Davis plays a kindly, attentive Nanny who is in charge of looking after precocious 10-year-old Joey Fane (William Dix-Tommy Stubbins in Doctor Dolittle), who has just been released from a hospital for emotionally disturbed children. It is believed that Joey was responsible for the bathtub drowning death of his little sister.
The film works so well fielding paranoia as Joey persecutes Nanny, trying to get his family to believe that it was Nanny who was the one who killed his sister and now looking to do him in. Once his mother Virgie Fane (Wendy Craig) becomes poisoned, a very tautly wound game of cat and mouse ensues as he enlists the help of the girl Bobbie who lives upstairs played by the wonderfulPamela Franklin. The film also stars Jill Bennett as Aunt Pen, James Villiers as Joey’s father Bill, and Maurice Denhamas Dr. Beamaster. Bette Davis is purely marvelous as a very emotionally destructive older woman who has a few secrets that haunt her…
No one straddles the Grande Dame Guignol trope quite like the inimitable, the superb Bette Davis.
I’ll be doing a more extensive post about this film, as well as Dead Ringer 1964, as I just can’t get enough of those eyes – that voice…
One of William Castle’stautly macabre psycho thrillers written by the prolific Robert Bloch (Psycho). Robert Bloch went on to write the surreal story The Night Walker (1964) starring Barbara Stanwyck. This frenetic yet subtle Grande Dame Guignol style flick in the spirit of Robert Aldrich’sHush Hush Sweet Charlotte (1964), stars the inimitable Joan Crawford as Lucy Harbin, who after 20 years in an asylum for the double axe-murder of her cheating husband and his lover, returns home to stay with her daughter Carol (Diane Baker) where the tension starts to boils over. As Lucy’s daughter Carol prepares to get married, the bodies start piling up, or I should say the heads start to roll once more. Has Lucy become an axe-wielding murderess again?
Carol Harbin: “I hate you! I hate you! I hate you! No, I didn’t mean that, I love you. I hate you!”
Also co-starring Lief Erickson, Howard St John, and George Kennedy.Â
Crawford replaced Joan Blondell in the role of Lucy Harbin after Blondell was injured and couldn’t finish the film. Also, Ann Helm had originally been picked to play the role of Carol, but Crawford insisted on them using Diane Baker. There was a lot of product placement of Pepsi-cola as Joan Crawford was on the Board of Directors of the soft drink empire.
the effervescent ever lovin’ Joan Blondell.Ann Helm and Elvis in Follow That Dream 1962.
This promises to be a very hair raising event indeed with so many wonderful bloggers and classic horror films on the slab….
I’ll be offering my vision of Edgar G. Ulmer’s decadent masterpiece of 1934 The Black Cat with the very first pairing of Karloff and Lugosi… And I promise not to say a word about the little black cat in the film… cross my cat worshiping heart and hope to die.
Then once I leave Fortress Marmoros, I’ll be heading to the fog permeated small village called Whitewood in search of Christopher Lee and the Raven’s Inn, run by Mrs. Newlis inHorror Hotel (City of the Dead) 1960
MonsterGirl says BE THERE!!!!!! and be scared be very very scared!!!!!!
Directed by Vincent J. Donehue Lonelyhearts is a compelling look at loneliness, human frailty often ugly and pathetic, infused with a wry cynicism yet underpinned with an air of redemption. Considered to be a bit of Noir, the milieu of the Newspaper room, the darkened city with it’s sordid inhabitants mulling about, and a man who is not quite what he appears to be has many of the tidings of a good noir, but I would say this film falls more into the genre of psychological melodrama. Based on Nathanael West’s (Day of the Locust) novel ‘Miss Lonelyhearts.’ and penned for the screen by producer/writer Dore Schary.
Montgomery Clift plays Adam White, a young writer hiding the truth about his childhood in the orphanage from his devoted girl Justy Sargeant played by the lovely (Dolores Hart).
Adam is hired by The Chronicle’s harshly cynical Editor William Shrike played as only the gruff and unceremoniously sexy Robert Ryan can pull off , to be the exacting voice and conscience behind the “Miss Lonelyhearts”column for the paper.Myrna Loyplays a sympathetic and sad character as Shrike’s wife Florence who has fallen from grace in her husbands eyes, due to a prior indiscretion, something that Shrike continues to punish her for years later. The scenes between Loy and Ryan are captivating.
The film’s dialogue is outstanding, as it plunges you into a dark night of the soul, while Shrike maliciously tries to teach his moral apprentice the bitter truth about life and what really lies behind the assortment of needy folk who reach out for advice. The wonderful stage actress Maureen Stapleton received a nomination for an Academy Award for her dramatic portrayal of the very desperate and troubled Fay Doyle, in her first screen role. Equally commanding is character actor Frank Maxwell as Fay’s frustrated, crippled husband who loves his wife but hasn’t been able to make love to her in years.
Shrike’s relentless determination to wear away the selfless and compassionate exterior of young Adam White and lay bare his failings as well as disarm him is like watching two boxers fight with their wits as Montgomery Clift’s Adam is so deft at maneuvering with his vastly layered, always intelligent and sensitively nuanced performance as an imperfect man struggling to be a good man. His altruistic ideals are blown to bits as he delves into the lives of the people who write in for help only to discover that he too a tortured soul in need of saving and self reflection.
West’s novel reveals Adam White’s character as even more of a Christ like Archetype who suffers and must bear the weight of everyone else’s sins. Montgomery Clift, one of the finest actors tragically taken away from us way too soon, is always so compelling to watch, and while others are huge fans and rightfully so, of James Dean, I myself remain a die hard Monty Clift worshiper.
I do feel that the film leans too heavily toward demonizing woman as ‘tramps’ a word that comes up several times during the course of the film. But the performances, dialogue and mood of the piece are just too good to miss.
Also co-starring Onslow Stevens(Angel On My Shoulder 1946, Them 1954) as Mr. Lassiter, Adams’ father now in jail for murdering his adulterous wife. Mike Kellin and Jackie Coogan (Uncle Fester) as fellow newspaper men Frank Goldsmith and the jaded Ned Gates. And Frank Overton who plays Justy’s kindly father.
William Shrike: Enter light of my life, repository of my golden youth Florence Shrike: Stop making fun of me William: I’m not making fun of you I speak truth are your delicate ears grown cold"¦ You my love I see my youth, so I cherish you. Florence: You want some milk? William: For the stomach dissolving in alcohol (he touches her face) how tender of you. Florence: Stop talking to me that way! Stop humiliating me"¦ (screeches)STOP!!!! Why don’t you finish it off. In gods name tell me it’s over, don’t do this to me. William: May I speak"¦ you haven’t answered my question Florence: If you can’t forgive me why do we go on"¦ why? William: Cause I too am a mourner, an incorrigible mourner who sits at the grave. You mourn too Florence, You’re my wife but also the widow of our early romance. You wear your gay plumage hoping one day for the resurrection that you may greet it with the freshness of a bride. Florence: And what do you hope for? William: Peace. For just one day when I forget the picture of a young wife Florence: That was ten years ago, ten years"¦. William: What’s a normal sentence for adultery? Florence: I was alone, I was drunk, You had betrayed me so many times William: Ah, evening the score. Florence: It wasn’t that
You can always reach out to me if you’re ever lonely dear hearts- Yours forever MonsterGirl
One of the truly great classic horror films packed with atmosphere and a Gothic undercurrent of sensuality Dracula’s Daughter directed by Lambert Hillyer(The Invisible Ray 1936, Convict’s Code 1939) stars Gloria Holden as the imposing Contessa Marya Zeleska and Edward Van Sloan who reprises his role as Professor Van Helsing. Irving Pichel plays the menacing Sandor and Otto Kruger is Doctor Jeffrey Garth, Marguerite Churchill is Janet Blake, and Nan Grey is the bewildered Lili, also co-starring Hedda Hopper as Lady Esme Hammond. Jack P. Pierce did the special make up effects and Vera West was responsible for the fabulous wardrobe.
Based on Bram Stoker’s story, ‘Dracula’s Guest’ this film is an unsung sequel to the 1931 Universal classic starring Bela Lugosi.
Dracula’s Daughter takes up where Dracula ends off, opening within the walls of the dark and somber mansion.
The mysterious Countess Marya Zaleska is indeed Dracula’s daughter, she is faithfully accompanied by her attendant Sandor. They burn her vampiric father’s body during a Black Mass. Though Dracula has been reduced to ashes, Zaleska is is still not free of her father’s curse. She is still bewitched with his blood lust, and a sexual longing, which is only hinted at as an artistic murmur, yet the story never quite rhapsodizes the true nature of her sapphic proclivities.
At first her gaze is set on the beautiful blonde streetwalker Lily, who is hired as a model, but soon after Lili discovers the secret of this curious and enigmatic woman who wants the young girl to do more than merely pose for her. The scene where Zaleska hypnotizes Lili is enthralling. ‘Do you like jewels Lili? These are very old and very beautiful.’
Holden who has a dark, unearthly and stunningly swarthy looks, works well as the believable bloodline to Lugosi’s eastern European mannerisms that imbued the classic character of Universal’s Dracula. Dracula’s Daughter is quite an unsung classic, and should be seen by all fans of the genre, it’s a jewel, very old and very beautiful!
“All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream.” — Edgar Allan Poe
‘Leave Your Faith, Fear, and Sanity at the Water’s Edge – Jo Gabriel
“There are terrible creatures, ghosts, in the very air of America.” -D.H. Lawrence
Taken from his chapter The Bloody Chords of Memory, which I think is very appropriate for this discussion, Scott Poole from Monsters in America: Our Historical Obsession with the Hideous and the Haunting states that, “it would be too simplistic to view monster tales as simple narratives in service of American violence. The monster is a many-headed creature, and narratives about it in America are highly complex. Richard Kearney describes the appearance of a monster in a narrative, in a dream, or in sensory experience ‘as a signal of borderline experiences and unattainable excess.’
In 1971, two films were released with a sort of queasy verisimilitude, using a monochromatic color scheme and protracted themes of insanity, fanaticism, and self-annihilation. One drawing more of its flicker from the time of cult murders by religious fanatics, and an anti-establishment repudiation reflected in the cult fringe film. The Night God Screamed utilizes as its anti-hero the motorcycle gang who hate ‘citizenship’ and phony institutionalized prophets. These outliers are dirty, rebelliously dangerous hippies who are hyped up and deluded into following a charismatic cult leader, a Neanderthal named Billy Joe Harlan, performed with a Shakespearean griminess by Michael Sugich.
Michael Sugich as the maniacal Mansoneseque cult leader Billy Joe.
He’s quite a Mansonesque figure with his malefic unibrow. This offering, aptly called The Night God Screamed, even boasts a scene where the cult actually crucifies the clean-cut minister Willis, a man of traditional gospel played by Alex Nicol.They essentially nail him to his own pridefully giant wooden phallic cross. Leaving his wife Fanny (Jeanne Crain) to scramble in the darkened halls, conflicted as to whether to try and help her husband or save herself from the cult’s ferocious blood lust, driving her into a numb moral and cognitive stasis of unresponsiveness, reason, and human connection. I will talk about this film in Part II.
The beautiful Jeanne Crain.
Let’s Scare Jessica To Death (1971) is a film that hints at a post-modern Americana Gothicism permeated by a rustic folksy style of vampirism, with its small town coteries, paranoia, and the archetypal hysterical woman in a sustained level of distress and adrift on a sea of inner monologues and miasma of fear. I’ll begin in Part I with my much-loved classic horror…
LET’S SCARE JESSICA TO DEATH 1971
“Leave your insanity at the door.”
Let’s Scare Jessica To Death 1971) is not only a far superior film, but it also—perhaps unintentionally—embodies the most iconic 1970s tropes, capturing what made that remarkable wave of horror films from the era so extraordinary.
Elizabeth Taylor wears the role of Zee Blakeley, a Machiavellian temptress, who is married to the wealthy yet miserly, miserable, and misogynistic architect Robert, played deftly by Michael Caine who partakes every bit in the nasty psycho-sexual game playing their afflicted marriage has manifested over the years.
Life and love are cutthroat in this film, and Taylor’s portrayal of Zee is unnerving and difficult to watch at times, as she fluctuates between venomous seductress and wounded little girl. York as always is like a fawn from the eldritch woods with those dreamy eyes. But talk about eyes, no one has a pair that arrests you quite like Elizabeth Taylor.
Elizabeth Taylor as the beautiful, tumultuous Zee Blakeley…
Once Robert decides to play house with Stella and leave Zee to wallow in her jealous vitriol, Zee goes on an orchestrated rampage to try and destroy their burgeoning romance, uncovering the shell of sweet Stella exposing that she has some secrets of her own. Written by Edna O’Brien, and directed by Brian G. Hutton who also directed Taylor in the thriller, Night Watch 1973, another equally disturbing film about the deep-rooted ugliness and danger of an ill-fated marriage.
“The little black book that became a national bestseller.”
Based on the novel by Lois Gould, with a screenplay by Elaine May using her pen name Esther Dale, and an uncredited Joan Didion (A Star is Born 1976, Panic In Needle Park 1971) Directed by the omnipotent Otto Preminger.
The Great Otto Preminger
Dyan Cannon is Julie Messinger a New York housewife who finds out that her husband magazine editor Richard (Laurence LuckinbillBoys In the Band 1970) has been cheating on her because he ‘doesn’t like her feet.’ She stumbles onto his little black book with the names of several ‘women.’
Nina Foch, plays Julie’s mother an annihilating, narcissistic harpy who criticizes her about everything.
When Richard winds up in a coma from complications stemming from a simple mole removal, Julie’s good friends gather around her for support. Including an impromptu cocktail gathering in the blood donor ward of the hospital…
It’s a biting, black comedic sexual romp through the self-explorative 70s, with a fabulous cast of characters.
Co-starring the wonderful James Coco as Dr. Timothy Spector, Jennifer O’Neill, as Miranda, Ken Howard as photographer Cal Whiting, Louise Lasser, Burgess Meredith, Sam Levene, William Redfield, James Beard, Rita Gam, Lawrence Tierney, and Doris Roberts. And an uncredited Salome Jens as a Blood Donor at the hospital and Joseph Papp and his Shakespeare Theatre.
Henry Jones as the slimy, snoopy and salacious Leroy in Mervyn LeRoy’s The Bad Seed 1956
Agnes Moorehead as Charlotte’s fierce protector Velma in Aldrich’s Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte 1964
Jack Warden as Judge Francis Rayford in Norman Jewison’s… And Justice for All (1979)
Maidie Norman as the righteously concerned, Elvira Stitt in Robert Aldrich’s What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962)
Miriam Hopkins as Mrs. Lily Mortar in Lillian Hellman’s in The Children’s Hour 1961 directed by William WylerWilliam Wyler and Miriam Hopkins on the set of The Children’s Hour (1961)Mildred Dunnock as Aunt Rose Comfort in Elia Kazan’s Baby Doll (1956) with the screenplay by Tennessee Williams
Michael Pate as Detective Chris Gillespie in The Killer is Loose 1956
Michael J. Pollard as C.W. Moss in Bonnie and Clyde 1967
Director Robert MulliganDirector Robert Mulligan’s masterpiece, based on Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird.
Based on actor/author Thomas Tryon’sbest-selling novel, about the duplicity of innocence and evil in the incarnation of twin boys. Set in the Depression era during a hot and dusty summer of 1935. The atmosphere of rural quaintness is painted beautifully by cinematographer Robert Surtees.
Niles and Holland Perry (Chris and Martin Udvanoky) live with their extended family on a rural farm. The boys are looked after by their old-world loving Russian Grandmother Ada (the extraordinary icon Uda Hagen).
The sagely mysterious and angelic Ada has taught the boys a special and esoteric gift from the old country, she calls ‘the game.’
When several inextricably grotesque accidents beset the town, the clues start to point toward Niles’ wicked brother, Holland, who may be responsible for the gruesome deaths.
Also starring Diana Muldaur as the boy’s hapless mother, Alexandra.
Norma Connolly plays Aunt Vee, Victor French co-stars as the drunken swarthy handyman Angelini, Lou Frizzell is Uncle George, Portia Nelson as the uptight Mrs. Rowe, Jennie Sullivan as Torrie, and a young John Ritter as Rider.
Tryon’s story is a most hauntingly mysterious journey through the eyes of a child, a macabre and provocative psychological thriller from the 70s that has remained indelible in triggering my childhood fears, filled with wonder and the impenetrable world of the supernatural. I plan on doing a broader overview of this film as I am prone to being long-winded. But for now, The Film Score Freak would like to focus on the film’s hauntingly poignant score contributed by one of my favorite and in my opinion one of THE BEST composers of all time, Jerry Goldsmith.
