extortionist who says he’ll kidnap her little girl if she doesn’t fork over some cash. He calls using a creepy, threatening voice and sends her on wild goose chases, trying to break her down so she’ll pay the $10,0000 ransom.

Kate is played by the brassy Ruth Roman. There are a lot of dubious suspects surrounding her. The menacing uncle Max, played by Jay Adler, and the smarmy, drooling suiter Dave Milson, played by Max Showalter. How will this thriller play out in 3 dark streets!?

As the tagline says, it’s as taut as silk!

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THE MUGGER 1958

Directed by William Berke, Screenplay by Henry Kane, and based on the novel The Mugger by the great pulp mystery writer Evan Hunter as Ed McBain!

Starring again another likable actor Kent Smith who plays Dr.Peter Graham a psychiatrist who works for the police department, living in a dark city anywhere U.S.A.

“We need good cops, even if you are a psychiatrist now.”

James Franciscus is a handsome young cab driver who works hard to support his expectant wife…

There’s a mysterious masher stalking women, ritualistically slicing their left cheek and stealing their purses as a trophy. Pretty gruesome for 1958 filmgoers. The mugger escapes undetected until his last victim is actually murdered! The film stars Nan Martin, a cop who goes undercover as a dime-a-dance girl, James Franciscus, and Stefan Schnabel. With bit parts by Beah Richards as a ‘maid’ (god forgive Hollywood and their ever present stereotyping) a young George Maharis as Nicholas Grecco, a possible slime ball. And the first time appearance of Renee Taylor as a cheap hussy who is physically abusive to her wormy husband.

The film uncovers a lot of unsavory characters in the dark underbelly of a city that is diseased in a way that might breed a handbag, cheek-slashing maniac! As Dr.Graham tries to draw conclusions about the sort of man who would attack these women, we meet a handful of offbeat characters along the way as the likable police psychiatrist and his woman cop girlfriend are on the track of ‘the mugger’ terrorizing the city.

Very gritty and realistic slice of psycho=sexual aggression run amok in the city and hidden secrets within a small struggling American family!

“They all had one thing in common… The terrifying night they met!”

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PRIVATE HELL 36 (1954)

“There’s a price tag on this woman… A big one!”

Written for the screen by Collier Young ( Former husband to Ida Lupino and Joan Fontaine and written by Ida Lupino and directed by Don Siegel, starring Howard Duff, who plays detective Jack Farnham, an honest cop with a beautiful wife, Francey (Dorothy Malone), who loves him. His partner Cal Bruner,(Steve Cochran) is a little more dark and brooding and rough around the edges. He’s hungry for something better than suburban living with ‘pay on time’ furniture and a small backyard with a grill and a white fence.

Both detectives stumble onto the hot cash while staking out a robbery in which $300,000 was stolen. Of course, Farnham wants to turn it into Captain Michaels, played by the meditative Dean Jagger.

But Bruner has fallen hard for nightclub singer Lili Marlowe, played by the one and only Ida Lupino. She’s great as the unattainable woman who’s been burned once before and is now wearing asbestos lipstick. Cal is just too swarthy and smitten with Lili and soon, they go up in smoke!. Lily has very high expectations for herself and loves nice, shiny things. Cal wants to give her anything she wants but refuses to live like Farnham on a cop’s salary, playing a nice little suburban couple struggling to get by.

Farnum and Bruner’s relationship grows more strained as they each reflect their own personal idealism.

Number 36 refers to the locker where the money is hidden, while Farnham roils and ruminates over his dilemma.

Does he become a rat and turn in his partner, or should he do what’s expected and go to Captain Michaels with the missing money and the truth?

“These are the Night Faces…living on the edge of evil and violence…making their own.”

TRY AND GET ME or The Sound of Fury (1950)

A man down on his luck falls in with a criminal. After a senseless murder, the two are lynched.

Directed by Cy Enfield and written for the screen by Joe Pagano, based on his novel The Condemned.


It stars Frank Lovejoy as Howard Tyler and Kathleen Ryan as Judy Tyler. Two ordinary people in this allegory about how a decent human being can be directed to do a desperate or violent act in order to survive and protect their own family. Taken over by a fanatical young con man, petty thief, and psychopath named Jerry Slocum, played by Lloyd Bridges. Slocum preys on the Tyler’s need for money, Slocum convinces Tyler to be involved in a kidnapping scheme that goes horribly wrong and ends in murder.

The narrative unfolds more deeply as a condemnation of sensationalist journalism that can incite a mob mentality which feeds off the lurid details, culminating in a destructive force, almost worse than the original crimes committed.

Richard Carlson plays Gil Stanton a newspaper man who eventually has a pang of conscience, although much too late!

The ending is quite potent, powerful and remains a stunning commentary. The imagery holds a very powerful message in the final moments of the film…

PS: it seems that both The Sound of Fury 1950 and Fury 1936 Fritz Lang’s film starring Spencer Tracy are based on the same true events -from TRIVIA IMDb:

Based upon the 1933 kidnapping and murder of Brooke Hart, son of the owner of Hart’s Department Store in San Jose, California. Two suspects were arrested and jailed, but a lynch mob broke into the jail, dragged out the suspects, and took them across the street to a city park, where they hanged them from a tree

I hope you get to see at least one of these lesser-known Noir/Thriller goodies!- Til next time!- Your EverLovin’ Joey

From The Vault: Flesh & Fantasy (1943)

FLESH AND FANTASY 1943

Released by Universal in 1943 Flesh and Fantasy is by brilliant director Julien Duvivier, and co-produced by Charles Boyer, and still remains an obscure forgotten horror gem.

Fatalistic, philosophical, Impressionistic, and hauntingly romantic, it dabbles in destiny and the dynamism of fate’s meddling hand in our lives. Are we all free souls, or is life predetermined for us? Part social commentary with an edge of ironic charm, utilizing elements of the supernatural to drive the narrative.

The three episodes star Robert Cummings and Betty Field, Edward G. Robinson and Thomas Mitchell,  & Charles Boyer, and Barbara Stanwyck. Robinson and Stanwyck are two of my favorite actors!

The film revolves around 3 vignettes, the first written by Eliis St. Joseph, the second adapted from Oscar Wilde, and the third written by László Vadnay.

Turning out a collection of eerie stories told by Gentlemen at their club. The stories are framed by Robert Benchley as Doakes and David Hoffman as Davis.

The first stars Betty Field as Henrietta a dowdy woman who comes upon a mysterious mask during Mardis Gras and then goes to a party festooned with regalia, turbulence, and a romantic game of cat-and-mouse with the handsome Michael (Robert Cummings) A beautifully tragic tale of loneliness and the essence of what beauty is. The use of masks creates a nightmarish landscape of human disconnection.

The shop of mysterious masks.

The second vignette is an adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s, Lord Arthur Saville’s Crime, which stars Edward G. Robinson as Marshall Tyler, a lawyer who is told by a Fortune Teller Septimus Podgers (Thomas Mitchell) that he is going to kill someone. Also at the affair is Dame May Whitty as Lady Pamela Hardwick and C. Aubrey Smith as the Dean of Norwalk.

Playing out the obsessive victim, Tyler devolves ever increasingly into a world of malefic paranoia in that way that Robinson is so good at. He spirals into madness as he is surrounded by reflections and warning shadows, and an impending dread, that creates a sense of the film being a Horror/Noir hybrid. The use of shadow does invoke a bit of Jacques Tourneur’s style as well.

In the third installment, Charles Boyer plays an acrobat in the circus named Paul Gaspar, who has a premonition of fatal consequences surrounding his high-wire act. Gaspar has a dream one night before his performance that he falls to his death, and so he decides to take a cruise, where he meets the woman from his dream, Joan Stanley played by Barbara Stanwyck, who was the one person he could still hear screaming as he plunges to his death! This episode concludes the film with a dreamy and grim set of atmospherics.

Impressionism in Nightmares-Symbolism-and the fear of falling…

the woman in dreams, is she as unattainable in real life?

THE GREAT GASPAR: that drunken gentleman of the tightrope will walk 75ft. in the air without a net!

Flesh and Fantasy predate by two years another wonderfully suspenseful ensemble of ghostly stories, Dead of Night 1945 starring Michael Redgrave in the iconic short tale of the ventriloquist and his frightening dummy sidekick!

Never trust a guy who’s made of wood and lets you stick your hand up his shirt for no money!

There are thousands of wonderful obscurities in my collection, this is just one of them!

See it for yourself-MonsterGirl

From The Vault: Female on The Beach (1955)

“A lone female on the beach is a kind of a target – a bait, you might say.”

FEMALE ON THE BEACH 1955

The immortal Joan Crawford is Lynn Markham, a widow who longs to be left alone at her beach house, where the previous tenant, Eloise Crandall (Judith Evelyn), had fallen to her death. Lynn’s neighbor turns out to be the gorgeous male specimen in the form of Jeff Chandler, playing Drummond Hall (Drummy), who might have had something to do with Eloise’s fatal fall off the porch. Of course, Drummy starts to move in on Lynn. Along for the ride are the marvelous duo of Natalie Schafer and Cecil Kellaway, who play Drummy’s crafty aunt and uncle, Osbert and Queenie Sorenson. And then there are the frequent visitations by realtor Amy Rawlinson, played by the always effervescent Jan Sterling, who is, of course, gaga over Drummy, the slick and sleazy gigolo with a rough past. Directed by Joseph Pevney (prolific in great television series spanning the 1960s-80s, not to mention the taut psycho-sexual drama THE STRANGE DOOR 1951, and PLAYGIRL 1956 starring the bigger than life – Shelley Winters.

The film is filled with the right amount of 50s kitsch and camp and delicious vulgarity under the sensationalized surface. It is an obscure Crawford goodie that enthusiasts of the actress and genre should add to their ‘must-see’ list!

Lynn: " I have a nasty imagination, and I'd like to be left alone with it!"
Lynn: ” I have a nasty imagination, and I’d like to be left alone with it!”

Lynn: “You must go with the house… like plumbing.”

“I don’t hate women, I just hate the way they are.”
Amy Rawlinson was played by the always-effervescent Jan Sterling.

There are thousands of films in my collection. This is just one of them! See it for yourself!-MonsterGirl

From The Vault: I Thank A Fool (1961)

I THANK A FOOL (1961)

Susan Hayward plays Christine Allison a physician prosecuted for euthanizing a patient. Peter Finch plays Stephen Dane the attorney who successfully put Allison in prison and now employs her to take charge of his mentally disturbed wife Liane, played by Diane Cilento. 

The film also co-stars Cyril Cusack as Captain Ferris and Kieron Moore as Roscoe and is directed by Robert Stevens. (Suspense 1949, Never Love A Stranger 1958.

“Love can make a killer out of a woman… and a fool out of any man!”

See it for yourself!-MonsterGirl

Fiend of The Day! Private Detective Loren Visser: Blood Simple (1984)

BLOOD SIMPLE (1983)

In a small Texas town, M. Emmett Walsh plays the ruthless and unsavory cowboy hat wearing, cigarette flickin’ Loren Visser, the Private ‘Dick’ who surly club owner Julian Marty (Dan Hedaya) hires to shadow his unfaithful wife Abby played by Francis McDormand.  Abby’s been stepping out with quiet, soft spoken bar tender Ray played by John Getz.

Jealousy, human cruelty, repressive machismo, and a lack of morality send the players into a whirlwind of stunning events. Ethan and Joel Coen wrote, produced, and directed this starkly gripping Neo Noirish thriller with a streak of mucky black humor and fine performances, that manages to paint an environment of alienation and passionless rage. The film creates a disturbing atmosphere of an Americana hell.

A quiet little masterpiece of suspense and mayhem, from the prolific brothers Coen!

Walsh is masterful as the sweaty, pale, and flabby lurking beast who manages to attract flies to his sweat-beaded forehead, and has the self-composure to not even swat them away. The impression is that he is human garbage that attracts flies, yet is comfortable understanding his place in this world. His cool and sardonic demeanor begins to unwind as the events spiral out of control, and the unrestrained beast within starts to emerge. Visser is truly a memorable fiend of the film!

‘THE WORLD IS FULL OF COMPLAINERS!”-Loren Visser

Beware of men who attract flies! – MonsterGirl

The Incredible DokTor Markesan-[Essay on Boris Karloff’s Thriller]

The Incredible Doktor Markesan played by Boris Karloff for one of Thriller’s most memorable episodes of the series!

A sign reads “NO TRESPASSING ~VIOLATORS WILL BE SHOT ON SIGHT~DokTor Konrad Markesan”

The Incredible DokTor Markesan aired Feb 26 1962 perhaps the most creepy of all the Thriller stories, originally appeared in Weird Tales Magazine and was taken from a story written by August Derleth and Mark Schorer, and adapted by Donald S Sanford and directed by Robert Florey. The rotting corpse makeup by Jack Barron actually predates Romero’s 1968 Night Of The Living Dead, which I feel only made both effectively more creepy by the B&W film.

Mort Stevens’s score begins as gravely contemplative and daydreamy single notes on the piano beckon us into this episode, then begins the darker, deeper cello strings foreboding and ominous. As the piano resolves into more somber chords, the young Fred Bancroft and his new bride Molly drive up to the entrance of Oakmoor. What has happened to the broad green lawns and the servants in starched white uniforms? They proceed to enter the house, the door having been strangely left unlocked. Seemingly vacant, Oakmoor is crocheted in cobwebs, from years of neglect. There is no electricity. Fred lights a candelabra and the couple continue to search for Fred’s Uncle Konrad. As they start to ascend the staircase, suddenly a door creaks open, the music sways from ominous to severe, and a sallow, blank, expressionless, Konrad Markesan steps out of the shadows. Uncle Konrad stares up at them, ashen, emotionless, his right hand poised in a state of rigor, he stares off, silent. Fred trying to ingratiate himself awkwardly, remains smiling, excruciatingly strained in the midst of his Uncle’s peculiarly inhospitable behavior. Molly acutely more aware of his uncle’s bizarre presence stands there obviously horrified and uncomfortable while Fred still flounders to make a connection with his relative. Molly chirps out a “Hello” and from the moment Fred holds out his hand to shake his Uncle’s, Markesan turns away and says “Come with me” and proceeds to leave the grand hallway.

 

Continue reading “The Incredible DokTor Markesan-[Essay on Boris Karloff’s Thriller]” →